I do not own any of the characters nor do I own Fairy Tail. I only own the plot. All rights go to Hiro Mashima.

sonder (n.) the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

Lucy jumped when her locker was forced shut, nearly breaking her fingers in the process; luckily, she had quick reflexes.

"So, Blondie," came the wicked voice of Flare Corona. The girl had been glaring daggers at Lucy ever since she set foot inside the school – in spite of the fact that it was Lucy's first day – and Lucy had just been waiting for her to finally say something. "How much did your daddy pay for you to enroll into Fiore Academy?"

A fierce brown-eyed glare turned on Flare. "My father didn't pay anything," Lucy gritted out, hugging her books to her chest. There was a lapse of silence in the conversation, prompting her to ask, "Is that it?"

"I don't believe you," Flare scoffed immediately afterwards, not missing a beat. "There's no way an air-headed tramp like you could get accepted."

Lucy's frown only deepened as she adjusted her backpack strap. There was no justification for Flare's rudeness – although Lucy could understand why people assumed she paid. Heartfilia was a well-known name across the country. Still, though, everybody looked down on her all day because nobody had actually paid to get into the school in years – and that fact remains.

"Well, I did," she shrugged, trying not to let Flare's words bother her. "If you're done, I need to go."

"Go where? Home to cry to daddy?"

"To lunch," Lucy responded, walking around her. She could feel the stares on her back as she walked by other students, her head ducked down as her face flushed red. It was overwhelming, coming to school at which the wealthy were looked down upon. Nobody really talked to her all day without making some scathing remark about her family – aside from the teachers, of course, and a boy in a few of her classes name Gray – and she found herself wishing she had changed her name on her files like she considered beforehand.

So, quickly, she escaped to the restrooms, anxiously running a hand through her hair. Immediately her backpack and books were discarded onto the sink, her hands bracing on the counter as she glared at her reflection.

"This is nothing," she reminded herself, drawing in a sharp breath. "These are a bunch of stupid kids who are quick to jump to conclusions. I've dealt with so much worse." Eyes drifting shut, she thought back, remembering the warmth that was so suddenly taken from her – and then she heard it.

Coming from one of the stalls was light sniffling and hiccuping, like someone was trying to keep their crying muffled. Her eyes opened and drifted towards the reflection of the stalls in the mirror, where two feet peeked out from under one of them.

Cautiously, she tiptoed towards the stall, knocking twice. "Are you okay?"

It took a moment for the other person to respond. "Y-Yeah!"

"You can talk to me," Lucy suggested, glancing behind her. "I promise I'll listen – and nobody else is in here."

For a few seconds, Lucy received no words, and she contemplated whether or not to leave whoever was behind the door alone. Then the lock shifted and a short blue-haired girl shuffled out from behind the door, her gaze downcast. "Thank you," she sniffed, rubbing the tears away from her eyes. "I'm Levy."

Levy McGarden? Lucy pondered. That was the girl her headmaster told her to contact when she was having trouble getting around the school. Lucy smiled, offering a hand for the other to shake. "I'm Lucy. Today's my first day here."

"Your first day? It's your first day and you had to find me in the bathroom crying?" Levy said disbelievingly, but still, she shook Lucy's hand.

"It's fine," Lucy laughed, lifting herself onto the sink counter. Levy hesitantly sat opposite of her, knees pulled to her chest. "Tell me what's wrong."

Levy's brow furrowed, her lip sticking out in a pout as she debated on whether or not to spew her personal life. "That stupid Gajeel!" she burst, hands balling into dainty fists.

"Gajeel…" Lucy trailed off. The name sounded vaguely familiar, so she assumed he must have been in one of her classes. "What happened?"

Nobody could have missed the way Levy's cheeks burned a dark red – and Levy knew this by the look in Lucy's eyes. "H–He knows how I feel – I told him – and he just… he laughed at me!"

Lucy bit her tongue. Not only had she only had one relationship (which ended with, in short, the flames of hell erupting around her), but her streak of helpful relationship advice was marked with a big fat 0. "Did he say anything?" It was an innocent question, but–

"No! He just laughed and he kept laughing until I walked away!" Her tears disappeared, replaced by a bitter and indignant expression. "He yelled after me with the stupid nickname he gave me, Shrimp, but I ignored him. He's so… stupid!"

Lucy hugged her own knees to her chest, her stomach grumbling. It was lunch break, she realized, so she was missing her eating time. "I think you should talk to him again," she admitted, pulling a bento lunch from her bag. It was wrapped with a cute pink napkin, and the lunch inside was simple (but Lucy took pride in how delicious her cooking was). "By the way you said it, it seemed like he wanted to say something…" Quietly, her voice trailed off, a knowing smirk on her face as she nudged the lunch towards Levy. Want some?

Levy sputtered for a moment, steam exiting her ears as her face reddened further. "I guess," she mumbled into her arms, before carefully extending a hand to grab a bit of food. As she popped it into her mouth, her eyes settled just above Lucy's chest, eyebrows scrunching together. There resided the pendant of a golden necklace. "You're part of Fairy Tail?!"

Although all of Fiore Academy interacted, it was divided into different groups: some being Fairy Tail, Sabetooth, Lamia Scale, and Blue Pegasus. There were others as well, too many to name, but those were some of the most vast. Each respective group had its own dormitory building on campus, and everybody had a roommate (Lucy's roommate had yet to be decided as she had arrived that morning and arrangements were still being made, so her belongings were sitting in the office, waiting for a home). Besides that, when competitions, events, or anything of the sort were held, each group was its own team.

Lucy picked Fairy Tail because not only had it been recommend by someone who had previously attended the school, but because she had met the headmaster Makarov Dreyar before anybody else.

"Yeah," she nodded, fingers instinctively toying with the necklace. Everybody who was part of the groups had something to represent it in some way; many people went as far as tattoos.

"Me too!" Levy leaned forward excitedly, her eyes practically sparkling. It appeared the topic of Gajeel was suddenly forgotten. "Who's your roommate?"

"I don't have one yet," Lucy sighed, eating a large bite of salted salmon. "The paperwork got mixed up so they're arranging it some time today."

"Be my roommate!" Levy insisted. "I haven't had one in years!"

Her enthusiasm startled Lucy, causing her to nearly cough up her food. "A-Are you sure?"

"Yeah! You're on lunch break, right?!" Lucy nodded quickly, scrambling to gather her books. "Bring your lunch and let's go to the office before they assign you to a different room!"

By the time the sky was painted a deep blue, twinkling, Lucy was happily settled into her shared room with Levy. All of her things had been unpacked and her homework finished, so now she was washing her face, a towel wrapped around her body and her hair piled into a messy bun.

"I still can't believe the dorms aren't organized by gender," Lucy called back to her roommate, who was dressed in a moderately scanty nightgown and was occupied with a thick novel. All her life, she had been raised to believe that boys and girls were practically two separate species that should be divided and have different privileges, and even though she strongly disagreed with everything taught to her, it was still astonishing to see people breaking the gender boundaries.

"The school doesn't want to confine anyone to a gender," Levy shrugged nonchalantly. "They want to take into account people who don't really have specific genders, too, or people who don't have one within the gender binary."

She had not even considered that. "That makes sense," Lucy nodded, wiping the last bit of soap from her skin. A toothbrush was shoved into her mouth and she worked to clean her teeth as she chatted with Levy. "Are the other people in Fairy Tail nice? I've only really talked to you and Gray."

"They're nice," Levy hesitated, setting her book down. "We used to be a lot closer. A lot of us have been here since we were kids – no parents, lots of talent. The sense of family is still there, I guess. We defend each other, but the relationships between us are kind of… estranged. There's not much Fairy Tail pride anymore."

The upset tone in Levy's voice made Lucy's heart drop to her stomach. It hurt her to hear someone so sweet and willingly helpful sound so sad.

"Well, maybe–" she began, but her voice was cut off by a blaring alarm.

She thought she heard Levy mutter something under her breath before climbing to her feet, gesturing for Lucy to follow. "Come on, that's the fire alarm!"

"Can't I at least get dressed?!" Lucy wailed as Levy tugged her along, barely able to hold her towel up. "And fire alarm?! There's a fire?"

"It happens a lot," Levy laughed, walking next to Lucy. Most people were dressed in pajamas, but Lucy and Levy seemed to be the only ones who were showing lots of skin.

Awesome.

"So this is a normal thing?" Lucy questioned, confusion and bewilderment mingling on her face. Nobody around her looked the least beat worried – actually, they looked very tired and irritable, every mumbling something or another.

"Yeah. Natsu starts a lot of fires." The casual tone of her voice just made Lucy cringe more than she already had. "You get used to it."

"Stupid flame brain!" Gray sneered, pulling a pink-haired boy from the room next to Lucy's – the room that happened to be filled with flames and smoke. He dragged him by the collar down the stairs, a blue cat prancing by his feet without a care in the world, and threw him onto the concrete ground when they reached the bottom step. "Stop trying to burn the building down, idiot!"

Gray was clad in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, and the guy Lucy assumed to be Natsu was wearing a pair of baggy pants. He glared defiantly up at Gray before jumping to his feet, pushing him backwards. "Don't tell me what to do, ya stupid stripper!"

"You wanna fight, pyro?" Gray snarled.

"You bet!"

There was an unspoken tension between them that Lucy could feel. Aside from the obvious verbal attacks, the way they glared at each other and stood rigidly told Lucy that something had happened with them in the past – something that constructed a thick wall between them. It may have been from experience or from all of those psychology classes she had taken, but she could read people well – and they were no exception.

"Shut up!" boomed a blonde boy with a scar marking the right side of his face. He kicked the boys hard enough that they landed at Lucy's feet in a jumble of flailing limbs, and Lucy stepped backwards, squeezing herself as close to Levy as possible.

So not only was Lucy clothed in a towel and Levy in a barely-there nightgown, but Gray was half-naked and Natsu lacked a shirt. Even better, Lucy thought bitterly, tugging the fluffy white towel tighter around her body uncomfortably. The whole of Fairy Tail was getting a view of her where little was left to the imagination – a wonderful first impression, alongside the rumor that her father had paid for her be able to attend.

"Oh, hey, Lucy," Gray greeted once he was on his feet, his eyes dropping to her body for a split second before they returned to her face. His cheeks were tinted slightly, which made Lucy herself flustered. "How was… the rest of your first day?"

"It was awesome," she huffed, the sarcasm in her tone hidden but still somewhat blatant. Her especially favorite part was last period, during which she got called a "talentless blonde bimbo who uses her daddy's money to get whatever she wants."

Gray opened his mouth to say something, but the words never left.

Instead, he was interrupted by a shout. "Is that the new girl?!" It was a tall brunette and Lucy was awe-stricken by how attractive she was: pure model material, really. She wore a bikini top and capri pants, seeming unbothered by how much skin she exposed – and she was standing in front of Lucy, pushing Gray out of the way. "Whoa, you really are hot!"

Lucy's cheeks were aflame in an instant and she wanted nothing more than to clothe her body because now Cana had drawn more attention to them. "Thanks…?" she trailed off quietly.

"I'm Cana Alberona," she grinned hazily, and that was when Lucy noted the slightly pink cheeks and the alcohol on her breath. She was drunk – and it was even worse when she stepped closer, her nose touching Lucy's. "You know, they told me you had big ones, but I thought they were exaggerating."

Now an unhealthy shade of red, the only nose able to escape Lucy was a squeak for help – and thankfully, someone came to her rescue in more than one way.

A big leather coat was draped across her and Levy's shoulders, smelling of oil and iron, and she couldfeel Levy's temperature rise a few degrees next to her. Oh, yeah, Lucy remembered as she suppressed her smirk. I guess I forgot about Gajeel. I wonder if she talked to him…

"Back off, ya drunk," a gruff voice ordered, causing Cana to take a step back with a grin and a roll of her eyes. "You two should cover up s'more," he grunted, and Lucy craned her neck to get a good look at him. To say she was surprised was an understatement. He looked like the definition of bad boy, piercings lining his nose and browbone (and probably other places she could not see), and a mane of wild black hair cascaded down his back. He appeared as the complete opposite of Levy. Though, as he glanced at the short girl, Lucy swore his stare softened the smallest bit. "We need to talk later."

Levy's mouth fell open, but quickly she closed it and turned her nose up in the air, crossing her arms. "Fine," she agreed, nudging Lucy when she felt the other's silent laugh.

"Okay, children!" It was Makarov who spoke, standing on the stair railing so that everybody was able to see him. "The fire's out – again – so you can all return to your rooms! And Natsu, a word."

As everybody shuffled around her, Lucy watched the sheepish boy trudge over to the headmaster. Her gaze remained transfixed on him, like in a trance, even as Levy tugged her along up the stairs. And just before his face disappeared from sight, his eyes met her and something sparked in them.

When they finally made it to their room, Lucy released the breath she had been holding, rubbing her goosebump-riddled arms as she searched her drawers for pajamas. "And you said that happens a lot?" she asked, her teeth chattering as she dropped her towel and began to dress herself.

"Once or twice a month, sometimes more," Levy sighed, subconsciously tightening her grip on Gajeel's jacket.

"That's a nice coat," Lucy smirked once she was clothed, climbing into her bed which stood opposite of Levy's. The other glared at her, blushing again. "I think he likes you." Perhaps she should not jump to conclusions about people she had known for less than a day (she had been experiencing the feeling all day), but it was so obvious.

"I guess we'll find out," Levy murmured, petite fingers tangling in her messy locks. And then a light-bulb went off in her mind, eyes brightening. "I almost forgot! What'd you do to get in?"

A frown pulled at Lucy's lips. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, to get into Fiore Academy," Levy elaborated, leaning forward eagerly. "You said you didn't pay, so you've gotta have a talent. What's yours?"

Lucy's throat tightened and her mouth went dry, heat crawling up the back of her neck and onto her face. "Oh… that… Well, it's…"

And as she told Levy, the other's eyebrows knitted together in bewilderment for a while (too long for Lucy's liking) before her eyes widened in excitement, leaning forward with sparkles dancing in her eyes.

They proceeded to spend the whole night talking, learning more and more about each other, and by the time the sun peeked over the horizon, Lucy found it hard to regret her lack of sleep.

A/N: I've already posted this on tumblr, so I decided to post it here too! Hope you enjoy! :)