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The day before had been such a whirlwind of activity that Rosa had almost forgotten about school. Almost.

That day they had gym. The teacher had grumbled something about basketball before collapsing onto a bunch at the side of the room. Not even the end of the world could interrupt his naptime. Or a hall full of screaming teenagers.

Rosa stood in an untouched corner of the room, arms crossed. She decided it would be in her best interest to stay out of the game as much as possible, since she wasn't the fastest runner in the world and had to leave her glasses in the changing room.

Sakura moved next to her, obviously having the same idea. No one complained, since the two of them were known for having the extremely low stamina.

Rosa peered forward, trying to watch the group who seemed so far away. The only one she could make out in the blurry madness was Anya. She currently had the ball, and most of the students were too scared to even attempt to take it from her.

She couldn't understand how she ended up in the same P.E group as the Russian girl. Anya was fast, strong and had excellent aim. Just like Amelia, actually. (But if anyone ever said this to her…Let's just say the speaker would be in hospital. For about a month or two.) But Rosa didn't. In most gym lessons before, she had managed to live by letting Amelia show off as much as she liked, which pretty much involved letting her do everything. But at the start of the year, Rosa was slightly dismayed to find that Amelia had been moved to a different group. Probably because of Anya. The teachers would have wanted to avoid starting WW3 at all costs.

She yawned. Rosa had barely slept at all the night before. She had been worrying too much, mainly about what she had discussed with Françoise, although trying to find the other 'sisters' had occasionally reared its head in her thoughts. It was understandable though, in the past two days she had learned about the existence of countries who were also people, that she and most of her friends were connected to their home countries, and that her best friend was probably the craziest stalker in the world. Seventeen year old girls really shouldn't have to deal with those kinds of things.

Rosa felt a pair of eye watching her and looked down. Sakura was gazing at her, and although it was hard to tell without glasses, worry seemed to be etched across her face. "Something wrong?" Rosa asked.

Sakura quickly looked away. "N-nothing….It's nothing..."

Rosa frowned. It wasn't just Sakura; Amelia had been staring at her too in lessons, while thoughtfully chewing her pen into an inky mess. The American had quickly pretended her attention wasn't solely on Rosa when she had glanced at her questioningly, trying to make it look like she had been looking out the window or at the clock instead. She had also hurriedly changed the subject when Rosa had later challenged her about it.

But she decided not to press Sakura about it. The Japanese girl wasn't the type to lie or avoid a question completely when she didn't have to. Hopefully she'd eventually find out what was suddenly so interesting about her later. She had bigger things to worry about anyway.

The British girl was so deep in her own thoughts; she didn't hear the urgent yells of her name, or notice when Sakura shrieked and dived out the way. But Rosa did feel the basketball crash into her, hitting her square in the chest and knocking her clean of her feet. The air was slammed out of her, everything was spinning…

And suddenly she wasn't in the gym anymore.

The walls were an almost blinding pure white. Her eyesight was fuzzy, so she couldn't make out any specific details, but she could just about see a few people, talking to each other nervously. They were wearing a blue uniform that seemed so familiar it was downright infuriating. In the background there was a faint but continuous beeping.

Rosa was jolted out of that room when she slammed onto the gym floor, her head connecting with the ground, causing her to cry out.

"R-Rosa-chan?" Sakura was at her side, kneeling down worriedly. "Are you okay? Rosa-chan?"

She tried to reply, she really did, but her lungs were still starved of air from when the basketball hit her. Also, her head really hurt. The noise that trickled from Rosa's mouth sounded more like a petrified sheep than any form of the English language. This only concerned Sakura further.

"Are you alright?" To Rosa's surprise, Anya walked up to them, gazing down at the fallen Brit. "It looked like you were hit pretty hard…"

"Rosa-chan?" Sakura tried again. She looked up helplessly to where the teacher was, but he was still asleep, blissfully unaware of anything. Only a few people had noticed what had happened, but they had quickly been sucked into the game again, retrieving the stray ball and trying to keep it away from each other.

"I think she hit her head" Anya mused. "Maybe she should see the nurse?"

The fear of one of her friends being hurt seemed greater than her fear of the taller Russian. Sakura nodded in agreement, trying to get a reaction from Rosa.

"I-I'm fine!" Rosa said suddenly, finally finding her voice as she attempted to sit up. She rubbed the sore part of her head tentatively. "I don't need to see the nurse…"

"I think it'd be a good idea" Anya surprised Rosa further by reaching out her hand, offering it to her. "Here, I'll take you"

She accepted the hand hesitantly. She didn't really have anything against the Russian girl; as far as she knew, all the rumours about her were completely false. She knew that Anya was perfectly capable of acting normal and even being friendly. But still, Rosa couldn't shake the unsettled feeling she got whenever she saw that unwavering innocent beam.

Rosa looked behind her desperately as Anya started to lead her away, searching for help. But Sakura suddenly seemed to of remembered her fear of Anya, and merely stared after Rosa apologetically.

They walked together in silence until they reached the nurse's office. The situation was explained to the nurse, and she immediately started cooing over Rosa, no matter how many times she argued that there was nothing wrong with her, and ushered her to a nearby bed in the corner. She was told to lie down while the nurse went to get her a glass of water. They could then check her for any sign of concussion; even though Rosa pointed out that she hadn't even fallen unconscious.

Rosa lay down on the bed as instructed, sighing as she did so. It took her a few seconds to realise Anya hadn't left the room yet. In fact, she seemed to be staring ay Rosa curiously. "Yes?" Rosa asked pointedly.

A few seconds passed before Anya answered. "…Why are all of you so scared of me?"

"…Huh?"

"Ever since I came to this school, everyone's avoided me…" Rosa couldn't see her expression, but the Russian girl sounded unusually sad. "I don't think I've done anything wrong, so why…?" She sighed. "Never mind, I just…" She seemed to glance at Rosa one last time before leaving the room without a word.

Rosa was left there, a little stunned. Thinking about it, Anya really didn't seem to have that many friends. The only people she seemed to talk to on a regular basis were Chun-Yan, Meg, and her somehow creepier and way too clingy younger brother Nikolai. She was supposed to have an older brother, but Rosa had never met him. Amelia only ever seemed to argue with her. Honestly, it must be pretty lonely…

She leaned back on the bed, deciding it wasn't best to think about it too much. Although, maybe she could talk to Anya a little bit more….Although, the last time she had started talking to Anya, Amelia began following her everywhere. They had only been talking about how they handled their siblings, since they both agreed they came from insane families, but Amelia had seemed to take it the wrong way. That, and Anya's general creepiness, had put Rosa off attempting to hang out with her again.

Rosa sighed again. I'm seventeen, and I've already been stalked and kidnapped…Wow…And where is the nurse with my water?

The door swung open. Alice Vargas ran into the infirmary, diving behind the bed Rosa was occupying. "Um…?" Rosa started, but Alice firmly pressed a finger to her lips, sending the British girl a pleading look.

Barely a second later the door opened again, with a lot more force. "Alice Daisy Vargas! I know you're in here!" Chiara Vargas, Alice's older sister, yelled into the room. Rosa jolted slightly from where she sat, all too aware of the poison green eyes now locked on her. "Where is she?"

"I- Um…"

"Don't play dumb! You're one of her friends right? So tell me, where is she?"

Rosa hated to admit it, but at that moment she actually felt a little intimidated by the Italian girl. Her eyes were blazing angrily, framed by her long, dark brown hair. Although Chiara was usually someone who Rosa considered to have move bark than bite, even if she was the captain of the karate club, she was currently giving off an aura that told her someone was going to die.

"I-I don't know!" Rosa tried to say convincingly. She was aware of Alice stirring slightly, as if she was trying to estimate her chances of escaping. In Rosa's opinion, they were pretty low.

Chiara regarded the British girl for a little while longer. "Oh, fine!" Chiara huffed. "But if you see her, tell her that I'm looking for her" Rosa nodded hurriedly. "Honestly, that girl is such an idiot!" Chiara raged. "Not only did she steal my car yesterday, this morning I found it had a scratch on it. A scratch! On my poor car…I swear, I'm going to kill that girl…" She winced suddenly.

"Are…Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. It's just a headache…" Chiara rubbed her head thoughtfully. "I've been getting a lot of them lately…" Her eyes were squeezed shut. When they opened again, her poison green eyes were clouded over, as if she was staring something, somewhere else. "When the territorials are endangered, their guardians will rise…"

Rosa blinked. Why did Chiara sound so…distant? "What are you talking about?"

Chiara shook her head suddenly. Her eyes were normal again. Her gaze slowly drifted to Rosa. "Um…What was I just doing?" she asked, clearly puzzled as she looked around the room.

"You were telling me about how you were planning to commit sororicide"

"Huh…Well, that sounds like me…But I can't…" Chiara was clutching her head confusedly. "Whatever, I'm going" she said with a sigh, turning on her heel and exiting the room.

Again, Rosa was left alone, confused. Well, not really alone…

"Thanks for helping me there!" Alice said, obviously relieved. She jumped up onto the bed next to Rosa.

Rosa jumped slightly. She had completely forgotten about the other Italian. "It's nothing…"

"But it is! I was sure that mia sorella was going to rip my head of there and then!" Alice laughed. "Grazie mia amica!"

Rosa nodded, a little unsurely. Since when had Alice added her to her list of friends? They didn't even talk to each other that much. In fact, they had gotten in to a huge fight the first time they had met properly. (Although, Rosa could no longer remember what had ignited the fight. But she could recall laughing about it with Alice later, who offered her a slice of pizza in an attempt at a sort of peace treaty) She didn't really have anything against her, but there was something about her personality that was too much like Amelia's…

"So…Um…" Alice's expression suddenly turned serious. "What have you all decided to do about your…um…'brother'?"

Rosa frowned at the sudden change in subject. "Well….As you know, Amelia decided that we're going to find more people like us first, so…" Rosa glanced at Alice from the corner of her eye. "Oh, you should probably know that we decided Monika and her sister have a high chance of being, um, 'sisters' too…"

"Monika…?" Alice smiled suddenly. "So Monika could be like us? Yay~ That means she won't think I'm a freak if she ever finds out!" She said, jumping to her feet, now extremely happy. "Oh, I could talk to Monika about it if you want. Then you and Amelia could focus on anyone else you're checking!"

"Yeah…" Rosa sighed. "You sure are taking this well..."

"Huh?"

"It's just, I expected everyone to freak out a little more" Rosa said. "Everyone's treating this like it's an everyday thing. Well, except, maybe, for Fran...I mean, I was upset when I found out about this, and there's still a part of me that doesn't really believe it. Or…Maybe I just don't want to believe it. I just want to think I'm a normal girl….." Rosa looked away sadly. "Although, with the dreams and everything, I guess I've always known I was never normal normal…."

"But, that's not a bad thing!" Alice interrupted. "I mean, it's not like you're alone in all of this! You have me and Amelia and Sakura and even Françoise! And that America guy seemed pretty nice too! And wasn't my fratello taken too? We're in the same situation!"

She's right, Rosa realised. Out of all of her friends, her problem was probably the most similar to Alice's. Even though Alice wasn't blindfolded and forced into a van by two countries.

"And why I'm taking this so well…Like you said, I've always known I wasn't normal" Alice continued brightly. "I mean, my life has always been a little crazy. I was born in a pizzeria!"

"…You're kidding"

"Nope!" Alice giggled. "My parents were in a pizzeria in Venice when my mama went into labour. Because of that, they were thinking of making my middle name Veneziano, but they had already done something like that with Chiara so they decided to make it Daisy" She smiled at Rosa's blank expression. "'Veneziano' means 'from Venice'" Alice explained. "Mia sorella was born in Rome, so they made her middle name 'Romana'; it means 'citizen of Rome'"

"I see," was Rosa's only reply, wondering how any of this was relevant.

"What I'm trying to say, well, what I was trying to say before I got side tracked, is that it doesn't matter if you're weird, 'cause your friends are weird too, which means that you're not so different after all!" Alice declared dramatically, hands on hips.

"That's very nice" Rosa happened to glance at the clock on the wall. "…Alice? Shouldn't you be in class?"

The blood drained from the Italian girl's face. "Merda!" she yelled after checking the clock, darting out of the room.

Rosa collapsed onto her side, exhausted. Seriously, where was the nurse with her water?

Happy Halloween, everyone! XD There was actually an extra bit I was planning to add, but then laziness and the need to update took over, so...XD I know not much happened in this chapter, sorry T-T Anyway, please review and tell me what you think ^_^ I have to say, this is by far my most reviewed story XD All of you are so nice… :') This is also the longest chapter I've written for this story so far XD