Chapter 10: The First Club Meeting

Do you want to know another reason why I was looking forward to an all-boys school?
Because they don't hold dances.
I mean that is what I figure since the school burned down and all after how they handled it last time. But the first thing I see when I walk into the school the day after Club and Sports Sign up Day was a poster that said:
Halloween Costume Party on October 31!
I was doomed.
It was like an open invitation to go, I mean it'll be the same thing as a dance right? Except you have to dress up.
Or I could just not go.
Yeah- that's it! Problem solved, I will not go to the Halloween Costume Party!
Feeling better on the subject I continued down the hallways when I saw a student with a green hood covering over his head leering over at the Japanese boy that was included in the Secret Uke Club yesterday. I think his name is Kiku, but I did know he was soft spoken like I was and that he didn't seem to want to cause any trouble. Though right now in the position he's in, I think he is in trouble.
What should I do? I don't want to make any trouble or get into a fight! Maybe I should just go up and talk to him causally and the guy will back off. That'll work right?
"Hey!" I called out in a friendly manner at Kiku.
Kiku looked at me and his face seemed to look frightened, but calmed down when he saw me.
"Hey, did you get the notes in science last week? I caught a cold so I was wondering if I could borrow your notes," I caught the boy who was leering at him start to back off and take a step back.
"Oh, do you feel better now?" Kiku asked, catching on.
"Yes thanks for asking, oh what do kind of medicine do you use when you catch a cold? The stuff I use doesn't work so well."
"That depends on the signs of sickness, what were the symptoms?"
I glanced at where the guy was, but he had melted into the crowd, fleeing away.
"Phew, are you ok? You seemed to be in distress there, I hope it wasn't something important, my reading on body language isn't so good," I said nervously.
"No, no, no, I'm very grateful for your help. He's been bothering me for a while now, so thank you," Kiku bowed to me.
"No problem, we are... Hehe... Ukes after all, man I feel silly saying that, but I still would have helped out anyways."
"Well thank you."
BRIIING!
"Oh that's the warning bell, I gotta go it was nice talking to you, I'll see ya around."
WTHS
It was midnight on Thursday and in case anyone forgot, it was the big meeting for all the club members of the Secret Uke Club in the secret room that I cannot describe how you can get to due to my sworn secrecy to the club.
Anyways a little past midnight everyone was seated in a circle on the cushions and pillows of the room. As always, Emil, the Leader, was being quiet and neutral while the co-Leader, Raivis, was making conversation with everyone while holding the leash to the collar that was tied around Arthur's neck.
When they say he's the Club's Dog, they meant it.
"Oooo~kay! Our first official meeting will now start!" Raivis chirped gaining everyone's attention.
"Now we must discuss some safety precautions like the Bad Touch Trio. Their name was mentioned to me from an unnamed resource that calls themselves The Uke Informant, who says that we need to watch out for these three people," with that, Raivis laid out three pictures on the ground for everyone to see.
I gasped at the picture in the middle of the three pictures.
It was Gilbert!
"Our Spanish one over here is Antonio Carriedo, known to take a liking for Ukes that are childish and especially cute. He likes to serenade his victims with sweet Spanish words and is not afraid to talk about his sexuality which as I should warn is that he is gay. He has not shown any signs of sexually attacking a Uke yet so he is still under deep look out, which means we all have to keep an eye out for him."
The picture he was pointing to when he said this was a Spaniard with wild brown hair and green eyes, one of which was winking at the camera.
"Hey that's the bastard that touched my fucking erogenous zone the other day!" Lovino shouted.
His brother gave a gasp and placed a hand over his mouth as murmurs went around in a frenzy.
"Ok, then it's official, Antonio is now off limits no one make any contact with him at all and if he makes contact with you then call out for a fellow Uke. Moving on," Raivis said pointing at the other picture which, not surprisingly, had Francis on it.
"This is Francis, no I'm not going to mention his last name because I think everyone is aware of him. Francis has a well-known history of being bi and is not afraid to flirt with anyone. He already took advantage of two members and well attacked Matthew in public. He is an extreme hazard zone, never make contact with him, this is a fact, keep a ten feet radius from him and never let him catch you in his sights. This is a serious matter, now moving onto the last member," Raivis now pointed at the picture of Gilbert.
"Gilbert Beilschmidt. On dug up Intel of him from the Uke Informant, he has a history for receiving mainly oral from classmates and especially sex. We have more contacted information about him and what he will do to lure you in. Mainly he uses high flirtatious levels as Francis, show off parts of his body and other sneaky tricks to infiltrate his victims. Whether he's gay or not has not arisen, but we will not take a chance to experiment, so stay away from him as well."
I shyly raised my hand up in the air while blushing.
"Yes Matthew?"
"U-um, I Uh, well... C-can't, um, well you see, there's a problem for me on those orders specifically," I said stuttering.
"That is?"
"He's my roommate."
"That's perfect!"
Wait, what?
"We can put up cameras in your room to see if Gilbert is a potential threat! This is perfect!"
"What! You’re not putting cameras in my room, that's where Gilbert and I change and I don't want to be caught on tape when I'm changing!"
"That's ok, only you, Emil and I will be looking over the tape, so no worries! We'll come by during a convenient time when Gilbert is not there so we can set them up kay?"
"B-but-"
"Club meeting adjourned, now go back to bed and get some sleep!"
Man, does anyone ever listen to me?
WTHS
When I got back to my dorm room I saw that Gilbert had fallen asleep on top of his covers with his computer on and earbuds still in playing music. Tsk-ing, I walked over to him, shut down his computer and turned off his iPod as well as take out the earbuds from his ears. As I was awkwardly getting him into bed my mind started to wander.
Is Gilbert really that much of a threat to the Secret Uke Club? I mean sure he sexually harassed me when we first met, but all he does is tease me, nothing else. He hasn't even done anything like that since then. Maybe they were wrong about him.
That's when Gilbert turned in his state of sleep as I pulled the covers over him and suddenly I was pulled under his covers, being snuggled against my will.
Yup, now I'm not so sure if Raivis was right or wrong for suspecting Gilbert.
WTHS
"Ha, hah, hah, G-Gilbert, I-I-I'm going to- ah!" Matthew panted against my ear hotly.
Matthew arched his back, bringing his body up to mine as he moaned out loudly. I brought my hand up to grab a fistful of his hair, bringing his head up to me so I could crush my lips against his.
"Gilbert..."
I stopped kissing Matthew and looked at him quizzically.
Did he just speak while I was kissing him?
"Wake up!"
Ok, now I'm confused.
Pinch.
"Ow!"
I opened my eyes and rubbed my shoulder tenderly where I was pinched.
It was all just a dream, lucky me. Sigh.
Though in my sleepy haze I saw Matthew lying next to me in my bed.
Wait was it a dream?
"Did we do it?" I asked with a yawn, receiving a light punch in the shoulder and a cute blush from Matthew.
"N-no, you fell asleep on top of your sheets last night and I was helping you in and then you grabbed me and wouldn't let go!" Matthew said all flustered.
"Ok Birdie, well wake me up when it's morning," I said rolling onto my side and snuggling into my pillow.
"It is morning!" Matthew yelled hitting me on the head with a pillow.
"Hey Matthew," I said remembering something when Matthew had stopped hitting me with a pillow.
"Next weekend I'm going out to meet up with my buddy Alex to give him the quail eggs, do you want to come?" I asked, feeling like I was blushing for asking him for some reason.
I didn't get a reply straight away, but when I did I was shocked.
"Sure, I don't have anything to do and I haven't seen much of the city yet, so why not," Matthew said.
I turned around and looked up at Matthew who was towering over me by sitting on his knees holding my pillow up against his chest with his nose buried into it making him look so adorable. So adorable that I attacked him with a big hug.
Matthew was my big cuddly bear, like the ones that lived on his bed.

Chapter 11: Getting Things Ready

Mondays.
There the days when hard assignments that were supposed to be done on weekends are due, sandwiches and fruit served in the dining hall or cafeteria, the once a week mile run in PE and the only day that you don't find Gilbert in the dorm until after dinner. A long time ago Gilbert explained to me that he does this ritual called Stockpiling. What he does is pile up all his missing assignments he never gotten around to do, clothes that direly needed to be cleaned and all the garbage and other things for two weeks and then on Monday he takes care of it all after school for hours in the laundry room on our dorm floor. One time I went to the laundry room to check on him and it was the most astonishing thing you would ever see.
Gilbert doing homework and laundry at the same time.
I once offered to help him with taking the trash to the garbage chute on one of those days, but he just stubbornly refused saying he was awesomely tough and all.
Though today I wished he asked me to help him so I could delay Tino and Emil from barging into my dorm room with handfuls of wires and tiny cameras. I really didn't want to get caught on tape while changing underwear in the morning when Gilbert took a shower, there was a reason why I did this while he did that and now I might as well do that in the closet.
Emil was checking every corner of my room while Tino was trying to find a cord that matches the color of the wall. I sat on my bed holding Kuma while watching the door, thinking that at any minute Gilbert would burst through the door and completely freak out that I have my fellow Secret Uke Club members wiring the place. That can't be suspicious at all.
"Hey Matthew I'm gonna put this camera on your bear here," Tino said holding a tiny lens camera that was the size of a button. The bear he was referring to was my big black bear with white embroidered ovals for eyes and the same thread work for the triangular nose. Seeing that Tino wanted to put a camera on him I snatched the bear from Tino.
"No way, Pin-Pin was a gift Alfred won for me," I protested clutching the bear against my chest.
During the summer before high school for me started there was a fair that Alfred and I went to for kicks just to see how cheesy it was, but we ended up having fun and tried every booth game. At the end of the day there was one booth game we haven't tried which was pin dart throwing. Alfred claimed that he could pop every red balloon on the board, which led to a giant argument with the guy who ran the booth when Alfred did hit every red balloon, short story short Alfred got fifty bucks and I got the biggest bear in the booth.
"Don't worry it's only gonna be clipped on its ear," Tino said opening and closing the clasps of the tiny camera between his fingers.
Giving a sad and defeated whine, I handed over Pin-Pin to Tino, who clipped the camera onto the bear's right ear. He then clicked a little switch on the camera and propped the bear up against the wall facing Gilbert's bed.
"Hey Emil, let's put one on Gilbert's lamp," Tino suggested with a hyper look in his eyes while eyeing the clip on red lamp light on Gilbert's beds headboard.
As I let the two mess around with my room I decided to grab my laptop and check out Facebook. I smiled when I saw a picture my little sister Madeline uploaded with her at Niagara Falls. My little sister Madeline is a year younger than me and is the cutesy thing in the whole world, even though she and I get mistaken for one another, but she lives with her real father in Toronto. My family isn't that kind of family where your parents get divorced and get remarried to someone else, but that's not how it went with my parents at all.
"Oh my, what do we have here~" Tino giggled so strangely that I had to look up from my computer.
When I did I let go of my grip on my laptop letting it slip off my lap and onto my bed. Tino was holding up a fold out poster that came from a magazine he was holding, that went from his head down to the floor. On the poster was a woman laid out on white bed sheets in a small orange bikini like underwear with a suggestive look in her eyes.
"A teaser poster? Oh, that's photo shopped," Emil said taking interest in the nearly naked girl on the poster.
"Here, see the color line darkens a bit near the breast line, and the skin looks more digitalized which means they put it through a paint edit. The magazine is not so popular so it makes since to spend less and have it photo shopped," Emil explained with a straight face on the whole time examining the picture.
"Wow, you’re really good Cheif!" Tino chirped as he began to fold the poster back into the magazine.
"I just pay attention to detail, make sure to place that camera away from the switch on that light."
"Ay ay sir!"
After Tino had put the magazine back under the pillow he and Emil went back to business. I picked my laptop back up and checked some of my emails for a while until it just got boring. Right when I was about to log out of my Gmail account a pop up attacked my screen. The pop up had a URL on it with a picture of a man posing without a shirt on and his hands looking like they were about to take off his jeans in a suggestive way. Suddenly weird noises like panting and moans came from my computer which had surprised me so much that I half flanged and half threw the computer off my lap. When this happened Tino dove for the computer, but instead ended up flinging it back when he fell over the edge of Gilbert's bed, when Emil came into action. He leapt gracefully over Tino's body, catching my computer before it collided into the wall and landed on Gilbert's bed with a squeak. While he had the computer in his grasped, I watched in an embarrassed state when the weird sounds attracted Emil's attention.
"?... Click," Emil said pressing the touch panel on my computer.
"No! I'll get a virus on there!" I cried out.
But Emil didn't listen to me, no instead he sat down on Gilbert's bed with an interested look on his face while going through, what I can imagine, the unmentionable on my computer. I felt hot the entire time he quietly went through that site without an eyebrow raise or any facial expression of deep interest or horror.
"Can I send this link to my computer?" Emil final said after a long time.
"Sigh... Sure."
After all that went by I finally got my computer back and Tino got to set up the rest of the cameras before the two of them left. Once everything was quiet and peaceful I got out my homework and moved to my desk. It felt awkward knowing that I was being watched over by cameras, which reminds me, how did they even get small spy cameras like that? But even so I knew where they all were, including the ones on the curtain pole facing the whole room and the small one on the frame of Gilbert's closet, I would go on, but I think people would start to fall asleep.
WTHS
"Ooookay! Part One of Operation Observe Gilbert is complete!" Raivis cheered.
It was Thursday night during midnight again for the Secret Uke Club meeting as always, except this time Arthur was chained to a large round oval table by a cuff around his right wrist. I needed to talk to him sometime soon and ask how he got involved with this mess.
"Ok so the next thing we need to cover for tonight is on the Halloween Costume Party that is coming up soon. Raise your hands if you are going."
Almost everyone except for Toris, Lovino, the two Chinese boys and I.
"Whoever did not raise your hands raise em, because as a Uke we have to attend all school affairs as anti bully and anti Seme Action patrols. Those of you who don't want to stay the whole night don't have to, but we at least need you to stay halfway through the event and have a couple people stay for the entire night. And because it is a Costume party we're taking a trip next Sunday to go shopping for costumes so if you don't have a costume then you must come. Clubs orders~!"
I groaned leaning in to bonk my head against the table. Why do I end up going to these kind of things when I don't want to?
"If I have to go to a fucking Costume party then I'm being Zorro, no one else fucking copy me or I'll fucking punch you," Lovino claimed before anyone else could speak.
"Why Zorro?" Felik asked.
"Because he's like me, he kicks ass, too fucking cool to be cool and likes to vandalize property with his initial, plus I would look so fucking badass carrying around a sword," Lovino proclaimed smugly.
Everyone else started socializing about what they would wear and I felt sort of left out, that is until I saw that Kiku was being left out too. He was pretty nice when I talked to him the other day after I saved him from that weirdo.
"What about you Kiku?" I asked earning a delayed look of shock from him before he composed himself in a calm manner.
"My boyfriend and I are going as the Tortoise and the Hare, but not in animal costumes, just in some animal wear like rabbit ears and a tortoise shell patterned shirt, nothing too complicated."
I did a double take when he said boyfriend.
"Kiku, you have a boyfriend?" I asked bewildered.
"Yes, his name is Heracles."
"The guy who sleeps a lot during class that mumbles about cats in his sleep?"
"Yes that's him."
"Wow, I never thought that there was anyone, ur, um-"
"Gay?"
I blushed when Kiku said that word so simply like it wasn't a big deal.
"Y-Yeah, gay."
"Are you gay Matthew?"
My blushing increased up to max and my face felt like it was on fire immediately.
"I-uh... I-I mean, that I... Ur... Can we not talk about this now?" I stuttered out awkwardly.
"Sure."
Our conversation was interrupted by a loud noise from across the table, where Toris was suddenly tackled into a hug from Felik, whom was now in his lap rubbing against him.
"Liet~ !" Felik whined against Toris.
"I-I-I, I said no!"
"C'mon, go with me to the party!"
"No way."
"I can, like, go as red ridding hood and you'll be ~my very~ big bad wolf, I wouldn't, like, mind wearing a dress for you Liet! You can even be the one to take it off at your dorm."
With all the movement and with Toris's chair starting to tip, the two boys ended up falling out of the chair and onto the fluffy mess of pillows to break their fall. Everyone else ignored them as Felik kept giggling and Toris was yelling for help when Tino raised his hand.
"Yes Tino?" Raivis said.
"Ok, well I'm very confused, can two Ukes still be Ukes during sex, I mean Seme means your the dominate one, so if two Ukes have sex then wouldn't the Uke on top become a Seme?" Tino asked batting his long eyelashes innocently.
"Hmm that's a good question, why don't we let our dog answer that," Raivis said gesturing towards Arthur.
"What? Well I don't know! Maybe if they kept switching positions every time they have sexual intercourse then I guess it's safe to say that their still Ukes otherwise I have no bloody clue what to call them," Arthur growled out, shifting uncomfortably by the chain around his wrist.
"Hey Kiku what's the Japanese word for Neutral, I think we'll have to do some research on this, I mean Tino is onto something here. What if there's both a position in sex and the chain of bullying that is different from the whole system!" Raivis exclaimed slamming his hands on the table and standing up with a spark of excitement in his eyes.
"It's Nyūtoraru," Kiku replied.
"Oh that's a mouthful, never mind, meeting adjourned!"
WTHS
It was a good thing the the trip to the costume shop was on Sunday because on the following Saturday Gilbert woke me up with the basket full of the quail eggs covered up tightly by a red cloth.
"Get dressed Birdie, we're gonna go see my buddy Alex today," Gilbert reminded me when I looked up at him confused.
"Oh thaaaat, sorry I forgot, let me get dressed," I yawned sitting up in my bed reaching for my glasses.
All week I have started getting dressed and undressed either in my closet while Gilbert was in the shower or going to the bathroom ever since those cameras were installed and I gotta tell you it's a pain in the-
"Hey Birdie hurry up in there I gotta take a leak really badly!" Gilbert yelled knocking on the door loudly as I was getting dressed.
"I'm hurrying!"
A few quiet moments passed before the door flew open and Gilbert rushed inside working his zipper on his pants down. I sighed and continued to pull my belt through the belt loops of my jeans. That was until I started feeling self-conscious about the fact that my chest was bare. I wasn't muscly or chubby, but that meant I was plain, what if Gilbert makes a snide comment about my body- wait, I'll just put on my shirt before he can see me.
Acting on that thought I pulled over my shirt before Gilbert could catch a glimpse of my body. Feeling successful I finished putting on my belt and fixing my pants before leaving the bathroom.
Phew- that was close.
"Hey Birdie your shirt is in-side-out," Gilbert said washing his hands in the sink after he was done peeing.
I looked down at my shirt and sure enough my shirt was completely in-side-out. Blushing I got up and raced for the bathroom as Gilbert was getting out, before I was stopped roughly by my collar getting stuck on something and then thrown on Gilbert's bed. Gilbert climbed on top of me. I started to struggle when he slipped his hands under my shirt and then took off my shirt turning it on the right side of the shirt.
"Stay still I'm helping you with your shirt," Gilbert huffed as I kept struggling.
"Get off of me, I'm not a kid!" I argued.
"Just let me put it on you damit!"
When Gilbert had gotten my shirt on me after a long and hard struggle against me, he sighed and rolled off of me. I sat up and glared at him.
"What the hell was all that for!" I yelled flapping my arms around like a bird.
"I didn't want you wasting time in the bathroom, oh now look at the time, the cab is probably here!"
Gilbert grabbed the basket and then me by my hand, dragging me along with him out the door and down the stairs until we were running out the door for the yellow taxi outside the campus's gates looking like it was about to leave when Gilbert started waving his arms around and yelling at the cabbie.
"Hey! Wait! We're here!" he yelled loud enough to hone the cabbie's attention.
We were huffing and puffing by the time the two of us slid not the cab, while the cabbie was laughing his ass off at our irony.
"Where to?"
"Stinson beach," Gilbert panted out of breath.
The cab driver smirked and pulled out of the curb and headed down the street. As buildings and shops past by I took note on what Gilbert wore. He had on a pair of black combat styled pants with the two silver chains, red Converses, silver skull rings as well as a gothic styled silver cross necklace and a black t-shirt underneath his red hoody. Gilbert always wore that red hoody whenever he could, it was a nice hoody too with the cool skull with the black ink dripping effect on the right pocket and the sown in thumb holes on his sleeves. I noticed that a lot of the clothes Gilbert has worn since I met him were usually gothic or skater styled clothes that surprisingly fit his image really well. The stuff I wore was mainly sweatshirts or hoodies and most of my hoodies were red and had a white maple leaf on the hood or pockets which I had gotten whenever I visited my grandmother in Canada. Except right now I was in a red and white baseball styled t-shirt, because I could never pull off any other style I was interested in besides hoodies and sweatshirts like what Gilbert wore. That and it was too hot for a hoody today.
"So what's your friend like?" I asked trying to make some conversation.
"He's pretty cool and layer back though he hates stereo type American people ya know."
"Oh is he not from America?"
"Yup, he's Cuban. I think you'll like him he's pretty awesome, but not as awesome as I'am."
"Then why am I coming along?"
"You did say you didn't have anything better to do, besides this will be like an adventure since I never been to San Francisco before now."
"Where did you live before you came here?"
"Seattle."
"Does it rain a lot there?"
"Yeah, but it's really nice at night from my window in my room, I would look out it and see everything lit up against the rain, it was really cool to see that, then again I live in a flat where animals are allowed, so there was always odd sounds at night," Gilbert said with this look in his eyes that seemed to lighten the mood somehow.
I liked it when he talked like this, its kind of a Gilbert I ha net been so familiar with before, like another side of him I get to see whenever he talked about his home or anything deep about him.
"Were here," the cabbie said snapping Gilbert out from that look.
After Gilbert had payed the fee we began walking out towards the sandy coast.
"So, you said before that you had two quails at your house," I said as I walked by Gilbert's side on the busy beach.
"Yup, Verbergen and Folgen," Gilbert said saying the two names in a Germanic way.
"Verbergen and Folgen? That sounds... Interesting."
"Ha! That's because the names are German, Verbergen means Hide and Folgen means Follow, Hide and Follow are my two quails at home. My dad is German so he taught my brother and I German when we were little."
"Really? So what would quail be?"
"Wachtel."
"Ok, what about... Love?"
"Liebe," Gilbert said in a slight whisper that I almost did not catch what he has said.
"So where are we meeting your friend?" I asked, shifting subjects.
"Over at is beach house around here, look for a sweaty Cuban out on his porch somewhere he said that's where he'd... Be- look its an Osprey!" Gilbert exclaimed pointing at the giant brown and white bird up in the sky.
"Don't you mean a seahawk?"
"Nope, thats an Osprey, the raptors by the sea, some people mistaken them for sea eagles or seahawks, but that's defiantly an Osprey, and a healthy one at that."
"You must love birds huh?"
"Love them? Of course I do! Sure even I eat eggs and fried chicken and all, but I just love birds, though I do hate those slaughter houses... That must be an uncool thing for me to love birds huh?" Gilbert said scratching the back of his head embarrassed.
"Of course not! It's good to be passionate about something," I said making Gilbert's face brighten up when I did so.
"Oy! Amigo! Gilbert-o!" someone started calling out.
That's when we spotted a dark skinned Cuban with dreadlocks in a floral red shirt and shorts on a porch of a well-built beach house, waving their arms around at us.
"That's Alex," Gilbert said speeding up to a jog to go greet his friend.
I trailed behind in a walk while Gilbert and his friend greeted each other. Once I had joined them on the porch Gilbert took a step back so that I was facing his friend.
"Alex this is my roommate Matthew, Matthew this is my amigo Alex," Gilbert introduced us.
Instead of doing a regular handshake, Alex held up his hand and said: "Five it my friend!" and I did give Alex a high five. Alex had this easy going yet friendly and energetic feel around him that seemed so welcoming to me that I had to give him a warm smile.
"So how did you and Gilbert meet exactly?" I asked after a while of chatting around with the two.
"Oh, the Internet man, then we skyped each other over the summer and made the little business deal, so you got the eggs amigo?"
"Sure do, got the cash?"
"Hell yes I sure do."
With that Alex took out a wad of dollars wrapped up in a rubber band bundle and handed it over to Gilbert and Gilbert gave Alex the basket.
"You now have $125 on ya bro," Alex said playfully punching Gilbert in the shoulder.
"Pleasure doing business with yo, hey speaking of business I need to take a leak."
"Again?" I exclaimed.
"Hey I didn't go enough for a trip out here, so can I use your bathroom?"
"Sure, it's down the hall to the right, can't miss it," Alex told Gilbert who then bolted inside.
I sighed and took the liberty to take a seat on one of the beach chairs. Alex placed the basket between the beach chair I sat at and by the one next to mine before sitting on that one.
"So, isn't it strange to meet someone online, I mean that could be dangerous," I said trying to start a conversation with Alex.
He chuckled darkly before turning his body towards me. "It was only business Matthew, in fact I have no intentions of contacting that idiot ever again."
At this I turned my body towards Alex, narrowed my eyes and looked at him skeptically.
"Really? Tell me something Alex," I hissed venomously. "When those eggs hatch, what do you plan on doing with them?"
Alex chuckled again. "Why what do you think? I'm going to make a small Quail Farm or as some people crudely put it; A Quail Slaughterhouse."
I held back the urge to wring his neck and gasp at the same time. Would Gilbert sell the quail eggs knowing they were to be used to be fattened then slaughtered? No he wouldn't, I bet Alex told him that he just wanted to raise a dozen quails. But in reality my bird loving roommate of mine was unknowingly raising a dozen quail eggs for something he didn't like at all.
"And then I'll meet another idiota online and get him to sell me quails as well, you see it's all about the money kid, and quails are considered a delicacy worth some big bucks and when it comes down to it-"
Pop!
That's what I heard when I slugged Alex in the nose was that popping sound like I had dislocated something. By the time I was able to comprehend what I did Gilbert had already walked back outside, and well... I may of acted on my instincts. I grabbed the basket and Gilbert's arm yelling: "Let's go!", escaping the scene with Gilbert as I heard angry curses of both English and Spanish start to fade the further away we ran from Alex's beach house. When Gilbert and I had made it to the parking lot we were leaning against a palm tree breathing heavily.
"Why... The hell did you... Just do that?" Gilbert panted between breaths.
"He was... Going to...- Quail Slaughterhouse," I finally managed to say.
"What?" Gilbert pushed off the tree and faced me.
"He was using you so he could start his own Quail Slaughterhouse."
Gilbert took a step back before leaning against the tree again and sinking to his knees.
"Wow. I must be really stupid, I almost gave Verbergen's children to a slaughterhouse... Haha, at least we have the eggs back, so on another note, you going to the Halloween Costume Party?" Gilbert said changing the subject.
I sunk down to my knees as well and sighed.
"Yeah I am."
"What about you?" I asked.
"I'm going, as a devil with a black pitch fork and some horns not any of that Satan crap, what are you going as?"
I mentally sighed in both confusion and frustration, while hitting my head on my knees.
"I have no clue."
WTHS
"Yay yay! It's shopping day! And were shopping for costumes!" Raivis giggled when the group that needed a costume walked into the costume shop.
The only people on the expedition for costumes was Raivis, Toris, Lovino, Tino, Yao, this boy named Kaoru from Hong Kong and I.
"Hey Matthew, what are you gonna dress up as?" Tino asked as everyone else started to break off from the group and look at costumes that caught their interests.
"I don't know."
"Then let me help you!" Tino said grabbing my hand and pulling me off towards a rack of costumes.
After a few moments of going through that rack of costumes, did we notice the sign above it said: Woman's Costumes, on it. This time, actually reading the signs, did we manage to go through some more manlier clothes.
"Oh, now I am getting this," Tino said holding up a costume packet with a picture of a man all dressed in a green military uniform.
Timo giggled. "I love Toy Story, it's my favorite movie and I just love the green military guys, so why not dress like one?"
"That will look cool on you, just find the right size first," I said giving Tino a smile.
I continued looking through the costumes, still not finding one to my liking. I didn't want to be a pirate, a gunslinger or anything but a caveman, I just wanted to dress as something that won't want people to come over and punch me in the eye.
That is until I found the costume of my dreams.
It was a white furry jacket that came with furry white paw gloves, and the hood was a face of a polar bear. It was a polar bear costume, and the face of the bear on the hood sort of reminded me of Kuma, which meant that I had to get this costume.
I just hope that it wouldn't look weird if I wore jeans with the jacket since it didn't come with pants.

Chapter 12: Halloween Night Part 1

It's Halloween and what am I doing to celebrate this spooky night?
Dress up as a polar bear so I can keep Ukes from being dominated.
Yup, that's the only reason I'm going to the Halloween Costume Party, but I do look so cute in my polar bear costume, though the hood is a little heavy with the polar bear face on it, I'll manage. Did I forget to mention that the hidden cameras are still in my room! It's been almost two weeks, and I want those things out of my room so I can undress knowing that I won't be recorded the whole time. Anyways, because I was going, Gilbert wanted me to wait outside the bathroom so he can have me evaluate how awesome his costume is.
When he did finally come out I nearly gaped at him.
Oh. My. Goth.
The demon of Gothicism just entered my dorm.
No joke, here's the details on what Gilbert is wearing.
A black hoodie that has been ripped and colored red at the places where the fabric was ripped, not to mention the hoodie had a light gray skull pattern on it. Charcoal colored skinny jeans that were ripped to the max, multiple silver chains that made noises like jail chains rattling every time Gilbert moved. Knee high black combat boots, a pair of black horns, and a black pitchfork, with all that put together I thought that Gilbert would take that pitchfork, stab me and then drag my limp body down to hell.
Can I run away now, because I think Gilbert's red eyes are glowing like the hell's fire.
"So, how awesome do I look, the rips are pretty cool huh? I did them myself and even added the red so it looks like blood, pretty awesome," Gilbert grinned, upping his demonic look by ten.
"S-sure," I replied, too scared to not stutter.
I swallowed hard before, calmly, making my move for the door. "I'm gonna go first, see ya!" I said all at once leaving the room before I started wailing on my knees for mercy.
That was a bit too dramatic to say, but Gilbert was scaring me. Least to say, it won’t be the first time I'll be seeing someone equally scary looking at the party.
I'm scared.
On my way to the gym, where the party will be held, I spotted a short guy dressed in a green military uniform next to a very tall guy dressed in a long black trench coat and a black top hat.
"Hey Tino!" I called out towards the guy in the green military costume, whom turned around to reveal a green painted face.
"Mattie! Your costume is so cute!" Tino said when I had caught up to him.
"Why can't people stop calling me that," I pouted.
"Oh I'm sorry I thought everyone called you that."
"No you can call me that, I just wonder why people call me that."
"Huh? It's because your so cute Mattie, who doesn't want to call you Mattie!"
I blushed really hard then and suddenly I felt very bashful.
"N-no, your cuter than me, eh- shit!" I cursed at myself for letting that slip by.
"Oh Mattie your sooo cute! Look at your blush, aw don't look so down, I like you accent. Ber-chan has one too so don't look so down," Tino said patting my back.
That's when I first noticed that Tino's hulking friend Berwald was the person in the black trench coat and top hat, looking or rather glaring at me. His glare was scarier than Gilbert's costume.
"No, no I hate my accent, it's not so cute anyways, so Berwald what are you dressed up as?" I asked trying to not anger the glaring Swede.
"M'd H'tter," he answered in a stoic manner.
"From Alice in Wonderland?" I said giving him a confused look.
"No, the 'nes w'th the ink po'son fr'm En'land," he said, moving his top hat up to reveal a black ink like stuff on his forehead slowly sliding down.
"Wah! Your wearing an actual hat from then? Isn't that dangerous!" I exclaimed in shock.
"Haha, no that's just some makeup I put on him for effect," Tino reassured me.
When we had reached the gym, everything was warped. The walls were blacked out with black paper, the floor was scattered with fake cobwebs and silver glitter, orange and black paper streamers hung low from the ceiling with spiders, bats and more fake cobwebs. At the check in table there was a tombstone archway with fog machines set up to fog the floor making it look like sparkly fog mixed in with the silver glitter on the floor. After the three of us had checked in, well we didn't have anything to do. I mean, I don't dance, and the only people I can socialize with is Tino or Berwald, but I feel like a third wheel around them for some reason. I could look for Kiku, but he said he'll be here with his boyfriend, so I shouldn't intrude. Emil still scared me being the Leader of Ukes and because... Well he can be a bit odd?
Sigh and I left the dorm house in such a hurry that I didn't stop to see Alfred, he did tell me he was going as Alf Man which is his hero persona he made a long time ago and calls it The Hero of America!
If you have not noticed, Alfred has a... hero obsession.
Suddenly as new people started to gather in all sorts of costumes, I spotted Gilbert checking in at the check in table and I started to panic.
"I'll be at the punch bowl," I said excusing myself from the area.
I weaved through the crowded area until I was spit out by the tables that contained snacks and the punch bowl. Wow, I can't believe how cliched the whole punch bowl scenarios go, it's where an adult keeps guard over the punch bowl, but somehow that one sneaky delinquent ends up spiking the punch. Though right now the teacher was scolding two guys off to the side as Ivan dressed in thuggish clothing was sneaking up towards the punch bowl with an open bottle of vodka in one hand.
"Really," I said from behind him making the Russian jump in surprise and look back at me.
"You're really going to do something that twenty other people will attempt?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Da, hello my Canadian friend," Ivan said turning around while stashing his vodka away. "I have not seen you for a while, how have you been?"
"Fine, you know there's a question that's been on my mind lately, why do you sell vodka on campus?"
"That's easy, my father imports vodka from Russia in giant portions, I just slim down his supply by selling it around here for pocket money, but you get it for free since I like you," Ivan said waving a different brand of vodka than the one he had before in front of me.
"Oh no thank you, I don't drink, but if you're going to spike the punch bowl do it now before the teacher comes back," I said rejecting the bottle.
Ivan nodded and switched out bottles before returning back to the punch bowl. I decided to ditch the punch bowl and snoop around for anyone I could converse with. I was looking so hard that I barely saw the person that I had bumped into just as the music changed into a slow song.
"Oh I'm so... Sorry?" I said, a bit hesitant when I saw who it was.
"Ohonon, hello there monsieur."
WTHS
(Tino's POV)
"Hey Ber-chan I'm going to go get some punch so I'll be right back," I said leaving Berwald to go get some punch.
I was surprised to find the punch bowl was still full, heck it was at the rim, well that means I'll be the first one to get any. After pouring some punch in a cup I decided to taste test it first In case it was bad, but when I did I felt incredibly warm and my throat burned a little, but it was still sweet so I drank some more. I know I'm supposed to be looking out for Ukes and all, but this atmosphere seemed tense and everyone here looked too scary for me to handle. Without knowing it, I was wandering around the hallways for no apparent reason and my vision was blurry.
That was when I picked up the sound of footsteps behind me. But I felt so warm and tired that I could not or I did not want to move, instead I ended up leaning up against the wall feeling warm and content. The footsteps drew nearer towards me until I could actually feel the owner of the footstep's breath on my neck- wait, were they that close to me? I felt my arm bringing tugged off towards another direction, but I didn't want to move at all, so I ended up being dragged towards a janitors closet.
Inside, everything was completely dark and I couldn't clear my mind or vision when my body was starting to be assaulted with light and rough touches and lips being crushed against mine. The feeling was too familiar, the big rough skinned hands, and lips like those all of it so hungry that I was actually scared of being devoured. Yes I have been acquainted with this person before.
It was my assaulter
WTHS
(Gilbert's POV)
Where did my Birdie go?
I wanted to show off my mega ultra-awesome and sexy costume some more, I can tell he liked it because he had that awed look on his face. The first place I should look has to be around the punch bowl area, if he's not there then I can always get a hit of spiked punch. But before I could get a ten feet radius of the punch owl, Ivan piped out of nowhere with a bottle of vodka.
"Hello friend, would you like to step out and have a drink?" he asked.
I stretched my head over his shoulders still looking for Matthew. "Uh, yeah one sec," I said still searching the crowd of people bobbing to a good upbeat of music. When I saw that cute polar bear hoody in the distance I smiled, until I spotted the Dracula dressed Frenchy talking to him.
What was he doing talking to Matthew after Alfred and I had told him to back off. Speaking of which where was that so called hero?
What surprised me more was when Francis took a step back and offered his hand in a chivalrous manner to Matthew right when I started to notice the song playing went into a slow song. And what happened next shocked me.
Matthew took Francis's hand willingly.
What?
"So still want to drink my friend?" Ivan asked pulling my attention back to him.
I swallowed bitterly.
"Yes."
WTHS
(Matthew's POV)
"What do you want Francis?" I asked with enough hatred I could muster into that sentence.
Francis was dressed in a black caped, with some royal renaissance clothes on underneath, his hair was smoothed back and he had a pair of vampire fangs on. He took a step back, bowing slightly as he gestured his hand out for me to take.
"Oh, just a dance."
"No way in hell," I murmured, about to turn foot and run when Francis said something that changed my mind.
"I know you're a part of the Secret Uke Club, if you dance with me then I won't tell a single soul," he said with a grin.
What should I do, if he goes and tells people this then I'm sure to be the punch bag of school, not to mention nonstop rumors and everything else that will follow. I bit my tongue, reached out and took Francis's hand, letting him pull me to him and capture my other hand in his. He gracefully spun me off into the dance floor where all eyes can see, and then toned down the spinning into a slow dance.
"Who told you about the club," I whispered demandingly.
"Let's just say a British frienemy of mine ranted to me nonstop for an hour about the club, oh don't worry like I promised I won't tell another soul about you being a Uke," he murmured back in a husk voice.
"Arthur told on us?" I said I said in a believing tone.
"Mhm, now that I have you to myself at the moment tell me something, are you in love with your dear friend Alfred, go on you can tell me, everything said in this dance will be confidential."
I thought twice about telling Francis no stubbornly that is until the thought that he may think about backing off if he knew came to mind.
"Yes, I love him," I declared bravely, feeling my heart race ten times as hard than it did before.
"Hmmm, he's a child you know, he wouldn't know what to do with you if he even went out with you."
"You know, this is coming from the same guy that would probably end up having sex on the first date.
"Haha, you don't beat around the bush do you?"
"Excuse me!" a shy voice said beside us.
We stopped dancing to turn our attention towards Kiku who was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of white bunny ears. I felt a wave of relief hit me when I saw him.
"I am so honorably sorry, but I'm stealing your polar bear here for a moment," Kiku said, abruptly sliding his arm through mine so we could lock elbows. I let go of Francis's hands to run off with Kiku from the scene.
"That was close, thank you so much, I don't even know how I ended up there," I lied.
"No problem I just had to tell Heracles that I needed to find a friend," Kiku explained.
"Anyways, I have a message from Raivis that he needs to pass on to everyone, so far the only people who have not gotten this message is Arthur, Tino and Yao, please pass this onto either one of them and tell them to pass it on to one of the others the same. Surprise meeting after the party in the secret meeting room in the dorm house, well I gotta go now please be more careful," Kiku bowed quickly before racing back to find his tortoise.
WTHS
(Arthur's POV)
I can't believe I was forced to come here, and dressed as a dog! You know that Secret Uke Club is getting on my nerves saying that I'm the Club's dog, and they talk about helping other Ukes and to stop bullying, but they never do anything more except talk about sex and positions. It ticks me off.
"You, club dog," I heard someone say to me.
Oh great it's the nagging Chinese guy named Yao from the Secret Uke Club. Why does he call me club dog?
"What is it?" I spat.
"Tell that Tino boy there's a surprise meeting after the party and you have to come too, bye bye," Yao said leaving me to find where the bloody hell Tino is.
Ok, I can't find him anywhere, heck I accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up somewhere down the schools hallway. Then there was a sound coming from a door down the hallway. It was a cross between words and a moan with a couple other noises. When I was standing righting front of the door I was deciding whether I should open the door and see what sin side or if I should turn tail and run. No, I won't be such a wanker and leave with my tail between my legs. I grabbed the door knob and swung open the door. Inside it was pitch black.
"Hey who's in here?" I called out.
Suddenly I was pushed to the ground and I heard retreating footsteps running out of the room. I sat up rubbing the sore spots on my back too hurt to get up right away. I caught the retreating person wearing all black and their hair was blond... I think. Hissing in pain I got up and went into the room, flipping on the light switch.
My eyes widened in horror.
WTHS
(Matthew's POV)
Phew.
What a night.
I didn't think that being forced to shuffle with Feliciano and Kiku because we were fellow Ukes would tire you out. And now I had Party Rock Anthem in my head.
Everyday I'm shufflin.
Even after the song Feliciano insisted on hanging out with him and even after the party and we were heading to the dorm house with Kiku along with Felik and Toris Feliciano bursted out singing Party Rock Anthem and like odd ones that we were, the five of us joined in as a death toned vocal group. We were having a good time walking into the Secret Meeting room chatting and enjoying the Halloween night.
"Ok, who wants to hear the ghost story of a girl named Elizabeta Héderváry?" Emil said bringing a lit flashlight up to his face, illuminating his face in an wert manner.
He blew out the candles one by one, making the room pitch black.
"This is a true story in honor of Halloween. Four years ago a girl named Elizabeta Héderváry lived on the Omega floor. She was just an innocent and very beautiful Freshmen girl excited about the mysteries of high school. But there was another girl that was in competition with her beauty, her name was Duchess Aust. To ruin her reputation, Duchess threaded a rumor about Elizabeta sleeping with her lover and even made her lover tell everyone that it was true. More rumors started and Elizabeta became less trusting of people around her, even her friends started believing the rumors, and then-"
"Hey, where's Arthur and Tino?" Raivis asked everyone in a raised voice, cutting off Emil's sorry telling.
No one answered him. We haven't seen them anywhere after half of the night. Raivis started relighting the candles one by one with a worried face. The door to the room suddenly bursted open. We all turned our heads towards the person who had come in.
There stood Arthur carrying a scared and shivering Tino in his arms.
"It happened again... The molester on campus struck again."

Chapter 13: Halloween Night Part 2

There was a suspended silence hanging in the room at that moment. No one was smiling or having a good time anymore, we were all silent and shocked. When I saw Tino limp in Arthur's grasp with the buttons on his costume undone and hickeys beginning to bloom around his neck, I suddenly felt very protective of my friend. Getting up from my spot, I crossed the room with haste and grabbed the light and small boy from Arthur, bringing him towards one of the couches and laying him down on it. Tino had a terrified look in his eyes that was worse than Arthur's look of terror. His body still shook from shock, most of his green makeup was smudged and rubbed off his face. I took off his green helmet and shushed him when the water in the corner of his eyes began to well up drawing a sob from his lips.
"How did this happen!" Raivis demand snapping out of the shock and snapping the other club members from their state of shock as well.
"We were making good progress! I even surveyed the area for a while, everything was running so smoothly dammit!"
I bowed my head down in shame. How could we let something like this slip? We were the club that stood for keeping things like this from happening, but we couldn't even prevent this from happening to our own club member. And I should of never left Tino's side for a single second. I felt a presence kneel beside me, I turned my head to see that it was Kiku. We held a silent look between the two of us before our attention went back to the sobbing Tino. His saddening sounds made my heart hurt with regret and sadness making my eyes sting with water rushing to them.
"I`m sorry," I whispered placing my forehead against the couch in shame.
"Mattie...? Why are you crying?" Tino spoke softly, I felt his hand weave through my hair in some kind of comfort, but I didn`t deserve it.
"I`m so sorry I left you, I won’t blame you for hatting me," I sniffed trying to dry my tears.
"Hey," Tino's hand went from my head down to cup my cheek so he could lift my head up to face him. "I can`t hate you, cause I..." there was a distant look in his eyes and Tino was being a bit hesitant in his words.
"Because I need you, you`re my moral support and my best friend Matthew."
"Tino-"
"Ok! Everyone! We need to get some water, blankets and a laptop in here, because we have some work to do!" Raivis announced before I could say another word.
Raivis took a couple strides over to where Tino was and placed a hand on his forehead, as if he was a mother checking her child's temperature. "You ok there Tino? Don't worry were gonna work on finding who did this to you so we can make sue to keep you safe. I`m sorry we let this happen, we`re still amateurs when it comes to running this club, but we will understand if you decide to leave the club."
Tino gave Raivis a shy smile. "Thank you, but I`m not going to leave, I was planning on going if I was in the club or not, but it helps that I have a lot of support with me," Tino turned his head towards Arthur who was standing in the corner.
"Thank you for saving me," Tino said cutely making Arthur blush and turn his head to the side.
"It was nothing, any person walking by would of done the same thing," Arthur said coldly in a bit of a shy way.
"Hey guys, I don’t like to be your rain cloud on the situation, but the door is locked," Toris reported from the entrance.
"What! Let me try!" Raivis said in a shrieked voice, stomping over to the door where Toris stood by and gave it a try.
The door made a noise refusing to move. In anger Raivis tried again and again, but the door did not open. With stress heavy on his shoulders, Raivis turned around to face the other club members and twiddled his fingers around in his hands.
"Ehehe... We`re gonna be here for a while," Raivis said with a happy face, just before all hell broke loose.
Everyone that wasn`t tending to Tino or standing in the corner of the room looking cool (Arthur and Emil), went all AWOL on Raivis and Toris. Except for Feliciano, he was just sitting on a cushion worrying if he still had his instant pasta packet in his pockets of his cowboy costume he was currently wearing.
"Theres no way I`m going to be stranded in a dark room on Halloween night!" Yao yelled at Raivis.
"EVERYONE CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" Lovino shouted so loud that my ears rang a bit in the aftershock.
Pulling out his fake sword, Lovino pointed his sword skyward with his black cape blowing from a wind that was coming from somewhere.
"Have no fucking fear! Didn't you asswipes forget that you have a fucking soccer player in your club, I can just kick the door down, now out of the way pansies!" Lovino said with a smug look on his face.
Without warning Lovino let out a loud battle cry and lunged at the door, swinging his leg back and then swing forward at the door, striking it like lightning, and boy did it sound like thunder hit the door when a loud band came from it. But to everyone’s disappointment, the door did not budge, and Lovino was hopping on one foot hissing.
"Fratello, dont`t injure your foot, you need to play forward on the next game," Feliciano said as he tended his brother`s injury.
"Sigh, that did us no good hey Emil do you have your cell?... Emil?" Raivis called out for his friend.
Everyone else turn heads and looked around for the Club's mysterious leader. But for some reason the Icelandic boy was nowhere, not in the corner of the room, or under a bed, or even collapsed under an avalanche of pillows.
"Hey guys, Kaoru is gone too," Yao said in a worried manner.
"What? Guys this isn`t funny, come on out now," Raivis said nervously.
"Liet I`m scared," Felik said grabbing Toris's arm.
While my back was turned to Tino, the Finnish boy decided to wrap his arms around Matthew's neck from behind and hugged himself against Matthew’s back. Kiku noticed this getting a feeling of jealousy of the Finn and decided to scoot a little bit closer to his Canadian friend. Then the same wind that blew Lovino's cape blew in hard, smothering the candles and making things go pitch black.
"Waaaah! Hold me Liet!" Felik cried.
"Ow! You just kicked me in the nose, what the hell are you trying to do Felik?"
"...Jump into your arms."
"Well I can't respond to that when the lights are off."
"Then can we have sex?"
"Marriage first!"
"So you will go out with me?"
"Would you two shut the fuck up!" Lovino snapped half because he was annoyed and because his foot was still throbbing.
"Be nice Lovi," Feliciano fretted.
"Can someone hand me the matches?" Raivis asked.
"Hey who touched my arse!" Arthur yelled.
"..(Silence).."
"A-Arthur, you`re the only one alone in the corner last time I checked," I said with a slight stutter.
"KYYYYAAAAA! It’s the ghost of Elizabeta, she`s come to take revenge on us all!" Felik wailed.
"That’s not how the story goes you wanker!"
"Then would you finish up where Emil left off while I relight the candles?" Raivis asked.
"Ugh, fine! Where did he leave off at?"
"He was telling us how her friends began believing the rumor Duchess told," Feliciano informed him.
"Ok... So, her friends began to believe the rumors themselves without any confrontation from Elizabeta to know if it was true or not. Then Elizabeta started doing some reckless things, she smoked behind the school, had a three some with the football star and head cheerleader on campus and rearranged a girl's face with a skillet... So they heard. Those are all rumors, and as they rose along with other rumors, the more they became believable, even when she started to pray to god why she must suffer none of her prayers were answered. She soon became an outcast of the school with all the rumors buzzing around, with no friends and no more belief in god, she didn't even confront the staff or her family about it. So one day, she locked herself in the chemistry lab on the third floor of the school and with a sad departure, she started an oil fire and the school burned down to nothing but ashes, her body never found. The End."
The candles were now lit up and the room was much more brighter, but because it was brighter it also meant we could see each other, including the intruding guest. Standing behind Arthur on top of a mountain of pillows was a girl with long brown hair and beautiful green eyes. She wore a white lace nightgown that had made a ghostly effect with the candles illuminating her. We were all gawking at her wide eyed and a bit scared. Arthur took it the wrong way and thought everyone was staring at him.
"B-but i-it’s just a silly ghost story told to scare Freshmen, h-hey why are you guys looking at me like that?" Arthur said scratching the back of his head nervously.
Feliciano, the only one not scared or wide eyed at the moment, pointed at the girl behind Arthur and with a smile he said: "There’s a pretty girl behind you."
Slowly, with his skin crawling with goose bumps, Arthur turned around and looked up at the girl atop of her pillow thrown with no expression on her face.
"Helló," she said softly.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH, GHOST!” Arthur cried trampling over pillows while trying to escape.
While during his attempt to run away from the ghost, the club members by the table where Arthur was done telling the story, got up and started running all over the place. When they went all chaotic and ballistic, I was giving Tino a piggyback ride over to the nearest mountain of pillows to hide behind.
"Ok, I think we'll be fine here," I said.
All of a sudden the floor beneath Tino and I vanished under the floor landing in a dark room along with Tino.
"Ah! What happened? Where are we?" I asked looking all around for some answers.
"It must of been a trapdoor, look see how that pulley is retracting back and pulling the board panels back up," Tino explained pointing up at the contraption.
With a clicking sound the floor panels, that had opened up, heaved up by themselves and snapped shut. The room was dimly lit by a soft bluish green light that had flickered on a moment after the floor panels had shut themselves. I looked around the area for a moment too see that Tino and I were just trapped in a regular room with no doors.
"What do we do now?" I said slightly glaring at the ceiling where the trapdoor was.
"Wait I guess," Tino suggested.
I let out a sigh, getting up off my feet Tino doing the same. "Well if there was a trapdoor up there then there should be some secret way out of here."
"Maybe."
I turned my head to look at Tino in surprise. "What's gotten in to you, you seem down all of a sudden."
"I don't know Mattie... I feel really sleepy, yawn."
All of a sudden Tino's eyes closed and he fell forward about to hit the floor when I caught him just in time. I ended up hugging Tino to my chest to keep him from falling down, but I haven't worked out in a long time and I was getting tired too. The next thing I knew, I subconsciously slid down to the ground holding Tino against me. Tino's head was resting in the crook of my neck with his blond hair tickling my chin and the rest of his body sprawled out on me.
"Hey Tino wake up," I said shaking him a few times.
But Tino didn't respond, instead he shifted a couple times in my grasp and snuggled into my chest.
"You're very cuddly Mattie..." Tino mumbled against my chest.
At that moment I was focused on Tino. His soft blond hair that smelled like shampoo, how gentle his breathing was against me, how soft and cutely tight his grip was on me... How small and fragile like against me, as if he was made out of glass. I then felt the burning urge to protect him even though I wasn't so strong, but I can't let another incident happen again, I'll be more protective of Tino and my friends.
There was a creaking sound all of a sudden and my gaze lifted from Tino.
What the?
A door had open up from the wall leading to a brightly lit room. Carefully, I moved Tino to my back, holding onto his hands so he wouldn't slip off my back. Cautiously I opened the door and entered the room. Inside there was a wall of TV screens and computer screens hooked to the wall and keyboards, mouses, cable cords and remotes littered the table that was underneath the wall with a giant swivel chair pushed in. There was a horse shoe shaped row of bean bag chairs facing a flat screen TV. And on two of those bean bag chairs was Emil and Kaoru watching porno with an intense interest. The two of them turned their attention to me when I entered.
"Hey Matthew, come to join us?" Emil said.
"W-what the hell? What about you two? We thought something bad happened to you two!" I exclaimed.
"No were fine."
"So what is this place?"
"It's the Uke Informant’s HQ."
"Wait a minute, he lives under the club room?"
"No he lives in an apartment by the school, I contacted him a minute ago, he should be here to let us out soon and help us get the door to the club room unlocked."
I sighed in relief. That was the best news I've heard today, and now my shoulders hurt from carrying Tino. I went over to a bean bag chair and sat Tino on one, taking a seat on the one next to his in relief. Man I was beat, were did I even get the energy to move this morning?
Suddenly, as everything was peaceful (except for the erotic porn on the TV), a clanking sound came from the floor and another trapdoor piped open to reveal... Someone in a Marvin the Martin mask?
"Sorry I was late I was at a Halloween party," the guy said.
Emil turned off the TV and got up. I did the same, heaving Tino back on my back again with some assistant from Kaoru. The guy in the mask led us down a panel of stairs that lead back out to the lobby area of the dormitory. Hurrying, we raced to the passage that led to the secret club room's door with pounding sounds coming from it and the club members wailing: Help!
The Uke Informant took out a hair pin and went to work on the door quickly until a thankful click came from the doorknob and the door swung open, spilling out the members of the Secret Uke Club.
After that Emil and I had to explain to Raivis the whole situation, though no one had a clue about the girl, only that when we went back in the club room she was gone.

Chapter 14: The Complications of Emil

Chapter 14: The Complications of Emil
Welcome to High School
My name is Emil Steilsson.
I grew up on Iceland with my father while he was studying the volcanoes there. When I was seven I learned that I had a half-brother in Norway named Lukas, I found this out when Lukas's mother died and father brought me to Norway so he could take Lukas into custody. My real mother died giving birth so it was easy to sympathize with Lukas at the time, though the two of us both always covered things up with a blank expression that was as solid as ice. Though Lukas was four years apart from me we got along better than expected of typical siblings. We spent our days being home schooled by father up until Lukas was fourteen and I was ten.
Something amazing happened to me.
It was a bright summer, and unlike any other summer on Iceland, we had tourists. But out of all the tourists I encountered or saw, only one really stuck on my mind.
His name was Kaoru, a Chinese boy from Hong Kong touring the Nordic countries in Europe with his older brother Tsukomi, who was Japanese... I don't get it either, because their either related, adopted or half-brothers like Lukas and I, but that doesn't matter.
When I met Kaoru for the first time, I had this feeling of shyness creep up on me. The two of us met on the shoreline with puffins squawking about and other tourists taking pictures of them, not much of a quiet encounter. Before I knew it the two of us started hanging out and were like best friends up until the day he asked me to take him somewhere, just anywhere, so I took him to a sea cave that I used to explore a lot when I was little. Next thing I know he was confessing his love for me and that's when I knew that I was in love with him too. We spent the rest of his time in Iceland walking on beaches and doing couple like things, that was before Lukas and Kaoru's brother found out about it.
Lukas and Tsukomi fought in front of us screaming that they didn't want either Kaoru and I to be anywhere near each other. Then by the end of Kaoru's trip I got to sit on the beach and watch Kaoru's ship go off. Then father got a job offer as a professor in the science division of a college in San Francisco, so from Iceland our small family of three traveled across America to a big city like San Francisco.
Lukas ended up going to Powers High and would always contact me while he stayed at the dorms there. He intrigued my interests with his expeditions in his Freshmen year of high school, not to also mention the Secret Uke Club. Then his school burned down and four years later my brother and I entered the school together and I became the new Leader of the Secret Uke Club.
But I crossed fates with Kaoru again when I discovered he was a student at Powers High too.
I tried making contact with him and even made sure to have him notice me, mainly because I was too shy to talk to him or even just attack him with a tight embrace and kiss his face a million times- as much as I wanted to do that, I couldn't bring myself to do so for some reason. So I conjured up an excuse to have him join the Secret Uke Club, but he would always act as if he didn't know who I was.
WTHS
(Emil's POV)
I was staring off at Kaoru again.
I couldn't help myself he was right there in his seat studying for the next upcoming test. I never had to worry about the test because I went through a three day straight study session with Raivis, and he was my roommate so it was exhausting day and night. On top of that I had to plan out new safety precautions for Tino, make the list of fifty ways to avoid bullying, clean out the club room of all the worn out furnishing and clean out all the cobwebs and give Arthur the list of the new furniture we need. I seriously feel like passing out now, at least we have Arthur to go out and buy the supplies otherwise I wouldn't of lift a finger towards the demands. Not to mention what I heard about there being a girl in the club room means that I'll probably have to check every inch of the club room for any more trapdoors or passages.
But I have to be the notorious and well balanced leader of the Ukes since I'm the only one that had an older sibling in the previous club before the school was closed down for reconstruction. All while I am a hormonal teenage boy that had only one thing to relax and do in my spare time. Watching porn. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I watch it or that I keep a collection of books, posters as well as DVDs and CDs of it all stowed somewhere that not even the dorm manager could find during the once a month dorm inspections. And yet right now I apparently have the time to stare at my lost love like a stalker.
The bell went off and study hall was over, now it was time for P.E before I get to go back to my room and plan out safety precautions for Tino and a million other things. Man I felt so sore from working so hard, I was also so hungry and tired from skipping meals because of Raivis's constant and nonstop study sessions, but don't worry I had half a granola bar this morning in between Raivis quizzing me on WW1. Though I do feel more wary as my feet continued in a sloth like manner.
After I had made it to the locker room before the last bell rang I got dressed out into my P.E clothes and joined the rest of the class in the gym feeling very limp and hungry. As the class started the regular warm up jog I felt my feet achingly slow down and feel heavy as if my shoes were made out of lead. My throat felt tight and my vision was a bit blurry for some reason until everything just went black.
WTHS
I cracked my eyes open slowly. The first thing I felt was hunger, then thirst before my stomach growled at me like an angry lion. I felt like I was going to be sick, but my stomach was too empty to probably let me hurl. Instead I coughed twice and let out a hiccupping sound from my clenching throat. Suddenly I saw Lukas's face above me with a slightly worried expression in his eyes. Of course like the same Lukas I know, his facial expression was as frozen as mine is, I think it's a genetic thing.
"How are you feeling brother?" he asked.
"Hungry," I replied not holding back on what I said unlike other times.
Lukas placed his hand on my back and sat me up in the bed, fussing over my messy hair for a moment while I blinked and looked around. When I spotted a woman with a stethoscope around her neck placing syringe needles in order by size, I knew this was the nurses office. When the nurse noticed I was awake she shooed Lukas away and took over taking my blood pressure, temperature and asking me questions.
"When was the last time you ate?" she asked.
"Possibly a week or so ago," I replied.
I heard Lukas sigh and watch him flick his hair to the side over by the door.
The nurse pointed her pen at me. "Eat more, or your body will start eating itself, no woman would want a man that won’t eat her cooking," she gave me a bit of a hard pat on my back sending out the door with my brother.
It was a quiet and awkward walk back towards the dormitory with Lukas. Especially when he started to insist that he would walk me back to my room and make sure I was in bed. Raivis wasn't in so it made it less awkward for me to get tucked in bed by Lukas just like when we were kids. He even gave me a kiss on the forehead and even told me, Sov godt lillebror, exactly like he did when we were little. As much as going to sleep sounded good, I couldn't, or wouldn't, let myself fall asleep. But I should go to sleep, I can't do anything when I'm not fully rested.
Growl
Man I'm so hungry right now, I could just pass out again, but I wanted to eat something really warm like toast or soup, just anything warm really. My thoughts of toast were distracted by a knock at my door. I sat up slowly before answering.
"Come in."
The door slowly creaked open to reveal the brown eyed beauty of my affections. Kaoru stood there still in his school uniform with a bento in his hands and a calm and composed expression on his face. He took a slow step in closing the door behind him and taking off his slip-on shoes while I tried not to make any surprised sounds.
"I heard you passed out during P.E so I wanted to check up on you and bring you some food," he spoke softly raising the bento up a little to show me what he had brought.
Oh, well that explains things.
"Thanks," I said dully as Kaoru placed the bento on my desk and bowed.
"I hope you will be feeling better," he said so formally before putting his shoes back on and leaving. The dull tug of a needle piercing through my heart hurt. I wanted to reach out and snatch him from walking out that door. I wanted to tell him that I love him that I wanted to stay by his side even though our siblings disagreed. But most of all-
I picked up the bento on my desk and placed it in the trash bin by my bed.
-I wanted to cry.
WTHS
"I hope you're feeling better Raivis," Tino chimed happily greeting me the next day in the chemistry lab after school.
"It's good to have you back Emil, these people were so unorganized with the plans for the next meeting," Yao complained, gesturing at Felik and Toris.
"It's not, like, my fault that Toris has a rape-able ass," Felik grinned slapping his Lithuanian "friend" on the butt making him yelp.
"I told you, if we were to have sex then I would be on top," Toris argued at Felik who whined at his sentence.
"But I like to, like, ride things ya know? Like ponies!" Felik squealed at the thought.
I grinned to myself. I haven’t missed anything, but I do wish there was some more proactive phrases thrown here and there just for my entertainment besides Felik's attempts to get Toris in bed... Now I need to put some cameras in their room just in case that does happen.
"Welcome back," Kaoru said to me making my heart speed up. "Emil," he said this with a bit of a different look in his eyes that seemed a bit... Lusty? Or was I just getting horny for no reason.
"Well anyways our notorious Uke Leader is back and because this is an "After School Special" club meeting we're just going to do a little study session... Before we watch the porn, which we will have a vote to watch which one since I only grabbed three DVDs of it, so let's crack open some books and the whip!" Raivis let out a little giggle at the last part.
As everyone got into studying at their own desks for a few moments before I noticed someone slip into the seat next to mine. I lifted my eyes from my text book to see that it was Kaoru opening up his textbook and filling out an assignment. Something was a bit off, first the visit, the look, now sitting by me? Is there something I'm not picking up on or am I just paranoid. Then, as if planned, Kaoru's pencil slipped from his grip and diagonally my way spinning over the edge and landing on my lap. Before I could grab it and give it back to him, Kaoru abruptly and slowly slid his hand down my lap purposely rubbing my crotch through my pants. I let out a small gasp and I heard Kaoru chuckle lightly, his hand obviously ignoring it's insured target and instead started kneading against my growing need.
"You know," he whispered right into my ear making me shiver slightly.
"This textbook says that humans are animals," Kaoru's touch grew a bit more harder and deeper into my pants making my resistance a bit harder on me. "So I was wondering what animal you would be... In bed that is," he breathed right in my ear hotly, making my futile resistance of a blush weaken and give in a bit. Then Kaoru withdrew his hand from me, taking his pencil and going right back to his homework leaving me with a small "tent".
I let out a shaky and shallow breath, calming down and relaxing my facial muscles before I started thinking of that dead carcass of a puffin I found when I was little with its eyeballs being pecked at by seagulls. Quickly my need was cooled down and so was my face and all it took was a dead puffin... Now I feel depressed.
"Ok Tino put on the porn!" Raivis demanded a moment later.
Oh god- fuck this I was not planning on getting hard two times in public because thinking about a dead puffin is enough for me to start bawling if I thought of it more than once in a day- fuck this!
I grabbed all my stuff, shoving it in my backpack and retreated from the room hearing questions directed at me from Raivis and some other club members.
No. Not now, not today, I don't want to be responsible for ten people today I just can't take it right now.
In the middle of my mind rant I didn't notice the person in front of me and ended up crashing into them with all my bottled up fury.
"Hey watch where ya going!" the guy spat.
I looked up at the bastard that said that, only to feel overwhelmed that I had ran into Mathias, my brother's boyfriend. Mathias was sort of an idiot to me I mean he is great and all and he is a pretty good and funny guy, but if I'm angry then I won't tolerate his sometimes annoying and idiotic nature.
"Oh sorry there Emil, didn't notice it was you since you’re so small. Man have ya been getting shorter because last time I saw ya were this tall," he said measuring a little up from my head laughing like a bumbling idiot.
"Piss off asshole!" I exploded before taking off, hearing my own ugly words echo in my ears.
Why did I just say that? I didn't mean to, I hope Mathias isn't offended at all and just take it as a joke. Oh god Lukas is going to lecture me about bad words and that I should act a bit nicer to his boyfriend. Well it's his god-damn fault I'm like this! If I still had a Kaoru then I wouldn't be feeling so shitty or enraged like this, I could be holding hands with Kaoru being the couple that we were deprived of instead of something so confusing and insanely twisted that makes my own head hurt!
These thoughts sent me on a roller-coaster of emotions as I ran aimlessly out the school doors feeling tears peek out from under my eyelids. I didn't know where I was running until I was starting up a match in the Club Room with shaky hands, lighting up a single candle before blowing out the match, feeling everything grow heavy on me again. I still haven't eaten anything this morning or afternoon and hunger was bubbling in my stomach so much that it just hurt to stand and I ended up passing back into the blackness.
WTHS
A stinging sensation bloomed across my cheek.
It came again a few seconds later, but harder.
I heard someone cry out for someone to stop.
My eyes opened right before I saw a hand come down and slap me on my face so hard that my face turned to the other side. I let out a groan in pain while clutching my cheek.
"Raivis stop it! He's awake! No!" I heard Tino's voice in the background before there was some clamoring sounds.
I lifted my head up to see Tino holding back an enraged Raivis from lunging at me.
"Dumbass! I'm your friend! You need to tell me what’s wrong with you!" Raivis cried at me with angry tears streaming down his face.
"I could of done some of those things! I am your friend! How do you think I feel to hear that your still fighting with your brother from someone else, t-that you won't let anyone help you out, t-t-that I was b-being too harsh on our study sessions o-o-or that you haven't been eating in days because I was being a bad friend," Raivis started to blubber out in a teary mess.
Raivis slipped an arm from Tino's grip and brought his hand back up about to hit me again when Kaoru came into the picture and grabbed Raivis's wrist before Raivis had hit me. Kaoru delivered a sharp slap across Raivis's face grasping his attention.
"Shut up, what kind of friend are you, using violence to express your anger, that's no better than a toddlers tantrums," Kaoru said to Raivis.
"You are a bad friend, in fact all you want is the guilty pleasure of watching Emil show some emotion towards you because as we all know he never does."
Raivis was speechless before he started laughing a bit manically.
"Sorry, but it is true y-you never show any emotion towards me Emil, y-y-your my friend, but you’re not comfortable enough to share what’s on your mind to me-" Kaoru was the one to silence him with his hand.
"I think you should leave," Kaoru said.
Raivis nodded sadly before getting up with a sagging head following Tino out the door. It was dead silent in the empty club room. Kaoru and I held an awkward silence between the two of us before he got up about to leave when I grabbed him by the waist and pulled his body to mine. I breathed in his scent and relaxed a little knowing that he smelled the same as he did when we first met on that beach.
"Why don't you remember me?" I whispered softly.
Kaoru pulled out from my grip making my heart plead out for him to come back, but I saw the same sorrow reflected in his eyes.
"Because I'm supposed to forget you, that's what brother ordered me to do," he spoke softly in a whisper before turning and leaving me all alone in the Club Room to sulk in my own sorrow all over again.

Chapter 15: Chicks and Turkey Day

(Matthew's POV)
It was a sunny afternoon in the clubroom and Emil along with Raivis was leading me to the passage down to the Uke Informant's HQ with armfuls of cameras they had collected from my room. My face was lit up like a tomato on fire in embarrassment, thinking that there was something embarrassing caught on one of these cameras, I just knew it.
I really did not want to be here.
After the Halloween Costume Party things seem to go slower on campus, and Gilbert seemed to stop making conversation with me frequently, which seemed out of character for him. More importantly, Tino has seemed to follow me around and grab my arm whenever I was in his sight. Like he would grab my arm or lock elbows with me before fluttering his eyelashes at me and say hello. It was sort of a new thing for me, and it's not like I dislike the attention, it's just that the more I think into it more the more it seems like the actions of a girlfriend. I mean sure Alfred still walks me to almost every one of my classes, but Tino clings to me so much that his scent is literally on my arm. I guess he's just still shaken up from what happened at the party and I'm his moral support through this, but wouldn't he be by Berwald's side instead of mine? Either way I'm probably just reading into this too much.
"Hey Toni can you help hook these up to your monitors?" Raivis asked the Uke Informant wearing a sliver alien mask and typing on his laptop on a beanbag chair. From what I learned, the Uke Informant's name was Toni whose parents are so stupidously rich that all Toni does is gather information and mess with technology with all the money his parents give him. He also gives us information for free as long as he can keep his base here and most of his existence a secret, because of his parent's social status in society is on the high ranks.
Toni nodded and went over to take over the wiring from Raivis's grasp and into his own accord of connecting the cameras to the computer monitors. When he was done setting things up, Toni went back to his spot and sat down staring at his laptop some more. After the first hour of staring at warped screens of all the cameras showing my regular everyday routine along with Gilbert, I wanted to kneel over and sleep. That was until they came over the screen with Gilbert pushing me down onto the bed.
"Whoa, now that's what I'm talking about!" Raivis exclaimed leaning towards the screen with an interested dark look in his eyes.
I felt my face heat up in embarrassment. I almost forgot about that scene. Watching Gilbert take off my shirt while pinning me with his hips made me feel like a dirty creep watching two girls sharing a room interact. Except I was merely monitoring Gilbert like he was an animal in a scientific experiment. Yeah, just keep telling yourself that Matthew.
I blushed even harder when I started yelling at Gilbert on the screen and when he finally got off of me. I saw Raivis write something down with an odd smile on his face. I felt a cold chill go down my spine when I saw that smile. We were soon a quarter away from finishing the tapes when we came upon another "suspicious" scene which was a day when I was hanging out with Alfred and Tino and Gilbert came in the dorm throwing his backpack on his bed and shoes in a random direction. He looked all worn out with his tie messily undone and hair all askew and unruly. Then he shuffled over to my bed and plopped down on it, digging his face into my fuzzy pillows.
"Why does Matthew's bed feel soooo soft," Gilbert whined before rolling off my bed onto the ground and back up into his bed. And that was about the only other odd thing he did on tape, the rest was Emil, Raivis and I taking down the cameras. Raivis was too busy writing down notes and Emil seemed to be in thought at the moment while I just sat there looking all cute. Half an hour later of being ignored I did what I do best and disappeared.
WTHS
It was currently a week before Thanksgiving and I was writing another email to my parents.
Dear Mom and Dad,
It's Matthew, sending another email. I miss you guys a lot, though Alfred keeps me off those thoughts with his hero antics. My Readers Club finally got around to finishing our first book, it was seven hundred pages long! I'm planning on giving Madeline a copy for Christmas and an ironic arrow in the knee joke on her card, don't tell her! By the way are we doing Thanksgiving this year? I need to know so I can make reservations for a flight back to Sacramento or not since the school is having a feast for students that can't go home for Thanksgiving.
With love,
Matthew
After pressing the send button I closed my laptop and sighed. Yet again there was nothing for me to do, that was something very frequent for me now a days. I sniffed my arm nonchalantly and noticed that I needed to take a shower real bad. Getting up from my bed, I went to the bathroom shutting and locking the door behind me for extra security measures. The hot spray from the shower head gave me time to soak under the spray for a moment until I got an idea. I finished cleaning off my body before I drew the curtains back, turned off the shower and plugged up the drain before lifting the lever for the low faucet. I haven't had a bubble bath since I was a kid and with all that time on my hands, I could use some "me" time. I poured some of the liquid soap under the water falling water coming from the low faucet, creating white bubbles. When the water level and temperature was just right, I dipped into the bath and sighed.
Usually I don't take baths because you basically bath in your own filth once you clean your body with the bathwater, but I did already clean myself so I should be fine. I sighed in content of the warm water and sank down till the bubbles tickled my nose. But the bath was missing one thing. Let's see, I have the privacy, warm water, bubbles, what else did it need? Rubber...
Suddenly I felt something touch my ankle. I freaked out and pulled my feet back and sat up with a gasp. I stared down at the bubble topped water where my feet were, waiting for whatever had touched me to show itself.
Chirp
Huh?
A small head of a baby chick piped out from a hill of bubbles chirping loudly. Oh good it's only a chick... That's not normal! I scooped the small chick into my hands with it's tiny, waterlogged body squirming around in a dress of bubbles. I carefully wiped the bubbles from its body and noticed it's feathers were a gold color with zigzagging stripes down it's body. It chirped at me three times before it started nibbling on my finger. Cautiously I got out of the tub tugging the plug loose with my toes and getting out while waiting for the water to drain out. When it did I replugged the drain and placed the chick in the tub. I then went to the cupboard, wrapped a towel around my waist and opened the other side of the cupboard to find ten chicks with the same feather design as the one I found, snuggling in the basket among broken spotted eggs.
The quail eggs hatched!
Oh god, what am I gonna do now!
I know, I'll just call Gilbert's cell and tell him all his chicks hatched, yeah just go do that Matthew, don't panic. But first get dressed, unless you want Gilbert to see you shirtless.
I got out of the bathroom closing the door and searched for some clothes to throw on. Once this was accomplished I grabbed my cell phone and rung up Gilbert's number.
"Hey Mattie," I heard Gilbert reply dully.
"You need to get your ass to the dorm room now," I hissed lowly.
"What? Why?"
"Your chicks hatched farmer brown, and I found one of them soaking with me in the tub."
"Wait, so your saying that you’re taking a hot, bubbly bath naked with a chick... I'll be there in three seconds for a threesome."
"No you sicko! The fucking quail eggs hatched! Dammit..." I sighed when I notice the call was dropped right after I said sicko.
Gilbert soon came bursting through the door and went straight into the bathroom until I heard a manly squeal which then came hurried footsteps and Gilbert came out of the bathroom with a chick in his hands, two chicks on his shoulders and three shuffling around in his hair like a moving crown.
"We have chicks! Oh, oh, this one is gonna be named Chester, that one will be Zoom, then Legit, the right one on my shoulder will be Awe and the other one Some and this one I found in the tub will be Maple!" Gilbert exclaimed excitedly with a goofy grin on is face.
"Because my Canadian friend Birdie found him first, look how awesome he is! No I didn't mean you two, hey don't peck at my ears! Hey stop that!" Gilbert huffed at the tiny miscreants on his body.
I sighed and leaned back with a small smile gracing my lips. "So what are you going to do with them now that they hatched?" I asked as Gilbert tried to tug Awe's tiny beak from his ear.
"Um... I don't know actually, maybe I can ship them back home?"
"Live cargo all the way up to Seattle would not be wise, plus they’re newborns so they'll need a lot of care, maybe you should wait a week or so, but that might be a problem with the no animals policy in the dormitory."
Gilbert sighed running a hand through his hair careful not to knock the chicks in his hair off.
"You know what, the awesome me will think of something, but for now come help me name some, they’re really awesome," Gilbert said getting excited again.
I chuckled lightly, following Gilbert back into the bathroom where we sat down with the basket of freshly hatched chicks snuggled contently among the broken eggshells. Before we could go through them all, Gilbert and I began removing the shards of the eggs that's when we found something.
"Huh, oh look," I said pointing out a spotted shell hidden under a drooping piece of cloth that covered the basket.
I lifted up the cloth to reveal a spotted egg smaller than the other eggs before they hatched.
"Looks like this one hasn't hatched yet," I pointed out to Gilbert whom frowned at the egg.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll hatch soon enough."
"He?"
"Yeah, it looks like a he."
"Seems more like a she to me."
"Well how would you know."
"Canadian intuition, how do you know it's a boy."
"Cause I'm that awesome and I declare that egg will be boy and his name will be Früh."
"You and your weird German words, well I say it will be a girl and when she hatches her name will be Shelly and will be the only chick with all yellow feathers, I can just tell," I declared stubbornly.
"Nuh-uh, I say it will be a boy, so we'll see whose right when he hatches."
"Bring it on Beilschmidt."
WTHS
It was only five days before Thanksgiving when my parents replied and told me that they were doing a busy Turkey Day at the restaurant so it wouldn't be a good time to come home then. I wasn't really disappointed, we early had some Thanksgivings at my house considering my dad grew up in Canada and my mother's parents were too busy for her when she was a kid so neither of them really cared to celebrate the holiday that much.
Anyways, something significant did happen on the following Monday, three days before Thanksgiving. I was heading back to my room after another Readers Club meet when I heard violent shouting coming from my room. I was about to open up the door and see what was wrong when Gilbert came flying from the room in an angry fit, not noticing I was there when he fled in an angry march down the hallway. I looked back into the room to find Gilbert's older brother Ludwig sitting on Gilbert's bed while rubbing his temples in a stressful manner.
I haven't held a conversation with Ludwig before, but I did know he was Gilbert's brother from the pictures Gilbert showed me of he and Ludwig back in Seattle. From the pictures nothing much seemed to be different about him, tall, slightly buff and a look in his ice cold eyes that screamed seriousness from the get go. I also know that he was Gilbert's little brother as well though they were both born a year apart and apparently Ludwig took from his dad's side while Gilbert got his looks from a rare line of genes on his mother's side of albinism. So it would be understandable to think that they were not related on any terms.
When I had closed the door Ludwig snapped from his stress filled state and looked up at me.
"You must be the Matthew my brother has told me about," he said without a hint of stress in his voice.
"Y-yes," I stuttered feeling suddenly shy under Ludwig's stare.
My eyes swooped down over to where the bathroom was. The door was drawn wide open, the light in there was on and the red cloth that held the chicks in the basket was messily sprawled out on the floor. Feeling a bit concerned for the eleven animals in the basket, I wandered into the bathroom for a moment to find the eleven little chicks in the bathtub with the water being two inches deep. But on the counter was still that one egg that hasn't hatched. I picked up the red cloth on the ground before grabbing the egg as well and wrapped it around the cloth before going back out to my bed and plopping down on the mattress. Ludwig pointed a finger at the egg in my hands.
"That's the one that won't hatch right?" he asked and I replied with a quick nod.
"Here," he said while tossing over a small flashlight to me.
"Hold the egg up to the light and tell me what you see."
I did as he said and flicked on the flashlight, holding the egg up to the light finding that unlike regular growing eggs, this one was just clear, no black spot to see a growing being, nothing.
"Just clear stuff," I said slowly.
"That's because it's a dead egg, it wasn't getting enough heat and humidity under the cloth, died probably a week or so into its growing rate I'd say," Ludwig said plainly.
"Oh."
That was the only thing for me to say at the time. I couldn't go into further expression, because of my racing mind.
"Is that why Gilbert stormed out of here?" I finally manage to say.
"Yes...and no."
"I don't follow," I said with a puzzled expression.
"It is a bit complicated, but Gilbert always gets upset when it comes to death. I'm sure he's never told you this, but when I was born I nearly died because of heart failure, Gilbert was two then and he watched it all happen... Except the birthing that would just scar him... Anyways because of that he got really scarred and wouldn't leave me alone afterwards until my health was out of the red zone, but from what dad told me, the whole time Gilbert kept saying that I wasn't going to die. I guess he took that to heart and now here we are."
Out of realization of what I was doing, I had walked out of the room and was heading for the stairs towards the roof with the egg still secure in my arms wrapped safely in the red cloth. I didn't know what I was thinking, but I had a feeling that I would find Gilbert on the roof. The scariest thing was that I was right. Gilbert was sitting up against the boundary wall that kept idiots from falling off the roof, with a somber expressing on his face. I ran to him and wrapped my arms around his body once he was in my reach. I felt him sob slightly just for a small moment before he had his arms wrapped around me returning my hug.
When I had pulled back slightly, making eye contact I noticed the small wet places in the corners of Gilbert's eyes. I pretended to not notice and held up the cloth wrapped around the egg.
"Mattie?" he whispered softly.
"Yeah?"
"Früh really is dead isn't he?"
I let out a small chuckle for his amusement.
"Yeah, he is."
"Can we make a small coffin and bury him somewhere?"
"Sure."
WTHS
It was early Thanksgiving morning.
And guess what I was doing?
Making an egg sized coffin in the Wood Shop classroom with Gilbert. Even though school was off on Thursday and Friday for the holidays students that need to do makeup or extra credit were allowed to stay in the classrooms as long as they were being supervised. The Wood Shop teach Mr. Benson was happy to supervise and let us use the shop for today. Though it was supposed to be sad and mourning to make a small coffin with your friend, we were actually having a lot of fun. Especially when I snuck up behind Gilbert and threw sawdust in his hair then it just got messy and dusty with sawdust. Mr. Benson had to scold us for a few minutes before we could continue our coffin making business.
When the coffin was done, I placed the red cloth from the basket into the coffin and Gilbert placed the egg in there before he closed the coffin and tied it closed with a red ribbon we got from the Home EQ room. It was all around noon when we were heading out of the school with the egg coffin.
"So where do you plan on burying the coffin?" I asked.
"I don't know, maybe I'll give her a Viking funeral instead, pour some gasoline on it and let it burn on the water."
I made an angry huffing sound before punching Gilbert in the arm. "No way in hell am I letting you burn that thing! We spent all morning making it and we are going to bury it properly in the ground in a pet cemetery..." I trailed off when I saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks.
Up ahead by the school entrance stood a tall burly looking man with sharp cold blue eyes that seemed to mimic the intensity of knives. He had long blonde hair that was pulled back into a neat ponytail and his arms were crossed in a displeasing manner, especially when his eyes were being pinpointed this way. That's when I noticed Ludwig was standing a perfect younger clone of the man except for the hair and height.
Wait a second is that-
"Gilbert!" the man called out towards us, starting to march his way over here with Ludwig following him step by step.
Gilbert had a shocked expression on his face while looking up at the man coming his way.
"Vater? What are you doing here?" Gilbert said a bit befuddled.
"I noticed that twelve quail eggs had disappeared from Verbergen's nest and I knew it was you who took them, I told you that I would take care of them and yet you pull such a stunt like this- is that a tiny coffin in your hands?"
I notice a small breakout of glistening sweat had appeared on Gilbert's forehead and a painful grinning tug on the corner of his lips had appeared in a nervous twitchy manner. His fingers gripped tightly on the coffin.
"Yes Vater, I'm sorry I took them, but they all hatched! And I already named them... Well only this one didn't make it... But I have been taking care of them, I give them food and water, even baths too."
"That is not the point Gilbert, you can't just go off and do reckless things without a limit unless you want to end up being a hobo with only a cardboard box to call home and I tell you I do not raise my kids to grow up to become homeless, do you understand me Gilbert Hans Beilschmidt," he ranted scoldingly at Gilbert.
I snickered under my breath. "Your middle name is Hans, like from Star Wars," I teased quietly trying to lighten the mood a bit.
"Birdie~" Gilbert groaned turning his head at me.
That was when the tall stranger's eyes shifted onto me. I nearly yelped and hid behind Gilbert at the intensity of his stare.
"Oh, I am sorry I did not notice your presence there," he said.
Like that's something I never hear addressed to me.
"Oh that's ok, I get that a lot," I said.
"Are you one of Gilbert's friends?"
"I'm actually his roommate, but I am on those terms as well."
"Ah nice to meet you, I am Gilbert and Ludwig's father, you can address me as Mr. Beilschmidt."
Oh wow. This sort of changes everything, I mean this is Gilbert's dad not to mention he looks as serious and scarily strong like Ludwig except stronger and more serious.
"I'm Matthew, it's nice to meet you," I introduced myself.
"Dad, can you stop bugging Mattie, why are you here?" Gilbert interrupted the conversation, making Mr. Beilschmidt snap his attention back to Gilbert.
"Yes, well... It's Thanksgiving, and you haven't contacted your mother or I since you got here, then when I found out you took the eggs, well we thought you ditched school and started a farming business in the South."
"Dad, that's totally unawesome for one and the South is not a good place to raise Bobwhite quails, Bobtails sure, but not Bobwhites."
"Don't get smart on me," Mr. Beilschmidt hissed. "I want those chicks now and then I want to take my boys out for Thanksgiving after your mother is done with her nap at the hotel, a.s.a.p.! So don't wear any of those skinny jeans or ripped shirts Gilbert, you’re a Beilschmidt not a prostitute.
Gilbert just snorted. "Dad I don't need to show some skin to earn a buck, I'm just that awesome-"
"Now," Mr. Beilschmidt cut off Gilbert in a dangerous tone, giving his son a scary, serious look.
"C'mon Birdie let's go," Gilbert said quickly before grasping my hand and practically dragged me back to our dorm.
Once inside and the door was closed Gilbert went ballistic. He had all the chicks gathered up in the basket while brushing his teeth violently as if he hadn't brushed in a month. After that a small hill of his uniforms and gothic clothing from his closet formed behind him as he frantically dug for something in his closet. I sat on my bed hugging Kuma to my chest while staring at Gilbert when he finally pulled out a black dress shirt and Prussia blue slacks that I never knew he owned. After he had laid them out on his bed, Gilbert dove back into his closet before retrieving a pair of nice black shoes, and by that I meant no Converses or ratty red or black sneakers, just a nice normal pair of black shoes. Next thing he dug up was a white bag with a black cross on it that seemed old and ancient to my eyes.
"What's that?" I asked leaning slightly to get a better look.
Gilbert held up the bag before opening it up from the ties that tied it shut and dumped out a black and white cross that had a nice new looking silver chain, all onto his hand before dangling it up for me to see.
"It's a heirloom from my mother's side, apparently this used to belong to Fredrick the Great, the King of Prussia a great nation that started in Berlin way back, but it became no more 65 years ago, in a way my mother is related to him in a long bloodline so I am too. But no one recognizes Prussia anymore so no one really knows about it except for those who study the seven years’ war and the east parts of Germany." Gilbert paused for a moment before continuing.
"It's known as the Iron Cross that both Prussia and Germany military wore for their duties in military acts, but if you look here," Gilbert said tapping a small faded engraving of the initials FW. "You can see the initials of my great, great, great... Ok let's just say he's my ancient grandpa," Gilbert said cracking a smile.
"So if he was the King of Prussia, then wouldn't you be a prince?"
At that statement I made Gilbert's face went entirely red in... Embarrassment? What did he have to be embarrassed about? I think it would be cool to be related from someone like that.
"I guess," he mumbled before grabbing all his clothes and disappeared into the bathroom for what seemed like an hour before emerging from the bathroom. And boy did I nearly have a heart attack at the sight of Gilbert when he walked out of there. His shirt was neatly tucked into his pants which were held up by a black belt with a silver buckle, his black shoe laces were tied up neatly in small ties and the Iron Cross he had shown and explained to me was hanging from his neck respectably. But what baffled me the most was his hair. Usually it was unruly and messy sticking all sorts of directions, but now it was all jelled and combed back in the style his brother had his hair in everyday.
Gilbert looked... Damn good.
"Well I'll be gone for a few hours," Gilbert said grabbing the basket of chicks on his way to the door.
"Happy Thanksgiving Mattie, I'm sorry I can't spend it with you."
That was the last thing he said before leaving.
WTHS
"I'm thankful for no detentions so far this year, they get so fucking annoying."
"I'm thankful for the plentiful pasta~"
"I'm thankful for having lots of opportunities this year."
"I'm thankful for meeting lots of new friends," I said next.
"I'm thankful that we don't celebrate this where I'm from, we call it "Ship off all the Puritans in One Boat Day," Arthur said negatively, closing the little thanking circle the table went through before we lifted our heads, mainly eyeing Arthur who was sitting by me.
"What? It's true," Arthur defended himself.
Alfred slapped his hand on Arthur's back. "It's ok Artie! No one gets your Brit's humor anyways!" Alfred laughed.
"Stupid Yank," Arthur grumbled to himself.
It was around five o'clock and almost every single person on campus I knew was sitting at the same table in the Dining Hall for Thanksgiving. There was Kiku, Heracles, Romano, Feliciano, Tino, Berwald, Arthur, Alfred and I, sitting at the same table passing around various and traditional Thanksgiving day foods. Though Arhtur was actually from England and has never celebrated Thanksgiving before he showed a sour attitude towards the festivities, but then again Kiku, Heracles, Romano and Feliciano were all from some other continents as well and they don't mind at all... Well then again I guess it could be a bit more personal for Arthur considering the whole England claiming America then the Revolutionary war and stuff like that I guess. Then again he only seems to get angry around Alfred for all I know so he could just be angry at him again.
"Belch... I am full," Alfred sighed in content once he was done eating, I was done too, but I made sure to leave room for pie.
As I leaned back in my seat I watched Arthur slap Alfred on the hand with his napkin.
"Manners," he hissed.
"Excuse me," Alfred responded.
"Good."
When everyone was done with the food, Tino and I carried the empty trays or leftovers to the kitchen and picked up our table's pies. We had three choices of pies; pumpkin, pecan and banana cream. I went straight for the pecan, but before I took a bite I caught myself and remembered the best topping to go with pecan pie. I left the table and went back to the kitchen and came back with a jug of maple syrup. Getting odd and curious looks, I continued to flip open the lid and pour a good amount onto my pie. I then put the first bite into my mouth, containing squeaks of the happy blissful taste of maple syrup on pecan pie, it was just to die for, no joke, go try it now. A few others got curious and tried some as well on their pies, finding it just as enjoyable as I did.
When all was eaten and stuffed away into our bellies, we departed from our table to go back to our dorms for a very long slumber.

Chapter 16: Its Christmas Part 1

It`s that time of season.
When giant pine trees are twinkling with lights and guys with fat suits dressed in red ask children what they want...
Now that sounded pedo-ish.
No, there will be none of that during the holidays- and if you haven't guessed yet, it's Christmas!
Well not right now, but it's coming up soon, like in three weeks and I can hardly wait. My family always had this week before Christmas tradition where we make pancakes in different shapes a day like a maple leaf, Santa hat, Christmas trees, bells etc. Dad and I always make them though because Mom would always end up getting distracted and burning the pancakes, but she does memorize the ingredients so we never have to use cook books when making them. Another thing we do during Christmas is play tons of hockey at the rink, and then get at least ten pounds of ice, crush and powder it down and make snowmen.
This year my parents said that there's going to be a big surprise for me at home for when I come home. It's sort of gotten me all hyped up and kept at the edge of my seat, just thinking and waiting until I get to fly back to Sacramento, not to mention with Alfred as well. My love for him seems to be growing thinner by the minute, yes we stay close friends, but I don't know I'm just getting this vibe that we'll only end up being friends nothing more. On the other hand, I think Tino has been flirting with me, though I am not completely positive on that subject.
"Mattie!~" Tino called out down the hallway running towards me at full speed.
"Hey Tino," I greeted as Tino when he slowed down to a bouncy walk up to me.
Tino grabbed my arm in his usual and casual way as we walked to Math class.
"So Mattie, what are you doing for the holidays?" Tino asked.
"Um, I'm going back home for one and our family does this tradition of Christmas pancakes on the week before Christmas, we play hockey and then we take ice and crush and powder it down and make snowmen. And I guess like all families were going to exchange presents on Christmas. You know aren't you from Finland? How do you spend Christmas?"
Right after I asked that Tino's grip on me tightened and his eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Hehe~! I'm glad you asked, last time I celebrated it at my house we gathered up all my relatives in the Väinämöinen's Cabin that our family has had for centuries, we take a sauna bath and make Finnish Bread Pudding chop down the biggest pine tree we can find, then we have a big feast on Christmas day. But this year I can't make it home for Christmas, air fare from San Francisco to Finland is too expensive."
"Hm, you can come stay at my place for Christmas, I'll ask my parents but I think they would be ok with it."
Tino stared up at me with his big purple eyes.
"Really?"
"Yeah, if you’re ok with it."
"Then I would love to!" Tino gushed when we stepped into math class right before the bell rang.
WTHS
Dear Matthew,
We would love to have your friend Tino to come stay with us, you can invite two other friends of yours. Sorry I have to cut this email short but your father just set the stove on fire!
With love,
Mom
I smiled just reading my mom's response to the email I had seen not too long ago. Well let's see who else could I drag back to Sacramento with me? I could ask Kiku what he's doing over Winter break and if he doesn't have any plans then I'll invite him to come stay over with me. I would ask Alfred, but from some previous emails I have received from my parents they became friends with Alfred's parents not too long ago and were planning on having them over for Christmas dinner. And Alfred does live close by and is in the same neighborhood as I am so we won't be separated as much. But the still remaining question would be: who else could I ask?
Just as I was thinking the bathroom door swung open with rolling clouds of moist and hot steam floating out from the bathroom and among it was Gilbert in nothing but a white towel around his waist showing off his naked perfect chest that was glistening with the water from his shower he had just took. Maybe I could ask Gilbert.
"Hey Gilbert," I called out as Gilbert was silently rummaging through his closet.
"Yeah Birdie?"
"What are you doing during Winter Break?"
Gilbert paused with a red t-shirt in one hand and a pair of boxers and black shorts in the other.
"Um, I'm staying at the dorms since that surprise visit from my parents kinda broke the bank for us with the air fare and hotel and dinner expenses on Thanksgiving, why do you ask."
"Oh well I was wondering if you would like to stay at my place during the break, my parents want to know if I had any friends that would like to come over during the break. And air fare from here to there isn't that expensive I guess," I rambled a bit.
Gilbert ginned brightly at me. "Well if that's the case then of course I'll spend Winter Break at your house!"
"R-really?" I said a bit shocked.
"Of course! The awesome me wouldn't pass up a chance to go stay at my best buddies place, I'll just have to make a reservation for a flight so give me the details later, now if you don't mind."
Gilbert reached down and moved the towel around his waist so that it loosened up and fell down to his ankles. My face flushed red, I immediately turned around and face planted into my pillow in embarrassment.
"I need to get dressed," Gilbert laughed his loud and echoing laugh he had.
WTHS
I was sitting quietly in my seat during history taking my WW2 test with the handy notecard we were allowed to fill with stuff to help us with the test. Kiku and I went over some strategies last night while we filled out our notecards. He had this cute idea to make every country in WW2 be represented by a person so he sketched out these cute anime guys on my notecard and I can honestly say I'm really into it. I mean, sure he based the countries looks after fellow classmates and it was kinda weird to see me look almost identical to the Canada on my notecard, but it was such a good idea. But what made me chuckle or grin at was how Kiku made England's eyebrows extremely bushy and that he based the looks off of Arthur, isn't that hilarious!... Well I thought so.
By the time I was done with the test and it was time to pass the tests and notecards in I felt positively a hundred percent sure that I got a good grade on it.
"So did my drawings help you during the test?" Kiku asked sitting on a desk in front of me while the rest of the students hung out before the bell released us for lunch.
"Yes, I couldn't stop grinning at England though and you are right, Francis does fit the roles as France perfectly."
"Ohononon~ did I hear my name from lips of an angel?" Francis said in a flirty manner, creeping into the conversation.
Did I also forget to mention that Francis likes to get involved in every conversation I have and flirts with me constantly? Yeah, there is a lot of that now a days.
"Hi Francis," I said trying not to sound negative or displeased that he was here.
"So what were you guys talking about a moment ago?"
"These drawings I made to help study for the test on our notecards," Kiku said, taking a moment to reach into his backpack and take out a sketch pad, flipping it open to a page full of the countries he drew last night in chibi form and a couple others I haven't noticed before. Kiku pointed to France who was winking and holding a rose in a flirty manner that mimicked Francis.
"I made these characters to represent countries, I hope you don't mind but I based France's looks after yours as well as every other country on here is based off of looks of people I know now," Kiku explained to Francis who stared at France thoughtfully before his blue eyes sparkled.
"Wow, you made me so handsome and I'm guessing the one that says Canada is based off of Matthew's looks and that bushy brow England is from Arthur."
"Exactly," Kiku nodded withdrawing his sketch pad back into his backpack just before the bell rang. Kiku and I grabbed our bags and made our way out of the school and over towards the dining hall, sitting at our regular place once we got our food.
"So Kiku, do you have any plans for over Winter Break?" I asked.
"No not really, I'm probably going to spend Christmas at the dorms, Heracles is spending it at his aunts in San Diego but he can't take me," Kiku said with a bit of a wistful look.
"Well would you like to spend it over at my house? My parents would love to have you over."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I already have Tino and Gilbert staying so I can invite one more friend over."
"Well then I would be honored to stay over at your house."
"Great now I can tell my parents who's coming, now I'm really excited to have you come over Kiku, I'll give you a grand tour of Sacramento when we get there."
"What-cha guys talking about?" Alfred asked as he joined the table with Arthur by his side.
"Kiku staying over at my place during Winter Break as well as Tino and Gilbert too."
"Why Gilbert? He's loud and obnoxious," Alfred sneered.
"Well you don't really know him Alfred so you shouldn't judge people you don't know about," I said feeling very defensive about Gilbert.
"I know he and his buddy Ivan get drunk on Friday nights and that he prowls around with Francis and that pedophile Antonio plus I heard he had sex with his science teacher in middle school and practically fucked almost all of the female population of his school-"
"Alfred shut up!" I exclaimed frustrated and angry.
"That first one was a rumor that started long ago, second, of course he hangs out with Francis and Antonio they’re his best friends and the rest of that is in the past, I mean right now we're in an all-boys school for god’s sake he's not like Francis who will go around "fucking" boys who look like girls."
That was another thing I noticed about Alfred was that he judges Gilbert way more than Francis. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who knows Gilbert and to be honest it makes me a bit jealous seeing Francis and Antonio around him so much. I mean of course there his best friends and all but it makes me feel jealous that there's other people like me who know him like I do. It's infuriating.
I tried to drown out that angry defensive feeling from arguing with Alfred while eating my pizza. It sort of helped, especially while hearing Arthur chew out Alfred's ear on judging people by their past like I said. Apparently Alfred gets the point when Arthur explains it to him, but when I do it just goes in through one ear and out the other. Noticing that I got a little bit jealous of Arthur. I was friends with Alfred before him, but he seems to react better to Arthur, I wonder why that is.
"Veh~ Hi!" Feliciano greeted as he and his brother followed by Ludwig sat down, though Lovino kept shooting hateful words at poor Ludwig whom had no clue why he was being yelled at neither did I as well.
"What are you guys talking about?" Feliciano asked jumping into the conversation.
"Not much, England is just scolding America- oops, I used the wrong names," Kiku blushed furiously at his mistake.
Alfred just laughed out of hilarity, but Arthur was more intrigued.
"Wrong names?" Arthur asked.
Soon all eyes at the table were directed at Kiku in both interest and question. I nudged Kiku lightly.
"Show them the pictures," I said encouragingly.
"What pictures?" Arthur pester on as Kiku retrieved his sketch book.
"Yesterday Kiku came up with a great way to study facts about World War Two," I half explained when Kiku opened up the page with the Allies and Axis Powers of WW2 and showed them to everyone at the table.
"Haha! America looks just like me!" Alfred laughed.
"And England resembles me perfectly, so you drew these Kiku?" Arthur said.
"Yes, I based the looks after you guys, plus I know that Arthur, Feli-san and Ludwig have lineage with these countries so I matched them up naturally."
"Huh, so you didn't know Mattie was Canadian when you put him as Canada?" Alfred said confused.
"Your Canadian?" almost everyone at the table except Alfred and Arthur asked me.
"Y-yes, it's not a subject I get asked often s-so I don't bring it up," I stuttered shyly.
"Really?" Ludwig said a bit shocked.
"Yup," Alfred butted in swinging his arm around me grabbing my cheek with the hand of the arm that was around me. "He even has the cutest accent a Canadian can have."
"Oh! I wanna hear it!" Feliciano exclaimed looking at me with wide golden brown eyes full of eagerness.
I was about to explain that I disliked using my accent but Arthur beat me to the punch.
"He doesn't like his accent so don't bother," he said in a sneer that made me flinch back a bit.
I saw Alfred pinch Arthur’s cheek with his other hand playfully. "Don't be mean Artie not all people can have sexy British accents like you do," Alfred said in a teasing manner that made a light pink blush flush out on Arthur's face.
"What, I think British accents are sexy is there a problem with that?" Alfred said to Arthur. He was probably thinking that Arthur was blushing out of anger instead of embarrassment.
"I prefer Greek accents," Kiku commented just before Heracles joined us at the table sitting by Kiku and locking hands with him.
"Heh, I think the good old fashioned Italian accents are the best in the whole fucking world!" Lovino said smugly.
"Veh, I like Ludwig's German accent, it's so rough and cool sounding," Feliciano said grabbing Ludwig's bicep in a casual manner.
"I like German accents too," I almost said but I just bit on my tongue from saying anything.
WTHS
Dear Matthew,
Your father and I are glad you'll be having your friends over for the break, and from some info you told us we got them some Christmas presents for the holidays. We can't wait to meet your roommate Gilbert he seems like quite the character, and something tells me your dad will have a fun time messing with him like what he does with Alfred. I hope you don't mind but we moved your surprise to your room for the moment so when you come home it will be waiting for you there. Remember to pack your iPod and gum for the flight tomorrow so your ears won't pop so badly.
I'll see you tomorrow night.
With love,
Mom
I smiled giddily when I received that email from my mom. Tomorrow was both the last day of school before Winter Break and right away when school is over Alfred, Tino, Kiku, Gilbert and I are taking a shuttle down to the airport with our bags. I couldn't wait, I want to know what my surprise is and to make some of my famous maple pancakes I've been craving a lot lately. I heard a buzz go off on my desk so I turned my head to see that I had received a text.
Tino: There's an emergency meeting in the club room in thirty seconds
I checked my clock to see that the time was eleven thirty PM.
I crept out of my room after closing my laptop, being careful not to wake up Gilbert and sneak off into the club room's secret entrance. When I entered the room I noticed something different. All the mountainous piles of pillows and visions were gone, now instead only a couple of couches, mattresses, pillows and visions remained. I could actually see the ground which was wooden and I could also spot a shelf of books and DVDs in the corner of the room. Everyone was sitting on a cushion around a low Japanese styled table with candles kiting up the room all around. I caught onto the conversation when I took my spot next to the free cushion between Kiku and Tino.
"So what kind of masks do we have for it?" Yao asked.
"We have three cats, three rabbits, two dogs and four butterfly masks," Arthur listed off.
"We are doing an assignment to get the club's name around campus," Kiku whispered to catch me up on what I missed.
"We're planning on stapling pink posters of our club's name around school, placing stickers on student's backs and I think the group that gets the butterfly masks to wear are going to glitter bomb the football team while they’re getting undressed and leave posters there too," I nodded understanding what Kiku said.
"Ok so all cats are going to place stickers on peoples backs, the rabbits will staple up posters, dogs will be the security prowling around so that no one gets caught and the butterflies will of course glitter bomb the football team in the locker room cheering: "Ukes rule, Semes drool!" very childish I know but that's what you have to say," Arthur said.
"Ok so from this list of divided jobs," Raivis said pulling out a sheet of paper. "Cats will be Yao, Tino and Feliciano, Rabbits will be Kauro, Emil and I, Dogs will be Arthur and Lovino and last but not least our beautiful Butterflies are Kiku, Matthew, Felik and Toris."
I felt my stomach drop. I-I have to deliberately go into the boys locker room while the football team undressed a-and glitter bomb them? I would get killed or worse found out that I'm in the Secret Uke Club and get suspended for glitter bombing the football team saying Ukes rule Semes drool! Great I'm going to die and the last thing I'll probably see is a guy's balls covered in glitter and my blood from killing me... What a nice image.
As I thought that morbid image the masks were passed out and I was given a black and red butterfly mask and three water balloons that didn't seem to be full of water but some other squishy substance.
"There are four buckets in the janitors closet by the locker rooms the water balloons are for backup, the football team will be in there to change out for their game during lunch tomorrow just put on the masks get the glitter and then make a mad dash out the back where Arthur and Lovino will be waiting for you guys by the secret passage, any questions?"
"Yeah, like, why are there, like, so many secret passages on campus?" Felik asked.
"Honestly Felik," Raivis said a bit fazed. "We have no fucking clue but they’re there."
WTHS
Lunch time.
I was shaking and quivering like a leaf in the wind. I had three glitter bombs in my pocket and a butterfly mask tucked under my shirt while the strings hung from my neck. Kiku and I were not very pleased with the arrangements of things, and only Felik and Toris seem ok with the plan. Lovino and Arthur went ahead of us to see if the football team was getting undressed yet. They soon came back out and gave us the thumbs up. We worked quickly getting the buckets filled with pink glitter with hot pink flyers that said Secret Uke Club on them.
Why did everything have to be pink?
Kiku and I slid on our masks along with Felik and Toris before quietly creeping into the locker room. The muscly football team players were in the middle of stripping down when we snuck in. My heart beat was pounding deeply in my chest. The football players haven't noticed us yet and not one of us "Butterflies" made the action to throw the glitter. That was until Felik went all AWOL.
"Ukes rule Semes drool!" he cried out in a blood thirsty war cry before pelting the first row of surprised football players with flyers and glitter that just filled the room like a giant, pink, sparkly smoke bomb.
I found it contagiously funny and it seemed fun so I was the next person to glitter bomb them when the cloud of the first blow went down.
"For the Uke Club!" I cheered with a little bit of laughter in my voice when I nearly chucked the whole bucket at them. That's when things got a little bit chaotic. The football guys got a bit angry and starting cussing and move at us through the glitter. Kiku pelted his bucket at them for defense and Toris did the same as us Butterflies tried to retreat out the back door. With adrenaline pumping we dropped our buckets and schemed out the backdoor to meet Lovino and Arthur in their Dog masks waving at us. Once we had reached them, Lovino began pushing against the brick wall of the school until I noticed that he was pushing open an entrance that led to a dark tunnel. When all six of us were huddled into the small dark and cramped space we began crawling down the small tumbling path.
Everything was pitch black in there until small rays of light came up ahead near the end, which turned out to be an air vent leading out into the back hallway of the school. When we had rolled out of the vent after popping out the cover, only to noticed that we were covered in dust and cobwebs. Lovino cursed at the mess his clothes were in as the rest of us dusted off the dust and cobwebs from our uniforms. After that we tucked away our masks and had a long laugh.
"That was the craziest thing ever!" Toris exclaimed.
"Did you like see their faces they were like what the fuck!" Felik giggled manically.
"I quoted Sparta in there," I snorted a bit in laughter.
"I am going to laugh whenever I see my boyfriend now," Kiku smiled with a giggle.
"I'm just glad I didn't see any of their sweaty glittery balls," Lovino commented only making us laugh harder at the thought.
WTHS
"Mattie, Mattie, Mattie, Mattie, Mattie, Mattie-"
"For the love of god, Alfred what is it?" I said very frustrated.
"Hi," Alfred giggled with the dumbest expression on his face.
I leaned back in my seat to swat him over on the head. This hour of torment was getting boring and very dull by the second. Having Alfred sit behind me in an airplane for the last hour was annoying. My patience was stressing by the minute, at least I get to sit by Tino and Gilbert though Tino doesn't do so well in airplanes so he's been in the bathroom every fifteen minutes and Gilbert was plugged into his iPod and looking out the window the whole time. Kiku on the other hand was sleeping in the seat next to Alfred whom was sandwiched between Kiku and an old lady that kept calling him Jacob for some reason.
"Jacob why don't you stop flirting with that lady in front of you and sit tight, I heard Haiti is really nice this time of year," the old lady said to Alfred who gave her an odd look.
"Uh mam that's not a girl that's a dude and we're going to Sacramento not Haiti," Alfred explained.
"Silly Jacob," she laughed a throaty laugh in her dry voice.
Then in a weird notion the old lady leaned over and kissed Alfred on the mouth! I snorted and laughed, hitting Gilbert's arm to get his attention and poked Kiku, having him wake up instantly with a jerk in shock. Gilbert took out his earphones and started laughing at Alfred as he waved his arms around in panic. There was a flash and Kiku had a camera in his hands.
Tino was walking back wearily with his face a bit green and suddenly he covered his mouth with his hands, grabbed the old lady who was kissing Alfred's purse and barged in it. Kiku took multiple pictures as Tino put the purse back and sat back down passing out in his seat. The old lady let go of Alfred's face and Gilbert and I howled loudly with laughter at the red lipstick smeared over his lips like a clown. Kiku took more pictures.
A flight attendant came over to investigate the situation, long story short she separated the old lady from sexually harassing Alfred any further and Kiku sent the pictures to my cellphone which I sent to my email for possible blackmail for later.
WTHS
"Matthew!" a familiar voice called out.
All five of us were out in the parking lot with our luggage waiting for my mom to pick me up. That was until a silver Ford Fusion Hybrid drove up with my mom behind the wheel. My mother was a very wild woman. I inherited her curly blonde hair, cute face frame and slightly lavender/blue eyes, but never her reckless and wild nature just the looks, but once I saw her in that Hybrid I knew she did something reckless.
"Mom?" I said a bit bewildered at the new car she drove.
My mom put the brakes on the car and got out of the car. She wore her favorite mid length red skirt, black tank top, a pair of sunglasses and her worn out flip flops that had no more flop in them. Her long blonde hair was pulled back by chopsticks and she had the necklace with the Canadian flag dad gave her long ago around her neck. She raced over to me and gave me a tight hug. When she pulled away her smile disappeared into a frown and she grabbed my cheeks with her hands pinching them tightly.
"What did I tell you sweetie, you look cuter when it looks like your blushing," she smiled.
"Mom," I whined in embarrassment.
She ignored me and gave Alfred a hug next.
"Hi there Alfred it's good to see you," she greeted him.
She turned to my other friends and stared at them a moment, before smiling and started shaking their hands.
"Hi, I'm Matthew's mom Shelby, but please just call me Miss Shelby or something along those lines," she introduced herself.
"Yes, my name is Kiku, thank you for letting me stay at your house," Kiku said with a bow.
"I'm Tino, thank you as well for letting me stay at your home," Tino said next.
"And I'm the awesome Gilbert, thank you for letting me stay as well," Gilbert said not losing his cocky attitude.
"Wow, I didn't know your roommate was so handsome Matthew," my mom teased me before grabbing one side of Gilbert's cheek playfully before grinning.
"Yup, I know my husband is just going to love you," she snickered evilly.
"Ok boys load up," she said detaching her grip on Gilbert's cheek.
On the drive to my house Kiku was taking multiple pictures, Gilbert was arguing with Alfred who had to ride in the back with the luggage because there wasn't any extra seats for him up here, and Tino was chatting with my mom. I was looking out the window remembering every single building and houses we passed. The first stop we made was at Alfred's house where I had to let him out of the back and say goodbye before he walked into his house.
While my mom was parking in our driveway she leaned over to me to whisper something.
"Go inside and see your room I'm sure you'll love your surprise."
With a bid grin on my face I unbuckled my belt and ran out in through the front door, passing by my dad who was carrying some boxes out the door.
"Hey son!" he greeted me as I flew up the carpeted stairs. I dashed across the hallway and flung open my bedroom door.
"Oh, hello Mattie~"

Chapter 17: Its Christmas Part 2

"Oh, hello Mattie~"
I took a double take.
There sitting on his bed among the giant herd of stuffed bed was a girl that resembled him perfectly except for the cleavage and better legs, not to mention the curves. She held her own pink bear in her hands and held happy eyes behind her glasses.
Madeline.
"Maddie!" I exclaimed running over to jump on my bed and give my sister the biggest hug I could muster. I sat back still keeping my arms around her and smiling widely.
"I can't believe your actually here!" I said still a bit baffled.
"I know, mom flew me here last week since my school gets out a week earlier than yours for Winter Break, so I'm your surprise," she said jabbing her fingers together in a cute way that made me give her another big hug. Madeline laughed and made a comment about me having more bears than her. I was so happy at the moment, I never get to see Madeline or have much contact with her, but I love the times when we get to spend time together, she was like that other half of me. Then again mom always mixed us up because of our similar hair and eye color, she even has the same hair curl as me and wears glasses as well, so it was easy to mix us up.
"Oh Maddie, you have to come meet my friends," I said grabbing her hand and leading her out of my bedroom.
"Sure," she said cutely.
We soon found ourselves over in the kitchen where Gilbert was put in a headlock by my dad and Kiku and Tino were watching by the bar while eating some chips... Well Kiku was taking a lot of pictures more than watching. Dad soon immediately let Gilbert go when mom walked into the kitchen with her arms crossed.
"And that's how you.. Brush.. Your.. Teeth," dad hesitated in his words when he said this.
"Uh huh, I'm sure that's what you were teaching the boy, none of that "Don't mess with Canadians" stuff, right sweetie?" mom said to dad with sarcasm.
"It's all about the pride my Maple leaf," dad said exchanging a quick peck with mom before turning his attention my way.
"Matthew my boy, have you been getting more buffer in the chest area?" he asked talking to Madeline and placing a hand on her shoulder to indicate that he was in fact talking to her not me.
"Dad, I'm over here," I said making dad jump in realization that I was there.
"Oh I'm sorry Matthew I didn't see you there, hmm you haven't changed much you sure you can beat me one on one game at the rink?"
"Of course I can!" I huffed puffing out my chest. "I'm much more better with my speed and acceleration than last time! I can be the man of the house too."
Dad just scoffed and ruffled my hair. "We'll see about that squirt, go chop up the meat for the stew your mom and I need to go discuss things," he whispered.
"Ok," I nodded moving toward the sink to wash up.
"Hey Mattie who's your clone?" Gilbert asked as I brought the cutting board up on the counter so I could face the bar.
"That's my sister Madeline, Madeline these are my friends," I introduced.
"H-hi, i-it is very n-nice to meet you all eh," she said with a slight blush.
"Hi I'm Tino," Tino introduced himself right away. "Your accent is cute by the way."
Madeline nodded and blushed a bit harder.
"Do you need any help brother?" she asked as I cleaned the meat in the sink.
"No, no, no Maddie you remember last time I let you help cook," I said making Madeline's blush go volcano red,
"B-but I like cooking."
"Sorry Maddie, but I can't have the meat be seasoned in cinnamon or have sweet and sour sauce in the broth."
Madeline just puffed out her cheeks with a furious blush. As I cut the meat up on the cutting board I noticed my sister wasn't wearing her usual red sweatshirt and was instead in a dark gray t-shirt with blue shaded anime characters and the words Eden of the East on it with Japanese text under the words. I remembered that show, Madeline once watched it with me last time we visited each other, Eden of the East was good but I couldn't help but start laughing at the scene with those white inhuman creatures. I chuckled at the memory.
"Hey Mattie," Madeline whispered keeping her voice from reaching my friend's ears. "Is he from Japan?" she asked gesturing over at Kiku.
I nodded in response. Madeline smiled brightly before walking over to Kiku and tapping him on the shoulder. Once she had his attention she bowed.
"Kon'nichiwa watashinonamaeha maderindesu," she said still blushing when she stood back up straight from her bow.
"Ah. Sono anata ni aete ureshī, watashinonamaeha kikudesu," Kiku replied with a smile.
I lifted an eyebrow at my sister and Gilbert and Tino returned the same puzzled look at Kiku and Madeline.
"W-well I'm in the exchange student program s-so I wanted to try out one my greetings I had t-to learn, d-did you think it was acceptable Kiku?" she stuttered nervously.
"Hai, it was very good," Kiku said.
This made Madeline smile widely with a happy expression.
"Hey Tino is from Finland and Gilbert knows German try your other greetings on them," I suggested.
"Oh um..." Madeline went over to Gilbert pausing to think. "Hallo mein Name ist Madeline."
"Ease up with mein it's supposed to just flow off the tongue like, mein," Gilbert said.
"Oh ok, Hallo mein Name ist Madeline."
"Awesome you got it," Gilbert praised her.
Madeline went over to Tino next and blushed.
"Um... Hei... Hei nimeni on Madeline."
Tino grinned clapping his hands over Madeline's. "That was perfect Maddie, do you know any other languages?" he asked.
"Merde! ont été l'enfer ne le chat aller! Je jure que si il est hors imprégnation le chat des voisins à nouveau je vais devoir lui baiser castrés et stérilisés!" Dad's voice boomed throughout the house echoing in the kitchen with his French.
Madeline and I sighed. I stuck the knife in my hand into the cutting board, Madeline went to go set the table by climbing onto the kitchen counter to reach the plates up in the high cabinets. Suddenly the sound of dad running through the house came near and our brown tabby Floppy ran into the kitchen jumping onto the bar and stopped in front of Kiku. Madeline and I made motions for him to hide the cat, luckily Kiku understood and grabbed the cat hiding Floppy in his jacket.
"Foutez le camp de retour ici vous baise chat!" Dad yelled running into the kitchen with a broom in one hand and a dead mouse in the other.
"Papa ne maudissant en français," Madeline and I said in synch at dad.
Hearing us, dad suddenly became tame and put down the broom with a goofy smile.
"Sorry kids, please excuse my French earlier, but our cat left another "toy" in the bathtub," dad said gesturing at the dead mouse.
Seeing the dead bird Maddie left the plates on the table and went over to dad to take the mouse whispering soft French words before throwing it in the trash and washing her hands.
"Well I'm gonna go make an appointment with the vet, so if you excuse me," dad said going off to find the cat.
At that moment Floppy managed to wiggle out of Kiku's jacket and jump out the open window.
WTHS
I made sure to wake up at seven the next day so I could make Christmas pancakes with dad but I didn't find him in the kitchen. I took a peak in mom and dad's bedroom but only mom was asleep in bed. I sighed going back to the kitchen. Last night during dinner dad was talking about making pancakes with me in the morning, but where could he be?
I picked up a sticky not that was on the kitchen table and read it.
Hey Mattie, I gotta get the restaurant open and ready today, sorry I can't be there to make the pancakes with you
-Love Dad
I felt a bit disappointed that dad wasn't here to make pancakes with me, but then again I either make the pancakes by myself or let mom and Madeline do it and well... We'd have to get a new kitchen. So I took out the electric skillet and turned it on, took out the ingredients for my famous maple pancakes and got out the pancake shapers for Christmas trees. After making the batter I took out a squeeze bottle and filled it with the batter testing out the air pressure by squeezing out a small amount into the sink. I took a small amount of butter and greased the skillet before placing down the shapers across the spacious surface of the hot skillet and squeezed proper amounts of batter into each shapers hearing the sizzle when the batter made contact to the heat. Carefully I slide off the shapers once the edges were golden brown and flipped the pancake trees over expertly. Once those were done I put them on a big serving plate and started another round. The first person to greet me was Tino in his pink tank top and polar bear pj bottoms.
"Morning Mattie," Tino yawned cutely sitting on the bar to watch me make pancakes.
"Good morning," I replied.
"Hmm," Tino hummed jumping off his seat and walking around the bar to stand next to me watching the pancakes along with me. Once those were done and put onto the plate something happened.
Tino reached up and grabbed my face gently making my face turn down towards him. I felt his breath fan across my face as he leaned in close to my face. For some reason my heart kept pounding against the bone cage of my ribs. I felt the hand cupped over my cheek move a bit and Tino's finger brush against my cheek gently before removing that hand from my face showing a bit of batter on the finger that had swept over my cheek. I watched Tino's pink tongue sweep over his bottom lip before bringing his finger to his mouth, cleaning off the batter from his finger... In a suggestive way I might add.
"Good batter," Tino said when he was done, the other hand that was still on my face slide around to snake around my neck.
"Uh thanks...?"
"Wanna taste?"
Before I could retested anything sane at the moment, Tino leaned up and his arm pressed my head down to meet him half way for a kiss. It was different from my first kiss with Francis, not that I was making comparisons already! Ok well does it make me a bad person if I do? I mean the way Francis's had kissed me seemed more agile and used to the feel of kissing, while Tino had this soft way about it with the small movements with his lips against mine. It was like receiving kisses from a butterfly, soft, fluttery and for some reason beautiful.
"Meow!"
Tino and I jumped apart, breaking the kiss, startled by Floppy who was sitting by his empty food bowl meowing in his squeaky and high pitched meow he always had. Blushing and feeling bait shaken down by Tino's eyes staring at me as I went over to feed the cat. Luckily though mom and Kiku came into the kitchen to watch and wait for the pancakes to be done.
When the serving plate was stacked like a mountain everyone attacked with forks and butter knives, before I pulled the plate away and served myself first.
"Savages," I said getting a few giggles out of them.
When I had a high enough stack of Christmas tree pancakes soaked to the cake in maple syrup (the real stuff not the knock off kind that Wal-Mart sells) I set my plate down and went to go wake up Gilbert. Last night everyone slept on my bedroom floor on the low up mattresses my mom blew up for them since Madeline took the only guest room we have for her stay. In my room Gilbert was out of the covers sprawled out over the blowup mattress like a beached whale exposing some of his stomach and snoring lightly in the morning rays peaking from my curtains.
With a slightly evil grin I crouched down at the end of the mattress and sprung forward jumping on Gilbert. Gilbert sat up quickly in a startled manner.
"Nein!" he yelled sounding a bit like his brother.
I laughed jumping back off him. "Good morning, I made pancakes so come eat," I said before leaving to go join the others downstairs for breakfast.
WTHS
We spent most of the day helping with chores and setting up decorations for my mom before she even agreed to drive us down to dad's restaurant to go see how things were.
"Woah, woah, I knew your dad owned a restaurant but no one told me it was the Maple Leaf Pancake House! I heard this place was one of the best pancake houses in the world!" Gilbert gasped once we had parked in front of dad's restaurant.
"Sweetie, who do you think makes the pancakes?" mom said to Gilbert though the review mirror, winking before getting out of the car.
By the time we entered the restaurant it was half full and almost time to close up. We waited in the waiting room watching every single customer leave with a smile on their faces until dad walked in with a white apron covered in batter and had the biggest smile in the world on his face. Mom got up and exchanged a kiss with dad before we all went in and sat in the booth of the now closed restaurant. It was all completely empty except for us and the workers who had stayed after cleaning up to have a bite to eat and socialize. I remembered that two girls I went to school with were waitresses here and I was really good friends with them in middle school so I guess it wouldn't hurt to go say hi. Then again because they got jobs here also meant a few boys from the same school worked here too... Should I risk it? Eh what the hell, my dad is their boss so if they want to beat up their boss's son and get fired fine by me.
"Hi!" I greeted the two girls who perked up hearing my voice.
"Matthew!" Bella exclaimed jumping up to tightly hug me.
I laughed gently and hugged Bella back letting go just to be hugged again by Lily. When they had pulled back I noticed that Bella's short blonde hair had grown a bit since I last saw her and that Lily had her hair cut... Sort of in the fashion her brother Vash's hair was cut. I always knew Lily loved her brother deeply, but sometimes her brother could get a bit too overprotective, which explains why he was shooting daggers at me with his eyes a table over.
"I am so happy to see you Matthew," Lily smiled sweetly in joy.
"I'm really happy to see you guys," I grinned.
"So are you home schooled now? I'm asking cause I don't see you around Sacramento High, some of the guys thought you were at a gay camp in the south," Bella growled a bit at her last statement.
"No, I'm nowhere near there, I'm actually going to an all-boys school in San Francisco," I explained.
"Really? What's it like?" Lily asked.
"It's really fun, uniforms aren't really much of a pain though cause then I don't have to waste a morning stressing over an outfit and everyone is pretty nice."
"That's good, did you make any friends?"
"Yeah, a few of them are here now if you want to o meet them," I said pointing over to the table where they were.
I hung back as Lily and Bella went ahead to go meet them.
"Hey," I heard Vash callout to me. I turned my attention towards him, he was still glaring at me though. "Don't flirt with my sister," he growled.
I held up my hands defensively. "L-look there seems to b-be a misunderstanding here, you see it's not like I don't find your sister attractive but I don't swing that way i-if you catch my drift," I stuttered awkwardly feeling so nervous and sweaty at the same time.
I watched Vash's angry face smooth out and calm down a bit in reassurance of my words. "Oh, sorry," he mumbled.
I was about to turn and leave when Vash called out to me again.
"Hey Matthew," he said.
"That Steven kid from that group last year, I heard his balls dropped off after a dog bit him in the crotch and he caught an HIV," Vash said making me smile just a little.
WTHS
"Bonzai!" Gilbert yelled before jumping into the pool.
It was dark by the time we all piled back into my mom’s hybrid and came home. So since we really didn't have anything to do I called over Alfred and suggested we take a dip in our pool. That's right we had a pool in our backyard, what did you expect, a backyard with a white picket fence and a sheep dog named Chef? Hell no, it's a real wooden fence and his name was Sleepy not Chef and he was a sable Shetland sheepdog to be precise.
Anyways here I was playing Marco polo with Tino who kept cheating whenever I was Marco so he could hug me from behind and then yell "Polo". Suddenly all I saw was red white and blue before a giant spray of water toppled over Tino and I.
"Alfred!" I yelled blinking out the water from my eyes.
Alfred's wet head bobbed up from the water smiling a big goofy grin.
"Let's play chicken!" he suggested loudly.
Before I could protest Tino climbed up on my shoulders and (somehow) Gilbert was on Alfred's shoulders screaming and yelling while pushing and fighting in Tino while I wavered unbalanced by every way Tino's weight shifted on my shoulders. But of course (being stronger and all) Gilbert had pushed or rather knocked Tino from my shoulders yelling out victory cheers before Alfred had enough of him and just dumped him in the water carelessly.
When we were done with getting all wet and chlorine soaked we finally got out of the pool and washed off in the shower (separately) before moving down to the basement to watch a movie. Alfred had already gone home by then so it was just the three of us, not counting Kiku since he went to bed already and we were watching a scary movie, which I really wasn't up for but I can spend an hour watching guts fly... In the dark... In between Gilbert and Tino... One of which had kissed me that morning... I still don't know what to think of that.

Chapter 18: Its Christmas Part 3

Violent screaming emerged the next second from the speakers of the TV and next thing I knew Tino and I jumped when a face appeared on the screen. As much as I wanted to go ranting that I was not afraid of a horror movie that would make my grandmother yawn, I really couldn't take my eyes off the screen at the intensity of the scene showing right at this moment.
I would also like to keep in account that sometimes it isn't so fun to be the one in between your two friends during a horror movie. I mean one would try and cuddle up to you while the other is trying to pull you closer to themselves. It was so aggravating to be the rope in this tug of war game. What should I do!
"Hey Mattie, can you grab that blanket for me?" Tino whispered still a bit fixated on the movie.
I nodded and grabbed the blanket that was hanging from the back of the couch. I handed it over to Tino who smiled and gave me a peck on my cheek.
"Thank you~" he said pulling the blanket over himself leaving some to drape over my lap.
Then before I even blinked, Tino had laid his head on my lap facing up at me beaming brightly. His eyes held the same look they had this morning before he engaged that kiss. A bit of a dark lusty like look mixed with an odd glimmer the same I recognized in Francis's eyes when he stared at me too long. I can't place what it was but the way I see that odd glimmer I feel very embarrassed for some reason. I felt the heat rush to my face in a quick blush before I hastily drew my eyes back at the screen.
It didn't take long before something else happened.
Out of nowhere blood splattered on the screen for a dramatic effect for the movie, but I just freaked out and jumped up nearly throwing Tino on the ground and basically ended up on Gilbert's lap fisting his shirt in my hands and shaking like a leaf. In response, Gilbert just chuckled and patted me on my head before giving me a peck on my head. I blushed furiously. D-do friends kiss each other on the top of their heads? I had no clue, I never had guy friends for this long only girl friends and they've kissed me on the cheek and head before, but I don't think it's the same for guys.
I stayed there for a while until I was calm and laughed the short scare off nervously before returning to my spot on the couch. I felt very odd, freaked out and completely embarrassed at the same time.
I was so glad to go to bed after the movie.
WTHS
The next day I got to make pancakes with my dad after waiting for so long. It's not very fun to make pancakes by yourself. This morning we were making Christmas bell shaped pancakes with added red and green M&Ms to the batter to give more color to the pancakes. This morning we had a bigger crowd to watch us flip pancakes with Gilbert, Madeline, Kiku and Floppy whom was snuggling into Kiku's arms. Tino soon came down and sat by Madeline to watch the pancake flipping.
"Is pancakes a regular thing around here?" Gilbert asked leaning into his fist on the table with a bored expression.
I caught the small spark in my dad's eyes.
Gilbert you're toast.
I moved to take care of the flipping as dad withdrew from the skillet still holding his spatula. He threw the spatula at me which I, thankfully, caught with ease.
"Matthew, why don't you show our guests your flip trick," dad said, taking a seat by Gilbert, slinging an arm around his shoulders in a suspiciously friendly way.
I knew dad would do this, I thought waiting for the right moment. He does this all the time to Alfred as well, messing around with them like I was his innocent daughter and they were my boyfriends.
I flushed red at that thought. As far as physical attraction went I still liked Alfred, and yes I have thought and imagined him and I together, but Gilbert... No, no, no, no, I can't think of him in that way, he is my best friend and I'm sure he's straight with all those magazines and porn under his bed.
Quickly with one spatula I flipped over a pancake, but instead of letting it turn over hastily with a splat, I tossed it up in the air and flipped another one up, catching both back on the spatulas and laying them down to cook on the other side. Then one by one I juggled five more in the air at different heights. I kept my eyes on the half cooked pancakes flying up and used both my hands to juggle them around a bit for show.
I remembered when I was a kid on my birthday dad asked me what I wanted to eat for breakfast, obviously I said pancakes, but instead of making them the quick way, dad juggled them around for me with only one spatula. He said that’s what he does for customers now and since then he has a window for the customers to watch him from the bar table by the kitchen. Since then I wanted to juggle pancakes with one spatula, but I can only do two spatulas right now.
Madeline clapped excessively when I had them all back on the skillet. Tino and Kiku joined her, Gilbert didn't because dad had an iron grip around him grinning like they were the best friends.
"So Gale, I bet you’re a sports guy or maybe a jock back at school, so tell me Gale what sport do you like?" dad said giving a little squeeze to Gilbert's shoulders.
"Uh it's Gilbert and I don't play any sports or have a favorite one to be exact unless you call being awesome a sport then I'm a gold medalist at that," Gilbert grinned cheekily at that.
Oh boy
"Well Gale in this house we play the best sport around here, wanna take a guess," dad smiled a bit too evilly.
"Foosball?" Gilbert guessed ignoring the fact that dad called him Gale again.
"No, we play good ol' hockey around here, ever played?"
Oh I see what dad is doing now, I thought smiling a bit at my father's merciless plan I already guessed on.
"Nope."
"Good to Know," dad grinned and I could practically see the gears turning in his head.
Mom came in and took a seat yawning while breaking between English and French while speaking to Madeline as well as some other languages... Did she just speak Russian?
"Перейдем, le principal lui a dit et un élève dit, "That's what she said!" dieser Schüler in den Rücken schreit, et je ris mon cul avec mes élèves, кричать "хороший Steve!" Ah- hahahahahaha!" mom laughed getting odd looks from my friends.
"Mon amour, English please we have guests," dad said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I teach World Language at the high school so I sometimes slip in between languages here and there, oooh pancakes," she said excitedly defying over and snatching one from the skillet saying "hot hot hot," before eating it.
"There 'eady," mom said with a mouthful of pancake while waving air into her mouth with her hand.
The serving plate was at least five pounds of pancakes topped over pancake on the plate. The stack was so big we had to split the stack in two and have two serving plates of pancakes on the table. Bottles of our homemade maple syrup were passed and I giggled when Gilbert drowned his pancakes in the sticky substance.
"So what should we do today?" mom wondered out loud after polishing her first three pancakes within the minute of eating.
"Dad was saying something about hockey," Madeline commented casually getting a second serving already.
"Not near the house, last time you broke the window last time when your father was playing with Alfred," mom warned.
"Ah~Amour~ I said I was sorry~," dad cooed.
"Sweetie, it wasn't the puck that broke the window, you’re lucky that boy has such thick skin," after mom said that you could practically hear Gilbert's nervous swallow.
"Mind me asking what happened?" Tino asked.
"Oh, well last year Alfred and dad were playing hockey out on the streets and well... Long story short dad Kronwalled Alfred through our window," I explained.
Kiku started choking on his orange juice, Tino's eyes went wide and a dark gloomy cloud hung over Gilbert's head. Dad patted Kiku on the back asking if he was ok and Kiku replied saying hai over and over until his throat was cleared. Tino stayed quiet and continued eating, but the rest of us, besides Gilbert, were still acting happy and eating off most of the pancakes.
After eating we all got dressed and waited downstairs while mom and Madeline showered (no not in the same bathroom we have three bathrooms for a reason). Gilbert took this time to call his brother.
"Hey Luddy~ Frohe Weihnachten!" Gilbert practically yelled into the phone. “Yes I brought more than one pair this time- West! Nein, only you would ask such a question."
The rest of Gilbert's conversation was in German and for a while I liked the sound of it. It was rough and I liked the way it sounded coming from Gilbert instead of the angry spouts from his brother on the other line.
"Lieben you too bro, bye," Gilbert said hanging up.
He looked up and caught me red handed at me looking at him before I could make it look like I was admiring something else. Gilbert grinned at me and was about to make a comment on my actions when mom and Madeline joined us.
Mom told dad to take our activities to the park so he doesn't end up doing something dangerous in public. Half of us were split up into two groups for our drive there. Mom, Tino Gilbert and I drove in mom's new car while dad, Madeline and Kiku went in dad's car and stopped to bring Alfred along as well.
We soon arrived at the park just as a few clouds began to roll in front of the sky and darken things a bit. Dad got out the hockey sticks and tossed us each one except for mom and Madeline who declined saying the they'll referee. We then divided into teams of three. Tino, Alfred and I against dad, Gilbert and Kiku. Tino and Kiku were goalies while the rest of us played forwards.
Then all hell broke loose.
WTHS
By the end of the day when the sun was starting to go down Alfred and Gilbert had packs of ice all over their bodies. Luckily we got so into the game that Kiku and Tino kept playing goalie and didn't get any major damage. I only had a split lip from hitting the pavement too roughly and a scratch on my arm. Dad on the other hand came out of it without a single reason why Alfred and Gilbert were beat pretty bad was because they kept getting into fights during the game.
That and my dad Kronwalls people like he was the hulk.
When will I get that strong?
We were back home now and dad was having a long conversation with Alfred and Gilbert in the backyard while I looked for the first aid kit. Tino, Kiku and Madeline were having a nice conversation in the living room while I did this, though I had no idea where mom is.
"Looking for this," I heard mom say behind me.
I turned around and saw her hold up a white box with a red cross on it.
"Yes thanks mom," I said reaching out to get it, but she pulled back leaving me to look up at her confused.
"You know your father and I love you no matter who you are Matthew," she began.
"Where is this going...?" I trailed off.
"You like those boys right?"
I let my jaw drop. How did she...
"Thought so. I knew Alfred seemed like more of a friend to you when you first introduced him and that Gilbert was more than an egotistical pervert with a good heart in your emails, dad thought so too, so he's giving them the "man speech" he was going to give your sisters boyfriends if he met them."
"But dad's not even Maddie's-"
"Birdie!" I was cut off by Gilbert's shout.
"Yeah?" I said as Gilbert walked over to my mom and I.
"Can I see your baby pictures?"
"What! No you cannot!" I yelled quietly.
"Aw, but I got a black eye," he whined pointing at his bruising eye area.
"Well I have a busted lip."
"I can kiss it to make you feel better," Gilbert said grinning with a wink.
"No I'm fine," I squeaked.
My mom laughed loudly and handed over the first aid kit to me.
"Patch up the poor soul Mattie," she said giving me a pat on my back before wandering off.
I sighed.
"C'mon I need to bandaged up before you start bleeding on the carpet," I said tugging at Gilbert's sleeve to follow me into the bathroom.
I took a washcloth and wetted it in the sink before I dabbed at the scraps on Gilbert's arms and face. I then opened up the first aid kit and took out a bottle of disinfectant.
"This will sting," I warned before pouring some on a deep cut on his arm.
Gilbert didn't let out a peep, but I felt his muscles strain and move intensely under my fingers. As I dabbed more disinfectant on his wounds I noticed how well toned Gilbert was. Of course he wasn't as big and burly looking as his brother, but in a way I knew he was stronger than Ludwig.
I couldn't help myself from touching up his bicep when I was done putting disinfectant on him. When his red eyes looked down and met mine I jumped back feeling caught by such an action. But instead of laughing at me Gilbert pulled me back leaning his head down until he was dangerously close to me.
I couldn't think or breath, my thoughts fled far away from my skull by now and all I could do was feel Gilbert's hand on my shoulder pull me in closer and his other hand come down to grab my waist gently. I felt myself pull a bit more into Gilbert until...
I was kissing Gilbert.

Impressum

Texte: Euphoria Writer
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 26.05.2012

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Widmung:
once again, not mine ;) Well this is the second installment of it. This story was originally 150 pgs long on word, so i cut in half so as not to overwhelm some of you. I don't know if this is the ending, but there was a kinda extra chapter that i decided to leave out cuz was...strange? dont worry, you won't miss anything. Message me for any translations. Hope you enjoy. </3