A/N: Guess what? Chappy 2 is up!! Yay! I finally finished... lots of dialogue to write! But... finally... it's done, and it's updated! Enjoy! Please R&R, as always.
Chapter Two
She sighed as she stood in line. Thank God... it was lunch hour. Sixth hour was currently her favorite time of the day (besides band, of course). Morticia mentally ran through her morning schedule: First hour was band, which spoke for itself. Second hour was honors geometry. The only person she really knew in that class was Kieran Alysatrian, a freshman she'd met at band camp. He played electric bass guitar and was going to help carry the banner in marching season, but he'd missed band today because he accidentally overslept.
Third hour was Cisco Networking. It'd only been the first day, but Morticia already wanted to switch out. The class in itself was incredibly boring, she was the only girl in there, and everyone else were seniors that she didn't know. Fourth hour chemistry class she had with Demetra, and they'd watched a video because they had had a substitute. Finally, in fifth hour English honors, she had had Alphonse in there, as well as a few other friends who weren't in band. They'd had a typical first day instruction: the teacher introducing himself, going over rules and procedures, things like that. Now... at long last... lunch.
She took her tray, entered her student ID number at the cashier, then wandered outside to the back courtyard.
"Hey! Morticia! Over here!" Morticia looked around and saw Kaolin standing and waving. She joined her and Alphonse at a table near the door of the cafeteria.
"Hey, guys," Kaolin greeted after Morticia sat down. "How's your morning been?"
"Hectic, but good," Alphonse replied, starting to eat his fries. "I've only got one class with a band person, and that's fifth hour with Morticia."
"So far," said Kaolin. "I'm taking some sophomore classes and some junior classes. I'm in honors world history seventh hour."
"That's what I've got next," said Morticia.
"Cool! My first class with you!" said Kaolin, taking a bite of pizza.
"Hey, everybody!" said a voice. Leilani came over and sat next to Alphonse, across from Kaolin and Morticia.
"Oh, hey, Leila," Kaolin said. "What're you doing here? Don't you have class right now?"
"Not this year," Leilani replied. "They gave me sophomore lunch this year for some reason. All I've got are the required classes... and band, yo! Yes!" She made the rock on sign with her right hand, and Alphonse chuckled.
"That just sounded like Katrina or Shirogane," he said. "Not to be mean, but you're in orchestra. Different from marching band."
"Yeah, I know," said Leilani. "I'm carrying the banner, though!"
"Yes, true," said Alphonse. "However... I like playing this year's music. Danny Elfman is fun."
"I like This is Halloween," said Morticia. "It's got to be my favorite."
"Aw, you don't like Jump in the Line?" asked Kaolin.
"I like all of them, but I love This is Halloween," Morticia answered. "I just love the way the clarinets play it. It's fantastic."
"I've got to agree on that one," said Alphonse. "The clarinets and flutes sound really good."
"There is stuff both sections need to work on, though," said Kaolin. "Though I admit, we do sound pretty good..."
"Kaolin, let me ask you a question," said Leilani suddenly,
"Yeah?"
"Where in the hell did your parents get the name Kaolin? I mean, couldn't your parents have named you something normal, like Kathryn or Kaitlyn?"
"Three words: avid amateur geologist," Kaolin replied. "That would be my mother. She named me after kaolinite, which is a type of mineral, I think. She's kind of crazy, but I love her. My dad picked my middle name, which happens to be Amanda."
"Nice," said Leilani. "Just thought I'd ask; I've always thought your name was a little weird." She stood up. "Well, I'm going to leave you guys now, so... see you all later!"
"Bye, Leila!" said Morticia. Leilani smiled and wandered off.
"That girl is strange," said Kaolin. "I'll love her forever, but she's strange. Like, drumline strange. I wonder why she isn't in drumline..."
"She was," Alphonse replied. "Ed dated her last year. She was in drumline for the first half of last year and all the year before that. She dropped out because her mom didn't want her on percussion anymore. Apparently she was turning into a delinquent. So she went to orchestra because she already knew violin."
"Oh, yeah..." said Kaolin. "That's right... That's why she randomly went into orchestra.. I remember that. Okay, I remember now."
"Yeah," agreed Alphonse.
"Is Fullmetal dating anyone now?" Morticia asked.
"Fullmetal's your permanent nickname for him now, isn't it?" Alphonse asked, smiling.
"You bet!" Morticia replied. "He's going to have to learn to put up with us FMA fans! Anyway... is he?"
"We all know he's gay for Takenaga," said Kaolin, smiling. "The saxomaphone player's having a secret affair with the tromboner. It's classic."
"Very funny," Alphonse said good-naturedly. "Um... he's actually dating the other girl in drumline. Not Katrina, but the other one."
"Oh, Angelique?" Kaolin scowled. "Angelique... Koyara, or whatever her last name is?"
"Yeah," Alphonse replied. "The red-haired one who's always going around..."
"Like she knows everything," Morticia finished. "Preppy popular chick. I hate her. I swear to God she wants to get laid by every guy in school. What the hell is Fullmetal thinking? What does he see in her?"
"I'm not quite sure, I can't stand her either," said Alphonse. "She's started coming over a lot... She came over practically every week this past summer."
"The only reason he's dating her is because she's in drumline," said Kaolin. "If I know Ed, and God knows I do, he loves the drumline. Once he breaks up with Angelique, he's going to chase after Katrina. He's so predictable it's painful. No offense, Al; I don't mean to insult your brother. I know how close you guys are." Alphonse shrugged.
"I know," he said. "It doesn't matter. I don't exactly agree with the way Ed dates, either. So, um... what kind of music do you guys like?"
"Green Day!" Kaolin answered instantly. "Also known as the greatest band ever!"
"I must disagree on that one!" said Morticia. "Green Day's good, but Evanescence is the greatest ever!"
"Nope! Green Day!" said Kaolin.
"Evanescence!"
"Green Day!"
"Evanescence!"
"You know it's Green Day, so admit it!"
"Al, tell us... which is better?"
Alphonse's face turned thoughtful. "Well... let's see now. Green Day is best in punk or alternative rock or whatever it is, and Evanescence is best in gothic rock, soft metal... whatever it is. There you go."
"Yep, that's our Alphonse," said Kaolin. "Always making things equal and agreeable for everyone!"
"I try," said Alphonse.
"Hey, guys, time to get to class," said a security guard suddenly. "Lunch is over, let's go!"
"Aw!" said Morticia. "Just when I wanted to stay here for a bit... okay." They all got up, threw their trays away, and walked to the building.
"Where do you have to go, Al?" Kaolin asked.
"Study hall," Alphonse replied. "Don't know why, I didn't sign up for it, but whatever. See you guys later."
"Bye!" said Morticia. She and Kaolin separated from Alphonse.
"You know what I think?" said Kaolin as they walked down the hall.
"What do you think?" asked Morticia.
"I think Ed's only with Angelique to use her," Kaolin replied.
"Use her? What do you mean?"
"I mean that Ed only dates drumline girls to get on the good side of the guys. I know you weren't in band last year, so I'll tell you what I went on. Last year, he and Leila were going out, right? She was on drumline for a semester last year. He kept hanging out with the guys during marching season. He wouldn't stay with his own section at all except during parades and competition. He'd be with drumline all the time, but only when Leila was with him. He'd take her out on dates all the time, but instead of taking her out somewhere where it'd be just the two of them, he'd make her call up some of the guys so they could join them. He'd spend all the time with them and ignore her."
"That's rough," said Morticia.
"Yeah," Kaolin agreed. "Then get this: When Leila's mom forced her to leave drumline for orchestra, Ed broke up with her. It wasn't just an 'okay, this isn't working out, I have to break up with you' split. Ed got pissed off. He got pissed at her, and they ended up having a shouting match. He blew up in her face, going, 'I don't need some crappy orchestra chick for a girlfriend!' when he knew very well she could play violin when he first went out with her!"
"What the hell'd he do that for?" Morticia demanded.
"He took the drumline view," Kaolin answered. "Drumline hates orchestra because there's no marching drumline in orchestra; there's only xylophone and orchestra bells, and they aren't interested in that kind of percussion. They like stuff like the drumset. Perfect example: Katrina. Anyway, they've got nothing personal against the orchestra players themselves; they just don't like it. It's an old rivalry; been around for a long time. Anyway, Ed took it a bit too far. He started insulting Leila's personal character."
"What an ass!" Morticia cried.
"I know," agreed Kaolin. "Anyway, after he broke up with Leila, he moved on... straight to Caitlin."
"Caitlin? Why her?"
"She was a drum major last year, and she hung out with drumline a lot. She was genuine friends with them, though, unlike Ed. Anyway, he went out with her. They were fine for about a month, then Ed turned abusive."
"No way."
"Yeah. A push here, a shove there, he'd literally push her around until she'd do what he wanted. She was scared to death of him by the time pep band season started; even though she didn't show it, I could tell. Then one night, it got really bad. After the men's state championship basketball game, he took her over by the buses to where nobody could see them, and he beat the crap out of her."
"He beat her? But... she could take him on!"
"Yes, I know, but he told her that if she fought back, he'd kill her. I found her after he finished, and he'd dislocated her shoulder and gave her two black eyes, among other things. Luckily her shoulder was the worst injury. She was crying her eyes out. I've known Caitlin a long time, and that's the worst I've ever seen her."
"God..." Morticia murmured. "Poor Caitlin... Why'd he beat her up?"
"Apparently, from what she told me, he was mad because she wasn't conducting the right way. He told her she was a horrible drum major and that she was worthless and all this other crap, when he doesn't know anything about being a drum major."
"What the hell?!" Morticia exclaimed. "Caitlin's awesome!"
"I know," said Kaolin. "She slept in my hotel room with me. She didn't want to go to the drum majors' room or Ed's, so she stayed with me. I finally got her to get up the courage to admit she needed to break up with him. I then went and told him myself that she broke up with him."
"You said she hung out with drumline. Did they ever find out?"
"Oh yeah. It was not pretty. They were already mad at him about the way he treated Leila, but when they found out about Caitlin... they were furious. Not only because he took complete advantage of her and beat the crap out of her, but because she's a drum major. Now, drumliners have a huge amount of respect for the drum majors, and they get really pissed if anything bad happens to them. They got even more furious because she got beaten up. No drum major's ever gotten beaten up before, much less by someone in the band. So... they screwed up his instrument. He couldn't play it for the rest of the pep band season. Couldn't play it at the spring concert, either, and never figured out why. He ended up having to buy a whole brand-new saxophone. To this day, he doesn't know that drumline did it. Kyran got pissed, but it was drumline's revenge for Caitlin."
"Wow," said Morticia as they moved from Kaolin's locker and started walking down to hers. "Did Al know Fullmetal beat Caitlin up?"
"Al knew, all right," Kaolin replied. "Ed told him. He did something Ed hates himself for: He reported it."
"Wow... I can't envision him betraying his brother like that," said Morticia.
"I can't, but then again I can," said Kaolin. "If Al had just sat there and let Ed go unpunished, he would've felt guilty, and Caitlin might've been beaten up again for breaking up with him. I can't see Al just sitting there; he's too nice of a person. So, after Caitlin broke up with Ed, Al reported him to protect her. Ed had to take anger management, and since then, he's become way nicer. Still... even though I hate Angelique, I don't want to see her go through the same thing as Leila or, God forbid, Caitlin."
"I can see what you mean, and I feel the same way," Morticia agreed, shutting her locker after putting her geometry book in. "How'd Leila and Caitlin do?"
"Well, Leila was both pissed and sad at the same time," Kaolin replied, "because she was in love with him, but she eventually recovered and got over it. Caitlin... She ended up having to go see a psychologist and take meds to get over what happened. She was really depressed; she kept beating herself up over it and talking about suicide, how the world would be better if she wasn't alive and how it was her fault she got beaten up and that Ed was right and other stuff like that." Morticia nodded. She could sympathize with that -- she had had the same mentality last school year.
"You saw Shirogane Harukaiya at band camp, didn't you?" asked Kaolin. Morticia nodded again. Shirogane Harukaiya: a senior and the only Japanese boy on the drumline. Very nice... very polite... a decent drummer.
"What about him?" she asked.
"Well... he and Caitlin are really close," said Kaolin. "In short, Shiro's Caitlin's. He's the first one who found out that Ed beat her up... and he's always been extremely protective of her. After he found out, he got even more protective. She even tried to attempt suicide at his house, but he found her and stopped her. She hated him for it, but then she got wise later and thanked him for it. Those two are so close... He helped her more than the psychologist did, and now she's just fine. She's stopped seeing the psychologist, but she's still taking meds to keep the depression from coming back. She gets sad occasionally, but it's the normal-sad now instead of the serious clinical depression-sad."
"That's good," said Morticia.
"Yep... though in my opinion, they need to get into an actual, serious relationship. The entire drumline and most of the band knows Shiro's in love with her. I can tell she's in love with him, too. No offense meant to her, but she needs to get her head out of her ass and admit she loves him. Shiro just needs to go up and ask her out. Um..." She sighed. "So yeah. That's Ed's deal. Wow, I talk a lot."
They walked into their world history class. "Oh, Kaolin! Repeating my class, huh?" asked the teacher, a young man who looked in his early twenties.
"Hey, none o' that!" said Kaolin, smiling. "Isn't my fault I'm back here! Apparently a D has no credit!"
"Sorry, Miss Riverwing," said the teacher. "Have to pass with a C to get credit!"
"Aw, damn," said Kaolin. "But I had a 69! Couldn't you have just given me that one extra percent?"
"Nope, I'm sorry," said the teacher, smiling. "You didn't put in enough effort to get that extra percent."
"Sure I did," said Kaolin. "I participated!"
"Yes, I know," the teacher said. "However, if you took some of that participation and used it on your assignments, you might have gotten a higher grade." Kaolin rolled her eyes.
"Damn honors," she said to Morticia as they walked to their seats. "Always so strict! The teachers are so mean... and the biggest meanie of them is Mr. Anderson!" Morticia looked at the teacher, who was smiling.
"You are such an ass, you know that?" she muttered. Kaolin grinned.
"Aw, Anderson knows I'm only playing!" she said. "It's because he loves me."
"No affairs in school, Kaolin," Mr. Anderson said. "You should know that."
"So... I can't have an affair with my alto clarinet, then?" asked Kaolin. "But I suck a reed every day!"
"Band geek," said Mr. Anderson.
"Proud of it! Morticia's one, too!"
"Really? What do you play, Morticia?"
"Clarinet," Morticia replied. "I suck a reed, too!"
"Another band geek!" exclaimed Mr. Anderson. "Now I get to be entertained by even more band jokes, eh?"
"Yup! And you will love them!" answered Kaolin.
"Or surrender all your life's blood to me," Morticia added.
"Ooh, how malicious," Mr. Anderson said. "So... we have a vampire in our class now, do we? Bloodthirsty vampiric band geek. Interesting combination." Morticia bent her head and smiled.
"Oh, God, that's creepy, Morticia!" exclaimed Kaolin. "Stop smiling that way! It's creepy!" Morticia giggled and lifted her head as the bell to start class rang.