|Mei|
Mei thought of herself as a generally nice person, but did everyone else? What if she wasn't like the other kids? What if she didn't like them? What if they didn't like her? A dozen similar thoughts raced through her head as she peaked into her classroom.
Creeeaak.
As soon as Mei stepped through door, she regretted it. Twenty pairs of eyes turned to her, and she was sure she heard someone whispering. This was a bad idea...
Suddenly, she was met with an anxious voice.
"I'm sorry! We didn't mean to make you nervous!" A tall woman with a blonde bob fretted.
The woman shook her head and regained composure. "Hi. My name is Ms. Chernenka. You must be Mei!"
Mei nodded and walked into the classroom, a bit uncertain as where to sit in this new place.
"Sweetheart, come stand up here and tell us about yourself."
Mei smiled nervously. Calm down. It's okay! They'll love me.
"Um... Hi. My name is Mei Wang and I moved here from Monterey Park in California.*"
The class looked on expectantly.
"I have three brothers and one sister. I like fashion, flowers, glitter, and the colour pink! Um, any questions?"
A girl with brown pigtails and two red ribbons raised her hand excitedly.
"What's it like where you used to live? Why'd you move? Who was your best friend?"
Mei stared at the girl, slightly disconcerted by the rapid-fire questions, but answered them to the best of her ability. As she began to talk, she realized she liked this feeling, standing in front of a group of people who wanted to listen to what she had to say. This was her element. Her dream! She resolved that when she grew up, she would have a job like this.
After finishing her speech, Ms, Chenenka directed her to an empty desk next to a pretty girl with wavy brown hair, and an orange flower clip.
"Hi! I'm Lizzy. Want to be friends?" The girl loudly whispered.
Well, that was a bit straight forward...
Mei nodded. "Deal."
Lizzy squealed quietly. "At lunch you can sit next to me and my friends. It'll be really fun!"
Mei smiled, and then turned her focus back to the lesson on the Second World War.
Perhaps this whole 'first grade' thing wasn't going to be as hard as she'd thought!
•oOo•
Mei fumbled her way through the lunch line, doing her best to keep her eyes on Lizzy the whole time. What was lunch going to be like? Ooh! Maybe she'd see some of her siblings there! And then, after lunch, came /recess/. From personal experience (and scary stories told by her family members) Mei knew recess could either be very fun, or very terrible. She really hoped it was the for-
"Honestly, kid. Order already!" A tall dark-skinned man with dreadlocks snapped impatiently.
"I... Um. That!" Mei pointed at a salad. Well, if you could call it that. She really wished that she could have some of her father's cooking. But, no, she was stuck with this slop.
•oOo•
Mei walked through the doorframe into the cafeteria, carefully balancing her food on one hand, while holding hands with Lizzy. Well, actually, it was more like Lizzy had grabbed her hand and begun dragging her through the many rows of tables packed with rowdy looking children.
Suddenly, a large boy slammed into her from the side, and before she knew it, her salad and milk slid from the tray, effectively dousing both her and Lizzy.
Uh-oh...
Lizzy stood in complete shock, as did the boy. Slowly, she turned to Mei.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to spill food on you. I... I'll just go now." And with that, Mei turned on her heel and began to flee from the room.
Lizzy quickly recovered, and called after her new friend. "Hey, it's not your fault! Come back!"
The petite Asian girl couldn't believe what she'd just heard. She dumped milk and salad on her new friend, who really hadn't had a reason to be friends with her at all! Despite her beliefs, she turned and walked back towards the scene.
Lizzy turned towards the boy, and gave him her fiercest death glare.
It was then she did the unexpectable. Grabbing his shirt, pulling him close, and lifting him off the floor.
"Back. Off." She snarled.
On those happy words, she dropped the boy, and her face resumed its normally happy and serene expression.
I made a fool of us. Mei thought, shaking her head sadly. What is everyone going to think?
•oOo•
It turned out, everyone was very excited to hear the girls' story. How dare that stupid fourth grader hurt them? It was only after picking the bits of lettuce off of each other's hair, and wiping the milk of their clothing that Mei and Lizzy began to recount their story to the girls. With some exaggeration, of course. Writers' license, right?
|Lien|
The first bit of the school day passed without much event. Lien's teacher had told her the ropes, and assigned her to a buddy to show her around. When the girl's name - Natalya Arslovskaya - had been called, she hadn't even looked up, opting to simply continue to stare at the book on her desk.
Concerned, the teacher called out her name again. "Natalya, mate? Did you hear me?"
One of the kids laughed, a small white fang poking out from the corner of his mouth. "Don't bother. She heard you, she's just to weird to say anything back."
The rest of the class laughed, and the platinum blonde girl shook slightly, doing her best to concentrate and block them out.
The Australian teacher glared at him, and then shot a sympathetic look at Lien. "Crikey! You shouldn't have to see this as soon as y' get here." Lien stared at him. He wasn't going to do anything? The fanged boy and his friend were still tormenting this girl, and she was clearly upset!
"Haha. Look at her, she's getting all twitchy! Aww, looks like the little weirdo can't get her emotions under control." The fanged boy laughed in fake sympathy.
"Hey, look at me, guess who I am!" He made a face and stomped around a small area, pretending to be some sort of hunched over monster.
"Marriagemarriagemarriage. I'm Natalya!"
The teacher sighed, but did nothing. Lien was done sitting and watching that poor girl get bullied. She stood up, and glared at the boy.
"And that's coming from you, vampire?"
The class went silent. It wasn't every day that someone challenged Vladimir Lupei!
"Hey, don't get all upset on me! We haven't even met." He stuck out a hand, and winked at her. "The name's Vladimir. And yours, princess?"
She growled slightly, and ignored his hand. "Lien. Now stop bothering her, or else."
"Fine, fine. Geez, calm down!"
Natalya gasped softly, having watched the whole scene. Lien turned, and nervously smiled at her, causing Natalya to duck her head and stare intensely at the floor, refusing to look up for the rest of the class.
•oOo•
History, math, and literature came and went, and Natalya had still not looked up, or even made a sound. Hopefully, now that it was free period, that would change.
Lien tapped the girl's shoulder. "I heard what Vladimir said."
The Belarusian glared at the floor, snapping the pencil she was holding. Lien resisted sighing, and probed further.
"He said you liked marriage. What's your favorite part?" Natalya's death glare faltered, and she finally looked into Lien's eyes.
"It's stupid, you wouldn't care."
"I would. Please tell me, Natalya."
"I like it when they say the vows, and you can just see how much they love each other." She said in a surprisingly icy voice for such a sweet sentence.
Lien laughed. "That's not stupid! That's really nice."
Natalya brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "You think so?"
"Mhm. My favorite part is..."
Lien and Natalya spent the rest of free period discussing a wide range of things, from weddings, to food, to singing and dancing. And suddenly, Lien realized she had a new friend, who despite being cold, was actually a good person. As they were leaving the classroom to where their parents would pick them up, Natalya stopped.
"You didn't have to help me. Thanks."
Lien shook her head. "Hey, it's what friends do!"
"Friends... W-well. Goodbye, friend."
"Goodbye, Nat."
The girls exchanged smiles, and then went their separate ways.
•oOo•
|Kiku|
Kiku was used to this by now. Sit down, do the work, ignore everyone. The only different thing now, was the school. In a completely bored tone the teacher introduced Kiku, and showed him to an empty desk next to a serene looking boy with green eyes, and slightly wild cinnamon colored hair. He looked completely uninterested in everything, only acknowledging Kiku's presence with a sigh.
Kiku was actually surprised by the curriculum here. It was incredibly easy! Or, maybe that was just him. Honestly though, this needed fixed! Kiku was going to start by no longer raising his hand, and surveying the classroom and see if it was this easy for the other kids.
It wasn't.
That was obviously immediately. Kids fumbled, and couldn't solve the simplest of problems! After suffering through twenty minutes of his peers asking idiotic questions, Kiku tried to do something more interesting, and converse with the only other person done with the assignment - the boy next to him.
"Excuse me, but what did you get for problem twelve?" Kiku asked tentatively.
The boy let out a dramatic sigh, and then spoke in a quiet, yet strong voice. "You can't copy off me. Solve it yourself."
"Actually, I did solve it. My answer was x = 5."
The boy's eyes narrowed. "Impossible."
Kiku smiled. "No, take a look. I solved it using a formula called-" He immediately stopped speaking directing his attention to a small lump on his neighbor's lap.
A small, furry lump.
"I-is that a... Kitten?"
The boy sighed. "Yes, yes it is. Please, don't tell anyone!"
"I won't. I like cats too, but, may I ask, why did you bring her?"
"I didn't want to leave her home all by herself. Besides, the neighbor has a dog. My name is Heracles, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Heracles-san. Did you know you share the name of a -"
"A Greek hero, I know. He featured greatly in the Odyssey."
Eyes wide, Kiku discussed The Odyssey with his sorta-kinda new friend for a few moments, before remembering they still had a kitten in their midst.
"Heracles-san... I have a plan. During recess tomorrow, we sneak a small cage stocked with items for a cat, and hide it. So then, every morning before school, we can sneak your kitten in there, and then pick it up at the end of the day!"
Heracles tilted his head suspiciously, and then smirked. "Genius."
And coming from Heracles, that was a pretty big compliment.
A/N:
Yay! Another chapter, and fast! You guys deserve for being so amazing. Next up is the character request for Australia and England, and then after that, the Baltics!
I got multiple people saying this should be it's own fic, and I agree. This would be so much fun! It'll go from childhood, to elementary school, to middle school, through Highschool, college, and finally, adulthood.
Note: There will most likely be no OC's in this fic. Anyone wanna guess who bumped into Mei?
*Monterey Park in California has a super high Asian population, and that's why I picked it.
Vlad: I don't hate him, contrary to how I portrayed him. In fact, I really like his character! He's really high on my favorites list.
Thanks for all your support, and as always, reviews are greatly appreciated.
Review Responses:
Happy Cake: Aww, you really think so? I'm so glad.
mimi-chan and aliling-chan: Hehe. Thanks! I'm getting on the requests now.
msneko7: Hmm. I never really thought about either of those. I'm not a huge fan of steampunk, but a magic AU sounds cool. Like, perhaps something with Leon? Due to his relations with Iggy and all. :)
Maya5392: Mwahahaha! You're gonna have to wait a bit longer. You don't need to thank me! I love writing for you guys. (But hey, if you wanna keep going, I'm not telling you to stop! ;) )
Awesome: 1) Okay, maybe you're right. I might go back and edit it though. SO CHEESY IM GONNA DIE. 2) :D
Sparks52: Let me just say, your review is so appreciated. Thanks! I try to integrate you guys into this story as much as possible, but I've seen where people basically end up taking over, and that's no fun :(. Also, I only send messages to people who have won contests, or when I just can't wait to reply! I just kinda like replying to people in the A/N. :)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Hetalia, Slender, or anything else that I mentioned here. I just own this crazy, messed up AU. (I own something! Yay! Mom, aren't you proud of me?)