Hetalia AU: Life as Humans (OC! Philippines as Main Character)

8- Ancestors

Maria's P.O.V

Maya is absent today, probably because of what happened yesterday. Her face was redder than ever and she spoke to us so quickly I almost couldn't understand what she was saying. But I got it; Arthur broke up with Michelle, and he wants to date Maya next. Although, I have a bad feeling that Arthur and Maya are- Nevermind, I can't tell spoilers.

(Philippines: BWISIT I JUST BROKE THE FOURTH WALL SORRY)

Anyway, classes haven't started yet, so we're here in the classroom waiting for our homeroom teacher. Everyone was looking at the very first school yearbook of HHS. I'm also curious about how the first students of Hetalia High looked like, so I decided to join in.

"Oh hey, look! It's MC (Maria Clara)!" Lizzie points a picture of a beautiful woman holding a fan and is wearing the dress that has my name. A Maria Clara.

Erika (Liechtenstein in APH) giggles, "Lizzie, that's not the Maria we have as our classmate now. That's a woman named María Joséfa de los Santos. It says there that she's Filipina, quarter Spanish, and comes from a wealthy family. She was 16 in that picture."

Lizzie looks closer to the picture of the woman, "She... looks exactly like MC."

"What? Let me see that." I gently grab the yearbook and look closely at the picture of the woman. Lizzie is right. This woman looks EXACTLY like me... but she's 'de los Santos' and I'm 'de la Cruz', so she can't be my ancestor. But wait- my mother's initial is an S, which may possibly stand for 'Santos'.

I'll just ask my mother later.

I put the yearbook back on Lizzie's desk.

"What the hell, this also looks like you!" Gilbert says to Lizzie and points his finger at a woman in the picture who's wearing a traditional Hungarian outfit. Her name is 'Erzsebet Hedervary', almost sounding like 'Elizabeta'. It says there in the description that she wants to be a soldier.

"This is... my ancestor." Lizzie murmurs. "I've heard from my father that his great great great grandmother, who is my great great great great grandmother, was a military soldier and was served as a hero of the country. Oh my gosh, this looks like Natalya!"

Anastasia Arlovskaya. Description: Pretty, but classmates find her quite scary. Has a crazy obsession with her adopted brother who is biologically a cousin, Vladislav Braginski. But unfortunately for Anastasia, they did not get married because Vlad loved someone else, so Anastasia forced herself to marry someone else too. Both have an adopted older sister named Viktoriya Braginskaya, who is also their biological cousin.

That actually describes Natalya, Ivan, and Yekaterina. They're adopted siblings, but also distant cousins. Natalya is REALLY obsessed with Ivan too.

Then there's also a handsome young Italian man named Leonardo Vargas who is second-degree cousins with another man named Andrés Carriedo. Leonardo has a curl like Feliciano's and Lovino's. He looks as cheerful and pasta-loving (he's holding a plate of pasta in the picture) as Feli, but he has the eyes of Lovino as said in the description, he has green eyes. It says that he was a flirt and attracted lots of women. Just like Feli and Lovi.

Andrés Fernando Carriedo y Vargas on the other hand, is a Spanish, and looks exactly like Antonio. They have the exact same smile, too.

And then there's an American man who is quarter English named Albert Freedom. He looks a hell lot like Alfred, except that he doesn't wear glasses. It says that he has an adopted older brother, who is a pure English man, named Arnold Kirkland. Albert is the one who is adopted by Arnold's biological family though.

Honda Kaito. A slim young Japanese man who seems to be really shy but also creative. Some say he's not the person you think he is.

Wang Yuan. A Chinese man whom some people mistake for as a woman because of her- HIS long hair which he often ties into a low ponytail. In the picture, he is holding a pet panda. And I'm pretty sure it's real, definitely not stuffed.

"What are you looking at?" Asks a familiar voice.

Everyone immediately returned to their seats while Lizzie closed the yearbook.

"Ah, so you were looking at the very first yearbook of HHS, I see..." The teacher says. "You can continue that when it's recess, lunch, or after dismissal."

"Yes, teacher!"

Lizzie kept the book inside her bagpack and I whisper, "Psst! Hey, Lizzie, can I borrow that yearbook later?"

"Oh, sure."

"Thanks! I'll return it to you tomorrow."

+++

Kirana spits out the milk she was just drinking a few seconds ago. "I-Is that a long lost twin of mine?!"

"No, it's your ancestor."

Karina Kusnapaharani. Her name will be 'Kirana' if you interchange the first 'a' with the 'i'. A beautiful Indonesian woman who is quarter Dutch. Half Muslim, half Christian. Has long hair like Kirana. Best friends with María Joséfa and Alisha.

Nur Alisha Muhammad. A Malay woman, Muslim, and can have a bad attitude sometimes, but is actually really nice if you get to know her. She's also quite smart. Has shoulder-length hair. Alisa and Rachel's ancestor.

Loan Minh Chung. Lien's ancestor. Loan has parents that are both soldiers. She is quite the strong woman even though she's not that muscular and is just slim.

Chakriya Sereysothea, Achariya's ancestor. Cambodian, quarter French, anti-social, acts cool, but can be really sweet once you get to know her better and when she opens up to you.

Kina, Kasem, and Hlaing have their ancestors here too.

Wow, are these really are ancestors...?

+++

I open my laptop and log on Skype. It's 9:00 AM there in the Philippines, and my parents will be working overnight, so I'm sure they're free.

I send a video call request to mom, and it gets accepted, but the one showing in the video is dad. "Ah... Tay, saan si Nanay? Can I talk to her? Meron akong sasabihin sa kaniya."

"Okay, sure. I'll go and get her."

About a few minutes later, mom arrives. "Anak! Kumusta ka na?"

"Okay lang po ako." I take out the HHS yearbook, and turn to the page where María Joséfa's profile is, then I show it to her. This is María Joséfa de los Santos. Do you know her?"

"Ahh, yes. She's one of my- also your- ancestors. Beautiful, wasn't she? She looks exactly like you!"

"I can see that," I say. "Could you maybe... tell me more about her?"

"Is this for your history class?"

"No, I'm just curious."

"Of course you are, you're always curious." Mom smiles at me. "Okay so María Joséfa was my mother's father's grandfather's grandfather's mother. Maybe you might've forgotten, but we had portraits of all our ancestors back in our old mansion that we lived in before we moved here when you were two and a half years old. Maria Josefa was a wonderful, noble, woman. She had an ex-fiancée named Andrés Carriedo but they didn't get to marry nor have a child together after the attack that happened in their wedding. The two managed to escape though. Apparently someone didn't want them to be together. So Maria Josefa and Andres figured it wasn't gonna work out between them; their marriage would cause danger. So instead, they married other people. Such a disappontment, they would have been a great married couple, with their good looks and all." She sighs, shaking her head. "A lot of boys back then fell for Maria Josefa, too bad she only had her heart reserved for Andres, Albert, Leonardo, and possibly Kaito even she held a grudge for some of them. What's even more disappointing is that she didn't get to marry any of them."

"Oh..." I thought to myself, and tried to rewind everything my mom told me in my head. Maria Josefa de los Santos and Andres Fernando Carriedo's cancelled wedding and all. "Well, thanks mom!"

"You're welcome, darling. Anytime."

And I turn the video call off.

+++

A/N: GUYS!! I promise you, I finished the chapter MONTHS earlier than today. It was somewhere in November, but when I published it, it was missing some parts so I unpublished it. Stupid Wattpad, always having errors. I worked so hard on that draft! But then I have to rewrite it all over again. However, I was too lazy to rewrite it all so I decided to take a break for a while... and... it has been a long time. Sorry about that.