Alright, guys - here it is. I wrote through the night (well, till like midnight and then I went to bed lol) and finished it this morning. The third installment of The Holiday Stayers. I think it's just as good as the chapter that got accidentally deleted because of my rebellious computer, if not better.

Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me, nor do any of the characters, though i have sort of tweaked them to fit in with the whole high-school thing haha.

~Enjoy!~


Chapter 3:

Nurse Grandine looked over the girl with a frown on her face – not necessarily because what she saw displeased her, but because she didn't like being pulled into the school on Christmas Eve. She finished wrapping an ice-pack to the girl's bruised stomach, and gave one last look at the small head wound that she had taken care of first. A white bandage was cocooned around her head, keeping a sterilized cloth over the wound.

It really hadn't been too bad of a gash, so stitches were unnecessary. Nurse Grandine took the blue-haired girl's pulse, and then placed a hand on her upper back to feel her heart beat.

"She's fine. Just make her rest and take it easy for a few days." Grandine started putting away all the gauze and bandages that she'd taken out, and cleaned up her work space.

"That's good to hear," Headmaster Makarov said. He sighed in relief as he stood at the blue-haired girl's bed side. He patted her pale hand that rested atop the blankets she was nestled under.

Levy had remained in her unconscious state the entire night, her breaths quiet but constant.

"Will she wake up soon?" Mirajane asked nervously from the corner of the room. He was anxiously biting her thumbnail in wait of Grandine's answer.

"Eh – morning I guess. Just let her wake up on her own."

Mirajane nodded and held her arms to her chest, feeling odd in the presence of both Master and the nurse, who had more than once scolded her for faking a stomach ache to get out of class.

Nurse Grandine sighed in frustration, "Well, I'm going home. Try not to let the pests hurt themselves anymore, as I'd like to enjoy my short vacation away from their presence."

Makarov let out a small snort of laughter, "Don't worry, Poly – I'll only bother you if it's a matter of life or death."

"Tch," She hissed as she stalked out the door. She stepped harshly away and muttered a horribly un-cheery, "Merry Christmas" before rushing off the campus.

Master sighed and looked to the platinum blonde girl by the door, "You should get some rest, Mirajane. Levy will be okay here for the night."

"Are you sure? Because I don't mind spending the night here with her," Mirajane offered quickly.

Master shook his head and started towards the door. He opened it and gave Mirajane a slight push out the door before him, "Don't worry – Levy probably won't wake up until late morning. She won't notice if no one's there."

"So she's alright then?" Bixlow's edgy voice asked from a few feet away. He was standing in the middle of the hallway, having stopped his impatient pacing at the sight of Mirajane and Master coming out of the infirmary. His large arms crossed over his wide chest as he waited for a response.

Mira nodded, "Yeah – Mrs. Grandine said she'll be fine after some healing rest."

"Good – I tried to pull back the shot, but I couldn't stop it in time," Bixlow said slowly.

Makarov quickly patted the boy's arm, "Don't worry – Levy knows you didn't do it on purpose." Master looked between the two seniors and scratched the back of his head, "Well, unlike you youngsters, I'm about to fall asleep standing up. Happy Christmas eve." He smiled and waved at his students and took off in the other direction, towards one of the back doors of the school that would take him down to his condo on the back property.

Mirajane called a goodnight to him as Bixlow merely grunted nondescriptly. The two took off down the hallway towards the dorm lobby, walking in silence. Mira stole a glance up at the tall boy.

He was part of Evergreen's little club of "Power Players", as most of the school called them. Though she was glad that he seemed truly sorry for hurting Levy, she wondered why he felt nothing about Evergreen's constant bullying of the blue-haired girl.

Mirajane knew something had happened between the obnoxious Queen Bee and, her friend, the humble bookworm, and knew that for some reason Evergreen liked to lash out at Levy because of it and drag her posse into it if they were around, but Mira didn't know any of the details. She had on multiple occasions asked Levy to spill, but she wouldn't tell her anything. Levy would clam up, or avert the subject.

Usually, Mira felt that it was her duty to know all the gossip of the school and be the official information gatherer – she was the Senior editor of the school's newspaper The Fairy Tales, so named for some reason unbeknownst to any recent and living generations (Mira didn't think that even Master knew why their mascot was Fairies, only that it had been for over eighty years) – but no one seemed to know the history between the two girls.

"What are you looking at?" Bixlow asked awkwardly as he realized Mirajane had been staring at him.

Mira shrugged and lied flawlessly, "I thought you had a bug on you – but I guess it flew away."

A small shiver rippled down his spine, and Mirajane fought an outburst of laughter as he waved his hands around his head to ward off any other "bugs" that might have landed on him.

Finally the two stepped out into the lobby, which was still a mess of pushed aside furniture and groups of students, all talking quietly amongst themselves. Bixlow immediately split up to find Evergreen and Mirajane was flocked in seconds by Cana, Lisanna, and Sherry – the last of which was one of Lisanna's sophomore classmates.

"Is she okay?" Lisanna asked quickly.

"She really took a hard hit," Cana stated, analyzing Mira's face and deeming Levy's health by the look of slight relief.

Mirajane nodded, "Levy will be fine – but Mrs. Grandine said she'll have to rest for a day or two."

Sherry let out a sad whine, "Aww – that means she'll probably won't be able to do much tomorrow. She's gonna miss the Christmas party!"

Cana shook her head, "That won't be too much of a problem for her – Levy's not a real holiday person. Especially around Christmas time."

"Really?" Sherry asked with eyes wide with confusion, "How can someone not like Christmas?"

"She doesn't talk about it much. I think it has something to do with family issues, but I'm not really sure. I try not to pry," exchanged a glance with Cana, who raised an eyebrow at the blonde haired girl.

"Yeah right – that's about all you do," Cana joked and nudged her in the ribs. "You're not happy with yourself if you're not prying into someone else's life."

Mira smiled devilishly, "It's a job someone has to do – who else will be the knowledgeable source of all Magnolia gossip?"

The girls broke out into laughter that mixed with the other sounds of voices that buzzed in the lobby. Everyone was getting tired and after a few more minutes of teasing Mira about her gossiping talents and vocalizing hopes for Levy's quick recovery, Lisanna turned to Sherry, "Let's go find Angel – we can have a mini-sleepover in our room with the three of us."

Lisanna bid goodnight to her sister and Cana and took off with Sherry.

Cana looked to Mira, "I'd rather have the room to myself - bunking with Juvia is cool sometimes considering she's a senior and I'm only a junior, but she gets really chatty at night. It'll be cool to have the room be silent for once."

Mira laughed, "Yeah, it's nice having the place kinda empty – especially because my roommate is Ultear. She's usually nice and keeps pretty much to herself, but loves to criticize my organization skills."

"What organization skills?" Cana teased.

Mirajane rolled her eyes at the brunette and stifled a yawn, "Well, I'm off to bed. I'll see you in the morning – I'm recruiting you to help set up the Christmas Party with me."

Cana groaned, "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that last part. See you tomorrow."

The girls separated once in the girl's wing of the dormitories, heading down adjacent hallways to their respective rooms. As Mira passed by Levy's vacant dorm, she spoke to herself, "I'll wake up early to bring her some stuff. I'm sure she'll need a few dozen books to read while she's trapped in the infirmary."

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVX

Through the painful throbbing of her head, the sound of which seemed to fill the bookworm's mind like an annoying song that wouldn't evaporate from her thoughts, Levy could also hear the faint and familiar sound of pages turning.

Just by that comforting sound of sliding pages, she could tell that Mirajane was flipping restlessly through one of her magazines somewhere nearby.

Levy let out a groan of pain as she tried to push herself up into a sitting position.

"Levy!" Mirajane gasped as she stood from the seat beside Levy's hospital bed, letting the magazine on her lap fall to the floor with a flap, "You're awake!"

Levy gave her friend a small smile despite the pain that tried to stop her, "I just woke up."

"Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Mira asked rapidly, hovering over Levy as she managed to sit up and lean against the headboard of the white bed.

A wave of dizziness washed over Levy, spinning her head like a top. Her mind wobbled and the feeling of movement made Levy's stomach feel sick. "Ugh," she groaned, "Dizzy. Is there any water?" She clamped her eyes shut, hoping to cut off the dizziness, but that only managed to make it worse.

Mirajane hurried to the infirmary's sink and filled up a paper cup with tap water. She hurried over to her injured friend and brought the cup to her lips.

Levy drank greedily and let out a satisfied sigh once the cup was dry. "Do you need any more?" Mira asked.

Levy shook her head – which didn't help with the dizziness problem – and said, "No, I'm good now. Probably just dehydrated or something."

"Do you…do you remember what happened?"

Levy's cheeks reddened, "Unfortunately…I swear, clumsiness is a deadly disease. Hopefully it's not contagious."

Mira laughed and sat down on the hospital bed beside Levy's blanketed feet, "If it was, I'd have caught it by now – and look at me! I'm the most graceful person you know."

"Unless you start to dance," Levy laughed.

Mira blushed with embarrassment, "Hey! I'm normally a great dancer…you just happened to see me on one of my off nights."

"You don't do well when intoxicated," the blue-haired girl snickered.

"Oh, like you do any better," Mira spat back playfully.

Levy smiled, her thoughts stopping on her little drink-break with Gajeel, "I'll have you know, I'm excellent at holding my liquor. I just don't like to drink too often – it's more like a once-ina-while thing."

"Well, apparently, my family is notorious for being bad with alcohol. My mother can't touch the stuff or else she gets all loopy – even after only half a glass of wine."

Levy laughed, "Wow, that's bad. Good tolerance probably runs in my family."

"Oh," Mira exclaimed as a thought came to her, "Speaking of beer, I was thinking of trying to sneak some onto the campus for the Christmas Party – just a little to spike the punch with."

"Try not to let the freshman have it though – they're already crazy enough without an alcohol buzz."

Mira sighed and looked up at the clock, "Well, I'm glad you're awake. I gotta go and induce Cana into helping me set up the party for tonight. Hopefully you'll feel good enough to come tonight! It'll be fun, despite your anti-Christmas spirit." Mira jumped from the bed and grabbed her magazine off the ground, "Oh, and I brought you a few books to read. I figured you'd be pretty bored in here."

Levy smiled and said her thanks as she watched her friend's white-blonde head disappear out the infirmary door, leaving her alone with her aches and pains. She sighed and rested her head against the backboard as well.

It was throbbing even more after all her laughter, and the dizziness hadn't quite gone away. Her stomach was giving her the most trouble though. It restricted all of her movements, shouting out in anger every time she tried to lead towards the small table beside her bed to grab a book.

She scowled down at her stomach and removed the bandages that had been wrapped tightly around her the night previous. She let the now-lukewarm icepack fall from her bruised stomach. Blue and sickly purple seemed to have spread across the pale skin of her stomach like a flesh-eating disease.

Levy groaned at the sight and gingerly fingered it. It was roughly in the shape of the hockey stick that had socked her, and hurt to even look at, let alone touch.

Her fingers flinched away from the bruise that had taken over her stomach and she glanced longingly at the stack of four books that were piled on the bedside table. She wished that she could magically get them to float to her, but realized that all the staring in the world would do nothing to help the situation.

The blue-haired girl finally gave in and took a deep breath. She reached forward, moving her torso as little as possible, until her fingers touched the comforting surface of the top-most book. She grabbed it and quickly pulled it into her lap as she settled back into her upright position that was relatively painless for her torso.

She frowned at the book as she flipped through it. It was barely three hundred pages.

"This won't last me very long," She sighed. Levy thought about putting it back and getting another book, but her stomach pained just thinking about moving. She gave in and started her book.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

XVXVXVXVXVXVXVX

Master had brought her a large lunch, knowing that Levy hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, but found her so involved in a book, that the girl barely noticed him come in and set the tray down. He didn't want to interrupt her reading, so just took joy in the fact that she was feeling good enough to be her normal book-loving self.

He smiled as he left the room, and didn't come back until around dinner time.

"Levy?" he asked as he knocked on the infirmary door.

To his surprise, the girl answered, "Come in!"

Master pushed open the door with his elbow and brought his injured student dinner, "Hey – I brought you some food before the others inhaled it all."

Levy smiled lightly, trying to hide a grimace of pain, "Thanks, Master. I saw that you brought me lunch too – but I don't remember you coming in at all."

Makarov chuckled, "You were too sunken into your book to hear me. But it's fine – I'm just glad you haven't suffered enough damage to prevent you from reading."

"That would be horrible," Levy shuttered.

As master observed her, she seemed to be in quite amount of pain. Levy kept rubbing her forehead or grimacing as she tried to re-situate herself on the hospital bed. She tried to hide her pains, but Master could see through it.

He placed the tray of food on her lap – a few slices of ham, green bean casserole, salad with a little ranch dressing on top of it, and a fizzy drink that was probably 7up or the like.

Levy smiled her thanks to Makarov and started to eat. Between bites she asked, "So, what have I missed today?"

Master shrugged and sat down in the chair beside her bed, "Eh, not much. A bunch of ruckus, Mirajane's frantic decorating, Alzack and Elfman's snowball war, a few of the freshman playing pranks on each other – I swear, that Romeo hooligan is going to be as bad as Natsu someday."

Levy laughed, thinking of her pink haired friend. Natsu was usually another of the Holiday-Stayers, but this year Lucy invited him, Erza, and Gray to stay with her for the winter break. Lucy wanted to invite Levy and Mirajane as well, but Mira said it would be weird having Christmas without her siblings, and Levy said she'd feel like a fifth wheel. The four were all really good friends, and while Levy was best friends with Lucy and Natsu, and got along well with Gray and Erza, she would have felt awkward being with such a tight-knit group for the whole two week break.

"It's sad to say, but I'm actually glad that I get to miss the Christmas party," Levy started, her thoughts wandering back to her current conversation, "I'm sure it'll be fun, but I just want Christmas to be over already."

Makarov smile sadly at the girl, "I know, Levy. But this is your last year. Try to make the most of it. Once you leave, you'll find that you miss the place quite a bit."

Levy smiled and nodded, "I know – I don't know what you'll do without me next Christmas."

Master patted Levy's leg, "It won't be the same, that's for sure. I'll have to pick all new favorites – all my seniors are graduating."

Levy didn't know what else to say, so she just smiled as comfortingly as possible.

XVXVXVXVXVXVX

Gajeel watched as the party in the lobby danced around him. He really didn't want to be here, but found that sulking in his room was too depressing. The studded boy leaned against the wall and scowled at his fellow Holiday-Stayers while they danced and laughed and drank the Kool-Aid that was spiked with some of his smuggled rum. Music blasted from a large stereo that Mira had cajoled Alzack into bringing in all the way from the music room. Some atrocious hip-hop song was currently the spark that drove the teenagers to dance like idiots with their friends.

Evergreen was the worst of which, dancing almost stripper-like around Elfman, who looked uncomfortable but happy at the same time.

Gajeel sneered at the dancing retards and observed the shoddy decorations that Mira and Cana had spent so much effort putting up. Streamers of red and green twisted around the room and hung down from the ceiling in some places – giving the freshmen the idea to try to grab them and see who could pull one down first – Christmas lights were pinned up in all of the windows, more streamers hung down from doorways, and in the center of the room was a mistletoe.

Mira was eyeing the empty gap in the room with a small frown on her face, obviously hoping to catch an unsuspecting couple off guard.

Gajeel shook his head and decided he'd go wander around campus until this crappy party was over. As the studded boy neared the door that would take him outside, he passed by Mira and the headmaster talking.

Master, who had probably come to say goodnight to his students before holing up in his condo on the back property for the night, said, "Sorry, Mira, I don't think she's feeling well enough to come out from the infirmary. Her head and stomach were killing her, though of course the stubborn girl would never admit it."

Mira sighed and let her head hang down a little, "Darn – she'll miss out on the fun. Well, I'll figure something out. She's not getting out of my party so easily."

Gajeel stopped at the door.

That's right, he thought, he wasn't the only one who had a problem with the holidays.

He stood still for a moment before spinning around and heading towards the boy's dormitories. He figured he could avoid the party with someone who shared his dislike of the holidays – and give her a little something to make up for the whole "I hit you with a hockey stick and put you in the infirmary thing".


Virtual strawberry short cake for anyone who knows what book or author I quoted for Levy's book xD

Alright, so to make up for how crappy I've been about updating (i have lots of excuses - like i was working on my original novel, or college is a beast - but i still hate leaving you guys with nothing to read). So i will work viciously to get the 4th chapter out by Tuesday at least. Hopefully sooner, but we'll see.