Hey guys! Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave me a review. ^_^

When Lucy's alarm went off, she was already showered, dressed, and groomed, nibbling sparingly at her breakfast. She wasn't sure if she was excited or nervous; they felt like the same thing to her. After another unsatisfying bite of toast, she settled for a cup of coffee to-go. With her new backpack slung over her shoulder full of her new books she left her new apartment in her new uniform and headed off to her new school at a forced stroll.

In truth, she was so pent up with nervoxcitement she wanted to sprint to the academy, but that was hardly the entrance she wanted to make.

This was technically her first day of school. Ever. She'd always been tutored at her mansion before, never getting to make friends the way she'd read about in books. Perhaps she would make a fool of herself in front of everyone, but the feeling was overwhelmed by the pure joy that at least she had that chance for once. She could make a fool of herself because for once in her life she wasn't alone, locked up in her ivory tower. It was a hard feeling to describe, though she would sure give it a try in her journal later.

First, though, she had to find her classes.

She had barely slept a wink last night. The last 24 hours had been the most intense of her life. Every little thing felt like a new adventure: finding her apartment, trying on her uniform, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, burning dinner, trying to eat her burnt dinner, giving in and going out to eat because her burnt dinner was disgusting. It was all so exhilarating!

She could only imagine what her father would say about all of this.

She smirked to herself. That's right. She could only imagine because he wasn't here to spoil it for her.

Perhaps the most exciting thing, though, had been looking through all her school materials, books and pamphlets and syllabi, which she had memorized already. The syllabi, not the books. She wasn't that good.

Her classes looked so interesting!

First was general magic, where she'd learn about all the different types of magic, how magic works, and all that good stuff. She was a bit nervous for that one since she knew she'd be leagues behind everyone else, but she'd always been a fast learner. Then she had complete Fiorean history, which she already knew most about, though her tutors had selectively minimized the role of mages in the history a considerable degree. Then she had—

"Hey Luce!" a voice interrupted her thinking and she turned to see Natsu jogging towards her from across the street, cutting off a number of grumbling pedestrians as he went.

"Natsu! It's good to see you!" Lucy said as he approached. "Thank you so much for all of your help the other day. I don't know what I'd have done without you." She beamed at him and Natsu blushed slightly.

"Really, it was no problem. I'm glad everything worked out. You look great in your uniform. I mean, the uniform looks great. Not that you don't, you also look great. Better. You just in the uniform look—" Natsu turned slightly redder with each word that flew out of his traitorous mouth. It was like falling down a flight of stairs, just gaining momentum as he went, until it was suddenly (and gratefully) cutoff by another voice.

"Yo, flame-brain. You ran out so fast you forgot your bag. Not like you to actually be on time for—oooh."

Another boy with unruly black hair walked up behind Natsu with a satisfied smirk spreading across his face as he spotted the pretty blonde his roommate was conversing with, as well as just how red said roommate was.

Oh this is good.

"Give me that," Natsu grumbled, his face almost on fire as he grabbed his bag from his smug roommate. He turned to march in the direction of the school.

Lucy giggled at his antics and how his face matched his hair. She didn't think herself vain and didn't spend an inordinate amount of time on her appearance, but she was aware from her years being shoved at every wealthy, eligible gentleman in Fiore that she was considered "pretty" by most in society. Except that Duke Everloo fellow she still held a grudge against.

"Great manners, ashtray," the roommate grumbled, turning to Lucy. "I'm Gray, the poor bastard that has to share an apartment with that dumpster fire. You must be Lucy. Natsu wouldn't shut up about you."

Ahead of them, Lucy could see Natsu duck his head even further in embarrassment and she smiled.

"I doubt I'm that interesting. I just enrolled yesterday. Natsu helped me find the school, after dragging me into his runaway heist."

"That was an accident! And they were overreacting in the first place," Natsu yelled at them over his shoulder and Lucy giggled again, which Natsu's sharp dragon ears heard perfectly. She had such a pretty laugh…

"Well I'm sorry that he was the first person you had to meet here," Gray said.

"What you sayin' about me, ice princess?" Natsu growled.

"I'm apologizing for you, ash-wipe," Gray returned, slamming his forehead against Natsu's antagonizingly.

"I wouldn't happen to hear you two fighting, would I?" came another voice and both boys froze in fear.

"Of course not!" they said in unison, with matching shaky laughs as an intimidating redhead walked over to them with a dangerous glint in her eye.

The girl—woman—walked over to them with a posture that suggested she was used to wearing something a little heavier than her school uniform. She turned her glare from the boys to Lucy, who didn't dare breathe for fear of incurring her wrath as well. However, at the sight of the blonde, the redhead's frown lightened up, not quite into a smile, but certainly an approving gaze.

"Natsu, aren't you going to introduce your friend here?" the woman asked, the danger in her tone making the pinkette in question jump slightly.

"E-Erza, this is Lucy, she's new here. Lucy, this is Erza. She's grade ten, also a member of Fairy Tail, a requip mage, possibly a demon, we're not sure yet," he teased, leaping out of the way as a sword from nowhere suddenly slashed at his former location.

"Lucy is a celestial mage," he continued, almost like he was bragging.

"C-celestial, you say?" Erza said, and Lucy took a step back at the greedy look in her eye. "Not too many of those around," the requip mage continued. "You wouldn't happen to have your sights set on any guild in particular, would you?"

"Really, Erza? She just got here. At least let her enter the school before you try recruiting her," Gray said as they neared the gates of the academy.

"Are you also a member of Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked Gray.

"Yup," he said pointing to the dark guild mark on his chest. His bare chest. Where had his shirt gone? "It's a good guild, strong, reliable, a bit…rough around the edges."

"That's putting it lightly," Natsu scoffed. Lucy raised an eyebrow in question, but Natsu just waved her off. "You'll just have to come to the guild sometime and see for yourself."

"Gray, your shirt," Erza said, sounding somewhere between reprimanding and bored as she held out the forsaken piece of fabric. Gray simply took it without question, as if this happened often.

"What grade are you?" Gray asked as he re-donned his shirt.

"Eight. Though I'll be having private tutoring sessions after school each day since I've never trained before," Lucy said.

"We're in grade eight as well!" Natsu said enthusiastically. "Maybe we'll have some of the same classes. If you ever need help, I'm always available."

"Who're you going to help, hothead? You barely pass your classes as it is," Gray sneered.

"Hey, I was number one in magical combat last year, ice prick," Natsu returned, flames jumping into his hands.

"Of course you'd offer to help Lucy with her physical training-"

At that Natsu growled and lunged for Gray, who was preparing his own magic as well, but neither had the chance to attack as both were soon on the ground with welts on their head while Erza — Mavis bless her — , was just putting away her sword.

"Please ignore them, Lucy. They're idiots," she said, and Lucy was sure her face was still glowing red from Gray's comment. "Unfortunately our guild master won't let me remove their tongues, though I continue to argue they do nothing of worth with them."

Lucy laughed nervously as the roommates peeled themselves off the ground.

"You should get to your classes, I expect they'll be starting soon," she said before marching off.

A chill ran down Lucy's spine as she glanced back at the withered mages stumbling to their feet.

"I'm going to find Juvia before I die," Gray muttered, wobbling off into the distance.

"Well, that was Erza," Natsu said, rubbing his head with a grimace.

"Is everyone in Fairy Tail so…" Lucy trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence, but Natsu seemed to understand what she meant.

"Not everyone, but pretty much. We're glad to have her on our side, I can say that much," he said. "So what's your first class?"

"I have general magic."

"Aww, I have elementals," Natsu said, a bit disappointed. "I'll walk you there anyway. Maybe we'll have something together later! Let me see your schedule."

After a bit of comparison, the pair discovered that they did indeed have three of their eight classes together: Fiorean History, Magical Combat, and Herbology and Potions.

"Cool, we have combat together!" Natsu smiled excitedly. "Gray was kinda right, fighting's about the only thing I'm good at."

"I'm sure that's not true," Lucy said encouragingly. "You're also good at running away from people."

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. Well, Erza's right, I'm going to be late if I don't leave soon. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah, see ya!"

Lucy watched Natsu dash down the hall to his class. She turned to look at the door of her own classroom they'd arrived at. She took a deep breath before walking into the room.

The classroom was small but busy with students hanging out and talking to each other before classes began. It was like an overstuffed birdcage, and about as loud as one. Lucy walked over to an empty seat in the front row, ignoring the curious stares she attracted.

"You must be new!" the girl next to her said. She had short blue hair held back haphazardly by a headband and was so small she reminded Lucy of a pixie. She seemed nice enough, though, and Lucy returned her smile.

"Yeah, I'm Lucy," she said, extending a hand.

"It's nice to meet you! I'm Levy, a script mage. What kind of magic do you do?"

Lucy felt she would never get tired of that question. Each time it was asked was a reminder that she was surrounded by people like her, and it made her heart all warm and squishy.

"Celestial," Lucy said with a smile.

"Like the gates? That's really cool! Yukino is also a celestial mage," she said, turning to look at a white-haired girl across the room. "Hey, Yukino!" she called, and the girl in question walked over.

"What's up?" the girl, Yukino, asked.

"This is Lucy. She's a celestial mage like you," Levy said, and Yukino's mouth dropped.

"S-seriously?!" She looked at Lucy, as if trying to figure out whether or not she looked like a celestial mage, whatever that might mean. Lucy smiled nervously, but offered her hand nonetheless.

"Nice to meet you," Lucy said as Yukino finally pulled herself together and shook her hand with an excited smile.

"Waah! That's so cool! I've never met another celestial mage besides my sister before! Do you have any of the zodiac gates? I've got Libra and Pisces, and my sister's got Gemini, Scorpio, and Aires. We can't open them, obviously, but they're nice to have anyway."

Lucy was about to respond when the teacher entered demanding order and began the lecture.

The rest of the day was pretty much like the first part of it, and by the time she'd come to her last class, magical combat, she was exhausted.

Word of her being a celestial mage had spread like wildfire, and soon everyone was introducing themselves to her, along with their guild names and why she should join them instead of everyone else.

Hi, I'm Lyon. Join Lamia Scale.

Hi, I'm Beth. Join Mermaid Heel.

Hello gorgeous, I'm Hibiki. Have you heard of Blue Pegasus?

It made Lucy feel very strange, particularly because she couldn't even really do anything with her celestial magic yet except for summon a cute little dog named Plue that looked less like a dog and more like a snowman…

Angel, Yukino's elder sister, had been quick to mock her for her inexperience, but Yukino was more encouraging. After all, even they couldn't summon anything besides the silver gates with years of training.

She'd been so surrounded by people all day that she hadn't even gotten the chance to talk to Natsu again. Something about the fact that she'd met him before all this commotion made her feel more comfortable with him. He treated her more like a friend and less a piece of meat he wanted to recruit for Fairy Tail.

Though, make no mistake, he was still determined to recruit her to Fairy Tail, even if his reasons were a bit more personal than just we-want-a-celestial-mage.

So when she entered the gymnasium for her combat class, she was glad to find him waiting for her by the door, eager to snatch her up before someone else did again.

"Hey!" he said casually, smiling at her as she entered. Both of them were already changed into their work-out clothing for class, and Lucy couldn't help but notice how muscular he was or the way his sweatpants hugged his hips…

She blushed violently and shook her head.

Bad Lucy.

"Hey!" she returned happily, hoping he couldn't tell what she was thinking. Luckily for her, he was too busy taking in her own outfit to notice anything else.

"H-how were your classes? I tried to sit next to you, but you were rather popular, as expected," he said, wrenching his mind out of the gutter. Well, most of it, at least.

"They were good. I'm glad I'll be having tutoring sessions, though, since I'm definitely behind on a bunch of things. I didn't even know all the different classifications of magic! It's kind of embarrassing…"

"Don't be silly! You can't be expected to know that kind of stuff if no one's ever taught you before," Natsu said sympathetically.

"Yeah, Natsu's been taking these classes for years and he still doesn't know anything. That's embarrassing," came a haughty voice from behind them.

They turned to see a tall blonde guy Lucy had seen in a number of her classes today hanging around Yukino. Behind him was an equally tall boy with black hair and red eyes that scared Lucy a bit. She'd never seen anyone with red eyes before.

"You wanna say that to my face, flashlight?"

"I think I just did," the blonde said with a smirk before turning to Lucy. "Sting Eucliffe," he said, taking her hand and kissing it with a sneer at Natsu, who looked like he was about to burst into flames which, Lucy realized belatedly, was entirely possible.

"This is Rogue," he indicated back to the shadowy man behind him who offered only a curt nod of the head. "We're both members of the premier guild in Fiore, Sabertooth."

"Pshh," Natsu said. "Bullshit, Fairy Tail could take you down any day."

"You wanna go, fairy?" Sting mocked, crouching down and ready to strike.

"Boys, save it for class," their coach said as she walked up to Lucy.

"You must be Ms. Starsen?" she asked, her dark brown eyes sizing Lucy up as the girl nodded. "I'm Coach Shae. The headmaster has informed me that you have no combat training, right?"

Lucy flushed and nodded, not appreciating the reminder of how weak she was.

"Don't be embarrassed, you're here to learn, right?"

"O-of course!"

The coach flashed her an encouraging smile. "Then that's all that matters. This is magical combat, but in truth, not all types of magic are suited for combat. Therefore, I'll be pairing you up with students who focus more on weapons training and exercises, though you'll also be participating in training to increase your magical capacity.

"It seems you already know Mr. Dragneel here. Natsu, as last year's top student I'd like you to help Lucy with the basics. Can you do that?"

"Of course, Coach!" Natsu beamed.

"Right, I'll leave you to it," she said, turning to the rest of the class. "Everyone else, pair up and start warm-ups."

"C'mon, Luce," Natsu said, tugging her over to a storage room Lucy soon discovered was full of weapons of all kinds. Swords, maces, fighting sticks…whips.

Lucy timidly picked up one of the whips. A character in a novel she loved as a kid was an adventurer who always had a whip. Lucy had always wanted to be like her, brave and adventurous, exploring the unknown. The weapon in her hand was heavier than she expected, its leather coil like a snake, waiting to bite.

"That seems like a good choice for you," Natsu said as he watched her practically caress the weapon.

"W-what does that mean!" Lucy stuttered, turning bright red as she remembered some other recreational uses for the weapon. Not that she was into that stuff.

Fortunately the reference seemed to go right over Natsu's head.

"Nothing! It just seems like a good fit, that's all. C'mon, let's try it out," he said, flouncing back into the gym, Lucy on his tail.

By the end of the class, Lucy was exhausted. She'd felt like a complete fool the whole time, fumbling around as she tried to imitate Natsu's stances and strikes. He had insisted that she was doing well for a beginner, but she couldn't help but feel that he was just humoring her. Still, as silly as she'd felt, she'd never had so much fun in her life! Natsu was an enthusiastic teacher, and surprisingly patient for someone so spirited. He was also clearly very strong, and Lucy was interested to see him go all out.

As she changed back into her uniform, she felt ready to take a nap, but she knew it would have to wait. She still had her extra tutoring to attend, which she felt anxious about. The way Yajima spoke about this "Jellal" character made Lucy a bit suspicious, but after seeing how far behind she really was, she didn't care if he was Zeref re-incarnated.

She grabbed her bag and walked out of the locker room, to find Natsu waiting for her. He perked up as he saw her and gave her a wide grin.

"Hey, Luce!"

"What's up?" she asked.

"Well, I was about to head over to Fairy Tail, and just wondered if you wanted to come with me? I'm not saying you have to join or anything, but it'll be fun! Mira makes these awesome milkshakes, and—"

"I'm sorry, Natsu, I can't," Lucy interrupted before he got too excited. "I have my tutoring to go to today. Actually, I have it every day…"

"Oh..." the pink-haired boy said, clearly deflated.

"B-but it's only for two hours, so maybe I can come by afterwards sometime this week," Lucy said.

"Yeah! Maybe tomorrow?" Natsu asked hopefully.

"Tomorrow sounds good," Lucy smiled.

Natsu tried to ignored the loud thumping in his chest. "G-great! I'll see you tomorrow then. Good luck!"

He set off down the hallway, glancing back every few steps to wave. Lucy giggled as he almost ran into someone's open locker, her chest welling with happiness that she, for the first time in her life, had a friend.