Prepare to meet Alfred F. Jones' family!

When Matthew came home, he was astounded. Well, the house was clean, but Lauren was secluded and gloomy, and not to mention the Germanic family was gathered together in his living room, arguing.

He actually raised his voice to a shouting level when he gasped, "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

This surprised the Germanics, and Ludwig apologized deeply, saying, "Ve are sorry, Mister Villiams. Ve zought zat Gilbert told you."

Matthew couldn't believe this. Why could Gilbert neglect to tell him everything? Elizabeta clasped her hands together and said, "I'm sorry, Meester Villiams! Ve have been doing vork to pay until the Vorld Meeting! Vhat else can ve do for you?"

Because Matthew was kind and didn't want to upset anyone further, especially Lauren, he allowed them to stay, without the need to work. Lauren hugged him, thanking him for not kicking them out, and said that she would go to bed shortly.

Confused, Matthew asked, "Why? We haven't eaten dinner."

"I'll eat dinner," she said, "then go to bed. I'm tired, Mattie."

With a sigh, the Canadian agreed. Matthew apologized for not having enough food for the whole Germanic family, but they didn't mind, saying that they expected this and brought some food along with new changes of clothes for the next day.

Matthew headed into the kitchen to see everything nice and clean, even the counter top scrubbed shiny and clean. He made some beans and corn-odd choice, yes, but Matthew's brain was too foggy with racing thoughts to comprehend making something else.

Once he, Gilbert, and Lauren all ate, Lauren headed to bed. Matthew led the Germanics to his guest bedrooms, and they headed out to their car-or-cars to get their things. Matthew went to Lauren's bedroom and quietly knocked on the door. Lauren called for him to come in. Matthew closed the door behind him, feeling his face grow hot. He asked Lauren, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, sounding confused. "Why?"

Shrugging nonchalantly, Matthew said, "You just don't seem as perky as usual."

"I'm okay," she said, curling up under her blankets. She asked, "Is that World Meeting tomorrow?"

Matthew nodded, saying, "Yes."

"Can I come?"

The Canadian nodded, saying, "It's in Canada, in fact. It won't take long to drive over to the building set out just for gathering."

Lauren smiled and said, "That's good. Good night."

"Good night."

Matthew left, closing Lauren's door behind himself. Everyone started heading to bed, so he followed suit.

Lauren felt cold, opening her eyes to find snow surrounding her on every side. She gasped, eyes widening, and got to her feet. The snow was everywhere, spanning past the horizoon on every side. Lauren could see a small, thin green line in the distance, and she began to run to it, leaving footprints in the deep snow behind her.

Soon, she found a line of trees in front of her. Because it was certainly better looking than never-ending snow, she crept into the woods. She walked for a long time, calling out for Matthew, Gilbert, Elizabeta, Ludwig, Roderick, for anybody, yet never got an answer.

After a while of walking, she found a bundle of ashy, pale brown fur. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a dark-furred polar bear. When the cub lifted its head up, it had a broad face like a grizzly bear. Its muzzle was dappled in white, and its build was thick like a grizzly bear's, yet it was long and large like a polar bear. Lauren gasped, saying, "You're...a nanulak?"

The half-grizzly-half-polar-bear-cub yawned, staring up at her sheepishly with big black eyes. Lauren smiled, and then she asked, "What happened to your mamma and daddy?"

With a whimper, the cub crawled over to her on its stomach, like a dog, and nuzzled up to her ankle.

Lauren was jerked awake by Gilbert shouting down the hallway, "EVERYBODY, VAKE UP! VE MUST LEAVE FOR ZE MEETING!"

Groaning, Lauren buried her face into her pillow, wishing to sleep in. Suddenly, the German voice came from right above her, saying, "KESESESE, YOU VENT TO SLEEP EARLY, YOU SHOULD BE READY FOR VAKING UP!"

The Canadian screeched as Gilbert thrust his arms under her, yanking her into the air. Gilbert gasped, red eyes widening in surprise at how heavy this girl was! Sure, Quebec was large and all, but...his awesome legs burned!

"LET ME GO!" Lauren screeched, jumping out of Gilbert's arms. Gilbert sighed in relief, now that the weight was off.

Before he could take a full breath, though, Lauren had appeared behind him, shoving him out of the room, saying, "OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!"

She began repeating that chorus, but in French, as she slammed the door shut behind Gilbert, instantly locking it. Gilbert stood in the hallway, dumbfounded.

Matthew came walking up behind him, saying softly, "Th-thank you f-for waking her up."

"You're velcome," Gilbert said. "Cuz I'm awesome like zat."

Lauren, inside her room, found a midnight-purple-blue tinted dress with vertical sky blue and lighter purple stripes. She put it on, fumbling with the zipper at her back. Awkwardly, Lauren creeped into the hallway, peering about to see if Matthew was there to help. Unfortunately, he had just headed outside to start the car and warm it up.

Against her wishes, Lauren saw Gilbert heading up the stairs, back to her, and she raised her voice, saying, "Herr Gilbert?"

Surprised at the German vocabular, Gilbert froze for a moment. Then, he replied with, "Ja? Fraulein Lowren?"

He turned around and saw Lauren wearing one of her new dresses. She looked really good in it; it framed her body snuggly, like a glove, but she held her right arm behind her, saying, "I'm having problems zipping this. Can you help me, sir?"

"Sure," Gilbert said, walking back down the stairs to head for her. She turned around, face hot. Gilbert nonchalantly zipped up her dress and said, "You look nice in zis."

"Thank you, sir," Lauren said. Gilbert told her, "You're velcome" and continued to head back up to his room. Lauren headed inside the bottom-hall bathroom and closed the door behind her, locking it to be safe. She looked at herself in the mirror, not liking her look. Maybe Elizabeta could cut her hair? She left the restroom and headed upstairs to where Elizabeta's room had been. She found Elizabeta's room and knocked on the door. Elizabeta appeared, dressed in a pretty dress, and she asked cheerily, "Oh, Lauren, here you are! How can I help you?"

Smiling, Lauren asked, "Could you cut my hair?"

Elizabeta tilted her head to the side and said, "Sure, I vould love to! Does Matt know?"

"Yes," Lauren said. "A couple days ago, I mentioned it to him, and I want to have my hair cut this morning."

The Hungarian woman smiled and said, "Okay, zen. Follow me."

They headed toward the restroom on that level, and Elizabeta complimented Lauren's dress, "You dress is really pretty. You look nice."

Lauren smiled and said, "Thank you."

Entering the bathroom, Elizabeta said, "So not to make your dress covered in hair, I vill wrap a towel around your neck." Wrapping the towel around the Canadian's neck, she asked, "Now, how do you vant your hair to be cut?"

Staring at her reflection, Lauren said, "I want to have it to my chin, but I want hair in the front to be left alone, so I can braid it."

"Zat sounds pretty and unique!" Elizabeta said. "Do you want bangs?"

"I'll keep my bangs as they are," Lauren said.

"Okay!" Elizabeta chirped. She made Lauren hold two clumps of hair over her shoulders that would be saved for braiding. Then she continued to cut her hair, dry, by her chin. Elizabeta noticed that, in the mirror, Lauren had closed her eyes, as if not wanting to see her hair fall away.

After a little while, Elizabeta said, "Done!"

Lauren opened her eyes and gasped, staring at her reflection. She smiled and said, "So pretty!"

"Do you vant me to braid your hair, now?"

"Yes, thank you!"

Removing the towel away from Lauren's neck and dusting off extra hair, Elizabeta began to braid Lauren's two tails. Her hair was very slick and smooth, not fraying up or anything, so the braiding was done very quickly. Elizabeta tied her hair off with ponytail holders then said, "Look at you! You are so pretty!"

Lauren looked at herself in the mirror and cooed, adoring her new hair cut. She hugged Elizabeta and said, "Thank you, Lizzie!"

Her new hair cut was interesting. She had two braids over her shoulders, but the rest of her hair looked a bit like Canada's hair, but because it was darker brown, it looked a bit more like Toris's -Toris was another nation, and he was Lithuanian.

"You look so pretty!" Elizabeta repeated, and Lauren smiled. She said, "Let's go show Matthew when I put something in my hair!"

They left the bathroom, and Lauren headed to her room. When she reappeared, she had tied a dark purple-blue ribbon onto either braid, and she had put a ribbon-like thing on her head, only it was shaped like a golden flower, the same shade of yellow as her glasses. Elizabeta smiled and said, "Now you look even prettier!"

Lauren smiled, cheeks turning warm and pink. Lauren now had two ahoges-one on top of her head, long and thin, that looked a bit like a stretched-out version as Alfred F. Jones' ahoge. She also had a long, drooping ahoge to the side of her head, like Matthew's, only that it didn't have a little curl in it.

Matthew came walking up, surprised when he saw Lauren. He gasped, eyes wide. Lauren looked very pretty, not to mention mature. Her dress was similar to Nataliya Arlovskaya's dress, which was almost scary, but she had Matthew's hair and ahoge, although she had an extra Alfred-like ahoge. Matthew smiled, saying softly, "W-Wow, Lauren...you l-look so pretty..."

"Thank you!" Lauren said, wrapping her arms around Matt in a hug.

Face turning hot, Matthew sheepishly smiled and pulled away. He told her, "We're about ready to g-go. A-Are you ready?"

Lauren nodded and said, "Yeah, thank you."

They all then left. There was enough room in the back of Matthew's car for four people to sit, so Matthew drove, Ludwig sitting up front after much arguing with Gilbert, then Gilbert, Roderick, Elizabeta, and Lauren sat in the back.

Lauren sat to Elizabeta's right, who was to Roderick's right, who was to Gilbert's right. Elizabeta and Lauren were chatting happily, Elizabeta saying, "I zink you are going to like the nations! Nations are odd bunches, but zey're mainly nice!"

With a slight tilt of her head, Lauren asked, "What happens when a country goes to war? How do you guys react?"

Elizabeta sighed and said, "By fighting, obviously. It is sad, but usually, us nations are friends again after zat var ends or somezing."

Smiling, Lauren said, "That's nice!" She almost wondered why Gilbert was coming along if he wasn't a nation, and thought about asking Elizabeta about it, but, after all, Quebec wasn't its own nation. She would be hypoctritical if she were to question Gilbert.

Elizabeta told Lauren about the nations' personalities and relations to other countries. She explained which nations were friends to what other nations, who to be wary of and what to expect. "Ivan Braginski, Russia, might ask you if you vant to 'become vun' vith him. Just valk avay; usually he doesn't follow. Francis Bonnefoy, France, is kind of a pervert; stay avay."

Lauren realized that she already met him, and wished that she'd gotten a warning sooner. Elizabeta continued, saying, "Antonio, Spain, is also a bit of a pervert, so stay avay from him, too. Don't get between Ivan and his sister, Nataliya, either, because Nataliya is unhealthily obsessed vith Ivan...um, Alfred, Matt's brother, is kind of obnoxious...Lovino, South Italy, has a potty mouth...North Italy, Feliciano, is a little puppy dog...really, zere aren't that many people to be vary of."

After running through other nations, Matthew told everyone in the back seat, "We're h-here."

"YAYYYYY!" Lauren and Elizabeta cooed, Elizabeta holding onto Lauren's left wrist to throw her hands in the air in excitement.

Gilbert smiled, throwing his arm over Roderick's neck and said something in German, in which Roderick replied in English, "Get avay!"

Lauren held Elizabeta's hand as they exited the car, and she liked feeling like she had a sister, Matt as her brother. The building was huge, but it was squat, like a pancake. Lauren thought it ironic-Matthew being Canadian and all-and smiled broadly. Elizabeta pointed to all of the parked cars and said, "Look! Some othzer nations beat us!"

Once inside, Gilbert peeled away to find Francis and Toni. There were a whole bunch of people in there-male and female, although there weren't that many females. Lauren instantly shrunk closer to Elizabeta, feeling awkward and insecure around so many eyes, even if they weren't looking at her.

Elizabeta sensed this and wanted Lauren to feel more welcome, so she said, "Come follow me and meet some friendly countries!"

She pulled Lauren deeper into the many people, and she stopped in front of a man wearing a fancy black suit with light blonde hair, his back to them. Elizabeta said, "Hello, Arthur!"

Arthur turned around, about to greet Elizabeta, when he became surprised at the young girl standing next to her. The girl was about sixteen or so, glasses, and had short hair, like Toris's hair, but with two long braids in front of her hair. She wore a fancy dress that reminded Arthur of a candy wrapper, and he said, "Hello, Elizabeta. Who is with you?"

The young girl held out her hand for a handshake, saying firmly, "My name is Lauren. Nice to meet you; I'm Quebec."

Quebec? Arthur shook her hand and introduced himself as the UK, wondering if Lauren would be more like Matthew or Francis. If all went well, she'd be like Matthew.

Matthew came walking up, Arthur only noticing him because Lauren hugged him happily. Matthew asked softly, "H-Have you met m-my little s-sister?"

The Brit nodded and said, "Yes, she is charming."

Lauren didn't hear what the two said next, because she was staring at Arthur's big green eyes. His eyes were so sparkly and bright, yet calm and intelligent. She also liked his eyebrows. Not many people had eyebrows like that, right? Those eyebrows were fuzzy...

"YO, BRITISH DUDE!" An obnoxious young man wearing a bomber jacket appeared behind Arthur, throwing his arm over his shoulder. He said, "I TOTALLY WANTED YOU TO HAVE THE HONOR OF BEING THEN FIRST TO MEET MAH STATES, SO LOOK AT THEM! WE'VE GOT ILLINOIS, TEXAS, MAINE, CALIFORNIA, LOUISIANA, AND ARKANSAS, YO!"

Lauren assumed that this man was Alfred, seeing as he had an American accent and spoke about states. He gestured behind himself, and six young adults stepped out from behind him. Two guys and four girls.

"This is Texas, as you know!" Alfred gestured to the eighteen-year-old blonde, hair like Francis's, with tan skin, brown eyes, and a cowboy hat. Hugh struck a pose, holding out his hands as if firing two pistols. "His name is Hugh Rangier! And this totally Illinois, whose a stick in the mud like you! He's Kurt Illini Pheizer!" There was a young man, about eighteen as well, with straight, light blonde hair cut neatly into straight bangs above his blonde eyebrows. He had light pink-purple eyes, like a mix between red and light blue. He wore a black-white-and-orange button-up shirt tucked into black dress pants, a contrast to Hugh's faded jeans and flannel shirt. Kurt muttered, "Call me Kurtis, please" as he rolled his eyes.

"This is Maine! She's Jennifer Robinson!" Maine smiled, waving cheerily. She wore a turtle-neck dark purple sweater, glasses similar to Alfred's, and had an identical ahoge. Jennifer had blue-green eyes, somewhat bushy eyebrows like Arthur, and had neat, short hair like Arthur's. She looked to be about twenty years old.

"This is California, dude! She's Angelica Lorence!" Angelica was dressed oddly skimpily for winter, wearing a V-neck shirt that showed her abdomine, which showed a ring in her belly button. Angelica looked to be about nineteen or so, and she wore a lot of obvious make-up on her face. She had sharp eyebrows that appeared to be waked, and she pursed her lips like a duck bill as she thrust her hips to the side.

"This is Louisiana! This is Lillian Bonnefette!" Lillian, about seventeen, rolled her eyes lightheartedly, unlike Kurt's sincere displeasure, and said, "It's Bon-ah-fay, bro!" She was African-American, missing her upper left canine tooth. She had long black lashes and bright blue eyes. She wore colorful beads around her long neck, and she wore a shirt with a Louisiana state flag on it, and she wore torn-up short-jeans, frayed by her knees. Her hair was cut similar to Francis's hair, although her hair was dark brown-black.

Alfred placed his hands on his hips, saying cheerily, "Aren't my states awesome-looking?"

"You forgot me," a young dark-skinned girl said, standing between Lillian and Hugh. She was about seventeen and had long black hair with obvious signs of being highlighted blonde at the bottom, as though the highlights grew out. She didn't look exotic; in fact, she looked bland. She looked Native American, her hair tied into a single, thick braid at her back. Lauren envied how dark her hair was, and how good she looked in a plain white t-shirt and dark blue jeans. She said, "I'm Addison Urkinsau, from Arkansas."

Lauren smiled, shaking Addison's hand, and said, "I'm Lauren...I don't know my last name, but I'm Quebec."

"QUEBEC?!" Lillian gasped, throwing her arm around Lauren's shoulder. She said in her fancy accent, "TOTALLY COOL, ANOTHER FRENCH ONE! DO YOU HAVE MY BUTT?"

Lauren squeaked as Lillian slapped her hind end, making her jump. Lillian laughed, and Addison punched Lillian in the shoulder, saying, "Rude! You know how sick that be?"

"Is," Lauren couldn't help but correct. Arthur, although nearly swamped by Alfred saying something hurriedly, had heard the mistake in grammar and had been about to correct it. Lauren said, "Sorry, Addison, but you should have said 'Sick that is'."

Addison gasped, eyes wide, and said, "I am soooooo sorry! A lot of young Arkansans-even the adults!-find it hard to use correct English and think that it's cool, or they're saying it wrong to be cool!"

Kurt sighed, folding his arms across his broad chest, and said, "Don't I know it..." he couldn't resist looking at Lauren's chest, but respectfully looked her in the eyes as he said, "My people think that they sound 'ghetto' if they speak like that. As if they forget what a ghetto really is!"

Lillian had disappeared, as did Hugh and Angelica, until Lillian's Louisianan accent appeared out from behind Lauren, saying, "YO FANKIE, LOOK AT YO SISTA!"

Francis's voice came from behind Lauren, saying, "Ohohohohon, you look even better than you did last time I saw you!"

Sending out a silent pray that consisted of one name, "LIZZIE?!" Lauren turned around calmly, smiling at Francis. He was dressed nicely, even nicer than he was last time. He wore a red, halfway-buttoned-up-button-up shirt, white coat over it. He smelled thickly of wine and cologne, and Lauren forced the smile as she said, "Nice to meet you again."

It wasn't hard to smile, thinking of him as a nice country, France, that nearly nobody hated. Everybody wants to go to France, thus Francis can't be that bad, outside of the fact that he was scary. Everybody was scary to Lauren, except for Matthew, Alfred, Elizabeta, and the states. Gilbert wasn't really scary, but he wasn't part of the family. Wait, wasn't France related to Quebec? So Francis was part of Lauren's family; that's good.

"It is very nice to meet you too," Francis said, taking Lauren's hand in his and kissing it. "Vous êtes très jolie~" ("You are very beautiful~")

Lauren's face turned pink, and Francis continued, "Où avez-vous été tous ma vie?" ("Where have you been all my life?")

Arthur noticed the flirting and snapped, "HEY, FROG! STOP HARASSING THE YOUNG LADY!"

Francis barked, "I'M NOT HARASSING HER! SHE LIKES ME!" He winked at Lauren, asking, "Oui, isn't that right?"

Addison came racing up, pushing Lauren away from Francis as she stepped on his foot, and she said, "RUN RUN!"

Now that Lauren was away, Francis held his foot for a moment in pain, then started arguing with Arthur. They began strangling each other, and Lauren, still running around in circles with the Arkansan, asked, "Shouldn't we try to break that up?"

Addison shook her head, saying, "Nah. Alfie told me about how they fight a lot, but it's really just sexual tension."

"I got it," Lauren said nonchalantly, watching them fight. She really didn't want to be the cause of a fight, but that was certainly better than to be flirted with.