»Part Four: Fullmental Alchemist «

"C'mon, we're gonna be late!" I complained as I dragged Ed down the hall by an his arm. The fight from earlier had ended--victorious, on my part—when I had gotten a hold of Ed and pinned him up against a wall. At first he thought I was joking, but then I kicked him in the shin and made him read what was written on the wall. He hung his head in shame as the words dribbled out of his mouth, 'Height Chart,' also noticing that Dylan was an inch taller and over 2 years younger.

"We're already late," He pointed out, having long forgotten the whole "height" thing.

"There's still ten minutes,"

"It takes you that much time to prepare?"

"I—I mean we--have a little something to do first..." I told him. "I want you to meet some people."

"Huh?"

I laughed and pulled harder at his wrist. "Come on!"

As we entered the 9th grade pod, I slowed down and let go of his wrist. Just as he caught up with me, walking to my right, I shouted to my friends and ran to them. Ed followed.

"Hey, Allison! Michelle!" I called out, coming to a stop at Allison's locker. The three of us met there every morning before classes started, it was like a routine.

"Hi, Oli," Allison said. She had blue eyes like mine and her dyed blond-to-black hair was in two pigtails resting on each of her shoulders. She had been my best friend since the fourth grade, and even though we had fought a lot throughout the years, we always remained inseparable.

"Haaiii," my other friend, Michelle, lingered on the "i" in "hi." She had dark eyes and dark hair, which she usually put in a ponytail, leaving her bangs to only hang down on the left side of he face. I often told Michelle how she looked like Raven from That's So Raven, and even though she continues to deny it, I know she always takes it as a compliment.

"Who's this?" Allison pointed to Ed, who I had forgot was standing behind me. Allison hated Fullmetal Alchemist and we both knew it, yet I didn't quite know how she would react when I told her who it really was.

I turned around. "Um, this is Ed," I turned back to my friends.

"Hiya!" Ed leaned his left shoulder against a locker and smirked, waving his right hand once in a quick, jerky fashion. Yes, his right hand.

He caught this just as quickly as I did, retracting his hand like a bullet. Unfortunately, my friends never miss a thing.

"What was that?" Michelle asked, sounding like a curious little two-year-old.

I sighed. "Okay, you guys, now don't flip or anything, alright?" I started, even though I knew they would flip, regardless of their response.

"'Bout whaaat?" they both cooed.

I took a deep breath, "Now, you might not believe me--"

"What?" I could tell Allison was anxious.

I looked at Ed, who had his whole back resting up against the lockers and was watching kids in the pod. I elbowed him in the left arm as if to say 'pay attention!'

"This," I grabbed at his sleeve and showed my friends (showed Ed, not the sleeve), "is... that guy from the book." ((and if this were anime, which it's not, Ed probably would've fallen over in disapproval.))

"Whaaat?" They both said, confused.

I was about to try again when Ed spoke up. "What she means is, I--" he struck some sort of "fancy pose" before continuing, "Am Edward Elric."

Allison and Michelle looked at each other. "Who?" ((again with the falling))

Ed's pose shrunk, along with his ego. "Whaddya mean, 'who?'" he mocked in disbelief, "It's me! Edward Elric!"

"You guys," I said, "Ed? Remember?"

"So?" A likely response from Allison, though I didn't expect Michelle to know, either.

"Wait, who?" Michelle asked, still confused.

"Never mind," Ed muttered, temporarily defeated. He sank to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest in shame.

"Guys! From my book? Remember?" I couldn't believe that, after all that talking about it, all of that useless information I had given to my friends, they still didn't know who "Fullmetal Alchemist" was. Then I had an idea. I reached into my backpack and pulled out Fullmetal Alchemist: Land of the Sand, holding it out for my friends to see.

"Look," I pointed to Ed's picture on the cover, "Now do you get it?"

"Oh!" Michelle suddenly remembered something. "You mean, Fullmental Alchemist?" ((falling over... okay, I'll stop.))

"Full... mental?" Ed looked as if he were going to cry, though I knew he was just being dramatic.

Allison took the book from my hands and squinted. She and Michelle glanced back and forth from the cover to Ed himself, squinting, as if they were comparing the two.

"This..." Michelle pointed to the cover picture, "is him?" She asked in disbelief. I nodded.

"How is this him?" Allison thrust an upturned palm in Ed's direction and took the liberty of declaring the worst; "This guy's like a freakin' squirt!"

I froze.

Ed's pathetic whimpering noises ceased as he slowly cocked his head to face the rest of us. "What... did you call me..?"

"Uh..." Allison didn't exactly know what she had gotten herself into, much less would she even care. Heck, she'd probably do it more if she knew!

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING 'SQUIRT?' YOU WANNA PIECE'A ME? COME HERE AND I'LL SHOW YOU WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH!" I practically had to grab him from under the arms to keep him from lunging at Allison; who, not to mention, was also taller than Ed.

"Whoa, calm down, kid." She obviously knew nothing about him.

"I'M NOT A KID! I'M FIFTEEN! THAT'S WAY OLDER THAN Y—" Ed stopped squirming for even the slightest second and glanced around. He did the math. If I was 14, and these were my friends, and they were older than me, like I said... "OH, JUST SHADDAP!"

"Ed, stop--!" I was losing my grip as he continued to struggle toward the unflinching Allison that was his target. "You're making a scene!"

"LEMME GO LEMME GO LEMME GO!" I was surprised that he had so much energy after not eating breakfast.

"O-kay..." Allison and Michelle looked at each other, then at me. The bell rang. "I gotta go to class now. Bye!"

"...bye..!" I choked out.

"OH NO YOU DON'T! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING! DON'T THINK YOU CAN JUST WALK AWAY! I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!" He was too much. I had to drop him. He gave a victorious "Ha!" and was about to dash down the hall after Allison when somebody grabbed him by the back of the shirt.

"I SAID LEMME G--" Ed turned around, surprised it wasn't me. "Who the hell 'r you supposed to be?"

The man frowned. "I," he said, "am the Principal."