I plan to make this a long fanfiction including most of the popular fairy tail ships. It is set in an alternate universe, without magic and based in high school. I want to show a lot of growth and development for the characters as it goes along so I hope I do well!

Enjoy the fanfiction and I'd love to hear your feedback~

•Back to Magnolia•

Once upon a time, Erza Scarlet lived a happy life.

Okay, maybe her life wasn't always happy and it certainly didn't get off to a good start, but that's beside the point. Since being adopted, she had lived happily in Onibus town. She was home schooled and learned lots, watched the theatre productions which were a regular occurrence in Onibus and learnt self defence. Maybe she had no friends and maybe she didn't know how to talk to her adoptive parents or people for that matter, but she was alive! And... well... Very resistant to change. The problem was, Erza's foster father had gotten a new job in a town called Magnolia and her foster mother (who was a nurse) would be working at Magnolia General Hospital. Of course this meant that Erza would have to move school. Moving school meant meeting new people, she had never been good with people. Possibly because she had avoided people ever since she had been adopted at the age of eight. But the past is the past for a reason. The red head had to look forward and so she did.

The train ride was four hours long and Erza felt aches in her muscles, but she didn't complain. To get one thing straight, her adoptive parents were not poor. They were okay with money, but this new job meant that it would never be a stretch to pay the bills on time. Both 'parents' would be getting a large pay rise in their new jobs, so moving wasn't an issue. The only problem was, there were no good home schoolers in Magnolia. Erza would have to go to public school. Her parents thought it was time for that anyway. Magnolia High was a high achieving school. It had something for every kind of person, Erza had to admit that the school website looked promising. But the people. Worry started to kick in for the red head, but she kept her cool. She had another week to settle into her new house before the school year kicked in.

Erza walked behind her parents who were trying to find the uniform shop. Seriously, how many schools had uniform? Well... Erza had never been to school so she didn't know.

Finally, they found it. The shop bell rang as they entered and the shop was filled with blazers, skirts, pants and more. It was a small shop, so Erza could clearly see the other family in the shop. A boy with blue hair stood behind a small lady and he was too busy looking at his phone to listen to her. Erza stared at him, feeling a sense of recognition. At that moment he looked up and saw her staring, she blushed and looked down quickly. It was deeply embarrassing for her to meet new people, eye contact was a killer. What if this boy went to her school? He'd seen her looking his way, how awkward she had made it. Or perhaps the girl was letting her thoughts go overdrive again...

After time seemed to be mocking her with its slow pace, the right size of uniform had been bough for Erza. Her mother and father (as they liked to be called) were laughing about the expense of uniform. The blue haired boy was buying the same uniform as her, so he was clearly going to the same school. She couldn't shake the familiarity of him though, then again this is the town where Erza lived for eight years. She could've seen him once as children.

Erza thought their new house was nice. The old one in Onibus was comfortable and she had her own room, but this time she had her own floor. The house had a basement, first floor, second floor and third floor (which was once a loft). The best thing about it all was this : Erza had been allowed to have the bedroom on the third floor. It was huge. She had plenty of space, despite all of the boxes lying around and to top it all off - she had her own bathroom. It had a bath that could fit about three people, as well as a shower, toilet and sink. Erza had never felt such luxury. She thought back to a small room with two beds, her bed being set on fire and her few possessions being smashed. A shudder went though her body and she focused on the here and now. The past would not haunt her, not anymore. Being back in Magnolia meant there may be more chances for bad memories to occur, but Erza was strong now.

Of course the first day of school would be daunting for anyone, but Erza had never been to school before. She had never really spoken to anyone her age since she was younger. As she was dropped off by the school gates, she felt her heartbeat getting faster. . The main building was huge and very modern, it had at least three floors. How many students attended this place? Erza looked down and walked quickly to the office, if only she knew where it was...

And then it happened, Erza made her first mistake. She walked into someone.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" A girl with light brown hair and glasses yelled.

"S-Sorry..." Erza uttered.

"Wait, who the heck are you?" The girl questioned. Suddenly, more girls crowded around.

"I'm new..." Erza gulped.

"Hi new!" A girl with short white hair chimed in playfully.

The other girls giggled, Erza just felt extremely uncomfortable.

"I meant your name." The first girl said, she sounded irritated.

"I- My name is Erza."

"Erza? I'll see you later girls, I'm going to take Erza here to the office!" A girl with long white hair told them. "I'm Mira!"

Erza nodded and the other girls waved as Mira began to walk away, Erza following awkwardly.

"Ignore Evergreen, she's nicer than she acts..." Mira said, but Erza just looked confused. "She's the one who had glasses on!"

Erza nodded.

"And the girl who called you new, that was my younger sister - Lisanna."

Erza now knew the names of three people, she wasn't sure what she thought of them.

"Ahh, here we are! The school will look after you now. Be sure to come and find me later!" Mira smiled and with that, she was gone.

Erza wasn't quite sure what was going to happen, but she was ready to face it.

Her form class (the place where pupils first got registered) consisted of mostly new faces, but there were some she recognised. The girls from earlier and the blue haired boy. Erza was introduced as being new and the form tutor advised the class to help her out during the first weeks. She had sat at the back and tried to avoid people, the concept of making friends was scary and she saw no point. Erza was at school to learn, not make friends. The first bell went and she saw that her first lesson of the school year would be English. Good, she loved reading.

"Hey, Erza?" A blonde haired girl asked.

"Yes?" Erza responded.

"I'm Lucy and I have English with you next, so I'll take you there!" Lucy offered.

"Okay, thank you very much." Erza replied formally.

"One thing to note about lessons here, we are given a 'seating plan', which means that you don't get a choice of where you sit." Lucy explained.

Erza nodded, so it wouldn't be as easy to isolate herself after all...

The English classroom was set out in a few tables of four. The class was stood at the back of the room, waiting to be seated. The sighs of relief and distress could be heard as people were sorted.

Erza was sat next to the blue haired boy and opposite her was a pink haired boy and Lucy, who seemed very irritated.

"Aww Jellal, I'm so happy look!" The pink haired boy pointed to Lucy. "I'm sat next to a future author! English will be easy!"

"You will not copy off me Natsu! Do you hear!" Lucy demanded.

"I only meant that you could help me..." Nastu faked a pout which made Lucy grin, until she realised that she was grinning and her face returned to a scowl.

"So, red head, who are you?" Natsu asked.

"I'm Erza." She told him and the blue haired boy turned to her with a brief expression of shock. She turned to him and their eyes met and rested on each other's for too long, before they both turned away in embarrassment.

"My name is Jellal." The blue haired boy told her, without looking at her.

Lucy looked between them suspiciously.

"Do you two know each other?" Lucy asked.

"Well-"

"I just moved here, remember?" Erza reminded her.

"Of course..." Lucy agreed.

Finally, everyone was seated and the class were told that they would be reading and learning about a midsummer night's dream. Everyone was leant a copy and Erza was secretly very happy, she loved the play and had seen it acted out twice in Onibus.

Throughout the course of the day, Erza met many new people in lessons. Lucy had introduced Erza to her two best friends : Levy and Juvia. Erza had been spending most of the day with them. The four girls were sat on the grass at lunchtime when Juvia made a noise of disgust.

"What is it Juvia?" Levy asked.

"More like who is it..." Juvia was looking at a crowd of people and the other three turned their heads.

The boys were playing football (soccer) and three girls were making their way onto the pitch. To describe them, short skirts, buttons undone, loose ties...

"Okay Erza, time to educate you on what matters." Lucy began.

"You see that one? That's Sherry Blendy. She is definitely one of the ditziest girls you will ever encounter." Levy began.

"That one with the long white hair, that's Angel Sorano." Juvia scowled at the girl. "She has probably dated more guys than anyone else in school, her latest victim : Gray Fullbuster."

"And Minerva Orlando... Have you ever heard of Satan? She is basically the reincarnation of the devil itself. She uses people to get what she wants and doesn't care who gets hurt in the process." Lucy explained.

Erza watched them curiously. The boys stopped playing football and went to talk to the girls. Juvia was glaring at Angel, who had pulled Gray into a kiss and she even snapped a pen in anger. Erza turned to her and Juvia just shrugged innocently. Lucy and Levy were clearly used to this sort of thing. Erza noticed Jellal ruffle his hair and then walk over to the group that they were watching. He looked bored.

"Erza, some advice..." Levy started.

"Whatever you do, don't get involved with them."

"We call them the plastics, because they are fake and we can all see through them. We also happen to like Mean Girls." Juvia told her with a wink.

Erza made a mental note to watch mean girls, but if these three nice girls hated 'the plastics' there must be a good reason, but she had yet to see it.

If she had learnt one thing today, it was that school was certainly going to be an interesting adventure.