Chapter 1

A girl with blonde hair and brown eyes waded through the crowd of the hallway, tightly clutching her schoolbag as she dodged the marriage of students. She hugged her school jacket closer to herself as a group of boys wolf whistled. She was at first, startled that they were whistling at her, but then she noticed the small group of beautiful girls directly in front of her, giggling and side glancing the boys. A sudden rush of disappointment hit her, was she not pretty enough to be wolf whistled at? Wait, no, why would she even want that? That's degrading and disgusting! She should be happy that she remained invisible to the whole school, girls and boys alike. That's right, she was always invisible. She had never talked to anyone in the entire school. Right now was the middle of junior year, and not once has she opened her mouth to talk to someone. Not even the teachers called her name in class. Honestly, she could get away with not even being there, but she wanted to be a writer someday, so she supposed she had to come here. She didn't talk much, but she wrote a lot. Her novel in progress was safely tucked inside her schoolbag, which she would write in at lunch to pass the time. As she started thinking of ideas for her novel, she didn't realize where she was walking, until she hit something soft but hard. A squeek left her lips as she felt herself fall, but a strong hand gripped her arm as an arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a toned chest with an 'oomph'.

"Whoa there, you okay?"

She peeked up at her Savior, and she froze when she noticed just whose arms she was in. Natsu Dragneel, the hottest, kindness, and most endearing boy in the whole school. She opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out. He looked at her weirdly before the hand holding her arm shot up to touch her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

"You didn't hurt yourself did you?"

His concerned eyes made her cheeks heat up, and she realized that he still had his arm wrapped around her. She started internally freaking out, and before she could stop herself, she slapped his cheek, hard. "Let go of me!"

He released her instantly and put his hand against the red spot on his cheek. He watched her in a daze as she ran away.

"What the fuck is her problem?" The baritone voice of his raven haired friend snapped him back into reality, and he noticed the whole hallway was staring at him. Suddenly girls started rushing towards him screaming "are you okay?" And "that bitch!"

As if suddenly just realizing what happened, he busted out in laughter. "Yo, Natsu, did she hit you that hard?" His friend gave him a weird look.

Natsu's laughter slowly faded as he stared in the direction the blonde girl ran off to. "Who does that?" A small peel of laughter escaped him again. "Who was that, Gray?" He seemed to ignore the girls who were trying to pamper his bruised cheek.

His friend shrugged, "Never seen her before, she must be new."

"She's interesting." He muttered, staring into space.

His friend gave him an odd look before parting him on the shoulder. "Come on man, we gotta get to class."

"Huh? Oh right!" He snapped out of his daze and turned to the girls surrounding him. "Excuse me ladies." He grinned and they swooned, allowing him to slip past them.

"Natsu!" A blue haired girl cheerily sang as she launched herself into his arms.

He laughed after he caught his breath and eased her off of him. "Hey, Levy! What's up?"

"Natsu, you were supposed to come with us last night." She pouted as a guy with long, black hair and piercings joined them along with another girl with long, wavy, blue hair.

"Hey guys! Sorry Levy, someone asked me to walk them home yesterday." He smiled as they started walking.

Levy shook her head at him. "You're too nice, Natsu. You shouldn't let people manipulate you."

Natsu stared at her dumbly while the black haired man reached his hand towards Natsu. "Give me five dollars."

"Huh?"

"Gajeel!" Levy glared at smirking man.

He smirked at her. "Whaddya gonna do, shrimp?"

Her cheeks puffed out, but before she could retort, the other blue haired girl screamed out, "Gray!" She pushed the others out of the way and ran to the stunned man. "Juvia was looking for you, Gray."

"J-Juvia!" He stammered as he tried to keep her away from him. "Jeez, chill out, wouldya?"

Gajeel snickered, "wimp-ow! The fuck, shrimp?"

"Be nice, Gajeel!" He rolled his eyes at her scolding. "Anyways, we heard about you getting slapped, Natsu. Are you okay?" She poked his red cheek, making him hiss and swat her hand away. "Sorry."

"It's fine. It was pretty funny." He grinned.

"How is getting slapped funny?" Gajeel raised an eyebrow.

"She was weird." He smiled wistfully.

"Your so silly, Natsu." Levy laughed while shaking her head.

Lucy sighed as a few notes fell out of her locker. She picked them up, ignoring the harsh whispers of girls around her. She unfolted a note and frowned. "You should be ashamed of yourself! You don't deserve to stand on the same ground as Natsu! How dare you hurt him!" Apparently doing anything even slightly mean to Natsu was like a crime in this school. She was pretty sure he could get away with murder if he wanted to.

"That's pretty harsh."

She let out a squeek and spun around to come face to face with a grinning Natsu. She furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you doing?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I just wanted to say sorry for scaring you earlier...and now apparently." He chuckled. "You're pretty weird."

Her nose scrunched up. "So, you're here to make fun of me?"

He tilted his head and frowned. "Why would I do that?"

She dropped her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Why wouldn't you?"

Her raised her head with his fingers under her chin, and gazed into her eyes. "I think you're interesting, and I'd like to get to know you better."

Her head drew back and her mouth opened in shock. "You think I'm...you what?"

He chuckled at her and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "Let's swap phone numbers!" He grinned brightly at her, making her cheeks heat up.

She shook her head slightly, "I don't give out my phone number."

His face fell slightly, but his smile didn't leave his face. "Well, then can I at least get your name?"

"Umm...it's Lucy." she shuffled on her feet while her eyes darted around, noticing all the people watching them.

He grinned and grabbed a pen and paper from his bag. "Well, Lucy." He scribbled something down and held it out for her. She tentatively accepted it and stared at it incredulously. "Give me a call sometime. We should hang out."

She stared at him dumbly. "Uh, no thanks."

She tried to hand it back to him, but he pushed her hand back. She stared at where his hand was connected to her's, an unfamiliar feeling fluttering through her. "Keep it." She looked up into his serious gaze, and it felt like she forgot how to speak. "In case you need anything, wanna hang out, or just to talk. Keep it. I'll be waiting for your call, okay?"

She didn't say anything, she only nodded as he started to walk away. She stared at his retreating figure in bewilderment. The whispers of other students in the hall snapped her back to reality, and she looked at the folded piece of paper in her hands. She hastily put it in the side pocket of her schoolbag and grabbed a few books out of her locker before she shut it. She ignored the voices around her as she made her way to class. She was lost in her own world so much that she didn't notice someone coming towards her. When she blinked back into reality, she was on her hands and knees, staring at the floor. She looked up and her eyes locked onto the menacing red ones of Gajeel Redfox. "Keep your head in reality, girlie. Otherwise, anything could happen to you." He sneered at her and walked off.

He was a person that she didn't quite understand. He always bullied her, but it never really felt like bullying to her. He would push her, shove her, knock her books out of her hands; but, it always seemed like he was somehow looking out for her, or giving her advise in his own weird way. It was always when she was in her own head, not paying attention to reality. Maybe it was his way of snapping her out of it? She wasn't sure. To her, it felt like he was warning her. It felt like it was okay for him to do it, so that no one else did. It was strange, and it made her feel like he was watching out for her. Maybe it was just her thinking too much, but it was something that almost made her want to smile.

Shaking her head, she gathered her books and got up from the floor to continue making her way to class. When she walked in, her eyes locked onto Natsu's. He grinned at her and her cheeks heated up. She ducked her head and walked to her usual spot to the very back seat near the window. When she sat down, she was startled by a blue haired girl leaning over her desk.

"You're the one who slapped Natsu, right?" She chirped, her face a mere inches away.

Lucy leaned back an stared at the girl. "Uh, yeah."

"I'm Levy! You're pretty famous now! Well, infamous I should say." She giggled.

Lucy scrunched her eyebrows. "That's stupid."

Levy blinked. "Wow, you're blunt." She then smiled. "Natsu's been talking about you, ya know."

Lucy tilted her head, and glanced at Natsu, who was talking to Gajeel. "Why?"

"He thinks it was really funny." Levy giggled behind her hand. "Anyways, you should come with us to karaoke after school! It'll be alot of fun!"

Lucy stared at the bright eyes of the girl before her, and a smile started to tug on her lips. "Um, I guess I'll try to come. I might not though."

Levy beamed. "I hope you do! It's at six at a place called Kelly's Kareoke. We call it KK for short. I hope you come!" She then ran back to where Natsu and Gajeel were. Lucy saw them all glance at her and she ducked her head down.

As Lucy was walking home, she was battling with her thoughts. A part of her wanted to go to Kareoke with them, but then she didn't. She was never really one for being social. Honestly, the thought made her uncomfortable. The most social interaction she usually got was with her white Labrador, Plue. What if they were just trying to get back at her for hurting the school's beloved Natsu? Maybe they were setting her up. But, then Levy seemed nice, and Natsu seemed genuine when he said that he wanted to get to know her better. That thought alone made her cheeks involuntarily heat up. She shook her head and made her resolve. She would go tonight. She would take a chance, and reach out, break from her shell. Even if they were setting her up, she would go and face it head on. So with a firm nod, she slipped her key into the doornob to her home. The door squeaked as she opened it. It wasn't the best place to live, it was slightly run down, and not in the best of neighborhoods. Her eyebrows drew together when she didn't hear the greeting from her dog that she usually got. "Plue?" She called into the silent house as she shut the door. "Where are you, Plue?" The squeak of the floorboards made her turn her head, and her eyes widened. "Dad?"

He stepped closer to her with a glare. "What? No welcome home? I've been gone for months, and you'd rather see your damn dog, is that it?"

She shook her head as tears burned in the back of her eyes. "No, father. Welcome home."

He sneered at her as he grabbed the front of her shirt, pulling her up from the ground. Her bag dropped to the ground and she stared at him wideyed as she trembled. "You don't mean that do you. Where's my dinner? You're supposed to make me dinner. You let the house go to shit while I was gone. And you let that fucking dog run around. You're so pathetic, can't even follow my rules."

"I'm sorry." She squeaked, which turned into a yelp when his hand connected to her face, forcing it to the side.

"Shut up you worthless trash!" He bellowed, and she screwed her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face. She guessed she didn't have to decide if she was going to Kareoke after all. Her earlier debate was pointless. She wouldn't be going now. Now that her father was home. As she took the abuse he threw her way, her only thought was that she hoped she had enough makeup for tomorrow.