Second Six Weeks
October 5th - 16th
Lucy was tapping her pen nervously on her binder as she sat alone in the library Monday after school. As soon as classes ended she had gone strait there, but that was twenty minutes ago. Knowing what little she did about Natsu it was entirely possible that he had forgotten over the weekend and gone strait home, and she hadn't gotten the chance to remind him earlier that day. So now she was wishing she had done like her other friends and exchanged numbers with her partner, since now would be a great time to call him.
Deciding enough time had passed and that her time could be better spent doing homework or writing at home she began to gather her things. Just as she slung her backpack over her shoulder she heard a loud "Lucy" from across the library. She quickly twisted around and saw Natsu running towards her with hands waving madly in the air and a big silly grin over his face.
Dropping back down in her chair with a huff she began to pull her stuff back out. Once Natsu finally reached the table, after being stopped and scolded by the librarian, he sat down across from her, "Sorry I'm late. I had made it halfway home before Erza called and reminded me about today."
So he had forgotten.
"Well I am glad Erza remembered. Anyways I don't want to be here late so we should get started," Lucy said hastily.
Natsu nodded and bent over to rummage around in his backpack. When he came back up he was holding a balled up piece of paper; which he placed down on the desk and began to smooth out.
Lucy wrinkled her nose when she saw that it was the first part of the project. She mentally crossed her fingers hoping that he would put more care into the remainder of the project. She then opened her binder and pulled out her paper from its protective sleeve, "So the first part is just a questionnaire to help us get to know each other better."
Natsu nodded his head as he scanned his own paper, so she continued, "There are twenty questions and we are supposed to fill them out for each other. It looks like the first four questions are very basic: name, age, gender, and date of birth"
Before she was ready Natsu began shouting out his answers for the first questions. Lucy had to hurriedly grab her pen and write them down. Once she finished writing she began to answer the questions herself, waiting for him to write each answer before she moved on to the next.
"Question five who do you live with?"
"I live with my dad Igneel, my mom Grandeeney, my sister Wendy, and my cat Happy," Natsu answered her.
Lucy arched an eyebrow at him wondering if she should really include his pet cat as one of his family members. Deciding it couldn't hurt, hopefully, she jotted it all down. Then started contemplating how she should answer the question, since her living situation was a little complicated. After a little wavering she gave the easiest answer she could, "I live with my father Jude Heartfilia."
"Just your dad?" Natsu asked her with a curious tilt of is head.
She was taken aback by his befuddled look, since lots of people only lived with one parent. Lucy wasn't sure she was ready to discuss her family situation with him, but then remembered this was supposed to help them get to know each other better. She knew her expression had morphed into a sad one, but she couldn't help it when she talked about her family, "Yes I only live with my father now, because my mother passed away when I was ten."
Natsu got very still, eyes wide, and mouth opening slightly at her answer. His mouth closed as his head dropped down so that he was staring at the table, "My real mom died too. Grandeeney is actually my step mom and Wendy is my half-sister."
Lucy felt herself mimicking Natsu's previous expression, since she was clearly not expecting that reaction from him. She opened her mouth to say something, but Natsu quickly cut in, "She died before I was even one so I don't remember her at all. Grandeeney has been in my life since I was young, and I really do see her as my mom." He paused for a moment and seemed to be thinking of the right words to say. With a small shrug he continued, "It's sad that I never got to know her, but I'm sure it isn't anything like losing your mother after ten years."
Lucy's felt her jaw clenching as she tried to hold down the sudden surge of emotions that had risen in her chest. She really hadn't expected something Natsu said to make her feel so much. She felt the sadness that was always there when she thought about her mother; yet she also found his words comforting, since it wasn't the usual hollow sorry for your loss condolences. Realizing she had been gazing softly at him for a while, she quickly looked down at the questionnaire in hopes of avoiding awkwardness. "Oh it looks like you already answered this one. It's asking about pets, unless you have any more?"
Natsu instantly perked back up, "Nope, just Happy."
Lucy quickly rewrote his cats name under pets before answering herself, "Well I have a dog name Plue."
Natsu began to bounce in his chair while jotting down her answer. "So what kind of dog is it?" He asked excitedly.
"I'm not sure, but it is small and white," Lucy told him since she had adopted the dog from a shelter and she was pretty sure it was a mutt. "Anyways question number seven," she said hoping to keep him on track, since it seemed he was starting to get distracted.
"Friends?," Natsu read out from the sheet.
Lucy tapped her pen on her cheek, "Hmm, that is kind of an odd question. I guess it just wants us to list our friends."
"I'll go first," Natsu blurted out eagerly. "I'm friends with Lisanna, Mirajane, and Elfman….." his enthusiasm dropped as he trailed off and began to scratch his head. He suddenly snapped his fingers, "Oh these two juniors are pretty cool their names are Rogue and Sting. They sit with us at lunch." He scrunched up his face as he went back to thinking, "I guess Gajeel although really he is just my cousin."
"What about Gray? He told me you were his best friend." Lucy asked trying to help out.
"Tch, more like rival," Natsu answered as Lucy added Gray's name to his list.
"And what about Erza you eat lunch with her everyday?"
Natsu blanched, "Were not friends though."
"Sure," Lucy said sarcastically as she added Erza to the list. She then placed her pen down and held up her hand. "I'm friends with Levy, Cana, Juvia, a junior Yukino, and I guess Gray also," she said as she ticked the names off on her fingers.
Natsu began to write down her answers. "Oh and me," he said once he had gotten to the end of her list.
"And you what?" Lucy asked unsure of what he meant.
"I'm your friend now too," he said with an expression that read 'obviously'.
"Umm. No offense but this is like the third time we have talked. Can we really count as friends?" Lucy asked not sure of what qualified a friend in Natsu terms.
"Of course. Plus we're only going to get to know each other better as the year goes on," he stated as he added his name to her list.
"I guess so," Lucy said with a shrug as she jotted down her own name.
Once she finished she read off the next question, "What extra curricular activities are you in?"
"None," Natsu excitedly answered.
Lucy gave him a curious look, "Why do you seem so excited to not be involved in anything?"
A smug expression came across his face, "Because I have so much free time, I can go home and do whatever I want."
"You mean after you do all of your homework," Lucy corrected pointedly.
Natsu raised an eyebrow, "Yeah sure."
"Well I am the head writer for the news paper club," Lucy said hoity.
Natsu gave her a blank stare, "I didn't even know the school had a newspaper."
Lucy's mouth dropped open, how oblivious could he be. "Of course it does," she said in a raised voice that was slightly to loud for the library. Quieting herself some, "You should read it. We put a lot of effort into them."
"Okay-okay, I promise to read your newspaper from now on," Natsu said placating her.
"Good," Lucy replied as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Anyways, so question nine how do you spend your free time?" Natsu read off the paper. "This is an easy one I usually just hang out, sleep, and play video games. Oh and eat of course." He answered.
"Well I like to read, write, and spend time with Levy, Cana and Juvia," Lucy responded as they both wrote down the answers.
"Finally last question what are your plans for the future?" That seemed like a loaded question to Lucy, "Wow this could be a really long answer."
"They probably just want to know if you plan on going to college or not and what you want to be," Natsu corrected.
"In that case I want to go to Fiore University in Crocus and major in Literature so that I can be a writer," Lucy answered with a sparkling smile.
"Wow that sounds really awesome," Natsu said enthusiastically then admitted. "I don't know what I want to do."
Lucy's eyes bugged out, "What do you mean you don't know? You are going to college right?"
Natsu just shrugged.
"You only have a few months left to decide before applications are due." She could not even believe that a senior in high school didn't at least know if they wanted to go to college or not.
Natsu shrugged again, "Well I might want to be a firefighter, like my dad."
Lucy breathed a little easier knowing that he at least had some idea. Then suddenly realized that she had been pretty worried about Natsu's future. Although she was unsure why, since it wasn't like what he did in the future would affect her in anyway. "That's a good career. I still think they have to have some kind of secondary education."
Natsu nodded his head in agreement, "My dad is the Fire Chief of Magnolia so I hear a lot about it. They usually go to a technical school and get training in all kinds of things."
"Okay then firefighter it is," Lucy said as she filled in their last question.
"That's all," she said as she began to put away her things. "We got this one out of the way early, but we should meet again soon so we can begin work on outlining our report plan."
Natsu shoved his paper back into his backpack, "Sounds good Lucy, see ya later."
"Yeah, see you tomorrow, Natsu."
Lover of Fairy Tails -
SHHHHHHHHHHH. We are not going to talk about why this was posted a week late. Or about how I said I would only be posting six chapters for this.
So I started writing this which was supposed to be the first part second chapter, but it was sooooo long. I had already passed the actual time frame for this part, but since it was already this long I decided to go ahead and post it.
Also this is a short grading period only five weeks actually. Also I changed my mind and decided that they had two weeks to do their questionnaire(which is why the title is two weeks and not just one).
Finally - Since we are already a week behind, I am pre-warning you that the rest of Part two will be behind also.
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing the first chapter, I am really excited that so many of you are eager to see where this goes.
