Chapter 1: School Morning

I had been awake for awhile now, listening to the sounds of the birds chirping outside my bedroom window. I was mad. I hated getting up early, just as much as I hated school. What's the point? I already know everything I need to get by. "Nii-san! Nii-san, it's time to get up!" I heard my little brother, Alphonse, cry happily. Oh man, I don't want to go to school! "Go away." I said, putting the pillow over my head. "Come on, get up or we'll be late! And then Wintry will be mad because she's walking to school with us!" Al said, trying to take the pillow away from me. I abruptly let go of the pillow and fell off the bed, hitting my head on the floor. "Winry's walking to school with us and you didn't tell me?!" I shouted, rubbing my head where it hit the ground. "Sorry Nii-san." He said, bending to pet the cat that had wandered into my room.

I stood up. "Ok, ok, let me get ready. Did you make breakfast?" I said brushing some hair out of my face. Too much hair. "Yup, and I made us lunches too! I'm all ready to go, I've been up since 5." He had a huge smile on his face like he was very proud of the feat. I halted the pursuit for my ponytail holder and put a hand on my little brother's shoulder. "You have some serious problems." I said before continuing to look for that holder. He sighed, picked up his cat, and left the room. I found the stupid thing under my bed. I proceeded to braid my hair. The last thing I need is for people to say that I look like a girl because I have long hair. I rummaged through the pile of clothes in my closet and found something that wasn't wrinkled nor smelly. Mental Note #1: Do laundry I emerged from my room and walked down the hall and into the kitchen.

It was complete anarchy. The whole place smelled very bad. Something in one of the pans on the stove had caught on fire, but it had been put out. One of the cats had knocked over a box of cereal and it was scattered all over the floor. There was an open jar of peanut butter and mayonnaise on the counter; a butter knife still left inside each jar. There was a half-cut tomato on the counter with some mayonnaise stuck on it in such a way that is suggested that who ever cut it also spread mayonnaise with that knife and didn't bother to wash it off. I watch in horror as one of the little kittens on the counter fell off and landed with a large splash in the cat's water dish, spraying water all over the floor. One of the cupboards was open and it looked like someone had rummaged through it very fast because there was soup cans on the floor. There were paper towels and plates all over the counters. I looked down and saw that orange juice had been spilt on the floor. And a large dog was lapping it up......

"ALPHONSE!!!!!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. My little brother entered the kitchen. "WHY ARE THERE PAPER TOWELS ALL OVER THE COUNTERS!?! WHY ARE THERE SOUP CANS AND ORANGE JUICE ALL OVER THE FLOOR!?! AND..." I shouted, pointing at the dog, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT DOG DOING IN HERE!?!" I stood there, panting. I was so mad. It would take hours to clean up this place. "Whoops." Was all my little brother said, starring bug-eyed at the mess. He fake-laughed. "You go sit in the front room and I'll take care of this." He said, grabbing me by my shoulders and turning me in the direction of the front room. I stormed out of the room. Mental Note #2: Teach Al how to make something WITHOUT making the kitchen look like a war zone.

I sat down on the couch, listening to the sounds of some very rapid cleaning in the kitchen. Alphonse came into the front room; a small stack of pancakes under one arm, that dog under the other. He handed me the plate and tossed the dog out the open front door. "You shouldn't leave the front door open. Wouldn't you hate it if one of your cats got out?" I said, taking a bite of the pancakes. He may blow up the kitchen, but he made good pancakes. "I know, but that's how we got Marmalade!" He said, petting his large orange tabby. "Yes, but what if one of those two little kittens of yours got out?" I said, finishing my small stack of pancakes, probably the leftovers that didn't get burnt. He sighed. "I would be quite sad...all right, I won't leave the door open in the morning anymore." He said, picking up Marmalade. "Do I even want to go into that kitchen?" I said, pointing down the hall. "It wasn't that bad when I woke you up, I swear! I left the cupboard open, but that dog took out the cans, there was no cereal on the floor..." He said, looking at the ground. I left the room and entered the kitchen. It was much better. Sadly, the sink was half-full. I added my plate to the mess. Mental Note #3: Do dishes

I reentered the front room. "Where's my backpack?" I said, looking under the couch. He pointed in the direction of the door. I picked up my backpack from the doorway. "Oh! I forgot to ask you. What classes do you have?" He asked, picking up his own backpack. "I don't know, I haven't looked yet." It was the truth. I didn't really care. Al looked shocked. "Hurry up! Look at them now!" He said trying to open my backpack. I got out the list and read it out loud. "First Period: Science, Miss Lust. Second Period: Algebra, Mister Hughes. Third Period: Open, Open. Forth Period: Language Arts, Miss Hawkeye. Fifth Period: History, Mister Mustang. Sixth Period: PE, Mister Armstrong. Seventh Period: Open, Open."

I stopped and started at my list. Al beamed. "Alright! We have Algebra, Language Arts, and PE together!" He jumped up and down happily. "But what the hell kind of teachers do we have? I mean, what kind of a last name is 'Lust'? And 'Mustang'? It sounds like I have a car for a History teacher! And what do they mean by 'Open'?" I said, once more combing my list. "It's open because those are our electives. We get one week to pick them. If we don't pick them after that, we just get tossed into whatever isn't full. Here's the list." He said matter-of-factly, handing me a rather long list.

I scanned it. "We could always take Alchemy for an easy grade." I said handing him back the list. "But we know everything!" My brother complained. It wasn't quite the truth. No one knows everything about Alchemy, but we know a lot more than most people even hope to have learned in their lifetime. After all, we were going to try to bring our mother back to life. It's a good thing we were stopped or who knows what could have happened..."Yes, but we could also show off. We might even know more than the teacher!" His brow was knitted in thought. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the doorbell. "Winry!" We both shouted and rushed to open the door.

"Heya guys! Ready to go to High School?" Winry asked. Al and I had known Winry even since we were born, but never in all our years..."A dress?!? You're wearing a dress to school?" Al said, starring. "Trying to act more like a girl?" I said sarcastically. It was true. She could be very tomboyish, loving mechanics as much as most girls love pink and bows. Sadly, my sarcasm was rewarded with a slap to the face. "Are you guys going to critique my outfit, or our we going to school?" She said in a dangerous tone as I rubbed my face. "Yeah, yeah, we're going to school. Don't get too trigger happy." I said walking out the door, Al trailing behind me.

"What do you guys think about the electives? Pretty cool, huh? I don't know what to pick. Technology would be nice, but Mechanics also sounds like it would be fun! Then again..." Bla, Bla, Bla, boy do girls talk a lot. Even girls that don't really act like girls talk a lot. "So, what classes are you going to take, Edward?" Winry said, turning to me. "I don't really know, I'll have to give it more thought." She opened her mouth to, most likely, critique me, but just then, the first bell cut her off. "Oh no! I only have five minuets to find my classes! Buh-bye!" She said and ran off. "I've got to go too. See you in Algebra Nii-san!" He said running off. I waved to him, then headed off for my Science class.

I arrived in front of a door with a bunch of scared-looking kids hanging about. The only person that looked like they knew where they were, was this one kid wearing a very small, tight black T-shirt and shorts. He kept adjusting his black headband that kept his rather spikey, long olive green hair out of his face. I leaned against the wall by the door, looking rather bored with the whole thing. "Look at all these people, acting like scared rabbits." He said, walking up to stand next to me. "Yeah. And who is this 'Miss Lust' anyway." I said, looking around to see if the teacher had arrived yet. "All of the boys are talking about her. I think she has big boobs or something." He said, rolling his eyes. "They act like they've ever seen a pretty girl before..."

We didn't say anything for some time. "What kind of a last name is 'Lust' anyways?" I said, trying to keep the conversation going. "It's just as weird as my first name." He said in an unimportant way. "Really?" I said arching an eyebrow, "What's your first name?" He grinned. "Envy." What the hell kind of a nutbar would name their kid Envy? Just then, a woman with rather long black hair and a low-cut black dress walked up and unlocked the door. We all filed into the classroom after her. "Good Morning students. I am your teacher, Miss Lust. Please, sit where ever you would like." She said in a soft, seducing voice.