My new classes started the very next morning. One of these classes was woodship, which I wasn't looking forward to. In high school, I had to take it for an extracurricular class…and after the first day, my hands were covered in scrapes and filled with splinters.

Most of my first day actually went pretty smoothly. Many classes just included introductions of the professors and what we would be learning in that certain class.

Unfortunately, Toris wasn't in any of my classes, but I did see Lukas and 'Artie' (from last night) in one or two of my classes. However, I did see many familiar faces from the couple previous days near the freshman dorm hall; I would have to get their names soon.

The time soon came for woodshop, which seemed to be pretty small, depending on the minuscule classroom it took place in. When I walked in, only one person was in their seat; the teacher apparently hadn't come yet. The first person I noticed had silver white hair, and at the moment was nibbling on something that looked suspiciously like licorice. Widening my eyes, I realized that it was Emil from the night before.

Shooting a smile in Emil's direction, I sat down next to him. For a while, not a sound was heard, other than his tentative bites of licorice and both our breathing. Wanting to break the silence, I said,

"I'm Tino, I believe I met you yesterday at the food court!"

He paused, and looking at me, he murmured, "Yes, you did. I didn't get the chance to introduce myself properly because of Mathias. I'm Emil Stielsson."

I noticed that he had a peculiar accent; like Mathias' it sounded Scandinavian, but I would have to ask him about it some other time. We shook hands, and turned back towards the podium up on stage.

"Um, do you know when the professor will come?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea. I just took this class to escape the two dolts—"

At this moment, the door burst open, and expecting it to be the professor, we both turned around. However, it was probably the exact opposite.

"Look Lukas! It's your little bro! And New G—Tino!"

"—who apparently joined this class as well." Emile continued, burying his head in his hands, and muttering a quiet, "Ríða líf mitt."

I had no idea what he had just said, but I don't think that it was something that I should've repeated.

Lukas came and sat on the other side of him. In a monotone voice, he scolded, "You can't just eat licorice all day, bror. I brought you some tuna sandwiches—"

"I don't need your stupid fish sandwiches! I'm almost eighteen years old and I can take care of myself! I can eat licorice all day if I want to—"

"If you want to be overweight you can continue doing that. On the contrary, tuna is an extremely good source of selenium, niacin, vitamin B12, vitamin B6—"

"Will you just stop talking about your stupid vitamins and tell me what you are doing in this dorky class?" Emil asked coldly.

Before Lukas could reply, Mathias exclaimed, "I've always wanted to make a big wooden snowman—"

"So that it wouldn't melt in the spring." Lukas remarked dryly.

"So, I decided to take woodshop this semester so I can make one!" Mathias continued joyfully. "Lukas said that I would wreck the whole classroom, so he decided to sign up as well!"

Silence filled the classroom, until Emil broke it. "And woodshop…just had to be the exact same class that I took to escape from you two?!" I instinctively leaned away from him, for he looked absolutely livid.

Both Mathias and Lukas shrugged at the exact same time. "I need to keep an eye on you anyway," Lukas muttered.

"I keep telling you, you don't have to!"

"I'm the big brother, it's my job to."

"I can take care of myself!"

"You obviously can't. Who eats licorice for breakfast, lunch and dinner?"

"I do!"

"You need to be more like me, like your big brother."

"No!"

"Call me Big Brother."

"No!"

"Call me Big Brother."

"I said no!"

Deciding to stop the two brothers' fight, I yelled, "Does anyone know when the teacher is coming?!"

It worked, for both ceased their quarrel and looked at me. Lukas tilted his head, "That is a very good question. At the moment, it is 3:07, and our teacher hasn't come, which is a bit odd."

We waited for just a few minutes until the door opened once again. It was about ten minutes after three, and we were probably all thinking that it was the teacher, who would ramble something about how late he was, and how it would never happen again. However, the person walking through that door was the absolute last person I expected.

"Hey, Lukas, it's the 'Big Tall Scary Guy' from room 142!"

Berwald Oxenstierna walked stoically into the room, with that same glowering look on his face. Since Mathias had taken the seat next to Lukas, he took the remaining one on my right. Even though I was basically shivering internally, I wanted to welcome him, so I turned towards him and murmured a quiet, "Hi, Berwald."

He turned to me and gave me a quick nod, and grunted, which I couldn't really interpret, but I chose to believe that he was saying hello to me too.

"Is th' teacher here y't?" Even though Berwald spoke quietly, his voice seemed like a shout in the minute classroom.

I shook my head and Lukas said, "It looks like the teacher hasn't yet. I wonder if the teacher is actually going to show up."

"Maybe the teacher realized how dorky of a class he was teaching and decided to not show up."

"Emil, brother, maybe you should realize that you enrolled yourself in this so-called 'dorky class'."

"I just took it so that there would be no possible way that I wouldn't have to spend another hour with you and the Party Planner!"

"Hey! What's wrong with planning events with people?!" Mathias screeched.

It seemed that Mathias' exclamation didn't matter at all, for the two brothers continued to bicker about the class. I personally didn't really care for the class or what was taught in it; I was just enduring it so that I could get free lunch from Toris for a week.

Suddenly the quarrel stopped, and the awkward silence once again made its appearance. Distraught from it, I asked, "So, should we get a teacher and ask what to do?"

Mathias suddenly stood up and cried, "Hell no dude! Don't you know when to seize a good opportunity?!"

I tilted my head. "This is a good opportunity?"

He nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the entire world. "No teacher means no class. No class means no homework. No homework means extra free time. Extra free time means happy students."

I pondered this for a moment. "But couldn't we get in trouble for something? Like not telling the teachers? And what about our grades? We can't get any if our teacher never shows up!"

"I actually agree with Mathias. Even if it does get found out that there isn't a teacher here, we are still 'in class' and aren't 'fooling around'," Lukas stated. "If we don't get hurt, and don't ruin anything, we'll be fine."

"Helligt lort! Lukas actually agreed with me!" Mathias came and enveloped him in a humongous hug. "Have I ever told you that you're my favorite?"

"Yes," Lukas managed to say, while still being crushed in Mathias' hug. "Actually multiple times, idiot."

I realized that Berwald hadn't said anything since the moment he had walked into class, and turned towards him. "What do you think of the situation?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "There's n'thin I r'lly can do. It's a shame that we won't le'rn anythin' 'bout woodshop this ye'r."

He looked like he could've said more, but was interrupted. "So, what are we going to do this class? Bake cookies and have a bake sale while we play Pokémon?" Emil asked, still with a confused expression.

"You know, that's not a bad idea! Lukas and I can bake our famous cakes and we can sell them at my next bobbing for apples tournament!"

"You're such an idiot. I would be caught dead before baking dozens of cookies and brownies like Paula Deen—"

"It would still make us some big bucks!"

"Dream on, Mat."

The rest of the hour included Lukas, Mathias (and occasionally Emil) arguing about the unconfirmed bake sale, and if they would actually bring in Pokémon cards next time. Me and Berwald stayed silent, occasionally exchanging a word or two. Pretty soon, the clock struck four, and everyone was packing up and leaving. Emil was the first one out, followed by Lukas, who was followed by Mathias, which left me and Berwald in the class alone.

"Well…I should get back to my room to start on all of my homework," I replied.

He nodded. "I should too."

On the way back to the dorm hall, I asked him, "So tell me a bit about yourself!"

While he did shoot me a confused look, he responded, "I live 'n Wilmington 'n Del'w're—"

"Hey! I live in Delaware too! But not in Wilmington. I live in Dover." Realizing that I had totally just interrupted him, I apologized and asked him to continue. Berwald was an only child who lived with his mother and father (who were both entirely Swedish) in a house that was located by Brandywine Creek. He always owned cats growing up, but he'd always wanted to own a dog. He had heard about Hetalia University in high school, and instantly desired to go there.

As he talked more about himself, I found out that Berwald was actually a pretty nice guy. Sure, he looked like he was angry all the time, and sometimes it was hard to understand him, but once you got past that, he was a pretty kind and understanding person.

I was almost sad in a way when we reached our dorm rooms, although I don't exactly know why. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Berwald!"

"See ya tomorrow."

I closed the door to my room and turned around to see a discombobulated Toris eating mint ice cream from the carton while watching 'Big Bang Theory'. Once I stepped in, he looked at me. "Tino! I don't think I can go on with the '4 Months 2 Fab Club'!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Why?"

"Because Feliks is the leader of the club and he was trYING TO MAKE ALL OF US WEAR SKIRTS! We're supposed to go shopping for 'fabulous' clothes tomorrow and its absolute torture!"

All this time, Toris had thrown the ice cream off his lap (which landed on the kitchen counter) and was furiously pacing around the room, ranting.

He stopped suddenly, and turned to me, with a smirk on his face. "But I can't wait to hear about your woodshop class! How was it?"

Now it was my turn to smirk. "Actually, it went great. The teacher didn't show up, and it looks like that class will just be free time."

If Toris hadn't seemed crazy before, he sure looked crazy now. "WHAT?!" He picked up the abandoned ice cream container and began eating out of it again. He finally collapsed on the couch. "This isn't fair…why do I get the worst club in the entire universe, while you get to sit for an hour twiddling your thumbs?!" Collecting himself, he stood up and stated, "I have homework to do. I'll see you a bit later." He then walked to his room, with the ice cream still under his arm.

All this time, I had been frozen. I had never seen Toris lose his cool like that before, and to be honest, I didn't think it was possible. After he shut his door, I started on my own homework.

After a few hours, my homework was completed and Toris had apologized to me several times about his outburst earlier. I had to reassure him every time that it was perfectly fine or else he wouldn't stop apologizing.

"I think I ate too much ice cream…I can't believe I ate the entire carton..." Toris managed, lounging once again on the couch. "But let me tell you, that 'Big Gay Ice Cream Shop' makes some darn good ice cream."

"I'll have to pick some up soon, I keep hearing good things about the ice cream there," I replied while making tea. "Maybe tomorrow, it's too late right now."

Toris nodded his head. "That sounds good. I'll probably join you."

After declining an offer to travel to a local sushi bar with a few other students, I went to bed, and fell asleep pondering what adventures were waiting for me tomorrow.


A/N

Yay a new chapter! The next one might be in about a week or so, I'm still trying to juggle schoolwork and other things.

I don't speak Danish or Icelandic, so if there is a problem with the translations, let me know! I tried to find the phrases from actual speakers and not Google translate, but I'm not sure if its right or not.

Also, I'm terribly sorry for Berwald/Sweden's way of speaking; this is my first time writing how I think he would speak.

Let me know what I'm doing! As always, thank you so much for reading!


Continued in the next chapter...