"Sorry, I'm late!" Matthew yelled as he burst through the double doors of the conference room.
Nobody noticed him, he shrugged his shoulders and sat in his usual seat. "Matthew's been late a lot lately." Alfred whispered to Arthur.
"He's left early too." Arthur replied.
They both looked over at him. He looked like he was in deep thought but was soon snapped out of it by Ludwig yelling. "Okay, everybody lets get started!" He yelled.
The meeting continued on as usual, but half way through Matthew silently got out of his seat and crept to the door. He opened the door and went outside. As he stepped out of the room he let out a heavy sigh and slammed the door shut. The other nations seemed started by the abrupt loud noise, but even more so of the excited yelling going down the hallway all the way outside. "What is he so happy about?" Alfred asked to no one in particular.
"I don't know." Francis stated.
Alfred looked out the window. He saw Matthew jump into his red truck and take off. "Whatever." He said shrugging his shoulders, and sitting back down in his chair.
"Okay, because our boss we have to start doing a monthly activity." Ludwig sighed.
"Together?" Ivan asked.
"Together." Ludwig replied.
Ludwig placed a giant bucket on the end of the table. "There is at least one activity from each country in here." He said. "Falincio would you like to draw?"
Italy stood up. "Si!" He said with a cheerful smile.
He put his hand in the slips of paper and drew one out. He carefully unfolded the paper and looked at it. "Hockey." He red.
Everyone groaned, "I don't even know how to skate!" Arthur complained.
"Then we'll go to the closest rink and learn." Alfred answered.
**Time skip**
All the nations had skates in their hands, and walked into the arena. The first thing they saw was people playing hockey on the ice. They walked over to the bench and started putting on their skates. Alfred's attention was currently fixed on a player skating backwards towards the net with the puck. He shot it past the goalie getting a goal. "Line up guys!" He suddenly yelled.
"We're going to take a short break. Do whatever you have to do for 5 minutes and be ready when I get back. Understand!" He yelled at them.
"Yes sir!" The players yelled back.
He then skated off the ice, leaving the players to skate around the rink. "Well, I'm ready to go." Ludwig said, opening the rink door.
The rest followed him on to the ice. The hockey players noticed and started skating over to them. They started skating circles around them. "What are you doing?" One of the players asked.
"Uh, skating?" Falincio said nervously.
"Well, this rink is booked right now. So you have to leave." He said.
He skated dangerously close to Falincio. Ludwig pushed Falincio behind him. "Who are you guys anyways?" Ludwig asked.
"We're the all star Canadian team." A different guy said skating in front of them.
They started skating closer and closer to the frightened nations. Suddenly they heard skates scratching against the ice, and the buzzer going off at the goal post. "Do you know how long you've been working?" The returning captain yelled at his team.
They turned and looked at him, confused by his question then shook their heads.
"Not long enough! You went over your break by a full minute! You know what that means." He said sarcastically.
They all groaned in frustration. "Yes sir!" They yelled, and started skating again.
"Don't give me that you know you love me!" He yelled cheerfully.
They laughed and continued skating. "Excuse me, people over there." The captain said looking at the nations.
They couldn't see the top half of his face because it was covered by an eye shield. Alfred skated a bit forward. "Uh... yes?" He asked.
"This rink is booked for a couple hours, but you can go to that office over there and book for after we're done." He said pointing to a room in the far corner of the rink.
"Oh, okay sorry." Alfred said, smiling.
He turned and led the group out the door of the arena. He took one look back before he walked out the door, and saw the captain shoot another puck in the net.
**The next day**
Everyone was sitting in the conference room even Matthew. Ludwig stood up at the head of the table. "Okay, we are playing hockey tomorrow, so we're going to put the teams together." He said.
He started calling names and putting them on opposite sides of the room. Matthew was the last one sitting down. Ludwig didn't call his name. "Sorry, Canada I guess you don't get to play because you have no team." Ludwig said.
"Can I play if I get my own team?" Matthew asked.
"I guess." Ludwig sighed.
Matthew smiled at Ludwig. "Thanks!" He said.
He kept smiling until everyone left the room. It soon turned to a smirk as he pulled out his cell phone, and dialled a number. He put the phone to his ear, and waited. "Hello?" Someone asked.
"Hey Tim!" Matthew said excitedly into the phone.
"Hey Matthew what can I do for you?" Tim asked.
"Tim round up the guys and bring them to the rink tomorrow morning, we're goin' play a little hockey." Matthew beamed.
"Don't you worry Mattie, I'll get everything ready, we'll see you tomorrow." He said hanging up.
"By the way Tim, bring some of that amazing coffee you make." Canada laughed.
"But of course." Tim laughed back.
Matthew closed his phone. "Maybe after this game people will finally notice me." Matthew said hopefully to himself.
He walked out of the conference room and into the hallway wear Alfred was standing. "I really hope that you find a team, cause I'm really looking forward to kicking your ass tomorrow." Alfred said.
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that Alfred, whatever helps you sleep at night. See you tomorrow." Matthew said, not even flinching, and walking away leaving a very confused Alfred.
**Next day at the rink**
The next morning they all gathered at the rink. Everyone struggled to get the gear on properly. "Hello everyone." They heard Matthew say behind them. "Are you ready to play?"
"So you got a team." Ludwig said, looking at the guys standing behind Matthew.
"You guys should get your gear on, we're going to play first." Alfred said.
Matthew turned around and looked at his team. "Okay guys let's go get our gear on!" He yelled surprising the nations.
The team let out a battle cry as they headed to one of the dressing rooms. "Let's get started." Alfred said.
"So when do we play." Matthew whispered into his ear.
"What!" Alfred said jumping. "How did you guys get changed so fast?"
Matthew shrugged his shoulders. "Well, our two teams will play first then your team will play the loser." He said, looking at Matthew.
"Why the losers?" Matthew asked.
"Well, our teams practiced." Alfred stated.
Matthew didn't argue and led his team to the benches. "Here are your jerseys by the way." Alfred said throwing Matthew's team mismatched and faded out jerseys.
"Why do we get old ones?!" Matthew asked, his anger bubbling up.
He looked at the other two teams that had brand new blue, white, and red jerseys. "We have our own jerseys anyway Matthew." Tim said handing him his red and white jersey.
"Fine! Let start!" Alfred yelled leading them on to the ice.
They all wobbled to the center of the ice. Matthew's team started to snicker. On the ice the nations tried hard to skate fast and hit the puck. On top of that every one of the nations fell over at least twice. Finally the Canadian team totally burst out laughing. "Do you want to play? I want to see you try!" Alfred yelled, in frustration.
"That's our cue guys!" Matthew yelled.
They all threw on their jerseys and grabbed their hockey sticks. Matthew slowly skated to the center of the ice and pulled an iPod out of his pocket that started playing o Canada. "Turn that stupid song off! Let's play!" Alfred yelled.
Tim, Matthew, and the other players glared at him. They were out for blood now. Matthew let the rest of the song play before he went to the center for the face off. He narrowed his eyes and looked at Alfred. "By the way Alfred." Matthew started.
Alfred looked at him "Hmm?"
"We did practice." Matthew finished.
The ref blew the whistle, and the game started. Matthew immediately stole the puck and shot down the ice leaving everyone but his team mates behind. All of a sudden they heard the buzzer go off at the other end of the ice, signifying a goal. Alfred grabbed the puck and tried going down the ice as fast as he could. Tim started going towards him but Matthew stopped him by putting up his hand. Matthew sped up behind him, he skated backwards in front of him and stole the puck again. He was still skating backwards when he shot the puck into the net and got another goal for his team. "What! He's the guy I was watching the other day." Alfred whispered.
"I'm not going to let him show me up." Alfred said frowning.
Alfred increased his speed and grabbed the puck, surprising Matthew. "Wow, he's a lot more in control." Matthew thought.
Yet again he sped up to Alfred and stole the puck back. He saw Tim beside him, he passed the puck off to him. Suddenly he felt someone push him, and a stick in front of his skate causing him to fall into the boards. "Matthew!" He heard Tim scream.
He tried to get up, but fell back down motionless. Through his blurry vision he saw his team over top of him, and Francis skating towards him faster than ever. "Mattieu!" He yelled, kneeling beside him.
Francis took of Matthew's helmet. His forehead was bleeding. He looked up at Alfred. "Why would you do that America?" He asked.
"It's not like I meant for that to happen." Alfred answered coldly.
He pushed himself out of Tim's hands, took the puck and started shooting it into the now empty net. Tim was about to grab him when a hand caught his shoulder. He turned around and looked at them, when he saw who it was a smile crossed his face. It was Matthew. Alfred stopped shooting and looked at his with a shocked expression. Matthew handed Tim his helmet, gloves, and stick. Tim smirked and the rest of the teams went off the ice. "Alfred do you know why I invented this game?" Matthew asked.
"You invented hockey? And no." Alfred answered.
"So I can do this!" He yelled, punching Alfred in the face.
Alfred fell to the ice holding his probably broken nose. The Canadian team started laughing. "Why are you laughing?" Arthur asked.
"Well, you see Matthew our captain has a habit of getting into a fist fight in mostly every game we play. It's greatly encouraged by our fans." Tim answered following Matthew to the locker room.
After that game no one looked at Canada/ Matthew the same again. Alfred would sometimes go to Matthew's house only to see that he was training by bench pressing moose and other large Canadian animals.