Disclaimer: Do not own Hetalia!
Note: Okay, so this fanfic is a spontaneous idea of mine that I couldn't get out of my head, so I had to write it! But it's defintely not crack, just sayin. It features my OC Philippines (Maria), Seychelles (Michelle) and Vietnam (Kim). I will explain the way the voting works at the end of this chap. Without further ado, enjoy!
"Wow, I just can't believe you and Antonio broke up," Mei frowned at her emotionally-exhausted friend from across the table. It was presently lunch hour at Heta High School, and Maria had finally mustered up the courage to tell her friends the bad news just as they finished eating.
"Well, I'm glad you dumped him," Michelle objected, putting a comforting hand on Maria's shoulder. "What else were you supposed to do? You deserve much more than that dirty cheater."
"What I have a hard time believing is that he actually cheated on you," Kim pondered thoughtfully. "Antonio of all people..."
"I found a thong in his backpack! And it definitely wasn't mine," Maria scowled, clenching her fists angrily at the recollection.
"If you say so, then I believe you," Kim amended quickly.
"I'm not mad at you," Maria sighed, trying to control her feelings. "I'm just having a hard time accepting this, that's all. How do you do it Mei? You're relationship with Tao is just so perfect!"
"No relationship is perfect," the Taiwanese girl replied seriously, "Tao and I just learn to move past our arguments and to trust each other, that's all." Mei truly was sad that Antonio and Maria had broken up; the two would always double date with her and Tao every so often, and they made the cutest couples, but it seemed as if that was a thing of the past now.
The Filipina girl rubbed her temples in frustration. "Trust is out of the question now," Maria mumbled bitterly.
Michelle tapped her finger to her chin in deep thought. Then she snapped her fingers, as if a light bulb lit up atop her head. "You know what this means?" she bubbled excitedly.
"What?" the three other girls asked simultaneously, Maria perking up at her ecstatic tone.
"You can't mingle unless you're single!" The Seychellois girl exclaimed happily. "It's time for us to browse the premises for potential boyfriends!" She turned to Mei apologetically, "Sorry, Mei but since you already have one, you can just give us your input."
"That's fine with me," Mei waved off, giggling.
"I don't know..." Kim trailed off uncertainly.
"Kim! It's time you started going out on dates again," Michelle chided. "You haven't gone out on a date, in like, ever!"
"Maybe I just don't like the options around here," Kim said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well maybe you just haven't looked hard enough. You have to actually get to know the guys around here first," Mei urged gently. The Vietnamese girl sighed, and Michelle took that as an agreement.
"What do you say, Maria?" she asked, grinning encouragingly.
"Well...I guess it would be good to get my mind off of him," Maria finally said, earning a thrilled hug from her pig-tailed friend.
"Yay! This is going to be so much fun!" she squealed.
On the other side of the campus, Antonio was miserably staring at his sandwich, his appetite nonexistent, trying to keep himself together.
"Dude, rumor has it that you cheated on her," Alfred said tentatively, earning a glare from Lovino.
"That's a lie! I did not!" Antonio burst out, unable to control himself. Francis put a hand on his shoulder consolingly.
Gilbert tilted his head to the side. "I heard from Elizaveta that Maria found a thong in your bag and totally went off on you."
"I-I don't know how it got there! I'd never seen it before in my life!" the Spanish boy sputtered.
"Dude, you don't have to lie to us," Alfred said nonchalantly, his mouth full of food.
"Yeah, if you screwed up, then at least have the balls to admit it," Lovino huffed before sipping his water bottle.
"I'm telling you, I didn't cheat!" Antonio exclaimed again, but he knew that no matter how many times he said it, no one would believe him, especially since rumors spread like wildfire in high school...
After the bell had rung, signaling lunch hour was now over, Kim headed toward her next class, which was Chemistry. It was a subject that came easily to her, just like most of her other subjects since Kim was at the top of her class along with Yao Wang and Kiku Honda. In the back of her mind, she realized that there was a quiz today, but that didn't bother her at all. Instead, she kept thinking about what Michelle had told her, and was a bit embarrassed by the truth in her words. It was true she hadn't dated in a while, mainly because she was focusing on her studies. But it was also because she tended to avoid mixing with the opposite sex that often, since many of them proved to be insufferable to her.
The more Kim thought about it however, the more she realized that Michelle was probably right. Perhaps it really was time for her to start seeing people, and even consider that sort of relationship. But would she be able to juggle a long term relationship along with her school work and extracurricular activities? This was the question that troubled her the most, since the future was her highest priority. A good, stable job required a good college, which in turn required outstanding high school grades. But then again, a future was more than a job, right? It was also about building a family with someone. And to find that someone, she would need experience dating guys, wouldn't she? Yes, she decided. She would be able to juggle all those things. If anyone could, she could.
She walked into her class with new confidence as she took her usual seat next to her lab partner, Alice. She was a nice girl from Belgium with short blonde hair and a cheery personality, which was always good in a class as dull as Chemistry. Alice greeted her with a welcoming smile. "Hey Kim! Ready for the quiz?"
"Always am," she smiled back, taking out a pen.
"So I heard Antonio cheated on Maria? She's your friend, right?"
"Oh yeah, that's right. She was pretty upset about it at lunch," Kim frowned.
"Yeah, I can imagine how much it hurt to find out," Alice mused regretfully, "They looked so happy just a few days ago. It's crazy how a relationship can go downhill just like that."
"Yeah..." Suddenly Kim remembered another reason she was wary of dating. Alice was right, relationships can really hurt someone if things go completely wrong like that. And Kim didn't want any part of that. Getting close to someone involved risking the chance of heart ache. Trusting people was a very hard thing to do as well, Kim found herself thinking. Perhaps agreeing with Michelle wasn't the best of ideas.
When fourth block ended, Michelle immediately left the classroom and headed for her locker. Subconsciously entering in her combination into the lock, she exchanged her math book for her history one, then fixed the ribbons in her hair before shutting the locker again and turning to leave. As she did, she caught sight of Matthew Williams and Katyusha Braginski walking down the hall together, hand in hand. Now there was an adorable couple. A few months ago, Matthew's brother, Alfred F. Jones (they had different last names due to some weird custody situation that never really made sense to Michelle) convinced Matthew to "man up" and get the courage to confess his true feelings for Katyusha. It was a pretty big deal, because not only did Matthew have to fear Katyusha's reaction, but also her big brother Ivan's reactions. But luckily, Ivan had deemed Matthew a worthy enough person to go out with his sister, and now the two seemed as happy as could be.
Michelle realized she had been staring and looked away quickly, thankful that the two had yet to notice her, and began to stroll to her next class, which was World History. Strangely enough, it was one of her favorite classes, but not because she liked the topics at all. Her friends Maria and Mei also had the class with her and the teacher was super chill and laid back. As she made her way to the classroom, her thoughts wandered back to Matthew and Katyusha, and she felt a sense of longing tugged at her heart. The thing was, Michelle was a very playful type of girl, but she hardly ever engaged in a serious relationship. Sure, she flirted all the time, but it was all for fun and games. She had never really pursued someone long enough to go steady with them, but recently she found herself wanting more. More, as in finding a "significant other" as Mei would sometimes call it. Something like Mei and Tao, or Matthew and Katyusha.
While she did feel really bad for Maria's unlucky turn of events with Antonio, but now that she and Kim agreed to go boy-hunting with her, they could finally mix things up a bit. And she had to admit, Heta High did have a variety of options to chose from. Now that she really thought about it, it was an extremely diverse school. There were boys from all different countries here, and so there had to be someone out there that was her type, right? Some boys immediately popped into her head, the ones everybody talked about. She could rule a few of them out right away, knowing that she wouldn't be able to put up with them for too long, but others she began to seriously consider. And it was a good thing she was about to go to World History, because quite a few of those choices had the same class as her. As she entered the classroom, she smiled to herself. Let the mingling begin.
Maria glanced up from her compact mirror as Michelle sat down in the desk to her left. "Don't worry, Maria, you look awesome, as usual," she grinned.
"Thanks, I was just checking to make sure my cheeks weren't flushed," Maria sighed. Michelle frowned.
"Flushed from crying?" she asked in a low voice. Maria didn't answer, but just shut the mirror and put it back into her bag. As more people began to file in to the room, Mei came in and took the desk behind Maria, and Michelle nudged them both, giggling, "Time to observe our options, eh Maria?"
The Filipina rolled her eyes, but smiled, know Michelle was just trying to cheer her up. Then the bell rang once more, indicating the beginning of class, and Maria saw that they had a substitute teacher for the day. The substitute, a deeply tanned man with rich brown hair and two wild curls that were strikingly familiar. "Hello everyone, I'm Romulus Vargas, you're teacher for the day!" he introduced himself jubilantly.
"That's Feliciano and Lovino's grandfather," Mei whispered to Maria, who blinked in surprise.
Mr. Vargas's gaze swept over the room, before settling on Lovino's face. "Oh, look! Lovi's in this class," he clapped, beaming. His grandson blushed as laughter rippled throughout the room.
"Damnit Grandpa! Really?" he grumbled, annoyed.
Mr. Vargas just gave a hearty laugh. "Too bad Feli's not here too. Anyways, today we're just going to be watching a movie. It's about Ancient Rome!" The mood of the room stayed very light, since nobody ever paid any attention to movies during school, and spent most of the time passing notes instead.
As the movie began to play, Mr. Vargas went back to the computer, and everyone else knew that he wouldn't be watching over them at all, really. Maria actually tried watching the movie for a few minutes, but got bored fast and her eyes wandered the room. Then she froze. How could she forget Antonio had this class as well? Damn. Now she was thinking about the messy break up all over again. But the Spanish boy didn't look her way, not once, but just conversed quietly with Lovino. Michelle seemed to sense her darkening thoughts and tapped her shoulder. "Don't get caught staring," she reminded.
Maria nodded and glanced behind her, where Mei was staring off into the distance, undoubtedly daydreaming about Tao and their plans for the afternoon. She was so lucky, Maria thought, to have such a tight bond with him. Then she got to thinking, did she doing anything wrong? No, of course not! So why did he have to go and cheat on her!
Suddenly, an obnoxious laugh to her right startled her, and she whipped her head around to glare at her neighboring classmate, Yong Soo, a Korean boy who was obsessed about his heritage. But he didn't notice her glare, but was looking the other way. She followed his gaze and saw that he was watching a sheet of paper being passed around the room. Maria watched it for a few moments, then realized it was only being given to the guys in the class. Each guy would take it, read its contents, then mark it quickly before passing it on. She waited until the sheet of paper reached Yong Soo again, then snatched it right from his hands before he even knew what she was doing.
"What is this?" she asked sharply as she leaned away from Yong Soo, who was trying to grab it back frantically. Seeing his plight, Michelle and Mei leaned toward her to read over her shoulders in curiosity.
"Give that back!" Yong Soo demanded quietly.
Maria shook her head and began to read. It was titled, "Single Females in Our Grade" and under it read, "Mark if you like." Like? What was that supposed to mean? Under that was a list of names of girls in this grade, like the heading had said, and next to some of the names were tally marks. Maria skimmed the list as her friends did the same. Most of the names she recognized easily. Alice, Lili, Natalya...Then she saw her own name. Maria. And next to it were seven tally marks. Seven? That was a big number, Maria thought to herself. Did that mean seven people "liked" her, then? Were interested in her?
"Hey, look!" Michelle said, pointing under Maria's name. "There's my name! Six tallies...wow."
"And there's Kim's name," Mei pointed out. "She has five tallies."
Maria faced Yong Soo again, narrowing her eyes, "I bet you started this, didn't you?"
The Korean shrugged indifferently. "I wanted to see how much competition I had for the ladies," he smirked slyly.
"Pig," Maria accused disappointedly, "I seriously hope you didn't tally my name!"
"Ew, why would I ever do that?" Yong Soo replied with mock disgust, but Maria knew he was just teasing. The two had had a strictly platonic friendship ever since they were younger. He was practically an annoying brother to her.
"Why would anyone actually mark this?" Mei asked, confused.
"Because they also want to know if they have competition. I've marked quite a few girls on there myself," he winked.
Maria looked back down at the sheet of paper. Seven tallies. Who marked those and did they serious mean they were interested in her? She looked around the room, unable to help herself. She could tell Michelle was doing the same, trying to pick out who it was who marked her.
There was Yong Soo, but Maria knew he wouldn't have marked her. But he could have marked Michelle or Kim. There was Antonio, but he wouldn't mark her after cheating on her, so he couldn't be one of them. Who else...Her eyes went from face to face across the class. There was Alfred F. Jones, Arthur Kirkland, Lovino Vargas, Ridwan Saleh, Ludwig Beilschmidt, Kiku Honda, Francis Bonnefoy, Yao Wang and Jaidee Charoenkul.
Of course there were other guys in the class, but to be completely honest, Maria did care much about them. A girl's got to have standards. So her mind toyed with the idea of any of those nine putting a tally by her name. They were all hot, she admitted, in their own ways. When she turned back to Michelle, she saw that the other girl's eyes were just as calculating, and she was probably picking out those same nine. Deciding to keep the sheet of paper, she folded it in half and shoved it into her binder to Yong Soo's dismay.
"Hey, I didn't get to read it yet, da ze!" he complained. "I want to see what everyone else put down."
"Too bad, it's mine now," Maria taunted. Kim would also want to get a look at it as well.
And for the rest of the class, neither Maria nor Michelle even bothered listening to the movie, but just went over their new possibilities in their heads.
From the Author: Okay, I know I shouldn't be doing this since I'm already in the middle of Destructive Desires, but I couldn't help myself! This is my first high school AU. Anyways, you all know that as a fanfic author, I love writing for you all, the audience that is, but I'm writing this fic for fun :) But to prove that I'm not being a selfish author, I'll let you guys vote on which pairing you want the three main characters to be with! Cool, right?
So here's how it works: Michelle, Maria and Kim will each be paired with one of the eleven guys mentioned in the World History class. (The eleven being the nine Maria mentioned plus Yong Soo and Antonio). But you guys get to choose who their boyfriends will be in the end!(For those of who you don't know, Jaidee is thailand and Ridwan is Brunei, and the rest of them you can Google if you don't know. Or PM me.)
How to Vote: PLEASE SEND VOTES AS PMs! NOT REVIEWS! thanks! You see, I want the voting to be a secret so that the final pairing will be a surprise :D So, please send me a Private Message telling me which guys you want each girl to be with. Note that one guy cannot have two girls. It should look sorta like this:
Mariax(insert choice) Michellex(insert choice) and Kimx(Insert choice)
Or you can use their country names if thats easier.
Okay, if you are going to vote, please also review my story! If you do, I'll be extra careful to count your vote ;) jk! But seriously, review please! Anyways, thanks for reading! Voting closes around Ch. 4 so please vote soon!