Chapter 4: All The Festivities
"Really, Jem isn't coming?" Natsu asked sadly.
"Yeah, she wasn't up to it." Kasai said.
This weekend was the Magnolia Festival and for the past two weeks all the student of Fairy Tail High and residents of Magnolia were excited about it. That is until the events of Friday, Jem and Mirajane were not going to attend. Mira was still recovering from the attack at the house of Porlyusica and Jem was still unwilling to face anyone after letting that happen to Mira, even though she knew she could have prevented it. Even Elfman was adamant about not going to the festival.
"Please Elfman. Mira would want you to go and have fun with your friends." Sugar said.
Elfman sat on the couch in Sugar's living room. He couldn't even go home, he didn't want to see his empty house. Sugar, who understood how he felt, told him he could stay as long as he wanted.
"I just don't think I'll be able to enjoy myself." Elfman sighed.
Sugar walked over to Elfman, "Then come for me. Just to keep me company, please." she smiled slightly.
Elfman looked up into Sugar's eyes, "I won't be good company."
"I don't care. I just want to go to the festival with the man I love." Sugar smiled more.
"Okay, what kind of man would I be if I let down the woman I love." Elfman said with a slight smile.
"That's better." Sugar giggled. She leaned in and kissed him.
Sugar may have been able to convince Elfman to go but, Jem was a different story. Kasai had spent an hour trying to convince her but was getting nowhere. She then decided to conference call the others. On the line now with Kasai and Jem was Lucy, Jubilee, Levy and even Erza.
"But you can't not go." Kasai exclaimed.
"I just don't think I can handle having fun with everyone there." Jem said in monotone.
"I wish you would reconsider. We will all miss you." Lucy said.
"Porlyusica said that Mira was going to be fine in a day or two. You have nothing to feel sorry about. You did everything you could." Erza insisted.
"No I didn't! I could've done so much more! I could've prevented her from getting poisoned by that thing!" Jem snapped tears started to form.
"But if something was really wrong Porlyusica would've …" Lucy stared.
"No she wouldn't've. Porlyusica has Mira at her place for observation. To make sure that it doesn't get worse." Jubilee said.
"We're suppose to be supportive of Jem, Jubilee. Not agree with her suffering." Levy said.
"I know. But … the truth is none of us could do anything. When it boils right down to it, we were all to weak to help Mira … or Jem." Jubilee said.
"You not helping Jubilee!" Kasai said in anger. "Hang up if you're just going to add fuel to the fire!"
"I'm sorry." Jubilee said before hanging up.
"I'll talk to her now." Levy said then she hung up.
"I get where Jubilee is coming from but still …" Lucy said with a sigh.
"Jem sorry about Jubilee. I guess I should've known she'd react that way." Kasai chuckled nervously. "Jem? … Jem … you still there?"
"She hung up." Lucy said.
"When!?" Kasai exclaimed.
"About the time Levy did."
"I'm so going to kick her ass!" Kasai growled. "I'm calling her back."
"No, I think we should let Jem cool off. She'll realize soon that she is being too dramatic about all of this and that everything will be fine in the end." Erza said then hung up.
Lucy sighed again, "Right, see you at the festival, Kasai."
"Yeah."
As the night rolled in people began to gather in the middle of town for the festival. Along the sides of the main road were stands for games, foods, and festival accessory items and souvenirs. The citizen all wore festive kimonos and the little kids had their faces painted. The lights were warm and colorful and the smell of the food cooking was spreading all over the town.
From her room Jem could see the lights and hear the laughter and excitement of the people. She wished to be apart of it but every time she looked at her kimono, which was dark purple with golden splatters across it, that she bought especially for this occasion, she remembered why she didn't want to go. Her phone had been ringing for hours as her friends continued to try one last time to get her to come enjoy the festival with them. After an hour she turned her phone off.
"Hey, Kasai. Don't you look cute in that." Natsu said as he met Kasai at the entrance of the festival.
Natsu was wearing a yellow kimono with a red dragon swirling around it and the sleeves rolled up. Kasai wore a light blue kimono with a colorful butterfly pattern on the hem. Her hair was up in a ponytail with two hair picks holding back her bangs, one with a large pink rose and a golden teasel on the other.
"Thanks, Natsu." Kasai blushed.
"Well now you're even cuter." Natsu smiled then pulled Kasai close and kissed her.
"What have I told you about kissing me in public, idiot." Kasai whispered even redder than before.
"No one is here to see us." Natsu smiled.
"Whatever." Kasai sighed with a smile.
"So Jem really isn't coming?" Natsu asked.
"No. She even turned her phone off." Kasai said with a sad look.
As the events of the festival were under way the group of friends eventually found each other. Natsu and Kasai ran into Lucy with Jubilee and Levy. Jubilee apologized for how she acted over the phone about a hundred times before finally accepting that they were truly okay with it.
Lucy was wearing a green kimono with pink flowers on it. Her hair was up in a bun with a long stick, that had jewels hanging from it, poking out of it.
Jubilee and Levy wore matching kimonos, which was a complete accident. The girls just always ended up doing something like that without even talking to one another. It was almost like they were twins, but with Levy's blue hair and Jubilee's green on black hair it was obvious that was not the case. They wore red kimonos with multicolored fans on them.
Soon Erza was found as well. She wore a lavender kimono with dark blue swirls on the ends.
Even Laxus and Erica were seen, though Erica seemed to be enjoying it a lot more than Laxus, who was getting constant death glares from Cana, Erica's little sister and school drunk.
As everyone enjoyed the festival, playing games; eating the food; and watching some of the performers. It was still clear to everyone that Jem was not with them having fun as well.
"Hey, everybody." came a familiar voice.
Gray had finally showed up, but even though he was wearing a kimono, the top was hanging around his waist, showing his bare chest. It was a plain gray kimono, no pun intended.
"Nice to have you finally join us." Kasai smiled.
"So is everyone here or what?" he asked.
"Jem didn't come." Levy said.
"I had a feeling she wouldn't after what she was like when I got her home." Gray sighed.
"You sound disappointed Gray. Could it be that you wanted her to come so you could spend some time with her?" Kasai asked with a smirk.
"That's not it. I just hope that she doesn't end up beating herself up about this forever." Gray said.
"It still sounds like you're concerned about her." Jubilee said.
"And here we all thought that you hated her." Erza smiled evilly.
"I dislike her hitting me every time my shirt comes off." Gray retorted. "I never said I hated her."
"So then it's still possible that you love …" Kasai started then was interrupted.
"Hi everybody. I see you are enjoying the festival." a high voice said from behind. The gang turned to see Sugar and Elfman.
"Wow." Lucy gasped. "Sugar you actually got Elfman to come to this without Mira?"
"It took some convincing but, he agreed." Sugar smiled.
Elfman smiled at the group, "At first, I didn't think that I would enjoy this at all. But Mira would've wanted me to come anyway, Sugar helped me see that. And I have to say I am have a nice time."
"Sugar can make everything better." Jubilee laughed. The rest joined in.
"If only we had know you were coming with Elfman we would've called you to talk to Jem." Kasai said. "She still feels responsible for what happened to Mirajane. It was so bad she didn't even come to the festival."
"I wish I had known." Sugar said with sorrow in her voice.
"There isn't much we can do now." Natsu said.
"Uhm, where is Gray?" Levy asked.
Running down street after street, Gray made his way to Jem's house. He had to tell her about Elfman and get her to come and enjoy the festival with her friends.
"I don't have a family either."
"We both live alone, I know. Didn't mean to jump on you like that."
She's always alone. It's not fair for anyone. Even if they choose it, no one should be alone.
Gray pounded on Jem's door but she didn't answer. He ran to the back and yelled, "Jem you need to come to the festival!"
The curtain in the window move to the side and Gray could make out the shape of someone. He jumped onto the picnic table then onto the roof of the porch, however, he nearly missed.
Jem opened her window, "Are you insane!" Jem exclaimed. "You're going to get yourself killed!"
Gray stood on the roof and walked slowly and carefully over to Jem's window.
"You need to come and be with your friends." Gray said once he was in front of her.
"I can't do that. How could I have any fun?" Jem said.
"Listen, I lied before when I said I just couldn't stand it were I use to live."Gray began. "The truth is my family died … along time ago."
"Gray …"
"For awhile I lived with a woman named Ur and a boy named Lyon. But Ur died too and I haven't seen Lyon since." Gray said clenching his fists.
"Gray … why are you telling me this? You would never tell anyone this." Jem said in a shaky voice.
"Because, you know as well as I do what it means to be completely alone. But like me, you have friends who don't want you to be that way." Gray said. He looked to Jem. "Elfman and Sugar are at the festival right now. They are all having fun but, they miss you and wish you were with them."
"Elfman?" Jem asked. "So he's alright?"
"Yeah, Sugar convinced him to come and he's having fun. Everyone else too, they're waiting for you." Gray said. "So will you come?"
Jem looked at Gray then to the lights of the festival. She thought for a moment then said, with a smile, "Sure."
Jem shut the window and ran to her kimono. She threw it on then pulled off her bandana. Quickly she tied her hair back in a low bun leaving out a small part of hair that laid over her shoulder.
Once she had her hair picks, with jewels all over it, in she headed for the door; waiting there was Gray.
When he looked at her he blushed slightly. "You look great … really great." he said.
"Thanks." she smiled. "Nice kimono. I won't hit you for it."
Gray looked down and saw that he still had his top off. He scrambled to put it back on when Jem grabbed his hand. Gray looked at her with questioning eyes.
"I made a promise to someone a while back that I wouldn't … but I don't think I can anymore." Jem said with a smile.
"A promise … to who? About what?" Gray asked.
"My grandmother. I promised her I wouldn't do anything to mess things up. That's why I'm so mean to you."
"I … what?"
"I didn't want you to fall in love with me. So I pretended to hate you." Jem said.
"Pretended …?"
Jem smiled then grabbed Gray and pulled him close to her. Gray looked down to see she was hugging him. As the fireworks burst in the sky to signal the end of the first day of the festival, the many colors of them shined down on the ground and people below.
"Jem, by saying you didn't want me to love you … are you saying that you love me?" Gray asked.
"You have a slow brain, you pervert." Jem chuckled. "But you're right. In the end, I couldn't keep myself from falling in love with you, Gray Fullbuster."
"Jem …" Gray was about to say something but when he looked at her, with the lights of the fireworks lighting up her face, he lost all words, except for. "I guess the others were right."
Gray and Jem locked eyes for a brief moment before Gray leaned in and kissed her. Jem didn't hesitate any to kiss back. She had gone against her promise to her grandmother and gone against time itself. But she thought even so, her grandmother would be happy for her nonetheless, because Jem was truly happy for the first time since she left her.