Chapter 5: It Would Be Rude
"Well, when I was a little kid, my dad was always away working and none of our relatives lived nearby enough to keep us company while he was gone. Kuya Yao was in the same neighborhood, so he often came by to take care of me and Juan. He came over almost every day and even slept over sometimes. He always brought stuff for us to play with and even taught us a lot of things too." Then Tina stopped abruptly, as if she had just realized something. "Kuya Yao's not the one I like, mind you" she said, looking at Matthew as if to straighten out a misunderstanding that had never been established. "I'm just giving some you background information is all."
"Haha, yeah, I understand." he said, laughing. It was just like Tina to be thorough even when explaining something personal.
"He was like family," she continued, more exactly. "Like an older brother. And since he had a lot of other kids living in his house, I got to meet them too; a lot of them go to World Academy, you know? That's how I got to know Kiku, Yong Soo, Hyung Soo, Mei, Michael. Hue (You know Hue Nguyen, right? She's the Vice President of the Student Council right now.), Sorey, Savannh, Sunan, and Gema (You know them too, right? I mean, you've been going to World Academy longer then me... Oh, but Gema's in the University so you might not know her) didn't live too far either, so I actually made a lot of friends. We were like a really big family of just kids. Hmm...but I never did find out how old Kuya Yao was. Well, he can't be too old since he goes to World Academy too, right? Anyways, well, when we all got a little older (I must've been ten-years-old probably), I met Antonio."
At the mention of Antonio, Mathew knew that the story was about to change drastically. He had heard about Antonio from both Arthur and Alfred, but he probably isn't all that bad since he was one of Francis' best friends...well, that fact doesn't really help much, actually.
"He had been wandering around our neighborhood trying to make friends with the kids there since he said that this girl, María Rafaela Alvares, had been there before and were friends with a lot of people. He obviously didn't know what he was doing and how he got there, so I invited him into the house. I didn't really know what to say to him the whole time, and personally I felt that the whole thing was a little awkward, but he seemed so happy about meeting someone new that I ended up inviting him to visit again."
Tina paused to look back at Matthew, wondering if she was boring him. But instead, the young man had been leaning in on his desk, genuinely interested at what she would say next, making Tina unexplainably nervous about what she should divulge to the Canadian. Since Matthew didn't ask any questions though, she continued on.
"After we got to being friends, I started enjoying Antonio's company more. He was really cheerful and optimistic about everything; it almost seemed like the sun shone brighter when he was there. He always brought along these new things that he would teach me and Juan how to use, and he even helped Juan with his school work and such. Antonio came over almost all the time and it seemed as if he had become a part of my everyday life."
"So he was like family too?" Matthew asked, confirming his guess.
"No," Tina answered immediately. "He was my first love." she explained, the slight tinge of pink on her cheeks resurfacing. She said this with a straight face, with an almost nostalgic gleam in her eyes, looking straight at Matthew, so he knew she wasn't kidding. He didn't understand why, but upon hearing those words, he felt as if something sank inside of him.
"Oh, well, I guess that answers my question..." he tried to end the conversation, as if trying to cover up the unreasonable disappointment that seemed to have been welling up inside him.
"But the problem with Antonio is that he's dense." Tina's mood suddenly changed to a more exasperated tone. "I mean, really dense! I don't know if it's because he spends too much time out in the sun and it fried his brain or something! Or maybe eating all those tomatoes made him useless, but he was just so, so...GAH!"
She breathed a bit, trying to push away the memories of her trying to confess to Antonio, only to have him say that he loved his "little sister" too. She should've understood that the older boy wouldn't see her in that sense since she was young, but it frustrated her so much back then that sometimes she acted purposely mean to Antonio and told him to leave. Then again, the Spaniard always came back, and sometimes he even stayed anyway.
This sudden outburst of ranting caught Matthew off guard that he almost forgot about the inferiority complex he was starting to develop when he unconsciously began comparing himself to the upperclassman.
"Even worse, Juan didn't like Antonio in the least." Tina continued when she had sufficiently calmed down. "He always complained about Antonio being a bully to him and how Antonio never let him play with other kids. I was actually pretty okay with how Antonio seemed to keep us to himself sometimes, and I was quite sure that Antonio's 'bullying' was only him trying to be some kind of older brother figure to Juan. So I ended up dismissing his claims as exaggerations.
"But one day, while I was watering the plants by the front of the house, a young boy, around my age, stopped by me and asked me if I was Tina. He seemed kinda obnoxious, but he was so childish with his actions that I introduced myself anyways. Do you know who that boy is?" Tina asked, looking back at Matthew, as if the answer should be natural for him.
He was a little confused at how he was supposed to know the answer, but then he remembered that she said the boy was obnoxious. "Was it...Alfred?" he smiled, although he wasn't sure.
"Yup, exactly!" enthusiasm filling her voice. "Alfred told me that he had always passed by my house but never got meet the people living there. He was very straightforward and asked me right then and there if I wanted to be friends with him. I was a bit surprised and told him that we had just met and didn't know each other at all. Then, he mentioned that he had heard about me and Juan from the other kids living nearby. Just then, Juan ran out of the door, probably trying to escape Antonio after he was caught playing a prank. He was about to hide behind me, but then he saw Alfred. They had obviously met before.
"Ate Tina! Ate Tina! That's him! That's the guy who helped me out before! You know, that time I was trying to get out of the house when Antonio wouldn't let me! He helped me jump out of the window!"
"Juan, it's rude to point like that." Tina said, moving Juan's arm down to his side. "And don't you dare do that again too." Then, she turned back to Alfred, trying to be polite. "Ah, you shouldn't joke about leaping out of windows with my little brother. He'll think you're being serious."
"Oh, I wasn't kidding around or anything. I didn't actually do much though," he said trying to be modest, not thinking at all that what he had done was wrong. "I only suggested the idea." Alfred had smiled widely though, as if he was proud of being so clever. Tina, on the other hand, had to hold herself back from frowning at the boy who encouraged her little brother to jump out a window, putting him in danger. But she couldn't reprimand a stranger, even though he and Juan seemed to have bonded already. Just then, Antonio burst out the doors, an array of expressions appearing on his face. First, a tired look from looking for Juan, who had obviously hidden and ran from him, then a small but bright smile for Tina who had always been obedient to him, and then an angry expression when he saw Alfred standing by the two Filipinos.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Antonio said, with apparent malice.
"Well, last I heard, it's perfectly fine to talk to other kids and make friends with them. Though I don't expect you to agree with that with the way you treat your cousin." Antonio had flinched at the comment from the younger boy. Juan didn't really understand what was happening except that someone was standing up to Antonio, but Tina knew Alfred was talking about Antonio's fights with his cousin Carlos.
"Tsk. I should've known it was you who's been giving Juan ideas about pranks against me. I can't say the guy didn't deserve it, but it's kinda messed up how you kicked that Brit friend of yours out even though he had been looking after you." This comment both siblings understood, since Kiku had once told them about his friend Arthur and the kid who had sent him back to his own house.
"Oh, but how could that be if I just met them now?" Alfred asked, his own dislike of the Spaniard starting to show. "See, me and Tina here just became friends." he said, suddenly grabbing Tina's hand, pulling her lightly to his side. Antonio seemed like he was about to explode at this. And he did. He separated the two children's hands and pushed Tina and Juan into the house, trying not to practically shove them in too hard. He then shut the front door loudly, and continued to argue with the American boy in front of the house. Juan was trying to listen through the door, but Tina had pulled him away, mechanically saying that it would be rude to eavesdrop. The younger boy was tempted to lock Antonio out of the house, but he, unlike Antonio, was aware of his sister's feelings and decided not to after he saw how much the fighting outside was bothering her.
"And that's how I met Alfred." Tina said, as if they were at some kind of conclusion. Matthew had been listening intently because he, despite being close with Alfred now, had been separated from his older brother during their childhood. Alfred had lived with their American father, while their Canadian mother had raised Matthew. It wasn't that they were divorced or separated or anything; their jobs just required so much attention that it was easier to live near work. The two children met often during family gatherings, which included close family friends, like the Kirklands and the Bonnefoys, whose children were like older brothers to Alfred and himself.
"So, what happened after that?" Matthew began to ask, since Tina seemed to pause at that part of the story. But just then, Mr. Vargas announced that the detention period was over and for the students to leave the room. Both Tina and Matthew quickly gathered their things and began walking out of the door, when Tina told Matthew that she'd meet him in at their table in the library, after she dropped off her stuff off at her dorm, to continue the story.
"Why don't I walk you there? My dorm's the same direction anyway." he offered. Tina smiled and took the offer, while the pair walked towards the sophomore dorm wing. She was trying to sort out in her head how she was going to explain to Matthew the next parts of the story, which were very pivotal events in her and Juan's childhoods. But, sneaking a glance at the the taller, blonde, young man walking alongside her, she had no doubt that he would be patient with her conflicting feelings and take the time to understand the whole story.
Gah:
Damn, I was hoping to have finished this chapter by Easter break, like, forever ago...but obviously that didn't happen. I really wanna update more regularly, but I'm really busy with school...but I will continue trying! [I'm throwing in some random history in every here and there now. The thing with how Antonio wants to make friends like María did is like when Spain and Portugal were both trying to colonize other countries around the same time. The fights with Carlos refers to the Spanish tensions with Cuba that started the Spanish-American War, because Alfred is so nosy with other people's business all the time. And Alfred kicking Arthur out is obviously the American Revolution.]
Oh, by the way, thanks for the motivation, darkbutterfly45. I always think my writing comes out a little wordy, but I'm glad someone likes it. ^_^
There's a lot of OCs barely mentioned here too (I won't elaborate coz I'm too lazy...) :
Laos – Savannh Daokham – female, sophomore
Thailand – Sunan Chalong – male, junior
Cambodia – Soeur Borey [surname+given name] – male, junior
Indonesia – Gema Pertiwi [2-word given name w/o surname] – female, University
Portugal – María Rafaela Alvares – female, junior
And some not-so-much-OCs:
Vietnam – Hue Nguyen - senior
Taiwan – Wang Mei [yeah, she's Yao's little sister] - freshman
Hong Kong – Michael Hong [uncreative] - freshman
North Korea – Im Hyung Soo [he's very fanon though] – sophomore
Cuba – Carlos Velázquez de Cuéllar – sophomore