I know, I'm terrible, starting another new story when I have so many unfinished. What can I say? I've had this AU in my head for awhile, and it needed to come out.
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Summary: Winry is a normal girl who has it all, friends, popularity, everything. But when Central High receives a strange transfer student with a dark purpose, Winry's life will be changed forever with gangs, drugs, new outlooks, love, and newfound Connections.
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Disclaimer: If I owned FMA, it would suck and most likely be a yaoi/yuri shojo right now.
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Chapter 1- Disoriented
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Winry Rockbell stepped out of her mom's car, glad to finally be back at school. She walked towards Central High's front entrance, shivering in the cold. She was starting the second semester almost two weeks later than the rest of the students, due to flight delays.
"Stupid blizzards," she cursed silently under her breath, as she made her way to the office.
Walking in, Winry ignored the adjoining rooms, and instead rotated to face the small desk on the side. Winry flashed a smile at the Assistant Director, and asked, "Can I have a copy of my new schedule please?"
The lady nodded, returning Winry's smile as she printed out the schedule.
"Here you are Ms. Rockbell. If you hurry you can still get to the gym before first period. So you know, today is an A day."
Winry thanked her, and headed to the gym, weaving through familiar hallways, and running through the courtyard. When she reached the door to the Fine Arts building, Winry was surprised to see a short, blonde kid cut in front of her and pull open the door.
Before Winry could snap at his rudeness or examine him too closely, the boy held the door a moment longer for her, and when Winry grabbed it, he hurried into the warm building without giving the popular girl a second look.
Winry stood there holding the door, and followed the blonde kid through the hallway, her already fragile mood tossed out the window. As she walked though the hall, she examined her schedule.
A Day (1st-4th period)
1- German: Sheska
2- Shop: Garfiel
3- History: Armstrong
4- Science: Marcoh
B Day (5th-8th period)
5- Language Arts: Tajada (AN: that means Chopper in a random language)
6- Gym: Armstrong
7- Film as Lit: Scar
8- Math: Curtis
Homeroom: Curtis
To her surprise, the short boy into front of her didn't head into the small gym where the freshman stayed, but instead walked into the large gym that the juniors waited in. Winry silently followed the boy into the gym, and forgetting about him, scanned the bleachers for her friends.
She hadn't been searching long before a shout of "Winry!" emitted from the top row.
Looking up, Winry saw her best friends Riza, Rose, and Paninya come running down the steps.
Winry smiled, and her wave was cut off by all three slamming into her at once.
"Hey guys," Winry said weakly.
"You're finally back!" exclaimed Rose.
"We have SOO much to tell you!" Paninya said, pulling Winry up the steps to where their other friends waited. More exclamations of "Hey Winry!" and "You're back!" followed the trio as they walked. Winry tried to smile and wave at the people who greeted her, but she was held up by her friends' own exclamations.
"Hey Winry, why'd you get back late?" asked Riza, being the most levelheaded of the group. Winry sighed, knowing her friends had been imagining some amazing tale explaining her lateness.
"It was snowing so hard my flights couldn't leave. Remember what happened a few years ago with that one airline? Well this year, Briggs got so held up with snow, that when we got there to change planes, we had to stay for about two weeks until the weather let up," she finished lamely.
Her friends were staring at her wide-eyed, and before they could push another barrage of questions upon her, she held up her hands and said, "Before you start, lets get to the top."
Eventually, the girls reached the top bleacher, and Winry collapsed, smiling at her friends. Roy, Maes, Gracia, Riza, Jean (Havoc), Maria (Ross), Rose, and Paninya had been her friends since freshman year, and the group - had quickly risen to new heights of popularity.
After explaining to the others why she had started school late, Winry asked, "So what happened while I was away? Anything good?"
Riza and Roy smiled at each other and Winry gasped.
"No. Seriously?" Winry turned to Roy. "You finally asked Riza out! That's great!"
The couple grinned. Maes started riffling through his backpack, and before he could start throwing pictures of his little sister in her face, Winry hurriedly changed the subject.
"So what else is new?"
The others exchanged dark looks, and they lowered their voices conspiratially.
"We got a new guy," Rose said, in a low voice.
Winry's eyes widened in surprise. "Really? Who is it?"
"His name's Edward Elric. He moved here in the middle of winter break, and no one knows why. Apparently, he was in some kind of horrible accident that involved his entire family. Don't go near him. He's hangs out with the goths, and is just really weird," Riza said, obviously passing on well-traveled information.
Winry was confused. "Why, what's wrong with him?"
"They say he used to be in a gang before he came here. Also, you know Envy?" asked Roy, adding on. Winry nodded.
Envy was a goth guy, and belonged to the gang "The Seven Sins". He was civil enough, but always cold and fierce. If his group didn't ostracize themselves as much as they did, the number of fights Envy won daily might've given him some popularity. Now, he was a violent freak.
"Well, first day back, Envy walks over to Elric, and starts talking to him. From the reaction I got from the new guy (AN: he was flicked off), I expected a fight to start. Instead, they've been hanging out this whole time, like their best friends. It's creepy. Like we said, don't go near him," Roy finished, a warning in his eyes.
Winry was still a bit confused but shook the feeling off. Her friends were probably right.
Just then, the juniors were released to go to their first period classes, and the group headed down the bleachers to exit through the fine arts building.
Winry looked over her shoulder and caught sight of the new kid disappearing out the opposite door.
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"What's your first class Winry?" asked Riza, walking beside her.
"German, same as last semester. My first period classes are all year-longs," said Winry.
She liked German, it was a pretty cool language to learn. It was different than what most other people were taking, and she had a lot of friends in there. The language itself was easy too learn too, the words were so similar.
"Sucks. I have Gun Club. Whose your teacher?" said Riza casually.
"Gun Club?" asked Winry incredulously. She knew her friend was good at archery and had interest in firearms, but there was a class?
"Yeah, pretty crazy huh? Apparently a bunch of girls got together a few years ago and lobbied the teachers into making it a club. The teacher, Kimbley, is a real pyro. The class is crazy. You have to have a study hall first period, and get signed permission to do it," Riza smirked. It was well known that her parents used to be in the military, and so would approve of anything weapon-related.
Winry shook her head. "That's crazy."
Riza abruptly stopped and turned to her friend. "Hey, um, Winry? Shouldn't you be heading the opposite direction? I thought you were going to German?"
Winry's eyes widened as she took in her location. "Crap! I'm used to you being in the class next door. Bye Riza!" she called as she left her friend behind, arm pumping. Damn second story classroom, she thought, dashing up the stairs.
She was two doors away when the bell rang, and burst through the door just as the buzzing sound died away.
"Sorry I'm late," Winry gasped, standing in the doorway.
Their teacher Ms. Sheska (or as she preferred the German students to call her, Frau Sheska) looked up from her enormous pile of papers and smiled warmly.
"Winry! Good to have you back!"
Winry smiled tentatively back at her teacher. "Thanks. I'm sorry I'm late."
"It's fine, you came in just after, and I won't count you tardy on your first day back. Take a seat."
Winry smiled at her excited teacher gratefully and started walking over to her old seat next to Rose, when she realized Maria (Ross) was sitting in it.
She looked around, and saw that there were no seats by any of her friends, or anywhere else, for that matter.
Ms. Sheska, seeing her problem, said, "The seat just behind you hasn't been taken yet. You can sit there."
Winry turned slowly, and sunk down into a desk in the back row, one desk away from being closest to the door. There were two empty desks on either side of her. She knew one was used for stacking papers, so no one sat there, and from the way her teacher said it, someone probably sat at the other desk.
Ms. Sheska was about to start talking when the door burst open and he rushed in.
The guy was short and blonde, his long hair hanging in a braid, bangs swinging erratically as he stood, panting, in the doorway. He wore a black short-sleeved shirt, dark leather pants, and ominous-looking boots. He had on a long dark red coat, and underneath it, Winry could see black, arm-length gloves, with metal plates over the knuckles.
"Sorry I'm late! Traffic…was terrible…getting here…took awhile," gasped the guy, while trying to catch his breath.
To Winry's surprise, her teacher smiled, saying, "That's alright Edward. Don't let it happen again. Take your seat."
The guy (Edward) half-smiled gratefully, and dropped his bag unceremoniously next to the desk next to Winry's, and half-sunk half-dropped into his seat. Leaning over to get out some paper, Edward looked up, just now seeing Winry for the first time.
"Who're you?" he asked bluntly.
Winry couldn't answer, because for the first time she could see Edward's eyes, and it was hard to look away.
They were large, golden, almost luminescent, and filled with emotions. On the surface there was annoyance, but she could tell that underneath there were layers of suppressed thoughts and sadness, all carefully and easily hidden, as if hiding his thoughts was a routine.
Suddenly Winry's connection with the molten gold broke off as Edward rolled his eyes and slumped down on his desk, head resting on his folded arms.
"Whatever," he muttered under his breath.
Quickly, Winry recovered, and stuck her hand out.
"Sorry about that, I'm Winry Rockbell! What's your name?" said Winry hurriedly, flustered by the abrupt change of mood in the other blonde.
Edward titled his head up to glare at Winry's outstretched hand.
"I'm Edward Elric, the freaky new kid. Don't get all polite and shit on me, because I'll just ignore it," said Edward, ducking down to take some notebook paper and a pencil out of his black canvas messenger bag.
Winry was taken aback. Being popular since freshman year, she hadn't ever been just dismissed like that before. Trying her best to brush it off, Winry lowered her head and tried her best to stay cheerful as she began again.
"So where're you from?" she asked politely, trying to start up a conversation.
"Do you even care?" Ed shot back, not looking up from whatever he was currently doodling.
Before Winry could respond, Ms. Sheska made her way to the front of the classroom and began the lesson.
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By the end of class, Winry was thoroughly confused, had no idea what had been learned while she was gone, and was convinced that Edward was the most self-contradictory person she'd ever met.
The entire class, he had simply taken one page of messy, basic notes, lounged in his chair, had doodled through most of the board drills, was oblivious of his surroundings, was slightly lost whenever his name was said, and yet still got every one of his answers right, and apparently got the highest grade a quiz they'd taken during Winry's absence.
First period was over at 9:10, and Ms. Sheska let them pack up and mill around at 9:05.
Winry went over to the other side of the class and started talking to Rose about what they'd learned. To her relief, Rose was able to explain the stuff she'd missed pretty well.
As she was talking, Winry noticed that Edward had gotten up, packed, had his bag on his shoulder, and was leaning against the doorway alone, eyes closed, waiting.
When the bell finally rang to leave, Ed was the first out the room, the door flying open in his wake, as he made a sharp right turn and disappeared down the hallway.
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okay, Central High is going to be a lot like my school, so here's how stuff is gonna work:
-there are A and B days, where you have half your classes one day, and the other half the next day. Classes are longer, but you get an extra day to do homework.
-theres 2 buildings, the main building (where the regular classes are), and the fine arts building (it has the gym, the theater, the cafeteria, and the band/orchestra halls), connected by a courtyard.
-the students have homeroom every Tuesday after the second period of the day (2nd or 6th). The homeroom consists of a mixture of all 4 grades, and because it only happens on Tuesday, classes are shorter.
And btw, there actually is such thing as a Gun Club. We don't have it, but it's offered at another real school. So don't sue me for unrealistic-ness.
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so now that all that crap is cleared up, tell me what you think, and enjoy the story!
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