Poooop, I'm late again. However, when I said two weeks, I did not forsee the three papers I would be writing in that timespan. -_- My last two papers got turned in today! I'm done! YAY! History, English, and science papers are no fun. I would much rather write fanfic.
Enjoy!
-RD :)
13th Street
Chapter Ten: Ace of Grades
.x.x.x.
"Come in!" Erza called to the person knocking on her door. Lucy stepped inside apartment 412, closing the door behind her. Soft music filled the room, and Erza herself was sprawled out on the couch with a large book open in front of her.
"What're you listening to?" Lucy asked as she sat down in a chair.
"The Afters," Erza replied, her eyes never leaving the book. The blonde played with her fingers for a minute while an awkward silence filled the room.
"Um… Erza?"
"Hm?"
"What are you reading?"
"My calculus textbook." As she lay stomach-down on the couch, the redhead kicked her feet back and forth in the air.
"Why would you read a math textbook?" Lucy asked, thoroughly disgusted with her least-favorite subject.
"Because. I am going to defeat Gray!" she yelled, shooting up into a standing position on the couch. Lucy jerked back in shock. "He is going to suffer losing this bet!"
"W-what do you get if you win?" asked the blonde, slightly terrified.
"I don't know." Erza plopped back down on the couch. "I never really thought about that. Maybe I should have him admit that he's inferior to me in front of all of Fairy Tail," she pondered, a hand on her chin.
Lucy laughed nervously. "Um, sure!"
Meanwhile, at the Fullbuster residence, a similar situation was happening.
"Gray? You're actually studying?' Natsu exclaimed. He had been hoping to drag his friend/enemy out to the park to kick around a soccer ball, but had found Gray at home. Studying.
"Yep," said Gray. He scanned the pages of his calculus book with great interest - more interest than he had shown in just about anything school-related all year. He was going to understand integration by parts if it killed him. Not really, but he was bent on beating Erza. He hated losing, and how bad would it look if he lost to a girl? Especially Erza, who was his biggest rival next to Natsu?
"You're so lame!"
"You wanna say that again, flame-head?"
"Bring it on, ice-pants!"
Suddenly, Gray's phone rang, stopping the fight. "It's Lucy," Gray said as he picked it up. "What's up?"
"Gray, are you sure this is a good idea?" Lucy asked, sounding rather nervous.
"Uh, yeah. Why?"
"Because Erza is going crazy over this. She's studying like mad!" Gray swallowed. If Erza was studying hard, that would only make it even harder for him to beat her.
"Hey, Lucy? I gotta go. Talk to you later!"
"Wait, Gray! No, don't-" And the line went dead.
Gray threw his phone back on the couch and resumed his studying.
"You're dumb," Natsu said, his arms crossed.
"Aw, shut up. Go bother Lucy or something."
Surprisingly, the pink-haired boy replied with an "Okay!" and was soon out of Gray's hair.
Now, he could focus.
"Been studying, Scarlet?" Gray asked as he and Erza walked into the main room of Fairy Tail.
"What else did you expect?" she replied with a smirk on her face. "Oh, and I want to raise the stakes."
He lifted an eyebrow. "Do you?"
"Yes. If I win, you have to admit to all of Fairy Tail that you are inferior to me." Erza grinned at him with a smile that was awfully strange, somewhere between wicked and sweet.
"And if I win," Gray began, "then we're going to have a great time Saturday," he reminded her.
"Don't count on it," she said as she walked away.
Two days of insane studying, arguing, and many coffee cups later, it was Thursday.
The students filed into second period, most of them looking bored or apathetic. However, there were two particular students who wore looks of sheer determination to obliterate this quiz - and each other.
Gray and Erza sat on either side of the aisle down the middle of the classroom, at the second seats from the front of the room, and smirked at each other.
"You're going down," Gray mouthed, pointing at her. Erza shook her head.
"Prepare to be destroyed," she mouthed.
All last-minute studiers were forced to put their notes away as the teacher began to pass out the quiz. The second the paper reached their hands, Gray and Erza turned it over and began to write like mad. They had half an hour to take the quiz, but they weren't planning to waste even a second.
Meanwhile, Natsu and Lucy sat in their chemistry class. They were doing another lab, and the two had partnered up for the sole reason that no one else in the class wanted to be with Natsu for a chem lab for fear of catching fire.
"I wonder how Gray and Erza are doing," Lucy mumbled as she looked out the window. Natsu was doing most of the lab by himself because he rather enjoyed chemistry, and Lucy's mind was a bit preoccupied. Soon Natsu had finished - before anyone else in the class - and he and Lucy were allowed to go out to the commons area, as the class was not going to do anything else for that day.
Out in the commons area, Natsu grabbed his iPad and immediately began to play Angry Birds. Lucy bought a Coke at the vending machine and sat down next to him.
"Who do you think will win?" she asked.
"Win what? YES!" Natsu said as he knocked down half the pigs with one bird.
"The bet, of course! Who do you think will win the bet?"
"Gray and Erza's bet?" Natsu asked as he continued to fire the birds. "Umm, Gray, I guess."
"Really?" The blonde lifted an eyebrow. "I think Erza will win. Gray doesn't seem very smart to me."
He shook his head. "Nah, Gray's smart. He just doesn't think a lot. Look." Natsu opened the internet on his iPad and went to the school website. He then proceeded to type in a user name and password. "On this website, you can see your grades and stuff."
"Other people's too?" Lucy asked, feeling rather nervous about the idea of other people seeing her grades.
"No, just yours."
"Then how are you seeing Gray's?"
Natsu smiled. "I stole his password last month." The blonde glared at him for doing such a thing but let him continue clicking around until Gray's grades popped up. Much to Lucy's surprise, they were all mid to high Bs or low As.
"Those are Gray's grades?"
"Yep," Natsu said. "Told you so."
"How come he seems so boneheaded?"
"Well, he's kinda lazy. He doesn't put a whole ton of effort into studying or anything. He hasn't decided on a major yet, so he really doesn't see the point right now."
Lucy still gaped at the screen. She could hardly believe it. "What about your grades?"
"Some Cs, some Bs, and one A."
"What's the A in?"
"Chemistry!" he replied with a smile. That was quite a shock, too. How could someone like Natsu do so well in such an awful and difficult class? "I don't know about the bet though," he said after a moment of quiet. "Erza's pretty smart herself."
"Wow," she mumbled. "I guess there's no telling how the bet will end."
As Gray walked out of second period, his head hurt a little. He hadn't put that much effort into schoolwork in ages. It was painful to think so hard.
After the quizzes had been collected, their teacher had begun a new lesson, and Gray decided to actually take notes just in case he got challenged to any bets in the near future. As he was walking down the hall, he noticed Erza walking not too far away, a proud smile on her face.
"She probably got an A…" he muttered. Suddenly, he felt someone tap his shoulder, and he turned around to find it was the same girl he had been thinking about just before.
"Gray," she said politely.
Oh, she was just playing with him now.
"Erza," he said back. "So, how was losing?" Even if she probably won, he had to put up a confident front or else he'd look weak in front of her.
And if that happened, he'd never hear the end of it.
"How 'bout you ask yourself that?"
Gray smirked at her and said, "Keep on dreaming, Scarlet."
As he walked away, the grin on Erza's face faded. Secretly, she was also unsure of what she had made. This concept was difficult for her, and even though she had studied for hours - something she would never tell Gray - the quiz had been no walk in the park.
Well, she'd just have to wait until the next day when they got their scores.
When Gray arrived at Fairy Tail, he was still feeling rather uneasy. He'd have to admit his incompetence in front of all his co-workers if he lost. Although it seemed like a small price to pay, it'd be a major blow to his ego. Which, at the moment, was rather large.
He was about to walk into the back room when he spotted one of his friends in the shop. "Hey, Drake!" he called. The brown-haired boy turned around and saw Gray coming towards him.
"Gray! What's up?"
"Not much," Gray said with a small smile. "Man, what are you doing here?"
"Getting coffee," Drake said in a "duh" voice as he gestured to the counter.
"You know what I mean."
Drake let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I know. I found this place like a week ago, and it's pretty nice."
"Oh. I work here."
"Cool!"
Unbeknownst to the boys, their conversation had not gone unnoticed. A blue-haired girl was watching the scene with wide eyes.
"Drake and Gray are friends?" Juvia whispered happily. "This gives Juvia the perfect chance to get closer to Gray!" She stood up from her table and walked over to the counter, pretending not to notice Gray and Drake at first. She just stood there and began to hum somewhat loudly to hopefully catch their attention.
And her plan worked. "Hey," Drake called out to her when he noticed her presence. She gave him a smile and a wave and walked toward the two.
"Hi, Drake, Gray."
She saw Gray looking at her strangely, but a grin soon came to his face. "Juvia, right?"
HE REMEMBERED HER NAME!
Juvia could barely think, breathe, or perform any other action. She just smiled a huge smile and nodded before joining in the conversation.
"Gray!" someone called out. "We need your help!" It was Lucy, and she was scrambling all over the place to get people their coffee. She was the only person behind the counter at the time, explaining the line Gray, Juvia, and Drake were standing in.
"Later," Gray said as he went to the back room to change into his Fairy Tail shirt. Juvia waved goodbye, still on cloud nine.
He remembered her name!
The next morning, as Erza walked to second period, all she could think of was whether she had won or not. Nervously, she took a seat near the window and tapped her fingers on the desk. Fortunately, Gray was sitting across the room, so she wouldn't have to talk to him. But unfortunately, that meant she'd have to wait until the end of class to know who had won.
The suspense was evil.
Their teacher came around and passed all the quizzes back face down on the desks. When he got to Erza, there was a small smile on his face. Knowing her calculus teacher, she couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Erza slowly flipped the piece of paper over and…
A ninety-four! A NINETY-FOUR! That was an A! Erza let out a sigh of relief She had done well, and telling from the look on Gray's face, she won. He didn't look all that confident. She smiled, knowing everything was going to be okay.
After class was over, she practically ran over to Gray, a smug smile on her face.
"Hey, Gray!" she called. He turned around, almost running his face into her quiz paper.
"Whoa. A ninety-four?" Erza placed her hands on her hips and grinned smugly.
"See, Fullbuster? It's obvious which one of us is superior."
He chuckled. "Good job, Scarlet." She nodded.
"Mhm, and now you have to—"
"But not good enough."
He watched the color drain from her face and her mouth drop open. In green pen at the top of his paper was the number ninety-seven.
…
WHAT?
Gray smirked as she continued to stare at him in shock. "See you tomorrow, Scarlet. I'll pick you up at ten."
As he walked away, Erza could still hardly believe it. He beat her. He let her think she won. She had to go who knows where with him the next day.
"WHAT!"
"You lost?" Lucy gasped as she sat down at the lunch table, thinking about the conversation she and Natsu had the day before. "I guess he was right," she thought. "What were your grades?"
"I got a ninety-four," Erza replied almost inaudibly, as her head was down on the table. "He got a ninety-seven."
"Wow. Only three points?"
"Three points. And now I have to go do who knows what tomorrow…" The very idea of spending a day with Gray was almost enough to give the redhead a headache.
What in the world would they do?
After arriving at work, Erza stood outside Mr. Makarov's office. Lucy patted the girl on the back as Erza clenched her fists. She had been working for Fairy Tail for almost a year and had never asked for a day off work. Her perfect work record was about to be soiled.
Stupid Gray.
Erza entered the office alone, only to be confronted by the extremely awkward scene of her boss leaning back in his desk chair, sleeping, and snoring rather loudly. The redhead sighed and gently nudged the snoring man awake. He woke with a start, asking about his surroundings before realizing that he was in his office and it was only Erza.
"Master?" she began, accustomed to calling him by the nickname bestowed upon him by the employees.
"Yes, Erza, what do you need?"
"Can I take tomorrow off?"
Makarov stroked his mustache. "Funny, Gray asked for the same thing…" Erza could feel the anger rising inside of her. "Are you two planning on doing something? You're too young and innocent…"
"Master!" she exclaimed, face flushed bright red. "No, I just need to work on… a school project."
"Alright," he said, leaning back in his chair to resume his nap. "You and Gray have fun now."
Erza frowned. There was no way they were going to have fun.
Tehee, Makarov ships GrayZa. x3 Hope you liked this chapter! I liked Gray letting Erza think she won. xDDD
HanaIchi Ikari - Haha. xD Natsu has no clue that she thinks he loves her. He's totally clueless. xD
Avatarfan444 - Rest assured that there will be much GrayZa in the next chapter. :)
MANGA1 - Haha, glad I made your day :)
Kishin rei - Gracias! ;D (hablo pequeno espanol)
BlueeMoon - Haha, good observation! I'm basing the NaLu on that episode. xD
Gerkyhen - Gray is great. And yes, Lucy's being totally foolish. She's obviously crushing hard xD
AkixYuseiGRL - Huh, I never thought about that. Well, Gray is smart when he feels like thinking. XD
WhiteTigress13 - Yeah, that relationship is gonna be an adventure, haha
GrayZa FTW - Oh yeah! He's worried! :D lol
AngelKnightKaoru - Well, that's not a good reason to dislike her! Uh, thans for the idea, but I already know what I'm going to do with Lisanna. I've got her covered. :)
lil'chrome-chan - Now you know. xD
|Hypocrisy| - Thanks :D
UniverseStarGazer - Haha, thanks so much! There's not a lot of GrayZa fics, so I'm trying to fill the internet with GrayZa lurveee xDDD
I am SO looking forward to the next chapter! It's going to be like... my favorite chapter ever, haha. So I guess I'd better get writing, huh? :)