Despite the rumor circulating around that the 8-month-exam would be monumentally more difficult than the last, the pass rate was abnormally high. For the most part the physical examination was the same, with more restricting time limits on the courses that required agility. Students breezed through the day, finally feeling like they were comfortable with being tested on their abilities.

Riza Hawkeye sat watching Suzu along with her fellow trainees (aka future competition) with her right leg crossed neatly over her left and her small hands folded delicately on her lap. She observed the students as they leaped over sawhorses, climbed the rope in the center of the gym and went into practiced combat with a skilled military veteran. She had always known that if Suzu had enough passion for the job, it would shine through and she would be at the top of her class in no time. Today that wasn't the case. She was doing terrible.

Suzu had resigned herself to fail before the test even started. However, this did not make her any less embarrassed about it. Riza detected shame in her eyes as she flunked her way through the course. Each time she failed her mental condition worsened, making her vulnerable and even a little bit shy. There were a few students watching, chuckling to themselves and pointing her out to friends. Riza controlled her urge to pull out her pistol and fire a warning shot, knowing that she would probably embarrass Suzu more by doing it. It was painful to watch.

Bryan was at the other end of the spectrum when it came to confidence, and also when it came to aptitude. He whizzed over, under and straight through the obstacles with a look of focused intensity. He gave the impression of practiced ease and strength. Despite his ridiculous outfit he looked reasonably comfortable! Girls flocked around him like pigeons, cooing and giggling and chirping about when he finished an event, but he shoved past them without a backwards glance.

Riza looked across the gym to see her former colleague Roy Mustang, Bryan's current instructor. Sleeping. She stifled an immediate reflex telling her to walk over and hit him upside the head to wake him up. It made her laugh to see other people sitting next to him and trying to wake him up, snapping their fingers and shouting into his ears. She remembered how he had slept like a rock. And then her mind drifted off visions of him sleeping, into memories of looking into his eyes as he woke up next to her...

She shook her head violently, planted both feet on the floor and said, "No. Cut it out Hawkeye. He is a buffoon. He is a buffoon...He is a buffoon..." She repeated this to herself until people started noticing her mumbling to herself, and she heard one of them label her as schizophrenic. She recrossed her legs and acted as if nothing had happened, even though she was having trouble keeping her mind off the subject of a certain snoozing alchemist.

And this is how the day passed. Quickly and somewhat quietly, and mostly relaxed.

There were four teams that had not passed the test, Suzu being one of them. They called out the names of the people who made it through, and the four who didn't were summoned to follow a man into a small adjoining room. The rule was that whichever team lost had to train for the next month with another team, one who had passed. So when Suzu came out she would have her partner team arranged.

This was a voluntary measure for the passing team, as the judges had a list of teams to pair them up with made already, but it made the volunteers look more responsible and mature to the eyes of the judges – who would pick only four individuals in the entire pool of the twenty 20-or-so aged students to pass the final exam, making them soldiers. The process didn't used to be so tough, but lately the military had been losing trust in its applicants. They wanted to make sure the student accepted was dedicated enough.

The two groups involved would be required to sign a waver saying that if, for example, team Hawkeye decided to train without their partner team, they would be kicked out of the program. The passing team did not have to train with the team who failed at all times. It was a serious measure, but it forced the teams to follow the rules.

Suzu emerged from the room, dejected. She gripped a yellow card in her hands loosely. She met Riza with a defeated look.

"Here." She stuck the card out for Riza to take. The card read, 'Lieutenant Mardus'. She had heard of this guy before as being chauvinistic, but decided not to pass judgment before she actually met him face to face. 'Optimism is key.' She told herself.

The cheery silver haired old man who had given Suzu her card was walking toward them with another team in tow that had to be Mardus. A portly middle-aged man with a russet colored mullet atop his head and a blond young man who looked just like a real live muppet followed on the old man's heels.

The odd pair proceeded to shake hands with Riza and Suzu. The old man said something like, "Good show. Have fun, kids!" as he walked away, but Suzu couldn't concentrate on anything other than the boy, with the fitting name of 'Bert', and his bumpy red inflammation of acne strewn across the whole of his face. He was awkwardly (although confidently) introducing himself, scratching at a patch of welts under his rounded chin.

He missed Suzu's outstretched hand and accidentally grabbed her left boob and held his grasp for a few seconds, which was apparently extra hilarious to the two men but sent Suzu into a state of shock. She stood stock still with a twisted, disturbed look on her face while the laughter died down (a good five minutes later, while Riza tried to keep Suzu from tipping over). Eventually the conversation shifted, and Bert tried to entertain Suzu with dead baby jokes (obviously not knowing or caring that Suzu was extremely sensitive) and Lt. Mardus was bellowing drunkenly at an unhappy Riza Hawkeye. He had taken the liberty of calling her by her first name, which was only ever, ever, ever used by Suzu.

After the two groups had made a decision to meet to resume training the next day they turned from each other to leave. After they had made it a good distance away Suzu put her face in her hands.

"I was trying so hard not to gag. I'm really not a judgmental person...I just...I don't know." Suzu sighed.

"It's alright. Those men were disgusting. Mardus was trying his best to figure out if I was single that entire time." Riza saw the ghost of a smile grace Suzu's face for a moment and die away quickly. Suzu was already exasperated from failing, and now she felt like an utter disappointment. She muttered something about divine punishment, and Riza found herself dreading the next encounter with Lt. Mardus.

Riza stopped dead. She knew there was only one way out of this arrangement. She wasn't going to be completely happy about having to interact with him, but she also knew there was only one man who could change management's mind about the team she was paired with. Without another throught she directed herself towards Roy Mustang.

Suzu kept walking to the door, oblivious as usual. She only noticed Riza's absence when she reached the doorway, alone. She spun around and looked behind her. The gym was mostly empty because most of the teams had filed out while team Hawkeye and team Mardus were talking. There were only three or four other groups, talking in hushed tones so their conversations wouldn't echo and be heard throughout the gymnasium. Most of the white lights flicked off, one by one, so that there was only dim lighting left to illuminate the room, hinting at the stragglers to leave.

Riza was roughly poking a man who was snoring loudly, stretched over a bench in under a basketball hoop on the opposite end of the room. Suzu laughed and said to herself, "That is who's going to save us, huh? Fat chance."

"Actually, he's a pretty cool guy." Said a slightly low, mostly resentful, gravelly voice that came from behind her. He stepped up beside her to look at the two and she realized it was the guy she had talked to earlier that day. He had put his mentor's blue military coat over his ridiculous sweater by then.

She cursed inwardly and blushed lightly, regretting laughing at him after seeing his near-perfect performance that day. "Oh. I suppose I wouldn't know." She looked down.

"No. You wouldn't." He spat venomously, and started walking towards Riza and Roy. She realized, regrettably, that she should probably follow them too. And so she did – keeping a large distance between herself and the ugly-sweater-boy. She feared that what was to happen next was going to top off what had been a very socially exhausting day, but figured it couldn't be worse than her meeting with team Mardus (or at least she hoped so).

She hummed the funeral march as she walked slowly to the bench under the basketball hoop, to her teacher.