CHAPTER 1: Feliciano's Bad day
Ve~ There were only one thing that I could not deal with this world. Being late.
When I woke up 30 minutes later than usual, I knew right away that today was going to be a very bad day for me.
"Ve?! Grandpa!" I yelled as I quickly got out of bed and searched for my boxer shorts.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" I yelled but there was no response.
I looked at the time and noticed that it had reset and was blinking 12:00 am.
"Stupid digital clock! This is your fault!" I muttered as I pulled out my towel and rushed to the bathroom.
After brushing my teeth and taking a quick shower, I quickly put on my uniform and shoes. I was running way too late to care about my looks or combing my hair. When I left my room, I picked up my backpack and screamed in frustration when all of the books inside it fell out.
"Gyaaahhh!" I yelled, but quickly bent down and repacked it in an orderly fashion and after zipping my bag up again, I ran out of my bedroom and down the stairs.
I looked at my big brother Lovino who was leaning against the counter, sipping some coffee.
"Grandpa left for work, you idiota." He said.
"Then, why didn't you wake me up?" I asked as I grabbed Lovino's coffee from him and started to drink it.
"Hey! That's my fuckin—" Lovino looked me up and down with his light green eyes.
"You're a fucking mess." He continued as he picked up my school necktie from the counter and threw it at me.
I caught it with my free hand and quickly put my necktie after finishing the coffee.
"I'll give you a ride, you stupid little brother." Lovino said.
"R-really? Thank you, brother!" I smiled and gave him a hug.
And a short moment later, I was off to school. I think being a teenager is one of the hardest stages in a person's life. Especially in this day and age. You had to worry about school, about a social life, about family, and even about figuring out who you are as a person and where you want to be one day — sometimes that's too much to handle. The worst part was that I was in twelfth grade, that meant University and College applications were on my mind as well and that means more stress.
I often hated school but that was a normal thing for kids like me. Kids who had no mother and father, kids who lacked popularity, kids who lacked a social life, and kids who just hated seeing certain people that they only ever saw at school. But I have to say, being quiet, friendly and apparently shy was a great way to make my life a little bit easier. Especially in my school, where drama was an everyday thing.
After Lovino dropped me off, I gave him a kiss on his cheek and rushed to my locker. Classes had already started and I tried my best to ignore the angry looks of the hall monitors as I reached my locker and opened the lock.
"Good morning staff and students!"
I jumped, dropping my lock onto the floor and cursing the morning announcements in my head.
"Today is Monday. Please stand up for the playing of the school's anthem!"
"Stop walking and stand still!" I heard Sir Vash's voice, the Swiss hall monitor yell at some students, probably including me. I swallowed in frustration.
A minute later, when the school's song had ended, I went back to my locker and pull out some of my textbooks while ignoring Sir Vash's so important announcements. Finally, I closed my locker and rushed down the narrow but squeaky clean halls of Hetalia High School and up the staircase to my Anthropology class. But when I reached the door to the classroom, I froze.
Another student walking towards me froze too. We then looked at each other for a moment, and for that moment, I forgot that I was late for class. He's Ludwig Beilschmidt, my ex-German best friend, was standing in front of me. Wow, what a day to look your worst and feel your worst. I was going to smile at him but he stepped forward and opened the classroom door and stood there, waiting for me to go in.
"T-thanks…" I said as I walked into the room without looking him in the eyes.
Then, my French teacher, Mr. Francis Bonnefoy, looked up. He was our anthropology teacher and honestly, he was one of the hottest teacher in our school. He had gorgeous deep blue eyes and soft shoulder-length blond hair and was tall, had an average build and a lovely deep voice.
"Feliciano," He said, making me stop at the door.
"I'm not surprised you're late." He continued.
"Ve~ I'm sorry." I smiled, giving him a sad, apologetic look.
He smiled at me but then his eyes fell on Ludwig who had already walked past me and was sitting in his seat.
"Ludwig? You're late? That's a surprise." Mr. Bonnefoy said.
"I'm sorry, sir." Ludwig said.
Mr. Bonnefoy shook his head and then looked at me. "Alright, get to your seat, Feliciano."
I nodded and walked over to my seat which was at the opposite end of the classroom from Ludwig, and noticed that students were not in their regular seats today. Whatever, I didn't talk to many students in this class anyway. So, I just went to my regular seat.
After getting settled, I leaned back into my seat and secretly looked over at Ludwig. He smiled a little at his Russian and American friends. I crossed my arms and felt a frown form on my face. I still couldn't understand how two people who were once best friends could pretend they didn't know each other.
That was Ludwig and I.
All through elementary school, Ludwig and I were the bestest of friends. And when I say the best of friends, I mean it. We knew everything about each other, and we did everything together. At that time of my life he was someone that I was so used to being in my life, like a big brother. And I swear I thought we were happy. Then high school had to come around and ruin everything.
Ludwig was hot, there was no doubt about that. He was an extremely intelligent, he was rich and he was so good at sports too. It didn't take him longer than a day to get his new, popular, materialistic, rich friends.
It was our first day of high school and Ludwig had already joined the elite group of our school. They didn't have a group name or anything but there was a common trait that all their members had. They were rich, gorgeous, popular, materialistic, snobby, dramatic and absolutely, horribly judgmental.
Clearly, I was different and could never fit in with that type of crowd. My auburn hair with curl on the left side and amber eyes, I could never really be that handsome. I had a somewhat small face and skinny body. When it came to money, my grandfather was a manager of small pasta shop. We were a middle-class family who lived in a regular sized house.
That's why there was no way I could fit into Ludwig's kind of life. I think the worst part of all of this was that I always had a tiny crush on him. From the time that we met. He was, after all, my first love. I guess you can never really get over that.
Honestly though, as the years passed, I've grown. I personally think I'm better looking than I was in elementary school. Or maybe it's because my grandpa likes to tell me that I'm cute. I guess that doesn't count. But either way, I've grown to accept that I'm not Mister Popular Handsome and I'm happy with that. I've also grown to accept that Ludwig is a jerk who left me for popularity.
I sighed. It's not like I should blame myself. I mean, I never did anything wrong right?
I secretly looked at Ludwig again and my heart started to ache a little. I sighed again and looked down at my hands. I then shook my head.
"Ve... no, I won't' be upset. I've grown."
There's no reason for why I should ever be upset. I've got one year of high school left and then Ludwig will just be a part of my past.
"Oh, Ludwig and Feliciano. I need you two to sit together." Mr. Bonnefoy said.
Both of our heads shot up.
"What!?" We both asked together.
"Everyone else had picked partners to start the assignment. You two have no partners, so you two need to be partners." Mr. Bonnefoy continued.
We both looked at each other.
"Ludwig, get up. Don't keep little Feliciano waiting" Mr. Bonnefoy said.
Students started to chuckle and Ludwig was blushing as he stood up and walked over to me. He then pulled out the chair from the empty desk beside me and sat down. I felt my heart start to beat a little too quickly. This was the closest he has sat to me since elementary school.
"Alright, the assignment isn't going to be a simple assignment, so pay attention." Mr. Bonnefoy started.
He took out a huge pile of papers and started handling it out as he continued to speak.
"On this sheet, there are a bunch of questions on it. I will assign each pair a number and that is the question you will work on."
When we got our sheets, I immediately pulled out my Anthropology binder and put it in.
"Since the semester has just started, the questions are simply introductory questions to help all of you get an understanding of various aspects of anthropology. If you flip to page two, you will see the list of the questions. Examples include what is ecological anthropology? What is applied anthropology? And, what is legal anthropology?"
I nodded my head. Seemed simple enough.
"All you need to do is create a ten minute presentation explaining the topic that you need to discuss. The only reason why this may not be simple is because all of you have probably not taken this course before. So this is all new to you." He said.
"If you have any questions or you need any help at all, please feel free to come and ask me. But other than that, I will give you today in class to get started. But after that, you all need to work on it yourselves and it is due next Wednesday."
After that, Mr. Bonnefoy went around, giving us our numbers, and when he came to us, he said ten. I looked down at the paper when he left and smiled.
"Gott, we got Anthropology of religion." I looked up at Ludwig, who was looking away.
I took a deep breath, working up the courage to speak him again.
"Hey, Luddy!" I said.
"Yeah, sorry?" He looked at me.
I looked at him carefully. He hadn't changed much at all. His eyes were a gorgeous sky blue and he had blond hair that always slicked back. Today, he was wearing his reading glasses which give him a matured look that makes him look even extra hot.
"Uhmm... what did you say?" He smiled awkwardly.
Oh yeah, and he had the cutest smile a guy could have. I looked back at the paper and swallowed hard, feeling my cheeks start to heat up.
"Ve~ I said, cool. We're doing the Anthropology of Religion." I said.
He nodded his head and moved his chair closer to me.
"Yeah, I guess that's... cool." Ludwig said.
"So what type of presentation do you want to do?" I asked as I tried my best to avoid his eyes as much as possible.
"You always loved making huge posters." He shrugged.
I felt my heart skip a beat. I was more than a little surprised to hear that he remembered that.
"D-do you wanna do a poster?" I asked.
"I guess so. I can do all the research related stuff and you can do the art related stuff. Of course... I'll help a bit." He said.
I couldn't help myself from chuckling. That's exactly what we always did when we worked together.
"Ve~ Alright deal!" I smiled.
And then we spent the rest of the class working on the assignment. It wasn't like old times but honestly... it was good enough for me. I guess I was wrong about today being a very bad day.
