Daily Shenanigans of the Awesome Trio

Friday, September 14, 3:04 pm EST

Gilbert sighed as he laid down on his living room sofa. He had just arrived home from school and couldn't stand to wait for Alfred's party tomorrow. If he slept now, perhaps the day would come by faster?

Before the albino could put his theory to the test, an angry brunet loomed over him. "What do you think you're doing?" Roderich said, voice laced with annoyance.

Gilbert blinked in confusion. Tuesday night, the teens had come up with a schedule on when their tutoring would take place. "Leave me alone, specs. It's Lud's turn today. Have you forgot?"

The brunet huffed and shook his head. "No, Ludwig told us yesterday that he would be staying after school for soccer practice. Have you forgot?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

The albino groaned in annoyance, and followed Roderich into the basement. The pianist had already gotten out a stack of books along with freshly sharpened pencils for the two to begin their work.

"How come you didn't try out for soccer, Gilbert? Yesterday, you wouldn't stop bragging about how 'awesome' you are at it." Roderich said as he flipped open an ecology textbook.

Gilbert sighed. "I am! I swear! It's just... Sports aren't my main interest, y'know? Like, it's not my passion."

"Then what is?" Roderich asked, looking over at the albino. Gilbert shrugged, and the brunet rolled his eyes. "You can't not have a passion. How about art? Do you like any form of art?"

"Nope." Gilbert replied, shaking his head.

"Well, you need to do something. Unless you want to stay an absolute bum for the rest of your life." The teen stated, as he adjusted his glasses. "Now then. Let's see how much you've been paying attention. Why does a magnetic compass point to the Geographic North Pole?"

The albino panicked, for he had not payed attention to anything his tutor had said yesterday. "Erm... because... when the Balkans attacked..." He attempted answering matter-of-factly.

Roderich gave him a mortified look and shook his head. "What- no! That's not even- forget it. What was the tilt axis angle of the Earth pre-ice age?"

Gilbert thought for a minute, trying his best to not seem like a complete idiot. "Sixty-nine degrees?"

Roderich sighed and closed the textbook. He walked over to the desk and grabbed a couple sheets of music, then deposited them and himself by the piano. "You were close. But not close enough." The teen sighed and began playing a song. Gilbert was not able to recognize the tune, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

As Roderich finished tickling the ivories, Gilbert stared at him in confusion. "What was that all about?" The albino mused. "I thought you were just helping me with Earth Science."

"Well yes, I was. But you were stressing me out, so I needed something to help relieve myself." Roderich huffed, pulling out a different sheet of music.

Gilbert chuckled. "You relieve yourself by playing the piano?"

Roderich face palmed rolled his eyes, "Not like that, fool! See? I'm going to grow gray hairs at age fifteen thanks to you!"

"Look, specs. I wanna be here just as much as you do, so can we just call it a day and look up the answer key to my homework on Google?" Gilbert suggested.

Roderich shook his head, "Gilbert, you clearly don't understand. If you don't improve in school, everything's going to end badly for the both of us." The brunet sighed and rested his face in his hands. "You'll get held back a year."

Somehow, the albino's face managed to grow even paler. He had heard this constant talk of 'Study, or you'll get left behind,' but he always thought it was just meaningless chastising. They weren't being serious. They couldn't be... Right?

"Wait, wait. What do you mean held back? They're not actually going to..."

The brunet looked at him with sympathy. "Yes, Gilbert. They are. If you don't get above a ninety in either Ecology or Geometry, you're-for the lack of a better term-completely screwed over." Gilbert's eyes widened. There was no way in hell he was ever going to get above an eighty in either of those classes, let alone a ninety.

Of course, Roderich knew this too, and that his tutoring was for a lost cause. Unless... "Don't look so panicked. There's an easy solution to all of this. Your school is allowing you a couple music credits as compensation."

Gilbert cringed at Roderich's words. It wasn't that he didn't like music, in fact, he loved it! The issue was just playing the music on his own. That's what he didn't like.

"Look," Roderich sighed, "I know you don't have interest in an instrument of any kind, but do you really have a choice? Let me show you something on the piano. Grab a song for me to play."

Reluctantly, Gilbert did as he was told, and searched through the stack of papers on the desk, looking for songs that he thought to be most intriguing. Eventually, he found a couple and brought them over to Roderich.

The brunet stared at the songs in astonishment. "All German, I see... Gosh, this Lili Marlene one is super old. You have such odd taste." He said as he placed the music on the stand. He hit the keys a few times to make sure that everything was still in tune, and began playing.

A cycle began between the two. Roderich would begin playing a song, and while only on the first few measures, Gilbert would dismiss it as "lame" and request a different one. After going through this process for about half an hour, Roderich had enough.

"Mein Gott! Why do you have to be so damn difficult! Can't you let me play through a song at least once!?" The teen yelled in frustration.

Gilbert gave him an offended look, "Well if I'm so difficult, then why do you even bother!? Just leave me alone for God's sake!"

"I would, but I can't! I told you! Not only are you hurting yourself by acting like this, you're also hurting me! By tutoring, I gain community service credit that I need in order to get recommended for an actual college. If you don't show any improvement in skill, it tells them my tutoring is worthless, and I'll have to settle for some layman's school." Roderich said with a huff.

The albino felt a twinge of guilt. Sure Roderich was hella annoying, but he didn't deserve punishment for Gilbert's idleness. "Layman's school, what do you mean?"

The brunet sighed, "You know, like Queens College, or a CUNY. Meanwhile, I have a GPA worthy of Mannes, or Juilliard!"

Nevermind what Gilbert thought earlier. Fuck this priss. "What's wrong with a CUNY, or Queens College? Seinfeld graduated from there!" The teen defended.

Roderich replied with a 'tsk', and shook his head. "Let's quit this bantering and get started on more songs."

"Nein!" Gilbert shouted, stomping his foot on the ground.

The other teen raised his eyebrows, "Nein? Are you kidding?"

"No, I'm just not in the mood right now. I'm putting an end to this session." Gilbert said, standing up and walking over to the staircase.

"You're 'not in the mood'? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Roderich questioned, his eyebrows furrowed in anger.

Gilbert shook his head in annoyance. "It means exactly what I said. See you on Tuesday, specs." Before the other teen could interject, Gilbert ran up the staircase and into his room.

Roderich rolled his eyes at the boy's toddler-like behavior and packed away all of his things. He sighed as he walked out of the small house and into his car. This whole tutoring ordeal seems to be hopeless.

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