It was now lunch, and so far Ed's day wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. After History with Mr. Havoc (who was funny and really laid back) he had Math with Ms. Hawkeye (who was stern, but a very good teacher) then after that he had English with Mr. Hughes (who was very nice and overly expressive of his love for his family). After standing in line and getting chicken or hamburger-it was hard to tell exactly which- he spotted Al at a table and sat by him. Sitting with Al was a girl with short blonde hair.

"Hey, Ed! This is Martel, we have every single class together, isn't that strange?" Ed smiled at his brother. Al was seventeen now, so it wasn't surprising that he would be interested in girls, Ed just didn't think he would find a girl to like on the first day of school.

"It's nice to meet you, Martel." Ed said, shaking her hand (he made sure to use his left hand).

"You too, Al's really great, I'm new here too, so it's cool that I made a friend." She was looking at Al with a look that Ed knew all too well. She was completely smitten with his little brother. Then again, it was hard not to be, Alphonse was a charming young man.

"Did you make any friends, Ed?" Al asked hopefully. Edward had to refrain from saying Mr. Havoc was his friend, remembering that he was a teacher and didn't really count.

"Kind of," Ed said, not wanting to let his brother down. "I just talk to whoever I sit by, I don't really have classes with anyone more than once, you know? It will take a few days to get to know them. No one's been mean to me, but no one has really stuck out to me." Ed realized that he was babbling, so he stopped, taking a bite of his burger, crinkling his nose-it was chicken.

Edward had never really connected well with kids his age. At his old school, he usually ate lunch with his science teacher, Izumi. Technically she was Mrs. Curtis, but Ed had gotten to know her on a first name basis. When people at his old school found out about his automail, he became the butt of everyone's joke, and having a small, feminine body structure didn't help either. Edward never felt less masculine than any other male in the school (knowing from showers after Gym glass that he was much more well-endowed than most of the boys in his grade) but jokes about his height always pissed him off- he could handle the jokes about his automail, but he was sensitive about his height, especially since his little brother was already much taller than he was.

Al was going on about his day so far, and how he was excited for the rest of his classes. Ed wasn't as excited as his brother. His next class was Gym and he was worried that his note from Nurse Rose wouldn't work, and he didn't want to make a scene. He also didn't want anyone asking him any questions. Ed finished his lunch-making a mental note to pack his own from now on-and headed to the Gym, wanting to talk to the teacher before any students were there; maybe he could spend the class in the library or something.

Edward walked into the Gym and made a beeline to the only other person in there. The man was huge; it wasn't hard to see why he was the Gym teacher. "Um, Mr. Armstrong?"

The enormous man turned to Edward and smiled. "Well hello! You must be Edward; you're the only person in this class that I haven't met yet. Do you like our school so far?"

Edward smiled. "Yeah, um, it's great...I just wanted to give you this note." He handed the note to Mr. Armstrong and waited a minute before continuing. "It's from the nurse at my old school, her number is on there, if you need to call her...I just can't do Gym this year...health issues." Edward kept it at that, 'health issues' was a very broad spectrum; it could be anything.

Mr. Armstrong offered Ed a smile (or at least, Ed thought it was a smile, it was hard to tell under his moustache.) "You don't want to dress down, do you Edward?"

Edward's eyes widened at the question. "I-uh, no! I really can't, I have health problems, I-"

"You can be straight-forward with me, Edward, I won't tell anyone. If you can give me a good reason as to why I should let you sit out in my class, then I will. If not, I'm afraid I will need a note from your actual Doctor, not a school nurse."

Edward bit his lip. He didn't want anybody to know about his arm and leg, but it didn't seem like he had a choice. Edward sighed and set down his backpack. "I have a prosthetic arm and leg, and I don't want anyone to know." Ed said, defeated.

Mr. Armstrong didn't seem convinced. "You don't look like you have prosthetics, I know a few people with missing limbs, and they don't walk or move like you do."

Edward sighed. He hated explaining this. he pulled up his left pant leg and his right sleeve. "It's not a normal prosthetic, it's automail. It's connected to my nerves and is basically an exact robot replica of my arm and leg," he explained while Mr. Armstrong looked in awe. "I got made fun of a lot at my old school, and I really want this school to be different...so...please don't make me dress down." Ed pulled his sleeve and pant leg down.

Mr. Armstrong smiled. "Of course, Edward, you can sit out and watch or go to the library and study if you wish, just make sure to get a note from me if you are going to the library." Mr. Armstrong patted Ed's shoulder and left to set up the Gym for the upcoming class. Edward sighed in relief-disaster avoided...for now.

Edward decided to stay and watch the class. He didn't have any homework yet, so he really wouldn't have anything to do in the library. Several students glanced at Edward with curious eyes, though none of them asked why he wasn't participating, which was good. People seemed to be more polite in this school then his old one. He could tell that people wanted to ask him why he was wearing pants and a jacket in the summer, but no one did, and for that he was grateful.

When class was over Edward stayed to help Mr. Armstrong put away basketballs and other equipment, Mr. Armstrong thanked him. "You teach a sick class, Mr. Armstrong, I wish I could join in," Ed said honestly. He liked to be active, and, despite his vertical challenge, he was very good at basketball.

"You can join in anytime you want, Edward. I personally don't think you should have anything to worry about, I can assure you that no student of mine would humiliate anyone with any sort of handicap."

Ed frowned. "I don't think I have a handicap...I can function perfectly fine, my leg and arm aren't real, so what? I'm still just as functional if not more than most these kids." Edward never thought he had any special needs; there were kids a lot worse off than him.

"If you don't mind me asking, Edward, what happened?"

"I'll see you later Mr. Armstrong." Ed said quickly, grabbing his things and heading out to his next class. He had science with Mr. Fuery. Ed hoped that Mr. Fuery would be as cool as Mrs. Curtis, but he didn't count on it-no one was as cool as Izumi.

"Hey, you're Edward Elric, right?" Ed turned around to see a young boy, dressed in baggy clothes. He couldn't have been in a grade higher than a freshman.

"Yeah?" Ed said. He didn't want to be late to class.

"Hey, I'm Claus, I met your brother, Alphonse...Welcome to Amestris High, I hope you like it." Ed smiled at the boy; he was kind of cute, in a jailbait sort of way.

"Nice to meet you, Claus. Um, I'm going to be late to class, so I'll talk to you another time, ok?"

"Ok!" The boy said excitedly, then left. That was strange. Ed entered the science room five seconds before the tardy bell rang.

"Good timing, Miser...?"

"Elric. Edward Elric." Ed said.

"Elric. Do you prefer Edward or Ed?" Mr. Fuery asked, much to Ed's surprise. He never really was given that option before.

"Anything is fine." He finally replied.

"Alright, Edward. You may have a seat next to Paninya."

Edward obediently sat next to the tan, dark-haired tom-boy. She stuck out her hand for him to shake and he accepted, it was a quick, silent 'nice to meet you.' Ed was happy to know that he was way ahead of where his science class was at and started to doodle little circles with triangles and stuff in them.

When Mr. Fuery was done going over the outline for the semester, he stated that the students could talk with each other until the bell rang. Paninya turned to Ed. "Whatcha drawin?" She asked, leaning over Ed's shoulder. Her breast brushed his shoulder lightly and he moved so that there was no more contact.

"Transmutation circles. It's a part of Alchemy, the science teacher at my old school let me borrow her alchemy books for extra credit reading, it's pretty cool." Ed could tell that this girl wasn't really interested in anything that he was saying, but she was really good at pretending that she was.

"Oh! That's cool!" she said with a giggle. She sat back down in her desk, letting her hand stroke his arm as she did so. 'I hate it when girls flirt with me.' Edward thought to himself. "I know you're new here, so, if you want you can come to this party I'm having tonight, meet some of the kids that go here and make new friends, what do ya say?" She handed Edward a piece of paper with her address on it.

"Can I take my brother?" Ed asked. He wasn't going to go anywhere without Al.

"Sure!"

"Then I'll think about it." Edward didn't really want to go to this party, he knew that there was most likely going to be alcohol and stuff there, and he didn't want this girl trying to get him drunk or anything. She was happy with the answer and chatted Edward's ear off for the rest of class. Ed was relieved to hear the bell ring, signaling the end of the school day.

In his hurry to get out of the school as fast as he possibly can, he ran directly into a freshman, knocking them over. "Oh, crap, sorry, I didn't mean to- Claus?" The freshman he knocked over was, indeed, Claus, but the fall caused his hat to fly off, revealing that Claus wasn't a he at all, Claus was a girl. Ed quickly helped Claus up. It took everything in his power not to say, "I thought you were a guy!" Because, let's face it, that's not really something a young girl wants to hear. 'Damn' Edward thought. He was slightly disappointed that Claus was a girl. It would have been nice to have a cute boy to hang around with...

Edward bid the girl farewell and left to meet Al in the front of the school.