Three Cheers for Sweethearts [Frerard AU]

PART III: Chapter 16

                  

CHAPTER 16 – I NEVER TOLD YOU WHAT I'M TUTORING HIM IN

The second day of the already-too-long week, I was a few steps too slow to see Frank come out of the Latin room, but as usual, he'd left a note on my desk.

Ever since we had sort-of-wordlessly figured out we had the same desk in Latin class, we'd written each other notes back and forth in the Latin language for the other to translate. And I'll be honest, that was to credit for my passing grade in the class. Not only were Frank's messages additional motivation to pay attention to translation tips in class, and extra translation practice that seemed more real-life-applicable, but I actively practiced moving between English and Latin, which helped me remember certain ways to do it on quizzes.

Sometimes they were short and sweet ("Hic magister domum esse cupiat" or roughly in English "This teacher wants to be home"), and other times, they got longer ("Legere et scribere Latinam difficilis non est" or "It is not difficult to read and write Latin"). Most of the time my responses were the former, as I knew a whiz like him would pick up on any Latin mistakes I made almost instantly. It was sort of fun, though, writing back and forth, essentially having prolonged conversation. The most surprising thing was that no one erased anything or tried to mess with it, as far as I knew. Maybe no one else used this desk in any other period, or if they did, just didn't notice or didn't care to know what it said.

Today, Frank's message to me was short.

Te amo Germanus

I didn't even need to get out my vocab sheet to know this one. "I like you, Gerard."

I was tempted to just erase "Germanus" and write "Francus" but thought better of it. I could be more original than that.

Imagine if Ray new about these! I thought sarcastically. I knew that these were just teasing and completely platonic, but Ray would spend all this time trying to prove otherwise. This was best kept a secret.

So that's what I wrote. After a few minutes of thinking, I got his message erased and mine scratched onto the wood.

Non dico Remo, te sunt felix pro me cogitat.

I meant it as a joke, and I was sure he would laugh at it. "Do not tell Ray; he thinks you are gay for me," I tried to write. I knew the translation wasn't quite right, but I didn't have time to go back to fix it; I had wasted too many minutes trying to find a good word to replace "gay," as apparently there were no homosexuals in ancient Rome. Instead, it read roughly, "Ray is not told, he thinks you are happy for me." Close enough.

***

Frank didn't totally grasp my meaning by my Latin sentence, as he replied with what translated into, "Why is he happy for you? Did you do something?" to which I didn't feel the need to correct him. Instead I wrote back, "I've been getting better grades lately!" It wasn't really a lie, either.

Later, someone who no one could have predicted poked his head into the Study Hall room and beckoned for me to follow him into the hallway to talk privately.

"Good luck," Ray said as I hesitantly looked between him and the kid at the door. "Whatever Hunter wants can't be something you'll enjoy."

"Thanks," I muttered futilely, slowly rising to my feet to meet Hunter in the hallway.

He didn't look like himself. Hunter always tried too hard to be big and strong, of course, but now, his eyes were a little wider, his steps more hesitant. He was even slouching a little, which shrunk him down to eye level with me. He kept fidgeting with his fingers. The look in his eyes was almost... scared. Yes, that was it. He looked panicked. I hadn't the slightest idea what he was about to say to me that would change his disposition so dramatically. He didn't even try to hide it.