Good morning my faithful followers. How are you this fine evening. It's been so long! Can you believe it?! I haven't touched my other stories since February! February! I've neglected my other stories! Not to worry. I have decided to get back to writing them. After all, no one is going to do it for me, right? Right. Now, to answer a question that have been burning in your brain. Lucy's money. I was pretty sure that was a bit obvious but eh. Her money came from Natsu. When she ran she had nothing and Natsu really doesn't by anything that he doesn't need at that time so it would make sense that he has a lot left over for spending.

So I really have no excuse for not updating except that I was busy writing "Dragon Scales". It really stole all my attention. Then there was my summer online class that took forever and me breaking my wrist but hey, that's my life. I really have nothing going on right now. So after feeling extremely mad at myself I decided to grace you all with the next chapter of "The Space Between". Thank you for waiting and I so sorry it took so long. Now, onto the story!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

~~Chapter 10: Natsu's POV~~

Lucy trembled as she looked at my friends. I didn't want her to meet them this way but it had to be done. After all, if she was to be part of the gang, she had to know the players. A lot of these guys were pretty important players. I pulled her into my chest in hopes of stopping her trembling. I felt bad that I forced her to meet them. Especially the monster. She was a scary person! What do you expect?! Although I'm glad I at least delayed the meeting point.

"Why is she here?"

"I brought her."

"You. Brought her. Here. With you?" The Popsicle said.

"Yes. And don't act so surprised."

"I'm not acting!"

"Why is she with you?" Erza demanded. Her voice carried authority that I'm sure scared Lucy.

"She's gonna send me back," Luce whispers too low for Gajeel to hear. She began to tremble harder. I bent to her ear.

"No one is sending you back. I promise. Anyone who tries will have to go through me. Remember that. Ok?"

"O–ok."

"Good."

"What's with the secret keepin'!" Gajeel shouted. Lucy flinched.

"Stop shoutin' metal freak! You're scaring her!"

"Why do you care?" Stripper asked.

"Cuz she's my best friend! And I promised to protect her! That's why!" I blurted. My friends froze at the words that tumbled from my lips. I also felt Lucy's trembles stop. I hoped it was due to my words but I wasn't sure. That made me feel happy if they did though, those words that I said made her feel safe. Meanwhile, my friends just stared in shock. Oh come on. It wasn't that shocking.

"Your...best...friend...?" Erza asked.

"Yeah."

"Since when?"

"Um...'bout a week and a half ago?"

"A week and a half ago?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"How the hell did you find a new best friend a week and a half ago?" Freezer Breath asked. I shrugged. I loosened my grip on Lucy and she immediately turned and buried her face into the side of my chest. Of course I felt bad and started walking in the direction of our first class.

"Where are ya goin', Salamander?"

"Even I know you're not going to class yet!" Popsicle yelled.

"None of your damn business, you nosy Stripper!"

"I will make it my business!"

"Like hell you will! You don't care anyways! See you in class!" I yelled back as we walked away. I knew my friends were shocked, but I didn't care. Once we were out of sight I changed our direction.

"Where are we going?" Lucy asked pulling away slightly.

"Somewhere where you don't have to meet any new people new until school starts. That and I don't want to hang out in a classroom until school starts."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you when we get there."

"Fine," she sighed. She pulled all the way away and laced her hand with mine. I smiled before taking off in a sprint towards our destination. She laughed and I laughed with her as we ran and dodged people. Finally I led her up some stairs and burst through the door. I raised both my hands to the sky with her hand still tied with mine.

"Tada!" I yelled in victory.

"The roof?" She asked looking around and pulling her hand softly from my grasp.

"Yeah. I haven't been known to hang out in a classroom before class starts. If anything I'm one of the people to come to class late. Now you will be too." I say as I casually walk to the railing and lean against it. My eyes uncaringly watched the students that walked below us.

"What!? Why?!" Lucy stomped her way over to me.

"Do you want to face classmates without me?" I asked turning to look at her.

"No," she mumbles looking at her feet.

"Thought so."

"So what was with those girls earlier?"

"The ones from the hallway?"

"Yeah. W–why were they calling me those h–horrible n–names?"

"They were jealous of you."

"W–why? I didn't do anything to them."

"Well,...it's a bit of a known thing that I don't hang out with anyone except my gang. So when you showed up out of the blue, it made them jealous."

"Oh."

"Yeah. You gotta be careful from now on. We don't know what those girls could do. They're not the friendliest girls."

"Why aren't they f–friendly?"

"I don't really know. They've never been. They don't like when any girl gets close to me. It got annoying really fast."

"I see." Lucy nodded. We continued talking about random topics up until the bell rang. When it did, I led the way to our first hour. The hallways were mostly empty as we walked them but Lucy still kept close to my side. Soon we reached the classroom and rather than waiting I burst through the door, leaving Lucy in the hallway.

"Natsu Dragneel!" The teacher burst. "You are five minutes late to class! Today is only the first day and already you're causing trouble. Explain yourself."

"You know it. I was just show'n the new girl around. She just barely registered a few days, maybe weeks, ago. So why don't you lay off and introduce her will ya?" I shot back. The teacher looked like she was about to blow a fuse before going over her roll.

"And who is this new student?"

"Lucy. Lucy Heart. Check the list. As the for the rest of you..." I turned to the class. "If anyone you touch her or give her a hard time then you'll have to deal with me. Got it?" I growled. The class nodded in fear. I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the back corner closest to the window and sat down with Luce next to me. Following my instructions, the teacher checked her list and checked us both off. Class went on, as boring as it had always been, the teacher blabbing on and on about something sciency, and frying my poor brain cells with useless crap I was never going to use. Soon though, the frying of my brain cells was disturbed when Lucy whispered for my attention.

"Natsu? Natsu," She whispered with a poke to my side.

"What?"

"What am I supposed to be doing?"

"Listen to the teacher, take notes, answer questions, study for the tests to pass the classes and...that's about it."

"Why don't you?"

"I haven't ever done it. School isn't my thing but I'm forced to come every year. Most people do the normal school stuff, just not me."

"What happens?" I shrug.

"I get in trouble, get yelled at, get sent to the principal's office, which is just gramps by the way, and maybe some other stuff."

"If you don't do the work, how do you pass?"

"Pass the tests."

"How does that work of you don't study?"

"Erza."

"I see."

"Mr. Dragneel," the teacher said snobbily. "If you're going to talk, why not address the class?" I growled,

"It's because it's none of their damn business."

"And why isn't it. We're all classmates here."

"Are we now?" I sneer. "If we're all so close what does it matter what I talking about with Luce?" The teacher sighed.

"Just tell us what you were talking about. I don't want to send you to the principal's office on the first day."

"For what? Giving help to someone who asked for it? All she asked was what she was supposed to do in this class. Now you know. So go back to your stupid lesson and quit interrupting me." I said slowly standing from my seat.

"And why wouldn't she know what to do in a classroom. Surely she's been to school before, correct?" The teacher sneered back, already clearly losing her temper. Lucy whimpered. Did she think I was going to tell or was she afraid that someone might find out the truth? Either way, I won't let anyone dig up her past unless she says that they can. Plus, it was fun to annoy the teachers.

"I don't have to tell you. That's none of you business to look into her past. Whether she did or not is none of your concern!"

"You know what? Fine! Just sit down, pay attention and don't speak for the rest of class."

"Fine!" I drop down to my seat and look out the window. Was this how it was going to be in every class? Hopefully not. What would I do if it really was going to be that way? Deciding that I had enough with thinking I decided to refocus my attention. Rather than actually learning anything or paying attention I simply doodled in my notebook. Of course, I stole Luce's pens to draw but that's besides the point. My drawings started with alligators before changing to salamanders then too lizards before finally evolving into dragons. They took up the sides of the paper and even the front and back cover. Was this how it was going to be the whole year? Would he just sit here like a good little boy that he wasn't? Maybe he could wait a bit before officially getting into trouble. After all the school as a whole so why give her the wrong impression right off the bat? That wouldn't be fair to her. But how long should he wait? A day? A week? 2 weeks? Naw, two weeks was too long. Maybe–

Just then I the ringing of the school bell cut off my thoughts. Luce takes back her pens and I stand and slide my backpack onto my back. Her eyes were down almost as if she blamed herself for me getting in trouble.

"Hey, you're not blaming yourself, are you?" I say quietly.

"N–no."

"You better not be. It's not your fault. Teachers just hate me."

"What would they hate you?"

"Who knows? Not all of them do...so yeah. It's not like you can do anything to stop them."

"How can they just hate you?"

"Eh. They just have. Come on, next class."

"There's more?"

"Yeah. There's four a day. Two before lunch, two after. No big deal, Luce."

"That's so many!"

"It's not really. Come on." I led the way to our next class, which happened to be History. Ordinarily I would have completely skipped history. I mean, who cares about what happened in the past? The past is the past, right? However, with Luce being new and all it seems like I have to go to class until she gets the hang of it. This time, instead of bursting into the classroom I simply opened the door. Class had started and rather than saying anything I pulled Luce towards the back row. Yet when we got there there were two punks in the seats I wanted. Really? Doesn't everyone know that they have to make sure there is room for me in the back. With a glare I sent the ugly chair-stealers away. When I sat I heard the clearing of a throat. Aw damn it. I dropped my head to the desk as I stood up. This teacher always got on my nerves and even his words made me want to jump out the window.

So, I walked to the teacher's stand thingy, which wasn't his desk by the way, and grabbed the roll sheet from his hands. I marked our names and went back to my seat. Lucy gave me a small grateful smile and I couldn't help but smile back. As I walked behind her to get to my seat I ruffled her hair as I passed. I received a small 'Hey!', that was almost a whisper, as she shoved my hand away and tried to fix her hair. I chuckled and in doing so collected looks of shock from people. Not that I really cared. After all, these stupid people meant nothing to me. And that was how the rest of my day went. At lunch, I avoided my friends, not exactly openly as the wording might seem, and Luce and I went to eat on the roof. We talked, we joked, we talked about nothing and had an amazing time. As it turned out, not all my teachers were ones that hated me. For English class we had Mavis Vermilion, who practically loved every one. For math, it was Wakaba. His best friend, Macao, taught art. There were others, like Gildarts who taught a creative writing class, which I don't know why he suddenly decided to do that when he was also the P.E. teacher, and Mystogan who taught some other class I didn't remember. Of course, Mavis, Wakaba and Gildarts weren't our teachers today and I didn't pay attention for the rest of the day.

Why would I need to? I was there for moral support. And Lucy, despite not speaking, had a wonderful time learning...I think. I was too bored to tell. I did, however, feel something unusual. I kept feeling the heat of glares burning into my back and even felt them bounce off of Luce. It was an odd sensation and I couldn't help but have a bad feeling about it. Besides, what was the worst that could happen?

Wasn't that exciting? No? Eh, didn't think so. It's really just a filler chapter before the big thing happens. Too bad I'm not telling you what it is. Have fun guessing. If any of you have any question don't hesitate to ask.

Thank you to shamwoohoo52,hanbei23, nadiagirl, Ghostie0, Moon Stone Tiger Lily, rintindaff, Delia365, , ashinsky, Skaanimalover, roseprincess962, RoseViolet19, FlameDragonHime, and Isabelle94, for joining the fanbase that is "The Space Between". I was honestly surprised sometimes when people still followed this story even if I didn't touch it for so long. It made me happy.

Thank you to shamwoohoo52, hanbei23, Ghostie0, rintindaff, , roseprincess962, RoseViolet19, FlameDragonHime, RosesofCinders, and Isabelle94 for becoming the newest favoriteers to "The Space Between".

BTW I might pick up the same updating system as "Dragon Scales" but we'll see. It seems to work well but who knows. Til next time.

~Brought to you by Jazmin Gato

~P.S. I finally finished! YAY!

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~Peace Out!