Child's Play
-Part 2, Chapter 2-
Roy sat at the lunch table and lightly hit his head against the smooth surface while he sat waiting for the others. It wasn't enough to hurt, but it was a way to vent some frustration.
"Roy?" he heard John ask, he then stopped the pounding, kept his head against the table and turned to see John, Maes, and Riza looking at him with odd looks.
"What is it?" Riza asked moving to sit across from him, John and Maes moved to either side of him and sat down.
"His father is my alchemy instructor." Roy said sitting up, but keeping his head lowered.
"Who's father?" Riza asked poking her food a little, mostly to see exactly what it was.
"Alex's. He's the State Alchemist that's going to be teaching my class. Alex is odd enough, what is his dad going to be like?" Roy explained, somehow managing to lower his head even more. John looked over and pat him on the back trying to make him feel better.
"No way!" Maes suddenly said drawing the attention of all three of them, "He's one of the first State Alchemists! He helped develop the actual test to see who is qualified to even become a State Alchemist.!" he explained.
"Really!" John said talking over Roy who had suddenly found himself very worried.
"That's amazing!" Riza said almost dropping her fork. "How did he do it?"
"Well, he had to work with a couple other people in order to get the clearance first, but the Fuehrer seemed to like the idea. But his tests are some of the toughest, most difficult in the whole academy; even before the alchemy class was made. Even wonder why Alex has always been able to carry and lift more than any human should? He's been training even since he was a little kid. Man...You have some stiff competition Roy." Meas explained, then placed a comforting hand on Roy's shoulder. Roy only got an even more worried look on his face, then went back to hitting his head against the table.
"I'm sure it'll be all right Roy. You're a skilled alchemist, even if you are younger than Alex. I'm sure you'll do just fine." Riza said lowering her head so that she could see Roy's face clearly when he lifted up his head, and tried to give him a comforting smile. He stayed like that for a moment, then sat up and the 4 of them went back to eating, eventually Hymans and Cain joined then group, Cain had a moderate stack of books and was reading one while eating. They all sat in silence for a moment until a series of rings filled the cafeteria and many students went quiet.
"Will Elizabeth Hawkeye please come to the Head Master's office, Elizabeth Hawkeye." a loud voice called throughout the building. The boys looked to her with shocked and confused faces and Riza felt herself turn red from embarrassment.
"What did I do?" she asked aloud while she quickly gathered her things and rushed out of the building. Once she left the boys all looked to one another with curious looks and Roy just poked at his food.
"Wonder what it's all about." Cain said looking away from his book, John and Hymans nodded in agreement.
"I'm sure she's all right, Riza's a good kid and doesn't ever seem to get into trouble." Maes said reassuringly
"I have a bad feeling about it..." Roy said starring down at his tray of food.
The walk home as quiet as Riza walked between Maes and Roy as she usually did, only looking forward as they went. Once they got to Maes' house they all walked up to the door to greet his mother as she welcomed her son home.
"Good afternoon Roy, Elizabeth." she said nodding to the two of them.
"Hello." Riza said nodding back.
"Good Afternoon Ms. Hughes." Roy said, he had gotten over his shyness towards her around the time Riza moved to the city, for some reason being around a girl everyday had snapped him out of his childish acts.
"Maes, I wanted to tell you something, and I figured I'd let your friends hear too." Mr. Hughes said, Maes looked at her and listened, "Your father and I have decided to start teaching you have to drive." she said smiling to her son.
"Really!" Maes said, his eyes seemed to light up and he wrapped his arms around his mother's shoulders, "Thanks you, thank you, thank you!"
"That's awesome Maes." Roy said patting him on the shoulder.
"Congratulations." Riza said smiling from her place on the step, "I guess soon you won't have to walk anymore." she said, and with that Roy turned and looked at her, not really expecting her to every say something like that.
"Nah," Maes said waving a hand in dismissal, "I like you both too much to just stop walking with you. It's kinda like a tradition." he explained, and Roy nodded in agreement. "Anyways, I'll see you guys tomorrow all right?" and with that Roy and Riza turned and started down their street.
They were both quiet as they walked, and Roy eventually looked to watch Riza; she was looking straight a head, as if walking at attention, and after a few moments, Roy looked forward as well.
"So what did the headmaster have to say?" He asked, and because he had looked away from her, he didn't see her suddenly tense up, didn't see her bite her lip and manage to hold something back before putting her serious look back on.
"He wanted to talk to me about my score in Firearms. It was very impressed with my target practice." She said turning to look at him, smiling as if to say that nothing was wrong and that nothing bad had come out of the meeting.
"That must have been some score. Good job." Roy said looking back at her.
"Thanks."
"Mustang!" a tall man with blond hair wearing a blue military uniform called out, and at that Roy sprang forward, moving around several targets that were placed on the field, and eventually spotting an open area. As he rounded a turn he pulled out his white chalk and skidded along the ground, spinning enough to make a closed circle. Once he came to a stop he drew out the inner lines of his recently altered array, adding a flame along the top line. After it was finished he placed his hands inside and each line shined a bit the shot into the air, the joined to form a ball of fire that shot out into several rays, each one engulfing one of the many targets.
Once a whistle was blown, Roy moved his hands away from the circle and stood at attention. The tall man made his way down the center of the targets, assessing each one as he went by. This was the 5th week of class, and already a few students had either dropped out or had been asked to leave. Regardless of how difficult a task was though, Roy wasn't going to drop out, he had to make it up to State Alchemist, he had to.
"Very good Mustang." the man said once he was standing directly in front of Roy, "Your technique has greatly improved since the beginning of class. Your style is very original, and I think will do this military well." he explained, then turned and went back towards the other line of students. Roy waited a moment, then moved to the side as new targets came up from the ground.
"Thank goodness..." Roy said to himself as he stood with the group that had already gone.
"Armstrong!" the man called and with that Alex moved to check the positions of the targets, then ran down the center of them, stopping quickly and dropping to his knees, also pulling out a piece of chalk and drawing out his array. When he placed his hands on the circle, it also glowed blue, but lightning seemed to course though the ground and lift up rocks until they were hurled towards the targets. It continued until each target was destroyed and the whistle again was blown. "Good job my boy! You truly know how to make alchemy into a work of art. You'll make the Armstrong name proud yet." the man said, Roy become frightened as it looked almost like the instructor was crying, but small sparkles were almost floating around him.
"Do you mean it father?" Alex said, and when Roy turned to look at his friend, he got the same sense of fear because of how much alike the two of them looked.
"...I hate this class sometimes..." Roy said feeling his left eyebrow twitch a little.
Riza took a few shots at a target in the indoor shooting range and slowly lowered her gun, simply starring at it. Again, her shots were perfect, in the dead center where the paper's heart would be.
"I don't want it to be perfect..." she mumbled to herself, then raised them gun up again, then took a couple more shots. It was almost as if something inside of her wouldn't let her miss the shot and she let an entire round go into the target's head.
"You are your father's daughter." a voice came from her right and she saw her instructor standing there. When she saw it was him she lowered the gun and watched him approach her. "I think you'll be perfect for that program. I'm glad I recommended you for it, you've shown nothing but progress since the first day, I almost feel bad for the other students, it's very difficult for them to keep up." he explained looking over at her target.
"I'm sorry..." she said following his gaze to the piece of paper that was hanging up.
"Don't be, you have great potential." he said patted her once on the shoulder then turned to leave. Riza watched him go and waited until she was certain the door was fully shut before reloading the gun, turning back to the target, and raising it up again.
"I don't want to be perfect...!" she said slightly louder this time, and she could feel a slight stinging in her eyes as she let off another round into the target. She felt her knees start to buckle a little when again she saw that she hadn't missed one shot, "Damnit..." she said tightly closing her eyes and slamming a fist into the counter in front of her. "I don't want to be perfect..."