Hey, everyone! I finally managed an update of this! Yeah! Three cheers for Melissa! (Cough) Okay, I'm getting silly, heh. Well, I hope that I managed to make this chapter more interesting than the original one. I know that none of the chapters in the original were bad, but slow parts did hit, so I hope that this is more interesting. I also made sure to pay attention to which symbols are removed by ffdotnet upon submission, so hopefully the math problem will make more sense this time, hehe. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own a rubber duck. Wait, what's the relevance of that? Um...I could call Ed a rubber duck, and then it would apply, right?

Ed: I'm not a rubber duck!

I finally arrived at school just as the bell rang. Out of breath, I opened the door to the school building and rushed inside, running through the hall as quickly as I could get away with without getting myself in trouble. Finally, I found my locker and I struggled to the darn thing opened. What was my combination again? Oh right, 5, 2, 5, 4. The lock finally popped, and I opened my locker. I quickly took off my gloves and my sunglasses, as I wouldn't need them here since no one ever paid attention to my eye color if they weren't close friends or family, and I grabbed my math book plus a few other books that I'd need. I stuck my auto-mail right hand into my pocket to avoid being too conspicuous and rushed to class.

The teacher was already in the class room grading papers when I came in. Great, that meant that he would mark me down as tardy. I sighed as I made my way over to my desk, plopped my books onto it, and sat down. There didn't seem to be any point in attempting to come in quietly, since that would just make it look like I thought the teacher was stupid enough not to notice me, which he wasn't.

My teacher looked up from what he was doing and noticed me sitting down at my desk. He gave me a light smile, which I hadn't quite expected, and then said, "A little late today, are we? Did we have too much fun last night and forget to get up this morning?" The other kids in my class giggled, as they had the tendency to do anytime the teacher made a spectacle of one of the students. Instead of giggling, I just blushed and nodded my head, trying to force a smile. The teacher returned my smile and clucked a bit in response, perhaps because of my naïve honesty, and said, "I understand, Miss Greene; I was young once myself. I'll let it slide this time; just don't make it a habit."

A few nervous laughs escaped me while I let my eyes fall to the floor. My cheeks were still burning from the embarrassment of being made the center of attention, but I finally managed to say, "Th-Thanks."

"Don't mention it," he said as though he didn't hear me, "Now get your math books out and turn to page 107."

I groaned inwardly. Math in and of itself was fine. If I had been going to a normal school, I wouldn't have minded half so much, but this was a private school that my parents had chosen to send me to. The strange thing about this school was that they had the crazy notion that sixth graders needed to know algebra. Heck, pre-algebra was even started in fourth grade, if not sooner.

I leaned over the book and made to tear my hair out as a bunch of ugly numbers stared back at me in a menacing way, just daring me to try and conquer them. The dizzy feeling that was my constant uninvited guest began to manifest itself again, and I took to rubbing my forehead to aleve the feeling somewhat.

Edward must have noticed my reaction, because he suddenly spoke up inside my mind. (Have you ever considered learning alchemy?)

Alchemy? Yeah, I would have loved to be able to learn such an art, but I hadn't a clue where to start. As soon as I though that, Edward was speaking again. (Alchemy requires advanced knowledge of mathematics, especially Geometry and Trigonometry, and both of those require a foundational knowledge of Algebra. Arithmetic by itself won't cut it.)

I sat up straight and stared into space. Yeah, he'd gotten me there, that was for sure, but I didn't want to give in so easily. Those numbers on my math page still weren't looking too friendly. I felt him sigh and roll his eyes inside of me, and then he went right back to speaking to me. (I can help you if you'd like; I'm good at math; but I'm not going to do your work for you.)

I nodded somewhat subconsciously and began chewing on my pencil, trying to make up my mind as to whether that was what I really wanted or not. Yes, I really wanted to learn alchemy, if it was even possible on this side of the Gate, but Algebra…bleck! Maybe I could handle it better if they'd give me smaller assignments, but of course they never did that.

After a moment, I realized that I was chewing on my pencil, and so I brought it back down to my paper where it belonged. I sighed. Sure, Edward, go ahead. I could really use your help. I could have sworn that I suddenly felt him get excited as he directed me to the first math problem on the page, which just so happened to be ab plus ba equals bc and b equals 3.

(Okay,) said Edward, taking on a teacherly tone of voice ((Is 'teacherly' even a word?)) (The first thing you need to do is write it out better so that it doesn't confuse you later. All those letters that are next to each other are actually multiplied.)

(So then, I should write it a plu equals b x c?)

(That depends. Are you still being taught to use the multiplication symbol to multiply with, or have you been introduced to parentheses yet?)

I acknowledged to him that we were indeed using parentheses now, so he directed me to rewrite the problem so that it had said parentheses around each and every letter. Well, it certainly looked like he wasn't about to do my work for me, though that was probably a good thing if I ever wanted to learn the material myself. I still say ugh, but picked up my pencil without further complain and rewrote the problem as follows:

(a)(b) plus (b)(a) equals (b)(c).

(Good,) said Edward as soon as I'd finished writing, (Now…do you remember what it said that 'b' represents?)

I had to look back at the original problem to remember, but the answer to his question wasn't hard to find. (b equals 3), I said.

(Good, now rewrite the problem again, substituting all the b's for 3's.)

Without another word, I went and once again rewrote the problem, this time coming up with (a)(3) plus (3)(a) equals (3)(c). Now if I could just figure out a second number, the third number would be easy to find.

(Look at what you have left,) said Edward, (You have two a's and one c. It will take three times the amount of those two a's to get three times the amount of that one c…but that's kind of hard to keep track of. All of the groups have 3 in them, so just blot three out of your mind and tell me what you have left.)

(a plus a equals c,) I said, sighing a bit. I wasn't trying to be ungrateful for Edward's help…at least he was keeping my mind on track, but I couldn't help but be a little bored. I leaned by head onto my fist and continued with the problem.

(Right,) said Edward, (So how many a's does it take to get one c?)

(Two.)

(That would mean that 'c' is twice the amount of 'a', and also that it's an even number, since it can be divided by two.)

I waited without saying or doing anything for a moment, for I sensed that the key to solving this problem was just around the corner. Edward smiled, and then said, (You're almost there. Just pick a number and try it to see if it works. Remember, one you find 'a', you'll have 'c' as well.)

I thought on that for a moment and tried to do some preliminary calculations in my head to save myself some time. The number '2' seemed like a decent thing to try, so I rewrote the problem once more, trying to remember everything that Edward had coached me on:

(2)(3) plus (3)(2) equals (3)(4).

Well, it certainly looked plausible, like it was actually possible to solve. In the back of my mind, it seemed right, but the only way to know for sure was to solve it. Here goes nothing.

Six…plus…six…equals…twelve! Of all things, it actually worked! (See? It's easy when you break it down step by step.) I was so excited that I couldn't help but agree with him. I would have even given him a great big hug had he not been in my own body. Actually, come to think of it, I would have hugged him regardless of whether he'd helped me with my math or not. I AM technically a fangirl, after all. All the same, I couldn't stop thanking him for his help.

He smiled in response and then said, (It's no problem. It's the least I can do for the person that lets me share their body without a fuss.) Heh, so he thinks that that's such a big sacrifice on my part? See previous fangirl statement, as it applies here too.

Just a few minutes before math period ended, I finished my assignment and handed it in at the teacher's desk, drawing a very shocked look from him. I smiled mischievously, knowing that this was the first time I had ever gotten my math assignment done during math period, and he knew it too. He was apparently quite curious about how well I could have possible done since I had gone faster than I normally would have, because he pushed aside the stack of papers that he was grading and graded mine immediately. I nervously shifted my weight from one foot to the other and back again as I watched him. He had his eyebrows pinched together and a concerned look on his face. I knew that he was wondering if I'd cheated somehow, since there were extra copies of the teacher's manuals on the other side of the room so that we could double check our work on the assignments that allowed it.

The teacher continued going down the problems one by one, not marking any with his red pen, until he came to one problem of mine and hovered his pen over it, looking back and forth between my paper and the book. I gripped the edge of the desk and leaned forward. Was one of my problems wrong? How could that be, since Edward had been tutoring me?

Finally, the teacher sat back and laughed. When he had calmed down, he turned to look at me, then sat up straight and laced his fingers. "Miss Greene, as I'm sure you know, you getting your math assignment does this quickly is most unexpected, and I had to make sure that you hadn't…well…copied your answers out of the manual, even though I doubted you'd do that."

The man pulled his hands apart, sat back, and crossed his legs. "But you see," he said as he picked up my math paper, "You have an answer that is inconsistent with the grade book. Your answer's right, the grade book's wrong!" He leaned forward and once again laced his fingers together. "So tell me, how did you manage that?"

My first reaction was to be nervous, but I quickly realized that he wasn't assuming I had cheated, but was merely curious as to my method. I relaxed and smiled a bit. "I…have a friend…he's really good at math…he broke it down for me, and well…" I scratched the back of my head, hoping I didn't sound too nervous. Everything I had said was the truth, but I didn't want to tell too much. After all, who would believe me if I were to say that the ghost of Edward Elric inhabited my body?

The teacher leaned forward over his desk and finally smiled for me, helping to ease the last of my tension away. "Well, your friend has just made my job a lot easier. Tell him 'thank you' for me next time you see him."

"He'll get the message."

The teacher looked at his watch. "There's still ten minutes to math period. If you have nothing else to do, you're welcome to go outside and take a break." Amazingly enough, I didn't have anything else to do, so I thanked my teacher and then headed outside for a short break. That was one perk about going to a private school, I guessed. You still got break, recess, whatever you chose to call it, no matter how old you were. That was something I was going to miss when I went to public school the next year.

Except that I had a constant companion to talk to, the day passed by pretty normally. Well, science didn't count. Our teacher had asked us how one could pick up an ice cube with a piece of string without tying a knot in it. One thing I learned very quickly about Edward was that you don't get him started on chemistry, not even the simple stuff. He took over, ran up to the teacher's desk, and grabbed the string and the ice cube, all the while I was sure that everyone was sending funny looks my way…our way.

He placed the string on the ice cube and then sprinkled a little salt on it, much to the teacher's amazement, wondering how I could have known that. After a moment, Edward carefully pulled the string up, and the ice cube came with it. Before the teacher could even ask if I knew how that worked, Edward was already explaining that the salt caused the temperature of the ice to increase, thereby melting it, but since only a small amount was melted, it would freeze again due to the influence of its immediate environment, i.e. the rest of the ice cube that was still frozen. The string would then be frozen to the surface of the ice cube, allowing one to pick it up without tying the string.

The teacher didn't say anything for a few moments after the conclusion of Edward's speech, as though completely astonished that I could possibly know all that. I was surprised too…but then, this WAS Edward we were talking about. Within moments, the teacher started clapping, soon followed by the rest of the class. Edward took this opportunity to bow a few times. What a dork.

Finally, the period when I would have to go to P.E. came. I had been dreading this all day, because there was no way I'd be able to hide my auto-mail in P.E., especially not with THAT teacher. One the way there I grabbed my gloves out of my locker on the slim chance that I could get away with in, though I knew that it was most likely hopeless.

As soon as I set foot in the gymnasium, my gym teacher confronted me. A chill ran down my spine. I had never liked her much. She tended to pick on me for being a slow runner, but it wasn't really my fault. I was so badly coordinated that I tended to trip over my own feet, and I hadn't a clue what the cause was.

Needless to say, it wasn't long before she'd spotted my gloves and had demanded that I take them off. I tried using the same trick as Edward had that morning about my hands being cold, but I neither had Edward's tact, nor was I speaking to the right person for it to work. She had simply said that my hands would warm up soon enough and once again demanded that I take off my gloves. With great reluctance, I removed them. My auto-mail was now exposed.

"Oh, a remnant from your Halloween costume, I see," she said as she crossed her arms and placed her hand on her chin as if she was thinking. It almost looked like she was pretending to be amused, but anyone could tell that she really was not. She sent me a dirty look and told me to take that 'thing' off, because we were wasting time.

"Please, Teacher," I begged, "This isn't a glove, it's a prosthetic arm!" I can't just take it off!"

The teacher just threw her head back and laughed. Yeah, I guess that that statement did sound pretty ridiculous. A smooth talker, I am not.

"That's a new one," said the teacher, suddenly returning to seriousness. "Take it off now, or I'm calling your parents."

I cringed. I seriously didn't want to get them involved in this…so I guessed that the only thing I could do to avoid getting them involved was to pull off the auto-mail and show her…but, come to think of it, I didn't even know how that was done.

(That's okay, I can do it,) said Edward, trying to be supportive through all of this. I guessed that he felt a bit guilty for getting me involved, but I didn't hold anything against him. I actually enjoyed his company so much that I was willing to deal with auto-mail in order to have him around.

(Is it going to hurt?) I asked.

(Extremely much, once I put it back on.)

I asked Ed to keep control of me through that whole ordeal, since I was sure that I'd just end up screaming like a girl. Well, I AM a girl, but that was beside the point. I felt Edward's power increase inside me until I had once again lost control of my body. He slid the sleeve back on my right arm so that the auto-mail was now completely exposed, and flipped a few levers. He then tugged on the arm, and to my surprise, it cam out easier than I would have expected. Edward then turned to face the aghast faces in the room that were staring at the spectacle before them. He'd gotten his message across.

Finally, he turned back to the teacher and said in a somewhat conceited tone of voice, "May I please put my arm back on now?" The teacher didn't know what to say in regards to what she was seeing, so she just nodded, jaw fully dropped and everything. I was surprised that she was managing not to drool.

(Here we go,) he said, (Brace yourself.)

Ed put the auto-mail arm back into the socket on my shoulder and paused for a second before pushing it all the way in. I remembered from the show that once all the nerves connected, that there would be extraordinary pain for a time. I wasn't looking forward to experiencing that. All the same, Ed took a deep breath and shoved the arm all the way in. Almost instantly, pain seemed to shoot through my whole body, originating from my shoulder of course, and then going up to my head and down to my feet. Who would have known that our bodies were connected that way? This was hardly the time for making observations though, as the pain was worse than anything I'd ever felt.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't move even that much. Edward was doing a good job of keeping control of me. The only screams anyone heard were his, and he was merely screaming through his teeth with his jaw clenched. I couldn't believe that he was that tough in the face of this kind of pain. I would have been bawling if I could have.

No one could tell how much he was really suffering, and he probably would have been able to keep up that illusion until the pain had passed if my body hadn't been weaker than his spirit. Everyone looked on for several moments, watching us and listening to the muffled screams…and then, we fainted.

Hope you enjoyed that. Leave me some reviews and let me know what you think, and also let me know if you think that Ed's really a rubber duck or not. I think he is, he thinks he's not. Heh...um...okay, now I'm getting random, and I still need to go type up the update for "The Call of Atlantis", so I guess I'd better quit wasting time calling Ed a rubber duck...to be honest, I don't even know where that came from in the first place. Hehe...anyway, hope to see you around again soon.