"With great power comes great electricity bill."
-UsHumor
CHAPTER 10: LIBRARY
1:13 PM
Great Library, Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
The class of 3-A were in the school library, doing research on the legendary mythical creatures named 'Exceeds.' They were supposed to work in twos and pass their research paper by the end of the period and the teacher, much to the dismay of a certain requip mage, left the class in charge of Gray Fullbuster; the class mayor.
The trio who had the greatest capability to turn the school upside down sat at one table; Erza eyeing the blonde-haired girl who sat alone by the window to the right.
"This is your chance, Natsu." Erza Scarlet fully glared and whispered at the fire mage who just blinked at her in perplexity.
"Chance in what?" he asked, earning an exasperated sigh from the redhead who was very tempted to requip her sword.
"You're forgetting the very reason why we share the same table together." Gray Fullbuster answered, lazily skimming through the pages of 'Mythical Monsters.' Natsu Dragneel then finally rolled his eyes in realization.
"I promise I won't set up the ice bucket up on the classroom's door." Natsu whispered back, while his companions just stared at him.
"Aren't you here to make sure I won't do pranks?" the fire mage asked, Erza finally face-palming.
"You deal with this, Fullbuster; I might punch someone if we continue this conversation." The scarlet-haired girl then moved to the other end of the table and began writing.
Natsu looked at Erza briefly before turning to the ice mage, who was staring at him like some unpleasant, unknown creature.
"What're you looking at, ice princess?" the fire mage asked in annoyance.
"Natsu, over there's a poor classmate in need of a partner." Gray nodded towards the direction of Lucy, who, indeed, Natsu noticed, didn't have a partner for the research paper.
"So…" Natsu Dragneel started, "You… want to be her partner?" he asked.
Gray Fullbuster felt the need to suck out the fire mage's obliviousness with a vacuum.
1:18 PM
Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
"This is exactly why Natsu needs us by his side." Erza contemplated, her hand momentarily stopped writing while she discreetly watched the fire mage approach Lucy.
"You do know I'm the class mayor, right?" Gray suddenly interjected, making the requip mage stare at him with a frown.
"I happen to have a very good memory, Fullbuster." She replied in contempt.
"Okay, good. Just wanted to remind you." The ice mage returned to scanning the book, hiding a smirk from the fuming scarlet-haired girl.
Erza, noticing the ice mage's attempt to continuously annoy her, crossed her arms and said, "You can be class mayor, Fullbuster. I, on the other hand, shall be the Supreme Student Government's President." She shot back, Gray turning to look at her in amusement.
"Is that a challenge, Scarlet?" he drawlingly asked, keeping a cool and collected smirk on his face.
"Are you asking for a challenge, Fullbuster?" she replied, twirling a pen on her right hand.
"What if I am?" he whispered back, further leaning towards the scarlet-haired girl.
"Then you've got one." She bossily raised an eyebrow and returned to the task at hand, furiously scribbling words on the almost torn and abused research paper.
'There's no way in all of Fiore is he going to be student council President. Because I still exist.' The scarlet-haired girl thought, a smile donning on her features.
1:18 PM
Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
"Hey Lucy." The happy-go-lucky familiar voice startled Lucy from her thoughts. She turned to look at the pink-haired boy who decided to sit beside her. She inwardly groaned.
"May I help you?" she tiresomely asked, the boy grinning at her in response.
"Loosen up, Luce," she visibly stiffened at the nickname, "I'm your friend; not some old geezer who's gonna shout at you or something." By now the girl just wanted to be invisible.
"Don't call me 'Luce'." She grimaced at the word, "And may I help you?" she repeated, the fire mage feeling slightly dejected by her reply.
"Well, I was thinking if you wanted to be partne-" before he could even finish, the girl cut him off with a stiff answer.
"I'm done with it." He stared at her.
"What?" he asked, not at all believing the fact that she finished just within ten minutes or so.
"I said I'm done with the research paper." She replied, stubbornly closing the book she was scanning and proceeded to stare at nothing in particular.
Truth to be told; she hasn't even started yet. She was, in fact, having a hard time figuring out what book exactly does these 'Exceeds' belong to. She bit the insides of her cheek and tightened the grip on her ballpoint pen.
"Jeez, you didn't have to lie, y'know." He smiled sadly at her. "You could've just told me to stay away."
Shocked at his reply, she turned to face with, but not saying anything to deny it either.
"See ya later, Lucy." He waved back, walking towards Erza Scarlet and Gray Fullbuster.
Lucy forced herself to look away, guiltily thinking; 'Why do I feel bad?'
1:23 PM
Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
"She wanted nothing to do with me." Natsu said as he plopped on his former chair.
"Did you, by chance, whisper-shouted at her in nervousness?" Erza Scarlet asked with a pitiful expression.
"What? No, I-" the fire mage responded, before getting cut off again.
"Did you talk and talk and talk and not give her a second to respond?" the scarlet-haired asked once more, Natsu turning to the ice mage for help.
"What? Gray, will you-" he was cut off once more,
"Did you accidentally step on her foot or pull her ha – Natsu, where are you going?" Erza asked, watching the fire mage move away and sit at the table of Lisanna and the others.
Erza Scarlet turned to Gray Fullbuster in shock, "What did I do?"
He simply shrugged, caring less than ever, "Beats me."
3:43 PM
Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
The blonde-haired girl was back at the library once more; sitting at her former chair and taking out a black notebook.
'Dear not-a-diary,'
She started writing, looking around as students began entering and leaving the great library.
'Labels. Yeah, did I mention labels in highschool? It's all about it, by the way.
There are certain cliques in every school and the clique you belong to, or the clique you hang around already describes your personality as a whole; quote by head-cheerleader, Mirajane Strauss.
Okay, I may have replaced 'friends' with 'clique' but it's all the same.
The thing is, I'm neutral.
Seriously, I don't excel at anything I'm aware of; I do have plans of changing that teeny-tiny bit fact, by the way. I'm just an average high school girl barely passing Pyrology, sometimes skipping Enchantments, and loves writing. And magic.
So going back to labels; this single label determines the way people are supposed to treat you.
I think I don't need to give examples now, do I?
Well my retelling of this morning's events led to people labeling me from 'insignificantly neutral' to 'we-must-hunt-down-and-execute-this-girl-for-being-with-our-beloved-Loke.'
Oh, the things going around the heads of Loke's fan club.
Yep, I overheard them talking about how they were going to make a banner concerning that, and yep, he has a fan club.
Anyway, just watch and… oh, I forgot, you're a book. Well, read along as I write in you.
Flashback
8:31 AM
Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
Blank. Her state of mind went Blank.
That was how the blonde-haired girl's sanity was swept away the second she saw Loke. And a couple of strangers beside him.
He, and the couple of Fairy Tail uniformed girls were casually talking and leaning on her locker. She gulped in uneasiness.
'This is God's sign that I don't need my books for today.' She convinced herself and was about to turn and walk away, until she heard him call her name.
She instantly stopped and bit her lip. And what more, she rigidly turned around and started walking towards the blonde-haired boy.
"Excuse me." she finally said, stopping right in front of him. "I have to get my books." She continued to look at the spot beside his head, trying to ignore the fact that the boy she feared the most to find her was currently looking at her.
"She's Lucy, the girl I was just talking about." Loke said to her fellow unknown schoolmates.
Her mind's wheels were turning; urging her to kick, scream, bite, punch, anything to stop him from talking.
"She's the one who hunted my dreams, alright." He continued, while Lucy's eyes comically widened.
'What in all of Fiore is he going on about?'
"And she's mine, by the way." Loke turned to look at Lucy, who in turn, looked like a ghost.
She stared, completely speechless, and not completely processing what he was saying.
"Did you just claim me?" she thoughtlessly said, unaware that she was now voicing her thoughts and of the bunch of onlookers who interestedly listened in.
Next thing she knew, he was already dragging her towards the empty, quiet rooftop.
The bright blue sky, the comforting peace and quiet, the vast, wide space with white tiled floors, the ambiance and scenery; all were ruined by one single look of the sloppy mess of dirty blonde hair in front of her; she thought.
Loke stared at her while she kept her silence. "I still haven't told anyone about who you really are, if that's what you're worried about."
And hearing his voice she was brought back to Earthland.
"What have you done?!" she took off her shoes and proceeded to beat him with them.
"You just started rumors! Which I've tried, by the way, to avoid for three years!"
"Lucy, have you gone mad? Stop it!"
"Oh, I implore you to give me a reason to stop!" she angrily hissed back.
He finally grabbed hold of her shoes, threw them to the far right, and turned her around, tightly grasping her hands while she still tried to unsuccessfully kick him.
"Do you realize what you've done? I can't be noticed!" she momentarily stopped thrashing.
"You've been found out, either way. Sooner or later the Heartfilia Konzern is going to find out where you are." He then now let go of her; Lucy's eyes momentarily flashing before she willed to cover them with mocking ignorance. "Before they take you away, and bring you back to your world. Our world; where you're supposed to be."
"I am a common, perfectly ordinary girl." She said; convincing herself more than anyone.
"As I've said; the Heartfilia blood runs deep within your veins. Stop fooling yourself and come back home."
End of Flashback
4:00 PM
The River, Magnolia, Fiore
"What exactly are you making me do?" the fire mage asked as both the ice and requip mage glared at him to shut up and not ask any more questions.
"I have a feeling Lucy has something to say to you." Erza simply said.
"So don't mess this up. Just lay there. Like a dead ferret or something like that." Gray explained, to which Natsu Dragneel shot him a condescending, hateful look.
Erza scanned the horizon, before seeing the target; about to pass by the riverbed and where they were.
"She's here." She whispered and turned to Natsu one more time. "Do not do anything." She then dragged the ice mage by the collar and hid behind a large, wide tree.
"Natsu?" Lucy called out to the boy who was apparently alone by the river.
She was about to go straight back to her apartment; like another boring and ordinary day. But seeing the pink-haired mage by the riverbank made her momentarily stop and contemplate her actions earlier.
In the end, she chastised herself for sitting beside him. Natsu Dragneel continued to quietly lay on the soft grass, his arm covering his eyes.
Erza and Gray quietly high-fived behind the tree, closely watching and hearing the two.
Lucy on the other hand, assuming that he was asleep, began talking.
"You know I didn't mean it that way earlier, right?" she softly asked, unsure of what exactly she was trying to do.
"I'm not exactly an 'open' person, or… gosh what am I saying." She mumbled the last part and glanced at his sleeping form once more.
She breathed out and closed her eyes for a second, before opening them and continuing, "What I'm trying to say," she took a deep breath once more, "Is that, I'm not good at socializing, or making friends, or even talking in general."
Lucy looked at him for a second or so, "So I'm sorry, I guess." She quickly mumbled, grabbing her bag and dashing out of there as quickly as she could.
Unknown to her, Natsu Dragneel got up and looked towards where she ran off to, a slight smile on his face.
"Told you my idea would work." Gray Fullbuster cast a smug smile towards the scarlet-haired girl, who in turn, lightly punched his shoulder.