Here, yet again, is another chapter. I think I'm getting better at this whole 'proof reading' thing. :)
This little arc is closing here and a new one shall begin after a potential chapter of filler. I haven't quite decided yet, but stick around to find out. XD (I kind of want to build on Russell's character some...maybe I might do everyone...hmmm...thinking...)
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me, hope you like it. Honestly, I found this one a little stiff...I tried fixing it, but I guess you'll just have to bare with me. I need to watch more 'Judge Judy' DX
Chapter 16 - Karma
The front door swung open and Ed appeared in the opening. "Mom...Dad?" He questioned as he closed the door behind him, frantically searching for his parents.
"Kitchen." Trisha said from out of sight.
Ed proceeded to the kitchen where his parents were sitting at either side of the table, and from the looks of it, they were deciding on what they wanted to do about the whole situation with their son. "I heard Al got taken away by the police in the middle of second last calss. What's up with that?" Ed dropped off his book bag by the kitchen door.
"Well." Von began. "From what the police report says, and from what we've gathered from talking to the school, this girl, Clause, spread a rumor about him and then, in response, he beat her up." Von rubbed his eyes from beneath his glasses and sighed. "It looks like he actually did, but I wish he didn't."
Ed was quite skeptical about the whole thing. "That's what I heard...but come onAl...beat up a girl? ...I don't think so."
"Go and talk to him Ed, see if he actually did this. He'll lie through his teeth at us, but I'm sure you can see right through him." His mother knew him all too well. Al did have a bad habit of fibbing, but dispite the fact they couldn't see through it, he was like a sheet of glass to his brother.
"...Alright." Ed sighed and grimly headed upstairs. He was really hoping that this was all some big elaborate plot to torture him, because if it wasn't, it was looking like Al was in for some community service and suspesion from what he heard at school. "Alphonse?" He rapped lightly on his brother's door.
"Come in." A droned voice spoke through the frame.
Ed entered the room and shut the door behind himself, his hand still clutching the knob behind his back. "So...what's going on?"
"Clause has everyone convinced that I threw her down some stairs...and now she might be pressing charges." Al spoke with his arm firmly draped over his eyes, blocking out any amount of light. "What the hell should I do?"
Sighing, he thought to himself. "First off...I need you to look at me." He watched Al sit up in is bed and rub the blurriness from his eyes. "Tell me...did you do anything to her?"
"Yes." He answered honestly. "I yelled at her."
"Did you hurt her?" Ed clairified.
"Yes." He answered honestly again.
"...physically hurt?" Ed clairfied again.
"No." Once again, an honest answer. "The only time I laid a finger on her is when I took her arm and led her to the stairs. I didn't even squeeze tightly." He flopped back on his bed. "Now that I think about it, I should have squeezed...hard...right around that fucking neck of hers." Al sat up again. "You want to know what else? She had the nerve to call me at about three, and say that she'd call off this whole thing if I agreed to date her. And that she would tell everyone I threatened her if I broke up with her, putting me right back to where I started out."
Ed raised an eyebrow. "That's messed up."
Al nodded. "Yeah." He whole heartedly agreed. "You know, the more I think about it, the more I realize that there is something seriously wrong with her."
Giving that thought a moment to sink in. "It's like she doesn't have the ability to reson...it is a little strange. But...regardless, you're telling the truth. You can't hide anythign from me." Ed smiled. "Don't worry, we'll request a polygraph test, that'll prove her wrong."
Al brightened up. "That's a great idea. See, that's why I keep you around. Great problem solving skills."
He sweat-dropped. "Glad I'm so valuable to you."
"Sooo...from the results..." The judge looked from paper to paper, trying to make, what would seem to be, heads or tails of the whole thing. "You're both telling the truth."
Ed face palmed. "So she just fessed up and told the truth? Amazing."
"Not quite..." The man behind the podium neatly laid the papers side by side. "Clause is telling the truth, she was assulted." Judge Heston glanced at the other paper. "And Alphonse here apparently didn't assult her at all."
"For crying out loud." Von stuffed his hands into his pockets. "What do we do now? ...Sir...your honor." Von still wasn't familiar with court customs.
Mr. Heston shook his head. "From my standpoint, the charges are still justified."
Ed rolled his eyes. "What is this? Salem witch trials? He's innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent."
"Unfortunatly, he may not be proven guilty, but the evidence shows that he very well could be." He gathered his files up and stacked them neatly in the center of the podium.
"So you'd rather condem an innocent man than let a guilty one go. Doesn't Al's polygraph mean anything?" Ed tried his best to reason with the judge.
"How about we let the jurry decide. We'll take an hour lunch and report back here at 1400 hours." He slammed the gavel on his desk.
"Son of a..." Ed sat back on his chair and leaned so it was balancing on it's two hind legs. Seeing as how it was just juvinal court, lawyers were not being involved, so Ed didn't mind speaking on his brother's behalf, he was just that much better with words.
"Thanks Ed...I think I may just end up giving into her demand." He glimpsed her out the corner of his eyes. "I'll just have to swallow my pride. I mean, she does give good head."
Ed squinted his eyes tightly shut. "I didn't need to hear that."
"Well it's out there now." Al smirked briefly and then quickly resorted back to his initial gloomy state. "What the hell did I do to deserve this?" He checked over his shoulder at his parents, who had collaberated at the back of the room.
"At the risk of sounding like a snob...it's because you didn't listen to me. I told you going to that party was a bad idea." Ed stood up behind the desk and straightened out the front of his red, button-up shirt.
"No, you said it was a bad idea to drink." Al corrected him.
"Whatever. You still shouldn't have went. The only reason you did was to hook up with Winry. And trying to hook up with the friend of the girl who invited you, who is infatuated with you, is a bad idea." Ed looked down at his brother who was still sitting at in his chair.
"...maybe...I wish this would blow over." He folded his hands and shut his eyes.
"Devine intervention isn't likely." He scoffed.
"Hey, it worked before, but it turned out bad...so I figured I'd do this-" He wiggled his folded hands. "-I might get a better outcome."
"Clause." Aria spoke meekly from behind her.
Clause whipped around to come face to fact with none other than the short little red-headded girl. "Uh, what do you want?" She asked condesendingly.
"It's about this whole abuse thing." Aria examined Clause as she stood in front of her. She had a little patch of gause covering a supposed bump on her head, a sling on her right arm and from what she could tell, she was sporting a limp, favoring her left side. "Al didn't hit you, you know that. Just drop this. It's only going to come back on you...badly." She spoke in a shy tone, modest even.
"...What do you mean come back on me? Is that a threat? Listen here you little freak, back off!" She snapped.
Aria composed herself. "A threat? No. I'm a firm beliver of karma."
Clause looked down on Aria. "Well not everyone believes in your devil worshiping, blood drinking cult, so keep it, and your little musings, to yourself. Besides, this doesn't concern you." She waved 'goodbye' to her with the four fingers on her left hand.
She inhaled deeply. "...I don't believe in the devil--but it actually is my business. I-"
"What? Do you have a thing for Al?" She accused her.
Aria blushed a little. "No. It's just..." She gathered her thoughts. "Ed's a good friend of mine, and this situation is effecting him badly too. Please, just be kind, do the right thing and drop all of this."
She apporached her, limp intact, and got really close to the smaller girls face. "Alphonse did hit me, and he's going to pay." She stood up straight agian.
Heart racing, Aria nodded. "Fine...we'll take it this rout then." With a quick turn on her heel, she walked off to an adjacent hallway. She clutched her chest, trying to quell the beat of her heart. It wasn't normal for Aria to lose her cool, but that red-head temper shon through as brightly as ever just then. She reached into her pocket and clutched the contents of it tightly. "Oh karma, please don't fail me now."
"Welcome back everyone." Judge Heston greeted the court room. He stared down on the unknowing audience. This time, there were two new members.
Russell and Aria sat in the back row, they had managed to cut afternoon classes to come to Al's hearing. "You got the cord right?" She spoke quietly to him.
"Definitly." He refrenced the cord, hanging around his neck. "I want this back when you're done, make for good accessorizing." He smiled; Aria laughed.
"Order!" The judge hollared.
"The Christmass party needs to quiet down." Clause snapped.
Russ and Aria exchanged glances. The red hair and the green hair, they both realized it was only a matter of time before someone made a crack at it.
"Does anyone have anything else to add? If not, we'll allow the jurry to pass their verdict." He saw Aria at the back stand up. "Oh...we do. You may proceed to the front." He flagged her on.
Aria removed the cord from around Russell's neck and headed up the front of the room. "Your honor, may I have the use of a television with AV ports?" She held up the white and yellow cords.
The judge glanced off to the bodyguard standing on his left side. "Get the TV from the lounge." A minute passed slowly. "Is this in Claus's defense? Or in Alphonse's?"
Aria smiled at Clause. "It's for Al."
He solomly nodded and leaned back. "This should be intresting." The guard re-entered the room with the TV and stand with a squeaky wheel.
Aria flicked the television on, plugged the cabled into the front with their corrsponding colors. She pushed a few buttons on her phone and then plugged the cord into her cell. The image on her phone showed up on the screen. "I was in the stairwell at lunch on Monday, trying to see if I could get a signal, when I heard someone enter the stairwell with me." She pushed the play button. "This is what transpired." She stood out of the way of the TV and allowed the rest of the court room to see.
The initial start of the video was viewing the lower portion of Aria's face, but then the video slid sideways through the rungs of the railing and pointed down till the two in view on the screen appeared to be Al and Clause. The audio was choppy, but the video was relatively clear, though a little shaky and off centre.
"My camera work isn't the best." Aria pointed to the screen. "Here they are, no one's touching, she's not hurt." Aria caught a glimpse of Clause over her shoulder and it seemed like she was sweatting bullets.
The video played on "--does NOT constitute us dating. Espically when I state --act, that-means nothing." There was a pause. "Regardless, as of right now, I consider you an aquantince, you're not--friend anymore." It then showed Al exiting the stairwell and slaming the heavy door behind him.
Clause was then sobbing. "This isn't what I wanted to happen!!"
"And then." Aria pointed to the screen where Clause tripped and sent herself down the stairs, tear her own shirt and state very clearly that she set the whole thing up. "There you have it."
"You bitch!" Clause screamed and began to quickly approach her. Quickly, the guard came between the two girls. "This isn't what happened!! She's liying!"
Clause's mother, Izumi, stood up in the crowd. "Clause! Please sit down." She asked in desperation. "Your honor, our daughter has been trying to come off her medication for the last several months, but after this incident, it's clear to me that she wasn't ready."
"Medication? For what?' He inquired.
Her father spoke up. "She's a mild schitzofrenic. A pathological liar. We've been trying to wien her off the meds, but she's right back on it after this. We just didn't know what actually happened." The larger man laid a hand on his wife's shoulder.
The judge took in the information. He looked at Clause, back to Al and then to Aria. "All accusations against Alphones Hohenheim are lifted. Clause will be put back on her medication and follow up with me with imporvments. Open and shut." He slammed the gavel down, signifiying that everyone was free to go.
"That's it? She doesn't even get a slap on the hand." Al stood up at the desk, he was outraged.
"Eat your salad Al." Ed begrudgingly ordered.
"But--ugh...fine." He sat back down.
Aria approached the two brothers. She could see the parents talking and waxing over the situation with phrases like 'we just didn't know' 'sorry for the misunderstanding'. "So...how does it feel to be free?" She questioned Al.
"...Unfufilling." Al sulked, then smiled at Aria. "But thanks. I really appreciate it. I just wish she would have had to pay some sort of price." He quickly clasped his hands together.
"Everybody gets one there Al." Ed smirked.
Al unfolded his hands. "Dammit." They laughed.
Ed glanced at the intresting cord in Aria's hand. "Where did you get a cord like that?" He watched her hold up the makshift cord.
"That's my doing." Russ approached the rest of the group. "I spliced a couple of cords together and cracked her phone to display on the TV. Technology is so much fun to minipulate." He smiled.
"It would seem so." Ed agreed.
Al caught a glimpse of Aria's phone in her hand. "Hey...what model is that?" It was beginning to look like he like everyone else's phone but his own.
Aria held up the cell. "This?" She said, flashing the phone towards him, light orange for the top piece and pale yellow underneath. "It's the 'Motorola Karma', never failed on me yet." Aria smiled at Al.
There you have it...I think I managed to get the spelling errors as best I could.
So, tell me what you think.