Chapter 1: Maple Crème Cookies

Today wasn't Tina's best day… She had woken up late, crying because of a nightmare. She managed to make it to first period without any problems. But then again, she spent the whole forty-five minutes staring out the window, watching an interesting scene unfold.

Apparently, Victoria had decided that today was nice enough morning to spend out in the courtyard instead of in class, and had sat down by the big tree near the main entrance. It was already bothering Tina enough that the Seychellois freshman was skipping class, but then Francis came into the picture, starting to talk to Victoria. Tina couldn't hear anything except the boring drone of a lecture from inside the classroom, so she strained to see what was happening. Francis leaned on the tree, conversing nonchalantly with Victoria, who hadn't bothered to open here eyes since she was enjoying the sunlight that streamed from in between the leafy roof the tree provided.

It seemed like nothing was going to happen, but Tina knew enough about Francis to be at least a little bit concerned. She felt compelled to shout "Don't talk to the creeper!" out the window but didn't want to cause any disturbance in class or feel any more like a bad student, not paying attention to class. Tina couldn't help it; she had already taken Theory of Knowledge before. So she had to hold herself back and pretend like it was the beginning of one of the dramas she sometimes borrowed from Yong Soo. But then Victoria suddenly sprung up from her patch on the grass and started rummaging in her fish-shaped book bag like she had forgotten something. She then pulled out a plastic container of food and offered it to the French senior. He was a bit taken aback, not having expected the offer, but took the food anyways, recovering swiftly. Francis opened the container only to find that it was half empty. Victoria quickly explained something, as if in a panic, but then smiled afterward as if it was all okay. Tina couldn't tell if Francis was angry or not because the enraged face subsided almost immediately and was replaced by that of defeat. Sighing, he replaced the cover and offered a hand to lead Victoria somewhere, maybe back to class as Tina hoped.

Tina turned her head back at Mrs. Karpusi who had just finished explaining absolute, relative, and subjective truth, and had began passing out a list of essay topics to the class. This time, Tina had to pay close attention since the topics change every year. After reading through the list, she decided that she'd write her essay on "Art is a lie that brings us nearer to the truth" (Pablo Picasso). Evaluate this claim in relation to a specific art form (for example, visual arts, literature, theatre). Unintentionally picking one of the few topics that needed research to make any sort of valid point, Tina felt that she should get started on the paper soon, even though Mrs. Karpusi was giving them a whole week to finish it.

"Hey Tina! Don't we have lunch now, or did I get my schedule wrong?" Alfred asked, confidently confused, as he began walking along side her. Instead of going to the cafeteria, Tina had decided to head to the library for lunch to do some research.

"No Alfred, we do have lunch." she began explaining. "I'm just gonna start that essay for TOK so I was gonna go to the library this period."

"You're starting it already? I heard Mama Karpusi gave you guys a week for that." Grieta entered the conversation, having caught up to Tina and Alfred in the hallway.

"I just want to get it out of the way as early as possible. These AP classes have way too much work…"

"Well, aren't you going to eat first?" Alfred frowned, in joking exaggerated concern.

"I'll be back before lunch ends," Tina smiled. "I'm just looking up a few things. See you guys later!" She waved as the others turned around to head back to the general direction of the cafeteria. "Oh, and thanks for the waffles, Grieta! And make sure Alfred doesn't get Juan to eat more of those burgers for lunch!" Tina added. Grieta looked back and gave Tina a thumbs up, grinning, while Alfred stopped in his tracks and turned.

"You know you like those burgers just as much as we do!" he shouted over the crowd that was forming in the hallway, earning him a few exasperated glances. It was true; she did develop a liking to hamburgers, but she always made sure not to eat them all the time like Alfred did. But she didn't say anything and Tina just continued walking towards her destination, in a better mood than this morning. But the lighter mood didn't last long as Tina was greeted by the tall Swedish junior glaring down at her as she entered the library, effectively scaring her. Even after his smaller, more pleasant companion had tried to explain that "Berwald didn't mean to stare" and that it was just "how Berwald's face always is," Tina still felt a little worried.

After leaving Berwald and Tino, as she had learned their names were, she headed straight to the Renaissance literature section of the library, figuring that it would be a good place to start. A little overwhelmed by the number of good books that she could use for research, Tina took a deep breath and started to pick out a few titles. Before she even finished one row of shelves, Tina already had a high stack of books, mostly in a reasonable length, but a couple being ridiculously thick. She hadn't realized how many she had been picking out, so she decided to find a table so she could sit down and sort through the books. Walking through the aisles of bookshelves, Tina continually glanced at the sides of the stack she was carrying to make sure she wouldn't bump into anyone and drop her books. Nevertheless, she ended up walking straight into somebody, spilling both their piles rather violently.

"I'm so sorry!! I didn't see you at all!" Tina began apologizing before she noticed the blonde, bespectacled young man kneeling on the floor along with their books. "Alfr--?" she almost asked, but then caught herself. "I mean, Matthew, are you okay?"

"Ugh, I'm not Alfred I'm--" he began, but then stopped in surprise, looking up at Tina who had already stood up.

"Matthew, right?" she continued his sentence for him, holding out her hand to help him up.

"Uh, yeah. But how did you know I wasn't Alfred?" he wondered, not accustomed to being recognized, as he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.

"Alfred wouldn't be carrying a stack of books in the library even if he was a librarian." Tina answered. "Besides, he should be in lunch right now."

"You're right." Matthew laughed quietly. Now that he was up, Tina noticed that he was a little more than a head taller than her, exactly like Alfred was. His height, his build, the shape of his face, the shade of golden blonde his hair was; everything was the same actually. In fact, he looked exactly like the boisterous American except for the slightly longer, wavy hair and the seemingly different shade of blue his eyes were.

"A-ah, you must be Tina." he said a little flushed after he noticed her scrutinizing him. Their hands were still holding, so Matthew just shook it as if the situation was normal. "I've heard a little about you from my brother."

"Oh, yes…Yes! I'm Maria Christina Gabriella de la Cruz." she responded, snapping out of her observation session, suddenly feeling embarrassed for being so rude. They let go of each other's hand suddenly and began collecting the mess of books on the floor.

"So…um…sorry I bumped into you again. I really didn't see you." Tina said sincerely, breaking the awkward silence after a minute.

"It's okay. It wouldn't have been the first time that happened to me." Matthew said, smiling reassuringly at her. "There was even that one time nobody knew I was in the room and Ivan sat on me."

"Ivan Braginski sat on you?!" Tina asked in disbelief. "And you didn't break any bones or anything?"

"Haha, no I didn't. Contrary to what I look like, I'm actually pretty strong."

"Well, actually, you do look quite durable." Tina stated, conscious not to stare at Matthew like before. By the time they got up, Matthew had insisted to carry most of Tina's books since he had less to begin with and she thanked him as they made their way to a table next to the History section. They sat down across from each other and Tina started to sift through her pile of books.

"So which topic did you pick for your TOK essay?" Matthew asked after watching her flip through pages for a few minutes.

"Oh, I picked number…wait, how did you know I had an essay?" Tina asked, a little surprised. Matthew smiled weakly at her before telling Tina that he also took TOK.

"You probably didn't notice I was in the same class, did you? You seemed preoccupied with whatever was outside the window anyway." he began to say, but stopped when Tina continued to look shocked. "Sorry, I didn't mean to watch you or anything. It was just kinda funny."

"What was funny?" Tina asked, still a little confused. She didn't think Matthew would've been able to see Victoria and Francis; and even if he did, nothing particularly funny happened.

"The faces you were making." he explained. "You're pretty expressive for such a quiet student." Tina blushed a bit, not knowing that she had made faces that whole time.

"Y-you should pay attention to the teacher during class. You shouldn't be watching people making faces!" Tina said defensively but quietly. She remembered they were still in the library, even though not many students were there. But Matthew just chuckled lightly as he took something out of his bag.

"As an apology, here," he laid a plastic baggy on the table between them. Inside were three maple leaf-shaped cookies. "They're maple crème cookies. Since this is your lunch period, you should eat something."

"Oh, thank you." Tina hesitantly took one out, torn between the rule of not eating in the library and her self-imposed rule of not turning down food. "I don't think we should eat in the library though…"

"Don't worry. Practically nobody even goes to this part of the library. Besides, nobody seems to notice when I do it." he responded, taking out a cookie for himself. Tina nodded and tasted the cookie before eating the rest of it heartily.

"T-this is delicious!" she exclaimed. The maple crème cookies were totally different from the chocolate chip cookies she usually made and the Oreos Alfred shared with them sometimes.

"The crème is made with maple syrup that surely brings happiness to the people who eat it." Matthew said with a smile, as if he was advertising the maple syrup.

"You're right. I feel really happy now!" Tina said, having forgotten all about her research for her TOK essay. The two began talking about anything that came up, creating a train of thought that went to a variety of places unrelated to each other. Eventually, they ended up talking about having to deal with Alfred, one of the strongest things they had in common.

"He doesn't even notice he's littering sometimes." Tina continued, referring to how Alfred tries to throw his empty soda cans into trash bins like he was playing basketball. "I always end up having to throw it out properly for him."

"Yeah, I even set up a separate recycling bin at home during the summer, but he just threw away his trash without thinking." Matthew sympathized, obviously understanding since he lives with the hyperactive American.

"Oh, it's good you've set up recycling. In my house, we make our own fertilizer for my plants."

"That's cool. What do you grow?"

"Just some vegetables: tomatoes and the like." Tina answered, remembering how Antonio really liked tomatoes.

"I'd like to try growing something other than house plants, but it's mostly cold where I live, so it wouldn't really work out." he complained. Matthew told Tina about the weather in Canada, so she also explained how there was tropical weather in the Philippines.

"Maybe you should visit during the summer one day, Matthew." she offered. "Just don't come during the rainy season or you might experience some flooding or typhoons." Just then, the bell ending the period rang. Matthew and Tina were unfazed for a short moment, just laughing, before they began gathering their stuff together. They rushed to put all of their books back, taking a bit longer then they should have since they tried to stay alphabetical. The second bell, marking that they should already be in their next class, rang just as Tina and Matthew made their way out of the library.

Author's ramblings:

Haha, I don't know how this chapter started out mostly descriptions and ended up mostly dialogue.

Seychelles' name is Victoria Leone Prideux. It seems to be a popular name other fanfics have for her. I got the idea for that weird scenario with Francis from RPing. I might write a chapter [or even a oneshot story] on it when I get the time.

Oh, TOK…(^_^;)

I don't know why, but in my head, since Canada never gets noticed, he can actually get away with a lot of things. Not that he'd take advantage of that…a lot…but yeah (^w^) By the way, MAPLE CRÈME COOKIES ARE DELICIOUS!!! My dad brought some home one day since one of his coworkers just came back from a meeting in Canada, and I've been hooked ever since \(*A*)/

I realized the prologue was actually really historical…but this one really isn't. At all…(O_o)