The sun blared through the window in a blast of brilliant white light and shown into the simple white room, illuminating the corners and giving life to all the objects in the room which were few and far between. It was only a single bed, an old oak dresser and a desk. The floor was regular hardwood, and it was spattered with chalk and dabs of paint. Books lay scattered everywhere, papers were scattered haphazardly into the corners and dust was gathering. The shimmering tendrils of sunlight crept onto the bed, tentatively crawling over the white sheets that were massed together in the corner of the bed in an attempt to escape the heat. One beam cautiously poked at the face of the boy who was sprawled over the bed.
The blaring heat that had arrived the previous spring heralded the arrival of the summer season. School was closing, people retreating into the cool shade of their houses while others left on vacation to the mountains and other such desirable cool places. Roy, however, had taken none of these measures and woke finding himself drenched in sweat and even groggier than he had been when he fell asleep. Unsticking himself from the sheets and putting a hand in front of his face to shield his eyes from the intrusive sun, He pulled himself from the bed, stood up and yawned. He crossed over to the window and threw it wide, regardless of the fact that he stood in the room in only his boxers, in an attempt to coax a non-existent breeze. Finding no wind to soothe him, he walked over to the armoire and pulled out a shirt and pair of jeans and threw them over himself and opened the door and walked into the hallway.
Insomnia still plaguing him, he leaned against the closed bathroom door and pounded on the door. "Hurry up," He mumbled, pressing his sweaty forehead against the doorframe. A voice came from inside. "You'll have to wait. You overslept, I'm taking a shower."
Roy pounded his head on the door. "You always get to take one first!" He said, inserting a bang every now and then for emphasis. "I'm sweaty, gross and hot, and I want to take a shower."
"You can wait."
"No I can't! I'm gonna come in here and drag you out or something."
"You do and I will hit you so hard, you'll be knocked into tomorrow."
Roy groaned and slid to the floor. "Then hurry up, I need in there!"
There was no answer, only water started running. Of course, that sound was absolute pure torture to Roy. His throat grew dry and he thirsted after the sound of the water running. "Please hurry…" He moaned.
Either she didn't hear him, or she decided to ignore him. Roy closed his eyes and drifted off into a sweaty uncomfortable sleep until he heard some footsteps behind him. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his eye to stare at who was behind him. "Roy, you can go downstairs while you wait, you know," Mr. Hawkeye's voice spoke.
Roy shook his head. "Naw, I'll wait. I'd rather not be swimming in my own sweat while I wait," He said.
Mr. Hawkeye nodded and walked to the door and rapped on it. "Riza," He called. "Hurry up in there, please, we're leaving in one hour."
Roy stood up. "Leaving? Leaving where? Are we going somewhere?"
"I'm not staying here, we're going out to the lake for today. Your lessons will be suspended for today. When you get out of the shower, go change, and we'll get there."
Roy smiled and jumped out of his heat stupor. "Hai!" He ran to his room and began to delve through his drawers for his swimming trunks. Finding what he wanted, he threw them over his shoulder and ran into the now vacant bathroom and quickly washed himself.
When he finally finished, he ran downstairs to the kitchen where Riza and Mr. Hawkeye stood packing a cooler with some food and drinks. "Grab one of the sandwiches." Mr. Hawkeye said, motioning to a pile of sandwiches on the counter. Roy obediently went over and grabbed one and began to devour one. "When are we leaving?" He asked.
"As soon as we're packed," Mr. Hawkeye replied. "You can start taking some of the stuff out to the car." Roy shoved the rest of the sandwich into his mouth and picked up one of the giant towels draped over the back of the chair and carried it out to the car. When he got out there, Riza, who was carrying the giant picnic basket, soon followed him.
"Dad's coming," She said. "Get in the car."
Roy complied and got in quickly. Riza came in and sat next to him. After she fastened he seatbelt, she turned and looked him in the eye. "Now Roy, what do we do in the car?"
"Not fidget," He answered lazily.
"And what do we not ask?"
"If we are there yet because we will get there when we get there."
"Good boy." She smiled.
HE rolled his eyes and rested against the window, figuring it would be quicker to doze off in the care than to sit still and stare out the window like Riza did. Soon after he closed his eyes, Mr. Hawkeye opened the door and started the car. "Ok, we're off."
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When they got to the lake, it was extremely hard to find a place to park. It seemed everyone in Central had decided today was an opportune day to come to the beach and had all piled into the small parking lot. Roy emerged from the vehicle and squinted in the sun. He had slept the entire way up there, and by doing so had avoided Riza's wrath.
When they had finally found a spot on the beach, Roy removed his shirt and sighed. It had been so long since he had been to the beach; the last time he had been when he was five years old. HE turned to look around the beach, and smiled at what he saw. There were a bunch of children running around playing in the small bit of surf that the lake provided, and their parents were sitting in the shade of their umbrellas. Here and there, a young couple walked by holding hands, and in other places he saw them just sitting together. But what really caught his eye were the girls on the beach, his age and a little older, all in skimpy bathing suits. He chuckled softly to himself.
"What are you gawking at?" A voice said from behind him as he watched a particularly bosomy girl walk by. "Hehe, bikinis," He said smiling. As soon as he realized what he said, his eyes widened, and before he could turn around, he felt himself knocked to the sand with an enormous lump on the back of the head. He rolled over and looked at the offender who had knocked him over. Riza stood there, brandishing the umbrella. She herself was in purple two-piece, and when he saw her like that, Roy blushed. He covered his eyes and turned his attention back to the sand. "What?" Riza demanded. "Your gawking at those girls, and when you see me, you act like it's gross?"
"No! Just, you shouldn't be dressed like that," He mumbled, sitting up on his knees but still not looking at her.
"Why not?" She demanded. "Am I not girl enough or something?"
"No," He said, looking at her, but still not directly at her. "Just, guys will stare…"
"Oh, I see, so they are not allowed to stare at me, but you can go stare at anyone you want. My god, you are so perverted. I thought you hated girls anyways."
Roy stood up. "I don't hate girls, not anymore. I've known you for three and a half years, I hated girls when I first met you."
"Ah, I see. You've been deprived of girls for so long, that, now that you are a teenager, you have an uncontrollable lust for them. Makes sense." She turned swiftly and walked down the sand to the waves. Roy stared after her for a minute. How come all he could do was make her angry? Here was the girl who was like a sister to him, and is the one he cares about as if she really were his sister, and all he could do was drive her crazy. He sighed, and proceeded to walk down the beach after her, leaving Mr. Hawkeye to sit under the shade of the umbrella with yet another alchemy book.
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It didn't take long for him to find some friends. There were a bunch of guys there his age that were messing around with a hackeysack in the surf, and when it flew at him he caught it. "Hey! Give it here!" Called a boy with messy blonde hair. Roy ran over and threw it back at them. "Mind if I play?" He asked.
"Sure," Another one said. "All the more fun, I guess."
"So, you here cause it's hot?"
"Yeah."
"See anything neat here?"
"Some of those girls,"
"How old are you?"
"Thirteen,"
"Dude, me too! Well, actually, he's fourteen, but we're all gonna be freshmen in high school next year."
"Yeah," Another one put in. "Where do you go?"
"I have a private teacher," Roy said slowly.
"That's gotta suck," One of them said.
"Naw, it's not so bad, I get cookies every night."
"For what?"
"I don't know, my teacher's daughter makes them."
"IS she hot?"
"Um…"
"Dude, how's he supposed to answer that?" Another one of the guys said, elbowing the first in the ribs. "You can't have a crush on your teacher's daughter!"
"He'd probably kick me out," Roy said. "Besides, she's more of a sister than anything."
"Right," They said disbelievingly.
And so the hours passed, Roy with his new buddies running along the beach, sometimes standing to stop and look at a couple of girls nearby. "Hey," Said the blonde boy, nudging Roy in the ribs. "What do you think of that one, there?" He said, pointing out a girl who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen with long brown hair who was wearing a green bikini. Roy nodded. "She's pretty cute, I guess."
"I dare you to got talk to her."
"No way, man!"
"Awww come on!"
"You do it!"
"What? I'm not going!"
"You chicken or something?"
"Hell no!"
"Then why not?"
"Why won't you?"
"Cause, man, I've got some dignity!"
"Hey guys, look, over there, at that one," Another of the boys pointed out. "Check her out! She looks about our age, you might have a chance with her!"
"Who?"
"The blonde, over there, in the purple suit,"
"Her?"
"Yeah, the one in the short hair."
"Hey yeah, I wonder how old she is, I'm gonna go talk to her,"
Roy opened his mouth to stop him, but then thought better, considering Riza would more than likely blow up at him for being overprotective. So he just stood back with the rest of the boys as the blonde one ran up to talk with her. He bit his lip nervously. He knew the guy probably didn't mean any harm, but still, he didn't really like the thought of any guy liking Riza that way.
Riza looked up from the small pool filled with some of the lake's shells she was sitting at to the blond boy running over to her. She raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "Can I help you?" She asked politely.
"Hey," The guy said. "I noticed you over here all by yourself, and I thought maybe you'd wanna come-"
"I'm twelve, you know, I have no interest whatsoever in you or a boyfriend for that matter." She said swiftly.
The guy raised his hand in defense. "Sorry, missy, I didn't mean anything that way. But you know, you should come hang out with me and my friends anyways."
"I'll stay here."
"Oh come on, why not?"
"I enjoy my solitude."
"You're pretty sophisticated for a twelve year old, you know?"
Roy bit further down on his lip as he watched him. He didn't like that this guy was talking to Riza like this, and he started to step forward to pull on the guy's arm. "Come on, let's just leave her ok?"
Riza looked at him. "I'm perfectly capable of handling myself, Roy," She said, standing up. "I don't need you to protect me from him. He didn't do anything wrong."
Roy stared at her open mouthed.
"I didn't-"
The blonde guy laughed. "Oh, is this that girl? Don't worry, I won't steal her from you or anything," He said, and turned back to the group, leaving Roy standing there in front of Riza.
"You can go now," She said, her eyes returning to the pool of shells.
"I-"
"Look, Roy, it's nice that you are looking out for me and all, but, I really honestly can handle myself, you can go hang out with them or whatever."
HE shrugged. "I've been with them all day, I might as well hang out with you for a while."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "I mean it Roy, I can handle any guy or anything-"
'I know it," he said. "I've learned that enough times over the past three years. I want to stay with you."
"Even tough I'm dressed like this? You sure you won't freak out or anything like the first time?"
He nodded. "I know that you're a girl and everything, it doesn't really bother me," He said softy.
"Ok, good," Riza said, standing up and smiling at him. She grabbed his arm and led him to the water. "Let's go swimming, then."
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Mr. Hawkeye smiled from where he sat underneath the umbrella. Maybe he would have to call up his father in law and tell him that they may need to call the Mustang's about a dowry after all….
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OK, so there's chapter ten! Sorry if it's a little short, I had to study for my evil AP US history exam tomorrow… grr. So let me know how I did. Did I make Roy to mature for a thirteen year old? I tried to base him and the beach guys off of my friends, so let me know how I did. I also tried to add some fluff in here this time. :P Anyways, onto the thank yous! You get brownies this time!
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