Six and a half hours of torture, finally over.
Connie could not get to her family's home fast enough. Traffic was surprisingly light, so her return with Bayard was rather quick. Once she was out of the taxi, she was greeted by the sight of a young man and woman. The boy had blue eyes and short blonde hair slicked back with a split cowlick at the front. He also wore glasses with a small scar just above his right eye. Standing at the same height as Alfred, the state of New York waved enthusiastically to his sister, wearing a uniform that looked like it belong to one of his more prestigious schools.
"So… how'd it go? The nation's behave themselves, or do we need to kick some old people off our rock?"
The young woman next to him elbowed John's stomach.
"John! How many times have I told you to be polite?!"
Her slight southern drawl flew through the air. Looking like a female clone of England, minus the eyebrows, the state of Virginia wore a lovely white skirt and jacket with a green blouse. This image was slightly contorted as she scowled at John.
"It's fine, Ginny. The meeting went well. Almost disturbingly so. Everyone was so quiet and well behaved you wouldn't know they were the actual nations."
"Oh, really? When Alfred describes them, it's usually closer to sounding like a war is going on."
"Not today, though I did find out why afterwards."
"Well? What happened?"
"Get everyone together in Al's room and I'll explain."
"Um… why?"
"Having witnesses means I can't kill him for being a total dumb-ass."
"Uh… okay, then. Come on, John. Let's go get them."
"...Sure..."
After that conversation ended they all went inside. The house was beige with two floors going both up and down, and a wrap around porch on all sides. Having to occasionally house all the states and territories, it sat near the district's most southern border in Ward 8 to prevent fights between Virginia and Maryland. Sitting on open farmland it took on a huge hexagonal shape. Once inside Connie went straight to her room. When there she left all of the notes from the meeting on her desk with her tie and vest. She then proceeded to Alfred's room with Bayard still trailing behind her. The rest of the original thirteen were already there, confused and surrounding a scared looking Alfred.
"So, do you want to start or should I?"
Her voice came out cold and hard, signalling the rest of them to how badly Alfred screwed up.
"Err… I guess you can go first… if you want to, that is."
"Okay then. What on God's green earth possessed you to send everyone that email?"
"E-everyone?"
"Yes, everyone. The whole world got one."
As Alfred looked ready to pass out, a girl with curled, chin-length, red colored hair and grey eyes stepped in. This is MA, or Alice.
"What are you guys talking about? Which email?"
"The email containing my DNA results. A small group of nations approached me after the meeting to ask me about them. Basically, the only reason they behaved is they were too shocked."
"DNA results?"
Connie, who was quickly losing her patience, finally lost it.
"YES! MY BLOODY DNA RESULTS! THE ENTIRE WORLD NOW KNOWS I'M ENGLAND'S BASTARD!"
This was met with a shocked silence. In all of the years the 13 have been together, Connie never referred to herself in that manner. Not when she told Alfred, not when the rest of the 13 became aware, and definitely not during the manifest destiny years as states were adopted left and right. The outburst itself was a disturbing sight, what with her being someone who had a great deal of pride concerning self-control. But for Connie to say that, voice so raw and full of rage, the states knew that this was something they never wanted to face again. Seeing how badly she scared them, Connie took a shaky breath to calm herself.
"I'm sorry. That was out of line. I didn't mean to scare you."
While the others were willing to just nod and look down, John stepped up to the plate.
"Annie?"
"Yeah?"
"You don't have to apologize. What you should have said however, was how this all makes you feel."
This was met with the eloquent response of "Huh?"
SIGH. "You don't just say something like that unless it's been floatin' around in your head for awhile, kiddo."
"Um..."
"Come on. I have a feeling we should talk in private."
"...Sure..."
"We'll be in the music room, okay guys? You need anything, come to me when we're done, not Annabeth."
"I'm stressed, not disabled."
"Don't care. Come on."
Once John had left with Connie, the others remembered to breathe.
"Damn. Seeing her like that reminded me of pirate Iggy for a minute."
"Alfred?"
"Yeah Ginny?"
"Why would Annabeth say something like that?"
"..."
"Alfred?"
"Two times."
"What?"
"I said 'two times'. First John called her Annabeth, now you. You guys must really be pissed with me."
"What? I don't know about John, but I'm not mad at you. I'm upset she would think like that at all, much less assume we would as well. Why do you think she did?"
"Guys… I think you're forgetting something important."
"What do you mean?"
SIGH. "Ginny, think about the time period you were all born in."
"...Oh..."
"Yeah. Usually when a nation or state is born, we kind of just… pop into existence, I guess. Even though some nations were born similar to Annabeth, they looked so much like the people they represent, no one could tell you who both parents were, except them of course. Annie on the other hand is very easily identifiable."
"Identifiable? What, you mean like ethnicity wise?"
"Yeah, pretty much. She's a pretty good blend between them. If you could stand her next to both Niantic and England, you would think of them as a regular looking family. As long as you don't know them personally, anyway. Add that to the fact the area her colony was in was almost exclusively English, and you're bound to have a problem somewhere."
This was met with silence. At one point or another they had seen the cruelty of the colonist nations, as well as that of their own people. If not with the natives, then with the slaves. Despite being a dying business in Europe, slavery thrived in the New World. Whenever a baby of mixed blood was born, blame was almost always laid at the feet of the child. Thinking of what their sister might of gone through to make her avoid her own people for almost 80 years made several of their stomachs drop through the floor.
"Now do you understand why she would think that way? I've tried talking to her about it in the past, but she would always brush me off. If she hadn't blown her top today the way she did, we still probably wouldn't be talking about it. I'm just miffed that John is more likely to get something out of her then I ever could."
"I hope you're right, Alfred. Otherwise this is going to be a miserable week for the whole world."