I woke up to the beeping of an alarm clock. I put up with the annoying sound day after day by reminding myself that it was better than waking up to see Natalia's face centimeters from my own. Ehh, I definitely don't want her sneaking into my room again. I remembered that it was the last day of the semester—and I would have four days off from school—as I packed my school bag.

I crept downstairs quietly. Hopefully Natalia was still asleep and I could finish getting ready before she woke up. As I descended the stairs I could see it was my lucky day. I smiled to myself as I read the note from Katyusha saying that she had already left for work and would be back after we got home. I poured myself a bowl of Coco Puffs and reviewed my schedule for the day.

I had all classes today; we probably wouldn't do anything though. Maybe get tests back. Algebra II, Cartooning, break, Chemistry, Gym, lunch, Social Studies, then Language Arts.

I got up to put my bowl in the sink to wash it, but right before I turned the water on, I thought I heard the stairs creak. I paused and turned around slowly. I instinctively braced myself against the giant glomp.

"Good morning big brother~," my sister, Natalia, said.

I sighed and gave her a quick (very, very quick) hug before prying her off me. "Good morning systra."

"I had a wonderful dream last night," she started, reluctantly letting go of me. "You finally married me."

Oh. That. I managed to suppress my flinch at the dreaded 'm' word.

"I think it's a sign."

Nyet. It's definitely not.

"Marrymemarrymemarrymemarryme!"

I grabbed my bag and ran out the door. The footsteps and chanting behind me told me she left too. There's no reasoning with Natalia when she's like this, it's like some sort of trance. Luckily, the school is nearby. We live two blocks from Hetalia World Academy.

I dashed in the school and immediately headed to my math class. Ms. Peterson usually came in a few minutes before the bell but she didn't mind students coming in when it was empty. I sighed in relief and sat down in my seat. There was about fifteen minutes until class so I got out my things and reviewed my homework. I'm confident it's right, but it can't hurt to check.

"And then they put the cat in the freezer!" a dirty blond/light brown haired boy said to the blond walking next to him.

"Privet Alex, Tino," I greeted with a particularly friendly smile.

They stopped where they were and turned to me. They both looked…terrified, though Tino tried to play it off with a nervous smile.

"Er, hi Ivan…" Tino said. Alex nodded to me and they promptly sat in the seats farthest away from me and restarted their conversation.

I inwardly sighed. People were always vying for those seats. Nearly everyone in the school was afraid of me. I don't really understand why though. I smile at everyone, even people I don't really like. I used to think it was because of my height, but then I realized that Alfred and Berwald—who are close to my stature—aren't feared. Well, maybe Berwald isn't the best example. He initially scares people off with his constant glowering, but the people who know him seem to like him enough.

"Hello Ivan."

I broke myself from my thoughts and saw my only friend here and one of the only people who aren't scared of me.

"Privet Hyung Soo, how are you today?"

"I am well enough to function. And yourself?"

"The same as any other day."

We sat there in companionable silence until class started. Though we didn't talk much, I regarded us to be pretty good friends. I suppose we got to be friends because the Korean can't resist a challenge. He does all the extra credit problems and is top of the class even though he's a freshman. I guess when he saw everyone avoiding me on the first day of school; he saw it as a challenge and made a point of sitting next to me.

Eventually class started and, just as I predicted, it was a free period. I didn't really have anything to do, so I just doodled sunflowers on the back page of my notebook. Time went by as it is apt to do, and class was over.

The rest of the day went by normally: everyone cowering whenever I walked into a room, racist comments provided by Alfred, hiding from my sister during lunch, and so on. On our walk home Natalia managed to latch on to me, but she didn't mention the 'm' word so it wasn't too bad.

I shook her off when I got to my room. I just wanted to chill for a while and I suppose she understood that. I closed my door and set up my stereo. I finally allowed my smile to falter. I always pretend not to care or notice the frightened stares and the mean comments, but, they do bother me. I'm always smiling because smiles are nice and supposed to put people at ease. I know I'm not smiling meanly; I've seen myself in the mirror. The only person in the entire school—who I'm not related to—that I can call my friend is Hyung Soo. I used to be friends with a senior named Gilbert when we were little but we drifted apart as we grew up. He barely even acknowledges me now.

Hyung Soo is great, but is it so bad to want even one more friend? Or even for people to stop cowering at the sight of me…

Long time no see, eh? Just to repeat myself, there is NO ROCHU in this fic. I really don't like that pairing. It's fine if you do, you just won't find any here.

To ease confusion, I'll put grade levels here.

Freshmen:

Belarus(Natalia

Latvia (Raivis)

South Korea (Yong Soo)

North Korea (Hyung Soo)

Iceland (Emil)

Greenland (Alleq)

Hong Kong (Hong)

New Zealand (Etera)

Liechtenstein (Lili)

Sophomores:

Lithuania (Toris)

America (Alfred)

Veneziano (Feliciano)

Romano (Lovino)

Germany (Ludwig)

Belgium (Émilie)

Japan (Kiku)

Canada (Matthew)

Australia (Joshua)

Bulgaria (Ilarion)

Juniors:

Russia (Ivan)

Estonia (Eduard)

China (Yao)

England (Arthur)

Netherlands (Adrian)

Finland (Tino)

Switzerland (Vash)

Romania (Alexandru)

Seniors:

France (Francis)

Spain (Antonio)

Prussia (Gilbert)

Denmark (Markus)

Norway (Nikolai)

Sweden (Berwald)

Hungary (Elisabeta)

Austria (Roderich)

Greece (Heracles)

Other:

Ukraine (Katyusha)-Out of school

Sealand (Peter) -7th Grade

Scotland (Colin)- Out of school

Wales (Llewelyn) – 5th year of college

Ireland (Lucas) – Out of school

Turkey (Sadiq)- Freshman in college

Seborga (Benvolio) – 7th grade

Wy (Aaiza) – 7th grade

I may not use all of the listed characters, this is just in case. I don't own any products or references in this story. Have a nice day!