CHRISTMAS DESATER!

Britain smirked as he check marked everything on the list.

"Tree set up, check. Catering, check. Oh, this is going to be a marvelous children's Christmas play indeed!" He had arranged it all himself, the play, food, everything. Of course, he did agree to have his friends help him set up, but Germany had his concerns.

"Are you certain you don't need our help? 53 children can be a handful. Not to mention managing food und zhe play."

"Oh, rubbish!" Britain said with a careless wave of his hand. "You of little faith. I did raise America, Canada, and Hong Kong! How hard can fifty-three children be?"

"Who's Canada?" the German asked.

The Canadian was standing on a ladder as he was nailing the lights to the ceiling of the place Britain was sponsoring his play.

"I'm up here!" he said in his usual quiet tone. No one heard him, of course.

"Germany, I assure you that I have everything under control. I cast a spell on the food so it can cook itself. There is nothing to worry about."

"Don't you zhink you should schtill check zhe food?" Germany asked. He wasn't sure if Britain had thought this whole play through.

"Nonsense!" Britain frowned.

Once everything had been set up, Britain thanked his friends and shooed them out the building.

"Once they hear that the play is a success, they will never doubt my abilities again!" Britain thought to himself. He really should have taken Germany's concerns seriously, though. But you can't exactly convince a stubborn Englishman.

The families had arrived and Britain at once prepared the children for the play.

"Is everyone ready?"

"No," came a few scared voices. Britain smiled, he loved children. He knelt down to their level.

"There is nothing to worry about, little ones. When the play starts, you'll forget about being nervous. Just have fun and everything will be right as rain." The nervous children nodded a bit.

Britain peeked out at the audience. He had at least thirty families here. He dug into his pockets and pulled out the cheat cards for his greeting. He began to practice, but one of the girls tugged at his pant leg.

"I have to go potty," she said. Britain nodded and pointed down the hall from backstage.

"Down the hall to your right, you can't miss it." He didn't even look up from his cards when he said that. He didn't realize that the little girl still needed help using the restroom.

"Is everyone ready?" he asked the children a few minutes later.

"War is over~" the children began to sing.

"Not yet, children," Britain said with a patient smile. "That song is saved for after the play." He chuckled to himself as he looked down at his wristwatch. It was about time to start.

He stepped out from behind the curtains to face the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began, but realized no one was in the room to watch. "That's odd, I was sure I saw all the thirty families out here a moment ago..."

What Britain didn't think about was the large trap door that lead to the basement was not locked. If it was, the families would not have disappeared...

He decided to look for them. He stepped off the stage and made his way towards the back rooms. He then realized the unsteady floor beneath his feet.

"I probably should make sure that's locked and secure. Someone could get hurt if they fell through the floor to the basement."

He tinkered with the combination in the little box containing numbers on the wall for the basement lock down. At last it was locked and safe. He never once gave thought that the parents of the children may have slipped down into the basement before.

Suddenly, Britain heard a crash from the kitchen and went to investigate. He found several kids in the kitchen playing with the smoothie blenders.

"Children, be careful!" he said. The smoothies jumped from one blender to the other, for reasons Britain didn't even imagine were possible. He jumped at one of the kids, only to get the smoothies splashed all over his face.

"Eww!" Britain said as he wiped away the sticky goodness from his eyes. The children laughed at their mischievousness.

"You think that's funny, do you? How about THIS?!" he made another leap at one of the children, but slipped and went sliding into the large freezer. By the time Britain realized what had happened, the freezer door locked him in! BRRR, was it cold!

"Children?" he asked nicely through chattering teeth as he rubbed his arms to warm them. But there was no answer.

"Children?" all Britain heard was laughter from the kids. He was pretty sure the children who were doing this to him were starring as angles in his play, too. So much for angles. "Those little devils!"

He had no choice but to use magic to let himself out. When the door opened, evil aura emerged from Britain's body as he glared at the children.

"Uh-oh!" the children said and ran out the room.

"Come back here! You're all cleaning this mess up right now!" Britain hardly could finish his sentence before slipping on a banana peel. He tried to catch himself from falling, but it was no use. He slipped and slides out the kitchen and into the dinning area...where the cake he had spent hours to make was sitting on the table.

"Oh, no!" Britain screamed before he went crashing into the cake. Frosting and cake covered his fine new suit he had bought for the occasion. He looked down at himself, feeling quite embarrassed. He heard the children laughing at him again.

Britain began to chase them, but he heard more chaos happening in the play room. He quickly returned to the stage and saw a nightmare!

Children were everywhere and they were ruining the decorations he made himself!

"STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" Britain screamed. He was ignored, of course.

Hey, Britain? I tried to stop them, but there are too many kids!" Canada tried to tell him. Of course, Britain didn't realize Canada was still there. He thought he was the only adult.

Children were eating the Styrofoam presents!

"Get those gifts out of your mouths!" Britain was everywhere, trying to stop one child after another from trying to cause further damage! A few boys had messed up the plumbing system and were running around the stage with toilet paper. Then, to Britain's supreme horror, the children all began to throw up!

"AGHHHHHH!" Britain screamed. Poor man!

It wasn't until about an hour later did the children finally calm down and were asleep. By then, Britain's mind started to catch up with everything that had happened. He stared, awestruck, at the mess throughout the building.

He felt as if he had made a big mistake. He was starting to realize that it would have been best if his friends were there to help him. But he had been stubborn and wanted to do everything on his own.

He thought he heard thumping underneath the floor. Curious as to what it might be, he went down into the basement. There he saw the disappearing families of the children!

"Ah, so this is where you all have been hiding!" Britain started to smile. The parents were not so pleased, however. They were really mad.

"Hey, now that I think about it, you disappeared when I needed you most!" Britain said accusingly. "As their family, you should have helped me handle your kids! Speaking of which, your children are so terribly misbehaving! They don't listen to a word I say!"

He was a bit rude in all honesty. And it was his own fault for not securing the trap door to the basement in the first place.

The parents gathered their children and soon left, but they were not pleased by the way Britain had been so rude to them. They surely were not going to come to any parties he hosted again.

It was then that his friends showed up. They looked around at the mess all over the building. Britain had a broom and was sweeping up the mess, looking very sad. Germany walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

It was then that Britain notice his friends had come back. He shook his head and turned away. He would not admit that he should have had help. But his friends seem to get the idea about what happened.

"It vas bad, vasn't it?" Germany asked as he and the others examined the mess in the room.

"Isn't it an obvious answer? Look at this mess and tell me what you see. A disaster! Everywhere!" Britain said, feeling more frustrated at himself with every word.

"We can help you clean up, dude," America offered. "It won't be a problamo!"

"Would you please?" Britain asked after a long moment of silence.

"You know," France said as he drew a finger across Britain's shoulder. "I could have helped you with zhe catering. I am a marvelous chief after all!"

Britain shivered at the Frenchman's actions, and slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch me, Frong! Keep your hands to yourself!"

"But I could have, if only you had let me!" Francis insisted.

Britain was quiet again. He realized how much his friends really wanted to help him, and he felt moved. He didn't want to cry, not in front of them.

"Just...help me clean up, you idiots," he mumbled as he started sweeping again. His seven friends nodded with smiles.

No one noticed Canada helping them out here and there.

"I thought I'd help to, but it doesn't look like anyone notices again." He eventually bumped into Britain, who stared at him in confusion.

"Who the heck are you?"

"I'm Canada! I've been here the whole time!" Canada said. Britain frowned.

"If you have been here the whole time, then you should have helped me with the kids! Don't tell me you got stuck in the basement too!"

"I was trying to help, but you didn't notice me!" Canada almost yelled.

"Young man, there is no need to raise your voice!" Britain said. "If you want to help clean up, fine, but don't be so rude." he handed Canada a mop and a bucket, not realizing that he was sounding rude too. Canada took the items, but he was really frustrated that no one noticed he was around.

THE END