Chapter 3 – Another encounter – Elisa Thompson

Unwillingly, I headed to the canteen to buy my lunch. I know that I'm not good at cooking, but I could've at least gotten mentally prepared for this task!

The queue was pretty long. At least, I wasn't the only one unaware. I was patiently waiting for my turn when a voice behind me startled me.

"Elisa! It's you, right?"

I retracted my shoulders, both afraid and ashamed, when I noticed that noisy voice was searching for me. That's strange; the person lined right in front of me also retracted their shoulders when the voice called my name…

"Hey, Elisa! You listening?"

I turned around and faced America, standing behind me on the queue. He had placed a hand on my shoulder.

"America! Did you come to buy your lunch too?"

"Of course! If you don't have hamburger for lunch, then you're not having lunch properly!" and he started to laugh, as if having a bad feeding was a laughable matter.

"How many times will I have to tell you that-!"

The person who started talking stopped as suddenly as they started. I turned around, and the person who was lined in front of me was apparently shaking in rage. Probably, they were the one who said that.

"Everyone knows you have a weird sense of taste, England!"

"You never complaint when you were eating my dishes!" England turned to face us, extremely angry.

"What are you doing here?" it was my turn to get angry.

"I got here on this queue first, you git!"

"Oh, someone who doesn't get along with England? Anyone who hates this guy immediately becomes my ally! Oh, even faster when we're talking about a girl!"

Before I noticed, there was an odd blonde guy, whose hair went down to his shoulders, a hint of goatee and blue eyes throwing a kiss at me. He was wearing W Gakuen's whole uniform, with the blue vest. I was starting to suspect a lot of these countries haven't got any intentions of following the uniform to the letter…

"France! Why did you come here? Wasn't it enough to have this one and America, even you had to come around?"

"It's not my fault a lot of girls just showed up around this school… Not to mention they're pretty girls…"

"Please, take your perverted eyes off of me," I said. "Or else I'm not getting responsible for any damage my hand may cause on your face."

"Oh, see how she's a delicate and polite lady…"

"We're not talking to you, you phony gentleman," I said.

"Grr!"

England had another conniption and returned his attention to the canteen's queue.

"Uh, this one hit right on his pride… I like you, ma chérie[1]… What's your name?"

"Elisa Thompson. British. And I dislike womanizers."

"Uh! It wouldn't matter to me that this beauté[2] didn't like men who goes straight to the point, after all, it takes some time for the girls to get used to onii-san[3] here..." France's face changed suddenly, from a seductive gaze to a rejection gaze. "But, British? Hey, why his land, of all places?"

France went away cursing out loud… For two seconds, until he started to flirt with the next girl he saw.

"Is he always like this, America?"

"Who, France? If he wasn't like this, he wouldn't be France, would he?"

"Probably-"

I couldn't finish my sentence, because that bushy browed, stupid boy bumped on me on his way out of the canteen. Since it was my turn now, I chose a typical fish and chips while America's claimed "hamburger!" by my side, and then I returned to my table.

"Ah, so there is someone else aside from England who eats this kind of thing?"

"Nii-sama!"

I looked at my plate. Was this what he chose? If I knew that beforehand, I'd most certainly choose a different dish! I shrugged to Switzerland.

"I had to choose between my good, old fish and chips, or one of America's hamburgers…"

"You know there were dozens of other things to choose from, don't you, Elisa-chan?"

"Of course I know, Sachiko! But I wasn't in the mood to try anything different…"

Just remembering that annoying scene at the canteen was enough to make me shiver. Mental note: never ever cross ways with France again.

"Did something happen? By the way..." Sachiko's face went from worry to lively. "What kind of people America-kun is? And who else did you meet?"

"America, England, France… I guess that's it." I sighed. "I'm definitely not in the mood to talk about those idiots. Ah, Sachiko. Keep this" and I pointed to her chest with my fork, "out of France's field of vision."

"Eh? But I don't even know who France-kun is!"

"Look for a weird blonde flirting with a random girl and you'll find him, there's no mistaking it," answered Switzerland.

After lunch time, we had a World History class (I don't think it'd make sense to teach every country's history individually…) and a Physics class. The sixth and last class before our two free-for-choice periods was Grammar class. A positive thing about W Gakuen was that you were assigned Grammar and Literature classes on your mother language. If you want to, you can use your free periods to learn another languages. Thus, I bid farewell to Sachiko and headed to my English Grammar class, Class 1. There were so many English-speaking students they had to separate the classes.

English…?

"This must be some kind of joke!" said the last person I wanted to see.

"What did you expect? A British girl speaking French?"

"Don't mention him!"

I ignored England, who was standing by the door, and sat on the same place I've been sitting on all the other classes, the first desk by the window's side. I could hear someone cursing at the other side of the classroom.

"Don't mind England-san, Elisa-san. Sometimes it looks like his day isn't complete if he doesn't get angry at someone."

"Seychelles! So you take English classes too? On Class 1? That's great!"

"Well, we speak English where I came from. And French too, so I need those extra classes..."

"Don't mention him, dammit!"

I showed my tongue to England, while Seychelles sat behind me. Something on the desk by my side called my attention, so I looked at it. I froze.

"Hey, Seychelles! Why is that chair moving by itself?! And why is the notebook opening by itself over the desk?!"

"By itself? But Canada is sitting there…" said America, sitting behind the spooky desk.

Still frightened, I squinted my eyes and stared said desk. At first, I saw a shadow. I opened my eyes once again, and noticed that really was someone sitting there. He looked like America's clone… However, taking a good look at him, you could notice some differences, like an obstinate lock of Canada's hair tucking out, and the kindness that seemed to emanate from him, instead that hero's babbling. Oh, and of course, an enormous polar bear plush. Not to mention he was more respectful towards the uniform, using the beige vest.

"Forgive my impoliteness, Canada."

"It's okay… It happens with me all the time…" his voice was so calm and slow it looked like he was only whispering.

"Now that I think of it, why did the classes get all mixed up?"

"Because most of the times the countries who speak the same language are scattered all over the world. For example, if you'd imagine Portuguese classes separated by continents, then Portugal-san would take his class all alone," answered Seychelles.

"Oh, I see, that makes a lot of sense." That was when I noticed something. "What about Japan?"

[1] Ma chérie: "dear", in French.

[2] Beauté: "beauty", in French.

[3] Onii-san (お兄さん): onii is a Japanese way more or less respectful to call one's older brother. San shows respect. The problem here is, this is way the character France want people to address him…