Oho, thanks for the reviews XD Hope you enjoy this chappie~
Chapter 1
It's all about the exposure
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Being a new student, despite his infectious grin and slightly overwhelming personality, was absolutely nerve wracking for Natsu Dragneel.
He could take the stupid bullies at his old school, he could take the so-called "terrifying" bullies out on the streets, but being thrust into an entirely new environment where responsibility might have a completely different definition and weight? No, thank you. He'd rather kiss the moronic stripper he called his best friend-slash-archnemesis.
The salmon-haired boy was standing outside of the grand school of Magnolia High (Natsu had snorted when he had heard the name, and proceeded to comment on the creativity of the founder). The walls towered over him, so much that he felt like a dwarf in comparison. The double doors were intricately decorated, however the effect was ruined by the many posters and spray paint decorating the smooth wood. The rough gray walls had obviously been tagged various times by a variety of different street artists, ranging from the typical swearing to masterpieces that should've been hanging on a wall in one of Magnolia's art museums.
"Are you Natsu Dragneel?"
The teenaged boy glanced up from his oh-so-interesting activity of kicking a pebble around. He lifted one of his hands from the pocket of his red hoodie to give the girl - who honestly didn't look to be all that much older than him - a two fingered salute.
"Yo."
The girl frowned at him, evidently appalled by his lack of manners and eyeing his scarf and grass-stained jeans distastefully. However, she was courteous enough not to comment on it. She pushed her purple-frame glasses up, giving Natsu a clear view of her darkdark brown eyes that seemed to have a permanent stern glint in them. She brushed a long, red - no, scarlet would be the more accurate term - strand of hair from her face and plastered on a polite smile. From her perfectly color coordinated jacket and skirt, button up white blouse, and shiny black shoes with knee-high socks, Natsu could tell she was one of those organized - maybe control freak - types.
"My name is Erza Scarlet," she said somewhat pleasantly, though her teeth were gritted. "Pleasure to meet you."
From her tone of voice, Natsu doubted that was what she meant at all.
"Nice ta meetcha, too," the boy grinned at her. "I'm the new junior, but ya knew that anyways, didn'tcha?"
Erza's disapproving glare wasn't erased from her face immediately, but it softened, as if realizing that this kid clearly meant no harm.
"Magnolia High is glad to have you here, Natsu," the redhead said, clapping the other on the back so hard he nearly spat out a lung. "I myself am a senior, however I am the student body president, and am therefore obligated to show you around the campus."
She handed him a fluorescent yellow paper, and Natsu winced from the brightness. His eyes trailed over the black ink, confidence wavering. He was about to open his mouth to point something out to his guide, when she interrupted:
"That is your schedule, I have taken the liberty to read it over and memorize it, as I am to show you to each of your classes today."
Natsu nearly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed as though some all-powerful deity was having mercy on him - for the day, at the very least.
"Your first class is literature."
Or maybe not.
Literature lived up to every one of Natsu's expectations. That would've been a good thing had Natsu actually expected good things to happen in the class that Satan himself had created.
It had already been bad enough when he had evidently used up all excuses to stall Erza, and she had already gotten so frustrated she pushed him into the classroom, loudly announcing his name and then storming off without another word. Natsu had then squeaked a hello before lightly padding to a seat and attempting to ignore the dirty looks his classmates were throwing him for interrupting their beloved class.
That's when Natsu found things went from bad to worse. The teacher was absolutely atrocious, using words that he had never even known existed until that teacher used them, the students were all the teacher's pet kind, ninety-nine point nine percent of them had already read the book (which was horrifyingly long, by Natsu's standards, too) and had already annotated and come up with various discussion topics for it. How was this class low-level literature again?
The only plus side to the whole debacle was the fact that the hardworking, doe-eyed students had swarmed the front and center of the classroom (seriously, how were they even juniors?) leaving the back corners of the classroom nearly deserted.
Operative word being nearly.
In the two back seats nearest to the left corner of the classroom were two students about his age. A boy and a girl.
The boy was extremely rough around the edges, long black hair in a ponytail that reminded Natsu funnily of a tomboyish chick. Silver piercings dotted his face and arms, comically replacing his eyebrows. He was dressed in the overrated colors of black and different shades of gray, a rhinestone skull on the front of his ripped, sleeveless shirt completing the stereotypical "bad boy" look.
The girl was much more angelic with a silver pixie cut with a strange tint of lavender. Her eyes were a wide-eyed, innocent blue with a twinkle of something mischievous. She was clothed in shades of blue and lavender. Natsu was surprised she wasn't amongst the swarm of goody-two-shoes crowding around the teacher as though what he was saying were gospel.
"Err, hi," Natsu greeted awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck, a nervous habit of his."'m Natsu."
The boy grunted while the girl giggled.
"We know," she said airily. "Erza made it quite clear. I'm Lisanna Strauss, and this big lug is Gajeel Redfox."
She kicked the side of Gajeel's shin, smile never wavering as she stuck out a porcelain-skinned hand.
Natsu took it awkwardly.
He dropped his textbooks on the desk next to her, eyes skimming over the titles and cringing.
"Alright, students!" their considerably less pretentious assistant teacher hollered, voice resounding all over the room. "I want you all to separate yourselves into groups of three, read chapter one, and then analyze! Starting now!"
Mere moments later, Natsu found himself in a group with Lisanna and Gajeel.
"Why don't we all take turns reading a chapter each class?" Lisanna suggested. "I'll start."
Maybe this class wouldn't be so bad after all.
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The lens, I told her
Kind of a filler. YAY WE GET TO MEET NATSU WHOO-HOO
Review Corner :3
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