Only You and You Alone
By The Sole Survivor
"Come on, Cassie! I'd like to leave before the bell rings!" Shouting upstairs at her older sister at exactly 6:50 am, Renee sighed as she stood by the garage door, her book bag already hanging around her shoulder. She heard Cassie running around upstairs, so either that meant she was angry or quite literally obeying her sister's request. Crossing her arms across her chest, Ren glared at the stairs heading up into the kitchen as she waited for her sister. Growling, she mumbled, "Man, Cass, it's school. Not the prom."
This was Renee's school morning, Monday through Friday. Renee would wake up at 5 to get her sister up, then come back periodically to see if she'd actually gotten up. It was always a hassle since Cassie was always awake when Ren came to get her up, but she'd always have an attitude. Like this morning for example. When the young sibling went upstairs to her sister's room, she stood outside the door, trying to get her eyes to adjust through the dimly lit room.
"Cassie, its 5:20. Are you getting up?" Cassie rolled over and huffed angrily.
"Yes! I'm up; I'm just not ready to acknowledge it yet! Go away." Sighing, Renee grumbled incoherently to herself and walked back downstairs, her head hanging. It was like that just about every morning, but ever since Renee had found out her sister was pregnant, she couldn't help but feel all anger toward her disappear at the thought and just remind herself that it was mood swings.
Renee Maxell was a 15-year-old 5"2 sophomore in high school, her older sister Cassie Maxell a junior. Ren had shoulder-length black/brown hair with bangs that covered her forehead, curling around her cheeks.
She always wore something related to how she felt that day, and it grew accustomed to pull her hair back behind her head these days, showing more of her ice-blue eyes. Cassie, who was a 5"7 16 year old, had lower-back length black/blond/red dyed hair and bangs on the left side of her face, covering her teal-colored eyes.
"Hey! You ready, whore?" Raising her eyes, Renee saw Cassie standing in the kitchen, all ready to go. A ghost of a smile on her face, Renee rolled her eyes at the sibling's game for each other.
"Duh, what do you think, loser?" Turning sharply and throwing open the door, she pressed the garage door opener and stood watching it creek to the top, revealing her burgundy Nissan Sentra. Cassie shuddered as the cold hit her in the face.
"Dude! Did you turn the car on?" Renee huffed stubbornly.
"No. Why do you think the garage door was closed?" Letting out a random scream, Cassie ran out to the car to somehow attempt to get the warmth back into her body. Renee sighed and shook her head, slowly making her way to the driver's side. Opening the back door, she threw her book bag into it, closing it quickly, seemingly just as ready to be warm again.
"Ahh, man, hurry up. I'm freezing!" Cassie moaned out, grabbing onto her sister's arm in what seemed like an attempt to look pitiful. It only succeeded in making Renee glare icily at her. Turning the car on, she threw the heat control up to the highest number and turned the fan on.
"Dude, chill. Just give it a minute, and we'll be warm." Throwing the car in reverse, she reached up to her visor to hit the garage door button to close it before she backed up, and headed in the direction to school. In the passenger seat, Cassie was shivering still, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Renee turned to her, almost in what seemed like disbelief. "Are you still cold?" Cass glared at her playfully.
"Yeah man! I'm colder than...something cold." Blinking slowly, Renee turned back to the road.
"Yeah, that one sucked, you know." She heard Cassie sigh, and felt a grin escape her lips.
"Shut up, man. I'm running out of things to say!" Turning to show her sister her huge grin, she rolled her eyes.
"Sure you are." Giggling slightly at her sister's antics, she realized that they were pulling up to the school. Slowing her speed, she realized too late that a crossing guard had walked in front of her car, waving his arms madly, so she had to stop. The guy was slightly older than she would've liked, and had a wild look across his face. Staring slightly at the perplexed man, she watched as he stormed his way up to her window, so she had to sacrifice the heat in the car to roll her window down.
"This is a school zone, not the 50 mph zone!" He yelled at her, his wild eyes wide with anger. She tried her hardest to keep her face straight with no emotion.
"Yes, sir. I understand that." Turning to look at Cassie for a split second, Renee turned back to the man, holding up her hand to her forehead in a salute. "It won't happen again." The man seemed taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered and peered closely at her face.
"See that you do! 10-4?" Nodding and snapping her hand out, she raised an eyebrow slightly when he turned back and motioned for her to move on. She slowly pressed her foot on the gas and eased on, taking care to keep both hands on the steering wheel and both eyes on the road until she turned into the parking lot for students who drove to school. Once Renee had parked into her assigned spot, Cassie let out a loud, whopping giggle, turning to her sister.
"Dude, that was stupid!" Renee side-glanced at her sister. "You were going at the very least 25 mph!" Rolling her eyes, she turned the car off, slipping on her I.D tag and hopping out of the car to get her bookbag out of the backseat. Cassie soon followed after her before her sister locked up the car. "Are you mad about that?" She asked her slowly.
"No. Of course not. He was only doing his job." Renee muttered, a small grin appearing on her face. Then she glanced upward, her grin widening. "Good Lord has given me yet another warning for the future." Cassie huffed slightly and rolled her eyes, walking up to the sidewalk to head into the school before she could freeze to death. Ever since Renee had almost wrecked before she got her driver's license, she'd been more careful to obey the traffic laws. Slowly adjusting her bag as she walked, Renee grumbled under her breath, her warm air turning visible in the cool morning mist. As soon as she walked into the school, she slowed down and sighed. "How I love warm hallways." She grinned and began her trek to the cafeteria, or the Commons as it was called.
Once she set foot into the room, she was automatically tackled by a flying black blur that hit her dead on, making her yelp and fall backwards, landing in a heap on the floor. Ignorning the shocked and confused stares from other students, she groaned in pain, not even bothering to see who her attacker had been. Sharply turning her head, Renee glared.
"Do ya think you could've waited until I got to the table, Alexandra?" She grumbled, not even bothered by the huge grin on the other girl's face.
"Nah, It was much more fun to tackle you this early in the morning." Jumping up to her feet, she pulled Renee to what seemed to her as a balanced upright position. But as soon as the black-clad girl let go, Renee once again tumbled to the tiled floor with a yelp, a scowl on her face. She gave her friend a deadly look. "Ahh, you're always so fun in the morning! I couldn't wait until you got here! Annette's been such a bonehead this morning, I can't stand it!" Alex began weeping hysterically, almost comically.
Alexandra Emberwood was a dark burnette standing at 5"5. Her deep brown eyes always had mischeif, and her long, almost waist length hair was pulled back half the time, so it became her signature look. Alexandra had on a black collared shirt with a grey hoodie covering it with black pants and black shoes. She really didn't mind standing out much, but she always liked black... and red.
"Alex, do you ever stop to think that you could ask Ann what's bothering her instead of making her angrier by ignoring her?" Renee tried, finally pulling herself to her feet. Alex glared slightly and rolled her eyes.
"Man, if she wants to talk to me, then she can come and ask me. I don't care to ask her because that's exactly what she wants me to do." Blinking owlishly at her friend, Ren shook her head. "What?"
"Dude, Alex, I know you're sick of her behavior, and I know she's always acting like a child, but could you at least try to be a least bit sympathetic?" The Maxell girl began walking slowly to the table with Alex following her closely to listen. "She is your friend afterall, and I know that she loves you a lot. Like a sister." She said quickly to the other girl's darkened expression. Alex sighed.
"AHH! I can't help it! She does it all the time! I'm SICK of being sympathetic!" When Alex was that aggrivated, she tended to wave her arms for emphasis. But as soon as they got to their official table, her angry face got even angrier and she raised a cool eyebrow. Annette and Walter were sitting at the table, Ann with her head down and with Walter sitting close to her with his arm around her. Renee sighed and walked around the couple to sit in the second empty seat to the right of the boyfriend, and couldn't help but smirk at Alex's look as she came to sit beside her. Annette Springs was a 5"4 blond headed girl with green eyes. Her hair was cut short, almost to the equivalent to a boy's hairstyle. It had bright blond streaks in it and she'd even gotten her bangs cut and styled so they'd hang in her eyes. Ann had on a white collared shirt, black jacket, and khaki pants with worn out sneakers.
Huffing, but not taking her dark brown eyes off the two, Alexandra threw her arms on the table to warn the depressed girl of her presence. The effect was immediate as her head shot up. Annette glanced around with her lime green eyes and they landed on Alex, but they seemed to shrink at the girl's look. Sighing pitifully to herself, she completely ignored Wally, as the girls liked to call him, and saw Renee with her head resting in her hands as she ignored everybody at the table. She'd been staring off into space with a bored expression.
"Hi Renee." Annette tried softly, but sighed again when the dark haired girl wouldn't look at her, the thought that she'd not even heard her crossing her mind. Wally let out a long sigh and turned to look at Renee, before fixing his gaze on Alexandra. Her eyes were still cold.
"I swear, you guys have more problems then we men do. I'm gonna go mingle." He said quickly before leaving his girlfriend to the vultures. Annette sighed again as she watched him go, but at the same time she seemed relieved. Scooting over to the seat closest to Alex, she glanced at her before grinning widely as if nothing had happened.
"So how's your morning, Alex?" Turning with the flair of an angry ninja, the fire behind her dark eyes brightened considerably.
"AHH! Why do you ask the same bloody question every day?" Ann didn't seem the least bit surprised by the girl's outburst, but she sighed. Growling darkly under her breath, Alex turned to Renee finally, her face pitiful as she buried her face into the Maxell's shoulder. "Wahh, make her go away." Renee sighed, her posture never changing. She knew Alexandra was playing around, trying to get Ann angry so she would leave her alone.
"Alex, you're a wimp." She muttered before a grin escaped. Alex glanced up with a huge grin. Sitting up straight, she completely ignored Annette, much to the blond's dismay and focused her attention on Renee.
"Yeah, well you know what? You know what!? You're a loser!" Renee's grin widened slightly as the game started.
"You know what?! Your face is a loser!"
"Your mom's a loser!"
"Your grandma's a loser!"
"Gosh! Your... grades suck!" Alex finally shouted, her face the picture of laughter. Renee raised a humorous eyebrow.
"Wow, that must've taken up all your energy for the day. You must be exhausted." The Maxell girl joked, not at all surprised when Alexandra retaliated.
"Yea, from looking at your face. Ohhh!" Stopping slightly, she frowned and opened her mouth in a half-whine. "I wanna go home." Renee watched in high amusement as the Emberwood girl threw her head roughly on the table with a resounding BANG!
"Haha, I hope you hurt your head." Renee muttered so only Alex could hear her. Crossing her arms on the table, she rested her chin in the crease of her elbow, closing her eyes. Right before she could relax all the way, she felt two fingers prodding her shoulder gently to get her attention. Knotting her eyebrows together tightly, she opened her eyes and raised up her head to see Leon Smith. He put on a happy grin and he sat down in the empty seat beside her.
"S'up Ren." He mumbled quietly and continued to poke her until she answered. Letting out a sigh, she put on a false happy grin.
"Nothin but the usual, Leon." Hearing snickering beside her, Renee's forced smile turned immediately into a dark scowl as she sharply turned to face Alex. She'd taken to laughing quietly behind her hands, seemingly forgotten about the morning's earlier argument. "I. Hate. You." She spat out, growing all the more angry when Alex burst out laughing, pointing at her friend. Getting a small grin of her own, she leaned close to Alex. "I really hate you. But check this out." Waiting until she got her attention, Renee turned back to Greg and put on her biggest and brightest smile. "Hey Leon, I think Alex has a crush on you!"
"Oh no! She's just hiding her true feelings, Leon! All these years of flirting with her has finally paid off!" Alex shot back, an evil smirk on her face. Leon glared at Alex before walking away in an angry huff.
"I am not!" Renee sat back with an angry expression, her bookbag resting on her lap. "You know what?! You're a loser!" Renee shouted at her playfully.
"You know what?! You know what?!" Renee gave her a deadpan look.
"Please don't say 'That's what'."
"You know what?!"
"What?!"
"That's what!!!"
"I bet it took you all day to think of that!"
"Yeah! I'm just that cool!"
"Yeah... you're that cool." Renee sighed. "Soo... what now?"
"I don't know, what do you wanna do?" At Alex's retort, Annette let out a loud sigh, trying to get the girl's attention. A vein popped on Alex's head, but she still looked on to Renee. "So... what do you wanna do, Renee?" She said sarcastically, forcing a grin as she stared pointedly at the Maxell girl. Renee blinked at forced expression on the girl's face: a big, creepy smile. With a slight sweatdrop in the back of her head, Renee backed up slightly as the bell rang, signaling for the students to head to their classes. A little too energetic, but with a sour expression on her face, Annette shot up from the table with her books in her arms. She stood there for a minute, as if deciding something before running off in the direction of class with Wally materializing out of nowhere, not too far behind. Renee sighed softly to herself.
"Geez, you're so mean Alex." The burnette turned at the mention of her name, but grinned at the statement.
"Yeah, but I can be so much meaner." Renee raised an eyebrow.
"Then I'd hate to see you in that stage because I think you just about made that girl bawl her eyes out at you ignoring her." Alexandra shrugged, her face playful as she trudged heavily on to the stairs, heading to her next class. Renee followed her movement, but with a little more energy. "Dude, you really have to think about getting more sleep. You're like dead weight in the mornings."
"Duh. I'm a naturally lazy person." Renee rolled her eyes, a grin on her face.
"So I've been told." Getting to the junction of where they had to split to go to their seperate classes, Alexandra stopped by the girl's class.
"Wahh, leave me." Renee blinked and crossed her arms.
"Dude, I have to. Go have fun in English with Ann before she decides to commit suicide in there alone."
"Yeah. Haha, you're funny." Chuckling to herself at the sarcastic remark, Renee waved to Alex and headed into her choir class, Ebony and Ivory. As soon as she walked in the room, she saw her other friend sitting in the usual seat. Renee frowned and yawned hugely as she made her way over to her. Alana Reid had long, natural blond hair and blue eyes with what looked like had a bit of hazel in them. She wore a hoodie like Renee's E&I, but hers was the grey senior hoodie. She stood at about 5"8, making her taller than the Maxell. Renee soon gathered her chair and plopped down next to Alana, throwing her bag in the floor.
"Ahh, so what's the agenda for today?" Alana shrugged.
"I don't know, but I hope we have a free day." Renee eyed the Reid girl.
"I don't think we'll be having a free day because of that concert we have tonight. We gotta practice, you know." Rolling her eyes, Renee got up and went to the water fountain to think for a bit. She wasn't thirsty, but the fountain was secluded behind the black control box in the corner of the room. As soon as she got around to it, she heard the bell ring for school to start. Cursing slightly under her breath, she kept quiet as the Moment of Silence became announced. When the announcer asked for the pledge, she walked out of the corner so she could get a good view of the flag hanging directly above her.
"Come on, guys, let's get working!" She sighed as she heard her teacher's voice ring throughout the choir room. Everybody quieted a little, and Ren slowly trudged to her seat. Mr. Gary Farley stood at the very least 6", with a bald head and glasses. He was an awesome African American teacher, and seemed to wear over-sized clothes that looked entirely too warm. Sitting down roughly in her seat, she crossed her arms and raised her eyes to gaze at the man; awaiting for a long, tiring period.
"AHH! Finally! Art!" Renee stomped into the room, slinging her bookbag onto her table. Letting out a huge sigh, she put on a grin and headed to Ms. Lenord's desk. "Hey Ms. Lenord, how are you today?" She asked nicely, walking around the young artist's desk to give her a side-hug.
"I'm doing alright, Ren. How was your day so far?" Renee grumbled slightly, kneeling on the floor beside the teacher's chair.
"Dude, choir was rough today! We went over this one song like a billion times, when we should've had more time on it!" Ms. Lenord laughed slightly. The young woman was a slim 5"4 petite burnette and had on medium black rim glasses that made her look like the artist she was. Her hair was cut short, cropping around her chin, and her bangs hung in her chocolate eyes. Ms. Lenord always wore crazy outfits, like shirts with weird art sayings. And Renee felt that the art teacher was one of the few in the school she felt she could be comfortable with. "Anyway, yeah, I'm complaining again. How's your day been with the freshman?" As soon as those words left the Maxell's mouth, the young woman seemed to change drastically as she rolled her eyes with a huff.
"Oh, you know those guys. I'm so glad that I only have 2 periods with them, I'm not sure I could handle a whole day with---" At that moment, Alexandra and Annette stormed in the room, in another one of their arguments. Renee sighed and growled, dragging herself to her feet. One look at Alex was all Ren needed to tell her that the burnette was about to physically murder someone in the most gruesome way. "What are those two arguing about now?" She heard Ms. Lenord ask.
"To be perfectly honest, Ms. Lenord, I'm starting to think that this is a planned arrangement." Slowly walking back to her table, she found Alexandra sitting beside her with Ann standing behind her, trying to get her to 'talk about their problems'. Growling when she realized Ann was hovering over her chair, and that she couldn't get into it without the blond moving, Renee walked forward with her arms outstretched and she pushed the girl off to the side. Not even bothered by her surprised look, the Maxell girl turned around to get her paints. Her project in art was to recreate a book, basically by destroying one book to make it into what you wish. Renee had chosen to simply make an Full Metal Alchemist children's book; while in the making of before-mentioned book, realized what a difficult job that would be with all the drawing and painting she's having to do.
"Why won't you talk to me anymore Alex?!" Ann's voice broke through her thoughts quite roughly as she turned to find out why. The Spring's girl had taken her spot again behind Ren's chair. Renee growled, rubbing her forehead, and turned to glance at the frustrated Emberwood girl. She looked rough. She had been trying to work on her book, one that she was making into a Child Stories book, but seemed she couldn't concentrate with the blond behind her, demanding an answer. "Just tell me, are we friends or not?" Alexandra sighed, irritated and exhausted already so early in the morning.
"Ann, I don't want to talk about this right now. Go to class or you'll be late." Just as she finished that sentence, the late bell rang, making Annette tardy. With tears already in her eyes, she stormed off into the adjoining classroom, to her own art class. Alex seemed to relax a bit and got up to close the door, blocking Ann's walkway to the Art III classroom. She let out a long sigh.
"I'm guessing you guys had a bad morning already, huh?" Renee asked the other girl softly. Alexandra groaned.
"You could tell, huh? But she's always so… AHH! I don't even know how to explain it!" Just as Renee was about to say something, the principal got on the intercom in what seemed like a rushed tone of voice.
"Teachers, if you would, please lock your doors and don't enable any of the students to leave the classrooms for any reason. Thank you." As soon as he got off, everybody was sent into a panic. Renee looked out the window where her and Alex sat, and saw the parking lot for teachers, and the pharmacy across from the school. Getting up and walking closer, she saw a man running toward the school with a shotgun and a hand gun, while carrying a bag. He kept looking over his shoulder, but he had an angry look on his face.
"Oh no…" Renee blanched when she realized he was heading toward their classroom. Maybe that's why the principal told them to lock their doors? The robber crossed the parking lot and headed for the art room door. As soon as he reached it, he dropped the bag and began banging on the door, screaming for someone to let him in. Ms. Leonard came dashing across the room.
"Back up Renee! Get to the other side of the classroom, now!" Renee tried to move, she really did, but she was really in a shock. Never in her whole life would she have figured that a robbery would've taken place right across from the school. Alexandra suddenly came at her side, urging her to move.
"Come on, Ren! We've gotta move!" But it was too late. The robber had gotten impatient and taken his handgun to shoot the lock off the door, and kick it open. He ran in, his gun pointed in front of him. Once he caught sight of Ms. Leonard, he glowered and stalked forward, the gun aimed for her head. She stood a glare on her face. "Ms. Leonard!" Alex shouted and realized too late that the gunman had heard her. Her chocolate brown eyes widened, and she quickly began pushing Renee toward the other door. A couple gunshots were heard, making all the students freeze.
"Wait! We can't leave her!" Renee shouted, and began running back toward the middle room.
"Renee no!" The Maxell girl ran in the room, searching frantically, but didn't have to look for very long. The gunman was standing not even two feet from her, a gun leveled at her face. Her eyes widened, and she stood frozen as fear gripped her. Gulping, she shook her head roughly to get her mind back in the present situation. Hearing footsteps behind her, Alexandra ran in the room to stand beside Ren, a glare on her face.
"Where's our teacher?" Renee finally spoke, and looked the gunman straight in the eyes. That's when she got a good look at him. He was a tall man, probably 6"4 and was very ratty looking. He had on a white baseball cap that looked worn out, a black hoodie and dark jeans with boots on. He had a fuzzy beard and the rest of his brown hair was pulled back into a rough ponytail.
"I'm afraid you're too late, Hun. Your teacher's gone." Fear once again invaded her, freezing her on the spot. The gunman put on a thoughtful look as he switched his gaze from Alex to Renee. Seeming to decide on something, he raised his gun and leveled it with the two girls. "Alright, you two, you're coming with me."
"What?" Alex spat out. "Why would we go with you?" The man growled.
"Because I can shoot you dead right here, but I'm giving you a choice. Don't be stupid. Now go out the door."
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Author's Note: Ahh! New story! I'm excited. Didn't really think you, the reader, would be… but that's probably because of the complete lack of Edward, Alphonse and co, right? Don't worry, I'm getting to it. :grins:
Disclaimer: I don't own any Hagaren characters, but ALL, count 'em, all the people in this chapter belong to meh.