Chapter 10: Fairy Tail Academy's Fairies!

A/n: 7 pages in MS Word. I hope you're happy

Thanks for the Reviews: Aquos35, Kamel2711XD, Mimichan55, Banana-chan and 88XeqtionerAngel88.

Words without A/N: 2,561

It was another day at work. After this, she would drop by at Natsu's to teach him. Said boy was very slow when it came to learning Physics. Too often, he would try to distract her so that they wouldn't have to talk about it, but Lucy only fell for them half of the time.

Suddenly, a hand popped up in her field of vision and was waving around. She snapped out of her daze, glaring at the person whose hand was in front of her face in the first place. Gray glared back at her and said, "Lucy, this is the third time you have spaced out today. The pizzas are getting cold, so hurry up and deliver them."

Embarrassed by her behavior, she quickly abided to the orders set out to her after mumbling a quick apology to Gray. Fortunately, the pizzas were not too cold, so the customers didn't complain. When Laki came back from delivering a pizza and went to Gray to receive another, she noted how Lucy often seemed to just stand there sometimes, not caring about the customers. When the shift was over, Laki approached her.

"What is the matter with you, Lucy? It seems that you have been making trips to the moon every spare second." Laki asked, worry hinted in her tone.

Lucy kept staring at her and tilted her head a bit to the side. Mike piped in too. "What Laki is trying to say is that you have been spacing out for a while. Is everything alright?"

It finally dawned to her how she had been acting the whole time, so she sheepishly replied. "Don't worry, guys. It's no big deal."

Mike took this as a sign that she really had no problems so he left. But Laki kept asking. "Are you positive, Lucy?"

"I am totally fine, Laki. Really." She assured her and ended with a genuine smile. Laki was finally relieved and also left. Gray was watching her the whole time and immediately heaved a quick sigh of relief when he saw her smile.

Lucy was walking her way back home, since everything was in walking distance except for school. Gray then showed up in his car, pulled down the window, and asked, "Hey, Lucy. Want me to drop you home?" Lucy agreed and got in the car.

Aside from the car's engines working, there was a silence in the car. Gray started a conversation, "Sorry about today, I shouldn't have been mad at you for spacing out, even if you were acting odd."

"You don't need to apologize; I was the one who was spacing out."

"Ok." Gray said, and then finally brought the reason why he wanted to talk to her. "Lucy, I have a favor to ask of you."

Lucy's curiosity was aroused and she sat up straighter. "What is it?" she asked, looking at Gray.

"I-I wanted to know if y-you wanted to be vice-captain of the team." Gray asked and mentally face-palmed. Why the hell did I stutter?

Lucy didn't seem to notice his stuttering though, as the request bounced around her mind. Me?! Vice-Captain?! Does the team really need to have one in the first place? I mean there should be a reason why there is a captain in the first place, since they also have a coach. But then again, the coach of this team doesn't do anything… Lucy sweat-dropped at the last thought as the image of a sleeping Gildarts appeared in her mind.

Gray smirked and explained. "That's why we need a vice in the first place. Gildarts doesn't do anything."He was amused by the fact that Lucy had just said her thoughts aloud and added, "And you should really keep your thoughts to yourself, Lucy. Suppose you thought of something embarrassing and said it out loud."

Lucy reddened at the thought and yelled at him. "Shut up, stripper! At least I'm not the one who drives half naked. Is that even possible?"

Yup, Gray had stripped his shirt off in the middle of driving. "Fuck! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" and, as he couldn't resist not teasing Lucy, smirked and asked "Were you enjoying the view all this time?"

"Gray, you are impossible!" Lucy now crossed her arms and looked out the window and saw in her reflection that she almost resembled a tomato. Great! Lucy sarcastically thought as she tried to calm herself down. Then she snickered "I couldn't enjoy the 'view' as there is nothing to look at. I'm too used to seeing you or Lyon shirtless." The truth was that she never got used to it, no matter how many times she had seen him shirtless, but she figured it would at least hurt his ego.

It had worked. Gray was busy fishing his shirt off from the backseat, but he couldn't help but feel a little down-heartened at the comment. Finally grabbing hold of the shirt and putting it on, he snapped, "So what's your decision? You want to or not?"

Remembering the matter at hand, she resumed thinking about it, but this time made sure that she keeps her mouth shut. She finally made up her mind, thinking there wouldn't be any harm from it. "Ok, I accept."

Gray broke a tiny smile, but then resumed his indifferent frown. "Good, figured you would."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lucy never got the answer, as they had finally arrived to Lucy's house.

As Lucy came out of the car, she said "See you tomorrow, Gray."

"See ya, Lucy." He answered and drove off.

As Lucy stepped into the elevator, she realized that she was too tired to drop by at Natsu's house anymore. Quickly sending him a text that said she couldn't come, she took a quick shower and fell asleep.

Another day of training. Personally, I am getting tired of all this training. It would be better if we actually played some games, but all we do is practice. Lucy thought as she sat on the iron bench and drank some water.

"Sup Lucy?" Natsu asked as he approached her. "You look like you died but you decided hell was too boring for you."

Lucy giggled at her friend's weird interpretation of her mood. "Well, I am bored. How come we don't play any matches?"

"That's because it's not basketball season yet, dummy!" Natsu said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He then took out a water bottle from his duffel bag and started drinking as well.

"What's a basketball season?" Lucy innocently asked.

When she asked this seemingly harmless question, everyone in the court abruptly halted whatever they were doing and stared disbelievingly at Lucy, and Natsu choked with his water and was now trying to clear his airway. Loke came over and started patting his back hard.

The usually quiet Gajeel couldn't help but ask. "Are you serious, Bunny girl?"

Siegrain couldn't help but snicker at her. "The little bunny has been in the team for almost a month and she doesn't even know what basketball season is, let alone-OW!" Siegrain doubled over in pain and glared at the perpetrator. Apparently, in the middle of his taunting, Jellal had nudged him hard so that he could stop. "JELLAL!"

Jellal just shrugged "You were being rude."

"I can't help it." Siegrain resumed snickering, but this time he made sure he wasn't heard by others.

Lucy spoke up, since she found all this fuss kind of useless, as they were not getting to the point. "So, guys, will you please stop with the drama and tell me what a season is in basketball terms?"

Lyon explained it to her. "The basketball season is the time of the year when the basketball matches begin, and an ideal time for the National Basketball Tournament to be held. It's funded by the NSA, to help schools around the country to get better at different kinds of sports."

Lucy queried even further, just so that she wouldn't ask such questions again. "Oh. I see. How did the school do last time?"

This time, Loke answered. "Our school did pretty good, ending up in the semi-finals. So that makes our school's team 4th place."

"That's pretty cool." Lucy nodded in approval, "But why do you guys keep saying 'our school's team' and not 'our team'. I mean, you guys did play last year, right?"

"Nope. Everyone joined the team this year, save for Gray." Natsu replied.

"Ok." Lucy said, but then immediately noticed something wrong. "Do you mean this is your first time playing basketball too?"

"No way, Bunny Girl! We joined this year, but we've always played basketball."Gajeel angrily remarked, offended by the conclusion. "What made you think we were newbies?"

Lucy inched away from his menacing glare and shook her head furiously. "Nothing! I was just asking…" Lucy became quiet for a while and then asked again. "Why are you calling me Bunny Girl?"

That same question was flitting through Gray's head as well. We think alike. Gray noted.

Siegrain, Gajeel and Natsu now had put on a wide smirk, and Natsu vaguely replied. "Because we have seen it, Lucy."

Lucy and Gray instantly understood what they were talking about, but the others didn't. Elfman just had to ask. "Seen what?"

Gajeel started. "We broke into Lucy's house-"

"You what!?" Lucy shrieked.

"Oh, shut it!" Gajeel growled at the interference and resumed. "We only came in because we had forgotten some stuff at your house. Anyways, while we were looking, I stumbled upon the photos that were hung in the hallway that leads to your room. We couldn't stop laughing at that."

"What did you see?" Loke asked, genuinely curious.

"There is no way you are asking that question! I am horrified at this breaking into the house without my permission…"

"Hey, Lucy. I think you lost your audience." Gray interrupted and pointed at the group of boys who were huddled together in the side. Lucy marched over there and broke it apart.

"Oh come on! I was getting to the good part!" Natsu complained, but inched back a bit when he saw Lucy's glare.

"I will personally instruct Caprico to never let any of you to enter my house again." Lucy quietly threatened them.

"Calm down, guys! I have an announcement to make." Gray yelled out and everyone quieted down and looked at Gray, who was standing nest to a whiteboard and had a marker with him.

"Tomorrow, I will be heading to the NSA to sign our team up for the tournament. Erza, Lucy and Gildarts will be joining me there. So there are a few problems I'd like to fix. First of all, it is the team mascot and colors. Last year, our main colors were purple and white and we were named Faeries. Do you guys want to change any of that?"

"How about Elves? It is very manly!" Elfman cried out, pumping his fists. Gray jotted it down on the board.

Lucy sweat-dropped and asked Natsu. "How did they spell their mascot?"

Natsu spelled it out for her. "F-A-E-R-I-E-S, why?"

Lucy then got an idea. "Then how about fairies with an I? It is different than last year's team and we still symbolize our school." Gray jotted down that as well.

"I still find that too girly. I'd go with Sprites."Lyon suggested.

Others also suggested other mascots, but it came down to two. Fairies and Elves.

Gray had become some sort of a commentator, adding ideas on the board and erasing the bad ones. Now that the results were narrowed down, he erased everything and drew a straight black line, dividing the board into two halves. On one side he wrote Fairies and on another he wrote Elves. Then, he announced. "Now down to the final two. Who wants the team to be named 'Fairies'?"

Lucy, Jellal, Natsu and Loke raised their hands. Lucy was surprised that they liked the idea as well, but it didn't matter as much. Gray wrote down each of their names and put a 4 next to Fairies. He continued. "Who wants the name 'Elves'?" Not surprisingly, Lyon, Siegrain, Gajeel and Elfman raised their hands as well. Gray did the same thing as before.

Loke raised his glasses and said. "Looks like both names were tied, so I suggest we pick another."

"But Gray didn't get to vote." Lucy pointed out, and everyone immediately turned to Gray. He could feel the pressure and couldn't help but think that this competition went a little too far. He managed to put an indifferent face and wrote his name beneath Fairires.

"Looks like we won! Now give me my twenty bucks!" Natsu said to Gajeel.

"I'm not giving you my money!" Gajeel yelled.

"But you are the one who made the bet!" Natsu said.

"I didn't know Gray was going to choose the girly name! I mean, who names a team 'fairies'?"

Gray felt insulted. "So now you have a problem with my decision?"

Natsu felt the need to defend his choice. "And it's not that girly!"

Lucy couldn't believe that this petty argument was escalating into an all out fight. "Wow. Natsu and Gray just agreed on something." Jellal pointed out. "Way to go! You just added fuel to the fire." Lucy sarcastically remarked as she watched the trio fight and destroy anything they touch. "And there goes the bench I installed last week."

"Well, vice. Aren't you going to do something?" asked Jellal.

"Nah. Let them fight. I can tell they were itching for it." Lucy replied. "And what did you call me?"

"Vice. You know, like vice captain." Then something dawned on him. "Didn't Gray ask you yet?"

"He did, but you guys already knew?"

Jellal was relieved. "Only me and Lyon. We had given him the thumbs-up."

"So the others don't know?"

From their fight, Natsu was now yelling at Gray. "And why does Lucy get to go with you guys? I wanted to go too!"

Lucy reconsidered. "Forget it, I got my answer."

By the time the sun was setting, the guys were still at it. Lucy was tired of all this and she could tell the others also wanted to go home. She then threw a pebble, and it hit Natsu in the head. He immediately stopped fighting, and all of them fell down at the sudden movement.

Lyon applauded her quick thinking. "Well, Gray. You have a final thing you have forgotten to tell us. Care to tell it now?"

Gray looked at his brother in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Lyon subtly pointed to Lucy with his eyes. Gray understood.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you that Lucy is the team's vice-captain."

"Guessed as much. I mean, she is one of the best." Loke said offhandedly. The others nodded in agreement, except for Natsu.

Lucy opened her mouth to refuse that statement, but one look from Loke cut her off. "No, seriously. You are."

Before anyone could say anything, Natsu looked pointedly at Lucy and said, "You. Me. Face-off. Tomorrow." And ran away.

"I can't believe the ash brain just did that." Gray stated tiredly. "Let's go home, everyone. And Lucy, don't worry about him."

But I don't want him to be. The thought bellowed in her mind.

I wanted to write more about b-ball. So yeah.