A/N: Thank You reviewers! I'm so grateful for your wonderful and encouraging comments. ^^ I'll only take this time to disclaim that I DO NOT OWN HETALIA!

Getting to Lovina: A Story of Hetalia Academy

Chapter 6: Just When Life Couldn't Get Worse

It was exactly one week after Elizaveta and Lovina made up that everyone began preparations for Valentine's Day. The said day was coming up the next weekend, and there was not one idle mind in the school.

"I really don't know what to get Roderich," commented Elizaveta sadly as she strolled with Emma and Lovina after class on a workless Friday afternoon.

Lovina scowled slightly but said nothing. The holiday was excessively sickening to the brunette. Any mention of it caused her to wave her fists and stomp.

"You should give him something extremely special," replied Emma with a wink.

Lovina gave her a look to which she only grinned. It was amazing to Elizaveta how the two girls had never met in their four years at Hetalia together. They made a phenomenal pair of friends; Emma knew when to tease Lovina and when to stop, while Lovina found trust in the easy-going girl. Mentally, the Hungarian slapped herself for not having introduced them earlier. Emma would have made a better friend than…No, Elizaveta would not think about Madeleine now. Not when she had finally just made up with Lovina. Madeleine was history. Since Madeleine's attempts at an apology, the two of them barely talked when they were in the dorm together. The Canadian only came back to get necessities and to sleep occasionally. But speaking of the girl…

"Hello Lars."

Emma was looking frostily at her half-brother. The two of them had had a cordial and warm relationship until Emma had found out that Lars was her older brother by a few months from an affair her father had. Originally, lying, the man said that Lars was the son of his deceased sister who had no other relatives to turn to and had brought the then ten-year-old boy home. Emma found out the truth during her first year at Hetalia. After the death of her mother, things went downhill for the half-siblings.

Lars gave a curt, cool nod. "Emma."

At his side, Madeleine stared at Lovina and Elizaveta hopefully. Her look was blatantly ignored by the two girls. As the silent exchange went on between the three girls, the two siblings were also looking at each other with extremely strained expressions.

"Hey guys! I though you weren't coming out today…"

Mei stopped in her tracks with Xiang Lee right behind her. Eyeing the standstill emotionlessly, he silently and unconsciously put a hand on Mei's shoulder. Everyone turned to look at the newcomers.

"Hey Mei," greeted Emma with a forced smile. "What brings you here today?"

Before the Taiwanese girl could give a reply, Lovina announced that she needed to get some tomatoes and left the awkward group to themselves. Without a backwards glance at Madeleine, the irritated Italian walked straight into the closest grocery store.

"Just my luck," she muttered angrily under her breath, "Everything's been going great and then things just turn-"

"Lo siento! Lo siento! I didn't see-"

"Watch where-"

Lovina stared at Antonio as they both remained shock-still on the ground from their collision. The Spaniard's bag of tomatoes was scattered all over the ground.

Not wanting the tomatoes to go to waste, Lovina quickly began to pick up the juicy red fruits. She told herself it was to save the tomatoes and to avoid talking to the boy and not to help him. Seeing her work reminded Antonio that his precious cargo was on the ground; consequently, he got to work as well. Lovina dumped her load into his bag without looking at him.

"There you go bastard," she said, preparing to walk into the store to purchase her own bag.

"Wait!"

Lovina turned around but did not look at him.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Do you want some of my tomatoes?"

Now, Lovina had to look up at him. He was smiling brightly, holding out a bag of the reddest, plumpest tomatoes she had ever seen. Her mouth watered at the sight. She was about to reach out for the bag when she realized who the giver was. She looked away quickly.

"I can get my own damn tomatoes."

"Oh," he replied sadly, retracting his arm and put the bag back into the larger paper bag he had been holding.

For reasons unknown, Lovina's stomach began to twist uncomfortably in guilt. Before she could even begin to comprehend what she was doing she stuck out a hand to stop him.

"Is there anything wrong?" asked Antonio at the sight was Lovina's flaming red cheeks.

"L-look, I-I a-apologize for…I apologize for what happened that day on the field."

Antonio looked at her with confusion for a few minutes before realization dawned on his face. Then he grinned like a maniac and wrapped up the small Italian into a tight hug.

"Awwww! Que linda, Lina! You look like un tomate! You don't have to apologize. Everything is a-okay with boss!"

"Ch-ch-chigi! Why are you calling yourself boss, dumbass?" screeched the squashed Italian. "I knew I shouldn't have apologized!"

"Ve? Sorella? Are you ok?"

Everyone in the store was staring at the loud couple. Lovina was extremely chagrined to find some of her classmates, including her sister and the potato bastard, in the crowd.

Ludwig was extremely embarrassed, tugging gently on his girlfriend's arm in an attempt to get away from the scene. Unfortunately, Feli was too dense to get his signal. Instead of blending into the crowd, she dragged him straight into the hullabaloo with her crazy sister and tomato-obsessed boy. From the death glare Lovina was sending him from Antonio's arms, he had a feeling he could be the brunt of her anger.

"Goddamnit sorella, why are you carrying wurst and potatoes!"

Yes, Ludwig definitely needed to call his father for the war helmet in their garage.

The moment Lovina burst out of the store with a small bag of Antonio's tomatoes. The boy in question was at her heels, exclaiming over her cuteness. The group standing near the place immediately split up as they continued to create a raucous.

Taking the opportunity of the distraction, Lars quietly pulled Madeleine into the nearest ice cream shop. Xiang and Mei left together with the latter chuckling happily while the former shook his head in disbelief. Elizaveta was happily recording everything Lovina and Antonio were doing as Emma cheered her on.

In the end, Antonio gave half of his tomatoes to Lovina, who never passed up a chance to get them for free. Elizaveta had enough footage of the adorableness for her and Emma to coo over for the next ten years, further increasing Lovina's rage and Antonio's bubbliness. Having nowhere to spread her fury, Lovina decided to attack Ludwig. Panicked, the well-muscled German sprinted into the boys' room and phoned his father. An understandably miffed Mr. Beilschmidt complied with his younger son's pleas for the World War II helmet that had passed down through the family.

"Sorella! Ve! Why are you trying to skin Luddy?"

Little did any of them know just how more hectic their life was to be.

A/N: Just to clarify, Jose is Cuba, Lars is Netherlands, Xiang is Hong Kong, and Ludwig's daddy is Germania. In addition, these guys go to a six year private school, where first years are the equivalent of seventh graders and sixth years are the equivalent of seniors for you Americans out there. For everyone else, I do not really know how else to explain the school system. If you've got questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them through PM or in the next chapter or whatever chapter it is. Here are the years of the people we've met or heard of so far:

3rd: Mei

4th: Lovina, Feli, Maddie, Eliz, Lars, Emma, Ally, Antonio, Ludwig, Sakura, Jose, Xiang

5th: Francis, Gilbert, Arthur, Heracles, Roderich

6th: Ivan, Yao

Gilbert failed world history because he was only interested in Prussian history. He's retaking it.

There are more characters on the next chapter who I'll explain more about and give more details to later. I've really finished it, and I will be publishing it in about...In a few hours or maybe even minutes after this one. ^^ Speaking of which, after I finish Getting to Lovina, I'm writing a companion fic about the Nordics at Hetalia. I'm not revealing the fem!characters yet, seeing as you'll see a great deal of them in the next chapter. Speaking of which, who could make a good couple with Iceland? I have one in mind so far, but it seems like Iceland always seems to be the lonely one of the Nordics.

Is anyone interested in a one-shot about Maddie's backstory?

And to those of you who feel bad for Maddie, don't worry, I do too. ^^ But I love Matthew more. *snuggles my calculator which has mochi!Canada on the back*

Since I just remembered, someone asked about why Antonio calls Lovina "Lina." Ok, here's why: As much as I LOVE "Lovi," I felt like Tonio should have his own special nickname for Lovi. So yes, he does try to call her Lovi in Chapter 2, but in the end, he went with Lina. ^^ So that would be why. ^^

And for you PruCan and NetCan shippers out there, it'll be addressed next chapter. ^^ Valentine's Day. ^^