"I told you, we are not doing a bake sale."

"But Luke! Don't you know how many people would buy your brownies? Plus, we would raise so much money I wouldn't even have to buy 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' sets with my own!"

"I will not work my ass off so that you can get free junk."

"But you're my best friend! Best friends help each other out!"

"Not me. Ask Emil to help."

"I already did! He told me he wouldn't!"

"Well I guess you're on your own."

"You won't even help make the cookie dough?!"

"I think I've made my point clear."

For the past half hour, both Mathias and Lukas had been arguing about their possible bake sale, which seemed positively hopeless for Mathias. Emil had been texting this entire time, while both Berwald and I stayed silent.

I had tried passing the time by working on my other homework, but the constant bickering distracted me so many times that I gave up. I was also surprised to receive two texts from Toris in just a short time period. The first read,

Delivered: 3:21 PM

From: Toris Laurinaitis

Feliks took us to Forever 21. Please get me out of here!

And another,

Delivered: 3:34

From: Toris Laurinaitis

Expect that free week of lunch soon. I don't think I can handle much more.

I couldn't help but feel a little bad for him. Here I was, sitting and doing nothing, while Toris was in considerable distress. Before I could stop myself, I exclaimed, "I believe we should do something!"

I immediately caught all the attention from my fellow classmates. "But we are doing something!" cried Mathias. "I'm making plans for my bake sale…which I'll do alone," he added, shooting a dejected look in Lukas' direction.

I shook my head. "No! I mean…" I stopped, and then stood up. "We have all this wood here…I think we should create something!"

"You're…actually proposing that we work?" Emil asked disbelievingly.

He had a point there. "I know that we don't want to work, and would just rather use this class for free time…but we didn't join this class to do nothing. We joined this class to take woodshop." Okay, that was a complete lie. I joined so I could get free lunch for a week, and I already knew Emil had joined so that he wouldn't be stuck with his half-brother. "Plus, I believe it would be a good idea to create something anyway; that way if a teacher finds out we don't have a professor, we can say that we did something productive."

Someone, a very loud someone, actually agreed with me. "I agree with Tino!" shouted Mathias. "Now I can finally create my own, unmelting snowman!" He jumped over his desk and practically ran over to the pile of wood in the corner. "Let's start now!"

To my utter surprise, Berwald stood up out of his seat and without another word, walked to the pile of lumber and began taking out various pieces of wood. He then placed all of them on a work table, and then went back to grab diverse tools.

Lukas expressionlessly walked over to Mathias and began helping him pick out pieces of wood. It seemed like Mathias had absolutely no idea what he was doing, but Lukas looked as if he did.

Emil and I soon followed him. At the moment, I had no ideas of what to make, so I grabbed a random stack of wood and placed it on a work table. Emil seemed to be in the same boat as me.

"So…what do we do now?" he asked.

"You create something out of wood."

Great. It seemed as if the brothers were starting their argument again.

"I knew that! What do we make?"

"Whatever you want. You want a chessboard? Make it. You want a chair? Make it. You want a stupid unmeltable snowman? Make it."

"Hey!" cried Mathias, interrupting their argument once again. "Unmeltable snowmen are not stupid!"

"Says the idiot who set his head on fire a week ago." Lukas muttered.

"That was all Emil's fault and you know it!"

"You know damn well that wasn't my fault!" Emil screeched back. "You were the one who thought it would be interesting to Vine yourself limboing under a flaming stick!"

"You were the one who lit it!"

"You asked me to!"

"You…I couldn't have lit it by myself!"

"Yes you could've." Lukas cut in.

"Well guess what? Lighting my magnificent hair on fire has absolutely nothing to do with woodshop or my unmeltable snowman!" Mathias suddenly smirked down at Lukas. "And I bet I could make it perfect without your help!"

All this time, I had stayed silent, not really knowing what to do. Berwald, on the other hand, looked like a man on mission, for he had already started sanding a few pieces of lumber, only pausing a few times to look up at the argument taking place.

"Stop kidding yourself Mat," Lukas said as he ran his hand through his hair. As he rearranged his hair, I noticed that he had a seemingly gravity-defying curl on the side of his head. "I've known you most of your life, and that isn't even a possibility."

"You're wrong!"

Suddenly, a bizarre glint appeared in Lukas' eye. I would've said that it was the exact same kind of glint Toris had shown when he signed me up for woodshop, but Lukas made the look seem almost sinister.

"Alright Mathias Køhler. I challenge you to a bet."

Here we go again.

"If you can create your unmeltable snowman perfectly, without anyone's help, at the end of the semester, you'll owe me a favor."

"And when I do make it perfectly?"

"If, by some magical power from another realm you are able to create it perfectly, I will owe you a single favor."

Clearly determined, Mathias stuck out his hand, which was promptly shaken by Lukas. "I accept your bet, Lukas Bondevik."

The class ended around fifteen minutes later, and once the bell rang, Emil was out of the door in a millisecond. Placing my untouched pieces of wood back on its pile, I began packing up my disregarded homework. Lukas and Mathias left soon after, which left me and Berwald alone in the same classroom, just like the day before. After packing up my chemistry book, I glanced towards him.

It looked as if he was just putting his last tool away, when he passed by Mathias' working table, which was still full of tools, various pieces of timber, and many wood shavings. Without a second thought, he began clearing his table as well.

Realizing that I was just staring at Berwald, I dropped my backpack and walked towards him. "Here, let me help!" I exclaimed. With somewhat of a confused look in his eye, he nodded and picked up the untouched wood, while I swept the unnecessary pieces into the trash. Within a minute, the table seemed as clean as it had been when we had walked in that afternoon.

"Well, that's done!" I said, not really knowing what else to say. He grunted and bent down to pick up his backpack, which I mirrored. "So, do you have any other classes after this?" I asked.

He shook his head. "N'pe. N'rmally go 'n d' h'mework n'w."

I nodded knowingly. "I do the same thing." We left the classroom without another word.

The walk back to our dorms was pretty silent; while I knew a little more about Berwald than the previous day, I wasn't completely comfortable around him. We soon reached our dorms, and with a quiet, "See you tomorrow," we parted ways.

After closing my door behind me, I placed my backpack on the kitchen table and immediately began starting on my homework.

I quickly finished chemistry, astronomy, and math when I realized that Toris hadn't come out to greet me. I checked the time, which read 5:47, signifying that I had been working for almost two hours. Puzzled, I called out. "Toris?"

No answer.

I pulled out my phone to call him. However, I had one unread message. It read,

Delivered: 5:28

From: Toris Laurinaitis

Sorry for the late notice, but I won't be back for a couple of hours.

There was no explanation why, which confused me. Though it was odd, I didn't want to pry; after all Toris' business was Toris' business. After typing back an, "Okay!" I closed my books and put my backpack in my dorm room, and then deciding it was around time to eat, I wandered back the fridge, and pulled it to find…

absolutely nothing.

Well, that's not entirely true. Occupying the fridge was a half-gallon of milk, a bag of assorted vegetables, and ranch dressing. I found the same problem when I opened the freezer, which only contained three containers of vanilla ice cream from 'Big Gay Ice Cream Shop' that Toris so dearly loved. I sighed and closed it, making a mental note to buy groceries when I had the chance, and deciding not to have carrots and broccoli for dinner, tugged on my coat and my shoes. Placing my wallet in my coat pocket, I opened the door to find the hall completely empty. Today must've been a normal study night, and not one of Mathias' party event nights.

Sighing in relief, I shut the door and began walking down the corridor, when I suddenly stopped in the hall. It was at this moment that I realized that I would be eating alone for the night, which I wasn't too thrilled about. While I was nineteen, this was only my fourth day on campus, and while I knew that I would have to do things alone in college, I would've liked to avoid my solitary, at least at the beginning of the semester.

This left me with a problem. The only people I knew in a way were Toris, Eduard, Raivis, Feliks, and those from the woodshop class. Toris, of course, was out of the equation because he hadn't returned, and so were Raivis and Eduard, for I didn't know what dorm they were residing in. While I knew where Feliks was (his bedazzled door gave him away) I wasn't going to ask him, or Emil, who would probably be eating licorice for dinner. I had no idea where Mathias or Lukas' dorms were, so the only person that was left was none other than Berwald.

I didn't head to his room right away, however. Of course I was getting hungrier and hungrier by the second, but I had told him that I would probably be busy the entire night, and I didn't want to interrupt him out of the blue! I considered randomly knocking on a door and asking whoever was there out to dinner, but I would probably make a fool out of myself.

I finally made up my mind, and began walking to Berwald's dorm, number 142. As I neared his door, I thought I heard a jaunty tune that was vaguely familiar coming from inside. I timidly raised my hand, and before I could change my mind, knocked thrice on the oak door.

The music suddenly stopped, and a second later, Berwald appeared in the doorway. He still looked exactly the same about two hours earlier, but you could physically see that he was mentally tired, probably signifying that he had been telling the truth about doing homework for the rest of the day.

"Hi Berwald!" I exclaimed. "I was going to have dinner, but I had nothing to eat and so I decided to go down to the cafeteria to eat, but then I realized that nobody was coming with me, cause Toris is out doing who-knows-what, and I really didn't want to go alone and—" realizing that I was rambling, I paused for a moment. "…I was wondering if you wanted to grab some dinner with me downstairs?" I finished.

All this time, Berwald had remained silent. His facial expression hadn't changed, except for a minute head tilt that I almost missed. After I finished, he shrugged his shoulders, then murmured, "'kay."

As I waited a moment for him to grab some cash, I thought about asking him what he had been listening to, but I remained silent. Soon, we were on our way down. I made some small talk on the way down the stairs. "Is there a certain restaurant you want to eat from? There's this really good Italian place you could try!"

I abruptly stopped after swinging the door open, for the cafeteria was packed with students. On my way to the Italian shop, titled Pasta and Pesto, I witnessed a male student with shoulder-length blonde hair standing on a table, seemingly reenacting a scene from Romeo and Juliet. A girl sitting at the same table with glasses and a long side braid hid her face in her hands, undoubtedly embarrassed by the dramatic thespian above her.

Dodging the people, we finally made it over to the quaint Italian restaurant. "I had the fettuccine alfredo yesterday, and it was to die for!" I whispered to Berwald. He nodded and continued looking at the menu.

Deciding what I wanted, I rang the bell on top of the counter. "Hello!" I exclaimed. As soon as the words left my mouth, the same student who had served me and Toris yesterday, popped up.

"Ciao ciao! Welcome to Pasta and Pesto!" Opening his eyes, he looked at me and smiled widely. "Ciao Tino!" He suddenly glanced at Berwald and the smile disappeared from his face. "W-who is your friend?!" he asked, slinking behind the counter.

"Feliciano, this is my friend Berwald," I replied, motioning up to the tall student standing behind me. He grunted in acknowledgement.

We ended up both getting the fettuccine alfredo, and sat down at the nearest table. "How is it?" I asked him excitedly, after he took the first bite.

He nodded. "G''d." He took another bite and looked at me, with just a hint of a smile on his face. "R'ally g''d."

I smiled hugely, and we continued to eat. However, the peace didn't last long, for a cry of, "EAT THIS! I MEAN LITERALLY, EAT THIS!" echoed throughout the room, and a massive food fight broke out, which resulted in people actually standing up on tables and hurling meatballs, sandwiches, ice cream, and plenty of other things at each other.

With a quick look to Berwald, I snatched up my bowl of sustenance and ran out the front door, with Berwald following me. Once the door shut behind us, the shouting and pleads of help died down. Berwald came up beside me, and one glance at him had me laughing, for apparently, he hadn't escaped without a battle wound, for a bright pink splat of something decorated the side of his face.

"Oh Berwald, I'm so sorry!" I managed to get out through my laughing. "It's just – you have something on your face!"

He pointed to the top of my head. "S' d' y'u." With a bewildered expression, my hand found its way to my hair.

"Spagetti!" I quickly ran my hands through my hair and ridded my hair of the cold pasta as Berwald wiped off the pink mess off his face.

"'ce cre'm," he mumbled. "Str'wberry."

We ended up sitting outside the building on a park bench and talked for a while. "So, how do you like woodshop?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "'ts fine. Y'u?"

I debated on whether or not telling the truth about me being in the class. "I mean, its fine. I actually wasn't going to be in the class at all; my friend signed me up for it on Sunday."

He nodded. "'re ya enj'yin' it?"

I didn't answer for a minute. "Well…I've never been that good at woodshop. I'm really grateful that there isn't a professor to grade me on it, because I'm absolutely terrible at it." I laughed lamely.

He turned to face me. "S' wh' 're ya still 'nrolled?"

"Because I signed him up for a class, and we made a bet that whoever dropped out first would buy the other lunch for a week," I admitted.

He faced forward again, nonchalantly stirring his probably now-cold pasta. "I c'uld h'lp ya if ya w'nt."

I sat up quickly. "Really? You would do that? Thank you so much!"

He nodded in response. "Mhm."

The clock stuck 8:00 PM and we both decided to head on back upstairs to our dorm rooms. Once arriving, he pulled out his key and looked at me. "Th'nks 'gain f'r 'nvitin' me."

I smiled. "You're welcome! See you tomorrow, Berwald!"

"See ya."

Once entering my dorm, I saw Toris, sitting at the kitchen table and eating. He looked up. "Oh, hello Tino! What is that in your hair?"

I laughed. "A food fight broke out in the cafeteria, and unfortunately didn't retreat unscathed." I took a closer look at him, and asked, "What happened to your shirt? There's an enormous rip in it!"

Toris looked down. "Oh this? While I was in Forever 21, Feliks somehow ripped my shirt when hold up different tops for me to try on." He ran his fingers over the cut. "I don't even know how it happened."
"You mean you don't know how an enormous hole just appeared on your shirt?"

"I don't know! It was a sparkly…shiny…sequiny shirt, maybe there was a loose thread and it pulled or something…Anyway Feliks freaked out, and felt so bad that he took me out to dinner."

"A nice dinner, by the looks of it. You even brought leftovers!" I replied. "Speaking of leftovers, we really need to do some grocery shopping. We have nothing but milk, vegetables and ice cream."

He nodded. "We should do that tomorrow. I would do it right now, but I'm completely exhausted."

"Me too." I placed my key on the counter. "Well, I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow, Toris."
"Goodnight, Tino!"

After taking a shower and cleaning my hair, I went to bed while pondering the following question: "What music was Berwald listening to?"


A/N

Yay! A longer chapter!

I think I'll make the chapters in this story a bit longer; the updates will be less often but there will be more to read!

So, what do YOU think Berwald was listening to? Did you recognize any other characters from Hetalia in the cafeteria?!

Once again, thank you all so, so, so much for taking the time out of your day to read my story! Hopefully you all are enjoying it as much as I am!


Continued in the next chapter!