A little more Sylvia exposure. Not really tapping into her personality too much yet, but she's slowly coming to life in my mind. It's hard to explain, but I can't just make a character and stick them where I want. I need to feel their personality and then make them real and not one dimensional. Aria took me FOREVER to get her right.

For those of you who just met Aria, she made her first appearance in my fic "Part 1 - Promise". So I liked the idea of pulling her into the real world too.

Episode 30 - A New Friend

"Bloody wind." Sylvia said as she made her way into the school. She had just gotten the braids in her hair a week ago, and wasn't use to the crimpy, wavy braids blowing in her face. "Pff." She blew a strand off her lips.

She had left her new racket in her car, so she needed to run out into the snow and wind to go and get it. "Hey." A voice sounded from behind her.

Turning around, she came face to face with Riza. "Hi Riza, what's up?"

"Nothin'." She said sweetly. "I was going to badminton practice today too, so I figured we could be partners."

Nodding, she held her racket over her shoulder. "Sure."

The badminton team didn't have a league like the other sports teams due to lack of interest from other schools, but the 24 members played for fun in the gym during lunch on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; also after school on Fridays. Being Friday, Riza decided to go, she normally didn't have cheerleading on Fridays, so she attended badminton instead to kill time. And it was fun.

The girls played for the full two hours that were offered to them. Sylvia couldn't help but notice Riza's overly friendly comments during the practice, but she disregarded it as good sportsmanship.

Riza walked toward the door of the gym, her bag slung over her shoulder.

"So she's gay, huh?" Al said to her with sarcasm in his voice.

She gasped. "Huh? I didn't see you there Al." She was slightly nervous.

"You were flirting with her. I can't believe it." Al swung his hands behind his head. "I'm not interested in her or anything, but you're in a relationship, you really shouldn't be looking at messing around." He reminisced to Clause's party months back. "It can lead to really bad things."

Riza sighed. "I know. But I can't help it, it's my nature to be friendly."

Al raised an eyebrow. "It's your nature to tell someone they have really smooth calves?"

Riza blushed. "..."

He shook his head. "Bah. Ready to go?" He hooked his thumb toward the door.

"Yeah." With that, the two of them headed out to the mall to meet with the rest of their friends, it had been a while since they all had gone out together, so they made a point to make plans for after Riza's practice. After a couple hours of mall crawling, the made their way to the food court.

"So he's decided to just give up on her." Riza complained to the rest of the group as they sat and ate.

Al rolled his eyes. "It's just not meant to be. Trust me, I have a feeling..." He hesitated on the rest of the sentence. He was going to mention that he had this strange urge to get a girlfriend, and had no idea as to why. He figured it was the season, spring was going to happen in a month, after February, in March. He rested his forehead on the table.

"Don't worry Al, you'll find someone...but maybe you shouldn't be so picky." Winry said in sympathy. "Maybe...Blond isn't that important?" She threw her idea out.

"Yeah." Riza followed up. "I mean, there was Katie. She's got dark brown hair, and she likes you. Why not her?" Riza mentioned another on of the girls on the team.

"She does have a nice rack." Breda followed up, Kain all the while sitting next to him, nodding in agreement.

Al skimmed his memory banks. "Well..."

"And, she puts out." Riza egged him on.

At that moment, he froze. "Actually...I...uh..." He struggled with words. The group looked on in anticipation. Alphonse looked from side to side. "I...I don't want someone with experience...if you catch my drift."

"You want a virgin?" Riza blurted out.

Al blushed a deep shade of red. "That's not what I said." He folded his arms. "I just don't want someone..." He struggled with his words.

"Who's not a virgin. There's no way around it, you said it, it's out there." Riza giggled. "Does that mean you still are one too?"

He nodded. "Yeah, like I'm going to give it up for just anyone. I want to find someone good."

"Aww, that's cute, he's all sentimental." Riza teased.

"Oh be quiet. You're still a virgin." Breda joked at her.

"No I'm not! Girls count too you ass!" She yelled and threw a few fries at him. The group laughed.

"Eh. Whatever. I think I'm just going to take off now." Al stood up. "You guys can deal with this as you want." He said, leaving an entire tray of food behind, untouched, except for the drink.

Riza then looked sad. "I'm sorry Al. I didn't mean to make you feel bad." She said, regret in her voice.

He shook his head. "Nah, don't worry. I can take a joke, it's just started snowing again, and I want to get home before it gets too bad." He checked his watch. "And the bus is coming in ten minutes."

"Alright. I'll keep an eye out for a girl for you too." Winry said as she waved. "And, Al, cheer up."

Smiling, he waved back. "Thanks. Later." That being said, he headed out the back of the mall. He searched from side to side, hoping that Russell was out back. Remembering that it was Friday, he sighed, his green haired friend wouldn't be doing what Al was hoping he was doing, so he proceeded to the bus stop. Upon reaching the sign, he noticed a posting on the terminal window. "The hell..." He read it allowed. "Due to inclement weather conditions, the bus may be anywhere to 10 to 15 minutes late. Uuuh!" Al arched his head up into the air as he groaned. Turning his back to the large snow bank lining the roads and flopped backward into it, causing his feet to stick out and his body to be engulfed in the frozen white fluff. "Fuck." He said in frustration while amidst the drift.

Only a few minutes passed and Al could hear footsteps approaching him. "Al? What are you doing?"

He could hear his brother, but he couldn't see him. "I'm being depressed in the snow? I thought that was obvious."

Ed shuffled around the snowbank though the path that was dug by city workers. "I suppose. Still on the unsuccessful hunt for a girl?"

Al looked up and finally saw his Edward's face. "Who told you that?"

He shrugged. "Eh, grapevine."

"You and your fucking grapevine." He complained.

Ed looked around to see if the bus was in sight then he came right back to his conversation with his brother. "I just saw your friends in the mall and asked where you were. Where's the bee at today?"

"Clause?" Al knew exactly who he was talking about. "Don't know, don't care."

"Oh well. They told me you were at the bus stop, yet here you are in the snow. What if the bus zips on by?"

Al's arm lifted from the hole he made in the newly fashioned pile of snow and pointed down the road. "I know what the bus sounds like. I'll just get up." He allowed his arm to flop back down in it's designated dent.

Ed looked down the road again. "I think...you should get up now."

"Why?" Al said, still submerged. "Is the bus coming." He listened hard for it, but couldn't.

"Actually, a plow is coming." Ed pointed.

Quickly shooting up to a sitting position, Al looked down the road. "How about that." Removing himself from the cold pile, he brushed off his clothing. "Fucking plow...think he'll give me a ride home?" He backed up onto the sidewalk with Ed.

"I doubt that. But that's why I'm here. Want a ride? I don't have a van full yet?" Ed held up his keys. "Even Sylvia's with us, we ran into her in the mall...you sure?" They had made a stop into Pets Unlimited for Aria to buy some rabbit food and saw Sylvia looking at the reptiles. Ed struck up a conversation with her and they found out she meshed with the group quite well. "Besides, it's starting to come down pretty quick." Ed held out his hand and caught a few large clumped snowflakes in his hand.

"...regardless of what you heard, I'm not interested in dating her; if that's what you're getting at." Al continued removing the snow from his jacket.

"I...didn't say that, but no matter. Come on. You'll catch a cold." He tugged at his brother's sleeve.

"Bah. Fine." Al shuffled through the snow with Ed.

They walked toward the van, side by side, and were reunited with the rest of the group, plus one extra, Sylvia. She had on her black trenchcoat, same as Leo and Russell, not the same brand, but similar.

"Here, Al." Aria said, stepping out of the front seat.

"You don't have to move." Al said, watching her slide the back door open.

She shook her head. "Sit up front. I like it better down back, it's too warm up there."

"I told you, it's so the window's don't fog up." Ed defended the heat up front in a smug, joking manner.

Al sat in the seat while Aria slinked into the back, next to Sylvia. He looked into the rearview mirror and caught a good glimpse of Aria's behind as she maneuvered into the back. Shockingly enough, he gawked, remembering what Breda had mentioned to him a couple months back. 'She does have a nice little bod...' He kept that thought to himself.

"Al?" Edward accosted him.

"What?"

"What?"

"Seriously, what?" Al said in frustration.

"Nothing. Just get your seat belt on." Ed said cheerfully as he started up the van as Al applied his restraint. He loved to get under Al's skin from time to time.

Ed allowed the vehicle to run for a few minutes when Al felt the fiery blast of the van's heater. "Holy shit, Ed, are you on morphine or something?" He turned the heater down to half. "There, the windows won't fog up and I get to keep the first layer of skin on my face."

He snickered. "Wuss, it wasn't that hot."

Al snipped back. "And it's not that cold out, wuss."

"Children." Leo scolded them.

"Shut your face." Al laughed slightly as he folded his arms in defeat and stared out the window.

They began to pull out of the mall parking lot when a conversation began. "You know." Sylvia got them started out. "You two look a lot alike, are you related?" She directed her question to Ed and Al. "I mean, when you two were walking to the van, you were completely in sync."

Ed laughed. "We're brothers."

"I figured something like that." She said in revelation. "Who's older?"

"Not sure." Ed said.

"How are you not sure?" She was confused.

"We were a c-section." Al added.

She was surprised. "So you're twins?"

"Identical twins." Al clarified.

Sylvia did her best to look for similarities. "...um." The rest of the group snickered a bit.

Ed made a wide left turn as he responded. "Al dyes his hair and keeps it short and I wear yellow contacts to make my eyes green. We were sick of people getting us confused, so this was our solution." He smiled into the rearview mirror.

"Oooh. Neat."

"Honestly, it's really convenient." Russell mentioned. "Kind of sucks though, you won't be able to take each other's tests if you're bad at the subject."

"Yeah, that does suck." A few moments of silence passed. "So, off topic here, I guess there's not a whole lot to do around town in the winter." Sylvia said, leaning forward in her seat.

"Not really. Unless you like mall crawling and Tim's." Leo said.

"Which is why we kept the tradition for years, of game night." Russell said, rubbing his hands together.

"Game night?" She questioned.

"It's where we go to my place and play games and chat all night." Aria chimed in. "Can you come tonight?"

"I'll have to call mom, but I'd love to." Sylvia nodded.

"Also, my mom's cool with having guys over, but they have to stay in the basement. Which is fully carpeted and furnished, of course."

"With new furniture no less." Paninya followed up. "Her mom's rich, so she can afford to buy two furniture sets a year."

Aria laughed. "I'm not rich, Jean just likes to help out a lot."

"Mr. Money bags." She smiled. "He's a good guy and I'm glad you mum's settling down with him."

"Is your mom getting married?" Sylvia asked.

"Yeah. She hasn't set a date yet, but they're aiming for spring." Aria cracked her knuckles. "It'll be the first time I've gone into a church since...oh, I don't know. When was I baptized? Two-three months old."

They laughed. "How come so long?" The new girl asked.

Aria shrugged. "Mom was never a big church goer when I was a kid, so I never really went. And there's also a couple other reasons, but the biggest one is the one why I decided to become vegetarian. You ever hear about the crusades? That's the reason I changed faiths and also became so sensitive toward living things. Just creeps me out to think I'm ingesting something that was alive and had a family." She shivered. "Eugh. But I'm no Nazi when it comes to my eating habits. I won't push them on anyone." She froze in her tracks, realizing what she just said. "Oops, I didn't mean it like that."

Ed laughed. "It's ok, no offense taken."

"Me either." Sylvia shook her head. "I thought it was funny."

"Al?" Aria questioned.

"Huh? What?" He was staring off in a daze out the window at the passing scenery.

"...never mind." She smiled. "The second is I found it to restricting. It was all rules and guidelines. I just found it wasn't a freeing as I'd hoped, so, when I reached the age of reason, I converted. Mom still doesn't know, she just thinks this star is pretty." She flashed her pentacle made of a shiny metal and a blue gem at each point of the star.

"That is pretty." She examined it. "How much did that cost?"

"It wasn't really expensive, $25 is all I paid. I don't think it's any sort of precious metal...maybe silver plated, but that's it." She held it out to Sylvia.

"Still, it's really nice." She admired it.

"So, are we heading to your place now?" Ed asked from the front.

Aria placed her necklace back in her jacket. "Sure."

"Cool." Ed made the turn to go to his home first. "I'll drop Al off and then we'll go."

"If you want to Al, you can come too." Aria mentioned.

Al blushed. "Oh, no thanks, I don't want to bother you guys." He lied.

Edward looked at him from the corner of his eye, noticing the meek look on his siblings face, he smirked. "You wouldn't be, come on. We never hang out and we live in the same house. Except for that one time." He reminisced to the time Al was wrecked, watching TV in his room when they had game night at hi place that once.

"...I guess...but I don't think I'll spend the night." He said, still, cheeks kind of pink.

"Cool. I'm sure you'll have fun." Aria said with a smile.

"Thanks." He said.

Ed glanced at him again and spoke in a low tone so only Al could hear. "Why ya' blushin'?" He teased.

Al turned a deeper shade. "My face is cold." He said, turning the heat back up and then covered his face from the noes down with his hands and exhaled deeply.

Ooh, the nervousness! Why would Al be all nervous? Hehehe.
Sorry for the long wait. I have personal issues that are being dealt with, and I haven't had a chance to write much.

But, I hope you guys liked it. :)