The Rise and Fall of the Fidget Spinners

Today's World Meeting was being held in Berlin, Germany. It was a grey, dull morning and to make things worse it had started to rain. Angela quickly pulled the hood of her jacket up, shoved her hands in her pockets and half speed walked half jogged her way up to the main entrance of the Reichstag, skipping and dodging puddles as she went. Once through the main doors and security (Europe was on high alert so security had been ranked up) she got herself a cup of tea from the nearest vending machine. She needed something sweet and warm to get herself through this meeting. The meeting itself didn't start till 9:00am, but as this one was being held in Germany, the said German personification liked the nations to turn up forty-five minutes early. This meant that London had showed up a whole hour early just to keep on the Germans good side for once. Now eight o'clock may not seem that early, but for the British girl she liked sleeping in till at least half nine in the mornings, so the German should consider himself lucky that she even got out of bed this early for his precious meeting.

Angela slowly dragged herself up the long stair case and headed for the meeting room. Once at the door she braced herself for the morning to come and plastering a fake smile on her face opened the door. The meeting room was set out like most of the others hosted around the world; a spacious room with plenty of light, a long table in the middle with chairs around it, little place cards with the name and flag of the country or city that was to sit there. Of course, the hosting nation always sat at the head of the table as per tradition, which is where Germany sat now.

Ludwig sat surrounded by loose bits of paper, pens, highlighters and coffee cups, meticulously going over his notes, rehearsing what to say in his head when the time came and even how to greet each nation as they walked through the door. When the door opened, he glanced up to see who was here a whole hour early, when he saw the long wavy blonde hair and gleaming green eyes he did a double take when he noticed it was London. 'What is she doing here so early, she's hardly ever early for meetings let alone my own.' She gave him a nervous little smile when she noticed it was just the two of them, he returned the smile in silent greeting. He watched her walk down his left-hand side of the table trying to find her place card. He glanced to his right and saw that the Union Jack flag was only two seats down from him. For some reason this made him feel rather excited but slightly uncomfortable at the fact that she would be sitting so close to him for an entire two hours.

As London walked the length of one side of the table she could see that she was getting nearer and nearer the German and she prayed to all the Gods that she wasn't sitting too near him. How would she be able to stand two hours in close proximity with him? She continued walking and passed by behind his chair, which he shuffled forward a bit, she then saw the little Union Jack flag on a place card with the words United Kingdom printed on it. Her heart dropped as she realised that Gods could be so cruel by not hearing her prayers, she was only two seats away from him. She was overcome by a wave of nausea as she sat herself down.

"Uhh, Guten Morgen, London." Ludwig slightly stuttered out.

"Morning." Came the short reply.

"So, um, how are you?" He tentatively asked.

"I'm fine, thanks. Yourself?"

"Ja, good."

"Cool."

"Yep."

And that was it. That was how their awkward small talk started and finished at every meeting where they chanced upon one another.

London rummaged around in the satchel she had bought trying to find her notebook. Of course, she hadn't exactly taken down any notes for today's meeting, but she hoped looking over older notes will help settle her nerves and distract her. Once she got her note book out she tried reading it but none of the words were going into her brain as she couldn't concentrate with the presence next to her. 'Oh, my God I was stupid to arrive so bloody early, should've just got here at my usual time at almost being late. Then I wouldn't have to sit here in awkward, uncomfortable silence with this German!' She hoped that a nation, any nation, would make their way through the door now.

Another ten minutes passed until the meeting room door finally opened again to which London eagerly looked up hoping to see one of her friends that she could chat with. However, the nation who walked through the door was just Greece looking like he had just rolled out of bed and thrown on the nearest clothes he could find judging by his appearance. His dark brown hair seemed to grow longer and longer each time London saw the man, it was now almost reaching his shoulders and had a few stray curls in it now. Obviously, the Greek didn't care too much about his appearance during this meeting as all he was wearing was a plain white T-shirt, baggy denim trousers, white converse shoes and was cradling a cat in his arms which was purring loudly. 'How on Earth is he allowed to bring a cat into meetings?' London thought, a bit jealous that she could never bring any of her pets.

Germany just sighed at the Greek man's appearance; he had long given up on trying to get the man to dress at least a bit smarter in meetings. Nonetheless he still greeted him with a "Good morning Greece, how are you today?" but only got a mumbled response of "I'm fine thanks, tired." as he found his chair, which was opposites London's, flopped down in it and immediately fell asleep along with his cat.

The room soon fell silent again except for the light snores of Greece and his cat. After another ten minutes the door opened again and this time it was America who made his appearance and Angela's face lit up at the sight of him. He did a quick scan of the room, waved enthusiastically to London who returned it, and found his seat which happened to next to Greece. For once Alfred could sense there was an awkward atmosphere in the room, so instead of trying to defuse it like London thought and hoped he would, he just stayed silent.

Angela watched Alfred from the other side of the table as he rummaged through his back pack and pulled out, of all things a fidget spinner. Angela just knew this would cause a lot of annoyance. He started spinning and playing with it in his hands, then on the table so the fast spins made light vibrations run through the table. Angela took a quick glance at Ludwig who was just staring at the young American but hadn't said anything to him yet but instead shook his head slightly and went back to his notes.

Growing bored of just one fidget spinner Alfred rummaged around in his bag and found handfuls of fidget spinners all in various colours. He must have had about twelve so he lined them all up and managed to get them all spinning at the same time. Angela watched. Although fidget spinners were kind of pointless and annoying to some they were mesmerising to watch. "Alfred how on Earth did you manage to get twelve fidget spinners into the Reichstag?" London inquired. "Well why wouldn't I have got them in?" Alfred questioned, confused "It's not like they are explosive."

"Fair point." Replied Angela.

Alfred then took an interest in the sleeping Greek man and his cat next to him. He then started spinning the fidget spinners at high speed and carefully placing them on Greece. By the end of it Greece had one on each shoulder and knee, one of his head and one on his cats' head. By this point Germany had had enough, "America would you stop playing around and get those things off Greece now please." He said sternly. Alfred just looked up all innocent and said "Sure, but lemme take a selfie," as he got out his phone and proceeded to take a picture of him and Greece. "Anyway I thought you of all people would like these things and they are a remarkable piece of engineering, the way they are so perfectly balanced and with just one spin they can keep spinning and spinning for ages." Alfred said. "Yes I do appreciate the engineering that went into those things but perhaps the people who invented them should have put their ingenuity into something more useful and practical than just a stupid toy." At that moment, the five Nordic nations walked in talking loudly (well Denmark was) this was enough to wake Greece from his slumber as he jolted upright and the spinners fell off him "What the heck." He whispered. "Oh, don't worry dude, these are all mine." Alfred said hurrying to pick them all up from the floor.

The meeting was now almost at an end; everyone was bored and wanted to get out. The only sounds were Germanys droning voice going on and on and the gentle whirring of Alfred's fidget spinner that he was playing with. London was staring off into space thinking about what she was going to have to eat next as Germany was making his conclusion speech. She decided to watch Alfred for a while with his spinner, he was trying to spin it then jab his little finger through one of the holes first time. He was failing miserably. She watched him do a few more failed attempts, then finally he did. London couldn't help but feel impressed. "Holy Hell, guys did you see that! I managed to get my finger through the hole when it was spinning at like super speed." He shouted gleefully completely interrupting Germany. This did not please the German one bit. "America I swear to god if you bring another one of those stupid things into my meeting or even my country again, I swear I will pass an Act to destroy a whole lot of them. And by a whole lot I mean precisely thirty-two tonnes of them!"

AN: Omg what a pile of trash I have just written. Oh, well I hope whoever read this enjoyed it though.