Hetalia World Academy was an exclusive school. Usually only nations could enroll, but my dear cousin pulled some strings for me. He had begged for me to transfer to his school, now that we were closer he wanted to be together often.
Cold wind bit my cheeks, and I pulled my jacket closer around me. It sure was colder in New York than in California. I should probably go inside the big building in front of me rather than just hanging around outside it. I pushed open the heavy wooden doors of HWA and stepped into the lobby of the school.
The school looked deserted. The big staircase in front of me was empty, and the classroom wing to my left was silent. I was confused for a second; schools should never be this empty or quite. I was instantly paranoid, as I usually was whenever something seems a bit abnormal.
With a tight feeling in my stomach, I walked into a door to my right that was labeled "Office". A secretary looked up at me from her desk at the front of the room. The office was a tidy place, with a small hallway behind the secretary's desk and a couple chairs in the corner. The walls were painted an ugly beige color that in my opinion didn't go with the red carpet.
I read the nametag on the secretary's shirt. Her name was Ms. Hobbs. She spoke to me in a friendly voice, "You must be the new student." She smiled at me, and I nodded and smiled back.
Ms. Hobbs took off her glasses and set them on her desk. She checked her watch and right after she picked up the pencil next to a sheet of paper the bell rang. I jumped a bit, the noise startling me.
She laughed at my reaction and said "Here's your schedule." Ms. Hobbs handed me a sheet of paper, I didn't look at it and just shoved it into my purse. "That was the lunch bell just now so why don't you follow the crowd into the Dining Hall. Your cousin should be there and he will help you find where your next class is."
I flashed her a small smile, "Grazie!" I called to her while walking out the door.
The once quite hallway was filled with students now; most of them were heading in one general direction so I followed them. I walked through the classroom wing and took a right. Two giant wooden doors were propped open letting students swarm inside.
After managing to get myself through the doors, the crowd dispersed in different directions so I could really see, because most of the people were really tall compared to me. I glanced around the Dining Hall, it was huge! There were four very long rectangular tables in the center of the room, each one looking like it could easily hold 50 people. There were also booths pressed up against the wall, looking shiny and brand new.
I looked around at all the people around me. There was no way there could be so many people at a school reserved for nations! People were still coming in behind me, no longer flooding, but a steady stream. A lot of people were already sitting at the tables and booths eating. The two lunch lines were jammed packed.
My feet were starting to hurt from standing for too long, so I started to look around for my cousin. My eyes scanned the room. It was so hard to look for one boy in the middle of all these people. I saw natives from every country I could imagine. I saw a lot of Americans, which was to be expected because it's America and all that junk.
Scanning…. Scanning….. Is that him? No.
I walked around the Dining hall to get a better view. While walking, I feel an invisible tug force my eyes from the tables to the booths. I swerve my vision to the corner booth, which was holding the person I was looking for. He turned his head and we both saw each other at the same time, a smile forming on both of our faces. He jumped out of the booth filled with his friends and ran towards me, calling my name as I shouted his.
"Desideria!"
"Feliciano!"
Feli hit me with the force of a small elephant, almost knocking me over since I was shorter than him. He hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe. After a few seconds like this, I succeeded in pushing him off and he turned back to his friends to introduce me.
"Everyone, this is Desideria." Feli wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer. I've missed him soooo much.
The corner booth filled with Feli's friends was silent. A tall guy with pretty blue eyes spoke first.
"Mein gott, it's another Italy." I recognized the accent and looked up at Feli excitedly. He had told me of a certain German he had a teeny-tiny thing for. Yeah right, teeny-tiny, HAH. I could always see through my adorable Feliciano. I nudged him in the side and when he looked at me I winked at him.
He smiled at me, not getting it, and turned around to face the German he had called Ludwig on the phone. I studied Ludwig carefully. He was one of the many blondes in the room (seriously, why is everyone blonde?) and his mouth was slightly agape, like he couldn't comprehend the situation in front of him.
"Ve~ we do look alike don't we?" Feli grinned at his friend. Ludwig glanced to the other people in the booth. A Japanese man nodded his head. The other person in the booth was another blonde with bushy eyebrows, he looked irritated. I thought he was glaring at me, but when I looked over my shoulder I saw yet another blonde walking up to us with, get this, ANOTHER BLONDE. As they got closer I could see just how much the resembled each other, the only difference being the blonde on the left had longer hair.
From the aura the first blonde gave off, I was sure he was American, but not just any American, I was almost sure he was the person who represented the whole country. Not that every American acts like they own the world, even if I'm full blooded Italian I still live here, so that makes me American, right?
"Hey dudes!" the American smiled at us and plopped into the open space next to the frowning man. The quieter blonde sat next to him after he scooted over to make more room. "Why are we in the Cafeteria? Why aren't we eating outside?"
"It's freezing outside you git, we're stuck in here until spring." So the irritable person was British, I could obviously tell from his cute accent. It made me want to pinch his cheeks, but also to hide behind the nearest person. Everyone knew the Brits were short tempered and scary.
I shifted my weight nervously. The Dining Hall was really full and I didn't like being in such a big crowd. The butterflies in my stomach were fluttering at full force when I had the feeling that something sinister was behind me.
My entire body tensed up as I slowly turned my head to see a very, very, tall scary person. My Italian instincts screamed at me, it's a Russian, run!I grabbed onto Feliciano's arm and held tight, not being able to tear my gaze away from the violet eyes that towered above me. I shivered in fear and I heard the American laugh at me.
"Who's this chick?" he asked Feli "She's so scared of Ivan. Don't worry cutie, he won't do anyth-" He was cut off by my shriek when the Russian called Ivan picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
I called to Feliciano as Ivan briskly walked out of the Dining Hall and back into the classroom wing. I knew yelling, pleading, and screaming at the 6 foot Russian wasn't going to get him to let me down, but I couldn't resist an innocent, "S-Si prega dimetteregiù..."
He either didn't understand my italian or just didn't care because he kept walking until we were back into the lobby of HWA, he started up the stairs to go to the second floor. He was probably taking me to some secret rape cave like my mamma used to warn me about.
I started crying and Ivan stopped and looked at me. He lifted me off his shoulder and set me down at the top of the stairs.
"Do not cry, Малые один. Everything is alright now, da?" He smiled at me. My terror only increased. I looked up and down the hall I was standing in, searching for an escape route. It was just another classroom wing, I couldn't see past the corners at the end of the hall, but I guessed it was more useless rooms. My only option would be to jump out of a window, if I could get it open. It was probably a long fall, I was scared of heights, but I was more frightened of the Russian in front of me, still smiling away.
I wonder how many times I have been in situations similar to this one. I get chased around by scary people often, but I don't usually get kidnapped by a Russian.
"Why did you steal me?" I asked, trying to sound brave.
Ivan looked surprised for a moment, then answered "You were nervous being in such a big crowd, da? I only helped you out." He said it like I was stupid for not catching on.
My fear ebbed a bit. So he thought he was helping me. Well okay, looks can be deceiving I guess. I let the air out of my lungs that I'd been holding subconsciously. I was about to thank the Russian for his attempted kindness when I heard the tear filled voice of Feliciano.
"Where did that scary Ivan take my Desi?" Feli cried out to someone I couldn't see. My motherly instincts kicked in and I felt the urge to go to him and hug him.
I heard a loud sigh, "Don't worry, we won't let him hurt her." I recognized Ludwig's voice and I called out to them.
"Feliciano?" I heard a startled gasp. "We're up here."
Footsteps, and Feliciano entered my vision as he rounded the curve of the staircase. While Feli raced up the remaining steps to no doubt grip me in a hug, I saw his friends step into the place he was in just moments ago.
I patted my cousins back as he cried on my shoulder, "There, there, it was just a misunderstanding."
He perked up almost immediately, "Oh, that's good!" He still moved us a few steps away from Ivan though.
Ivan excused himself by saying he had to go find his Yao, and then it was just me Feli and his friends in the hallway.
The Brit was the first to speak after Ivan left, "Feli, you never introduced us."
Feliciano face palmed. "Sí, Sí, of course. Everyone, this is my cousin Desideria. Desi, these are my amici." Feli motioned to his group of friends.
"Hello Desideria. My name is Arthur and I represent the United Kingdom." The Brit shook my hand lightly and motioned for the American to go next.
"I'm Alfred, and I rep the totally awesome country of America!" Alfred's blue eyes shone with pride behind his glasses. "This is my brother Canada / Matthew. You may not see him, which is normal and you shouldn't worry about it." The American smacked his look-a-like's back and Matthew let out a slight squeak.
The small Japanese person spoke up next, as we were obviously going around the line. "Hello. I am Kiku. I'm very pleased to meet you." He bowed and I smiled.
Ludwig came last. "My name is Ludwig. It's nice to finally meet the cousin Feli wouldn't shut up about." He patted Feliciano' shoulder, and he smiled up at him.
"Ciao! I am Desideria Vargas, but you can call me Desi. I was born in Italy, but moved to Californa shortly after I turned one. Feliciano's papa and mine are brothers which is how we are related." I paused and put my finger to my chin thinking of what to say next. "During the summer I live with Feli at his house in Italy. I've done this every summer I can remember."
Feliciano jumped a bit after I finished speaking. "Desi, Desi! Do you want to go see fratello?"
"Si, Si! Where is he?" I asked, looking around as if he might pop out of thin air if I looked hard enough. Feli motioned to down the hall, and I set off at a brisk pace with Feli and his friends speed walking after me.
I was nearing the end of the hall when Feli sqeaked, "Right!" and I turned in that direction and found myself face to face with a door that was covered in graffiti. I studied it closely.
"What's the Bad Touch Trio?" I turned my head and asked Feli.
Arthur answered me instead, "A group of troublemakers."
Well that just couldn't be right! There's no way my other cute cousin would be a troublemaker! He was just so sweet, I could never imagine him troubling others.
"Fratello is not a part of the Bad Touch Trio, he's just friends with one of it's members." Feli spoke like he could read my mind.
I heard laughter from behind the closed door. "That's good." I said, while I carefully opened the door and stepped inside, with everyone coming in behind me.
The room probably used to be a classroom, I got this from the whiteboard and all the desks, but now it wasn't in use, I got this from all off the desks being pushed up and stacked agansit the wall. I glanced to the corner of the room and saw four people sitting on the floor in a circle. Two people had their backs to me, but I could clearly see into the scarlett eyes of the albino, and the blue eyes of the blonde.
They both shot smiles in my direction over the shoulders of the other two people. Confused, they turned around to see what their friends were smiling at. I smiled at the person with the familar curl as he jumped up from his cross-legged sitting style.
I ran up to him and jumped into his outstreched arms, wrapping mine around his neck. "Lovino! It is so great to see you!"
Lovi held me in a tight hug for a few moments before letting me down gentely to the floor, as I was hovering a couple inchs because I wasn't tall enough to reach his neck on my own feet. He looked me in the eye, "Desi, why are you here?"
"Feli begged me to enroll, and I was glad to get out of California to spend time with my cugini."
Lovi glanced over to his brother for a second or two, then faced me again. "I'm glad you're here, tesoro. I haven't seen you since this summer, have you gotten taller?" He ruffled my hair, and I quickly rearranged my long hair so my curls were still in perfect place. "You look so much like Feliciano, it amazes me!"
"You are wrong amigo.She is much cuter than your brother." The brunette person who was sitting next to Lovi was now behind him, patting him on the shoulder.
The blonde sitting on the floor put in his two-cents, "She's also a C cup, her brother can't compete."
Even thought I should have been embarressed and grossed out, I was mildly impressed. I asked "You can tell from all the way over there?" and he nodded.
Lovi's anger made up for the lack of mine. "Don't you dare speak to my cute Desi like that you bastard!" He immeditely punched the blonde in the stomach and would have hit him again if his brunette friend hadn't stopped him. The blonde was holding his stomach, muttering in French.
"Lovi!" I called his name sternly and he stopped struggling to get out of his friend's grasp. "You mustn't hit people. Scusarsi."
Lovi looked at me with sad eyes, then turned back to the French man and said "I'm sorry." Lovi was set back on the ground and he looked at me.
"Good boy Lovi." I said while attempting to pat him on the head. The closest I came was the side of his head, so I patted his shoulder instead.
The friend who had held Lovi back introducded himself. "Hola, primade mi amigo, I am Antonio. I'm sure we will become good friends."
The albino who had stayed quite this whole time picked himself off the floor and appeared next to me. "Kesesese~ I am Gilbert. At first, you may be intimidated by my awesomeness, but do not fret, you will get used to it." Gilbert pointed to the French man, "This person is Francis. Do not wear a skirt if you know you will be seeing him, you might never see it again."
I absorbed this useful bit of information. It was a good thing I'd picked my artfully torn jeans over the skirt I was going to wear.
"Thank you. I will remember that. I am Desideria, but just call me Desi, please."