By the time Erza had finished school, her day had leveled out in terms of excitement. Although she loved Makarov's P.E. class she found it difficult to deal with the freshmen and their minute understanding on how to flirt with a girl. To put it simply, they we're shameless. She, of course, never one to blush in the face of awkward exchanges, dealt with the unwanted attention by ignoring it.
Her lunch went the same as always, it was typically a bit lonely because most upperclassmen decide to not have a fourth hour so the cafeteria is usually filled with people who she didn't necessarily associate with. Her final class of the day was AP English. It was both her favorite and least favorite class. On one hand she loved the challenge but on the other hand the grading was hard and her teacher could be ruthless. She left with a bright smile however because her teacher had announced that they would be reading the play Macbeth next and Erza was selected to read the part of Lady Macbeth.
Deep down she had always loved plays, to be able to be such an important character was a big deal to her. Which is why she spent the next ten minutes telling her current best friend all about it.
"Mirajane, you wouldn't believe it! Well, actually, you would but isn't it exciting?! I'm Lady Macbeth!" She told her silver haired friend as they walked to the locker rooms.
Mira simply smiled at her friend, happy to see her so excited. "You do realize it's just for your English class right?" She asked the redhead.
Erza just looked forward as if seeing something Mira didn't, "Still… every play is a work of art no matter where it's preformed. My only hope is that I do it justice." Her mouth set in a determined grim line, she paused to let her words sink in and then opened the door to the girl's locker room. Inside was a handful of other girls changing into their work out clothes, Erza smiled as they each greeted her.
Mirajane watched as Erza's grin grew in the presence of her teammates and she sighed, "You are quite dramatic…" she said, mostly to herself, "you should be fine." It was both reassuring and lighthearted.
The conversation drifted as the girls got ready for their practice, Cana turned to look at Erza and asked, "What are you going to do about state finals being on the same day as prom?"
Erza sighed, she was captain and founder of the girl's wrestling club for her high school, she wanted to pave the way for a future for other females in the sport. She had been doing a good job of it too, the started the team with just four girls her sophomore year: herself, Lucy, Mirajane, and Cana and three years later the team has gone from just four members to over twenty. She was honestly surprised with the reception it received but knew a lot of it was in part to Makarov because he would often encourage the girls in his P.E. class to join.
She owed a lot to Makarov and considered the man family. Although he was irresponsible, hopeless with organization, and just a plain pain in the butt to the administration, his classes always had the most fun and he tended to make a bigger impact as a teacher compared to the others that only stuck to administrative regulated activities. He was also the boy's wrestling coach and the sponsor for her club meaning she spent a lot of time with him.
Which is why she felt guilty skipping out on her senior year of state, the year she would most likely win the title for the first time, to go to prom. Of course, that all depends on if someone would ask her… That aside, Erza knew that because she was the captain what she held a lot of influence over what the other girls did, especially those that were more timid. If Erza didn't go, they'd be much less likely to compete. That thought alone was almost enough to sway her decision, she couldn't let the team down, she was trying to be a leader and if that meant giving up senior prom then she'd just have to suck it up. No one had even asked her anyways.
With that in mind she replied to Cana with ease and confidence, "I'm not going to prom," she said, not the least be self-conscious of that fact. "I've put a lot of time into this and I don't want to waste all the hard work I've done." She knew in her heart she had a team to lead, at least, that's what she convinced herself of. The underclassmen, who couldn't go to prom due to being underclassmen, looked on with admiration, sure that they can be as confident as that as well. Erza was satisfied with her pep talk in disguise and walked out of the locker room after finishing tying her shoelace, Mirajane quickly following after her.
Practice was always a great release for Erza, for as long as she could remember she had been the type of person to feel very strong emotions but was unable to let them out, nothing worked better than taking on an opponent and fighting with all her strength to lessen the buildup of her long overdue expressions.
Her drill partner was of course Mira, she was the only one who really challenged Erza and the two we're rivals on the mat but that only made their bond outside of the sport that much stronger. They had been friends ever since the start of sophomore year when Erza started the club, the first person she asked to join was of course her best friend Lucy (at the time) and then Lucy encouraged Mira to join, which is how to two really started to become friends. After Lucy left the two behind, they both felt betrayed and that's what they bonded over. It was a little ironic that her ex-best friend is what led her to her current one but she didn't mind.
Drill after drill she allowed all her pent up aggression to form itself into something more productive. She had a truly great practice due to the fact that her feelings of Natsu weren't exactly crystal clear. She knew that she definitely liked the boy but she wasn't sure how to deal that. Erza didn't really get crushes like most girls do, in fact she had never really felt any strong feelings towards anyone in that way. It's not to say that she hasn't tried dating boys before, quite the contrary she's had a handful of boyfriends, however her relationships were short lived and far from intimate. She would get bored, but with Natsu, she felt like there was always more to learn. He was unpredictable and she couldn't control him, she loved it. Except, she also hated it. She didn't want to need Natsu, it scared her to place her trust in someone, she didn't want to appear weak; especially to Natsu who saw her fondly as a strong and confident girl.
Her thoughts shifted as she saw Mira's hand waved in front of her face and suddenly her ears began to work again. "Hello, earth to Erza, are you there?" she giggled. The team was sitting drinking water at the end of practice and just enjoying each others company after a tough workout.
Erza shook the remaining thoughts about Natsu out of her head and smiled at Mira, "Hmm, I was just caught up in thought," she told her, "you wouldn't understand." A smirk graced her face as she harassed her friend.
Far from being offended Mira only responded with her own remark, "You face is really red, Erza, were you daydreaming about a boy?" She teased in a singsong voice.
Erza was shocked for a moment as all the thoughts she just willed away came flooding back. Thinking the inner confines of her mind had been breached with how accurate Mirajane's joke was, she quickly stuttered out an excuse, "I-it's not like that!" She assured, "My face is only flushed because of the work out." Seeming much more confident now she laughed along with the rest of the team.
Mira's face showed genuine happiness, "Don't worry, Erza, we know you don't daydream, let alone about boys!" She giggled even more and the rest of the team joined in. Erza smiled and chuckled but hardly felt the joke like the other girls did. All things considering she honestly didn't mind the reputation she'd built for herself: self-sufficient, independent, driven. It was no bother to her if other people thought she was prudish because she was. Sure she knew how to flirt and could be extremely charming but after that she was lost, the furthest her relationships had ever gone was a make out session on the couch if they even lasted long enough for the boy to work up the courage to ask her to come over that is.
By the time she got home Erza was exhausted, however, before she retreated to her bed her homework needed to be conquered. The thought alone sent shivers down her spine. All she wanted was to curl up with a nice book and enjoy the rest of her night but she knew that wouldn't be the case. Erza was smart and responsible but sometimes things just passed without her giving it the attention it should get. One such thing included college. The thought alone almost gave her an anxiety attack. She was a perfectionist at times and it drove her crazy while submitting applications seeing the flaws that only the possession of a time machine could fix. It stressed her out, probably more than it should have.
She checked her grades again, looking over each assignment, making sure that what she was doing now was in her control. On that note she started her homework, it wasn't difficult, just time consuming. Halfway though she took a break to eat dinner, her parents were still out so she found a microwave dinner and heated it up. She didn't mind frozen dinners like that, she didn't think they tasted all that bad and it was quick and easy, sitting down for a home cooked meal probably wouldn't have fit in her schedule anyways.
Erza didn't get to bed that night until after two in the morning, it wasn't because of her homework, it was because she was reading and couldn't put her book down. Every time she said it would be her last chapter there would be a big cliffhanger that she just couldn't not read on. She sighed the next morning as she nearly chucked her alarm clock across the room. Waking up is hard to do and mornings we're like the spawn of Satan.
Her day passed fairly quickly, of which she was thankful for. It was the latter half of the middle of second semester so most of classes consisted of cramming in last minute material and projects before having to start studying for finals. She was tired because that was the third night in a row that she decided being a night owl was worth the price of a draining day. The only notable thing that happened was her being called down to guidance during her first block.
She stomped out of the classroom not all that excited to be missing work time. To make matter worse, the line at guidance was long, meaning it probably would've been smart of her to bring her book bag down with her. She sat down and patiently began waiting for her name to be called. Guidance was one of the worst places to wait at due to the fact that there wasn't that much space so there was quite a bit of people crammed into one room and everyone just sat there awkwardly staring at each other or twiddling with their phones.
Erza pulled out her phone and cursed the poor reception. She figured she could play an app to pass the time but honestly would've just preferred to be in her class. She looked up when she heard a familiar voice, "Erza, what are you doing here?" It was a deep questioning voice and she turned her head upwards and made eye contact with a blond haired boy with headphones on around his neck.
"Laxus," she greeted, "fancy seeing you here." He came and sat down next to her. "I believe I'm here to talk about college, at least I'm pretty sure. What about you?"
He shrugged, "I'm in the guidance office all the time." He told her as if it were obvious.
"You mean you cause problems all the time." Erza replied, knowing that it was true. She smiled. She and Laxus were actually pretty decent friends. They had a shaky start but she liked to think that underneath that tough bravado was someone much softer. As of this year there had been a big pink elephant sitting around because the two had woke up one day in the same bed spooning after a night out. Erza knew what happened because she wasn't that drunk but all the same she wasn't sure if the blond haired boy was right for her. The two only cuddled and flirted so it wasn't anything serious, but she had to wonder how he actually felt about her.
They acted as just friends and Erza knew that's all they were, she never considered him after realizing how she felt about Natsu. Even if she did like Laxus, she could never seriously date him because of those very same feelings. Natsu didn't know about her and Laxus' weird friendship-cuddle thing and she preferred to keep it that way. After all, she didn't really want to address the topic with Laxus, let alone anyone else.
However that was a month ago and things went back to normal for the two friends, they acted as if nothing ever happened and continued on with their standard interactions. It was an unspoken agreement between the two they would casually flirt but never consider each other seriously. Erza was fine with that, she enjoyed his company.
The two conversed quietly due to the fact that everyone else in the room was dead silent and hadn't even made an attempt to act as if they weren't eavesdropping. Erza asked him about his latest tales of trouble and laughed as he joked around. He was arrogant but somehow charming when it came to her. Laxus was actually fairly popular with the ladies and people in general. They liked him even though he could be a jerk, actually it seemed that those were the type of people that were the most popular. She pushed the thought aside and continued listening, that is until she heard her name called by the secretary.
Eager to get this meeting over with she waved goodbye to Laxus and strode into the office where her consoler sat scrolling through her computer screen. She sat down across from the woman and prepared herself for the mental onslaught of college application submissions and major related questions. She hated college talk, she wanted to ignore it and just let it work itself out like she did a lot of her other stress inducing problems but this wasn't something she could let time handle and that's what annoyed her the most.
Her consoler spoke up, "You are only submitting one application?" she said in a weird mix of shock and disapproval.
Erza replied looking more confident than she felt, "Yes," she told her, "to Fiore University."