It was a relatively small house, about 30ft long by 24ft wide. A brick chimney ran its way up the front of the house, but no smoke came from it. The yard to the left went for only about twelve feet before it hit the woods, but the right yard stretched about thirty feet till it ended.

A man, probably the seller, came out the door and strode down the walkway up to our group. He looked confused, but he was trying to hide it. "You folks must me the potential buyers," he said with a slight southern drawl. "Name's Berk. Nathan Berk. But you can call me Nate."

"Nice to meet ya Nate!" America greeted the man as he shook his hand enthusiastically. It didn't strike me as smart to let America to be the one to talk to the seller, but then again we were probably in his country. "I'm Mr. Jones, and these are my colleges. "We're looking to buy a house for our friends," America gestured to us non-countries. "Marina, Adaliz, Safira, Zara, and Alexandra."

"Oh! You're here just for the ladies!" Nate exclaimed in realization, not greeting us. "That's good, cuz I don't got enough rooms for all of yous!" Then he looked at us funny and asked, "Why are they wearing pajamas?"

Shoot, I thought, and everyone's faces echoed my thought. It was time for someone to do some quick thinking, which was not my strong suit.

"It's National Pajamas Day," Alex replied easily. "We're just celebrating the holiday. These guys aren't in on it cuz they're party poopers." She jutted her thumb at the countries.

"Oh," Nate said. "That makes more sense." He happened to look my way. "Nice cows," he said to me with a grin.

Now normally I would've just laughed this off, but I was so emotionally drained from lack of sleep and surplus of excitement that my composure wasn't what it should've been. My face went hot and I stared at the ground.

"Herr Berk," I heard Germany say quickly. "Ve vould like to see ze house now."

"Sure thing!" Nate replied with a smile. "And please, just call me Nate." This guy must've been even more obtuse than me!

As everyone began to walk towards the house, I received some pats on the shoulders from my friends. I quickly regained composure and went with the group up the walkway and into the house.

"Have yourselves a look around," Nate said once everyone was in the door, gesturing to the house with a broad sweep of his arm. "I'm here to answer any questions you have."

The countries stayed with Nate for the most part, who gave them a tour of the house, while my friends and I opted to and run around the house, looking at whatever we pleased. "Guys! Look at this weird oven!" Zara said.

I looked over and saw that it was indeed not your average oven. The stovetop was not attached to it. It was one of those old-style ovens that opened from the side with a large, windowless door and was surrounded by brick, which was partially because the chimney was behind it. It looked like it should've run on wood, but there were dials below it for adjusting heat.

"It kindof looks like a pizza parlor oven," Mari commented. "Especially with the bricks."

"It's big enough to put Zara in," Alex added.

"You are NOT going all Handsel and Gretel on me!" Zara yelled, to which we all laughed.

The kitchen countertop was made of rusty-colored granite that matched the bricks, and it ended halfway down the length of the house with a bar. In the middle was a square island.

"Whoever lived here must've really liked to cook," Safi commented.

"That's one big fridge for one guy," Alex commented, looking at the large, double door refrigerator.

"Good thing too," I replied, opening the door to look inside. "Since we eat like teenage boys after football practice."

"More like Australian teen guys after a rugby game," Alex corrected.

We laughed and then continued to the bathroom. We passed Nate and the countries on our way there; they were headed for the basement. Now, the five of us squeezing into a bathroom that was only ten feet square was never a smart move, but we didn't really care.

While in there, I found something intriguing between the shower and the sink: a small, square door in the wall. I opened it and stuck my head in for a better look. It was lined with sheets of metal like a vent, and it went both up and down. "Hey guys, check this out! Echo!" I giggled as my voice resounded down the tunnel. "What is this?" I asked

"It's a laundry chute," I heard Mari answer, but I couldn't really see her from inside the chute. "Remember the hole in the bottom of the closet at my parents' house?"

"The one I almost fell down?"

"Yes. It's like that. And don't stick your head in any further or it'll get stuck."

Heeding Mari, advice, I pulled my head out, or tried to anyway. Oh no. "Guys! I'm stuck!" I exclaimed, struggling to remove my head from the hole in the wall, claustrophobia starting to set in.

Of course, my friends burst into laughter, like the good friends they are.

"The countries have to see this!" Zara laughed and I guessed that she was headed for the door.

"ZARA!" I shrieked, loud enough for Zara to hear me, but hopefully not loud enough for the countries or Nate to hear, though the way my voice carried up the tunnel disturbed me. "I WILL KILL YOU!"

"No offence Lees," I heard Alex say, and I felt someone pat my back. "But you're not exactly in a …position, to be making threats," she snickered at her joke.

"Please Zara!" I switched from threatening to pleading. "I'm begging you! I'd be on my knees if I could be right now!"

"Then you wouldn't need to get out," Alex pointed out.

"Not helping!"

"Sorry Lees!" I heard Zara say, and I could hear her grin. "This is too good to pass-ow! Safi, let go!"

"No." I heard Safi say as I heard the door click shut. "You are going to help us get her out of there."

"But-"

"No."

"Fine."

"Is there any soap?" I asked. "Something to make this easier?"

"Nope," Alex answered. "No one lives here, so why would there be soap?"

"Helpful," I said sarcastically.

"Hey now, watch your tone missy, or we'll go get the countries."

"NO!" I screamed, forgetting that I was trying to be quiet. "I'm sorry! Just please help me!"

"Say that Alex is more awesome than you."

"Fine!" I growled, hating that I was being toyed with. "Alex is more awesome than me! Now get me out of here! I'm claustrophobic!"

Someone's arms wrapped around my middle. "You ready?" I heard Mari say. "This'll probably hurt…a lot."

"Yes! Just get me out of here!" I was starting to panic now.

"Okay. One, two, three, pull!"

I bit down a scream of pain as my head was wrenched out of the laundry chute. Once I was out, I rubbed the sides of my head. After a moment, I looked at the hole in the wall, pointed at it angrily and said in a deep voice, "Evil."

"Well, you did stick your head in a laundry chute." Alex pointed out. "I'd've thought that if anyone'd do that, it'd be Zara."

"Yeah," Zara said, then she paused. "Wait… Hey!"

"Let's just keep going," I sighed.

We all exited the bathroom and continued looking around the house. The whole second half of the house was basically one large living room. The left looked more like a den, while the right was more open and had a sliding glass door that led outside to the patio. Directly across the house from the front door was a spiral staircase that went both up and down.

I started to lead the way down the stairs, but I stopped short when I heard Nate say to the countries, "The house has never made those noises before. It almost sounded like screaming in the vents."

"Go up! Go back up!" I hissed at my friends as I began pushing them backwards up the spiral staircase. If someone asked one of my friends about the noises, I knew that they'd spill the beans, and I had no intention of that happening.

"Why?" Zara asked from the back of the group.

"Let's see the second floor first! You know what they say! Start at the top and work your way down!"

"Isn't that-"

"Just go already!"

Eventually everybody went back up the stairs, much to my relief, and we went up to the second floor. There were six rooms, all the same size. Since we'd done a 180, that meant that left was right and right was left, so to our left were three bedrooms, and to the right was a bedroom, a bathroom, and another bedroom. As we looked in the rooms, we found that all the bedrooms were painfully almost identical, and the bathroom was nearly a carbon copy of the one downstairs.

"If we do stay here," Mari said, looking in another room. "We are going to make these rooms a lot more interesting."

"Paintjobs." I said simply, looking at the plain white walls and grinning at Alex. "Defiantly needs paintjobs."

"And 1D posters!" Zara exclaimed.

"PLEASE don't start the poster contest again!" I begged.

"Why noooooooooot? It's just an innocent who-can-put-the-most-1D-posters-on-their-wall contest!"

"Because that was absolutely ridiculous! You guys went bonkers from all those eyes staring at you!"

"Aaaaaand your point?" Alex asked, receiving a swat on the arm from Safi.

"Why'd you hold out that long?" Mari asked.

Safi and Zara shrugged. "I wanted to win."

We didn't stay there long, since there's only so much you can do when looking at empty rooms, and everyone started heading downstairs for the basement. I sighed, praying that Nate and the countries were down talking about the strange noises, and I followed my friends down.

When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we found a completely underground basement with concrete walls and carpeted floors. Along the right wall was some tile, on which were a washer and a drier, and beyond that was the equipment for heating the house, which is where we found Nate and the countries.

"Hey there gallies!" Nate said with a grin. "I was just about to show these fellas how to work the heating stuff, but I suppose that if you gallies will be the ones living here then I should be teaching it to you!"

We agreed and joined the countries. Looking around the room, I saw that the rest of it was empty, except for a fireplace on the far wall. That was confusing, since Nate was showing us the controls for normal methods of house heating. Mari noticed this too and asked him about him. Nate said that it was mostly for decoration, but could be used as a backup heating system if somehow both the natural gas heating system failed. Then Nate went back to showing us the equipment.

"And Santa Claus can use it on Christmas!" Italy exclaimed happily.

My friends and I looked at him. Italy was very childish true, but he was a grown man. Did he really believe in Santa Claus? I looked at the other countries, but they didn't seem to share our confusion. I decided to question this, "Santa Claus?"

"Of course," England said simply. When he saw our faces, he asked, "You don't believe in Santa Claus?"

We shook our heads.

The countries smiled knowingly at each other and then turned back to Nate.

Nate went on to teach us how to use the equipment, but not many of us or the countries were listening. Safi was too busy keeping Zara from pushing buttons for either of them to pay any attention;

"Safi, can I push the buttons?"

"No Zara."

"Pleeeeeease Safi!"

"I said no!"

"Too bad! Ima do it anyway! Ow! Leggo!"

Germany and Italy were in a similar situation;

"Ve! I want to push the buttons Germany!"

"Nein Italy. Stand still und listen."

"But they're so pretty!"

"Italy!"

Alex, America and France were bored with all the techy talk.

"*sigh* Why do we have to know this?"

"Yeah! The hero shouldn't have to learn anything!"

"Oh mon ami, technology boring, no?"

They started up a conversation about who knows what.

England and China both looked very annoyed at all the noise everyone was making, and Russia just stood there, smiling happily.

"I can't hear a thing!"

"Quiet down-aru!"

"Vodkaaaaaaa,"

Japan was quietly listening to Nate, but he was such a technologically advanced nation that he was probably only listening to be polite, although I did hear him mutter to himself something that I didn't catch all of.

"They wourd be abre to improve the system if they just *mumbling*"

Mari and I were both listening, but there was a lot of noise going on.

"How much of this are you getting?"

"About half."

"Me too."

"Hopefully we're catching different halves."

Nate either somehow didn't notice or didn't care, because he kept up his teaching undeterred. Once he'd finished his lesson, he finally showed us some instruction manuals. Good! At least we wouldn't be totally in the dark. Then everybody went back up to the first floor.

"Well, whaddya think of the house?" Nate asked us.

The countries looked at each other and at us. "If you don't mind," England said to Nate. "We would like a chance to discuss this."

"Sure thing!" Nate said with a grin as he stepped out of the room.

We all stood in a group as the countries talked about the quality of the house. I figured that they know better than I what a good house needed, so I just kind of zoned out for a while. I snapped out of it when I heard something that caught my attention.

"Zere are no vindows in ze bazrooms, und ze locks are gut und strong."

"Excuse me?" I said, gathering the countries' attention. "Why is that important? I mean, my friends and I are all girls, so why is it a concern?"

The countries looked at each other for a second then they all looked at France.

"Mr. France has a rong history of being, um, a peeping tom." Japan said as if he wasn't too sure of the term.

"Peeping tom!" England exclaimed. "He's a downright pervert!"

I looked at France, who just sat there twirling his hair. "Guilty as charged," he said. "Not that any of you ladies would mind I'm sure," he took a step towards us that I guess was supposed to be seductive and said, "Why don't we just skip the house and you girls can come and live with me?" He was looking us over.

"Watch yourself," I growled, going into protective mode. Aint nobody gonna looks at my friends that way. Nobody. "She bites," I pointed at Zara, who bared her teeth. "She will taser you," Alex patted her pocket suggestively. "She will shove a book down your throat," Mari, being an anime now, pulled a thick Harry Potter book out of thin air. "She will scare you out of a love life," Safi wore her scary face, which was actually quite effective. "And I'll beat you to a pulp. And if you ever," I grabbed his collar and pulled his face close to mine. "Ever, touch, look at, or even think of one of my friends in that way, what will we do Safi?"

Safi said in her soft-yet-dark voice, which was actually terrifying, "We will take you to Switzerland, the neutral country, tie you to a tree in the middle of a forest, set the edges of the forest on fire so that you can watch the flames get closer and closer, until they reach you and you burn to death."

The scariest part? She thought of that off the top of her head.

France's eyes had gone wild with fear. He scrambled away from us and hid behind the other countries, who most of also looked terrified. Italy was hiding behind Germany. France screamed, "You are worse that Russia!"

Russia laughed.

It occurred to me that I may have overdone it, so I said, "But that's only if you try something."

"I won't try anything!" France wailed from his hiding place.

The countries said nothing. They stared at us in fear. I was mentally facepalming. Great. Now instead of getting the house we were probably going to the insane asylum.

Then they did the unexpected: They laughed! Most of the countries were laughing like they'd just heard the best joke ever. Even Italy was now laughing, probably only because he saw the other countries laughing.

My friends and I stood where we were, frozen in confusion. Maybe we'd have to take them to the insane asylum.

"What's so funny?" Mari asked over their laughter.

"We've never seen France so scared!" America howled, clutching his stomach.

"You scared his Francy-pants right off!" England cried before laughing again.

"'EY! Zis isn't funny you guys!" France yelled angrily, but no one paid attention to him.

"He has always made advances-aru," China said, who was trying to restrain his laughter but it wasn't exactly working, "And he's been told off and threatened before, but never like that!"

"Ve vere vorried that you girls vouldn't be able to protect yourselves," Germany said. He wasn't laughing but he did look amused. "but now ve see zat you can handle it yourselves."

My friends and I looked at each other. Had we really just dodged that bullet? Wow. Talk about lucky. Good thing too, because I'm too claustrophobic to be put in a straitjacket and have a fear of asylums. Once the countries had calmed down enough to talk normally again, they once again began to talk about the house. The difference was that now they were asking us about the house, how we liked it and stuff. We said that we liked it a lot and that we were just happy to have a place to stay. The countries then called Nate back in and they settled the deed on the house. "Alrighty!" Nate said happily. "When should I expect you to get the gallies moved in?"

"Now."

Nate was taken aback. "Now?"

"Yes, now."

"… Oh. Okay," Nate said. "Well the house is yours now, so I'll be on my way. Here are the keys, enjoy the house!" he called as he walked out the door.

"We will!" Zara called after him.

Everyone stood there looking at the empty house. Very empty.

"We shouldn't leave these girls in this empty house," China said. "There's nothing to do-aru."

"Vhat else can ve do vith zem?" Germany asked "You know where ve have to be soon… Oh nein," he said when no one answered. "Nein nein nein! Ve are not taking zem zere! Zat place is crazy enough!...*sigh* Fine."

"Where are we going?" Alex asked.

"Back to ze Vorld Conference hall." Germany said grimly. "You are going to attend a vorld meeting."