Maria opened the door to her room and as she turned the lights on, she was surprised by a certain group of people.
"Welcome to the Academy" as four people, actually two greeted her, Antonio and Bella, although Romano and another guy was there.
"Oh guys you shouldn't have" Maria hugged the three.
"Quit, smushing me, bitch" groaned Romano and quickly escaped Maria's hug and went to the balcony. Maria noticed that the fourth person was someone whom she was very scared of. The man has light blonde hair and has a scar in his forehead, just above his right eye. He has also wears a scarf and was smoking in his pipe. "Nice to see you again, Maria" was the man's words.
"Eep!" squeaked Maria and quickly hid behind her father. "What are you doing here, Netherlands?" she growled. The Netherlands, one of the nations who tried to invade Maia's vital regions, but thanks to Antonio's effort, he was stopped every single time and eventually gave up. He was also dubbed as Maria' stalker due to the fact that he tried to invade her five times now that's a lot more than France trying to conquer Romano. Also he tried to impress her by naming one of his cities Philippine, which we all know that was named after Saint Philippe
"Now that's not a nice way to greet an old friend" he said while smoking.
"What friend? You tried to kidnap me more than four times" she growled and was now giving him an intimidating look. "First of all, stop smoking in my room, it starting to smell weird"
"She's right big brother" Bella said while trying to cover her nose. Bella aka Belgium often visited Antonio's house when Romano and Maria were little, she always brought her famous Belgian waffles.
"Big Brother!?" Maria was surprised by this revelation.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, him and Bella were siblings" as Antonio intervened. Antonio only told Maria that both Belgium and Netherlands once lived in his house, but he never told her that they were siblings.
No way, sweet and thoughtful Bella, related to that vicious wolf Maria thought as she glared at Netherlands. "Why are you looking at me like that" said Netherlands while still remaining calm.
"Nothing" she sighed.
"Mi hija, I brought some of your favourite paella" said a gleeful Spaniard as he was holding a wok? Filled with rice mixed with seafoods, sausages and saffron
"Thanks Papa" They grabbed a plate of this wonderful food, well except for Romano, who was still standing in the balcony and Netherlands, who still refused to eat with Spain. Maria went to the balcony so Romano would have a bit of company. "Hey, why are you out here, everyone's already eating, except that douche" Still Romano said nothing. "Want to have some of mine?" She held out a spoonful of paella near Romano's mouth.
"I'm not hungry, bastard" he said in his usual angry voice.
"Why are you like that, Romano" she pouted.
"Nothing, let's just eat what the freak cooked" both went back inside.
After eating, the gang left to let Maria settle in her new room. She threw herself in her bed and observed the room, it was more of a studio like apartment, there was a kitchen, she has her own bathroom and even has a small balcony. She still doesn't know who her neighbour was. It's late, maybe I should introduce myself tomorrow. And doze off.
Morning came and Maria woke up late.
"Damn alarm clock! Why didn't it work" as she was strangling the alarm clock, She took a quick shower, barely even combed her hair, quickly wore her uniform, putted her national flower on her hair, which is the Sampaguita and went off to campus. Crap, the gate's already locked. She looked at her surroundings and the only way to get in was to climb the steel gate. This is not good, if I was only wearing pants, there's not even a bush to catch me if I fall. She looked at her wristwatch. I still have time to make it, the teacher's not going to be there after fifteen minutes she thought and climbed without hesitation. I feel like a burglar doing this.
"Hey you over there, stop with what you are doing" a voice shouted coming from somewhere near her. Oh crap, that sounded like Arthur's voice, what is he the school monitor?. It distracted her, and falls, scratching one of her legs on the design of the balustrade. She tries to stand up, but her leg was bleeding. Shit. "Where are you?, Come out now and your punishment will be light" shouted Arthur. What? Already a punishment? Couldn't he give me a detention instead?. She hastily covered her injury with her handkerchief. Even though her leg stings when she stands up, she ignored it and ran at the back of the school. She saw that Arthur was already behind her, but she thought, he still didn't know who he was chasing, it was bad that every continent has their own sets of uniform, well he has a clue that he was chasing an Asian student. She kept running and running through the first floor and Arthur was there chasing her. Geez, Doesn't he ever give up?. She was at her limit, having an injury after all. She stopped and realized she was in a dead end. Crap, crap, crap, then someone grabbed her collar from behind and was pulled into a room. She tries to scream but a hand covered her mouth.
"Don't speak, he might catch you" the man whispered into her ear, and did what she was told. And outside the room she can see Arthur leaving. When he was completely gone, the man removed his hand. Maria turned to the man and thanked him.
"Wait, you're Tonio's daughter!" the man said with surprise. The man has this unusual white hair and red eyes, plus he has this yellow bird on the top of his head.
"Uhm, yes I am" she said with hesitation.
"Hmm, who are you talking to Gilbert?" said a man who was sleeping in the corner with her father. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, and he was reading an erotic magazine.
"Tonio's daughter"
"Please to meet you again, Mademoiselle Maria" the other man practically jumped with joy and kissed Maria's hand which made her face turned bright red.
"You're Francis, right?"
"Oui" he said and gave Maria a wink.
"and you're Gilbert?" as she turned to the other man.
"Yeah, The awesome one" he said, eyes gleaming with awesomeness.
"Thanks for saving me" she said and gave Gilbert a wide smile.
"So, why were you chased by Angleterre?" asked Francis.
"I woke up late and climbed the gate, thinking that no one was there, but then, I was caught by Arthur, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't notice it was me. So much for thinking that I would make it in time for my first class" and gave a sigh. "Wait, why are you three not in class?"
"Well, we pranked Angleterre yesterday and he was waiting for us at the gate this morning, we barely escaped him and surely we can't go to our classes given that we are all in the same class, surely he will punish us" said the Frenchman.
"But we are not afraid, the awesome us and our awesomeness will prevail" he said with his remarkable voice. As he was eyeing Maria, he noticed a handkerchief tied to her leg and was worse was it was turning red. "You're bleeding" and pointed to her leg
"Mon Dieu! We must treat you wounds" The two stared to get worried and tried to convince Maria to go to the clinic which she refused and said that she was alright and it was just a scratch. The bell rung and Maria bid farewell to the two, and kissed Antonio on the forehead who was still sleeping, the other two blush, for they envied Antonio, and wanted also to be kissed. She needed to attend her next class.
"Again, thank you so much for helping me a while ago" and left.
While walking in the hallway, she had a strange feeling that someone was following her. She started walking briskly towards her homeroom but stopped, having the feeling that there was someone behind her and turned around. What she saw scared the living daylight out of her. Oh shit, I feel like I'm in one of those horror movies. A woman was standing in front of her holding out a knife, her face depicted the very essence of horror.
"Stay away from my Brother!" the woman said as she was gaining up on Maria. Before she could speak again, Maria ran again for her life, Good lord, this is the most unlucky day of my life, Good thing, Feliciano and Lovino taught me how to run for my life. Again she found herself cornered and nowhere to run. The woman was getting closer and closer to her
"Please don't kill me, I'm too young to die, I haven't even experience having a boyfriend!" as Maria pleaded for her life.
"Stay away from my brother!"
"Wait, Whaat?" Maria now has a confused look upon her face.
"You heard me, Stay away from Brother Russia!"
"You're Ivan's sister?"
"Yes, I am. I saw you together in library yesterday and I am warning you stay away from him if you still want to live" as the woman threatened Maria with her pocket knife.
"But he just helped me with some books"
"Liar! I never saw my big brother looked so happy, not even with me"
She totally thinks that Ivan and I are together, For Christ's sake, I just met the man yesterday, and now I'm going to get killed. I have to think of a way to escape. "I for one think that reason Ivan is not happy around you is that you act more like a serial killer than a lover" with these words the woman held up the knife to Maria's throat.
"What was that you are saying?" the woman was staring down at her. Woah, she's very pretty minus the serial killer face as Maria noticed the woman's physical appearance.
"What I mean to say is that you shouldn't have professed your love for Ivan" Now the woman was confused with Maria's words and backed off a little bit.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Men don't like women confessing their love for them, it only hurts their pride of being a man, moreover, you use coercion on him to love you back" as Maria was rubbing her neck. "You are a beautiful lady, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen" the woman suddenly flushed as Maria's words and suddenly turned into the shade of scarlet. "You should let Ivan make the first move, now that he already knows that you love him, I'm sure he feels just the same, but he's afraid of you because you force yourself too much on him" What am I saying? Alright I'll just go with the flow. Maria looks like she has now the upper hand. "Look, Ivan is just a friend that I have met yesterday and I have no interest on crossing the line, and I also think your brother is not interested on having a relationship with someone he just met, he just really wants to make friends"
"Really?" asked the woman
"Yes, I promise you. Now, may I ask what your name is? So we can be friends?"
"Friends? You really want to be friends with me?"
"Well, after you've chased me and threaten to kill me with a knife, I would have to say yes" Maria gave her the biggest smile that was filled with thoughtfulness.
"Natalya, My name is Natalya and I represent Belarus" as she held out her hand.
"Please to meet you Natalya, I'm Maria and I represent the Philippines" She shook Natalya's hand still wearing a goofy smile on her face.
No wonder, brother likes her, she's glowing Natalya thought while she was observing the woman. "I'm sorry I tried to kill you" she bowed her head down apologetically.
"Don't worry, I've dealt much worse" still wearing a smile. "Oh, crap! I still have to attend my third class" as she was looking at her wristwatch. "Well then, Nice meeting you Natalya!" and went off waving her hand at Belarus.
What a weird girl. I guess I have made a friend today Natalya thought and smiled for the first time in years.