We have three types of teachers in my school: we have the strict type that were breathing down your neck about your grades whether they were bad or not (Ms. Hawkeye), we have the ones that loved to punish the entire class instead of the select few who really deserved it just for the sake of giving homework (Mr. Mustang), and then we have the ones that didn't care how bad we did the work as long as the assignment was turned in and they would give us an A for effort (Mr. Havoc and Mr. Hughes). I have to deal with every type of these teachers for my first semester, and let me tell you, it's not fun. For starters, Hughes is annoying, Havoc is lazy, Mustang is an ass, and Hawkeye is scary when she's mad. I managed to get her language work done in time, but it was a pain to do. I was up until half-past eleven doing my homework and had a hard time getting to sleep because Winry was squeeing over the fact that her new student was related to my new student, and that he was living next door to her.

I let my head fall onto the desk and closed my eyes once I had finished my vocabulary test. I was in a senior class, and I was still having to take vocabulary tests? I feel the school system might have failed somewhere along the road from my freshman year.

"Is everyone done?" Ms. Hawkeye asked, stirring me from my sleep. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked at the clock. Barely ten minutes until class would end. I had been asleep for about twenty minutes. It was a nice nap and helped me regain a little bit of sleep. Ms. Hawkeye didn't seem to notice me waking up. "Pass up your tests!"

I grabbed my answer sheet and her test and passed both up to the person in front of me, turning to get them from the people behind me. Rose, one of my classmates, handed me her paper and smiled at me. I grinned and turned away. Rose was a very pretty young girl. I couldn't remember exactly where she was from, but it didn't exactly matter to a lot of boys. She had light brown hair, darkened skin, and a nice figure. She was nice to everyone, and went to a Catholic church near the school. She didn't have a boyfriend, but I was sure that that would change soon. She got at least three love letters from multiple guys in our school, older and younger, all the time. I once commented that I'd like to see just what they wrote, and whenever she got one that she thought would amuse me, she let me read it. I relieved a lot of school stress by reading those love letters.

I passed her papers up and quickly gathered my stuff from the basket under my seat. Ms. Hawkeye collected the papers and sorted them out on her desk. I crossed my arms and looked back to the clock. At least five more minutes to go before the bell would ring. First block would be over, and then I could get to Spanish Culture class. Mr. Havoc was a lazy-ass teacher who taught us nothing about the Mexican history and took at least three smoke breaks. He didn't have any students who failed his class, and it was mostly because he just gave everyone As. It was a good block for anyone to go and print something out for another class, get a pass to go to the bathroom, and sometimes we just sat in his class and read books or did homework.

The bell finally rang and I would have jumped out of my seat (like a few people did) had I not remembered Ms. Hawkeye's rule: if you stand up before the bell is finished ringing, you have to wait for the other students to leave before you can. My memory had saved me once again! I stood with about eight other students and made my way quickly out the door.

Havoc was actually in the classroom when I came to it. However, I thought I had been free of that damn nuisance; standing beside Havoc's desk and waiting on him to look at something was the new bane of my existence: Envy. He was poking Havoc, who had apparently fallen asleep on top of something that he needed and couldn't get the man to wake up. I felt a little sorry for him, especially when the other students began to snicker and whisper with each other. Of what little I could see of Envy's face, he seemed lost. With a sigh, I grabbed the three text books I had, walked over to Havoc's desk, and dropped them onto the floor with a loud BLAM!

"Waah!" Havoc bolted awake, falling over in his chair. Envy grinned at me in thanks while the students in the classroom who weren't mad at me for dropping my books laughed. Havoc stood up as quickly as he could, putting his chair back on its four legs. He handed Envy the slip and told him to sit somewhere when everyone in class came and took their seats. I picked up my books and walked to my desk. Envy, of course, had to take the seat next to mine, assuming that no one sat there. No one really did, but still.

"Thanks for saving me," he said. "I had no idea how to wake him up." He shot a glare towards the kids in the back when they started laughing again. "Some help they were..."

"Why are you here?" I asked. Envy pretended to be slightly hurt but stopped when I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I needed another foreign language credit to pass my final year in high school, so they transferred me from journalism to this class. Lucky that we got the same block, huh?" He grinned again. "Mind helping me catch up on what you've covered?"

"The only thing we've ever covered in here is the gut-wrenching stench of Havoc's smoking problem." I could see the confused look on his face from the corner of my eye. "He doesn't teach in this class. All he does is smoke and sleep, and maybe give us guys 'dating tips.' He talks way too much about boobs." At that last comment, Envy snorted and covered his mouth. The edge of his lips showed from beneath his fingertips.

"Oh wow," he said through a laugh. He pushed a lock of hair behind his ear. "Uh, don't catch me up on that. I'd rather not know anything about that." Envy smirked at his desk. I looked at him sourly for a moment before pulling out a historic-set novel and opening it on my desk. I didn't get halfway down the page before a conversation broke out beside me.

"Hey, aren't you the new kid that's related to King Bradley?" Despite my mind telling me not to do anything, I looked up. Of all the Goddamn bullies in the school, it had to be Zolf-fucking-Kimblee. He was the best-dressed, worst-mouthed kid in our grade. Sure, he was a handsome guy with slick black hair pulled into a ponytail and wore white dress shirts and black pants pressed by mommy, but he had the worst attitude in the entire school. The second a teacher was out of range, he began cursing like it was going out a style. And he was a pyromaniac. He had tattoos on his hands that made any normal human being worry for his sanity.

But Envy didn't seemed disturbed by his intimidating demeanor. In fact, he just frowned and looked up with disinterest. "Yeah," he answered.

Kimblee laughed and clutched his stomach. I turned to Havoc, sensing danger coming. He was asleep again.

"So you're his 'precious little grandkid'? Wow, you look nothing like him!" Kimblee placed a hand on Envy's shoulder. He looked at it with a scowl. "So, tell me, your granddaddy trusts you right? Right. Listen, I just wanted to let you know that I get into a lot of fights. Not a lot of them are in my favor, sure, but it's not my fault! None of the fights are my fault. So, I was just wondering if you could help me get out of a recent fight. This guy, we call him 'Scar,' for obvious reasons, see, we got into a fight awhile ago. Some names were thrown around, and then I decked him. I just need someone to speak in my favor that I, in fact, didn't throw the first punch. We're in the same first block, so the alibi would be flawless! Whatdya say?"

Envy grinned. "Sure," he said. "I'll back you up. And maybe later, when all this is over, I'll teach you how to fly!" He frowned.

The look on Kimblee's face, as priceless as it was, fell once he heard Envy's jeer. I couldn't help but smirk. Kimblee didn't seem to find it all that amusing. He grabbed the sleeve of Envy's tank and yanked him out of his seat. Envy was lanky and skinny, so pulling him out of a plastic black chair wasn't a challenge for the larger teen. Half the room became quiet while the other whispered, making bets. I shot a glance back at Havoc. Drool covered a few test papers. I prayed that one of them wasn't mine.

"You think you're funny?" Kimblee asked darkly, glowering down at Envy who was a head shorter than him. Envy didn't bat an eye.

"Yeah, actually, I do think I'm funny." He frowned at the hand wrinkling his shirt. "Can't you take a joke? I'm not charging you to laugh at them." Kimblee growled and shoved Envy backward. The teen struggled to keep his footing but managed. I jumped up.

"Knock it off, Kimblee!" I said, immediately regretting it when he looked over at me.

"Hey, Horsetail!" Envy put his fingers between his lips and whistled. Havoc twitched. Kimblee jerked his sights back on Envy. "This is between you and me."

"You're right," he said, advancing, cracking his knuckles. "So come on, palm tree. Let's go." He grabbed a sloppy fighting stance. Envy frowned at him. By now, the class had gone entirely silent. Havoc's snoring was the only noise in the room. Not even ten minutes and blood was about to be spilled. "Come on, newbie! Let's see what you've got. Fight me. Show me that move that got you expelled at your old school."

"With pleasure," Envy said smoothly. He didn't move. He stuck his hands in his pockets and stared.

Kimblee let out a ferocious growl and slammed a fist right against Envy's temple. He staggered back, caught off-guard, and knocked his spine against a girl's desk. She screamed as he reached behind him and grabbed the desk to prevent himself from falling over it. He blinked quickly to rid himself of the dizziness that probably came with the bone-breaking punch. But as quickly as he regained his posture, Envy balled his fist and slammed it against Kimblee's nose. There was a crunch as the cartilage gave way to Envy's blow. Blood gushed from his nostrils and he fell backwards, blinking back tears. Kimblee grabbed at his nose as half the class began cheering for him and the other half for Envy.

"You bitch!" Kimblee growled, holding his nose as blood seeped from between his fingers. Envy cracked his knuckles with a satisfied laugh. I wanted to jump in, but the blood made me freeze. The scene before me had morphed into a different setting, a different year entirely. Instead of seeing Envy and Kimblee trading blows with each other, I saw Alphonse's crumpled body lying at the foot of the stairs, blood slowly pooling around beneath his cheeks, pouring from his mouth and nose. The feeling of fear washed over me entirely. My knees were shaking.

"ENOUGH!" I jumped and looked to the back of class with the rest of the students. Envy and Kimblee halted their fight. While I had spaced out, Kimblee had earned a black eye and a busted lip. Other than the deep purple mark on the side of Envy's face, he seemed untouched. Havoc had been awoken by two of the girls who were worried about the two boys killing each other. With Kimblee's reputation, I wouldn't put it past him to do it. Havoc's face was red with anger. "You two, outside, right now! And don't you dare start a fight out there, or I will personally make sure you are both expelled! Kimblee, get some tissues for your nose and leave."

Envy frowned, shot me an apologetic look, and ducked his head as he walked out and let the door slam as he disappeared into the hallway, fingering his bruise. Kimblee muttered some horrible profanity that Havoc let him have and walked to the door, flipping the entire class his middle finger as he left. Havoc sighed and walked to the door. I sunk into my seat as he left. He put some girl in charge; I wasn't listening, but I think her name was Rebecca.

My legs felt weak, like jell-o. I think that if I tried to stand, I'd fall flat on my face. I buried my face in my arms and closed my eyes, sighing, fighting tears. That had been the scariest day of my life. Seeing blood made me relive that moment like it was on repeat. Call me hemaphobic.

Havoc returned some twenty minutes later, growling to himself. He had probably been chewed out for his laziness. I could care less about what had happened to him.

Another ten minutes later, and Envy returned, head hanging low. His bruise was now a dark purple mass, almost blue, on the side of his head. He sat down and sighed, keeping his eyes to his books. He looked ashamed and embarrassed.

"You okay?" I asked, surprising him by inviting him into a conversation. He looked over and smiled.

"I'm okay. Grounded for two months, though, and I'm suspended for tomorrow." He laughed. I couldn't help but smile at his attitude. "But I have this nifty battle scar. It should fade away after a few months. It's pretty tender right now." He touched it and winced. "Greed is going to find a play-day with this..."

I laughed. Envy faked shock.

"You're capable of emotion. I think the world might have actually ended." He laughed as my smile turned into a glower. "I'm just joking with you, Edward! Now that I know you can laugh, I'll be cracking a hell of a lot more jokes until you laugh again."

"Good luck. My sense of humor is about as dry as a desert." Envy just grinned wider. "You must have a lot of patience to be willing to try and make me laugh."

"I live with my grandfather; patience is my middle name!"


"Do you really have nowhere else to sit?" I asked. Envy looked up at me innocently with a small smile. His chin was lying on his arms. The bruise made him look even more pathetic.

"No, I don't," he answered. "You're the only one willing to talk to me. Everyone else thinks that they'll get in trouble if they talk to me or they want me to lie to my grandfather for them. Like Horsetail, for instance."

"His name is Kimblee, Envy."

"You say that like I'm supposed to care." He twirled a lock of hair between his fingers and bit his lip. "What's his problem, anyway? Why is it that he gets into so many fights?"

"No one's quite sure, actually. He's just really violent and surprisingly smart. He doesn't have a lot of friends, and even those friends don't like him." I noticed Envy grinning at me. "What is so funny?"

"You're actually talking to me," he replied. "So you don't hate my guts. That's good! It'd be hard to explain to the old man why I'm sitting with you when you're trying to kill me." He chuckled. I cocked my brow at him. To be mean, I poked his bruise. He yelped and nearly fell out of his seat as I laughed. "Hey, that's not funny. That actually hurt!" I just shrugged. I could probably deal with his stupidity for a few days. He might slowly shift away from my table and join in with some other group of friends later in the year.

"Hey, about what happened in Havoc's class..." He grin disappeared. "You got a little pale-faced in there, like you were hemaphobic or something. You didn't even notice Kimblee trying to knock a punch on you. What happened to you back there?" I looked at him for a few moments, trying to remember what he was talking about. The scene with Kimblee's nose breaking and the flashback of Alphonse's body made me shiver.

"Ed! Yo, come back to the real world!" Envy snapped his fingers. "You have a bad habit of spacing out, don't you?"

"Just a little," I said, turning back to the book in my hands. I swallowed.

"See, there you go again," he said. "You turned pale. You look scared, like something's about to eat you."

"Why would something eat me?" At this, Envy grinned.

"Well, there a lot of carnivores that love shrimp."

"Go to hell!"