Arthur's second day in America started off like any other day he would have spent in England. He woke up early, got ready for the day, and headed to the kitchen for breakfast and tea.
When Arthur made his way down stairs to the kitchen he was greeted by a plate of freshly baked scones and a small note written in his mother's neat cursive. Arthur started to read the note while sipping his tea and taking the occasional bite of his scone.
Arthur,
Your father and I have been called into the office early and there's a chance we'll be late for dinner. I made you scones for breakfast. I also left some money on the table next to the staircase with a phone book, if we aren't home in time, order pizza or something.
Love,
Mom
p.s. There's a shopping list on the fridge, can you go by the store and pick up everything on it?
Arthur frowned, drinking the last of his tea, and then crumpled up the small pink paper, throwing it across the room in frustration.
"Figures they would get called in and leave me here alone, at lease she left me something to eat this time." He muttered while placing his dishes in the sink, then walked over to pick up the paper ball on the ground to throw it away.
Arthur sighed and grabbed the shopping list from the front of the refrigerator and then went up stairs to get his phone and coat.
Arthur took a deep breath as he made his way down the path way through the front yard. The spring air was warm and fresh. It almost made Arthur miss the cold rainy weather he left behind in England. Though, at the same time he was thankful he could take his time and stroll around before going to the store, instead of rushing through the rain.
He had lost himself in his thoughts as he admired the beautiful day, watching the birds flying back and forth, until he heard a loud cracking sound and spotted a black object in the sky that was quickly getting closer. Without thinking Arthur took a step back and tripped, when he realized a baseball was hurtling toward his head again.
He closed his eyes and braced himself for another painful head injury. However, the pain didn't come; instead, he just heard a thud in the grass. Arthur let out a deep breath and opened his eyes and saw the ball had barely missed him by mere centimeters. He reached down and picked up the ball and examined it, then let out an annoyed huff when he read the words Property of Alfred F. Jones :P scribbled in permanent marker.
Arthur heard yelling coming from nearby and decided to walk toward the source.
"Williams! I know you can pitch better than that!" A brown-haired girl shouted at a scared looking boy on the pitcher's mound, when Arthur walked up to a large baseball diamond. After watching for a second he realized the pitcher was Matthew, one of the boys from yesterday.
"Oh, come on Elizabeta. You've been on the poor boy since we started. Give Matthew a break, he must be tiered," Another boy yelled from the outfield, his annoying voice sounding familiar to Arthur, but he couldn't see what the boy looked like.
"Shut up, Beilschmidt! I never you asked for your input!" The girl, Elizabeta, yelled and started to make her way over to the boy in the outfield taking her baseball cap off in the processes.
What a scary woman.
"You know what Beilschmidt? If you think you know so much about pitching, then why don't you go and throw a few?" She said poking the boy in the chest with her index finger causing him to start laughing.
"Keseses…. Trust me, you wouldn't want to see how much I know about pitching, but I'd be happy to show you the real thing, if I could actually pitch,"
"I thought so. Now Matthew, go take a break and get Francis out here," Matthew nodded, red-faced for some reason, and jogged to the dugout where a group of boys sat talking. Then a very feminine boy walked out to replace Matthew's spot on the mound.
"Yo, Arthur!" Arthur shifted his attention back to the dugout, only to see Alfred waving his arms like an idiot, trying to get the Brit's attention.
Reluctantly, Arthur made his way into the dugout, catching the attention of everyone there. The feeling of everyone's eyes on him caused his face to feel hot and he started turning a slight shade of pink.
"I see you came to watch me practice," Alfred said with a hopeful smile.
"No, actually, I believe this belongs to you," Arthur tossed the baseball in his hand to Alfred. The American stared at the ball confused then his eyes lit up and he smiled.
"You found my lucky ball! I thought I lost it when Antonio hit that foul. How did you find it?"
"It just happened to be flying toward my head. I'm starting to think you're trying to kill me," Arthur said sarcastically.
"What? Did you get hurt again?" Alfred shouted in shock and grabbed Arthur's head searching it for another large bump.
"Stop it! You bloody twit!" Arthur shrieked, then pushed the larger American off him and frowned. "You're lucky; it missed me by only centimeters," Arthur continued.
"Oh good, I thought I would have to explain to your mom why you're being dragged to your house by some strange guys again," Arthur's frown deepened causing Alfred to put on another goofy grin and rub the back of his neck.
"Well, I should be on my way, before that actually happens," Arthur said and started to turn away, but something grabbed his wrist preventing the Brit from turning anymore.
Arthur blushed and stared at Alfred's hand griped firmly around his wrist, then looked up to see Alfred's slightly red face looking at anywhere but Arthur. After a second, Alfred released Arthur's arm and cleared his throat.
"I'll be done here pretty soon. So, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out. I, uh, know a place where we could grab a bite to eat and we then could do whatever you want to afterwards," Alfred asked nervously kicking the ground. Then continued, "Though, I'd understand if you had plans already,"
It wouldn't hurt to have lunch, would it?
"I Suppose, I could. I don't have any other plans besides picking up some items at the market." Arthur crossed his arms in an attempt to seem indifferent. However, he was completely ecstatic and had to force himself not to smile.
"Great! Let me just go take out my contacts and we can go." Alfred smiled then grabbed a large duffle bag and jogged out of the dugout, Leaving Arthur to wait and deal with the rest of Alfred's team staring at him.
Arthur could see out of the corner of his eye someone had walked up to him.
"Hey Arthur, you probably don't remember me, but I'm Alfred's brother, Matthew Williams." Matthew almost whispered while holding out his hand for Arthur to shake.
"Arthur Kirkland and I remember you helped me yesterday, thank you for that. However, I wasn't aware you are Alfred's brother. Actually now that I look at you, you both hold a resemblance to each other." Arthur shook Matthew's hand and gave him a small smile, which helped the other boy calm down.
"Oh that's good you remember me. Most people do notice me unless they need something." Matthew sighed and leaned himself against the small chain link fence protecting the entrance of the dugout.
"Well that girl, out there, seemed to be on your arse."
"You mean, Elizabeta?" Arthur nodded
"She's always like that. Actually, she's not as bad today. I'm surprised she hasn't tried to hit Gilbert with a bat, yet," Matthew chuckled.
"She would do that?" Arthur asked then shifted his attention to the brown-haired girl, who took her spot on home plate, ready to swing at any moment.
"Bring it, Bonnefoy," She said narrowing her eyes at the pitcher. The pitcher smiled and pulled the bill of his hat down slightly, covering his eyes, then threw a fastball.
Arthur flinched at the crack of the bat, but continued to watch as the ball flew straight toward the outfielder that was arguing with Elizabeta. Luckily, for the outfielder the ball zoomed right past his head. Elizabeta just smirked and dropped her now broken bat.
Wow…
"What the hell was that? You did that on purpose!" the outfielder took off his cap and throwing it to the ground, revealing the silvery hair that Arthur remembered was Gilbert's
He was the cheeky bloke that was with Alfred and Matthew yesterday.
"That's it I'm out of here! Going to practice is totally not awesome anyway!" Gilbert, stormed over to the dugout mumbling something about being awesome while he packed up his equipment.
"Well, I've got to go. I'll see you later, eh?" Arthur jumped remembering Matthew was there.
"Oh, alright," Arthur said before Matthew went to help Gilbert gather his stuff.
"Sorry for the wait. I had a hard time getting my right contact out… what happened here?" Alfred said to Arthur as he walked into the dugout while putting his glasses on.
"I'll tell you what happened here, that damn chick is trying to kill me! She broke her bat with a swing meant for me!" The albino shouted zipping up his bag and grabbed Matthew's hand while they walked out.
Alfred made an "o" shape with his mouth and turned toward Arthur to motioned for the Brit to follow him out of the dugout.
"Are you sure you should be leaving so casually?"
"Yeah, I was already done for the day; I only stuck around to see Matt's pitching. By the way, I'm sorry you had to see whatever happened between Gilbert and Elizabeta. They can get under each other's skin," Alfred said shrugging.
"It's alright, where are we going to eat anyway?"A huge grin spread across Alfred's face when Arthur mentioned eating.
"It's this great little burger place in town. It's the closest thing to fast food you can get around here," Arthur rolled his eyes.
"That's just great." He said sarcastically.
"Yep, you don't mind if we take my truck, do you? I have it parked on the street right there," Alfred pointed to a large white pickup truck. Arthur felt dwarfed by the monstrous vehicle.
"Does everything in America have to be so big?" Arthur asked as Alfred opened the passenger door for him.
"My truck isn't that big. And sorry, It's a little messy inside from Matt and Gilbert using it yesterday," Arthur frowned at the sight of empty cups, popcorn, candy and wrappers on the floor.
"Just great," he said in displeasure and climbed into the over sized pickup.
woo!
I've been typing away all week end. I actually have chapter 5 done too, but I want to save that one for later. Oh, and I've actually had what Elizabeta did to Gilbert happen to me before even if it was just some strange coincidence that happened after arguing with the batter. However, they didn't break their bat, but trust me it's still scary as heck. So, my advice to you guys is never piss off someone about to bat when you're the first baseman.