I hope everyone is enjoying this so far. The first three chapters have been to set things up for the rest of the story, which starts now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gilbert made his way to school, he was starting high school, finally. After decades of repeating hell he was finally making another step towards release from it. Stepping onto the school grounds he looks around and takes the place in. He was currently standing in a large parking lot to the west of the building, the gym was supposed to be at this end and to the north of the parking lot was a sports field and stadium. He remembered from going to orientation that the front of the school was on the north side of the building was the main entrance, even though the main road was to the south. He heads to the path between the sports field and the gym and makes his way towards a tall over hang in front of the entrance.

upon entering the building Gilbert found himself in a large open space that served as a common room and cafeteria. There were tables spread out in the center with open space around the edges of the room for students to navigate to and from their classes. Gripping the strap of his bag Gilbert makes his way over to a table occupied by a few students he recognized and had actually made friends with during middle school. They stopped what they were doing when he walked over to them and smiled a greeting at him.

"Hey Gilbert! How was your summer?" A short boy with messy brown hair and coke bottle glasses was the first to greet him.

"Jordan, it was ok. My brother had me helping around the house since he was more busy than normal this summer so I didn't get to do much." This was true, the summer had been a busy one with international affairs and Matthew had been worked to the bone with everything going on.

"That sucks." A red head with a bad case of acne and wearing a button up shirt with a pocket protector scooted over so Gilbert would have a place to sit. "You should have called, one of us would have helped to liberate you from staying home so much."

"Nah, its ok, Ed, it wasn't that bad. I mostly lounged in the pool once I got everything done." Gilbert shrugged and turns to the two playing Magic the Gathering and taking in their game. He starts to open his mouth to say something when the blonde wearing a black graphic t and cat ear barrettes interrupted him, "No helping Dustin Gilbert. Its hardly fair and I've been working really hard to beat him anyway."

"Hey! You are so not beating me today Byron." The energetic black haired kid wearing a Nintendo shirt and dog collar was seated next to Gilbert.

"Gilly!" Gilbert froze at the high pitched voice coming at him from behind and slid under the table to escape to the far side, however the owner of said voice wasn't having that and yanked him back up by his collar. God, he hated being so small compared to others and his friend just watched, all smiling and grinning those shit-eating grins.

"Oh hey Alex. How was your summer?"

The rainbow haired girl that had him by his shirt collar pouted at him with her green painted lips, "You didn't call me at all this summer. I thought we were going to hang out. Besides you missed the con, and you promised me that you would go with me. I even had a costume all prepped for you and everything."

Gilbert brings his hands up in a defense position between him and the Rainbow Brite wanna be. "I'm sorry, my brother had me helping him out at the house all summer and when I asked him about the con he said I couldn't go." So that wasn't completely true. Gilbert had talked to Matthew about the convention in Cleveland that Alex had wanted to drag him to but it was mutually agreed between the two that going to the states was too risky. If Alfred found him it would cause a lot of problems that they weren't quite ready to deal with.

"Well you should have at least called and let me know. I would have understood." Alex let go of his shirt and then promptly took his seat with a smile. "So how was everyone else's summer. Anything good happen?"

Running a hand through his hair Gilbert moved around the table and took a seat there. Same old group of friends, they certainly made things interesting at least. Looking them over, they really were a strange group. Dustin and Byron had been friends the longest and were really into gaming of any type (They had dragged the others along for various tournaments and events for video games, rp, card games and games of strategy since they got lumped together). Gilbert had initially met them when some bullies in 7th grade had taken their hand held game systems and were teasing them about using the older technology rather than the newest. Did he mention they were the hardcore type of gamers. Next had come Jordan. Smart kid. He tended to be interested in all sorts of conspiracies and it had gotten him into trouble in middle school when he had accused the school board of putting mind altering drugs in the food. Gilbert was always sure to act extra normal around Jordan. Ed was most definitely the brains of the group. He was really into science, specifically robotics. He had a frequent buyer card for the hobby shop where he bought all his rc gear. The best part for Gilbert was when he had gone over to the other boy's house and seen the robot battle arena he had built in his basement. Beating the snot out of a couple of robots was the best thing he had ever done.

Alex was the newest addition, she had moved from Ohio in the spring of the last school year. Needless to say her loud and multi-colored appearance set a lot of people off and she was picked on quite a bit until Gilbert stepped in and put a stop to it. She had jumped on him and hugged him so tightly he thought he was going to suffocate during that first meeting. Alex had then promptly decided that she was going to be part of their group and would stop at nothing to drag the boys into her world of anime conventions and crazy schemes. Gilbert more often than not was the focus of her schemes. She would try to get him to dress in cosplay and what not. He went along with it if only because she tended to be very forceful when she wanted to be.

As the warning bell rang the group gathered their things and made plans to have lunch together before heading off to their classes. Gilbert had world history first period and hoped that he could get a seat near the back for it. History was probably the one subject that Gilbert hated. It wasn't that he was bad at it or even that he didn't like history really. But being in class and getting lectured on what had happened in the past had the nasty habit of dredging up memories. He hated it since most of the time it was memories of war. So most of the time he tried to get a seat near the back where he could sleep or zone out, anything to ignore the teacher and their lesson. Luck was against him it seemed though as when he got to the classroom he saw that the back had been filled by his nemesis, Jake, and his minions, not to mention the other students that had arrived to the class before him, most likely ordered by Jake to fill up the back first. Glaring at the larger boy, who grinned back at him, Gilbert took up a seat by the window as far from the one person he actually hated as he could. Somehow Jake had found out about Gilbert's tendency to freak out during history and had made it his mission to torment him about it any way he could.

Before the teacher could come in Gilbert had pulled out his iPod and threaded the earbuds up under his shirt, popping them into his ears and turning it on, drowning out the surrounding chatter with the music. Not long after Gilbert had gotten settled in the teacher came in. She was blonde and looked like she had maybe just finished getting her degree for teaching. She had her hair up in pony tail that trailed down past her shoulder blades. she wore a white blouse and black slacks. Red framed glasses were perched on her nose as she shuffled papers around on her desk before settling on one and standing straight, paper in hand. GIlbert would have noticed this if he hadn't been trying to zone out and forget where he even was and so missed when the teacher began to call roll.

"Gilbert Williams?"

Those that knew him in the class shifted a bit when the albino didn't move or respond. Jake flicked a paper football at the white haired boy causing him to turn around and glare. This drew his attention to the rest of the class and the teacher, who was not looking to amused by his behavior. Quickly yanking out the earbuds he turns his full attention to the front of the class as she teacher repeats.

"Gilbert Williams."

"Yes, that's me."

She walks over to him and holds out her hand, he knows its for his music player. He hands it over, "You can come by after school lets out and get it back, Mr. Williams."

He lets out a groan before slumping down further into his seat and pulling out a pencil and notebook. May as well attempt to focus on the class then. It was only the first day, not like they'd actually be doing anything, right.

Wrong. Apparently Miss Franklin's idea for getting to know her class was to have everyone share their favorite time in history followed by a mini lecture from the student on why. Most of the students liked recent history, things that had happened in the past fifty years, no problems there. When it was Jake's turn to go Gilbert tried to hide his tenseness at the look he shot his way before he spoke.

"I actually really like WWII, when the allies beat the tar out of the axis powers and divvied them up."

Gilbert would have glared at Jake if he hadn't been occupied with fighting back a reaction from Jake callous descriptions of the Nuremberg Trials and other atrocities during the war. When he finished Jake shot another look at Gilbert, a triumphant gleam in his eyes. He had no idea why the albino always reacted so badly to WWII history and he frankly didn't care, so long as he was able to cause the other boy to suffer he was more than happy.

Gilbert could feel the sting of tears in his eyes and blinked them back as the teacher continued on, eventually coming to him. He still hadn't composed himself it hadn't been that long since Jake's turn after all and he hadn't really been able to pay attention to the others between them.

"Gilbert, please introduce yourself and share your favorite period of history with the class."

Silence, he couldn't think about anything other than the memories stirred up by Jake. He was aware that it was his turn to speak, but he was shaking so bad as a memory of the pain he had suffered after Prussia's dissolution suddenly struck him out of nowhere. He started to panic slightly as the ghosts of the pain he suffered tingled across his body.

The teacher stepped over to him, concerned as his breathing became sharp and shallow. "Gilbert?" Laying a hand on his shoulder and drawing his attention to her, "Calm down. Its alright, there is nothing here that can hurt you."

Her soft words helped him to calm down a bit and Gilbert then flushed red as he realized that he had nearly had a panic attack in class and he was able to regain his composure.

"I." He gulps, "I'm fine Miss Franklin." The teacher looks him over one last time before standing and walking back tot he front of the class.

"Please introduce yourself and share with the class Gilbert."

Letting out a breath, "I'm GIlbert Williams. My favorite period in history would be the reign of King Frederick II of Prussia." Gilbert relaxed a bit more when he talked about why he liked that period, being careful to leave out the more personal reasons.

When the bell finally rang to release them from class Gilbert grabbed his things and nearly bolted for the door, but he was stopped by the teacher calling his name.

"Gilbert." He turns around and heads over to her desk, hoping he isn't in too much trouble. "Are you alright?" He blinks in surprise at the question before blushing when he realizes why she's asking.

"I'm sorry about that Miss Franklin. I... I occasionally have panic attacks. It's nothing to worry about."

He shifts a bit when she looks at him with a look that says she wants to know more but she simply nods and waves at the door when he doesn't elaborate, dismissing him. "Alright then, I'll see you after school when you come to get your iPod then."

He rushes out of the room and hurries to his next class, thankful that she hadn't pressed the issue.

His next class was science and he was relieved to see he had the class with Ed. and made his way straight over to him. That was actually how the two had met, science class last year. They had needed partners for a science project that was required of them for the science fair and both being the outcasts of the class had ended up paired together. They had quickly become friends after that and made sure to always grab the other for a partner when science was afoot.

"Hey Gil, everything alright? You seem a bit, I don't know, paler than usual."

Gill sits next to his friend, "Is it that obvious? Don't answer that." He leans back and throws his hand over his eyes. "It's nothing. I just had history with Jake first period and the guy was an ass as usual."

Ed nods and pulls out his notebook just as an explosion of color slams through the door.

"Gilly! Ed! Sweet, we have science together!"

Both boys gap and cringe as their one female friend grabs a stool from another table and drags it over to theirs, wedging herself between them.

"This is great right, we can all be partners together."

Despite everything both boys eventually shrug and smile at their hyper friend. Why not, probably better to partner with her than leave by herself, who knows what she might blow up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter is long. And I only ended it because, well I need a break and I figured I'd just post what I have so blah.

I keep making mention that Gilbert is small. The reason he looks 12 or 13 and he is currently in ninth grade with peers that are about 14, so he is on the small side.

Before I get questions about it I did not base anyone off myself in the hopes of snagging a Prussian. As tempting as it was to do so I just went with some random OC's.

Gilbert's panic attack. He still will get them when certain things are mentioned, usually in history class. Historical events have a habit of triggering his memories still and some of them send him into a panic attack, kind of like a version of PTSD.

I hope you all liked this chapter, I will be focusing more on Gilbert at first and then we'll get more Matthew later.