Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, though I do have an Ed and Al wall scroll and a pair of pants that look kind of like Ed's.

The bus was big, yellow and smelly, more on the inside than the out. The (extremely) fat bus driver smiled at her as Winry—ironically, the only one at the stop—dragged herself up the stairs. Winry gave her a diffident smile back before turning to manoeuvre her way through the much-crowded aisle.

People stared at her. Winry didn't like people staring at her unless she had just done something worthy of approval. Or praise. Either or, she didn't like this. She bit her lip in discomfort, tripping and stumbling her way to the middle of the bus to plunk herself in the seat behind a black-haired boy with a glaringly pink Hawaiian shirt.

The instant her butt hit seat, the boy whipped around and grinned at her. His grin was full and warm and addicting, and Winry could not help but grin back. "Hi!" he said cheerfully. "My name is Maes Hughes, but call me Hughes. Everyone does."

"Winry Rockbell," Winry replied, half shyly, half boldly, which is kind of an oxymoron. "I like your shirt." Hughes laughed, his yellow-green eyes crinkling. He shoved his slender, parallelogrammish glasses further up his nose. "It's my most eye-hurting," he replied, patting the fabric fondly. "Oh, these are my friends—" he indicated to the two seats diagonal from him. "Riza Hawkeye and Roy Mustang. Roy's an—" "—absolute womanizer," the blond-haired, red-eyed pretty girl cut in, flashing Hughes a Look. "Hello, Winry; my name's Riza."

"Hi," Winry said, offering her hand. Riza shook it and both girls smiled. This may sound like a cliché, but both instantly felt the bondings of true friendship and each knew she'd found a friend for life.

"I am not," Roy Mustang protested, winking at Winry and shaking her hand in turn. "I just know how to get the pretty ones." "And simultaneously not cheat on Riza?" Hughes teased. Riza flushed bright red and immediately turned to Winry. "So, where did you move from?" she asked, whilst Roy and Hughes entered into a heated argument about whether or not Roy liked Riza. "Resembool," Winry replied, trying not to laugh. "It's just a couple hundred miles northeast of here—" "Yeah, I know," Riza said, obviously trying to crush her blushes. "Did you know the Elrics?"

Startled at the random question, Winry blinked. "Umm, yeah," she replied awkwardly. "My mom was friends with Trisha Elric before she and her sons Edward and Alphonse moved. I used to play with them, but it was like, so long ago. I was four when they moved. I only remember Alphonse being really sweet and Edward being short." "Uh-huh," Riza said. "Look at the back there, the very last seat. See anyone you know?" "Um," Winry said, following her new friend's finger. "No, actually, I don't." What she did see was two black headed kids fighting over a pen (they looked like twins) and a blond boy staring sullenly out the window. "Sorry?"

"Oh, it's ok," Riza said with a smile. "Must've been the wrong Elrics." And with that extremely odd comment, she turned into the conversation going on next to her as naturally as if she'd taken part in it from the beginning.

Winry spent the rest of the half-hour bus ride staring out the window, trying to puzzle out Riza's confounding remark. What did she mean, must've been the wrong Elrics? I mean, how common is a name like Elric anyway? And who names their kid Alphonse these days? There can't be that many Edward and Alphonse Elrics out there, especially ones young as I remember those two would be.

She could remember the two even now, their faces abruptly sharp in her mind: Edward, older than Alphonse by a year, grinning back at her with a lock of sun-kissed hair in one golden eye, his cute-even-then face alight with laughter as she reached out and just barely touched him, and he tripped and went tumbling down the hill into the river. Then Alphonse rushing up beside her, staring down the hill in a panic and screaming "Big brother!" in her ear, his darker brown-blond hair flying around his round face and grey eyes wide until he too tripped and fell head over heels down the hill, hitting his older brother and knocking him back for another good soaking.

Winry smirked out the window. How lucky I am that the only clear memory I have of the Elric boys is of a good time! Heh, the good times just keep rolling on in, don't they? She sighed silently, clenching her hands in completely frustration at Riza for being confusing.

FIRST CLASS: MATH

Winry hated carrots. Winry hated the colour yellow. Winry hated the anime DNAngel. But more than anything, more than carrots or yellow or DNAngel anime, Winry hated MATH!!

She hated addition, subtraction, integers, BEDMAS, division, multiplication, fractions, negative and positive numbers, and every other type of math one could think of. Everything about math except when it ended, she completely and totally despised.

So she was about an inch from screaming when she checked her new schedule and saw that her first class of the day was… math.

"Hey, at least you've got it with Mr. Havoc," Riza said with a mixture of comfort and sympathy. "He's so cool. Probably today, just because there's a new student, he won't make the class do any work. Oh, you have History with me; good! Ha, Science with Hughes; I pity you, he's a total science nerd! But you've got P.E. with Roy, lucky girl. And finally, Drama, with all three of us. Congratulations. Well, see you in History; I've got to get to my own gym class." "Bye," Winry said a little uncertainly, as Riza peeled away from her to catch up with Hughes strolled just ahead.

"Room 216?" she muttered, looking up at the red numbers on the blue classroom doors. "Oh, here it is." She pushed open the barely-ajar door and slipped in awkwardly, placing her books on a desk at the back, turning her head to the left to look at the colourful, humorous cartoon posters on the wall.

With her head in this position, and her mind taken up with the funny comics, she failed to notice the faint rustling of cloth and light footsteps coming her way, the flash of black and gold in her peripheral vision, until she felt a presence directly behind her. Gasping in shock, she whipped around, hair flying into her eyes.

"Hello, Winry. It's been a while."