The afternoon was filled with the hum of conversation noises in every direction in the student hall cafeteria. There were those that had finished classes for the day and were either getting food or hanging out during their free time. Some who were not taking up residence in the library to do homework shacked up at one of the many tables, either in groups or solo. There were so many languages going on at once from what Natsu could actually pick up whenever he bothered to tune in. He didn't know what anyone was saying because he wasn't multilingual, but he could hear enough differences in pronunciation and words to know that they were at least different.
He grabbed another chip out of a bag at his table, being one of the solitary occupants taking up a booth against a wall while doing his homework. He had neglected his last set of math homework and, after a lot of pleading to the teacher, had gone right to the nearest study nook in the math and science college building to immediately get it done. He turned it in the second it was finished and then promised to get the next two sets of assignments done that same day and turn those in early, just for good measure.
Although he said that, it was easier said than done! Since he didn't care much for math and saw it as (mostly) pointless, his brain refused to help him out in thinking about it. He had to break for an English class, gag on that one too, before trying to get back to work on his future homework that the teacher oh-so 'thoughtfully' provided. 'Me and my big mouth...' He groused, glaring holes into his textbook. He almost had everything done on the next assignment and was trying to get started on the third, but they hadn't covered any of this stuff yet and so he was trying to do this with only the information right out of the book.
Maybe another hour later, he finished everything and prayed they were all correct! Natsu closed his book with a whomp and crashed his exhausted brain on it. Oh, if only he could absorb the formulas through osmosis! Who was he kidding? He wouldn't care to remember any of it hours later anyway!
He rested on the table as if it would hold him up for eternity, letting the ambient noise of the area greet his ears and change his attention. Despite having spent so much time in the cafeteria and it being the middle of the afternoon, the place hadn't gone down all that much. What he did know was that there seemed to be a lot more groups of foreign language speakers loitering around.
Natsu's eyes peeked open at a table across the way that had suddenly burst into laughter. He watched the multitudes of people who were definitely from other countries, along with one that seemed to be from Magnolia. Boy did she look short sitting in that chair...although the unruly blue hair on her head made her noggin look huge! She totally looked like a child caricature! He watched her in slight fascination as she spoke in some other language for a few beats and then switched effortlessly to perfect English. He listened to her English for a bit, just knowing she was a Magnolia citizen, before she changed languages just as seamlessly to something else entirely.
His brows raised and it was safe to say he was impressed. The shortie was really smart to know more than one language, let alone two more! He blatantly watched her across the way as she conversed with the large group at the table. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves way more than he had ever been since he sat down at the table and he almost wanted to get up and join them, but he didn't know any of them aside from maybe seeing some faces around campus.
Looking at a clock across the way, his lips pursed in thought as he pondered how much free time he could steal at the gym before having to head back home for the night. At the very least, he could run out some of this lethargy from sitting almost the entire time and run his brain out.
It was decided. Natsu got up and grabbed his things, diverting long enough from the exit path enough to throw his chip bag into the trash. It was a hot one outside, but he didn't mind the heat and thus he inhaled the humidity appreciatively. He passed a few people hanging out outside and complaining about sweating in the heat. He almost wanted to shout at them to go inside if they were going to complain about being out in the weather, but focused on the gym and getting to the workout room.
He swiped his student id card as usual and passed the security desk, but Elfman wasn't in the front. He still waved hi to the other guard that he had seen a lot and conversed with on occasion. He went into the locker room and tossed his books in a locker. He grabbed one of the rental locks and tossed the key in his shorts pocket before heading to the room.
He suddenly figured out why he hadn't seen his friend at the front; Elfman was lifting weights on one of the benches in the corner. He let his friend do his thing, not wanting to break his concentration, and headed to the treadmill. If time permitted, they'd talk later.
As much as he liked lifting weights, running was one of the most favorite workouts he did. It had so many uses! You worked out cardio, the muscles in your legs and lower stomach, and stamina all at once and all you did was move your legs. It was also the exercise he used most for the team; weights wasn't going to help him in the type of sport he did whenever possible.
Selecting one of the hard programs, Natsu did a quick warm-up and within minutes was jogging a healthy clip on a fairly good gradient. His eyes fixated on one of the silent tvs as he watched some random show for a while, not really reading the subtitles. His ears tuned in more to the rock music that pumped in through the loudspeaker system for the room.
While coming down from a particularly hard set in the program, Natsu slowed to a brisk walk to cool down for a few minutes and tried to catch his breath. Having run for probably the last ten minutes, he was finally starting to feel it. The cool down also allowed his focus to expand and realize that someone was next to the machine.
Sensing that he was finally being paid attention to, Elfman rose a hand in greeting and smiled. "Yo Natsu. You really get into the zone when you run, you know that?"
He grinned and picked up his pace a little as the machine changed its speed again. "Eh heh heh...sorry Elfman. Tv brain."
Elfman nodded in understanding, having also tuned out to the tv while working out before. "Can I borrow an ear for a second Natsu? You can keep working; I just wanted a quick chat."
He nodded, going back up to a full run. "What's up?" He slightly huffed.
"You know that I have another job aside from this one right?" He waited till Natsu nodded to continue. "Well, there's this grocery store that I work for in the grocery department doing stocking and they're looking for help. They'll do full-time or part-time; whatever you can give. My boss gave me some information to pass out around campus and to anyone that may be interested. I know you already do stocking at The Best Chinese Restaurant right now and figured this wouldn't be too different from what you probably do there. What do you say? Interested?"
His brain always worked better when he was physically doing something. As Elfman was talking, he was already thinking about his schedule vs free days that he spent either playing soccer with a local team or just having fun around college. Depending on what they required of him for time, he may be able to swing doing it if it was merely stocking shelves. Not that difficult and any monkey could do it. "Maybe. Where is it at? What are the hours?"
"All that information is on the paper I got." Elfman took a step back from the treadmill. "It's in my locker. I know you're not done with your set yet so let me go get it and I'll let you take a look at what she printed out."
He nodded and watched Elfman head out of the main doorway. His eyes looked down to the treadmill, finding he had about a third of his setup to go. While Elfman was gone, his eyes gravitated back up to the tv and he spaced out a bit while running the hardest part of the program.
He started the last cool down when Elfman returned and stuck a paper on the treadmill. While his friend silently stood next to the machine, he wordlessly read it, eyes scanning everything and taking in all the details. It sounded really easy and he bet they just wanted to get some college students in to do the basic stuff and leave the full-time employees to do the more detailed store stuff. That was fine with him for what the pay looked like. He was losing too much of his checks to the food that Huiqing made for him every morning. Although it meant he had one less meal to have every day, he barely squeaked by with rent each month, let alone utilities! One reason why he made sure to win against Gray in basketball all the time; it was one more free meal he didn't have to pay for!
If he wanted to have enough saved up for next semester, he probably should take on a second part-time job and stop goofing around quite so much at the university for now. Maybe a few months of some good, hard work at an easy job would line his pockets a bit.
He thought of the job and wondered at what it could be from the description laid out before him. If it was just stocking shelves, that meant he possibly could get in some good basic exercise by doing a lot of walking and lifting. He could trade in some of his gym time if it meant he could get that at the job site. He finally looked to Elfman and smiled. "Can't hurt to check the place out and put in an application. What's the worse they say? No?"
Elfman smiled and gave a thumbs up. "You'll be a shoe-in, trust me. The job is cake and my boss is a really good person. I like working for her. Oh and there a lot of awesome employee discounts too."
His smile widened. "You're making it sound better and better." The treadmill beeped that the program had finished and Natsu took a minute to catch his breath. He looked down at himself and knew he wasn't in any shape to put in an application, but was never one to wait at anything when a good idea presented itself. Maybe he could wait outside the store and Elfman could grab the paper for him and he wouldn't have to show himself to get it. It didn't sound very nice, he didn't know when or how he'd get over tomorrow. "Is the store still open? We can head over there right now."
Elfman looked to the clock next to the tv. "They're open for a little more than an hour. If we leave in the next few minutes, we can get there pretty quick in my car."
Natsu's face quickly turned dissatisfied at the word 'car'. "Uh...do we have to drive it? How far is it from the university?"
A white brow rose. "You scared of riding in a car Natsu?" Elfman asked, head tilting, only slightly teasing and more confused than anything.
Natsu exited the machine, feeling indignant. "No I'm not scared!" A hand reached out and lightly punched Elfman on the chest. "I'm just...not that good with some forms of transportation is all..."
The pair headed to the men's locker room. "The store is like two miles away from the university Natsu and you just got done running ten miles! There's no way you should have that kind of energy left!"
Natsu grinned and gave a sideways glance to his friend. "I play soccer in my spare time and I run to the university from my other job and home to my apartment. What do you think?"
Elfman let his friend go in first and sat on one of the benches as Natsu went to do a quick clean up. "Even so, I still say we should save the time by taking my car." His head shook. "You want to be somewhat presentable when you walk in the doors; not all sweaty like you are now."
"I figured you'd just go in and get the application for me."
Elfman gave him a put out look. "I'm not doing that! My boss is nice, but she's got a pretty upright character. I don't know if she'll think you very capable if you can't walk in to get a simple piece of paper yourself."
He splashed water over his face and hair with a quiet groan. He was going to have to bite the bullet on this. He trusted Elfman's word and didn't really want to make a bad impression on the first meeting. "Alright...we'll take your car..." He really hoped he didn't regret this!
01010
At about the same hour that Natsu left the university, a different student was planning on heading out as well. She had been in the lunchroom with the other foreign exchange students, getting some opinions on her poetry that were to be utilized tonight. She was only going to do two, maybe three tops depending on the turn-out tonight. She had a lot to go through, of course in different languages, and asked for the thoughts of those who had also an interest in writing or were language majors.
When the hour ticked to a close and the conversation group was over, Levy grabbed her materials and headed out. Some of the exchange students went with mainly because it would be a good listening experience and they also had nothing better to do this evening. The trio walked together to the nearest coffee shop and opened the glass door.
The smell of coffee hit Levy's nose hard, but she inhaled appreciatively. This was heaven! She had not been in this place yet, mainly because she didn't deem herself lazy enough to have someone else make her a coffee. But while she was here tonight, she fully intended on splurging!
"Let's get settled." She suggested in Mandarin. The two Chinese students picked one of the few empty tables left in the entire store and claimed it by setting their book bags in the chairs. The female pair joined her a second later in line and joined Levy in looking up at the menu.
'Ugh! Why are there so many delicious choices for coffee?' Did she really want to have an espresso at such an hour in the evening? Sure it would wake her up, but her current nervousness really didn't need any help. She didn't think getting jittery in front of her fellow classmates would help her reading any. Her eyes alighted on the food display case and she almost felt her mouth water as she wondered which one would end up in her stomach tonight. 'So many choices...'
"Welcome to The Coffee House. May I take your order?"
Her lips pursed in thought. She turned to the others. "Do you know what you want to order?" She asked, ignoring the female staff worker for a second. She almost asked if they wanted help with the menu, but checked herself to wait until they had questions. She didn't want to be disrespectful in assuming they didn't know what they were looking at...plus coffee was universal. "I'll order first then." She looked to the brunette behind the counter and smiled. "I'll take a medium mocha with one of those chocolate cake slices please."
"Medium mocha and one piece of chocolate cake. Will there be anything else?"
She nodded. "I'm actually here for the poetry reading that my professor is doing. I believe he contacted the owner about it already and set up a time."
The barista nodded and took her cash. "Oh yea! That was tonight huh? I think a bunch of you have already shown up within the last twenty minutes." The barista looked over at the clock behind the counter. "Wow, that's going to start soon."
"One medium mocha."
Levy's eyes widened a little after she looked to the new voice. What? How...how was it possible for someone other than her to have such unruly hair? And it was a guy?! In all the people she had talked to, Levy had never encountered anyone with so much hair...or so many piercings! Holy moly! She met his eyes in silence as he blatantly stared at her before a brow finally rose.
"This is yours right?" He held up the ceramic cup and waggled it a tad.
She snapped to, and stepped forward with a smile. "Oh yes! Sorry! I just..." She took the cup and promptly stared at it in confusion. "What is this? You guys don't do to-go cups here?"
He smirked and stepped back. "If you're staying here, you get an in-store cup. Strictly to-go'ers get the paper ones. Store policy." A finger pointed at her. "If you don't like it, you can gladly take all your little poetry reading groupies and hit up another joint and save my ears the next hour, shortie."
She bristled and almost spilled hot coffee on herself. The nerve of the guy! They were paying customers and he was treating this poetry reading like it was infringing on their business! It was sundown and her class was pretty much the entire attendance right now! He should be happy they were spending time here ordering drinks and food! "Why...you – you...jackass!" She heard the exchange students giggle at her language slip, especially since she finished the retort in Mandarin.
His arms crossed, brow raising as he met her eyes, seemingly unfazed. "What in the world did you just say? What the hell kind of English are you speaking, shortie?"
She bristled again at the jab to her height, her biggest vice, and glared at him. "I'm not a shortie!" A finger pointed at him. "You're just too tall, you ogre!"
He laughed at the supposed insult. He looked to the other barista who was still at the counter watching the whole thing in amusement. "You hear that Kana? I'm an ogre!"
Kana chuckled and shook her head. "Aren't you supposed to be uglier than this and a lot fatter? We need to get you a club!" She smirked and gave Levy a thumbs up. "You finally found a good nickname for Gajeel! I'm going to keep that one if you don't mind..."
She looked between the two, at a loss at their two personalities. Her mouth opened to retort or defend or...something, but nothing was coming out. She finally turned to the exchange students. "I'll be at the table." She mumbled, purposely language-switching in front of the staff.
One of Gajeel's brows rose. "English shortie! You're in Magnolia here!"
Her fingers gripped the cup tightly and quickly relaxed as the heated ceramic tried to burn the unfortunate digits. She tried not to slam it on the table and purposely faced away from the front counter, feeling eyes on her back. She wanted to turn around and glare at the rude man, Gajeel she heard, but didn't want to give him the satisfaction any longer of seeing her riled up. Someone ignorant like that she had encountered so often and she was so used to them, but she would never get used to being picked on for her lack of height!
She was forever conscious of how short she was. She had always been a book worm and as a child she preferred to read instead of getting out and playing outside. Even as a young child, she knew the value of books and being smart. Such constant physical inactivity hurt her now, even if she was smarter for it and was already in her third year for being only twenty. Had she the better hindsight as a child, she would have been better off mixing the two! She was forever paying for it and always trying to explain herself or ignoring the jabs and nicknames.
She suddenly whipped out her notebook and flipped it to a blank page. She was so busy with sudden inspiration that she didn't even see the exchange students when they joined her. All of her other poems became useless to the sudden muse that took hold of her. Her anger at the ever-present name-calling throughout the years crashed down at her. It was an old friend, but it would serve her well to fight back and tell off the ass behind the counter in the only way she really knew how to: intelligently.
Minutes after she finished and was editing, her professor stood up and announced the proceedings of the evening and who would go when. Those that wanted or needed extra credit were here to read or have fun and hang out. She definitely didn't need the extra credit, but she did want to hang out with her fellow classmates.
She gripped the paper, hearing her name first. She was on a sudden mission and walked to the corner that was a semi-stage. The tables were all moved around so that everyone could get the best listening ability because there wasn't a microphone.
She waited until everyone had quieted down before starting in. She wanted to make sure she was very clearly heard! Holding up the paper so she could partially read off it, Levy's eyes darted over and noticed both baristas staring at their group since there wasn't anyone else for them to serve and probably not much else to do at this hour. She glared at Gajeel and his grin for just a second before ignoring him and looking to her paper with pride.
"All my life, I've dealt with the same words.
Those that spite and those that burn.
I'm well aware of my shortcomings.
I don't need to hear them again from dummies.
Call me what you will if that feeds your esteem.
You'll never know how little they demean.
What would you know?
You dirty-looking hobo!
You unkempt and uncouth person.
Those are the words that I determine!
Stay inside your little world of stupidity.
Think your language and manners are the only in this city!
People will grow and leave you behind.
And you'll still be here, totally blind."
Levy stopped and lowered the paper, bowing a little when everyone clapped. She refused to look across the store and took her spot with her back facing the counter. She purposely remained that way for the entire reading.
Across the counter, Kana couldn't help some of the laughter that escaped behind her hands. She elbowed Gajeel in the ribs a few times and knew it was at his expense. "I'm not too sure exactly what that was about, but I'm pretty sure you just got served." A snicker took over Kana's ability to speak for a second. "Hobo...hee hee hee hee hee!"
Gajeel wanted to shove his co-worker away, but restrained himself. His eyes rolled instead, arms crossing indignantly. "Whatever. Just shut up and go clean if you've got nothing better to do!"
"Or you could go do it! I'm sure you'd prefer cleaning the women's bathroom to watching them read pretty words for the next forty-five minutes."
Kana was right...partially. Gajeel's arms uncrossed as he went for the back room. "I'm going to go take ten. If you need me, I'll be in the back room."
"Have fun you uncouth individual!"
Gajeel ignored Kana's giggles at his expense and was happy to shut the door and muffle most of the words and clapping. He grabbed one of the desserts that was going to get tossed out tonight and tore into it with mild irritation. He almost wished to have been the only one working the back tonight because he was never going to live this down! If Lisanna or Kinana were here, they'd overlook it, although they may smile at what just happened. Kana was going to give him shit about this for weeks! He had a feeling she was going to call him a hobo for a long time...
His pride took a slight beating, knowing that the fiery girl just publicly insulted him and in such an artistic way. He was used to openly being called any swear word in the book and those words now just rolled off his back with ease and it just amused him. Most times he would make fun of the words thrown at him as a way to defend off any further attacks. This chick pointed him out without ever saying his name or anything extremely specific about him, but he knew that was about him. She didn't like being called shortie or his jab at her speaking more than one language and had told him more or less just then.
How did someone come back after being insulted via poetry? It was like a kid calling him a big dumb head! She had been intelligent in her attack and this had never happened to him before. He was truly at a loss on how to get the final word with this chick. He knew he should be more irritated than this, but he wasn't really sure how mad he should feel. What the hell?