A Year at the World Academy…
Chapter 8:
Well, thank God that finals' week is finally over! In addition to that, I was able to convince Toris to get a second date with Natalia, really, I'm ready to squeal like a rabid fan girl right now!...
Yeah…I think you get my point.
"WHAT?," Seychelles responded to the shocking news of Toris and Natalia's second date when I told her that following afternoon. "ARE YOU INSANE?"
"Um, yes.," I replied. "Whenever anyone brings up Natalia's name, that's all he'll ramble on about, it gets annoying after a while…"
"You aren't jealous, are you?-," Seychelles asked.
"NO!," I yelled back, feeling my cheeks go hot.
"Awwww…," the brunette said. "Well, sorry, but count me out on this one, Jackie."
I sighed, "It's O.K., I didn't mean to bring you into this, I guess I'll see you later."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow!," Seychelles waved as she ran off in another direction.
Suddenly, I had realized that it was Monday! Crap! I was supposed to meet Im Yong Soo at the dojang (Korean for training hall)!
"Shit!," I cursed, running back into the school building.
I had to quickly change into my dobok (Korean for uniform), salute the flag, and apologize for having forgotten to come.
"Ahn yang ha sae yo! ("How are you" in Korean)," I greeted Im Yong Soo.
"You're late! Give me fifty push-ups!," he turned to me, acting pretty serious for once.
"Yes, sir.," I said, getting on my knees, when he started laughing. "What's so funny! What's so funny with a girl doing push-ups?"
"Never mind, you're way too serious, sometimes, you know?," Korea said, returning to his usual happy-go-lucky mode. "It's O.K., I'll forgive you this time for being late, now, you want to practice the nunchakus?"
"Sure! Let me just go get my pair-," I said, standing up.
"Whatever, take these.," Im Yong Soo handed over another pair of nunchakus to me, but they were made out of metal!
"Really? You're letting me use these?," I exclaimed in surprise.
"Yeah, I trust you.," he replied, getting out his personal pair.
Wow,… perhaps this guy isn't as bad as Yao and Kiku always complain about…Really: 'I trust you'…that must mean something-
"Well, are you ready?," he turned to me, nuncakus in hand.
"Y-Yes, sir.," I replied, resuming the ready stance.
After a very tiring fifty minutes of practice, I ran into Ukraine while heading back to my room.
Bumping into the taller woman, I apologized, "Oh, sorry!"
"I-It's O.K.," Ukraine smiled. "Say, my sister got a date with that Lithuanian, right?"
"Yeah, why do you ask?," I said.
"He said that you helped him work up the courage to ask her out…again. Can you help me ask this one boy out?," Ukraine shyly asked in a quieter tone.
Shocked and surprised, I stuttered, "W-Which boy?"
"The one that looks like America, but he's nicer.," Ukraine described.
"Matthew Williams?," I asked.
"Y-Yes, the one who carries around a polar bear?," she further explained.
"Yeah! He's really shy, though-," I said.
"I-It's O.K.! He isn't obnoxious and doesn't always stare at my chest, and just seeing Natalia get another date, I guess I felt sort of lonely…," Ukraine said.
I could seriously sympathize with what she was feeling, really, last year, my school was crawling with happy couples and all that romance crap. Perhaps I was getting jealous-NO! I wasn't, I was ANNOYED at how they couldn't wait to take it outside school and it was disgusting to watch some bitch and her boyfriend make out in the hallway!
"Well, go ahead and just ask him, I don't think he'll be too busy now, so maybe you two can go out today.," I said, offering my words of wisdom.
"T-Thanks, I'll see you later!," she waved good-bye.
I sighed, perhaps helping people out rather than yelling and beating them up isn't so bad after all…seeing how I'm not exactly the best person to discuss love and all that crap…
I continued my way up the stairs to the third floor. As usual, I put my stuff down, changed into something casual, and turned on my laptop. I started the Safari web browser and saw that I had a couple of e-mails:
StarKitty888: Yo Jackie! How's ur new school? We miss you back in New York, I hope you didn't make that big of a mess at that prissy rich kid place! jk XD
I started laughing, my friend sarcastic Dannie, ah, she hasn't changed a bit since I left…
MurasakiKamikaze69: Hi Jackie! I'm SO sorry that I haven't been able to talk to you in a while…high school has been crazy, as usual. Well, I hope you're doing O.K. at that World Academy place, but why should I even be asking that? You've been pretty good at school and stuff, being half-Asian and what not, …just kidding! Later! -Sasha
After a minute of clearing out my inbox, I felt my eyes tearing up, I never realized of how much I'd be missing my New York friends already…or perhaps it was from staring at a computer screen too long-
"Hello?," a voice came from my door.
"Who is it?," I yelled.
"It's me!," the voice said again.
Recognizing the voice, it was Toris, probably here to ask me about shit like, 'What flowers should I get for Natalia?.' By now, he should realize that I epically fail at being slightly girly.
Opening the door, he was holding a bunch of dress shirts and what not.
"Which do you think looks better?," he held up two shirts.
"Well, I haven't seen you in them, so-," I retorted, not really in the mood for this.
"Can I-," he started to ask, but I knew what he was going to say.
"Sure, come in, the bathroom's over there. Hurry up, you don't need to keep Natalia waiting.," I said, opening the door, letting him in.
I sat on my stomach on my bed, staring at the random stuff on my laptop, waiting for Toris to come out. In about a minute, he came out in one of the two dress shirts he brought over.
Glancing at him for a minute I said, "Try on the other one, too."
After that, I resumed my pointless web browsing. Five minutes had passed and I was starting to get worried, what was taking him so long? So I stood up and walked over to the bathroom door.
"Hey, are you O.K.?," I lightly hit my two front knuckles on the door, accidentally swinging the door open. "What the-?"
The door had revealed Toris' bare back…covered in what looked like scars.
"I'm so sorry!," I bowed down my head, then lifted it slightly up. "When and how did you get those scars?-"
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't completely shut the door.," Toris replied, obviously embarrassed.
Taking one more look at him, I said, "You know, this one looks a lot better on you than the last."
"Really? Thanks!," he said. "Can you give me a minute?"
I shut the bathroom door completely before walking away. Returning to my laptop, I just stared into the screen, lost in thought, completely oblivious to when Toris left. I couldn't help but keep thinking of the horrendous marks I saw…perhaps beneath Toris' sweet and innocent exterior was…something else…
News of the whole Toris and Natalia thing was buzzing the next morning. Everyone was like, 'Are they going out?' and 'Did Natalia break his fingers again?' Despite my antisocial nature, I, too, was curious of what had happened. Hey, I was the one that told this guy to go out with her again and if all of his limbs were broken again…
I gulped, fearing for the guy's safety. It would be entirely my fault if something like that had happened! Picking up the pace, I ran to 2-C's homeroom as quick as I could, Toris would most definitely be there…if he was still alive…
Frantically running through the classroom's door, I luckily bumped into him.
"OH MY GOD, YOU'RE ALIVE!," I unfortunately yelled loud enough for the rest of the class to hear me.
"Yes, why? What happened?," Toris asked.
I glanced at his fingers, they weren't broken,…he was alive,…so what exactly happened?
"So, how did your date with Natalia go?," I nervously asked.
"It went fine! She doesn't exactly hate my guts anymore, but at least she won't be breaking my fingers any time soon.," Toris smiled, obviously proud of how well his date went.
Damn, did I look like an idiot.
O.K., I've now successfully helped hook up a friend (yes, O.K., I consider Toris as a friend! God, you people expect me to have an interest in every man I meet like I'm in a bad fanfiction!) Now, Halloween was coming up soon, and I need an outfit, costume, anything!
Well, seeing how this story is pretty slow-paced, I'll fast forward to Saturday October 30, 2010. Frantically, looking through my closet, I found some cosplay stuff I brought over for whatever reasons I had while packing.
Holding up two outfits, I said, "Hm…Akatsuki or geisha?" (Once again, I'm sorry for the Naruto references…)
I was lost in my thoughts for a moment until I had a mini-epiphany occur in my head. Grinning, I lay the two cosplay outfits on my bed to concoct my costume for this year…
It was a dark, stormy night…NOT! On the evening of Halloween this year, the sky was quite clear, in fact. The moon shone brightly as a bunch of other student ran around in their costumes. I walked around, enjoying the evening air while heads spun as I passed.
"What is she?"
"Otaku much?"
"It looks sort of nice, though."
"Hi, Jackie!," I heard Seychelles as she ran up to me. "What are you supposed to be?"
"Akatsuki geisha! What do you think?," I said, fluttering my eyes and waving my uchiwa fan.
"My gosh, Japan is going to, like, freak out.," I heard Feliks come from behind Seychelles. "You know, he's like, really into that cosplay stuff."
"Hm, do you know where he is?," I asked.
"Nope.," the two said in unison.
"Well, has anyone else come out for tonight?," I further questioned them.
"Hm, quite a lot, but some countries don't celebrate Halloween, so expect some weird glares coming at us.," Seychelles said. "But…"
"But…what?," I asked.
"Well, every year, to my knowledge, there's this contest that Iggy holds every year to see who could scare Alfred F. Jones first.," Seychelles explained.
With an evil grin, I said, "Go on…"
"Whoever wins…well, I'm not too sure of what they would get, seeing how England has won EVERY YEAR.," Seychelles said.
"Hm, well I tend to end that.," I smiled, walking off in another direction.
"Hey! Where are you going?," Feliks asked.
"You'll see!," I turned behind my shoulder, giving a smile.
The whole campus was crawling with people dressed up as various characters, and quite a few that jerked their heads in my direction at the sight of my outfit. Well, I take pride in being an otaku, O.K.? Gosh... Well, anyway, I thought that Alfred couldn't have gotten too far, he was most likely in his room or hiding somewhere. In the mean time, I-
"Ouch! Watch it!," I exclaimed, colliding with the ever-clumsy Feliciano.
"Ve~ I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!~," Feliciano begged.
"Italy? Oh, I'm sorry! I'm not going to hurt you (but if you ruined my outfit, I promise I will hurt you…)!," I apologized before a running Ludwig and Kiku came this way.
"What the hell were you running for?," Ludwig yelled at Feliciano.
"I-It's was England…," Feliciano explained.
I sighed, poor guy, seems that Alfred wasn't Iggy's only target…
"Nani?('What' in Japanese)," I heard Kiku exclaim.
"He must like your anime-costume-thing!," Feliciano said, then poking at the Akatsuki cloud design. "This is from that ninja show, ve~?" (A/N: Sorry, but Italy's Ve~ thing is TOO CUTE TO LEAVE OUT!)
"Yeah! Do you watch anime?," I anxiously asked.
"No, but Nihon('Japan' in Japanese) does!," Feliciano replied before Ludwig went on rambling about how they had to take notes for the school newspaper's Halloween article for the coming week. I couldn't blame the guy, hey, if I had a deadline too, I'd be-
"Say, just where did you get this?," Kiku asked, interrupting my train of thought.
"eBay, my friend, eBay.," I said. "Oh, yeah, have any of you seen Alfred anywhere?"
"Oh, that reminds me: you do you bet will win the scare-off this year? Igirisu ('England' in Japanese) or Alfred-kun?," Kiku asked, taking out a notepad with a tally-chart scribbled on.
"Um, no thanks, I don't want to be betting on anyone!," I said. Hey, I didn't want to take side when it comes to those two…and Heracles and Sadiq…
"10,000 lira(Italy's currency) on England!," Italy said.
"Come on, you two, we're wasting time!," Ludwig interrupted.
"Well, bye!," I said, running off in my ninja shoes with heels…damn did they hurt after a while!
After a short sprint from the Axis Powers (I'm referring to Feliciano, Ludwig, and Kiku…I mean, they ARE or were the Axis Powers…whatever...), I found Toris walking aimlessly around the huge courtyard with Natalia. Boy, did they look so DAMN CUTE!
Panting as I ran toward them, I said, "Hi, have either of you seen Alfred or Arthur around? Or anywhere?"
"I'm sorry, no.," Toris replied.
"…That stupid American is probably hiding somewhere on the campus again."," Natalia coldly said, but I wouldn't blame her, I mean, I just came charging in while she and Toris were talking or something.
"Well, sorry to bother you, I gotta go.," I said, dashing off again to the far reaches of the large campus.
To my luck, I found Matthew, he's Alfred's brother, so he might know where he is! He was with Ukraine, AW, I just feel so special in having contributed to their status as an official couple!~
"Yo, Matthew!," I said, running while waving.
"Oh! Hi.," he shyly replied, holding his date's hand.
"Do…you..know where…Alfred-motherfucking-Jones is?," I angrily said, panting.
Ukraine was startled by my language, Canada was too, obviously.
"Pardon my language, though.," I apologized.
"Um, I haven't seen him since this afternoon. Sorry that I can't help you.," Matthew said before walking away with Ukraine.
I do have to admit that walking away like that was somewhat rude, but those two were too damn cute for me to yell at now. Raising my head up high, the first thing that I saw was the small garden/park thing that the school had. Well? This is a place meant for prissy rich kids, of course it's going to have a hedge maze or something!
My mood brightened up a bit as I ran into the towering trees that blocked out most of the moonlight. It was now pretty dark out, perfect for Halloween. The shadows of the trees were overlapping and gave me quite a headache trying to tell the difference between the trees' shadow and my own. I stopped sprinting and started walking, my heels clicking on the pavement. I sighed, perhaps this was just a waste of my time…but I couldn't give up yet! Yeah, that just sounded so cliché with the whole 'I'll never give up!,' 'I'll give it my all!' kind of talk. Seriously, that the stuff I'd read in martial arts movies and bad fanfictions-
"H-Hello?," a quivering voice said, I recognized it to be Alfred.
I felt my well-known (at least by my friends back in New York…) evil smile start to curl around my lips. Seriously! I should become an anime voice actress with the 1000 different evil laughs I have!
"Help!," I yelled faking my voice to sound hurt, but my voice penetrated the trees, reaching the crowd of students in the courtyard. Ugh, that wasn't good, but Alfred couldn't resist being the hero in stepping in and help the damsel in distress.
"H-Hey! Who're you?," he stuttered.
"Look, you want to be a hero or not?," I yelled.
"Of course!," Alfred replied.
"Then get over here and help me!," I yelled once more.
Then, I heard fast approaching footsteps among the piles of fallen leaves. Grinning, I took my leave to build up the suspense, leaving him there….alone…in the dark….
(Normal P.O.V.)
Pretty much everyone that was outside roaming the campus came running to the small park-thing where Alfred remained, already scared as hell.
"They're coming for me!," he panicked.
One figure came from the shadows, then two, ten, twenty, and then up to nearly thirty-five!
"Hey, bro, what're you doing here?," Canada spoke up, but as usual, no one excluding Ukraine noticed him.
"What's going on?," Ludwig yelled.
"Is someone hurt?," Feliciano asked.
"Hm…a false alarm?," Kiku wondered while counting the bets on his chart, seems that everyone voted on England scaring America first, as usual.
Every country gathered there, even Sealand (not too sure if he counts), wondering what the hell was going on.
"America, is this a joke?," Switzerland angrily asked, stomping toward the nation.
"T-That wasn't me!," America replied, not wanting Switzerland to take out the God-knows-how-large gun that he had. "It was this girl that cried for help! I ran over to her, being the hero and all, and then she was gone!"
"Ve~ Germany, I'm scared!," Feliciano grabbed hold of his friend's arm.
Germany looked quite annoyed and disturbed as his friend continued babbling like a little girl. Everyone else (with the exception of Russia) started getting scared, was this, perhaps, a ghost or something? Suddenly, some of the lanterns went out, almost making it pitch black.
"AHHHHH!," a mass of shrill screams erupted from the crowd.
"Calm down!," Ludwig screamed, being the voice of reason in all the hysteria. "They announced that they'd be working on the lighting this weekend, so calm down!"
An eerie silence followed among thirty-five scared students.
"IGGY IF THIS IS A JOKE, THEN YOU WIN! YOU'VE ALREADY SCARED EVERYONE ELSE, TOO!," Alfred said.
"I'm right here, you idiot.," England came from the crowd. "Just what the bloody hell is going on? If it isn't you and if it isn't me, then who's responsible for all this?"
An evil, villainous laugh then echoed through the treetops.
"You fools…," it hissed. "Now you're all doomed…!"
A disfigured silhouette then emerged from the treetops as this mysterious voice spoke, making everyone, and I mean EVERYONE scream like little girls.
"Hahahahaha!," the evil laughter continued as the shadowy figure jumped down from the tree tops.
Shrouded in darkness, most could only see the mysterious…thing's outstretched arms, it appeared to be wearing the classic shredded, creepy robe kind of thing. The crowd shivered in fear at what this thing had in mind for all of them.
"Boo!," it jumped out from the shadows, making everyone scream once again. "Surprise!" A deep feminine voice exclaimed.
Suddenly, the light posts were beaming with bright light and revealed the creepy-ghost-thingy to be no other than the otaku transfer student.
(Jacqueline's P.O.V.)
I looked around at the shocked and relieved looking faces.
"So, do I win?," I asked.
"Wait, so I've lost?," Arthur exclaimed in horror. "To a girl, too?"
Conversation started among the crowd with the shocking truth: a newbie had not only successfully scared Alfred F. Jones, but pretty much everyone else. Alfred started laughing in Iggy's face and some people went complaining to Kiku about the bets that they just lost.
"Well, my work is done here.," I cheerfully skipped through the crowd and started my way back to the dorm rooms.
After setting foot outside of the small complex of trees that the crowd had remained in, the light posts grew dark once more as the crowd once again screamed like little girls…
To be continued…
