Jellal sat at his desk in the back of the class room. Unlike his many class mates, who were enjoying homeroom by chatting with their friends and rushing to copy the homework they didn't do, he sat quietly reading a book he had borrowed from the school library. As far as friends went, he would probably say he didn't have any. He didn't talk much and aside from the tattoo on his face there was nothing to make him stand out. Even the way he dressed was plain. Right now he was wearing a black long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans.

As the bell rang and everyone began scrambling to their seats, Jellal marked the page in his book and took out his notebook and pencils. He sat silently. Jellal always found classes rather boring. He was pretty good at picking up whatever was being taught in class on his own while he did his homework, so he spent most of his classes just zoning out, or at least not paying his full attention. Usually he would pick up little crafts that he could do easily in class in order to occupy himself with. Recently Jellal had taken up origami. Hiding a stack of colorful paper in his desk, he pulled out a sheet of origami paper, this one was green, and began folding a crane.

While he worked on his crane, his interest in class suddenly spiked when he heard a certain name get called to solve the problem on the board. Jellal lifted his head to watch the girl as she stood from her desk and made her way to the front of the class room. Her long red hair fell to the middle of her back, even when held in a ponytail. The end of her blue skirt swayed with her hips as her long legs carried her to the chalk board.

Her name was Erza Scarlet. Jellal loved the way her name fit the beautiful color of her silky hair. She was smart. She was beautiful. She was athletic. She was strong. She was everything Jellal adored. Jellal would readily admit that he had a massive crush on the red haired beauty. But unfortunately for him, he was far too soft spoken and shy about these kinds of things. Not that it particularly mattered. He doubted a girl like that would every want to be with a guy like him. Unlike Erza, Jellal was quiet, shy, non-popular, non-athletic, and he didn't think he could even compare his looks to hers.

Jellal watched in wonder as Erza solved the problem on the board. When she finished, she turned around to walk back to her seat. For a split second Jellal thought that they might have actually made eye contact, but he figured that she must have been looking towards Lucy, her best friend, who sat at the desk behind him. Those two were always together, it was only natural that Erza would be looking towards her and not him. Upon realizing this, Jellal slumped back in his chair and went back to folding his colorful cranes.

The morning classes went by painfully slow. By the time lunch finally came around, Jellal had finished making a whole packets worth of cranes. Jellal made sure all of the cranes were tucked away in his desk before grabbing his lunch out of his bag and making his way towards the library. He would always go there during lunch. It was a quiet spot where he could eat his lunch and study for any tests or quizzes that would be later that day. And since he had run out of origami paper for the day, he wanted to pick up a new book to read during class, he was getting close to the end of the one he had previously started. When he arrived in the book filled hall, he immediately went up to the librarian's desk.

"Hey there Jellal. Looking for something?" Said a blue haired girl on the other side of the desk. Levy McGarden was the librarian's assistant. She loved books more than anyone Jellal had ever met and had read every single book in the library. She was one person Jellal could easily talk to, mostly because he saw her every time he came into the library.

"I was wondering if you have any suggestions." He said quietly, looking away from the girl.

"I've got just the thing." Levy momentarily disappeared under the desk. When she came back up, she passed Jellal a book with a hard cover. Jellal looked it over in his hands. "That one just came in yesterday. I finished it last night; it was amazing! I think you might like it."

"Thank you." Jellal tucked the book under his arm then walked deeper into the library. He found a quiet corner in the non-fiction section and sat down to eat. He started the book that he had just gotten from Levy while he ate. It was a rather large book and weighed just about as much as a brick, but he never turned down a recommendation. Although, that was mostly because he had no idea how to. Jellal had a hard time saying no to anyone. Since he was rather shy when it came to talking with others, he usually stayed away from people. Naturally, no one seemed to approach him too, seeing as he avoided everyone. So on the off chance that someone asked him for help, or offered him something, he didn't know how to handle the situation, so he just said yes.

Jellal had managed to finished his lunch very quickly, and after sitting around for a while, he grew bored and decided to just walk back to the class room. He continued reading the book while he walked, that way he could avoid making eye contact with anyone. He could tell he was almost back at the class room when he suddenly bumped into something, the force of which caused him to fall backwards and drop the book. Jellal sat on the ground, rather shocked. He was about to try and push himself up when suddenly a hand reached out in front of him.

"My bad. My bad." When Jellal looked at the person who had said this, he saw a boy with a cocky looking grin and pink hair. Jellal recognized him from one of the other classes, but if that wasn't enough to know who the boy was, then the rumors were. Natsu Dragneel, the crazy pink haired guy who was prone to rampages around the school and always wore a white scarf. Not only that, but he was also a close friend of Erza's. That's how Jellal really knew him. "Here, let me help you up."

"Um. Uh. It's, it's ok." Jellal muttered softly. He tried to shrink away from the boy.

"What are you talking about? I'm just helping you up." Before Jellal could do anything to stop him, Natsu grabbed his arm and pulled him up to his feet. Once Jellal was standing, Natsu ducked down to pick up the book. "Sorry about that. Guess I wasn't looking where I was going."

"Natsu, what's going on?" Lucy came walking up from behind Natsu. "You just ran off."

"Ah. I thought I saw that weird guy from yesterday so I ran after him. Then I hit this guy." Natsu pointed to Jellal with his thumb.

When Lucy looked over at Jellal, the boy felt the sudden urge to panic and flee. He clutched the book tighter in his arms and swallowed what little nerves he had.

"You're that guy who sits in front of me right?" Lucy asked. Jellal did nothing but nod in response. "I know this might be a little rude, but what was your name again?"

"J-j-je-" He tried to keep himself calm and respond clearly, but he didn't have the chance before someone beat him to it.

"Jellal Fernandes." Suddenly Erza came into the conversation as well. When she said his name so clearly, Jellal felt as if one of his many wishes had come true. But what made him happier was that she even knew his name to begin with. "Right?"

"Uh. Y-yeah." Jellal could feel himself trembling a bit. He wasn't used to having people talk to him. Combine that fact that Erza had joined in as well, and Jellal knew he was about to turn into a nervous wreck. He just hoped that Erza wouldn't notice.

"That's a pretty cool tattoo." Natsu butted in, throwing Jellal entirely off guard. The pink haired boy brought his face closer as if to further inspect the purple-red markings on his face. "Where did you get that?"

"Um. I've, um, had it s-since I was a kid." He brought one hand up to his face, as if to try and hide the tattoo from everyone.

"It's awesome!" Natsu crossed his arms behind his head and grinned.

"Ex-excuse me." Jellal whispered as he ran off, back towards the class room. He felt stupid for doing it, and felt like he was just looking bad in front of Erza, but his nerves had gotten the best of him and he had reached his breaking point.

Natsu, Lucy, and Erza all watched the blue haired teen as he ran. "What was that about?" Natsu muttered. "I didn't freak him out or something, did I?"

"No idea." Lucy shrugged. "I'll see if I can get the chance to ask him during class."

With that the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period. Lucy and Erza made their way into the class room and to their desks. Jellal had a brief panic attack in his head when he remembered that Lucy would be sitting right behind him. He had forgotten that even if he ran, he wouldn't really be able to get away. Jellal had never been so uncomfortable in his life. Feeling the stares of the blonde girl burning into his back while he attempted to continue reading the book. He almost felt like he was going to vomit.

"Psst. Jellal." Lucy whispered, tapping his shoulder before leaning forward and slipping a note onto his desk. Nervously, Jellal unfolded the piece of paper and read what was on it.

'You ok? You just ran off.'

Jellal scrambled to try and figure out what to do. He decided he needed to respond, so he grabbed a pen and wrote down what he would have tried to say in a normal conversation.

'Yeah. Sorry. I'm not good with people.'

The next part was just trying to figure out how to send the note back. No one had ever passed a note to him before. He knew the basic idea of it. Send a message to a friend without getting caught. Make it look as natural as possible. The only problem was that he didn't know how to make it look natural. He decided to wait until the teacher was turned away before he turned around to place the note back on Lucy's desk. Then he turned back around and waited nervously. He could hear Lucy opening the note up, and then scribble something down. Once again, the piece of paper was thrown over his shoulder and landed on his desk.

'Ok then. I was just wondering. Glad to know you're alright.'

Jellal nodded, not wanting to continue talking. He slumped back into his seat and went back to his book. His nervousness was starting to go away as class went on. Thankfully, after the note, he didn't feel like he was being stared down anymore. Lucy was leaving him alone. He no longer had to try and swallow up his nerves.

When the last bell rang, Jellal spent no time at all packing up all of his things and quickly leaving the class room. His head hung low, he walked through the halls, doing his best not to hit anyone like he had the last time. Jellal lived the end of the day. He could go home and just stay away from people. Get his work done when he felt like it, not be bothered by what other people thought. Going home was great.