Disclaimer: I own my own self-insert, and Griffin, and the plot. I own nothing else.
By the way, Griffin is voiced by Vicmignogna, also known as Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist. It's for two reasons. First off, Griffin is an alchemist. Second...you'll see why.
Chapter 13: Turn Back the Clock: Friend
September 1st, 2006: The First Day of 6th Grade. HELP!!
Tears ran down her face. Her feet pounded against the pavement. People looked up for a moment as she passed, but didn't pay any further attention to her.
"Can't go home, mom's at work," Phoenix said to herself. She would have gone to one of her friends' houses…if she had any good friends, that is. It came to her a moment later. The library.
She ran up the front steps, and headed upstairs to the children's section. She sat down in one of the big beanbags, and breathed heavily. When she had caught her breath, she went over to one of the windows, and pulled one of the curtains away a little, just so she could look, and gasped in fear.
Three of the boys (well, actually only two, one just hung along with them) that had been making fun of her today were coming into the library. And they were probably coming upstairs.
Phoenix grabbed her backpack, and tried desperately to find someplace to hide. The door came open, and the boys walked in. The guy who really didn't do much was Matt, who really acted kinda stupid and really perverted most of the time. Then there was Brian, who joked around some, and was perverted. But the worst of the three was Russ. He was mean, cruel, and (who would have thought?) perverted. They were a trio of flippin' perverts, who delighted in making fun of the girl who brought "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to school the first day, and read while the teachers all talked to them.
Russ smirked when he saw Phoenix. "Book-girl, whaddya know? What're you doing here? Aren't you still reading that first book?"
"I finished it," Phoenix said nervously.
"How the hell did you finish that that fast?" Brian said incredulously. He grabbed Phoenix's backpack, and grabbed her Narnia book out of it. "How many pages does this have? Jesus! 200!"
"It's not that much, and I'm a fast reader," she explained. She tried to grab her backpack away from him, but Brian tossed it to Matt. "Give it back! And my book too!"
Russ snatched the book away from Matt, and looked at it. He snorted. "What kinda name is 'Edmund'?" He grabbed the page, and started tugging at it. "Oh, oh, oh!" He ripped the page out completely, and tossed it into the trash.
"Hey!" Phoenix said, jumping to grab her book in vain. He kept on ripping out pages, before tossing the entire book in the trash. "Stop it! Stop it!" She was on the verge of tears…again.
"Crybaby! C'mon, grow up!" Russ said.
"What he said," Brian said with a laugh, and went over to the window. He opened it up, and dumped out her backpack, before dropping the backpack itself down to the ground.
Phoenix said nothing, as she started crying again. Thanks to her stupid luck, the librarian was nowhere to be seen, probably on a break, and it looked like nobody else was around in the children's section. "Will you just shut up! I hate you! I hate you!" she screamed. She suddenly gasped for breath, as Russ punched her in the stomach. She wheezed. "Bastards!!!" she shrieked, cussing for the first time in her young life.
Russ snorted. "Let's go." The three of them headed for the exit.
Suddenly, the big steel door lit up brightly. The door and its frame were fused together. They couldn't push it down. "Matt, use one o' them moves you got."
Matt nodded, and backed up a little. He kicked upward, shouting "Rankyaku!" An air blade shot out straight at the door. It didn't leave a single mark on the door.
"You're wasting your time," said a calm voice. An older boy, probably two years older than Phoenix, emerged from around a bookshelf. He had short blonde hair, and blue eyes, and wore jeans and a t-shirt. On one hand was a big ring, with some sort of symbol on it. "It's now made out of a special kind of metal, of my own creation. Diamondsteel, metal just as hard as diamonds, if not even stronger. I infused the metal with carbon from the floor and walls around it from about ten feet away. Alchemy. Wonderful science."
"Geek," Brian said bluntly.
The older boy's eyebrow twitched, and he lost his cool completely. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A GEEK SO BIG HE'S NUMBER 1 ON THE CHESS TEAM!!!" He reached into his pocket, and pulled out something that resembled a smoke bomb. "Might want to plug your nose," he muttered to Phoenix. He threw it at the feet of the boys, and it went off, releasing a vile stench into the air.
When the smell reached their noses, Russ, Brian, and Matt made faces of disgust, but the smell only grew stronger. With no other choices, the three of them ran for the window, and jumped down to the ground. Matt used Kami-e to float to the ground, but Russ and Brian both hit the ground hard.
Phoenix laughed, her nose still held shut with two fingers. The boy grabbed something else from his pocket, and threw it to the ground. The gas quickly dissipated.
"Glad that they're gone, idiots," the boy said. He looked to Phoenix. "Who are you?"
"Phoenix. Phoenix of the Darkness," she replied.
"Name's Griffin," he said. "So today was your first day of school, then. Middle School?"
"Yep."
"Ah." It looked like Griffin could understand it. "I'm in the Eighth Grade, at a school across town. Sixth grade isn't very good. Seventh Grade isn't much better."
Phoenix sighed sadly. She looked over at the door, that was still made of that Diamondsteel stuff. "You're an alchemist?"
"Yep, I'm the Diamondsteel Alchemist. Unofficially, of course. Not my real title, but other guys call me that," Griffin explained. "I'm still hoping that I'll be able to go to Amestris, eventually. Y'know, learn a bit more." At thirteen in Unity, you could apply for a visa to go to other worlds, to learn more. If you were considered trustworthy (and smart enough to not reveal that you were from another world) then it would probably be passed. "I know a little Ninjutsu, too. Low level Earth Release, though. What about you, Phoenix?"
"I can do this," she said, and focused on one of the chairs. She grabbed an armrest, and easily lifted it into the air. She felt a significant drain on her stamina just from this, so she quickly released gravity back to normal. "I can control gravity, a little. It tires me out a lot, though. And my mom gave me these stones of sorts. One makes me stronger, one makes me faster, and one makes my senses stronger."
"Power Stones, those are a rare find," Griffin noted. "Usually passed down through families." He went over to the door, and Phoenix saw that the symbol on his ring was actually a small transmutation circle. He pressed his hands against the door, and in a flash of light, it reverted to normal. "How about I help you get your things? Then afterwards, I know a good ice cream parlor. My treat."
Phoenix smiled. "Okay. I like chocolate-chip cookie dough."
"What a coincidence, so do I," Griffin said with a grin.
As they left the library, Phoenix said "So why did you get like that when they called you a geek?"
"I'm not a geek, I'm merely intelligent," Griffin said flatly. "There's a significant difference."
"Not really."
"Shut up."
Griffin…he was my best friend. He was my first friend, and my best friend. I didn't care about the age gap. Make no mistake, we never got into a relationship. I did love him, but I loved him like a brother. Over time, I did make more friends, thanks to him--
A seventh-grade Phoenix sat at a lunch table with a bunch of other girls. She smiled, and laughed. There was McKenzie, the manga geek. Sheila, the band geek. Carla, the school geek. And herself, the book nerd. There were other girls, too. But these were her best (girl)friends.
--he gave me more confidence. He was basically my older brother. I trusted in him more than any of my other friends. More even than I trust a lot of you guys.
Phoenix and Griffin were in her bedroom. Griffin rapidly transmuted a piece of steel from one form to another, from a ring, to a star, to miniature of John Lennon. "Griff?" Phoenix said hesitantly. He looked up, placing the metal into his pocket. "We're friends, right?" He nodded slowly. "Then, there's something I need to show you."
Phoenix held out her right hand, always covered with a glove when it was too warm to have long sleeves on. She pulled off the glove, and Griffin's eyes widened. "Holy shit," he swore. Three cuts down her wrist, and one crossing them all. "How the--what the--"
"I know," Phoenix said, sadly. "It's why I wear the glove, or the long sleeves, or both when I can get away with it."
"You did always look sort of weird with the glove on," he commented. "But I figured it wasn't my business." He shook his head. "I can only imagine how horrible it was. By how bright the scars still are, the cuts had to go to muscle, at least." He held up a finger. "One word, and your door will be blocked by stone in the morning." He sighed. "How did this happen? Was it--"
I can't remember still where I got those scars from. Or even what he asked after that. But that was actually at the end of sixth grade that I told him, before I met any of those girls. It tied us together even more. Perhaps, in the end, it was how closely together that we were tied, that caused it to be so much harder when "it" happened.
BGBGBG
Nukid narrowed his eyes. "What was 'it'?"
"It was what set in motion the next eight months of my life," Phoenix replied. "Omega is completely deranged. I don't know exactly how he did it, or why he did it, but he wanted to affect my life in a way so that I would never gain a keyblade. That way, if his body were destroyed, then he would be able to go to a new body." She gritted her teeth. "He wanted to possess me, but if I did gain a keyblade, my heart would be too strong for him to do so. What happened after he was defeated the first time by all of those heroes, I will never forget, even if I live to be a thousand years old."
I loved writing this chapter, that's why it got done so fast! I'm not sure that my logic for how Diamondsteel would be created is actually true (steel+carbon=diamondsteel) but I really don't care.
That bit about boys making fun of me when I was little is true. They didn't actually steal my books and rip them up, but they did torture me, and I was quick to cry. Unfortunately, I never had a Griffin of my own.
And just to make sure this is understood, in this, me and Griffin do not have a romantic relationship! We're friends, very close friends! He was like an older brother to me, but we wouldn't have ever become lovers! Get it, got it, good.