~April 25, 2020, Saturday~

"Alex, can you uh, stay behind for a moment?"

"Hm?" Alex hummed and stayed back from the crowd of students on their way out of the classroom. He cleared his throat and said, "May I help you, Mr. Washington?"

"And can I stay for the tea?" Jefferson asked before being pulled away by Aaron.

Mr. Washington just chuckled and requested Alex to sit down. He did so, slightly shaking in anxiety. "Is there something wrong, sir?"

"Okay, uh, Alexander, I'm not supposed to be telling you this but-"

"Like how you're having two jobs at different universities?" he whispered. "Yeah, right."

"Shhhhhhhshshshshshshshhshhh, shhHHHHH!" Mr. Washington shushed panicking as another professor passed by. "Though, did you tell anyone?" Alex shook his head. "Good, thank you."

"Now, back to the topic, what did you want to tell me?" Alexander asked. 

"I just wanted to inform you that your grades have been slipping..." He sighed. "Alex, I used to foster you, I know something's wrong. You'd never let yourself drop out."

"Er..."

"Alex." He stared at the younger man sternly. "What is it?"

Mr. Washington sighed as Alexander only stayed silent. "Fine. Can I just ask how are you and John doing?" 

"Wait, how the frick did you know-"

"One, watch your language." He frowned and put his finger up as Alex opened his mouth again. No sound came out. "Even if it's that. Two, James told me. And three, I have the right to know, I'm your dad."

"Well, not realllllllllyyyyyyyyy...?" Alexander whistled awkwardly if one can do that while talking.

"Let me adopt youuuu!" said Mr. Washington softly in a sort of begging way.

Alex murmured, "We'll talk about this later. John and I are fine, I think."

"Oh, so you're considering it!" He squealed before clearing his throat. "Ahem, uh, so how are y'all coping when John moved schools?"

"I'm sorry, what did you say? He moved to what school?"

"...uhh, nevermind about that, I thought you already knew," Mr. Washington gave a nervous chuckle. "I'll see you later, son-"

"Notcha son." Alex pouted and crossed his arms, now standing up. "What happened to John?"

~~×~~

"mISs jUnIpEr cAn i gO tO thE-"

"No."

"But, mISs, I nEeD tO-"

"No."

"Ugh, she's no fun." Peggy frowned and crossed her arms. "She's not even letting me go to the bathroom. Seriously, why did Miss Seymour have to leave since she's pregnant now?"

"Well, she might die if she doesn't," Theodosia said. "Actually, she has a very high chance of dying because she's sick."

"NOOOOOO BUT SHE WAS OUR BEST MUSIC TEACHER, EVAH!" Peggy screamed.

"Margarita. Silencio." Miss Juniper narrowed her eyes. "Final warning." She proceeded to go back to lecturing the class.

"See? She still calls me that. Bet that was on purpose." she whispered, giving her teacher a scathing look. "How are we supposed to sneak out of class? We're not going to tell Laf any soon the 'information we've gathered from Martha', as you said."

"We don't, just wait for it," Theo mumbled. 

"Oh, God, so now you're taking advice from your boyfriend?" Peggy pouted. "Everyone's betraying me."

"Aaron? Pfft- why would you think I'd date him? We're just friends."

"Ah, sure." She smirked. An imaginary light bulb popped on top of her head as a brilliant idea of hers came. "Oh, wait I have an idea."

"This will not work out."

"MISS JUNIPER I-"

"That's it. Out." The professor sighed. "Please? Now."

Peggy winked at Theodosia, who just grumbled something too soft for her friend to hear. "Told ya."

~~×~~

"Hey, James, do you know where they went?" Laf asked after he just finished his plan. "They were there a second ago-"

"Well, you did take about..." He trailed off to check his watch. "Um, about 2 hours, 33 minutes, 59 seconds- I mean, 2 hours, 34 minutes now."

"So...that isn't a second, is it?"

"Nope, they're in a class by now," said James. 

"I have such wonderful friends." He rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Jemmy, help me find them."

"But-"

"We're going!"

"Fine." He sighed and followed his crazy friend to find his even crazier friends.

After a while of getting lost in the endless corridors and stopping by to find a croissant or two, Lafayette and James finally found the correct hall in which Peggy and Theodosia were having class; except, they did not have to find Peggy as she was 'kicked out' of class.

"Hey, I was just about to find you guys!" Peggy chirped joyfully. "Luck's on my side today."

"Well, the same for us," the French baguette replied.

"Speaking of luck, did you happen to find John?" questioned James. "In a much easier way than Lafayette's plan."

"Of course we did. And I doubt anything else is harder than his plan." Peggy smirked at Lafayette's offended expression. "Sorry, Laf."

He scoffed. "It was an absolute genius one."

"Anyhow, we apparently did find out where John is!" she continued and then gave them a look between 'I-am-the-genius' and 'I'm-going-to-take-over-the-world'. "But we might need some help."

~~×~~

Hercules was just cooking supper when he jumped nearly a foot in the air when he heard the dorm door slam shut loudly. "Alex, is that you?" he asked. When no answer came but just the opening and closing of his door, Hercules knew it was him. "Do you not want dinner...?"

"Mind if I skip, please?" Alexander yelled.

"Huh." His best friend frowned, knowing something was wrong. For one thing, he would never miss Hercules' special dish. (Should've seen him finishing the whole plate.) And Herc had never heard the door being slammed so loudly; he swore it could have broken into a million pieces. 

Hercules turned off the stove, to keep the food from burning, and started knocking on Alexander's door. "What happened, Alex?"

 "Nothing." He heard the muffled voice of his friend. 

"Alex."

Hamilton stayed silent. On the other side of the door, he was curled up on his bed, patting Crookshanks. He didn't answer nor didn't want to. 

Oh, how lucky that he locked the door.

Click!

Alexander groaned as the light from the living room streamed in his, indicating that Hercules managed to get in. "Hairpin? Seriously? Why?"

"Perks of majoring in Fashion." He smirked, playing with the hairpin before putting on a serious expression. "Alexander, what happened?"

He muttered, "Somethin' coffee wouldn't even solve."

"Oh wow, I can't believe it!" he said sarcastically. "Of course it wouldn't, you idiot, it's a drink."

"That's very helpful of you, Herc. Appreciated."

"Alright, no more joking." Hercules crossed his arms.

"Baskin and Robbins closed down the street." Alexander tried his best to lie — which is like an ostrich trying to fly.

"Yeah, right, you need to fix your lying skills, buddy," said Hercules, patting Alex's head. "Let me guess. You're still worrying about John?"

Alexander gave him a death glare; as if that wasn't the most obvious thing in the world.

Hercules frowned at his friend. He didn't exactly know how Alexander felt about the situation. Sure, he, Hercules, and John were good friends but he still couldn't imagine it at Alexander's point of view.

It's been two weeks since John went missing, and Hercules would have been lying if he hadn't seen Alexander been a wretched mess. So, Hercules, being a person with actual common sense unlike his friends, decided to just sit down beside his friend and embraced him.

"So, what's happening with John?"

He sighed and just decided to blurt it out. "I'm probably never gonna see him again..."

~~×~~

John internally slapped himself. Why did he even agree to help Mary? He knew he wanted the best intentions for her sister, but did it really mean that he would have no free time?

"Jack! Help meee!" the small girl whined. "This is harddd!"

John sighed. "Yes, May. Which question do you need help in?"

"This one.." she mumbled, pointing at a math equation. "I don't know what's 2 times 2."

"It's 22," John answered, chuckling. "I'm kidding. You need to add 2 to itself 2 times. So..."

John and Mary continued doing her homework. Finally, it got to the part in which John dreaded most: story time!

"So, Francis of Assisi gave up his money to be poor? Why?" Mary asked her brother, puzzled.

"He gave money to the church," he explained.

"But why?"

"He's just a nice man." He shrugged. "Unlike our Francis here," he added, soft enough for Mary not to hear.

Unfortunately, someone else heard it.

"Aw, don't hate me, Jack," that certain someone whispered. "I've just got some orders I need to do."

John inhaled sharply, not wanting Francis to be near him. "Yes. Definitely orders."

Francis chuckled and decided to go somewhere else, in which John was thankful for.

They continued with their story and eventually Mary got bored.

"So he got a stigamata — which is five wounds in certain places — then died to years later because of a sickness — hey, are you listening?"

"Can we play now? Wait, can you teach me how to paint instead?" Mary requested eagerly. "Pretty please?"

John laughed. "Of course, Mary. Better than reading a story, ain't it?" The girl nodded excitedly and hurried out of the room to run downstairs.

He followed his sister, closing the door behind him. On his way to the garden, he saw Francis in his room talking to Reynolds.

He may not be a good man, as John thought.

But he was very certain he wanted Francis to die-

I mean who doesn't?