How America Became America

32

This was hard to write... so it's not on par. It really channeled my depression and brought it back to the surface... I had to take so many breaks and rewrite so many times, I'm sorry for it sucking.

A new scene replaced Alfred flying with Amelia looking pale, her hair had grown a considerable length and now reached her shoulders. She looked sorrowfully at Toris, who just had concern in his eyes.

"I can't keep you here any longer," she said. "It's too expensive."

Toris just nodded and kissed Amelia, "I will come back."

With that the quick scene ended and a new one started up. Amelia was wandering the streets of New York. She looked so tired and sad. She was walking back to her apartment. One there she slowly walked up into the building and up the stairs. She turned her key and was immediately overwhelmed by a giant mess on the floor. Clothes strung about and she just walked right past them all, flopping down on the bed.

She just closed her eyes and dozed off, but almost instantaneously her eyes opened wide.

"Mattie's coming," she whispered to herself.

She slowly pulled herself off the bed and started cleaning, slowly but surely. Problem was, she did it too slow and soon, five hours passed and there was knock on her apartment door. She slowly got up and opened her door a crack, only to be pushed back. She was embraced in a hug and she tried pushing away, but there was no use.

Finally, after what felt like eternity to Amelia, she was let go. She looked up at her older brother, who was looking at her in concern. He waited to be invited in, and when he was, he noticed the state of the apartment.

"It looks like a tornado ran through here," he said, concern dripping from his voice.

Amelia just shrugged and sat on her bed. Matthew looked at her in concern and squatted in front of her. He ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"I want you to pack a bag," he told her, standing up. "We're going on a trip."

"I can't just leave," she said, barely audible.

Matthew frowned before grabbing her arm and pulling her up. When he let go, she just plopped back onto the bed. The circles under her eyes were very visible.

The nations watched in concern; they had never seen the boisterous nation acting so... down. Maria came up to her adoptive mother and hugged her tightly.

The scene continued with Matthew sighing in packing a suitcase full of Amelia's clothes. Amelia just turned around, so she was facing the wall.

Once he finished packing, he took the suitcase out of the apartment and quickly returned emptyhanded. He came up to Amelia and squatted down.

"Come on," he said quietly. "We're going on a trip."

Amelia just stayed silent, so Matthew, being the good big brother he was, picked her up and swung her over his shoulder. She moaned in annoyance for a moment before lightly hitting her brother. The scene ended with Matthew putting his sister in a car and then he drove off.

The nations turned to look at Matthew.

"Did you just kidnap your sister?" Gilbert asked.

"Yeah," Matthew answered sheepishly, "but she needed it."

Amelia just rolled her eyes and playfully punched her brother. She remembered that moment, she had needed her brother.

The next scene started to play with Matthew driving and Amelia curled up next to the window, close to sleep.

"I don't remember this," Amelia muttered softly.

The scene continued, and another twenty minutes or so go by, and soon Amelia was snoring lightly. Matthew looked over and smiled lightly. That smile soon disappeared as scars started showing up all over her body. He quickly pulled over and got out. He was pacing back and forth, pulling on his hair.

"I don't remember this at all," Amelia said louder this time. "You didn't find out until years later."

"I had already known for a while at that point," Matthew replied, watching the memory of himself freaking out. "It doesn't help that your glamours fail when you sleep sometimes."

Before Amelia could respond, memory Matthew spoke, "What am I going to do? I can't tell her I saw, because I don't want her even more upset."

Amelia hugged her older brother tightly as they watched memory Matthew freak out. The scene ended with him getting back in the car, looking at Amelia with concern.

A new one started with Amelia jerking awake in the car, looking around frantically, her eyes wide.

"Where are we?" she asked, alert, "I can't sense where we are."

Matthew chuckled lightly, "We're going on a trip, just trust me."

Amelia pursed her lips, her breathing going back to normal, but she still was confused as to where they were, so she asked.

"We're just outside of Saguenay."

"Where's that?"

"Canada."

"What are we doing here?"

"Going on a trip."

"Is there anything you're going to say to clue me in?"

"Nope."

The scene ended there; Amelia looked up at her older brother.

"That was the beginning of our yearly trips," she said, quietly, but loud enough for several nations to hear.