Round and Round
Part 37
You know, Antonio had never realised how difficult it was to walk around on crutches. He remembered when Lovi had broken her leg when she was little and how she'd had to use crutches for a while; she'd made it look so easy. She'd even gotten good enough at it that she could stand on one crutch and hit someone with the other. That must have taken lots of practice!
It was even harder when you were trying to keep as much of your weight as possible off of one of your legs. Especially when you were trying to balance textbooks and open doors...
"Give those to me, idiot." And that voice surprised Antonio out of his contemplations of how best to handle the door handle, as the textbooks that he'd been carrying were suddenly lifted out of his arms.
He immediately responded to the assistance by sending his biggest smile toward Lovina, who was glaring at him while balancing his textbooks on top of her own. "Gracias, Lovi~!"
"Why don't you have a backpack, idiot? How'd you expect to carry all these books while walking on those things?"
Antonio hadn't really thought about that, since he usually just carried his books around in his arms until he got to school... So instead of answering the question, he just sent Lovi another happy smile.
Which, of course, she answered with a scowl. Although it was pretty easy to see that she didn't really mean it when she leaned up against the door leading into the school, holding it open as he shuffled inside.
"How long do you have to be on those stupid things?" And now she was walking beside him, heading toward the office, since he'd have to go there to get the key to the school's elevator. Which would be fun. Antonio had never used the school's elevator before, since it was reserved for people who were in wheelchairs or on crutches...
"Just a couple days." He sort of wished that she'd walk a bit more slowly, since it was hard to keep up with her long strides. He also hoped that it wouldn't take too long to get used to these crutches.
He hadn't had much time to practice with them after all, since he'd come home very late last night and then hadn't had time this morning to walk around with them. Mamá had asked if he wanted to stay home for the day—which would have given him more time to get used to them—but then she would've probably felt like she had to stay home too and she'd already missed a day of work...
So he'd told her that he felt perfectly fine and that it'd be much better for him to go to school today rather than skip his classes. After all, he definitely didn't want to get behind in his schoolwork or anything.
She'd seemed a little unsure at first, but then she'd agreed that he probably should go.
Poor mamá. She'd seemed so worried and tired this morning, and he'd felt absolutely awful about that. She was already so anxious about money and his padre... And Antonio was very angry at his padre for calling Mamá like that. Why would he do that to her after all of these years? After she'd been working so hard to take care of him all by herself. Mamá had so many things to worry about; she definitely hadn't needed something like this to happen too.
"Oi, idiot!" And Antonio's focus was immediately brought back to earth at that sudden remark. "Earth to tomato bastard. We're here."
And that was when Antonio realised that they were standing in front of the door to the school's office. Huh, when had that happened? He must have zoned out for a little bit. He had a tendency to do that sometimes.
Anyway, he'd better hurry and get the key to the elevator if he didn't want to be late to class. And if he were late to class, then Lovi would be late to class too. And Antonio rather doubted that getting Lovi into trouble would be a very good way of getting on her good side again.
So now he walked forward, pushing open the door with one hand while manoeuvring his crutches so he could walk inside...
"I know that this probably isn't normal protocol. I have talked to his parents, though, and they thought that it might help."
"I think that it could be arranged, Mister..."
"Kennedy."
The office was mostly empty right now, Antonio noticed as he walked in. There was just one secretary sitting at a desk who was talking to a man that he'd never seen before. Probably an older brother of one of the other students or someone like that.
And neither of them had seemed to notice his entrance, which was a little troublesome since Antonio really needed that key and he didn't want to be late to class. The secretary-lady was facing him, but she seemed completely focused on the man standing in front of her.
"Yes, I don't think that we'll have a problem, Mr. Kennedy. In fact, I believe that Mr. Arins has this period free. I can call him and see if he'd be available to talk with you about Mr. Kirkland."
Mr. Kirkland?
And that immediately caught Antonio's attention. Wait, were they talking about Arthur? Why was this random man talking about Arthur?
Francis had been looking for Arthur. Antonio remembered when Franny had come up to him, all dishevelled and worried because Arthur hadn't contacted him in two days. Did that mean that this guy knew where Arthur was?
If so, then Antonio should definitely talk to him. Then he could go tell Franny... Francis would talk to him if he knew something important like that, right?
"Thank you. If he's not available today, then you can tell him that I could come another da—"
"Oi! Tomato bastard! What the hell is taking so long?" And Antonio was again startled out of his thoughts by Lovi's voice—Lovi was very good at that; it was one of her special talents. Apparently she'd also managed to startle the man too, since he jumped and then hurriedly turned around to face them.
"Ah, lo siento." Antonio wasn't entirely sure who he was directing the statement toward, either Lovi or the man. Or both. It was probably both; just an overarching 'lo siento' for everything that had just happened. "I needed to come and get the key for the elevator, por favor?"
The secretary lady immediately sent him an annoyed frown at that, although it wasn't as annoyed as the frown that Lovi was sending him so he barely noticed it. "Well, you're going to have to wait until I'm done with Mr. Kennedy."
"No, it's fine, really..."
"Leon~!"
Everybody had just said that all at once, although the sudden shout had managed to mostly drown out both the secretary and Mr. Kennedy's voice. And now they were all startled again as the door suddenly slammed open.
And a yellow and white body suddenly blurred right through the room and launched itself at the man, who fell back against the secretary's desk with a soft 'oomph'.
"Hi, Leon! What are you doing here? Did you come to visit Awesome? I just got a detention!"
"Hello, Gill." And now Antonio could see that the blur was Gilly. Gillian, wearing a very very big, bright yellow sweatshirt which a chick's face on the front that almost reached all the way down to her knees. "What'd you get a detention for?"
"I took the scooters from the gym and was riding them down the hallways. So worth it!"
Antonio felt confused. Gilly knew his guy? And so did Arthur?
"Oi, so you're Leon?" And suddenly Lovi walked over towards him, too. Looking irritated, although Lovi always looked irritated, so that wasn't saying anything. "You're the one that my stupid little sister was talking about yesterday. She said you'd never had gelato before."
"Um, no. Are you Lovina?"
"And this is Tonio!" And suddenly Gill launched herself at Antonio, who was very happy to accept the hug. Even if was currently very very confused. He was never too confused to get hugs, especially since he hadn't had a Gill-hug in a really long time.
"How could you have never had gelato before?" Lovi was still complaining and Leon looked confused about who he was supposed to be paying attention too. The secretary looked annoyed too, probably since Gill and Lovi had just interrupted their talk.
"I just never had the chance?"
"Leon, you should come visit the principal with me!"
"Gill..."
And suddenly all of them were interrupted by a very angry secretary, who suddenly stood up and glared at them all. Causing all of them (except Gill) to take a quick step backwards. "You three, get out of here!" She slammed the elevator key down onto the desk before Antonio could mention that he didn't have it. "Out!"
"But I'm supposed to—"
"Get out!"
And Antonio figured that they should probably obey, even if he hadn't gotten to ask the man about Arthur yet. He hurriedly hobbled forward to grab the key and then began heading toward the door. After Lovi, who had run out as soon as the woman started yelling. Hopefully she hadn't run off very far, since she still had his books.
Maybe he'd be able to find the man later. Or, at the very least, he could tell Francis about the man. So Francis would know that someone else knew where Arthur was.
He was going to talk to Francis. He was going to find him and talk to him as soon as school was over.
A/N: Hey my peeps! Sorry for the random hiatuses on everything. I hate writer's block. =.= Sigh. I don't even really know if it's gone yet, since I still don't feel rather slumpish... Life is stressful.
Although we're going on vacation tomorrow. To Williamsburg/various other places in Virginia. Hoorah! :)
What else is going on in my life. Since I've had insane writer's block, I've been wasting my life playing video games. Mostly the first Kingdom Hearts, Resident Evil 4, Sims 3, and DDR. None of which have anything in common. Except that the first three have characters named Leon in them. Also watching Disney movies.
And I just started watching Doctor Who. Finished the first season of the new series in two days. Meaning I finally gave in, lol. People have been trying to get me to watch this show for like...a year and a half? Haha. Only like 3 people at first, though. And then in the last few months all of a sudden everybody's talking about it... Including muse-chan and Prussia-chan. And I trust their tastes enough to give it a go, even if I usually don't like things that are super popular. So yeah, fun times.
This chapter was very fillery, although it was necessary for later events. Still boring, though. Sigh.