Hello beloved readers~
Second chapter's in earlier than I expected because school has just started, so you're welcome! A special shout out to Rose Tiger, akisemidori and chubbybunny26 for reviewing the prologue and for not only them but all you readers who took your time to read this story THANK YOU and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a review.
I forgot to mention also, but did anyone spot the two major references from One Piece and Beelzebub in the last chapter? Now to stop my rambling.
Now here's the story...
Lucy looked as she followed the huge mass of students rush into the school.
She had tried to conceal her platinum blond hair by wearing a hoodie despite the rather warm weather for spring rolled by over her uniform, making her perspire slightly, but glancing around, she could see mops of blue, pink and green hair bobbing from somewhere along the crowd.
Chuckling lightly to herself, Lucy casually pulled her hood down. Guess trying not to stand out might not be so difficult with people's hair colour like that. Following the crowd of supposed delinquents, she reached the rather spacious hall, and skeptically entered, her nerves scared of what was coming.
Glancing around, she stared wondrously at the hall, seats taking up most of the space in the center of the hall. A large stage dominated the front of the hall, with podium in the middle flanked by pots of flowers as decoration. Glancing at the top, she noticed a large banner that had neatly scrawled words onto it, welcoming the first years.
Frowning at how orderly the whole event seemed for a school supposedly filled with delinquents, Lucy nodded as a teacher directed her to the front of the hall where first years were supposed to be seated. Letting her feet guide her while she looked around, taking in more of the environment.
Stopping at the third row, she shuffled into one of the seats as two other students plopped herself beside her. Looking at both her sides, she noticed that the girl on her left had flowing scarlet hair that cascaded past her shoulders. Her uniform primly put on, yet still accentuating her bountiful curves.
Shrinking back a bit as she met the stern gaze of the woman, she averted her own gaze, but saw at the corner of her eye, a hurt look flash across the girl's expression and was tempted to turn back but stopped herself.
Lucy felt a jab of spite hit her chest as memories of her previous friends surged forth. Wincing as the torrent of memories slammed into her, she turned around only to meet the gaze of the other girl.
Her wavy blue locks rested comfortably on her shoulder, with a simple orange hairband that rested on top of her head. Looking at her petite figure, she couldn't help but notice that she had a hefty book by her side.
"Hi! I'm Levy! Nice to meet you! What's your name? I haven't seen you around Magnolia," the girl cheerily asked.
Hesitantly glancing at the girl who she supposed was Levy, Lucy forced a smile and quickly replied that her name was Lucy and that her family had moved into town recently.
"Really? Do you like books? I'm reading Hamlet currently, for the third time! I hope that we'll get to know each other better," Levy burst out, a smile etched tightly onto her face.
Recoiling slightly at the outburst, Lucy shifter nervously in her seat, but started to smile back, as Levy continued bouncing in her seat, eagerly waiting for an answer.
"Levy! Keep quiet! The principal is about to speak!" the scarlet haired girl beside her hissed, before continuing as Levy turned around sheepishly, "I'm Erza Scarlet by the way. I'm sorry if I scared you just now, people say I'm pretty scary. I heard you were Lucy Heartphillia just now, and I'm sorry I eavesdropped on you conversation. Can we continue later?"
Nodding wordlessly, Lucy stared somewhat stunned at the soft personality that the scarlet-haired woman seemed to have under her stern and tough exterior. Turning her attention to the front, she watched as a short and tiny man walk onto the center of the stage.
Looking at him, he had a white bushy moustache, his head almost clear of hair, except for two huge streaks of white hair that ran along the side of his head. He wore a casual white t-shirt with an orange hoodie over it, and a pair of orange shorts that went with his hoodie, along with a pair of large shoes that made his total appearance look like a joke.
Looking at the tiny man approach the podium as he confidently strode out on stage, Lucy watched as he disappeared behind the podium, dwarfed by the height of it. Several moments passed silently until she noticed a tuft of white hair and skin bob up from the edge of the podium before disappearing below again.
Watching silently, she thought to herself, feeling a giggle trying to escape from her mouth, "Is he seriously that short, that he can't even reach the top of the podium."
Shifting her gaze to the two girls beside her, both of them had completely stoic expressions, patiently waiting for the man to start speaking. Gulping down the chuckle, she watched as a woman in the school uniform with flowing white hair rushed out onto the stage with a stool and set it behind the podium, as the man jumped onto it.
Bowing apologetically to the audience, the woman quickly exited the stage, as the man cleared his throat, brushing off his embarrassment evident from the light pink that dusted his cheeks.
"Welcome back brats, to another school year here at Magnolia High School. I, you principal, Makarov and all the other teachers here welcome you back. There isn't really much for me to say, except to stay out of the way of Sabertooth Academy," the principal, Mr Makarov started, but as soon as he muttered the name of 'Sabertooth Academy', she could immediately see the crowd of students visibly flinch.
Looking around her, Lucy watched questioningly at the crowd of students, and when she flashed a look at Erza, she felt a message pass through the both of them as she met her stern gaze.
Don't ask.
Lucy nodded firmly. They had their secrets she had hers. She guessed that it was fair that they got to hide some things from her. Looking at the principal again, he seemed rather unfazed by the crowd's reaction, but something flickered in his eyes along the lines of sympathy.
Pausing slightly to give the students a chance to regain their composure, he glanced around the hall, the air thick with tension that dripped uncomfortably making Lucy wince.
Clearing his throat again, Makarov got the attention of the crowd again, despite the awkward atmosphere, "I don't really have anything else to say, except for all of you to have a good year, and a good time here! Now to pass on the microphone to our student council president, Laxus Dreyar to say a few words."
Bowing lowly from his position on the podium, the tiny man flashed a smile at them and jumped down from the podium, completely forgetting about the stool and landed flat on his face.
Lucy heard somewhere from the row in front someone snigger and burst into laughter, as she saw a mop of pink hair bob up and down. Trying to maintain her calm expression, Lucy struggled to contain her own giggles, but immediately shoved it back down her throat, as she felt Erza's glare murderously at the mop of pink hair, an emotion bordering on that of bloodlust dancing across her features.
Just on cue, the laughter immediately cut off, and the mop of pink hair, sank back down among the crowd as Makarov silently got up and pointed the middle finger at the person who had laughed and grumpily stalked off the stage, passing by a tall figure with shocking yellow hair, a pair of headphones that hung loosely by his neck, and a scar like lightning that ran through right eye.
Despite being dubbed the student council president, his attire was sloppily worn. The top of his uniform was only half tucked in, and his tie hung like an oversized noose around his neck. His pants were rather short, stopping before his ankles, and he wore no socks in his sneakers.
"An exact opposite of Erza," Lucy observed amusedly, "Although, this is a delinquent school, if anything Erza is the odd one out."
Casting a sideways glance at the redhead, she noticed an expression of disgust flit across her face, probably at the man's attire, but it quickly passed and melted away into a stoic expression. However Lucy could still make out a look of admiration and respect that sparkled in Erza's eyes as she stared at the man walk on stage.
Grunting as he approached the stage, the man, Laxus, cleared his throat, and let his gaze sweep through the crowd of students.
"Hi," Laxus began curtly, which earned him a murmur of laughter throughout the crowd, and Lucy swore that she heard someone shout of for Laxus to fight him.
Lucy couldn't help but smile along with the crowd, as a large smile broke out on the man's face while he continued, "We're back for another year here in Magnolia High! We're in for another crazy year this time, I can feel it! Now all you squirts just go out there and have some fun!"
Lucy reeled back, as a deafening roar came as a reply from the crowd, and she watched as even some of the teachers joined in. Looking up again, she watched as Laxus walked off the stage, the woman with the flowing white hair sighing exasperatedly as she took her place at the podium.
"Thank you Laxus, for those… inspiring words. Now to introduce the rest of the student council members, and a few more announcements after that," the woman announced, her face bearing an annoyed expression.
The rest of the assembly had been fairly simple. The rest of the student council first had introduced themselves. The woman with the flowing white hair was the vice-president of the student council, and was also called Mirajane.
The secretary of the student council was a shy girl, with cute pink locks that went by Aries. Lastly, the treasurer of the student council was a man with spiky orange hair, and wore shades even though he was inside, and went by the name of Loki.
After the student council had quickly introduced themselves, the president, Laxus had come on stage to announce that the the last day of the week would be a half day as there would be an event where clubs would advertise themselves for the first years, in the meantime, they were free to go home after lessons immediately.
Lucy listened half-heartedly as Laxus went on to describe how the event would take place. Lucy stared around the already familiar hall and looked to see that only half an hour had past.
She sighed.
Laxus' explanation had only taken another ten minutes, where he said that each class were to be divided into groups and then they would explore the campus together and reassemble at their classes, take the form from their teachers that decided their club and hand it in the next week.
After that, he lazily dismissed the third and second years students to their classes first, before directing the first years to a few billboards by the back that would state their class.
Watching silently as an onrush of students charged up to the billboard, she saw Erza gesture for Lucy to get up and join her.
"Don't you want to wait for everyone to clear up first?" Lucy asked, frowning at Erza and Levy who were getting off their seats already.
"If we get to see our classes first, we can go there and pick our seats first," Erza replied simply, before stalking off with Levy.
Blinking silently, Lucy mechanically got up from her seat and dashed towards the billboard.
"Why didn't you say so!"
Lucy sighed as she clutched her rucksack tightly.
She had lost sight of Erza and Levy in the crowd as soon as she got close, not that she wanted to get to know them anyway. Lucy had managed to push her way through and check her class, but by the time she had turned around to rush to class and pick a spot in the back, more the half the group were already dashing out the hall.
1-B.
Not that her class mattered. She had already resolutely decided that friends were a huge no-no, even before she had entered the school, and all she had to do was ace classes, save up for university or become a writer.
Pretty simple.
Lucy turned a left at a sign that had indicated where the first year classrooms were, racing past an unsuspecting teacher, who dodged out of the way in time. Shouting a hasty apology back, she screeched to a halt outside her class and pushed the door open.
Lucy took deep breaths to steady her breathing, and looked into the class, only to see everyone inside staring at her. Stunned at the class's reaction, she stood rooted to the spot, unsure of how to proceed from there.
"Hey Lucy! We saved you a spot!" she heard someone from the back of the class shout.
Turning her gaze, she immediately found a small tuft of blue hair bobbing up and down behind the familiar figure of Erza, who just simply smiled and waved at her to come over.
Smiling sheepishly at the rest of the class, she made her way towards the back of the class, and sat down on her seat, which was situated two seats away from the window.
"Lucy! You're so late! You're one of the last ones to get here! Luckily we saw your name before we exited and when we noticed you were in the same class, we decided to save you a spot!" Levy squeaked excitedly, the large book that she had with her propped nicely on the desk beside hers.
Smiling thankfully, Lucy felt her heart warm at their kindness, but immediately tried to shrug it off.
No friends. No friends. No friends.
Lucy shut her eyes and chanted it to herself, she couldn't allow a repeat of what had happened the other time. Even if her father wasn't there to beat her for it, she couldn't make such superficial friends. Not again.
Forcing a smile that Lucy was sure seemed awkward, she glanced at Erza who wordlessly only grinned in reply. Unsure of how to follow up, Lucy just continued staring at her two companions, until an air of awkwardness started to hang around the group, and neither of them wanted to leave suddenly and seem rude.
Desperate to ease the tension, Lucy stuttered, "H-Hey, Erza, Levy, you guys seem pretty close, how'd you get to know each other."
"Well, Levy and I as well as some other friends have known each other since grade school, although some of our friends, we only came to know about in middle school," Erza explained, a nostalgic glint passing through her eyes before fading away.
Lucy winced at Erza's explanation.
"Must be nice to have friends like that, are you sure they're real friends?" Lucy almost blurted out but bit back her tongue, not wanting to seem rude.
Levy nodded enthusiastically, happy enough to be rid of the awkward tension, "Yeah! There are a bunch of us together! There's Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Erza's boyfriend, Jellal-"
"He's not my boyfriend!" Erza interrupted, screaming, her face flaming red.
Levy just rolled her eyes, and continued, "Cana, Juvia, Wendy, Natsu's little sister, Mirajane, Elfman, Lisanna, Loki, his girlfriend, Aries, Jet and Droy. I guess that's it."
Frowning at the number of people on the list, she simply just shrugged it off, and sighed inwardly. Lucy wondered if the people that Levy had listed were 'real' friends, not that she had any experience as to say what was and what wasn't, but she still wished she had some friends that she could really count on.
Not wanting to show them any of her discomfort, Lucy continued to ask, "So where are these friends of yours? I know who Mirajane and Loki are, because they introduced themselves, or are they in another school?"
"No, the guys are a bunch of idiots, so they're probably goofing off somewhere, but I heard that Natsu, Gray and Gajeel are in our class," Erza said, her face having cooled off already.
"G-Gajeel's in our class?" Levy asked, her face dusting a light pink.
"Yes… Don't tell me you like him?" Erza teased, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively to try and add on to her humiliation.
"No!" Levy screamed, making everyone in the class turn her attention to her.
Smiling sheepishly at the rest of the class, she waved off their stares, and pouted at Erza who looked hysterical, as she barely controlled her laughter. Feeling a smile crack on her own face, Lucy couldn't help but chuckle at Levy's reaction.
Quickly turning her head as she watched as a man that looked like he was in his late forties, stroll into the room and take his place in front of the teacher's desk. Hearing the shuffling of feet and scraping of chairs, the class quickly rushed into their own seats as the man yawned and looked at the class.
He had ginger red hair, and looked fairly muscular, although Lucy couldn't tell as he wore a long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans.
Lucy watched the man yawn again, and finally said, "Good morning class, I am Mr Gildarts Clive, but you can just call me Gildar-"
"Sorry we're late!"
Lucy quickly diverted her gaze away from the teacher, to the front door, as it slammed open, revealing a guy who looked sloppily dressed and most certainly beat up.
But what caught Lucy's attention most was the mop of pink hair that sat comfortably on his head and the white scarf that was wrapped neatly around his neck. She watched wordlessly as pink hair, as she had dubbed him, strolled casually into class and simply waved at the teacher, with two other guys behind him.
The second guy that had strolled in, had spiky black hair, but he only had his pants on, revealing his somewhat muscular body. Gagging at his appearance, Lucy's face dusted a light pink, and diverted her attention to the last guy, who's hair that feel down in spiky waves all the way until his waist, and had multiple piercings all over his face, only adding to this thuggish look with his harsh scowl.
So this was where the delinquents were hiding. It would seem awkward if Magnolia High School was dubbed as one holding delinquents if they were only holding people like Levy and Erza.
Gildarts however just glared half-heartedly at them and told the shirtless one, who he called Gray, to grab his shirt. With most of the seats taken up, the guy with a lot of piercings, sat at the other side of the room, in the corner, while the shirtless guy went out of the classroom, muttering under his breath.
The guy with pink hair looked at Gajeel enviously, as though he had wanted to sit there and watched him scan the room slowly, while Gildarts rub the bridge of his nose exasperatedly as Gray had returned to class, this time with his shirt on, but with no pants.
"Gray! Come back here once you've only fully dressed!" Gildarts barked, "Natsu, there are only a few seats left! Pick one already!"
Flinching, the two guys immediately rushed to the tasks they were assigned to, as Gray rushed out of the of the room again, leaving behind a trail of curses, while Natsu just jumped and ran to a seat.
Which happened to be in front of her.
Groaning silently, she waited for few moments passed by, until Gray immediately returned fully clothed and wearing a sheepish smile. Taking his seat at the one in front, he slumped down, as Gildarts looked sourly at the three latecomers and sighed before continuing.
"Luckily, we still have enough time for an introduction from all of you, as we'll be stuck in the same class for the rest of the year, I really want you guys to bond," Gildarts calmly continued, "Let's start from the front then."
Lucy listened half-heartedly to the introductions of the other students, occasionally hearing something that piqued her interest, but she passed over it, not really wanting to hear it, in case it made her want to make… friends with the person.
Other times though, she heard a few names that Levy and Erza had mentioned they were friends with, like Gray, Natsu, Elfman and Loki.
"Lucy Heartphillia," she heard a distant voice say, yawning at it, she continued her daydream.
"Lucy Heartphillia," the voice shouted louder this time.
Jumping at the sound, she leaped out of her seat, startled at the sudden use of her name, and leaned forward towards the voice, only to have her chest collide with something soft.
Looking past herself, she found the person who had introduced himself as Natsu, had his face buried in between her bosom. Lucy had refrained from trying to slap him, since it had been accident and had simply stepped back, trying to ignore her raging blush and teasing stares that she got from all around her, even Gildarts had joined in.
Lucy simply shrugged it off and tried to continue, despite her embarrassment but Natsu had cut in before her and said something else.
"You look really cute you know that? I'm Natsu Dragneel, and would you like to be my girlfriend?" Natsu asked, a wide smile plastered onto his face as leaned back on his chair.
Choking back her sentence, Lucy stared bewildered at the pink-haired idiot in front of her.
"Excuse me?" Lucy managed to choke out, as she tried to fight a raging blush from spreading on her face.
"You heard me," Natsu said, now standing to his full height as he towered over her by a full head, "Will you be my girlfriend?"
Lucy gulped heavily as an image of her cuddling next to Natsu flooded her mind, drowning out all her other thoughts.
"Natsu! Sit down, Ms Heartphillia has just moved to Magnolia, at least try to make her stay easier," Gildarts scolded, but his tone carried a hint of amusement, not giving much comfort to Lucy even though he got Natsu to stop.
Natsu simply flashed her a smile, and sat back down, his back to her.
Staring dazed at the rest of the class, that had watched the event unfold in stunned silence, she finally found her voice and continued, "Hi… I'm Lucy Heartphillia, as Mr Gildarts has already introduced. I moved here from a city quite near here called Marth, although I have lived here once when I was younger."
Upon finishing her introduction, she saw Natsu clap loudly in front of her by himself, and Lucy mechanically sat down, as she banged her head softly onto the edge of her desk.
"What have I gotten myself into?"
Lucy rushed past the hallways, a storm of thoughts swirling in her head. As soon as class had ended for lunch, she had rushed out off class, not wanting to confront Erza, Levy and especially not Natsu.
The rest of the lesson had passed by in a blur of Lucy, which had been ironic as it was torture for Lucy to sit behind Natsu, have two girls beside her tease her for the scene that he had created and that she had no part in. She hadn't really bothered to memorise any of her classmate's names.
Although she most likely would have to work with some of her classmates at a later point in time, she didn't need to know their names now. It was too much of a hassle, especially with the situation that Natsu had created for her, and she was sure that word would get around soon enough that the incident happened.
Letting her feet take her to who knows where, Lucy mechanically turned a left and walked up the stairs, the thought of ditching class popping into her head, and she was sure that no one would mind, given the fact that it was a delinquent school.
Slowly reaching to a stop as she reached the door that led to roof. Sighing exasperatedly, she pushed it open, as her appetite for lunch had gone away along with the rest of her sanity.
Moving to a corner of the roof that was shaded by the small structure that held the staircase, Lucy plopped herself down, fatigue washing over her. Placing her backpack against the wall, she leaned against it, using it as a pillow.
"Just a few minutes…" Lucy yawned, desperate for any sort of relief from the turmoil of daily life.
Lucy lay back down onto her bag, letting the cool wind flirt with her blonde locks and lull her slowly to sleep.
Lucy rolled over to her side, and snuggled in closely to her pillow, breathing in the sweet smell of cinnamon.
Cinnamon?
Snapping her eyes open, Lucy jumped up, the thought of her oven burning flashing as she looked into the direction of her kitchen in the apartment, when she finally remembered that she wasn't even at home.
Jerking up from her position, she awoke to find the familiar scene of the rooftop greet her. Rummaging into her pocket, she fished out her phone that she had changed her number with.
"Oh god, I've missed three periods," Lucy groaned, taking a peek at the time on her phone.
Finally deciding that going back in the middle class suddenly after three periods would have been a terrible idea, Lucy lay back down on her pillow, not before noticing a flash of pink.
Straightening her back, she scowled, as she saw the face of Natsu, soundly asleep. Glaring at the sleeping pinkette, her scowled deepened as she realized that she had been using his lap as a pillow the whole while.
At least it was comfortable.
Lucy gagged as a small part of her brain spoke up from the dark recesses of her mind. Pushing the thought away, she felt a small anger build up inside of her, not only at herself for thinking something so absurd, but also at Natsu for having disturbed her perfectly peaceful sanctuary that she had built around herself.
Snarling, she raised an arm and got ready to shove him awake when she found a note taped comically to his ear. Choking down a giggle, not wanting to seem off character even though he was asleep. Carefully taking down the note that had badly scrawled handwriting, she read it over, only finding tears stream down her face as she read it.
Hey Lucy, you're sleeping now, so I'll write this note in case you wake up earlier than me.
I noticed that you weren't in class after break, so I decided to look for you, and I kinda knew you'd be in the roof since it's where I go to clear my head. Erza and Levy were really worried about you, and even if Erza was super angry with you skipping class, I guess it was my fault that you were the way you were when you rushed out of class.
I'm sorry.
So I came to look for you because I was really worried and I found you asleep. You seemed really uncomfortable lying on the ground with your bag as a pillow, so I lent you my lap, and I'm sorry if you find it a bit too close, but I don't want you to feel uncomfortable.
I'm also really serious about you becoming my girlfriend, and Erza and Levy tell me that they really want to become friends with you, because you had seemed quite distant. If you want to know why, I guess it's because you've experienced something bad in your past, like all the rest in our group. It was in your eyes, a hurt that I've seen before, so I'm not really sure.
You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but we've all been through something bad, and I find it's easier to handle the burden with friends.
Listen to me ramble… But I've lent you my scarf to keep you warm when you sleep, and please do return it.
Love,
Natsu
Lucy sniffled as she finished reading the letter. Reading it had made her feel warm, like she belonged with them. Natsu had talked so fondly about her and his friends, that it made her feel like she had already been a part of them and that made her feel something that she though she'd have never see again.
Lucy felt happy.
Practically alone in the world, she had been led to believe that she would forever have been forced down into the dark underbelly of society, but these people, who she barely knew had so graciously held out a hand for her.
Still though, she was reluctant to reach out and grab it. Lucy didn't want to get hurt again, in fact no one would, but having seen a light in the dull and bleak life that she been forced to lead, had been too good to be true.
Fingering the scarf, that she let her tears silently drip onto it as a shaky smile slowly formed on her lips.
Wiping away the streams of tears that silently dripped onto Natsu's scarf, she silently hiccupped and let loose a shaky smile.
"So you like me? I can't say I really like you. You're loud, you're rude and you're annoying," Lucy weakly began, still struggling to find her voice after crying.
As if he had heard her, Natsu shifted uncomfortably and frowned slightly.
Giggling gently at his reaction, Lucy continued, "I don't really want to be involved with friends just yet. I had my bad experiences with them, but you seem like you really care. So for that, I guess I like you, but only by one percent."
Lucy smiled, and leaned in, lightly pecking Natsu's cheek. She silently giggled to herself as Natsu's frown immediately eased up and let a smile grace her lips. Clutching the scarf closely to her, she sighed contentedly as she felt another breeze blow in, calming down her senses and lulling her into sleep again as she lay down on Natsu's lap.
Cracking one eye open, Natsu smiled.
That's the first official chapter of my story. I know I said that I'd be introducing the gang in this chapter, but I'll properly be doing so the next one, so I'm sorry if you're disappointed.
THANK YOU once again for clicking this story, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a review.
-Fluff Master
