Four Calling Birds:
Actual French hens? What is she going to do with three actual hens? It was a cute gesture but Seychelles really wishes her secret Santa (admirer according to Madagascar) had thought it through. The hens slept in her room and the following morning, she has them on a plane back to Seychelles where one of her neighbours will put them in her chicken coop.
On the one hand, she's a bit surprised and giddy that this person knows enough about her to know she has farm animals. On the other hand, that only leaves a handful of countries. As it is, today the countries broke off into regional organizations and the African Union meets in a separate room.
Seychelles reasons that no other country outside of the African Union will be at this meeting and if she does get a fourth gift, it must be from someone in the room. That leads her to wondering if they really had decided on secret Santas in a meeting she must have fallen asleep through. It will be awful if that's case. She doesn't even know whose name she might have! Plus, her person has been putting in all this effort.
With a sigh, Seychelles walks down the hall, folders in her arms and her bag strapped across her shoulders. She chews her lips as the door nears and her heartbeat picks up a bit. Maybe there is another present? Maybe there isn't? But there could be, right? There's should be. All of the question race through her mind and she tries desperately to shake them off. She's a nation, a country! She is not some high school girl looking for a note from her secret admirer. It's probably Canada anyway and the gifts started and stopped yesterday.
Armed with this newfound determination, she opens the door and finds most of the African nations there. They don't sit in alphabetical order but by region and geographical location so her seat is close to Madagascar. They met each others gaze and she shakes her head slightly when he silently asks if she has another gift. There's a giddy sort of buzz brewing in her stomach as she nears her chair. Seychelles tries to push it down but it gets high as she gets closer. When she finally reaches the chair, she's fighting with her lips not to smile.
Slowly, almost cautiously she sits her folders down and pulls out her chair to find nothing. Nothing? Seychelles blinks and pulls it out all the way. Still nothing. Maybe it fell? She moves the chair completely from under the table then looks under the table to see if her fourth present was accidently kicked or something. She looks under the chair then under the table again just to be thorough.
"Michelle?"
"Huh?" Seychelles moves a bit too quickly to stand and her head smacks the table instead. "Ouch…" she hisses, kneels down and slowly backs out this time, hand on her now throbbing head.
Congo does not look amused. "If you're done playing hide and seek under the table," he says, "we're ready to start."
Seychelles blushes and stands slowly. She can hear others snickering at her but she keeps her head down as she sits and pushes closer to the table.
Of course there's no fourth gift.
By the end of meeting, Seychelles doesn't even know what the hell people have been talking about. At one point, when Comoros was talking, she looked up and her fellow island nation gave her a sympathetic look. Ugh, she just wants to bury herself under the crisp coolnees of her hotel sheets and die.
She doesn't even wait for Madagascar this time, wanting to be alone to waddle in her misery. All she's every going to be is France's little territory and England's little island girl. People didn't even notice her until after the whole Prince William and Kate Middleton thing but that only boosted tourism, not really her popularity on an international and it most certainly won't make someone look at her romantically. Can nations even have romantic relationships?
"Maybe I should stop thinking…"Seychelles mutters to her self as the elevator whines open. She drags her feet out, shoulders slump, down the hall and fiddles with her pockets to find the key card. America's hotels were too big, in her opinion. She prefers the small down home country feel to plush carpet and fancy art. Some of the art on the wall isn't even that fancy!
"Oh for Christ sake," she grumbles when she can't find her key and looks down to actually see where her hands are going. She rounds the corner to her corridor and finds the key card just in time to find Madagascar smiling at her with twinkling brown eyes.
"What are you doing, Maddy?" she asks tiredly. He hasn't moved from in front her door and Seychelles is in no mood to push him.
"I came to check up on you. You know, after that whole banging her head under the table thing and then I saw this…" he steps aside.
There, dangling on the door is a small blue bag, the same blue of her favourite dress, with little shimmers in it. When the light hit just right, it resembles ocean waves.
"Well don't just stand there gawking at it!" Madagascar finally says and Seychelles snaps out of the trance she isn't aware she's end.
Quickly, she grabs the bag and opens the door, tossing everything aside anywhere and rushing to the bed. Seychelles pauses and glances up at her friend before peering inside the blue bag.
"Well?" male nation eagerly prods.
Seychelles giggles as she displays the bag's contents on the. She'd been given a stack of four chocolate bars—the same kind she always buys from the vending machine, except there's a picture of a songbird taped to the front of each one.
"That's real sweet," Madagascar opines. "You can't go wrong with chocolate. This guys on a roll."
"How do you know it's a guy?"
Madagascar shrugs. "A hunch I guess."
The island nation nods slowly as she fingers the small card that had been enclosed with the treat.
'On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…' suggests that this is only the beginning.