Note: I do not own Hetalia. I forgot to mention that before, so…If you thought I actually owned Alfred, Arthur, Matthew, Francis, ect….You are awesome and thank you for overestimating me :D (I own only the characters Victorea, Mr. Rogers, and Mrs. Figoni)

"Aw, come on! It really isn't that hard!" Alfred whined, but Victorea continued to shake her head.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. The nurse told me not to," she said.

"It really isn't that hard, dudette!" he decided to demonstrate, jogging back about thirty feet or so from the object of his attention, a single three-foot hurdle. Arthur and Matthew were sitting on the metal bleachers outside next to Victorea. Their gym class today was either kickball or walking, seeing as it was almost the end of the year, but the teacher never paid much attention to Arthur, because Arthur hated gym class, and Matthew was practically invisible, anyway, so the teacher didn't notice. Alfred, on the other hand, was trying to convince Victorea to jump the hurdles.

Arthur, at first, tried to get him to stop, but Alfred was impossible, anyway, so there was no point in trying to stop him. Besides, he thought with a smirk, it would be fun to watch Alfred fall on his face.

Unfortunately, that thought ended in disappointment, because he ended up executing the jump perfectly, earning a small clap from Victorea and a single nod from Matthew. Alfred bowed dramatically, and they could hear the gym coach mumble something under his breath. Arthur rolled his eyes once more as Alfred jogged back to where the others were sitting.

"See? It's not that hard," Alfred beamed at a rather apprehensive-looking Victorea.

"Alfred, don't force her to do something if she doesn't want to do it," Arthur groaned. "For goodness sakes, have you any manners?"

He said this a lot to his half-brother, so, naturally, the comment was ignored. "What happened to you that got you kicked out of gym, anyway?" Matthew asked quietly, still holding Kumajirou in his arms.

Victorea again looked wary of the question, seeming to think for a moment before saying, "It's nothing that need concern you."

Alfred rolled his head back and groaned loudly. "Come on! You always say that!"

It was true, she did use that explanation often. Arthur just couldn't figure out why. She clearly didn't enjoy lying, but she wasn't telling them everything for sure. Something about the way she acted and walked and talked and moved and even breathed, however, seemed to intrigue him.

Not in a romantic way, of course.

That wouldn't be right.

No.

But why did she not tell them? She had been with them for about a week now; she should be able to trust them a little more, right? But maybe Arthur was trying too hard to let this girl spill her heart and soul out to people who, even if they are friends, are still somewhat untrustworthy to her. After all, it has only been a week since they met.

Victorea smiled at him, a bright, toothy smile that Arthur hadn't seen before on her. She seemed genuinely…Happy. Normally, she always had that apprehensive look in her eyes, the wary posture and jumps at every noise proved that she was heavily on guard for something, but she seemed to really be letting go and enjoying herself. Something about that smile stirred his gut up a little, and he couldn't help but smile, too. He could see that on the other side of her, Mattie had a small smile playing his lips as well, and Alfred...Well, he was almost always smiling, anyway.

She laughed somewhat louder than she normally laughed. "I'm just telling you the truth."

"Well!" Alfred huffed, but his smile never vanished from his face. He crossed his arms and raised his chin up a little. "Then I won't tell you my secret!"

Victorea laughed again. "Oh?"

"What so funny about that?" Alfred looked genuinely confused.

She continued to laugh as she said, "Well, excuse me for saying, but –" she stifled a giggle in her hand before continuing – "You just don't seem like the type of person that can keep a secret."

Arthur barked a laugh. "You, my dear, are spot on."

Alfred grimaced. "Aww, no fair. Please tell me! Please please please!" Victorea smiled again – something fluttered in Arthur's stomach – and shook her head. Arthur noticed the way that her sandy blonde hair caught the sunlight – obviously due to curiosity, not affection.

No.

"Sorry, Alfred. My lips are sealed," and to emphasize this, she made a zipping motion across her mouth. It was strange, because whatever happened, she was almost making a joke out of it.

"Bitch," Alfred huffed, defeated.

Arthur hushed him immediately. "Don't use words like that to a lady, that's impolite."

…..

World Languages and Cultures had been the favorite class of Arthur, Matthew, and Alfred, and with Victorea, it made it a lot better, because she always amused everyone with her appalled facial expressions at some of the…jokes that Alfred told. And it was strange, because it didn't even seem like she knew what they were talking about, but still understood the meaning of what was being said.

Maybe that was what was interesting about her. She understood things without really knowing what was going on, if that made any sense. It was like when Alfred once hinted at the divorce between his parents, saying, "Well, when Mom and Pa divorced, I was able to get my own room when Mattie left." And while he said this with a smile and a hint of pride, Victorea still looked at him sadly, as if understanding that he was hurt by the divorce, even if she knew nothing about it herself. That was also something strange; she was very sympathetic. She not only understood things, but cared about them, too. That takes a lot of mind and heart coordination, and most people don't have that ability. If they understand, they usually don't care, and if they care, they usually don't understand.

Arthur found himself yet again lost in the memory of her smile earlier as she listened to Alfred praise the Lord that it was Friday and that they only had two periods left before the weekend. Honestly, Alfred had a hard time seeing past the weekends.

But he naturally decided it was curiosity for a girl who showed up randomly towards the end of the year with no background given except that she was from Oklahoma and her fellow orphans don't like her. It had nothing to do with her bright blue eyes, sandy blonde hair, soft, creamy skin, dazzling smile, kindness, or that accent. Nope.

Not at all.

"So what do you think?" Arthur snapped back into reality (not like he was lost anyway) when he heard Alfred's voice. For some reason, Victorea was looking back at Arthur. Looking back? Oh, no. I was staring, wasn't I? Arthur mentally face-palmed, but Victorea didn't seem annoyed or even scared like she always is. She seemed…Intrigued, or curious. And her slightly raised eyebrow and sparkling eyes gave away the unasked question, "What are you looking at?"

Victorea seemed to not hear the question, so Alfred, being as impatient as he is, asked again, "Dudette, what do you think?"

Victorea seemed to snap out of a daze, which forced Arthur to hide a snicker behind his hand. She was looking at him. That thought made his snicker melt into a small smile.

"Well, I don't really know," Victorea suddenly felt that her hands became interesting, because she folded them neatly on her lap and stared at them apprehensively. "I…I would have to take it up with Mrs. Mervosa, so…"

"Wait, what are we talking about?" Arthur asked, puzzled.

Alfred snickered at him for a moment while Victorea turned her attention to the window, then said, "Dude, Mattie and I wanted to invite her over for dinner or something." Arthur was about to protest, opening his mouth and raising a pointer finger at Alfred, when Mattie spoke up.

"Don't worry, Arthur. Alfred promised that he wouldn't bring her to McDonalds." Arthur closed his mouth and lowered his hand.

Victorea laughed a little at this. Arthur looked between Alfred and Matthew, a little hesitant to let her come over for dinner. They had only known her for a week – or since Monday, at least – so why would Alfred and Mattie allow her over? And why did they not include him? And why was he overthinking everything?

"Are you sure about this?" he asked. "I mean, does your father know about this? Did you put it up with him?"

"Yes, we did," Mattie confirmed quietly. "He was fine with it, as long as Alfred doesn't overwhelm her with junk foods and video games."

Alfred raised his hands defensively. "Both of which I promised not to do to her."

Victorea laughed again, a little louder this time. "I'm guessing he'd be mad at me if I told him I don't know what a McDonalds is, then?"

This time, all three of the boys stared at her, dumbstruck. Alfred fumed. "How could you not know what McDonald's is!? SERIOUSLY?!"

Mrs. Figoni put her index finger to her lips and shushed him quietly. Alfred hunched down a little, hating being scolded by an adult. That was one thing about him that took a while to see – he was kind. He hated doing the wrong thing unless he felt it was completely right, and he felt guilty when scolded by someone older than him because it made him feel like he was doing something wrong.

A couple of other people began to stare now, curious. It was plainly obvious to everyone what a McDonalds was – everyone in America has at least seen one and most have been to one at least once in their lives.

Victorea looked a little scared and hurt. "I-I'm sorry, but n-no." It was easy to read her emotions, Arthur thought. Or at least, it was easy to tell when she was afraid. She was slightly shaking – something about Alfred's yelling terrified her.

Arthur felt bad for this girl and scooted his chair closer to her, rubbing her back in what he hoped was comforting. It seemed to work, she stopped shaking and had straightened her back a little more. But there was a really funny feeling he got when touching her – his hand felt numb and he almost saw lights in the corner of his eyes, but he shook that off as a headache symptom – even if his head didn't hurt. Maybe it was a stomach problem – his stomach felt weird all of a sudden, like it flipped a little.

Alfred was snickering again at him, then looked over at Victorea and tried to cover it with his hand. Mattie next to him was just smiling his pleasant smile, but he was looking between the both of them as well.

"Oh, ignore him, love. He's very…Persistent…about his junk food," he practically hissed the last two words, glaring in his direction. How dare he yell at this poor girl? How ignorant can he possibly be? Alfred snickered a little more before completely wiping it off of his face, realizing that Arthur only gave that glare when he wanted to rip someone's eyeballs out with a spoon and shove them in their ears.

"Well, we'll have to change that, but I promised nothing like that," Alfred waved it off. "We'll cook something nice up for her, so long as Arthur stays out of the kitchen."

Arthur snorted, but an embarrassed blush still crept up on his cheeks. "Oh, belt up."

Victorea laughed again, and Arthur realized with a deeper blush that his hand had stopped rubbing her back and it now just rested there, admiring the soft fabric of her casual clothes...But what was so rough about it? There was something else in the fabric that seemed rough, but Arthur withdrew his hand too quickly to figure out what it was, and he wasn't going to try that again.

"I'd love to go, actually. I'd just have to ask Mrs. Mervosa…And I don't know how she would put up with that."

"Why wouldn't she like that?" Matthew asked.

"I don't know," Victorea shrugged. "She's not a very open person."

"Well then if you can go," said Alfred, "can you come over tomorrow at around five o'clock-ish?"

Victorea thought about it. "Well, if I can, I will."

Everyone laughed at this.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thank you very much for everything!

Actually, I have no idea why I said that :P

I got a comment a while ago asking me to continue, but I had family come up from AZ for my birthday, and this was finals week in school, but I tried. And when I tried to post this, my ridiculous computer continued to freeze on me.

I'm gonna add little chapters here and there about Victorea conversing with the other characters, so if you really want to see anyone, please request! I'll try my hardest to add them in!

And PLEASE review! Let me know what you want in here! Like, if I've made someone out of character, let me know!

Thanks a bunch :D

~Dreampainter