Chapter One

"Today, scholars, we will talk about the difference between a multinational state and a nationstate."

Turning to his board, I watched as Mr. Jones studied the two pictures on the board for a couple seconds. One picture showed a state, an independent geo-political entity (or what normal people call a country), with X's of the same color inside of it. The other showed a state with X's of different colors. I could imagine him trying to remember exactly what his lecture was as he always went up with nothing besides the drawings and phrases on the blackboard.

"Right," he began as he turned back to the class and straddled his stool, as if it were a horse, "let's say that the X's represent a particular nationality. You," he pointed at the student that sat two seats in front of me, "which little 's' state would you want to rule over?"

I saw the kid look from one picture to another before his gaze finally fell upon the state with the same color X's, "That one."

"Why?"

"Because they're all the same," replied the boy. Jones nodded before his eyes settled on me.

"You. What's your name again?"

"Tyler Odom."

"Right, right," he said with a nod, "Why, do you think, he had said that he would want to rule the little 's' state he chose?"

"Because everyone is the same nationality," I replied, sure of my answer.

"But why?" he asked, a smile creeping on his face, "Why? I thought diversity was a good thing. Yay for diversity!"

The class gave a few chuckles at his acting and how he threw his hands in the air in mock celebration. I even found myself smiling. Giving a quick glance around the classroom, I saw one of the girls giving me a thumbs up, which made me shake my head in amusement. Heather was her name and she had been in my history class last year. She was also the one who I had, had lengthy debates with when the teacher had let us debate a subject. Usually, I ended up winning the debate with her going into the trap of circular reasoning. However, we respected each other for this. I had enjoyed finding someone who could make me think fast and keep me on my toes.

"Because," I started, "if everyone is the same nationality, there would be less internal violence. It would be easier to rule because everyone would most likely think the same when it comes to making a decision."

Jones smiled more and hopped off of his stool, "Exactly! See, in a nationstate, everyone is the same. Culture wise, language wise, thought wise, and so on. Everyone believes that they belong to that state. Some examples would be Japan, Germany, and there's a few others that I can't remember at the moment," he gave a quick swing of the hand at the other picture, "A multinational state is a state that contains at least two different nationalities. They don't see themselves as belonging to that state or as being the same as everyone in the state. A prime example would be our northern neighbor Canada. In Canada, there are two different kinds of Canadians that greatly despise each other. They're the English speaking Canadians and the French Canadians."

He paused and looked around the room. Finally, he pointed at a small, cute blonde girl that sat close to his desk, "You, say you're in charge of the multinational state. Also say that you're a member of the red nationality, the majority, and you're state goes to war. Can you depend on the blues, greens, and yellows?"

The girl blankly stared at the board. I felt sorry for her because, one, she got called on, and two, it looked like you could tilt her head sideways, pour water in one ear, and it'd instantly come out the other ear. Finally, after what felt like a couple minutes, she said simply, "No."

"But why? You're all part of the same state," Jones stopped his frantic hand-waving at the board to ask the girl a question, "What's your last name?"

"Uhr."

"You're all Uhrians!" the class laughed again, "So why can't you depend on them?"

Another couple minutes, or what felt like it, passed before she spoke up to answer, "They aren't the same nationality as me."

"Ah," Jones replied as he took up a thoughtful pose. He looked back at the drawings, then at the clock, and then back at us students, "Than what the heck is America?"

Silence echoed back as we all looked from one to the other, seeing who had the answer. After a couple scans around the room, I saw Heather raise her hand, causing Jones to point at her, giving her the go-ahead to speak, "Aren't we a nationstate?"

"We aren't the same though. You sure don't look like Juan over there and I know he speaks Spanish. How can a state so diverse as the United States be a nationstate?" Jones asked, playing the Devil's Advocate, as usual.

When Heather didn't immediately move to answer or raise her hand, I rose mine. After the go-ahead, I asked, "Is it because we are diverse?"

Jones gave a brief, fake, look of enlightenment before nodding his head and straddling his stool once more, "It is. The United States has always been focused on tolerance and it is this shared tolerance to diversity that make us the same. It is also our liking of our personal freedoms. Those two ideals bring us together as a nationality. It's what allows Spanish-speaking Juan and white-girl Heather to be the same nationality."

As soon as he finished talking, the bell rang. As we stood to leave, Jones yelled out, "Remember! You're unit questions will be due soon!"

Hurriedly, I had closed my notebook and shoved it and my pencil into my bookbag. Jumping to my feet, I fast-walked out of the classroom. Turning right at the end of the hall, I went straight through the commons area to a set of doors. Pushing through the doors, I began to walk towards the school's Western parking lot. I was so happy to be out of school. It was Thursday but we had Friday and the coming Monday off, leaving us with a four day weekend. I had also fully bought Skyrim during lunch.

I had rented it before and, after playing it, I was hooked. Going to my town's Gamestop at lunch, I bought the game for a semi-fair price and was just aching to continue the storyline. Even though I had rented it, I already had two characters that were at least halfway through the storyline. They were both the species but I had done one male and one female to see what difference that would make, to which there was none. I had also done it to where the first had escaped with the Stormcloak while the second, the female, had escaped with the Imperial. Again, besides minor changes, it ended up being mostly the same.

However, I was now going to try to play as different species and try to actually finish the storyline. Stepping off the sidewalk and onto the asphalt, I began to turn towards where my truck was parked and-