A/N: This came to me during a sick day from school, when I started thinking about if the characters from Hetalia suddenly came to my school. These will probably never be posted onto (and even if they are, it will be quite some time from now, I'm sure), so…yeah. Written during the aftermath of a migraine, so this may suck. Of course, at this point I don't really care.
By the way, all places, people, plot, etc. belong to me EXCEPT FOR Hetalia characters. In addition, 99.9% of places, people, plot, and etc. are products of the author's (aka my) imagination. Well, it's more like 100%, but you get the idea.

New Student – Neue Schüler

It started out as your average Thursday morning at Brownstone Senior High, located within the quaint little town of Brownstone, Missouri, in the good old US of A. Students were currently packed into classrooms, pretending to listen to teachers as they waited impatiently for the last 6 minutes of their first classes to tick away. One of these students, who went by the name of Jessica Rothman, was stuck in her Modern History class, although unlike her peers, she actually enjoyed listening to teacher, Mr. McDonald, go on about the World Wars and their effects on each individual country. He had been in the middle of explaining the aftermath of the war in Canada when he was interrupted by the incessant ring of the classroom phone. Several sleeping students' heads shot up, believing the ring to be that of the class change bell, then upon discovery of the phone they slumped their shoulders back and stared at the clock on the wall before them. Jessica simply looked up from her notes in curiosity.

"James McDonald," Mr. McDonald said into the phone, a strange silence stretching throughout the classroom. He nodded once, then scanned the faces of his students until his gaze landed on Jessica. "Yes, she's here… She'll be down right away." Putting down the phone's handset, Mr. McDonald stepped back to his diagram of Canada on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom, his eyen never leaving Jessica's. "New student," he stated simply, glancing down at his watch for a brief moment. "You can take your things back to your locker, since we only have four minutes of class left."

Jessica knew the drill when it came to new students. "Yes sir," she responded quietly, snapping her notebook shut and ignoring the jealous groans of students around her. She felt a sharp poke in the back and turned around, seeing the face of her long-time friend, Alfred Jones, staring back at her with a bored curiosity. "Dude, tell me about 'em when you get back!"

Jessica smirked, getting up out of her seat and making her way to the door. "I'll think about it," she called sarcastically over her shoulder before stepping out into the silence of the school.

-x-

It was exactly three minutes later when Jessica finally made it down to the main office, dressed smartly in her official Brownstone Student Ambassador polo shirt and carrying a clipboard containing a single page of instructions. She let out a deep breath as she walked through the threshold into the office. This was all old news to her; being a Student Ambassador for two years straight had given her a sense of belonging when it came to times like this. It was her job – along with a few other specially selected students – to guide new students through the crazy and slightly confusing halls of their school and to help faculty get though assemblies with their faces and limbs intact. She had heard others comment on it, saying that it was "dorky" or "a waste of time," but even if it was, it still had its perks. Getting out of class, for one. But she also found it fascinating to meet the new members of her school – very few people tended to show up in the middle of the year, and even fewer had an interesting story about moving from some distant place to include in their introduction. Nevertheless, it was fun for her to know things like this. Being a dork didn't concern her too much.

Taking a moment to look at her surroundings, Jessica noticed a boy her age sitting in one of the chairs in the corner of the office, carefully scanning a piece of paper in his hands. He had short blonde hair and serious ice-blue eyes that made him seem a little older than he was, and there was a black backpack sitting at his feet. He must be the new student, she thought as the secretary handed her a copy of his schedule. She read the name at the top.

Ludwig Beilschmidt.

That's a strange last name, Jessica commented to herself, thanking the secretary and turning her attention toward the blonde-haired boy in the corner. "Ludwig?"

The boy looked up from the paper in his hands and stood, scooping up his backpack with one hand and slinging it over his shoulder. "Ja, that's me."

Jessica smiled politely, detecting a European accent to his words that sounded suspiciously Germanic. I wonder… "I'm Jessica," she said to him, holding out her hand for him to shake. Once he did so, she gestured for him to follow her, and the two started toward the school's central staircase. "So where are you from, Ludwig?"

"Germany." Ludwig spared a glance at Jessica before focusing his gaze on the stairs beneath his feet. "My family moved here a few days ago, after my father got a job in St. Louis."

Jessica nodded curiously – she had heard the my-father-got-a-job-in-St.-Louis comment quite a lot from new students, since Brownstone was only five miles from the bustling metropolis. "Cool. What's Germany like? I've never been outside the States."

"Well, it is much like here," Ludwig commented, a thoughtful expression on his face, "except people don't go around all the time drinking sodas and yelling at the top of their lungs."

Jessica let out an amused snort. He might as well have been talking about Alfred. "Well, it takes a little getting used to, that's for sure. In fact –"

Her story was cut off by the obnoxious brring of the class change bell and the sudden explosion of sound around them as students streamed out of classrooms, forming a river of bodies that stretched all the way down the length of the hall. Jessica stepped back into an empty corner and pulled Ludwig back with her to keep him from getting trapped in the current.

"Sorry about this," she said apologetically above the din of the students. "Class changes are kinda hectic, but that's another thing to get used to."

Ludwig stared out at the mobs of students, causing some to give him confused glances. "I can tell."

Desperate not to get off on the wrong foot and have an awkward silence arise, Jessica decided to start another conversation. "Do you have any siblings?"

Ludwig looked away from the fellow high schoolers and turned his slightly puzzled gaze toward her. He wasn't exactly expecting anyone to ask him about his family – or himself, for that matter. "Ja, mein älterer Bruder Gilbert." She didn't look the least bit confused by his sudden German, so he continued. "He's a year older than me – someone had taken him just before you came along."

Jessica glanced down at her copy of his schedule and noticed for the first time that the number beside the GRADE space read 10*. Just like me. She chuckled to herself. "Who knows, maybe he'll be in one of my brother's classes!"

The quizzical look in Ludwig's eyes increased as the crowd of students around them thinned slightly. "You have an older brother, too?"

"Yeah. He's a junior, but he acts like a little kid all the time. I'm lucky to have kept my sanity up 'til now." Jessica laughed, then silenced herself, hoping that she wasn't sounding rude to the new student. But instead of seeing a bored or annoyed expression when she looked back at Ludwig, she saw him give her a sympathetic smirk, something that she never though she'd ever see.

"Do I know how that feels," he murmured, shaking his head a little.

Jessica couldn't help but smile a little wider as the din around them dimmed into nothing. "Come on, I'll show you to your classes." Her thoughts momentarily wandered to the other new students that she had led through these very halls, how after their tours they were here and gone, lost within the crowds without another mention of their first friend. As the two walked, sharing stories about their pasts and slowly warming up to each other, she thought that maybe she would finally be able to keep a friend from elsewhere.

Just maybe.

*BTW, this uses the American school system, so that's like ages 15 and 16.

A/N: As of the moment I write this author's note, it's been a day since I wrote this chapter. By now, I have completed the second chapter, as well as part of the third and a scene that comes up later that I had to write down before it left my brain. I'm sorry, but this has become a plot bunny story. I'll be obsessed with this one for a while, and I'm sorry to all of you out there who wanted to see the Christmas Party fic directly after I finished Yugoslavia, as well as anyone who is waiting for updates for my other stories. I will definitely try to beat back the bunny this time, but I can't make any promises. (By the way, spoiler alert: the next chapter involves a certain pasta-loving Italian. Two, in fact.)