The rest of the week went by fast, the boys were enjoying freedom the last days and Bilbo was slowly trying to get his work done. They spent the evenings with Thorin watching movies, joking or just handing out together. Thorin pushed them to an evening out and took them to his favourite restaurant. He spent a lot of time talking to the boys, getting to know them. On Friday Bilbo picked up the boy's schedule, uniforms and list of extra classes they could take. He was hesitating to tell the boys and Thorin about the job proposition he got, somehow he knew they would push him one way or another.
Saturday morning Bilbo let the boys sleep in, he got up a bit earlier and was surprised to see Thorin already in the dining room drinking a coffee.
"Up already?" Thorin gently smiled to the smaller man.
"Somehow I work best at early hours." Bilbo told him. "However today I don't feel like working much."
"So what are your plans?" Thorin gently smirked.
"A light breakfast, and then probably swimming pool, since playing tennis alone is just as boring as it can get." Bilbo shyly noticed.
"That's why I never play tennis anymore." Thorin noticed. "Do you feel like playing tennis with a partner?"
The way Thorin said the last word sent shivers down Bilbo's back.
"With pleasure." Bilbo smiled and decided to play this slightly dangerous flirtatious game.
"Where the hell are uncle and Bilbo?" Kili sniggered seeing the empty dining room.
"Eat something and let's search for them, I doubt they are sleeping at this time." Fili agreed.
They found them in the last place they were expecting, the tennis court.
"So who's winning?" Kili yelled at them.
"3:2 for Thorin." Bilbo admitted.
Thorin glanced at the boys clearly uncomfortable in the court.
"Have you two eaten breakfast?' He asked them with a smile.
"Yup, it's almost eleven." Fili replied.
"Bilbo I think it's time we both take a break and let the younglings have some fun." Thorin joked and pushed his racket towards Fili. "Do you have any how to use it?" He smiled at the boy.
"Does watching 5 minutes of Wimbledon on TV count?" Kili asked wittingly.
"No it doesn't." Bilbo laughed. "Get over here."
They spent two hours teaching the boys tennis, starting from the rules to basic moves and techniques. Clearly Bilbo knew the game well, and Thorin just kept glancing at him with interest.
The whole weekend was peaceful, and somehow it was delightful for all four of them. In the afternoon Bilbo decided to teach the boys one thing he already learnt Thorin was good at, cards. So after a long discussion with Thorin, they settled what games to start with, and after fighting over the easiest way to explain the rules they finally managed to sit down and play a bit.
Slowly Thorin was realizing Bilbo didn't like bending his will at all, it's more like a facade. Bilbo if he got stubborn on something, he couldn't be swayed to change his mind. Thorin began a game of taunting Bilbo just to watch his struggle with frustration. The boys clearly noticed it as well but they didn't join in. Somehow Thorin still felt that Bilbo was way higher than him in the boys' eyes. The smaller man was a confident person in many aspects but insecure in others. And Thorin felt it was a challenge to find out where his boundaries lay.
Monday came sooner than expected, Thorin told Bilbo he would drive the boys to school on his way to work, and despite the protests he didn't nudge a bit and finally Bilbo had to admit defeat. He berated the boys reminded them about rules of conduct and warned them not to get into ay fights. Somehow the notion of the boys going to a new school was unsettling for Bilbo, and all day he kept wondering how they are managing, about the other children at school, about their classes and after a long day of fighting with his own thoughts he finally realized only his presence at their school would ease the stress of his kids going to school.
For the boys school was nothing new, the uniforms were fancy, the old building was something new, but the atmosphere was nothing different than their old school. Their schedules were very complicated, they would have some lessons in classes and some individually, and soon they realized they actually had two or three subjects together like history and geography, but Fili landed in the most advanced maths class, while Kili in maths according to his age group. Not having one class meant meeting a lot of people, some older and some younger. The classes were set up based on abilities, so in Fili's maths class there were two students Kili's age. And in Kili's ordinary maths class were three boys much older. It took them a long while to work out where their classrooms were, and to learn how to read the complicated schedule. Apart from those complications everything was the same. Some kids were curious, some arrogant, some were trying to start a fight. A few girls tried to flirt with Fili, and a few boys tried to pick a fight with Kili. Both boys found the arrogant kids worse. In their old school there was also a group like that, those who could afford lunch and had better clothes felt like they were kings of the world and the rest was just slum trash. Here those kids kept their head even higher, clearly their parents were in the richer category of the rich... And since the boys had no comparison to their own current financial situation, they didn't realise they would technically fit into that category as well.
"Oakenshield what kind of name is that?" A tall blond boy a year older than Fili taunted them in the canteen during lunch. They were just peacefully sitting and eating their lunch, when the boy along with his two friends came up to them. The tall one was Legolas and the two were identical twins Elladan and Elrohir, clearly they were in the most snobbish category of annoying kids at school. They were like day and light, Legolas tall blond, and the twins with black long hair.
"As good as any other name." Fili swiftly replied trying to remain calm.
"Not here, I've never heard of it so it means you shouldn't be here." Legolas was the most arrogant of the lot and somehow the two new boys irritated him.
"It's not your call to decide who should be here and who shouldn't." Fili shot back knowing a swift reaction was the only weapon he could use at that given moment.
"I don't know how you did it, but no one just gets accepted here, most of us had to sign up at birth to be here, so don't you worry we know how to separate the trash form the gems." Legolas was pushing really hard.
"Oh poor you, all we had to do is just sign up." Kili shot back swiftly, he ignored the trash part knowing they were forbidden to get into fights the very first day of school.
"You have no idea who you're talking to!" Legolas was clearly losing his temper and surprisingly the twins instead of backing him up they tried to calm him down.
"We honestly don't give a shit." Fili replied with a slight taunt. "Why don't you take your scrawny ass and get lost?"
"You can't talk to me like that!" Legolas was stubborn as they came.
"Sorry Princess, but I will talk just as I deem fit." Fili wasn't going to let anyone talk to them in a threatening way. "And if you have a problem with that, we can solve it a different way."
"Fee!" His brother hissed with a warning. But Fili just nodded to him with a gesture meaning he was in control.
"What do you propose?" One of the identical twins finally spoke.
"A game of chess?" Fili proposed with a smile. The twins shared a surprised glare between each other, Legolas was their good friends and both knew he was really good at chess, that is if he was calm. The photo of Legolas wining the chess championship in the county was hanging on the wall of fame, and both boys doubted Fili knew that.
"Fine!" Legolas yelled at him. "Chess room after classes."
"Fine." Fili replied. And he observed them walk away back to their group of friends.
"I'm coming with you, just in case." Kili whispered to his brother gently touching his arm. "He's the chess champion are you sure you want to solve it this way?"
"Have I ever lost a match?" Fili gently smirked at the younger brother.
"No, but that was just with me and the kids at our old school." Kili realised.
"At least that means we won't get into a fight..." Fili finally replied feeling Kili's glare.
"I hope so." Kili added and rushed to his next class.
Fili reached for his phone and wrote to Bilbo they will stay a bit longer at school, and that he'll call him when to pick them up later in the afternoon.
After school it took some time for Kili and Fili to find the chess club, and when they arrived Legolas was sniggering that he though they got cold feet and decided to split.
"We had problems finding this place." Fili looked around the more secluded part of the school with interest. There was a dormitory for those whose families lived far away, and the chess club was in one of the room on the ground floor of the dormitory part of the school.
"Yeah right..." Legolas sniggered. "Let's do this quick and have it over with."
Legolas pulled out a chessboard and began setting it up. Fili sat opposite him and patiently waited.
"So do you three live here?" Kili gently asked the twins who didn't seem as mean as Legolas.
"Yup. More than half of the school lives here." One of them replied, although Kili had no idea which one was it.
"Is your brother any good at this?" The other twin asked looking at Legolas and Fili play.
"I'm not sure how he'll compare with this guy, but he's good." Kili didn't go deeper into the topic.
"So you two have family in the neighbourhood?" One of the twins asked.
"We live liked less than 10 min away by car." Kili told them. The boys looked at him surprised clearly that was a meaningful piece of information for them.
"Like around Esgaroth Lane?" One of them asked.
"How did you know?" Kili just smiled, not sure what kind of message that was for the boys.
They didn't continue they just glanced at him curiously. They turned to watch the chess match, which was proving to go very slow despite Legolas's threat to do it quick.
"So how is it living in a dormitory?" The boy suddenly asked the older twins.
"Well it has advantages and disadvantages. Our parents are getting divorced, so this way we don't have to listen to them fighting all the time." One of them finally replied.
"Our sister is here as well, her name is Arwen." The other informed the boy.
"His sister is also here, you might meet her because she's more or less your age. Beautiful red head named Tauriel." The other spoke in a more friendly manner. "Do you have any more siblings?"
"No, it's just Fili and me." Kili gently told them.
"He's really good." One of the twins noticed. "Most people get beaten by Legolas in like 5 minutes into the game play, and they've been at it for early twenty already and it seems nowhere near finished."
"I hope you realise this is nothing personal." One of the twins suddenly said in whisper.
"What do you mean?" Kili replied in a low whisper as well.
"Our parents are divorcing, but for us it's relief after all those years of endless fights. But his parents divorced in really bad style and his father got custody over the children claiming the mother was abusing them. Legolas has changed in the last two years, his father has a huge influence on him, and that's not a good influence." One of the twins explained.
"So this is just venting frustration?" Kili noticed.
"More like building up ego, his father keeps telling about how this is the best school in the country and Legolas usually goes after those he finds unworthy of studying here." The other twin explained.
"That's kinda sad." Kili commented.
"Very." The twins agreed.
"So you two make sure he stays out of trouble?" He finally asked them.
"That's what friends are for." The boys nodded and smiled.
"Fili keeps doing the same for me as well." Kili told them after a while. "He's the best friend and brother I could have ever imagined."
"Fucking hell!" Legolas suddenly threw the chessboard off the table.
The twins and Kili rushed to them. "What happened?" Kili asked.
"I won." Fili told him curtly.
"This is not over yet!" Legolas was clearly very irritated. "Next week same time a re-match!"
"Fine!" Fili just smiled and waved goodbye to them. "Let's go home."
Kili pulled out his new phone and called Bilbo, as it turned out Bilbo was already in the school talking with the headmaster, so he told them to wait by the car.
"Hey why did you come so early?" Fili asked as Bilbo opened the car.
"Well I didn't want to tell you before, but your headmaster gave me a proposition, and today I finally made my decision." Bilbo slowly explained starting the car.
"What kind of a proposition?" Kili was really curious.
"A job proposition." Bilbo told them with a smile. "I'm going to teach English part time here, just to keep an eye on you two." He smiled to them.
"That's fantastic! Do you think you could be our teacher?" Kili was shining with enthusiasm.
"That was my only condition." Bilbo told him gently.
"You're the best!" Fili told his guardian with awe.
"Anything for my boys." Bilbo just began laughing.