Adventure Two: School
Summary: The Teacher really regrets not retiring.
Edward Elric & Winry Rockbell: Age Six
Alphonse Elric: Age Five
The school in Risembool was a small one that only educated children from Grade One up until Grade Eight.
This was allowed because those who showed promise to learn anything beyond that usually were sent off to the nearest big town for High School and the rest knew all they needed for life in a small rural town. This also meant that there were only eight teachers in the school for the relatively small population of students.
Mrs. Greisgram had been a teacher for as long as most residents of Risembool could remember (even Pinako had trouble recalling a time whenever the severe woman wasn't a teacher). She'd had many of the children she taught's parents and even grandparents, in some cases. In rural towns with people having children young, it was getting more and more common for her.
She'd, of course, had Trisha Elric as a child.
Such a sweet girl. One of only two Hylians in the school, she stood out without even trying.
Mrs. Greisgram had recommended that Trisha join the Faith of the Three as a Priestess of Farore, but the girl declined.
"But this is a huge opportunity."
"I know in my heart I need to do something else."
"Is it about love? You know the Faith doesn't demand celibacy from their priests and priestesses!"
"It's not that either. I just feel my place is here."
Mrs. Greisgram had heard tales about Edward Elric already from an incident over two years ago. She'd have to keep her eye out for him.
She was surprised whenever both Elric brothers arrived with Pinako's granddaughter in tow. The trio of blonde Hylians sat down in a row: the two true golden heads of the Elric's making the lighter blonde head of Rockbell look a bit lighter than it actually was.
"Alright! Settle down!" The class fell silent. The Elric's and Rockbell looked almost eager. She began writing letters on the board. When she looked back at the trio, she saw two bored boys and a girl who looked sorely disappointed.
'They'll thank me whenever they can read.' she thought with a sniff.
At lunch break she saw the boys were arguing with Rockbell over something.
"…We already know all that stuff! This is a waste of time!"
"But Granny said we had to go, so we have to suck it up and deal with it, Ed!"
"But Winry! You're suffering too! Think about all the automail stuff you could be learning right now if we weren't here."
"If I'm stuck here, so are you!"
Mrs. Greisgram narrowed her eyes and cleared her throat.
"Mr. Elric. Are you telling me you already know how to read and write?" she said. Ordinarily a precocious kid would cower. Though, sometimes they'd take the bait and embarrass themselves.
Edward Elric did neither. He glared right back at her.
"Yes, I can!" Ed said. Without even being prompted the six year old stormed up to the board, erased her letters and looked back at her.
"Whadda ya want me to write?" he said. The teacher twitched knowing the improper language was on purpose.
"Whatever you think you can." Mrs. Greisgram said through gritted teeth. The smirk on Ed's face widened before the blonde turned his attention back to the board and he began to write out something in cursive; it filled up a good chunk of the board. Some of the words in it even Mrs. Greisgram didn't quite know.
Stunned silence ruled until a knocking at the door disturbed it. Sticking their head in, the interloper spoke.
"Gothe, have you-Are you teaching these children advanced Chemistry?" it was the Eighth grade teacher, Mr. Stahl. He inspected the board with undisguised shock.
"She didn't teach anything but boring letters and challenged me to prove I could already read and write so she told me to write whatever I felt I could, so I DID," Ed said setting the chalk down.
"Brother! You forgot a part!" Al said before he ran up to the board and added in a few extra lines of text, also in cursive.
"Where did you learn this," Mrs. Greisgram said tersely, as the other children tried not to giggle.
"Books from Dad's study. Oh, if you mean reading and writing, Mom taught us after she saw Brother had learned a couple words on his own," Al said whenever it was clear Ed wasn't going to say anything.
"How old were you," Mr. Stahl said,
"Brother was two and a half. Mom didn't try teaching me until I was two and a half too," Al said, "I don't know when Winry learned, though."
"I was three!" Winry said.
It was then that Mrs. Greisgram knew: she would have her hands full with the Elric Brothers.
As for Pinako's granddaughter…..
Retirement sounded better by the day.
MP: Please note, I try to catch all my grammatical mistakes but I am human. Please let me know what you think.