Junior High: A Romance {RusAme}

Happiness is Key

A L F R E D

September 5, 2014

Today was Friday to put it simply, and Alfred was really cold in Mr. Welps class. His teeth were even chattering (more like he was exaggerating). "Mr. Welps, ah, could you turn up the thermostat?" He asked, teeth chattering. The teacher only looked at him with a dead stare, and sighed. "Alfred, you've asked that question about a million times before today. You should know by now that I can't control the temperature in here. The school board does that for us, unfortunately." he said. Alfred rolled his eyes. That's what they always said, but if they had a thermostat in the room, why didn't it work? He just didn't worry about it anymore, and actually tried to focus on his work for once.

"Hey, Alfred. If you're cold, I can give you my jacket." whispered an accented voice. Alfred turned his head backwards to see Ivan offering his jacket to him, and smiling at him. 'Who could say no to that?' He thought. Alfred smiled back at him, and took his jacket from him, but not before thanking him properly. After a while, he started writing out a note for Ivan. It read: "Hey, listen. About a few days ago....I'm sorry if I freaked you out or something. I didn't mean to scare you, it's just you have a weird eye color. I think it's cool though". Then, he handed him the note discretely. Or, at least he hoped it was discreet enough for the teacher not to notice it.

Shortly after handing him the note, he got it back. Alfred waited a second before opening it, not wanting to get caught before he got to at least read it. When he did open it though, he was surprised to see what was written inside. Ivan had replied: "No, no, no, it's okay! It made me really happy when you told me I was pretty. Most people say that my eye color freaks them out. It's just a small disease I have that's very rare, and it changes your eye color to violet. My eyes used to be grey". Alfred smiled at this. He had made him feel better than he did before. Even if it was a teeny tiny bit, he still made him smile. That's what heroes did after all, besides, Ivan seemed pretty cool.

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Alfred walked home today, and with a small hop in his step too. His smile was bright as well. It was definitely an understatement to say that he was happy; rather, he was ecstatic. After learning about Ivan today, he figured that himself, and said boy would be amazing friends. They had more in common than he had originally thought. They both liked Marvel© better than they did DC Universe©, both of their favorite colors were blue, and most importantly, they both liked food! I mean, who wouldn't like food, anyways?

However, when Alfred actually stepped into the house, his demeanor changed altogether. He had just walked into one of Francis' and Arthur's fights again. God, how he hated it when they fought. They barely ever fought, even if they did had their daily squabbles, but those weren't serious. This however, was serious. They were at each other's necks in anger. Arthur's face was a deep shade of angry red, while Francis' was as pissed as ever. Shit, that meant this had just started.

At this particular moment, they were silently staring at each other, tension thick, and both were oblivious to the fact that Alfred even existed. So, when Alfred realized that he should just head upstairs to his room, that's exactly what he did. Before he went to his room though, he stopped by his brother's room to see if he was there; no cigar on that one. Where would his brother be though? It isn't like him to be late from school. Maybe late to school, but from? No, not from school.

Conveniently enough though, his phone started vibrating in his pocket. It was Matthew calling. "Hello!? Matthew, where are you!?" Alfred asked frantically. "I'm okay Alfred, I'm staying after school to get some work done with Gilbert. I'll be fine. He said that he would drop me off at home, which should be around 6 or so." Matthew explained calmly.

Alfred let out a huge breath he didn't know he was holding at that moment. His heart slowed a bit too. Then, Alfred got confused. Why would Mattie be working with Gilbert, when Gilbert was in a grade higher than them? That's when he got suspicious. "You sure that you're doing work? I mean Gilbert is in 9th grade." Alfred said warily. His brother answered back immediately. "He's tutoring me in math. You know I'm bad at math, and you know that Gilbert's a math whiz." He answered embarrassed. Alfred chuckled a bit at this; his brother was way too easy to embarrass. "Alright, well, I'll see you when you get home. I love you, bro." Alfred said happily. "Ditto, Alfred." And they hung up.

Still not hearing anything, Alfred went downstairs to see if their fight was over already. When he got down there, he saw something he really didn't want to see. His dads were basically sucking eachothers face off. Disgusting, he thought.

He's never ran upstairs so quick.