NATSU DRAGNEEL WAS SWEATING more than usual, and he usually sweat quite a bit. For once, he was not the only one. The temperature in the gymnasium was 123 degrees; four people had been carried out and were presumed dead. The Sullen Girl sang, wringing fresh bitterness from the already alkaline lyrics, her wispy quaver approximating a consumptive canary with love trouble and money problems. She sang every song that way. At the senior variety show, she had performed "Happy Together"with such fragile melancholy during rehearsals.
Natsu worried too much, that's why. Right now, for example, he was not just worried about the speech he was about to give, and for good reason;he was also worried that his sweat was rapidly evaporating, increasing atmospheric pressure, and that it might start to rain inside his graduation gown. This was fully theoretically possible. He was also worried that the excessive perspiration indicated kidney stones, which was less likely. I hope you had the time of your lifethe Sullen Girl finished with a shy sneer, then returned to her seat. Master Makarov, the principal, approached the lectern.
"Thank you, Angelika—"
"Angel-LEEK-ah," the Sullen Girl spat back.
"Angel-LEEK-ah," Master Makarov corrected, "thank you for that . . . emotive rendition of "—she referred to her notes, frowned—" 'Good Riddance.' "
THE TEMPERATURE IN THE GYM reached 125 degrees, qualifying anyone there to be served rare.
"Could we," Master Makarov said, wafting her hands about, "open those back doors, let a little air in? Please?"
Three thousand heads turned simultaneously, expecting the doors to fly open with minty gusts of chilled wind, maybe even light flurries. Wendy Marvell and Romeo Conbolt , two juniors who had agreed to usher the event. The doors didn't open. People actually gasped. Natsu began calculating the amount of oxygen left in the gymnasium. Master Makarov doctorate in school administration had prepared her for this.
"Is Mr. Clive here?"
Mr. Clive, the school custodian, was not here. He was at home watching women's volleyball with the sound turned off and imagining the moment everyone realized
the back doors were locked. In his fantasy, Master Makarov was screaming his name and would presently burst into flames.
"Let's move on," Master Makaov moved on, mentally compiling a list of janitorial degradations to occupy Mr. Clive summer recess. "So. Next. Yes. I am pleased to introduce our valedictorian for Natsu Dragneel." Master Makarov announced.
AS NATSU STOOD UP, his groin pool spilled down his legs into his shoes. He shuffled forward, careful not to step on his gown, which the rental place had insufficiently hemmed, subsequently claiming he had gotten shorter since his fitting. Natsu had been offered the option of carrying a small riser with him, which he had declined, and so when he stood at the lectern barely his head was visible, floating above a seal of the wierd symbol of the school's mascot. Natsu looked out at the audience. He tried to imagine them in their underwear, which was easy, since they were imagining the same thing. Denis sort of smiled. The audience did nothing. They were not excited by, or even mildly curious about, Natsu's speech, merely resigned it was going to happen. He met their expectations.
"Thank you, Master Makarov, Fellow Graduates. Parents and Caregivers. Other interested parties."
Natsu had left a pause for laughs. It became just a pause.
"Today we look forward," he continued. "Look forward to getting out of here."
That got a laugh, longer than Natsu had rehearsed.
"Look forward to getting out of here," Natsu repeated, resetting his meter before proceeding in the stilted manner of adolescent public speakers throughout history.
"But today I also would like to look back, back on our four years at Fairy Tail High School, looking back not with anger, but with no regrets. No regrets for what we wanted to do but did not, for what we wanted to say but could not. And so I say here today the one thing I wish I had said, the one thing I know I will regret if I never say."
Natsu paused for dramatic effect. Somebody coughed. Denis extended the pause to rebuild his dramatic effect. He blinked the sweat off his eyelashes. Then he said:
"I love you, Lucy Heartfila."
NATSU COULD THINK of no logical reason why he should not attempt to mate with Lucy Heartfilia. There were no laws explicitly against it. They were of the same species, and had complementary sex organs, most likely, based on extensive mental modeling Natsu had done.
They had both grown up here in Magnolia, only 3.26 miles apart, and could therefore be assumed to share important cultural values. They both drank Snapple Diet Lime Green Tea, though Denis had begun doing so only recently.
And while Lucy was popular and good-looking—Most Popular and Best Looking, according to a survey of 513 Fairy Tail High School seniors— Natsu did have salmon hair, most of the times get bullied of the so called "pink hair" and the smartest person in Fairy Tail High School. His hair color was mostly likely the unusual hair color in the school somewhat the Jocks called "gay".
Natsu could imagine any number of scenarios under which his conquest of Lucy would be successful: if Lucy went to an all-girls school in the Swiss Alps, surrounded by mountains, hundreds of miles from any other guys except Natsu, son f a successful CEO, and Lucy was failing algebra, for example; if Natsu was a celebrity; if Natsu had a billion dollars; if Natsu was six inches taller, and had muscles. Any one of those scenarios.
One also had to consider that there were 125 to 200
billion galaxies in the universe, each with 200 billion stars. Using the Drake equation, that meant there were approximately 2 trillion billion planets out there capable of sustaining life; the latest research suggested that one-third of them would develop life and one-ten-millionth would develop intelligent life. That left 1,333,333 intelligent civilizations created across the universe since the beginning of time, surely one of which was intelligent enough to recognize Natsu and Lucy were meant for one another.
Alternatively, if current string theory was correct, there were a google, google, google, google, google, universes, all stacked up with this one but with different physical properties and, presumably, social customs. In one of these, odds were, Natsu Dragneel not only bred with Lucy Heartfilia but was worshipped by ravenous hordes of Lucy Heartfilia's. Unfortunately in that universe.
Natsu had crab hands and inadvertently snipped each Lucy Heartfilias to bits as she came ravenously at him. This was but a small sampling of the thinking that went on in Denis's Biggest Brain prior to Natsu's sweaty lips declaring his love for Lucy Heartfilia in front of 3,221 hot, testy people.
Lucy was the head cheerleader;
Natsu was captain of the debate team. THERE WA S A MOMENTARY DELAY in the reaction to what Natsu had just said, because nobody was listening. While the adults contemplated cold beer and college tuition, and the graduates contemplated cold beer and another cold beer, their brains continued routine processing of auditory input, so that when Natsu's mother yelped Oh no, they were able to rewind their sensory memory and hear, again:
"I love you, Lucy Heartfilia."
Mrs. Dragneel had been following right along, syllable by syllable, and she knew something was up at syllable ninety-four, when Natsu went off the script they had worked so hard on.
She did not know who Lucy was, but she knew this was not appropriate for a graduation speech, and probably worse. Mr. Dragneel had been enjoying the speech until his wife yipped.
The bleachers echoed with confused murmurs, while down on the floor the graduating class retroactively grasped the tragic nature of what had transpired, and laughed. Master Makarov had been calculating how many dirty, dirty toilets required Mr. Clive lavish attention and had not noticed anything wrong until he heard the laughs; they seemed genuine, and that was not right.
Everyone who knew who Lucy Heartifila was—the entire class and several hundred adults—craned their necks to stare at her. She was near the end of the third row, next to an empty chair, the seat Natsu himself was to return to once he was done humiliating her. He wasn't done.
"I have loved you, Lucy Heartfila," Denis went on, his eyes clinging to his notes, "since I first sat behind you in Mrs. Rosa's math class in the seventh grade. I loved you when I sat behind you in Ms. Rosenbaum's Literature and Writing I. I loved you when I sat behind you in Mr. Dunker's algebra and Mr. Weidner's Spanish. I have loved you from behind—"
This got a huge laugh, one Denis should have expected, being a teenager. He also should have anticipated that Master Makarov would be looming up behind him, about to put his hand on his shoulder, but he did not and continued at the same measured pace.
". . . in biology, history, practical science and Literature of the Oppressed. I loved you but I never told you, because we hardly ever spoke. But now I say it, with no regrets."
NATSU MADE A NOISE, a dry click, as if resetting his throat.
"And so, let us all, too, say the things we have longed to say but our tongues would not."
He had returned to the approved text. His mother exhaled for the first time in more than a hundred syllables. Master Makarov decided intervention was no longer worth the effort, and sat back down. Natsu also felt better, having disgorged his annoying heart, and so proceeded more confidently, with the well-practiced cadence of a master debater.
"Let us be unafraid," Natsu preached, "to admit, I have an eating disorder and I need help."
Fifty-seven female graduates, and six males, glanced around nervously.
"Let us," Natsu chanted, "be unafraid to confess, I am such a stuck-up bitch because, deep down, I believe I am worthless."
There were at least seven people Natsu could have been referring to, and another four so low on the social totem their conceit was meaningless, but the clear consensus was that Natsu was talking about Minerva. Minerva acknowledged the stares by baring her teeth, her version of a smile.
"Let us"—cranking now—"be courageous, truly courageous rather than simply mindlessly violent—"
Laxus Dreyar. He was definitely talking about Laxus Dreyar. It was so obvious that even Laxus suspected he was being talked about, and this, like most things, made him angry.
"Let us stand up and say, I am sorry for all the poundings, the pink bellies, the purple nurples . . ."
Natsu had received seven, sixteen and dozens, respectively.
"I'm sorry I hurt so many of you. I am cruel and violent because I was unloved as a baby, or I was sexually abused or something."
Laxus Dreyar's big tomato face ripened as he erupted from his chair. He had not fully formed a plan beyond smash and head when something tugged the sleeve of his gown.
"And let us know, let all us vow when I graduate, I not keep hanging around my old high school like some kind of creepy loser who can't get an adult girlfriend. You know who you are, you." As Natsu points Lucy's army soldier boyfriend Sting Eucliffe clenching his teeth like he about was going to kill Natsu.
And let us not regret," he said, "that we never told even our best friend"—pause, then softer, slower—"I'm gay, dude."
Natsu looked right at Gray Fullbuster, his best friend. This was unnecessary; everyone knew.
Gray, however, was flabbergasted. He mouthed, somewhat theatrically: I'm not gay!
Natsu was about to respond when he felt four bony fingers dig under his clavicle.
"Thank you, Natsu," Master Makarov said, leaning across Natsu into the microphone. "A lot to think about." For a bright kid, Natsu was not quick on conversational cues.
"I'm not done," he said.
"You're done." The principal moved decisively to secure the podium, driving Natsu aside by kicking him at his knee hard.
Natsu shuffled off the stage.
"As I call your names," Master Makarov was saying,
"I would appreciate it, and I think everyone would, if you came up and accepted your diploma quickly, with a minimum of drama."
The applause grew.
Natsu felt good about the speech. He had let Lucy know how he felt, after all these years, and had made some excellent points about other classmates besides. He wondered what Lucy would say to him when he sat down beside her. He had prepared two responses:
"Then we agree"
or
"It's my medication."
Natsu suddenly had a scary thought: What if she tries to kiss me? Would he politely demur, deferring such action to later, or would he accept the love offering, to the thunderous applause of his peers?
So Natsu did not see the dress shoe had stuck in his path. Natsu tripped, lurched forward, stomped his other foot onto the hem of his gown, dove across his own chair and sailed headlong into Lucy Heartfilia's seat, where, fortunately or unfortunately, she no longer was.
Hey guys! Like my new story? ^-^ It's the longest story I ever wrote it's 2,393 words! that's fucking alot! I wrote this story because I love the movie "I love you Beth Cooper" yea It's from the movie "I Love You Beth Cooper" As you can you see I LOVE Natsu&Lucy high school fanfictions. I'm not going to update my story "The Break up" because I have a huge Writer block! And I might delete the story cause I have no ideas left but I'll update it IF SOMEONE pms me some fucking ideas. -.- ANYWAYS, I might update this story if I get up to 20-40 reviews in this story. (; I'll update this story next week or maybe in thanksgiving break since I don't have time at all the since school started. -_- Ughhhhh! BUT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me review in this story!