Dave and I are now broken up. Yes, I am the cliche, single, teenage mom...except I'm 21...and I have a job. (Zing!) But you get the point.
Anyway, the show must go on. Sorry for the late update.
Chapter 11 - Medeling
"So what's the story with the rabbit?" Winry asked after laying her sub down. She invited Clause to eat at Subway, just to get her away from the rest of the group, so they could talk, one on one.
Clause sipped her Sprite and shrugged. "You heard Mr. Lang, crazy violent things that no one cares to hear."
Winry frowned. "Don't lie to me. I know for a fact that she's a big animal fanatic, so pinning it on her isn't going to work for me."
Rolling her eyes, she leaned over the table. "Why can't you just let me have fun." Clause groaned in frustration. "Uugh. Her step-father came over to my house on Sunday and asked my mom if she saw anyone break into their backyard. He said someone took Aria's rabbit. So, I dressed the story up a little and told the principal. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get past my mom, I had to change Aria's name for the time being. But of course, that's not what I told the P.E.T.A. fanatics in the school. I remain an anonomous tipster." She cracked her fingers.
"And...what exactally do you get from all this?" Winry failed to see any motives.
"I get to watch her squirm." Clause smirked.
Lunch came and went, much like every other day and class continued as normal. Aria walked down the blank hall, mid class, to get a book from her locker; remembering it was only Monday, she forgot the order of her classes.
"Hey." Ed's voice sounded from behind her. "Cutting classes?" He smirked as he caught up to Aria.
"No way. I just forgot my book...and you?" She poked him in the shoulder. "Skipper."
"What? Nah, bathroom." He walked along side her down the hall. Edward had only been at the school for a week and already, he finally felt he fell in with a group he could connect with.
Leo seemed to be the headstrong one in the group, making sure things got done when they needed to. Russell was the silver lining, offering light to bad situations. Paninya was very'get up and go', if you were too lazy to do something, she could talk you into doing it. Aria was the voice of reason, if the group was tking things in the wrong direction, she gave a sensible alternative; like using kindeling instead of lighter fluid to light the bonfire.
Finally coming up to her locker, she looked on in horror. "What the hell?" He locker had been covered with papers that said things like 'savage' 'psyco' ' crazy girl' 'get out!'. She quickly began tearing the papers from the metal door. "Why can't people just leave me alone?! I didn't do anything!" She slammed her fists on the locker. It was apparent to her that someone did spread the rumour about the rabbit and used her name.
Ed was quite distraught at the whole thing. "The least they could have done is spelled psycho right." It was spelled 'psyco' on the paper.
Aria smiled, but it quickly faded into tears. "Why do they always pick on me? I've had to deal with it for so long..."
Panicing somewhat, he looked frantically from side to side for something, anything, to help him. Thinking quickly, he tugged Aria close to him, he hugged her in a firm grip.
Quelling her own sobs for a moment, she managed to speak. "Thanks Ed." She hugged him back. "I'm just sad Nilla's gone; she was only a year old. I've had her since she was a baby."
"We'll do our best to find her." A deep red blush on his face, he held the sobbing Aria in his embrace.
"You do know about the promise that Al made to Ed right?" Winry pointed her straw at the dark haired girl.
"Yeah, but it's not me or any of my friends bugging her, it's the school and the P.E.T.A. psycho's who are going to be all over her." She smacked her hands together and held them, palms out, to Winry. "My hands are clean."
Winry sighed. "She's going to figure out that it was you, she knows that Jean went to your house and told you about it. Then the next day, this happens. It looks way too suspicious. But if you think you're hands are clean, all you need to do is hope that Edward feels the same way. If he catches wind of your little plot, and he will, he'll get Al busted for drinking at your party on Friday."
"If he rats, we'll just get the boys to kick his ass. Simple as that." She cocked her head in a saucy manner.
"That's all fine and good, I guess, but Al will still get in shit. I thought that you wanted to try and hook up with him at your party?" Winry, in return, cocked her head as well. "Kind of a hard thing to do if he's not there."
Clause's expression went white. "...damn, I hate when you're right!"
"I don't deal well with crying...sorry..." Ed rubbed the back of his neck.
Aria cleared off her cheeks and smiled. "You cheered me up, that's all that matters." She smiled again. "Actually, Winry confronted me and told me she would keep an eye out for Nilla, just in case one of her friends took her. She told me to keep that to myself, but you tutor her, so I figured she would mention it anyway."
Ed smiled. "Well there you go, I'm sure we'll find her this way."
Aria nodded. "Let's just hope no one actually hurt her. The last thing I want to see is a meat pie on my doorstep with the name 'Nilla' engraved on the top."
He stared blankly for a second. "You're thinking into this way too much."
Edward sat next to Winry at one of the library's round tables. Not being that good at math, Ed agreed to help her. "What's the point of parabola's? They suck!" She did her best to map out the bell curve on her tattered graph paper. She had erased it so many times, it was beginning to wear.
"They are frustrating. Luckily, it's only a short unit, we'll be done in two days. Mrs. Curtis said there was only going to be one parabola question on the next test and the next time we'll see it is the semester end exam, and then it's going to be optional anyway." Ed coaxed her.
"Good..." Winry trailed off and glanced up at Ed, he was intently looking at his work. "So...what's up with you and Aria?"
He continued his woork, unshaken. "...what do you mean?"
Winry laid her pencil down. "Riza said she saw you guys hugging in the hall. I was justy wondering what was going on there."
He looked up at her. "...oh that. I thought Aria told you, someone stole her rabbit. The rumour going around was that what happened to the rabbit was something Aria, herself, did. Someone stuck papers to her locker, basically, calling her a nut-job, she started crying, so I hugged her to make her feel better. Why?" He questioned.
Winry shook her head. "No reason. Did it sound weird, the way I asked?" She knew at times she sounded snotty, it was best to clairify, if necessary, that she wasn't trying to be snotty. "Did it sound like bitchyness?"
"It sounded like jealousy." He smirked.
"Wha?!" She blushed. "No, it's just--" She struggled for words. "It's just that, I thought we were friends and if you were to get a girlfriend, you would tell me. That's all." A quick recovery on her part.
"But I don't." He pointed out.
"I know that now." She smiled and then quickly went back to her work, changing the subject. "Hmm..."
"What?" Ed looked over to Winry who was now holding up the paper in front of her face.
She began handing him the paper. "It looks less like a bell curve and more like..." She began.
"...a line." He reluctantly finished her sentence as he looked at Winry's failed bell curve. "I'll make you a new graph, and this time, don't forget to apply the modifiers."
"I did...no I didn't." She looked at her miscalculation on the scrap paper. "I can see myself hating bells from here on out."
"Excuese me kids." One of the members of the cleaning staff spoke from the door. "I'm sorry, but I gotta' kick ya's out. Floor needs to be waxed."
"Sure..." Ed closed his book. "We could head back to my place to finish this if you want." He glanced at Winry.
Taking time to view her watch, she nodded. "Sure, I don't have to be anywhere for another three hours."
Fortunatly for her, Al seemed to confine himself to his room. Apparently, he had been like that since Sunday, so Ed paid it no mind. He and Winry finished their homework and before WInry left, she inquired about using the facilities. "It's up the stairs and too the left. Al's room is on the right, so don't make too much noise."
Winry snickered. "Of course." Really, she was just trying to be nosey; nothing she needed to dig up here she imagined, she just wanted an excuese to see the rest of the house.
The downstairs was all hardwood floor and the upstairs had carpet, blue carpeting that spanned the entire hallway, stopping at each door and fading into another color of carpet. She could see that beneath Al's door that his carpet was an olive color.
Looking straight ahead, she saw a display of faux-flowers pouring out and over the edge of a tall white porcline vase. At the base of the vase was the statue of a small brown rabbit. Upon further inspection, it wasn't actaully a statue, rather a stuffed game rabbit. "Ew." Stuffed animals bothered her, unless they were plushies. Decorating ones house with dead animal carcasses just came across as a little gauch to her.
The critter stood on it's hind legs, front paws pulled tightly together and it's eyes wide, a glassy stare that seemed to be looking straight at her, adorn it's face. She took a few more steps toward the bathroom and that glassy stare, along with the bunny's head, followed her. "The hell?" She went toward the supposed stuffed rabbit and it buckled, on the verge of running away at a moment's notice. "Edward!!!" Winry yelled downstairs.
"Dammit." She could hear him mutter. "Is the sink not turning off agian? They said they fixed that."
"Nope!" Winry replied. "This is weird." The light brown fur, the white tipped ears; this was definitley Aria's pet.
"The hell?" He said upon reaching the top of the stairs. Ed gawked at the animal in disbelief.
"That's what I said." She looked back. "You had the bunny all along?" She snapped at him.
"I was gone with the group all weekend, it couldn't have been me." He defended his rightfully owned innocence.
"Would you keep it down..." Al pushed his semi open door fully open only to come face ot face with Winry. "Uh..." He was still half asleep and slightly confused. "Am I still asleep?" He checked over his own shoulder to see if he was still in his bed.
"Alphonse! You took the rabbit?!" Winry clenched her fist.
Al's face immedatly snapped out of it's sleepy expression to that of shock. "Wha--no...I---How did a rabbit get in the house?" He feigned igornance.
"I'm not stupid Al. Why the hell did you take Aria's pet?!" Ed quickly grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and jerked him out of his room; meanwhile, Winry gathered the friendly animal up in her arms. Ed balled his fist tightly and held it at his mid section.
"Dude, don't punch me! I can explain." Al pleaded.
"Whatever the explaination, you better be planning to return the arbbit to Aria and appoligizing to her. A good chunk of the school thinks she's a monster." Winry barked her order at him.
Alphonse turned to his brother. "Can't you just give it back to her, she's your friend." He said, still being held in his brother's iron grasp.
"No deal. You dug the grave, now you sleep in it." Edward said with a scowle.
Shaking free from Ed's grip and straightened himself out. "What did I tell you about talking like that?" He sighed.
"So...why'd you take her Al?" Winry looked at him in disgust.
He looked like a dog with his tail between his legs. "Don't worry, I can easily explain the whole thing."
"Uh...Aria?" Al came up behind her in the hall and tapped her on the shoulder. Ed was keeping a close eye from behind him.
"Huh?" Turning around, she saw her bunny, cradeled in Al's arms. "Nilla?!" Her eyes went wide as she examined the small creature. She locked her eyes on Al's, a blatent streak of red in her gaze. "You took her?"
Al could sence her anger and shook his head. "Don't get mad yet, let me explain first." He scratched the bunny's ears. "Saturday night, I was hanging out with some of my friends from the basketball team and as we were walking, we cut through some guys' front yard. He came out and yelled at us. We told him we were just passing through, but the guy was a total fuckin' nut and sicked his dog on us. The four of us split up and sure enough, the dog ended up chasing me."
The bunny closed it's eyes as Al pet it's head. "To get away from the dog, I jumped a fence. And then I ended up in your yard."
She planted her fists on her hips. "An why did you take Nilla away from me?"
"Well..." He reluctantly looked at the bunny and then began handing her over to Aria. "When I landed..." A small cast then came into view on Nilla's right hind leg. "...I landed on her. I took her to the vet on Sunday and got the leg fixed up; then, when her leg was better, I was going to drop her off in your yard and no on would know the difference...but I got busted." He rubbed the back of his head in an awkward manner. "Really sorry about the confusion." He pet the rabbit in Aria's arms one last time. "Truth be told, I didn't even know it was your rabbit until yesterday."
Aria snuggled Nilla. "I'm just glad she isn't a pie." Leo reached over and pet Nilla.
Al raised an eyebrow. "A pie?"
Ed pat Al on the shoulder. "Never mind."
The young red head looked up to Al. "What about the vet bill?"
Alphonse took a step back. "It's was my fault, I'll take care of it." He waved. "Later."
"Thanks...bye." Aria said as she walked off. She smiled, her friends all standing at her side, happy that Nilla was safely back in it's owner's arms.
Clause watched on from the sidelines, she sighed in relief; her medeling didn't ruin her chances with Al.
There you have it...
Yeah, can you tell I'm really broken up about the whole thing. (eye roll) We're still on good terms, but I need him to leave, so I'm making him leave. All is right in the world.