HAHA! And you thought I was incapable of posting ANYTHING on here! Okay, most of you probably don't even know who the heck I am. Then why are you reading this? Because... You MUST. Yes... So... This is WWOA!! Enjoy. Hopefully...

Okay, alas, I cannot take all of the credit for this. I would just like to say that the Mary sections are written by Ohka Breynekai and the Ashley sections are written by myself. Ohka is too afraid to post it on her account too because she's a rule freak and a crappy rebel (as you will find out more about in this chapter.) So... What are you still doing reading this dang thing? Don't you know there is a story right beneath it where I don't ramble?

Ohka: Heylo the peoples! It's time for my rambling! (Take that Shenhua!) So, I know that this story has been written a bazillion gagillion times, some OCs being sucked into the FMA world (yes, that IS what happens, I warn you now) but I hope that by taking our time to make these chapters well-written and lengthy, and with the fact that there are no Mary-Sues (DIE YOU MARY-SUES!! DIIIEEEEE!!), our story will be super awesome and enjoyable. If not, boy we sure had fun writing it anyway! Rambling is done. Now read the story. READ IT!


Chapter One: Death By Chocolate

Mary

I saunter away from the school, barely registering it as my last moment of the tenth grade. I am doing my best to avoid the fact, not wanting to be plagued by nostalgic feelings or guilt from not saying goodbye to anyone.

They won't notice anyway. For one thing, I'm a day early to be finished with finals. It is one of the benefits of being a genius in your grade level. I only had to take three of the usual six or seven finals that most sophomores are faced with during the last week of school.

I try not to think about that too much either. I ashamedly admit to being a slightly superstitious person; I feel it is a crime to take something for granted, like it will be snatched out from underneath you. For isn't Greed one of the Seven Deadly Sins? That is why I always do too much work – every time I slack off, simply depending on my brain to carry me, I get kicked in the mouth. Hard work equals success. That is logically true. And God created logic. Therefore, should it be labeled as superstition or as a Christianly way of living?

But does it even matter what it's called? Another loop of unanswered questions…

Ah, I had two reasons why they wouldn't notice, didn't I?

I am nobody. A genius, but nobody nonetheless. I talk when spoken to. I have only salvaged three true friends within the last four years of school. I hardly show any emotion in class, nor do I answer questions. I'm not outgoing or brave. I am a perfectionist and afraid of being the 'wrong' sort of person. So I suppose you can say I am nobody by choice. For how can you mess up a nonexistent relationship?

So that is why I can walk away from the school without notice. I enter my mom's car without waving a cheerful farewell to any onlookers. I sit in melancholy silence as my family argues for the length of the trip home.

What a wonderful start to my summer vacation.

--

Three hours later, I slouch at the computer, my cheek lying against the cool wooden surface of the desk. I have just finished another chapter and posted it online, and within three hours to boot! It probably isn't much good – nothing good surfaces when I'm depressed – but it will keep my readers happy for the time being and give me one less thing to be stressed about.

Our house is silent. My sister is asleep, I think. Either that or she is at a friend's house. She has lost most of the attention my mind used to give to her. That's what happens when a person actively shoves someone else away: the other person gives up.

Nostalgia hits me like a knife in the gut. I can never get over how much has changed in our short lives. Oneesan and I used to do everything together, yet now she doesn't even want to see me. We grew up with the end result of two completely different personalities, me the bookworm and her the social butterfly. I always envy seeing sibling pairs that function like magic, in which the older sibling takes care of the younger one and cares for their well-being. Like Ashley and her brother, or Angel and her sister. Or my grandmother and her three sisters, who do practically everything together! How awful it is to care about a person who couldn't care less for you!

"The Pirates of the Caribbean" theme suddenly erupts from my cell phone, causing me to jump and hit my head on the monitor. Warily, I pull the thing from my pocket. I detest phones. The thing is only in my possession so that my mom can keep in touch with me on marching band trips. I have a heart attack almost every time it rings.

Speak of the devil…Calling me is 'The Other World', as I have labeled her and she labeled me.

I flip the phone open and quietly offer a "Hello," still lost in the mind-boggling conundrums of relationships and irony.

"Mary!" the earpiece cheers at me. She is always so happy. It blows my mind.

"Ashley!" I cheer back, mostly pretending but truly relieved to hear from her. I needed something to break me out of my thoughts before my entire night was ruined. "Wazzup?"

"You never emailed me back," she complains. I can almost imagine a pouting face on the other side of the phone.

"Sorry," I say, twirling back and forth in the computer chair, a fidgety and restless talker. "I forgot. I've been really busy."

"Excuses, excuses," she chides jokingly. "So, what are you doing, besides not emailing me?"

I laugh softly. "I just updated Empty Space. Chapter ten."

"Man! I haven't even finished chapter five!"

"And whose fault is that?" I pull out the keyboard again and glance at the clock on my mom's computer. Still another hour before she comes home. I have time.

"Eh… yeah… about that…"

I open my email account and read through the recent messages. There are in total 643 messages glaring bold at me, but they are mostly story alerts from the fanfiction website I hold membership to. Some date back to 2006. There isn't any need to worry about those, at least not now.

"Mary!" Ashley yells again. I note to turn down the volume on my phone. "We should hang out this weekend, now that you don't have any homework."

My difficult classes had always kept me from having free time. I handed out promise upon promise to my friends to spend time with them in the summer. And so it begins. I chuckle at the ominous sound of that phrase.

"Sure! I'll ask my dad about it," I say as I began to clumsily type a reply to her email with one hand. I never mastered the art of pinning the phone between your ear and shoulder. A klutz curse upon everything else. "I don't think we're doing anything… you gonna spend the night?" Please say yes, please say yes.

"Yep! And we'll have to go to our spot."

"Of course."

Our 'spot' is an abstract-looking playground that was built in my dad's neighborhood a few years back. It reminds me of something from a Picasso painting. But we have managed to turn it into a clubhouse of sorts, Ashley climbing to the top of a tall metal fixture and me squatting on a giant rock, something a bit closer to the ground. It is the place where we hold our most important conversations.

"Guess what?" I ask, abruptly changing the subject.

"You found an elephant that wanted to tap-dance with you?"

One eyebrow slides up. "Eh... no... um, I don't have to go to school tomorrow!"

Ashley scoffs then. "Why not?"

I giggle at her false frustration and grin mischievously. "I finished my finals. Yeah, I was going to go watch the movie in science, but we own it, so I figured I might as well sleep in."

"No fair," she pouts again. "Ack, I've got to go now! I'll call you later, okay? And email me back!"

"Okay, okay! Bye!"

"Bye!"

I sigh wistfully as I snap the phone shut and slip it back into my pocket. That girl always knows how to brighten my mood. I finish typing a rather spastic email to her and hit send, before meandering towards the living room for a comforting bowl of "Death by Chocolate" ice cream.

Ashley

I sit at my desk, sketching and shading the last bit of my drawing. Touching my eraser to my lips, I survey the paper I have just decorated with two tiny angel wings. Why wings? I ask myself. Because I want to fly away… far, far away… And someday I will.

It's a promise I have been making to myself for a long, long time. I look up and reality hits me like a bird who thinks they're flying, just looking down in time to see the pavement. Crash! So much for that…

I shake my head in realization of how crazy my brain is. Then I smile, remembering that it is my favorite part about myself.

This is my last day of school – my last final, even, I reflect. I glance around at all of the students' serious faces, staring down at their finals, writing with determination and purpose. I look down at my blank paper and sigh. The final took me ten minutes, double checking and all. I have always been a straight-A student, never mind that I'm a complete slacker when it comes to school. But I figure that if I can keep my grades up and have a social life, why not? No sense in wasting every second of my life on homework. I sigh. Now all I can do is sit around and wait for my friend to finish.

Bright side: This teacher will let us out early, meaning avoiding the whole sitting-in-a-boring-classroom-when-school's-over thing.

Other hand: I have to wait on my friend, who I'm getting a ride from but is taking a very long time to complete the test.

I wait. When she finally finishes, we sneak out of the school and run to the swings. It is there, with the wind swooshing around me as I go down and up again, following the motion of the swing, that I finally feel I have those wings. The chains are broken and I soar.

--

I arrive at my empty house laughing, glad that I have friends that are nearly as crazy as I am. I walk in and the door creaks shut. I stand in the silence for a moment. I used to find this silence a bit eerie, but it's become pretty normal for me now; getting home when no one else is here. I've actually grown to like it over time, coming home and not having to talk to anyone, just being able to reflect on my day and think about everything. That is the one thing I love – thinking. Well, that and writing. But for me, the two go hand in hand as I write down a lot of my more interesting thoughts.

Though for some reason, I don't feel like writing today. It still hasn't sunk in that I'm out of school, so I merely sit on the steps waiting for my brain to realize that it's summer and there is no more homework or studying to be done.

The light tinkling sound of a bell comes up behind me, and I turn from where I sit. My cat, Tokyo, is staring at me with her wide, green eyes, so piercingly it's almost as if she believes I'm going to disappear at any moment.

"Toko!" I call to her in an almost musical voice. She meows in reply and immediately runs up to me. I kiss her forehead and scratch behind her ears.

Tokyo, you're the only one who gets me, I think to her. I bury my face in her fur and for a moment, the world around me dissolves and is nothing but Tokyo's chest gently rising and falling as she breathes.

I hear the door creak open and immediately bolt upright.

"Brother!" I yell randomly as a slender boy with curly hair walks in. He smiles slightly.

"Hey, little sis," he replies.

I race down the stairs and give him a hug. He's one of the very few humans that actually come close to understanding me. I can't help but thinking of how much I am going to miss him when he moves away. I know that it has to happen eventually; I just pray that the time doesn't come soon.

I don't know how we became so close for a brother and sister, only that we have been through everything together – good times and bad, even times when all we wanted was to run away. To escape. When we don't want to continue going, we pull each other through and everything turns out alright in the end. I don't understand how anyone can survive without this bond.

Once my brother has left for work, I am perched on the chair in my room, looking at the big red '0' next to the word 'inbox' on my email. The clinking of keys hitting the table alerts me that my mom is home. A slight smile spreads about my face as I wonder what crazy antic she is up to today.

My mom is always cracking me up. She may be in her forties, but I swear that deep down she's still a child at heart. That is one thing I love about her. I know sometimes that means I have to take over and be the responsible one, but I have been doing that since I was little. Though my family was never strict, I set my own rules for myself and in many ways raised myself. My family was always there to help me out when times got tough, but they allowed me to become independent, to learn to rely on myself rather than trying to live within their guidelines. Sure, it gets lonely at points, but it has made me strong.

I glance at my watch. Ack, I think, it's almost time to go and I haven't even started getting ready!

--

I bustle around my house in excitement; I'm about to go hang out with one of my best friends, Mary, at our spot. I love the place so much. But tonight is different, I tell myself, cramming my fake wine into my backpack. Tonight we'll wait for the moon to rule the sky before we set out.

Ah, summer at last, my mind rejoices as a car shows up in my driveway. I shoulder my backpack and head out for what is sure to be an interesting night.



Mary

I rush up the stairs to my room at my dad's house, eager to get the weight off of my shoulders. The haul includes my clothes for the weekend, library books, my Japanese workbooks and dictionary, my laptop, my music and my miscellaneous DVDs, mostly anime. Do I have time to attend to every object? No. But I wake up in the morning and never know what I want to do, so best be prepared. And with Ashley, having everything is usually the smartest choice.

She goes with my sister into her room, her bag clunking. It must be the fake wine she picked up for us. Hah, we're so badass, I think sarcastically.

Ashley is primarily my sister's friend. It's not that she likes her better than me (I like to think we're about equal). It's simply that my sister knew Ashley first and is rather possessive of her friends.

Luckily, Oneesan goes to sleep early, leaving plenty of time for Ashley and me to wreak havoc into the early hours of the morning. I would be getting very little, if any, sleep this weekend.

I sit at my computer and wait eagerly for bedtime. That is when the fun begins.

--

Sure enough, at 12:30 Ashley bounds into my bedroom, as ever full of energy. "Mary!" she says.

"Ashuri-kun…!" I yawn, my ears popping. I rub them, annoyed.

"What, are you tired already? I thought we were going to the park?"

My eyes flash to meet hers, startled. "The park? You know, I was just kidding about that," I reply slowly.

"Then what are we going to do with this wine? Sit in the closet and drink it?" She thrusts one of the bottles into my nose and I jump back, waving a hand at her.

"No. I just meant we should go tomorrow. I mean, we can't go now." I think that should settle the matter. My dad would never let us leave the house this late.

"Why not?"

Exasperated, I turn to her, gaping slightly. Where has this girl's logic gone? "Do you think my dad would like that? Really… And sneaking out is impossible too; the alarm is set and if a door opens it will call the police."

"But you know the code, right?"

"Well… yeah… but-"

"Then what's the problem? Let's go!" Ashley grabs my arm and starts dragging me, despite my protests and lack of shoes to boot.

"No! I don't want to do this. What if something were to happen to us? No one would know where we were!"

"You sound like an old lady," she persists. "It's only a five minute walk from here. What could happen?"

My gape grows. That is the worst thing a person can ever say in any situation. What could happen? Anything could happen. Going anywhere is impossible now, after that phrase. "No," I say sternly and plant my feet into the carpet.

Ashley frowns and releases my arm. She shrugs nonchalantly. "Suit yourself… I can always climb out through the balcony and scale the house on bed sheets."

The worst part is, I really believe she would do it.

"Oh, heck! Fine, we'll go!" I stand and stormily grab my sneakers and my cell phone before marching down the stairs. Curse peer pressure and people that know no bounds!

The house is dark, my dad, stepmother and sister asleep. I stop my tirade for fear of them waking up, though the back of my mind tells me that if they were awake I wouldn't be in this situation. I go into the kitchen, Ashley trailing behind me with the wine, and enter the code into the alarm box. There are a series of beeps and the light flashes green. Green for go. Green for leave the house and run off into the empty night.

I'm shaking slightly. I've never done anything like this in my life. I still can't see myself sneaking out of the house, but here it is happening.

"Shouldn't we wait a little bit?" I whisper hopelessly. "Just in case?"

"In case what?" Ashley says, already moving to the front door. "You're just trying to put it off. Come on, nothing's going to eat you."

Frowning, staring in awe and shock at this immovable girl molding me, her puppet, to her will, I traipse helplessly after her. It's a mistake, I know it is. I know it.

A friendly beep from the alarm system, and we are out the door.

The moon shines brightly on the neighborhood, lighting it as clearly as day. A good thing, too, since we haven't bothered to take flashlights with us.

I don't talk as Ashley leads me to the park, our footsteps echoing in the silence. Only a few houses have still-lit windows, and living cars are empty from the street. I twitch at every bug chirp and leaf blowing down the road, still waiting for us to be caught.

"You know," I breathe, "I think it's illegal for minors to be out at this time of night. I think there's a curfew."

"Do you see any cops?" Ashley says loudly. I want cry. "Mary, you worry too much. Try to have some fun, okay? We're free!" As if to prove her point, she twirls around, swinging her wine bottle dangerously close to me.

At last, we reach the park. I quickly walk into the seclusion that the trees provide, arriving at our destination even before Ashley. I climb onto my rock with a huff and cradle my cool wine bottle against my chest. Three more glances ensure that we are alone in the woods.

"I still don't like this, you know," I tell Ashley as she climbs her tower one-handed, sparing an arm for the red bottle.

"You're a crappy rebel," she replies.

I hunker over further and stare at the woodchips and sand below me. Guilt encompasses my heart.

"What if someone breaks into the house while we're here, all because I turned the alarm off?" I know the chances are slim, but irony exists. There is no such thing as coincidence.

"Stop worrying," she repeats and twists the cap off of her bottle. Shakily, I do the same and take a swig of the sweet, bubbly grape juice. It immediately calms my nerves. Odd.

"When should we head back? A couple of hours?" I suggest.

Ashley nods. "Yeah, probably. Ooh, look, there's mist! See? We would never get to see this during the day."

I direct my attention the trees beside us. A small fog glowing with moonlight is creeping up on the playground. I chuckle weakly. "Creepy. Anyone thinking 'ghostly pirates'?" Ashley doesn't reply. I look back to see her scrambling down from her perch. "What are you doing?"

"Exploring," she says and skips into the fog. It reaches up to her knees, swirling brightly.

I look behind me, suddenly feeling exposed. In seconds, I am beside Ashley, less gracefully stomping through the precipitation.

"Enjoying yourself yet?"

"…Not really…" Suddenly, the ground heaves. My bottle slips from my hand and the carbonated drink bubbles out onto the dirt. "What the heck…?"

"Earthquake?" Ashley guesses.

I shrug, completely unnerved. "I didn't think we had earthquakes here."

Again, the earth shakes under our feet, knocking me to the ground as Ashley grasps onto a nearby tree. A bright blue light fills my vision, accompanied by the crackle of electricity. Heat sweeps through my body; I scream before I know what I'm doing. Seconds later, I feel my skin turning numb. My already seared vision starts to darken. My head swimming, I call out for Ashley. I can't hear my own voice.

The woods sink into blackness and my mind is gone, but not before one last thought can creep across it –

I told you so