From the diary of Griselda Vargas-Beilschmidt

65

It's here! 'The spooky season' as Ash calls it. Today is the day to horror! It's Halloween!

Well, okay, I still have to wait a bit to go out trick-or-treating, but other than that...

"And then we'll go out and we'll get sweets!" I reported to still a bit hangover Vati. He didn't say anything except a grunt, and continued to unpack our bags in the hotel room. As always, we arrived evening before the meeting and so unpacked our sleeping things first. I was currently showered and in my pyjamas. But I couldn't wait for tommorow! Ashleigh didn't plan any sleepovers this time, she doesen't want 'any costume spoilers'. Huh. And honestly, I don't even have enough energy to socialize right now, after the flight and the long day, I'm looking forward to falling into a nice, comfy bed and just sleeping.

Wow, thirteen hours pass really quickly when you're sleeping! I wake up fresh & ready to trick people. Vati seemes to be completely sober now, too, and Papa is his affectionate self, as usual. Nothing is out of our meeting routine, we unpack the rest and wash and change. I'm not changing into my costume just yet, that will come when the sun sets.

Ashleigh sure put a lot of effort into the decorations today. The dining hall is filled with ribbons of colours mostly white, black, orange and purple, creating an eerie vibe, and there are fake webs with plushie spiders in every corner, bat-shaped decors are hanging from he ceiling and the walls are covered with white paper ghosts, skeletons, black witches and bright orange pumpkins with scary faces on them. Speaking of which, there are also a few real ones with faces even creepier, as they're being lit by the candles inside of them. It all gives a spooky, yet festive feeling. With a little darkness later, in the evening, I'll sure be unsettled. But the plushie spiders are cute!

Some others are already there and some are not. I wave at Lars, who's just sitting down with his family, I fingergun at Fred across the room, nod at Anni and smile in Ms Anežka's general direction. Just then, Gabi walks up behind me, eyeing the pumpkins and spiders and bats and raises his eyebrows in such a posh manner I'm convinced he learned that from George.

"Not too bad, I suppose," he shrugs. That's actually a compliment.

"Si, I really like it," I say, without any greeting, because we don't need the greeting.

"It's a bit cliché, but oh well," he concludes "it's not so bad."

This time, there are no cheerful Americans in colourful costumes barging through the door to greet us. I kind of miss it.

Ashleigh doesen't disappoint, though. When the door to the meeting room first open, we're greeted by a truly spooky sight. Candles lit, curtains closed, pumpkins with ominous faces, fake webs in the corners and a paper bat hanging here and there. Black cloth on the table with little drops of (that's fake, right?) blood on it. And there, standing on the table, is a figure in a long cloak. The figure turns slowly and disturbingly to look at us, weirdly white in the face.

"Boo!" is yelled behind us.

I shriek.

And with me, Papa, Gabi (though he later kept saying he wasn't scared), Uncle Romano, Uncle Prussia, Poland, Austria, Ingrid (same as Gabi), Mr Slovakia, Andrias and a few other people.

The lights flick on and we get a real look at the figure. On the table is America, grinning widely as he bursts out laughing. The one behind us in Ashleigh, also grinning and highfiving America.

Both of them are already in costumes, America being some kind of... skeleton lord? Ashleigh, however, isn't dressed up as much as we expected. She merely has her hair up, wearing grey pants and light blue button-up Hemd, with a cop-like hat, but that's all.

I need a moment to calm down and process the prank, but some others already calmed and now addressed the two cheeky Americans.

"YOU FRICKIN IMBECILES I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK!"

"YOU BLOODY IDIOTS!"

"That was extremely immature."

"Screw maturity, it's Halloween! We deserve to have fun!"

After some more of the opinion exchange, the room calmed down and the meeting started. Fifteen minutes after it was supposed to, but that didn't seem to bother anyone except Mr Switzerland and Vati. I mean, it is a world meeting. You kinda should've expected something to go wrong, because something goes wrong everytime.

So after the meeting room doors close, the rest of us look at each other and we know.

It's about to go down.

We play Monopoly. It's rainy, so we can't go on a walk as Ash wanted. But after we catch up with one another a bit, Ashleigh, as the right host, pulled out a game of Monopoly.

And, as the right host, kicked all of our sorry asses.

I tired my best, but no matter what I did, I had to pay for it. Literally. Gabriel and Anni were in jail most of the time, Fred and Andrias were okay-ish, Greenland had no idea what was going on the entire time, Lars took all of his twins' money and Ingrid didn't even seem to care, George was good, but Ashleigh was just.. ruthless. Merciless. She and George had gone through a relationship crisis during the game and it was awkward, but also amusing to watch them roast each other (verbally, of course! ^^). Sealand, who joined in because his squad of micronations wasn't present, yelled "bitch better have my money!" and threw it at Ashleigh.

Anni's face was the proudest face I've ever seen someone make.

Ashleigh's was more of a 'try me bitch' one, but after Anni glared at her dangerously, she decided to let it be, stand on the table and throw the money around.

Right in time for the meeting to have a break and the nations coming to see her like that, with sunglasses on and everything.

Lunch time!

_________

I'm sorry it's so late. Life happened.