"Yeah, I haven't heard too many rumours about it yet, though, so maybe everyone's forgotten about it." I said hopefully.
"And maybe pigs can fly." He said, staring at the ceiling.
I didn't even bother replying to that. You didn't want to question Arthur when he went all poetic on you. It just made your head hurt. So we went up to his room where he resumed playing music so loudly that other objects in his room started shaking.
His room had walls painted a monotone grey that had been covered with posters; The Ramones, The Vandals, The Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedys representing his favourite older bands, and then there were newer ones, from bands that weren't as popular like Rise Against, Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, The Unseen and Billy Talent (A/N CANADIAN HELL YEAH!) Arthur loved anything that could be considered rock, but he liked punk the best, and not pop punk like All Time Low or Green Day. The more hardcore they were, the more he liked them. And he got very defensive when anyone said anything against it. But I still found it cute about him. He walked over to his bed and took a new poster out of the packaged roll that it was in.
"Whadd'ya think?" He said. The poster was of several women wearing what looked like brightly coloured ski masks and had some writing on it in what might have been Russian.
"Uh…" I said. I'd been meaning to look up all the punk bands that Arthur liked, but I never got the time. He liked so many, and it felt like he had a new favourite band every week. So whenever he started talking about a new band, I got into the habit of just smiling and nodding until the topic changed.
"It's Pussy Riot." He said, as if that explained everything.
"Uh…" I said again.
"Never mind. I'll send a picture to Ivan though." He said, taking a picture with his phone. "So anything new happen at school?"
"Not unless you count Francis's new shampoo."
"Is that the most interesting thing that happened?"
"Pretty much."
"Well, that's boring."
"At least you didn't have to hear him talk about it for an hour." I said, making him laugh. He was so damn beautiful when he laughed. His eyes would glitter his smile would just melt my heart. Wow. I just realized how feeble that sounds. Anyways, time to get back to things that are more important than me drooling over how pretty Arthur is.
The next school day
School definitely wasn't as much fun without Arthur. He was one of those people whose absence you clearly noticed in class. Without him, class was so much quieter. Math was more boring and French was more terrible without my best friend to suffer through with them.
We were sitting on some benches outside the gym, talking as we waited for the bell to go.
"And besides, he's actually not that bad." Gilbert said, on the subject of Mr. Beilschmidt.
"Not that bad?" Francis repeated incredulously. He was one of the few teachers who had managed to not get pranked immediately. Gilbert did not like to lose at all.
"Yeah. We talked a lot when I was in detention and he's actually pretty cool." He said casually. Francis, Ivan and I looked at each other, shocked and wondering if we should be concerned for Gil's sanity. Never had he referred to a teacher as pretty cool. It just wasn't Gilbert-like. According to Gilbert, all teachers are extremely uncool. Some were bearable, but most weren't. And the ones who tried to be cool were the most uncool of all. So suddenly calling a teacher cool clearly meant that something was wrong.
"Are you feeling okay?" I asked.
"'Course I am." He said. "Why?"
"Since when were you calling teachers cool?"
"First of all, he's a student teacher, not an actual teacher. And also, he's different."
"Different?"
"He's actually okay as a person." Now we knew that something was obviously up. Gilbert thinking about teachers as other human beings was as unlikely and possibly disastrous as Francis having a bad hair day. We would have continued our conversation, but at that time, Mr. Beilschmidt himself walked past.
"Good Morning." He said.
"'Morning." We replied.
"Oh! Gilbert?" He said as he was about to enter the gym. "Can I see you at the start of lunch today? I'd like to discuss what we were talking about last time."
"Okay." Gilbert said, going a little pink. Because he's so pale, whenever Gilbert blushes, instead of going red like most people, he just goes a faint pink. Something was up.
"What does he wanna talk about?" Francis asked, also curious about Gilbert's blush.
"Uh, he was helping me choose colleges." Gilbert said quickly, still a little pink. Francis and I looked at each other. Something was definitely up and as nosy friends, it was our job to get to the bottom of it. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to go on further because the bell then went and we had to get changed before we'd be late. When we did, I was delighted to find out what game we were meant to be playing today.
"Hockey." Mr. Beilschmidt had announced. "It's only field hockey, but we're looking at the possibility of having an ice hockey team, so I'll be looking for some people with promise." I could barely contain myself. Like any stereotypical Canadian, I love ice hockey. I paid very little attention as he went over some techniques for the less experienced students. I'd been playing hockey since I could walk, and not to sound cocky or anything, but I've always been pretty good.
So we split up into teams and played hockey. Ivan and I ended up pretty much destroying every other person we played, and although I hate to admit it, Alfred was pretty good too. At the end of the lesson, Mr. Beilschmidt told all three of us that we'd done well and if the school was getting a team, it was very likely that we'd be put on it, wink wink, nudge nudge.
Yes. He actually said wink wink, nudge nudge. The only other person I've met who does that is Arthur's granddad.
The rest of the morning was mind-numbingly boring. Without Arthur, I actually had to do work in most of my classes instead of talking to him and having fun. Poor me. When lunch finally came, I was very relieved.
"I need to go talk to Mr. Beilschmidt. I'll catch up with you guys later." Gilbert said and rushed off.
"What do you think is up with him?" I asked.
"Maybe he's having some kind of crisis." Ivan suggested.
"Nah," said Francis. "If he was having a crisis, I feel like he'd make sure everyone would know about it."
"Well, what do you think could happen that Gilbert would want to keep secret? I mean, he's not exactly a very secretive person." I said
"I don't know. But I really want to." Francis said.
"Maybe we should respect his privacy." Ivan suggested before we all burst out into laughter. Like that was going to happen. He showed up about half an hour later, looking distracted.
"Your hair's all messy." Francis commented, noticing that Gilbert's usually all-over-the-place messy hair was messier than normal, as if he'd been standing in front of a high-power fan.
"So what did you guys talk about?" Francis smiled like he knew something he wasn't supposed to.
"Colleges and stuff." Gilbert said casually
"I didn't think Mr. Beilschmidt would have known a lot about colleges here, seeing as he grew up in Germany." I had no clue where Francis was heading with this, but it looked like Gilbert had been caught in whatever he was trying to cover up.
"Yeah, neither did I, but he actually does." He said after a few seconds, looking down. Francis promptly dropped the subject and lunch carried on as it normally would.
"What was all that about?" I asked Francis as we headed to French.
"All what?"
"At lunch, when you were talking to Gilbert about Mr. Beilschmidt."
"Oh! That."
"Have you figured out what's going on?" I asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" He smiled before I asked for a further explanation.
HEY! LLF HERE!
First of all, THANKS SO MUCH FOR GIVING ME 50 ALERTS! IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!
I'm sorry for not posting for so long. You see, I've been way too busy with schoolwork to even breathe. Nothing says fun quite like studying French literature. Yay for me.
But anyways, this chapter is really all about a little side-plot involving Prussia, Germany and maybe a few others depending on how it goes.
Prussia: Because I'm so AWESOME, she just HAS to write about me.
LLF: Sure… Anyways, HAPPY HALLOWEEN IF I DON'T POST ANOTHER CHAPTER IN TIME. (which I probably won't)
Prussia: Take me trick or treating!
LLF: Um…
Long days and pleasant nights,
LLF.