Chapter 7

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Uhughhhh..." Ed groaned miserably, rolling over and clamping a pillow over his ears. He was no longer having to eat and sleep for the both of them, but he still wasn't a morning person, and likely never would be.

"Kids, time to get up! You're going to be late!" Josie trilled cheerfully from the kitchen.

Ed groaned again. "Why did we agree to this?"

Al laughed and shook his head at his brother. He was already dressed and ready to leave.

"It's the safest place for us to be while the Strongholds are at work until-"

"Until the Bureau figures out what happened and how we got here. Yeah, yeah. But did it have to mean going back to school?"

"If we're stuck here, we may as well learn something. It's not like you can just go out and get another job with the military; apparently you have to be 18 to join here. It's good to have options, in case..."

"We're going to get home one day, Al," Ed declared firmly. "Stop worrying about it."

"Well, in any case, I think school's going to be fun," said Al, picking up his new backpack and leaping down the stairs.

It has been an eventful week, Ed reflected, to say the least. Josie had met with some high ups at this group they called the Bureau, and they had decided it was almost certain the brothers had come through the rift, and almost equally certain they had not come alone. Torchwood, whoever that was, had found a wrench and some other interesting articles near the armour found at the scene, and concluded that the rift was likely inter-dimensional instead of temporal, whatever that meant.

No one at The Bureau quite knew what to do with the Elrics; they couldn't just put them on a plane to Cardiff and hope for the best, there were procedures and policies to be followed. Also, neither the Bureau nor Torchwood officially existed, so collaboration between the two organizations was proving trickier then anticipated. It was Josie who pointed out that Sky High was one of the safest places in America, and while they didn't technically have super-powers, the brothers' ritual-free alchemy was close enough to pass as them until something else could be done. Finally, after much hemming and hawing and a few strongly worded emails, it was agreed that Al would be registered at Sky High as a sophomore with Will, and Ed as a junior with Will's friend Warren.

This, of course, necessitated the Elric's participation in the great American tradition of back-to-school shopping. The brothers had one small bag with them when they came though the rift, which was eventually found by the Cardiff constabulary and helpfully air-mailed to them; it would arrive a few weeks into the fall semester. As it had only contained a change of clothes each and two sets of Ed's uniform robes, it wouldn't have helped all that much regardless. They were in dire need of clothing and supplies, which the agency agreed to reimburse the Strongholds for from its discretionary fund. Josie thought this would be a good opportunity for the boys to meet some of their soon-to-be classmates, and thus Saturday found them at the Maxville Mall.

Will introduced them to his girlfriend, Layla, and his friends, Zack, Ethan, Magenta, and Warren. He'd explained the situation to his friends as best he could beforehand; they had lots of questions but agreed to try and not overwhelm the brothers during their first meeting.

Ed took one look at Warren's all black ensemble and demanded to be taken to whichever stores Warren patronized. Al, Will, and Magenta couldn't help bursting into laughter at this, and Warren looked a little embarrassed but mumbled something about "Hot Topic" and "Walmart".

and that's as far as I got to, kids. Sorry about abandoning this, but I thought I may as well put as much as I found of it into the world