Chapter 2: Just like Ate Tina...

Today was a great day for Alfred: burgers were for lunch! Grieta had stopped by one of the Junior classrooms to wait for her brother Johannes. Since they'd both probably have to go look for their oldest brother Daniel, Alfred knew he had enough time to get as many burgers as he could for lunch before Grieta, under Tina's request, would stop him. Overexcited, he practically ran to the cafeteria, almost knocking down some students by the stairwell. But even after all his rushing, the cafeteria was already crowded when he got there. "Why did everyone have the same lunch period anyways!?" Alfred thought, but then the familiar waving arm of Tina's younger brother caught his attention.

"Kuya Alfred! Over here!" Juan shouted over the crowd as Alfred made his way to the table. Feliciano Vargas, the bubbly Italian freshman that was Juan's roommate, and Ludwig Beilschmidt, the protective sophomore who was always where Feliciano was, were already at the table also. "I didn't know when you'd get here, so I already got you some burgers in case they ran out." Juan continued.

"You're the best, Juan!" Alfred exclaimed as he patted the younger boy's head. He was glad that he didn't have to line up for food now, but he had hoped Juan had gotten him more, even though there were four for him already. "Hm? You only got yourself two, Juan?" Alfred asked, looking over at the Filipino's tray.

"Of course he did. He knows how bad too many of those are for the body." Grieta stated, having caught up to the group, and sitting down at their table. Her two older brothers also sat at the table, effectively filling up the empty spaces. Alfred frowned at the comment, although he continued to chew his second burger. He was planning to get up and get more after he finished since he knew he wouldn't be able to eat extra once Tina got there.

"Uh, Grieta, where's my sister?" Juan asked, noticing that Tina hadn't come to lunch with either Alfred nor Grieta.

"She decided to go to the library to get some research for a paper she's doing."

"But she'll be here soon, right?" Juan knew Tina had always placed importance on family meals and such, so she didn't miss lunch often, even for schoolwork. She also wasn't one to miss meals.

"Don't you worry, Juan," Alfred said, lightly punching the boy in the arm. "She said she'd be here in a few minutes."

"Ve~ But doesn't Tina get really into her work when she starts?" Feliciano asked, eating his pasta. Where did he even get the pasta from, anyways?

"Don't speak with your mouth full." Ludwig said sternly. "Anyway, Tina is a punctual person. If she said she would be here in a few minutes, she will be here soon." he continued, ending the conversation. But as lunch continued, Tina never came down to the cafeteria. When the bell rang, Alfred gathered his things and just told Juan that he'd ask Tina why she didn't come to lunch. They had class together next. Alfred went to Biology and sat by his window seat and waited for Tina to get to class so he could ask her what she took so long doing. But class began and the seat in front of him remained empty.

Five minutes into the class, while Mrs. Hassan was explaining something about yeast being heterotrophs or something, two voices, a male one and a female one, could be heard right outside the door. Mrs. Hassan had stopped her lecture for a moment, while the doorknob began to turn. Tina entered the classroom, almost shyly, followed by....Matthew? Alfred got a little confused. He didn't think Tina would ever be late for any class (at least not after what happened in the beginning of the school year). And even though he was his brother, Alfred hadn't realized Matthew was in that class with them too. When they had closed the door behind them, Mrs. Hassan had a concerned but strict look on her face.

"Ms. de la Cruz, I would have thought you would be the last person to be late to my class." she said, walking towards Tina and Matthew. "Well, we were talking about yeast cells. Maybe if you can answer a question about the lesson, I won't give you detention." Tina nodded, and Mrs. Hassan asked her what kind of fermentation yeast cells underwent.

"Ethyl alcohol fermentation." Tina answered immediately. Mrs. Hassan smiled (she hadn't taught that to the class yet) and let Tina sit down. When the Egyptian teacher began walking back to the front of the room, Alfred was about to ask Tina about lunch, but then was interrupted by a person who had been unnoticed until now.

"Um, excuse me Mrs. Hassan. I was late too." Matthew said, still standing by the door. "And who are you?" she said, looking at him as if she didn't recognize him.

"I'm Matthew Williams." he said, tilting his head a little to give Tina a look that said 'See, didn't I tell you this would happen?'

"...Alfred, if you're going to come to class late, don't make up names to avoid detention--"

"Mrs. Hassan, Alfred is right here." This time, it was Tina who answered, pointing her thumb to the seat behind her. Alfred gave a little wave when Mrs. Hassan turned to look at him. A little confused, she walked back to her desk and took out her attendance list and looked through it. Finding his name, she felt a bit embarrassed, but began to ask him what kind of fermentation animals underwent.

"Lactic acid fermentation." he answered. Matthew was allowed to take his seat, and Alfred noticed he smiled at Tina on his was to his seat behind Alfred. Alfred turned towards Matthew and was about to ask about what had just happened, but Mrs. Hassan caught him and asked if yeast cells were heterotrophs. He couldn't remember so he had to stay quiet for the rest of the class. He divided his time between trying to take some notes, staring out the window, and staring at the back of Tina's head. When the bell rang, Alfred got up immediately and asked Tina where she was at lunch.

"I was at the library..." she began to answer.

"But you never went to lunch." Alfred interrupted. "Didn't you get hungry or anything? I have some Oreos in my bookbag, if you want."

"I already had some maple crème cookies, Alfred." Tina giggled. She wondered if both brothers always carried around their favorite cookies everywhere.

"Oh."

"Anyway, you should hurry to your next class now. Don't you have Gym next? We have Brit. Lit. now."

"We?"

"Matthew and I."

"Oh."

"Tina, we should hurry up, so we're not late again." Matthew entered the conversation, having finished putting his Biology books away.

"Hey, Mattie, I didn't know you and Tina had met." Alfred asked, as the three began to leave the room.

"Well, we just met in the library today."

"I didn't even realize we had most of our classes together." Tina commented.

"Yeah, I didn't even know he was in our Bio class until today." That was the last thing Alfred got to say before the other two nodded and had to walk the opposite way. Alfred sighed as he watched Matthew and Tina walk away. Today was a bit confusing, he thought, but at least he knew they were doing Baseball during Gym today. After getting changed in the locker room, and exchanging banter with Arthur Kirkland, who was on the other team for Baseball (it was sophomores against juniors), the students began to walk out of the building to get to the Baseball field. On the way towards the door, Alfred noticed some students in the front of the line looking into the open door of the indoor track field with amused faces. Once Alfred passed by the door, he did a double-take as he realized that inside, Juan was running frantically around the track. It wouldn't have been so unusual since Juan was in the Track Team, but the Filipino freshman was being chased by a medium-sized brown dog. Alfred ran into the field, as Dylan, Arthur's Australian cousin, shouted after him that they need him for the game.

"I'll be right back!" Alfred shouted back. He was now in 'Hero mode.' He tried to run after Juan and the dog, but found that they were running so fast. This made Alfred wonder how much stamina Juan had after all...

"Kuya Alfred! W-why are you here?" Juan asked while still running, a little embarrassed, but not even sounding tired. As much as he liked spending time with his Kuya Alfred, he didn't like having to be saved too much by him. He worried that he could never be 'Hero' like Kuya Alfred if he couldn't even save himself.

"I just saw you on the way to our Baseball game." Alfred answered, panting, trying to catch up.

"Ah. Kuya Alfred, you didn't have to--"

"Why not? That dog...is chasing you!" Alfred asked, getting out of breath. How many laps had they run already? He had only been there a minute or two, but they were going too fast.

"You don't have to worry about that, Kuya Alfred. He always does this..." Juan explained, sprinting at a continued steady speed.

"What? You know this dog?" he asked, stopping to take a breather. Juan continued to run in laps around the track while he explained that Pinatubo was his dog when he was younger. It had always been lazy and sleepy all the time. But one day, the dog seemed to have suddenly exploded at Juan and began chasing him. Since then, Tina had kept the dog most of the time since it always chased Juan on sight. But when they went to World Academy, they had left the dog behind at home.

"I didn't think he'd follow us all the way here." Juan admitted, after finishing his story.

"What!? You guys left him in the Philippines and he followed you all the way here?!" Alfred asked, flabbergasted. The outburst made Juan stop running for a moment, but long enough for the dog to jump onto his back and knock him forward. Alfred ran towards Juan, and picked up the dog off from the younger boy's back. Pinatubo began to wriggle in his arms, but he kept a firm grip in case it tried to escape. "What kind of dog is this anyway? I've never seen anything this breed before...but it's not like I'm any expert or anything..."

"We don't really know." Juan answered, sitting up on the floor. He didn't even look tired, and Alfred wondered if the boy even needed any saving at all. "Pinatubo is an askal. He's an asong kalye, which means 'street dog.' He could be anything and everything."

"Oh." Alfred seemed to be saying that a lot lately. He turned the dog around in his arms to look at it. Pinatubo stared back at him and began to bark at his face. Alfred got startled and almost dropped the dog, but caught it again before it landed on the ground.

"It looks like he likes you--" Juan began.

"What do you mean he likes me? He looks really uncomfortable being held by me right now."

"He's just like Ate Tina..." Juan thought aloud.

"What?" Alfred didn't really hear what Juan said.

"It's nothing, Kuya Alfred!" Juan realized he had spoken aloud before. "Shouldn't you go to your class now?"

"Hm...Will you be okay once I let Pinatubo go?" he asked. Alfred didn't want to leave Juan being chased by the dog too. "I mean, don't you have class right now too?"

"...Ah!! I'm late to class!" Juan realized. "Ate will kill me if I get detention again!" he worried, getting up from the floor and trying to decide what to do.

"Don't worry, Juan. We'll go to Mr. Beilschmidt to explain the situation, so you won't get detention." Mr. Beilschmidt was the Vice-Principal and the academy's disciplinary. He already knew Alfred because of all the times he had gotten in trouble, but hopefully Juan would be luckier. They began walking down the hall towards the Vice-Principal's office when Juan expressed his worry that they'd take Pinatubo away.

"Haha, it'll be fine, Juan! The school allows pets here. My brother even has his polar bear somewhere in the dorms." Alfred explained.

"Wow! A polar bear? A real polar bear? I've only seen those before in the zoo!" Juan said, excited. But then his excitement quieted down when they entered Mr. Beilschmidt's office. They explained what had just happened, while the disciplinary kept his stern face unemotional. When they finished, he sighed and gave Juan a form to register that Pinatubo was staying in the school grounds. Then, when the bell rang, he gave both Alfred and Juan detention for missing class.

Blah blah blah:

Sorry I update so slowly... The problem with having most of the story figured out is that I never feel compelled to type any of it down.. T_T

I thought changing the POV every once in a while would be interesting. Did it work?

For some reason, I'm kinda liking this story in Al's POV...

'Ate' means 'older sister.'

Haha, I had to use Oreos: America's favorite cookie~

Pinatubo as a dog was my brother's idea. It represents Mt. Pinatubo, which was discovered to have been a volcano when it exploded [I'm too lazy to look up the dates...]. It's inactive again now, but it's still a volcano...