Fall: Remembrance That Begets; Slothfulness... PT. 4/5

[Some Time Third Grade]

"Achoo!" I sneezed, covering my nose with a tissue before blowing. "It's really cold."

I was in the bathroom, having just finished using the toilet. I finished blowing my nose before exiting the stall, throwing the tissue in a nearby trash can before washing my hands under the hot water.

"Ah, it feels so nice," I said, releasing a sigh of relaxation, and through the mirror I noticed someone coming out the other stall, everything from the neck up completely wet.

"Hey, what happened?" I asked, looking towards the boy. He looked to be about my age, with short silver-grey hair and sky-blue eyes that were casted downwards.

"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing…" He trailed off as he grabbed some paper towels, beginning to wipe himself off.

"What class are you in? I've never seen you before," I asked, turning off the water.

"Oh, I'm in fifth grade…"

"Eh!? I thought you were about my age though…"

He glanced my way, looking me up and down before nodding. "Yeah, I should be in the third grade. I'm nine years old."

"Wait, doesn't that make you super smart!?" Whoa, have I met with a real smart person?

"I don't wanna be," he said, and my excitement died down at his words. "I just wanna be with kids my age…"

"Oh, I guess that's a pretty big problem isn't it?" I asked aloud, and he turned away from me, continuing to dry off his hair and face.

"Oh, I know! Why don't you meet me in front of the school after class lets out?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Duh, because I wanna help you!" He turned towards me so fast, as if hanging onto my every word now.

"Y-you mean it?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't gonna do it," I said, nodding to myself. "Yep, so meet me in front of the school, uh, what's your name?"

He looked down, hesitating before looking back up. "It's Aether."

I introduced myself before continuing. "Oh, but everybody except Erebus calls me Major, so call me that." I glanced at the clock and nearly jumped out of my skin. "Oh crappers, I need to get back to class! Okay, remember to meet up with me at the end of the day okay!?"

He nodded, and I rushed out the bathroom, running down the hall to my classroom. I tried to slide in without the teacher noticing, but it seemed she was waiting.

"Well, what took you so long Major?" the teacher asked me teasingly, and I could feel my face growing warmer. "Were you really in the bathroom that long?"

I could hear the snickers throughout the class, and my ears started to burn hot. "It was a big one okay!?" I yelled out, which only increased the fervor of laughter, and I plopped back into my seat, where Erebus and Eros where snickering.

"We told you not to take too long King," Erebus said. "Did you get attacked by demons on the way?"

I shook my head. "No, that wasn't it. I found another problem we have to solve guys!"

"As usual, Major is trying to think of solving another problem," Eros said, a warm smile on his face as sparkles darted around him.

"There's this guy named Aether who needed some help, so I decided to try and see if we could come up with any ideas!"

"Now you're talking instead of paying attention to class?" The teacher warned, and I stiffened at her words.

"Sorry ma'am!" I yelled out before whispering my final words to my friends. "Anyway, let's meet up in front of the school after the day is over."

They nodded, and we spent the rest of the day behaving as good students until the final bell rang, and we rushed outside, putting on our coats while running down the stairs and finally reaching the front of the building, which was blanketed in a white fluffy substance.

"Oh, we got here first," I said as I zipped up my coat. "Well, he should be here soon, so it shouldn't be too long."

We waited a couple minutes and watched as students trailed out, and then Lachy appeared from the crowd and saw me and gave me a wave.

"Hey Major, I didn't know you were already out here!" She ran up to me, giving off a big grin. "Why are you waiting out in the cold?"

"We're gonna help someone. And go away, you have cooties, remember?"

She scrunched up her face in anger. "I do not have cooties! I asked a teacher, and they said cooties don't exist!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Uh-huh!"

"What are you fighting about?"

We both turned to Aether, who had finally arrived. He had dirt covering his coat, and his hair was wet again somehow.

"Hey, you made it! Oh, you're smart right!? Do cooties exist!?"

Aether scowled. "N-no, I don't believe so. Why?"

"Hah, told you so!" Lachesis said smugly, crossing her arms in triumph.

"Oh whatever, it doesn't matter!" I yelled out, and a passing teacher noticed us arguing.

"You two again? How many times must you fight?" The teacher knelt down and sighed. "You remember how to make up with one another, right?"

Silence as both of us nodded. "Good, now say you're sorry and hug it out. Major can go first."

"But-!" I stopped myself after looking at the teacher's gaze and decided to apologize without any trouble. "Sorry Lachy for believing cooties were real and ignoring you…"

"I'm sorry for yelling at you…" she said, and we hugged each other tight.

The teacher sighed as he stood up, shaking his head. "You have it easy Major."

Huh? What did he mean by that?

"Oh, I'm so glad I get hug Major again! It's been almost a year! I don't wanna let go!" Lachesis declared, hugging me even tighter.

"H-hey! Let go already! This is weird!" I yelled out, trying to pry her off me. It was only when Erebus and Eros helped that I was finally free, and Lachesis nodded, smiling to herself.

"And now we're even, for now."

"Whadda you mean for now!?" I yelled out, and she started to laugh. I really don't understand girls at all.

"Now, you kids don't stay out too long, alright?" the teacher said, looking at all of us.

"Yes sir!" We all responded, and he waved us goodbye before walking back to his car.

"I'm going to go home too," Lachesis declared. "I need to tell mommy how we managed to make up, so I'll see you tomorrow you guys."

"Bye Lachy," I said, and she ran off by herself, back towards her house.

"Oh right, Aether!" I exclaimed, turning to back to him. "You had a problem, right? Do you mind telling us what it is?"

"Oh, right, that." He gazed downward as he began to tell us his problem. "Well you see, I started earlier this year, but they didn't know where to place me, so they made me take a test to decide…"

"Wouldn't they have you continued from the grade you left at?" I asked, scratching my hair from under my hat.

"Oh, I had something going on, so I wasn't able to start school until now," Aether explained, sighing. "Anyway, I managed to place two grades higher, and I've been in fifth grade ever since. All I want is to be with kids my own age, but the adults aren't any help, so I'm stuck…"

"So, we need to hold you back somehow? Isn't that hard though? The only way I know is for you to fail your grade…" I said, frowning at his predicament.

"King is right, this is a major problem, especially since the adults won't help," Erebus said, messing with the hair covering his eye. He had gotten rid of the eyepatch last year, deciding to use his hair to cover whatever was underneath.

"Well, this is quite a problem. But we've beaten plenty of tough demons already, what's a problem like this!?" I yelled out, pumping myself. "We can do it; I just know it!"

In the end, we couldn't come up with anything, and we were forced to reconvene until the next day.

At home I ate dinner, the only notable exception was that there was one less person at the dinner table, and then I took a shower before my brother, the days of us bathing together over.

And as usual, I had my nightly talk with him.

"Hey, do you know anything about getting held back?" I asked him, and I could see him shoot up, alarmed.

"Bro, why do you wanna get held back?"

"Oh, not me, a friend I made in the 5th grade wants to get held back to our grade. He's the same age as us, but I don't see a way unless he fails the grade twice, which is too long…"

"Oh, you're talking about Aether?"

It was my turn to shoot up. "Huh, you know him?"

"No, but I've heard that he's really smart, so smart that they wanna bring him to the sixth grade."

Oh, that isn't good. "What do I do Minor?"

"If he's that smart and hasn't figured it out, no way you will Major."

I could feel myself getting angry. "Oh, just wait! I'll have come up with the most genius plan possible when it's morning!"

We heard the door swing open, and we both quickly got back into bed, our nightly talk over.

And come morning, an idea came to me, just like I predicted.

I quickly entered the school, a huge grin on my face as I rushed to my classroom, and I saw Erebus and Eros sitting in their seats, glum looks on their faces. Even Eros' sparkles weren't darting around anymore, instead constantly falling to the ground.

"Oh, hey King. Did you think of something?"

"It looks like he did Eru~."

Erebus looked over at Eros. "What did you just call me?"

"Guys, I came up with a genius idea this morning!" I said, slamming my hands on the table.

They both quieted down at my words, and I pulled up a seat before taking my coat off.

"So, he had to take a test to decide what grade he was in, right?" I started, and they both nodded. "So, let's have him take it again!"

"Okay, but how?" Eros asked, resting his chin on his hands.

"We need reasonable doubt!" I said, and they both looked at me confused.

"What's that?" Erebus asked, scratching his head.

"It was on the news this morning, and I asked my mommy to explain it for me. She said it's when people aren't sure of something within reason. So, if we make the teachers have enough reasonable doubt he should be in a lower grade-"

"Then we can have him fail the test!" Eros exclaimed.

I nodded, both of them finally understanding what I mean. "So, all we need is to get that reasonable doubt!"

"Alright, this is great!" Erebus said. "I have an idea on how we can get this reasonable doubt. Let's find Aether before class starts!"

We ran out the classroom and headed to where the big kids where, meaning the fifth and sixth graders. Most of them ignored us, but a couple took note as we were passing them by, a confused expression on their faces.

"Oh, he's in here!" Eros exclaimed, and we stopped to see Aether sitting by himself, his hair covered in snow.

"Aether, we found you!" I yelled out, and he turned towards us so fast it was almost scary. "We figured out a way to bring you to our grade!"

"Di-did you really!? You're not messing with me?" He asked as he brushed the snow off his hair.

"Nope, it's thanks to our genius plan!" I said, and he nodded.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Well its, actually, why did we come here Erebus?" I asked him, but he had already disappeared into the classroom somewhere. "Oh, well he said we needed to come here for something, but I'll tell you the parts I know."

As I was explaining our plan, a couple of fifth graders in the corner took notice of us and started to snicker.

"Look at the nerd brigade here."

"Does he think he can actually escape us?"

Aether noticed and started to tremble at their words.

"Hmm, what's wrong Aether?" I asked, and I turned to the three boys in the corner. "Do you wanna talk to us or something?"

The big one in the middle snickered. "Like we need to talk to people like you."

"But why are you talking to us then?" I asked, confused on what they were trying to do.

"Sh-shut up twerp!" He said, getting up and walking out of class with the rest of his friends.

"What was that all about?" Eros said, frowning at the boys who left. Aether however looked stunned at the both of us.

"Whoa, how did you do that!?" He asked us both.

"Do what?" I asked back, but before he could respond, Erebus was back.

"I'm finished now, so we can head back now."

"I don't even know what you did!" I yelled out. "Where even were you!?"

"Oh, I was changing his recent scores on his tests and quizzes," Erebus said casually.

"Willing to break the rules Eru~? How kind of you!"

"Why are calling me that nickname!?"

"It's cute isn't? You don't like it?"

"Of course not, yah Incubus!" I started to laugh at their exchange, and Aether looked bewildered, his eyes darting between the three of us.

"You guys are amazing…" He said, his sky-blue eyes widening, and then the bell rang.

"Aw crap, we're going to be late! We'll talk later okay Aether?" he nodded, and the three of us rushed back to our classroom, barely making it on time.