Author's Note: Hello! Chapter nine! Okay I went back to re-read my work and I made a little oopsie...
I think for the most part I've been pretty good at reminding the readers that Lucy is in high school, but back in chapter 7 I clearly labelled her as a senior in college...which is false. I'm not sure who all caught it, but I should be clear at this point in the story-she is 18 years old and a senior in high school.
Anyway I hope you enjoy!
Also I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter Nine - Coping with the Loss
It was now a short time after the game between the Oaktown Phantoms and the Magnolia Fairies. All of the fans had left the stadium, and within the hour most of the employees would join them too.
However, one particular Fairy player was still taking the game rather roughly. After all of his teammates left the locker room, Gajeel Redfox stayed behind to "enjoy" some alone time for a quick moment of reflection.
"Great." He scolded himself mentally while he listened to music on his MP3 player. "I had those asses in Oaktown on the ropes, and now my new team of morons knocks me back down."
He then turned to his right and saw his new Fairy jersey sitting out on his bag. "Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea…"
After a short moment, the Man of Steel finally gathered his things and made his exit. However, as he opened the door and turns to shut off the lights, one employee comes roaring through the hallway.
"Oh no! Are you the last one out!?" It was Levy McGarden, and apparently she was looking for someone.
Gajeel looked rather annoyed. "What does it look like?"
Levy stopped running and laid her forehead against the wall. "Oh man, Coach Dreyar wanted us to have a meeting before we left, but I told him I had to finish something first. I waited for him at my office, but he never came. So I figured he was still in his office or down here somewhere."
Gajeel raised an eyebrow. "Oh yea. He told us he had to meet with Heartfilia upstairs…"
Levy opened her eyes and raised her head. "Shut up…AGH! I bet they're all in Jude's office! Man, I can't get anything to go my way today!"
Gajeel finally let out a smirk as he understood her stress. "Geeze. I don't know about your lame meeting, but you're a GM, not a coach. You can't take our losses as your own."
Levy would have verbally replied, but instead she held up her phone, and revealed the top sports article of the night (from a legitimate source, not from a teenage sports blog.)
"FAIRIES FAIL TO FLY: IS NEW GENERAL MANAGER TO BLAME?"
"What is this crap? And why are there so many F's?" Gajeel looked pissed off as Levy explained.
"They're saying it's because I grabbed too many new players in the off season, and now they're directing some of it at Makarov and Erza for starting the wrong people. I bet they'll dig up the story where I declined 10 draft pick from Tartaros too…"
Gajeel would have taken her seriously, but he had been in the league long enough to know that was all ridiculous. "HAHAHA! You're actually believing these idiots?!"
Levy looked up as Gajeel walked by and continued. "Look taking flack is something GMs do. You gotta suck it up. If you let this little story bite you on the ass, you'll be pretty sore later down the road."
Levy shook her head and let out a chuckle to his response. "Well I'm glad you have good spirits…by the way I meant to apologize to you personally."
Gajeel stopped walking and turned around. "Huh? Why the hell are you…?"
Levy explained. "I was the one who worked the deal to acquire you and Jellal. If I didn't pick you up, I imagine Oaktown would have just re-signed you. Then you could have avoided all this embarrassment."
Gajeel rolled his eyes. "Ah cut the crap. I chose to leave Oaktown."
Levy looked surprised to hear him say that. "R-really? You were their biggest star."
Gajeel clicked his teeth. "Yea? Well apparently you didn't do your research. I guess I pissed Coach off mid-season, so he decided to bench my ass during each game…" He followed by looking Levy right in the eye. Gajeel wasn't sure what it was, but now he had high hopes for his team of misfits in Fairy Town.
Then, Gajeel took his final walk. "…come to think of it, coming here may of actually been a high point in my career."
As the confused Power Forward walked down the hallway, Levy forced a smile. "Well, if he can smile after tonight, than I guess I have no excuse!"
Now, we find ourselves a half hour later in the main lobby of the South Gate Arena. After Jude Heartfilia's management meeting, all the coaches and staff made their leave for the night.
Here, we find the young and angry assistant coach Erza Scarlet walking out in a cloud of confusion as she left through the main doors.
"I can't believe we lost by 40 points. I thought my practices were actually going places. We won so many games in the pre-season, and all the players seemed to have decent chemistry…" She continued to wonder out to find her car until she found an occupied one first.
Sitting inside a very old fashioned sports car was Jellal Fernandes, who had his window cracked as he smoked a cigarette in the warm August night.
Erza discovered his parked car was between her and her vehicle, so she had no choice but to acknowledge his presence. "Well...glad to see you're still smoking."
Jellal turned his head and appeared to be holding a phone in his other hand. This made Erza's face flush with red and stutter in a retreat.
"Ohh I-I'm so sorry! I had no idea you w-were on the…!" She panicked in her turn around until Jellal yelled out.
"Hold on!" He had slight laughter in his voice as he hung up his phone. "I wasn't actually talking with anyone…they wouldn't answer."
Erza stopped as his voice hit her ears. She then turned to find him grinning.
"Now, you were saying something about this?" He extended his outside arm and held a short cigarette in his left hand. Normally he felt very intimidated by his former acquantences presence, but after the hard loss moments ago, he just wanted to be honest with her and get their conversation over with.
Erza turned her panicked face back into a stern smile of sorts. "Yes, I was…why are you smoking? You're a professional athlete."
"I…to be honest I'm not sure anymore…" He flicked the cigarette butt off and into the concrete. "Being out of the league for a few years let my mind slip…and a few other health habits re-emerged."
The red haired beauty shook her head. "Well, had I of known you were still doing it, I probably would have made a team policy much sooner."
Jellal rolled his eyes. "My you are quite the coach. Here you are scolding a league veteran, and a man who is several years older than you are; and yet you appear to have no fear at all."
Erza met his eyes and raised an eyebrow. Jellal made her so angry every time her looked at her like that...after everything he did to her.
She let out a forced sigh. "Tell me, why do you think we lost tonight?"
Jellal stopped for a moment and turned to deliver a shrug. "Is there supposed to be one answer? Natsu couldn't manage the team, Gray was left frozen in pressure, Gajeel was being targeted, I missed all my shots, and Laxus couldn't believe his team of all-stars was actually a team of failures."
Erza wasn't expecting such an honest answer. "A-ah well that's not entirely true…I mean you made some of your shots."
Jellal looked her in the eyes. "Right, so did that help close the gap from 50 to 40?"
The young but smart coach shook her head and finally walked around his car. "You're ridiculous. I'll see you at practice tomorrow."
As she walked around the front of his car, Jellal's eyes followed her every move. Even in a simple black shirt and pants she still looked stunning.
However, despite his mood to mend failed bonds, he watched as she climbed into her car and powered on the engine.
Then, the Meteor Man sighed and pulled out another cigarette.
"Well…maybe I'll ask another time."
As Jellal and Erza drive home separately, we find all the veteran Fairies enjoying a tiny late night meal together down town. Inside the Fairy Tail pub was Jet, Droy, Freed, Bickslow, and a very quiet Laxus. These notable players were also being joined by several cheerleaders, Lisanna, Evergreen, Cana, and lastly Mirajane.
Cana yelled out to the waiter. "Hey! Can we get another round or what?!" She then turned back to her two tables. "Damn, shit service when you guys lose, am I right?"
Most of the guests let out a tiny laugh, except for Bickslow, who moved his arm from Lisanna's shoulders to give Cana a high five. "HA! Man you're right about that, Cana! I mean maybe we oughtta start winning just for this!"
Lisanna rolled her eyes and took a sip from Bickslow's drink. "Or maybe you could just win it for the fans? Or how about Makarov, or Jude? Those two have put so much time into this team, and we fail them each year." She was driving him home, so she decided not to actually order anything to drink for herself.
Evergreen took her old empty glass and began spinning it with her finger. "I don't know what you're talking about with all this 'we' nonsense. I didn't play."
Cana leaned over and nudged her in the side. "No, but Elfman got in tonight…heh then he kinda sucked."
Lisanna smacked her brown haired friend on the arm for that jab as Cana yelled back. "Oy! What was that for?"
Lisanna looked slightly angry, but not in a serious manor. "Be nice! He tried his hardest."
Evergreen actually smiled at the joke and began playing with her own hair. "So Lisanna, where is your brother tonight, anyway?"
Jet took the last sip from his glass and explained. "What you don't remember? We never bring the new guys out until our first win. That's also why you all never told Laki where we went after the game."
Cana nodded. "Yea, and Bisca never goes out now that Alzack might be coming back. Man I can't believe he got shipped out with the army over 2 years ago." She referred to Bisca's distant boyfriend who was currently stationed in a Fiore military base overseas.
Droy sat next to Jet with his head between his hands. "Yea, which means those guys will probably miss a lot of 'team meetings.'"
As these few friends had a friendly conversation, Freed, Laxus and Mira held the other end of the group's table to themselves. Mira had her hand on Laxus's leg and began to rub his knee in comfort.
"Oh cheer up, Laxus. I hate seeing you this mad when you lose." She always made the effort to frown at the sight of her sad boyfriend.
Laxus kept looking at his empty glass. "Freed, I lost count. How many shots did Natsu miss?"
Freed sighed. "I believe his failed attempts made it into the 40s."
Laxus continued. "And how many turnovers did Gray have?"
Freed no looked uncomfortable. "I-I'm actually not sure. I didn't bother keeping track of all our failures."
Laxus shook his head. "Well to be honest I don't care if you counted or not…those two better start doing it soon. They'll need to get their shit straight if we want to win a damn game this season at all."
While we leave the depressing tavern on Main Street, we find Wendy Dragneel sitting alone on her living room couch with her head turned toward the nearest bathroom door. It was shut and occupied, and it appeared the blue haired teenager was concerned with the person on the other side.
As the door opened, a shirtless Natsu wearing long red pajama pants came out with a white t-shirt draped around his neck.
Wendy sighed but never turned away from the TV. "Natsu, you doing okay?"
Natsu let out a smile. "Me? Ha, I'm fine!" He appeared to quickly wave away the crushing defeat and let it all fade behind him.
Wendy looked his way as she didn't believe him for some reason. Natsu acknowledged his sister's stare. "Come on, you know that's not my first loss ever, plus we have like 60 games left!"
"Y-yea, I suppose you're right…" Wendy turned back around and watched the TV as she hugged a pillow close to her chest.
Sorry eyes then came from Natsu as he walked around and sat next to his younger sister on their fancy new couch. "Hey, what about you? Are you doing okay?"
Wendy looked worried. "M-me? I mean I'm doing fine…" She looked like she was hiding something.
Natsu put his arm around her. "Whoa whoa whoa. What's up?"
She turned her head down to the floor. "Well I was just kinda hoping to see you win tonight. I really like our new home, but it' just a little hard to get used to. A little pick-me-up would have been nice…"
Nastu tried to smile. "Awe come on! You can come see us Monday! If Jude's cool with it he may even let you ride the jet with us! …I mean I've sort of had a rough start with him, hehe, but…"
Wendy never looked up. "Natsu…I can't go out Monday."
Somehow Natsu deciphered her words as a new revelation clicked in the back of his head. Tonight was a Thursday, and his next game was Monday…her first school night.
"Wendy…you're nervous about starting high school, aren't you?"
Wendy never answered.
Natsu brought her closer. "Ah geeze Wendy, you gotta cheer up! I looked at that place, it's really fancy!"
"Yea?" Wendy sighed again. "Maybe it's too fancy…"
"What's that supposed to…hold on are you nervous about it being all rich and preppy?" Their aunt Porlyusca heard terrible things about the closer high schools in the more urban side of town, and because of that Natsu made her a promise to enroll Wendy in a highly desired prep school - thanks to his new affluent career.
Wendy let out a small laugh. "No, it'll be weird though. I mean, these kids might come from really different back grounds…"
Natsu remembered his first day of high school, but he had a large group of friends to follow him up. Now he was putting some of the guilt on himself. "Well hey, maybe I'll waltz into the school on Monday and excuse you from classes. Then I'll take you to our game in Cait Shelter!"
Wendy finally let out a smile for her silly brother. "Natsu no one skips the first day of school…but thanks anyway."
She then brought him in for a tight hug, but even in her warm embrace, Natsu wasn't done.
Now the next day was here and it was already late in the afternoon. The losing Fairies had just finished up an excruciating practice and were all resting their feet on the bench as they enjoyed a very quiet and awkward moment without any coaches.
As silence filled the large room, Natsu let out a yell. "OKAY! WHOSE GONNA BE THE FIRST GUY TO TALK!?"
Levy and Lucy were sitting in their usual spots to take notes (one for her dream job and another for her actual one) and both girls jumped in fear as his loud voice echoed throughout the large room.
Gajeel snapped his head up from his tiny nap. "Would you shut up Salamander? That voice of yours can bring down a glass church."
Natsu didn't like the attitude. "Whoa pal. Only my teammates in Acalypha called me that. You better watch yourself before I…"
"Before you what?" Laxus spoke up from a nap of his own as Gajeel and Natsu both stood in fear. "Are you gonna talk some shit to your new teammate, or are you gonna shut your trap."
"Grrrr…" Natsu somehow managed to bite his tongue as Gajeel sat up.
"Hey Laxus. What has the press been saying about the geezer?" Gajeel then waited for his answer.
Laxus wasn't in the mood to talk, but he would have looked sort of hypocritical after bashing Natsu's lack of team spirit. "Some crap like how it's his fault for starting the wrong players. Why?"
Gajeel paused and looked up to the two hard working girls in the box seats. "Just wondering. I guess they've been talkin' smack to our new GM too."
Laxus smirked. "Well, if it bothers you that much maybe we should try winning a game…"
Natsu would have let out another yell, but he appeared to follow Gajeel's gaze to the upper deck. There he saw a very familiar head of blonde hair sitting next to Levy.
"Whoa Laxus. Is that reporter girl here to do a team report?" The pink haired boy said with frantic words.
"What the hell are you…?" Laxus sat up and turned around to see Levy and Lucy working. Then he turned back to the front and laughed. "Her? Ha! Man she's not a reporter. Hell she isn't even out of high school."
Natsu looked confused. "Really!? Man she's tried interviewing me twice!"
Laxus closed his eyes once more. "Yea? Well I bet they were both terrible. That reporter is Lucy, Jude Heartfilia's daughter. You know, our boss?"
"REALLY!?" Natsu's jaw was now dropped as far as it could go while Laxus let out another chuckle.
"Man you really are an idiot. She's a senior at that Magnolia Heights Prep High School on the east side of town. She only comes here to do some stupid journalism crap from school"
Natsu quit listening after he heard Magnolia Heights Prep.
"No way…THAT'S WENDY'S NEW HIGH SCHOOL!" He yelled to himself in inner thought as he looked back up to the box seats.
"Hmmm…maybe she can help me?"
Now, everyone inside the stadium was quickly evacuating their practice to enjoy a warm Friday evening. As all the players poured out of the building, Lucy Heartfilia returned to the upper floors to see her dad in his large back space office.
"Okay I am not riding with dad to the stadium for the rest of the season. He always takes soo much time in his office I never get home on…" She shook her head and walked through the halls until she found a very bizarre pink haired point guard asleep by her father's door.
"Time…Agh…Natsu?"
"Wha…? OH THERE YOU ARE!" The FBA player woke up in a burst of energy as he sprung to his feet. "HA! I knew I'd find ya here!"
Lucy froze with fear as she stood in place. "Oh-kay then, why are you looking for me?"
Nats smiled. "First I wanna chew ya out for lying to me about being Ol' Jude's daughter!"
"WAIT I NEVER LIED TO YOU ABOUT…!?" She yelled with rage until Natsu interrupted.
"But anyway, I came ta' see you about something else. You know how we have a game Monday right?"
"Yea, I know." Lucy replied with a sorry voice. It was the first away game of the season, and also the first game during a school night, which means she wasn't going to be able to attend.
Natsu smiled again. "Well listen. I enrolled my little sister into that Magnolia Heights Prep School of yours, and she's feelin' kinda nervous about starting out."
Lucy stopped looking angry and let out a real smile. "Oh that's so exciting! She'll love it, no doubt! What's her name, and what grade is she in?"
"Uh, Wendy…" Natsu replied. "She's…gonna be a freshman."
"Oh…ouch." Lucy looked sorry. "I don't blame her. That is kind of terrifying."
She would have said more but then Natsu leaned in and grabbed her by the arms, which caught Lucy of guard and force another unwanted blush.
The pink haired boy then looked her in the eyes and carried out his explanation.
"Well listen, I'm gonna need a favor from ya…!"
Okay that was a pretty good transition chapter. Gajeel and Levy made each other smile, while Erza and Jellal still seem to be struggling with the term "communication."
No Gray, Bora, or Juvia here, but the Fairies in the tavern seem to be exclusively drinking their sorrows away.
Also, Wendy made me sad, hopefully Natsu will find a way to brighten her spirits!
Then, we bring it to Lucy and Natsu! And it appears he has a new idea...new chapter next time!
