Hey guys, I am so very sorry a million time over, for updating this late, please forgive me! I had a lot going on with school and stuff. And thanks so much all my new reviewers, followers and favouriters- Guest, strawhat1227, katara196, and phoenixflamemarauder. Also thanks to lucyglitter11, SimplyIsabelleS and kjayanimefan for major support.
Chapter Nine- A Room for a Promise
I felt someone poking my cheek. I frowned and buried my face into my pillow. Now my head was being poked. I sat up in the bed and saw an amused Gray leaning over me.
"Knock it off!" I complained.
"You made funny faces when I did it." He shrugged.
I rubbed my eyes like a kid and jumped out of the bed. I crossed the corridor to my own room, took out my clothes from the wardrobe and made my way back and into the second bathroom.
Gray was examining some pictures on the bedside table when I walked in again. I dumped the clothes on the bed and waited. He turned around as I coughed.
"Yeah?"
"I have to change."
"Sure, who's stopping you?" Since when did Gray become my personal Natsu? I raised my eyebrows meaningfully, but that didn't help.
"That was code for GET OUT OF THE ROOM!" I said finally.
"Oh right." I went and pushed him out before the slamming the door shut.
After I was over with my bath and changing, I went down the stairs to find something to eat. I usually depended on my mother to have something ready, so I ended up swallowing a burnt piece of toast. Gray came down, his hair wet and wearing the same dirty clothes from yesterday, just as I finished.
"You can't even make toast without burning it?" Gray chuckled.
I rolled my eyes. "Make your own." I muttered. I quickly glanced at the clock and saw that we still had fifteen minutes; Gray had woken me up early. I think this was the first school morning in ages that I had been able to take everything slow.
By the time I had taken a trip to my room to get my bag and back, Gray was already seated at the table, eating two perfectly un-burnt toasts with butter on them.
"Did you know that the Sports Day is coming up?" he said conversationally.
I groaned and replied, "Nope. When is it?"
"Somewhere next week. What's wrong with you and sports?"
I shook my head at the question. "You haven't seen me."
I gave up on trying to stuff all forty notices into my bag and resorted to carrying them. "Come on now," I said. Gray nodded and we came out of the house. In yesterday's worries I had lost my spare key of the house, but I guessed it didn't really matter.
As we walked to school, I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, but no matter how much I racked my brains I couldn't remember as usual. We reached, and I quickly put the notices in the office before going to my locker. The minute I did though, Juvia and Erza pounced on me. I hadn't even expected Erza to come back to school this fast, so I was surprised. Gray just ruffled my hair and walked off.
"Lucy! Please tell me you remembered!" My red-haired friend grabbed my jacket and glared at me desperately and fiercely.
I slowly detached myself from her and said, "Uh, remember what exactly? If you're talking about the Sports—"
"No, not that!" Juvia cried. "It's Levy's birthday tomorrow!"
My mouth popped open as I slapped my forehead. "We are so dead." I muttered. "And where is she?" I added.
"Where's who?" I whirled around with Juvia and Erza and saw the soon-to-be birthday girl staring at me with a confused expression.
"Uh, Mira!" Juvia quickly replied.
I thanked her with my eyes and turned back to Levy, who didn't look very convinced. "But you guys seem really worried." Then her expression suddenly turned mischievous. "What, did Lucy get another love-letter?"
Of all the possibilities, she decided on that. Though for once I was glad, that didn't mean I would make up a letter; I had no time. "No Levy, of course not! Juvia must have been worried about her Chemistry exam." I explained, trying to sound upbeat.
Levy was apparently tired of firing at us, because she walked over to her locker. As soon as she did, Juvia, Erza and I formed a huddle.
"Okay, we all go out shopping after school and find gifts for her, alright?" I suggested. "I'll manage the cake." Erza added. Of course she would; I had learned her love for cakes very soon, and she would probably eat ten cakes herself before ordering Levy's.
"Hey guys!" Mira finally arrived, and her cheerful smile faltered at our expressions as she came closer.
"What's wrong?" I quickly explained the situation to her, and she had the opposite reaction of what we expected.
"Oh that? Yeah, I already got a book for her last week; the one she was going crazy for since forever."
Mirajane stopped at our demonic glares as I accused her without a proper logic; "Mira! Why didn't you remind us?" She shrugged, smiling again. "I thought you wouldn't need reminding. Chill, we still have time."
"But we need to do something other than a cupcake, a chair and a table," Erza mused. I gave her a quizzical look and she expanded; "Last year we wanted to do something big, but everything fell apart, and we ended with practically nothing. So we don't want a repeat."
We exchanged a few more whispered discussions before I nodded, and noticed Levy coming back. We had gotten so much time to talk as she had been busy talking with a boy named Gajeel. He had long black hair and metal piercings covering almost every part of his body. When Levy had gushed over him before, I hadn't paid attention to the description since I had been too busy laughing at his name.
"Come on Lucy! English!" Levy called happily, a faint blush on her cheeks.
"Okay, see you guys later." I whispered to the rest of my friends, and went and put an arm around Levy's small shoulders. "Yeah let's go, Little Blue!" I said.
"Please Gray!"
"No way, I'm not helping out in this one!"
I pouted; Gray was making me feel guilty by indirectly reminding me of everything that he had done for me, but I tried again, this time fluffing up my hair and applying that 'cute girl charm'.
"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
He looked at me for ten seconds before grinning, "Nope." I huffed and crossed my arms in response.
We were sitting in English class and Gildarts was merrily drumming on his desk after setting us some work, which no one except a bunch of dorks were doing in a corner. Levy was staring intently out of the window and occasionally doodling on her notebook, so I took that as an opening to persuade Gray in helping us out with setting up the party for Levy. After all, "Just gifts won't do," Erza had quoted. "When we do something big, we do it in style."
So I batted my eyelashes and tried to make Gray melt, but he didn't want to miss his 'awesome, one-time, golden opportunity, live football match' with Rogue and a blonde boy called Sting in the evening. So my wonderful attempts didn't turn out too wonderful at all.
As the bell rang for Math, I flashed a triumphant glare at my boyfriend. "Don't think I'm letting this one go! We still have two classes left!"
"Actually," Gray smiled. "I'm bunking Math."
If this had been a cartoon show, smoke would have been coming out of my nostrils and ears. "Why?" I demanded.
"Makarov asked me to help him out with a few things, and plus the Math teacher has been giving me the stink eye ever since I dropped my soda on him by accident on the street."
"Oh really? And out of all the people in the school, why would the headmaster call for you?" I was exasperated on one side and impressed at Gray's excuses on the other.
But he just laughed and skipped away saying, "Maybe because I'm the best!"
I shook my head and came out of the classroom when Levy caught up and asked, "Why are you looking so hyper since morning?" "Oh, it's nothing Levy." I dismissed the subject, entered my class and slammed my book down.
Levy couldn't find a seat beside me, so she went behind. And the reason she had to do that was because Natsu was sitting to my right. He was not sleeping in this class—which was a huge development I must say—and had a serious expression on his usually goofy face.
"Lucy, you can't keep avoiding me!" he complained.
I scowled at him. "I'm really not in the mood Nat—"
"No more of your excuses! Just…just answer can't you?" an enraged Natsu cut in.
I was about to 'answer' with a total and point blank rejection, when Cana suddenly rushed up to him. She was lucky the teacher wasn't there yet.
"Listen Dragneel, the party is cancelled; Violet caught a fever, so we won't be needing the ball room."
My ears perked up at the words 'party' and 'ball room' as I eavesdropped. Well not exactly, since I was sitting right in front of them, but I listened in anyway.
"What about the decorations? Not fair! Now I have to take them down again! Why did Violet have to be sick now?" Natsu whined with a million problems all at once.
Cana shrugged apologetically; "Sorry. Maybe you can use it for something else except the graduation celebration." I remembered Violet and her friends were graduating this year; she was a nice person, very soft. That was what Cana must have been talking about. She ran off just as our teacher came in.
"Shoot, Elfman's here." Natsu muttered blackly.
Elfman looked nothing like an elf, unless you count a huge, white-haired man as one. But I had learned that at Crosswell, no teacher had a proper name. Elfman rapped on the desk for attention and announced a surprise test. Everyone groaned, but I was still thinking of parties. As the papers were passed around, for the first time I felt glad that this school was slower compared my old one, which meant I already knew the topic. I quickly wrote down the answers and waited for an opening.
After five minutes the teacher went out of the classroom to talk to someone and I immediately bent my head down to my paper, and whispered to Natsu, "Hey listen! I was wondering if me and my friends could use that ball room Cana was talking about. Could we, please? It's Levy's birthday tomorrow, and since I already found a place for a party this fast, I'd be really glad if we could borrow it for one evening."
Natsu, who had been cursing under his breath and sweating profusely at the test paper, now looked overjoyed when I spoke to him normally, instead of being my usual rude self that I was around him.
"Y-Yeah sure!" he said hurriedly, before realizing his leverage in the situation. I mentally groaned; I had been thinking he would remain as dense as ever.
"But what do I get in return?" Before I could reply, he answered his own question. " I know, you have to kiss me in return!"
Whatever I had been expecting, it was not what Natsu had dared to say. I gaped at him. "No!" I said defiantly. Just looking at his lips gave me the creeps.
"Then forget the party." Oh, why did Natsu suddenly morph into a sensible person? Or at least sensible enough to argue this well?
But Levy's birthday kept nagging at my mind, so I gave in. What else could I do? There was no way the rest of us would be able to get an entire party ready with food and all by the next day.
Scrunching my eyes shut I muttered, "Fine Dragneel! You can…kiss me! But after the party! And I'm not paying for anything save the food."
"Deal!" Natsu smirked. And then: "Promise me!"
I sighed heavily, promised grudgingly, and submitted my paper to Elfman as he came back into the room at the conveniently right time.
Gray really had really good intuitions when it came to ditching class or not; if he had been here, he would have had to give the test—and also know about me and Natsu's bargain. How in the world would I tell him? But after struggling with my thoughts a lot, I decided not to tell him anything at all. So, it was very guiltily that I trudged off to Physics where Gray had decided to be present.
"Not ditching this one?" I asked.
"Nope, I missed you!" Gray teased.
I smiled, but inside my guilt jar was threatening to explode. I explained that I had managed to get a place for the party—at which Gray looked relieved—but left out the deal.
After school I told Gray that Erza, Juvia and I would go shopping, so he decided to go back and play his latest video games instead of hanging around girls buying stuff—which always took a lot of time.
As for Levy, I borrowed three movies from Rogue, and gave them to her saying, "These are awesome, you should totally watch them! And I actually have to go to a shop; To exchange a few things, so I'll see you later!" Before Levy could thank me or start to feel suspicious about my abruptness, I rushed off.
Juvia, Erza and I walked along the pavements looking at shops here and there. These were even farther away from school, the ones I had seen on my first day. It was bustling with people, like everyone wanted the same thing as us, and there were also various chocolate shops which got me distracted before Juvia pulled me off with a "Juvia doesn't think this is the time for sweets!"
"Hey Lucy, books aren't the only things she likes! We can get her a few CDs." Erza suggested. I noticed a shop and agreed. But there was nothing good there, so we tried a clothes' shop, but eventually after an hour or so, we ended up in a small, neglected little place near an alley which had dirty and unmaintained buildings.
The shop itself was sweet though, and as we went in, I noticed a number of things, starting from souvenirs to good-luck charms and small purses. I liked a locket which had a tiny crystal heart that threw rainbows a lot bigger than itself onto the walls, Erza came back with a bag, and Juvia appeared with several hair accessories. Levy always looked cute with them, so I decided they were a good choice.
"Great! Who knew this tiny place would be this convenient?" I exclaimed. My enthusiasm ebbed slightly at the price we had to pay, but I guessed it was worth it.
As we walked back, we decided to have a bite at a small place, so we went and sat down at one of the tables. I realized that I really needed to tell them about the deal, so I coughed and drummed my fingernails against the wood while we waited for sandwiches.
"What's up Luce?" Erza asked.
"Well, for starters I got a place for free where we can hold Levy's party," I started, as my friends' eyes lit up at the news. Slowly, as I proceeded in how I managed it, their mouths dropped open and Juvia raised her eyebrows so high I thought they would disappear into her hair.
"You what?" Erza yelled. "Ouch, don't shout!" I protested covering my ears.
After both of them calmed down, Erza said, "Well, I think you have to go with it, it's just once, so it can't hurt."
I nodded, relieved to get it off my chest. We ate and made our way back home, discussing the people to call and the food to order. Juvia and I went ahead as Erza entered her favorite cake shop for Levy's cake, and we knew she would spend quite some time there. Juvia said goodbye as I reached my house, and I went straight up to my room after giving a quick call to my mother.
I checked my cell phone to see a message from Levy which said that one of the movies was awesome, and also that her parents had gifted her a small white kitten. I remembered Levy loved kittens and smiled, texting her back. I also texted another bunch of people who I knew would come to Levy's party.
Then I put my phone down, and leaned back in my chair, wondering how borrowing a room could cost this much.
Okay, I hope you all like this :) Thanks again for reviewing, and I will try to update as fast as I can, really I will. Please review guys! :)
