*I FORGOT TO CREDIT TheAmericanNinja FOR HER BEAUTIFUL OTAKU CHARACTER, INDIE! WELL, INDIE CARTER BELONGS TO THE NINJA! THANKIES, TheAmericanNinja FOR LETTING ME USE HER!*

Gilbert opened his bedroom door to find Matthew standing there. The Canadian looked different, head hung, red around his eyes, a tired, emotionless look in his eyes. Gilbert asked softly, "How ist Lowren doing?"

Matthew slowly shook his head, saying, "Hasn't s-stopped crying. Well, sh-she ran out of t-tears, but she's s-still crying all the s-same."

Sighing, Gilbert slowly nodded. It was only a few minutes ago that he had stopped hearing the sobs through the floor and walls. He asked Matthew, "Vhy ist she ze vun crying if she vas the attacker? I vould be expecting Nataliya und ze Russians to be crying..."

"They probably are," Matthew said, leaning to his left against the doorway. He was exhausted. It was almost morning; he had taken Lauren, Gilbert, and the Germanics and just left the meeting right after that happened. Matthew assumed that Ivan took his sisters home as well, and that Alfred took his states home, and with a large lack of nations, the rest of the nations would've headed home as well. "But Lauren is guilty. She keeps saying that she doesn't want to be a monster or to hurt people and things..."

Gilbert caught Matthew from falling, holding the normally soft-spoken man by the shoulders. Matthew lifted his head up to look Gilbert in the eyes. Matthew said softly, "I'm afraid of leaving Lauren, to sleep...but Elizabeta has kept a w-watch over her...will you also?"

Red eyes widening, Gilbert wasn't sure if he would be able to handle such a task. Sure, he was awesome, but...he never really handled with such a thing. Matthew asked, "Can you take this on?"

With a gulp, Gilbert said, "I do not know. I never dealed vith zis-not vith young Vest, or vith Elizabeta vhen ve vere younger...I just didn't deal vith anything remotely like zis, except for in Ivan's house."

Dry, reddened eyes stared into casually red eyes. Matthew asked Gilbert, "What...what did you d...deal with?"

Feeling the walls closing in, Gilbert said, "Vell...I dealt vith Ivan going into rages out of ze blue, hurting Raivis, Toris, Eduard, or me...he didn't usually fight vith Nataliya or Yekaterina."

Matthew sighed and began to slump away, down the stairs, saying, "I've g...got to sleep...your s...shift..."

Gilbert curtly nodded, even though no one was looking. He headed into his room, hid his diary in the proper place, then left the room, closing the door behind himself. He walked down the stairs as quietly as he could, yet the stairs were noisier than ever right when stealth was needed. Gilbert got to the floor where Lauren and Elizabeta were.

Approaching the door, Gilbert heard only silence. He softly knocked on the door, and Elizabeta called softly, "Come in."

Preparing for the worst, Gilbert opened the door. Inside, Elizabeta and Lauren were curled up under Lauren's blanket, Lauren's head resting under Elizabeta's chin. Elizabeta glanced at Gilbert and said softly, "She cried so hard and for so long that she got sick, then she got so sick that she fell asleep."

Gilbert hung his head, gulping. He scratched the top of his head, which was still sticky from where he missed cleaning the coffee out of his hair. He told Elizabeta, "I'm...sorry."

"Why?" she asked. They were both speaking in hushed tones.

To be honest, Gilbert didn't know why. He shrugged and said, "I do not know. I'm just sorry, zat's all..."

Elizabeta sighed and closed her eyes. She told Gilbert, "Poor dear...all she vorries about is vhat condition Nataliya is in and vhat ze other countries zink about her."

Slowly walking into the room, Gilbert closed the door behind himself and walked over to Elizabeta's side of the bed. He asked her softly, "Do ve know vhat exactly caused ze rampage?"

With a shake of her head, Elizabeta said, "No real clue, othzer zan ze fact zat someone she cared for was in danger."

"How could she hold such a fury?" Gilbert asked. "I mean, it's like she became like Ivan or somezing for a moment...she vasn't even like him; she vas somezing else..."

Taking a deep breath, Elizabeta said, "I don't know, but let's not vorry about it over Lauren as she sleeps."

Silence enveloped them for a moment, then Gilbert whispered, "I hope zat her dreams aren't zat bad..."

Lauren crept around in the snow, wearing thick furs for clothing, boots, gloves, and a hood. Snow flaked and froze on her eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, lips, and her whole face. She blinked the snowflakes away, holding a large spear crafted from a humpback whale's rib bone. She looked around from side to side, controlling her breathing to be steadily, although fear nibbled at the back of her mind.

A loud roar ripped out from the trees behind Lauren, and she wheeled around in the knee-deep snow. A huge, flat-faced bear loomed in the trees, shoulders much higher than Lauren was tall. The bear roared again, looming up on its back legs, and now it was three times larger than Lauren, its hind legs taller than her.

Eyes widening, Lauren braced herself, holding the spear tightly in both hands. The large bear dropped onto its paws again, shaking its shaggy-furred head. It had deep black eyes, like pits of darkness, and a large nose that moved lively as it sniffed the frosty air. Lauren braced herself for the bear to charge, not knowing if she could survive, yet knew that she would not back down. Die fighting, because living after running away is cowardly, and you will have no life after such a retreat.

The bear began to charge, and Lauren realized instantly that it wasn't charging for her. She ducked low and rolled, disappearing in the snow, and the bear leaped over her, its paws, larger than her head, barely missing her body by mere inches.

Roaring filled the air, and the brown ten-foot-tall bear charged on a white twelve-foot-tall bear. Lauren jumped back to her feet and wheeled around to face the fight. The large brown bear lunged for the large white bear's throat. They deflected each other's blows, falling to their sides in the snow. Lauren could not see what they were fighting over, yet by the strong stench of fear in the air, she knew that it must be a cub-whether from the brown one or the white one, it was unknown.

The bears clawed, tangled, and snapped at each other. Blood scored their flanks, muzzles, and shoulders. Lauren heard a cub's howling of fear, and she saw the cub, large yet young, pressing itself against a tree. It was brown and flat-faced like the ten-foot-tall bear.

Lunging for the cub, the white bear got off of the brown bear. Lauren saw the attack and jumped up, smacking the large bear with her spear. The spear snapped in half, and the white bear roared, lunging for Lauren's throat. The brown bear rammed into the white bear, throwing it off of its feet and into the snow. Lauren looked at the young cub with a medical eye. It had a broken left front leg, but other than that, it was okay, only a look of fear in its face.

In fear, the brown bear howled, pinned underneath the white bear. The white bear raised its head up, about to plungs its jaws into the brown bear's throat, when Lauren leaped into the air like some predatory bird, ramming the broken end of the spear into the white bear's neck. The spear broke through the fur, fat, and muscles in the neck, and blood squirted out of the wound, staining Lauren and the clear white snow.

Finishing the white bear off with a harsh twist of her spear, Lauren ripped the rib bone out of the bear's neck and backed up slowly, panting, the hot blood burning on her face, melting some frost that had been on her face. The brown bear got out from under the white bear and tended to her cub. Lauren sighed, backing up slowly as the brown bear dragged the white bear's body to the cub. Lauren would rather give up her meal to a mother protecting her cub, thus continuing a great part of the food chain, than give up the cub and the mamma bear to the white bear, which would prevent more lives from being created.

Lauren backed up away from the mother and her cub until out of sight, then turned and ran into the tundra without a trace.

When Lauren woke up, her arms were wrapped around Elizabeta, Lauren's head down by the Hungarian's stomach. Lauren felt dizzy, lightheaded, and sick when she opened her eyes, head spinning and burning. Gilbert was asleep on the floor at Elizabeta's side of the bed, so Lauren couldn't see him. Lauren weakly whimpered and closed her eyes, trying to will the pain away, and fell back asleep before the guilt could grasp her again.

Ivan Braginski sat on one side of Nataliya's bed, holding her hand as she slept. Nataliya's face was peaceful, more warm than Ivan had seen in years. Then again, he hadn't been brave enough to allow Nataliya to fall asleep next to him, so he couldn't have seen if she looked peaceful lately when she slept.

Yekaterina was holding Nataliya's hand on the other side, leaning on the bed, her head rested next to Nataliya's, also asleep. Ivan had bags under his eyes, which were dry and red, from staying up all night. He would have to take revenge on that Lauren. She hurt Nataliya.

Meanwhile, in Belarus, the government, which had been fascist only days ago, was crumbling. It was a good kind of crumble, though. The people's voice finally got through, and they cried for a new leader. They overthrew the government, and high-standing rebels were now giving the option of creating a new government, choosing their own leaders that they could trust, and maybe even have their economy heal.

Lauren woke up again, Elizabeta awake as well. Lauren moaned, feeling even worse than before, and she asked Elizabeta in a raspy voice, "Can I have some water...?"

"Sure, baby," Elizabeta said, petting the top of Lauren's head. She got out of bed and hurried away to quickly get some water from the kitchen. Lauren had almost fallen back asleep by the time that Elizabeta got back, and she handed her the cup of water, helping her to sit up. Lauren gulped down the water and felt even thirstier after finishing it. Elizabeta smiled in a bit of a grimace, glad that Lauren was drinking water. She got more water and gave it to Lauren. Gilbert had begun to get to his feet from where he had been on the floor just minutes ago. He realized that he was thirsty, too, and was about to leave for his own cup of water before Lauren stopped him, asking softly, "Herr Gilbert?"

Turning around, Gilbert asked groggily, "Ja?"

Lauren averted her eyes, feeling them grow wet with tears, staring at her hands. She asked in an even softer voice, "I'm not...bad, am I?"

Gilbert shook his head, sitting at the foot of the bed. He told her awkwardly, "Nein...I really don't know how you could zink of yourself as bad...you sure handled the situation better zan any of us have..."

Still not looking up, Lauren whimpered, "Really?"

How cold Gilbert comfort a young girl? To be honest, Gilbert didn't really think that she was that young. She had to be late teens, he believed, but she had the heart of an innocent child. How could he deal with comforting her? He tentatively lifted up his pale hand, gently running his hand over her head, and he said, "Ja...you showed Nataliya zat she can't push othzers around, und stuff...heck, maybe she'll even zink of you as a friend..."

Utter surprise make Lauren jerk her head up. She stared Gilbert in the eyes for a moment, not able to say anything, until she found the strength to ask, "Friend?"

Nodding, Gilbert said, "Ja...I sort of knew her, not too long ago, vhen she vas part of the Soviet Union...she vill probably zink of you as an equal..."

Gulping with her dry throat, Lauren found a weak smile. Gilbert was relieved to see that smile-he was starting to feel unawesomely awkward without Lauren smiling. Elizabeta came back with a plate of cheese cubes and a bottle of cold spring water. She sat down on the side of the bed, telling Lauren, "Here are some cheese cubes zat you might like...zese are Sviss, zese are chedder, zese are colby-jack, or vhatever zey're called..."

Excusing himself, Gilbert got up and left.

Alfred F. Jones was placing his right hand on the back of his head, feeling the crusty scab under his hair. During Lauren's and Nataliya's fight, Alfred realized that something hot and sticky running down his head, and he felt for it. Blood was running down his head, and he figured that it related to Addison, whose head was thunked painfully against the floor when Nataliya flipped over.

The American was trying to find out what that jerk had caused to happen in Arkansas, though, that could cause him to bleed. Alfred was in the middle of Googling it, typing with his left hand. Arkansas had earthquakes now and then, and there was a nuclear waste there with risk of collapsing from too sharp of an earthquake, but...the earthquake that happened in north-east Arkansas at that time was only a 1.5...it was likely caused by the head bump, but it wasn't enough to cause Alfred to bleed, right?

Deciding to Google "DISASTERS IN THE USA ON" insert date (he actually typed in a wrong date, accidentally typing 2008 instead of 2018) and spent many minutes trying to find a site that answered his question.

Saddest news; a school bus was hijacked in Michigan, but nobody died and nobody was hurt, so that couldn't cause it. In California, there was another earthquake, but California, on Alfred's body, was his left thigh, and if it had been California, then Angelica would've reacted as well...

A "Related Page" dealed with a volcano exploding in Alaska. That made sense...Alfred guessed. Alaska was still a state, even if it was far away, so he would react to the pain all the same.

Now solving the mystery, Alfred got up and headed into Addison's room. She opened her eyes at him from where she lay on her bed, on her right side. She lifted her head up and murmured, "Hey, Alfred..."

"Hey," Alfred said, waving his right hand. He sat down at the foot of her bed and asked, "Feeling better, dude?"

She nodded, closing her eyes, and said, "Yeah, everything feels kinda static-y, still, but I'm cool, bro."

"Cool," Alfred said, getting to his feet. Kurtis came walking into the room, holding a platter with a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk on it. He set it down next to Addison, who thanked him. Kurtis turned to Alfred, looking at him with a gaze that Alfred often got from Ludwig, and said, "Thank you for starting to be a little serious about our health."

Alfred curtly nodded, saying, "Uh, sure. Totally welcome."

Kurtis walked by Alfred, leaving. Kurtis then headed into his room, which had football posters on the walls-they mainly consisted of the Chicago Bears-and sat down at his bed, pulling his laptop out from under his pillow. He placed the compact computer onto his lap and opened it, typing in his password to see the last session that he had been at.

Fifty States, Kurtis thought. He scanned the states, looking at them on the map, scanning their physical features. It was by the time that he had monitored forty-eight that he realized that there were the two others. He forgot about Alaska and Hawaii.

Kurtis's brother, Alfred, had neglected to travel to those states to check for personifications because they were far away. Perhaps that held the key to Alfred's head bleeding. It could've been a volcanic eruption, but seeing as Hawaii has volcanos spilling over daily, and they don't explode like a burp. It had to have been in Alaska. Now that Kurtis figured that out, he prepared to turn off his computer. He then saw suggested sites, saying, "ALASKA HAS MAJORITY VOTE TO SECEDE". Now Alaska had 90% vote to leave.

Wow. Kurtis knew that the other states were high, but Alaska was dangerously high! It was even more dangerous because about a hundred people lived in Alaska, so that counted for more population of Alaska rather than if there were millions of people there.

Okay, maybe there were more than a hundred, but that wasn't a bad estimate.

There was a knock on his door, and Kurtis slammed his laptop shut, hid it under his pillow, and called calmly, "Come in."

Alfred entered, saying, "Kurt, bro, I got someone for you!"

"Who?" Kurtis asked.

"Well, it's actually two people! Girls!"

Raising an eyebrow, Kurtis asked, "Can you just tell me who it is?"

"MINNESOTA AND UTAH!" Alfred said in his "hero" voice, throwing his arms into the air. Two girls crept into Kurt's room.

One of the girls (a slightly slimmer one with shoulder-length, straight, light blonde hair, calm sky-blue eyes, and light skin) smiled. "Hello, my name is Utah; Isabel Ute Smithsen Young." Isabel was dressed in a black-and-white checker skirt that went to her knees, black pantyhose, black dress shoes, and a black vest over a white button-up-shirt with poofy shoulders, like Lauren's, although her sleeves only went to her elbows. She held a leather case in her right hand, and she continued, "It is a pleasure to meet you. Would you like to take a moment to talk about our Savior, Jesus Christ?"

Minnesota stepped up, a thicker build, red eyes, and brown-blonde, straight, short boyish hair. She wore a bomber jacket similar to Alfred's, and a curvy figure. She said, "I'm Minnesota; Madeline Mansyn. Guess you're Kurt?"

"Kurtis," Kurtis replied, running his right hand through his hair, like he often did when he was stressed. More states-even UTAH, of all states, had enough self-independence to create their own person.

Isabel turned, prepared to leave. She could feel the tension in the air, and anyway, she had to meet the other States. Madeline grabbed onto Isabel's arm, saying, "Hold on, bro! Where might you happen to be going?"

Minnesota was a very literate state, just saying. Although Madeline was very tomboyish and Alfred-like, she hated incorrect grammar worse han Arthur Kirkland. Isabel turned to look at her, saying, "I would like to meet the other states."

Kurtis forced them out of his room as an argument started to break out between Madeline, Alfred, and Isabel. The argument turned tables to be just Madeline and Alfred arguing, so Isabel turned and left. She ran into a slightly younger girl with a Native-American look, long black hair messy but slightly wavy, as if it had been in a braid. Isabel apologized about fifty times, while the girl apologized about fifty-one times. Finally, after the sorries were over, Isabel introduced herself, holding her hand out to be shaken.

The girl took her hand and shook it, saying, "Addison Urkinsau; Arkansas. So, you're Utah, so you're...Mormon?"

Isabel smiled and said, "Yup! But it is better to call us LDS, because 'Mormon' is slang. We're Christians, and when you say 'Mormon' you think that we worship Mormon or something..."

Addison smiled and said, "Cool! I didn't know that! And your Christians? Since when?"

Of course it still bothered Addison-the Nataliya incident-but she wanted her mind to be off of it. An accident is no reason for life to not go as normal.

Startling enough, a new stranger came walking up. She had long, messy, slightly wavy white hair, pink eyes (with rimless glasses), and a thin scar on the left side of her nose-right when you looked at it. She wore a navy-blue skirt that went halfway down to her knees, she wore white socks to her knees, thick black boots, and a robe-like navy-blue-and-red jacket. She gasped, stumbling back, her pale face holding the look of surprise. She said, "Oh, more states!"

Addison nodded and said, "Yeah...who're you? I'm Arkansas, Addison. This is Utah, Isabel."

The state smiled and said, "I'm Gaile Penn; Pennsylvania. Wanna know what Wikipedia has to say about 'Pennsylvania Dutch'?" (Her name is pronounced "Gale-uh")

Before they could reply, the girl recited; The term "Dutch," when referring to the Pennsylvania Dutch, means "German" or "Teutonic" rather than "Netherlander." Germans, in their own language, call themselves "Deutsch," which in English became, misleadingly, "Dutch." The Pennsylvania Dutch language is a descendant of German, in the West Central German dialect family. Although it is still spoken as a first language among some Old Order Amish and Mennonites (principally in the Lancaster County area), the language is almost extinct as an everyday language among the non-religious, though a few words have passed into English usage.

She smiled cheerfully, saying, "Guess what that means!"

Isabel opened her mouth to speak, when Gaile said, "I'M AWESOMELY PRUSSIAN!" She threw her hips to the side, placing her right hand on her hips, then held out her right hand in a fist. Addison fist-pumped her, while Isabel just acted confused. She asked, "Wait, you're German?"

Alfred came walking up, saying, "Gale! CHECK THIS OUT, COME ON, TOTALLY QUICK!"

The Pennsylvanian lifted her head up like an excited dog, seeing Alfred come running up. She said excitedly, "MY NAME IS PRONOUNCED GAYL-UH! WHAT?!"

The American halted in front of her, saying, "I FOUND THIS ON THIS TOTALLY AWESOME BLOG SITE!"

He whipped his laptop out from behind him, showing her the screen. She got excited and said, "WHOOOOOOO!"

Isabel and Addison were laughing, both of them asking, "What's so 'wooooooo'ful?"

Gaile threw her right arm over Isabel's shoulder, saying, "WE WERE JUST TOTALLY INVITED OVER TO GILBERT'S HOUSE! WELL, IT'S TECHNICALLY MATTHEW WILLIAM'S HOUSE, BUT I DON'T CARE!"

Addison's face turned pale, blood disappearing. What? Wasn't Lauren there? How would Lauren be feeling and acting? Addison didn't want to disturb her new friend if she was feeling bad. Alfred laughed and said, "IN THREE DAYS, WE'RE TOTALLY GOING OVER BACK TO FINISH THE MEETING!"

Stammering, Addison asked, "W-Will Lauren be there?"

With a shrug, Alfred said, "I dunno, dude! Can you stop worrying about things before they happen?"

Gaile threw her left arm over Addison's shoulder, noticing both of them feeling odd, and she said fairly calmly, "Don't worry, dudes...it's okay...whatever's wrong...it's totally okay..."

Pink gaze dropping for a moment, Gaile saw the leather bag in Isabel's hand. She snatched it up quickly, saying, "WHAT'S IN HERE, A BIBLE?!"

"Wait!" Isabel gasped, afraid of the obnoxious girl tearing her Bible or Book of Mormon. With a second of seeing the Bible, Gaile dropped to a crisscrossed-leg-position on the floor, a calm aura over her, holding the Bible. She smiled with a different emotion, and she opened it, reading Isabel's notes in the margins, and she said softly, "Wow, a lot of details..."

She opened up to a random page that Isabel had scribbled "SECOND FACE SCRIPTURE" above, and she said, "I like this scripture, too..."

Alfred dragging Addison away excitedly, Isabel sat down on the floor next to Gaile, pointing out other things.

Lauren finally realized that she couldn't hold her pee any longer, so she got up. She entered the hallway and nearly ran into Ludwig, who was walking by, and she stammered, "Oh, s-sorry, sir!"

He blinked hurriedly, surprised, and said, "Oh, zat's okay. How...how are you feeling?"

Gulping, Lauren said, "Better...hey, Herr Ludwig...I'm very sorry about hitting you, and everybody else..."

Breathing in deeply, making his chest rise, Ludwig closed his eyes. Poor girl. Hopefully she could learn to control her temper. He told her, "I forgive you, as do most othzer nations. Ivan und his family might have some problems vith it, but soon, zey should continue being evil as normal."

Lauren made a dry laugh and a smile. Ludwig was relieved to see her smiling again, because she seemed more normal now. He smiled at her, which was a rarity for him to do, and he rubbed the top of her head playfully. Perhaps showing affection could help her-and really, she was deserving of it. He told her in his deep voice, "Just learn to control zat temper, ja?"

She placed her right hand on her forehead in a salute, saying cheerily with a smile, "Yes, sir!" She actually closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of warmth that spread through her. It was weird how many people liked to rub her head to make her feel better, but she enjoyed it as well as Ludwig's gruff comment. Ludwig began walking away, and she instantly opened her eyes and shot her left hand forward, snatching Ludwig's phone out of his back pocket without him noticing. She slipped it into her coat pocket-yes, she was wearing her coat, even when she was sleeping, because she was cold.

Going to the restroom, Lauren shut and locked the door behind her, then relieved herself. One done and finished washing her hands, she then took Ludwig's phone and pushed the button on the top that woke it up. Everything was in German, but after clicking enough buttons, she came to the contacts list.

In alphabetical order from A to Z from top to bottom, his contacts were arranged. Lauren used her right forefinger to flick the touch-screen to scroll down. She found "INDIE CARTER (*something in German that probably meant "maid" or something*)" Lauren clicked that button and held the phone to her ear. It buzzed on the other end for a moment until Indie picked up.

"Hello, this is Indie Carter speak-"

"INDIE!" Lauren gasped, relieved. "Indie, Indie, Indie!"

"YESYESYES?!" Indie asked on the other end, not recognizing the voice on the other end, "THIS ISN'T MISTER BEILSCHMIDT, IS IT?!"

Laughing, Lauren realized how much Indie had brightened up her day. "No, this is Lauren! I figured that Herr Ludwig vould-WOULD!-have everybody's number..."

"Lauren?" Indie gasped, instantly ignoring the pasta that she was trying to put in the oven with her sister. She left the kitchen, Sam Carter asking her why she was leaving. Indie shouted, "SOMEONE FROM WORK!" while Sam said, "OKAY DUBSTEP!"

Indie went to her room, sitting down on her bed, and asked, "How are you?"

"Good, thank you very much for asking," Lauren said. Indie sighed and murmured, "That's good...so, why did you call me?"

Being honest, Lauren said, "Well, I'm lonely, and I wanted to know some things. How have the countries reacted to my...blow up?"

Sighing, Indie said, "Honestly, I don't know. I'd hitched a ride with Alfred when I came to the meeting, so I left with him, and he left right when you guys left."

Nodding slowly, Lauren said, "Okay, that's fine...thank you. Tell me...how bad was I?"

Indie knew that that wasn't a good idea. She may be an obnoxious otaku, but even otakus know what not to tell someone! About to tell Lauren that she wasn't that *coughliecough* bad, Lauren interrupted, asking, "I wasn't bad, was I? I don't want to be bad..."

Taking a breath, Indie said, "You seriously were not as bad as you could've been...imagine the nations at war...it could've been worse. Do you have anything else to talk about, like movies or something?"

"No."

"Well," Indie said, "Alfred called me and said that he got some new states. Two Germanic-like ones and whatever you might call Minnesota."

Lauren smiled and asked, "Did you know that Kurtis is Germanic? German immigrants filled Missouri, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and some other states. Isn't that cool?"

Smiling, Indie said excitedly, "Yeah, that is!"

"Utah is also the breeding ground of LDS...when their prophet, Joseph Smith, was murdured or something, all the LDS left and settled in Illinois for a while. They were told to leave after a while, and they settled in Utah."

Well, at least Lauren had her mind off of things. Lauren started spilling out her knowledge of European countries, American States, and how Kievan Rus' was founded by the Vikings, so technically, Russia is related to the Nordic countries, so Indie told her, "Ivan is then related to Berwald-Sweden, Mathis-Denmark, Emil-Iceland, Lukas-Norway, and Tino-Finland...I can kinda see the resemblence, now that I think about it..."

Lauren smiled, imagining Indie with a pondering face on the other end. Then she gasped, saying, "I've got to go! Bye!"

"Bye!" Indie said. She hung up right when she remembered that she should've told Lauren about how the meeting was going to be repeated in a couple days! POO NUGGETS!

Lauren then scrolled down and found "IVAN BRAGINSKI (*something in German that was probably their word for "Russia"*)". With a gulp, Lauren forced all bravery that she could muster into her hand, and she pushed the name. Instantly, all the bravery LEFT, and she felt like an empty shell, like rubber that was about to deflate and fall over, like in some episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

A kind Russian voice picked up on the other end, saying, "Zdravstvuj, Ludwig! You wish to be becoming one, da?" (informal "hello" and "yes")

Blood running cold, Lauren lost track of her tongue as she stammered without command, "Zdravstvujtye, Mister Braginski..." (formal "hello")

Maybe the only thing that saved Lauren was the fact that her voice sounded funny through the phone. Ivan didn't recognize the voice, and he asked, "Who is this?"

Gulping, Lauren stammered, "Before you get mad, I want you to know that I am so sorry...it's me, Lauren..."

"Lauren?" Ivan asked, cutting her off before she could continue. He smiled pleasantly, saying cheerily, "You are knowing how much I anticipate day when I will be strangling you?"

Feeling her heart deflate, Lauren said, "I thought that you would say something worse..." In fact, she had. She slowly hung her head in shame. "I would gladly give my life to atone for my sins, Mister Braginski...h...how is Nataliya? P-Please say that I didn't hurt her t-t-too much..."

Ivan glanced to his right, where Nataliya was sleeping with a pleased look on her face. He told Lauren, "She has been sleeping soundly. In honesty, she is being better than before, I think."

Gasping, Lauren lifted her head up. She asked breathlessly, "Really?"

"Really," Ivan said, sounding cheery, yet not in his menacing way. "Belarus has actually broken free of fascist government. Maybe Nataliya will be being happier when she wakes up."

Feeling relief fill her body, Lauren sighed and said, "That's good...even if you guys hate me forever, if she wakes up happier than before she did when she was asleep, then I will feel complete."

Smiling, Ivan said, "That is being good. I think that Nataliya will be understanding. The re-do meeting is in three days, same place. You are being there, da?"

Lauren was surprised. The meeting was going to be tried again, and so soon? Well, it kinda made sense...she nodded, then realized that Ivan couldn't see her nod, so she said, "Um, yes, I think so...da." It felt familiar on her tongue and lips. Ivan smiled on the other end, saying cheerily, "Good! Maybe there, we can be talking about when we will be becoming one, da?"

The words slapping Lauren, she asked, "Da?" in such a way that asked, "are you seriously saying that?" Ivan took that as a "da" as "of course we can" and smiled even wider, saying even more cheerily, "Yay! I will be seeing you there! Poka!" ("bye")

Ivan hung up, and Lauren stared into space until her left eye twitched, and she cancelled everything on Ludwig's phone and got up to head to the door. She quickly flushed the toilet to avoid suspicion.

Gilbert, on the other side of the door, nearly gasped in surprise. He stumbled back and began to walk as quickly yet casually down the hall as possible. Lauren opened the door and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Gilbert, his back to her. He was heading toward the stairs toward his room, so she quickly began to head to the stairs that led to the living room so she could plant the phone in Ludwig's coat. She held the phone in her right hand in such a way that from Gilbert's angle, it couldn't be seen.

He pondered for a moment if he should ask her, and finally, he said, "Lowren!"

Lauren stiffened in fear and turned around, hiding the phone from sight. Did Gilbert see the phone? He asked Lauren, "Schatz, vere you speaking Russian?" He absolutely couldn't stand Russian.

Gulping, Lauren said, "Yes...sir... I found Ludwig's phone in his coat and...and I was curious, so I called Indie and talked to her for a while. We were trying to see how much we knew from other languages, and she taught me some Russian in the meanwhile."

Okay, Gilbert thought, relieved that Lauren hadn't been speaking to Ivan. He turned to face her completely, and he told her, "Schatz, I don't mind teaching you some awesome German if you vish."

Beaming, Lauren asked, "Really?" She really was excited; she loved languages! "That's awesome! When can we start?"

Smiling conceitedly, Gilbert said, "Veeeeell, I've got some blogs to update...I suppose zat later on today, I could teach you some."

Lauren smiled even wider. Gilbert liked her smile; it was a bit like Elizabeta's, but it had an extra touch to it. Lauren ran up to Gilbert, handing him Ludwig's phone, and she said, "Here is Herr Ludwig's phone. I was about to go put it back..."

"Zat's okay, schatz," Gilbert said, taking the phone from her and slipping it into his pocket. "I'll get it to him."

"Vielen Dank!" Lauren said, smiling even wider at Gilbert. He was surprised at what she knew, and she said, "Herr Ludwig taught me 'Guten Tag' and 'Auf Wiedersehen' and 'Danke' and stuff!"

Gilbert smiled at her and said, "Pretty awesome of my little Vest, ja?"

"Heck ja!" Lauren said, about to spin around to skip away, when Gilbert said, "Say Hölle ja!"

Lauren repeated it cheerily and continued to head to the living room.

*OKAY MY AWESOME READERS, THAT LAST GERMAN PHRASE IS NOT A HUNDRED PERCENT ACURATE BECAUSE GERMAN GRAMMAR IS SOMETIMES VERY DIFFERENT FROM ENGLISH, AND I AM ONLY LEARNING, BUT I KNOW THAT "Hölle" MEANS "H****" AND "ja" MEANS "yes" SO IT SHOULD WORK! ALSO I STILL USED INDIE AND SAM CARTER, WHO ARE TheAmericanNinja'S AWESOME CHARRIES! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *