"Alright, what does Pb stand for on the periodic table?" Mr. Jones asked.

"Lead!" The class exclaimed

"Peanut butter!" I yelled

Teddy turns and gives me a withering look. The whole class except for him and Mr. Jones were laughing.

"Seriously, Sam? It's not time to joke around," Mr. Jones said.

"The sad thing is Mr. Jones she was serious," Teddy grumbled.

"After class Sam," Mr. Jones sighed.

"Sure," I said and flipped through my chemistry notes.

The bell rang about five minutes later and I sat in my seat while all the students filed past me. Mr. Jones walked over to my desk and leaned against it.

"You have a major test over this in two days, you know," He crossed his arms.

"I know."

"Are you even trying in this class? You've totally bombed my last two tests. Any reason for that?"

"I just don't get it."

"What don't you get?"

"All of it."

"There is no way that you don't get all of it."

I gave him a half-hearted shrug.

He tossed a periodic table in front of me," Memorize this. It shouldn't take you too long with your photographic memory."

"I'll try."

"You'll do more than try. I expect more out of you," He smiled even though his words were stern.

I shoved the paper in my bag and walked towards the door. Alfred ruffled my hair as I walked passed.

"Stop messing up my hair!" I pretended to be angry as I went down the hall.

"Stop failing my tests!" He yelled after me.

I ran a hand through my hair and tried my best to fix it. I walked fast to lunch, not wanting to miss it. Time seemed to fly at this school. It had already been about five months since I had arrived here and it already felt like home to me. Every morning I met up with my friends and every evening I ended it with them. They filled up the loneliness that I had been feeling in the past. I smiled and sat next to Leroy and swiped a french fry off of his plate. Ami was telling us an interesting cheerleading story.

At the end of lunch I walked with Lucky and Leroy towards our next class. Lucky was toting around his skateboard.

"Are you ever going to ride that thing?" Leroy asked.

"I ride it all the time. Mostly before and after school though." Lucky blew on his long hair to get it out of his face.

"Why not leave it in the room then, if you can't ride it in between classes? I mean if I had a skateboard, I would totally ride it around in the halls and everything and do awesome tricks."

"Well go ahead then," Lucky tossed his board over to Leroy.

"What? No! It's not my board or anything."

"What are you, A chicken?" I goaded him.

"Oh, like you would ride it down the hall." He stuck his tongue out at me.

The bell rang and I shrugged," Since it looks like we're late anyway. Thirty bucks and you got yourself a deal big boy."

"Fine. But you have to ride it past England," Leroy pointed to the fuming teacher headed our way.

I snatched the board from him and stepped on it. As England got closer I took off past him.

"Sam get back here! You are late for class and you're riding a skateboard in school! You have detention young lady!" He yelled and started to chase me. I kicked off of the ground faster and realized with a sinking heart that there was a short set of stairs leading down to Canada's office.

"Stairs! What the hell do I do about stairs?" I screamed.

"Kick off the ground with the skateboard!" Lucky yelled at me.

Out of sheer luck I managed to stay on board and land safely. I kicked off as fast as I could and zoomed into Canada's office for safety.

"Sam?" The young man stood up when I ran in and slammed the door behind me," What's wrong?"

I hand him the skateboard," Look, I don't have time to explain. England's after me. Hide this please."

Baffled, Matthew took the board and put it behind one of his file cabinets as I slipped out his window. Moments later I heard England barge in looking for me. I didn't want to stay and listen so I ran around the building and took a side entrance. I took a risk by stopping to get a drink from the soda machine and almost got caught by England. Quickly I ran up the stairs and slipped into Alfred's room.

"What are you doing Sam?" Mr. Jones gave me a quick look.

I shoved the coke into his hands," Hide me!"

"What?" He asked.

I ducked under his desk and tried to calm my breathing.

"Dude, what are you-" He stopped when England threw the door to his room open.

"Have you seen her?" Mr. Kirkland snapped.

"Seen who?" Mr. Jones nonchalantly sat down in his chair.

"Sam!"

America paused and gave me a soft kick under his desk," Not since before lunch. Why?"

"She is in deep trouble when I see her. First she skipped class and then rode a skateboard down the hallway and avoided me." He fumed.

"Well, if I see her I'll let her know that she's in trouble. Now do you mind? I'm trying to grade some papers while I have a free class period," Mr. Jones opened his coke and took a sip.

"Fine, but tell me when you see her!" Mr. Kirkland stormed out the door.

I found myself staring straight at Mr. Jones' crotch and I blushed furiously.

"Uh... A-Alfred, can I come out now?" I stammered.

"Just give it a couple of minutes. He's probably lurking in the halls." Mr. Jones said quietly.

"Okay." I did my best not to stare at him. After a moment Mr. Jones began to hum the star spangled banner and was bouncing his knee to it. England came in one more time after that to double check if I had been there and finally returned to his own class.

Mr. Jones rolled his chair back and leaned back to let me out.

"Thanks Alfred," I said straightening out my skirt.

"Mr. Jones, remember? Anyway Mr. Kirkland wanted me to inform you that you're in deep trouble."

"Yeah, I heard."

"So, skipping class?" He grinned at me," I should turn you in."

"But you won't," I grinned back at him.

"How come?"

"Because you love a good rebel and a chance to piss Iggy off."

He laughed and takes a drink of his Coke," Next time it might take more than a coke."

I rolled my eyes and gave him a kiss on the cheek," Thank you again, you're a life saver. My hero"

"Stop trying to butter me up and get to class," He tried to sound firm but he couldn't help but smile.

"Well that might be a small problem," I grinned sheepishly.

"How come?"

"My current class is English."

"Oh," Alfred leaned back in his chair," Well, you can stay in here for the next thirty minutes or so."

"Thank you!" I sighed with relief.

"Sure, but do me a favor and help me grade some of these papers," He handed me a large stack of worksheets with a red pen.

"Why are you always behind on grading papers?"

"I'm, you know doing other stuff like playing video games with Tony and keeping up with current stuff and the boss sends me some work."

"You don't use your time to do work and we both know it."

"Shut up or I'm going to go to England."

I rolled my eyes and got to grading papers until the bell rang. During class change I snuck across the hall to Sexual Education and slipped in without Mr. Kirkland seeing me.

"Any reason why the Black Sheep of Europe barged in looking for you during last class?" France asked and crossed his arms.

"Yeah… I was hiding from Mr. Kirkland after I pissed him off," I answered him.

"One of my favorite things to do!" He grinned evilly and patted my shoulder as I walked past him to my seat.

I gazed at the paper in front of me not really seeing it. For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about Alfred. I had been so close to him only moments before. I felt my face heat up as I banished the idea of what was under his pants. I wasn't in to him like that. He was attractive and everything, like when he was sitting in his chair all leaned back he looked like he was some model selling something. Oh just stop it brain! Think of something else.

The first question on the paper had to do with types of kisses. Let's see there was the kiss on the hand, on the lips, and on the cheek… My thoughts instantly go back to him. Yeah, so what I kissed him on the cheek. I was just saying thank you. What a stupid question. I glared at the paper.

"Sam?" France tapped my shoulder.

"Huh, yeah?" I jumped and my attention snapped back to here and now.

"Class is over, I know you love this class but you, unfortunately, have to leave."

"Oh, already? Um... uh," I look at the worksheet that I was supposed to finish.

"Do it for homework," He holds the door open for me.

I grabbed my bag and paper and tell him good bye as I walk out. I saw Leroy done the hall and he gestured for to me come over to him.

"That was so freaking sweet how you rode past Mr. Kirkland. You sure showed his ass!" He yelled excitedly.

"You owe me my winnings," I tell him.

"And you both owe me detention," England grabbed both of us by our ears.

"Ow!" Leroy yelled.

"You son of a-," I growled.

"Do you want to finish that Samantha? I would love to give you even more detention," He warned with a dangerous grin.

"Dumb pirate," I grumbled.

England led us down to the bathrooms on the first floor and ordered us to clean them. I had to clean the girls' while Leroy had to clean the boys'. I kneeled down and rolled up my sleeves. The gloves I had to wear smelled funny, but they would keep my hands from the nasty germs of the toilets. I scrubbed several stalls in silence when Leroy spoke up, since the wall were old there were a few cracks in tile it was actually easy to speak to each other, at least in this bathroom.

"Why does he always make us clean the bathrooms?"

"It's because we're so good at it," I laughed," I mean how many times a month do we get into some kind of trouble and wind up in here."

"Well I don't know about you but I'm in here about three times a month. And that's just what I get caught for," Leroy replied.

"I'm in here about seven times on average, now that I think about it," I flushed the toilet and moved on to the sinks.

"You're always in some kind of something. I thought you and Teddy were supposed to be good kids?"

I laughed so hard that tears almost came to my eyes," Where would you get that idea? We only have to keep the countries in line, not ourselves. It's my favorite past time to get yelled at."

We quickly finished the bathrooms and ran back to our dorms to drop off our bags and wash up before we dashed back to the café to have dinner.

"Did you two get into trouble, again?" It's not really a question when Kiko asked us.

"Uh huh, and Lucky somehow weaseled his way out of getting caught," Leroy shot an accusatory look at Lucky.

"I just stay out of the way, thank you very much." Lucky took a bite of his pizza.

"I heard England yelling about some kids skipping class and doing hoodlum activities. I knew it had something to do with you," Teddy nudged me.

"I just can't resist skateboarding down the hallway," I teased.

"I'm worried that you will get into too much trouble one day," Ami gave me a concerned look.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I know what lines I can and can't cross. The one you need to worry about is Leroy here," I smiled at her.

"Hey!" Leroy yelled," I take offense to that."

"You guys don't have to be punished anymore tonight, do you?" Kiko inquired, ignoring Leroy.

"Not that I know of," I took a bite of a rice ball.

"Good, maybe we can all hang out together in the library this evening before curfew."

…

About a month after I had arrived here, I discovered something wonderful. In the library, at the farthest wall, in the darkest part, where all the books were dusty and rarely read, I discovered a secret room. It actually was by pure accident. I saw a large book that caught my interest, A Brief Look at History, I thought why not and pulled it off the shelf, and to my surprise the book case slid back and revealed a dusty room. It looked like it hadn't been opened in ages. Despite the age, the furniture was well preserved and it looked as if the former occupants had left it and expected to return soon. I quickly shared the discovery with my brother and my friends and we soon made use of the room for ourselves.

Teddy and I lay across one of the plush couches, my legs draped over his lap and his head rested on the back of the couch. Roze sat curled up in an arm chair and Leroy lay sprawled out on the rug near her feet. Lucky and Ami were curled together on the love seat and Kiko had claimed a couch for himself. The whole room looked like a cross between an old smoking room and a king's bedroom. It had taken about a whole week to clean the room, and while cleaning it we had discovered countless little treasures ranging from tapestries, old fountain pens, beautiful vases, and ornate, rich people furniture. We added a few of our own touches like a stereo and a television to watch movies on, but we had kept a lot of the room the same.

"Why can't I sit on the couch?" Leroy grumbled," You don't need the whole damn couch to yourself, Kiko."

"Because I got here first and I felt like taking the whole couch up," Kiko said.

"You're not fair!" He exclaimed.

"If you want to get a seat you need to get here earlier," I cut in.

"Sam, make him share!" Leroy wined.

"I'm not his momma or your momma either. You two can settle your own problems," I yawned and check my pocket watch. We had about an hour left of free time.

"Hah, suck it," Kiko grinned.

"Speaking of parents, what did you guys think of England's announcement at dinner," Lucky spoke up.

"Oh the parent day thing, it sounds like it's going to blow," Leroy stole a pillow from Kiko.

"I think it sounds like it's going to be fun," Kiko glared at Leroy.

"Are your parents coming?" Ami asked Kiko.

"Yeah, Mom and Dad should both be coming." He replied.

"Yay, that means that my parents aren't going to be the only ones coming!" Ami cheered.

"My parents are coming too," Roze said quietly.

"And mine too. Hey, that means my parents get to meet you," Lucky smiled at Ami.

"Oh, but that just makes me nervous Lucky," Ami worried.

"Relax, they'll love you," Lucky soothed Ami by kissing her forehead.

Teddy and I had remained quiet during this little conversation. I could feel that Teddy was even more uncomfortable with the discussion of parents than I was. Honestly, we'd give anything for our parents to be able to come, but that was impossible. Maybe there would be a way for us to skip the whole party and just chill in our rooms or something.

"What about you Teddy, Sam, are your parents coming?" Ami asked without thinking.

I glanced over at Teddy and saw a pained expression cross his face before he gave her a tight smile," No, they can't make it. Remember?"

Ami covered her face with her hands," Oh my gosh, I forgot! I'm so, so, so, sorry!"

"It's okay." I gave her a gentle smile.

"I wish my parents wouldn't come but they wouldn't miss a chance to come and embarrass me," Leroy sighed.

"You know what I just realized!" Ami looked at Teddy and me.

"We're twins?" Teddy laughed.

"No, you guys look a bit like Mr. Jones. You could possibly pass of as family. Is that why you live with him?" Ami asked.

I looked over at Teddy and tried to see the resemblance," Ami, the only way we look alike is the fact that we have blonde hair and blue eyes."

"Our hair color is closer to Russia's, actually," Teddy added.

"And that's not the reason we stayed with him anyway. We were just naturally closer to him when we were younger and that's who we chose to stay with." I finished.

"Oh, well, never mind then," She mumbled.

"So what's it like where you guys live? What are your families like?" I asked.

"Oh my family is simply wonderful. I have a little brother and a little sister who are as cute as can be! I live in the states you know, California to be exact. During school, I did a lot of cheering and dance classes and I love to go shopping at the big malls. I wish we had a big mall around here, but we don't. My daddy is a pastor at this huge church in my neighborhood and my mom works at the mayor's office and does a lot of charity work." Ami beamed.

"That's pretty cool. I've only been to the US once with my dad to visit some of my family members," Kiko shivered a little," Let's just say that I'm way more used to my mom's culture. Nothing beats anime and rice balls and having personal space."

"That's right, your mom is Japanese," Teddy said.

"Yeah, people tend to forget 'cause I resemble my dad so much," Kiko nodded.

"Wanna know something funny guys?" Lucky said," I'm French."

"No way!" I laughed.

"It's true, when I was little, my mom put me in acting classes up until a few years ago and I learned to hide my accent. It's pretty cool when I can trick people. I hated my mom for the longest time for putting me through acting classes, especially when we didn't have a lot of money to begin with, but I got over it when I saw how happy it made her," Lucky had a soft look on his face when he said the last part.

Ami looked at her boyfriend for a long moment," You are such a sweetie!" She hugged him tightly.

"What about you, Roze?" Teddy asked.

She smiled and put down the book she was reading," You all know that I'm British. I live in London and I have an older brother. That's about all there is."

"I've always wanted to visit London," Ami sighed," And Paris."

"They're both pretty nice places," I admitted.

"You've been to them?" Ami asked me in awe.
"There aren't many places that we haven't been. Sam and I used to travel all over with our parents on vacation," Teddy smiled.

"I wish everyone would drop the parent topic! Who really cares if they come or not! I can't wait until I can move out on my own and never talk to my parents again," Leroy fumed.

Teddy stiffened and stood up," You are a spoiled brat, Leroy Jenkins. You don't know how precious those people are until you don't have them anymore!"

"I'm a what?" Leroy snarled.

"A whiney spoiled brat! You don't know what Sam and I would give to see our parents again if even just for five minutes." Teddy yelled. Leroy balled up his hand into a fist.

I moved in between both of them and put my hand on each of their chests," Cool it, both of you. Teddy, calm down and go to your room. Leroy, I'd advise you to watch what you say around both of us before you really piss us off."

Anger rolled off Teddy in strong waves along with hurt and that one emotion that I didn't dare want to place. He breathed heavily and for the first time I noticed that Teddy was shorter than all the other guys in the room. Slowly, Teddy turned and left the room. I waited for a minute to make sure Leroy wasn't going to do anything stupid before I told them good night and chased after Teddy to his room. He had already made it there and his door was locked. I stood there alone and knocked on the door.

"Teddy, I know what Leroy said hurt. I understand your feelings all too well."

I waited to see if he would reply, but he said nothing.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I leaned against his door.

He didn't say a word. He didn't move to open the door for me and for the first time in my life my brother had shut me out. I'm not going to lie, that really hurt. I felt all the things he felt and I knew that talking about it would put us both at ease but he wanted nothing to do with me. He was hurt and angry himself. He hated Leroy, but even more than that he hated being powerless.

"Teddy, you know there was nothing you or I could have done," I whispered.

I stood outside of his door for ten minutes before I finally took the hint and left him alone. I walked back to my dorm and went straight to sleep. Or at least I tried to. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Mom and Dad with us and we were on one of our family vacations. I could feel the sand beneath my toes and the salty sea breeze on my face. Dad splashed water at me while Mom and Teddy sat underneath an umbrella out of the sun. We all had a little sand castle building contest. I still could hear dad laughing and giving us both vanilla ice cream because we were both winners of the contest in his eyes. Usually, I thought having photographic memory sucked but at times like these I was so thankful that my memories hadn't grown fuzzy. All I had left of them were memories.
Three days had come and gone and everything was back to normal. Teddy and Leroy were on good terms again after Leroy had apologized. Lucky and I enjoyed our early morning math class. Since the first day of class "Carl" had been teaching class instead of Prussia. We had to give the kid credit. He actually was a pretty good teacher considering he had to learn most of it before hand and explain it to us. Prussia would only teach to correct Carl, or if none of us understood anything that was going on. Despite not teaching, Mr. Awesome remained one of my favorite teachers probably due to the fact that we could bribe him out of doing homework and getting good test grades. Lucky and I would sit and play Pokémon and vaguely take notes on what was being taught. Once in a while, Hungary would show up to make sure Prussia was teaching and, gosh, was it hilarious when he would jump up and start teaching even when he didn't know what we were learning about that day.

After this morning's attempt on trying to learn the area of a triangle I had a headache. I waved good bye to Lucky when class let out and hurried to Mr. Jones' class. Today we were going to be in the lab and play with dangerous chemicals. We all were separated into pairs and I ended up with Leroy.

"Alright guys you have to be super careful with these chemicals! Remember all the lab techniques we learned? Use them because they are freaking important!" Mr. Jones instructed.

Leroy busily poured out some chemicals while I checked the lab paper to understand what in the hell we were supposed to do. Next to us Teddy and Kiko were already started and had their mixture heating up. It looked really awesome changing colors.

"Hey Sam, smell this and see if it's the right chemical," Leroy shoved a beaker under my nose while he played with the flame on the burner.

"Leroy we're not supposed to smell chemicals," I replied and suddenly I felt really dizzy. The papers slipped from my hands and my knees buckled. My head hit the side of the counter and my vision went dark.

"Sam, what did you say?" Leroy turned," Sam?"

Leroy hurriedly threw the chemicals down on the counter and went to check on the unconscious girl on the floor.

"Leroy you dumbass! Watch your setup!" Kiko shoved him away and knelt over Sam.

"Mr. Jones!" Kiko called.

"Yeah?" Mr. Jones called from the front of the room where he had been helping someone.

"Sam fainted and hit her head on the table." Kiko said calmly.

"What?" Mr. Jones hurried and stooped next to her," Shit."

Suddenly there was a whoosh of flames at Leroy's station. The chemicals he had thrown earlier had started a small fire. Leroy threw water on the fire but that only made it worse.

Mr. Jones cursed some more,"Kiko get Sam and carry her out of here. Everyone, please make your way out of the lab in a calm and orderly fashion." While he was making sure everyone was getting out he shut of the gas line and grabbed the fire extinguisher.

My head really hurt when I opened my eyes. Everyone was outside of the lab now and Teddy, Kiko, and Leroy all crowded around me.

"What happened," I mumbled weakly.

"You fainted and hit your head on the table. Then Leroy started a chemical fire that Alfred is now putting out," Teddy explained.

"Leroy, you moron," I winced as my head pounded.

America came out of the lab with a look of pure anger on his face," Jenkins! Here! Now!"

Leroy slouched up to him," Yes, Mr. Jones."

"You so have detention and a failing grade in my class because of this stunt! I hope you have a lot of free time because you're going to be spending it all with me for the next month!"

"Hey, Alfred, Sam's conscious," Teddy got his attention.

Alfred gave one last glare at Leroy and sat down next to me. His gaze softened considerably when he looked at me," You okay, kiddo?" He pressed a handkerchief to my forehead.

"My head hurts pretty badly," I tried to sit up a little straighter but it made me feel dizzy.

"Slow down," Alfred soothed," There's no rush to get up. Teddy take everyone back to class and make sure they don't get out of control while I take Sam to the nurse's office."

"Sure, no problem," Teddy shrugged and led the class away.

Mr. Jones picked me up easily and carried me down the hall.

"You don't have to carry me," I mumbled.

"Sam, I know a concussion when I see one."

"You don't have to carry me," I say again.

"Mhmm and I bet you don't feel dizzy at all, do you?" He asked.

I didn't say anything more as he carried me down to Cuba's office to get looked up.

Cuba looked like he wanted to hit Alfred as soon as he walked in but he noticed me in his arms and had America sit me down. Cuba went straight to work with stopping the bleeding and bandaging my gash. He did a few tests with me and confirmed that I did have a concussion.

"Keep some ice on that for a few hours and make sure not to move around a lot. If your head hurts anymore tell your bodyguard to give you some painkillers. If it gets worse come back and see me alright," Cuba instructs me.

"Okay," I replied.

Mr. Jones picked me back and up took me to my room. He gently laid me on my bed and went to go tell Kailyn what had happened. In a few minutes both of them returned.

"I've got to go back to class now, so don't give Kailyn any trouble," Alfred smiled and left the room.

"Why would anyone want to give you trouble," I chuckled weakly to Kailyn.

"Because they are stupid," She shrugged and put an ice pack on my forehead and gave me some Tylenol.

"Thanks," I yawned and passed out.