I made Roy so evil in my first Edvy, I felt I had to redeem him here. He's a good guy, I promise!
The piece of gum in my mouth lost its taste quickly as I listened to Mr. Hughes go on and on about how his little daughter had found a little kitten on their doorstep when she got home from school and how she started carrying it around the house and dressing it up like a baby. In all honesty, I felt sorry for the cat. If I was a cat that was forced to be dressed up like a baby, I think I would have to stick my claws into someone's eyes. But Hughes's daughter was kind of cute. She was dirty blonde and had green eyes like her mother but had her dad's sense of humor. I met her once, and she clung to Alphonse like he was a puppy, crying as Gracia pried her fingers from his shirt so he could leave. He hadn't seen her since, and Hughes often asked about him for Elicia. I had to lie sometimes so that they wouldn't worry about him.
"And look at this one, Edward!" Hughes slapped a picture to my forehead. "Isn't she just adorable? She wore this dress to her grandmother's house last Saturday. She also wore it when she met Alphonse, do you remember? Ah, those were such good times!" His face was glowing with glee as he peeled the photo from my face and went prancing around the room with it. I looked over at Rose, who also shared the class with me, and twirled my finger around my ear, sticking my tongue out of my mouth. She suppressed her giggling with both of her hands and turned away from me. I grinned. She only laughed that way at my jokes, which gave me a sense of pride and a seriously big ego.
"All right! Now, time for your assignment!" Hughes announced suddenly, making the entire glass groan. One guy fell out of his seat, and we laughed about it for awhile, but went back to complaining about the surprise work. "Don't give me any lip about it. This is a history project that's due two weeks from now. I want you to choose an important person from history, write a one-page biography about them, and make a poster explaining one of their greatest works or discoveries." One boy raised his hand.
"Do we have to use a full sheet of poster board, or can we just use half a sheet?" he asked.
"How about this: do you want full credit or half credit? Use a full sheet." He placed the picture onto his desk with the other twenty and began passing out rubrics for our project. When I got my sheet, my mind went crazy about who all I could be researching for this project. Einstein and his nuclear discoveries in World War II, Henry Mosely and his improvements on the Mendeleev Periodic Table, Marie Curie and her dangerous work with radiation without the proper protection! There were so many possibilities. I just didn't know where to start.
"Looks like our science nerd is having a field day with this assignment," a light voice teased. I looked up. While Hughes was busy explaining the rubric to a female student, Rose had moved herself closer to me. "Who are you thinking of doing for the project?"
"I have no idea," I said, "but it's definitely going to be a scientist. What about you?"
"A performer who really changed the stage," she said excitedly, cheeks turning bright red as she spoke. "Or a playwright, or maybe a poet. But nothing like Edgar Allan Poe. He scares me." She shivered. I was about to tell her that I was a fan of Poe, but decided against it. "This is probably the only other project we'll get until next semester with our other teachers. He hasn't given us a project since September."
"I know. This is going to be a lot of fun!" I grinned as she giggled again.
"Well, I hope you have fun with your project. I need this to help with my grade. When he showed it to me last week, it was a seventy-six, and you can bet my father wasn't so happy about that." She frowned at the paper.
"Well, if you really need any help, I'd be willing to tutor you," I offered, watching her face light up. "I'm pretty good with science myself." Rose giggled again. I noticed that she did that a lot around me. She grabbed onto my arm with a smile.
"Thank you so much!" she gushed quietly so Hughes wouldn't hear her. "Can you come over tomorrow? I'll drive you back home, if you're worried about transportation. It won't take long at all!" She batted her eyelashes. I felt my face flare up and I was sure that I was blushing.
"Well, I guess I could come over for maybe an hour... I have to get home to Alphonse, and I can't be out too late." Rose nodded in understanding. I don't think she could have gotten happier if I pulled a puppy out of my pocket and handed it to her. She turned towards Hughes and quickly moved back to her seat before he said anything to her. I laughed as she knocked someone's books over and apologized to them. She slipped into her seat as Hughes cleared his throat and dove into a lesson about one of England's kings. I pulled my binder out and began taking notes as he talked. My writing looked like something out of a horror movie as I rushed to write everything down.
After forty-five minutes of notes, the bell finally rang and I was able to get all the information I needed. I put my binder into my bag and got ready to go to fourth block. I'd have to deal with Russell all through chemistry. God knows what kind of shit he'd talk about since he didn't get his info yesterday. He wouldn't give up.
I gathered my things together, watching as Rose rushed out of the room with the flood of classmates, and stood up. I gave Hughes a nod and walked out of the classroom briskly. Roy's classroom was upstairs and down the hall all the way on the other side of the school. I had to run to get to class on time, and I barely made it.
"Nice to see you today, Edward," Roy said sarcastically. He smirked as I ducked my head and quickly jogged to my seat. I put my books onto my desk and slipped my bag underneath my desk.
Russell was on the other side of the room, talking with someone he knew. He spotted me, jumped out of the conversation, and came to bother me as I was pulling out my chemistry book and binder. He sat down on my hand on my desk. I looked up at him and glared. He didn't seem to get the hint and just smiled.
"So, am I ever going to hear about your new friend, Ed?" Russell asked. I felt the blood stop flowing to my fingers and tried to get it out from underneath his bony butt. He didn't seem to notice and continued talking. "I've heard a few things from other people. You two seem to be good friends. I even heard he took a punch in the head from Zolf for you!"
"That's a lie," I said quickly. "He and Kimblee got into a fight because Kimblee wanted Envy to lie to his grandfather to keep him out of trouble. Envy insulted him and they got into a fight." I took my pencil and stabbed him in the thigh as the bell rang, and I nearly sang with joy as my hand was freed. He yelped and glared at me, rubbing the area that was my target. "You're making up a story. I'd rather not be the talk of stupid people's lunch tables, thank you very much."
Russell glared at me but quickly walked to his desk as Roy closed the door and stepped to the front of the classroom. "All right, everyone pass up your homework from last night," he instructed. "And once you have done that, take out a blank sheet of paper; we'll be taking a quiz today." The class groaned and Roy clapped his hands together. "Now now, everyone, there's no need to act like kids and complain about your work. You either do it or fail."
I curled my hand as I passed my work up and took out paper. Roy eyed me with a smirk and came around to collect the homework from each row. I knew he had it in for me when I was the only one to make a perfect one hundred score on his hardest test. And now he was working to see if he could fail me. But I studied all the time, and I was planning on putting up a fight against him. And so far, I was winning.
"Balance out this equation... name this compound... write the formula for this word equation..." His quizzes were quite simple for me. The ten questions were answered within two minutes of him asking them, and I laid my pencil beside my test paper as he went around the room to check everyone's progress on his assignment. He stopped by my desk with a frown and picked my paper up. He examined it for a few moments before looking down at me. He tucked it beneath his arm and nodded towards me with a defeated gleam in his eyes. "Good job, Edward, as always." I smirked and pulled out my book from lunch. I ended up talking with Envy during the entire break; I didn't even crack open the book.
Something fell onto my desk after a few minutes, and I put my book down to look at it. It was a small, poorly-folded square. I picked it up and looked around the room. Russell shot a glance back at me and jabbed his thumb back towards himself. A note from Russell. I put it behind my book and opened it up as Mustang bent over Scar's paper. The foreign boy had some problems translating English to his native tongue, but he managed it somehow. He was our transfer student but wouldn't tell anyone where he was from.
So, will you PLEASE tell me about that new kid? he had written. I mentally cursed him for having nearly-perfect handwriting. I've heard all kinds of things about him, even that he got into a fight with Zolf and lived!
I looked at Roy with a careful glance before writing down my response. Yes, he lived, just like every one of Zolf's "victims." Now will you please leave me alone about him? You're beginning to sound like an obsessed fangirl or something.
I threw the note back to him when Roy wasn't looking. Russell opened the note and gave me a frown. I ignored him and the note when he tossed it to me again. Instead of picking it up, I took my arm and casually brushed it off of my desk. Russell growled at me but turned towards the board as Roy took up the last of the quizzes and announced that he was going to go over our notes before the test tomorrow. Friday sounded like a great day to me.
And for some reason, my mind went right to Rose, giggling like a schoolgirl and holding onto my arm with her small hands. She was very pretty, I realized, and I kind of liked her. Since I would be tutoring her in history for the next few weeks left in the semester, we'd be seeing each other a lot, not to mention we shared two classes together. I gave the idea of asking her out a little thought before deciding that I would do it when projects were over and we didn't have too much going on at the moment.
I snapped back to attention when Roy's booming voice began the lecture. I hurriedly opened my binder to a fresh page and began writing down the notes he had projected up on the board. Mustang went through his lesson explaining the notes as we took them, waited for us to finish writing them down before he moved onto his next slide. Roy would sometimes meet my eyes while I was waiting for him to finish his notes and smirk or, occasionally, smile.
Roy was an old family friend, just a few years older than me. He finished college by the time I had finished junior high, and he always made sure I finished my homework. He also kept tabs on Alphonse, asking me how he was doing and if he had had any attacks lately. He wasn't a practiced physician, but he knew enough about medicine and the human body to help Alphonse when we asked him. He also knew that Dad wasn't around much, so sometimes he stopped by to check-up on Alphonse and me to make sure we were getting by. He was only an egotistical bastard in the classroom. And today, he was smirking at me.
There wasn't much to Roy's class, actually. It was mostly notes with the occasional test or quiz here and there. I honestly couldn't see why some of the kids in his class were failing because the work was too easy. Sometimes he gave hard quizzes, but those didn't take down a person's grade average too much. But then again, when you have some people who complain about their grades and then come to school bragging about how hard they had partied the night before, you can't feel too sorry for them.
"...And remember, you have a test tomorrow!" Roy said as he turned the projector off. "Be sure to study tonight. You don't want to fail another test. Some of you need to make a good grade on this to help your averages." He looked around the room as students began closing their binders and getting ready to take their things home. I was still pulling my things together when the bell rang and all of the other students rushed out.
"So, how is Al doing?" Roy asked nonchalantly, walking down the row towards me. He sat on one of the desks as I placed my books into a pile on mine. I looked up at him.
"He's been doing fine," I replied. "A lot better actually. He hasn't had any attacks or accidents." I pulled my books into my arms. "But I still would like for you to check up on him tomorrow. I've offered to tutor a friend of mine who's having trouble in history, and they're going to be taking me to their house, so I'll be be gone for about an hour. I'm a little worried about him having an attack when I'm not there." I jerked my head to the side, moving a lock of hair out of my way. Roy smiled.
"Of course I wouldn't mind." Roy ran a few fingers through his hair. "I'll pop in tomorrow after school. See you tomorrow; don't forget to study for your test!" He gave me a stern look. I nodded, thanked him as quickly as I could, and rushed out of the room and down the hall. I didn't bother to stop at my locker. I just ran outside and nearly slammed myself into Ling's car. He gave me a surprised look as I caught myself against his door.
"Well, slow down there, speed demon," he joked. "The car's not going anywhere just yet. We were waiting for you." He turned to get in as I rounded the car and slipped in on my usual side. Russell had his music player turned up so loud that I could hear the words clear as day from the other side of the seat. He was probably still mad at me for flipping his note to the floor and ignoring him in chemistry.
"Well, you won't have to wait for me tomorrow," I said as I strapped myself in. "I'll be tutoring Rose tomorrow, so she's going to drive me home." Ling gave me a smirk.
"That cute dark-skinned girl in your language class?" Ling asked. "Hey hey! Looks like our 'hermit nerd' is finally hitting it with the ladies!"
"Ling, don't give me a valid reason to kill you."
"Alphonse!" I called, closing the door with my foot. My little brother was sitting on the couch, Den flopped over in his lap with his tail going wild, and Winry was sitting beside him with a book open in her lap. I grinned in greeting at her as I pulled my shoes off with my toes. "Hey, Al, Roy's gonna stop by tomorrow. I'll be home late because I've offered to tutor a friend in my class." I put my books onto the couch beside my brother and clapped my hands to my knees. Den flopped sloppily onto the floor and met me head on, head slamming against my chest as he drooled over me. I scratched behind his ears.
"Den was getting antsy," Winry explained. "Pinako suggested I bring him over before he broke the door down." Den slobbered all over my hands and ran over to Winry to love on her as I wiped the drool off onto my jeans. "So, how was school today? Did you talk to Envy any more? How's he doing?"
"Slow down! I just walked in the door." I sat up on the couch and hugged my brother.
"I haven't seen Roy in a while," Al mused. "How's he doing?"
"Roy's fine. He's the same, cocky old bastard he was the last time he visited."
"Language," Alphonse scolded. I stuck my tongue out towards him and looked to Winry as she cleared her throat and gave me a stern look.
"Envy's fine, but he got punched in the head today by Zolf," I said to quell her. She perked up, eyebrows raised in surprise. "He and Zolf got into a fight because Zolf didn't want to get in trouble and wanted Envy to lie to his granddad. Who also happens to be the principal of my school," I added. "He was suspended, as well as Zolf." I remembered my flashback and shuddered. Alphonse gave me a look, but I ignored him.
"Oh, so he's like a bad boy?" Winry's eyes glowed. I frowned.
"Uh, well sure, I guess." I crossed my legs in front of me as Den bounded over and laid himself across my lap. I grunted as he laid his fat self against my stomach. "He's actually pretty cool. He's even letting me borrow this Roman-set book his aunt owns. Well, he has to ask her first, but he said it was good."
"Edward," Alphonse said, shrinking away from me. "You're smiling..."
"Why the hell do you sound afraid?" I asked, throwing a pillow at him. Alphonse caught it and placed it in his lap.
"Sounds like you're getting along with our new neighbor," Winry said. "You just need to meet Greed. He's a little rough around the edges, but once you get used to him, he's tolerable."
"You don't like him very much, do you?" Alphonse asked. Winry bit the inside of her lip.
"He's more annoying than anything else." She leaned against the bottom of the couch. "What about Envy? Is he okay?"
"He's cool," I replied, shrugging. "He got into a fight with Zolf, though, and he's suspended for tomorrow."
I jumped up, feeling my half-dry, sticky tongue latching onto the roof of my mouth. "I need something to drink." I left the living room for the kitchen. I rounded the counter, Den at my heels, and opened the fridge. A bottle of water was sitting comfortably in the shelf of the door, and I welcomed myself to it. It felt nice to drink. I sighed happily and closed the door, making my way back to the living room. Den had his front paws in Alphonse's lap, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. Winry had her hands under her chin, and she was smiling up at Alphonse as he sweet-talked to Den. I leaned against the doorway and smiled to myself. This is the kind of life I wanted Alphonse to have. This is why I made a plan to stick to, so that nothing unexpected would happen.
