Updated 8/12/2016

Summary: Twenty years ago something odd happened in the town. Since then, no one has left. Nothing compels them to stay, except for perhaps the event that happened around twenty years ago...(The summary has pretty much nothing to do with the story, whoops, except for maybe more background than the actual story will give.)

Summer

School started in what was still considered summer, which Alfred never really understood. (He also never got why every store felt the need to begin selling School Supplies in July, but.) It started in the last week of August, every year. And every year was at a different school – that's what happened when the company your dad worked for realized that his dad got restless pretty easily, and keeping him moving annually was really the best solution for everyone.

Nearly.

Fifteen states in seventeen years did not warrant stable, long-lasting friendships. Sure, making friends was something Alfred did well, but making friends that would still be his friend after he left...that was a bit more difficult. As a result, he and his (older, and how he resented that fact) twin Matthew were close. Buying houses and apartments were easy for their dad, since he only really needed to find two bedrooms – they were still totally fine with bunk beds.

However, a lack of friends going into school on the first day always proved to be difficult. Mattie seemed to do fine, blending in and going invisible or whatever, but unfortunately, Alfred couldn't (and didn't want to!). Especially when the school assigned him a 'buddy' to show him around the school and make sure he didn't get lost, or try to enter a locked bathroom when he really had to go (it was surprising how many schools did that, and didn't tell them which ones would be locked on which days). Sometimes his 'buddy' was a cute girl, but more often than not they were geeky band kids who cared more about the condition of their instrument than actual social contact. Those kids (usually) barely spoke to him and walked through the hallways so fast, backpack strap firmly on both shoulders, carrying three giant books, and usually looked as if the smallest breeze would knock them over (backwards) leaving them stranded and flailing on their back, like a beetle.

Alfred wouldn't actually know, though, until he went to the office. Matt had already drifted off somewhere, so Al put on his brave face and went to find the office.

It wasn't hard to find. Once there, some secretary gave him his schedule, homeroom, and locker number (all of which she swore she mailed him), and prodded him to move just a bit faster, please, the bell would go off any minute and he didn't want to be late on the first day, did he? So he flashed her a Hollywood-worthy smile, and scrambled out.

He didn't think it'd be so bad stopping at his locker before homeroom, though. After all, he didn't know where he was going! Would they really punish him?

As he neared his locker, he saw that someone was standing in front of it. Must be his buddy. It wasn't a cute girl, but he didn't look particularly geeky, either. In fact, he looked like a football player. He was tall (taller than Alfred, who was pretty tall, himself), a bit chubby, with really pale blonde hair, and a biggish nose. He was wearing a sweater, scarf, and boots even though it was August and Al was sweating in his T-shirt and Nike's. Whatever. Maybe he had bad circulation?

When Alfred got close, he waved enthusiastically, with a "Hiya! What's up?" He didn't get an immediate reply, so he plowed on, "I'm Alfred F. Jones. New here, but you knew that probably already. You're my buddy, right? Could you, um, move? You're kinda in my way."

The other boy looked a little confused, but moved aside. "Buddy?"

"Yeah!" Alfred starting fiddling with the lock trying to memorize the combination on the first try. "You're supposed to...show me around an' stuff. Yannow, which bathrooms are always open, which teachers not to piss off, the quickest way around, what not to eat, that sort of thing."

The bell rang, but the other boy didn't seem bothered by it, so Alfred wasn't either. He began shoving random things into the locker – some notebooks, binders, pencils, a gym bag. Al wasn't really known for a neat and orderly locker.

"I can...do that. Yes," the other boy spoke slowly as he pushed himself off of the locker he was leaning on. "Where is your homeroom?"

"Uh...A106," Alfred said as he rummaged through his stuff, looking for a map. Finally, he found one and studied it for a moment. "All the way on the other side of the place? Why's it all spread out? Haven't they ever heard of a second floor?"

"It's one fourth of a mile from the end of this hallway to the end of the A Wing," the other boy chirped happily, "And there is a second floor! That's where the gym is."

Alfred looked at his schedule and, lo and behold, he had gym right before lunch. "That's a stupid place for a gym. Everyone below can hear them stompin' around."

"It's over the cafeteria, so no one really cares. Come." The other boy took Alfred's arm and began leading him to a hallway, saying, "The best way to go is through the E Wing hallway, the one we are in now. It'd be better if they let us go through the courtyards, but we've been trying for years-"

"Where are you from?" Alfred asked, shaking the other guy off his elbow. Because, ew. Only little old women did that, and this dude was none of those. "Because you sound like you're from Transylvania or something."

His 'buddy' looked at him like he was an idiot and said, "Transylvania is in Romania. I am not from there. I lived in..." He frowned for a moment before answering. "Russia. I moved here as a sophomore."

"Aw, cool! So you're a junior, too?"

"Ny-no. I am a senior. I am...19."

"Whoa!" Alfred turned to face the other, not really paying attention to where he was still going. "You're old, dude. You should've graduated ages ago! Why're you still here?"

"Ah." A look of pain flashed across his face, but was quickly ignored by both parties. "When we moved here, they put us all in a grade lower than we should have been. To make sure we knew what we were doing, I guess." There was a pause, where the boy grew

deadly serious. "I cannot leave, Alfred. I try, but I always end up back here."

Alfred opened his mouth, but his buddy raised a hand to shush him. "Later. We are here. I'll be waiting outside when it is over to take you to your next class."

As it turned out, he hadn't been allowed to wander the halls after the bell. He didn't get in too much trouble (just a 'don't do it again or you'll get a detention'), but still. It was his first day!

His buddy kept his word for the most part, and showed him to every class. Until gym, that is.

After his class before gym, Alfred waited. After a few minutes of standing around awkwardly and watching people, he decided to brave it for himself. How hard could it be? His buddy had said it was on the second floor, over the cafeteria on the way coming in, so now all he had to do was find the stairs.

It was not as easy as he thought. They were nowhere to be found. Maybe behind a door somewhere? In a closet? The auditorium? (Well, okay, the auditorium had stairs, but those led to some dark and damp place.) As the crowd thinned and it got closer to the bell, Alfred swallowed his pride and grabbed a straggler.

"Where are the stairs?"

"What?"

"The stairs. Where are they? I need to get to the gym."

The man looked at him (tan skin, curly brown hair, green eyes), and looked confused. "The stairs? I don't remember this place having stairs. Unless they just put them in..." He shook his head. "We have no stairs here! Sorry amigo, but I think someone tricked you."

Alfred stood there, trying to process this, as the man walked away...and walked back again. "But you wanted to know where the gym is? I'm headed there now. We should hurry though. I would seem irresponsible if I was late to my own class!"

Alfred blinked and followed, trying to make sense of what he just heard. First, this random person he grabbed was a teacher, and he'd made himself look like an idiot. Second, how gullible was he? Finally, his buddy lied to him. Why would he do that? Obviously, someone had deemed him responsible enough to show some poor kid around, but then he'd gone and told him to go to the second floor!

Oh, Alfred was going to have words with...with...he never even gave his name!

So many words were going to be had.

Gym passed easily (Alfred had always been athletic, and on sports teams at some of his other schools, so he didn't make much of a fool of himself), and now it was lunch.

Once he had his tray, he tried to find Mattie but, as always, his invisibility powers were switched to ON, and Al couldn't find him anywhere. He couldn't find his not-anymore buddy, either. So he found an empty table by the window and sat down. Whatever.

He had just started eating when he felt a hand loop under each armpit and pull him up. He flailed for a second before spinning around and seeing who decided lifting him up was the best way to get his attention. When he saw it was his ex-buddy he started to speak, but the other was faster.

"We are eating outside." He gestured to the door next to the window, which showed a couple of students sitting down at the picnic tables.

Anger momentarily forgotten, Alfred stared and asked, "We can do that?"

"I can do that. And you can come with me." At that, he grabbed Alfred's arm and led him outside. "Since I'm a senior, I can eat outside when the weather is nice. We are allowed to bring friends if we want."

As they sat down at an empty table, Alfred repeated, "Friends?"

"Mn. I thought so."

"Friends give each other their name. And they don't lie."

"Lie? About what?"

Alfred did a horrible impersonation of the other kid's accent. "Gym is on second floor!" He scowled.

His kind-of-not buddy looked confused for a second, and then laughed. "Is an old joke, see? Because the building is all one floor, we say that something is on the second floor to confuse the freshmen. And new kids. Your confused face is adorable."

Alfred huffed. "It is not! And, and how could you know? You weren't even there! I thought you were supposed to show me where my classes were and guide me around and stuff. You're a pretty shit buddy."

"Ah...sorry about that. I got...held up, in the class before. But, I made it up by taking you out, yeah?"

"You...mean outside. You took me outside. Well thanks, I guess. You still suck at being a buddy."

His sort-of buddy gave him a Look and said, "Of course that's what I meant."

Alfred, still in a pouty mood, looked up at the other. "I still don't know your name. If we're gonna be friends that's kind of something I need to know."

"R-right." For the first time, the other boy looked unsure of himself, then said, in a small voice, "Ivan Braginsky." He paused for a moment, and then asked, "so we are friends now?"

Alfred glared at him for a moment, then smiled. "Sure! Of course we are! And as your friend, I am obligated to ask, why aren't you eating?"

Ivan looked at Alfred's half-empty tray, then his own bare spot before stating, "I am not hungry."

Alfred gaped at him. "Are you sure? Because you're a pretty big guy and probably need a lot of food to keep up your energy so you don't just fall over somewhere. Unless it's one of those crazy diets. It isn't, is it? That's a bad idea, too." At this point, he decided the best plan of action would be to feed Ivan himself. He picked up an apple slice and began leaning across the table, while saying "One time Mattie decided he only wanted to eat carrots, always." He inched closer and closer to Ivan's mouth, half-tempted to make train whistle noises. "After a while he turned orange and dad took him to the doctor and – Hey!" Ivan bit down on Alfred's hand. "Who the fuck bites people?"

"What if I didn't want apple? Maybe I was craving meat...or blood." Ivan grinned at Alfred.

Al inspected his hand. The bite didn't do much; it wasn't very hard, and the teeth marks were almost gone. "I'm tellin' ya dude. You better not be some kind of vampire-cannibal thing...or have rabies."

Ivan still looked pretty smug. "I think you're safe. But," he looked at his watch, "we should go back inside and get to class, before they lock us out."

Alfred looked at him. "Uh, yeah...hey, d'ya think I have time to go to my locker before my next class?"

Ivan thought for a moment before answering. "Your next class is in the B Wing? You'll have time if you hurry."

"Great, dude. C'mon."

When they got to Al's locker, Ivan leaned on the one next to it. "This used to be my locker."

"Really? Hey, maybe that's why you got assigned to me. They knew how much a locker in this wing sucked and wanted to, I don't know, instill some sort of guidance?" Al shoved in some random notebooks, and took out a few, tossing them in his backpack.

Ivan chuckled. "I doubt that. I'm sure it was merely coincidence." He looked down the hall. "Most of my classes weren't far from here, so it was not that bad," and then in a nearly inaudible voice, "they've expanded a lot in recent years. It's nothing like it was."

Alfred ignored the last bit (one of his strong suites was tuning people out). "Yeah, well, lucky you." He grumbled and stood up, slammed the locker shut, and gave to lock one extra spin for good measure. He then shouldered his backpack. "You ready?"

"I have been ready this whole time."

"Really? You don't need anything at all? You don't even have a backpack."

Ivan looked vaguely uncomfortable for a moment before shrugging and stating simply, "I have easy classes this semester."

"Alright, whatever. It's just 'cause you're a senior, you know. Where's the B Wing?"

Ivan set a swift pace as they walked through the curved E Wing

hallway. "This way. You passed it on your way to homeroom this morning." When they got to the CEC hallway, he gave a few facts about it. "This used to be the cafeteria, in the early nineties. It's hard to believe after seeing the cafeteria used today."

"You're lying again. There's no way this could be used as a cafe."

"No, I am sure I'm telling you the truth. Ask anyone. It seems to be common knowledge. And, of course, the school was much smaller then."

Alfred was still disbelieving, and said so. Ivan responded with, "It's true! And there is a bomb shelter under the pool. You'll want to ask the older teachers about that one – they enjoy ranting about how impractical it is, and most younger teachers deny it's existence."

"Okay, sure. And how do you know that? Don't tell me it's more 'common knowledge'. You haven't been here long enough for that!"

"They mail the seniors a little book with all the school's secrets in it," Ivan deadpanned.

Alfred's eyes widened. "Really?"

"No," Ivan laughed, "I just heard it from others. I listen."

They got to Alfred's classroom a few minutes before the bell rang.

"Are there any other secrets you feel the need to share?"

Ivan shrugged. "There is a rumor floating around that claims that someone died here. They never found the body. You can ask whoever you want, but no one is willing to talk about it and not many know."

"S-someone died? Here?" How do you know if no one else does? How did you even find out?"

"Old newspapers. I found them in the library. They took them all out last year, though. I guess they didn't want anyone to know." Ivan spoke simply, shrugging, with a small smile tugging on his lips.

"Then – how –,"Alfred studied Ivan and, when he saw the smile, punched his arm. "You're lying! This time, you definitely are."

Fully grinning now, Ivan lightly shoved Al toward the door of the classroom. "Go to class. You don't want to be late again."

"But what about you? Won't you be late?"

Still smiling, Ivan looked at Alfred and said, "I'm sure I'll be fine. Don't worry." He then turned and pulled a Mattie; somehow, despite his height and frame, he seemed to disappear in the now-thinning crowd.

After that class, Ivan (again) kept his promise and (again) disappeared after his last class. It was alright, though. This time Alfred knew where he was going.

He also found Mattie, once he started walking home. While they didn't live in the housing development behind the school, they lived close enough so that they could walk.

"Hey! Mattie! Where were you all day?" Alfred asked once he caught up to his brother.

"With you."

"All day? Bro, that's kind of creepy. Why didn't you say anything?"

Matt turned and bopped Al on his forehead. "No, not all day. I was with you until we got our lockers – mine's in the opposite direction of yours. And I was in your homeroom and called to you at lunch."

Alfred sulked a bit and rubbed his forehead. Matt had a boney palm – that hurt. "Well I didn't see you. But," he brightened considerably, "I got to eat lunch with my buddy!"

"Your...buddy? But we didn't get buddies this time."

"Are you sure they didn't just forget about you again? Because I definitely had one, and I know I didn't make him up."

"Yes, I'm sure, Alfred. I asked and I know she heard me because she answered. She said they couldn't do the buddy thing."

Alfred frowned, confused. "But, he said that's what he was...Uh, anyway. Have you made any friends yet?"

"Yeah..." Matt went on to describe everyone he'd met, in the subtly satirical way he always had. He'd befriended an oddly expressionless boy, a loud Cuban, and a few others. He had wanted Al to sit with him at lunch so he could meet them.

It seemed that, for once, Matt made more friends on the first day than Al.

They then went into talking about the teachers, and how the English security guard cursed the lights out of everyone, but still somehow kept his job, and Alfred forgot all about the stories he'd heard that day.

The next day, Alfred walked in to find Ivan leaning on Al's locker. He walked up and punched Ivan in the shoulder – hard. Ivan didn't move, though his eyes did widen in surprise as he rubbed his shoulder. "That hurt. Is 'hello' not good enough?"

"Yeah, yeah," Alfred waved off everything Ivan had said, "You're a fucking dick and a liar and -"

"Alfred calm down. There are people around -"

"No, you calm down. Mattie said we didn't get buddies, so why'd you lie and make me late? And with the dead kid -"

"- I think I apologized -"

"I think you didn't. You're probably not even from Russia and I bet you gave me a fake name, you lying liar."

Ivan sighed. "We can eat lunch together again, today, if you want. Outside. But now, go to class. You do not want to be late again."

Al watched as Ivan walked away, but he was still in a shouty mood, so he said (loudly), "Yeah, I will go to class! I'll be on time today, no thanks to you!" Okay, so maybe he didn't mean to yell so much. But he just felt so angry today!

Why was he even so mad? Was it...was it actually because Mattie had made more friends yesterday? What a stupid reason! Obviously, it was all Ivan's fault.

Alfred was actually planning on sitting with Ivan at lunch, but he got distracted by his brother and his friends. He recognized three of them from classes they shared, but not the others. Midway through the period he remembered he was supposed to fume/apologize to Ivan, and hurried off to the doors, leaving behind very confused lunch-mates.

Ivan was not happy. "I was hoping that you would have joined me sooner. Now we have fifteen minutes."

Alfred huffed. "Yeah, well. I'm here now, aren't I?"

Ivan gave Alfred a long and hard look, studying every feature of his face, judging him. "Why are you so angry today? Are you normally like this?"

Alfred squirmed a bit and looked away. His eyes were purple! How had he not noticed before? It was unusual and this guy was weird. (Sure, his brother's eyes were vaguely the same color, but his brother didn't stare at him like that.) "No, I'm usually a pretty chill guy. Like yesterday, 's the normal me. Dunno why I'm so mad. Guess I just woke up wanting to punch something." Before the conversation could progress (and they started talking about feelings, ugh), Alfred thought a Sudden Subject Change was in order, "So...sports. Any good ones here? Play any? Oh! So that's why you disappeared after school yesterday! You went to practice."

For a moment, Ivan looked completely baffled at the subject change, and even more at the assumption that he played something, or at least knew about them. "Ah...no, sorry. I know they have some, but I don't play."

"Aw, why not? I'm sure you'd make a killer football player."

"Hockey is more what I would play, but they don't have a team...besides, for me there is nothing beyond school."

At this, it was Alfred's turn to look baffled. "Really? No friends or anything?"

Ivan was starting to look uncomfortable again, and tried shifting the focus back to his partner. "No. Why did you ask about the sports?"

"Aw, just curious, you know. Trying to figure out if joining them is worth it. But I guess it's too late for the fall, right?" Ivan nodded. "So I guess I'll try for spring. Somethin' to do, anyway." Al shrugged and tried looking at the clock, but at this distance he couldn't read it even with his glasses.

Ivan noticed and said, "We have a few minutes before we must leave. Do you want to get a head start?"

Alfred looked at him, not sure whether to believe him or not. "Nah. But how do I know you're not lying?"

"You could always get a watch," Ivan grinned. "But I am sorry, for yesterday. I suppose I misunderstood what you meant."

"Yeah, well, you shoulda said so. But no more lying, okay? Everything is totally truthful from here on out."

Ivan grinned, though he still looked uncomfortable. Alfred ignored it. "Da, okay. And now it is time to go, honest."

((A/N: Because you totally needed another Rus/Ame/Rus high school fic. Yup. It was kind of...a little bit (heavily) based on a dream I had the other night. And then I really really wanted to write it because why not? I hope it's okay? I want it to be four parts for four seasons. But hm. Dunno really how I wanna do it. I thought I did, but now I'm getting all these ideas and I'm not so sure. Oh well, I'll probably just go with what I originally thought.

But, uh. Updates will take forever, probably. Like, in March. School is starting again and I don't know when I'll have time to write or if I even will but I want to do this. I would really like to finish it, I've got stuff planned (which actually okay isn't probably as cool as it sounds), and I'd like to not feel so worthless. Maybe this will help? (But LOL yeah prolly not whatever.) I hope you like it.))