Alfred Jones sprinted through the crowded hallways of One World High School, his books clutched protectively to his chest. He dodged past groups of other students that were loitering around before their classes, not even caring about the looks he was getting. Almost there...I'm almost there! A relieved smile came to the American's face as he caught sight of his math class's door at the end of the hall. Yes! I'm gonna make it without running into- Alfred gasped as he was suddenly tripped up, falling hard on the floor. He skidded across the cold surface, his books flying from his grasp.

"Haven't seen you in a while, Alfred. You've been avoiding me, da*?" a smug voice taunted from behind the fallen blonde teen, the voice's thick Russian accent pronouncing certain words in a - if not for the situation - funny way.

Crap on a cracker... Alfred winced as he got to his knees, glaring up at the figure that had tripped him. "Piss off," he muttered, readjusting his slightly askew glasses.

Ivan Braginski pouted mockingly, picking up the blonde student's math book. "That isn't a very nice way to greet someone, Alfred...Especially since we haven't seen much of each other in a while, da?" he replied in that same smug tone, opening the book up and flipping through the pages with feigned interest.

"Hey, give that back! I bet you can't even read that, you illiterate commie!" Alfred demanded, scrambling back to his feet. He may not be physically strong, since he was pretty scrawny, but Alfred knew he could beat the Russian in a verbal confrontation. He wasn't considered a gifted student for nothing!

The larger teen's expression darkened, and Alfred knew he had hit a nerve.

"It's just a bunch of worthless information, anyway. Why would I waste my time on this?" Ivan growled, fingering the corner of a page. A dark smile formed on his face, his odd purple eyes glittering with bad intentions. "And you shouldn't either, Alfred...Besides, you are smart enough, da?" he chuckled, tearing the page down the middle, smiling at the sound of ripping paper.

Alfred gaped at the other teen for a moment as he continued to destroy the American's math book. "Hey! Cut that out! I need that, you stupid jerk off!" he exclaimed, making a lunge for the shredded book.

Ivan raised it above his head, out of the blonde's reach, a cruel grin on his face. "You don't need this! You're the school's little genius, remember?" he sneered, pushing down on the shorter teen's head with his free hand.

"I'll kick your fat ass, Ruski! I know kung fu!" Alfred shouted, throwing wild punches that didn't come anywhere close to hitting their mark.

The hall seemed to go silent at that statement, the other students suddenly becoming interested in the little tussle. It happened quite often, really, but they always knew shit was going to happen when someone was stupid enough to call the Russian bully fat. Unless it was another bully of the school, such as Gilbert Beilschmidt, such an action would usually earn the foolish student a trip to the hospital. The bullies of the school stuck to their own territories, and hardly ever interacted with each other.

The Russian chuckled darkly, his eyes narrowing at the insult, and pushed Alfred back easily. "That line sounds very familiar...When have I heard you say it before? Ah, I remember now! You said the exact same thing before I knocked you out cold with one punch," Ivan recalled in a smug tone, tossing the ruined school book to the floor as he advanced on the American.

Alfred cringed at the memory, or, at least, what he could remember from that incident. "Y-Yeah, well, that won't happen this time! I've been practicing...," he muttered defiantly, his confidence quickly shrinking as the much larger student continued to approach him. Yeah, he'd been practicing...by watching old kung fu movies in his alien PJ's.

Ivan smirked as he stopped in front of the slightly quivering American, cracking his knuckles in anticipation. "Let's see how smart you are after I knock your head into the wall a few times, da?"

Oh, shit...Oh, shit! He's gonna kill me! Not the face, not the faaaace! Alfred begged mentally, panicking as Ivan raised a fist to hit him.

"Stop right there! I will not tolerate brawling in my school!" a booming German voice yelled, the owner of said voice forcing his way through the crowd of by-standing teenagers.

Both Alfred and Ivan spun around at the commanding voice that came from down the hallway. Principal Adalhard Beilschmidt* stood glowering at them as the once large crowd of students hastily made their way to conveniently remembered classes.

Thank you, Principal B! You just saved me from getting crippled for the rest of my life! Alfred thought gratefully, breathing a sigh of relief. He honestly felt like hugging the grouchy man in a display of his gratitude, but he refrained. If he did, though, he would be crippled for the rest of his life.

"Mr. Braginski, Mr. Jones...My office, now," the older man ordered out in a clipped tone, his sharp blue eyes piercing through the two like a hawk. A very pissed off, killer hawk.

Ivan sent a cold glare at Alfred, shoving the blonde out of his way as he trudged into the German's office.

Alfred flipped the other boy off when his back was turned, gulping when the Principal gave him a pointed look.

"How many times is this?" the blonde German demanded, leaning against his desk as the two teens settled down into the chairs that were set up in his office. "You have both been told time and again, no fighting on school grounds!"

Neither of them spoke, both avoiding looking at either the Principal or each other.

"How many times?" Mr. Beilschmidt hissed, his already thin patience running out.

Alfred squirmed in his seat and licked his lips nervously, his usually confident voice abandoning him in the face of the Principal's outrage.

Ivan muttered something in a tone too soft to hear, not lifting his gaze from the ugly carpeting in the small office.

"So that we can hear, Mr. Braginski," Adalhard uttered sharply, his eyes narrowing as he drummed his calloused fingers on the wooden desk top.

"Two hundred and ninety-eight incidents...this year," the Russian spat, seething in his chair.

"More than one hundred of those incidents having included Mr. Jones, the rest with various other students. All of these encounters were stated to have been instigated by you, Mr. Braginski," the Principal said, moving his hand to tap at a large file on his desk.

Alfred's blue eyes widened considerably at this revelation, shocked at the information. I knew he was a bullying jackass, but seriously?! Almost three hundred times, and that's just this year! he thought in bewilderment, glancing at the beige haired teenager. While it was true that the Russian started most of the fights that they got into, Alfred had also been known to poke the bear, as it were. Should I own up to that? he thought for a moment before quickly shooting down the idea. Screw that! Let the bastard fry for it.

"I'm going to have to call both of your parents in...again. We'll need to discuss this disruptive behavior from the both of you," Mr. Beilschmidt stated sternly, giving the two a withering look. "To go along with your regular punishment of six weeks detention, I'm going to do something a bit unorthodox with you two. If you don't start getting along with one another, we're going to have some very serious problems, do you understand?" he growled.

Alfred and Ivan both remained silent, but they nodded in acknowledgement.

"Mr. Jones, you're a straight A student, but you lack motivation and tend to turn your work in late. You goof off during classes, and though it doesn't seem to be effecting your studies, I do not approve of your attitude. Mr. Braginski, you are failing almost every one of your classes, and you show no signs of improving on your own. You have shown up to school drunk on several occasions, you smoke on school grounds, and you torment your schoolmates; none of which are acceptable!" the German man rumbled, drumming his fingers against the desk top once more.

"So...What's our other punishment?" Alfred ventured, twiddling his thumbs in an effort to keep calm.

"I am going to have you, Alfred, tutor Ivan. In return, he will help get you onto one of our sports teams. Hopefully, you'll both rub off on each other in a good way and help one another. You will help Mr. Braginski with his grades, and he will keep you motivated for your own work by giving you a physical goal to achieve. I've found that a balance of physical and mental exercises works much better than just one or the other. I want you to do this until the end of the year," the Principal explained, waiting for the fallout from the teens.

Alfred and Ivan exchanged looks.

"No way!"

"Nyet*!"

"This is not up for debate! I'm not asking for you to get along like best friends, just enough to help one another!" Adalhard bellowed angrily.

Alfred groaned, slumping in his chair as he sent a glare towards the Russian next to him. Of all the stupid, weird punishments to come up with...

"You may both go to your lunch now, the bell rang not too long ago. I want you both back here at the end of the day, though, so that we may talk with your parents about your behavior. Your punishment will start immediately tomorrow, and I will be checking in with you both personally," Principal Beilschmidt ordered in his gravelly voice, waving the two boys off with a stern look.

"I hate you so much," Alfred muttered as they walked out of the Principal's office, scuffing his sneakers against the rows of lockers that lined the walls.

"You think I actually care?" Ivan snorted, rolling his eyes contemptuously.

"The only thing you care about is food, wide-load," Alfred shot back, gesturing to the larger teen's stomach.

Ivan glared at the blonde, but to Alfred's surprise, didn't do much more than that. "Just go away and annoy your little friends already. I've seen enough of you for today," he grumbled out, wishing he could pound on the American for his constant commenting on his weight. If I punch him, though, I'll probably get suspended...and that's even worse than having to play nice with him for the rest of the year...Papa's going to kill me when he gets that call from the Principal. Without another look at the blonde, he stormed off down the hall, in the opposite direction from the cafeteria.

"Pfft, jackass...," Alfred huffed, sticking his tongue out at the other's back as he headed into the cafeteria to meet up with his friends.

"Alfred, over here!" Arthur Kirkland, one of Alfred's friends, shouted over the din of other voices in the echoing room that was the cafeteria. He motioned the American over to a table in the corner, where their group of friends always sat. It was more commonly known at the school as "The Nerd Table".

"Hey, guys!" Alfred exclaimed as he squeezed his way through the press of teen-aged bodies that clogged up the walkways between the tables. "You would not believe how crappy my day has started."

"You did something stupid, got into a fight with that brutish Russian, and then got a talking to from the Principal," Arthur stated, flipping through a tattered book of old English fairy tales.

"Whoa, how'd you guess?" Alfred laughed, sitting down next to Kiku Honda, a student originally from Japan.

"Y-Yeah, we heard that you got a really bad punishment, eh...," Matthew Williams, Alfred's step brother, murmured, giving the sandy blonde a concerned look. He hated conflict, but his step brother seemed to attract it wherever he went. "It's already all over the school..."

Alfred puffed his cheeks out in annoyance, getting into his packed lunch distractedly. "Well...I have to tutor Braginski now...Until the end of the year, actually," he sighed, taking a sip of his soda. "I also have to get onto one of the sports teams, which is just stupid. It's supposed to teach us something, or whatever..."

"That is too bad, Alfred...But...maybe you can learn to deal with Ivan, yes?" Kiku spoke up shyly, pushing around some rice with a chopstick. "Think of it like a project: if you can figure him out, then he won't be a problem for you in the future. Hopefully, you can achieve the end result that is most desirable."

"Which is?" Alfred asked in a doubtful tone, eyeing the Japanese student from over his glasses. Is Kiku seriously suggesting that I get along with Braginski?! That's like telling Batman to get along with the Joker! Or Superman with Lex Luther, or-

"The best end result being that you can get him to stop being a bully, Alfred...It would at least be one less than before, if you can do it. Gilbert bullies people verbally, Simon* and Berwald - though I don't think Berwald takes any pleasure from bullying - have a double team of verbal and physical, and Ivan bullies physically. If you can get rid of Ivan, in the sense of bullying, then most of the students here will have much less to fear at school...," Kiku summed up, speaking in his usual soft voice. The way he said it made it sound like a battle strategy or something, but that was just the way Kiku talked, like he was always playing an RPG*.

"Hey...that's right...," Alfred murmured, his face scrunching up as he thought about his friend's idea. It would free up a lot of people in school...They wouldn't have to worry about getting shoved into their lockers, pushed down the stairs, or smashed into the wall. Yeah...I like this idea! Well, not the whole befriending Braginski part...but it'll be worth it if I can get him to stop torturing us! I am so doing this!

"I really don't think this is a good ide-" Arthur began to state his concerns, but was suddenly cut off by Alfred.

"I'll do it!" the sandy blonde exclaimed at the top of his lungs, nearly falling out of his seat as he made erratic hand gestures in his excitement.

"Wanker...," the British teen muttered, glaring at his much louder friend.

"Ah, yes...That is good to hear, Alfred, but we should think this through before doing anything rash," Kiku said hastily, catching on to his friend's thought process.

"I know, I'll talk to Toris! He's known Ivan for a long time, right?" Alfred blurted out, bolting from the table before the other two students could get a word in edgewise.

"Well...at least he's not going right up to Ivan saying, "Want to be pals?", but he's still acting like an idiot," Arthur grumbled, doing his best imitation of Alfred.

"Hai*...I just hope he doesn't do anything...ill thought out," Kiku murmured, gazing after the blonde worriedly.

"Um...I'm still here, guys...," Matthew whispered, sighing as he continued to go unnoticed.

Here's another story that I'm still working on the majority of, but I wanted to upload the first chapter and see what people thought of it. It's a High School AU (Yeah, I know, there are no shortage of those), but it really just popped into my head and wouldn't go away until I started writing it out. So, this will focus mainly on America and Russia, but I won't let the other characters fall to the wayside if I can help it.

The main drive for this fic was the fact that America and Russia are forced to stick together through the entire school year, whether or not they like it. It gave me room to put them in a lot of different situations and show how they react to one another's lives as they help each other out, argue, or just get to know one another. I plan on making this into a romance sort of thing, but that won't come into it until much later in the story.

I've put America into the incredibly smart, nerdy, not-so-athletic role 'cause I just like seeing him as that sort of guy in this setting. Likewise, most of his friends are also in the gifted program and are very intellectual. Russia, on the other hand, has been put into the big, not-so-smart bully role. Both characters won't stay in these casts for the whole story, and will get to grow and learn throughout the fic. Both of them are seventeen in this story; other characters' ages will be mentioned later on in the story or when they show up.

Now, I was home-schooled from 4th grade onward, so I really don't know what a typical high school is like. One World High will be relatively made up from my imagination and guessing, so I apologize if it doesn't seem quite realistic.

RPG: For those who don't know, this stands for Role Playing Game.

Adalhard Beilschmidt: The Principal of One World High School, Adalhard Beilschmidt, is Germania. I can just picture him as this hard-looking man who really actually cares for his students, and wants to see them succeed. He's also the father of Prussia and Germany.

Simon: Simon Densen, one of the main bullies of One World High School, is Denmark.

If anything about the school just seems too unrealistic, please tell me!

Translations for this chapter:

Da: "Yes" in Russian

Nyet: "No" in Russian

Hai: "Yes" in Japanese

Remember, I get these translations off the internet, so they may not always be correct.