Chapter 8: What

"Hmm, I appreciate you two not being late today, but if you're going to sleep in class anyway..." Mama Hassan announced, eyeing Mattie and Tina. I noticed Tina falling asleep straight after she sat in front of me, but I had to turn around to see if Mama Hassan was right about my brother.

"W-what?" Mattie snapped out from nodding off. He had a little bit of drool inching its way out of the corner of his mouth and his glasses were crooked. Tina stayed sound asleep though, textbook open as if she was just reading. Mattie's kinda lucky. If Tina was awake to see him nod off in class, she might lecture him like she always lectures me.

"Hey, Mattie! Were you keeping Tina up all night?" I joked. It's hilarious making Matt flustered since he never does anything back. Besides, Tina's too knocked out to hit me for this right now.

"W-what the! O-of course not! We weren't even together last night!" Mattie defended. Hah...usually this is a bit funnier... Doesn't he seems a little too defensive?

Grieta giggled, making both us brothers snap towards the direction of her voice.

"G-grieta, don't laugh! You're gonna make it sound like I'm lying!" Matt reasoned. Grieta's holding back her laughter now. She usually doesn't do that. Is Mattie lying?

But then she smiled wider... By now the whole class was watching the hilarity ensue. Even Mama Hassan was leaning by the side of her desk looking at Matt nervously denying everything Grieta was implying with her smile. Then, the whole class began laughing. Well, except for Mattie, Tina, and me. Mattie because he was too groggy to realize everyone was just kidding, Tina because she was dead asleep, and me because...well, I dunno. Why isn't this funny?

For the rest of the school day, both Tina and Matt were in and out of sleep. Matt only stayed awake in History class just so he could glare at Mr. Adnan for the whole period. I just thought of it now, but why are Mattie and Tina so sleepy today? Matt's not a good liar, so I'm pretty sure they weren't together last night since he keeps denying that... I mean, Tina wouldn't spend the night with a guy anyways, even if it is Matt. Yeah! Especially Matt! They've only known each other for a couple of months now...

"What do you keep thinking about, Al?" Matt asked, surprising me. Oh, right, we're walking down the stairs to the cafeteria.

"It's nothing, Mattie. Just looking forward to burgers for lunch today!" I said, flashing my usual smile and thumbs up. But he just tiredly looked back at me as if I was crazy. Oh shi—! Burger's aren't even for lunch today! "Uh..haha, yeah! Where's Tina by the way? Don't we all have the same class next?"

"She left her homework at the cafeteria this morning, so she just went to get it real quickly so she can hand it in before lunch." Matt explained. Why didn't Tina tell me too, though? She usually tells me when she's gonna go somewhere so that I can come along or something. Sometimes she even offers to bring something back for me. ...Tina hasn't done that in a couple of weeks now, has she?

While we walked down the stairs, a really loud, grumpy-sounding Italian could be heard yelling at someone as he ran up the stairs. Looking over the hand rails, it seemed that Lovino Vargas was running away from our class rep, Hyung Soo, Yong Soo's older brother. Lovi's lucky that Natalia's too busy stalking Braginski to help Hyung Soo out with their class rep duties, which, in this case is catching a troublemaker. Hm, I wonder what Lovi did?

"Oh, hey, Tina's coming up the stairs now too!" I pointed out. She was only a flight down, but she wasn't at her usual business-like speed. In fact, she seemed a little drowsy and almost as if she's about to fal—

"TINA!" Matt yelled, cutting off my thoughts. I looked back down and saw that Lovi ran past Tina, startling her, putting her off balance right when she was gonna take a step. It seemed to happen in slow mo: Tina losing her footing, Lovi slowing down to a stop, realizing too late what had happened, Hyung Soo too far behind to do anything, and Tina's papers flying into the air. No, I can't let her fall!

I instinctually slipped off my bookbag, and started running down the stairs at full speed. Everything started moving in normal time again, making me realize how fast Tina was falling. Shit! At this rate, I won't make it in ti—

"Tina!" Matt interrupted my thoughts again, but this time he was in front of me, running past me. When did he get there! At the next moment, Matt was right by Tina, who was equally as shocked as me. This time, everything seemed to move even faster: he grabbed her arm, pulling her towards him into a protective embrace, and then Matt spun to place himself below right as they landed at the bottom of those stairs. Oddly, there was no loud, exaggerated crash like everyone expected, but there were two worrying thunks as Matt and Tina made contact with the floor. One was their bodies landing roughly on the tile (or whatever stairwells are made out of), and the other was Matt's head hitting the floor.

I...what just happened...? I ended up stopping in my tracks the moment Matt reached Tina. I watched the unbelievable scene unfold ("Unbelievable" because Matt thinks things through and considers everything before acting. I'm the one who runs in without a plan and jumps into problems to save others). But after they landed and everyone who was close enough to know what had just happened ran past me in concern, I remembered who just fell. I pushed through the forming crowd to make sure that nothing bad happened to Mattie, my little brother, and Tina, my...wait, what is she to me?

... ... ... ... ...

"Stop chasing me, you bastard!" I heard Lovino scream from some flights below. I couldn't care to turn around or look over the rail to see what was happening since I had to get my homework to Mrs. Karpusi before going back to the cafeteria. I shouldn't keep her waiting since she even gave me time to go get my assignment instead of just taking points off for handing it in late. I was moving as fast as I could up the stairs, but I felt so much more tired than usual. It was almost like trudging through snow. With all my thinking, I didn't realize that Lovino's voice, was gradually getting louder, his hurried footsteps and someone else's starting to sound closer until suddenly he ran past me at such a speed that my papers flew out of my hands.

"TINA!" I heard Matthew shout from above. Wait, how can I see him if I'm looking straight forward? Am I falling?...! I close my eyes; This can't be happening, I was so sure that didn't miss that step! I-I can still grab the hand rail! But as I reach out, my hand touches only the air and immediately falls back to my side. My body feels so heavy, I can't even open eyes.

"Tina!" I hear Matthew's voice again, but this time closer. My eyes fly open and he's right in front of me now. How did he get here so fast? I didn't even have time to think when he grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me towards himself. Wait, no! He'll fall along with me! But I had no choice as Matthew held me in his arms, firmly but gently, and he spun us so he was below me. And all I could do was close my eyes. I know it's terrible, but I just couldn't watch him fall.

Soon, too soon, I felt the impact of the floor through Matthew. We slid a little bit until the momentum completely stopped. I opened my eyes once more, and there was Matthew's face, scrunched up in pain. He opened his eyes for a slight moment, only enough to see me looking back at him in worry, before he smiled silently to himself and closed them again.

"M-Matthew!" I say a little too loud. His hold on me was looser but still secure, so I had to wriggle my way out before I could check his head. Hyung Soo came running up immediately, asking if anyone was hurt.

"I'm fine, but Matthew hit his head really hard." I answered.

"Is there any bleeding?" he continued, methodically. I check Matthew carefully, slipping my hand under his head to check for any blood seeping from his hair.

"No, there's no blood." I say, but I feel moisture somewhere else. I reach up to my eyes, and feel...tears? Oh gosh, I'm crying...

Hyung Soo doesn't know how to deal with crying girls, so he just came over and tried to pull Matthew up. Finding that Matthew was taller and heavier then he was, Hyung Soo looked around the crowd, finding Alfred, who was standing not ten feet away, a bit dumbfounded.

"Jones, help me carry...uh..." Hyung Soo looked back at the unconscious Canadian.

"Williams." I answered. "He's Matthew Williams."

"He's my little brother." Alfred explained after he snapped out of his trance and came over to help.

"He is? I didn't know you had a younger sibling." Hyung Soo stated. He was so sure he memorized the student directory by now. "Is he a freshman?"

"Uh, no..." Alfred said while he and Hyung Soo hoisted Matthew up from the floor. "He's a sophomore too."

"W-what? Really?" Hyung Soo said, with a slightly confused look on his face. "I had no idea who this guy was until now..."

I got up, wiping some of my tears with the back of my hand. I can't just stand here crying after what Matthew did for me. Looking around, I found his bookbag on one of the steps. Lovino saw it too and handed it to me without making any eye contact. It's not like we don't get along. We just don't know each other all that well.

... ... ... ... ...

Ugh...my head...hurts like hell...! What just happened...? ...Oh yeah, Tina was falling! And we...fell. Is she okay? Gah...my heeeeaaaaad! Where am I anyways?

I opened my eyes, slowly so I could gradually get used to the bright light. Someone's right in front of me, sitting at the side of my bed. Is that Tina? Damn, everything's so blurry... I tried squinting, until the person sitting by me realized and placed my glasses gently on my face. It was Tina, but her cheeks were tear-streaked and she was scowling at me.

"A-are you okay Tina?" I ask, sitting up on my bed so fast that my head begins to throb. "Aaugh!"

"Damn it!" Tina exclaimed quietly to herself. "I can't stay mad at you if you're like that!" she complained, carefully holding my face in her hand as she leaned me back onto my pillow.

"...Why would you be mad at me...?" I asked, confused. I wonder if she was always this contradictory.

"You shouldn't have done that!" she began ranting. "That that...that making yourself fall! You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"I hardly think I'd get ki—" I tried to reason.

"Seriously injured, then!" she corrected, exasperated. She obviously couldn't accept the fact that saving her wasn't a foolish act at all.

"But you would do the same for me too, wouldn't you?" I continued reasoning.

"Of course I would," Tina answered, turning round again to face me. "But you'd be just as angry afterwards!"

"But I love you."

"That doesn't mean you can just go and—WHAT?" she almost screamed, eyes widening as if she couldn't process what I just said.

"I, um...yeah?" I repeated Tina's words the day before.

"S-so you did hear me!" she realized, seeming half-relieved and half-horrified.

"Oh, good. I wasn't wrong then." I smiled, sighing.

"You...if you weren't already injured because of me, I would hit you!" she suddenly snapped, but softened immediately. She was trying to calm herself down now. "I couldn't get any sleep all night because I thought you hadn't heard me and I was worried about...I don't even know." she explained, her voice growing softer as she talked.

"Hah, then I guess Alfred was right about me keeping you up all night." I unwittingly said to myself, remembering this morning's joke.

"W-what?" Tina asked, obviously hearing me.

"No, never mind. It was something from class. So..." I quickly tried to change the subject. I had to breathe in deeply first though, to try and gather some courage.

"So...?" she knew I had something important to say.

"Will you be my girlfriend, then?" I asked a little too hurried. "And don't say yes just because I saved you today." I added as an afterthought. Tina's too dutiful, so I don't want her to feel obligated to say yes. But, well...she did say she liked me yesterday...

"Dummy," she said immediately, a slight laugh creeping into her answer. "I would've said yes even before!"

... ... ... ... ...

...And then Tina reached out and touched his cheek with her hand. What the— What the hell is this? I just stepped out to get Mattie his bear and...this? I mean, I know that eavesdropping is bad but I just can't believe that Tina and Matt would... It's just that all these years, Tina hasn't... I always thought that...

"Who?" the polar bear in my arms interrupted. He looked up at me curiously, as if he didn't already know me.

"Not 'who', Kumajiro, 'what.'" I tell him. 'What' makes more sense in this incredible situation. Kumajiro seemed to think about it a little bit, before speaking again.

"...'What'?"

Okays:

I'm putting up another chapter now so I don't feel bad about not posting for another few weeks...maybe.

Yay, finally! It's Alfred's POV! I can't tell if this sounds like Alfred at all though...

Don't you just hate it when you don't get any sleep at all and then you have school! D: Remember kids, drowsy stair-climbing is dangerous!

This is a very important development! So much that I procrastinated on writing this chapter for like a week! I only procrastinate on important things!

And yes, Hyung Soo is North Korea. He's also a sophomore (since he's older than Yong Soo, who's a freshman), and I made him class representative since I'd imagine he'd be very good with rules and regulations, and trying to keep everyone else on point.