Author's Note: It's come to my attention that I've got some of the canon completely wrong in the last chapter. Brain's mom does not, in fact, own the Sugar Bowl. She owns a different Ice Cream shop all together. My bad. But I'm not going to change it. One, because I'm too lazy to rewrite, and Two, because I like the idea that he works at the Sugar Bowl better. Mostly because the gang is ALWAYS going to the Sugar Bowl and so for some reason having Brain work behind the counter there just seems more satisfying.
So... yeah.

Chapter 9: And then...

David finished up the last of the dessert orders for tomorrow (or today rather) and stretched in satisfaction. It was just after 2AM, he'd finished early.
David pulled off his taupe and apron and killed the lights in the kitchen. He started up the stairs to bed.
It was dark in on the stairs and David was tired, so he didn't spot the obstacle at the top.
"Ow!" Said whatever he tripped over. David caught himself as he slipped down a couple of steps.
David clenched his teeth to prevent yelling out. He squinted up the stairs to ascertain was he had tripped over. As his eyes adjusted a bundle of limbs at the top of the stairs came into focus.
Abigail was clutching her leg, which was probably what he'd tripped over given how she was sitting, and piled mostly into her lap an only just waking up was Alan.
"What are you two doing out here?" David asked, bemused and a little annoyed.
Abigail scowled at him, still rubbing her leg.
"We were talking and ended up falling asleep." She explained. David waited for more, but that seemed to be all she was going to say.
Alan slid out of Abigail's lap and rubbed at his eyes. David couldn't quite tell, but it sort of looked like he'd been crying.
Oh.
It hadn't gone past unnoticed to him or Jane that Arthur's friend was clearly troubled all that afternoon. They had had a heated discussion, in whispers, that evening about pulling him aside and asking what was wrong. It had taken a lot of debate, but they had decided against it. Alan was a very sensible young man who often asked advice of any and every adult who would listen to his problems, he really liked an adult sounding board for some reason. So if he thought he needed advice he would generally seek out someone on his own.
Whatever it was that was bothering him must have played itself out up here in the middle of the night. He'd have to ask Abigail about it.
"Well, get to bed then." David said finally, after picking himself up off the stairs.
Alan and Abigail both got up, Abigail stumbling a little more than she had been earlier. It occurred to him that he'd tripped over her already injured leg.
"I'm sorry, you're leg is alright isn't it?" David asked.
"It's fine, you didn't really hurt it much. It's a bit stiff though." Abigail answered. She turned her attention to Alan, who was standing there sort of awkwardly.
David gaped a bit when Alan smiled at her and she smiled back and waved him off. What was that all about?
"Umm... Goodnight Mr. Read." Brain said, and quickly retreated to Arthur's room as quietly as possible.
Once Alan was securely behind Arthur's door David looked at Abigail.
Abigail crossed her arms and waited for him to say something.
David thought about it, not entirely sure what he wanted to ask.
"It wasn't anything serious, was it?" He thought that was a good middle ground.
Abigail shook her head.
"No." Abigail answered. "He's just feeling a little insecure."
David nodded expectantly. Abigail hedged, probably thinking about how much to tell.
"He's really smart, and his parents are thinking maybe he needs to be in home school instead. He's just worried none of his friends will like him if that happens." Abigail said. It was clearly a summary, but it was good enough.
"And what did you say?" David asked. Abigail shrugged.
"I didn't say anything." She replied. "I think he just wanted to tell someone about it."
David considered this with a frown.
"You should have said something." He decided out loud. Abigail shook her head at that.
"I couldn't have said anything that he would have believed without hearing it from one of his friends." She reasoned. "He's got to bring it up with one of them. I know he's already told Arthur something about the situation, I think they'll figure it out on their own."
David didn't know if he was just too tired to find fault or if the reasoning was just really sound.
He'd have to think about it tomorrow.

~*~*~*~*Next Day*~*~*~*~

By the time David had woken up the next day everything seemed to have been settled already.
Alan seemed to have talked to Arthur sometime that morning already because David kept catching little bits of conversation between him and Arthur. Most of which consisted of disbelief on Arthur's part that David didn't fully understand.
"You really passed ALL of them?" Arthur would ask.
"Yes." Alan would reply, he'd answered variations of this question several times during the day. He looked rather relieved that Arthur found this to be the 'coolest and most amazing' thing ever, so even though he'd answered so many times he always sighed in relief when Arthur always replied with some sort of awed expression.

"Wait 'til we tell everyone else, no one is going to believe it." Arthur said.
"You really don't think it's weird?" Brain asked, moving his checker piece halfheartedly.
"No." Arthur answered simply. Then he smiled. "Now if it had been Buster..." He trailed off with a smirk.
Brain didn't feel much like laughing, but smiled at the joke anyway. He sighed.
"Francine is going to make fun of me." Brain said matter-of-fact in a worried voice.
"Francine makes fun of everybody. She never really means it." Arthur replied. Brain didn't look all that reassured. Arthur moved one of his checkers and looked at Brain.
"Does it bug you to be so much smarter than we are?" Arthur asked.
Brain, who had been inspecting the checkerboard, straightened up and looked at him in surprise.
"What?" He asked Arthur in disbelief.
"I mean, I hear you talking to adults sometimes and you talk about things that I can't understand at all. Don't you sort of wish that you hung out with people you could talk like that with all the time?" Arthur asked again.
The expression on Brain's face sort of looked like he was choking on something, so Arthur assumed he was right and Brain just didn't want to say it. Arthur was just about to open his mouth and retract his question when Brain answered.
"No, I don't care about that. To tell you the truth I'm sort of scared that none of you are going to want to hang out with me anymore. I mean... after school starts again." Brain answered meekly.
"Why would you think that?" Arthur didn't sound mad, but he wanted to know.
"I dunno..." Brain answered uncertainly. "It's just that everything we do together is centered around school, unless I'm the one who says I want to come over or go do something. If I get pulled out of school..." Brain stopped and sighed. He looked at the checkerboard and jumped three of Arthur's pieces. Arthur frowned at the board.
"Don't be ridiculous, who else am I going to get to beat me at checkers?" Arthur asked wryly, looking dourly at the checkerboard.
Despite the sarcastic nature of the answer, Brain had to admit it was sort comforting.

Author's Note: That's not exactly how I meant to do that last scene... but whatever.
Maybe I'll take a break from this story. It doesn't seem to be keeping my interest very much and I haven't been getting enough indication that people like it enough for me to plow through until my interest picks up again.
I'll probably pick it up again later, but I'm not going to rush myself.