Life Skills

America & Belarus/ Alfred Jones & Natalya Arlovskaya

[High School AU]

No one volunteered to be Natalya Arlovskaya's partner for the big clichéd life skills project. No one was stupid enough. Except for Alfred F. Jones, that is. (AmericaxBelarus, but I'm trying to squeeze in some HungaryxPrussia at the same time! Hahaha!)

Italics are used to represent Natalya's inner thoughts in this chapter

"Alright, class. This is it!" Mr. Edelstein announced uncharacteristically loud, "The start of the big project!" The formerly uninterested class turned their attention towards their young teacher, as he marched into class. He immediately began writing something on the whiteboard. Students began whispering among themselves about what the project could be, and what had gotten into Mr. Edelstein. He finished and stepped back so everyone could take a look at it.

The board read: Marriage & Parenthood

Some students looked happy; others appeared anxious, and some students seemed absolutely disturbed at the thought. After the shock of what was put on the board was gone, everyone burst out talking. Except Natalya Arlovskaya, who just quietly sat at her desk, thinking to herself. She wasn't excited about the project, but she wasn't dreading it, either. As long as I don't get partnered up with someone careless and unreliable…

Instantaneously, her eyes were lured towards the most unreliable and careless guy she had the displeasure of knowing… Alfred F. Jones.

She frowned slightly at the sight of him. He was always so happy and carefree, always flashing that goofy grin of his, and laughing his lively laugh. He really pissed her off sometimes…but other times when she thought about him, her lips would betray her and reveal the smallest smile forming at the corners of her delicate mouth. It confused even her. Natalya shook her head ever-so-slightly, diminishing her thoughts about her paradoxical feelings and the boy that caused them.

Natalya focused back on Mr. Edelstein and what he was doing. He was searching through his papers, determined to find whatever it was he was looking for. Natalya lost interest and glanced at her good friend Elizaveta, who was in an impassioned argument with none other than Gilbert Beildschmidt. Natalya assumed that it was, as usual, caused by Gilbert saying one thing-or-other about Mr. Edelstein, and Elizaveta getting exceedingly defensive of the teacher. Speaking of the teacher, Natalya dully noted that he had finally found the papers he was so desperately looking for, but then began looking for something else he needed. She lazily skimmed the rest of the classroom. Everyone was goofing off and fooling around.

That burly, blonde, blue-eyed German guy that Natalya kind of knew was scolding his friend, the younger Italian brother, for jumping on him and generally causing a ruckus. Meanwhile, the older Italian brother was being bothered by that friendly Spaniard. Her friend Toris was, as usual, holding a one-sided conversation with the pushy (but lovable) Feliks. He caught her eye for a moment and smiled at her. She nodded back in acknowledgement and let a small smile pass her lips, and then continued to study the class. Tino Väinämöinen, who was friends with her brother for some reason, leisurely chatted to the other Nordic students about how he wished he was one class ahead, so he could be with his friend Berwald. And that really quiet boy that everyone but Natalya seemed to ignore was attempting to talk to his loud, obnoxious brother Alfred.

Natalya sighed quietly. Apparently, her brain wouldn't allow her to stop thinking of that all-American boy that she loathed so much. She observed him with her cold-as-ice glare as he ignored his brother more and conversed loudly with that British guy, Arthur. She narrowed her eyes at Alfred. How could he treat his own brother in such a way? How could he neglect a poor soft-spoken guy? Really, Matthew seemed nice enough. Alfred's just an unmindful, insensitive pig. Or at least that's what she's heard from her brother, and that loud Cuban upperclassman…

The teacher was all prepared to teach now. He stepped up to the classroom podium, precious papers in hand. He cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. That apparently wasn't going to work, because no one turned their heads or stopped conversing. The Austrian instructor made an odd face and cleared his throat again, louder this time. No one cared that he wanted to continue class. Except for Elizaveta, of course. She slammed her hands on her desk, making Gilbert jump back, and shouted "It's time to start class, now! You've had enough time to talk! Give Mr. Edelstein your attention!" Typical Elizaveta move. Everyone immediately dropped what they were doing and focused on the teacher. He smiled at Elizaveta gratefully before moving on.

"Like I was saying, guys — Marriage & Parenthood! These days, kids get into all sorts of trouble with their lives and this project is going to teach you just how hard it is to support a family. It's almost like a prevention step." He explained. At least ten hands shot up. He called on Eduard.

"What exactly will we be doing for the project?" Eduard asked skeptically. Everyone whispered after the question, wondering the same thing.

"Well, you're all going to partner up. Each group will be a married couple!" A few people groaned at this fact. Others seemed happy about it. "Don't worry, just like in real life, you get to pick your own partners." That seemed to relax everyone a little. "On top of being a married couple, you'll also have to take care of—" he bent over to pick something off the floor and slammed it onto the podium, "Your very own flour-sack baby!" Mr. Edelstein was beaming at the class.

All the students laughed at the absurdity. They had always seen the movies and TV shows with this assignment, but they never dreamed that they would actually have to do it…

"Now, we obviously have an unbalanced number of girls and boys, but I want everyone to pick their partner before class ends! Get to it!" Mr. Edelstein exclaimed. Oh, this is going to go well. Everyone became deathly serious for a moment before springing from their desks and attacking their first choice as a partner. Natalya simply watched the madness go down – she needn't bother herself with picking a partner. The unlucky classmate who couldn't succeed in getting a partner would be stuck with her, anyway.

Veneziano immediately grabbed Ludwig's arm, declaring the two were a couple to Mr. Edelstein. In nearly the same fashion, Antonio possessively hugged Lovino, signifying that they were now married. That's no surprise. They're always partnered up. Toris was suckered into being Feliks' partner rather easily. Toris, you're so easy to manipulate… Gilbert had somehow managed to snag Elizaveta as his "loving" wife. He put his arm around her neck. She looked like she was about to murder him. She's just joking around. She's probably really excited to be partnered up with Gilbert. That one Asian with the thick eyebrows and Natalya's acquaintance, MeiMei, partnered up. The other Asian, Kiku, decided to marry Heracles. Kiku looked rather pink when he told Mr. Edelstein that they partnered up. It's just a project…It's not like it's going to really happen.

Natalya noticed that there was a loud commotion in the back of the room. Apparently, Alfred and Francis were fighting over Arthur. What a bother...

And so the story begins! Chapter 2 is already in progress!

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