Unicorns&FlyingMintBunnies changed his status from IN A RELATIONSHIP to SINGLE.
I stared at the screen in shock for a while, unable to decide whether I was happy that he was single, or sad that he and Alfred had broken up. I guess it was a little bit of both. He may have been single, but he wasn't really fair game yet, he's just broken up with my brother. I had to wait three months at least before making my move.
Three months. I smiled to myself. Three months and then the fun would begin.
The next morning, I was up early and almost out of the house before Alfred even woke up. It wasn't like I was purposely trying to avoid him, I just didn't want to look him in the eye and tell him that I wanted to date the guy he just broke up with.
"Alfred Jones! Get downstairs NOW!" I heard my dad yell from upstairs. It sounded like he wasn't taking the break-up too well. A few minutes later, a dressed Alfred trudged dejectedly down the stairs. At that point, maybe I did feel a little bad for him, he looked so sad that I couldn't help but feel the least bit sorry for him. It wasn't like he could control his habit of being an asshole, was it? It just happened.
"Can't I stay home?" He whined as he poured cereal into a bowl.
"No." Dad answered abruptly, looking at his watch. He was late, and probably didn't have the time to make sure that Alfred got to school.
"Why not?"
"Because a broken heart is not a valid excuse to stay home." Dad said, sounding a little hard-hearted in my opinion.
"Well, it should be!" Alfred said, dramatically crossing his arms and resting his head on the table. Dad sighed for a second; probably wondering what the hell he'd done in life to deserve such a high-maintenance child. I don't blame him. He must have been one pretty reckless kid to have been slapped with Alfred as a son. But anyways, I'm not here to complain about Alfred, even though I guess that I do a bit much of that in this story. I should continue.
"Look," Dad said, bending his knees so that he was at eye-level with the sitting Alfred, "If he's really the one. And I mean really, if you two are destined to spend the rest of your lives together, then he'll come back."
"You think so?" Alfred raised his head.
"It worked with your mom, didn't it?" He smiled and ruffled Alfred's hair. "Now hurry up and eat your breakfast."
I left, walking quickly until I got to school with about ten minutes to spare before first period. I was about to go find somewhere to sit in peace for the last few minutes before class when I ran into Gilbert.
"Matty-boy!" He exclaimed.
"Since when did I let you call me that?" I asked.
"I don't know. It suits you. But I don't care about that."
"Gee, thanks."
"I want you to tell me why Arthur changed his relationship status to SINGLE!" He grabbed me by the shoulders as if it was a matter of life and death.
"I don't know." I said, removing his hands from my shoulders, "Why don't you ask him?"
"But you two are best friends. Surely he's told you, right?" Gilbert asked.
"He hasn't said anything to me since when we were hanging out yesterday. We'll have to wait until we see him." I said.
"We have gym with him first period, right?"
"Yeah, I guess we'll talk to him then." We proceeded to head to the gym, not wanting to be late. If you were late for class, you had to run a lap for every minute you were late. It was actually quite a good idea, after the first week, everyone tried their hardest to show up on time. We were dressed and ready before the bell even went off, and were in the gym beginning to warm up. I noticed that standing next to the gym teacher was a man I'd never seen before. He was tall and blond with blue eyes, wearing shorts and a thin t-shirt that showed defined muscles. The two men seemed deep in discussion, and I could already see a small group of girls gathered at the door to the gym peering at him. Lucky guy.
"Who's that?" I raised my eyebrows in the stranger's direction.
"I don't know, haven't seen him around before." Before we had time to attempt and work out what he was doing here, the bell rang. We all had gym class together, so I looked around to see which of my friends would be forced to run. Ivan was there, not warming up but just sitting and watching everyone in a way that looked like he was trying to work out the best way to set them all on fire, which, knowing him, he probably was. I watched Francis sneak in at the last minute, just avoiding being put through the torture of laps, but no Arthur or Alfred.
"Okay guys, come over here!" The gym teacher called, and we all went to stand in a semi-circle around him and the stranger. "So today-" He began before being interrupted by Arthur trying to slip in to class unnoticed.
"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Kirkland."
"Sorry sir." He said. I noticed that he looked down, the break-up can't have been a very clean one.
"That'll be one lap, please."
"Actually sir, I'm only forty-five seconds late, not a minute, so I shouldn't have to run a lap." Arthur replied. Even when he was depressed, he was still a little too witty for his own good. The gym teacher said nothing, but just indicated for him to sit down, knowing a battle that he's loose before he's even start."
"As I was saying, I'd like you guy to meet our new student teacher. His name is Mr. Bel -Mr. Beyel – Mr. Bill-" Our not-too-literate gym coach struggled with the man's name.
"Beilschmidt." The man took over, and I immediately picked up on his strong German accent. Gilbert had German roots and seemed to enjoy faking the accent a lot. "But you can call me Mr. B if it's too hard to pronounce." I immediately looked over to Gilbert.
"Isn't Beilschmidt your surname too?"
"It's surprisingly common." He wasn't paying attention to me. Instead he was looking at the new teacher and smiling in a way that I knew very well.
"Gilbert, please don't tell me…" I began.
"Matty-boy, we've got some serious pranking to do." Gilbert said, with a grin evil enough to rival Ivan's on his face. So Mr. Beilschmidt went on to go through the rest of the lesson, which wasn't anything too challenging, seeing as it was his first day on the job, it was just a bunch of those stupid exercises that build trust, co-operation skills and other things like that. We were told to find partners to do the typical trust-fall thing. I ran right away to Arthur.
"You okay?" I cut to the chase right away.
"Fine." He mumbled.
"Arthur, I knew that you and Alfred broke up. Talk to me."
"It was nothing, he was being jealous and then we started arguing and stuff was said."
"What stuff?" I asked before Mr. Beilschmidt seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Come on! Get started!" He said in his thick accent.
"Yes, sir" We both said, starting on the activity, Arthur falling into my arms, me gradually increasing the distance between us. As soon as he'd left we continued our conversation while practising.
"What stuff?"
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Tell me."
"No."
"Arthur!"
"Later!" He hissed, and I was about to argue when I heard Mr. Beilschmidt talking to Gilbert, who was obviously about to perform prank number one. I couldn't help myself from smiling at the not so pleasant initiation which Gilbert was all too happy to give the new teacher.
"Hey, Mr. Beilschmidt!" Gilbert said, pronouncing his name perfectly, of course "Why don't you let a student try and catch you?" Mischief glinted in his eyes as the rest of the class responded with a chorus of agreement. Everyone looked forwards to Gilbert's pranks. Even some of the teachers, well the ones who weren't being pranked, that is.
"Alright then." Mr. Beilschmidt couldn't refuse an entire class, "Do I have any volunteers?" Only a few kids put their hands up. Gilbert and a couple other trouble-makers who wouldn't mind being caught.
"You with the light hair! What's your name?"
"Gilbert."
"Okay then Gilbert. Try and catch me." And so Gilbert stood behind him, and Mr. Beilschmidt fell backwards. Gilbert quickly stepped out of the way, intending that Mr. Beilschmidt would hit the floor hard and painfully, but he didn't account on how quick Mr. Beilschmidt would be. The gym teacher sensed that Gilbert had moved, and somehow ,don't ask me because I have no clue how, managed to save himself from falling and trip Gilbert up at the same time. The class burst into laughter and applause, and even Gilbert was smiling.
"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Mr. Beilschmidt asked, holding out a hand to help Gilbert up. Standing up and turning a faint pink, Gilbert smiled ruefully. We then moved onto the next exercise, which somehow involved basketballs and basic warm-ups. (A/N i.e. What we did in girl gym, and then heard the guys who were watching us from above comment on how much they enjoyed the show…) Alfred entered the class at last.
"Jones! Twenty laps!" Our gym teacher barked. Alfred did so without a word, jogging silently around us while we continued. He seemed more dejected than Arthur.
By the end of the class, we were all not as tired as we usually were, so the locker room was really too loud talk to Arthur. On the way out, Gilbert forced us to stop and talk to Mr. Beilschmidt, possibly planning for his next prank. I knew Gilbert very well, and if someone dared to foil one of his pranks, they were doomed for a prank war which always ended with him winning.
"Sorry about that." Mr. Beilschmidt said, "But I wasn't going to let you get away with that on the first day, was I?"
"I guess not. Sorry, I just like to know how my teachers can cope with different situations." Translation: I love to make other teachers lose dignity. Mr. Beilschmidt chuckled.
"I get the feeling that I should watch out for you." He said.
"Maybe." Gilbert replied and left. Once we were out of the gym, he turned to face us all.
"Guys," He said, "I think I'm gonna like this new gym teacher." He smiled, having finally met a worthy opponent.
LLF here!
Wow, this reminded me of Grade 9 gym, and the good memories of…bacchii ball? Yeah, I don't have many good memories of Grade 9 gym, other than the camping trip…(Which, I'll admit, was pretty fun.)
Why is this chapter so Gilbert-heavy? Prussia doesn't like shutting up.
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Prussia: Or I'll kill you with my AWESOMENESS!
LLF: WHAT'RE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?
Prussia: Kesesesese~