A/N Part one of a two shot story swap with my pal VanillaMochi! Whoop! Enjoy.

It was a new day in a new school. Poor Mattie was alone; as usual his brother had run off somewhere to explore his surroundings. Mattie preferred to just explore with his mind, following Alfred up the stairs and down the halls, imagining all the people his more socially extrinsic brother would (probably literally) run into. It was different for Mattie: it always had been.

He didn't like change. Once he was comfortable in a situation, it almost always seemed to switch on him. Like their mother's death or papa leaving them in the care of his friend Arthur. Once Mattie had gotten used to living with just his papa, papa had given them away. No explanation, he just dropped them off at Uncle Artie's in a new country (That was England, the twins were from the lake Ontario area, right on the edge of Canada and America) kissed "Mattie" goodbye and patted Al on the head. Then he was off.

That was three years ago. Papa hadn't written once, and both of them found Arthur's strict manner and discipline a lot to swallow after the more carefree Frenchman's care. He was a good guy; Mattie knew that but sometimes it seemed like he was forgotten and overlooked. Because Mattie was quiet and shy, his more rambunctious, Matter of fact and boisterous brother always seemed to stand out much more than him. And since Alfred tended to get in a lot of arguments and trouble with Arthur, Mattie faded even more into the background.

So now they were in another new situation, and this one was a boarding school. They were going to live here. For a year. With other fourteen year olds. AND it was co-ed. Mattie was terrified.

He sat alone with their luggage, looking out the window at the nearby ocean and listening to the conversations going on around him.

"Hello there!"

"Hi, what's your name?"

"I'm Feliciana, wanna be friends?!"

After listening to the other conversations that were undirected at him, it took Mattie a while to realize that the last speaker had been talking to him.

"Wh-what? Sorry I didn't… hear you…" It was a mumble and Mattie knew it, but there was nothing he could do. His voice had committed treason and ran off with his tiny bit of nerve.

The shy boy stared down at his luggage (which he was sitting on) and tried to avoid the bouncy girl's curious gaze.

"I asked if you-a wanna be friends! You see, we're new and don't have anybody we-a know yet and you looked lonely so-"

"Feliciana you stupid #%^!"

The sudden loud voice made Mattie jump and look up just in time to see the new arrival, unfortunately another girl (eep!), huffing and puffing angrily.

A pronounced single curl in the newcomer's hair (a nice dark mahogany brown like the desk in Arthur's office) twitched as she moved and mirrored the curl in her (supposed) sister's auburn locks. The mahogany sister was lugging two large, heavy looking, suitcases and had an extra backpack on her back as well as two more bags; one under each arm. She looked, Mattie thought with a guilty smile, like an Italian pack mule.

"Oh, hey Lovi-!"

"Don't "hey Lovi" me you dopy a-hole! Where do you get off leaving me with all this %^7* -ing crapola, eh?!"

"I-"

"It's not enough that you leave me to find my way around without the map, but you also leave me with all your dang junk!" She was shouting, red-faced at the pseudo-ginger sister who was crying and shaking her head dramatically.

"Vee! Lovi please don't be mad at me! I promise I won't run off just please stop-a yelling! I'll be a good little Italian fratella just please don't-a yell at meeee!"

"Fine just don't run off again or I will kick your- who the hell is that?" She was staring directly at Mattie with squinty eyes like her sister's.

"Umm… I'm-"

"Oh yeah!" The tears suddenly completely disappeared from Feliciana's eyes and she was back to being peppy again "Lovina this is my new friend… umm…" She cocked her head to the side and looked at him quizzically, "Sorry, did you tell me your name before or did I forget it?"

"Oh, I'm Matthew Williams, eh-"

"Yeah that's right!" She jumped up and down and gestured at him excitedly, "Check it cool Lovi, this is my friend Mateo Williamsay! Isn't he shizzy?"

"Lovi" rolled her eyes and stuck out a hand to Mattie.

"He's something, anyway," It was mumbled so softly that Mattie wasn't sure he was supposed to have heard it, so he didn't say anything, "I'm Lovina Vargas and that's my stupid little sister Feliciana. Don't mind her, she's just weird…"

The whole speech was made kind of awkwardly with Lovina getting red and looking away from Mattie as they shook hands. That was okay with him, he'd always been bad at introductions and meeting new people.

"Well, eh, I'm Matthew but most people just call me Mattie."

"Do you like it?" She asked, once again with a mumble, probably not expecting him to reply.

"Like what, eh?"

"Wha- oh crap did I say that out loud?! I mean, um well do you like people to call you Mattie..." Her face flushed even deeper and she pulled her hand away, shifting from foot to foot.

"Well, I don't really mind… I mean… people have always called me by it and probably always will so it doesn't Matter what I think about it…"

"BS." It was a small whisper and she was obviously looking for a way out of the conversation.

Mattie looked around for an excuse (he suddenly felt really embarrassed for some reason and got the feeling Lovina didn't like him very much) to leave.

"Oh, hey look it's my brother. I guess I'll be going…"

He said in his usual soft voice and pulled his and Al's stuff down the hallway. Lovina dragged Feli away behind him, scolding her about talking to strangers and making her look bad. He could have just left Al's stuff there, but then it might get stolen or Al wouldn't be able to find it. All he had wanted was to find his room- no. What he really wanted was to get away from Lovina and the weird way she made him feel.

"Um hi I'm Matthew and I'm your new roommate…" It was an awkward greeting, but since the person already in his room wasn't looking at Mattie, there wasn't anything else he really could have said.

It had taken exactly three minutes to find Alfred who had apparently also been looking for Mattie. He'd freaked out when he realized his brother was not behind him (half an hour after they separated) and come looking for him immediately. Then they'd gone to find room assignments and Al had run off again (this time with his luggage) and Mattie had wandered for a bit before finally finding his dorm. And now here he was, staring at the back of his "roomie's" light blonde head.

"Eh? Oh you are my roommate, da? So good to see I have a quiet one, there was this loud blonde boy in the hallway and he was being very annoying to me about my accent. But you do not mind that I am Russian, da?"

"N-no… heh, I'm just gonna put my stuff away now…" Mattie could feel his voice fading to a whisper by the end of that sentence. This boy was oddly creepy. Even though he was smiling and had an innocent face, there was something slightly sinister about him.

"By the by, I am Ivan Bragingski, eef jou ever see a girl who looks kinda like me only younger and with long hair and a pretty face…" He shuddered for some reason "Please be telling me so that I can run and hide properly, especially if she is coming here…"

"Oh… okay?" Mattie just shrugged and shook his head slightly.

Ivan was from Moscow and had two sisters; one older and one younger. The older was an adult and they (he and Natalya) had lived with her after their parents mysteriously disappeared. But her poor paying job had kept her unable to properly take care of them and things had been tough for a long time. Then the company that their parents used to work for searched the children out and handed the older sister an offer: work for them and her siblings would be taken care of in the company's academy. This academy, on a small Atlantic Island, was secure from all dangers that might harm her beloved brother and sister. Plus, tuition would be paid for by the company if she agreed to work for them. So Kat had.

"And now we are being here!" Ivan finished cheerfully.

Mattie smiled. That chilly feeling he had first felt as they came in was no longer a bother. There was still a strange aura around Ivan, but now Mattie felt he knew him a little better. Their situations were pretty similar, too. Both had been shuffled from place to place so Matthew kinda felt connected to Ivan. Still, he felt like there would be trouble if he ever got on the Russian's bad side… he was determined to avoid that prospect.

A chiming sound seemed to come from the hallway speakers and an oriental sounding voice over the intercom addressed them all.

"Welcome, new students, to One World Academy. To old students, welcome back, aru. I am Principal Wang (no comments about the slang regarding my name, all who break this shall be punished) and I hope you can come to feel safe here at our Academy. When you hear these chimes, for those of you who don't know, it is signaling a meal and means for you to report to your dormitory's dining hall. Please sit at the table corresponding to your hall name aru. Thank you and do not go into main campus's basement!" The chimes rang again and the halls filled with sound.

"Ah food! Come Matthew! Let's be going together da?"

Ivan smiled cheerfully and Mattie grinned shyly back. It was a good thing that he was pretty tall; otherwise he would have been completely dwarfed by his new friend.

Mealtime was… interesting…

Each of the blocks (AKA dorms) was themed differently. Theirs happened to be Asia themed… which was kind of ironic considering its occupants, but okay. It was the freshman block so Mattie assumed that the ethnicities of the students had no real impact on what dorm they were put in. Last year it would have belonged to the seniors. But the theme wasn't the interesting part of the meal. Apparently tonight's "ethnic meal" was based in the Philippines, so one of the entre choices was balut… which is apparently NOT the same thing as a hard boiled egg. Nobody told Mattie that beforehand.

"Why? Why did it taste like crab? It's an egg! From a duck! Why?" Mattie quietly freaked out to his brother after throwing up in the toilet, "It doesn't make sense!"

"Dude, I'm kinda surprised you aren't freaking out about the fact that it was a fetus…"

"That too! Oh my god, why would they serve that? At a school!?"

"Welp… Maria didn't seem to mind, neither did that Vietnamese girl. I guess 'cause they're Asian." He laughed "Your face WAS hilarious though. I'm glad I tried the Pancit instead. Lol!"

"It's not funny Al…" Ah, what was the point? Mattie wiped his face with a towel handed to him by his brother, "Thanks."

"S'all good bro! Here, lets go get you some non-fetusy grub. Maybe some grubs… ha ha! I wonder if they'll serve that one day?"

"Hardy har har."

When they exited the "loo", as Al called it, ( in imitation of uncle Artie) Mattie felt something wriggling around his legs. He jumped a little and backed up suddenly, tripped over something quite alive in the form of a cat, fell back, twisted around slightly, stuck . his hands out to steady himself, and fell into something oddly soft and warm. He then looked up into the beet red face of Lovina Vargas. She screamed.

"CHIGIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"

Holy crap he just touched a girl's chest! A girl who was now screaming her head off. He mentally screamed.

Matt jumped away, pushing himself from her in a panic, scarlet to the roots of his hair.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry-ack!" He fell into the table behind him and he accidently palmed the handle of a spoon sticking out of a bowl, launching the bowl's contents into the lap and face of its owner.

"Ahh! Holy #5$%^$! Oh you're going to ^%$*%$ get it $#^ -twad!"

A spiky haired Dane, dripping with soup, snatched up balut from his neighbor and launched it at Mattie. For better or for worse the guy had soup in his eyes and therefore VERY bad aim. This consequently meant that instead of hitting the mild and passive Williams brother… it hit Alfred. In the face. OH DEAR MOTHER OF-

He stood there for a second, his face smothered in fetus juice with a little half eaten birdie stuck to his shoulder. Just a second. Mattie recognized that look too well. Oh no. nonononono-

"Al, don't-"

"FOOD FIGHT!"

Too late

Mattie ducked as his brother lobbed a dumpling of some sort across the room with wild abandon. Watched as it hit Ivan and burst, splattering all over him. Saw the watermelon crash into the wall and pondered briefly over where it had come from. Dove to the ground as an entire bowl of pancit was thrown at his twin but wound up hitting someone else and causing the entire cafeteria (not that it hadn't been before) to erupt into chaos.

Mattie felt the tug of Lovina's gloved hand on his shirt collar, nodding toward the barricade she and her sister had set up.

"C'mon, you'll get hammered out here if you stay, dumbass."

"Oh, um, thanks?"

"Don't mention it," she flushed a little and pulled her knees to her chest as they crawled behind the table/barricade.

"Sorry for, um-"

"Eh, it's fine. Just don't do it again, you jerk."

"O-okay. You set this up pretty fast, eh?"

"Nice redirect. Anyway, long story short; Catholic School isn't as-a peaceful as you'd think. We have, ah, experience. Not that it's any of your business, jerk."

She added the last part quickly and he started to realize that being "nasty" was just the way Lovina was. Kind of like how Al always seemed to have the need to be obnoxious. He wasn't even sure if it was a conscious decision anymore.

A plate of exotic something smacked into the wall behind them and the three refugees watched as it slid slowly down. So sloooowly. It was almost hypnotic.

"Ve~ that kinda looks like pasta-"

"Taste it and I will kill you."

And so the three hid behind their barrier until the rumpus was subdued by some teachers.

Mattie?

Yeah?

I can't sleep.

Me neither…

Mommy isn't coming back, is she?

No Alfie. Papa said she went to heaven and that 'angels can't come back to earth except for in our dreams.'

Huh, so mommy is still watching us?

Yeah.

Why did she have to go?

I don't know Alfie.

"I still don't…" Matt murmured as he lay in bed that night after reflecting on that other night so long ago, "How did she die? Why did Papa just abandon us? Why do they always have to leave?"

He turned over and hugged his stuffed bear, Kuma, close.

Someday I'll get those answers He promised himself Even if it kills me