A/N: Yeah, another chapter that's way overdue. Just remember that all places, people, plot, etc. belong to me EXCEPT FOR Hetalia characters (and the Super Mario Brothers), and that 99.9% of places, people, plot, and etc. are products of the author's (aka my) imagination.

New Student - Nuovo Studente

It was Monday, and no one was happy.

A total of two school days had past since Ludwig was introduced to the student body of Brownstone Senior High, and so far he was fitting in very well. After discovering that they had almost the exact same schedule (What are the odds?), Jessica had guided him through the insane asylum that was Brownstone SH and helped him get caught up with the assignments in each class. Of course, Alfred had given him a thorough questioning, as was expected (Dude, where're you from? No way, you're German? That's awesome! I've never met a German before! What's it like? What do your parents do? How much English do you know? Wait, what does den Mund halten mean? [1]). But all in all, Ludwig didn't seem phased at all by the sudden transition, always speaking with a certain strict politeness whenever a question was thrown his way, and somehow managing to keep everything in order. It was almost as if he had been through this before… Or maybe he's just OCD.

It was currently 9:54 AM on this aforementioned Monday, and second period classes were underway, littering the halls with silence and the occasional loud outburst from any given random classroom. At the moment, that random classroom was home to the 10th grade English Honors class, who at the moment should have been working on speeches for an upcoming writing assessment. But with the teacher gone, every student had abandoned their project and have started chatting loudly with each other, the dominating subject about how terrible Mondays were. Two students at the front, rather than discussing the (extremely) long list of the bad parts of Mondays, were quietly speaking about recent events within the school so that a certain blonde-haired German would be able to understand what was happening.

"…and homecoming's coming up in a few weeks," Jessica continued, glancing up from her half-finished speech to the person sitting to her right. "That's always…something."

Ludwig looked back at her with a puzzled expression. "Jessica, what is 'homecoming?'" The question earned him a few shocked glances and one overdramatic gasp from across the room, but he ignored them.

"Oh, homecoming?" Jessica gave him a dismissive wave of her hand. "It's a time when we welcome back some former members of the school. There's a huge celebration about it that stretches out for a week, and there's a dance and a football game – American football," she corrected herself, so that her German friend would not get any more confused. "…It's crazy. Everyone gets all hyped up about it, but it's never been that exciting for me." Another ignored gasp. By now, nearly half of the class had gone silent to listen to her, but she didn't give notice to it.

Considering her words carefully, Ludwig nodded, averting his eyes for a moment and staring down at the blank paper on the desk before him. He opened his mouth to say something…

…And was interrupted by the classroom phone.

Almost instantly, a girl toward the back of the room shot up and snatched the phone's handset away, clamping it to her ear. "Mrs. Turner's room, student speaking." Only after she heard the girl's voice did Jessica recognize her: it was Elizabeth Héderváry, her long-time Hungarian-American best friend. Elizabeth had been the one girl that Jessica could confide her secrets to, and in return Elizabeth told her all about her father's home country and his family, quickly becoming Jessica's only link to the world outside the States. Before Ludwig, of course.

As of now, Elizabeth was looking back at her with an expression that said, here we go again. "Yes sir," she said into the phone, "she's here… Yes sir, I'll tell her." She put the phone down and spared one last glance at her best friend. "They need you in the office, Jess."

Before Jessica could say anything in response, a loud, obnoxious voice called out from the center of the room. "Whaddya think she did this time?" The voice belonged to one of the jocks from the football team whose name Jessica had never bothered to learn.

"Halt die Klappe und lass sie in Ruhe, du Idiot!" The loud German words were enough to silence the class full of snickering delinquents and leave them staring toward the ticked off German on the front row. No one knew what he had said, but whatever it was, he meant business. [2]

Jessica skirted the wall and slipped out the door, but not before throwing Ludwig a silent smile of thanks.

-x-

As she once again fiddled with the collar of her white Brownstone Student Ambassador shirt, Jessica couldn't help but wonder why there was already another new student, and why she was being sent out again after such a short time. Usually, newbies came several weeks apart and were rarely from anywhere outside the United States, so this time was interesting.

It'll be nothing, she told herself. This time, the new student will be just another American, and they'll be all quiet and shy like they always are…

Hearing the voices coming from the office made her doubt her own words.

"…your fault that we're-a even here, Feli! Now-a look at what you've-a done!"

"I'm-a sorry, Lovi! I-a didn't mean to –"

"Shut up! Non hai mai, mai ascoltare qualsiasi cosa che ho da dire! Perché non solo ascoltare me per un cambiamento e forse non sarà vite tutto!" [3]

In the time that one of the voices had said that, Jessica had been joined by a second Ambassador, and they had each received a copy of a schedule before watching the two new students fight it out like a pair of professional wrestlers. Yes, two of them, very close in age – twins maybe. Even stranger, the tanner one seemed to be speaking Italian, and the amber-eyed one was trembling terribly and kept saying "I'm-a sorry" in a thick Italian accent. Jessica and the other Ambassador shared a confused glance just before the tanner one stopped yelling at the amber-eyed one. If anything, the scene looked like there was a death match going on between the Super Mario Brothers.

"It's about time," the tanner one said, turning his bored green expression on the two polo-wearing students before him. "I've been waiting forever for someone to show me around this scuola stupido."

Jessica didn't hear his last words, instead taking a step towards the angered Italian's cowering brother. She glanced down at the name on her schedule copy and reading off the name at the top. "Are you… Feliciano Vargas?"

The amber-eyed boy nodded slightly and spared a glance at his brother. He was currently speaking loudly and boredly to the other Ambassador, saying something about him being unable to wait "getting away from him" and gesturing to his brother. The Ambassador shot Jessica a help me glare before disappearing through the office doors.

The moment his brother left, Feliciano let out a breath and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Lovi scares-a me sometimes…" His voice was quiet and shaky for a moment as he closed his eyes, but when he opened them, he seemed as chipper and happy as a person could get. "Sorry about-a that, bella. Lovi gets-a angry really easy…"

"It's alright," Jessica returned, pretending she didn't just hear him call her beautiful for fear that she'd start blushing. "It happens with brothers."

Feliciano's eyes lit up in a way that made Jessica laugh a little on the inside. "You-a have a brother too?"

Jessica gestured for him to follow her, and they started to walk away from the scene of what had been a very heated Italian argument. "Yeah. My brother's a year older than me, but he's still annoying. …Oh, I didn't introduce myself," she added sheepishly. "I'm Jessica."

"Oh, that's a pretty name," Feliciano commented, not noticing the dusting of pink that appeared on Jessica's cheeks. "I'm-a Feliciano, but everyone just-a calls me Feli for short."

"Sorry if I'm wrong," Jessica started, glancing down at her clipboard to avoid a potential angry outburst, "but are you from Italy?"

"Sì! Italy's a real nice-a place…" Feli trailed off, looking around at the simple inner walls and doorways of the school, "…But this is a really nice-a place too!"

Jessica chuckled softly. "You should see it during class change. It's a mad house." She glanced back at the Italian, who was still gazing in awe at everything around him. "So Feli, what brings you and your brother here to Brownstone?"

"Oh, our parents are-a liaison officers for an Italian company," Feli explained, peeking through the window of a classroom door as they passed, "and they work-a in St. Louis."

"Cool!" Jessica glanced down at the copy of his schedule. He has my history class, she noted, leading him in the direction of his locker. Well, I might as well learn a little bit more about him. "Do you like history?"

Feli looked back at her quizzically before nodding wildly. "History is-a so cool~. It's cool to see what-a people did in the past! Even though they were-a so different, they're really just-a like us!"

Jessica laughed amusedly as their history-based conversation traveled as far as the halls they walked. This is going to be a fun year.

A/N:

[1] - den Mund halten means "shut up" in German. (Apparently, Ludwig isn't much of a fan of Alfred.)

[2] - Ludwig's outburst is translated as, "Shut up and leave her alone, you idiot!" (…He doesn't like jocks either.)

[3] - This is Italian for, "You never, ever listen to anything I have to say! Why don't you just listen to me for a change and maybe you won't screw everything up!" …At least, that's what Google Translate told me.

Another A/N: I've realized something earlier this week. Yeah, I write to let go of some of my stress, and I do that by writing fanfics for you guys. That's fine and all, but I think that it's actually one of the things giving me stress. So, until further notice – not too long, I promise – I'll be on hiatus from writing. I'll still respond to all PMs and reviews (and I may put up a few one-shots…eventually), I just need to catch my body up to my brain, if that makes any sense. Thanks for putting up with the terrible me. You guys are the ones that keep me writing. Hasta la pasta~!