It seems like every time I try to promise a deadline, it ends up not happening. What's it been, faithful readers? Two months? I am so sorry. I really meant to get back to this, I did. But stuff happens sometimes. For one thing, my teachers decided to pile on the homework. And then I got a really bad writer's block. Worse than anything I've ever had before. So I had to start this chapter over from scratch and scrap a lot of ideas I had.

Which brings me to another point. This story is going to end very soon. It's been an amazing experience writing it, but I think that it's time for it to end. There will probably be another chapter after this, followed by an epilogue of some sort. I've finally figured out how to end this!

Disclaimer: Tealgirl713 does not own Hetalia.

It's funny, how fast the time goes when you're enjoying it. It felt like only a week had passed, but no, almost two months had gone by, and it was nearing the end of summer. America had to leave a few times to attend more meeting down in Minneapolis, but he was only gone for three days at most. Whenever he was gone, the girls and I would hang out, maybe go see a movie or two. I also spent a lot of that time visiting my relatives that lived around Duluth. I had an abnormally large family. Sometimes I wasn't sure I knew all my cousin's names.

When America was here, the two of us would do a lot of things together. I showed him around Duluth some more, driving down to my old high school, taking him to the zoo. He really liked the bald eagles. We spent one afternoon out on my uncle Dan's boat, fishing in Lake Superior. We went out to dinner a few times, and I made sure I showed him all my favorite restaurants. My parents had met him by now and seemed to like him (although he went by Alfred around them).

Sometimes, however, America would show me something, which was what he did today.

I was spreading jelly on my morning toast when the doorbell began ringing about a million times a second. I rolled my eyes, thankful my parents were already out of the house, and went to answer the door. America was standing there, holding a football.

"Surprise!" he said. "I'm gonna teach you how to throw a football today!"

I looked down at the football in his hands, my stomach twisting uncomfortably. I wasn't very good at football. Hell, I barely understood it. My only experience with the game was when my cousin from Minneapolis decided to teach me how to play, the year I turned fourteen. Any attempt that was made at teaching me ended up with a ball in my face. Or his face. Or…other places. I'd much rather stick with hockey, thank you very much.

"What is it?" he asked, obviously not expecting my lack of enthusiasm.

"Huh?" My head jerked back up from the football. "Oh, nothing, it's just that I've never been very good at football. My cousin tried to teach me once and it ended very badly."

"Well, I'm sure you'll do awesome if I teach you!" He looked so excited. I sighed, and then resigned myself to an afternoon of pain, tears, and frustration.

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Okay, first you put your fingers here, see?" America said. We were out at the park that wasn't too far from my house. There weren't any other people around, so no danger of me hitting anyone in the face. Or any other sensitive areas.

"I still don't think this is a good idea."

"Oh, you'll be fine!" And with that he stepped away from me, satisfied with the way I was holding the ball. He walked down about fifteen feet and stopped, turning to face me. "Okay, now you throw it, and I catch it, okay?"

I nodded, still not completely sure this was such a good idea. But I was determined to get this right. I brought the ball back past my shoulder; like I saw the football players do it on the TV. I used my left arm to aim, and threw the ball forward, watching it soar towards America…

"Ow!"

I cringed. Instead of soaring into his hand, like I'd wanted it to, the ball ended up soaring straight into his crotch. "Agh! Sorry, America! Are you okay?"

He looked at me, obviously trying for a grin, but because of the pain it came out more like a grimace. "Yeah, I'm fine." And with that he promptly fell over, clutching his crotch in pain.

I ran over to him and kneeled next to him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." He started to get up, but ended up leaning on me for support. "Nope, never mind."

"Do you want me help you get back to my house?" I asked.

"Nah, I think I'll be fine in a few minutes if I just sit here," he said. "Nations heal fast, y'know."

I nodded, and sat down on the grass next to him. It was a pretty nice day, just a few wispy clouds in the sky, the sun bright and warm. That was one of the things I didn't like about Washington. Half the time it was raining, the other half there were clouds covering the sun. Apparently it got pretty warm during the summer, but I didn't stick around long enough to find out.

"Hey, Olivia?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going back to Washington soon, aren't you?" I thought about that for a minute. It was the start of September, and Megan and I had originally planned on flying back to Washington about a week before term started on September 20th. Which meant I had about two weeks left before we had to leave.

"Megan and I have plane tickets for the thirteenth," I said. "We have to get back and settle into our dorm rooms."

"So that leaves two weeks."

"Why are you asking me?" I asked him.

"I just wanted to know how much time we had left to spend together," he said. I turned to face him. He looked upset.

"America, you knew I couldn't stay here forever," I said. "And don't you have other responsibilities as a nation? Aren't the meetings moving to a different country soon? You're going to have to leave, too."

He looked down at his feet. "I know," he said sadly. "And it really isn't fair to the other countries to keep having the meetings in Minnesota. But, you know, I kind of wanted to get a break."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Before I met you and the other girls, at the beach, I was pretty upset. The other guys, they always made fun of me. They always thought my ideas were stupid. And I got really tired of that. So I headed up north, where I found that beach, and then you guys. And I felt different, you know. Like I was important when I was with you."

I smiled sadly. I had no idea he felt that way. "America, listen to me. You are important. You are the superpower of the entire world! And if those other nations don't see that, then to hell with them! But I see it. I know you're important. And that's why you have to go back to your duties as a nation. Believe it or not, everyone needs you."

He looked at me and smiled. "Yeah, you're right. I am important to the rest of the world. And if England tries to tell me I'm not ever again, I'm gonna steal all his tea and dump it in the harbor again!"

I laughed. "So, you were there, the night of the Boston Tea Party?"

"There? Of course I was there! I had to be, if we were dumping England's tea into the harbor!"

"What was it like?"

He got a huge grin on his face and started gesturing with his hands as he talked. "There were a whole bunch of us gathered together, and we got onto the ships, and then we just dumped all the tea we could get our hands on. I must have dumped like, five chests. And then we watched the empty chests bobbing up and down in the water, and I just got this wild feeling in my heart, like there was nothing I couldn't do."

"What did England do when he found out?"

"Can I tell you a secret? He still doesn't know I was there! He was away in England when it happened, and I never told him I was there."

My eyes widened. "What do you think he'd do if he found out now?"

"I don't know, but I don't really want to find out."

I laughed. "Yeah, I bet England can get pretty scary when he's angry. Former pirate, and all."

"You have no idea."

We spent the rest of the afternoon with America telling me even more stories from his history, the football sitting on the ground, left untouched.

"So. I heard you and America went out on a little date today."

"And is that your business, Megan?" I asked. She and I were collapsed on my couch, scrolling through Netflix. "Because, the last time I checked, it really wasn't."

"It's always my business," Megan said as she scrolled past the Romance genre. "I have to make sure he's treating you okay."

"You don't need to do that. Everything is fine. And, excuse me, how did you know we were on a date, anyway?"

She looked at me sheepishly. "I may have followed you."

"Megan," I said in an annoyed tone.

"Hey, I was coming over here anyway. Then I saw you two leave through the front door, and I decided to follow you. Nice throw, by the way. He totally deserved it."

I rolled my eyes. "How long were you there?"

"I left when you two were talking. I couldn't hear anything and I got bored. What were you talking about, anyway?"

"America wanted to know when we were leaving for Washington."

"Oh." She turned to me, understanding on her face. "There's only a few weeks left, aren't there?"

"Two."

"That's rough." She leaned back into the couch. "So, what did he say?"

"Well, first he was sad, but then I helped him figure out that he needs to get back to work as a nation, too. Did you know that the other countries were making fun of him and his ideas?"

"Honestly, I'm not all that surprised," she said. "I mean, they are kind of stupid."

I hit her lightly. "That isn't nice."

"I'm not a very nice person. Haven't you noticed?" I rolled my eyes at her. "But I'm serious, Olivia. What are you going to do when you have to leave?"

"I don't know," I said. "I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

This chapter felt good, at least the last half. And I finally tied a lot of things together!

So, as I said, this story is ending soon, so before I lose my chance, I want to thank all of you for reading my story, and sticking through with it to the end. I want to thank especially all of you that reviewed, and all of you that favorited and followed this story. It really makes a girl feel proud, you know?

Anyway, see you in the next update!