CHAPTER 10: FIRST DAY
There was no way in hell he would be able to sleep again, let alone lie down. A few seconds after the uncomfortable wakeup call, Alfons was walking back and forth from one wall to another inside the small bedroom. A few seconds after that Al barged through the door with an agitated look on his face.
Alfons stopped abruptly and just stared at him for a moment. Had he felt something as well? He was afraid to ask. Right now he was too panicked to even speak.
"What happened?" Al asked fast. His shoulders were shaking a bit. "I didn't see anything, but I felt my brother's pain. It was like he was..."
Impaled?
Alfons swallowed and noticed his own ragged breathing, how heavy and soundly it was. Abruptly he strode right towards Al, his hands grappling tightly around his shoulders and stared at him with eyes full of dread. Al almost backed away from him in disturbance, but Alfons kept him from moving.
"Are you sure alchemy doesn't work right now?" Alfons asked hoarsely, his voice desperate. "We have to get him out of there now! Truth is killing him! He's being tortured! I can't stand this anymore! We have to do something!"
Al's large caramel eyes narrowed in quiet despondency, and he somehow understood what Alfons had seen even if he couldn't really imagine it. He didn't even want to imagine. Edward's presence had disappeared again. He had to calm Alfons down in some way, but no matter how much he wanted to, alchemy wouldn't work now.
Slowly he lifted his hands and placed them on top of Alfons' hands on his shoulders, quietly dropping his gaze. "I wish we could do it now, but we have to wait." Alfons' hands were shaking, and Al tightened the grip on them, as to prevent them from trembling. "We have to believe in Brother," he said. "He's strong, he can handle it. I don't think the Gate wants to hurt him physically."
"But what about his mind? I'm already going crazy, and I'm not the one who's being held in there," Alfons snapped. He sank to his knees and let go of Al's shoulders to support himself on his palms on the floor. "Is there really nothing we can do?"
Al kneeled and seated down in front of him while taking a deep breath. "Brother can hear our voices sometimes during these bizarre dreams. We're able to see him because we're linked to the frequency of his soul. Whenever that happens, we can let him know we haven't given up on him. That will only make him stronger."
Alfons nodded. "I know. I tried. He probably doesn't want us to do it, but it'll be better than not doing anything."
"Exactly." Al sent him a timid smile. "And I'll work hard on the array so it'll be ready for the next prime moon. We're going to get him back."
The words were comforting and they soothed down Alfons' slamming heart. Yes, he believed in Edward. But right now he believed in Al even more. He was the only one who could bring Edward back. "Edward said something to me tonight," Alfons said. He suddenly remembered it more clearly now that he was more sober. "He said Truth is trying to keep his soul from connecting with us. That's why he was..." being tormented.
"Truth is using pain to keep Brother's soul in shack," Al deduced. "It makes it harder for him to connect with us."
Alfons clenched his fists. As much as he liked to have Edward's soul within him, they couldn't take any unnecessary risks. "Next time his soul shows up," he whispered, "we have to tell him to stop coming here. It only makes things worse."
Al nodded in agree. "I'll tell him if I see him."
"Which day?" Alfons asked tightly. How long did they have to wait? How long did they have to let Edward suffer?
"February 21st," Al said. "52 days. It's on a Friday."
A little less than two months. To Alfons it might as well could've been years away. It sounded like an eternity. But until then he would stay put and keep himself contained. It didn't matter that Edward had told him not to try getting him back. They were going to pull him out of there alive whether he'd like it or not.
In the days that followed Alfons didn't see or hear anything of Edward's soul, and neither did Al. Alfons hoped he was alright and that it was a good sign that they didn't see anything of him. At least he hopefully wouldn't get hurt further. He had borrowed Oscar Cotton's phone and called the nearest high school to apply Al for a class. The school sent him back an application form to fill out and a couple of days later they got a reply that Al could start at the high school the day after tomorrow. It was the first official school day after the holidays, and now that it was so close Al started getting excited and nervous.
Alfons felt partly the same as well as he would be going with Cotton to work on the same day, and if everything went smoothly he'd might get himself a job there too.
The day before they spent walking around the city and finding the necessary school stuff Al would need. Al practised to get used to talking English instead of German which was the language he had gotten used to. But Alfons noticed he didn't seem to have any problems with grammar or pronouncing the way he had.
As the first day of school arrived, Al felt like this was when his exploration of this new world would really begin. He didn't know much of this world's history and geography yet, and even if he hadn't liked the thought of staying here at first, he knew he would never be able to return to his own world again. He might as well get used to it. Exploring a new world was interesting after all. In some strange way he could consider himself lucky that he got the chance to do something like that.
Still he couldn't help the nervous feeling of small butterflies wrecking havoc inside his stomach as he and Alfons stopped outside the main gate to the high school. They had walked for about 20 minutes to get there, but Al was glad Alfons had bothered following him in case he had gotten lost.
"Good luck today, Al," Alfons said. "I'm sure you'll do just fine even if you come in the middle of the freshmen year."
Al nodded tensely. "Good luck to you too. I hope you get the job."
"So do I." Alfons sighed a smile. "See you later then."
"Yep, bye!" Al trotted through the open gate with a wave and his bag over his shoulder, and soon he found himself in the middle of a mob of several other students (where most of them raged above him in height). They chattered away and he politely snuck past them towards the main entrance of the school building. He had been told to announce his arrival at the reception desk on the seventh floor.
The school seemed to be bigger than he had imagined. It had been years ago since he had even been inside one. He had gone to school with Edward when they were kids, but after their mother died and they decided to bring her back, they had both stopped going. Instead they had gone into training with Izumi Curtis. Al doubted he would ever have any other teacher that would be tougher than her, so he wasn't very worried about that.
After following an endless hall for a while, Alphonse found an elevator. Some other students were waiting outside it and as it opened he slipped inside after all the others. It was a bit narrow and he felt some strange looks at his back where he stood. He didn't just appear to be at least two years younger than the most of them, he literally felt different from them simply because he had never been at a high school before, and in that sense felt like an alien from another planet.
Most of the students went off in the fifth, and he stood alone in the elevator for the remaining floors. He stepped out and found a transparent door which seemed to be the right one. It was open, so he stepped inside and came into a reception room next to a long hall of doors that he guessed were offices.
"Can I help you?" a woman behind the reception desk asked, addressing him.
Al turned to her and turned on a small smile. "Yes, thank you. My name is Alphonse Elric, I'm new."
"Oh, I heard that there was a new student coming in today," she acknowledged. "The Headmistress would like to see you first."
Al just nodded nervously. He had always imagined the principal at big schools like this to be close to invisible and hardly have any interact with the students, but maybe he was mistaken. He had no clue what to expect to be normal in this world. He just hoped he knew enough to not make a fool out of himself. He had something to prove by being here, after all, being that he looked four years younger than he actually was.
"I'll show you the way," the receptionist said. "Just follow me."
"Thank you," Al replied.
He followed her far down the hall, almost innermost in the corridor, to a door with a sign on it. Al read the sign in quiet wondering recognition. O. M. Armstrong, Headmistress. He let out a relieved sigh. If the principal of this school was the parallel person of the Strong Arm Alchemist, Louis Armstrong, he had nothing to be worried about. That man would never hurt a fly, even less able to be strict. Unless parallel people had complete opposite sides as well, but so far he hadn't experienced that.
The receptionist knocked on the door. "Headmistress, the new student is here."
"Let him in," a firm female voice replied, which made Al start a little. That was definitely nothing akin to the kindness he would normally find in Alex Louis Armstrong's voice.
The receptionist opened the door and beckoned Al inside in front of her.
"Thank you, Clara, I'll take it from here," the strict voice said.
Al lifted his eyes, seeing a tall and pale woman with long blond hair and icy blue, narrow eyes. Her back was completely straight, like he might as well have been an officer in the army. And she looked tough. Al started to wonder about his own reasoning that there might be tougher women out there than his old teacher.
The receptionist left and the principal strode around her desk to get a closer look at Al. "My name is Olivier Mira Armstrong and I am, as you can already tell, the Headmistress of this school. You will address me as ma'am or Headmistress, is that understood?"
Al straightened a bit as well. "Yes ma'am," he said fast and rambled out the rest of his words. "My name is Alphonse Elric, it's nice to meet you, ma'am."
She raised an eyebrow at him, slightly amused by the words and shook his hand hard, though Al managed to hold back the pained whimper.
She strode back to her desk as she spoke. "I understand that you've just moved here from Germany; tragic place. Your English isn't too bad, I'll give you that. If you're going to survive here at this school, you must study hard, be like everyone else and not stick out too much." She sat down and gestured toward a chair in front of her desk for Al to sit down.
Al almost missed the compliment about the English in the direct way she was speaking as he sat down on his offered chair, and never got a chance to thank her before she continued.
"I was informed of your age and you look obviously younger than my average students, but I trust for your own sake that it won't be a problem for you even if you're stepping into the second half of the freshman year. You think you'll be able to keep up?"
Al realized it was a question and nodded fast. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good," she replied pleasantly. "I hate pitiful failures and drop-outs. The fools. Someone always ends up in that hole, but most of them deserve it. If you don't work hard, you won't get any credit from me by passing you over to the next stage in life, either it's work or college. It's not supposed to be easy."
Al swallowed down a nervous bubble in his throat and kept quiet. She was definitely similar to his teacher in many ways, even if they weren't parallel people.
"I'm not the headmistress of this school for nothing," Olivier Mira Armstrong went on coldly. "This school is one of the best in this imprudent country and I ought to keep it that way. Any form of foolishness or indecent behaviour will not be tolerated under any circumstances and will be strictly punished, am I making myself clear?"
Al nodded fast. "Yes, ma'am." He had this awful feeling that he had done something bad, even if he knew this speech was probably standard procedure for everyone who started at the school. He wouldn't let himself get whipped off his feet by that.
"I also understand that your only guardian is your older brother, is that correct?" Olivier interrogated.
Al nodded again. "Yes, ma'am."
"Then why are your last names different?" she asked.
Al faltered a bit. "Uhm... We're more like half-brothers."
"I see." She accepted that explanation. "Enough chitchat. I will follow you to your class now, it's on the ground floor. Please follow me."
Al rose fast from his chair as she got up and strode back to the door again. As they walked down the corridor towards the elevator she kept speaking in the direct tone.
"You'll receive a time table, a number of a locker when you get to class and a list of classes to choose as an alternate subject. You must pick one; two if you want to earn some extra points. Your books are stored in your locker and you're responsible to take care of them until the year is over. If you damage them, you'll have to replace them."
That was fair enough. Al figured he had to try not to read them too much.
"There's lunch at noon for half an hour, and you get small periods of five minutes between your classes. Always be on time, or you'll fail in your order marks. Any questions?"
"No, ma'am," Al said.
"Good," Olivier said.
Eventually they stopped in front of a door on the ground floor and Al had lost his track of the direction of the main entrance long ago. He hoped he would get to know someone who could show him around more properly.
The Headmistress knocked firmly on the door and then strode inside without waiting for a response.
The teacher was a small, corpulent man with glasses that Al couldn't resemble with anyone he knew from his own world. He looked surprised to get interrupted by the principal herself. "Oh, good morning, Headmistress Armstrong," he greeted. He stared questioningly at Alphonse who lingered hesitantly in the doorway.
"I see you haven't been informed about the new student," Olivier Armstrong deduced. "Those administrative fools are hopeless. They keep reminding me without trying that things get done better if I do them myself." She huffed. "Well, here he is." She turned to Al and waved him towards her, and hesitantly Al stepped inside the classroom, feeling more misplaced than ever.
A whole sea of dull eyes stared at him, some with interest, and others in quiet surprise. The class was pretty big. Al directed his eyes mainly at the teacher again, who looked more surprised than anyone else.
"No, I wasn't aware of that there would be a new... student." He stared at Al like he was unsure if he was really a high school student and not a middle schooler, and Al felt a bit offended. He kind of understood his brother's feelings every time he was considered short now.
"I have other matters to take care of, so I trust him to you, Mr. Redman," Olivier said shortly. "Good day." Then she turned on her heel and strode back out of the classroom, leaving Al feeling awfully vulnerable.
"Oh well," Mr. Redman said slowly and stared uncertainly at Al. "Welcome to class 1B. You may introduce yourself while you're standing up here."
Al cast a look over the sea of heads again, some of them looking a bit more awake now than a few moments ago. He cleared his throat a bit, hoping his voice wouldn't fail him. "My name is Alphonse Elric, I recently moved here from Germany."
"Germany?" Mr. Redman echoed. "That's quite far. Well, there's an available seat for you over there since one of the class is sick today. We can arrange a new desk for you later."
Al nodded politely and stepped towards the empty chair a few rows behind the first row to the left of the teacher, his bag still resting over his shoulder. Eyes followed him closely as he moved and slipped down on his chair. Next to him sat a raven-haired girl with a pair of long pigtails and big black eyes, but she smiled brightly at him and he felt a bit relieved. The stares he got were unmistakably curiosity at the most, which he could understand.
"So, Alphonse, just hang on as well as you can. If you have any questions, just ask," Mr. Redman said. "I'm currently teaching English, which might be especially useful to you. I could hear on the way you pronounce some of the words that you're not from an English-speaking country. That's natural, of course. Okay class, go to page 87. We're going to read out loud in turn, staring from the left."
Al didn't have a book and stared a bit concerned at the person a few rows in front of him who started to read. What would he do when it was his turn? The teacher didn't seem to be aware of that he didn't have any books yet, and Al wished he had asked the principal to stop by his locker before he started class. Then the girl next to him suddenly reached out and put her book on his desk in front of him, and Al sent her a thankful look in return. He managed to find the right place in the text where the next student had started reading. It went so fast he almost didn't have time to be nervous before it was his turn, and he read his paragraph in the way that felt most natural to him. He got corrected on a few words by the teacher, but to his relief no one laughed at him for his mistakes.
He handed the book back to the girl so she could read her part when it was her turn. The lesson went surprisingly fast and when the bell rang people began rising from their seats to prepare for the next class.
Al rose slowly and turned to the girl next to him. "Excuse me," he said.
She turned to him and smiled just as cheerfully as before. She looked foreign too. "Hello!"
"Could you tell me where we're going next? I haven't gotten a time table yet," Al explained.
"Sure! I've made an extra one you can have if you want," she offered, beaming.
"Thank you, that'd be great."
She smiled again and handed him a very colourful time table full with pink and yellow flowers. He wondered if it might be best to copy it into a more neutral time table later. According to the table, the next subject was history.
"It's the same classroom?" Al read, but asked to be sure.
"That's right," the girl said in her chirpy voice. "I see you don't have any of your books yet, but I'm sure you'll get the key to your locker soon!"
"Yeah, probably," Al said, smiling back. She looked like she was from a completely different part of the world, though Al was too shy to ask. He didn't want to say anything that might sound rude. He was glad to notice she was one of few who didn't rage above him in height. She was petite and her hair was long and so black it could easily go in one with a moonless sky.
"What's your name?" Al asked her and sat down again as well. There was no point going to a locker without a key, after all.
"I'm Mei. It's nice to meet you, Alphonse!" She bowed politely, and Alfons was under the impression that bowing might be normal where she came from, while it wasn't in America. He bowed back anyway. "It's nice to meet you too."
As she straightened up again, something moved inside her shirt and a small head stuck out from the neck of her shirt. Mei gasped. "No, Xiao Mei, you know you're not allowed to come out during school!" She beckoned the little animal back, but the little one was stubborn and in the end it succeeded to climb into her hands and refused to let go. Mei chuckled a little.
Al looked at it in surprise. The animal looked like a kitten, but it was black and white like a tiny panda. It was undeniably adorable. "What is that?"
"Xiao Mei is a panda," Mei confirmed with a happy nod. "I think she wants to make sure you're not an unpleasant person. But I can see that you aren't." She beamed brightly again.
"Ah," Al leaned closer in wonder and carefully reached his finger out to touch it. He regretted it as soon as Xiao Mei bit him.
"Ouch!" That thing had pretty strong teeth.
"Oh no, bad Xiao Mei! Don't bite our new friend," Mei scolded. "I'm really sorry. She's just very protective!"
"It's alright," Al chuckled and blew on his finger. "No worries!"
Mei's ebony eyes regarded him for a moment before sitting down to rummage around her bag. "Hold on a sec!" she said. The little panda climbed up on her shoulder and regarded Al warily for a moment, before turning its attention back to what Mei was doing.
She picked up a bunch of cards from her bag and started shuffling them in her hands. Al wondered what those were for and watched curiously as she spread the cards over her desk in a half-circle, closed her eyes and let her hand trail over each one.
Interested, he leaned a bit closer, wondering if she was doing some sort of this world's 'magical' card tricks. Even if it wasn't real, it was still fun to watch.
In the end Mei seemed to decide on a card and picked it up. She turned it around and stared at it for a couple of moments without a word. The card seemed to have some sort of picture on it, and didn't seem to look like normal playing cards with symbols and numbers. It still reminded Al about the time he had used to play poker with his brother on their long train rides during their journey, and how Edward would always cheat to win.
Al was dying to ask what the card meant, when she suddenly turned back at him with a knowing smile. "Are you really from Germany?"
"Uh," Al said hesitantly and answered vaguely. "I came here from Munich."
"Oh right." She went back to her cards and put the one she had picked back into the half circle.
"What are those cards?" Al asked.
"Tarot cards," Mei replied. "It can be fairly useful sometimes!"
"Why do you use the cards?" Al asked.
"I don't know. Either it's nature or an obsession of some sort." Mei shrugged, still cheerful at that. "But people don't believe much that the cards can tell the truth. I don't always know if they're true either, but I guess it's a matter of understanding and not seeing."
"I suppose so," Al said. "Not everyone is always open-minded to things that are a bit different." His thoughts fell on how Alfons had first tried to prohibit alchemy from him.
"Exactly," Mei smiled. She seemed like she was always smiling.
As someone stepped past her chair, they 'accidentally' bumped into her shoulder and swept the half of the cards off the desk. Xiao Mei looked ready to jump at the guilty person's throat and hissed.
"Oops, sorry," the guy grinned.
Al rose abruptly with a frown, sensing the antagonistic manner and was immediately on alert. "Watch where you're going, please."
"What, middle-schooler midget, you're looking for a fight?" the guy egged on. "If you know what's best for you, you should stick to playing cards with China-girl."
Al wanted to hit him, but knew better than catching the bait like that. He knew his brother would've punched the guy already, with his automail hand, but he wasn't short-tempered like his brother. The guy was much taller and (apparently) older than him, and seemed like a guy who meant trouble, the rebellious way he dressed and the way he was grinning and high fiving his classmates. Knowing a bully when he saw one, Al knew they were probably testing him, wanting to get him in trouble on his first day. He didn't want to be expelled by Armstrong already.
"Just leave her alone," he replied and kneeled down to pick up the cards that had fallen to the floor.
The guys snorted and left the classroom, seemingly in a hurry because of the short period of free time.
Al handed Mei back her cards.
"That wasn't necessary," Mei said, but she smiled still. "Brad and his friends are usually like that. You shouldn't bother yourself with them. Do you want to try by the way?" She didn't even seem bothered by them at all, and Al calmed down a bit.
"Try the cards?" he asked unsurely.
"Yes. You pick one, and I read what it might mean."
"Okay," Al said. "How do I do it?"
"You simply pick one you feel is right for you." Mei gathered the cards and shuffled them once again, before standing up and spread them in a half circle over Al's desk as he sat down again. "Close your eyes."
Al nodded and closed his eyes, and leisurely let his hand glide over the glossy cards. One that felt right? For fun's sake, he experimented by touching the surface of the cards and tried to sense if he felt anything different for each one. He didn't feel anything in particular, at least not until he reached the second half of the row. As his hand touched the surface of one of the cards, he literally felt something. It felt warm and prickled a bit, not unlike the way he had felt at the time he tried to do alchemy in this world for the first time. He opened his eyes with a sharp breath and stared at the cards, then at Mei. She was watching him intently, like she had been looking for a reaction like he had just performed.
Quietly he closed his eyes again, and let his hand continue. The warm and prickling feeling had stopped. Had he just imagined it? Slowly, he trailed his hand back over the half-circle, and touched the cards around the same place, feeling the warmth of energy come back and tease the palm of his hand. The cards were bigger than normal playing cards as well, and felt thick and he picked the one he felt. He brought it up and opened his eyes.
The card showed a blindfolded man holding two swords, one in each hand. In the background there was a circular shape, like a sun or moon, and he immediately realized why he must've felt something of a reaction. Even if there wasn't a full moon outside, he could feel energy from circles. That explained it. He looked up and handed the card to Mei. "What does this mean?"
Mei looked at the card. "Two of swords." She nodded. "There's a balance between these two sides, where you're one side and a brother figure to you is on the other."
Al swallowed a bit. "Oh?"
"Together you're protecting something in-between yourselves," Mei went on. "Something that is close to both of your hearts. It could be a thing or a person you both love. As long as you keep the barrier around the one you're protecting up, you won't get hurt." She took a deep breath and searched Al's eyes to see if she might have understood it wrong and her dark orbs misted of concern by the look on Al's face. "Sometimes people think I'm prying. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Al said fast. This was interesting. She had read him better than he had ever read a person's feelings before. And he was supposed to be the expert, after all those years being trapped in a suit of armour. "What does the blindfold mean?"
"That one of you might be wrong and you're blinded to see the actual truth," Mei said. "Maybe one of your ideas has been proven incorrect and, though you see that you were wrong, you do not want to admit it. It can be painful to remove a blindfold and see the truth, because even the softest light will blind those who have lived in darkness. In general, it means that being blinded by the light is far preferable than being blinded by the dark."
Al found this more interesting than he actually wanted. The reading was pretty general. Maybe it could fit for anything. But still, a deep voice within was whispering to him that this might be of actual importance. What if his theory was wrong? What he if couldn't bring his brother back?
"I think the class is about to start," Mei said, smiling again. "I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you. You're free to think it's insanity like everybody else." She patted Xiao Mei on her shoulder, and the little panda disappeared obediently down inside her shirt this time.
What bothered Al the most wasn't what she said, but the way she said it. She sounded eternally happy even if people thought she might be a bit loony. But so far Al hadn't noticed her to be any sort of crazy.
"Who cares what other people think," Al said and smiled at her.
"Right," Mei said, beaming.
The factory was more impressive than he could imagine. He walked after Oscar Cotton, gawking at the surroundings in awe. "This is amazing, sir," Alfons said. "I've never seen an aerospace engineering factory in the size of this."
Cotton laughed humbly. "I'm even more interested in what you think of our latest prototype. This is of course a secret project, so I have to ask you not to tell anyone what you see here."
"I completely understand that, sir," Alfons said sincerely.
"Alright." He waved some people over that Alfons had already greeted. "Could you help me to take off the covering over here, Lance?"
The man called Lance complied and together the two men removed a huge tarpaulin that covered an unfinished model lying on its side.
Alfons stepped nearer to get a closer look at it. "This is..." he started in wonder. He recognized this prototype. Vato Falman had developed a model very similar to it before he died. "You're developing liquid fuel based rockets," Alfons said.
"Indeed," Cotton said. "You're sharp as seeing it just by taking a look like that. Do you have a lot of experience with liquid fuel?"
"Actually, I have," Alfons said slowly. He had to be careful with revealing too much. Not because his recipe was a huge national secret, but because he had never made it in this own world before, only in the other. It had been his and Edward's idea, since it would make the aircraft more efficient. But he had made the recipe by himself. Of course, he had to lie about that. "Back in Germany we were experimenting with the use of liquid propellants that can be capable of higher altitudes and distance. Vato Falman had started developing it," he explained, "but he never finished."
"Because of that, America might beat Germany in this field of technology," Cottons said. "That's too bad. A great loss for all of Germany to lose a man like Falman."
Alfons nodded slightly, but didn't really know what to respond to that.
"Say Alfons, do you want to start working here?" Cotton asked him with a small smile.
Alfons stared at him in surprise. "I would love to. But is that really all right? I haven't even had an interview or talked to everyone... Who is in charge of this project?"
Cotton grinned. "I believe that is me. Together with my friend, Dr. Robert Goddard, though he seemed very interested in you. I will make sure you get to meet with him tomorrow."
This was almost too good to be true. Alfons didn't think he had even tried to impress anyone yet, and yet they wanted to give him a job. He almost couldn't wait to tell Edward, before he remembered that he couldn't. At least not yet.
The rest of the day went incredibly fast, so fast that Al felt he'd hardly had the time to get to know any of his classmates except for Mei, and the group of guys he wanted to avoid at all cost. What was difficult with Mei was that she didn't seem to have any friends, which made Al stuck with her in both History and Biology class. At least he had gotten a key to his locker so he could use his own books.
By the end of the day he already had three homework assignments to do before Thursday. His bag was filled with English and History books and he stepped down the stair from the main entrance together with his new friend.
"Don't worry," Mei said encouragingly. "The Chemistry and Geography teachers will probably let us hand in the homework by Friday."
"That's still a lot do in one week," Al grumbled. "Is it always like this?"
"Pretty much."
Al sighed. He didn't want to complain, but at this rate, when would he get the time to work on the alchemy circle?
"I'm going to try finishing high school quickly," he said, not caring if it sounded arrogant. "I'll try taking the second and third year in one."
Mei stared at him like he was the Queen of England. "That's quite impressive! Go Al!" she cheered excitedly, and jumped up and down beside him.
Al stared at her in amusement. Was she really always this cheerful? It was kind of nice to be around someone this happy for once. "If this semester goes well, I will do it. I want to go to college as quickly as possible."
"What are you going to do in college?" Mei asked curiously.
"Medical studies."
"That's nice," Mei smiled. "I'm interested in medical studies too, actually!" She was humming and leaping as she walked, like the happiest person ever. Al wanted to ask her why she didn't seem to have any other friends, but he didn't want to sound rude.
"I can always read another card for you and see your future!"
"You can see the future too?" Al mused.
Mei shrugged. "I don't know. Sometimes I do. I can't really decide what I'll see. It's kind of a bit like magic I guess." She laughed, knowing it sounded a little odd.
But Al stopped with a frown. "Mei, do you know anything about alchemy?"
"Alchemy?" She stopped and tasted the word. "I think my grandmother does. She's told me about witchcraft before. She was the one who gave me the cards. Why?"
"No reason," Al shrugged. "I just wondered if it could have a connection to your tarot cards somehow."
"Hey losers," a familiar voice called. As Al turned around he saw the same guys from their class that had bothered them earlier, and he wished he wasn't still within the school area. That meant, he could possibly get expelled if he got into a fight. "If it isn't the middle-schooler," the guy mocked.
Al scowled at him. "What do you want?"
There were three of them. Usually he could take them out, but what good would that really do? He would probably be expelled unless he became the victim. As long as they didn't touch-
The guy laid a hand on Mei's shoulder and pushed her backwards. In a second Al had stepped forward and grabbed his arm. "Stay away from her."
The guy snorted through a grin. "Yeah, she'll stay out of this. We only have business with you, kid."
Mei stood outside the circle they had made around Al and stared from one to another with saddened eyes. Somehow, the fact that they'd driven Mei's happy expression away pissed Al off. "Just leave us alone," he said.
"Who do you think you are really?" The guy grabbed Al's ponytail and kept his head directed at him. "You think you're so smart that you can come here to this school as a 12-year-old?"
"I'm not 12," Al informed. "And it's none of your business."
"Why does he have his hair like that?" one of the others joined in, grabbing his jacket. "Do you want to look like a little girl?"
They laughed.
Al wrung their hands off of him and stepped back. "I said, leave us alone." Why was it that he always attracted bullies like this? He had last time he had gone to school as well, but then Edward had been there and kicked their asses. Edward had gotten detentions a lot of times because he had defended Al from bullies. It had always made him feel guilty as hell, but Edward had never cared about detentions.
"I don't think so," the guy said. "I have a small lesson I need to teach you." He stepped fast forward and took a swing at Al, which Al dodged by moving swiftly to the side. Then he jumped over a kick that was lunged for his calf and ducked from the new punch.
"Little rat," the guy growled and leaped forward to knock Al to the ground, when Al tried to move, the other two blocked his way and he was suddenly pressed down into the snow. The wind got knocked out of him and as he gasped to breathe, his mouth and eyes got covered in dirty snow. Al gagged and tried to twist away, but his arms were held by one guy and his legs by another as the third sat on top of him and straddled his stomach.
Al twisted his head to the side and coughed to spit out the filthy snow, and blinked his eyes in Mei's direction. He wanted to tell her to run for help, but his eyes widened as she dropped to her knees, found her cards and spread them into a half circle in the snow.
What the hell was she doing?
A hand pressed at his throat and Al panicked. The guy leaned close to his face, his breath hitting his skin sending cold shivers down his spine. "Any new little kid like you will become my prey, do you understand? If you're so smart, maybe you can do my homework for me too? And maybe you can bring me some money, or you can get your face pondered on, it's up to you."
In his view of vision Mei picked out a card with closed eyes and looked at it. Her expression turned surprised, and she might have gasped. What did that mean?
"Hello everyone," a new voice said cheerfully. "The word pathetic really gets a whole new meaning every time I lay my eyes on you."
The three guys holding Al down looked up and faltered a bit. "Who the fuck are you?" The hand over Al's throat got removed and he took some deep breaths as he twisted his head. His assaulters were looking at a single black-haired foreign-looking guy with his arms crossed and a wide smile on his face. His eyes were slanted to the point where they looked closed.
"Oh, just your favourite Chinese next door," the raven-haired said. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size, like me?" he continued merrily. "At least you'll make some use of yourselves and give me a good opportunity to practice."
He went into an attack faster than Al could even see, and the guy sitting on top of him got kicked away with a straight side-kick against his side. In the same moment the two others started away from Al. They had no time to run away as the ponytailed Chinese boy hit one of them at two certain points in the chest, before quickly hunched down and spun his leg out to trip the other one. As the other two didn't give up and tried to attack him at once, he balanced on one hand, spread his legs out and hit both of them at the same time in the stomach with his feet.
The third bully had gotten enough by that and started to run away. The Chinese landed on his feet again and gave the other two an expectant look. They didn't have to decide for long before they set off after their friend and disappeared.
Al stared up at the older boy in awe and crawled back up on his feet. He was dressed in a yellow jacket with white flames on the back, and looked to be around Alfons' age. "Wow, that was impressive," Al said. "Thanks for—" He didn't get to finish before the elder stepped over to him and pulled him all the way up by the arm and started hurrying off while dragging him along.
"You're coming with me, kid," he said, just as cheerfully.
Al stared confused up at him. "What—?"
"I have some business with you."
Al struggled experimentally, but the other didn't let go. "You too?" he muttered.
"Please do not compare me with those pathetic third-rate idiots," the Chinese stated. "You simply caught my attention."
"Why?" Al wanted to know, twisting his head back to see if Mei was following, but he couldn't spot her anywhere.
"We can't talk out in public."
The older boy brought him to a section behind the main building and unlocked a door with a key. Al looked questioningly around himself as he was shoved forward inside. The other went after him and pushed him in the back to make him move on with it.
Al stumbled forward and recognized the room as a wardrobe. The black-haired beckoned him towards another door, leading into a large and empty gym hall. As Al stood confused, and the other closed the door tightly after him before grabbing Al again.
Alphonse got his back shoved against the nearest wall and his heart kick-started for real. "What do you want with me? Who are you?" he demanded.
"My name is Ling Yao," the Chinese introduced himself, his voice echoing in the dimness of the large gym hall. "I'm just wondering one thing. Why do you have more than one soul within you?"