THANK YOU to all who have clicked this story, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do leave a review, it would really help.
Sorry to all of you who have been waiting for this new chapter. I know it's been exactly a week, and that's the rate I intend to update my chapters, but I'm sorry if the wait did feel quite long.
Now on to the story...
Lucy stirred as the day's events hazily reentered her mind.
Groggily blinking, Lucy tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes and got up, the events leading up to where she was somewhat hazy, but she knew that she was safe. Slowly, Lucy tried to get up, her surroundings still unfamiliar as sleep fogged up her memory, when she felt something press down on her head and push her down onto something cushy.
Mentally scratching her head, Lucy growled as a single word popped into her mind.
"Natsu," Lucy groaned exasperatedly.
Hearing his familiar laughter, Lucy loosened up and tried to cover her face, as the memory of what she did to Natsu when he was asleep resurfaced. Stretching, she recalled the events that had led up to her camping out on the rooftop.
"Ah! Lessons!" Lucy started, alarm flooding her system.
Natsu chuckled and pushed her back down onto his lap again, this time more gently.
"It's okay, just keep sleeping. We've skipped five periods, so lunch is next. We can just go back to class after lunch," Natsu happily replied, happily grinning.
Shrugging off the light blush that dusted her cheeks, Lucy huffed out and asked, her head resting comfortably on Natsu's lap, "Why didn't you wake me up?"
She watched as Natsu burst into laughter, and Lucy's blush returned, before Natsu replied, "It's just that, you were sleeping so soundly, and that you looked really cute like that."
Feeling her face blush a mad red, she turned around, trying to play it off, and found a dark wave emotions rise up again. Cringing as she recalled her past relationships, she felt her blush immediately die down, and her stomach churn uncomfortably.
Sure, Natsu, Erza and Levy had been nice to her on the first day of school, and they hadn't known who she really was, so them flocking to her for money would have been out of the question. Even so, that didn't mean they had other reasons for doing so, maybe they had just wanted to get close to her then toss her aside, or even use peer pressure to her force her to do drugs and drink underage.
Feeling her heart sink as more possibilities clogged her mind, she felt a lump form in her throat and she found tears welling up in her eyes, her emotions pushing them forward no matter how hard she tried to blink them back.
Lucy bit her lip and scrunched her eyes tightly.
"Not again, not again. I can't go through that again," she whimpered silently in her thoughts.
"Hey Luce, don't worry I don't bite. Why are you closing your eyes like that?" Natsu laughed.
Forcing her eyes open, she tried to glare at Natsu, only to be met with his wide grin as he silently hummed an unknown tune. Listening lightly to his soft humming, she felt her worries slowly ebb away, and the more she thought about it, the more she found that finding Natsu, Erza and Levy doing the horrible things she had thought of to her more unlikely.
Feeling her heart calm down slightly, she sighed somewhat contentedly and lay back down onto Natsu's lap, timidly clutching at his scarf that kept her warm. Lazily draping an arm over her eyes, she calmly stared overhead at the sky, letting the gentle passing of a breeze from time to time, be the only noise.
"The weather is really good today… I supposed, in the past, I would never have considered skipping lessons. Being under the strict teachings of my father, if he ever caught wind of me doing something like that, I'd probably have been hung for it," Lucy thought, her eyes straying from the blue sky occasionally to Natsu's peaceful look.
Blushing slightly, she continued staring at the sky, random thoughts drifting in and out of her mind, "When was the last time since I had seen the sky so blue."
Going in and out of school and gatherings with her father, the last time she remembered having peacefully just lie down and stare at the sky had last been with her mother. Even on weekends when she was free, she had been too scared to go out into her garden without her father's permission as she never knew if such a trivial matter would send his temper over the edge at it usually did.
Lucy smiled and contentedly shut her eyes as she heard the cheerful chirping of birds as they passed overhead and the soft rustling of leaves as a light breeze passed over. The sounds that had all become obsolete in her life, that she had been forced to throw away, had never seemed so relaxing as it had.
"Hey Lucy. Why do you seem so distant with us? Is there a particular reason?" Natsu started, his face donning a genuine concerned expression.
Lucy winced and hesitated, the peaceful moment immediately turning sour, as she bit the bottom of her lip, unsure of how to answer Natsu's question. Natsu just smiled down, and looked away, signaling that he was fine if she didn't answer, and prompted for her to ask questions instead.
Smiling gratefully, she turned around such that her back was facing Natsu and asked timidly, "Hey Natsu, you said that all of you have your own pasts in your note. I know it's rude of me to ask, because I'm not telling you mine, but would you mind if you told me all of yours?"
There was a small pause, before Natsu started, his voice softer than his usual loud and rambunctious self, "Well, when I was eight, my father and mother abandoned Wendy and I."
Lucy winced, as memories of her mother and father flashed in her mind. Both of them having left her, while her father may not be physically away, his lack of presence in her life had made it seem so.
"So now, I take a few part time jobs to support both Wendy and I, and we live in a nice apartment somewhere near here. Luckily, Gildarts, who is Cana's father, has a friend who's a property agent, so we managed to get it cheap." Natsu continued, his voice still soft, "Gray, the stripper guy in the morning, had his house and parents destroyed in a typhoon, so he and his adopted brother, Lyon went under the care of a woman called Ur, but she was murdered one night. However she also had a daughter, Ultear, who I don't really know very well, but she's in class 2A."
Lucy choked back a sob of sympathy. She knew that Natsu had a lot of friends, but having all of them have pasts like this was just unbearable, and she wondered if having friends, like Natsu had said had helped them move on.
"Then there's Gajeel the guy with a lot of piercings this morning, and Juvia. Gajeel had his father bail out on him, and Juvia was left at an orphanage one day. So both of them had gone to Phantom Middle School, and were involved in fights and underage drinking, and were caught by the police when they attended a gathering. Luckily they were left with a warning from the police instead of getting into trouble, while some of their other friends were arrested for dealing with drugs, and they've been with us ever since they moved to Magnolia Middle School." Natsu continued, and Lucy felt his muscles loosen up a little bit as he continued talking.
"Erza and Jellal were kidnapped from their homes, when they were younger, and were sold as slaves to a company that used them for manual labour to mine in the middle of no where. But they managed to break out, and they escaped here," Natsu continued, and Lucy gagged on air, unsure of how to respond to something so remorse.
Being sold for manual labour?
That was worse than whatever she had gone through. At least she still had a certain level of comfort, being in a house and had money to spend on her own.
Gulping down her saliva, she listened as Natsu paused, before she felt a hand gently stroke her hair and she heard him laugh, "Lucy, don't need to cry. It's all over, there's nothing you can do about it anyway. Now, Levy, your dear friend, had a drunkard dad who used to beat her and her mother. So her mother divorced her dad, but he came back with a gun one day up to the place where she had moved and tried to break in. Luckily, the neighbours found out and called the police in time."
Lucy tensed up considerably as she heard Natsu talk about Levy's abusive father and felt her heart go out to the petite girl, but stopped herself, as she didn't want to get involved with friends just yet. Pushing back the thoughts and sympathy, she shifted her weight and waited for Natsu to continue.
"Laxus' dad had been part of several major crimes, and had even been convicted of murder once, so he was sent to jail, so now Gramps takes care of him," Natsu continued, while he absentmindedly stroked her hair.
Relaxing into his grip as Natsu continued to stroke her hair gently, Lucy asked, "Gramps?"
"Our principal."
Frowning as she tried to link the tall and muscular thug to the short and tiny man who she came to know as her principal to be related, she waved her arm, and let Natsu continue as he laughed good-naturedly, his laughter chiming out melodiously.
"Loki and Aries were left in an orphanage when they were really young. Although they were really cute, no one came by to adopt anyone, because the orphanage manager, who also managed the children, used to be horrible with people, usually scaring them off even if they had wanted to adopt someone. Not only that, she had also abused the children in the orphanage, and it was only a rumour back then, so the police didn't want to get involved in something that had no solid proof. Loki and Aries were best friends back then, so to get back at her, Loki had decided to run away from the orphanage with Aries. After that, children had also started to run away by themselves, and the orphanage closed down because there were practically no children left inside. So now, both of them get by, as they live together and Loki gets money for them as he works as a model." Natsu huffed out in one going, only stopping at the end to take in a huge breath of air.
Giggling light heartedly at Natsu's reaction, she watched as he breathed in again and continued.
"Cana's father is Gildarts our teacher. Although, before he became a teacher, his job used to take him all around the world. So, Cana had rarely seen Gildarts, and when her mother died, she was left with only Gildart's name and no one else. She had taken a few jobs at bars and now she's addicted to alcohol, but after that, when Gildarts came back to Magnolia, she found Cana and decided to quit his job and join Magnolia High so he can be close to her. And I guess that's all of us." Natsu finished.
"At least, one of you has a happy ending," Lucy smiled.
"Happy ending? One of us? Lucy, all of us haven't even reached the ending yet! How could you say that!" Natsu laughed as though it was totally natural to think it.
Puffing out her cheeks, Lucy sighed as she heard the bell ring, startling Natsu and her. Scratching her cheek awkwardly, she stood abruptly and dusted herself, trying to cover her blush at her behavior with Natsu just now and their proximity.
"L-Let's get to lunch now shall we?" Lucy asked, opening the door that led to the classrooms.
Nodding wordlessly, Natsu held the door open for Lucy and let her walk through before going himself. They quickly rushed down the stairs past the onslaught of students that were shoving their way through the crowd to try and get into the canteen. Chuckling lightly to himself, Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand, much to her protest and weaved effortlessly through the crowd, and had even managed to convince Lucy to crawl to get through a thick throng of students that had crowded in front of the entrance.
Gasping, as she stood up, narrowly avoiding someone who almost stepped on her she glared at Natsu who simply wiggled his way through a group of students, and pulled her to a large table that occupied a corner at the back of the canteen.
Gesturing for her to follow, Natsu dragged her to the table and sat down at the edge while the group of students that had seated themselves there, murmur a low greeting to the pink-haired idiot. Waving energetically, at the rest of them, Natsu scooted a little to his side, giving Lucy a little space to sit, as Gray silently glared at him.
Shooting an apologetic smile at Gray, Lucy sat herself down, only to meet the stern gaze of Erza who just silently watched Natsu and her intensely. Squirming uncomfortably in her seat, Lucy flashed a pleading glance at Natsu to help her out, but Natsu already had one leg out of the bench, and had looked ready to get up.
Erza however just continued to stare wordlessly, before finally opening her mouth, her eyes burning with something that looked vaguely like anger.
Gulping heavily, Lucy slid one leg out of the bench, ready to make a quick getaway, in case the intense stare-off turned into something more.
"I'm sorry," Erza muttered out, her face softening to a guilty expression.
Jumping back astonished, Lucy slid back into the bench, all signs of her skepticism evaporating along with Erza's stern gaze.
Lucy breathed deeply, her face flushing a light red as she got prepared to say something, when Erza continued, "Mr Clive did say that you had just moved to Magnolia. I'm sorry on the behalf of my friends and class for teasing you if it had made you feel uncomfortable at all. Please punish me as you see fit."
Stunned, Lucy continued to stare, her mouth slightly agape, before she jumped back as Erza stood up and bowed lowly, her hair brushing the contents of the cute lunch box that she had been eating out of. Stuttering out a reply, she hurriedly urged Erza that she need not be punished as students around the area started to stare at the group.
Smiling thankfully, Erza stood up again, but instead of sitting down, she motioned for Lucy to come forward and quickly introduced the group that she was sitting with.
"I'm sure you know, Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Loki, Aries, Levy and Mira, as they're all in your class, and some of them are in the student council," Erza started, pointing at each individual while she recited their names, "From the list earlier, that is Cana. She's an alcoholic, but a really great friend, when she's sober enough to try."
Erza gestured at a brunette that sat at the end of the table, taking huge swigs from a large canteen as she waved cheerfully at Lucy when she noticed her gaze. Cana had unbuttoned the first few buttons on her shirt, revealing a large amount of cleavage and had tied the ends of her uniform into a knot, revealing her belly button.
Scrunching her nose at Cana's attire, Lucy continued as she shifted her gaze to a girl with short white hair that was cropped neatly and an oversized teen, with spiky hair, as Erza introduced them to be Lisanna and Elfman respectively and had also mentioned that they were siblings to Mirajane.
Frowning as she tried to make the connection between Elfman and Mirajane, Lucy shrugged it off, having known that Laxus had somehow been related to Makarov.
"Over there is Juvia, who's in the national swim team and had gotten silver for our school last year," Erza continued, lightly pointing at a girl who had wavy blue hair that curled neatly at the end, stopping before her shoulders.
Lucy watched Juvia just continued staring at Gray across the table, who had lost his shirt, and paid no heed to her surroundings. Tearing her gaze away from the awkward sight, she looked as Erza pointed to a boy with shocking blue hair and had an intricate red tattoo that ran from his eye to his chin.
Shrinking back, under the stern gaze of the man, she squeaked a hello, as Erza quickly introduced him as Jellal, trying to play off her blush by rambling on about their childhood to Lucy.
Quickly losing interest in the topic, Lucy peeked at the canteen, as the crowd had mostly thinned. Skimming through the heads of the people, she smiled inwardly to herself as she heard the loud buzz of chatter that echoed around the canteen.
But something seemed off.
Squinting to try and scrutinize what had seemed so weird to her. The canteen was just like any other, with students milling around and buzzing with chatter, but they had almost seemed… detached. The students had mostly stayed within their own groups, and had ignored the rest of the population around them.
As true as it was, for people in different classes, and even different levels to interact was highly unlikely, the way they had conducted themselves had seemed almost forced. Lucy shifted her gaze slightly, as she watched a burly guy, rush towards the exit, his huge blocking almost the whole door. Although, while rushing, he had accidentally bumped into another girl, nearly knocking over her tray and all its contents.
Expecting for a fight to break out, Lucy braced herself for the fighting to commence, but she watched as the girl steadied her tray, regain her balance and continue walking, not even a shade of emotion passing in between her expression.
Lucy shivered as she stared in the eyes of the girl.
Lifeless.
For a second, she watched as the girl's eyes lighted with anger, but it quickly dulled out, by an pain, one that she knew all too well. Lucy had known that majority of Natsu's friends had had miserable experiences in their pasts, but for everyone to have experienced something like that?
Impossible.
Especially, if they were all gathered under one roof. What were the chances? Lucy scanned the crowd of students again, and felt the same conclusion rise up to her again. Despite the atmosphere seeming cheerful and energetic, the vibe had felt forced, and even fake.
Scratching the side of her head, she leaned in closer to Loki, who sat a few seats away from her.
"Hey Loki, may I ask you a question?" Lucy asked, her eyes still trained on the crowd of students.
"Shoot away."
"Why does everyone seem so detached in the canteen, even though it's so full of life. It's as though that they aren't really friends," Lucy asked, letting the words flow on their own as she watched Loki's reaction.
Lucy saw Loki immediately tense up, his eyes behind his shades narrowing slightly, and even Natsu who had leaned in to listen in on the conversation, had tensed his shoulders, and let loose a low growl.
Looking at the girl who had nearly dropped her tray, she wondered back to what could have caused her reaction. The guy couldn't have been a bully. Even for a guy his size, she was pretty sure, that with a principal like Makarov, bullying wouldn't have been a major problem, but then again, Magnolia High, was known for it's delinquency.
Of course, there were certain holes in the whole issue. Being in a school, packed with so called delinquents, no crimes were actually reported in her short stay in the school, and given it's bad reputation, she was sure something was bound to have happened already. In fact, the people there were also extremely nice, terrifyingly so, for a school as infamous as this one.
The hallways were rather neat, no fights had broken out at all, and the only thing that had come close to delinquency at all in her stay, was her skipping classes. Other than that, there were no major incidents.
So why was Magnolia High School dubbed a delinquent school?
Frowning as she continued delving deeper into the issue, she searched around her mind, playing around with the logic of the situation when she remembered something that a local had told her once.
"Hey Loki," Lucy asked, giving him a few moments to regain his composure, "You know our school's reputation for delinquency?"
Loki paused unnaturally, and carefully answered, "Yes, why do you ask?"
"Does it have something to do with the incident five years ago? And Sabertooth Academy that Mr Makarov had mentioned in the morning?" Lucy asked, finally noticing that the area around her had gone deathly quiet.
Feeling the mood turn sour immediately, Lucy shrunk back at the sudden change, and looked around her, finally realizing that the earlier buzz had died down into a low rumble as she felt the stare of the whole canteen weigh down on her.
"Let's go somewhere else," Lucy heard Natsu mutter, as she felt his strong grip pull her forward.
Stumbling after his running figure, Lucy hurried after Natsu as they rushed out of the canteen and burst into the hallways, weaving through the small stream of students that flowed in the hallways. Exhaling out, Lucy sighed worriedly as she turned a left, the low murmur of chatter hummed throughout the hall.
Climbing up the stairs, Natsu pulled her into the classroom and sat back down onto his chair wordlessly, leaving a stunned Lucy gaping at him, waiting for an answer as to why he dragged her there.
Gently nudging his arm, Lucy urged for Natsu to say something as moments awkwardly pass, leaving a somewhat distasteful feeling in the air, especially with the weird situation just now. Hissing lowly, as he didn't bother responding even though he had dragged her out of the canteen on such short notice and without even telling her why.
To a certain extent, she was grateful to him for dragging her out of that situation, but he should have at least enough courtesy to tell her the truth behind the whole thing.
Lucy scowled at Natsu's back, her curiousity wearing out her thinning patience, before growling, "Natsu Dragneel, if you don't tell me what's happening, I'll-."
"Lucy I've been thinking," Natsu cut in, tilting his chair slightly so that half of his face that was hidden by his bangs peeked out at her, "Let's start a club."
Lucy frowned, unsure of where Natsu had gotten the idea of forming a club out of, but pressed on, her curiousity of the situation shredding her mind.
Lucy gathered her emotions and steeled herself against Natsu's possible reactions, taking in to consideration the canteen's reaction to her statement and opened her mouth, the words rising to the tip of her tongue.
"It started five years ago."
Lucy quickly shut her mouth and sat on the chair behind his.
"Magnolia High had been a great school, with nice students, and we did well in many competitions we entered. Of course now going around, no one would tell you that," Natsu began, his shoulders tensing up and his grip tightening on the side of his table as memories slipped in and out of his mind.
Lucy frowned worriedly at his reaction, not wanting Natsu to push himself too much if he found talking about it too difficult.
Feeling the need to stop him rise in her gut, Lucy opened her mouth slightly, trying to form her words properly as guilt lightly jabbed at her as she herself hadn't told Natsu about her own past.
However Natsu continued, cutting off Lucy's train of thought, "Magnolia High School usually holds a cultural festival at the end of the year for locals and other school to come and interact. Of course, however, there was a group of people who had come to just ruin it all."
Lucy gulped silently, the weight of the situation slowly dawning on her, "Sabertooth Academy?"
Natsu simply nodded, his body tensing up considerably as Lucy asked, before continuing, "We had beaten them in all our competitions we had entered. Be it swimming, rugby, football, both of our schools have a long rivalry when it comes to sports and academics, but we had always come out on top, and even so, we had managed to maintain a healthy rivalry."
Natsu paused.
Loosening his body up as he leaned on the back to legs of his chair, he went forward with his story, "Until of course, a few years before the… incident. Sabertooth had changed to a new principal, Jiemma, who took our rivalry more seriously than anyone had. Rumours had started to float by after a while, that students had to sacrifice lesson time to go for practice."
Lucy gulped as her father screaming his expectations of her flashed across her mind, and she winced as her impression of a hulking man with a cold expression flashed across her eyes.
"Eventually it got really serious, when someone from our swim team caught wind of Jiemma considering using drugs just to win against us," Natsu rambled, his tone flat and devoid of emotion, while Lucy gagged on her own saliva at the notion of a principal forcing drugs on his own students, "So, the person had reported to the police about the rumour, and they had investigated the matter. However, there was no real evidence behind the claim, and the matter was closed, but the police had informed Jiemma that they'd be keeping a close eye on his school."
Lucy felt her stomach flip uncomfortably, the story, despite not being that dark and had no deaths or anything of the sort, had left her feeling rather sick at how disgusting human nature could be.
Feeling a small part of her brain cheer on the notion, Lucy nodded silently to herself. Friends, teachers, and even her own parent had used her own naivety against her, and it had showed her how disgusting humans could really be.
Nodding silently at the notion, Lucy listened as Natsu continued the story, "Jiemma of course, had been furious when he heard Magnolia High School were the ones that did that to him. So, five years ago, on our cultural festival, he had his students come and trash it. There were huge fights that broke out, and it even leaked to outside the school, involving innocent people as they were also at the festival. Since we also have a middle school section, they were also caught up in the huge fiasco. However, when the police had arrived, they had somehow managed to convince them that we were the cause of the fights, even if most of us were hurt, while the Sabertooth students were unharmed. The bystanders, who were involved in the fight, hadn't dared to speak up then, as they were too afraid. Sabertooth could have come after any one of them if they had ratted them out."
Lucy let loose a small growl; a burning pool of indignation and hatred sizzled at the bottom of her stomach, screaming at her to find an outlet to release her anger.
Sure, people were afraid of what others could do to them, but that was no reason to not to have to stand up for what was right. Lucy on her part, would never have stood up for a friend if she had any, much less a stranger, but she would have at least had the common decency to have stood up for what was right.
Grinding her teeth as she felt her anger and spite only intensify the more she thought about it, she tried focusing on Natsu's story as he continued, "So, that's how we got our reputation as a delinquent school. Even now, all those who know the full story don't dare speak up, but I don't blame them, really. But as a school, we were really close until then. Even I who wasn't even in the school yet, could tell that the students at the time were closely knit like family. However, after the incident, the students started dividing themselves, as each of them had their own idea of what to do afterwards."
Lucy felt her anger subside slightly as Natsu rambled on, the weight of a school's pain that they had to bear for the past few years, weighing down heavily her mind. Sighing softly to herself, Lucy rubbed the back of her neck absentmindedly, as the trouble that the whole school had to endure for so long, making her own troubles seem trivial.
"Some of the students had wanted to take revenge and beat up Sabertooth like they did to us, but that would make our image look worse. Some students just wanted to leave it alone, and focus on rebuilding the school's image, but that seemed cowardly and unsightly after that huge trashing. Others, had just wanted to continue club activities, some had moved out of school, and eventually, the close knit family that had once been Magnolia High, had split apart into their own little groups."
Lucy shifted slightly as she watched Natsu's expression.
She watched as his features softened with melancholy and his brows crease with worry. Although she had not really known him long, she could tell him that it had affected him more than he had showed, especially since Lucy had decided that Natsu was never someone to show his soft side so easily.
"Even my friends kind of drifted apart," she heard Natsu whisper, his voice barely reaching her, and it had tugged at her heart, hearing someone who usually seemed so cheerful, be reduced to such a miserable state.
Feeling a lump form in her throat as she felt her sympathy override her thoughts against making friends. As much as Lucy had no right to say anything about his choice of friends, the way that he had described and talked about his friends had made her believe that he held them dearly.
Sniffing as she felt a few tears well at the corner of her eyes, Lucy calmly reached out to try and comfort him.
Natsu smiled.
"But that's all in the past, I don't really care any more," Natsu laughed, his expression lighting up, making Lucy jump back in surprise, all traces of her sympathy evaporating into frustration.
"Natsu!" Lucy groaned as she wondered how he could change moods so easily.
"Wait! Lucy!" Natsu shouted as she tried to storm out of the class, "This is where the idea of a club comes in!"
Lucy stopped momentarily, the idea of a club somehow appealing to her even if her intentions not to interact with anyone had clashed with it. Hesitantly, she stopped by the doorway and leaned on the table nearest to it, waving her arm as a signal for him to continue talking.
"My friends also split up because of this to tell the truth. When we heard of it, we had wanted to do our own thing with Sabertooth. I, Gray, Gajeel and Elfman had wanted to beat them up for it. Erza and Jellal wanted to resolve it peacefully. Juvia just wanted to beat them at sports," Natsu started, no trace of sadness showing on his face, "So we kind of grew further apart because of it."
Lucy nodded understandingly and beckoned for Natsu to continue as to how forming a club could fit into everything.
"We'll form a club to bring everything back to the way it was. We'll revive the cultural festival. We'll bring everyone closer like it used to be," Natsu yelled gleefully.
Lucy couldn't help but smile as his euphoria rubbed off on her, making laughter bubble lightly in her throat as Natsu got up and danced stupidly around her.
"W-who would you want to join our club then? How will we advertise our club?" Lucy gasped, struggling to hold her laughter, as she Natsu tried doing a handstand.
Natsu grinned even wider, his smile stretching crazily, as he opened his mouth to start, when she heard the shrill ring of the bell pierce the peaceful atmosphere that had settled neatly around them.
Jumping into her seat, as students started to rush into the class, she leaned forward as Natsu took his seat in front of her, trying to prolong the last bit of their conversation just to hear his answer, when he turned around and put a small note on her table.
Quickly greeting the teacher who had introduced himself as Mr Conbolt, Lucy sat down and opened the letter, the adrenaline of doing something so daring and audacious rushing through her veins as the writer side of her overrode all rational thought of not getting closer to anyone, as there was no doubt that she would have to if she were to be part of a club.
Wild escapades, running after targets, breaking out into fights. Everything came crashing to her in a huge wave of ideas as her mind spun stories of possibilities of trying to achieve something so far away. Sure they were students, but in a school like Magnolia High, and with people from Sabertooth academy to watch out for, nothing that Lucy had thought of seemed so unrealistic, only pumping more excitement into her blood.
Glancing at the note that Natsu had placed on her desk, Lucy smiled wildly to herself as she glanced once more around her and at the teacher and swiftly opened the note, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.
Lucy, I want to reunite this school, so my friends and I can hang out like we used to, of course you can join in if you want.
Everyone needs to join.
No one is left out, as we're in this school together. However, if we want to advertise our club, there's going to be the fair this week that all clubs, and we can do that there. I've already told Gramps about this idea and he was super ecstatic about it, but he told me to keep it a secret, so you can't tell anyone either okay?
Now the only problem is, that we don't have enough manpower to finish setting up a proper booth and get our materials for the fair, so I have another idea to try and advertise our club.
It's a secret.
You'll just have to wait until this Friday okay? In the meantime, try and make a flier or something in case my plan fails, so we can hand it out later.
Thanks,
Natsu
Scowling as she felt the adrenaline tone down considerably, Lucy folded up the letter and stashed it into her pocket, grumpily cursing Natsu, but still maintained her smile as the euphoria still pounded freshly in her head.
The rest of the days leading up to the 'Club Fair' as Lucy had dubbed it, had been painfully slow. The suspense from Natsu leaving her hanging in the letter had been tearing at the very core of her soul, leaving a gaping hole that she couldn't take her mind off.
Lucy had tried to make the fliers as Natsu had asked first, but she had easily complete it by using the computer lab and had printed it in the book shop in her school, but that had only taken on afternoon.
The word of her asking about Sabertooth Academy had spread throughout the school, but it had quickly dissipated once Erza had stepped onto the scene and scolded whoever had spread the word around. Afterwards, they had tried inviting her out with them for the weekend as an apology, but she had apologized and turned down the offer, feeling that despite how close they claimed she seemed to Natsu, she didn't really want to get make friends.
At least not yet.
However, with a great amount of discipline, she had somehow scraped through the week and silently cheered as the last day of the week arrived. Lucy trudged grudgingly up to the school, her eyes sagging with lack of sleep at Natsu's statement, and that he had refused to tell her now matter how many times she had asked.
Her writer's imagination hadn't really helped either, with almost sleepless nights as dreams of what he could have planned on doing had faded in and out of her dreams, not really helping her get enough sleep for school.
Lucy sighed as she flopped down on her seat, just before the bell signaling the beginning of school assembly that took place every morning outside in the courtyard.
Each class had to line up in their respective allocated spots, and had to stand and sing their national anthem and school song every morning. Hastily smoothing out her uniform, she watched as seniors rushed through the hallways, desperately trying to finish up their booths.
Checking her bag for the fliers that she had printed, Lucy zipped it up once more and filed out the classroom, along with the rest of her classmates. Sighing lazily as the first years filed out into the courtyard, while the seniors had stayed at their respective booths in certain classes or in different facilities.
Yawning, she scanned the crowd of heads in an attempt to find the familiar shade of pink that she had grown to hate. Frowning to herself, as she couldn't spot the obvious shade of pink that stood out among the rest, she smiled crazily and wondered what Natsu could have been up to.
Pushing away the thoughts, Lucy smiled to herself and stood rigidly as the national anthem slowly started playing. Lazily mouthing the words along with the tune, Lucy let her eyes drift around again, only to see a flash of salmon on the top of the roof as the school song ended.
Trying to hide her grin as Laxus walked onto the podium at the front and cleared his throat, ready to give a briefing to the breakdown of the event, she heard a shout from the roof of the school building.
Flashing an electric smile, she felt adrenaline pump through her again and snapped her head upwards to look at the source of the noise, even though she knew who had already caused it.
"Hey first years! I'm Natsu Dragneel, self-appointed leader of a new club that I have just formed. Our aim for this club is to unite Magnolia High School once again! Our booth will be set up at 1-B classroom, for any more enquiries, ask me or Lucy Heartphillia from class 1-B. Thank you!" she heard Natsu scream wildly.
Despite the spot that Natsu had put her in, Lucy waved kindly the students who had turned around to look at her, and flashed a warm smile at them.
"Do come and visit," Lucy laughed.
Laughing on top as well, Natsu hurriedly jumped off the railing, earning a wave of gasps from the small crowd of first years, but quickly grabbed the edge of the building and slid into an open window as the door to the roof burst open, revealing a few teachers.
Smiling wildly, as a mad glint flashed across her eyes, Lucy smiled.
She had no intention of making friends, still. She wasn't ready, but she sure was as ready as hell for a good old adventure. With no friends and no family to fall back on, what was there to lose in her life?
Laughing, as Lucy felt a grin naturally sprout on her face, adrenaline fueling her veins after days of boredom and being kept in the dark about a daring plan that Natsu wanted be put in action.
This was going to be fun.
That's it for this chapter. Again THANK YOU, for reading this, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a review.
School's started again for me, but I'll still be updating weekly, if not just one or two days either early or late. DO look forward to more chapters. I know that the others haven't really made a proper appearance yet, but I'll be slipping in a few chapters that feature them, and maybe even have them get together with someone~
Until then, THANK YOU, just really, thank you for those who have reviewed previously, or even just read this.
-Fluff Master