Laughter roared from down stairs as my family continued to display my childhood photos and movies.

"Amy loved to get dirty," Melissa's voice ringed out, "we could not keep her out of the mud."

"Well, wasn't she just a little piggy," Lukas snickered.

"Did she eat like one too?" Feliks giggled.

"I got a picture of her with pie all over her face," Johnny said, "It was when we were kids, and I dared her to have pie eating contest with me."

"Did she win?" Erik asked.

"No, she'll never beat her big brother," I could practically hear the superior smile on his face.

Sadik snorted, "I'm surprised she wasn't fat."

I began to bang the back of my head against my bedroom door. "Why is this happening to me," I whimpered.

"Amy," Jamie's voice resounded from the other side of the door, "come down stairs, we're having a good time."

I rose up and opened the door, "You may be having a good time, but I'm not." I tried to shut the door in her face, but Michel grabbed it and pushed his way through.

"You can't hide in your room forever," he proclaimed as he shut the door behind them.

"I can try," I exclaimed and sat at the window seat.

Jamie rolled her eyes, "Amy, it's not the end of the world."

"Why does it feel like it," I grumbled.

"Is that Amy, naked," Peter exclaimed from down stairs.

"She had a habit of taking off her clothes when she was two," Dad informed.

"She even took off her dress when we were at a friend's wedding once," Melissa added, "it was so funny. She was running around the dance floor and Mom and Dad were trying to catch her."

"Does she still have this habit," Heracles asked in all seriousness.

"No, she keeps her clothes on," said Grandma.

"Aw," Mikkel pouted, "I was kinda hoping she would come down and run around for us."

Everyone cried out in laughter.

"Maybe the world has ended," Michel said.

"I want to die." I curled myself into fetal position and hid my blushing face in my arms.

"Oh come on Amy you're not the only one with embarrassing childhood memories. I bet the nations have some to," Jamie added.

"Yeah, but when they were kids cameras didn't existent!" I snapped.

"Stop pouting," Michel picked me up in a sitting position and gave me a side hug. "You're gonna be okay."

I titled my head into the crook of his neck, "thanks," I whispered.

Jamie sat on the bed across from us, "the nations told us what you did to Gilbert," she giggled, "now someone should've taken a picture of that."

I grinned and pulled myself away from Michel, "No one is going to let him forget it though."

We shared a small round of laughs and Jamie quickly changed the subject. "We met Heracles," she smiled flirtatiously, "he's so hot."

"Now you have to be with Toris," Michel added, "So I can have Heracles."

"No!" Jamie exclaimed, "he belongs to Amy, no touchy touchy!"

I rolled my eyes, "clearly you guys have not let this go."

"Also," Michel said, "What happened to Toris's face?"

"I," I took a deep breath, "kicked him."

"Yes!" Jamie grinned, "Point reduction: fifteen!"

"No!" Michel turned to me and began to shake me by the shoulders. "It was an accident! Tell me it was an accident!"

"What the-yes, yes, now let me go!" I shoved him, but he didn't seem to care. He only turned to Jamie and exclaimed, "Ha! Only five points! I'm still winning!"

"What the hell are you two talking about?" I exclaimed.

Michel and Jamie shared a worried glance till Jamie answered, "We're keeping score."

I inhaled through my nose, "For your teams." They both nodded and I shook my head, "seriously?"

"What? We're just having some fun," Michel proclaimed. "And I'm winning!"

Jamie focused on me, "Why did you kick him? Did he say something? Did he try to make a move on you and you didn't want it?"

"No," I sighed, "I thought, I thought it was dream."

"A dream," Michel perked up, "you've been dreaming about him! Okay, now was it a wet dream or-"

"No." I glared at him.

"What were the dreams about?" Jamie asked.

"Was it anything romantic?" Michel grinned.

"If you call burning my house down romantic, then yeah it was totally hot, pun intended."

Michel winced, "Okay, well, it's not that bad."

"He burned down my house with my parents trapped inside," I informed.

They were silent till Jamie snapped her fingers, "ten point reduction."

Michel glared at her, "I'm still ahead!"

"Not for long," she turned to me, "come on Amy, I know your keeping something from us. You wouldn't kick Toris in the face if you only had one dream about him."

I groaned, "Fine. I kicked him in the face because I thought he looked like a ghoul, ready to eat me."

"Eat you?" she knitted her brows in confusion and disgust.

"It was dark, I was running around, the nations were darkly gray and one of them took a bite off of me."

"Toris?!" Michel said horrified.

"No, Victoria." Then I swiftly summed up the story, "Toris found me after and he held me and began to," my face heated in embarrassment, "kiss my shoulder and neck."

"Ooo, someone's blushing," he smiled.

"Shut up! It wasn't like that! He did that so he could suck my blood."

"Like a sexy vampire sort of way?" he said hopefully.

"More like a flesh eating zombie sort of way." I sighed, "Then he held me down so the other nations could come and eat me."

"Walking Dead style?" Jamie asked.

I nodded and they winced, "that's disturbing," said Michel.

"Yeah, it was," I shook off the goose bumps.

After a few moments of silence, Jamie grinned, "I'm winning."

"What?" He did the math and cursed, "Dammit."

I gritted my teeth in irritation, "Okay, what's with these points?"

"Oh well," he pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "We made a list."

I quickly read it:

Team Affection Points

Hand Holding: 5 points

Hug: 5 points

Kiss (on cheek): 5 points

Kiss (on lips): 10 points

Loving Embrace (which has to last for a good 60 seconds): 10 points

Sharing a Special Moment: 15 points

Dirty Dancing: 20 points

Wet Dreams: 20 points

Hot Hookups: 25 points (if reached second base: 50 points; if reached third base: 100 points)

Sex: 200 points

Point Reduction

Nightmares: 10 points

Physical Pain: 15 points (if accident: 5 points)

Hurt Feelings (on either side): 30 points

Unfaithfulness (on either side): the points will be reduced when followed by the section above.

I crumbled up the piece of paper and threw it at them, "Is my life just a game to you!"

"If it makes you feel any better, Heracles is winning," Jamie added.

"It doesn't!" I exclaimed and then I counted to ten as I took deep calming breaths. "You know what, whatever. If you two want to make teams, keep points, write made-up romantic stories about me- go ahead, I don't care anymore!"

Michel and Jamie shared a look with one another and then they turned to me. "Are you giving us permission to write fanfiction about your life," Michel grinned evilly.

My eye twitched, "I'm going out." I slipped on my riding boots and opened my window, "don't follow me."


Once I landed on the ground, I sprinted to the open field and sat myself on the metal gate. I whistled and a black figure came trotting in my direction. Midnight's dark onyx coat shined in the sun as his powerful legs moved in perfect sync. His silky hair bounced with each step and his eyes glowed with delight once I was in his range of sight.

I really needed some alone time with Midnight. He was my own personal therapist; ready to listen when I was troubled. And I was definitely troubled.

"Hey Midnight, how's my big boy?" I smiled as I roamed my hands over his snout and neck. I breathed, taking in his musky scent, "You wouldn't believe the day I had." His nostrils twitched under my touch and he moved in closer to my forehead. "The nations drove me crazy today. Then to make it worse, they came over for dinner and my brother and sister are showing them every mortifying video and picture of me." I brushed my fingers through his mane and he closed his eyes in content. "I needed to get away from them; ironically, it's my family and friends I'm talking about."

"Hmm, and after all you went through to keep them. It is ironic," a feminine voice spoke from behind.

"Ugh, Jamie, seriously, I just want-" I turned around and found a teenage girl I never met before. She was petite with long platinum hair and dark blue eyes. She wore a dark indigo dress, with a long skirt, puffy sleeves and two bows tied around her waist and on the top of her head. "You're not Jamie," I stated the obvious.

She lifted a brow at me casually, "were you expecting her?"

"No, I actually wanted to be alone," I clapped my hands together. "Now I guess that's out the window," I mumbled the last part.

Her face was expressionless as she stepped toward the gate and held her hand out to Midnight. He hesitated at first but allowed her to pet him. "He's a beautiful horse," she said.

"Yes, he certainly is." I reached out and he came back to my side with his snout grazing my cheek and hair.

I caught the mysterious girl watching me from my perspective version. The moment I turned to face her, she shifted forward but for a tiny second, I almost thought she was smiling. "Um, let me guess, you're a country."

"Does that upset you? You clearly don't want us here," she proclaimed.

"You heard me didn't you," I said this more as a statement than a question.

"I came in around the part of 'you wouldn't believe the day I had.'" Her voice rose higher as she spoke in an accent to mock me.

I snorted, "you call that an American accent? What were you trying to pull off? The southern bell?"

"Actually I was going for the spoiled reality TV star," she answered.

"Oh, you gotta add more whine into your voice, you gotta sound like an annoying bitch that needs to be slapped," I informed.

"You sound like you had experience in this." She cleverly said.

"Ouch, okay, kinda open myself up for that one." I looked at her, "so what brings you here to my humble home."

"My sister was invited by Estonia."

"The bowl cut guy?"

She smirked, "yes, that's him. Anyway my sister didn't want to come by herself and begged me to tag along. I can't say no to her, so I agreed."

"Hear that Midnight," I ruffled his mane, "the scary Ice Queen is just a big softy."

"Ice Queen?"

"That's the name I decided to give you since you haven't introduced yourself."

She sighed and turned to the open field, with a faraway look on her face. "I'm Natalia Arlovskaya, the nation of Belarus."

My eyes widened, "Ah, no way, really?"

She turned to me, all business like, "yes."

"Cool, I've always wanted to go there, ever since I saw Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and I said, "You know, Agent Coulson lives. He dies in Avengers but he's brought back thanks to experimental drugs but it turned out it was alien blood and tech." Her face did not change, but I continued, "He puts a team together and they go around taking care of S.H.I.E.L.D. business." Her face still displayed the same puzzled look, and I finished my ramblings in a whisper, "it was on abc, had like six seasons and they kept crossing over with the movies and stuff."

She shook her head, but a small smile played on her lips. "Was my nation the setting for this movie?"

"It was TV show and yeah it was, for some of the episodes in season one." My voice grew in confidence, "I remember when I saw it; it was so green. It wasn't a city, more like a town; maybe it was the country side. I don't remember, but it was so beautiful. I knew I just had to see it one day, so I added it to my notebook."

"Your notebook?" she asked, curiously.

"You know, like a bucket list. The things you want to do before you die." I placed my forehead against Midnight's. "When I was six, I was too sick to go outside, so I all could do was read or watch TV." Midnight stepped back and grazed along the gate, "Mom kept child blocks and timers on my TV, so that I could only watch educational television and cartoons for three hours a day.

"After my cartoon time was up, I would usually watch PBS, Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel. But there was this one show, I think it was on sometime of cultural channel." I shrugged my shoulders, "ah well, the channel had a show, Are We There Yet?: World Adventure. I know cheesy title, but hey it was a kid show. They would take the kids to different countries and film them as they toured around the cities.

"Being sick and stuck in bed all the time, I kinda made a promise to myself that if I ever got better, I would go out and see the world. So after a couple of episodes I started to make list of the nations I wanted to visit. But that list quickly turned into a notebook spiral, where I wrote down all the buildings I wanted to see, all the festivals I wanted to attend and all the food I wanted to try. Mostly the food, because I couldn't eat anything else but soup and crackers," I grinned at my small joke.

Natalia didn't smile at my comment but continued with, "do you still have that notebook?"

My cheeks heated in embarrassment, "Yeah."

"Well, it's a good thing you're a nation, you will get to travel and visit every country. For each world meeting is hosted by a different host country every six months."

"Hold on a minute, a world meeting is every six months," I grinned, "that means I don't have to deal with them for months at a time?" I was giggling with joy as I jumped off the gate, "finally there's a light at end of this tunnel!"

"Ms. America, you are part of the G8," she informed, "the G8 meets every month, including the world meetings."

I stopped doing my victory dance, "what? No way!"

She simply nodded and I mumbled, "Of all the nations I could've been, I just had to be America."

Natalia heard me, "it's not like you had a choice."

"I know," I sighed.

Then Midnight came trotting back and began to nudge me with his nose. "Yes, yes, I know." I caught Natalia staring at me and Midnight and I felt like I had to explain. "He wants to go for a ride," he continued to nudge me, "and he doesn't seem like he'll wait for the saddle." I side stepped to his left and swung myself over his back.

"That seems unwise," Natalia advised.

I gave her a carefree grin, "You worry too much." Then I kicked my heels and Midnight leaped in a full gallop around the open field, which was the length and width of a football field. I rode Midnight around the fence, warming him up and before I could call out for Natalia to open the gate. Jack came running after me, with Natalia on top. We pulled our horses to a stop.

"Care for a race?" she asked.

I grinned, "You sure you can keep up? How long has it been since you rode? Hold on, I know the answer, centuries." That was usually how all the nations answered a question like this.

"Try a century and half," she said as she adjusted herself on Jack. "Are you afraid I'll beat you?"

"Oh, those are fighting words," I exclaimed and trotted to the gate. Natalia followed and stopped beside Midnight as I opened the gate. I guided Midnight out as Natalia rode beside and I closed the gate. I leaped back on Midnight and directed him to the race trail.

The race trail or the Horseshoe as we called it was a track that wrapped itself around a twenty foot radius. There were two starting points, these points were six feet apart from one another, but as you ran the trail, it would curve outward. Then the trails would turn inward and connect to complete the horseshoe. That connection was wide enough to hold two horses in the middle (so you'll know if you're losing if you had to step aside for another horse to pass). Finally, when the horses come back around each of them should be on the spot opposite of where they started.

"The horse that gets around the Horseshoe and back on the opposite point from where they began, wins." I explained.

She nodded and then asked, "What's the wager?"

"I don't know. Do we really need one?"

"Well it's not any fun without a wager."

"Okay, okay. Hmm, if I win," I took a moment to think. Then I asked, "Can you request to be a host country?"

"Yes, if you haven't been a host for more than two years and the current host allows it."

I grinned, "If I win, you have to be the host country for a world meeting and during that time I want you be my own personal guide."

"Done," she said without hesitation, "Now if I win, I wish for you to sing for me."

I gave her a look, "You want me to sing for you?"

"Yes," she nodded.

I shrugged my shoulders, "o-kay."

She said nothing as she moved to stand at the right starting point. I took the left and curled my fingers into Midnight's mane. "On three, one," I leaned down so my face would brush against his neck. "Two," I squeezed my thighs and took a deep breath, "three!"

We both kicked into a gallop and I instantly lost sight of her as we rode deeper into the forest. When I could no longer keep track of the long haired beauty, I placed my focus on the race. "Come on boy, we can do this," I whispered and gave a soft kick. Midnight beats his hoofs into the ground as he picked up speed. I leaned in low and gripped on to the mane and body of my horse. I breathed in the moss infested forest and took a quick moment to lift up my head so the cool breeze could hit my face. The trees towered over the trail, sunlight beamed through small openings between the leaves. The rays of light warmed patches of skin as I sped under the branches and once Midnight curved inward, I was able to spot streaks of platinum through the haze of green and brown.

Natalia came speeding around the corner. Jack's long legs were smashing against the ground as his mane and her hair blew together in sync. It seemed so natural for her to be on a horse. I almost expected her to bear armor and a sword when she came into my line of sight. She was bent low so that her face brushed against Jack's neck and her dress danced in waves behind her.

We crossed paths in a blur of black, brown and blond. I heard a small, echoing cry of laughter as she passed and I smirked. So she can smile. I kicked harder and Midnight leaped around the curve. I had no idea if I was ahead or if she was, for the forest was so thick, both of us could only catch glimpses of one another. I arched my back and squeezed my knees to Midnight's gut as I raised my bottom off his back. "You got this Midnight," I exclaimed and he pushed forward. The light at the end of the track was close and I grinned.

We burst out into the field of my backyard and I pulled back on Midnight's mane. He trotted to a stop and I turned back to the left starting point. Natalia was nowhere to be seen. I was about to yell out that I had won till Natalia's voice called out, "It's about time."

I snapped my head around to find her sitting on Jack as she combed her fingers through his mane. "I almost thought you got lost."

I sighed, "how far was I off?"

"You came in a minute or so after me."

"A minute?! Damn I'm off," I proclaimed as I guided Midnight back to the gate.

"I believe you owe me a song," she said.

I slid off Midnight and opened the gate, he immediately jogged back into the open field and Jack was right behind. I locked up the gate and turned to Natalia, "I should warn ya, I'm tone deaf."

"Are you trying to wiggle out of our bet?" she lifted a brow at me curiously.

"No. I just want to know why?"

The tips of her lips curled a bit, "I want to prove a theory."

I rolled my eyes, what's with the vague answers. "Fine, just don't complain to me when I sound like a dying cat."