Chapter 5

"Mattie! Mattie!"

Matthew's bedroom door nearly busted from its frame, and his eyes snapped open. He was just about to scramble out of the way, but the approaching footsteps were too quick and he was too groggy to dodge his brother flopping his entire weight onto him. Adding insult to injury, Alfred tugged his pillows and pajama shirt in all different directions, yelling, "Mattie! Yo, dude!"

"What, what, what?!" Matthew flipped over to glower in his brother's face.

Alfred slowly grinned, and he waited a few dramatic moments before saying, "School starts in ten minutes."

Alfred was promptly shoved off the bed.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

"Hustle, Mattie, hustle!" Alfred bent and swished his arms, moving in a robotic fashion as he nearly jogged down the sidewalk.

"Ugh! Can't...move...that fast...too early..." Matthew groaned, his sneakers dragging against the cement as he feebly chased after his brother. "Just woke up...five minutes...ago..."

Alfred sang, "Someone needs an alarm clock!"

"Stop singing. Someone needs to acknowledge that his brother is not a morning person."

"Mornings aren't awful! Just waking up is!"

Matthew resisted the urge to tell his brother to shut up, but decided to be nice and suffer silently.

Alfred's voice drooped to a nervous giggle, "Oh, um, Artie is going be joining us. He should be dropping by any moment now."

Matthew stopped in his lagging tracks. "Wait, what? Why does he need to walk us to school?"

Alfred glanced over his shoulder, spun around, and danced back to his brother. "He's not walking us to school. He's going with us to school! Ha-ha, he volunteers for the special education classroom, Mattie! Did you forget?" He playfully scolded, "Sheesh, you're forgetting a lot of things!" He began walking backwards so he could still chat with his brother and get to school, "You're okay with him sitting at our lunch table, too, right? I mean, there's only us, and that's kind of lame."

"What, a teacher sitting with us at lunch? Don't you think that's lame?"

"He's not a teacher, Mattie! He's a volunteer for student aid! Gosh!"

"Yeah, that's lame," Matthew answered for him. He furrowed his eyebrows. Despite it being the biggest thing in his mind, neither of them mentioned the odd glow that shrouded this Arthur. They tried to talk about it, but then, perfect timing, he called up the stairs to beckon Alfred away from his own brother.

Matthew watched Alfred's foot scratch across the ground and catch on a wide crack, wondering just what the Hell is going on with ethereal glows and freaky noises at night.

"Woo, dang, he's fast!" Alfred broke him from his thoughts with a giddy whisper, "Mattie, that's Artie over there!" Then, he belted out loud enough to wake the town, "Hey, dude! Over here!"

Matthew's nose curled from the unnecessary yelling, and he stepped to the side so he could get a look at the approaching man. Arthur's resting face did not look open, and if he were honest with himself, it made him a tad uneasy. His posture was elegant and straight as he glided toward the boys, portraying a seemingly preserved gentleman, but there was still that cursed glowing! Matthew could not completely get his mind off of it. For the longest time, his days were the same; straightforward and relatively uneventful. Now that something of this sort happens, was he supposed to act like nothing mildly exciting or different was unfolding?

Hey! This guy is glowing! Do you all see it?! It sounded stupid in his head, it would never sound better aloud. Matthew decided to keep his mouth shut in more ways than one.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

A stampede of teenagers flooded into the main hall from all sides, quickly separating Matthew from his brother. Not that Alfred and his new friend made sure he was not lagging behind. He tensed as bodies pranced around him, yapping and screaming about life when the Sun was hardly in the sky.

"Al?" Matthew peered over their heads. He caught a glimpse of his brother's cowlick bobbing in and out of the flood, but it was nothing noticeable next to his friend's faint glow. The constant flow of students threatened to push him forward, so he shoved right back, though the traffic and pressed against some ugly-colored lockers. He hesitated against his cheap safe haven, casting glances in the direction in which Arthur and that ebbing light disappeared. Apparently, the surrounding kids did not notice, since they were not pointing and freaking out it.

"Why us?" Matthew grumbled. "I haven't done anything, but Alfred..." How he yearned for some spice in his life, like a new puppy, or his father suddenly swinging by for an occasional visit, but walking light bulbs?! He had no idea what this was or what it meant! He frowned, scooting down the wall of lockers toward his own, against the flow.

Someone bumped into him as if he were not there, and Matthew stumbled back, totally not ready. "Ugh, seriously?!" Somebody else rammed into him from behind, and his binder decided to jump from his hands and splatter on the floor. "Hey!" Ignored. Of course. His jaw clenched as he stared down at the mess for a moment, tempted to leave it behind and stomp out of the school. He bent down to snatch his homework before it could get too damaged under relentless feet. "Man, this sucks."

A large hand reached out, and Matthew almost fell back on his rear from this beefy figure kneeling down to help. He grabbed the other papers before the other guy could touch them, and quickly mumbled to get him away, "Uh-huh, thanks."

"You are very welcome." The stranger blinked, and then, his oddly violet eyes went wide as he exclaimed, "Oh!"

Matthew raised his eyebrows, and quickly plucked the last paper from his hand. "Um, yeah, thanks!"

Just before he could stand up and flee, the stranger latched onto the sleeve of Matthew's jacket. "I was looking for you!"

Matthew flinched. "Huh?"

"Yes! I was looking for you, I think."

"You think?" Matthew grunted like a barbarian. He jerked his arm away as he stood from the many legs shoving by before he could fall and be trampled upon...just like his homework. "I'm sorry?"

The stranger rose as well, and Matthew took a small, uncontrolled step back from his sheer size. He had to be on the football team...or steroids. "Why do you apologize? I have been looking for you!" He lifted his hands and pointed his index fingers from his head. "Do you remember?"

"Remember...?"

The stranger nodded with a big smile. He was kind of...cute. Big. Did not make any sense. Two out of three is not bad, but in school, that was a failing grade.

"I'm sorry. I don't...I really don't. I need to get to class. Bye."

"Oh! Uh, bye-bye?"

Matthew spun around, squeezing his binder closer as he made a move to morph into the hoard. He did not look back.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

"Are you gonna eat your grilled cheese?"

Matthew's eyes flickered from the rubbery pieces of bread on his tray, to his brother looking as if he were to die without them. "You can have it."

He did not finish speaking before Alfred snatched the sandwich and shoved the entire thing into his mouth. Arthur leaned to the opposite direction and asked, "Are you not hungry, Matthew?"

"The school's food is..."

"Not the best," Arthur finished politely, and Matthew stiffly nodded. Still glowing. The man cracked a smile, breaking that permanent scowl, "I can make you something to eat in school, so you won't be hungry until you come home again."

Matthew mustered a small grin. "No, that's okay. You don't have to."

"That's rubbish. Try to eat something. I know it's unpleasant, but an empty stomach is more so."

"Um, really, Arthur." Back off, Matthew nervously cleared his throat. He glanced to his brother for a silent plea of help, but Alfred gawked at something across the cafeteria.

"Dudes, there's been some creepy guy over there that keeps staring at us." Matthew and Arthur looked in the direction Alfred vaguely gestured, ignoring his warning of, "Hey, don't look when he's looking!"

It was the same man that 'helped' Matthew pick up his spilled papers. The same one that said those strange things. He raised hand and wiggled his fingers, almost waving. Matthew immediately looked away. Arthur still stared.

"Artie? Hey, Artie!" Alfred nudged his friend, but again, he did not reply, locked in the other man's gaze. He grabbed his shoulder and shook it. "Arthur!"

Arthur jumped, and a great shudder ran through him. "Goodness, what?"

"You were kind of spacing off."

"Oh, was I?"

"Yeah, dude, it was weird," Alfred chuckled a little, then proceeded to clear his tray of anything edible in one swoop.

Matthew risked another glance over his shoulder, peeking though the light hair falling along the side of his glasses. The near-stranger popped something small from his tray into his mouth, and seemed to ponder the taste for a moment before scrunching his face. His expression morphed into a more pleasant look when he met Matthew's eye, and he wiggled his fingers again.

Matthew decided to be nice and smile in return.

"Mattie! Mattie! Great, now you're the one spacing out!"

"Huh, what?" Matthew turned his attention to his brother. He noticed Arthur left to throw out their trays.

Alfred wiggled in his seat with a quick sweep of his blue eyes around the lunch room. "Mattie, I'm not going to have a lot of time to say this, but something freaky is going on."

Matthew lightly snorted, but smiled anyway. "You think?"

"I think nobody else can see that glowing Arthur does. They would have said something."

"It's only us?"

"And Artie himself. I mean, come on. You'd noticed if you were glowing, too, right?" Alfred wagged his head side-to-side. "That's not it. Of course he's aware. They all do it."

"Who all does it?"

With another glance around, Alfred leaned over the table, and Matthew worryingly pressed closer to hear. "Mattie, I'm sure I'm not even supposed to know about it, let alone tell anybody, but-"

Matthew mashed his eyebrows together when his brother jerked back to a normal slouch as Arthur came around the table, humming innocently as his buddy settled. "So? What are your plans tonight?"

Arthur's cheeks pinked slightly despite his scowling. "I need to run a few errands. Then I'll be over."

"Ooh! Mattie, we all should...oh, wait, you're working tonight, aren't you?"

Matthew eased back into a casual sitting position as if he was not just suspiciously leaning over the table. "Yeah, sorry to be a poor sport."

Blehps:

A smile slowly spread across Alfred's face, and he waited a few moments before saying, "School starts in ten minutes."

Alfred was promptly shoved off the bed.

*SpongeBob Leg Guy voice* "My leg!"