Special Omake 2a :

Team Quiet People + Team Frying Pan: Sing a Song of Distress, A Pocket Full of Strife.

Argh-tor's Note: Ignore when I say I try to add in chapters. Once again, no owning Hetalia or American Idol. Or Casey James.

When Roderich Edelstein was first called to become a judge on American Idol, he was, as usual, his reticent self. He spoke on the phone calmly, as though he was ordering more sprinkles on his sundae. Although that was nearly impossible, seeing as Roderich did not fancy ice cream sundaes.

"It's not that I don't want to." He said stoically, holding his cell phone in one hand, the other holding a wineglass filled with Gatorade . "It's just...why me? Firstly, I'm not really an American..."

The voice on the other hand held a trace of a crackle, roughening the voice on the other line. " No, you don't get it, Mr Edelstein! You've been in the music industry for so long..."

"As a music producer."

"A child prodigy music producer, sir!"The voice replied, cracking slightly on the word "music"

Roderich sigh, feeling that familiar sense of exasperation creeping up on him again." Look, I don't like to broadcast to everybody about the fact that I'm a 17 year old ..."

The voice , however, ignored him." Not only that, with your erudite good looks , your age and reputation, we'll be able to raise viewership ! Think about the headlines! "Youth Producer takes on Idol!" You'll be the biggest draw we'll have on the show!"

Roderich paused, placing the glass on the wooden table." I just don't feel like capitalising on myself like that..."

The voice chuckled." Ah, Mr Edelstein! As it is, the show's all about different talents in different packages! It's reflected in our choices for judges! Firstly, we have Randy Jackson..."

" Isn't he Michael Jackson's brother? He was never in the music business."

"Then we have Paula Abdul..."

Roderich gave a mock gasp ," No Madonna? Good god!"

" And then we'll have a foreign producer who's also known as the most handsomest, but also the toughest critic of them all! " The voice concluded. You almost would have thought that he would be doing a victory dance by then.

The teenager paused, pushing up his glasses. "Look, I'm barely finished on my Masters..."

" All the better to become famous now then!"

A flicker of irritation began to appear. "Look...Mr...Erm..."

"Jones, sir! The name is Theodore F. Jones, at your service! Anything and eveything I can do, I'll do it for you! "

Roderich had no idea if he was going to puke with all the toadyism the guy was exhibiting., Then again, the man sounded rather carefree and happy, perhaps he really did mean what he said. Producers were getting more optimistic nowadays. "Yes...Well Mr Jones...I don't really enjoy this idea, I myself am planning to retire from the music industry, though nobody knows it..."

The voice over the phone gasped, " Oh , no! Really, Mr Edelstein? You can't leave! I mean...you're really talented in your choices in music! My wife adores you, she listens to the stuff you chose! And she's a big fan of your own music too! "

That got his attention, " My own music? She's heard of it ?"

The voice on the phone beamed. Well, Roderich couldn't really see it, more of a feeling that the voice was beaming." Trust me, my wife loves everything of yours..." The voice continued, a wistful tone layering on baritone " Sometimes I wonder how we can be together for so long..." before trailing off.

Feeling a rather long story behind the voice, Roderich decided to continue before the voice began relating tales from The Young and the Restless." Right...to be frank, if you really want a good draw to the show...why not try Simon Cowell? He was a judge from the original Pop Idol and a music executive in the UK. I believe that he will be perfect for the show."

The voice seemed to balk at the suggestion." Simon Cowell? You've gotta be kidding me, Mr Edelstein! Cowell scares the living hell out of the contestants! "

" Which is why he'll be perfect for American Idol." Roderich calmly replied, sipping some Gatorade from the wineglass. " Think about it, everyone loves drama. And what better drama than a man who dishes out the most caustic, the most meanest criticism of them all? "

" But what about the emotions of the contestants!" Wailed the producer on the phone. " They'll be emotionally stricken! "

" Well, think about it. " Roderich reached for a pen and a piece of paper. This conversation was rather good inspiration for a new song. " This will unite the audience members watching the show. People will love him, people will hate him. In the end, it'll unite the people of America and all over the world together whether through love or hate. Folks will watch American Idol because of their support for Simon Cowell. Even more would watch the show to find more reason to hate the man. In the end, people will still watch the show even if one of the judges is a mean man."

The voice on the other end of the phone was now quiet ," That does seem like a good idea..."

" Of course it is." Roderich said, a bit smugly. " I am a man of great ideas..."

" Well, okay!" Theodore F. Jones replied, overly happy about the situation." I'm gonna tell my boss later! Thank you, Mr Edelstein!"

Roderich , however was not finished." Erm...Jones? One more thing, if I may?"

The voice was back, in full happiness, " Yeap, Mr Edelstein! Anything!"

" A request, if I may. I want you to tell your boss that it was your idea to get Cowell on the show."

Now Jones's voice over the phone squawked in surprise, " Sir! I can't do that! It's your idea, and I'm too honourable for that! It'll go against the justice of the world! The Jones have always been about honour, justice, truth, virtue-"

" Stop before you reveal your secret identity as Superman." Roderich raised a hand , forgetting momentarily that he was on the phone. " Look, I really don't want to let everyone know , otherwise they would think that I was planning to continue on with the music producing business. The paparazzi are going to be all over me when they find out about my retirement, but this would give misleading ideas about my career path. So, kid-"

" Erm...sir,I do believe I am older than you..."

" It doesn't matter! What matters is that its a win win situation. You get the recognition that will be great for your career,and I'll get into my retirement faster." Roderich snapped, gulping down the Gatorade in his wineglass. " I want my exit to be quick and clean, no excitement whatsoever. Will you grant me this, Jones?"

The voice gulped, sounding as though he was trying to swallow his fear. " Yes, Mr Edelstein."

Soon after that, Roderich Edelstein , 18 years old, music prodigy and Masters Degree holder, announced his retirement from the music industry where he was based. Meanwhile, Theodore Jones, aged 35, was acclaimed for being a genius in bringing in Simon Cowell into American Idol. He soon got proposals by other people and became known as a genius director, rising above to the best and brightest of the Hollywood world. He then became a dean in the school at the age of 43 and brought his sons Alfred and Matthew over to study as well.

Roderich could remember the effects of all that when he read that piece of paper outlining their task during the school trip.

The four members of Roderich's team stared down at the paper, outlining their task . What followed was the same type of quietness that had more or less plagued his team for the past few days.

" So..." said Kiku Honda, who looked apprehensive staring at the piece of paper in his hand.

That was met with a bit of silence as Heracles , Sadiq and Roderich too looked at the paper .

A bit further away, a much noisier team were staring down at the same piece of paper.

" American Idol, da?"

" Kai wan xiao..."

" Yao, please stop talking in Mandarin..."

" Hmph! Another tribute to American Capitalism!"

" Natalia...Russia stopped being communist ages ago..."

" Communists!"

" Friend Iskandar, Please, we are friends in this. Russia has not been arguing with others for a long time...we would like an alliance, da?"

" As though I'll take any alliance from you, wanker!"

That was a bit of a mistake. Ivan's usually unnerving aura had suddenly reached Special Power: Aura Ominousity 100x ( which can be achieved using X , O ,L1 and the down button on the Playstation 3 control ). Taking the hint, the other students moved slightly away from Iskandar and Ivan while Iskandar, trying to put on a mask of bravado, was failing as the creepy smile on Ivan's face had increased, the ends of both reaching ear to ear. The lazy closing of Ivan's eyes merely added to the terror of Iskandar's being.

" An alliance, Friend Iskandar? " The boy repeated, this time in a voice that was able to render the forest quiet enough. Nary a bird was seen or heard, the wild animals decided that the outside was too dangerous for venturing and the skies darkened ever so slightly.

The trembling Malay stretched out a trembling hand towards the Russian , while the smiling Russian happily gripped it in two hands.

" Wonderful! We're all friends again!" beamed the Russian boy, Special Power: Aura Ominousity 100x dramatically reduced to small pinpricks in the air which tingled once in a while . Yao could only stare at the bigger boy and silently note.

Ivan Braginski: Serving peace with an iron knife.

Speaking of iron knife...

Yao had turned around to see the girl that resembled her brother so much suddenly brandishing a small foldable knife , with intent to go towards the Malay boy, who was now screaming in terror and on the ground, trying to escape. This move to kill the boy however was restrained by her tall Russian brother.

" Natasha! Nyet! " he shouted, doing his best to stop the girl from wriggling too much.

She shouted, trying her best to get out of her brother's grip. " He insulted our family's roots, its honour, and most importantly, your honour!"

Ivan had suddenly dragged her back, whispering quickly into her ear which made her relax and fold up her knife. She kept it into her shorts, but turned back to the Malay boy, her eyes full of malevolence and hate. "You're lucky that Big Brother is merciful and forgiving, but never forget! Big Brother is always watching you!"

Somehow, Yao had thought that the quote from the George Orwell book had rather matched his mood for the past few days.

"What's this I see?" demanded a voice from behind them. The students jumped and tried to hide evidence of what had just happened as their teacher-in-charge, Ms Elizaveta Hedavary , walked back into the campsite , where she had left it temporarily to do something.

Unanimously, all four students had quickly said the same thing that they had , under her tutelage, learnt to say.

"Nothing, Ms Hedavary."

Ms Hedavary looked at them , studying them strongly before smiling happily and saying, " Well, I hope you kids had fun!" she said, calmly wiping the frying pan she held in her hands clean. The students stared at the frying pan and at the woman cleaning it. Considering the fact that the woman was a Home Economics Teacher, it was rather scary to see her nearly beat up Mr Beilschmidt , the popular Principal's Assistant nearly every day.

And considering what she did to the kid who tried to defy her and her orders in the kitchen...even Ivan shuddered. The Netherland kid in question still screamed in girly terror everytime he saw a frying pan, a trace of long brown curls or even a petal that fell from the fresh flowers that Ms Hedavary usually placed behind her ear or tied on with her ponytail. Which was a bit troublesome considering the fact that his younger sis had brown curls, he took home economics and he was in the gardening club.

Then again, that was another story; best told only during nights with the curtains drawn, a blanket around you and prepared exits to run to the bathroom to prevent peeing on one's self.

In any case, Ms Hedavary was a scary teacher, and there were rumours of her , when not marking papers or teaching practical work in the kitchen, she was always glued to her computer , typing away furiously . Some whispered that she was surfing porn but it didn't explain the typing away furiously part. Yet nobody could deny the fact that Ms Elizaveta was a great teacher. Just not when she was angry and had a frying pan in her hands.

Ms Hedavary was not in a bad mood this time. In fact she seemed downright cheerful. " I believe you all took a look at the next task, yes? " She said, wiping her hands on the apron she had on. " Well, that also means that we have to cooperate with another team to do this task!"

This got the attention of the other kids.

"You're kidding...another team?"

"Da, more friends to talk to!"

"Friends are but an alien concept in our Russian Communists! All we have are comrades!"

Whatever the reaction, the kids were all secretly happy that they were able to see another team instead of the same faces everyday.

The same could be said for another team.

More specifically though, the teacher was the one eager to have another team with them. He would never admit it, but he missed the chatter of having many kids around him. Despite the fact that he liked his team mates, the fact that two of them hated each other was getting rather tiresome on his withered old soul.

Yes, Mr Roderich Edelstein liked to refer to himself as an old man. It's not a bad thing, really. But he's a bit silly in that way.

In any case, if he was to be completely honest with himself, the thing he really missed was having his friends among him. In his 26 years ( close to 27) , this period of his life was one of the most taxing, but also the best years of his life, with the meeting of so many people and making the most friends than he had ever had. He never really realised it fully until this week. He missed Francis's flowery language and photoshopping, Antonio's worshipping of the tomato and his young charges , young Feliciano's lack of aptitude for numbers...scratch that, he did not really miss was also young Ludwig's steadfast and sensibility, despite the fact that he had a penchant for throwing away things that could easily be reused. He even missed Gilbert and that incessant cheeping of that yellow bird he usually had on his head.

But most of all, he missed Elizaveta , his girlfriend.

In all aspects, Roderich and Elizaveta were two totally different individuals. The refined Roderich liked Beethoven , fine art and read Stephen Hawking . Vivacious Elizaveta was a huge fan of romance novels, loved manga and her current favourite song was Rockstar 101 by Rihanna. Roderich , while frugal, had a liking for wearing Armani suits ( though he also patched them up and wore them till the fell to pieces.) . Elizaveta was largely a t-shirt and jeans gal, but had a closet filled with dresses and outfits that she made in her spare time. While both loved good food, Roderich took years in the kitchen due to his rather anal personality to make sure every piece of food was made with the best , most precise amounts of ingredients and that the presentation was well enough too. Elizaveta, however was more of a 30 minute meal girl, much like Rachel Ray was.

In fact, if it were not for fate arriving in the shape of a silver haired dolt with a yellow fluffy ball of a bird riding his head most of the time, he might not have met her.

" Bloop!" said Gilbert as he plopped down next to Roderich in the teacher's lounge. " Roddykins! I missed ya! Did ya miss me too?" He gave a cocky grin, reminiscent of the one Brad Pitt gave in Inglourious Basterds, though it was some time before the movie come out.

Said Roddykins glared at Gilbert as he grinned and waved a hand, welcoming another familiar face to the table. Spanish Teacher Antonio Carriedo, whose green eyes and white teeth flashed in contrast to his dark skin, made a few female teachers faint in the corner as he gave them a carefree smile. The three of them usually had lunch together in the teacher's lounge, what with Francis, the usual fourth of their group being a student and all.

"Ah, today is indeed another happy , glorious day, si, Roderich?" said Antonio, opening his paper bag lunch to reveal a Tupperware with finely made seafood paella as well as a Kling wrapped tomato.

Gilbert snorted. " Please, I walked past your class at 10.45 just now ,Antonio. You were being pwned by Felici's older brother again. Honestly, you've got to be more strict with that boy."He opened up the fridge to retrieve his lunch , which seemed to be a sandwich from Subway again. Placing the sandwich into the microwave, Gilbert pressed a few buttons and stood in front of it, watching it revolve in the tray again and again.

Antonio nodded, smiling though his tone was sad. " Si, si...that boy just does not understand the difference between Italian and Spanish...He refuses to learn too...Sometimes, I think you recommended him to take Espanol just so that you can kick him out of your history class, Roderich. Which, now that I think about it...happens to be in the same time period as mine..."

" Which , as usual is boring talk, cause we say it all the time!" interjected Gilbert, opening the wrap on his Subway Melt . He took a giant bite out of it and continued talking, " Anneewahye, whee shneed to twalk arbart-"

" Say it, do not spray it, Gilbert." Roderich counter-interjected icily, wiping bits of chewed bread and sprayed sauce on his cheek with a lacy handkerchief he had in his pocket. " Swallow and then continue."

Gilbert swallowed, then repeated, " Anyway, we need to talk about Friday!"

Antonio raised one eyebrow. " What about Friday?" He asked quizzically.

"Well, my friend from Hungary's moving here!" Gilbert said , taking a swig from the hip flask he usually carried in his lab coat pocket. Screwing the bottle cap back on, he continued. "We gotta show him the sights, give him a jolly good welcome! And you know we give the best jolly good welcomes..."

"If you're referring to the last 'jolly good welcome ' we gave to that new teacher from Monaco, do you remember how that actually went?" Roderich asked, pouring out water from the water flask for his traditional soothing tea. "All we did was go to a bar and got roaring drunk . You Antonio sang a song about Merlin the Happy Pig, Gilbert here pretended that he was a giant Gilbird and Francis tried to look down that girl's blouse! That poor teacher was scandalised! She tried to make a run for it! Ladies are actually frightened of us in the bar!"

" Aw, psh and posh, Master Rodinstilskin." Gilbert waved a hand lazily. " Besides, my friend's one of the guys! He'll get along with us well enough!" He grinned suddenly, as though there was a hidden secret that only he knew about.

Antonio gave another one of his blinding smiles." Well, I am certainly in! And Francis will be fine with it too." Roderich had to shield his eyes from the brightness of the smile and Antonio and now the ruby fires of Gilbert's own eyes as they both looked at him, ready to make him...erm...persuade him to join them.

" Fine , I will join your party." As both men cheered, Roderich felt the need to add, " But expect actual paying of the drinks this time...and no more singing!"

" Some boys take a beautiful girl and HI-EEYED HER AWAAY from the rest of the Woo-AR-ROLD..."

Roderich tried his best not to wince as he sat at the bar, along with a cheering Antonio, as an already drunk Gilbert had somehow managed to take control of the karaoke machine they had and gone through two verses of " Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

They were waiting for the Hungarian Friend that Gilbert said would meet them, yet the minute they stepped a foot into the bar, everybody around the bar shouted, " Gil!" unanimously and started sending the four of them drinks. Francis was now flirting with a Eurasian man his age and Antonio seemed to be happily showing his new friends pictures of Feliciano, Lovino, the tomato plants he had been growing and his pet bull Torres , who he had raised as a calf back in Spain. And Roderich had declined all mugs of beer, preferring to sip daintily from his wineglass.

He was feeling all forms of impatience. How was it possible that the friend Gilbert said was waiting for them was LATE? No doubt the friend was another version of Gilbert, but opposite in colour wise. He tried to envision a man with orange brown hair, a tan complexion, brown eyes and had a ...well...what was the opposite of a yellow fuzzy bird on his head? This took a bit of thinking. Probably a white and brown bunny or something, he agreed.

" I want to be the one that WALKS IN THE SUUUUNNNN! CAUSE GIRLS, THEY WANNA HAVE FUN! YEAHY! GUURRLLLS !"

He had to remind Gilbert to not sing that song anymore due to the fact that his " creative arrangement" of the song, which included a few off- key parts , some strange emphasis on the different words and his almost want to give the song a country twang to it.

If he was to be honest with himself, he thought, Gilbert was actually a rather good singer, if not for his humongous ego getting in the way and making the songs more awesome...

"I agree." said a voice behind Roderich, speaking with a hint of wry amusement and a slightly unfamiliar accent. He turned to make eye contact with the speaker.

He may have denied it, but Roderich always did had an eye for beauty and fine art, and the girl's face was definitely a work of art. Brown curls were long and glossy, at the moment tied back with a kerchief that pulled back most of her hair, revealing a face that held emeralds in its eye sockets, glimmering with intelligence and humour. She had pale skin, though it was creamier than white, and her pale pink lips were set in a gentle smile, showing her teeth. While she was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, she made them seem like the most expensive garments ever made, though the effect was diminished by the off-white apron she wore.

Before he could clarify exactly what it was the girl agreed with, the girl herself spoke, "I meant no disrespect, good sir, I merely wanted to say that his lordship over there was indeed singing rather much like a cat on a hot tin roof." She said, pointing to the drunk man now proclaiming that, "girls just wanna have fun" when the working day was done.

Roderich himself had to smile, though it was possible he did so because he was so attracted to the outward frankness of the girl rather than his actual agreement of the statement. "That, unfortunately, is my friend."

Green eyes had widened slightly, lips formed to make an o. Roderich knew he had to make her do that gesture again sometime soon.

" My most gracious apologies, good sir." She apologized, bowing shortly. "Oh, I must seem terribly queer to you!" She looked flustered, blossoms of red on her cheeks.

With the graciousness of a gentleman, Roderich bowed back gracefully, his mind churning over the events. We wait for an irresponsible friend of Gilbert's, and instead I find a beautiful lady, just remarkably quaint in her ways. Her face is just so beautiful and charming...I have never seen such wonderful, exquisite, poised, delicate...

" Hey, barmaid!" yelled Antonio, who unfortunately had bounced in rather suddenly between the two of them. "Two glasses of Heineken for me and my friend here!"

Before Roderich was able to push a grand piano towards Antonio so that it would uncontrollably and without warning fly towards Antonio and crushing the shrieking Spaniard to bits, the barmaid smiled." Coming right up, good sire!" and left.

Gracious against impolite and crude people too. Mused Roderich. He waited until she had served them both, then turned his attention to her and asked, " You're new here then?"

Immediately realising the mistake he had made, Roderich quickly tried to murder his good self inwardly. " Good god, I sounded like one of those clichéd bar flies that ogle at young women and say things like, " Aren't you tired carrying those two heavy jugs the whole day through?" and pinching their bottoms as they walk by! " Are you new here then?" I might as well be declaring that I'm a 40 year old pervert who happens to like teasing young female things! I could be that guy on that show where everybody goes " Rod! " when they see me!"

He did not expect the girl to laugh as she went to scoop more ice for another patron. "Well, technically, I don't really work here. I was supposed to be waiting for a friend to come and get me, but unfortunately he was a bit preoccupied . And they wanted someone to take over for a bit so I volunteered my services." She grinned, making the lovely green lights dance in her eyes." I do a bit of work here and there , though I did go to college and do Food and Nutrition...its only for a day, I get some cash for myself and I can do a bit of buying of groceries while I look for real job adverts."

Roderich had to smile. She was an ambitious girl who knew what she wanted to do. "In that case, Miss, I wish you all the luck you may need in this world. "

Now she really beamed, throwing herself across the bar and giving Roderich a bear hug in gratitude. Though he had to admit, the strange dizziness he was feeling around his head was less to do with the air now being crushed out of his system than the fact that the Pretty Girl had HUGGED him.

And just as suddenly, the air did leave his system as Gilbert stumbled over to the bar and catching sight of the scene.

" Ah...methinks young Master Roddykins has a new conquest, eh?" Gilbert slurred as he gave a grin at the couple. Roddy turned to glare at the drunk man and was rewarded with a look of abject terror on Gilbert's face. Ha. Finally .

Though Gilbert's look of terror seemed to stem from the girl next to him, not at Roderich. The erudite man frowned and turned to look at the girl, who just seemed to be smiling, though her smile had acquired a touch of eeriness to it...it almost resembled that Russian boy from his history class .

" E-Elizaveta?" he spluttered, looking very terrified. " I'm...oh, shit and the gods!"

" Well, Master Beilschmidt. Took you that long enough to realize I was here, huh?" the girl continued smiling, but Roderich could just feel waves of terror expulse from Gilbert. In contrast, there seemed to be waves of icy cold anger emitting from the girl beating and smashing up the terror waves from Gilbert, with one particular wave being rather ambitious and shouting, " THIS IS SPARTA!" while pushing a smaller terror wave into a really really deep pit .

In any case, Roderich put two and two together , managing to come up with the number he needed and decided to ask. " You must be an ex-girlfriend of Gilbert then, Ms Elizaveta?" he ventured, trying his best to smooth things over the two beings. If the girl was indeed an ex, this would explain why Gilbert was terrified of her. Doubtless he must have paid her a huge unkindness and the girl was back to settle the score. Yet, Gilbert, despite all his transgressions and his huge annoying people factor, was still a friend. And he wasn't really a player with girls either. Truth be told, Gilbert hadn't really been interested in relationships since he started working in the school. So who was she?

Both of them stared back at Roderich, the waves of terror and bashing up temporarily forgotten. Then they both started laughing.

" What's so funny?" the distinguished man tried to hide his humiliation at being laughed at.

Gilbert then threw a hand over the brunette girl, who was now in hysterics. "Stop laughing so much, E. It's not so bad to be associated with me, pure awesomeness. This girl, Master Roderich, is the Hungarian friend I wanted you guys to meet. Meet Elizaveta ."

His flashback was cut short by the sounds of walking and talking. Team 5 was coming.

" Us like to move it, move it, us like to move it, move it, us like to move it move it..."

" By the gods sake, stop singing that ridiculous song."

" Why, you jealous that I can sing better than you, Herkie boy?" taunted Sadiq , a little smirk on his face as he pulled his hood on his jacket a little further down his face, keeping part of it in shadow.

" No, I'll just rather eat Kirkland's food, Dickie ."

" How dare you besmirch the great name that is Sadiq!"

" Please , may a giant Moussaka come over here and eat you, than spit you out cause you still taste weird."

Kiku sighed. He knew it was trouble when he found out he was going to be on the same team as them.

It wasn't that he hated both of the contrary, he liked them both equally, considering the fact that both of them had rather interesting personalities. The fact that both of them usually spent their time dissing each other, it was a wonder how he was able to be friends with both of them simultaneously.

Then again, both of them had been rather competitive, trying their best to gain his affection like a child being bribed by divorced parents. One day Heracles had taken his to his favourite spot at the back of the school where cats roamed and Kiku had enjoyed that, until Sadiq had found out about it .

The next day, Sadiq had bought a few parcels wrapped gaily with wrapping paper and had presented them to Kiku, who was sitting next to Heracles before class. Qhen Kiku had inquired of the occasion of the parcels, Sadiq had simply said that he thought that Kiku had deserved them. Opening them, Kiku had found many different cat plushies of different size, shape and brands, from Beanie Babies to giant , white cuddly cats, fluffy and cute. Kiku had been rather troubled by the presents. ( " they're all so beautiful...but where am I going to put them?") but he had clamly accepted them, thanked Sadiq politely and later gave away some of the cat plushies to his friends. Feliciano had the brown cat plushie he had decided to call Kitty and Yao, Kiku's classmate had received a big sized cat that looked a little like Hello Kitty, but with a smirk like mouth.

Many other situations had occurred between the three of them which had led poor Kiku to feel very , very tired over his friendship between both of them. Due to a long story in which both countries would not reveal due to it being rather long and " so much of a story that nobody would believe it", the two students would just not get along with each other . In fact, being between them most of the time was like battling the Hot and Cold, The Yes and the No, the In and The Out , the Up and the Down...

Kiku should really have to stop listening to Katy Perry .

In any case, he wish that all his friends did get along together. He hated conflicts, but his friendship with Heracles and Sadiq was getting on his nerves as the two of them fought as hard as they could to be a better friend than the other. It was a good thing that the other team was coming over, he could use a break from these two teammates and he had missed his friend Yao.

And speaking of which, Team 5 had finally arrived.

" Roderich! " yelled Elizaveta as she threw her hands around the erudite man, almost knocking his glasses off. " I missed you these past few days!"

Roderich, trying his best to get his systems back on track after the glomp by the overexicitable Hungarian woman. " Thank you, but please, refrain from hugging me in public. The students are watching...and we don't want to seem distracted from our work-"

" None of your sauce with me, young master Roderich" The woman ordered and smashed her lips against his own, kissing him for all it was worth. Roderich tried not to choke at first, but then relaxed and placed his hands against her waist, pulling her closer. It had been 3 days, after all . They never really had been separated for that long before , and Elizaveta had a way of making him forget about the important things sometimes...

Eliza broke from the kiss and rested her nose against his, nuzzling it slightly and asking softly. "Miss me ?"

Roderich had to smile at that, holding her against him tightly with one hand and stroking his girlfriend's curls with the other. " Is that a question?"

A dry cough could be heard slightly and both of them turned , to be greeted by the sight of students staring at them . Kiku was blushing fiercely, while Natalia and Heracles seemed to be in rapture at the sight. Next to her ,Sadiq and Iskandar had their hands against their mouths, trying to restrain the sounds from coming out while their bodies racked with laughter. Yao seemed to be trying his best to look away from the scene and Ivan...Roderich had to gulp. He was smiling, beaming from ear to ear. Wasn't it a bit too eerie for a student to smile that way?

His charming girlfriend, however, was made of much sterner stuff. " Now, what did I say about spying on other people, my duckies?" she demanded, breaking out of the embrace and placing both hands on her hips. " Mind your own business now, and away with you! Go and get more firewood, so that we can get started on the Task that awaits you! Now off!"

There was a collective " aww..." from the students, and Elizaveta gave a smile, before shooing them off.

"It's a wonder how any work gets done here." She said, turning her attention back to her boyfriend. "So , did you cope well without me, Master Roderich?" There was a teasing tone in her voice as she sauntered to the campsite, sitting down on the ground against the tree." No sudden movements from the starfishes or the crabs or the lobsters?"

Roderich gave a slight shudder before suppressing it ." I still don't understand why we had to do this on an island...near a beach , for that matter ."

" Was that why you chose a campsite so far away from the beach area?" asked Elizaveta as she smirked. " I mean, when you were younger and you had that craze watching Korean Soap Operas, you were obsessed with the whole idea of playing a white piano at the sea bank while serenading your love. Don't lie, Roddy. I saw the pictures."

"That was before I realised that there were consequences to that action." Roderich replied , resigned to the fact that his girlfriend still remembered that story.

" Consequence no. 1 being that the seawater ruined the wood of the piano when you were playing and consequence number two that because of the fact that it took hours to get the perfect picture, your piano had seaweed, crabs and starfish clinging on to it. Didn't help that you, due to your insistence for everything to be perfect, had to use your own piano."

He still remembered that day, etched deep in his mind. How the animals just seemed to be attacking the dark wood of the piano, the fact that the legs of the piano had swelled up due to the water and he found tiny crabs and dead fish in the foot pedals.

He still had nightmares, seeing his beloved piano getting attacked by sea creatures...

He felt arms encircle his waist again, and a warm head on his chest, brushing brown curls against his nose. Relaxing again he let Elizaveta stroke his back in a comforting way,she whispering, "Don't worry, I won't let anything get you, neither fish nor...fish..."

Happiness washed over him again, reminding of the first time he had felt that way with the girl.

Roderich sighed again, after showing the next candidate out of his home .It was hopeless. He was never going to find a housekeeper , his house was going to be filled with papers and music sheets for the rest of his life, his black coffee was always going to be cold cause he never really found a knack for heating the water hot enough, and he couldn't for the life for him figure out how to fix the cable in the house. He was never going to watch Larry King again!He might accidently eat fish due to his inability to distinguish between chicken and fish when they chopped up the meat! No girl would ever want to live here with this huge mess and-

A knock on his door shut Roderich from his thoughts and made him realise that there was someone at the door. Getting himself together, he rose from his table to get to the door. Most probably, it was Gilbert trying to raid his house for apple strudel again. Though he could have assumed that he had learnt from his past lesson when he tried to grab at a pie foil, only for him to trip and land on his back, the pie landing on his face. He would just have to make sure that the maple syrup was kept in the locked part of his refrigerator.

He opened the door to reveal the girl from the bar a week before.

" You!" both of them unanimously before Elizaveta collapsed to giggles. Glancing up at the glasses wearing man, she said, " Please forgive me, Roderich. It's just a shock, seeing you here and all."

" I believe it is." He said. Did Gilbert give her this address? For what reason would he do such a thing?

She then bent down to look at the piece of paper she had in her hands again. "I'm sorry, but this is Flat 123 B at the Rivera, right?" She said, looking quizzically at the paper. "I got this off the classifieds...I must have the wrong house. Nice to see you again, Roderich! I-"

" Wait, " shouted Roderich, as Elizaveta was hurrying off to leave. When she turned around, Roderich responded. " This is the right place. I'm R. Edelstein in the papers...and I'm looking for a housekeeper."

"So just a few notes you have to know..." Roderich said as he finished giving her the tour of the house. " Number 1. I don't like people touching my piano unless I give permission. Don't worry about the piano room, I like it the way it is and will clean the piano myself. Secondly, I will be out most of the day, so you can use the house facilities, though I don't like anyone to touch my paperwork..."

Elizaveta was nodding as he spoke, writing down everything in her notepad.

" Finally,if you're gonna cook here, can I request that you try not to make dishes with seafood in it? " said Roderich, looking rather dark at the thought of Seafood.

This had surprised Elizaveta slightly." Oh...okay...you are allergic to seafood?"

After a small pause, he replied, " Yeah, you can say that."

The girl smiled, once again." I'll make sure of that, Mr Edelstein."

" Please, don't call me that..." said Roderich, politely as ever, trying not to think of the girl in front of him serving him and calling him, " Mr Edelstein." In her light , teasing voice.

" Alright, then, " Young Master Roderich"?" she said,looking on smilingly.

Roderich stood up and said, " Do as you wish then, Ms Hedavary...where do you live anyway?"

That had startled the girl slightly, " Oh,I 'm staying at Gilbert's place for the time being, but finding a place soon. I'm meeting with the agent for an apartment and I think there are a few places that are looking for roommates..."

Roderich stood up and walked off abruptly down the hallway. As Elizaveta tried to figure out if she had offended the man in anyway , the man walked back to her and said, " I just went to check. There's a guest room that hasn't really been used, I don't really have visitors that stay over...you canuse that room. It's more convenient for you and the least I can do for a friend of Gilbert's, fool that he is."

Elizaveta was shocked and tried to protest at the idea. " Master Roderich, it's been kind of you enough as it is to offer me the job! I can't accept your kindness! I ...I..."

Roderich gave her a few minutes to calm down. Then said, in a sentence that finalized the deal. " Start tomorrow. You can move your stuff in my tomorrow."

Elizaveta agreed, he showed her out of the house and after accepting her thanks once again with aloof nod, he went back to his piano room, closed the door and played Beethoven's Ode to Joy for the next 5 hours.

His thoughts were once again broken by the sounds of the students making noise around him. Snapping out of his contemplative mode and into his " Let's Bust Up Children Cause They're Making Noise" Mode. " Silence!" He snapped, and the students all went quiet , having been used to their exasperated teacher. Except for Sadiq, who did not usually have history for his lessons, and so was more confident about

" Welcome to today's Council!" Announced Sadiq as he gave a charming grin while sitting around the circle that were the combined team of Team Quiet People and Team Frying Pan.

The two teachers had looked at the older student questioningly before Sadiq himself grinned sheepishly and said, " Sorry, I meant to let you guys start..."

" That's all right." Roderich said, now going from Roderich to Mr Edelstein mode. " So, students, we have a task to become American Idol...In this case, Ubin Idol..."

As the author did not want to bore you with all the silly details ( let's just say that the conversation halfway digressed to a discussion about washing detergent and which ones were the best. Even I had no idea how it got to that.), she thus would skip the conversation and go straight to the details.

It was decided that since there were two teams and nine people, there would be five people becoming the contestants and four judges, with Kiku and Ivan taking turns to host and judge and the other two being Mr Edelstein and Ms Hedavary. This caused a bit of an uproar as some of the other students were not in agreement of the choice of the student judges. Ivan solved the problem by smiling at the dissentients until they all cowered and started to pray out loud for mercy. ( Which was ironic, cause Ivan did , in essence mean something involving mercy.)

All five contestants would have to sing something for the auditions that would be of their choice and a compulsory singing of a song based on the theme chosen by the judges. The judges would give their critiques and choose two of their favourite choices. The final two would have to battle it out via a showdown which would involve something which the judges would decide on.

Pretty much like the original Idol, huh?

Of course, there were always some drawbacks...

" We have to SING?" shouted Iskandar. " I'm no singer! I'm a rapper!"

" Well, in that case, stop shouting and go to the corner to rap or something!"snapped Mr Edelstein." We got Idol, you're doing Idol."

Ms Hedavary chuckled . " It won't be so bad, students. Think of it as practice..."

The rest of the students groaned as they ventured to try and do something for their auditions. They were given at least 2 hours to and prepare what they would want to perform for their auditions .

Meanwhile, the judges , having been called to serve, began to prepare for their roles...

" I would like to thank you teachers for offering the role to me, even though I am unworthy of such an important job." Bowed Kiku as he met his fellow judges." I hope to learn from the three of you ! Please teach me all that you can!"

Ms Hedavary was delighted. " EE! A real Japanese boy! How absolutely kawaii!"

" Does this mean that they will be like Paula and Kara?" inquired Ivan as he sat down, How extremely nice! I always wanted to be Ellen DeGeneres myself!"

" Wait, does this mean I have to be one of the other two judges?" Exclaimed Mr Edelstein.

" Well, Mr Edelstein, you can always be Simon . I don't think you can pull Randy off anyway." The other teacher mischievously replied.

Roderich Edelstein inwardly groaned. After getting Simon Cowell to replace him, it seemed as though now he would have to take his place instead. How tragically ironic.

" We should get an American idol guest to guest star in our results show..." muttered Kiku , as he sat down , next to Mr Edelstein, Ms Hedavary, and Ivan -senpai. When the rest of the judges turned to look at him, he blushed under the scrutiny of their glances. " I mean...it's what the other shows would have on their shows...like a guest mentor and a performer..."

There was only silence to that suggestion. Kiku, for a long while, had only been seen as a follower , and had never really taken charge like that. Clearly, he was coming out of his shell , which was a god thing.

When they continued to stare at him even further, Kiku blushed a deeper red. " I mean no disrespect to both sensei and Ivan Senpai, forgive my intrusiveness..."

" You know, Roderich." That was Ms Hedavary now. " Young Honda has a good idea. If we want to make the show as good as the original, we got to have something that can bring in the audience..." Kiku shot a grateful look at Ms Hedavary, who smiled to reassure him. If Ms Hedavary agreed with the plan, Mr Edelstein would be okay with it...right? He turned to look at the older man, who seemed to be pondering over the idea. Ivan himself seemed to be quite happy. Then again, Ivan often had the same expression of happiness on his face.

Mr Edelstein had the same look of scrutiny on his face before he nodded briskly and said, " Yes, that would be a good idea. " Writing it down on his piece of paper, he then pushed his glasses back up his nose and looked back at his fellow judges. " But exactly who? Like you said, we got to show somebody that can bring in the audience, and I do not believe that any one of us can be good enough to bring in that much attention."

All four of them sat there, quietly in thought.

Suddenly Ivan stood up, the same smile on his mouth, but with a purple glint of insanity now swirling in his eyes when he had a good idea.

" I have a plan!" he said and took the video camera, despite the fact that nobody had designated an official video cameraman for the show. Grabbing some peanuts as well, he shouted, " I'll be back soon! Don't start this without me, da?"

In the wake of his running, he had left three judges all staring back t his running back. Neither one of the three of them could say a word. Finally Ms Hedavary broke the silence. " So...back to the auditions..."

The audition-eers were happily preparing stuff in what they were going to sing.

Unfortunately, this had already brought up more than a few conflicts.

" Herkie boy!" taunted Sadiq as he surveyed the brunette boy once again, as though he had not been doing it for the past 1000 and counting more days that they had known each other. " You worried that your favourite " Older brother " would trump against you once again in a competition?"

Heracles , who had dozed off for a short while( they gave him time to do stuff and he just fell asleep . That was Herkie boy, all right. Sorry, I meant Heracles. You have to admit, its kinda catchy) replied, " May the great gods know this...I want to make my " older" brother suffer. Can you please throw him into the great volcano and disfigure him so that he has no choice but to wear a mask for the rest of his life and never get any girlfriends OR boyfriends..."

" Okay..enough...I get it, I'm hideously ugly..." deadpanned Sadiq. " But guess what? Opression from society is what created the X-Men!"

"...You stole that from 30 Rock...I cannot believe that you would actually steal that..."

Meanwhile, another conflict had occurred, but this time , one of the parties did not even know that he was in a conflict.

This was , of course the conflict between Natalia, Iskandar and surprisingly , Yao.

Now this may have come as a surprise to many , as Yao, to be frank , had been one of the most conservative and rather quiet members of the team . Sure, he was rather suspicious of the foreign kids, and had been talking only in Chinese to those who understood Chinese or, if he even did speak in English, only to the other Asian Kids. Yet, he never really did cause that much trouble to anyone else, and for the past few days actually got along pretty okay with his team mates, speaking to them in English when there was need.

This was a huge improvement in Yao's temperament and may or may not have stemmed from the tall, giant Russian lad that everyone had known as Ivan, who was friendly and had a rather hippie like stance towards life (" Let's us all be friends! Peace on earth! Become one with Mother Earth ...and Russia! Drink Vodka!") The tall Russian may had been the cause of many people's nightmares ( specifically the three cousins from the Baltic states and maybe some others) , and Yao was indeed suspicious of this gwailo's friendly stance to EVERYONE.

However, the gwailo did have his good points. He was a huge self conscious lover of the environment. He liked Pandas ( Or rather, dressing up like pandas. But Yao would only find that out later). He admired the boy's artwork during the Arts Festival once. He grew sunflowers. He helped the school cleaning auntie with the plumbing of the taps once. ( Though for some reason, the sight of Ivan holding a bit of pipe in his hands had caused some to scream and run away in the opposite direction.) He had a shy smile. He had pretty purple eyes...

Okay, so what if he had a small tentative crush on Ivan?

No one knew about that small, tentative crush on Ivan!

It was imperative that you as part the audience, do not tell anyone about his small , tentative crush on Ivan!

( Ivan had, at that point of the story sneezed. Oops. Time to get back to relating the story.)

While this unusual lax in the Chinese boy's efforts to talk to his western teammates was welcome, however, there was one person who had viewed his actions with suspicion. This person had attributed this act somehow to one other member of the team, who was in her eyes so wonderful that he could make someone like Yao be more sociable.

And for that, Yao had to be watched closely, and hated.

As of the moment, Yao had not known that he was an object of such a vendetta, ( it was a vendetta in Natalia's eyes!)

The other party involved in the conflict, to be frank, wasn't really much of anyone in a conflict.-

Iskandar bin Zainuddin, 18 years old, chuckled rather smarmily , as much as he could.

He was just suspicious of the Crazy knife Russian lady and the Chinese boy.

" So, if we get each singer to do this theme, I believe that it will be a rather popular choice." Said Kiku, circling a word on his proposal and addressing one of the two teachers with a a quiet sort of confidence,which he had never really had before. Mr Edelstein seemed to be trying to psyche himself out and was playing a small mini toy piano , much like Scroader's .

He knew that this theme would be a rather popular one. After all, it manipulated the feelings of so many females and males all over the world, and thus, it would be considered appropriate . But of course, it would be up to the decision of the older judges and Mr Edelstein and Ms Hedavary would have to make the final agreement. And of course, the idea was not exactly a popular one, as it had been a long time since anyone had used that theme, it wasn't a good idea after all, oh god, he was more or less about to embarrass himself once again! Why was he so silly as to think that his idea was worthy of the project! Argh! What a disgrace he would be to his family! He might just have to commit seppuku-

" That's a great idea, Kiku!" exclaimed Ms Hedavary.

Wait. What?

" Excuse me, Hedavary sensei?" he said, momentarily calling the female teacher by the Japanese honorific for teacher instead of the English address of Ms., shocked that anyone would actually agree that his ideas were actually good.

The tall brunette lady wrinkled her nose in mock disgust. " Sensei? It sounds weird being called that... though I have to admit, its great being treated like a Japanese teacher..." She suddenly grabbed hold of both his wrists and looked at Kiku straight into his eyes. He had to flinch , those green eyes were looking at him very earnestly. "It's not possible ...it's a total manipulation tactic of all the males and females everywhere...especially the girls..." she muttered to herself before addressing him again, this time almost shaking with fervent excitement. " You're a secret otaku too, aren't you?"

Now Kiku had to gape.

" I knew it!" she whispered happily as her eyes began to fill with mirth. " The fact that you know how to get people to vote shows that you know how flags are triggered or what the flags are or even what trigger a flag even means!"She let go of the Asian boy's hands, her eyes still shining. The Asian boy was blushing, not because of the fact that Ms Hedavary had found out his secret, but more because of the fact that she knew what " trigger a flag" meant.

"Ms Hedavary, I .."

She broke through , " My god, do you know what this means?" she said , practically bouncing in her seat. " That means that you too know how to manipulate people! Especially the feelings of all those fangirls and fanboys everywhere!"

Okay, now she was getting too excited for her own good.

" You've got a huge gift, you know, Kiku?" She said, looking straight into his eyes. "We all know that people who watch anime and read manga are the ones who are most able to know what a person desires! And you know what that means?" Tears were actually overflowing from her eyes. " You can be a master manipulator of people! Tell me, Honda. What are you planning to do in the future?"

Kiku , who was trying to understand where she was going with her train of thought, was silent for awhile, then said, " Well...I've always wanted to be a manga artist..."

This had Ms Hedavary practically hugging him and demanding, " Shounen or shoujo?"Before Kiku could reply, however, the teacher had went from " practically hugging " to " squeezing the life out of him." This had , of course, nearly led Kiku to have a coronary, more due to the fact he had never had a real hug from a girl outside of his family before...Of course, Feliciano-kun had tried to hug him once, but after screaming in girly terror ( and causing poor Feliciano's ears to nearly get destroyed), Kiku had tried to get him to take responsibility.

" No matter!" she said, finally releasing the boy. " Kiku –kun...can I call you that?" The boy nodded , still in catatonic shock over the extreme hug he had. " You're one of the most talented students i have ever had. But you're so modest you don't even see it! And you have all these great ideas, but you don't come out and say it out , cause you're afraid of how people would react!" she said, looking rather disappointed. " So, I want you to do a special assignment for me."

Kiku, who was beginning to feel spasms of panic in his mind , felt the alarm bells ringing loudly .Still he ventured. " Yes?"

" For the next few days, I want you to try and put forth your ideals to your peers and your seniors." Said Ms Hedavary seriously." Use whatever you need to do, the point is, you need to put forth your ideas in a polite but firm manner. Instead of focusing what other people want, why not try doing something which you would want and try to get people to get used to it? Can you try that at least ? We'll talk about your progress by the end of the week."

Kiku had to nod. What else could he do?

"I'm back!" yelled Ivan as he seemed to be carrying a huge bundle over his shoulder, running back into the clearing that was Team Four's campsite. The others all stared at him and at the bundle, which...was it their imagination? Was the bundle actually speaking French?

" Exactly what is this commotion? " snapped Roderich as he walked straight to the Russian boy. Ivan however did not seem to be frightened in the face of discipline and extreme exasperation, and placed the bundle on the ground, who seemed to be a motionless young man, evidently unconscious, but muttering in French , possibly talking in his sleep. Ivan then addressed his teacher with such a beaming a beaming smile that little children around the area got rather jealous and went off pouting, unhappy that a 18 year old teenager had stolen their thunder of adorableness.

" Mr Edelstein! Remember how we said we needed to get a celebrity guest to help our show? Well, I was walking in the forest looking and I found this man! Doesn't he look familiar , Mr Edelstein ?"

Now that Roderich could get a better look at the unconscious man, he did recognise the blonde curly hair and the slightly stubbly chin. In fact, he could bet that the young man , when he had his eyes open, had orbs of a bright azure. If he wasn't wrong, this man was in fact-

" This is...Casey Jones! This is wonderful, we have got a celebrity guest here!"

All the students and the two teachers stared down at the unconscious being on the ground, who was now stirring from his unconsciousness and muttering, " Merde.".Only Kiku was able to open his mouth and quietly point out something that was rather obvious...

" Erm...Ivan- senpai...I believe that man you have got is actually Francis. Like Francis Bonnefoy?"

And indeed , it was the very same Francis , who had now opened up his eyes and was sitting up frantically. With his mouth open in shock, the young man made a few strangled noises, before all that he wanted to say came jumbled out in one long yell.

"WHYAMIHERE?"

" Dude, that sure sounds like Francis..." muttered Iskandar.

" Douche, that's because he IS Francis!" retorted Sadiq.

Ivan was still beaming. " I was just walking about and I saw Friend Ludwig ! As we were conversing, Casey James walked over singing and I kindly invited him to be our celebrity mentor! He accepted , so I carried him here! We're now really great friends!" He had knelt down next to Francis and had also thrown an arm around him shoulder, making the young man begin to tremble, something that nobody had ever really seen Francis ever do.

Roderich and Elizaveta had , the whole time, looked down on Francis, both still in a bit of a speechless phase . The female teacher turned to the male teacher and whispered. " Shouldn't we do something?"

Roderich whispered back, " What identity the young man chooses to assume is none of my business. Francis Bonnefoy one day , Casey James the next...as long as he remembers to return me the 10 bucks he still owes me, he can be whoever he wants."

" You're still pissed cause he borrowed 10 bucks from you, Roddy? Tsk."

He looked back towards her primly. " It is not my fault the young man is a careless oaf who insists on borrowing money from me..."

" Erm...Casey James...is that you? " Now Heracles had come out of his slumber to peek at the man. " Weren't you in Idol? And why are you dressed like this French guy I know..."

" I'm not Casey James! I'm Francis! Braginski kidnapped me when I was doing my usual "skipping in the woods much like Little Red Riding Hood " thing I do everyday! I'm Francis! Francis!"

"Francis ja nai, Casey James, da?" Now all the students turned to look at Ivan in shock ( Except for Natalia, she was looking on at him in fervent adoration and worship.), ignoring the French man who had now fainted again due to the amount of stress attacking his face and giving him wrinkles.

" Oh god! That's Japanese!"

" Where did he learn Japanese? Why on earth would he of all people learn Japanese!"

" My big brother is a genius!" Natalia yelled, running to clutch Ivan's arm.

It can't be...thought Kiku. How is it possible that Ivan watches Gintama? Ivan? Gintama?Oh , the fabric of the universe is unravelling, right? I need Haruhi Suzumiya here, NOW! Please don't tell me he wants to be a long haired man who own s a pet bird called Elizabeth? Am I the only one being sane here! Argh! I'm turning into Shinpachi! The power of Shinpachi's glasses are attacking me!

Of course, none of that was actually said out loud. Kiku was just silently watching the procession while the entire thing was still ongoing, his face expressionless and calm. There were just some things that can't be said, even if it was your mind voice yelling out.

After a 15 minute talk to Ivan for kidnapping people by Roderich and Elizaveta managing to revive Francis ( she just whispered in his ear that Moulin Rouge had opened in Singapore and were looking for him to be one of the main dancers) , the preparations for Idol had gone back on . Francis had agreed to be a celebrity mentor and sing two songs for the results show as a favour to Roderich for borrowing the 10 dollars. ( He still wanted to money back, don't get him wrong. But he figured he could milk him for everything he had for the moment. )

Though there was a question on whether Francis's team would be worried about him.

:" Ah, there is no trouble about that at all." Said Francis, waving a hand lazily. " As it is, I am considered the heart and soul of the team. As soon as they find out I am missing, they would do whatever it takes to find me! And as I am too tired to venture back , I shall simply sit and wait for them to come and find me! "

Meanwhile...

" Hasn't anyone wondered where Francis went off to?" asked Leona, looking around at her team mates.

The rest of the team are silent.

Then Alfred looks down on his board and yells, " Ooh! I'm buying Parkway Avenue!"

" Not a chance, bloody tosser!" Arthur snaps. " I got Mayfair! You can't take Parkway if I got Mayfair!"

" Heraherahera!" says Principal Vargas. " I'm in jail! My doggie's in jail!"

"Ooh!I'm passing GO! " squeals Leona. " Give me 200!"

In any case, the auditions were about to start, and each student were , in many cases, more or less bored. After all, if it was confirmed that you were going to be in the top five and none of the kids were aiming to make singing as their career, there wasn't really much incentive.

That was until Mr Edelstein and Ms Hedavary pulled out a twist. If the kids were able to do the task very well, all of them would be treated for a lunch by the two teachers ( Roderich had opened his mouth to protest at the idea of wasting money in such a frivolous manner, but Elizaveta had then shoved a piece of chocolate into his mouth .) and the top two would get special prizes by both teachers.

This interested the students and soon, the five students had began to do their very best to sing their hearts out. One of the kids had actually began to do some moves for the song he was performing for the audition. Well, considering the fact that the song he was singing was a rap, it was rather questionable as to what kinda of dance he was doing to that song.

This had also fuelled the two conflicts that we have just examined, the first between Sadiq and Heracles, the second between the antagonistic Natalia, the oblivious Yao and the rather redundant Iskandar.

As the feuds between the students had been ongoing, the Idol provided them with a platform to stage their fight . The fact that the objects of the contestants desires were in the judging panel became even more imperative for them to perform well and flamed the fires that were their passions.

Francis had , in the meanwhile been allowed to take a break and help with the filming /hosting of the show whenever possible. He had even offered to help photoshop their backgrounds of the individual contestant to make it more " romantic". All had declined his help.

" Don't go breaking my heart.." Elizaveta sang as she started to hang the laundry. " I couldn't if I tried..."

It was just such a happy thing, being in a kitchen and cleaning, with the bright sun streaming in from the kitchen window and fresh cookies baking in the oven . She just felt so right being in the world today. Listening to the radio made her happy, and she then started to sing along with the lyrics when a particular favourite of hers came up on the radio. She had squealed while in the middle of hanging the bed sheets and was now dancing and singing around the kitchen, bed sheets now tied around the body much like a dress . It was a good thing Master Roderich was still playing the piano in the piano room, he usually took hours when he was in there, and she did not want to let him see her in such a ridiculous sight.

It wasn't as though she had to tell her employer that she had a thing for being spun around in a ball gown while singing a duet with the man of her dreams.

Nope, there were some things she just couldn't tell him.

Though she had to admit that Roderich was a rather nice boss, despite the fact that he had a tendency to leave sheet music around the house ( she found a couple of them in the bathroom, wasn't that kinda cute?), liked black coffee without anything else, but would bake a mean apple strudel that was strewn with cinnamon and sugar, and fell asleep at different parts of the house because of his tendency to overwork himself. ( Elizaveta found him once collapsed on top of the keys of his grand piano, breathing heavily and eyes closed while finger still playing on the keys.)

The man also had an inexplicable fear against fish and nearly all forms of seafood too. Most strange.

Yet, the man was kind. Elizaveta had often seen him assisting the old women in the complex, helping them carry their groceries while the old women swooned at the handsome young man at their mercy. Despite his stiff appearance, he gruffly helped his students, including young Feliciano in Mathematics, even though the kid was a bit muddleheaded and fluffy in mind and Roderich was a History teacher, not a Math teacher. Elizaveta had also secretly seen him once trying to wash dishes on her day off, though he had absolutely no idea on the difference between a sponge and steel wool and had broken two of his dishes while doing them. He was also rather willing to share stuff with Elizaveta, including the wireless connection they both shared, and Elizaveta was able to work on a few yaoi fanfic as well as find loads of scanlations of yaoi comics.

She turned around shortly at the bridge of the song and started to sing at the top of her voice, now feeling so much in the moment she was not aware of her surroundings." When I was down...I was your clown...hoohoo...and nobody knows it, nobody knows...it."

A soft cough interrupted her singing and she turned around, only to be confronted with her Employer looking at her with an unreadable expression on her face. Elizaveta gasped, realised what she was wearing, and quickly tried to tear it off her . Instead, she tripped and fell over, with only Roderich to break her fall. They both tumbled to the ground.

She tried to apologize to him, but for a minute, Roderich just looked at her with an inscrutable glance at her. Then he got on , offered a hand to help her up and when she took it and stood up. Before she could say another word, he simply said, " I need some laundry taken to the dry cleaners. Please do that and also put the cookies in the jar once they are baked. Save some for afternoon snacks."

Then he left.

While Elizaveta was thanking the stars that she did not get fired or reprimanded for her actions, a now red-faced Roderich was in his room, staring into blank space while he replayed the scene of her twirling around in that bedsheet and singing. Who knew she had a beautiful singing voice? And was it just him, or did his imagination just added himself into the scene, holding her by the waist and waltzing with her ?

Once again, Roderich's thoughts were interrupted while staring at the beautiful girl next to him that had captured his heart . The show had started and they were now welcoming the first auditioneer.

Argh-tor's notes: Some parts are parodies of Gintama, especially Katsura's famous line.

This is only part One of the special Omake...part 2 will be out soon.

Review, please? Casey James implores you to!

Casey James: I'm Francis!

Argh-tor: Only when you return the 10 bucks you owe Roddy.