"What? You're roomies with Ivan!"

I sighed and leaned back on my elbows in the grass next to Gilbert who was fuming and cursing loudly. "Sadly yes," I muttered glumly. "Hey bro! Who're ya stuck with?" America plopped down next to me and Gilbert and I gave my brother a tired look. "He's stuck with that asshole Ivan," Prussia cut in angrily, his red eyes flaming with rage. "What! You gotta be shittin' me!" Alfred cried in his ridiculously loud voice. "Birdie, if he even touches you I swear I'll beat his un-awesome little ass 'till he can't walk for a month!" Gilbert gripped my shoulder and punched the air in emphasis of his words.

"Thanks Gil, but I should be fine," I smiled as brushing his hand off my shoulder. The albino boy just shook his head furiously. "No Birdie, you don't understand. The guy will find a way to beat you senseless even if you do whatever he says! So just call on me and I'll beat him toothless because –"

"You're just awesome like that."

"Now you're catching on Birdie."

I heaved another sigh and tilted my head up towards the sky as Alfred and Gilbert continued to talk about Ivan. I don't know how they knew so much about him because I do not remember ever seeing him in school. I have only been here for about an hour and I'm already screwed. I tickled Kuma's belly absently as I watched the clouds roll by lazily. The sidewalks were beginning to get crowded with students and I was glad that we came here earlier because I would've died in that mess. A small grin was painted on my lips as a smooth breeze rolled by and made the grass rustle despite the uproar from the crowd of students.

Kuma wriggled around like a fish out of water in his dream and his paw smacked me in the nose softly and I chuckled softly and patted his bloated stomach. I gave a sideways glance over at Gilbert who was still talking with my brother and I watched them rant about my roomie furiously and continued to tell me that they would personally kick the Russian's butt if he ever touches me.

I just rolled my eyes at them and sat back up. "Guys," I said, holding my hands up to silence them but they took it as an invitation to raise the volume in their rant. "Hey! Shut up!" I cried and shook them. They immediately stopped yelling and looked at me, their looks a bit worried and shocked that I had raised my voice to them. I flushed a bit with them staring at me so intently and I stumbled over my words. "Y-You guys r-really don't need t-to . . . I'll b-be fi-fine . . ." I gave them a wavering smile and Alfred affectionately wrapped an arm across my shoulders and squeezed me. Prussia patted my head and gave me his trademark up-to-no-good smirk of his.

"Freshman students, please report to the auditorium. Freshman students, please report to the auditorium."

My friends released me and Alfred helped me up while Prussia scooped Kuma up and threw the squirming bear over his shoulder. The three of us shuffled along the path to the main campus and I spotted a few more people I knew. Hungary was laughing with Austria, Sweden was holding his "wife" Finland close to him, and Turkey and Greece were arguing over a flustered looking Japan.

I was suddenly thrown almost bodily into a boy in front of me, sending us both sprawling to the ground. I yelped in surprise and the boy landed painfully on his arms and I scraped the palm of my left hand against the concrete pretty badly. I cringed in the biting pain but looked up to see amused red-violet eyes looking down at me and it made my spine tremor violently. Ivan was standing over me with his creepy childish grin present on his face and I scowled at him. "Oops, I didn't see you there," He said innocently and swept past, stepping on my fingers in the process. I winced and bit my tongue to resist against a scream of pain as it rang in bone-splintering vibrations.

Prussia looked as though he was about to explode and Alfred was already turning to follow the giant. "No Alfred, let him go," I growled and pulling myself up. My palm stung and the skin on it was peeled back and showed off bleeding tissue and imagined myself shooting the asshole in the face. I turned my attention to the boy who was still groaning on the concrete and I pulled him up, apologizing sincerely. "I'm alright," The boy said as rubbing his elbows as if he were massaging the pain away.

I nodded at him and turned back to my friends before apologizing again. "That mother –"Prussia was cut off by an outraged Alfred. "Are you out of your damn mind? Why did you let him go?" We again joined the flow of students and continued our trek to the main building. "Just don't do anything, forget it," I said irritably and glowered at the concrete. "Damn Birdie! Your hand is bleeding!" Hands snatched for my bleeding palm but I pulled away and shot a look at Gilbert who was struggling against a snarling and bristling bear cub. "I'm fine! Just leave me be! I'm not completely helpless ya know," I snapped at them before storming off into the crowd.

For some odd reason I was feeling impatient with my friend being so concerned. It was already getting on my nerves and it hadn't even been a day. I may not have a backbone but I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I snarled furiously at the blood that began to drip off my fingers and shoved my hand into my jeans pocket, wincing at the sharp sting of pain of the wound being pressed against worn cloth. Ivan can do whatever he wanted with me but I will not show submission to him. This is my issue, not Alfred's and not Gil's. I stepped across the threshold of the school and looked up at the great domed ceiling and many artifacts were hung there.

Old battle planes were retired to the luxury of being shown off to the world and colorful Chinese festival dragons were snaking their way up into the ceiling. I noticed that at the far end of the room, all the world's flags were hung on their individual flagpoles and hung limp. I spotted my flag and smiled slightly and saw a stuffed full grown polar bear standing full height and roaring ferociously. Next, I spotted the American flag and a stuffed bald eagle was hanging above it with its great talons outstretched and its glossy brown wings pulled back as if it were going to make a powerful flap to propel itself back into the sky. Prussia's flag hung over a majestic lion that watched the students pass by with black marble eyes and its great mane was the color of wildfire.

My eyes were drawn to a large flag that had thick horizontal white, red, and blue stripes. I recognized it as the Russian flag and below it was a large brown bear that had small beady eyes and powerful legs and deadly claws meant for ripping unsuspecting prey to shreds. It looked like a grizzly but it was much too fluffy and bloated for one. Racking through my mind, I classified the animal as a Russian brown bear and turned away from it. I followed the other students down a hall decorated with ancient sphinxes and Greek statues of the 12 Olympians and soon arrived in an enormous theater-like room with rows upon rows of squashy looking seats that faced a large stage which had a tiny podium standing up front. I filed into the third row away from the stage and sat next to a boy that had dark skin and dreadlocks. He wore a god-awful Hawaiian shirt decorated with tacky flowers and palm trees. It took a moment to actually remember who it was and I jumped a bit. "Cuba?" The boy flinched and looked at me with big brown eyes which narrowed and my heart sank.

"America?" He sneered like he took a disgusting drink of curdled milk. He roared and advanced toward my throat with rough hands. He tightened around my neck and I made pathetic squawking sounds as I tried to explain that I wasn't America. I clawed at his hands and wrenched them from my throat with a bit of difficulty. "I'm Canada! You're friend!" I cried, flustered and gasping for breath. Recognition flashed in his brown eyes and he recoiled away. "Oh! I'm sorry Mateo! I thought – Sorry, I'll get you ice cream after this." I shook my head and rubbed my throat a bit. "Its fine Cuba, I'm used to it." The Cuban man sunk back into his seat sadly and looked at his hands and gasped a bit and looked from his hand to mine.

"What?"

"Y-You're bleeding Mateo. What happened?"

Maple . . .

I looked down to see that my hand was sticky with drying blood and my palm ached sharply and I quickly hid it into my pocket. "Sorry, I f-fell down on the way over here, it's no big deal," I murmured as looking down at my sneakers. Cuba gave me a disbelieving look but turned his attention to the stage as a man had emerged from the velvety red curtains and stood by the podium and watched the rest of the students settle down into their seats. I felt something tap my shoulder and I turned around to see Russia slouching in his seat and his head cradled in his right hand with a bored expression on his face. His eyes flicked down at me and scowled. "What do you want, Matvey?" He sneered, his prominent nose wrinkling with a snarl.

I said nothing and turned back around to watch the stage. A few moments later, there was that tap and I whirled around to only see Ivan in his exact position. He glared at me again and I returned it before turning my attention to the man who had stepped up to the podium. He was a middle-aged man with balding dusty brown hair and wore a formal pinstriped suit with a silk purple button-up shirt underneath. He tapped the microphone, making it echo with a dull moof-moof sound and leaned in to speak.

"Good morning freshman students of Worldwide University! I am Professor Icomics and I am the Headmaster of Worldwide University. As you may have noticed, this is not a college for anybody, but this is for those who are to become government officials, personified nations, and so on. We are the only college in the entire world who specializes in this area and I hope you will all be successful in whatever you may be doing.

"I would I like to introduce you all to your teachers now. This is Professor Langwae and she will be you're Language teacher," A very short women dressed in gray dress pants and wore a florescent pink shirt with frilly ruffles. She flashed a white smile at us and primped her short curly hair a bit. We students made a small applause for Professor Langwae and I felt that tap again on my shoulder but ignored it. "This is Professor Diche and she will be teaching food education to you nations and law to the rest of you," An attractive woman strutted across the stage and I imagined that America would be making censored comments about her body. She wore a black pencil skirt with high-heels and a blue blouse that clung to her curves. Okay, I admit it . . . she's H-O-T hot!

There were a couple whoops from the guys in our applause and I think I heard a catcall from a girl amongst them. "This is Professor Caliber and he will be teaching Physical Education and Tactics," A big and burly man lumbered out onto the stage and had a stern "keep-running-or-I'll-shoot-you-in-the-face" look and wore an unfitting sweatshirt and basketball shorts with old gym shoes. I gulped a bit and gave a half-hearted clap and Cuba and I exchanged worried looks. Let's just say we both aren't in the best of shape.

"Professor Judge will be teaching Economics and Government," Professor Judge was scrawny little man who was no taller than Professor Langwae and whatever hair he had left was graying and his skin was wrinkled and loose. He gave a nervous smile as we clapped again and I gritted my teeth when there was another tap. "Professor Paint will teach Art and Professor Beat will teach Music," Two men lined up next to Professor Judge, one wore a stained paint shirt with splattered jeans and the other wore a sweater with a treble clef knitted on the front. "It looks like him mom made him that sweater," A boy sneered at Professor Beat and I was tempted to beat the snot out of that guy.

"And Professor Corn will be teaching Agriculture and Public Speaking. Give your teachers a round of applause ladies and gentlemen!" As Professor Corn shuffled across the stage in his overalls and boots the students made a standing ovation for our teachers. I clapped furiously, a bit excited to be learning from them. The tap returned and I felt a scaly lizard-like beast coil and gnash its teeth angrily. I slowly turned around to see a smiling giant behind me, pure amusement shining in his red-violet eyes. "What. What could you possibly want now?" I snarled but I was only answered a bitter smile.

I wanted to hit him. I wanted to punch out his teeth and I wanted to beat his face in. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, turning back toward the stage and calmed myself down. Cuba gave me a worried look and glanced behind me at Russia and back at me but said nothing and clapped. Professor Icomics discussed about the rules briefly and said that this day would be a "settling in day" so we had no classes today. We were dismissed (to my delight because Ivan had continued to annoy me) and I searched through the crowd for Gilbert and America. Cuba left me when he realized what I was doing and said something about going to take a smoke or something.

I found my friends and Kuma had flung himself at me and I hugged him tightly. The two older nations gave me reproachful looks and I sighed. "Sorry about snapping at you guys, I guess I was a bit on the edge then but I'm feeling better." Gilbert flashed a smile at me and gave me a playful smack upside the head. Alfred chuckled and said it wasn't a big deal while whacking me on the back. "By the way, wasn't that chick who teaches Food sexy or what?" He cried as thrusting his fist toward the sky. "She was pretty," I said bashfully, flushing. Gilbert made a disapproving noise. "I've seen better looking ones." Alfred gave the albino a "or really?" look with his hands on his hips. "Name three Whitey Tightey,"He sneered.

"W-Well – uh –"

"Exactly so shut up!"

I giggled and we made our way to our spot under the shade of a small tree after tending to the scrape on my hand. We sat there for about a couple of hours goofing off and cracking jokes. I evaded the subjects of girls and Ivan because I didn't feel comfortable talking about them. I may think girls are pretty, but I don't like them in ways other guys would. I only go as far as thinking they are hot and that's it. To be honest, I am terrified of breasts and . . . vag-jay-jays. It's just . . . so weird . . . i-it's complicated.

I pulled out my phone while we were discussing some memories of high-school and inspected the time. Crap, I still need to buy food for the week. "Hey guys, do you want to go on a journey to Wal-Mart to get food?" Alfred grunted lazily. "Uhg, effort . . ." Gilbert smacked my brother in the stomach and sniggered. "Sure Birdie, I still need food too. Awesomeness needs its awesome fuel ya know."

"Right . . ." I helped my brother up and we walked out to the parking garage. The sun was beginning to slip down into the skyline of the city as we found Gilbert's car parked in the second level. "I'll drive Gil, I'd prefer that we will all come back in one piece without a ticket or going to jail," I said as pushing past him and sat in the driver seat of his beat up pick-up truck. The Prussian boy rolled his red eyes and squeezed himself into the middle front seat next to me. His truck only had a front seat and we all were pressed uncomfortably close to each other and forced myself not to blush at the fact that Prussia's knee was touching mine.

I took the keys from the albino and shoved it into the ignition, making the vehicle grumble to life with a small backfire of soot. I glanced over at Prussia nervously. "Exactly how long have you had this truck?" I asked as backing out of the parking space. "Shut up Birdie." I rolled my eyes and crept out of the parking garage and prowled down the streets of the city. Tall office buildings scraped the sky and apartment buildings lined the streets along with small shops and convenience stores.

Foreign restraunts spotted the mundane gray of the buildings with flourishes of wild colors. After about fifteen minutes of driving, we came across a Wal-Mart Supercenter and I turned down into the parking lot. After parking, we got out and I left Kuma behind in the car because I knew that the employees wouldn't allow animals in the building. The three of us walked up to the large blue and white store and I grabbed a cart and wheeled it down toward the food section. Alfred kept on wanting to go down to the videogame section but I said to save his money for important things.

"But videogames are important!" He whined, dragging his feet like a little kid. "If you blow your money on videogames, you won't have money for any food for the rest of the month and that would catastrophic for you. Then you would come running to me begging for money and then I'll have no money. So you can wait," I explained, counting off the reasons on my fingers. Gilbert sniggered at Alfred who pouted but said nothing more. A short time later, we purchased our food and piled back into the truck and prowled away back to the school. I looked at my phone again to see that it was around seven o' clock and I decided to go back to my room. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, bye!" I called as walking off toward the boy's dormitory. "Yeah! Have an awesome night sleep and be careful Birdie!" Prussia yelled waving his whole arm. "'Night Mattie! I'll be in my room playing videogames if you need me!" My brother said as waving goodbye with Prussia. I smiled at them and dashed up to my dorm, hoping that I would be there before Ivan so I could relax a bit.

Relief washed over me as I stepped through the empty dorm and I set Kuma on the floor and put my groceries away into the tiny cabinets and mini-fridge. It seemed that Ivan had already got his food because there were already strange foods in the cabinets. They seemed to be mainly sweets filled with strange ingredients and there were a considerable amount of vodka in the fridge. I pushed Ivan's food to one side and put my stuff on the other side. Sighing, I pulled myself up onto the top bunk after putting Kuma up there and immediately fell dead asleep. Settling down on my pillow, I reached under it and pulled out a worn book that was a deep purple and the spine was black. I opened the thick book to where my bookmark was and began to read.

Time dripped by as my mind was enveloped in the story I reading and the door clicked open and I looked to see Ivan ducking through the doorway. He looked angry and I noticed that his sweater had a few rips in it and his hair was in a sweaty disarray like he went through a hardcore wrestling match. A dark and ugly bruise was taking shape over one of his eyes and I shivered a bit at the pure hatred in his red-violet eyes. "What happened to you?" I asked casually, looking back at my book. I felt his dagger glare burn into me, but I did not flinch. "None of your business Отродье," He snarled as turning away from me and threw off his sweater. I glanced over and felt my cheeks burn. His body was lean and strong, strong shoulders stiffened angrily and his big hand clenched in fists.

I've seen about a thousand shirtless guys in my life, but it seemed awkward when Ivan was standing shirtless in the room. Ferocious pink scars were slashed on his skin, particularly focusing around where his heart is. I quickly avoided looking at Ivan and forced myself into reading my book, trying to ignore him. I heard Ivan stir and clank around in the kitchen and a sound of a cork being removed. I put the bookmark back into my book and decided it was time to change into pajamas. I felt Ivan's cold stare bore into me as I dug out my pajamas and went to the bathroom to change.

I emerged again about five minutes later, and scrambled back up into my bed. Ivan was sitting in the kitchen, taking a long drink from his vodka and smiled at me. "Goodnight, Matvey."

I gulped a bit. His voice dripped with venom and he had a look in his eye that held the lust for blood and the screams of agony and pain. I felt my hands begin to shake, but I told myself to get a grip. "Goodnight, Ivan," I said quietly, giving him a look that said I wasn't afraid of him.

"You are foolish to not be afraid. You should be very scared . . ."

An ice cold drop of something ran down along my spine and I narrowed my eyes at him and pulled the covers over my head.

"I would be foolish to believe you . . ." I murmured to myself and closed my eyes, drifting off into darkness.

~;~

A/N: Well, here it is guys! I thank you all for the reviews and your support! It is greatly appreciated. The third chapter may take longer to write because I still have to figure things out. Oh yeah, here's how you pronounce some of the Professor's names:

Professor Icomics: (EC-OM-ICS)

Professor Diche: (DISH)

Professor Corn: (CORN)

Professor Caliber: (CALA-BUR)

Professor Langwae: (LANG-WAY)

Professor Judge: (JUDGE)

Professor Paint: (PAINT)

Professor Beat: (BEET)

Oh yeah, I also forgot about the translations O_O Sorry!

Translations:

Отродье = Brat

THANK YOU AND PLEASE REVIEW!