Riza groaned, rolling onto her back lazily as the painful screeches from her alarm clock filled the silence of her small, dark room. Light struggled to seep through the shades over her window, lightly painting her face with slits of gold. She mumbled under her breath, her ears ringing, and groped absently beside her, not ready to open her eyes just yet. A loud click brought peace back to her mind.

Riza's morning began the way all of her mornings did. First, she would pry her eyes open to see the blurry, red numbers of her alarm clock, always reading "6:00 AM". After blinking sleepily too many times and rolling pathetically from her tangled sheets onto her hard wood floor, she'd step into her little glass shower and let cold water spill down her body, snapping her awake with a sudden gasp. Her short, choppy hair only took minutes to dry, and from there she'd mindlessly grab the first skirt and shirt she could find, and proceed to head downstairs. She'd be out the door ten minutes later, an apple in one hand, her books in another. Her father would still be asleep, not bothering to wish her a good day at school.

The cold September air began nipping quietly, and Riza pulled down on her sweater, taking a crisp bite of her apple. She wasn't too bothered; she had always liked the fall. She couldn't help but smile at the smell of apple cider and the reds and yellows splattered on the leaves around her.

"Riza, hey!"

Riza paused, her apple in her mouth, and turned around. She smiled and pulled the apple away, smiling. "Hi Rebecca."

Rebecca had caught up to her, bending over and panting between her knees. "Jesus, Riza! You walk too fast!"

Rebecca had been Riza's friend since the fifth grade. Despite Rebecca's appearance, she was quite the tough girl. When she had gotten word of a boy stealing her classmate's lunch every day, she stormed over with her hands plastered on her hips and a hell of a lot of pain ready to be unleashed. The two were opposites, but Riza just somehow clicked with her.

"You know," Riza started, nodding to the beverage Rebecca held in her grasp like a precious family heirloom, "you drink too much iced coffee."

Rebecca stared at Riza, as if she had said the most offensive insult in the history of the world. "For your information, Riza Hawkeye, this is not an iced coffee. This is a medium French vanilla with a caramel swirl, cream and two sugars, complete with a Styrofoam cup."

They were talking about coffee, right?

Riza raised an eyebrow, unfazed. "My apologies."

Rebecca sighed, shaking her head. "Really, Riza. Sometimes I think that you just –"

Suddenly a jolt of cold and wet splashed the side of Riza, and she yelped, covering herself. Rebecca screamed loudly at the culprit; a red car zooming away. She was clinging tightly onto her dripping purse.

The car came to a sudden halt a little ways ahead of them, and the window slid down, a boy's face popping out.

"Aw, what's the matter, Rebecca?" he smirked. "You look a little wet."

"Roy Mustang!" Rebecca screamed, marching over. "I'm going to kill you!"

Riza let her arm down from her face, looking over. Her face slowly scrunched together, shivering from either the cold or the anger. She couldn't say. Seeing Roy's face, though, was something she hadn't missed from the pleasant past three months of his absence from her life.

Breda was standing in the back seat of the car, his torso sticking above from the moon roof, howling with laughter. Havoc was in the passenger sheet, grinning with a cigarette in his hand.

Rebecca thrust her purse into Roy's face, fuming. "Do you even know how much I spent on this? Do you? Two hundred dollars, you ass hole!"

Havoc leaned forward so he could see out the window, his grin still present. "Aw, lighten up, Rebecca. It's just a bag. It's no big deal."

"Jean!" Rebecca growled, her target quickly shifting. "What do you mean no big deal? How could you even let this happen?"

Havoc waved it off casually, puffing some smoke from his mouth. "Relax, would you? It's just all in good fun. So no hard feelings, okay?"

Rebecca stared him down, her expression less than fazed. "No hard feelings?" She straightened herself out, glaring at him from the side. "Screw that." She began walking, calling back, "We're through!"

Havoc's heart stopped, his jaw instantly dropping, the cigarette falling from his hand to his leg. "W-what...?" His expression stayed the same as he stared with wide eyes at her back growing smaller in the distance, and then suddenly yelped. "O-ow!" Havoc quickly grabbed the cigarette burning into his pant leg and threw it out the window, sticking his head out, yelling after her. "N-no, wait! Rebecca! I-I'm sorry! Come back!"

Rebecca didn't even glance behind her. "No! Come on, Riza!"

This episode didn't exactly come as any surprise to Riza. This wasn't the first time they had broken up, and it wouldn't be the last. Why couldn't people just either stay together, or stay separated?

Breda was crying himself helpless with laughter. "Dude! She totally just dumped your ass!"

Havoc didn't seem to be paying attention, still staring at Rebecca with the same half shocked and half heartbroken expression he always put on when this happened. Riza felt sort of sorry for him, but she could never come to forgive him. She couldn't forgive any of them.

After glaring Roy with daggers one final time, Riza ran off to meet Rebecca, smudging away mud from her face. That damn Roy Mustang had some nerve.

"Are you okay?" Riza asked Rebecca, glancing over. It was a dumb question; one that Riza always asked but wondered why she did the moment the words came from her mouth. The answer was always –

"No!" Rebecca huffed, powerwalking. Riza noted that Rebecca powerwalked whenever she was angry. "I'm not alright, Riza! Not when that car of jack asses are still breathing!"

Riza didn't even get the chance to answer, because said car was all of the sudden slowly driving beside them. Their bad rap music was blasting throughout what used to be a peaceful street.

Riza glared ahead of her, trying her best to ignore them like Rebecca. But that music! She pressed her hands tightly against her ears, glancing over. She couldn't deal with this.

"Can you turn that crap down?" Riza glared, wincing.

"What?" Roy smirked, putting his fingers on the knob, twisting it. "Turn it up?"

The music, which Riza didn't think was possible, got even louder. She snapped her head down, shutting her eyes tightly, whimpering in annoyance. "I'm getting a head ache!"

Roy's smirk grew, continuing to increase the volume. "Sorry, Riza. Can't hear you."

Riza sharply turned to him, her hands over her ears. "Go away, Roy!"

Roy grinned. "Aw, don't be like that, Riza. I just wanted to say hi to my two friends. What's wrong with that?"

Riza scoffed, irritated. "We're not friends."

"Says who?"

"Says you!" Riza growled.

Roy put on a very fake look of surprise. "What? Riza, I'd never!"

"Oh, cut the act!"

Rebecca, unable to take it anymore, stepped in suddenly with, "She said go away, Mustang!" and whipped her iced coffee into the car.

Roy quickly ducked and let it swoosh past him, letting it hit a very dejected Havoc, who was snapped back into reality on impact.

"H-hey!" he yelped, panicking at the coffee spilling from his hair down to the rest of him.

Roy looked over at Havoc and managed a small smirk, turning back to Rebecca. "That wasn't very nice, Rebecca."

Rebecca growled and muttered profanity under her breath, storming away. Havoc was moping to himself, mumbling nonsense.

Riza glanced at Roy. "Just stop, would you?" And before Roy could protest, Riza ran off to join Rebecca. She could care less about any words that spewed from his mouth.

Roy paused, blinking a few times, before his smirk returned to his face. "See you guys at school!" he called behind them, and blurred by, the music fading slowly into the horizon line.

Rebecca growled, watching the car. "And this is why I hate Roy Mustang."

Riza sighed and looked down. She began to ring out her shirt, which would now stain whether it was dry or not. She couldn't believe that there had been a time when she and Roy had actually been close.

"I mean, he's such an ass hole!" Rebecca continued. "He made me waste my iced coffee! I can't get through my day without my iced coffee!"

Riza glanced at her. Hadn't she said earlier that it wasn't iced coffee?

"Yeah," Riza sighed, frowning down at her books. "He ruined my books."

Rebecca crossed her arms. "That idiot should buy you new ones."

"Like that would ever happen," Riza mumbled, looking ahead. "The day Roy Mustang buys me new books is the day the sun crashes to the Earth."

Rebecca smirked. "And like that'll ever happen."

No, it wouldn't. Riza just sighed, glancing away.

The peak of the school appeared just in the distance, outlined black against the blue sky. Riza swallowed as they approached, gossip muttering throughout the mesh of students. The smell of weed faintly hovered in the air.

"You ready?" Rebecca grinned, already scoping out the freshmen girls, her new soon-to-be targets of abuse of senior power.

Riza looked up, unsure. This was her senior year; her last year. So much was going to be decided. So much was going to change. So much so that Riza wasn't sure that she was ready for it, or wanted to see what would happen. She took a hesitant, small step towards the door.

"Yeah," she answered, inhaling. She held her breath. "I'm ready."

When it came to these sorts of things, sometimes all Riza could do was lie.

A/N: Hey! You might be saying, "What, another high school AU fic?" But... I don't think there can be enough of them! XD

Anyways, this was inspired by a roleplay I did with my friend, so... she (she being fastestthingalive34) gets mucho credit! ;)