Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay (again...) Hopefully I'll get back into updating regularly soon.

Anyways, apparently there are award thingy's for fanfiction stories and my story Brotherhood has been nominated for Best FMA AU story. I was kinda shocked when I got the email and then I felt awesome. But if you'd like to vote for my story (which I hope you will) I'll send you the link but voting doesn't start until the 23rd of April.

Now, back to Decide news. There will be some shenanigans in this chapter and hopefully I'll have made up for not updating by giving you an extra long chapter. Thank you Dani, my amazing editor, for helping me again.

I hope you enjoy!


Just as the last rays of light were shinning on the grounds, a group of teenagers were emerging from their dorm as stealthily as possible. They walked as calmly as they could towards the wooden bridge as some of them carried boxes and other inconspicuous plastic blue bags. The curfew for juniors was ten-thirty but since they had younger member in their group, they had to be careful not to draw attention to themselves when they were out and about later at night.

The nine teenagers slid under the bridge, ignoring the cobwebs and spiders that crawled under it as they waited for their other two friends to arrive. After about ten minutes of this, several of them had become rather annoyed.

"Where are those two idiots?" Rebecca asked in a muttered growl. "How long does it take to inflate two rafts and then run them over here?"

"There could be campus patrol out," Gracia suggested softly.

Once Maes and Gracia had finally become unwound from each other, she was introduced to Winry and greeted the others. Winry could see what the others were talking about, everything about the girl said friendly and kind; from her soft brown hair and her round, blue eyes to slight frame and her soft voice.

"It's best that they're playing it safe, especially if we get caught, we'll be lucky if we don't get kicked out of the school."

Winry felt her stomach lurch at the comment. In a few of their bags were alcoholic beverages and cigarettes, mainly for Jean. Winry had drunk a few times before at her friends parties back home, but she didn't know what would happen if she got kicked out of the boarding school for drinking under the influence, not to mention breaking about another dozen rule by sailing to the small island.

Just as Winry was about to leave, there was a gentle splashing noise that sounded like a waterfall to their hypersensitive hearing.

"Hey!" Roy called out in a hushed voice as he paddled the large blue raft towards them with Jean in another just behind him.

"Took you guys long enough," Rebecca muttered as she hopped into Roy's raft.

"We ran by North to see if Vato was there," Jean said in a whisper as he checked over his shoulder.

"Well duh he wouldn't be here yet!" Riza hissed to them, clearly annoyed that she had to wait; Winry got to feeling that she didn't like breaking the rules as much as the others did. Maybe it was because her grandfather was the headmaster. Winry didn't know what would happen if her grandmother found out what she was doing tonight. "In the last four years he's been here, he's been lucky to show up before the first day!"

"Well sor-ry," Jean said with a huff.

"Who's Vato?" Winry asked, looking at Gracia and Sheska but before either could answer, someone else did.

"He's a pot headed super-senior," Ed said as he helped Sheska into one of the boats. "I swear he's like, twenty by now but he gets things like booze and cigarettes and porn sent to him. He runs a Black Market from his dorm room."

Edward then held out a hand to help her into one of the rafts. After a half-second of indecision, Winry smiled slightly at him before gripping his hand and moving into Roy's raft.

"Everyone on?" Roy hissed before he begun to hand an ore to a few people in the boat.

Winry found herself wedged between Maes and Edward, who were both in charge of helping Roy paddle the raft. Even though it was dark, Winry could see Rebecca shooting her looks while nodding to a once again oblivious Ed. Winry tried her best to ignore her.

Once they had gotten out from under the bridge and were a few yards away from the shore, there really wasn't that much light around them. There wasn't much noise either, unnerving Winry to no end. She stared at the water that surrounded their raft and saw it was black with the night. She wondered vaguely how deep the lake was.

"Come on guys!" Roy hissed from ahead of them. "We're drifting too far to the right. We're gonna end up hitting the rocks."

Suddenly, the waves from the water got stronger and began to push and shove the raft's soft sides and bottom. Winry's heart beat increased as she tried to tell herself to calm down.

They know what they're doing, she told herself. They've been doing this for years haven't they? I'm sure they know what to do.

Winry gave up after a few moments of this and just decided to close her eyes, try her best to block out the noises that surrounded her, and breathe deeply. She heard a chuckle from someone nearby but when she opened her eyes and looked around, no one seemed to be paying attention to her.

Jean's raft was moving along a few feet in front of them but it was hardly visible in the darkness. Even though the moon was nearly full, they raft was only a dark spot to her. Even the people around her weren't that visible.

"We should be coming up on the shore in a minute or two," Roy said in a whisper as he began to paddle faster towards the hulking outline in front of them.

The island looked so tiny from the wooden bridge but now it looked mush larger than any of the other could have explained it. It was probably half the length of her dorm building and was thickly covered in trees. Lastly, Winry noticed the sharp outcroppings that jutted out of the water. She could see waved crashing against the sides, immediately picturing herself being smashed against them.

"Left!" Roy cried as quietly as he could as he began maneuvering around some of the large rocks. "Damn, that was close!"

"Hey!" Rebecca cried as a wave made by a furiously moving paddle splashed her. "Watch where you're moving that thing!"

"Sorry, Rebecca," Edward growled though his teeth. "But here I was busy trying to make sure you didn't get smashed into one of those huge rocks."

Winry's eyes caught Ed's for a fraction of a second and it was then that she noticed that his golden eyes seemed to glow slightly in the dark like an animal's do. Before she could ponder this new addition for much longer, the bottom of the raft began to shudder and Roy, Maes, and Ed hopped out of the raft and began pulling them up onto shore.

They had all made it in one piece. Winry breathed a sigh of relief as she took her first steps onto the gravely shore. There was a strip of beach that was probably ten feet wide that appeared to wrap around the trees. Someone tapped on her shoulder and she jumped a foot in the air.

"Whoa! Calm down jumpy!" Sheska said with a small laugh. "Here."

In her hand was a small, plastic flashlight. Winry grabbed it after a moment's thought.

"It can get pretty dark in there."

"R-right."

Once the group had reached the edge of the forest, Maes pulled back a large branch way and revealed a well beaten path. As they walked, Winry thought of how students must have been using this path for decades.

"How far away are we going?" Winry asked Riza, feeling slightly nervous. She couldn't help but picture every scary movie she had ever seen and kept expecting some disfigured person to come up and attack them.

"Oh, it's not that far," she said with a smile. "Just another minute or two."

"Alright…"

And Riza was right. I just over a minute, they arrived at a large clearing. The group waited while Jean sprinted over somewhere to turn on the lights. When he did, Winry's eyes were assaulted by brightness and had to blink away spots for a minute before she could take everything in.

There was a slight slope downwards but stopped when it reached a large concrete slab that had to be about fifteen feet long on either side. On top of the slab was a tent of sorts but after another second's glance, she saw that it was really just a protector from rain and bugs. Underneath is sat what appeared to be two beaten up couches that looked like they were from the seventies, a few plastic chairs, and a fire pit. To the left of the patio set, stood a decaying barn; Winry could see through a hole in the wall. Hanging all over the place- on the tent, on the shed, and even in some trees- were Christmas lights of all colors, blinking different colors into the blackness of the night. Several of their bulbs had gone out. Scattered around on the grass were knocked over plastic chairs covered in dirt, empty coolers laying on their sides, deflated balls, and tons of neglected debris from another party: crushed cups and cans, plastic silver wear that looked slightly gnawed on, cigarette butts, and what appeared to be tattered articles of clothing.

Roy let out a long, low whistle as he took in the picture.

"Damn, this place looks like shit."

For some reason Winry couldn't understand, he seemed to sound happy or even a little proud about it.

"It wasn't my job to clean it up after the party last year," Jean muttered as he looked at the ground and poked a piece of cloth with his shoe. His face then lit up and he bent down to grab the item. "Hey! It's my lucky shirt! I was wondering where it went to."

Without giving it more than a seconds thought, Jean gave the slightly stiff shirt a shake before tugging it over his head and over his clean shirt. This caused a chorus of disapproving noise to come from his friends.

"Ugh! Jean! Do you have any idea how many animals have probably pissed on that?" Maes cried, skirting away from him.

"I'm gonna take a guess on… a lot," he said, completely unfazed.

"Well then why the hell did you put it on?" Riza cried.

"Do you have any idea how many finals this shirt has got me through? It also saved my life!" Jean asked, looking at them as if they were the ones who had just pulled an extremely dirty shirt over their head. "It had me pass the Bio and History finals last year. Thanks to this shirt, I passed last year!"

"Or maybe it's because you're actually smart," Gracia said with a roll of her eyes.

"Well clearly you're wrong on that one, Gracia," Rebecca said. "What person who wasn't mentally retarded would do something like that?"

"Someone who doesn't want to fail a grade, that's who," Jean said seriously.

"Ugh, let's just get on with the party," Roy said, sighing at his friends. "We can run back here tomorrow or something and do damage control. But first off, I wanna know who'll be designated drivers because I don't want another river ride fiasco."

"What?" Winry asked.

"Nothing that important," Al said with a shrug. "Everyone was either wasted or asleep and wouldn't wake up and well… it took quite a while to get back to our dorm while paddling upriver."

"Man, that was awesome," Jean said, grinning.

"We all almost got expelled," Russell said, his face rather serious.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and what doesn't get you expelled because one hell of a story," Jean said.

"Any ways," Gracia said loudly. "Who's going to be the responsible ones tonight?"

"I'll be fine," Edward said, raising his hand.

"Me too," Riza said.

"I don't usually drink so…" Russell said with a kind of 'duh' expression on his face; Fletcher nodded next to him.

"Whatever, that's enough. Let's get the started!"

People began to run around the area, setting things up, leaving Winry to stand there, not sure of what to do but watch. Coolers were kicked over, sprayed with a hose that appeared to have come out of the barn, and then filled with ice and several kinds of drinks. Small lights that she didn't notice before were being turned on all around the place. Dust and leaves were being brushes off of chairs and couches and the fire in the process of starting. Winry jumped in the air as a loud crackle of static rang across the ground. Everyone turned towards the barn to see Maes sticking his head out of the door.

"Sorry. Speakers are a little rusty."

After a moment of fiddling with the sound system, clear music rang out of two black speakers that were positioned on either side of the barn. A rock song that Winry couldn't place came on and soon enough, drinks were passed out and people were dancing and jumping and lounging around the area.

"Hey."

Winry turned to see Al standing next to her, smiling kindly and holding out a red cup to her. She took it but sipped it hesitantly. She was pleasantly surprised when she found it was just a coke.

"Um, hi," she said after a larger sip. "And thanks."

"No problem. And you don't have to worry; I didn't spike it or anything."

That thought hadn't even occurred to Winry and it must have registered on her face, because Al chuckled at her.

"Yeah, I would be a little hesitant on anything Jean gives you but everything else would probably be safe."

"Um, okay," Winry said with a small laugh.


"Yo, Eddy!" Roy cried as he jumped over the arm of one of the old couches and landed next to Ed. "What's been up with you?"

"Nothing much," Ed said into his red cup filled with beer. "And don't call my Eddy."

"Ah, sorry," he said with a grin. "So, how was your summer, man? I wanted everyone to get together on Fourth of July for a barbeque or something. You really missed out."

"Sorry," Ed muttered; and he was actually sorry.

Usually, Edward wasn't in the mood to do many parties or goof around too much but he had actually been planning on taking a road trip with Al to Roy's place to see his friends. Even if it didn't seem like it at times, he did like his friends a lot and was vey grateful for having them. But unfortunately, the day before they were going to leave, their mother, Trisha, had gotten sick.

She could hardly get out of bed and needed constant attention. And even though their father was home to take care of her and Trisha told them to leave and to have fun, neither of them felt like going anymore. Sometimes her attacks could last for days and even weeks and Ed knew that he wouldn't be in a good mood while he was out of town and away from his deathly ill mother.

"So why did you bail? You said you were going right?"

"Yeah. Me and Al got food poisoning and we couldn't go," Ed muttered, wishing this was the reason why he couldn't go. "I do wish I had gone though."

"…I know," Roy said with a shrug, staring intently at his friends face. "You don't miss out on the big parties unless you have to."

Ed gave him a thin smile before he chugged the rest of his drink.

"Well, I need to go get a refill," Ed said, standing up. "You need one?"

"Nah, I'm fine for now."

Just as Edward was leaving the tent, Russell was entering it and collapsed on the opposite couch. Once Edward was out of earshot, Roy leaned over to the other blond.

"Hey Russ."

"Oh, hey Roy," he said, sipping his soda.

"I was just wondering, but do you know why Ed and Al didn't come to out Fourth of July party?"

"Yeah, they got sick or something," he said with a shrug. "Why are you asking?"

"Just wondering," Roy said quietly before he put a large grin on his face. "He missed one hell of a party."


Edward stared around the party as he stood against the wall of the barn, a small smile playing on his lips. He had missed his friends more than he let on.

Rebecca and Sheska were doing some lude dance while Gracia and Riza were engaging in more appropriate dances as bad rap music blared out of the speakers. Jean, Roy, Maes sat on the couches, drunkenly laughing about some story that Jean was telling. At one point in the story, he jumped on the back of the couch and almost fell over onto the concrete. Lastly, he noticed Al, Russell, Fletcher, and Winry talking around on of the coolers that was probably filled with sodas.

Ed hadn't really talked to Winry but everyone else seemed to like her, so having her here was fine with him. Al and the other guys seemed to really like her, since they had been talking a laughing together for the past ten minutes. Al caught his eye and gestured for him to come over to them. Ed pushed off of the tree and walked over to the group.

"What's up guys?" Ed asked once he had reached the group.

"Nothing," Al said with a shrug. "You just looked like a lost puppy standing up there all alone."

Ed rolled his eyes at this.

"Yeah, why do you always just stand somewhere and watch people have fun?" Russell asked with a grin. "You know, it's a lot more fun to actually join in on the festivities."

"Oh shut up," he growled, giving the blue-eyed boy a small punch in the arm. "I was just watching you all because I missed watching all of you make an ass out of yourselves."

"Did you here that?" Russell cried, causing everyone to turn and look at the group. Russell threw a heavy arm over Ed's neck and brought him into a headlock of sorts. "Ed actually said that he missed us! Can you believe that?"

Edward's face began to redden as his friends made odd, drunken remarks to the sudden outburst.

"AWW? Really, Ed?" Roy cried. "I didn't know you felt that way about us!"

"You really do care!" Jean cried out drunkenly.

"Well you have an odd way of showing it," Rebecca said.

"Ugh, damn you, Russell," Ed grumbled as he tried to break out of Russell's strong hold.

"What? It's good for your friends to know how you really feel," he said with a smirk before he let Edward out.

"I swear Tringham, I am gonna kick your ass," Ed growled.

"Only if you can catch me!" he laughed before he ran off into the woods.

Just as Edward was about to run after him, he paused at the sound of a laugh. He turned around and saw Winry, laughing at him. When he caught her eye however, she seemed to stop but Ed could tell she wanted to continue laughing. He gave his head a shake before he bolted after Russell.

"Brother!" Al cried in exasperation. "Don't go running off into the woods! It's dark!"

"You could get hurt!" Fletcher yelled, looking just as tired with his older brother as Al did.

The two ran after their older brothers, leaving Winry alone. But she wasn't alone for long. Rebecca and Sheska stumbled over to her, both of them holding the other up and sloshing their drinks onto their bare toes.

"So, what were you talkin' about to them?" Rebecca asked, her dark eyes a little glassy.

"Yeah," Sheska giggled. "I hear the best way to get to a crush is through their friends."

"I wasn't doing anything like that," Winry huffed. "I was just making friends."

"Sure you were," Rebecca said before Sheska burst out laughing and fell to the ground, which caused Rebecca to fall to the ground.

"Oh boy."

Winry looked up and Riza and Gracia running towards them, looking both annoyed and concerned. Riza helped Rebecca up while Gracia went to pick up Sheska.

"These two really need to have a cut off of how much they can drink," Riza sighed she tried to her friend to her feet. "They're always causing problems."

"Let's just get them to the couch and hopefully they'll behave," Gracia said with a sigh. "Winry, can you help me with her?"

"Ah, sure."

Together, Winry and Gracia half carried, half dragged Sheska to the tent; Riza just seemed to drag her friend on the ground.

"Move it," Riza growled to Roy, Jean, and Maes, who were still sitting on the couches.

"Gracia!" Maes cried, quickly tugging Sheska's dead weight from out of the two girls grasp. "Why didn't you ask me to do this? I don't want my beautiful flower to get hurt carrying a drunk!"

"I was fine Maes," she said with a small smile before she placed a small kiss on his cheek. "I can take care of my friends."

"Oh, Gracia! You're such a self-less person!" Maes cried before he enveloped her into a large hug and began spinning her around.

Winry and Riza watched the scene, backing up quite a bit so that they wouldn't be hit by one of Gracia's flailing limbs.

"This guys nuts," Winry said quietly to Riza.

"Are you just now figuring this out or are you stating the obvious?"

Winry laughed at this, now realizing that underneath Maes's calm demeanor housed a complete madman.


The party ended around one in the morning. Roy had informed Winry that the easiest time of the night to sneak back was at about one-thirty, when there was the first shift of the night patrol ended.

While Winry and a few others helped to clean up parts of the grounds, other able-bodied people carried those who were incapacitated or were merely passed out from drink or exhaustion. Winry didn't blame the few who had passed out, she was feeling rather tired and was probably going to fall asleep on the ride back to shore.

Once all the lights and music were turned off and everyone was accounted for and inside the boats, they pushed off the shore as quietly as they could and slowly paddled to shore. Again, Winry felt the nervous knots begin to form in her stomach in fear of being caught but they weren't as prominent as before. And after ten minutes of slow, calculated paddling, they floated under the bridge and out of sight.

"Okay, me and Jean will go and take these back," Ed whispered as he helped people from the rafts.

"Here Sheska," Winry said quietly, as she helped her dozing friend out of the boat and onto shore.

"Where am I?" she muttered a little too loudly for everyone's liking.

"Shh…" Winry said to her, covering her mouth. "We're going back to the dorm alright?"

"Oh dat's good," she said loudly through Winry's hand. "I'm exhausted."

"We shouldn't even bother trying to wake her up anymore," Riza sighed as she helped Rebecca into a standing position. "She's always so loud."

"Okay now," Roy said once Ed and Jean had begun to slowly paddle away. "We need to go in groups of twos and threes. Winry, are you okay with Sheska?"

"Uh, I think I'm gonna need a hand," Winry said as she tested to see if Sheska could walk, but nearly dropped her in the process.

"Okay, I'll help you with her. Maes, are you going with Gracia?"

"Of course!" Maes whispered.

Gracia lived in Central dorm but it really wasn't that much farther away from the bridge than East Dorm was.

"Anyone else need help?"

"I'm good," Riza said as she righted Rebecca, who gave everyone a thumbs up and an odd grin.

"Good, let's go," Roy said before he and Winry began moving towards their dorm building.

It had taken three heart pounding minutes for them to run while carrying Sheska back to the safety of the dorm. They relaxed once they were inside the dorm since they were allowed to be anywhere inside it after hours. They waited until everyone had returned before they made their way to the elevator and rode up to the third floor.

Once inside her dorm room, Winry was glad that she had the top bunk and wouldn't have to haul Sheska up there. She took off her shoes and glasses and laid her on her side, remembering that people could choke on their vomit in their sleep. Next, she placed a small trash can by Sheska's head, hoping that she had good aim. Winry then stripped of her outer clothes and crawled into bed, exhausted.


"Okay, time to go," Ed whispered as he closed the door behind him.

"Hopefully Patrol won't be over here yet," Jean sighed.

The clock on his cell phone said it was just one-thirty which was when the next shift started. It usually took them a few minutes to make it back to the farther half of campus which would hopefully give them a few more minutes to get back.

The two ran from building to building, constantly checking for anyone and anything that moved. Even though term hadn't actually started yet, the Patrol was usually stern and might assign them detentions already

They had made it over the bridge, which was always the most nerve wracking part of this trek and were now in the homestretch. They were standing at the corner of Building C, just thirty feet or so away from the side exit of East Dorm.

"Let's go," Jean hissed before the two made a run for it.

"Hold up!" came a loud yell from probably twenty feet away.

They both felt their stomach twist and their heart rate increased. Together, they turned and tried their best to look innocent; Jean just hoped he didn't smell too much like alcohol and cigarettes. Standing in front of them was a woman, probably in her late thirties, dressed in all black with the school crest on there black vest.

It was a campus patrol agent.

"Where do you two boys think you're going so late at night?" She asked sternly.

And they were trapped like rats.


Dun-dun-nuh! :P

So I'm sure to have the next chapter up soon since I have about half of it done already. :)

Thanks for reading and here's the link to the website so you can vote for me...hopefully: fmagoldworthaward .wordpress. com/best-au/ (take out the spaces) And once you're there, just enter you e-mail into the little white bar on the right side of the page and it should tell you when you can vote. :) *Remember, voting's April 23rd*

Thanks for reading and I really hope you vote for my story. :)

-FSK