A/N: I know everyone came here looking for Netherlands as the main character right of the bat. He will be the main character but it'll take a couple of chapters to really take over. I wasn't quite sure how to write him so I started with my familiar friends of Norway and Denmark. These first two chapters or so are more the bridge between House of Orange and Come on Pants. Please enjoy!

I don't own Hetalia; even if I did I'd still use it to pick my World Cup brackets from now on.

Norway yawned and tried not to fall asleep on the table, the sun coming through the window of the classroom in Germany's house was very warm and soothing. He hated warm weather for the simple reason that whenever it got really warm out he turned rather sleepy. His head drooped towards his folded arms while his gaze drifted out of the window to the clear sky and vibrant green trees. That was until he heard Germany's voice crack like a whip through the air directed at him, "Norway what is the proper response for this transgression?"

"Sir the proper response is to give the player a second yellow card followed by a red and eject him from the match! After you show him the red card you write his name in the book along with the foul and time sir!" The drowsy nation shouted hastily.

Germany nodded. "Correct!"

The reason for Germany's drill sergeant personality resurfacing was that the World Cup referee committee had decided that the previous host nation would be a perfect choice to drill this Cup's referee nations. Norway's desk mate Lichtenstein smiled at him, "good job, that was a really difficult question."

"Thanks," Norway replied trying not to yawn in her face.

He blinked slowly and stared at the projector screen with the new clip playing. The new clip was of one of Argentina's teammates running up to the goal and punching the ball into the back of the net. Three rows back England grumbled glaring across the way at Argentina, the infamous "Hand of God" move had been at England's expense so it was only natural he be bitter about it.

"Now, how many of you would have counted that as a goal?" Germany asked glaring around the room.

No one raised their hands, mostly because they knew that it a. shouldn't be a goal because it was a blatant handball, and b. Germany was just that intimidating. He smiled, "correct." His eyebrow twitched, then he threw a sharp pencil through the air, imbedding it in the wall behind Norway.

The Nordic felt his heart fall into his stomach, had he been caught napping? Or worse had he been caught gazing out the window or across the way at Denmark? He ran over what he could have done to nearly have his head taken off by Germany until the nation shouted. "No making out in class!"

Norway and Lichtenstein chanced a glance behind them, and sure enough, Prussia was pinning America up against the wall. Both of the nations looked rather panicked, partly because the entire room was staring at them, with several taking pictures, and partly because Germany's shot had split America's idiot curl that represented Nantucket cleanly in half. "Come on West! We weren't doing anything serious!" Prussia complained until another pencil hit the first, splitting it cleanly down the middle and dousing both of the nations in question in pencil lead dust.

Just then, Italy waved his arms from the front row. "Nee nee Germany! Will there be pasta served? Because you said I could have pasta then we could play." He gazed up at the blond nation hopefully even though his eyes were closed.

"Alright you have fifteen minutes to eat. Then we will me outside for some serious physical training." Germany ordered sternly pulling out a pocket watch.

"If you know what he means," Prussia added in a sarcastically snide tone.

"The troublemakers will stay behind, the rest of you are dismissed." Germany roared glaring daggers at his brother and America.

Norway and Lichtenstein fled the room to their assigned lockers, and then both retrieved their lunches heading out to the pitch. A few minutes later Belgium and Ukraine joined them. "This training is really scary. Germany is so strict." Ukraine cried. Iceland had run a fever and told them to go to referee training without him. Norway and his friends had decided to adopt Ukraine into the fold despite the ever-present threat of Russia.

"He's strict but I've definitely learned a lot." Belgium agreed before she tucked into a crepe. She paused while swallowing, "but what's the deal with the offside rule? Someone want to explain that one again?" They exchanged glances with one another before shrugging. Even Germany had seemed baffled by the new offside rule upgrade. Though the four nations had to give him credit for trying to explain it, even while trying to keep Brazil and Argentina from either killing each other or making out. It was love and hate bordering on war with those two, especially concerning the beautiful game.

Norway thought for a moment reflectively, "even though he's strict, Germany's not harsh unless he needs to be. He's not at all like he was before he met Italy." Norway had been a sort of prisoner in Germany's house during World War Two and even though Germany's boss had been insane, the nation himself had never done anything mean. The Germany from before WWI had been harsh and militaristic and would follow any orders. The Germany post Italy was kind even though he'd never lost his strict side.

"Quiet section nine! You only have one minute left to eat!" Germany shouted angrily from his spot by the goal sharing a meal with Italy and basking in the sunshine.

The group turned pale then hastily finished their meal. They walked over to the ball in the middle of the center circle where Italy had his foot on top and one of those cheap pennies kids wore in PE class. Still he looked cheerful in the bright pink, at least until Denmark walked over. Then he frowned and cowered behind Germany. "Now, we will put our training to good use, Italy and Denmark have graciously volunteered to play a friendly to let us practice. Belgium you'll take the role of main referee, Prussia and America shall be your line refs, Switzerland will be your fourth man, I shall be with you on the field to help out! The rest of you will sit in the stands to observe this match! Dismissed!"

Norway started to retreat into the stands before Denmark flung himself onto the smaller Nordic.

"Hey Nora! Come play with me! I'm sure Germany won't mind!" He licked Norway's cheek lightly.

The smaller Nordic wasn't sure if Denmark was trying to be dirty, but it still had the effect of turning him bright red. He shoved the larger nation off with a frown, "later, I promise. Now get out there and do your best."

He grinned cheekily and charged the field. "AWESOME TRIO SOUND OFF!"

"THE HERO IS READY!" America announced from the line at the top of his lungs.

"THE AWESOME ME IS THE LANCER!" Prussia added in, possibly even louder than America.

"AND THE BIG GUY'S GONNA KICK SOME GRASS!" Denmark finished off.

Before they could finish their motto, several bullets flew through the air grazing their hair, and in one case clipping off part of Nantucket's already damaged follicles. From the sidelines, Switzerland stood holding a pair of smoking pistols. His normally attractive features had contorted to extreme anger. "If you cause any more trouble for Belgium then you will all die." The normally neutral nation threatened.

The Awesome Trio swallowed in unison and backed down instantly. Denmark meekly shook hands with Switzerland and Belgium, but gave the line refs each the Awesome Trio secret handshake. Then he shook hands with Italy, exchanging a small banner and patch with the other nation. Italy would get first possession, which was just fine by him.

They walked to their places and Belgium blew the whistle. After various fouls ensued Belgium whipped out three yellow cards in the first half. She sent the teams off for half time heading up to Germany, who'd put on his Clark Kent reading glasses while he wrote. Just like the famed comic hero, the nation didn't actually need them; he just thought they made him look clever.

"Good work so far. Be careful in the second half. Romano likes to dive a lot, particularly when he's team is down." Germany addressed sternly.

Belgium saluted then ran back out for the second half. She handed out two more yellow cards, along with a red card to Denmark for trying to strangle Romano. Italy won in his traditional one to nothing style. They bowed out of the match, while Germany organized the referees and paced their ranks.

"I'm proud of all of you! After the final exams tomorrow, you will have four days off to return home. Say farewell to your loved ones, and search your hearts as to whether or not you wish to go through with this. Remember if you should succeed then few shall notice, but if you fail the world shall never let you live it down!" Germany stood at the head of the assembly. "Decide on who you wish to be line and second referees when you take the exam and report back before curfew! Do your best and never give up! Referee Training Corps Dismissed!"

Norway saluted then smiled over at Belgium, Ukraine, and Lichtenstein. "Do you want to be the test group?"

The group all nodded and agreed to it before reporting to Germany. The nation wrote their names into his schedule as the second group to go. Their test would be refereeing a friendly for about twenty-three minutes apiece, after which they would rotate out whom held what position. The team retired early, eager to be in top form for the next day. They woke up early for breakfast and a review of the rules before their turn.

Norway went first; he checked the players' equipment then snatched the game ball. The national anthems of Netherlands and Australia played followed by the two nations facing each other for the coin toss and gift exchange. Netherlands won and the two teams played ball. Norway found it to be a rather uneventful twenty-three minutes of game play, there were a few shots on goal from Netherlands, but the Nordic could tell that the nation in orange was holding back. He handed out one yellow card to an Australian player for an incidentally dangerous tackle. Soon enough his turn had finished and he rotated out with Lichtenstein. The Nordic worried about her since the younger nation was a lot smaller than both of the team captains, but she used her training from her older brother to intimidate the two much larger nations into a peaceful game until half time.

The four referees met with Germany for a brief review of performance before Ukraine took the field. Australia struck a hard pass across the field bending it dangerously close to Ukraine, she felt her eyes water but a brief thumbs up from Norway reassured her and she continued to keep pace with the game. She rotated out with Belgium for the last part of the game. The three sideline referees could tell that their friend had to physically restrain herself from red carding her older brother out of the game.

Netherlands, meanwhile, despite his laconically paced game, had set two shots cleanly into Australia's goal. Australia scratched his head at the end then shook hands while ripping off his shirt, "good game mate."

"You too," Netherlands pulled his shirt off, handing it over to Australia while tossing the green and yellow jersey over his shoulder. He waved over to Belgium, "hey sis. You want to go to dinner later?"

"No!" Belgium frowned and stalked away, mumbling to herself.

Germany stepped out of the stands to the four referees, "congratulations, you've all worked hard and passed the referee exam. I look forward to seeing you all at the World Cup in a month. Group B, dismissed!"

The four saluted then fell into a weird combination of a hug and a high five. "Wow, I never thought we could pull it off." Ukraine smiled.

"Definitely, I sure hope we end up working together." Norway smiled, he knew full well that the chances of that would be unlikely. Both nations and humans would be refereeing so there was a giant pool of talent to choose from. Still a nation could hope.

Lichtenstein giggled a little bit, "I have to go, Canada and I are going on a date to Italy's place. He's hired Veniziano to pilot a gondola for a private tour of Venice."

Belgium put her hand on her sort of sister in law's head, "be careful okay? Use protection and remember if something does happen, break it to your brother gently."

Lichtenstein's face turned a brilliant shade of red, "We're still easing into the relationship!"

"Course you are kiddo," Belgium kissed the smaller nation on the cheek. "Have fun, don't do anything I wouldn't do!" She waved as Lichtenstein departed for her date. The nation faced her companions, both a little worried; they both knew that Canada and Lichtenstein were very responsible.

Ukraine smiled at them both, "I promised I'd go visit Iceland and make him some soup. He said his fever had gone down but I'm still worried. I hope I can make this recipe for licorice soup..."

Norway nodded and gave her a hug, "give my brother my regards."

Ukraine nodded and smiled, "I'll see you guys later!"

The two remaining nations waved farewell to the third and departed the stadium. They chatted casually before, "HEY NORA!" Norway collapsed to the ground under Denmark's weight and force of his tackle.

"I'll see you later Belle," Norway coughed for a moment. Belgium waved and proceeded back to the referee barracks. "Danma, you know you're very heavy. I mean it's all muscle and all, but I can't breathe!"

Denmark nuzzled Norway's neck, "I missed ya!"

"I saw you at breakfast two hours ago." Norway grumbled trying to sit up.

"I know but that was two whole hours without you Nils!" Denmark sat up pulling Norway up with him. "I love ya!"

"I love you too, I still can't breathe!" Norway choked weakly.

"Ooh sorry man! But you're done right? I mean you passed and all, right? So we'll be able to hang out together right?" Denmark released Norway enough to let the smaller nation breathe.

"Yes, Danma, I passed and I'm done." Norway noted. "So what do you say we go home to my place?"

Denmark pulled Norway onto his back somehow, and stood up excited. "Let's go then!"

A/N: For those who haven't read Come on Pants but are jumping in here, I know full well Nora is a girl's name in Norwegian. Denmark initially used it as a taunt name for Norway but now it's a pet name. Like I said earlier, perspective will shift once we get everything sorted out.