Chapter Text
“Alright now, everyone pick a card!” The teacher’s voice rang out in the classroom, splitting through the conversations. She walked around the desks, and everyone she passed picked out a card. Thomas, the ever calculating individual, watched with keen eyes as to what his friend picked. Fluixon, the friend in question, chose a card from the left. Thinking over the likelihood of two cards being close to one another, Thomas went for a card in the middle, closest to the right. Flipping the card towards him, he was greeted by the sight of Canada. Turning to Fluixon, he held up the card. In turn, Fluixon held us his card too, with a shit-eating grin. Uganda. The bastard had Uganda. With everyone already having picked their cards, Thomas looked around in a panic, trying to find who else had Uganda. Most of his friends were already paired up with each other. Finally, he spotted it, the Ugandan flag on none other than Hyvrotation’s desk. Fuck. He wouldn’t switch with him. Who even has Canada in the first place?! And the teacher was almost— yep. She made it to her desk. He couldn’t switch anymore. And on top of that, he didn’t know anyone else in the class.
“Now, pair up with the other people who have your card! Except whoever has Canada, as your partner isn’t here yet. Now for this project you’ll have to..” Thomas drowned her out, he had bigger problems, mostly the fact that he looked like a friendless-partnerless loser who had to do the project alone because his partner couldn’t bother to show up to class. At this point, he should just beg the teacher to let him join the Uganda team. As he started to raise his hand, there was a knock on the classroom door. The teacher went to open it, and at the same time, another student in the class, Neptune, opened the second door in the back. The missing student, Micro, burst through the second door, sitting in his seat like he’d always been there. The class had some quiet snickers at this. Eventually, the teacher backed away from the door. Micro gave her a nervous smile.
“Uhm, miss, I was here. Maybe you didn’t see me.” The teacher apologized, and gave him the remaining card; Canada. Thomas looked in disbelief. This guy was his partner? He couldn’t even make it to class on time, and not to mention, he was always getting into some kind of trouble. This project was going to single-handily bring down his grade. He watched in horror as Micro made his way over.
“Hey there partner! How’s it going?” Micro said with a smile, sitting down and holding out his hand. Thomas took it, not wanting to come off as a jerk or anything, even if he kind of was.
“It’s fine. I’m happy we got such a big country. Makes the project easier.” Thomas remarked. Micro laughed, albeit a bit nervously.
“So…what’s the project about anyway?” The two stared at each other for a second. Micro wasn’t here, and Thomas wasn’t paying attention. They were so cooked.
“You don’t know either, huh?” Micro commented. “Why don’t we do it on the impact of drugs on the economy of Canada? I mean the project had got to be about some kind of economic thing. It is economics. We’re guaranteed at least a fifty with this topic. And it’ll be easy for me. Cuz im Canadian and all.” He said, proud of his idea. Thomas sighed.
“Or we could just…ask what the project is about, Canada boy.” He said, though it wasn’t rude for once. Even though Micro did come late, and made it so that Thomas wasn’t paired with Fluxion, he couldn’t bring himself to be mad at the guy.
“Your idea is a lot better. I’m not too smart so don’t expect much from me, haha.” Micro said, rummaging through his backpack while Thomas asked the friend of his that was sitting closest, Gotoga, what the project was actually about. Apparently, Micro was on the right track. The project had to just cover one impact on the economy of the country on the back of the card. So, they went with Micro’s idea. The pair opened their laptops, and got to work. Micro was laughably bad at finding sources. Yet, it was kind of nice. Thomas wasn’t worried about saying the wrong thing, or how to be better than the other person. It was just two people, studying and talking peacefully. Towards the end, Micro wrapped his arm around Thomas’ shoulders.
“Let me tell you Thomas, me and you, we’re gonna have the best project out of anyone.” Micro said with a smile.
“We have to get a lot more research done for that, Micro. But yeah, we will.” Thomas concluded, shrugging Micro’s arm off and packing up, right as the bell rang. He left with his friends, walking to their next class. Fluixon was rambling about some kind of thing for student council, but Thomas couldn’t care less. He missed his Canada boy already.