...Yeah, normally, I'm not writing into girly, romantic stories, but this one was kinda of adorable. I couldn't miss out on writing this. It might turn a little mature near the end; however, I mostly plan on keeping it fluffy . So, I hope you enjoy! As for reviews... well, they pay the bills.
I won't be updating this story until my other Edvy is updated and finished. But once I have that done, I'll work more on this. I guess you could consider this a teaser.

I guess you could call it girly, but I preferred to think of it as a sort of lifeline for myself. My life, if summarized into one word, sucked. My mother was dead, my brother was really sick, and my dad had completely disappeared one day and then reappeared like nothing was wrong. He left us when we were younger, and we were living with him now, which I wasn't too excited about. Life hasn't been too good to me lately. I did well in school and had great friends, but even those friends liked to talk about me like I wasn't there sometimes. I was called a "hermit nerd" because I barely socialized myself. I didn't find much joy hanging out with people in the first place.

I'm digressing. Let's get back on topic, shall we?

I had my entire life planned out on a piece of paper. I was going into my senior year of high school and had everything planned out from this year, to college, and from then on. I was going to Yale (already applied), going to become an amazing surgeon, save multiple lives, marry a pretty girl, have kids, watch my kids grow up, have grandkids, retire at age sixty-five, and then die peacefully in my sleep. Now that I looked at it, it seemed kinda weird and depressing, sure. But I lived by it. In fact, I had my life's schedule with me all the time. It kept me on track of where I wanted to go so I wouldn't get distracted.

Alphonse thought it was just some post-traumatic phase I was going through because of all the family drama (he was probably right), but he was sweet enough to support the idea, even giving me names for my kids. And as sweet as his suggestions were, I was not naming one of my kids Raphael. (I love you, Alphonse, I really do, but no.) Winry had no idea about my plan, which I was glad about since Winry would probably use it as an excuse to whack me in the head with her wrench. It was a secret between my brother and me, and I would prefer to keep it that way.

"There he goes again!" I heard Russell say with a loud sigh. It snapped me out of my daydreams, back to the reality of waiting at a stoplight with my friends in the back of Ling's convertible. Russell was always the jerk who had to start something like a fight, and mostly it was with or about me. He was very trustworthy, and if asked, he could keep a secret under absolute lock-and-key, but he was a serious jerk. I hated him sometimes. I even vented to him once about my dad back-handing me for dropping a glass bowl. He said that it was just one hit and that I needed to grow up. My dad hasn't hit me since, but he's not my favorite person. "He's always daydreaming! Someone pour cold water down his back."

"You do," I said, making Russell jump, "and I'll throw you out of this car. Don't think I'm bluffing." I pointed a finger at Russell. He frowned at me and turned away, looking down to a book that had been opened up in his lap. Ling grinned at me from the rear view mirror.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty! Did you have a nice... Shit!" He slammed on the brakes as he started into the intersection, nearly flinging me from my seat. It it weren't for my seatbelt, I would have kissed the back of the passenger seat. Russell made a gagging noise and dropped his book. A truck honked its horn at Ling. "'The hell do you think you're doing? Your light's red, asshole!" And then there's Ling, one of my older friends. He was a pretty good guy, reliable, taken, and had road rage like a cheetah had spots. He also had one of the most colorful vocabularies of anyone I knew. Russell was probably responsible for that one.

"Idiot," Ling growled. "The light's red! That means you stop, not drive like a jackass." He sighed. "Anyone else besides me having a bad day?"

"I'm not far from yours," Russell said in a low voice, rubbing at his red throat. The seatbelt had dug into it. He bent down and picked his book up from the floorboard. "Watch how hard you slam onto that brake. You nearly broke my neck."

"Would you rather die in a wreck or would you rather deal with a little back pain for a week?" I countered. Russell shot me a look. I shrugged.

"I'd rather not be in pain, and I'd rather not die, thank you very much." Russell turned back to his book. Ling and I exchanged smirks.

"So, is your brother doing any better?" Ling asked. "I heard he hasn't had an attack in weeks." I couldn't hide the smile on my face. My cheeks hurt.

"He's doing a lot better, actually!" I said excitedly. "He was able to walk around without losing his breath. And he even played with Den a little bit. We might move if he keeps getting better and better!"

"Aw, how tragic. We'll lose the shortest person in our class." Russell pretended to gasp and be shocked. "Who else are we going to study when it comes to birth mutations?"

"I'll kill you!" I punched him in the arm. He gasped and rubbed his shoulder. Ling looked in his mirror.

"Don't make me come back there, kiddies. I'll turn this car around and we'll go straight home!"

"I wouldn't mind that, actually," Russell muttered.

"I'll make you walk the rest of the way."

"I'll behave, 'Mom.'" Russell rolled his eyes and picked his book back up. I had knocked it out of his lap when I decked him in the arm.

I turned towards the window and let my chin rest on my knuckles. My mind drifted away as Ling made a retort to the "mom" comment. I didn't hear it, but knowing Ling, it must have been brilliant. I stared out the window without really seeing anything. I wished I was able to leave this cruddy town. Until I got my acceptance letter from Yale, or another high-end college, I was stuck here for yet another year. Whoop-de-flippin'-do.

"So, I heard from Mrs. Hawkeye yesterday after class that we're supposed to have a new student today," Russell said, which brought me back yet again. "It's a guy." Oh, did I mention Russell had a tight connection with just about every teacher in the school? Maybe it's because his dad's a rich bastard. I don't know, but Ling found it useful to have him around.

"That's interesting," Ling said lamely, puling into the school's parking lot. He started looking around for LanFan, a young girl from his home country that came with him to our little old town. He didn't seem to find her and pulled into a parking spot close to the school's entrance. We all stopped what we were doing and Russel and I peered around the front seats when Ling said, "There he is!" and pointed. "He" was the new student. He was listening to the principal, whom everyone referred to as "King Bradley," as the old man handed him a few papers and instructed him. He pushed a lock of long, waist-length black hair back behind his ear and nodded towards the old man. Russell began to snicker, covering his mouth with his hand.

"He looks like a palm tree," he said through his giggling. "A damn palm tree! Someone needs to send him back to the friggin' Jamaican Islands!"

"Ssh!" I elbowed him harshly. "Be nice."

"He's void of any emotion, so there's no use telling him, Ed," Ling said with a grin. I snorted. Russell shot us both glares.

And then King Bradley pulled the new student into a one-armed hug, ruffled his hair, and patted him on the shoulder. My mouth dropped to my knees. So did Ling's and Russell's. The new student, flushed, turned away quickly and jogged into the building. King Bradley laughed loud enough for us to hear over the purr of the engine and walked in behind the new student. We all exchanged looks and grabbed our books. Ling locked his car.

"I really hope that kid's blood-related," Ling said. "Or we just watched something really awkward."

Russell and I both gagged at the innuendo of Ling's statement and ran away from him before he could further scar us.

Remember how I told you I was the "hermit nerd"? I wasn't joking. I sit alone at lunch, usually in a table near the corner of the lunchroom. I don't eat the school's food because it looks like it's been dunked in a vat of toxic waste. I usually grab a bottle of water and chips and sit cross-legged on one of the round, butt-numbing seats and read a book that I had stolen from my dad's library in the back of the house. Sometimes I don't eat at all, which makes my stomach growl audibly in science. Of course, I would eat like a pig at home. I didn't look it, but I could hold down a lot of food. Alphonse was a great cook when he could get up.

"Hey! Come back to the real world, would you?" a voice said. I jerked my head up. Right at the best part of the book... I stopped mentally complaining when the new student stood over me, hair hanging over my face as he grinned down at me. "Ah, much better! Now that I have your attention, mind if I sit here? All the other tables are full." I looked around. A few tables were half-empty. I gave him a look. He seemed to catch on and sighed. "You're the most approachable person here."

"Gee, thanks, that makes me feel so great about myself."

"Can I sit here or not?"

"Help yourself; I don't care." I gestured towards the seats of the table. "Just so you know, I'm not talking to you. I'm busy." I turned back to my book. He shrugged and sat down across from me. He crossed his arms and laid his head on them, staring at me. I couldn't help myself from looking at him at the corners of my eyes. He just sat there and looked at me. I turned towards him and glared. "Why are you staring at me?"

"I've never been so close to a blonde before," he said with a grin. I threw my book and managed to hit him in the head. I missed his nose. He laughed and picked my book up for me. "No need to be so violent! I was just joking." He held my book out for me. I snatched it away and turned my back towards him. He made a disappointed noise. "Aw, are you mad at me? Why?"

"You're pissing me off." I shook my head to move hair out of my eyes. The boy just laughed.

"You seem to get mad too easily!" he said jokingly. "You're funny." I could hear him move a few seats over closer to me. He was getting a little too comfortable with me. "Hn? What's this?" I looked up as he grabbed a small piece of paper off the table, and then he grinned. "Is this yours?" He held it out. I took it and looked at it. My face flared up as I realized it was my list. He burst out laughing.

"W-What are you laughing at?" I demanded. He covered his mouth and laughed through his fingers. "Stop laughing! It's not that funny!" He pulled his hand from his mouth, still grinning. I wanted to slap him in the face.

"Wow, how boring!" he said. "You're not planning for much fun, are you? If my life was that boring, I'd kill myself!" He wiped a tear from his eye. "I think that's the funniest thing I have ever seen." I glowered at him. He didn't seem affected by it.

"If you have anything else to do besides make fun of me, I suggest you leave to it; otherwise, I'll kick your ass." I cracked my knuckles. He grinned.

"Go ahead. I'll just flip you right over my shoulders. I've broken noses, arms, legs, ribs, and any other limbs you can think of. I got expelled last year for punching out my math teacher!" he boasted, sticking his chest out as if it was the thing he was proudest of. I cocked my brow.

"Why would you brag about that?" I asked. The boy frowned.

"Well, he groped me. What else was I supposed to do?"

"...We are talking about a math teacher still, right?"

"We are."

I moved over another seat and tried to bury my nose in my book yet again. Unfortunately for me, he moved over one seat closer so that we were two seats apart again.

"Aren't you gonna at least introduce yourself before you decide to stalk me?" I asked sourly. He didn't seem to notice the venom and spoke anyways.

"My name's Envy, nice to meet you!" He stuck his hand out. I looked down at it and turned so that my shoulder faced him. "Alright, fine. I don't care if you're rude. But you could at least tell me your name. It's only polite."

I hated to admit it, but he was right. It'd be extremely rude of me if I didn't at least introduce myself and tell him my name. Curse my be-polite-to-others upbringing. "I'm Edward. Now go away."

"Aw." He pretended to pout. "But if I left, you'd be all lonely, wouldn't you?"

"That's the point, Envy," I said, feeling weird for taking that name seriously. "I'm called a 'hermit nerd' for a reason: I sit away from people. And you're kind of contradicting that nickname, you know."

" 'Nickname'? Sounds more like people are making fun of you." Envy's mouth turned into a straight line.

"Well, if they want to, let them. I don't care. People have their own right to be stupid if they want to be." I turned back to my book. Envy, once again, laid his head on his arms and stared at me. I bit my lip to keep from saying something that would make him want to keep talking to me, but the urge was a little stronger than I thought it would be. "Why the hell do you keep staring at me? It's annoying."

"I dunno," Envy replied. "There's nothing else better to do."

"Why don't you try reading a book?"

"I read. I just didn't bring a book with me, and I hate checking books out from the library." He turned his head away so that he wasn't staring at me but at the rest of the lunchroom. "People are looking over here." I turned around. A few guys were whispering and pointing. I rolled my eyes.

"They're just surprised to see someone sit with me; feel free to make other friends. I could care less whether you want to hang out with me or not."

"Aw, but then you'd be lonely."

"I'm not lonely!"

I was probably the happiest man alive when the last block of school was over. I was glad that I didn't have any classes with Envy, so that meant less time for him to bother me. I could get home to Alphonse, who was probably waiting for me to get home and Winry to come over so that he wouldn't be too lonely while I did my homework and Winry talked about whatever drama was going on at the private school her grandmother Pinako sent her to.

"Yo, Ed, am I driving you home?" Ling asked, even though he already knew the answer. I grinned and nodded. He looked over my shoulder and frowned. "Where's Russell? Don't you two have fourth block with each other?"

"Yeah, but he stopped by his locker to get his anatomy book. They have a test tomorrow, and he said he needed to study." I opened the door of Ling's car. "He should be out in a minute."

"He didn't get into a fight while you weren't looking, did he?" Ling looked around worriedly. I waved his worry away.

"I think Russell learned his lesson the last time he got into a fight. You remember that really big guy he bad-mouthed? He ended up in the hospital for two weeks." I bent down and placed my books in the middle of the seat where they usually went. I spotted LanFan sitting in the passenger seat. She turned around and smiled at me, waving. I waved back. "Hey, LanFan. How are you?"

"I'm fine," she replied with a small wave. "How is Alphonse doing? Is he getting any better?"

"Yeah, he's doing a lot better! He should be completely healthy in a few more weeks if he keeps getting the way he is." I sat down and closed the door, playing with the metal buckle on my seatbelt. An awkward silence set in between us. That's how it always was if Ling wasn't playing Mediator between us. I could never talk with her. She was very pretty and could keep herself in a conversation, but whenever I tried to talk to her by myself, we could never really keep much going. She was shy and quiet and opened up only around Ling. Unfortunately for me, he was outside the car waiting for Russell.

When will that stupid blonde get here? I thought sourly, looking outside the window for any sign of him. He took too long to do everything.

He finally surfaced, running out with a green book under his arm that was titled The Human Anatomy. He apologized to Ling for taking so long and jumped into the backseat beside me. He shot me a sarcastic grin as he placed his books on top of mine and I felt an immediate sense of dread as I buckled myself in. Ling started the car. Once we were out of the parking lot, Russel started talking shit.

"So. I heard you actually sat with someone at lunch today," he started, and I rolled my eyes dramatically. "One of my friends said it was the new kid. Is it true?"

"Yeah, it is, can we please move onto a different subject?" I asked. Russel didn't give up without a fight.

"No, I wanna hear about him? What's he like?" Russel stopped. "Or is the new kid a she?"

"He's a boy. Definitely a boy." I sighed heavily and turned towards the window. Russell made a noise of irritation and grabbed my arm.

"Don't space out! I want to hear the conversation you two had."

"Well then, Russel, you're just going to have to get over it!" I snatched my arm out from his grip. "You're starting to annoy me."

"Just tell me, dammit!"

"Hey!" Ling glared at us. "If you two don't shut up, I'll kick you both out, and you will have to walk home. Watch your mouth, Russell."

Russell growled at having to be scolded by him and turned away from me, muttering something that sounded like "bucking brass skull." I thanked God for giving me the ability to lose myself in the back of my mind and sighed. Today was not the best day in my book.