Levy sighed to herself as she walked into her dorm. It was her sophomore year in college, but she still hated it. She had read online that it gets better as you get closer to your last year, but that was bullshit. If anything, it got worse. At least for Levy. She was used to staying in a dorm on her own, not wanting to give anybody a chance due to the fact that everyone she's given a chance to has left her and bullied her to an extreme.

Levy only had one friend in the real world, and that was a teacher. Online, however, she had more than one friend. Her closest friend online was a man who goes by the screen name of "G. ". Levy doesn't know his actual name or what he looks like/sounds like, but she does know that he's one of her closest friends. They call each other by their screen names or just "G" and "L". He's always been there for her throughout the past two years they've known each other and he's helped her get through a lot of problems. Both were strict about Internet privacy, so neither of them ever asked where the other lived or anything like that. The only thing they know is that L is 19 and G is 21.

Levy put her new books on her bed and went to take a shower. She got up early this morning to go for a run and rewarded herself by going to her favorite coffee shop, which happens to be a bookstore as well. She bought three books, each completely different from each other, and she got coffee to go. When Levy got out of shower, she saw her phone screen light up. She saw that it was from G and she quickly dressed, then read it.

'First day of college, I'll text you when I get a chance. Have a good day. ~G.'

Levy smiled at her friend's words and thought it was a bit coincidental that he also starts his first day of the year in college today too. She brushed it off and answered with a thank you and good luck. Levy combed her short blue hair and looked in the mirror. She looked disappointed with her outfit, since she used to wear pretty dresses with color and be so happy. She made it a habit to wear black, that way she just blends in with the shadows and since no one gives her a second thought, no one gives her any trouble.

She already dealt with bullies teasing her about how much she reads and getting physical. More than once she's walked into Mirajane's classroom to get cleaned up, but it's not like Levy couldn't hold her own in a fight. Mirajane was her creative writing teacher, and she was the one friend Levy had in real life. Mirajane prefers her students to call her by her first name, considering she's only five years older than her students. Levy never reveals who did what to her, or that anyone even did it; she blames it on her clumsiness. Which was partly true, Levy did hurt herself often because of how clumsy she is, but Mira knows it's much more than her small friend's clumsiness and is often saddened that her friend won't let her help.

Levy walked towards her first class, making a stop at her locker first. She heard a group of popular girls behind her, laughing and gossiping about who did what, what happened last night, and who did who. She rolled her eyes at their stupidity and ignorance and opened her locker.

"Look who we have here, girls!" The "leader" of their group said. "If it isn't the little bookworm!"

The other girls smirked at Minerva's comment. Minerva walked over to Levy and wrapped an arm around her, leading her away from her locker.

"I suggest you get off of me before I rearrange your face," Levy threatened.

This had the whole group of girls laughing at her. "As if you could take all of us!"

Levy pulled out of Minerva's grip and walked to her locker, ignoring the group of girls. She closed the locker and started walking towards her first period. The hallway was crowded, but not so crowded that you couldn't move.

Minerva smirked at her group of girls and shoved Levy from behind, making her fall into a tall man's back. The girls broke out into a fit of giggles, knowing Levy would get beat by the man. They, of course, knew who he was, although Levy had no idea.

The man turned around and was surprised to see a little shrimp in front of him. He looked down at her, then to the group of girls who he assumed shoved her. There was no way this shorty could push him hard enough to make him stumble slightly.

"What the fuck!?" He exclaimed.

Levy started stammering, unsure of what to say, but was cut off by the man's booming voice.

"I've had enough of your shit, Minerva! Stop pretending you're better than every other person because of your daddy. No one, not even your group of "friends", likes you. So get the fuck out of here," he yelled, adding, "Oh, and if I see you tormenting this girl again, you'll regret it."

Minerva looked shocked as she quickly fled the building. Levy had a look of utter surprise as she watched Minerva leave, then looked back to the man.

"I-I'm sorry.." Levy said nervously.

The man just shrugged and stared down at her. "If they give you any more problems, let me know."

Levy nodded and started walking towards her class. A hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"What's your name, shrimp?" He asked.

"I-its Levy," She whispered.

"I think I prefer Shrimp. Name's Gajeel," the large man said with a chuckle.

Levy forced a smile and looked at the man. He doesn't seem like a friendly person, yet here he is, being friendly. Levy started feeling a tight kind of pain in her chest and quickly said, "I have to go. Bye."

Levy walked off, disappearing in the large group of people. Gajeel watched her leave, stunned at what had just happened. He shrugged and walked to his first class with one thought in his head:

'Who are you, Shrimp?'

Gajeel's POV:

"I have to go. Bye," the small blue haired girl said to me as she quickly ran off.

I stood there for a moment, wondering why she seems so familiar. I headed to my first class and continued thinking about that girl. Normally I wouldn't give a second thought to some second year getting picked on, but this has been happening to way too many kids and I'm sick of Minerva's bullshit.

(Third Person POV)

Gajeel opened the door to his first class, Music. It was basically a jam session for students with an open period and it was his second favorite class of the day. Gajeel set his backpack down by one of his closest friends and grabbed his guitar.

"Hey man," Gray greeted him. He had his notebook in front of him and a pencil between his teeth. He was writing a new song, which took him very little time.

"Stripper," Gajeel said. "That a new song?"

Gajeel and Gray like to dabble with music and they occasionally go to some open mic nights at their favorite club. They work on songs together and write music, since it's such an important part in their lives.

"Yeah, I just started it last night," Gray said, "it should be finished by Wednesday, at the latest."

Gajeel nodded and began tuning his acoustic guitar, not listening to Gray talk about some show he saw last night. He could only focus on that small girl who looked so out of place, yet so well camouflaged.

Gray started waving his hand in Gajeel's face, "Hey, you there?"

Gajeel looked up and stopped his mindless plucking. "Yeah, sorry."

Gray frowned at his friend and asked, "Are you alright? You aren't being you today."

Natsu Dragneel came running through the door, holding a pair of drumsticks, and went straight to Gray and Gajeel.

"Hey guys!" Natsu yelled.

Gray covered his ears. "Could you pipe down? I'm trying to talk!"

"Say that to my face, stripper!" Natsu retorted.

He and Gray got into a pointless argument and Gajeel sighed and pulled his phone out. He had a new message from L and his mood lightened a little.

"Hey, how's your day going? (:"

Gajeel smiled at his phone: this girl, he doesn't even know what she looks like, what she sounds like, or who she really is, but just one message showing that she cares is enough for him to have a better day.

"It's going better now, I guess. What about your day? You started your first day today as well, right?" Gajeel replied.

He looked up at Gray and Natsu, who were bickering incessantly and noticed Gray had stripped from his clothes again. "Hey Stripper! Quit being a perv!"

Gray looked down and let out a cry of surprise and Natsu burst out laughing.

"Why am I stuck with you two idiots?" Gajeel said with a scowl. The three were all friends, but Gajeel preferred to be alone.

At lunch, Levy grabbed her bag and quickly retreated towards her dorm room. She made it halfway across campus before she heard her name being hissed.

Levy turned around to see who it was, but she couldn't find the body the hiss belonged to and began walking faster to her room. She made it to her door with no problems, but found it was open. Levy cautiously walked in to see her room a mess. She saw symbols all over her walls with the words, "Fairy Scum!"

All of Levy's belongings were ripped up or drowned in spray paint. Levy was horrified and quickly ran to Mirajane's classroom.

After hearing what Levy had told her, Mirajane knew it was time. She had Levy stay in the classroom while she went off to visit the Master.

"Master, Phantom Lord has done it again. To Levy this time. I think it's time," Mirajane said.

Master Makarov nodded and stood. "Gather the others in your classroom, I'll prepare the Guild."

Mirajane obeyed and walked over to the P.A. system. "Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel Redfox, Lucy Heartfilia, and Juvia Lockser, please report to room C-24."

Once all of the students arrived in Mirajane's classroom, Master Makarov stood on the desk.

"Alright, listen up. This is very important and you must all understand this," Makarov said. "You six are here for a reason; we're placing you in a different... School. It will be considered a school in the sense that you are to learn magic."

The students gasped in disbelief. Certainly magic can't be real, can it?

While some of the students began throwing questions at the Master, Levy looked down at her phone to answer G's previous message.

"My day? It's just getting worse... I can't believe my day," she said.

"Listen up, you brats!" Makarov yelled. "Magic certainly is real and you are to learn it! You'll be joining a guild, called Fairy Tail. Each of you have experienced problems with a dark guild called Phantom Lord. That will be explained at a later time, just collect your items and be ready to leave by," Makarov looked at the clock on the wall, "promptly 7 p.m. You are to meet here."

With that, he walked out of the room with Mirajane close behind him.

Gajeel read the message from L and couldn't help but feel sad for her, even though his day was going just as bad. He answered with, "You too? Damn."

He looked up to see the small blue-haired girl staring out the window behind him, holding back tears. He could care less about most people, but there was something... Familiar to her, something that screamed, "Talk to her! Help her!"

The others cleared the room and Gajeel stood up to approach the girl. He was stopped by Gray, who asked if he was coming.

"What? Oh, yeah. I just wanted to grab something real quick," Gajeel said swiftly.

"Alright, I'll meet you back at the dorm," Gray said.

Gajeel watched Gray walk out and walked hesitantly over to the girl. "Hey there, Shrimp..."

Levy sniffled and wiped her eyes quickly. "What do you want?"

She wiped all emotion from her face and stood up, ready to walk away. Gajeel just looked at her. "If you're going to tease me then go ahead, I have better things to do than listen to your dumb words."

"No... I just wanted to know if you were okay," Gajeel said quietly.

Levy was taken aback by this. No one has been nice to her like that in a long time. She was brought back to the thought of wondering how someone so... Dark and mean looking could be so kind.

"But I guess since you were expecting a snide remark, that's what you'll get. Yer face is all red and puffy, shrimp," Gajeel said. He walked out of the room, immediately feeling bad for teasing her, even if it wasn't that bad.

Levy was left hurt for getting her hopes up that someone could change their attitude so quickly. I asked for that...

Gajeel had his few belongings in his bag and checked his phone for a message from L. She hadn't answered. Maybe she's really having an awful day...

"Hey, you alright?" Gray asked. He looked genuinely concerned, which is weird for him.

Gajeel nodded. "Just thinkin."

Gray shrugged and grabbed his bags, leading the way out of the room. Gajeel looked down at his phone again and started typing.

"Are you okay? It seems to me like you're havin a bad day."

Gajeel sighed and made his way to Mirajane's classroom. I hope she's okay. Even if carin for people ain't my thing, I can't help but care for that shrimp and L.

In Mirajane's room, Levy was sitting by the window still, talking to Mira.

"So you don't have any clothes now? They completely ruined everything?" Mira asked. Mira was getting angry, and she is not someone you want to anger.

Levy nodded through her tears, not trusting her voice. Mira hugged Levy and tried to comfort her friend.

"Hey, it's okay, we'll get you new things. Everything will be okay," Mira said softly while rubbing Levy's back gently.

The others walked into the room and were all ready to go. The Master lead them to the train station and their three private train cars.

"Oh, man! Let me just walk!" Natsu groaned.

"We'd never get there if you did that, flame brain!" Gray yelled.

Levy shut them out and boarded the train, going to an empty seat in the back, and prepared for a long trip.

Meanwhile, the others all boarded the train and began talking, getting to know each other. Of course Gajeel didn't really participate in that, he just didn't want to outcast himself. He checked his phone again, still no message.

"You may be a little overwhelmed when we get there, but I promise you, they're all such wonderful people!" Mirajane said sweetly.

"So we're going to be wizards?" Juvia asked skeptically.

Master Makarov shook his head. "No, my dear. You're already all wizards. You just don't have the ability to use your powers yet."

"Ooh! Ooh! What's my power? I bet I'm the strongest there is!" Natsu yelled. For once, he wasn't having a problem with traveling in a train, but that was due to a spell cast on the train itself to make it invisible to others and keep the young wizards safe and sound.

Gajeel just stopped listening to them, he had no need to listen to them. He stood up and stretched, then walked to find a seat away from them. He sat down unknowingly in the seat behind Levy's. He looked at his phone once more.

"Honestly? No, I'm not. My whole life was just uprooted, I started to think that maybe someone would care for me, but I was wrong, and I have nothing now. I'm ready to give up."

Gajeel stared at his phone for a minute.

"Stop it right now. I may not know that much about you, but damn it, i know you're strong as hell and you cannot give up. So quit feeling sorry for yourself and get it together. You've got one life, so live it. Don't give a fuck about what other people say or do, there's no need, and you have people who care. You have me, but I'm starting to think I'm not good enough for you."

Gajeel was both upset and angry. This was one of the only people he could confide in about things, one of the people he could just go to for advice, he needed her to be okay. He needed her.

In the other seat, Levy was now crying and crying loudly. She couldn't hold back these tears anymore. She quickly stood up and ran to the outside of the train, where there was a small platform to stand on. She let out her cries with no worries of anyone hearing her. She sobbed and she screamed and she let herself unravel. What she didn't realize though, was that holding her and keeping her safe from falling off the train, was none other than Gajeel Redfox. She finally wore herself out and fell asleep in his arms.

Gajeel was scared, to say the least. He was scared this girl was going to kill herself and he was scared this girl was going to refuse him and his help. He was scared because he didn't usually feel the need to help comfort sobbing girls or even care for their safety. He cared for himself, but would keep his few friends safe. He held onto her tight, keeping her on the train, he stroked her hair, trying to calm her down, trying to just make her realize she wasn't alone.

When she finally settled down and fell asleep in his arms, he carried her back to his seating area, and laid her down on the seat opposite him. He pulled a blanket out of the rack above them and put it over the small girl. What in the hell does this girl go through to make her feel this awful?

It was at that moment that Gajeel Redfox decided one very important thing. He was going to watch over this girl and take care of her no matter what.