It must be nice... (Jamilton)

You Can't Put Out a Fire From Inside The House

~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Alexander found himself meeting with his friends, Lafayette, John, and Hercules. The three had met before the school in the courtyard. The air was prickly and oddly cold for the early May summer season, signifying that autumn was well on it's way to take over. The courtyard was filled with talking and murmuring students, some on their own with earphones in, others overly energetic with their friends. The four stood outside, John shivering in the cold as Alexander texted on his phone, his fingers pale as he was, under his friends' gaze. The other three were wondering what was intriguing the boy so much since he was usually never on his phone. Always reading, or writing, or working. Or just on his laptop. "Who're you texting?" asked Lafayette, his thick French accent the centre of attention over all the conversations taking place in the background - Alexander looked up to his friend for a moment, noticing that all three pairs of eyes were on him. The boy nervously smiled as he raised an eyebrow at them - "What?" 

"What's so interesting on your phone?" asked Hercules, as the guys all looked at him expectantly. "Nothing?" Alex furrowed his eyebrows with a confused smile, but John was already making his way to take a peek at Alexander's phone. In reaction, Alex quickly turned off the screen, which caused John to raise an eyebrow and move behind the smaller guy, gently putting his two hands over both of Alex's shoulders as he leaned over his right one, with a smirk on his face, "What are ya tryna hide?" he asked. Alex groaned and smiled in embarrassment as Lafayette pried John off of the poor boy. John stood beside his tall French friend with his arms crossed across his chest with a questioning look directed at Alexander. "Come on, we're your friends!" Said Lafayette, "You can tell us! Can't you?" the boy looked as if he was questioning his words for a moment, a look of worry evident for just a second before Alexander's sigh regained his attention. "I'm texting Eliza, okay? It's not a big deal." he said, to which the boys all started to tease him. "Ooooo~" Lafayette teased the boy, causing him to roll his eyes - he knew this would happen. "You mean like, Eliza Schuyler?" asked John, eyes slightly wide as he smiled in disbelief. A laugh left his mouth after Alexander had nodded and the taller boy playfully hit his arm "You lucky bitch! What is she saying?" he asked. "We're talking about the exams coming up.." he sighed, "Boring! Ask her out on a date!" Hercules chimed in, causing Alexander to smile in embarrassment, his cheeks slightly flushing "What? No way!"

**

Little did Alex know that his enemy was currently sitting inside a room with no other than Washington, and two other figures. All of them wore serious looks as they sat before the teacher's desk. "So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" asked Washington, to which Madison and Jefferson looked at eachother, Madison allowing for Jefferson to speak first. "Two things" he said, "Firstly we suspect foul play from Alexander including the last science project, and secondly.." He trailed off, watching Washington's stern expression. "We thought it would be important to notify you of the bullying going on" Washington's eyebrows raised as he sat up in his chair, "Bullying..?" Jefferson nodded, looking to Burr. "I'll let you explain" he prompted, to which Burr cleared his throat. "Yeah, Alex has been bullying me for a while now but it's under the radar. He shoves me into lockers, makes snarky comments, all that" he explained. Washington listened intently as the boy talked, "How come I've never seen this?" he asked. "Well ofcourse he wouldn't do it around the teachers" said Burr, leaning back in his chair as Washington thought for a second. "Do you have any witnesses?" Jefferson and Madison instantly put up their hands - "I see.." Washington took a slow yet deep breath, pondering about how he was going to fix the situation. "And about the project..?" he asked, Jefferson cleared his throat to speak. "I believe that he copied the ideas that me and my partner had." Jefferson sat up, leaning forward slightly as if to be heard clearer, "I have the sheet of plans we wrote if you'd like to see it" he smiled to Washington, who nodded in response, reaching out his hand only for Jefferson to hand him the sheet.