I stretched my arms and yawned from the first great sleep I had in a while. I sat upright and petted Adrian`s head, then skipped off to the restroom.

I pleasantly walked down the stairs then stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the unseen.

Maria was crumpled on the small couch with only a thin spare bed sheet covering her shivering body. The bags under her eyes made her look like she was sleep deprived for weeks. Her snoring was strange; not a whole, deep-sleep snore, but a whimpering kind of snore.

I shielded my eyes from the mess-of-a-friend and stumbled backwards a little. My stomachs growled furiously as an agonizing plead for food. I decided to leave Maria for now as I walked to the kitchen. I was surprised no one else was up, considering that it looked well past dawn outside. I then spotted a hand-written note on the counter. I lifted it up and read it:

Dear Ed, Maria and Vanessa,

Good morning! If you are reading this, I am gone to the market with Granny and Alphonse because we ran out of milk! Don`t worry though, there is bread and juice if you're hungry. We will be back at around 9. Talk to you soon!

- Winry

My eyebrow twitched. 'I`m still not the first to wake up.' I thought. I put it back on the counter and grabbed a piece of fresh bread and an apple.

I haven`t had an apple in a while since my orthodontist said not to have one with braces. He doesn`t have control in alternate universes, though. I took a bite of the bread and sat down my apple on the dining table. I then went back to the kitchen and grabbed a plate and a knife. I also looked for one of those small fruit peelers, but there was none in any of the cupboards. I brought my utensils to the table. I put the apple on the plate and began to cut the shiny red skin off the apple, but cringed when the knife met with the plate and make a horrid noise, like nails on a chalkboard. I guess I should of used a cutting board.

After demolishing my apple to nothing but a hexagon, I cut it into smaller pieces. I gobbled down the bread and gingerly bit into an apple slice. My mouth watered, apples were one of my favourite fruits!

"It's been too long, mi amigo," I mumbled at the delicious apple.

Suddenly, I heard shifting behind me, stopping me entirely. The sound of sloppy Spanish mumbling. Then, dead silence. Maria turned me around in the blink of an eye and shook my shoulders abruptly.

"¡¿CÓMO PUDISTE?!"She cried out in her Native language dramatically. I tried to squirm away from her, but her death grip on my shoulders kept me still.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" I shouted back. "STOP DIGGING YOUR NAILS INTO ME AND DON'T TOUCH ME!"

"I COULD OF DIED!" Maria screamed in hysterics, digging her nails harder into my shoulders.

I pivoted to the right and grabbed her left arm with my right one. I took my left arm and brought my elbow down across Maria`s arms, then wacked her in the side of the head with a left hammer fist. I grabbed her left arm and shoulder, then roughly sweeped her legs in front of her, causing her head to bang the wooden floors. With my speed still slightly slowed by sleep I didn't do much damage, thankfully.

"I SAID NOT TO TOUCH ME, DAMNIT!" I shouted, walking back to the table.

Before I sat down, I looked out the window, or at least attempted to. I squinted as best as I could and I think I saw some movement in the distance. Maybe it was Al, Winry, and Pinako.

"Hey Maria," I called, quite oblivious to the fact that she was still on the floor, dizzy as ever.

"What?" I heard her whimper.

I stood up and decided to help Maria up. Because that's what best friends do, right?

"Here," I held out my hand to her.

Maria grabbed onto it with two hands, almost bringing me down with her. I wrapped my other hand around Marias and tried to pull her up. Its either she`s insanely heavy, or I am weak. I hope it`s neither.

In actuality, Maria was pulling me down. I just didn`t feel it. Finally, she pulled me down and I rolled to the left so I wouldn`t fall on her. Big mistake. My ear cracked onto the floor, making my eyes open extremely wide from pain. I heard ringing, and nothing else. Maria was opening her mouth, but her voice was just not loud enough to shoo away the painful ringing.

"What the hell is going on?!" Ed shouted from upstairs.

Maria let go of my hand that she was grabbing and both of my hands shot up to my ears. Edward has quite a loud voice.

"Dammit! Stop yelling. It hurts…" I mumbled on the floor.

I shut my eyes as tight as possible and curled my knees up into my stomach, writhing in pain from possible eardrum damage. I heard the shuffle of footsteps, a door slam, and a clatter of voices, mostly too loud for my liking. I then heard what sounded like a rushing waterfall, but it was probably someone shushing everyone else.

"She`s overreacting," I heard Edward say.

"No, I`m not," I said through gritted teeth.

I opened my eyes to see what looked like Edward and Winry in a quarrel, as Al and Maria attempted to break them up. All while Pinako was shoving food cans and other varieties of food containers into random cupboards.

"Vanessa, are you alright?" Al asked me, with his metal arms out to stop Ed from getting any closer to Winry.

"I guess," I slowly responded, standing up with the speed of a sloth.

"They're fighting because Winry thought you were really hurt, but brother just shrugged it off, which made Winry even more upset," Al explained, giggling nervously.

"I`m sorry. For doing that to you," Maria bowed her head in shame towards me.

"Eh, I guess it`s fine, you're not exactly strong," I smirked, slapping Maria on the arm.

"Ow!" She flinched, grabbing her arm and rubbing it sympathetically. "Why are you so violent?"

"I have no idea, maybe because my brother beats the crap out of me and I need to learn to defend myself?" I said, looking directly into Maria`s deep brown eyes, a shade or two darker than mine.

"You don`t have to be rude either!" Maria said in mock offense.

I laughed and patted her on the back, and she joined into the laughter.

"What is your problem?" Ed growled behind Alphonse.

"Me?" Winry and Maria asked in unison, their eyes meeting.

"The dumb blonde," Edward huffed trying to squirm past his brother.

"Don't make me get my wrench Edward Elric!" Winry shouted.

"You're not exactly any more of a brunette than she is, Ed," I smirked, crossing my arms.

"You're not helping! What does hair colour do with someone`s intelligence anyways?" Ed snarled, his gold eyes looking dangerously dark.

"Exactly!" I threw my arms into the air and walked upstairs.

I heard more yelling, then loud 'BANG!'; probably a wrench meeting with Ed`s head, meaning he tipped Winry over the edge. I walked into the guest room where I slept, seeing Adrian and Den resting by each other, Den`s sleek black coat mixing with Adrian`s fluffy black and white one.

I leaned down on my knees to pet them both, but my head busted abruptly into an agonizing headache. I reached out to my left, hoping to grab the bedpost. I missed, falling gracelessly backwards. I felt dizzy and my heart was racing at a speed I didn`t know was possible. My violent headache didn`t dwindle and the whole feeling felt like it wouldn`t leave for an eternity. My vision became extremely blurry and my eyes felt like magic eight balls, being shaken for eternity just for a yes or no answer.

But what was needed is much more than a yes or no answer.

'What`s happening to me?' I thought as I curled up on the floor, hoping for the feeling to leave me alone.

Then the world went black.


HI! HOW WAS YOUR CHRISTMAS? /Shot/ Sorry, I am out of excuses. You know the dealio: school, karate, writer`s block, laziness, etc. For Christmas, my parents got me an I Pad ASDFGHJKL. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH! Also, My mom kept nagging at me because she wanted to read this, so I finally let her read the first chappy and she was all "OH EM GEE YOU SHOULD SO BE A WRITER! 11JS2872EBHJNC"

What. (._.)

I`m going to Ottawa and I`m gonna meet a crapload of famous chumps, like Demi Lovato. It`s because I`m going to something called We Day (Don't know it? GOOGLE IT!) And I`m going to eat dinner with those celebrities and Marc and Craig Keilburger (Don't know them? GOOGLE THEM VSH CWKUVCL)

ANYWAYS, Hopefully there will be a chapter out before June. I'm extremely sorry for keeping you waiting +.+ this is terribly overdue, and terribly crappy. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a guillotine ready for me TT-TT

- Always here to waste your time,

-Vanessa