Author note: LET THE FESTIVAL, BEGIN! HAHAHA!

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I have to admit, I am excited about today. I never had been invited to the festival by someone, much less a boy. I wanted to wear something fancy! (Of course we were supposed to wear dressy clothes!) I decided on a sky blue dress that shimmered in the light. I wore baby blue sparkling eye shadow, and I left my hair in a luscious waterfall of waves, down. I still hid my left side of my face.

When I walked into the living room, Mrs. Lawson showered me with 'Oh, my! You look gorgeous!' And Chris even came up to me and said I looked good. (Over the last few weeks, we actually started to get along!) The doorbell rung, and my heart sped up. I knew it was Alphonse.

And my guess was right, Mrs. Lawson opened the door, and Al stood there with a bouquet of roses. He walked up to me, smiling and soft eyes, and handed the beautiful flowers to me. "I figured it was only right for a girl as beautiful as you to have beautiful flowers." He chuckled.

I gaped at him, blushing. It was the nicest thing a guy has ever done for me. Al held out his arm and said, "Shall we?" I took his arm and we left for the festival of Grace.

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We danced for what seemed like hours. We spun around in circles with delight. And we laughed like today was the last day to laugh. Everyone was dancing and wearing fancy clothing. I saw Edward spinning Noa around on the dance floor a few times, and I saw that Chris had her own date.

After the current song was over, Al said, "Im gonna go get us something to drink. I'll be right back, 'k?"

"Sure!" I was quite thirsty.

I stood on the sidelines and watched the people dance and clap. I felt a dainty hand on my right shoulder, and turned to see who it was. It was Emily from my class. "Oh! Hello, Emily." I smiled at her.

Emily was kind. Well, at least she wasn't one of the girls that threw rocks at me. She had red eyes, and short choppy sliver hair. A nice Albino.

"Hey, girl." She grinned, "I saw ya out there with Alphonse Elric! Are you on a date?"

I flushed and gulped. "I-I don't think so. I-I think we're just here as friends." My voice grew quiet with each word i spoke. Disappointment was visible on my face. I was never good at hiding my feelings.

"Oh! but you want it to be, right?"

I nodded.

"AWW!" Out of no where she wrapped her arms around me. But she did it so fast I couldn't balance myself, and we fell together. But it was ok. My butt broke my fall. "You poor thing! And knowing Alphonse, he must not be getting all the hints you've been dropping, huh?"

"I-I don't try to 'drop hints'." I answered.

"What?!" She pulled away from me. Her eyes were wide with shock. "No wonder why this isn't a date!" She smacked me playfully on my forehead. "Looks like I am going to have to intervene! It's about time I make my move in your love story!" She helped me back up.

Who was this strange girl? And why would she want to help me? She doesn't even know me! But…she seems nice…

"Emily?" Asked a familiar voice. Al.

"Oh! Hey, there Ally! What's up?" She asked him. Ally? What the-, I thought, Thats a girl nickname!

Al looked slightly annoyed with the new nickname, but responded calmly, " Me and Liz are on date and having a good time. What about you?"

My heart raced so bad, I thought it would jump out of my chest. I could tell Emily didn't expect Al to say it was a date either!

"Nope, Im here alone. So," She bounced back quickly , "You two are on a date, huh?" A weird, cocky grin played her lips. It frightened me.

Al nodded. I blushed more.

"So have you too...," She placed her hands on her hips, still grinning. I wanted to smacked that smile off her face before she got too out of line. "Kissed?"

This is the part where my face burns so bad it hurts. Al, too, was blushing wildly. "E-Emily!!" I screamed.

"what?" She asked nonchalantly, but I could see the grin in her eyes.

"Emily!" Someone shouted.

We turned to see a young man running up to us. "Emily, I was looking everywhere for you!"

She laughed, "Im sorry. But I ran into my friends. This is Liz, and that guy who's Face is as red as a tomato is named Al. Guy's, this is Darren."

"I thought you said you were here alone." I pointed out. My voice was still trembling, but not as bad as a few minutes ago.

"I was! But not anymore! See ya!" And she ran off with Darren.

Me and Al stood there in silence for awhile. I decided to break the quiet air. "Um...Did you get the drinks?"

"Huh?" He looked at the cups in his hands, "Oh, yeah, here."

I took a sip, and asked, "S-So... Did you mean it, when you said this was date?"

"Yeah. I did. I still do." He looked into my eyes. I know that this night, will be close to my heart, always.

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"Excuse me, Liz?" Called a female voice.

Me and Al turned to see Ella coming towards us. She was one of Al's "fangirls." She was extremely pretty. Blonde hair that went passed her waist, and gold eyes, like Edward. Behind her was her friends, Beth and Ally. Both had the same length hair but different colors. Beth's was black as night. And Ally had brown. "Liz, you wouldn't mind it if I danced with Al for one song would you?" Her smile was like that of an innocent child but with hidden motives in her eyes.

"Uh..I guess. If Al is Ok with it." I glanced at him.

"Ok! Thanks, Lizzie. You're so sweet!" And without Al's consent, she started to dance with him.

I stood with Beth and Ally on the sidelines, a little upset with what just happened. "Hey," Beth turned to me. "How about we go get something to eat?" I was a little hungry, so I went with her. "Hey, Ally, you coming?" Beth asked.

"No I'll just wait here."

As we headed to the food stand, something slipped over my head, and covered me with darkness. A hand was on my waist, guiding me. I couldn't see through the dark material that was over my head. I struggled as I was being led to...someplace.

Finally, the hand let go, and the thing that was over my head was gone. I was shoved to the hard cold ground. I looked up to see who did this. Beth and a few others were standing over me, all had a wicked grin plastered on their faces.

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I could hear the distant music playing, and the people talking happily. No one knew what was about to happen to me. Fist began to fly at my face. Kicks were thrown into my ribs. I felt my blood escape my lips. I felt my hair being pulled out of my head. I was dragged to my feet and shoved, and pushed. They were taking me somewhere.

I was too dazed to know where I was going. Everything was moving. I felt something slip over my head again. And I heard a voice say, "Hello to all! Are you having a wonderful time at the festival?" The voice belonged to Beth. I began to panic. Where the hell am I? I wondered.

"We have a special treat for you today! Oh, Alphonse Elric, will you please come and stand on the stage with this 'masked' person?" I knew, then, I was on the stage where the band played. And Al was coming up there with me. What are they planning?

"Thank you for joining us today, Alphonse." She turned back to the audience. I knew what they were doing. Why they beat me up, and why they brought Al onto the stage. I sunk to my knees and began to cry. "Today, I shall revel to you, a monster!" And the thing that hid my face from the world, was pulled off. My beaten face, was reveled to the world.

I heard screams from the audience. But I didn't care about that. I was ashamed that it all had to happen with Al standing next to me. I looked up at Al, desperate for him to comfort me. But he stood there, his soft eyes staring at the ugliness known as me.

I ran off the stage. Tears blinding my sight. It didn't matter where I went, just so long as I got away from everyone at the festival.

For about five minutes I ran, until I heard a voice call behind me. Alphonse.

I ran more. I was to embarrassed to be near him now. My heart ached with such pain…..

But after what seemed like hours of running, my legs collapsed, and I fell to the ground. I sat up, and wiped the dirt off me, but I couldn't wipe the tears. There was too many of them.

"Liz!" Al knelt down beside me. I hid my face with my hands, so he wouldn't have to look at me. "Liz, I-Im so sorry." I could heard pain in his voice. "I promised that I wouldn't let anyone hurt you, and I failed. Liz.." His voice broke. I could hear him cry. I looked to see the beautiful young man with tears streaming down his cheeks.

"A-Al..." I wiped a tear from under his eye. "It's not your fault. No one saw this coming." He looked up at me. And placed his hands gently on my cheeks. His thumb traced the faded scars of my face, and he stared into my eyes. "It's no excuse." He said. "I should have been more protective! I should have-" He stopped. I was still crying.

Al leaned closer to me, and placed his lips on my scared left eye. When he pulled away, he whispered, "I love you so much."

Now, I was no longer crying for the embarrassing moment on stage. I was crying because of joy, and because of shock. For the first time ever, someone looked at my beastly face with love, and even dared to kiss it.

"Al..." My voice was breaking before I could speak the words i wanted to. "I-I-I Love you, too."

His eyes widen, with joy. And his lips pressed gently on mine.