Headnotes: This is a long story I started working on a while ago, and though I've had a hard time trying to continue it I desperately want to try to finish it, or at the very least write more of it. I'm quite proud of the story, in a kind of guilty way where I'm possibly the only person interested, but I don't care and it's very dear to my heart. Hopefully putting it somewhere where I'll have to actually be responsible for it will help encourage me to get over myself and actually write more of it.

Warnings: I've heard people express discontent on the way I named the characters. I'll say so right now, the main character is Austria, and in this story his name is Auster Reichenbach (after the Austrian name for Austria, Österreich). It's an alternate universe, so they aren't all named with country names, and they don't all follow the common naming convention from the fandom. If this bothers you a lot, you should probably not read this story. Sorry, but I'm not going to change the names. I'm writing the story for me, not for you.

(Some of the names, like Antonio and Francis, remain the same as the accepted fanon. Some, like Romano, are the same as in canon.)

Sincerely, An Ugly Chicklet

To whom this may concern:

You're reading this, so you must be the kind of person who gets interested in a little bit of mystery. I'm really glad you decided to give this mystery letter a chance.

I'm twelve years old this year, and starting sixth grade. Middle school was a big deal all summer because I thought I could meet a lot of new people and make a lot of new friends, but it's been about a week and I don't think it's going to happen. I thought, maybe if I can't make real friends at school, I can have a mystery friend as a penpal?

This is where you come in. I mean, you're reading this letter, so you're okay with reading things from someone you don't know, right? It's really easy, all you have to do is write a letter back. You don't have to tell me anything about yourself if you don't want to. I don't want to tell you much either, in case you go to my school and change your mind because you know me.

I'll check back here every day looking for a new reply. Leave the red ribbon inside the bottle if you write back, so I'll know. Please at least think about it.

If you do decide to be my anonymous friend, I'll love you forever. I hope you can grow to like me for who I am.

Sincerely,
An Ugly Chicklet.

.

This must be my fifth day walking home from school. I don't understand why I still can't remember where to go.

I was pretty sure I turned at the big corner house with the fountain yesterday, but I don't recognize this area at all. Each house I passed got fancier and weirder, like each architect came from a different country, or a different time period.

My pack was getting heavy, because carrying weekend homework for an hour of walking is really unpleasant. I thought about stopping somewhere to take it off and rest, but I would be late enough home as it is, and my father would definitely be angry. It's times like this I really wish I was old enough for a cell phone.

Down the road, I could see a park area, and a big sign. It looked like a kind of map of the city, probably for the tourists who sometimes liked to visit. I rushed to it pretty eagerly.

Sure enough, it was a map; even better, it had a dot labelled 'You are here.'

I got excited, put my finger on the dot, and looked all over the area and the map. . . but I couldn't tell which direction was which. There was my house, /ihere/i was here I was; did I come from that direction, or was it the other way?

Something caught my eye; there was a drawing of my school. The labelled dot was so close to it! I compared the map and my surroundings again, and then let out a huge groan. All this time, I had only walked in a circle. I was at the park right behind the school gym.

Angry, I threw my pack down and sat down on the bench behind the map. Why couldn't my father drive me home? It only took ten minutes to drive from school to home. Surely he could spare ten minutes from work! I should have gone home with Licha and Hervey, if only Hervey wasn't so mad at me that it would still be worse than this.

Something was glittering from the nearby tree. I squinted up at it; what was that?

When I went to the tree to investigate the glint, I found it was a bottle, hanging from a branch by a flashy ribbon. The ribbon was tied in a really pretty bow around the neck of the bottle, and it curled at the ends.

It looked really weird. Maybe it was from a party of some kind? I looked around the other trees, but they all looked normal; one had an old kite in it, and another had a pair of decaying shoes, but there was nothing weird about that.

I stood on top of the bench and reached toward the tree, hoping to get a better look. It was surprising; it actually seemed like there was a piece of paper rolled up inside. There was writing on it.

I tilted my head and touched at the bottle to make it stop spinning. The ouside of the paper roll said: READ ME.

I quickly grabbed onto the tree branch, afraid I would get dizzy from surprise and confusion and fall off the bench. I looked around again, but the only people around were joggers with their dogs, and a few little kids. I looked at the bottle again.

The best thing to do would be to ignore the bottle, turn around, and walk away. I should be asking someone for directions home. If my dad got home before I did, I would be in big trouble.

I couldn't stop looking at the words, though. READ ME. It was drawn in a nice, fancy font; it looked like someone had really put effort into making it look good.

And, a little embarrassed, I thought about the book I had read a few weeks ago - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - and couldn't help thinking I might find an interesting adventure of my own if I investigated the mysterious bottle.

I found myself reaching for the bottle with my fingertips, eventually managing to slide it toward me by pulling down the tree branch. The ribbon was really pretty.

I slid out the mysterious paper and unrolled it. It was a letter; it looked like it'd been printed from the computer. To whom this may concern, it began, and I was hooked; how many people actually bothered to begin a letter that way?

I sat at the bench and read through the whole letter, then dug through my pack for my pencilcase. I thought about writing on the back of the letter, but decided I wanted to keep it for myself; besides, I didn't want to write over the nice READ ME script.

I left the ribbon inside the bottle, as instructed, and slipped my quickly-written letter inside it. I looked around; where could I put it? I couldn't hang it back if the ribbon was inside. I settled for balancing the bottle on top of the tree branch, and hoped it wouldn't fall and break, and that the writer of the letter would be able to find it later.

Then I stopped one of the joggers and asked for directions. After she good-naturedly agreed to escort me, I ran along home, heart filled with excitement.

There was someone out there like me! Someone lonely and quiet and scared of starting middle school without many friends! I wanted to go home and memorize the route to the park so that I could go back over and over during the weekend.

.

To the one who thinks s/he is an ugly chicklet:

Hello. I am very impressed with your great presentation. Like you, I started sixth grade this week, and I am having trouble getting to know people. I am eleven years old, but I will be twelve soon. I really liked the ribbon you put on the bottle, it is very pretty. The words you drew on the paper were very nice, it looks like you are very talented.

I am really looking forward to having a penpal. Sorry about my bad handwriting. I only have a pencil and binder paper and this bench to write it on. I would have taken time to type it the way you did, but I wanted to write to you as soon as possible. I hope you don't mind.

I can't wait to get to know you. I already think you are a very interesting person. I will be checking this spot as much as I can over the weekend, hoping to see a reply from you.

Sincerely,
Aust

Wait, should I make up a pen name like you did? I feel like I should, but I don't want to seem silly. I am not sure I can think of a clever one right now. Yours is pretty clever (I think the story is about a duckling, though, not a chicklet), so I want mine to be clever as well. I'll use a stand-in one for now.

Sincerely,
Piano Man.

P.S. Maybe we should leave the bottle in a more secret place. I don't want someone to throw our letters away, or read them. How about you put the next letter in the knot on the big tree? I'll look for it here and there, so take your time deciding.

P.P.S. Sorry for asking you so many questions right away. I am just really looking forward to this. I hope you are not put off by my

enthuziaexcitingness excited-ness. Also, I promise to buy an eraser.