"Lees, you should get up,"
I pressed my face into my pillow and waved my hand around in the air. "I'll get up when the waffles are ready," I mumbled.
"There are no waffles,"
I lifted my head a bit, keeping my eyes shut. "Pancakes?"
"No."
"French toast?"
"No!"
"Then what da heck are we havin'?!'"
"Adaliz! Remember where we are?"
I paused a moment. "… Oh yeah," I said. "… So, no breakfast?"
"I think you'd better get up,"
"Why?"
"The countries are coming…and you have bedhead."
It took some time for my groggy brain to process the significance of that statement. I always got bedhead…bedhead…BEDHEAD! I shot upwards and looked at my friends. Safi and Mari were standing over me, Zara was searching around the room, looking around the room and saying, "Waffles are you here?" and Alex was still asleep.
"Don't worry, we'll get to her next," Mari said, nodding towards Alex.
"We figured you'd want to fix…that," Safi explained. "before the countries came."
I put a hand to my head and asked, "Is it bad?"
My friends nodded and I felt the utter chaos that was my hair with my hand. I shot up and found a nearby bathroom. I ran in, took one look at the mirror and shrieked. This was the first time I'd seen my anime self. It was weird looking so…simple, yet having the manga-idealized appearance. It was hard to recognize myself, but it was me. My eyes were larger and more reflective, but they were the same maple-syrup brown, and my pixie cut hair was still bright blue. My hair. Oh gosh my hair. If I didn't look anime before, I sure did now. My hair stuck up all over the place and I looked like a shonen action hero. Lacking a shower, I dunked my head in the sink instead. When I pulled up, I expected to see blue dye in the water since my color was fading, but I didn't. Then I looked up at the mirror and noticed that my natural hair color wasn't poking through my scalp anymore. Wincing, I plucked a hair out of my head and studied it. It was blue to the root. I had naturally blue hair. Wow. Blue hair. That was the last straw.
I cracked.
"GIAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed as I ran out of the bathroom. "I HAVE BLUE HAIR! I HAVE BLUE HAIR!"
"ADALIZ! Calm down!" Safi screamed and she took ahold of my shoulders. "You've had blue hair for a while now!"
"No! You don't understand!" I screamed back. "It's naturally blue!"
"Really?" Zara asked. "Is my hair natural now too?" and she tried to see her own scalp.
"Hold still," Mari said, looking at Zara's head. "Yup, yours is too."
"Sweet!" Zara said, not freaking out like I had. "Now I don't have to pay for re-dyes!"
"Lees," said Safi, releasing my shoulders. "You might wanna go dry your hair. It's sopping wet."
"… Oh…right," I said, recovering from my shock before dashing to the bathroom again. Since it was a public bathroom, there were no towels, so instead I dried my hair in those had-air-drier thingies. It took a while, but it got the job done. Once I fixed my hair I went back out to join my friends. Alex was awake now, though she didn't look too happy about it. Zara had shown Alex her newly colored hair.
"Oooooookay," Alex said. "At least that's not the weirdest thing that could've happened."
"Don't jinx it," I said walking over to them. "Anyone know when they're supposed to be here?"
"No idea," Mari said, looking at her watch. "But it's about-… Listen," she stopped short and we all listened. We turned towards the door and heard many feet approaching. Soon, the door opened a crack, and America's head popped through.
"Yo dudettes! He said loudly. "Ya'll awake yet?"
"Hi America!" Alex said with a smile. "Yup we're awake!"
"Good!" America replied as he kicked the door open. In his hands was a great big heaping plate of-
"Waffles!" Zara exclaimed as she began to jump up and down excitedly.
Italy appeared from behind America. "Hello to you pretty ladies!" he said with a big smile. "How did you sleep?"
"We slept good Italy!" Zara replied with a wave and a smile.
"That's well. You slept well." England said before coming into view. He smiled at us. "Good day ladies," he nodded to us.
"We have brought you some breakfast, da!" Russia said with a smile as he came in, trailed by the rest of the countries, each one of them holding food. The smell of all the food was so tantalizing that my mouth watered and my stomach growled, and my friends looked equally hungry.
"Food sounds very good right now," Mari said with a smile.
The countries set up the food at a long table that was probably used for their meetings and my friends and I sat down next to each other. As the food was passed around I took a little bit of everything. I'd been a very picky eater in the past but I had changed that now, plus I'd always liked foreign foods.
Italy had brought some pastries, Germany brought sausages with cheese, Japan brought steamed rice and something called miso soup, China brought some fried noodles, Russia brought 'oladushki', which looked like pancakes, and France had brought crepes.
As England's plate was passed to me, I recognized something next to the pudding.
"Sheepskin!" I cried, delighted.
England looked at me funny, "No," he said. "It's fried bread dough."
"Is that what it's normally called?" I asked. "My family always called it sheepskin. I would've never guessed it to be English, but the point is it's delicious!"
Every single one of the countries stared at me in shock.
"… What?" I asked nervously.
"Oh, ma Cherie," France said. "Anything that comes from England's house is certainly not delicious, if it is not toxic."
"My food is not that bad France!" England yelled indignantly.
"Uh, it's deep fried bread dough smothered in cinnamon and sugar," I said flatly. "What's not to like?" I took a large piece for myself.
"Sounds like a doughnut!" Zara piped up.
"Exactly!" I said, pointing my sheepskin at her before taking a bite. As soon as I had, I wished I hadn't. It was the most disgusting sheepskin I'd ever had; it tasted like real sheep skin. I closed my eyes and forced myself to chew and swallow, fighting a gag reflex. When I looked up, I was the countries all watching me again. All the attention was making me uncomfortable.
Just then, America burst out laughing. "England can't even make doughnuts right!" he cried.
"Shut up you bloody git!" England screamed, seriously pissed off.
I wanted to disappear soooo badly. I felt terrible for getting someone laughed at, and I turned to my friends for support.
Mari, who had taken some sheepskin before me, was now eyeing it cautiously. Safi looked at me with pity; she knew what it was like to not want to be the center of attention. Alex was daring Zara to eat some sheepskin, but for once Zara didn't look so sure. Instead, she shrugged Alex off and finished her waffle.
"Zara!" America exclaimed. "Dude, you just ate like five waffles in three minutes!"
Zara paused, a now pastry-filled hand halfway to her mouth. "That's nothing," she said. "I once ate seven pancakes in five minutes, and I've eaten more than that."
America gaped at her. "Where do you put it all?!" he asked.
"My legs are hollow," she said simply. "It all goes to my legs." She slapped her thigh and took a bite out of her pastry. "Mm! Italy these are delicious!"
"Thank you!" Italy replied happily. "I wanted to bring pasta, but Germany wouldn't let me."
"Zat is not a breakfast food." Germany grumbled like he'd said that many times before.
"But China brought pasta for breakfast," Alex pointed out.
"No," China said. "I brought noodles. Pasta is made from flour, noodles are made from rice. Noodles and pasta are very different."
"I don't know…" Alex said, lifting a fried noodle to her eye before eating it.
I glanced towards my friends, and then I did a double take. Zara's hands were in a braced position against the table and her eyes were wide as she stared at Russia. Russia was smiling and staring back, only it wasn't staring back, only it wasn't a stare like Zara's, he was just looking at her without blinking. Zara's eyes got wider and so did Russia's smile. Suddenly, Russia's eyes and smile opened and he was suddenly surrounded by a purple aura. It happened so suddenly that I jumped in my seat, and so did Zara.
"Aah!" she screamed, but then she banged her head against the table. "Dang it!" she exclaimed in defeat. "Dude! How do you do that?!"
Russia laughed, which sounded high and unmanly, but it seemed to fit him. "It is fun to have these 'staring contests'."
"Wait, you just-!" France exclaimed but didn't finish his statement.
"But he's so-!" China said in a similar fashion.
"How could you stand-!" England unconsciously followed their example.
Zara shrugged, ignoring the other countries' awed stares and continued eating.
"So, is there a Greece?" Mari asked.
"Yes," England replied with an annoyed tone, though it was not directed at Mari. "But he's always sleeping."
"He seems stoned!" America put in, his mouth full of food.
"Well, he can't be all bad," Mari said. "I mean, he did invent Greek mythology, which is the basis for Percy Jackson."
"Actuarry," Japan said. "That wourd be his mother, Ancient Greece."
"Either way," Mari said. "Because of Percy, I am grateful to him."
"I don't know what all the fuss is about," Alex said, not looking up from her food. "Percy Jackson isn't even cute."
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" Mari screamed. I was tempted to do the same, but I decided to let Mari handle the gross insult.
Alex shrugged. "He can't compare to Australians," she said.
"THAT'S IT!" Mari screamed and launched herself at Alex, knocking her off her chair. What ensued after that was a dust cloud (yes inside a building) from which occasional limbs or heads in chibi form would pop out of and then disappear into again.
I glanced at the other countries nervously, but most of them acted like this was normal behavior. Still. "Erm, hey guys," I said to my fighting friends. "Guys? GUYS!" I shouted at them. The dust cloud vanished and Mari and Alex were revealed with each one's hands around the other's throat. They both stopped to look at me.
"Let's try not to go completely anime crazy yet!" I told them.
They looked at each other for a second before letting go. Mari made an 'I've got my eyes on you' sign before sitting down.
Safi had been pretty quiet, so I looked over at her. She'd eaten all her food except for England's pudding, which if it was as bad as his sheepskin, I couldn't blame her nor not eating. Instead, she seemed to be seeing what she could do with it. She had already made a small pudding-snowman using her spoon and now she was silently but dramatically destroying it. When she looked up and saw me watching her, she leaned in towards me and whispered, "It's just like the mashed potatoes at school!"
I'm pretty sure that fried noodles almost came out my nose (EW!) as I tried hard not to laugh. When I recovered, I saw Safi scoop up a big glob of pudding and act like she was going to take aim with it.
"You wouldn't!" I whispered, a huge grin spreading across my face. Obviously Safi would never do anything like that, but the idea of it happening anyway was extremely amusing and I secretly hoping that it would.
Safi shook her head, grinning, "That would be funny though," And she pulled back on her spoon as if to shoot.
Suddenly, her finger slipped. The world went into slow motion, which made the whole scene that much more painful to watch. The glob of pudding sailed through the air, across the table, headed straight for… Oh gosh, it was headed straight for Germany! Safi and I were frozen in horror as we watched the pudding not waver from its path to its chosen target. Germany looked up from his food just in time for the world to switch back to real time and smack him straight in the face.
Everyone gasped when they saw what had happened and everyone at the table went silent, watching, waiting…
Still frozen in horror, Safi and I stared, mouths agape as Germany wiped some pudding out of his eye. Safi's hand was still holding the spoon in a post-launch position, so Germany easily identified her as the culprit and glared at her.
Everyone waited in silence for something to happen.
Safi looked at me, her eyes pleading for help.
I gulped as I looked back at Germany, who had stopped glaring at Safi and was now looking at only me. He waited sternly for an explanation.
"Oh. My. Gosh." I said, still stunned, but I wasn't going to let Safi take the brunt of this. "I am so sorry! I swear we weren't aiming for anybody, especially not you! We were just-"
"That's a great idea!" America exclaimed suddenly. He jumped up and, holding a syrup-drenched waffle over his head, yelled, "FOOD FIGHT!" and chucked it into England's face.
England didn't move as the waffle fell slowly and comically from his face and then dropped into his lap. He stood up calmly, his faced covered in syrup, placed one hand against the table and with the other took a handful of pudding. "TAKE THIS YANKIE!" he screamed as he threw it at our home country, who ducked, and so the pudding smashed into the side of China's head.
"AYIA!" China cried angrily. "You western nations are so immature!" and he grabbed some fried noodles and threw them.
From there it escalated into WWIII: Food Style. America, England and China continued throwing food, and France was throwing crepes into peoples' faces for the pure joy of it. Russia was pulling food out of a faucet pipe that he'd grabbed out of nowhere and was throwing it, though no one dared to throw any back at him, and he was smiling happily. Italy was hiding beneath the table, crying and babbling incoherently while waving a little white flag. Japan sat in his chair, quietly eating his food, acting as if he didn't notice food flying past him.
"Hey!" Mari shrieked as she barely dodged a flying crepe. "Watch it!" she yelled as she picked up the crepe just thrown and whipped it into France's face with a smack with force equal to a slap in the face. France went down. Alex and Zara were laughing and throwing food also, having a great time. Safi had sunk a little in her seat, looking horrified at what she'd started, yet she watched the fight in great interest. It was quite amusing to see grown people throwing food at each other.
I'll admit it; the food fight looked like a lot of fun, especially since everyone was in on it, but I didn't join in because I'd seen Germany before I could grab any food. His eyes were squeezed shut and his teeth were gritted. A growling sound emitted from him, which escalated in volume. He looked like a volcano that was about to explode, and then he did.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
Everyone stopped what they were doing immediately and looked at Germany, a bit scared.
"Ve came here to velcome our guests not to fight like ve do at meetings! Just because one mistake is made does not mean zat you can all start zrowing food! Sit down stop acting like children und eat your food!"
Everyone who had been standing sat immediately and it was silent for a long time.
"… We are very sorry, ladies," England broke the silence by apologizing to us. "It appears that we have gotten carried away. I suppose you think us quite off our rockers now."
My friends and I looked at each other, unable to think of anything to say, yet all thinking the same thing. Zara started it off with a giggle, then Mari started to chuckle. Safi was trying not to laugh, but she was having a hard time with it. Alex started laughing out loud and then I lost it too, clutching my stomach and laughing very hard. Soon, the five of us had fallen to the floor in a heap of anime girls, hopelessly lost in our laughter.
"Oh dear," England said worriedly. "It looks as if we have shocked them into hysteria."
"You-!" I cried out, gasping for breath. "You guys-think that-you're off your rockers?! Ha!" I stood up, still shaking from laughter as I helped my friends up. Still laughing, just not as hard as before, we all more or less leaned on each other for support. Once we'd calmed down enough to wipe the tears from our eyes and minimize our laughing to fits of giggles, I stepped forward towards England. "My good man," I said formally, too far into our post-laugh attack bliss to be embarrassed. "If you fine gentlemen are as crazy as this, then we are all going to get along just fine."
England looked at us for a moment, surprised, then he smiled. So did the rest of the countries, except for Germany. He sighed and put his chin in his hand. He looked like a person does after they've thrown their hands in the air and said 'I give up!', like he knew that this was going to be a crazy ride but wasn't going to complain about it. I may have just imagined it, but I thought that I saw the barest hint of amusement in his eyes.
~~Para bailar la time skip~~
From that point on, it was as if a wall between is and the countries had broken down. We were all a lot more relaxed and conversations flowed more freely than before. Even Safi, whom Germany had forgiven for the pudding incident, spoke every now and then. Germany made everyone clean up the mess we'd made in the meeting room, which was only fair since the room was meant for things slightly more sophisticated than food fights. Luckily, it didn't take very long. In animes, time seems to skips over boring parts, and this was no exception. The next thing we knew, the meeting room was literally sparkling with cleanliness.
"Ve should get going," Germany said to us all.
"Where are you going?" Mari asked, a little disappointed that they were leaving so soon.
"We," England said with a smile. "referring to us and you, are going to take you girls to where you'll be staying while you're with us.
"Sweet!" Alex said happily. "Let's go guys!" she beckoned to us as she skipped to the door.
"Wait," Safi stopped us. "Guys, we're still in our pajamas!"
My friends and I looked at each other. Yup, we were. We didn't have anything else to wear.
"Who cares?!" Zara said and she ran out the door, into the world, in her pajamas.
My friends, some of the countries and I laughed as we joined her. As we went out the door, I noticed that there was still some pudding on Germany's face.
"Excuse me, Germany?" I said, making an attempt to be less hyper around this country. "You've got a little something on your face."
"Vhat?" Germany asked, his eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.
I bit down a giggle at his obliviousness. "There's still some pudding on your face," I told him. "Though I wouldn't recommend eating it," I said in a quieter voice.
"Don't tell England that!" Mari giggled as she skipped by.
I laughed and turned back to Germany, who wasn't laughing. "Ahem," I coughed, regaining a more serious demeanor as I glanced away for a second. "I, uh, I'm sorry about the pudding incident."
Germany sighed. "Aren't you and your friends a little old to be playing with your food?"
"… Yeah…," I said. There's no use denying it. "But aren't the other countries a little old to be fighting like children?"
Germany didn't say anything for a moment, then he sighed. "Yes. Yes they are." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes.
"They give you headaches, don't they?"
Before he could say anything, we heard Italy yell in a sing-songy voice, "Germany! Germany!"
The tall blond nation sighed and nodded. "Especially zat one," he grumbled.
Italy, trailed by Zara, came running up to Germany and glomped him, exclaiming, "Hug!" which surprised me greatly. Zara did the same, which did not surprise me the slightest.
Germany sighed again and pried the man off him. "Vhat is it Italy?" He said in the same tone an annoyed adult would use with a child.
"Germany! We're almost at the pretty ladies' new house!" he said excitedly.
"Ja I know Italy." He told the other nation. "Now go play until ve get zere."
Italy did and Zara followed him like a puppy. The two seemed to be getting along quite well.
"We're already there?" I asked Germany.
Germany nodded and looked at me. "Distance is different for us countries," he explained. "Ve often valk to each ozer's houses, vich are in our home countries. Und now zat you know about us, so vill it be for you und your friends."
I paused for a moment, then I smiled. "Sweet!" I exclaimed. "That'll make getting around a lot easier!"
"Lees! Lees!" Alex called as she came running up to me. She didn't usually glomp me, but I found myself bracing for impact anyway. "We're there!" she told me.
"Alright!" I exclaimed and I ran after her. We joined the rest of our friends as we ran up the street to our new house. When we got to it, we all stopped and looked at it in silence.
"They're going to trust us?" Safi asked, looking at the house.
"With a house?" Alex added.
"By ourselves?" Zara said, grinning giddily.
We looked at each other, and the rest of us began to grin also.
"This," I said. "Is gonna be great."
