Now, this one's kind of long, it's the recap episode that I think people need.
JUST SO YOU ALL KNOW!!!!
You don't have to read the bold-italic stuff, that's just incase you forget exactally what went down. I think even I needed this, just to keep myself updated on what took place, cause, let's face it, this fic is kind of long.
Anyway, here you guys go, and sorry for the long wait. I'm taking a LOA from work. DX What can I say, I'm stressed. X.X
Episode 33 - Reflections
Clause's new outlook on life didn't go unnoticed by Aria and the rest of the group. "She was doing so well too." The red head leaned against the wall of the bacement and slid to the floor in the crossed legged sitting position. "What happened?"
Edward shook his head. "Who knows, maybe she stopped taking her meds...or she's developed and immunity to them."
"The world will never be a sound place again." Leo folded his arms together. "...come to think of it...a lot of stuff has gone on this school year, and we're only halfway done."
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In the beginning of the school year, Ed and Al moved not only to a new town, but they also endured a going to a new school and the grueling task of meeting new people.
Episode 1
His mother and father both preformed on stage, in operatic theater, so they moved where the jobs took them. This new city they moved to was nothing extravagant, but quite rich when it came to live theater. Hence the reason for the move.
Not even a month into the year, and the drama had begun. First it started out with a kidnapping, rather a bunny-napping, with Alphonse being chased by a neighbourhood dog, jumping a fence and landing in Aria's yard, damaging the leg of her pet rabbit, Nilla, on impact. He took the bunny in hopes to get it to a vet, but neglected to tell anyone.
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Episode 11
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.
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Clause also played a role in the abduction. Not directly so, but she had kicked up dirt with regards to the fate of the animal, making Aria look like she had tortured and killed her own pet.
Episode 11
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.
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Fortunatly, only a few days passed and the rabbit was safely returned to Aria, by Al's hand, and the misunderstanding was cleared up.
Episode 11
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."
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After that, was Clause's house party, which went off, needless to say, with an exorbant amount nonsence. Al managed to incapacitate himself with marijuana and Ed was left ot pick him up and get him out of the party and back home.
Episode 12
Paninya rolled her eyes. "I doubt he is. Hmm?" The sound of the front door opening broke the teen's conversation.
"-and a stupid, miserable, dumb fuck. I'll never cover your ass again." Ed's voice resonated from downstairs.
"I do believe they're home." Russell looked out the bedroom door and saw Ed reach the top of the stairs with Al on his back. Ed let him down.
"Don't drown in the sink, brush your teeth and then get the fuck to bed." Ed briskly shut the bathroom door, sealing Al inside. "I have to go and get mom and dad in an hour, so make sure you're asleep." He left the bathroom door alone and headed back into his own room. Leaning against the door frame, he took a deep breath and looked up to the ceiling. "He puked in the back seat. And now mom and dad are going to know I was covering for him." He put his head forward a little and then let it bump against the door frame. "Scheiße." (Shit)
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The Monday was met with even more hardship with Alphonse. Clause had gone out of her way to indulge the school in a lie about her and a certain blond student in which she had fooled around with over the weekend. She had everyone convinced that she and Al were not only dating, but they were planning on spending their lives together, and even that she was pregnent.
Episode 14
"So is it true? Are you and Clause getting married?" Riza questioned Al from behind him in English class.
"What?!" He blurted out loudly causing the entire class to turn around. "Sorry-sorry." He lowered the volume of his voice. "What? We're not even dating...who told you that?"
She shrugged. "No one really, the girls were talking about it at the cheer meet on Sunday."
Al huffed. "No, we're not getting married, not even close." He turned around and went back to his work.
"Hey Al, congrats!" Another boy from the team came up to him and gave him a firm pat on the back.
"Someone help me." He muttered to himself.
"I didn't ask before, but, when's she due?" The boy inquired.
"Due?" Al looked horrified. It would seem that even eating his lunch in peace was out of the question today.
"Yeah, due...the baby. You two are having a kid, right?" The boy seemed confused at Al's lack of an answer.
"Thats it!' He slammed his fists down on the table and stood straight up. "Where is she?!"
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Not taking kindly to this turn of events, Al demanded that Clause keep her mouth shut and that he didn't want anything to do with her, ever. Not taking kindly to that, she retorted with yet another lie, she injured herself and told everyone that Al had assulted her; she even brought him to court.
Episode 14
"Shut up! You had no right saying those things about me! Sure we hooked up at your party briefly, but that wasn't anything serious, I told you that before we even went upstairs. Mabye somewhere down the road, there might have been something, but now I know for sure that there won't." Al fibbed a little, but it got his point across. He wanted Winry, there was no maybe."You giving me head does NOT constitute us dating. Espically when I state prior to the act, that it means nothing." He paused briefly after sounding a whole lot like Ed. "Regardless, as of right now, I consider you an apuantince, you're not even a friedn anymore." With that said, before Clause could get one tear out, she exited the stair well, slaming the heavy door behind him.
Clause stood there, devastated. She really had a crush on him and hearing him say that tore right into her. She began bawling. "This isn't what I wanted to happen!!" She screamed and had it echo in the seemingly empty stairwell. In a fit of rage and tears, she took a step to go downstairs to the bacement to calm herself down, but missed the step and tumbled down the 20 hard concreat stairs to the laning below.
She laid on the floor, stunned momentairly, from the shock of the fall. She brought a hand to her lip, the tast of blood was in her mouth. Looking at her fingers, she saw that she had smashed her lip on the way down. "How can I make this better." She rubbed the red on her fingers together. "...or...how can I make it go away." She smiled deviously. "I'll ruin you Al!" She quickly reached and tore the side of her shirt and then reached down and removed one of her shoes. "I'll make you regret ever crossing me!" She smiled deviously.
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This was when Russell's tech savy came into play. He rigged up a cord that would display Aria's cell on TV, showig the video of Clause throwing herself down the stairs. He rparents immedately said she would be put on her medication again. From that point on, things were quiet with Clause.
Episode 16
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.
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But that wasn't the only bit of Drama that was caused by Clause's party, Winry too was effected and enevitibly, Edward as well. A collage student, Roy, had becom infatuated with WInry and wanted her to himself. So, he accosed Ed and demanded he keep his distance, this was followed up by a swift fist to the gut.
Episode 19
"That's really nice of you, and yes, she is nice...you know what would be great. If I could date Winry. Don't you think that'd be great Ed?" He was a very strang youth, talking as if he had known Ed for years.
"Actually no." There was that honesty again. "It's actually kind of sleezy, how old are you? Ninteen, twenty?"
"Twenty." He answered.
"Well, I think it would probably be best if you dated someone your own age, maybe in your own school. Makes life easier to get by. I mean, you do seem like a jerk." Honesty wasn't always the best answer though. But showing a little backbone really went a long way at times.
Roy snickered to himself. "That hurts. Alright, change of plans." He glared down at Edward. "We are no longer friends. If I catch you around her, I'm going to flatten you, got that short stuff." He poked Ed really hard in the shoulder as he spoke.
"We have some classes together and really, I think she's allowed to see whoever she wants there, Roy." Ed smiled at him.
"You want to play that way? Fine!" Roy quickly lined up and landed a fist right in the middle of Ed's stomach. "Winry's mine! Got that!?"
Ed, without flinching, nodded in disbelief. "Sure she is Roy. Anything else?"
Roy was stunned at Ed's lack of response, he hit him pretty hard and not so much as a batted eyelash. "No...I think I got my point across." He took a step back.
"As pointless as it was." Ed scoffed.
Roy tapped him in the face once and then headed off to his vheical and sped off out of the parking lot.
"Ed...you alright?" Aria approached him from behind and gave him a tap on the shoulder.
Finally not being able to hold it any longer, Ed doubled over in a coughing fit on the ground, clutching his stomach in pain.
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Not liking the fact that Winry was being objectified, and he was being treated like a dog by this 'Roy' guy, he decided to attack his pride and challanged him to a race, 'Grease' style.
Episode 21
"I found out that Winry's a big fan of Nascar. So I think she might enjoy a little race. Now, I know we can't win her over, per-say, but whoever loses, has to stop making contact with her. She still gets to make her own choice and we get to settle this like men." Ed smiled, an equally as devious smirk as Roy mustered.
"What's the catch?" Roy then became skeptical.
"No catch. You beat me, I back down. I beat you, you piss off. Sound good?" Ed planted his fists on his hips, he felt he was doing a really good job of being lippy without being offensive.
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Fortunatly for Ed, he wasn't planning on winning in his parents van against Roy's Mustang, he and his friends plotted to frame him. They caught the end of the race on video and threatened to show the athorities if Roy didn't keep to himself. The plan worked 100 precent, sadly, Russell forgot to put in the tape, so the race became nothing more than a victorious memory.
Episode 22
"You can't show that video to anyone! I'll lose my seat in university if I lose my license. It's crucial!" Roy pleaded, arm outstretched as if to steal the camera away form Russell.
"No worries." The little red head comforted him. "If you make yourself invisible, I don't see any reason to show this to anyone."
"...bastards...fuck..." Roy shook his head and went back to his car. "I hope Vato still has some of those chill pills." He said, closing the door to his car. That being all said and done, he sped off down the road.
Paninya stood there in shock. "It worked...it bloody well worked!" She shouted. The group took a short while to celebrate the success of their plot.
"Alright. Let's see the memory card, I'm going to transfer it to my hard drive. It's good to have a copy, I'll burn it to disk too." Ed looked at Russell.
"Right." He said. Reaching for the memory card slot, he popped it open to reveal nothing. "Aaaaahaha. I forgot to put the memory card in." He snickered.
"You stoned fucker!" Paninya clipped him in the back of the head with a firm fist.
"Um." Aria began. "What he doesn't know...can't hurt us....right?"
The group exchanged glances. "Yeah." They said together. They decided to keep this little secret to themselves, deeming it to dangerous to let this bit of information go to anyone else.
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It was at this time that Al's health began to fail him. Headache's, nausea, weakness and even a bladder infection. Alphonse had manged to contract something while he was with Clause that one night, and it looked as though he was looking at an STD.
Episode 23
One of the simplest tasks one could partake in during the course of the day, had turned into an overbarring and unenjoyable task. Al leaned against the wall next to the boys bathroom in the school, sweating bullets and slightly out of breath. Just using the washroom took an amazing amount of will power due to the fact it brought on excruating pain.
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Fortunatly for Al, Ed stuck with him despite the fact that he might have caught HIV. Taking his brother to the clinic at the school, he sat alongside Al in the doctor's office in front of his desk. The doctor promptly placed a bottle of pills in font of them. Relieved that he only had Gonnarhea instead of AIDS, Al sighed and was pleased he didn't have to live with something like that for the rest of his life.
Episode 24
Sitting down in the two of the three chairs provided, they watched the doctor go through a few files. "Alphonse H....here you are." The doctor placed a bottle of pills at the head of his desk in front of Al. "Take them right to the end, be very careful not to mis one dose. You don't want to relapse, then you'll be right back to where you are now."
"Right." Al said as he reached out to the little orange bottle.
"Wait." Ed interrupted. "Aids is a virus." He pulled the bottle form his twin's hand.
"Ciprofloxacin? This is an antibiotic, it doesn't cure virsus...wait, that means."
"Al, you don't have Aids, you have Ghonnorea." The doctor corrected him.
"You are shitting me!!!" Al said as he stood up from his chair. "Holy shit. I had myself convinced that I had Aids, thank god!" Al raised his hands in the air. "Thank you so much. I think I'm the only person happy to find out they have Ghonnrea."
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At that point, one would believe all was well, and for a while, it was. Ed and Winry had spent so much time together, that a small spark had begun to develop. Ed found himself developing feelings for the blond girl. Reciprocating the emotion, Winry initiated their relationship with a single kiss.
Episode 26
She laughed. "If that's the case, I bet you memorized the periodic table."
"Actually...I did." He smiled.
Winry allowed her mouth to hang open. "I call bullshit. Prove it." She glanced at her wall. "Oh! Close your eyes." They young blond girl pointed to the periodic table of elements on her wall for study purposes.
"What? You don't trust me not to look. Fine." He shut his eyes. "Hydrogen, Helium, lithium, berylillum, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, Silicon, Phosph-" Edward like to exell at science, so he had memorized the periodic table of elements by eighth grade.
At the midway point, his words shut themselves off and allowed the strange new sensation pass by his lips. It seemed Wirny harbored more feeling for Ed that he originally thought, she had taken advantage of Ed's closed eyes and planted a kiss on him.
Needless to say, Ed was once again at a loss for words, but he enjoyed the kiss just the same, regardless if it was upsidedown. Finally, a brief break in the embrace, Winry had lifted ferself up a little, just to see the look on Ed's face. He smiled. "I lost my spot."
"You dork." She sat him up and repeated her previous action, this time, right side up.
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And this is where things begin to go downhill again. For Al at least. Unbeknownst to Al, Winry had started dating his brother, in secret. So, the strange bond that twins share caused Al to reach out and begin a hunt for a mate as well. Riza was his first outlet.
Episode 27
"So um...I should have asked this before we came here...is this a 'friend' outing? Or something more?" She said with uncertainty.
"Well...I guess it could just be friendly. No harm in that." He smiled. 'Friends for now' was what he kept telling himself.
"Ok...I just didn't want to make you feel bad or anything, cause, I'm kind of seeing someone at the moment...I'm sorry." She just blurted it all out.
Al was discouraged, but still glad she told him rather than stringing him along. "It's ok. Like I said, friendly." He smiled. It was a shame his plan failed, but he did get to spend some time with a pretty girl. Getting face time with cheerleaders was a good way to boost popularity, so he didn't consider the trip a waste of time.
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Sadly for Al, she wasn't quite to his tastes, being a guy, but she offered her services to help hook him up with a nice girl.
Episode 27
She thought while sipping on her drink. "Aside from all that...since I can see you're really nice, how about I help you out with getting a nice girlfriend, I mean, it's the least I could do for turning you down. Is there anyone on the team you're interested in?" She probed as she poked with her straw.
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That was the point when the new girl came into view, Sylvia. Al approched her on the end of her first day, but came to the conclusion that she just wasn't his match.
It was that evening that Al got a ride home with his brother and they convinced him to tag along. At that moment, when Aria allowed him to take the front seat, that Al started to notice just how attractive Aria really was. He had recalled the statement that his friend, Breda, had made about her a few months back, about having a nice bod.
Al decided to accomany them for game night, so they all headed back to Aria's house
Episode 30
"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.
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"And that pretty much brings us right up to today." Paninya said, brushing her hands together.
"I feel like life just flashed before my eyes." Aria said, pressing her back against the wall, her eyes wide. "Wooooah."
Ed shrugged. "This year was pretty good for me...but Al...geez. He's been put through the ringer."
Aria nodded. "It's like karma is using him as their own little punching bag." She sighed. "Poor guy, but he does bring it on himself...most of the time."
The bell rang in the bacement a little quieter than up in the halls. "And it's back to class...I didn't get a chance to eat my pudding." Paninya said, rotating it in her hand.
Sorry for the long wait, but I don't have a computer that works. I'm at my mom's place now. It's nice that she still puts up with me. (And feeds me. :P)