Clarissa awoke to the smell of food. She looked around her, and from the nurse peering over her, she realized she must be in the nurse's office. She sat up and clutched her head.

She moaned, "What happened?"

"Clarissa!"

Felicia, Clarissa's roommate, ran to the bed and began scolding her.

"You didn't eat breakfast again this morning, did you? How many times have I told you that you need to eat a healthy breakfast every morning?"

"But I never have enough time to make breakfast..."

"That's because you get up ten minutes before class starts!"

Clarissa mumbled something.

"You passed out from hunger," the nurse explained. "You should be fine once you get some food in you. Should we notify your mother about what happened?"

"OH DEAR GOD NO" Clarissa said, jumping out of the bed. "She'll freak out so bad! Please, please, please don't call her."

Clarissa looked to the side and noticed Alphonse sitting patiently in a chair.

"What are you doing here, Al? I mean! Why are you here?"

"Alphonse was kind enough to carry you here to my office after you passed out. You should thank him," the nurse said.

"Oh! Thank you very much, Al! You really didn't have to..."

Al turned his face to the side and mumbled, "I was worried."

Clarissa noticed that Felicia was smiling strangely at her, and she glared back.

"Well," the nurse said, "I think you're fine to go home now. Make sure you have a decent meal and get some fluids in you. Then have some rest, and you should be fine."

"Thank you," Clarissa said, and Felicia helped her to the door. "And thank you, Al. I'll see you next class."

"Bye," he said, and gave a little wave.

Outside the door, Felicia began nudging Clarissa.

"What?" Clarissa demanded.

"Who's that guy?" she asked with wide eyes.

"His name is Alphonse. He's in my poetry class."

"He-likes-you," Felicia said in a sing-song voice.

"What? No he doesn't."

"Oh, come on! It's so obvious. I mean, he carried you to the nurse's office when you fainted."

"Any guy would do that."

"I-don't-think-so."

"Would you stop that?"

Felicia giggled the whole walk back to their residential apartment.

The next day, Clarissa and Felicia had to go to the mall to buy some bras. Clarissa was dreading going back to poetry class, but thankfully she didn't have to think about that for a few days. She wanted to just spend the day pleasantly shopping and relaxing.

This proved difficult when Clarissa and Felicia passed a small group of people who Clarissa recognized from her poetry class.

"Hey, Goner, good job fainting in class yesterday," Jake Hollins said.

"Hey, screw off, dumbass," Clarissa said and they continued walking after flipping him the bird.

Clarissa and Felicia entered La Senza, their favourite lingerie store. It was always entertaining because Clarissa was self-conscious about her rather large chest size, whereas Felicia was self-conscious of her extremely small chest size.

As they were leaving the lingerie store, Clarissa looked up to see Alphonse Elric walking by.

"Oh, hey, Clarissa," he said, smiling. Then his face reddened as he realized he caught them leaving a lingerie store.

"Hi, Al." Did he come here to tease me about fainting in class, too?

"I-I was j-just...looking for my brother, Ed. Have you seen him?" he blurted.

"How would I know what your brother looks like?" Clarissa asked.

"Oh – that's right, you haven't met him."

"Hi, Al!" Felicia shouted.

"H-hi?"

"I'm Felicia, Clarissa's roommate. We've been friends since high school. We haven't officially been introduced, though."

"Oh, nice to meet you. Anyway, I'd better go look for my brother."

"We'll help you!" Felicia offered.

"Felicia!" Clarissa whispered. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing, nothing," she waved. "We might as well help since we're done what we came here for."

Clarissa sighed.

"Thanks, guys," Al beamed. "He looks a lot like me. Same colour hair, but his is longer. Same eyes. He's a bit shorter than me, too."

"But isn't he your older brother?" Clarissa asked.

"Yup."

"Bet you can relate to him, Felicia, aren't all your younger siblings taller than you?"

"Y-yes," Felicia admitted, defeated.

"So what's your brother doing here?" Clarissa asked.

"He came to visit me at the university. I haven't seen him in a couple of months and he wanted to see how I'm doing."

"That's thoughtful," Felicia said.

They wandered around the first floor of the mall, with no sign of Al's brother. It was particularly awkward for Clarissa and Felicia because they had never met Al's brother. Clarissa felt awkward checking out every person they passed in the mall.

They used the escalator to go up to the second floor, where the food court was.

"I should have known," Al said and he led them over to the far end of the court. "There you are, brother."

"Al! Hey!" a young man said, waving from the chair he was sitting in. A tray full of food was in front of him.

Clarissa could see a clear family resemblance between the two boys. Both had golden hair and eyes, but Al was a tad bit taller than his older brother.

"I should have known you'd be where the food is," Al said, shaking his head.

"A man's gotta eat," the young man said, smiling and patting his stomach. "Who've you got with you, Al?"

"Oh, this is my classmate, Clarissa, and her roommate Felicia. This is my brother, Ed."

"So you're in rocket science, too, Clarissa?" Ed asked. Felicia snorted in laughter.

"No," Clarissa said, turning red, "I'm taking English. Al is in my poetry class."

Ed elbowed Al in the ribs. "What are you going and taking poetry for?"

"Well, I guess we should be going," Clarissa said, and tugged on Felicia's arm.

"Wait, you don't have to go," Al said.

Clarissa tried to think of an excuse. "Well, I – we need to...homework."

"Are you two locals?" Ed asked, standing up to throw out the garbage.

Clarissa and Felicia nodded.

"Me and Al are from a small town called Resembool, down south. Why don't you two show us around the mall a bit? I was thinking of buying a new CD while I was here."

"We can take you to HMV then," Felicia offered.

"Felcia, what are you doing?" Clarissa whispered.

"Oh come on, you socially awkward penguin. We almost never go out. And here are two cute boys who want to hang out with us..."

Clarissa sighed and followed her roommate.

As it happened, the mall corridors weren't wide enough for four people to walk side by side with each other, so Ed and Felicia took the lead, while Al and Clarissa followed behind.

"So what other classes are you taking, Clarissa?"

Clarissa ticked them off of her fingers. "Jacobean Shakespeare, Creative Writing, Romantic Literature, Anatomy...oh and Poetry, of course."

"Sounds like fun."

Clarissa could hear Felicia up ahead trying to explain to Ed about her rather large, and confusing family structure. "...and my younger sister, Rachelle will be coming to visit in a few weeks."

"Are your classes going to be hard?" Clarissa asked, then felt stupid because of course rocket science would be hard.

Al chuckled. "Yeah, probably, but I'm going to try really hard. I really want to learn everything there is to know, and I'm positive that I can do well in my classes. Although, poetry class may prove to be my hardest subject."

Al rubbed the back of his head and looked genuinely concerned.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine, Al," Clarissa said. "If you start struggling I can help you out."

"Really? Thanks, Clarissa!"

They walked into the electronics store 'HMV' and Felicia led Ed to the CD section. Al and Clarissa wandered around the store.

"What kind of CD were you looking for?" Felicia asked Ed.

"It's a band called Abandon All Ships. They're kind of a trance/metal group."

"No way!" Felicia squealed. "You listen to them, too?"

"Yeah, they're awesome. What's your favourite song?"

"Hmm, that's a tough one. Either 'Megawacko' or 'Take One Last Breath'."

"Those are great songs!"

"I know!"

Clarissa shook her head, knowing all too well about Felicia's obsession with the band Abandon All Ships. They just weren't Clarissa's taste. Blegh.

After they left HMV, there was a moment of awkwardness where no one knew what to do.

"Umm..." Clarissa said.

"Hey, I heard about this really great bakery in the mall called Cinnabon," Al said, scratching the back of his head. "Do you guys want to come with us?"

Clarissa's eyes widened and her mouth watered. "Cinnabon?"

"Yeah," Ed piped in. "I heard it was good, too."

"My treat" Al said, and winked at Clarissa.

"Yeah, I love Cinnabon," she said, blushing.

Walking behind Ed and Felicia again, Clarissa watched her roommate, who was beginning ot act most giggly.

Felicia tugged at Ed's braid. "Hey, can you braid my hair like that sometime?" she asked.

"No way, this is a man's braid."

"So what?"

"If you wear the same braid as me, then it'll make me look like my hair's up in a girl's braid."

Al pointed at his brother and laughed.

"Felicia, there's no way Ed could braid your hair, because your hair's too short," Clarissa teased..

"Shut up! It's long enough."

Clarissa stuck her tongue out at her.

The four of them sat down at the small Cinnabon bakery and ate their cinnamon buns. Clarissa, as always when she ate at Cinnabon, felt like she was in heaven.

"You still have room for food?" Al teased Ed.

"Of course!"

"I know why you eat so much, brother," Al teased. "You're trying to grow taller than me, aren't you? Well you can give up, because it's never going to happen."

"S-shut up!" Ed said and scarfed down his cinnamon bun.

"I know exactly how you feel," Felicia said. "I have seven brothers and sisters, and they're all taller than me! And I'm the oldest!"

After they were finished eating, Clarissa could see that it was beginning to get dark outside. "We'd better get going, Felicia and I have class early tomorrow morning."

"Oh, alright," Al said, scratching his cheek. "I guess I'll see you in class on Friday."

"Yup," Clarissa replied.

"Hey, Ed!" Felicia said after they'd begun walking away. "How long are you staying in East City for?"

"I was only planning on staying here for a few days...but we'll see. I might see you around."

"Yeah, okay," she said, her cheeks turning a rosy hue.

"Try to be more obvious, will you?" Clarissa said to her roommate sarcastically. Then she sighed. "Come on, let's go."

Felicia turned to wave at the two boys before they left the mall.