May Alex, a normal girl, woke up one morning. It was grey outside and the cold December sky was shrouded in grey clouds. She yawned and smacked her chicken clock to shut it up.

"I Hate Mondays." She groaned stretching her arms over her head.

Today had only one positive note; the HistoFreaks were meeting at lunch. She smiled, imagining how it would go. Most likely, Josh would argue that Russia was better as the Soviet Union and would debate the point that Belarus should be allowed to rejoin. Parker would throw a tomato at Jonas, call him a kraut breathed spud faced Nazi, causing Jonas to ask Ally for a German translation which she would spend five minutes wrestling with her conscious over. Mr. Carpenter would get all flustered and angry with them, and would pull rank as advisor to try to bring his charges back to the meeting at hand.

"We are supposed to be a representation of the U.N.," He would begin. "If this were the way countries handled disputes, the world would quickly erupt into anarchy. No would you all kindly pick up the tomatoes and get back into your assigned seats!"

She liked that teacher. He was an amazing historian and a really cool guy. He also had this way of establishing order in a classroom by just walking into it. Only a few people could make him raise his voice. Unfortunately, all three of those people were in the HistoFreaks club. Parker, Josh and Kevin just happened to be those three people.

Alex had been oddly tired lately. She felt like all she did half the time in school was sleep. Thankfully, joining the Model UN with her best friend Sandy had started to help. Alex had fallen asleep during her first after school meeting (during the lunch ones she was too busy eating to sleep) and regretted it instantly. She had found out the hard way the penalty for napping during a Model UN convention. Waking up with NOOB written on your forehead in permanent red sharpie can do that to a person.

"Dear God man, get a grip on yourself!" The club leader Peter shouted in a horrible British accent.

"Ah Will nievah surrender to sooch a bumbling Brit! Sacrebleu, you are such a More-on!" Kevin Napoleon declared in a "Captain Morgan" pose with one arm raised in a Nazi salute.

"Stop, stop the simulation. Kevin. What was that?"

"My awesome French accent, duh!" He hopped down from the chair and caught Josh in a half nelson, mussing his hair with an elbow.

"If that is your French accent, I absolutely forbid you to ever attempt a Swedish one." He crossed to his desk and whittled a piece of balsawood. "Continue with the negotiations."

"Wait, so just for clarification, I'm not allowed to do this?" Kevin loudly cleared his throat and began, "Halo Ima Ralf-a from-a suh-ve-dun. Woot choo lock to bai sum re-al estate?"

The group snickered for a moment before the chill of Mr. C's "No-No" glare shut us all up. Kevin and Peter continued to debate peace terms while May Alex and I munched on our ham sandwiches together. Mine was on wheat and hers on gluten-free rye, but other than that exactly the same. There is a strange quality about ham that binds a friendship together.

"So." She began, as usual with a sheepish smile on her pink cheeked face "Did you see Eric during gym?"

I groaned happily. Just thinking about Eric Dale could make any freshman girl (or sophomore, or junior, or senior) squeal in a giddy high-pitched frequency that only dogs could hear.

"I know, that guy is like a perfect eleven. And that accent…" We both sighed, our girly fantasies broken only by the unwanted interruption of Parker leaning in between us and snaking our poor little necks.

"Ooooooh Kevin! Did you hear about Eric?" He mimicked in a falsetto imitation of May, who glared at him with a look that only he could tempt out of her.

"You mean FOB, shorts shorter than his knees, French cologne Eric? Damn girls, you sure have GREAT taste. Kesesesesese!"

"Shut up Kevin." Jonas growled. "I cannot stand…" He struggled with his English for a moment. Thankfully, the jerks waited patiently for him to finish, having already tasted Ally's vengeance for mocking him. "People who… make a mockery of other… person's cultures."

" Nice." Mr.C nodded In approval. "Boys, try to have a little consideration for immigrants. They are here for a reason. Find another way to poke at the girls' taste in men."

"Still Mr.C, you gotta admit those shorts are an unnatural length."

Mr. Carpenter shrugged and got back to his lunch, just barely hiding a ghost of a smile. "Continue. No Swedish accents."

Berwald Carpenter had come over to America from his native Sweden about three years ago. He'd already been able to speak English, so it hadn't been a problem to find work, but it had taken a while for his students to warm up to him. Mr. Carpenter had started at our school a year ago in the administrations office. Then this year he had suddenly decided to teach World History and A.P government, which meant that everyone had to get used to his… stoic ways.

I admit that the first time I walked into his classroom, I had instantly felt uncomfortable. For the first three or so weeks of school, Mr. C just handed out assignments and stared at the class. It always seemed like he had something to say, but he never actually verbalized it. Then one day, we were given a study review guide for an upcoming test on the affects of the American Revolution on the rest of the world, when I got stuck. I can usually figure stuff out pretty well, but I found myself staring at the same question for ten minutes.

14. What other country, aside from France, aided America in the revolutionary war and give the ways and reasons for this aid.

Aside from France? What other country was our ally? I felt increasingly desperate in my need to have the right answer to everything and being unable to force my mind to spit out the answer. Had we even read this section? Mr. Carpenter said that the study guide questions might reappear on the test, what if this one did? I couldn't draw a blank on the test; my mom would flip if my grade slipped.

I looked up and met the gaze of my teacher. How long had he been watching me struggle? I felt my face flush then met his gaze again. He got up and came over.

"You have a question?" His voice was surprisingly soft for such a tough, intimidating guy.

"Yeah, I'm totally drawing a blank on number fourteen. I think I know the answer, but…"

He picked up my paper and nodded. "We need to go over this section, the book was not very clear… the answer is Prussia. I must have forgotten to assign that reading." It was the most I had ever heard him say.

After that, people went to me to ask questions. It turns out that pretty much everybody else had struggled with the same problem. Now they looked to me to ask the questions they were afraid to ask themselves. And it worked magic. Suddenly, Mr. Carpenter started explaining things. He went over what we needed to learn in a clear, concise way that even the idiots could understand. And once he started talking, he quickly became a favorite among freshmen girls. We all realized that he was really attractive, and the female potion of the class started a friendly competition over who could get his attention the most, who was the favorite, and who could make him smile. It wasn't serious crushing, just the playful kind. You know, like how you act around a particularly handsome brother of a friend's.

Anyway, as you can see, Mr. C quickly rose to the top of everyone's BOSS TEACH list. That's how Kevin would put it, anyway.

Sandy

Dear Awesome Diary,

It's me Kevin. Yeah yeah, you know that, but that's how you start a diary entry.

So lately I've been thinking about dad. What's that? You want to hear about him again? Well… If you insist… kesesese.

I was born in Prussia, (which by the way, is a country again. yeah take that Yo-Naze!) where my dad lives. Mom ditched when I was born and left me in the hospital. Not that I care, of course. Only noobs get all sentimental about that sort of crap. I mean, seriously, just get up and leave your kid will you? Like, "oh, that's an ugly baby. I'm gonna go to America so I don't have to look at it. Here honey, you can take care of it." Huh, where was I oh yeah… heh. Ignore that whole last part. It seems kinda angsty which is totally not cool. I'm not like Josh who's always goin' off about what a bastard his dad is for leaving his mam and all that. But I digress.

So Dad took care of me on his own. Sure, mom came to visit every once and a while until I was three when she left a note at her house saying she'd gone to America for work, left a check, blah blah bull shit. But I'm not sour about that. Always look to the future, that's what I say.

So yeah, Dad and I were pretty well off until I turned five. Then some crap started happening. The government came one day, looked around our apartment and said that my dad was "unfit to care for a child." They threatened to foreclose the place if I wasn't given over to the state. And my dad said (this is my awesomest and the reason my dad is the BA'ist guy ever) "The hell with you guys. If you think I'm giving him up, you're dead wrong. Tell your buddy in the big house that he can stick his fancy papers-" Yep, that's dad. Then he gave them the finger and they took our home.

Ahhh… hmmm, wait sorry I was reminissisisng. (I totally spelled that wrong on porpoise. I'm just that awesome.) Anyways, so we moved In with dad's little brother, which worked for all of three seconds before the child protection agency showed up and gave us another warning. Uncle Luddy asked for three days, in which one of my dad's friends came and smuggled me over the border and across the Pacific Atlantic Mediterranean Ocean to the U.S. of A where I changed my name. I guess Gilbert Jr. was just too much for the noobs to handle. My middle name sounds more BA anyway.

So there you go, diary. There's the story again. Now to the actual reason for my writing this.

Today we had a HistoFreaks meeting and Jonas totally called us out in front of everybody. I mean just cause we made fun of some Italian weirdo… or whatever he is. Now everybody is like, "oooh Jonas!"

"You're so conscientious Jonas!" "Let's make out cause you're from Germany!" Geez. You'd think that just cause some guy finally puts together a full statement in English that the world is ten times better. Ally was all over him, telling him what a good job he'd done, how he'd managed to stand up to those mean boys. I swear, sometimes I want to kick him where the sun don't shine. Not that I envy him Ally's attention or anything. Heck no! She's like, really clingy and all obsessed with classical music. (I'm more of a punk/progressive dude, 'cause you know… I'M FREAKIN AWESOME!) I mean, she literally eats, sleeps and breathes the stuff. Someday I would love to just grab her by the shoulders and shake her into reality. Being a concert pianist is not going to make him come back! Even if she is the greatest, most bestest in the country, if her dad was enough of an asshole to leave her and her mom (who makes the best cookies in the universe… FYI) then he's not coming back! She has to get on with her life.

Not that I care about her. She's whiny and over achieving, and has the biggest brown nose in the school. Not to mention that she isn't even that pretty. Sure the way the sun catches her wavy chocolaty brown hair is nice… but she's totally flat chested and awesome dudes like me only go for the chicks with the real deal. Duh. And if my cousin is stupid enough to fall for her puppy dog eyes then it ain't my problem. Good luck Yo-Naze. You're gonna need it kesesesese!

Hmmm… Oh that's Bella. Time for dinner, I'd better wrap this up. SO yeah, bye!

The Awesome Kevin

Another day had gone by uneventfully in school. May Alex slung her heavy backpack down to its usual seat on the living room sofa. Her aunt Sabrina and Uncle Josef were home already. Uncle was heading out for his night-shift as a security guard for the multiplex at the capitol and Aunty was busy cooking dinner. May smiled at the familiar scent of smoked salmon and rice that reached her.

"Ah Maya! Buenas tardes! And how is my little Estreya hoy?"

"Hola tio." She smiled and stretched up to kiss him on the cheek. "Today was just the usual."

"Hmm… Didn't that club of yours meet today?" He mused as he ruffled her curly hair thoughtfully, "How did that go?"

"As usual. We got very little done and had fun not doing it. Oh, by the way tio, it isn't my club. I only joined recently, remember?"

"Ah! Si, si. Sorry Maya, I keep forgetting. It was Sandra-"

"Sandy, tio."

"Right, Sandy. Who got you in, right?"

Sandy had joined the club by request of Mr. Carpenter and Peter, (who was dating her cousin and figured that it would do good to have an insider on his girlfriend's life) then after weeks of cajoling had managed to convince her best friend to join her. Both were huge history buffs, mainly because Sandy was and pressed it on May, but also because they were both into a popular anime that had to do with the countries of the world. It was a weird thing to get into, but it fit their senses of humor and they loved it. So joining a model UN group where they could pretend to be the human representatives and famous leaders of countries was a great outlet for their geekiness.

"Yes, it was her tio. We only go through this every week." She sighed and flipped upside down on the couch to read some manga and goof off.

"Maya, don't you have homework to do?" Her aunt stood in the doorway with one eyebrow raised.

"Uhhh… yeah, but I had study hall so I got most of it done…"

"Mmmhmm. Let me see your assignment book."

"Ah Aunty!"

"Maya," she flipped to the day's date, "Have you finished your reading assignment from English?"

"Yes."

"Lab write up for biology?"

"Uhhhh… mostly?"

"Mmmhmm… Work questions for algebra?"

"Nno but aunty-"

"Finish your work, then you can slack. Your grades are already slipping from your sleeping problems. While we work on that, you'll have to try harder to keep up with school."

Aunt kissed May on the forehead and walked back to the kitchen.

"Bye Maya! See you tomorrow!" Uncle Josef waved and tipped his hat.

"Adios Tio Josef!" May pulled out her work books and got cracking. If she wanted to have more time for reading later, she needed to finish as fast as possible.

The snow fell lightly outside her window as May crawled into bed that night. She smiled sleepily and adjusted the picture of her mom on her bedside table. Aunty was out nursing and uncle was at his job so she was alone. But May didn't mind; it had been this way since she could remember. Her mother had died when she was two and she'd become separated from her father around the same time. Did she wish that he was secretly looking for her somewhere? Yes. Uncle Josef was a good parent, but he wasn't her father. She'd always felt like there would be something different about her real papa. She kissed her mother's photograph and snuggled in with her stuffed kitten, mittens, said her prayers, and promptly fell asleep.

Outside her window the man watched longingly. It had been years since he'd seen his baby, now he'd finally found her. His breath fogged up the glass and his lips formed the one, beautiful word:

May.