Edward dragged his feet down the blue and white tiled hallway, taking as much time as he could getting to his first class at his new school. Central High was so much bigger than his high school in Risembool, but he supposed that's the difference between city schools and obscure country schools. His old town was a tiny traditional one, and Edward reckoned had he stayed in Risembool he would probably have ended up marrying some 3rd cousin and have had children with 6 fingers or gills or something. Besides, the old house was painful these days.

His father, a genius scientist named Hoenhiem, had moved Edward and his little brother Al out to the capital to work as a researcher for some amazing company that Edward knew he should know the name of, but didn't. His brother was being escorted to his first class by the secretary, because he was shy and she had taken pity on him. Edward and volunteered to go on ahead alone.

Ed was starting Grade 11 now, while his younger brother by a year and a half, was beginning his first year of secondary school, in Grade 9. Of course, they had actually already started the year in Risembool, but they had moved 3 weeks into the year. Needless to say, Alphonse's first taste of High School was completely different to what he was about to experience. In their village, the average grade had about 40 kids in it. Here, the grades went by the hundreds. Poor little Al was kind hearted but as timid as they come.

Ed had put it off as long as he could, and he reached his destination. Grade 11 Honours English (AP English, highest level basically) with Ms Armstrong. He knocked on the door, and then opened it. He was greeted by 30-odd faces looking his way. He gulped, and faced his teacher. The tall woman before him was intimidating with cold silver eyes and full lips. Her blonde hair covered much of her face, but he could see she was very attractive, but she was so... broad and scary he couldn't really see past it. "Who are you?" her voice was crisp and clear, with a no nonsense tone.

"I'm Edward Elric, I'm new, I'm supposed to be in this class" he answered. She tilted her head up and observed him. He suddenly felt self conscious in his jeans and red hoodie, with long blonde hair in a braid. She sniffed a little, then barked "Sit behind Sheizka, Sheizka raise your hand so Mr Elric hear can see you" Sheizka obediently raised her hand into the air. She was shy looking, with mousy brown hair and large glasses, with neutral brown clothes, by Edward liked the look of her, she seemed the friendly, but geeky type. He kicked himself for stereotyping people already. He supposed it was the novelty of being in a big school. His old school was too small for cliques.

He took his seat and listened to Ms Armstrong as she held a discussion on Macbeth, the current play. He had never studied it, but his brother was really into Shakespeare, so he had read the play with him a couple of years ago. Al claimed it was more fun to read it with another person. He simply couldn't say no to Al. He looked around him, and noticed a red haired girl in the corner glance at him. She had startling green eyes, and her hair was a shocking shade of red. He offered her a smile, and she started. She bit her lip at the corner and gave a nervous smile back, before quickly looking back to Ms Armstrong. Edward frowned. Maybe she was really shy?

When the lesson was concluded, Ms Armstrong had Edward stay behind after the class. She piled 2 textbooks, a book of poetry, 2 novels and a copy of Macbeth into his arms, as well as a stack of notes she had prepared on the work he had missed in the first 3 weeks. "There are 4 important assignments in there, as well as notes I expect you to make on Macbeth. You have 2 weeks to finish them, but if you need more time, speak to me, I have no doubt you're other teachers will have work for you too. But I expect the personal letter tomorrow, it's important to assess your English level" She gave him permission to put the books in his locker, as well as a note to his next teacher explaining his inevitable lateness. Edward was grateful. At least Ms Armstrong was not unreasonable as he had been worried.

His little escapade had meant he was not able to meet any new students at all yet, but he wasn't overly worried. His next class was German with Frau Maria Ross. He entered the class to meet a short woman with short black hair and a kind smile. "Guten Tag, are you the new student?" She asked. Edward smiled "Ja, ich heisse Edward Elric" Frau Ross pointed him to a seat in the back that was unoccupied; between two boys with black hair. "You can keep Roy and Ling from talking during my class" She joked. Edward obediently sat in the empty seat between the aforementioned "Roy" and "Ling." He wasn't concerned about this class, he had studied German at his old school, and his teacher had been from Munich. He felt someone's eyes on him, and looked around to see "Roy" watching him. He frowned at him. Roy grinned "Hey new kid." Edward furrowed his eyebrows "Hi" Roy smirked, and introduced himself "I'm Roy Mustang, Welcome to Central. Allow myself and my dear close personal friend Ling here to be you're new best buddies"

A/N: Welcome to my new fic. I know, you are all super disappointed, no Envy yet. But oh well, you'll live. The chapter end allows me to skip to the good stuff without boring you with worthless dribble.

Sneak Preview::

Roy grinned, balancing the lunch tray in one hand with ease as his other hand swept gracefully in the direction of a half full table of students, as though he had done this numerous times before.

"Allow me to introduce you to the best people you will ever meet"