Sorry the last chapter was so short… it was more of a prologue than a chapter one, really. But I needed to write and post something or this story would have stayed unwritten like all the other fanfic ideas I've had. So here's a longer chapter, with some actual plot and stuff :)

Canada's point of view this time, which is how it will be for the rest of the story. Unless I change my mind…

…

It was the end of the day, and the corridors of Hetalia Academy were packed with students rushing to escape. Matthew Williams was struggling to weave his way through the crowds, mumbling apologies to people who stood on his feet or crashed into him. No one thought to apologize to him, of course. He went unnoticed, as usual, an insignificant and generally uninteresting member of the student population. If you mentioned the name Matthew Williams to most people, they replied with "Who?" or at the very least too a long while to remember.

"Oh, Alfred's brother!" they'd say eventually. "What happened to him, anyway? He left, right?"

No, he hadn't left. He was still there, apparently as invisible as always.

And Alfred was actually Matthew's step-brother, but they did look alike. So much that Matthew was often mistaken for Alfred, although never the other way around. In personality terms, the two were polar opposites – Alfred was loud, confident and obnoxious while Matthew was shy, quiet and sensible. They got along well, at home at least, though at school they rarely spoke. It wasn't so much a case of having different friendship groups as a case of Alfred having friends, and Matthew having none. Not that he really minded. It wasn't that people disliked him, just that they often forgot who he was and he kept having to re-introduce himself. Proper friendships were too much of a hassle.

Even so, Matthew always went out of his way to be nice to people. He hated to see people looking stressed or upset. So, when he noticed Yekaterina Braginskaya trip up and drop all of her schoolwork onto the floor, it was his natural instinct to go over and help.

The fact that he'd always been ridiculously attracted to her had nothing to do with it. Nothing at all.

"Hey, do you need a hand there?" he asked, picking up one of the escaped folders and holding it out to her.

"Oh, hi. Thanks." She looked up at him, her cheeks pink with embarrassment, "Sorry, I tripped over my own feet!"

She laughed nervously and took the folder. Matthew felt his heart pounding in his chest.

"You're Alfred Jones' brother, right? You look like him." She paused and started to blush even more, "Sorry, I'm so stupid, I've forgotten…"

"Um… it's Matthew." He replied, momentarily forgetting his own first name. Silently cursing his own awkwardness, he handed her a battered, second-hand looking history textbook

"Yekaterina." She replied. Matthew managed to stop himself from saying that he already knew. "Most people call me Katyusha though… I guess it's a bit confusing. Anyway, thanks for helping me."

She gathered up the last of her things and shoved them into her satchel. The bag looked as though it had been mended several times and might split apart at the seams. Just like her schoolbooks, it had clearly been well used. Unable to help himself, Matthew began to wonder and worry. Maybe she couldn't afford to buy herself a new bag or pay for textbooks…

And she'd been walking alone, as well. Didn't she have any friends to go home with? Was she like him, invisible and ignored?

The corridor was clearing now as people began to leave the building. Before he could stop himself, Matthew opened his mouth to ask the Ukrainian girl if she wanted to walk home with him…

'You there! Blonde-'aired garcon whose name j'ai oublie! Matthieu! C'est ca, oui?"

The sudden burst of excited French-and-English caught both Matthew and Katysuha by surprise. The last person Matthew had expected to interrupt the what might have been the start of the greatest moments of his life so far was now approaching them, with a determined expression on her face that made Matthew instinctively want to run.

"Matthieu Williams, I need to speak to you."

Beside him, Katyusha breathed a sigh of relief and fled the scene, leaving Matthew standing awkwardly in the middle of an empty corridor, facing someone he'd never expected to speak to in his life.

Francoise Bonnefoy was everything Matthew wasn't, even without including the obvious gender difference in the equation. She was popular, confident

and notorious. Nobody asked "who?" when her name was mentioned. Her relationship history was the talk of the school – even Matthew knew about her recent and nasty breakup with Antonio Carriedo. Alfred, who had developed a method of ranking all the girls in the school based on attractiveness, had given Miss Bonnefoy an A-plus-plus. Then again, Katyusha Braginskaya hadn't even made it onto Alfred's list, so maybe his system wasn't that reliable.

Basically, Matthew could think of no reason why someone a girl like Francoise Bonnefoy would ever want to speak to a guy like him, let alone turn up to ruin the closest thing he'd ever got to a romantic moment. But instead of questioning her like any sane, unawkward guy would do, he stood dumbstruck and slightly terrified, waiting for an explanation.

"I need you to 'elp me with a project." Francoise began. A homework project, maybe? That would make sense.

"Not a school project," the French girl continued, as though she'd somehow read his mind, "A… um, 'ow do you say… a social project. Something I wanted to try out."

Okay, all logic in this situation had apparently flown out of the window. What was she talking about? Why did she need him, of all people?

"I needed someone who could go undercover, so I instantly thought of you. Well, it took me a while to remember who you were. But I remembered that people 'ardly ever notice you – no offence, but you are un peu forgettable, oui?"

Matthew nodded, still confused.

"And then I saw you helping Katyusha pick up her books, and I thought, 'e's always 'elping people like that, listening to them, sorting out problems… Which is why you, Matthieu, are the perfect person to 'elp me start a matchmaking service!"

And Matthew managed to form a sentence for the first time in the past few minutes, albeit a very short sentence. A one word sentence, in fact.

"What?!"

"I knew I could count on you, mon ami! Planning starts tomorrow, d'accord?"

And with that, she left, leaving Matthew to wonder what on earth had just happened, and whether he might be able to catch up with Katyusha before she got home.

…

Translation of the Frenchness:

Garcon = boy

J'ai oublie = I have forgotten

C'est ca, oui? = That's it, yes?

Un peu = A bit

Mon ami = My friend

D'accord? = Okay?

Review if you want and let me know if it sucks or not :)