Hmm... after much delaying, I decided to get off my lazy butt and start on the sixth chapter of this. I placed up a new fic called 'The Guardian Angel' but I'm still planning out the third chapter and I have the fourth chapter to work on as well. But I still want to work on this... hey, what do you guys think of the suggestion of putting in gossip and cliques in this story? Of course, it won't center around how mean fellow peers can be but it's just a suggestion.

Anyways, time to get started.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hetalia series. I do, however, own the six human transfer students.

WARNING: Mentions of abortion in the story. I know it's a very touch subject, so if you don't want to read this chapter, it's okay to skip. Or just skip the part mentioning abortion; it's fine with me either way.

Chapter Six

"I have never lost this game in two years. There is no way that I'm going to lose to you today!" Nicole growled, eyes flashing as she glared at the albino standing on the platform next to hers. She was not going to lose this dance off; especially to him because he would never let her live it down.

"Ha! Well that's because you never came across the awesome me until now!" Gilbert smirked at her, returning the look as if to say that he accepted the challenge.

"Oh, you're on!"

And that was how an hour and a half later, Nicole and Gilbert were still on the DDR arcade machine trying to out do the other with a large crowd of spectators over looking the two students battling it out on expert mode.

They had left the school grounds at about ten o'clock, earlier than they intended since Gilbert was too impatient to wait till the actual time they decided to go out. So after the guy had phoned her up, Nicole got dressed and was out the door before her new friend could act on his threat of breaking into the girls dorm and pounding down the door in the process.

"How long have they been at it?" Luke Stephens, one of the three transfer students who were male asked. He had come along with fellow transfers William "Will" Davies and Ren Magami who didn't seem as interested in the dance battle as Luke did. They had joined the crowd when they saw it was their classmates garnering the attention of everyone in the arcade.

"An hour and a half." Antonio answered.

"Man, that's a long time." Luke drawled, his australian accent emphasizing the sentence. "I mean, I love the game and all but I don't know if I could dance that long."

"Oui." Francis nodded as his blue eyes roamed Luke's muscular form with longing. "In fact, once the two of them are done why don't you show us just how much of a good dancer you are?"

"Heh, I'm not as good as them though." The aussie chuckled, rubbing the back of his head and looking sheepish.

"It does not matter." Francis smirked.

"Sorry." Will moved to Luke's side and grabbed him by the upper arm. "But me and Ren are pretty hungry. That means it's time to go and get lunch, Luke."

"What? Come on, mate! We haven't even played any games yet!" Luke protested as he struggled against Will's tight grip. The tanned boy ignored him and continued dragging him away.

"It's your fault for not playing any of them when you got the chance."

"How could I with those two at it?" Luke argued. "It's kinda hard to play games when you get the chance of watching the dance off of the century."

The rest of the argument couldn't be heard as Luke and Will were too far away to hear, much to the disappointment of Francis.

"He's straight, you know." Nicole said as she walked up next to him. Before either her or Gilbert could win the dance off and determine who the 'Most Awesome Dancer' was, the owner of the arcade kicked the both of them off the DDR platforms. His claim was that they were in an arcade, not the Broadway musical.

Plus their competition was losing him money as everyone else was too distracted by the two to play the other games around them.

She watched the retreating forms of the three boys, smirking at Luke struggling within Will and now Ren's grip as he tried to run back into the arcade. Even though the Aussie looked like he worked out at least several days a week, both Will and Ren appeared to have worked out more. And Nicole heard a rumor that Ren was descended from a line of ninjas and was still practicing the art of his ancestors.

"All the good ones are," The personification of France said dramatically.

"I thought it was the opposite," Gilbert suddenly appeared on Francis' other side. "Doesn't the saying go 'All the good ones are gay'?"

"That probably applies to females." Nicole snorted. "We tend to go for the quality of what makes a person, we don't go for them because they look 'hawt'."

"Are you saying guys are shallow?" He challenged.

"Nah, girls can be as equally shallow. You can usually tell if they handle their guy as some sort of accessory that looks good with them and if they care more about their appearance than anything else."

"Hmm..." Gilbert looked thoughtful, a smirk slowly etching itself on his face. "Sounds interesting. Mind telling me more?"

"Huh, you didn't strike me as being the type who was interested in Girl 101." Nicole couldn't help saying as she gave him a smirk of her own.

"Well if more chicks flock to me because of your lessons, then I'm ready to learn!"

"Sign me up as well!" Francis butted in. "I'm sure I could use your advice on both genders."

"Do you think you can help me with attracting a temperamental Italian boy?" Antonio asked with an expectant gleam in his eyes.

Nicole stared at them with dead pan eyes. How did she suddenly become their teacher on how the inner workings of a girl's mind work? And Antonio's comment clenched that he was indeed gay; why else would he ask for her help in wooing Lovino, also known as Romano or South Italy, the older and more temperamental brother of Feliciano?

Well, she'd have to think a bit on that one. She wasn't an expert when it came to homosexuality.

"Alright, first of all..." Nicole's eyes narrowed at Gilbert. "Don't brag about your 'five meters'. Chicks do not dig that and you're likely to get slapped than asked out."

"Are you serious?" Gilbert said in disbelief. "But that's the best part about me!"

"Yeah. It makes you sound insecure about your actual size." Nicole snorted, ignoring the albino's indignant spluttering. "That's another difference about girls; we aren't as eager to get laid as you are."

"That isn't the case for moi. I've bedded quite a few girls as well as boys through out the years and they all seemed eager to sleep with yours truly." Francis winked.

Nicole blushed and shook her head. "Yeah... that's nice Francis, though it wasn't really necessary to tell me."

Actually, that was a very scary thought considering the french boy couldn't be any older than sixteen or seventeen. She did not want to know the age of when he first slept with someone.

"So how come some girls like to sleep with our resident playboy over here?" Gilbert jabbed his thumb at his friend.

Because they're immature idiots who don't think things through and always regret it when it's too late? Was the the first thing that popped up into her mind, but she shook her head and tried to think of a more appropriate answer.

In the end, she just shrugged and said, "Preference, probably. I'm not saying all girls want to wait until they're truly in love with their boyfriend or when they're married. Or they think they're ready but most of the time, it turns out to be the opposite and most say they wish they waited."

"Ah."

"Is it true that females feel and think differently about sex than boys?" Antonio asked as the four of them began to walk through out the mall, not going anywhere in particular.

Nicole tried to decipher the meaning of his words, not quite sure what the spaniard was asking her but she answered anyways and hoped that she got it right.

"I wouldn't know since I've never slept with anyone before," At those words both Francis and Gilbert snickered and the asian girl glared at them as a result before continuing to answer Antonio's question. "But from what I've heard and read, yes. Apparently, it's a much more emotional experience for us since our minds tend to mature earlier than our male counterparts. Plus if the condom breaks or if no one even bothers putting one on, the girls usually suffer the consequences. One of them is an unplanned pregnancy."

"But how do you know so much about this stuff?" Gilbert was still snickering at Nicole's earlier revelation. "I mean, if you're still a virgin and all."

"Because a former friend of mine decided to sleep with a boy four years her senior and got pregnant as a result." She sighed, remembering part of the reason of why she decided to transfer to World Academy W when she received the invitation. "I read up on things after that."

Last year, her ex-friend Tracey had come over to her house completely freaked out over something. Once they retreated into the sanctuary of Nicole's room where it was unlikely that anyone would over hear her, Tracey revealed to her that she was pregnant and that she was going to get an abortion immediately.

And she needed Nicole's help to do it since she didn't want her parents finding out at all costs.

Nicole could understand the want for an abortion. Tracey's parents were extremely religious and strict, and if they found out that their daughter was pregnant, there was no doubt that wouldn't hesitate in kicking Tracey out and telling her never to show up on their door step again.

But when Nicole asked if she was sure, Tracey didn't hesitate to say yes. The only reason she got pregnant in the first place was because the condom broke that night. She didn't want the kid; it was an accident, a fluke, a mistake.

Nicole's stomach churned at her friend's callous comment and she felt close to throwing up, but she pretended that things were okay. She just asked how many weeks the fetus was and her friend calculated it to be a month and a half. Since that estimated the fetus to be around six weeks old, Tracey was still eligible to get an abortion since in Singapore the time limit was 24 weeks and below.

To make things short, Tracey had the fetus successfully removed and thought nothing much of it after wards. Nicole wasn't able to brush off the incident easily and found it hard to talk to her friend.

Not that it mattered since Tracey avoided her like the plague and even went so far to 'tease' her and get the other girls into it as well after they had an argument over the whole thing.

And things only went down hill from there...

"...I see." Francis sounded thoughtful and Nicole's attention snapped back at him to see that there was a thoughtful expression on his face to match his tone of voice.

Nicole was amazed; the personification of France could actually be lucid.

"How about we get lunch?" Antonio chirped, changing the subject whether he knew it or not. "I'm hungry. How about you guys?"

"Now that you mention it, dancing makes you work up an appetite." Gilbert's stomach grumbled as if to agree with him, making Nicole snicker. It was revenge for the virgin comment.

"Oui. But the choices of food here are so... bland." Francis sniffed.

"Francis, you're just saying that because they aren't serving any french food here."

"This is a mall." Nicole rolled her eyes. "People come here to shop; not for the great cuisine that explodes in your tongue when you take a bite."

"Si! That's for the restaurants!" Antonio agreed, not getting Nicole's sarcasm at all.

"Hey! There's Lizzy!" Gilbert exclaimed once they got to the food court and he spotted the table the brunette was sitting at with three other girls.

The other three watched as Gilbert strolled over towards the girl. He said something that as usual, must have annoyed the personification of Hungary because she then proceeded to whack him in the face with a frying pan.

"Huh. That's the first time I've seen the legendary frying pan of doom." Nicole said. She made a mental note to record that in her journal later.

The other two members of the Bad Touch Trio and Nicole proceeded towards the table, not at all panicked over the fact that their friend's face just met the back side of a frying pan.

Done. But I'm going to have to explain a few things here; such as the abortion part.

Abortion is a very controversial topic for many societies, as you all know. I studied up a bit on the information before typing it down, so as far as I know it's accurate.

In Nicole's case, she was uncomfortable with going through the procedure in the first place, but she also knew what was at stake. The well being of the mother (what her parents could do to her) as well as the resources to take care of the child if her friend decided to keep it. Even if Nicole was to disagree with the abortion, in the end it's ultimately her friend's choice. The only thing she could do was accept it in the end and be supportive.

What caused the eventual fissure between Nicole and Tracey until they were no longer friends is that Tracey made the decision so lightly without reflecting that she held a life within her- one that she created even if it was unintentional- and went back to doing what got her pregnant in the first place without a second thought.

Of course, I know that abortion is a difficult for nearly everyone who decides to go through it but Tracey is an example of someone who merely cares about herself.

As for the topics discussed, I remember reading up on a lot of books about it. As well as accounts on the internet. Feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong.