Why hello there. My name is NaluPrincess. If you're reading this story for the first time, consider yourself lucky as you're currently reading the revamped, rewritten version of chapter one. If you aren't new, you can tell me how much you liked this version of chapter one in comparison to the older version in a review please? If you are new, tell me what you think!

For once I didn't need my alarm to get me out of bed. I awoke to the jarring sounds of tractor wheels from loud industrial machines slowly crawly over jagged rock and gravel to create the most grating noises ever. The power plant that was located on the lot right next to my home was emitting smoke as usual, which fogged up the skies, blocking any sunlight from shining through. Thankfully, the air didn't reek too much of smoke today.

But you know what, why are those assholes even here so early anyway?

After checking the time, I lie still in bed for a few more minutes, my body refusing to cooperate and move so I can start my day.

"Mavis, I hate summer school."

I shouldn't be complaining. I'm a foster kid whose managed to finesse the system and allowed them let me live independently. At least for the time being. There are plenty of kids who I'm sure aren't as lucky. But my grades aren't all too hot right now, and if I can't get them up (and soon), then I am just about as good as finished. Part of my living arrangement here is that they give me a place to live in, but I'm responsible for day to day expenses, which means I have to get a job and work for what I want. I have no problem with working for the things I need, but my problem is with the fact that I'm living in the cheapest apartment that the government could find, which is near a project site which I'm sure they found to be dangerous as hell.

What makes it worse, is that the millisecond I have some serious sickness or injury, my independence could be provoked instantly.

Just another one of many ways that the foster system can screw over kids like me. Fun, huh?

I rub my hands up and down my face to wipe the sleep out my eyes and mentally get myself ready to start the day. I wasn't wearing a shirt and I felt my muscles and abs contract as I leaned forward. I got on the ground did ten pushups as I do every morning and headed for the bathroom. I sidestepped a few stray articles of dirty laundry, empty deodorant containers and mismatched shoes of a pair (going to have to move those later) and made it to my soap scum riddled shower. I turned on the tap. The water pressure is deceitfully low at first and the water comes out white washed instead of clear like its supposed to be.

"Great not again..." I mutter moving from the shower stall to check under the bathroom cabinet to look for my monkey wrench. Otherwise, I would end up just leaving the water running and hope that the pressure increases, but in doing that I run the risk of raising the water bill. I only get a certain stipend to pay for bills each month and when I go over that amount, I have to pay things out of pocket which isn't exactly an option.

It didn't matter as this wasn't a rare occurrence. Either the water pressure would be so low that no water would come out at all, and whenever the pressure wasn't off, the water would be muddled and murky.

By the time I was done fiddling with my faucet I peek at my alarm clock in the room on my way back to the bathroom. My eyes bulged out of their sockets when I realized half an hour had gone by. I was going to be late.

My name is Natsu Dragneel. I'm 15 years old and spoiler alert, I'm the sort of 'half narrator' for the following story that's about to be told. No worries, I'm not going to spoil anything for you, because if I'm being honest, I don't even know what's going to happen next myself. However, I will give you a little insight on me.

I've been living in this quaint little town called Magnolia for about as long as I can remember. I've been a child living in the foster care system for even longer than I can remember. Up until about a year ago, I was still living in a home with boys about half my age and sharing the same room with about twenty of them. Now, I'm going to be straight up honest with you; I have an inane distaste for everything. That's right… I hate everything.

I hate the clothes in my wardrobe. Simply because they're all drab and outdated and I can never seem to find the time to do anything for myself, let alone go shopping.

I hate the stupid apartment where I live, its cramped and I swear if I stare at the walls for too long I'll get claustrophobia.

I hate my neighbors specifically the asshole with the skateboard down the street and his legion of terrorists he calls dogs that are always petrifying anyone who's unlucky enough roam nearby.

I hate going to my school. So much. So much so, that I was willing to risk my independence by missing so much school last semester that I had to enroll in summer school in the first place. I'm hated by pretty much everyone I go to school with, not that I have a problem with that, because you know what? I hate those fuckers too.

It wasn't always like this. At first, I tried really hard to make friends with people. Yeah I was that guy.

Then, school happened. Well my school in particularly. Fairy Tail.

At first, I seemed to be getting along just fine with everyone, I even reconnected with some old friends who were also once in the foster system, like Gray Fullbuster and on a lesser scale Lisanna Strauss. I had just gotten out of the foster system somewhat and had just started living on my own so I was worried about fitting in. That is, until, stories of my past started catching up to me. Then suddenly, it seemed that no matter what I did, people would just make it blow up in my face. After months and months of trying so hard to be accepted, to damn near sell my soul to be accepted only to be cruelly rejected, I just decided to give that school and everyone in it the finger. I guess you can say I've taken up a new approach. So yes; I hate going there because the kids who go to that school are awful.

Even though I detest having to go to school, in order to keep living independently, I need to have at least a certain average in school along with a certain minimum percentage of attendance. Tch. I hate the foster system too.

And while I love this town, I hate the people in it. I feel like everyone's constantly trying to put me in a box, and when I can't fit into their mold, they punish me because I can't live up to their smothering expectations.

I know. How melancholic of me.

The sounds of a grand bell ringing in the distance tells me I'm almost to my destination. Through the blistering UV rays radiating from the summer sun, I can see my school in the distance.

Crap.

The bells ringing like that mean that the gates are about to close soon.

You know, I really hate the old man that runs the school too. He's so annoying with all his speeches about 'togetherness' and 'family' and blah blah blah… Why do a bunch of strangers have to pretend to be family, when we only come to this place to learn, not talk about our problems. Anyways.

Since I was denied access into the gate because I showed up late, security's holding me hostage here so I don't just decide to go back home before they bring the principal to see me personally. It takes almost forever, but he finally arrives.

He's like two feet tall and his eyes are so squinty all the time that I'm convinced he has to be doing drugs. I have a conspiracy theory that he accidentally named the school while he was high as a kite.

I mean, come on! How else do you explain the guy naming the school what it is?

In my head, it goes a little something like this:

"Sir, are you sure you want to name the school… Fairy Tail? With this spelling?"

And then hippie Makarov, high as crap would probably say the following.

"Oh yeah man, the names a mystery." He says staring woozily at the ceiling. "Yeah so the real mystery of life is do fairies have tails or not?"

"Fairies do not have tails sir."

"I said, do Fairies have tails or don't they! That, is the mystery of life! That is life's most unanswerable question!"

"Alrighty then sir."

I'm about 100% sure that's how that went.

"Natsu!" The shout from the man standing in front of me refocused my attention on him and his white, neatly trimmed mustache. "I asked you a question boy, why were you so late this morning?"

"Oh, um, you see my water pipes were giving me trouble again this morning, and I was trying to fix them and I sort of ran late."

His intuitive brown eyes locked with mine skeptically. He stroked his chin for a bit then sighed.

"What?"

"Natsu, this isn't the first time you used this excuse…"

"What? But I'm not kidding that's what actually happened!"

"Okay, okay, okay I hear you. Bu you're still going to have to be reprimanded for this somehow. You know the rules. If you're late more than three times you get points taken off your credits which you will need when you return to school in the fall, yes?"

I couldn't believe my ears. "What?! Are you kidding me? You're going to stop me from moving up a grade because I'm a couple minutes late?! Do you know how long it takes for me to walk to and from school everyday? My water pipe was broken so I couldn't shower!"

"That is enough!" He bellowed, and I jumped back, trying to pretend that I wasn't intimidated by his outburst just now. "Go to class," he demands.

The school hallways, that are usually bustling and vibrant during the day time on weekdays was now very desolate and sparsely populated. That was to be expected, since it's the middle of June and most kids were roaming the Earth, free as can be, enjoying the hot weather and all that Magnolia had to offer.

In fact, the only kids you would ever find in summer schools were either real idiots, people who skipped a lot of school like me, or just total screw ups. I obviously knew which of those reasons I was here at the moment, but it actually dumbfounded me that Gray Fullbuster was here too.

Gray Fullbuster, certainly wasn't the smartest kid in class, but I was sure he at least had a brain buried somewhere beneath those pretty boy looks of his. No, I'm sure of it, Gray was a good student. So why was he here?

I know for sure he isn't a screw up, and I'm sure he wasn't missing too many days from school (from what I can tell, at least). I'm not even sure if my opinion counts because I was barely there half the time.

So why was he here?

While our math teacher stood at the front of the classroom droning on about something, I stared at the back of his head, trying to rack my brain for a reason to why he was here. It's not that I cared that much, but it certainly beat listening to the man at the chalkboard and be bored to tears.

I guess I was staring to hard at the back of Gray's head because he turned around to me and his face wrinkled in distaste when he saw it was me. I felt fire and brimstone seeping through my eyes as glared back at him.

What an asshole.

Remember earlier when I told you I reconnected to some old friends from childhood who were also in the system? Well, yes Gray was one of them. And no, we are not friends now.

During the first semester, I reached out to him and we talked for a little we were cool and whatnot, but when the rumors started circulating about me, he started distancing himself. Soon, he started too join in when people started jeering at me.

I've loathed him ever since.

Well more accurately, I've loathed him since we were kids. Gray was just that one loud obnoxious kid that always got on everyone's nerves.

During recess, I saw Gray talking to some girls who probably considered themselves very lucky. Gray is the school's heartthrob, this guy gets a dozen love letters and confessions a day, yet he rejects all of them. And he does it so coldly too. Yet for some reason, these crazy girls love it, they call it his 'cool as ice way' and it makes them want to chase after him more. Yeah, us boys should all get like Gray.

As if.

As he's talking with these girls, or more accurately, the girls seemed to be talking him up, I decided to walk up to him because I couldn't let go of what happened in class. As I'm approaching him, the girls say their goodbyes and start to leave, and he sees me. Even though he sees me (and I know he does because we make eye contact) he pretends that he doesn't and turns the opposite direction.

"Hey!" I say jogging up to him. "What the hell is your problem?!" I yank him by his shoulder when I reach him. He turns and eyes my hand on his shoulder and then rolls his eyes dangerously to mine.

"Get out of my face."

I don't know what's gotten into me all of sudden, I mean, I've been dealing with Gray's bullshit all semester long now, so I don't know what's suddenly making me snap and wanting to call him out on it.

"Okay man." I say as I roughly shoved him away from me, causing him to slam loudly onto the lockers behind him.

At this point, we're drawing eyes from people passing by and we both notice it. People are starting murmurings about a fight and a line of students are forming a semicircle around us.

Gray scoffs as he recovers from my shove. He gives me any icy cold stare, but the only thing I can feel is the fire that was suddenly lit under me which was causing the blood in my veins to boil.

"You're still the same piece of nothing you were in grade school, huh Natsu?" He says it with a cocky grin on his face and a little laugh. "You always have been, and always will be nothing."

People in the crowd start fervent murmuring and it's taking as much self-control as possible for me not to jump and attack the boy standing in front of me.

Suddenly, Gray and I are chest to chest. I was snarling at him, teeth baring, and he was looking at me with that smirk on his face. His eyes however, had a similar burning intensity as mine.

He scoffed.

Any semblance of self-control I had in that moment was destroyed with a spastic burst of adrenaline. In one fell swoop I grabbed him by his collar, and just as I was about to punch him, he shoved my other hand off his collar and punched me in the gut.

Before we knew it, Gray and I were in a tangled mess as I was trying my best to beat the crap out of him and he was trying to do the same.

As soon as I grabbed Gray's collar the crowd gathered around us broke out into a shouting frenzy. By the time Gray and I had scrambled to the floor with our little scrap, there were do-gooders already trying to grab Gray and I from each other in order to stop the violence. It took almost three guys to hold me back from beating Gray's ass, Gray likewise had three.

"Gray!" A familiar feminine voice called out. Emerging from the crowd was a girl wearing a lilac tank top and jeans, with short, white hair and crystal blue eyes, her round eyes were full of worry. She rushed over to Gray's side her delicate ivory fingers reaching to touch his busted lip which now had some blood oozing from it. Gray looked up at me as Lisanna tended to him and the arrogant gaze he sent my way said it all.

Turning away, I crudely shoved the two guys who were still holding me back and glared them both in the eyes as they looked at me with shock then concern.

"What? I'm fine." I say to them, to make them back off for good.

It killed me that she was with him. Someone like Lisanna was honestly too good for Gray, but everyone at school basically knows that she's been trying to make him her boyfriend for the longest. Lucky bastard.

I wonder what's taking him so long? If he keeps playing around with her feelings like that, someone else is going to snatch her up from right under him.

Namely me.

Hopefully me.

"Natsu!"

I turn around, and I'm met with blazing blue eyes that are furious as they head towards me.

"What is wrong with you?!"

"Wha-"

"How could you do that to Gray? He was your friend?!" Lisanna shouts.

Then, using every single ounce of strength in her body, she slapped me. The sound echoed throughout the halls.

"You are nothing but a big bully! And you wonder why I don't speak to you! Why would you do something like that to Gray when he was just minding his own business! And he's even your childhood friend for god's sake! I can't believe you! Don't ever speak to me again!"

And with that, she turned on heel to help Gray walk to the nurse's office, leaving me standing there. I don't know which one hurt the most; my pride or my cheek.

The crowd starts to dissipate and I walk into the opposite direction not wanting to be any closer to him than I already was being. Honestly, I'm just surprised no teachers came to bust me yet.

"Dragneel!" Aggravatedly, I turned around to get a face full of fist from some blonde boy. He punched me right in the cheek that was still stinging from Lisanna's slap.

Loke.

Gray's best friend.

He circles around to see the busted lip on Loke and then he turns back to glare at me.

"Next time you think about touching my best friend, you'll have to answer to me!"

He pounces on me, in a rush attack that I didn't anticipate, and he began giving me an onslaught of blows to the face, each one harder and with more force than the last. He had me pinned to the floor having his way with me until he felt content. I could've pushed him of me. I was a hell of a lot stronger than him, but why bother? Somehow, I would only be seen as the bad guy and still lose in the end.

The kids were cheering him on. Shouting out every time he landed a blow. I heard a teacher approaching. Loke, probably hearing him too, gave a small smile and landed the last punch on my right eye.

The teacher shoved us apart. Roughing me up in particularly he yelled.

"Loke go to class! Natsu Dragneel, you big nuisance, come with me!"

Slowly, I trudged home after what seemed like an inexplicably long day at school. The glaring dark circle that formed a ring around my right eye drew the attention of many as loads of eyes were on me. I trudged on, trying to ignore the obvious judgmental looks and gossip as people started their unfounded assumptions and nosy inquiries of what happened to me.

I tried to bury my nose a little deeper into my scarf.

I hate this.

I hate this scarf.

Every time something goes wrong, I always subconsciously sniff this scarf like its some sort of security blanket. It's the last thing I have left behind from my dad after he left nine years ago.

I hated this. These thoughts that always appear after I sniff the scarf as a constant reminder of that coward who decided to up and abandon his so called "family".

I hated this feeling more than any bad thing that could happen to me at school.

"Here you go boys. Lunch is served."

A young boy with tanned skin, chubby cheeks and spiky pink hair wearing a red shirt and tanned overalls smiled greedily at the plate of fish and rice placed before him. He slapped his hands together anticipatorily, smiling greedily at the meal in front of him.

"Thanks for lunch mom!"

Pulling up a chair next to him, an older man who had wild strawberry red hair, tanned skin, hairy arms and a stubble mimicked the boy's actions. He slapped his hands together rubbing them in anticipation, drooling slightly from his mouth as he stared at the food at the table.

"Yeah, thanks for the lunch mom!"

Natsu's mother didn't find the older man's joke as humorous as he and his son did as she shot him a subtle glare that went unnoticed by the boy now partaking avidly in his meal. The glare sent shivers down his spine as he started to bring his plate closer to his face to eat.

"Geez, Igneel slow down! Our son's going to pick up all of those bad habits from you one day!"

Igneel's sloppy eating had already seemed to rub off on their son as he too ditched his fork in favor of bringing the plate to his face and using his hands to do the rest.

"Natsu Dragneel! Stop eating like that this instant!"

Natsu paused innocently, half eaten cod in his hand. "Mm?"

"Come now honey, you can't be so uptight with the kid all the time."

"Igneel," The woman, threw her oven mitt on the kitchen table and leaned against the kitchen table, giving the man a look. "I refuse to live in a house with a bunch of pigs, so you and your son need to change your eating habits, and fast!"

Her comments went fully ignored as father and son duo resumed their egregious consumption habits, sending particles of food falling erratically as they ate.

"Are you going to finish that fish, kid?"

"Of course daddy!"

The woman just sighed. Had she decided to fight this anymore she was going to lose it. "You're both animals. Geez."

Igneel, finished his food first, putting his plate down, revealing that only a few rice crumbs, fish bones and grease stains were left.

The woman's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Igneel, why do you always eat so fast?"

He didn't respond to her question but instead he leaned forward on the table staring at her intensely, changing the mood to a more serious one.

"Suki, were you able to finish the thing I asked you to make for Natsu?"

The young pinkette slowly stopped his chewing, looking in between his mother and father.

Natsuki pitched up immediately, snapping her fingers in realization. "Oh yeah! Hold on, let me go get it."

As the woman made a dash out of the kitchen, Natsu turned to look at his father with dread slowly trickling into him.

"Dad…" He said cautiously, putting his plate down and wiping the side of his mouth with his sleeve. In return, his father gave him a large toothy grin and ruffled the boy's hair vigorously. "Ah, don't worry about it, okay?"

When his mother returned, there in her hands was a shiny new white and silver checker printed scarf. Natsu's face lit up like a mansion sized house on Christmas Eve.

Natsuki and Igneel both beamed at the boy's reaction, happy to see their son happy at the gift they were giving him.

"So wait, is this a gift from mom?" He said confused.

Natsuki shook her head smiling. "No Natsu, this is a gift from both your father and I," she and Igneel shared a secret loving glance. "I made the scarf, but, he gave me the things to make it."

"That's right kid. It's made with special materials so its not just some ordinary scarf. Once you put it on it'll feel like nothing else you've ever worn in your life. I think I just gave you your very own super power. You're welcome, by the way.""

The boy's face lit up even more and he made a move to jump up and grab the scarf from his mother's hands. His dad stopped him cold in his tracks by knocking him on his head which made him slam back down into the chair and he rubbed his head, to look up at his dad with tears from the pain in his eyes.

"Not so fast Natsu. Before you can get your gift, I'm going to need you to clean up." He reached down on the floor right by Natsu's chair and picked up his discarded knife and fork. "And next time, kid use your fork and knife like your mother said. The food definitely tastes best when you eat it with a fork."

Natsu stared blankly at his father's smiling face.

"Well if that's the case then why don't you ever use them dad?"

Igneel immediately froze when he heard this. Natsuki was shooting her husband a plethora of different types of death stares. Each one pierced and stabbed him in his nerves and breaded a new kind of fear of his wife.

"Uh, w-w-w-why don't you just go wash your hands…."

"No Natsu, sit down." She stated calmly. Igneel gulped.

"Why don't you answer the question for us, daddy?"

Natsu stared innocently between his mother and father, and a small shiver went down his spine too.

His mother can really be scary when she's ready.

A chuckle escaped my hoarse throat as I laid on my living room floor, basking in the darkness that enveloped me from all sides. The tiniest drop of liquid splattered on my forearm and I realized that it was a tear. I was crying.

I sniffled as another tear drop rolled down my face. It delicately touches the scarf.

I try my hardest to hold it back, but the harder I squeezed my eyes shut the more they hurt. Tears kept seeping through my shut eyelids anyway.

It hurts.

It hurts so damn much.

And so, I cry.

I cry harder and longer than I ever have before. I clutch my chest because it starts to hurt a little. I ignore the sudden warmth I felt from my scarf. But the sudden warmth transitioned to blistering heat in a matter of seconds. I quickly scamper upright, yanking the material off of my neck to finally see what's going on.

The scarf was glowing.

I can't look away or even blink from the mysteriously glowing object.

"What the…" I rub my eyes.

Nope not crazy.

The scarf was glowing.

I scramble away from that shit as quickly as I can because, once again…

…the scarf was glowing!

The warm golden gradually gets brighter until the glow was blinding, and then I hear is a loud crashing noise.

There is a pillar of light and it literally blows a hole in my roof. I don't know how far up it goes but it's really fucking bright, not to mention it's created some sort of whirlwind in my room. All of my furniture is flying everywhere and I'm barely able to keep my grip on the floor.

Shit, what's happening?

Out of the ray of light, I see something... a figure I can't make out. Then I see the shape of a person? Or maybe a celestial being... I don't know, but it's eyes and mouth are glowing. The pillar of light diminishes and evaporates into thin air. The celestial being is still there though, eyes glowing and all. But there's a feature on her I didn't see on her the first time. Wings.

I can't seem to catch my breath as the silhouette buried deep within the pillar of light slowly emerges, revealing a woman with golden hair and deep brown eyes.

My heart jumps into my throat as her feet gently touch my living room rug.

Arbitrarily, my eyes wander over to the calendar I have pinned to the wall, a little ways from the TV. I notice the date.

Hmm.

It's June 21st.

That means today is my birthday.

Be honest... how was it?

Let me know!

Also, as of right now I haven't rewritten the other chapters yet, if that helps at all.