Over the week I became even more nervous thinking about the paintball war. Should I even participate? There is no way I could at something like that, I shook my head then closed my book. It was Friday afternoon and I wanted to go check out the bookstore up in town. I walked out of my dorm room and walked down the hallway. It was weirdly quiet as I walked down the long hallways. It seemed like the lights were a lot dimmer, I felt like I was in a horror movie as I walked. I heard a few squeaks and then I started to power walk down the never ending hallway. I was feeling more and more nervous as I walked. I tried to scream when I felt someone grabbed my wrist and pull me behind a corner, then they covered my mouth with their hand.

I had no choice, but to bite down on the hand that was covering my mouth. I heard him curse under his breath. That would teach him! I went to give him another chomp but he quickly pulled his hand away, "Dammit shorty! It's just me." He let me go and I turned while watching Gajeel wipe his hand on his pants.

"What did you grab me? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" I snapped.

He placed a finger over my lips, "Shhh…" He looked around and pushed me down so I was sitting. "Why are you out of your room? Don't you realize the war has started?"

I blinked. The paintball war…? Well he was taking this very serious. "I thought it didn't start till Saturday." I said.

"No the official day is today. Once classes are out the games begin. I was actual surprised to see you come out of your room, I thought you were planning to stay in there all weekend."

This is going to be going on all weekend? Great…just great… "No, I wanted to go to the bookstore and check out the town."

He looked at me confused, "I thought you just checked out a pile of books, why would ya need to go to the bookstore?"

"Well I want to see what the bookstore has in stock…" I said but then he pushed me down onto the floor.

"Hey she isn't playing!" I heard Gajeel yell.

"If she is out of her room, she's playing." I heard Laxus yell back.

"Hey if he is protecting her, then she must be on his team!" I heard another voice yell.

"Dammit." I heard Gajeel curse again. "I guess you're sticking with me today shrimp."

"W-what? No I don't want to play this stupid game."

She shrugged, "Too bad, they think you're on my team. If you try and leave the game, they'll hunt you down till your hit. It's kinda like that show we watched the other night, where when the baby fawn wandered away from its herd and the lioness pounced on it."

I was impressed that he remembered that, but at the same time annoyed that he thought of me as this week little thing that needed to be protected. I might not be the strongest, but I'm not helpless.

"How long is this going to take?" I said sighing.

He grinned, "Well technically the school gives us the weekend to finish the game, but it never lasts more than a few hours. Only once did it go on till Saturday night, Laxus and I are usually the last one's standing." He lifted me up into his arms, and threw me over his shoulders. I could tell this was becoming a habit of his.

"What are you doing? I squeaked.

"We can't stay too long in one place, the more people we take out, the faster we can end this." I noticed how he said we, when it was really just him who was going to be doing the shooting. He came around the corner with me and started to run through the hall, I noticed he was heading towards the stairs. Out of nowhere came Laxus and another guy chasing us.

"Gajeel!" I yelled.

"I know shorty!" He turned around and he was running backwards while shooting his paintball guy at them. "Really Laxus? You teamed up with Cobra?" I heard him say shocked. Cobra? What an odd name.

"I needed some allies." I head Laxus say. All of a sudden Sting came up behind Gajeel as he was running backwards.

"Gajeel, behind you!" I yelled.

He turned and looked while swinging me around as he did that. I was pretty sure we were screwed since were cornered. I saw Sting go down when he was pelted with red and blue paint. Natsu walked up and laughed. "YOUR OUT!" He shouted.

"Serious Sting, you let Natsu get you? How pathetic." Laxus said, the disappointment was clear in his voice.

Sting lifted is head off the ground and glared at Natsu, "Was it necessary to cover me in paint?"

"Quit your whining!" Natsu said turning to Sting. While Natsu was busy bragging to Sting about his victory, Gajeel pointed his paint gun at Natsu and nailed him in the back of the head. Natsu lost his balance and fell forward, right on top of Sting. "Oww." Both Sting and Natsu said. "That was a dirty trick you asshole." Natsu said shouting.

Gajeel ignored him and didn't waste any time, he took off towards the stairs and started to run as he carried me down them. We managed to get outside a few seconds later. He ran behind a tree and he finally put me down on my feet. "Thanks for the heads up shorty, I might have been hit if you didn't say anything."

"All I wanted to do today was go shopping for some books…" I said with a pout.

"Sorry shrimp, that's not going to happen today."

"Clearly…now because Laxus and his friends saw me with you, they think I'm part of this crazy game! Can't I just sneak up back to my room and lock my door?" I asked sounding hopeful.

He shook his head, "Last year a kid tried to do that after some of the others spotted him, they broke into his room and painted him every color of the damn rainbow not to mention his whole room."

"Oh my god…that's just horrible!"

"We don't mess around."

I narrowed my eyes and grumbled, "Don't tell me your one of those guys who broke into his room?"

He shrugged, "He gave me no choice."

I rolled my eyes, "I bet…" I said sarcastically.

I heard some yelling and screaming going on outside. A lot of the kids were outside either on the ground covered in paint or they were running and shooting paint at others. We waited here for a few minutes, then Laxus and Cobra came out and Gajeel placed a finger against his lips motioning for me to be quiet.

"Well all the kids who were playing inside are out, looks like almost everyone is out except Gajeel and Levy." The guy who was known as Cobra said.

Gajeel pointed his gun at them and pulled the trigger, I watched as orange paint hit Cobra in the chest. He stumbled backwards and looked around shocked, trying to figure out who shot him. Gajeel grinned and stepped out from behind the tree. "Well Laxus, it's just down to us now."

Laxus looked at him with a calculating expression, "I guess so. I would say I'm at a disadvantage but your partner seems to be missing a paintball gun."

"Nah, this is just between you and me. You may have won last year but this year I'm taking the month off of classes."

"We'll see." Laxus said smirking. He aimed his gun first at Gajeel but then I saw him point it right at me. I gasp as he pulled the trigger, right before the paint hit me Gajeel pushed me to the ground.

"Oof." I groaned as his weight was pinning me to the ground. I saw purple paint all over both of our shirts. He slowly got off me then looked at Laxus.

"Well, well, guess that means I win once again." Laxus dropped his gun while smirking and walking over to us.

Gajeel glared at him then looked at me and shook his head, "That was pretty cold aiming for her." He said.

"Hey you do what you have to."

Gajeel got up and helped me up once again, "That's true." He grumbled, "Guess you won."

"Think again!" We heard a voice yell up from a tree, we all looked up and saw Erza aiming her paintball gun at Laxus. Laxus dove trying to get his gun once he saw Erza but he didn't have enough time, he pelted him with red paint. When she was done with him he looked like a murder victim.

"Damn!" He yelled.

Erza jumped down from the tree and walked over towards him. "You're good Laxus, but not that good."

"I thought you weren't competing in this year's game!" Laxus said angrily.

"I didn't want to at first, but then I changed my mind. Now i'm going to go enjoy some celebratory strawberry cake." She smirked and walked away leaving us all stunned

Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews once again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I will hopefully be uploading another one tonight. So look out for it.