This is our first story. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: Martha and April belong to us. Any Hetalian characters- Prussia, Austria, any others that may appear later- belong to Hidekaz Himaruya.
Chapter 1
Martha
Walking into my "AP" class, I fought with my sister, April, over last year's European country project. She'd been assigned Prussia, and I'd been given Austria. It was clearly factual that Austria was much more brilliant than Prussia was awesome, yet April though differently on the matter. We hadn't even considered ending our quarrel when we stepped into the classroom. Two men, on e obviously albino, the other dressed in a fancy blue coat, sat in chairs opposite each other.
The only thing noticeably peculiar about the two, who I presumed were teachers, was that the one with the blue coat sat before, not a desk, but a piano, while the other was singing to what sounded like heavy metal rock on his iPod. April and I continued arguing over the two nations, when she blurted out, "Yeah, but Prussia is 10x more awesome!"
The young man with the albinism pulled his ear plugs out. "She's right, you know. I'm so much more epic," he said in a heavy German accent. He turned and grinned slyly. "Isn't that right, Roderich?"
The pianist, who was apparently Roderich, paused in his playing and asked, "Hmm? I did not quite catch that." He spoke with a proper tone.
"Isn't Prussia 10x more awesome than Austria?"
"Absolutely not, Gilbert. Do you even understand the brilliance of Austria?" replied the man.
"You call it brilliance. I call it being a big sissy," the albino- Gilbert- stated, leaning back in his chair.
April and I quit fighting as we took our seats, intrigued with the behavior of the teachers, who seemed to have taken over our bickering. The rest of the class stared, confused by the argument.
"Shall I show you images of my beautiful home country, Austria?"
"Ugh, don't scar my awesome red eyes with that crap."
"Well, it's not so bad as living in your deranged brother's BASMENT!"
"Hey, I moved out in 2008. Just, my leader became an unawesome jerk and abandoned my settlement. Take a look at the Prussian flag!"
"Such vulgar banners you claim. It's disgusting! Take it out of my sight!"
Their debate continued for the rest of the class period. After about thirty minutes, the spirit of the student body dramatically decreased as we became extremely bored. It seemed to go on for hours before I finally decided to break the rules and take a nap. Just then, the bell rang for school to end.
April
The day started off rather averagely. However, like in any other story, average days generally change.
The woman behind the counter in the office began by introducing herself, then asking our names. And our parents' phone numbers. And their email addresses. As I was coming to the conclusion that she might be a stalker, she showed us a list of high school courses.
"We, here at Curtainway High School, believe in quality education. That's why we offer six electives, four of which would be chosen by each student."
My sister and I both took a look at the list. Post glancing down, we both turned to stare at each other. Her dark brown skin and black hair contrasted sharply with my own strawberry hair and paleness. She was, after all, adopted from Bolivia.
The list of electives, while having six as she promised, also presented avarage-looking classes- visual art, performing arts, language, speech and debate, and P.E. The last one was called AP courses. It seemed really out of place, compared to the other electives.
"S'cuse me, ma'am," I said, "but what are AP courses?"
"Isn't AP an abbreviation for Advanced Placement?" asked Martha.
In response to our questions, the woman smiled almost mockingly.
So, we chose our electives together; they were performing arts, speech and debate, language, and the mysterious AP courses for me. My shy, athletic sister decided on language, visual arts, PE, and AP.
Our first day of 9th grade passed slowly. The first classes were the required four: Language Arts, Math (I was in honors. Martha is an English kind of person, though, so she doesn't get the epicness that is Math.), Science, and History- not one of which did I have with Martha. I did make some friends, though, but any I asked about AP switched conversations. Then came the longest lunch I have ever endured. The cafeteria served mashed green (more like brown) beans, what qualifies as a roll, and something that I classify as possibly meat. I'm glad I brought my lunch.
Then came electives. My sis and I shared only one class, though- AP.
Performing arts consisted of theatre, dance, band, and singing- all rolled into one. Hectic. Speech and debate was exactly what it sounded like. We wrote. We performed. Right up my alley. Apparently a language student had to pick the language they wanted to study prior to the class. How was I supposed to know? Martha's choice was obvious: Spanish. But all I knew that I was related to a bunch of Europeans. Who had confusingly mad e up their own languages despite the fact that they lived often within a few miles of each other. Not to mention other cultures' languages looked fascinating, too. So I kind of sat that one out.
The air was clear, the sun was out, daydreams of swimming at the beach wafted into my head…but there was still another class to go. And a whole school year to follow it. Crud.
Fortunately for me, my curiosity about the purpose of AP courses was stronger than the desire to fake sudden and random sickness. Martha walked up to me. "PE was amazing!" she gasped excitedly, "I love dodge ball!" While I didn't say in retort that I felt quite the opposite about exercise, I did bring up something completely random to change the topic. And what I picked made me nearly fall asleep the next class.