"You look like you could use a good meal. Let's go off campus and get some food," Zancrow proposed to Lucy early that morning. She barely knew him, but rumor had it that he was a huge jerk and used girls for his exploits.
"No thank you. I'm watching my weight because I want to fit into my old ballet clothes," Lucy told him with more than enough ice in her voice. She turned around to hear the TA, Gray Fullbuster, talk about circadian rhythms.
"Ballet is for pussies," Zancrow hissed, and Lucy arose from her chair with a smile sweet as the maple syrup she had put on her pancakes that morning. With perfect posture, she stepped softly with grace to the boy's desk, where she tipped her reading glasses down to look at him. All of Zancrow's scrawny face was turned up into a smirk that was almost as big as his ego. He did not waver as he stood to face her calmly, and Lucy etched that eerie grin onto her face as if it was permanent. Their heights were startlingly different as Lucy stood at 5'5 and Zancrow stood a head taller than her. Everyone in the class was silent as they stared at the showdown between the bad boy of the school and the girl that never dared to do anything wrong.
"What are you going to do, hot stuff? Dance me to death?" Zancrow taunted. Lucy's grin never wavered as she began to form her body into a jete movement. Her kicks were soft but pronounced, and she spun her body effortlessly and gracefully as if she was doing something as natural as walking.
"Jete," Lucy pronounced the french word with ease as she performed the kick, "is to jump with the throw of the leg."
Lucy dropped her smile suddenly, and she executed the jete once more to kick Zancrow in his gut. Zancrow sucked in a breath and clutched his stomach, but still kept the smirk on his face. The class gasped, and Lucy grinned victoriously. But her show was not over yet.
"Ciseaux pas de is to scissor kick and land on one foot," Lucy said with a french accent. With the same grace, the girl jumped and accomplished the movement as she kicked Zancrow's head upward. A loud crack echoed throughout the room, and Zancrow groaned in pain.
Lucy's eerie smile returned as she blessed the class with another of her definitions. "Roundhouse," she started, "isn't exactly a ballet kick, but it will do."
"Fullbuster. You gotta help me out here, right? Lucy is absolutely crazy! She looked so hot in her gray sweatshirt and leggings that I just had to get a rise out of her. I didn't expect for her to actually attack me!" Zancrow whined as he followed Gray around the cafeteria. The fast food joints all lined up in a row no longer sounded appealing to Gray. Zancrow's whining had debilitated his appetite very quickly, and Gray hated whining.
"You insulted her. In my opinion, you deserved it," Gray stated, and Zancrow scowled as he finally walked away and flipped the taller man the bird. Gray sighed and sat down at the booth next to Natsu as usual.
"So who'd you bother today with your ugly mug?" Natsu asked through bites of his sandwich. Natsu never stopped eating, but because of rugby the guy never gained a pound.
"Tch. I'm going to get food," Gray announced. He had had enough of everyone's shit today.
Gray spotted Lucy in the cafeteria lined up to get a sandwich, and he made his way up to her to tap her on the shoulder.
"What?" Lucy snapped as she turned, and Gray stared back at her with a neutral expression.
"I don't know how the hell you know those kicks, but I want you to join my ballet class I teach on Thursdays," Gray told her, and Lucy glanced back in shock. As Gray ordered his drink with extra ice, Lucy could only look at him with utter amazement.
"Why me?" She asked while she picked up her meal and walked with him over to their booth. Natsu looked up in surprise and began to look at Lucy in shock. Why the hell was this pretty girl sitting next to him?
"You knocked out one of the heavyweight boxers in school without even using your hands. Hell, you even gracefully kicked the guy's ass," Gray said as he drank his soda.
"But I haven't been in ballet for about three years now," Lucy told Gray with her head down, "and I could barely remember the definitions of the words and how to perform the kicks correctly..."
"That doesn't matter to me. What matters is that you've got some talent, Lucy," Gray said, giving his new friend a soft smile.
Lucy smiled back softly, and it felt good to smile in a way that wasn't creepy. Maybe she was finally making some friends for once.
"You definitely have the posture for it. And your kicks were phenomenal..." Gray told her, and Lucy's smile inched wider across her face.
Gray continued to sing Lucy's praises until Zancrow showed up unexpectedly. The tall man smiled down at Lucy like he was about to devour her, and Gray glared at Zancrow as if he were a fly in his lunch. Lucy picked at her nails and ignored him, taking a file out of her bag to file away the harshness of her nails. Natsu only looked at the man before going back to his textbook, a scowl deepening on his handsome face.
"Hey, Lucy, is it?" Zancrow asked, his overly deep voice sounding even more smarmy than he did this morning.
"Yep," Lucy said as she found a hangnail that she had neglected picking at earlier and tore it off of her finger with a small wince.
"You look like you could use more protein in your diet. I'm all the beef you'll need," Zancrow smiled smugly with his teeth, and Lucy's anger flared.
"Asshole," Gray growled, putting a hand on Lucy's arm. "Let's go to my favorite coffee shop where you can think more about your decision."
Gray pulled Lucy out of her chair gently and led her around so she could feel safe. Together, they left with Natsu trailing behind.
"What's your name?" Natsu asked Lucy. His once scowling face was now a happy one, and Lucy smiled back at the man.
"I'm Lucy. I think we have the same history class together." Lucy was sure of it. Ever since she had seen a man with pink hair for the first time in her life, it wasn't something that she would forget anytime soon.
"Oh, sweet! Do ya think you could help me with the homework our professor gave us?"
"Are you going to do your own work instead of just sleeping like you did while he was going over the information we needed in class?" Lucy giggled, her eyes lighting up at the jab.
"Hey! I was tired and my cat kept me up!"
"How the hell does your cat keep you up, idiot?" Gray chimed in.
"He was meowin' all night for food even though I already fed him! Stupid cat..."
"He sounds a lot like you," Gray smirked at Natsu and dodged the punch Natsu threw at him.
"Shut up, moron!"
Lucy laughed and listened to her new friends bicker the entire way to the coffee house. She wasn't sure if she would join the ballet group, but she was sure of one thing: she had made some friends.