Im sorry, readers. AP homework kept me from updating when planned. Now without further ado, I present: chapter 3!
Disclaimer: I do not own hetalia
"Matthew, huh?" Gilbert asked. "Nice to meet you, my name's Gilbert. What grade are you in?"
"I'm a junior," replied the quiet Canadian. "Not many people know me, but Alfred Jones is my brother."
"Jones the football player?" Gilbert questioned. "How do you guys have different last names then?"
"Separate fathers. He's older than me- a senior-as you may know, and I was raised in Canada for the last fifteen years. I just recently moved to the states."
"Aaah," Gilbert replied.
Hmm so this Canadian was Jones' brother.In his mind, a picture of a strong, blonde football player came to mind. Incredibly talented, but none too bright, Alfred was a major player up until he met Arthur. Gilbert wondered if Matthew was anything like Alfred.
"Ok class," announced the teacher, drawing the students' attention to the white board at the front of the room. "Here is a simple problem for you to do as a warm up. All you have to do is solve for X anyway you want. It should be easy if you remember Geometry."
Gilbert looked at the problem on the board. A triangle with two labeled angles and 1 labeled side. The "X" in question was one of the unmarked sides. Gilbert copied the problem onto a piece of graph paper and stared at it blankly. He scratched his head, chewed the edge of his pencil, and gave himself a headache trying to remember geometry, but all he could remember was making buildings out of the 3D shapes with Francis. That, and copying off Kiku, the incredibly smart Japanese freshmen. Looking over he realized that Matthew had almost finished solving the problem. Gilbert was considering copying his work when the Canadian looked up, glanced sideways, and saw Gilbert's blank paper.
"Gilbert, do you need help?" he asked sincerely.
"Well, uh, see here what had happened waaaaaas..."
"Don't worry Gilbert," Matthew replied, "I can explain it easily." Matthew launched into a rapid fire explanation of sine, cosine, and tangent. He explained how, because the triangle was a right triangle, Gilbert could use one of the angles and the side length to find the other side. Normally, this all flew over Gilbert's head, but something about Matthew's explanation made perfect sense. Ten practice problems later, when the homework was passed out, Gilbert was shocked to find that he actually understood the questions. He may have never liked math, but when the bell rang, Gilbert was almost sad to leave and go to English.
The rest of the day passed by like most classes do on the first day of school- chill, and full of name-memorizing games-and soon enough Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio (who had thankfully not found Lovino) were on their way to Gilbert's house to hang out.
"I guess all my classes are all right" said Gilbert. "How are yours, Francis?"
"C'est bien! Cooking class is magnifique! Et toi, mon ami, Antonio?"
"Eh? Oh, bueno! Would be better if I had Lovino in some of my classes, but I guess I will survive. By the way, Gilbert, where's Ludwig?"
"Oh, he left ahead of me. Said he didn't want to wait. The thing that cracked me up though, was that little Italian-the brother of Lovino- is still following him around. It won't be long until Ludwig gets tired of him though. People never were his favorite thing."
"Ah, perhaps. Or, perhaps not. Ludwig and this little Italian may get along well. Look at us three! Who would've thought we would end up as friends, non?" Francis asked.
"Yea," Gilbert scoffed. "The rapist, the pedo, and the pervert-great combo!"
"Ahaha, probably a bad combination huh? Well, at least we have each other!" Antonio said grabbing the other two into a bear hug.
"Gaaah! Get off me you idiot!" Gilbert yelled, running away from the overly-affectionate Spaniard
"Aah, I knew you couldn't resist my charms for long, mon ami," said Francis in his seductive voice.
"Francis, stop trying to feel me up!" Antonio cried jumping away from him. "You know Lovino is the only one for me!"
"Not this again!" said Francis.
"Please excuse me while I tune out your conversation on romance," Gilbert announced, popping his headphones in his ears and turning on his music. The first song that came on was "Sandmann" by Oomph!, his favorite German rock group, but he was in the mood for something different. Flipping though his playlists, he found his top-secret Katy Perry one, and started listening to "Teenage Dream".
The rest of the walk passed in the same way: Antonio and Francis arguing over love, and Gil effectively tuning them out with Katy Perry until they finally reached Gilbert's house after about twenty five minutes of walking. When they entered they were surprised to find Ludwig sitting at the kitchen table hunched over a piece of paper with a hyperactive Italian talking animatedly next to him.
Ludwig looked slightly irritated, even more so when Gilbert slapped him hard on the shoulder and said:
"Hey little bro! How was your first day?"
"Umph. It was...passable. Now, if you will leave me, I have homework to do" Ludwig growled.
"Ve, Ludwig, does that mean I have to leave too?" The Italian asked sadly. "Because you're really nice and your house is cool and I don't want to leave if I don't have to-"
"Feliciano! You will only have to leave if you don't stop talking!" Ludwig thundered.
"Ve? Ok!" said the oblivious boy, smiling happily.
Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio shared an amused expression. Antonio shrugged, and the trio proceeded out of the kitchen down to Gilbert's room-grabbing sodas on the way. Once inside, Francis plopped onto the small couch and cracked open his soda. Gilbert sat on the edge of his bed after taking Gilbird out of his cage to let him hop around the room, and Antonio made himself comfortable on the floor. As Francis chugged his soda, Antonio asked hesitantly:
"Sooo, what is this about your brother being irritated by people, again?"
"Ugh, who knows?" Gilbert groaned. "He's bound to ditch the little Italian soon enough. He doesn't get attached to people. He doesn't do the "friends" thing; he does teammates and science partners."
"Or it could be amour," ejected the Frenchman in a dreamy voice.
"Ok, no. No, no, no, no, no. I refuse to have any more conversations about love. Love doesn't exist, and mark my words, I will never be in love," Gilbert ranted.
"Ah, but mon ami, love is-"
"Oh, no. Shut it, Frenchy. I'm done with this topic."
Antonio didn't speak. For once sensing that perhaps, there was something wrong with Gilbert. He didn't pay too much attention to the feeling though, and pretty soon the conversation was forgotten for one of new music, new students, and all the damn homework the trig teacher had dumped on them.
As the talking drifted in the direction of sine and cosine, Gilbert kept getting transported back to fourth period. Back to the classroom where a shy, quiet, Canadian had slid into the seat next to him and quietly introduced himself. Back to those unusual violet eyes and that soft voice explaining how to find X. And all Gilbert could think of was how Matthew was nothing like Alfred, and how much he preferred it that way.
...
August 29, 2012
BEEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEP
"Uuuuuunf." Day two of junior year- why wasn't it summer again? Gilbert opened his eyes, blinking the sleep out of them before throwing back his blankets and sitting on the edge of his bed. He stretched his arms upward, yawned and got up to get breakfast.
"Mmm what's for breakfast today?" Gilbert muttered sleepily to his brother and grandpa.
The answer was a plate of fluffy pancakes set in front of him.
"Oooh! Pass the syrup Ludwig!" said Gilbert excitedly. Once Ludwig handed it to him he poured syrup on his pancakes and began shoveling them in his mouth. "So bro," he asked through a mouthful of pancake, "How was your first day. You never did answer me yesterday."
Ludwig swallowed his mouthful of pancake before answering. "It was passable, as I stated yesterday-"
"What about your Italian friend?" Gilbert interrupted before his brother could continue.
"Feliciano is...unique," he replied after a slight pause.
"A frieeeeeend?" Gilbert asked drawing out the word.
"An acquaintance. Now if you will excuse me I'm going to get ready," Ludwig said sternly as he got up and put his dish in the sink.
Interesting, thought Gilbert as he finished his pancakes in silence. Luddy isn't normally that brisk. Maybe Francis was right? Naaaaah, Ludwig wouldn't be that way, even if me, Antonio and Francis are. it's gotta be something else.
"Opa, you think something's wrong with Ludwig?" Gilbert asked his grandfather who had quietly been washing dishes.
He thought for a while before speaking. "I think that Ludwig is having an eye-opening experience in high-school, and you would be wise to leave him alone. I know you enjoying teasing him, but it might be best for him to make choices without being distracted or messed with."
Gilbert thought about what his grandpa had said while he changed into his uniform and brushed his teeth. His Opa had a point. When Gilbert himself had begun high school, he was surprised to find that most of the students were rather accepting of the gay population. Though it was very difficult for him to tell his family, Gilbert had eventually come out of the closet. Ludwig was still in 7th grade at the time, but he didn't seem to be all that shocked by the revelation. His grandpa too had taken it all in stride, claiming that he didn't care whether he had great-grand children or not, and he just wanted his boys to be happy. Whether his Opa was hinting that Ludwig might be in the closet or not, Gilbert decided to back off on his teasing for a little bit- at least about Feliciano.
With that in mind, Gilbert and Ludwig walked to school mostly in silence. Gilbert made a few small comments and Ludwig replied with mostly "yes's" "no's" or just head shakes and murmurs. It wasn't an awkward silence, Gilbert just didn't like when it was so quiet. Luckily, they must have been walking quicker than yesterday, because it took them almost no time to make it to the school. The two brothers parted ways with Gilbert heading to his locker to grab his chemistry book for first period. His teacher had told the class that if they all brought their books he would give them a demonstration on chemical reactions, and Gilbert was not one to give up the possibility of an explosion.
As Gilbert slammed his locker shut he was surprised to find Matthew walking down the hallway. Gil almost couldn't stop a smiling spreading across his face as he called out "Mattie!" and ran to catch up to him.
The Canadian turned around, looking quite shocked to see Gilbert running towards him, and, even though no one else was in the hall, Matthew felt himself blush a deep scarlet.
"Hello Gilbert," he said as the albino caught up to him. "Where are you off to?"
"Chemistry. I figured since it was in this direction I might as well walk with you."
"Oh did you have a question on the trig homework?" Matthew asked.
"Trig homework? Why would I ask you about the trig homework?" Gilbert asked bewildered.
"Well since you were having trouble yesterday, I thought maybe you might have been confused on the assignment."
"Actually, once you explained it, everything kinda made sense," admitted Gilbert. "And besides, the awesome me never had trouble! I was just sleepy and couldn't think straight."
"If you say so," said Matthew hiding a smile. "But if you ever do need help, I'm willing to help."
"That'd be great, thanks," Gilbert answered, glancing at Matthew, who, he was surprised to see was blushing slightly and looking at the floor. "Well, my chem class is right here, soo guess I'll see you in trig. Bye, dude!"
"Goodbye, Gilbert. See you in trig class."
As Gilbert sat down and began pulling a pencil out of his backpack, he noticed his hands sweating just slightly. Thats odd, he thought, wiping them dry on his pants, normally that only happens when I'm around someone I like, and I don't like Matthew...right?
That's all for August, expect homecoming drama come mid-September!