50 States, 1 Family

Chapter 1

Virginia High School

If there was one thing everyone knew about Ariele Jones, it was that she hated school.

She never tried to keep it a secret, there was no point, it was clearly written on her face and shown in her body language.

As was now, sitting at her desk in English 4*, listening to her teacher drone on about poetry and their stanzas. Stuff she had literally heard over a dozen times before, but never bothered to commit it to memory.

was good at her job, having been at it for almost twenty years. She was a boney women, just starting to show signs of her advanced age, veiny hands, more wrinkles around the eyes, gray streaks in her otherwise short black hair. She had quickly learned how to read children early on in her career, with a glance she could tell which students would be easy to teacher and which would challenge her authority. It was something she prized herself over, always boasting to the other teachers that she knew Zack would be a trouble maker or Alli would be the perfect angel. had a perfect record for many years now, until the start of this year.

It started just like any new year, she walked into class at eight am sharp to see a room full of glassy eyed kids still half asleep, not being use to getting this early since summer started. After putting her books and lessons down she surveyed the class, instantly judging which student went into which category, until her coco brown eyes fell on a girl with long, wavy blonde hair cascading down her back and startling blue eyes, sitting in the back. The girl's attention wasn't on like every other student, she was simply staring out the window, something that would soon find that the girl often did. Usually that would put the girl in the trouble group, but Mrs. Teecheer couldn't, it was like there was an air of superiority flowing from the girl that made the aged women freeze. Feeling a prolonged gaze directed at her, the girl turned her gaze to and she could have sworn that she had seen knowledge far beyond that of a seventeen year old. Even if she felt more than slightly humiliated at being cowed by a teenager, Teecheer decided it was in her best interest to not draw the girls attention.

After that first class Ariele was able to get away with almost anything, from chewing gum in class to playing on her phone, never said anything. It brought Ariele a certain amount of satisfaction to be able to scare someone who was suppose to be her elder so much that she wouldn't even call the teen out. Ariele knew why that was, having been alive for over a hundred years, her eyes showed knowledge and experience that a human couldn't even dream of having. It made most humans wary when they discovered that, an effect all of Ariele's kind had, even with their bosses*. That was the reason why her and her siblings didn't have very many friends, if any at all.

She never understood why father made her still go to school, she was a hundred seventy eight years old. Sure she still had the mentality of a seventeen year old, but come on a hundred seventy eight soon seventy nine this June. It wasn't like she a hundred and sixty anymore. One more year and she'd be eighteen, an adult in dad's eyes.

There was so many things she would be able to do. Moving out, not having to go to school, getting to go back to Arkansas, no more school.. did she mention no more school? Well, dad would want her to go to college, like he did all his children, but he wouldn't force any of them and she wasn't going willingly.

Eyes flicking back to the clock for the tenth time since she sat down, Ariele sighed. 10:30 am, she still had another hour in here.

Leaning forward, Ariele propped her head up on the palm of her left hand. Her eyes glazed over, trying to get lost in a daydream or two as Mrs. Teecheer started talking about vocab and a test on Friday.

Sliding her gaze to look out the window, her being one of the lucky ones to get a seat beside it, showed nothing of interest. With her class on the second floor the only thing that could be seen was the top of another building and the grey sky above.

She was about to look back to the clock again when something caught her eye. A little white something, falling from the sky, that could just barely be seen. It couldn't be, she must be seeing things. It had hardly snowed at all this winter. The weather seemed to have decided to change course though, as one by one the flakes fell, increasing in number.

A smile forming, her eyes gleamed with excitement, 'Please,' she prayed, 'Please let it lay,'

Virginia Mansion

Though he would never show it, hosting the world meetings was always stressful for the American nation. The problem wasn't having all the other countries at his place or even all the work he had to put into being host, which he never did, but was always finished before the meeting started. No, he could handle that with one hand tied behind his back. His stress came from over fifty different sources. Those sources being his children. Fifty States, one District, and five Territories, all personified into children. If anything they certainly left his life interesting. Had been all the way back to 1787.

It had been eleven years since he had recognized as a nation, four since the Revolutionary war. It was hard as England had said, but controversy to what the brit thought it wasn't more than Alfred could handle, and he definitely wasn't going to be running back to him.

There were a few problems, as to be expected, which was why he had traveled to Pennsylvania with his delegates to write a new constitution. They had been there since May 14th, it was now mid July and they were still going at it, but with George Washington presiding over the convention he was sure they would be able to come through*.

Alfred was currently leaving Pennsylvania and heading west. It was just him and his personal horse that the founding fathers had given him on July 4th as a sort of birthday present. He loved the horse, he was always his first choice of travel, no matter the distance.

Now, traveling into the wilderness, he was glad he had such a loyal horse. He could have walked the distance if he wanted to without having to stop for days and he was more than certain he could protect himself from any wild animals or natives, but he didn't feel up to it, not in his current condition.

This condition was why he was traveling in the first place. He had been feeling… off for months. At first he thought it was just from the unrest that came from being a new nation, or maybe the aftermath of the war, but that was years ago, why would it be hitting him now?

It had started back in May when they had arrived in Penn. and started conversing about the constitution. During the first few weeks he refused to tell anyone about it, certain it would go away, whatever it was. But, it didn't and when weeks turned into months and his stomach started looking strange, even he had to admit something was wrong. Denial thy name is Alfred.

Pulling back on the reins, he stopped the horse for a moment, putting a hand over his mouth and breathing deeply through his nose, he tried to ease the nausea that the rocking motion of the horse had caused.

When the feeling passed, he brought his hand down and unbuttoned his vest before taking it off, draping it over the saddle behind him with his coat that he had taken off as soon as he was out of sight. He would never understand why his people liked these clothes, they were only slightly less stuffy than England's.

With only a white button up over his top half, it was easier to see the evidence of his predicament. A small bump that was just starting to be noticeable under shirts. The bump wasn't flabby like the ones he's seen on the wealthy from lack of having hard work to do. Instead the area from under his rib cage to his hips was firm, almost like he had somehow swallowed a giant rock and it just decided to hang out in his stomach.

'Whatever it is it can't be good,' Alfred thought, bring the horse to a small trot, 'England never mentioned anything like this happening to him, and he's been a nation a lot longer than me,'

Crossing a stream, he saw a long cabin up ahead and knew he was there. She was always so hard to find, even more so since he had been taken in by England and Canada by France. He tried not to think too hard on the parallels.

Halting his horse in front of the house he swung his left leg over, stepping down to the ground, his boots crushing the green grass beneath. He would never understand how she did it, but no matter where she went, where she lived, she was always able to make the place vibrant. All different types of flowers, bushes, and trees were strategically laid out around the surrounding environment. Alfred swore he could almost feel the nature spirits that she had told him and his brother about in bedtime stories when they were little.

Leaving his jacket and vest where they were, knowing she never liked our clothes and wouldn't care. Alfred walked up and knocked on her door, continuing to admire her home as he waited.

Hearing the door open he turned his attention back in front of him. The sight of her left him breathless and with moist eyes. He hadn't seen her in so long, only getting glimpses of her after he became an English colony back in the 1600's.

Her black hair tickled down her back and over her shoulders, it was completely straight except for one piece of hair at the top of her head that refused to be tamed, much like his own cowlick. Dark brown eyes shown with surprise? Anger? Happiness? Alfred wasn't sure, it was times like this that he wished he was better at reading people. Tanned skin, slightly lighter than her eyes, reflected the hot summer sun that streamed through the doorway. Even with lips pressed into a hard line and a hand gripping the door hard enough to make it shake, she looked exactly the way he remembered her. Only maybe a little more skinny and shorter, but that might have been because of how tall he'd gotten.

"Mom," Alfred breathed out, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders at seeing her, his mother, North America, as her presence always seemed to do.

"...Alfred," came her soft reply after a minute of silence.

"-FRED, ALFRED, AMERICA!," a British accent brought the younger nation out of his memories.

"Hmm?," Alfred looked around in a wide eyed, almost startled way, before landing on England and his iconic grin made it's appearance, "Yeah Iggy?,"

"I told you not to bloody call me that!," Arthur said, and Alfred could practically see the vein bulging on the side of his forehead, "and besides, you're the host of this meeting, you shouldn't just space out, just because the attention isn't on you!,"

Rolling his eyes, America said, "Calm down, Iggy, Germany had it, so just relax and pull that stick out of you a-," he was effectively cut off by the sound of the front door banging open and the sound of feet running in, before it was drowned out by what sounded loud enough to be a hundred voices.

"What the bloody hell!," England said, sharing a shocked and confused face with the other nations present, aside from two. Canada was giving his brother a worried look and America, who was staring at the table in horror and forlorning.

-12th grade English

-all the countries had bosses so I guess states would to, maybe their representative or whoever.

-I think Alfred would view George Washington as a hero. He would be like, Alfred's first American hero.