Chapter 1: World Academy
“Arthur! Wake up now or you’ll seriously be late for your first day of school!”
Arthur’s eyes slid open, and he stayed where he was for several minutes as his vision returned and he woke to full consciousness. He sighed as he sat up in his bed, and looked around his new room.
He and his family had moved to the states only a week ago from England, so he had spent his time organizing his room accordingly. His walls were lined with post-cards from England, and a British flag hung over his bed proudly. Dark drapes hung over his bay window, and his guitar was in a corner next to a bean bag chair. Several dressers had knick knacks and pictures on top.
Arthur’s eyes fell to a chair against one wall, and he sighed. His new school uniform was folded neatly on the chair. His sister’s doing he guessed. Next to the chair was his old messenger bag.
“Now would be preferable!” his sister’s voice came again, and Arthur groaned.
He got up and tossed his many blankets back in place, then hurried into the bathroom that adjoined with his room. That was a good thing about the house, he thought. He wouldn’t have to share a bathroom with his siblings.
He took a quick shower and got out, pulling on the school uniform while cursing under his breath at how stupid it looked. He buttoned the white shirt and pulled a sweater vest over his head. He grabbed his bag as he walked out of his room.
“What? Do you wanna get beat up?” Arthur’s brother, Carson, asked as he walked into the kitchen.
Arthur glared at him and grabbed a piece of bread to toast, “Did Alistor leave already?”
“Yea,” Arthur’s sister pushed back her ruby hair and tied it up with a hair tie, “He went to look around for a job,”
“Mmm,” Arthur grabbed the toast as it popped up and turned to the door.
“Do you want a ride?” Ashling asked.
“No, I’d rather walk,” Arthur said, closing the door behind him and walking down the pathway in front of his new house to the sidewalk and turning left.
He had walked around a few days after he moved in, and had found the school he would be attending was just outside his neighborhood.
Arthur finished eating the toast he had and pulled a book out of his bag, flipping it open to where his bookmark was. He was quite entranced with the book, and wasn’t looking where he was going, for the next second he was sprawled out on the ground, staring in shock at a boy with bright sandy-blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes, who looked equally shocked.
“Sorry bro!” the boy said, so loudly that Arthur winced.
He stood up and dusted his pants off, then grabbed his book from the ground, “It’s fine,” he mumbled under his breath, then started walking.
“Mattie! Hurry it up!” the boy behind Arthur called, then appeared beside him, “Hi! I’m Alfred F. Jones! Never seen you around before, what’s your name?”
“Please stop yelling,” Arthur said, walking faster.
Alfred also walked faster, laughing, “Sorry, I tend to use my outside voice a lot. What’s your name?”
“Arthur Kirkland,” Arthur muttered, trying to walk faster. Who was this guy anyway?
“Cool, cool! Hey, you from England? You’ve got the accent,”
“Yes,” Arthur said.
“That’s neat. I’m from New York, but I’ve lived here most of my life. Mattie! Quit walking so slow!”
“Not like I want to,”
Arthur jumped at the new voice, which happened to be much quieter than Alfred’s, and almost uncertain. Arthur turned around to see a younger boy with the same sandy hair as Alfred, and blue-violet eyes. Glasses were perched on his nose, making him look extremely young. That’s when Arthur noticed Alfred was also wearing glasses.
How’d he miss that distinct feature? Maybe it was because his eyes were so blue.
Arthur turned and started walking again. Alfred leaned back and grabbed the other boy, yanking him forward and hurrying to keep up with Arthur.
“This is my little brother Matthew!”
“Good for you,” Arthur muttered, trying to find his place in the book.
“Hey, are you going to World Academy?”
“Yea, why?”
“Well, you’re about to pass it,”
Arthur stopped, Matthew running into him and stepping back while apologizing, though Arthur hadn’t noticed.
He turned to look up at the ridiculously large school, “That’s my new school?!” he screeched, “Why the bloody hell is it so damn huge?”
Alfred laughed, “Well, there are a lot of students, and some of them live here,”
“Really?”
“Yea. Some exchange students live in private dorms on the other side of campus,” Alfred said.
“I had no idea,” Arthur said. He put his book in his bag and walked onto campus, the nervous-new-kid feeling overwhelming him. He cursed and lowered his head as he walked.
He was thankful that Alfred had stopped following him. He and his brother had stopped at the gate, and were talking to some people.
Arthur sighed and walked faster, mumbling about the school being too big and how he wished he could’ve been homeschooled instead.
Once again, he wasn’t exactly paying attention to where he was going, and ended up running into someone. To be fair, the other guy was the one running.
Arthur stumbled back and looked up at the one who had bumped into him. It was a very tall, very scary looking guy, who, for some reason, was wearing a mask.
“What the hell was that? Who are you to slam into me and not apologize, eh?!” the boy grabbed Arthur’s shirt collar and pulled him up.
“Excuse me, but you were the one who slammed into me,” Arthur said.
“Don’t start useless fights, stupid,” a slow voice said.
Arthur looked over the boys shoulder to see another boy, shorter than the one holding Arthur up. He had dark brown hair and light sea-foam colored eyes. He was…..holding a cat?
“Get lost, Feta brain!”
“I’m just trying to help,”
“I said get lost!”
“Don’t freak out. Sadiq’s always like this,”
“Really? And I thought it was just me,” Arthur grumbled.
The Turkish man dropped Arthur and turned to the other man, “What the hell is with you, huh? Ruining my fun,”
The Greek just held his cat up to his face, “You’ll just get in trouble if you fight so early in the morning. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt,”
“Screw you, Heracles!” Sadiq spat, then stormed away.
The Greek walked up to Arthur, “Don’t mind him. I’m Heracles Karpusi,”
“Charmed. Why was he wearing a masquerade mask?”
“He forgets to take it off sometimes. The teachers don’t seem to mind much,”
“I’m just gonna continue to my class now,” Arthur sighed.
“See you around then,” Heracles said, the turned.
Arthur sighed heavily as he stepped into the school, “What is with all these weird people?”
He pulled his schedule out of his bag and looked for his first class. World History in room 301. Arthur stuffed the paper back into his bag and continued down the hall. After walking up two or three staircases, he found his first class on the second floor, and slid in.
He was thankful that he was technically the only one in the class. Looking around, he saw a boy with neatly cut black hair and brown eyes sitting near the front. Also in the room where a group of three boys at the back, who were close to each other, and seemed to be gossiping. One had shoulder length wavy gold hair and blue eyes. In the middle was another boy with white hair and ruby eyes. Arthur just assumed he was just a very bleached blonde though. The third boy had brown hair, tinted amber, and dark green eyes. Along with them was, joy, Alfred, who was sitting near the back, tilting back in his chair and listening to music.
Arthur sighed and walked over to a desk near the window and sat down, setting his bag on his desk. He pulled out his phone and flipped it open. 2 missed texts. Arthur looked at them. One was from Ashling, which he deleted since it wasn’t that important. The other was from Alistor.
You got to school on time, aye?
Arthur texted back, then slipped his phone back to its pocket on his bag.
“Oh mon! It seems we have a new student, onhonhon,”
Arthur nearly screamed in horror at the French accent. He turned his head to see the shoulder length blonde haired boy leaning towards him. Arthur narrowed his eyes.
“Can I help you?”
“Francis Bonnefoy, at your service,” he held his hand out.
“No,” Arthur said, “Go away,”
Francis laughed, “An English accent. You are new here. I can’t remember the last time we had a student from England,”
“Please go away,” Arthur said, rolling his eyes.
Francis simply laughed again, that obnoxious French laugh that turned Arthur’s stomach.
Eventually more students started to pile in, and Francis skipped back to his place beside the albino.
The teacher walked in then, “Sit down class. First I have a short announcement, then we can get started with the daily torture,” she smiled at the groans she was most obviously waiting for.
“First of all, I’d like to introduce you to a new student, Arthur Kirkland. He just moved here from England, so I’d like all of you to make him feel at home,”
There were forced mumbles, and the teacher started the lesson.
Make him feel at home? Arthur thought, America isn’t Britain. No amount of flags and fish and chips and tea will ever change my mind.
He balled a hand into a fist and gnawed at his bottom lip.
Arthur jotted down notes in a composition book as the teacher spoke. When the bell rang he stood up, stuffing his books into his bag.
“There’s no need to take notes,” the new voice, once again, made Arthur jump, and he turned to see Francis and the other two boys. The albino was talking, “It’s all in the book,”
“You three don’t look the type to study anyway,” Arthur sneered and turned away, walking out of the room.
He followed the hallways to his net class, algebra, which thankfully was on the first floor. He had the same classmates, but a few new ones appeared.
A tall German with pale blonde hair and blue eyes walked in, followed by a hyper Italian. They sat down next to the black haired boy from Arthur’s first class.
Arthur suffered through the class, and was thankful when it was over. His next class was theological sciences on the third floor.
There weren’t as many in the class as he expected. Francis was there, without his posy, and so were Alfred and Matthew. Arthur also noticed the German, Italian, and black haired boy were there. Looking more, he saw a tall new face, whom he suspected was Russian. He had purple eyes, which almost seemed like poison, and a long scarf around his neck. One other new face was a Chinese boy, with long hair tied in a side ponytail. One sleeve was longer than the other, and he was sitting on top of a table, talking with the Russian.
Arthur sighed and shuffled over to his seat, dropping down and flipping his phone out. 1 new message from Alistor.
Hope yer not havin’ too terrible a time.
Arthur texted back
I’m worried it could be worse.
He closed his phone and leaned back, looking out the window.
“Whoa bro! You in this class too?!”
Arthur turned his head to glare at Alfred, “Yes. I’m also in the first two classes with you,”
“Seriously? I didn’t even notice,”
“Bloody git,” Arthur cursed under his breath.
“Onhonhon, the Englishman is here?” Francis stood beside Alfred and leaned down.
“We should all introducing ourselves, da?” the Russian stepped up, “My name is Ivan Braginski. A pleasure to meeting you,”
“And I am Yao Wong,” the Chinese man said with a smile.
Alfred laughed, “You met me and Mattie, huh? Now it’s just them,” he pointed to the last three.
The Italian bolted over and leaned on Arthur’s desk, “Ciao! I’m Feliciano Vargas! My friends over there are Ludwig Weillschmidt, and Kiku Honda!”
Arthur held back the urge to smack the childlike teen upside the head, and simply sunk down in his chair, feeling claustrophobic, “Pleasure. Would you all please go away?”
Feliciano looked hurt almost. Francis just raised an eyebrow, and everyone else shuffled back a little. Not Alfred though. Alfred jumped forward, slinging an arm around Arthur’s shoulders.
“What’s with the uptight attitude, British dude?!”
Arthur’s breath caught in his throat at the sudden closeness, and he shoved Alfred away, spinning around and looking out the window.
“Owe,” Alfred rubbed his arm and stared at Arthur, confused, “Seriously though, if you act like that no one’ll be your friend,”
“I don’t want any friends!” Arthur yelled at Alfred, “I don’t even want to be here!”
Alfred furrowed his eyebrows, something like concern crossing his face.
“No need to yell, mon ami,” Francis smiled softly and bent down to Arthur, who shifted away, “Use your inside voice,”
Arthur hit Francis with his bag, his phone flying out. Arthur gasped and scrabbled to where his phone landed, picking it up and putting the battery back in. He sighed. No new messages.
He walked back to his seat and glared at Francis, who was rubbing his head.
“So violent. Seriously, give me a break,”
Arthur sat away from the others during that class, after which was lunch.
After wandering around, he found a quaint little forest-like area behind the school, which separated the school from the dorms.
Arthur leaned against one of the trees and munched on a biscuit as he pulled his phone out and flipped it open. 1 message.
It’ll get better, Artie, I promise.
Arthur bit his lip and pushed the reply button.
No it won’t. I hate it here.
He slid down the tree and sat cross legged in the grass. He sighed and leaned against the trunk, closing his eyes.
They shot open a moment later as a light bell sound echoed in his ears. Arthur looked around, his eyes landing on a small light that was flittering around in the leaves. Arthur stood up and sighed. He had inherited the gift from his mother, just like his other siblings. It wasn’t a bad thing, but sometimes……
“Hello, don’t be shy,” Arthur said sweetly.
The little light froze and hid behind a leaf.
“I won’t hurt you, I promise,” Arthur walked up to the tree and pulled out a bag of berries. He pulled out a raspberry, “Are you hungry?” he held up the small berry.
The light peeked out from behind the leaf, and slowly flew down to Arthur, landing in his hand. Arthur set the berry next to it.
“I didn’t think I’d see a fairy in a place like this. Don’t you hate it here?”
The fairy shook her head, which set off another chorus of bells. She nibbled the berry, which seemed giant compared to her. She had wisps of sky blue hair, and the same color eyes. Small pointed ears like an elf’s poked out from her head, partly hidden by her shoulder-length hair. Dainty. She was dainty and beautiful.
“How can you not hate this place?” Arthur leaned against the tree again, “I hate it. It’s a horrid place filled with horrid people,”
A knot in his chest stopped any more words. The fairy drifted up and set her hand over Arthur’s heart, a sad smile on her face.
“The fairy’s I knew before could communicate. I guess you’ve been in the shadows so long, no one talks to you and you’ve forgotten how to speak,”
The fairy nodded and flew up in front of Arthur’s face. She kissed his nose as thanks and flew away. Arthur left the berry on a branch and stuffed the rest of the lunch in his bag.
“Next time I should bring nuts. They like those. Of course I’ll have to crack them for them,”
He slung his bag over his shoulder and started walking back to the school. He looked at his phone as it vibrated.
Anno it’s hard, but we all had to sacrifice to start over.
Arthur cursed at the phone, and was half tempted to not text back. He knew better though. His older brother had become ridiculously overprotective after……that.
How’d the job search go?
Arthur closed his phone and sighed, for what seemed like the millionth time that day.
As he turned the corner, he realized that most of the school ate in the courtyard. They all, all, turned to stare at him. Some glared, others snickered.
An uneasy feeling crossed Arthur and he hurried into the school. The minute he entered the halls, however, a pair of hands grabbed him, throwing him against the wall.
“I’ll get you back for making a fool of me,” Sadiq said, cracking his knuckles, “Stupid British trash,”
Arthur held the phone up as it vibrated, and he held up a hand.
It went okay, I guess. Didn’t find much of anything. I got a part time job.
Arthur frowned.
Well……unless you’re a doctor, I’m screwed.
He put his phone away and looked up, “Carry on,”
Sadiq clenched his teeth and drove a fist into Arthur’s stomach.
*************************************
Alfred put one foot back and threw the football as hard as he could. Matthew scrambled to catch it, but it just passed over his head.
“Oh come on! You so could’ve caught that one!”
“Say, Alfred,” Francis muttered from a table a little ways away, “What did you think of that Arthur fellow?”
“Hm? What do I think of him? Like first impression and stuff?” Alfred asked, catching the football easily.
“Oui, what do you think?”
Alfred threw the ball again, “He’s…..interesting? Yea, that’s the word. You aren’t even trying Matt!”
“Interesting? Explain,”
“Well, you know,” Alfred caught the ball again and stepped back, running a hand through his hair, “He’s…….interesting,”
“As in you are intrigued?”
“No, not really that. More like,” he threw the ball, “Well, he almost seems familiar,”
Francis set his chin in his hand and propped his elbow against the table, “Could it be amour?”
Alfred caught the football, “What’s that? A food?”
Francis stared at Alfred with a holy-mother-of-I-can’t-believe-he-just-asked-that look.
Alfred threw the ball again and sighed, “Mattie, do I have to show you how to catch again?”
“N-no! Please don’t! Can’t I just play hockey instead?”
“I have a baseball in my bag,”
“Oh god no,”
“Hey! Jones! There’s a fight going on in the school!” someone said as they ran up to Alfred.
“A fight? Who?”
“Sadiq against some other guy I’ve never seen before,”
“What’s he look like?”
“Um,” the boy rubbed his head, then pointed to his eyes, “All I really noticed were his eyes. It’s kind of a shame. He’s pretty cute too,”
“What colour were they?” Francis asked, standing up.
“Green, and he had blonde hair,”
Francis and Alfred looked at each other.
“You don’t think?”
“Oui, you’d better go stop it before he’s killed,”
“Seriously!” Alfred sprinted forward, “Stay here with Mattie!”
“Will do,” Francis waved.
Alfred stopped at the front of the school. He had to weave through a thick group of onlookers to get to the middle.
Just as he suspected, Arthur was being thrown around by Sadiq, which wasn’t fair at all, seeing as he was not only taller, but quite noticeably stronger.
“Hey! Enough is enough! Stand down Hulk!” Alfred yelled, grabbing Sadiq’s arms and pulling him back.
“Jones? Let me go, damn you!” Sadiq yelled.
“Um, no? You’re killing him,” Alfred said.
Sadiq struggled, but Alfred held him back easily, not even breaking a sweat. A few onlookers backed away.
“That’s the strength of Alfred Jones,”
“I wouldn’t wanna get in a fight with him,”
“Sadiq’s madly strong though!”
“Not as strong as Jones,”
Eventually Sadiq conceded defeat. He turned to Alfred as if thinking of weather to punch him or not, then shoved through the crowd an away from the circle.
“Alright, people, nothing to see here, get lost,” Francis said suddenly, motioning for the students to go away.
Eventually the only ones left were Francis, Matthew, Alfred, and an unconscious Arthur.
Alfred walked over and pulled Arthur to a sitting position, “Hey, are you alive?”
When there was no answer, Alfred picked Arthur up, “Grab his bag. I’m gonna take him to the nurse,”
Matthew grabbed Arthur’s bag, and Francis picked up his phone, flipping it open.
“I-it’s not right to look at other people’s messages,” Matthew stuttered.
Francis frowned, “Hm, he has one missed message. Onhonhon, maybe I should see who he was texting?”
Alfred snatched the phone, “That’s just mean. Come on. Let’s drop him off,”
*********************************
Arthur felt pain vibrating from his ribs. His arms and legs felt weak, and breathing hurt. He forced his eyes open, a pained groan slipping from his mouth.
“Oh, it seems he’s awake,”
“Arthur, you okay?”
Arthur’s eyes flitted to his right, and he saw Alfred leaning over him. If he hadn’t been in so much pain, Arthur would’ve slapped him, but he couldn’t really feel his arms. Plus, something about Alfred’s eyes was calming.
“Here’s your phone,” Francis dangled the phone above Arthur, who reached up, wincing, and grabbed it.
He struggled to sit up, and didn’t really notice when Alfred sat on the bed behind him to help him stay up, “How long was I unconscious,”
“T-two hours,” Matthew said, “You missed Science and P.E.,”
“Nothing important then,” Arthur said, opening his phone and flipping to the message.
What’s that supposed to mean?
“Hm? What is it I said?” Arthur rubbed his head, “Oh, yea,”
Sorry, never mind, it’s not important.
Arthur closed the phone and tried to lay back down, only to bump into Alfred. Arthur shot up again, “Um, who stopped the fight?”
“Alfred. Who started it?” Francis asked.
“That creepy guy with the mask,” Arthur said.
“Figures,” Alfred said, “Sadiq’s a control freak. It won’t happen again,”
“How do you figure?” Arthur asked, pissed at how ignorant the American sounded.
“Alfred struck fear into him of course, onhon,” Francis said, “Everyone’s terrified of Alfred’s otherworldly strength,”
“Nu-uh! Everyone loves me!”
Arthur rolled his eyes, “How long till school ends?”
“There’s English, tutorial, then an Elective class,” Matthew said.
“Are you kidding me? School doesn’t end until 4?”
“Sometimes it lasts longer,” Alfred said, “You’ll get used to it,”
Arthur sighed, “Can’t do it,”
He swung his legs over the bed and stood up, wincing, “I’m going home early,”
“What?” Alfred jumped to his feet, “What for?”
“Are you kidding?” Arthur grabbed his bag and looked back at Alfred, “This has been the worst day of my life…..,” he stopped and turned his head, “Second worst day. I just want to sleep,”
Alfred furrowed his eyebrows, “I had fun,”
“Good for you. Anyway, I’m going home before my brother gets any weird ideas,” Arthur said, looking at his phone, “I probably implied something bad,”
He walked past the three people in the room, “Thanks anyway,” he said as he left.