"Alfred?" Matthew whispered, sticking his head into Alfred's room. Matthew's face contorted in confusion when he saw that his brother was not in bed. Instead, he was on his desk, hunched over in an uncomfortable position. "We need to go to school." He put his hands on Alfred's shoulders and gently shook them.
"HUH WHAT?" Alfred sat straight up, nearly knocking Matthew back. Alfred's eyes were disorientated, looking around the room as if it had been his first time seeing it. Upon laying his eyes on the physics textbook in front of him, Alfred slumped in his chair and groaned. "Shit." he cursed and rubbed his eyes under his askew glasses. He had fallen asleep near the end of the reading, meaning that he didn't even get to problem worksheet or all his other homework.
"H-Hey we should probably get ready." Matthew glanced at the textbook. Alfred actually attempted to do his work? Matthew felt a mix of pride and worry. He wondered what had gotten into his brother.
"Yeah yeah I'll be there." Alfred slumped over the desk again, face completely flat on the table surface. How did he let himself fall asleep like that? Did the football practice drain him that much?
Matthew thought about shaking his brother again but decided to leave him alone. He walked out in silent footsteps, mulling over what he saw.
After about five minutes, Alfred started to pack up his unfinished work into his backpack. It was only the second day of school and he miserably failed to keep up with his work. Maybe this was why he never tried. It was because he would end up failing. Alfred paused as he was putting away his history homework. No, what was he thinking? He's "The Hero" for god's sake! Ivan challenged him, therefore Ivan was the villain. He wouldn't give up so easily! Alfred stood up and formulated a plan to finish the worksheet before first period started. Then, he rushed into the bathroom to get ready for school.
Alfred ran down the hall, scribbling in numbers onto a crinkled sheet of paper. It was a minute before the bell would ring, and time wasn't stopping for him.
Alfred entered the physics classroom right as the bell rang. He had managed to scrawl in the last numbers for his problem, 3 feet/second. Mrs. Gallagher pursed her lips at Alfred's entrance, but she could not mark him tardy since he technically did come on time. Alfred rushed into his seat, feeling satisfied as he stared at his completed homework.
"How about we start off class by exchanging papers with your partners and checking answers?" Mrs. Gallagher said as she rose from her desk chair. The smartboard revealed all the answers to the six problems. "Hopefully you all didn't experience too much trouble. Memorizing the kinetic equations could take time, but I believe in most of you."
Alfred's ears perked up at the phrase "most of you." He gave his crinkled paper to Ivan, who received it with hesitance. Ivan slid his worksheet over to Alfred. It was pristine; his handwriting was flawless and the paper had no sign of creases or folds. Alfred's worksheet, on the other hand, had messy handwriting that barely made it legible to read. Ivan frowned at the sight of Alfred's paper. Ivan didn't even look up at the smartboard to check Alfred's answers. He immediately crossed them all off, marking them wrong. Ivan's answers were correct.
"What? How did I get them wrong?" Alfred questioned angrily, pointing at his worksheet. There was no way he got all of the problems wrong!
Ivan sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Physics is done in the metric system, Jones. You did not convert the values. Typical American." He gave back Alfred's worksheet and took back his. He did not glance back at the stricken blond.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME, COMMIE?" Alfred shouted, gathering the attention of the whole class.
"Russia has not been communist since 1991. Like I said, you are a typical American." Ivan's cool façade slightly wavered at Alfred's comment about communism. Ignorant insults like those were always thrown at him by American kids ever since he moved to the US.
"Look, commie dude. These answers are right, just in a different measurement system. Now fix my paper!" Alfred demanded. He couldn't stand the embarrassment of getting every single problem wrong.
Ivan tightened his jaw. "I do not enjoy repeating myself, Jones. Physics is done in the metric system."
"Quiet down, you two!" Mrs. Gallagher grimaced at the noisemakers. "Please turn in your papers, and we will review what you all read in the textbook."
Alfred reluctantly let go of his paper. This was completely unfair! He worked so hard! Even if he did fall asleep while doing it. He pouted and slumped in his chair. He was so worked up that he didn't bother taking notes in his notebook as Ivan was diligently doing so.
"As the textbook has mentioned, the net force, which means all the forces, equals mass times acceleration." Mrs. Gallagher wrote the equation on the whiteboard. "You can imagine something with large mass but with little acceleration equal something that has little mass but large acceleration. They would have the same force. Think of a mouse and an elephant if you need to." Mrs. Gallagher chuckled and was met with a few fake, awkward laughs from the students.
Alfred suddenly imagined himself as the mouse, small but with great acceleration. He was hurtling towards an elephant with a particularly large trunk. When in contact with the elephant, the elephant toppled over from the small mouse's force. He may have been small, but he had such great acceleration that its force was greater than the elephant's.
"Mr. Jones!"
Alfred awoke from his daydream. Ivan had a slight smirk on his face. That commie bastard!
"Please pay attention to this. We are having a quiz in few days." Mrs. Gallagher then returned to the board.
Despite the reality of physics not quite working like Alfred's daydream, it was enough for Alfred to recover from his unit conversion mistake.
Now all he needed to do was copy notes from Mattie since he forgot to do so himself.
Sorry! This is super late and short! I'll try to update more regularly. My school is doing model UN and it is complete hell. So much researching ; - ;.