Alfred was in good spirits. He had gotten all of his work done, he had just had spent the whole morning with Canada, and he wasn't yelled at by anyone at the meeting yesterday. Yes, Alfred was practically singing as he walked down the street. As he passed a Starbucks, he decided to treat himself to a coffee. As he walked in, he let the aroma of coffee wash over him. Say what you will, coffee lover or no, the smell of coffee is amazing. Strolling up to the counter, he ordered a black coffee with a bit of cream in it, and sat down at a nearby table to wait for his order. He was near a group of teenagers, who were talking next him. Now, he didn't mean to ease drop, but they were talking rather loudly, and what they were talking about made no sense.

"Yeah man, the tide pod thing." The dark-haired teen said. "Have you heard about it?"

"Yes, I have." The brown girl said, frowning. "It's really stupid."

"Stupid?" The blond boy snorted. "More like insane. My younger brother tried to eat one and ended up in the hospital."

"Oh my gosh, is he ok?" The red head next to him asked in horror.

"Yeah, he'll be fine, but my mother almost strangled him for being so dumb." The boy huffed.

"Why the hell did he want to eat one anyways?" The brunet girl asked. "He should have known better."

"Man, I don't know. That kid's always doing dumb shit he sees off the internet." The blond huffed. "He's not allowed to go on the computer anymore now unless it's for school."

"Serves him right." The dark-haired boy said, taking a sip of his drink. "What the hell is up with kids these days? We never did dumb stuff like that when we were kids."

"Yeah." The red head said. "We just played video games and watched cartoons."

"A drink for Alfred!" The girl behind the counter called. Disappointed not to hear more, Alfred took his drink and walked back outside.

"That was weird." Alfred thought as he walked down the street. As he walked down the street, he saw two young kids looking into a grocery store with a lady he assumed was their mother. As he passed them, he heard the younger one say, "Tide pods are the forbidden fruit."

Stopping in his tracks, he gave the two kids a weird look. Their mother heard them too, and started to scold them.

"What on earth are you talking about? You two get that out of your heads this instant! You don't eat those!"

"But mom, I saw online you could!" The older one said.

"What? What on earth have you been looking at?" The woman said in alarm. "We are having a long talk with your father when we get back home on what you can and cannot do on the internet when we get home."

"Aw mom!" The two kids whined. Taking this as his cue to leave, America started walking down the street again, getting weirded out by the second.

"Forbidden fruit?" America muttered to himself in confusion. "Is that a new slang word?"

Shaking it out of his head, he climbed up the stairs to the conference building. As he walked into the lobby, he heard the news playing.

"In further news, over a hundred people have called poison control this year due to eating Tide Pods. The internet is abuzz with talk of these soap packets, and for some reason, children are encouraging each other to eat them." The news anchor said, looking very confused.

America stopped dead, and looked up at the T.V. in disbelief. "No fucking way." America said.

"Around the start of this month," The news anchor continued, "A meme swept the nation by storm, declaring Tide Pods to be the "Forbidden fruit." From there, things just got more exaggerated, until the Tide Pod Challenge started up. As you can see here," The anchor said as a video popped up, "kids are biting into these Pods on dare. This is becoming a nationwide issue, and some people have reportedly died from it."

"What the hell?" America asked.

"The problem has become so bad, in fact, that Youtube is taking down any videos related to it, and there is a rumor, while not confirmed, that Tide is taking Tide Pods off the shelves for good. In fact, famed football player Ron Gronkowski was part of a 20 second video telling kids not to eat them. In some places in the country, they have locked up these tide pods so people cannot buy them."

"This is so stupid." America said, putting his head in his hands in anger.

"Cases have been reported in the past, because of the tide pods candy like look, small children and elderly people with dementia have mistaken these as candies. If you have small children, please take the time to tell them the dangers of eating them. And now Randy with the weather."

As America stood dumbfounded, he heard a whistle from behind him. Turning around, he saw Gilbert shaking his head in pity.

"That is really stupid." Prussia said, giving America a pitying look.

"Thanks Sherlock, I never would have guessed that." America said sarcastically. "Any other brilliant observations?"

"You look like shit." Prussia said with a shit eating grin, before he ran off cackling loudly.

"Asshole." America muttered.

A/N: Does this count as a meme chapter? I think it does. It might be late, but it is topical at the moment. Ok, I'm just going to come out and say it. WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK PEOPLE!? Why are you eating tide pods!? For all my younger readers, (and if your reading this 10-13 year old's, I don't know if you should be reading this story in the first place), please stop. It's really fucking stupid. And that goes for you teens as well. STOP! JUST DON'T DO IT! STOP DYING YOU ASSHOLES! GROW A BRAIN! This has been a public service announcement by Nicetwin123.