I Can Manage

Chapter Twelve

     Russia's POV

     It had been a couple of days since I had given Ukraine's book back. Since then things have been very strange. America was in the hospital, Canada and Ukraine seemed exhausted, Mexico was constantly staring into space, as if lost in her own thoughts. The strangest out of it all was Britain's behavior. He seemed extremely worried for America. This was nothing new for the Brit was always pestered by something. But there was a certain buzzing air around him. It was as if something had happened to put new meaning in his life. Throughout history UK was always a go-go-go country. If he wasn't building and empire he was fighting a war or gain allies. Things has finally calmed down and the big countries were done building. Great Britain didn't have a goal to strive for, he was already a great country! He had child-like excitement that I hadn't seen before. Something had changed, and I had a gut feeling that whatever it is will shift this world. It worried me.

     Today was a day like any other. Wake up, eat, deal with politics, deal with economics, drink vodka, sleep. Nothing really exciting was happening, there was no holidays, no festivals, no world meetings. I was planning on just having a lazy day. But you can't have a good lazy day without the correct alcohol, and I had drank the last of my vodka supply last night. So I found myself in the car.

     The sun was in my eyes. I pulled the visor down, casting a shadow over my eyes. A rectangular shaped paper fell down from it. It was a picture slip from a photo booth. It had Canada and Ukraine together, smiling. I took a detour, remembering where it came from. It was being used as a bookmark when I borrowed the book from Ukie. I put it there for safe keeping. I pulled up to Ukie's house. The pictures looked older, they were probably from one of their early dates. He would probably want them back and I was already near their house, so why not.

     I knocked on the front door. No answer. I tried opening it myself. It was unlocked. Guess he forgot to lock it. I pushed into the house. Dark shadows were cast over the main room. No one was home.

     Moving to place the picture on the kitchen table, a phone buzzed. I picked it up. It was a newer model apple phone. The case had 'YEE HAW' in big bubble letters written across it. It was so strange.

     I opened up the phone, curious of who's it was. Messages were popping up like crazy on a group chat called 'One big Meme'. I scrolled up until I found a conversation I could follow.

OldFart: Everyone has to behave

SmokinHot: Ur no fun. But I'll do it for dad.

Tatertot: We should do something special for dad

SmokinHot: like what?

Dollywood: Make fried chicken

Skyline: How about we clean our rooms without being asked

SmokinHot: That's a terrible idea

ImWalkinHere: No clean

Smarterthanyou: We could finish his paperwork

Hollywood: That sounds like a decent idea

Skyline: What if we do it wrong?

Smarterthanyou: It can't be that hard

     I continued to scroll up through the messages. There was a lot of memes and arguments, but one thing popped out to me. Never once did they say real names. Every contact was a silly name or reference. It left me wondering who this was and what they were hiding. My curiosity led me to other apps on the phone. There was a language app called Duolingo, a couple games, Snapchat and other basic apps. I clicked on the gallery app, hoping to find some answers. It was full of pictures of fun times. Most of them consisted of a boy with a half blue face on one side and a red and white face on the other (He also had a star in the blue) posing as he took a selfie. Every selfie had mayhem in the background. One photo had a giant jenga tower falling, another had a makeshift battlefield of couches and tables, one even had a food fight. I found myself laughing.

     Me and my siblings never had fun times like these. We always were struggling as kids. It made me happy to see these children so filled with joy. I eventually got bored and with no explanation to who this phone belonged to, placed it into my pocket for safe keeping.

KEY TO THE TEXT

OldFart: Delaware

SmokinHot: Nevada

ImWalkinHere: New York

Tatertot: Minnesota

Dollywood: Tennessee

Skyline: Ohio (Cincinnati chili is great. No hate plz)

Smarterthanyou: Massachusetts

Hollywood: California