Feliciana woke to the faint sounds of clinking glass and muffled voices beneath her room. She kept her eyes closed as she groaned quietly, sensing the bright sunlight that flowed from a crack in her white-curtained window and embraced her face. Her hair was mussed and in tangles as she sat up in a manner similar to a corpse who had never seen the sun in a hundred years.
"Aww, my sleep was so nice! Last night had a good dream in store for me because it had pasta and Romano and Kiku and him… Oh, I'm hungry!" Quickly forgetting her annoyance with the downstairs commotion and sunlight, she hopped out of bed quickly and stretched. As she made her way to the closet to change out of her nightly attire, her stomach growled.
"Nah, I'll eat and then change out of my pajamas." Feliciana said suddenly quite giddily. Food always woke this girl up whenever and wherever, especially when her native Italian food hit home so well.
A few minutes later, Feliciana was downstairs with her three friends. Elizabeta was frying bacon and Lili was flipping perfectly circular pancakes. Mei was busy drying the recently washed dishes, which Feliciana figured was where the clinking sounds had come from.
"Good morning!" Mei greeted her. Elizabeta and Lili did the same.
"Buongiorno!" Feliciana replied with a smile. Her beehive of curly hair followed her head as it turned to look at the mouthwatering stacks of pancakes that had formed magically on the table. "How did you all wake up so early? It's only 8!" Feliciana slumped into a chair at the table. "I could have slept longer…" she laid her head down tiredly on the table.
"Now, now. Feli, don't you have any idea what today is?" Mei asked and began to set the silverware and napkins on the table.
"The bacon's almost ready!" Elizabeta exclaimed from her place at the stove.
Now this made Feli whip her head up right away. "It smells so yummy, too…" She drooled slightly and looked up at Mei in curiosity. "Huh? Is today supposed to be an important day of some sort?" She gasped and sat up straighter. "Oh no! What if it's someone's birthday? Ah! Mei, is today your birthday?"
Mei laughed at Feliciana's wide hazel eyes. "No, silly goose. Not today, but it is someone else's birthday, though!"
Lili smiled and placed a piping hot stack of pancakes in front of the seated ladies, making sure to slip a thin prism of butter for both. "It's Alfred's birthday today, July the Fourth! We'll be going to his birthday party at 5, remember?"
"Oh… so yesterday was July 3rd, huh," Feli whispered to herself. "Time has gone by so fast! Our summer vacation is halfway finished! Noooo!" she wailed. She silenced herself by sticking a slice of pancake into her mouth.
"You've been occupied thinking about your dearest Ludwig, weren't you?" Elizabeta flashed Feli a wink. Her friends shared a laugh at Feli's softly flushed face as Feli remembered the dream last night where she had come close to kissing him.
"Oh, uh, no! I mean, he's cute, but-"
"Oh, so you DO like him!" Mei squealed as she brought a napkin to her mouth.
Feliciana was becoming embarrassed. "No! Guys, I just told you that he was my seatmate in History class! We're just friends, and that level of relationship is probably more comfortable for him, too!" She sighed, albeit internally disappointed about that. She wanted to be more than classmates who were part of the same study group after school. He probably didn't know she liked him, anyways…
The day arrived at the lovely hour of 5. The friends had washed up after breakfast and had dressed in comfortable summer clothes. Lili, Elizabeta, and Mei were downstairs waiting for Feli, a girl who was still taking her sweet time in the shower and singing. Feli thought about what Elizabeta had said to her at breakfast and had to admit that their summer vacation in America was full of woodsy countryside views, her friends, and thoughts of the sweet German boy. She was grateful to Alfred who had been generous and had paid for much of their vacation in the US. Feli had been excited to see that many students were coming, and that Elizabeta, Lili, and Mei were the only females arriving. Secretly, she was more excited about the fact that Ludwig was coming also.
As she realized her friends were rushing her, she quickly tied her still damp hair into a high ponytail and put on a salmon-colored halter top and blue jean shorts. Hmm, maybe some freesia perfume would do her good. She ran downstairs into the car waiting outside.
The girls soon came to Alfred's mansion, where there were a few cars in the massive cobblestone driveway. Feliciana wondered if Ludwig had already arrived as they rang the doorbell.
"Yo dudettes, what's up? Glad y'all could make it. Welcome to my mansion!" Alfred greeted them a few seconds later. He was dressed in ripped blue jeans and a faded American flag tank top. "Happy birthday!" they chimed, and were invited in.
A delicious scent led them through the large house and into the vast backyard. They looked around and saw Antonio, Gilbert, Francis, and Romano already setting things up. Feli hadn't seen her brother in such a long time and needed to greet him in the most caring way possible!
"Romano!" Feliciana shouted as she ran towards him, arms outstretched. Romano turned around to face the voice holding the box of disposable forks, blinking until he realized what his sister was trying to do a little too late.
Plastic forks went flying everywhere as she tackled him into a hug. "Sorella! Look what you made me do!" He grumbled, but accepted the hug anyway.
"Waaah! Don't be mad; I was just trying to give you a hug!" Feli pouted.
"Aww, baby Romano~ look at you! So grown up and you've become a heck of a cutie!" Gilbert Beilschmidt, who had watched the whole ordeal besides them, winked slyly at the oblivious Feli who didn't catch the meaning of it immediately.
Elizabeta saw his wink directed towards Feli and faked a cough at this due to her jealousy, and Lili patted her back reassuringly, who incorrectly assumed that her friend's epiglottis had surely had a spasm.
Romano steamed as he had caught the quick look also. "You pervert, if you think you're someone worthy enough to try to flirt with my sister, I'll make you think twice with experience from my fist!" Feli knew how protective her older brother was about guys who were interested in her. But she didn't know Gilbert's wink was meant to be suggestive! She shuddered.
"Hey, Feli," Gilbert turned to Feliciana, who now looked at Gilbert like he was a cockroach. "I think there'd be someone else who'd like to chat with you." He motioned to a person sitting at the poolside in the middle of the backyard.
Feli dared not look immediately and instead, she took a big breath and cautiously looked in the direction of his finger to see a dazzling yet familiar blond teen calmly reading a Jane Austen novel in shorts and a large Hawaiian tourist shirt, unaware of his brother and a girl staring at him. Feli's friends snickered at her.
Feliciana grew warmer than the smoke coming off one of the backyard grills. 'So, is Gilbert implying that Ludwig wants to talk to me?'
Feli heard footsteps before she could finish her pondering. Feli saw him and smiled. It was her friend Francis! He seemed to have been cooking barbeque ribs as barbeque sauce stains were on his apron. As he made his way to one of the tables to get a plastic knife, he swiftly stepped closely to Feli before she could give him a greeting. "Go on, don't be shy, Italia. He's all yours! Better get him before the ladies over there do~" He motioned to her roommates who had begun to hint of a relationship between the "beach boy" and her.
Feli rolled her eyes as Mei made a kissy face at her and Ludwig. "Nah, Francis. They're my friends and I think they have their own love interests."
Francis chuckled and decided that he must get back to cooking the BBQ ribs. Feli giggled at his departing statement and looked back at Ludwig's relaxed form. The sparkling pool water reflected back into Ludwig's aquamarine eyes, and yet they seemed to be focused intently on his book more than ever before.
'His eyes are so beautiful to look into.' She sighed and smiled dreamily, mind in the clouds. Luckily for her, Ludwig still had his eyes focused on reading his novel and didn't notice her slightly creepy fangirl look. Suddenly, a fairly light person jumped on her back with arms locked around Feli's neck.
"Boo!" Lili yelled cheerfully. "Did I scare you?" she asked, giggling, but Feli didn't respond physically or verbally. "Oh?" Lili took a glance at Feli's face. Her eyes followed the path Feli's eyes took until they stopped at Ludwig. She nudged Feli with her chin to get her attention.
"Oh Lili! What is it? Do you want a piggyback ride?" Feli smiled, but Lili returned her smile for a smirk. Feli was surprised quite a bit with Lili's smirk. "What is it?" Feli asked of this odd behavior.
Lili leaned her chin forward on Feli's shoulder and whispered. "You're staring at Ludwig, aren't you?"
Flustered, Feli turned a bit pink and spun her body around so fast to try to face Lili that poor Lili had to hang onto Feli's halter top for dear life or else she would have gotten spun off.
"I was just interested in the book he had in his hands! I've been looking for a good novel lately." She fibbed, hoping Lili would buy it.
She didn't. "I know you're not the type to read classics. You were most definitely looking at him," she said and giggled. Feli felt hot in the face but smiled shyly to herself.