Title: Red Hearts From The Store

Author: Ever Essence

Chapter: 1 - I'm Feliks

Disclaimer: None of the characters used in this belongs to me, I own only the plot.

Enjoy!

This story is inspired by a childrens book, which was read to me by a little girl today. It is about a girl who is in love with this boy, but the object of her affections just wants her to go away. It was an adorable story, and this is my first shot at romance. Wish me luck!

And to all those waiting for the Patriotism chapters to come out, keep waiting. They are on their way, I just have to finish and redraft them. But they'll be here soon enough.

To say it had been a normal day at school for Toris would be a big, fat, hideous lie. That didn't necessarily mean it had been a bad day. Not at all. In fact, he'd only been hit by Ivan once, so the day had actually gone quite well. But it had been strange. Quite strange, indeed. Just not as strange as the girl- no, he was definitely a guy – who Toris was now sitting next to.

It was in Maths. That was when the bombshell was dropped on him. Their teacher, Miss Whats-Her-Name, was heavily pregnant. Nobody could deny that – considering how much of struggle it was for her to fit behind that little desk of hers. Toris came back to school that Monday to find that she had taken the class' advice and gone on maternity leave. Which left his class open to other teachers to take over.

Only nobody did. For ages the kids waited for someone to come and claim them. Someone to teach them. It was unlike the school to keep a class waiting for a teacher. Usually it was the other way around. After a while, one of the German brothers, Ludwig was his name, decided to arrange some form of order.

"Alright! Stop talking and listen!" He was at the front of the class with his arms folded across his chest and a stern look on his face. Typical Ludwig. "I don't know who is meant to be teaching us, but whoever it is is obviously late. But that doesn't mean we should just mess around and waste this lesson! I will put you guys into a new seating plan, to avoid anybody talking! Then you will all have the rest of the lesson, which is 45 minutes, to complete an exercise from your textbooks. Communication of any kind is forbidden, so don't even try it."

And that was it, really. He arranged us in some strange order that made sense to him, but none to any of us. Then he went to sit in his allocated seat, and glared us into silent working. Toris found himself sat in a little corner at the side of the classroom. Why? He had no idea. It was a cold part of the room, right by the window. But it wasn't unpleasant. Not like last year, when he'd sat next to that strange French boy, Francis. That had been awful!

This time, however, he had been paired with someone he didn't really know. He'd seen him around before. They had several classes together, but even so, Toris just could not remember who he was.

Toris' new neighbour was a slim boy (though Toris first though he was a girl, considering how skinny he was, and the fact he wore a skirt and fancy hair accessories) who had shoulder length blonde hair, and bright green eyes. He had a straight nose, and a sharp chin, and his eyes were outlined with a thick rim of mascara-coated eyelashes that were way too long for a boy. He was short, but then again, so was Toris. The boy was chewing bubblegum, his glossed lips in a little pout as his jaws worked furiously behind them. And then he blew a pink bubble at Toris, and when it burst, he grinned at the Lithuanian boy, and outstretched his hand.

"Hey," he said. His voice was surprisingly masculine. The most masculine part of him, Toris assumed. "I'm Feliks!

This boy turned out to be one of the most annoying people Toris had ever met. He chatted endlessly, and clicked his fingers in Toris' face when he wasn't listening. And he had an irritating habit of saying "like" in every sentence. He spoke like a little girl, with incorrect grammar, and once or twice he added an upwards inflection. As if he'd been asking a question, instead of rambling about his beloved skirts. Toris bit his tongue. He didn't want to offend him, after all. But wasn't Ludwig supposed to be in charge? The younger German was not to be messed him, he meant business, and yet Feliks went on and on, without any regard for Ludwig.

Obviously, the boy was crazy. But Toris knew that already. The guy wore skirts and make-up and just acted like a girl in so many ways. It was slightly scary, in Toris was completely honest. But the boy was human, and had feelings, so Toris said nothing. "It's just Ludwig's plan. When the teacher gets here, it will all be different!" he chanted in his mind. Willing it to be true. It had to be true, it just had to be. He would die if it wasn't. He couldn't take much more of Feliks' constant chatter. He really couldn't.

But when the teacher arrived, apologising profusely for being so late, he was blown away by how hard at work we were, and how we weren't mucking around. He was impressed, most classes took advantage of this kind of thing and did all kinds of things that he would really not like to think about. He could remember his school days... they weren't pretty. So he clapped his hands to get their attention, and then an idea hit him.

Why change the seating plan, when this one worked so well? So he sat at his desk, and unpacked his briefcase, getting settled for the day, and as he did, he informed the teens that this was their new seating plan until their previous teacher could resume her job. For the most part it was a positive response. (Ludwig had been smart, he'd managed to pair most kids up with people they wouldn't chat too much with, but they wouldn't bicker either, thought Toris.)

And with that, he proceeded to watch the class settle down into the silent stupor of the maths lesson.