Hetalia High: Art imitates reality

Smile for the picture!

   Gilbert Beilschmidt. Of course he'd be there, he'd been anywhere and everywhere all over the school ever since he ran into him for the first time in 6th grade. He was past the point of dreading his presence though, by the time he hit highschool Matthew had picked up a neat coping mechanism called being quiet and blending in.

It was better than being singled out and tormented by him and his goons.

   And of course he got away with it every time since he was the kid of Hetalia High's vice principal. Which meant every time an incident got reported or a video started to circulate it would be covered up or deleted.

   Alfred was friends with him in middle school and most of freshman year since they both played baseball. To be honest, Matthew didn't know if Alfred was still friendly with him or not after Matthew had hinted that Gilbert was the one bullying him. Based on the pancakes though, Alfred probably had figured it out.

   Matthew also wasn't sure if Gilbert was homophobic or not since he didn't think Alfred told Gilbert about their dads. Alfred had always been wary about telling kids on his teams because a lot of them were homophobic. Or maybe Gilbert somehow convinced himself that one of their dads was a step dad? Who knows what's going on in Gilbert's head anyways.

   There was still no way he'd go to any of his games though. Even if Gilbert wasn't there, baseball was confusing and kinda boring. Hockey was much more entertaining.

   He'd been zoned out listening to the radio his Dad had put on, but as he zoned back in, he saw the metaphorical shadow of the school looming closer on the horizon.

   Matthew was starting to get nervous now. Like yeah he knew that since everyone in the grade would be there Gilbert wouldn't try anything, but that did nothing to soothe the pit in his stomach that was forming.

   The car pulled around to the front of the school and slowly came to a stop. Alfred hopped out of his seat and said a quick goodbye. Arthur said something along the lines of "Don't do anything stupid"

   Matthew unstrapped his seatbelt and quickly said goodbye to his dad. He didn't even get a response as his dad was too busy yelling at Alfred to wait for him. It was the thought that counts though, right?

   As he and his twin walked into the school along with a couple others in his grade they all quickly noticed that the way things were organized were different from the last couple years. Matthew chalked it up to being an upperclassmen now, so he went along as normal as he could.

   Alfred and Matthew stood in the picture line for what felt like ages. Alfred had somehow run into someone he knew from class and was talking about who knows what with him. Matthew however had headphones in so he couldn't hear anything that was happening. Noise made his hyper awareness of everything worse, so to dull his perception he had both headphones in to drown out the noise.

   He made it further up the line and as he turned the corner to see the photographer, he made eye contact with none other than Gilbert Beilschmidt. Gilbert was busy keeping an eye on where the photographer wanted him to look. But as Matthew stood there stuck in place and Gilbert stood up he looked Matthew dead in the eyes and gave Matthew a wide smirk.

   As soon as Gilbert turned away though, Matthew felt himself able to breathe normally. He cranked up the volume of his music until not a sound could be heard over the music and mindlessly followed the flow of the line until it was his turn to take his photo. He paused his music and pulled his headphones out, hands shaking slightly and still very jittery, and sat down to take his yearbook photo.

   Odd how a single picture, good or bad, could be everywhere you look whether it be your ID, attendance, or yearbook for an entire year. Even more than that if you or someone else look back at a previous year's yearbook for whatever reason. This train of thought was in the back of his head the entire time he took his photo and by the time it was over, he had temporarily forgotten about Gilbert.

Matthew put his headphones back in and physically flinched at how bad he was jumpscared by how loud he had made his music earlier. He waited leaning on a wall opposite the photographer's area for his twin.

   Next was picking up their textbooks, which Matthew was kinda excited about this year because he'd be able to take drawing 1 this year. He had loved drawing since he was in middle school, but it was only in high school that he started taking it seriously and trying to get better. This class would help a lot with that since he felt like he was struggling with anatomy.

   Not much happened next other than Alfred finishing his photos and the two of them joking about a teacher they both had last year before they went to the gym where the textbooks were. Each subject had a table around the perimeter of the gym where as Matthew and Alfred went around, Alfred ended up with more textbooks than him.

"Hey since we're twins and all, shouldn't we be even?" Alfred said with a mischievous grin. Matthew didn't know what was going on but responded anyways.

"Um well it would make sense for us to carry our own books, eh?"

"Yeah, but you would carry my book just to make it fair" Oh. So that's what this was about. Matthew let out a long exaggerated sigh.

"Alfred. You only have one more book than me"

"Yeah but still-" Matthew interrupted.

"Respectfully, no". He wasn't going to get conned into helding his brother's books again, and not with that trick. Fool me once, shame on you, and he wasn't going to let there be a second fooling.

   They went back and forth as they made their way to the auditorium to hear the yearly back to school pep speech, but as they got closer to the doors, the staff buzzing around seemed full of more energy than normal. Despite their hushed voices, they seemed to be talking up a storm. There was definitely something different from normal here.

_____

Notes: Matthew is older by 3 minutes so his picture is taken first, and technically since Francis was the donor, Bonnefoy is the name they picked to be first. That's also why Gilbert and Matthew are so close together in line. They both technically have B last names.