Fairy High

Chapter 10

Mermaids and Fairies

"I really don't want to go out there!" Natsu whispered. The boys were hunkering down before the packed stadium. Luckily, their cheerleader uniforms had ended up being modified versions of their normal jerseys, nothing pink or unmanly – but they still had pompoms and were about to go in front of a laughing crowd.

"Stop being such a pansy," Gajeel snarled. "We should just get it over and done with!"

"What was that, Scum!?" Laxus snapped. "Why are you even here, anyway!?"

"Tch. A small voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me to be a team player."

"That's not in your head, that's Levy," Gray noted, a drop of sweat forming on his brow. As they were arguing, the Cerberus High boys were coming on from the other side, clearly more fired up. They began to cheer, which was nothing more complicated than shouting 'Wild Four' over and over again.

"That's it!?" Natsu cried. "Our routine is better than that!"

"Then why don't you get out there and prove it?" The boys all shiver as Mira walks up behind them. The details of their training sessions are best left to their future psychotherapists. They'll be rich men and women for sure. Mira claps her hands. "Come on, boys! Show them what you can do! It's just the warm-up – you've still got until halftime for your big show!"

Right, that was true. Just a bit of crowd rousing for now. At last, they ran out onto the pitch, trying to ignore the laughter from the crowd. It wasn't helping that Jason was narrating once again.

"Look at those boys go! Cooooool! They're not embarrassed one bit by their girly activities! Look at them shake those pompoms! Coooool!"

"I-I've fallen so low!" Gajeel wept.

"Still, here come the girls! Coooooooooooooooooool!"

The boys began to gawk. Out came the fairy girls. Erza, Lucy, Levy, Lisanna, Juvia, Evergreen, all of them. They wore special uniforms made just for them, just for today. They were pink and striped with a vertical silver line, just like their normal cheerleading uniforms, but they were form fitting football kits with minor armour padding, noticeably in their shoulders. They carried red helmets in their hands.

"S-sexy!" Natsu shouted too loudly, watching Lucy. Gajeel quietly watched Levy, not quite understanding the feelings he was having. Gray was trying to force himself to believe that Juvia was not beautiful. Elfman was thinking of 'womanly' as a compliment for the first time.

Across the pitch came the other eleven players in much more bulky and severe black football gear. Kagura did not seem impressed as she met Erza in the centre circle.

"You think you can win with such a girly set up?"

"I think it's you that has missed the point," Erza replied confidently. "And we'll finally settle our rivalry."

"Yes, we will," Kagura swore. Matao the referee walked down the centre line towards them, clearly desperate to ogle but fully aware of the position that would aid a beating that would come his way. He held up a coin, declaring that the away team would call. "Heads."

The coin flipped into the air, spinning over and over.

"Tails." Erza smiled. Tails were the Fairies' thing after all. "We'll take the first drive. Come on girls, let's give them that play!"

Kagura formed up in the middle of her line of scrimmage, expecting to be facing Erza head on, but to her surprise, the red-head deferred to Cana, dropping back in line. Kagura was sure that Erza was their star player, so she must be attempting to be the receiver, and would run herself. There was no time to reform – she'd have to drop back after the snap.

To Kagura's complete lack of surprise, she watched the ball fall into Erza's hands and she pressed forward, expecting to knock down the girl before her. But the fairy held strong.

"Sorry love," Cana winked. Kagura was surprised that Fairy High had someone besides Erza able to rival her strength. There wasn't much she could do but trust her teammates as Erza broke away downfield, followed by a smaller girl she didn't recognize.

The first girl to meet Erza took a powerful shove and went sprawling. But then Milliana, Riley and Ariana were all converging on her at the same time. If Erza could beat them, she'd be uncontested for the rest of the pitch. But even she could not knock all three down.

Erza span, ditching the ball to Levy who had followed in her wake and knelt, cupping her hands. Levy stepped into it and with a powerful lurch, Erza threw Levy over the heads of the three incoming Mermaids. Not pausing for a second, Levy ran towards the endzone. Utterly surprised and wrong footed, the Mermaids didn't even try and stop her.

"Gihi, that's a touchdown to Shrimp!" Gajeel shouted over the cheering crowd, accidentally waving his pompoms around. He suddenly blushed as all of the boys looked at him askance. "Heh… hey, shouldn't we be cheering!?"

On the other side of the pitch, Bacchus grinned. "Cana stood up to that Kagura. That's pretty wild."

"That's illegal!" Kagura shouted at the referee. "They threw a player!"

"I don't know-kabo. There's nothing in the rulebook about it and their coach contacted me beforehand to check. The play is legal and stands."

Kagura gritted her teeth. This was just getting started. It was time for their drive. But as they play unfurled, something became very clear; the Fairies hadn't trained on power – they'd trained in agility. Their less bulky uniforms made them much nimbler. The Mermaids were having difficulties trying to get around them. Their drive ended after only getting about halfway downfield. Play returned to the Fairies.

The mermaids had a brief huddle. Kagura spoke. "We're in trouble, but I've seen the flaw in their plan. We'll change play styles. One important rule. When you tackle, try to drop down into it more. "

The Fairies' second play was different. Erza stood up to the line of scrimmage to personally tie down Kagura. With their strongest player nullified, the Fairy girls split in all directions. It was a storming, blitzing play. Five girls broke past the line, desperately dodging and weaving as they passed the ball between them. At the last gasp, Juvia dumped the ball to Lucy just before she was tackled and the blonde made the touchdown.

Again, the Mermaid's second play was shut down. The crowd was cheering. The Fairies were dominating the match! Not all of the spectators were so happy, though.

Gajeel gulped. "This… this is bad." The other boys looked at him as if he were crazy and ignored him. Damn Phantom still wanted them to lose!

"That Kagura… she's a nasty one," Bacchus noted. "Sorry Cana, the Fairies have lost."

The third play went similarly well. Passing the ball back to Bisca, the girl with sniper-like aim hurled the ball downfield to Lisanna. Though she was tackled, the ball had progressed and the Fairies finally scored their third point, courtesy of Cana. Then the Mermaids were stopped again. It was going brilliantly for the Fairies.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," Gajeel snarled. "When did that Kagura bitch realise this?"

"What are you blabbering on about!?" Natsu snapped. "We're not just winning; we're stomping all over them!"

"In the next play, watch how the Mermaids tackle." Natsu did as he was told. This was another throwing play, and Erza hurled Levy over the line of scrimmage. Still, the Mermaids were more prepared this time, and Ariana was on Levy in an instant, much faster than Levy's short strides. To Gajeel's joy, Levy was able to duck and weave for a few moments, but Ariana was all over her and brought her down with a viscous tackle to her midsection. Still, she'd advanced the ball far and Juvia made the touchdown. Four points to Fairy High.

"Hey, that was pretty low down…" Natsu agreed.

"Barely legal. Not only that, but whenever they lock shoulders, the Mermaids are going low, striking our girl's chests – stop laughing, moron, I'm not talking about boobs! – and they're working. Kagura saw the weakness."

"What weakness?"

"In boxing, do you know what you do if you want to shut down your opponent's legs?" Natsu shook his head and Gajeel placed a fist against his side. "Body blows. They take time to work, but if you accumulate enough damage, you begin to feel weak in your legs. You slow down."

"So?"

"Damn it, moron! Our girls are winning because they've dismissed heavy armour and focussed on dodging! The Mermaids are having trouble because we're so manoeuvrable, but what happens if we lose that? Not only that, they've clearly trained in stamina, while we've skipped it. Without armour, our girls are more vulnerable to damage."

"So… they're aiming for the end game?"

"Yes. Kagura's a scary one! She's giving up the early game and betting it all on the last half!"

===][===

The girl's locker room was in a right state during the half time break. Dripping with sweat, the girls were sprawled all over the place.

"I-I can't go on!" Lucy croaked.

"I'm so tired!" Lisanna wept.

"It hurts," Levy mumbled.

Erza was the only one standing, and even she was leaning against the lockers, red-faced and gasping. It was exhausting, particularly to throw another girl by herself. To do it repeatedly for so long… This was the professional spotlight. Not only the sport, but the lights, the crowd, the attention – they all sapped stamina and wore you down, mentally and physically.

They needed a miracle.

===][===

"F-F. A-A. I-I. R-R. Y-Y. Fairy… High!" The boys roared with all of their might.

"Wild… FOUR! Wild… FOUR!" The hound dogs shouted in return.

It was probably the shabbiest display of cheerleading that had ever been on a football pitch. The crowd booed and jeered, throwing things at them as they laughed. It was embarrassing, humiliating. At least it was almost over, Bacchus thought. Halftime was ending and they could all go away.

"F-F. A-A. I-I. R-R. Y-Y. Fairy… High!"

"Oi, they're still cheering?" Rocker asked. The time limit's up!

"Hey hey, they're stalling!" Bacchus murmured, awe tinting his voice. "They know that their girls need a break, so they're giving them as long as possible!" Both of the girl teams had gathered at the edges of the pitch, and the Fairy girls looked dreadful. Bacchus saw Kagura march up to the ref, no doubt demanding that they get on with things.

Matao walked onto the field. "Hey guys, it's time to get off now."

"F-F. A-A. I-I. R-R. Y-Y. Fairy… High!"

"Hey, I've been nice! Don't ignore me!"

"F-F. A-A. I-I. R-R. Y-Y. Fairy… High!"

"Hey!"

"Wild!" Bacchus shouted suddenly before he realised what he was doing. Like Pavlov's dogs, there was nothing that could stop his team from responding. "Four!"

"Hey!" Mato shouted as the Cerberus boys began yelling and making a din as well.

"Oi, oi," Gajeel muttered, catching Bacchus' eye. "For Cana, right?" The Hounds and Fairies were 'cheering' – more shouting loudly, really – at one another, the poor referee stuck in the middle of it all. His requests for stopping were drowned out by the tremendous noise – not helped by the crowd beginning to boo. It took a whole ten minutes for the clamour to die down – a lot extra time for the girls to rest.

"Whose side are you on?" Kagura snapped as Bacchus sauntered past.

"Eh? We were just trying to outdo the Fairy boys. No big deal."

"You're hurting my plan, fool!"

"Fool!? I think you'll find that I'm wild!"

As Bacchus left, Kagura turned to her girls, irate. "Listen up! We have no time anymore. Hit them hard enough that they stay down."

===][===

The score was beginning to slip. Any rejuvenation from the rest the boys had brought them was short lived. They scored once more, but then the Mermaids instantly landed their first point of the match. Then the Fairies were increasingly shut down as the Mermaids made an increasing number of successful plays.

"This is tense," Natsu said. "Can they hold on to their lead until the final whistle?"

"They can because they're men!" Elfman declared.

"They're girls, you moron!" Gray shouted. Suddenly Juvia had the ball. "Go Juvia!"

"Gray-sama!?" Juvia found insane strength at the praise and rocketed downfield to score. "Did you see, Gray-sama!? Juvia did it for you!"

Still, the damage was being done. With five minutes left on the clock, the girls were about to collapse. Kagura decided to take things into her hands personally. The ball passed into her hands, and she began her blitz down the field. She shouldered aside a blonde fairy without paying attention as Riley held back the brunette she was sure had ensnared Bacchus.

As she broke from the line of scrimmage, she blazed past a platinum blonde before she could react. The last line of defence the fairies had was that tiny blunette hanging at the back. She bravely threw herself at Kagura, but the powerful Mermaid easily smashed her aside. She was free! Past all of the defenders, No one could catch her now!

Red lightning. At least that's what it seemed like to Kagura as Erza stormed in from the flank. How could she possible have the strength remaining to find this burst of speed? She hurried as fast as she could. The touchzone was so close now! Ten metres. Five metres. The world span as Erza slammed into her diagonally, forcing her down and away from her score.

"No!" Kagura raged. "We needed that point!"

"Too bad," Erza huffed. "As long as my nakama are fighting, I won't give up!"

As the final whistle blew, the score was in the Fairies favour. They'd done it! Through tactics and perseverance, they'd won! The crowd went wild. The boys rushed the pitch, eager to congratulate their girls. Lucy squeaked as Natsu hurled himself into a hug. Gray found Juvia performing the same thing to him.

Gajeel stooped to scoop Levy off of the pitch. "Easy… it hurts."

"That's the feeling of victory, Shrimp. You did well." They both blushed as they realised that people were staring. Still, Gajeel didn't let go. He held on tighter.

"Thank you," Cana said quietly. In the distance, Bacchus nodded once.

"This isn't right!" Kagura shouted, marching up to Erza. "We were supposed to win! I was to have my revenge!"

"But I got my revenge instead! You were the one who betrayed me!" Shouting, the girls began to wrestle. Finally, they were pried apart, though it took about five boys each.

"What exactly is this great rivalry you two have!?" Lucy shouted at them. "How bad could it be!?"

"We were five," Erza started, "and she kissed my boyfriend!"

"He was my boyfriend!" Kagura shouted. "And you kissed him!"

"Because he was my boyfriend!"

"He was mine!"

"That's all!?" Lucy shrieked. "We just got beaten black and blue because you were stupid toddlers!? Where the hell is this boy now!?"

"Well, he moved away with his parents when he was six…" Erza admitted.

"Are you kidding me!?" Evergreen shrieked.

"You don't understand; Jerral was really cute!"

"Don't talk about my boyfriend like that!" Kagura snapped.

"Five years old… haven't seen him in a decade… still angry," Levy wept into Gajeel's shoulder. "I wanna go home!"

"I'll take you, Shrimp."

The whole crowd began to walk away, leaving Kagura and Erza to their argument without end.