From the diary of Griselda Vargas-Beilschmidt

41

Shit goes down. Ash sums it up in the end.

Today.

Something awesome happened.

Mein Gott, today was an emotional rollercoaster. And - we discovered something... extremely awesome. I - I'm still shook as I write this, so forgive any miskates... mistakes! Sorry! ^_^ I have to write this as soon as possible so I keep all the details in mind.

Today (...how many times did I write that already? ...a lot.) was a meeting. Chaos as usual, nothing weird, nothing suspicious, just another regular meeting like any other.

So me and dads were getting ready, Vati pulling out his neat notes and Papa playing with my hair. The others were present too, or on their way. The Nordics were sitting comfortably around one of the tables outside the meeting room with George, sipping his tea, and Ashleigh, who was chatting excitedly with Anni. Or, well, Ash did most of the talking, but Anni isn't the talkative type anyway, that's why their friendship works.

"Gris!" Gabriel saw me and ran up to me just as I was about to take a chair and sit with the squad. "Ciao! I brought some cards," he announced, showing a tattered deck of cards in his hand. "I thought we could pla-"

"No way! Gabriel brought cards! We can play poker!" My cousin (oh, how soon would the singular change!) sighed annoyedly when the energetic American grabbed it from his hands and took a look. "Old, but gold! I'll borrow it, okay, dude? Who wants to play?"

"I'm no expert, but I think you have to have more than the cards," George considered. "Don't you need tokens, too?"

"Not really, the tokens represent money, but we could just bet something else-"

"I don't even know how to play it, if I'm being honest," Faroe admitted.

"Me neither," Anni shook her head.

"Poker is overrated," Ingrid started the sentence.

"We should play chess instead," Lars finished. Twin magic. "We're good at chess!"

"Yea, but chess is for two and it takes so long," Ash whined.

"And poker doesen't?" Greenland whispered.

Ash shrugged. "Hey, at least you'd learn something new, no?"

I was about to agree, but a loud argument interrupted. Ms Hungary looked ready to commit a murder, wielding her frying pan high, aiming right at Uncle Prussia's head, with Mr Austria watching from safe distance. Vati heard as well as us and ran out of the room into the hallway.

"Gilbert, was-" was really all he could saw before the badass Hungarian attacked with a battle cry no different from a wild cat.

But she didn't get to hit.

A crutch came flying out of nowhere

and

smacked

her

right

in

the

face.

We looked up to see Fred standing in the opposite door, one arm remaining outstreched from the throw, the other clutching the second crutch which he was leaning on. When I looked down, I saw a cast on his leg. But his face was what drew your attention. His expression was..fierce.

Ms Hungary looked up at him. Everyone was quiet for a few seconds, until Ashleigh yelled "HEEEEEEEEY, Freddie!" and hugged him. "What did you do to deserve this?" she pointed at his left leg. He shrugged. "Hockey," he replied shortly.