I hate how the time setting in Secret Lovers and Love At First Site is almost identical. ;_; I'm going to slow down these few chapters because I don't want to be writing about the same thing but different situations. I will make this event entertaining! I will make sure of it.
I'm also going to try to update faster. It's annoying me how slow I am, sigh.
Enjoy chapter 20, everyone! C:
A month has gone by since the Fairy Tail concert. Nothing changed much; Natsu and I meet each day on the rooftop, never getting tired of each other. Our relationship still remains a secret, of course. Sting continues to make subtle moves at me. And lastly, Loke never takes a rest at flirting.
The one thing that does change are the trees, each leaf having a its own distinct color. I look forward to walking home to gaze at the trees some days. However each day is strangely normal, I hope something exciting would happen.
"Next week is our annual cultural festival," Natsu announces to our class, lazily leaning back upon his board.
Whispers fill my ears as several people squirm in excitement. Levy is one of them.
"I've been waiting for this since last year!" she exclaims with a wild whisper.
"For the ones who already know what happens in our school festival you don't have to listen to this. But to the new students," his eyes flick to mine for a second, "our cultural festival is always on a Friday. It has a new theme each year and there are competitions set up by different classes. Lucky for you guys, your grade isn't required to set up anything this year."
"What's the theme this year?" a student asks across the room.
Natsu peers at all of us with a playful glint in his eyes. I know the look isn't good.
"Sports," he responds.
Half of the class cheers while the other half groans. I'm silent as I watch Levy cheer.
"I hope they have a reading contest," she speaks.
"I'll probably beat you at that," I smirk at her as she frowns.
"That's not all," Natsu raises his voice to get back everyone's attention. "This year will be the first year all students will work together as a team."
"Who will we compete against?" the question floats in the air for a few seconds.
"Us," he points at himself with his thumb. "Teachers."
Just like everyone else's, my jaw drops. Teachers going against students is like asking if a puppy has the same amount of energy as a dog. Anything can happen.
"You will all be divided into groups of five. You won't know your team until next Thursday," Natsu finishes.
"I hope we're on the same team," Levy pouts. "I don't think I will be able to handle being with a bunch of strangers."
I nod in agreement, "It won't be fun if we're not together."
"And one more thing," Natsu says. "You students don't even have a chance at winning."
"Shouldn't the teachers be encouraging?" someone mumbles loud enough for Natsu to hear.
"Not this year," he smugly smiles.
The rest of the class goes on with more bickering between the students and Natsu. He shrugs off the threats and retorts back to the students with ease. I put a hand to my mouth to cover my smile.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Lu-chan!" Levy does her usual wave as Gajeel hauls her towards him.
It's started to become cold now so the meet ups with Natsu are shorter. He brings up a cup of warm coffee for the both of us and lends me his scarf each day.
"Why do you always style it differently?" I ask him while he adds the final touches to it. It's wrapped around my neck and the ends flow down my shoulders.
"I want to see how many styles I can do with it," he shrugs while taking a sip of his coffee.
I give him a strange look and go back to keeping myself warm with the coffee. My legs are frozen but I ignore it.
"So students going against teachers?" I watch his eyes light up.
"I can get really competitive," he admits.
"I could tell after seeing you in class," I crack a smile.
He scratches the back of his neck, "I can't help it."
"I hope I don't have to go against you," I say anxiously.
"I will show no mercy," he puffs his chest out in a super hero stance.
"Neither will I," I declare with confidence.
"It sounds like you're challenging me," Natsu cocks an eyebrow at me.
"Maybe I am," I counter.
"Really?" he leans closer to me in amusement.
"Really," I reply, copying his movements. We're inches apart now.
He hums while staring at me. He takes advantage of the close space and cups my cheek. His lips are a hair apart from mine and my breath comes to a stop. He pulls back with a grin.
"Don't do that," I say with disappointment, my cheeks heating up.
"Let's make a bet," he tells me.
"A bet?" I echo.
"A bet," he nods. "Whoever loses the festival has to make our Christmas dinner."
"C-Christmas?!" I sputter. "That's a month and a half away."
"It's okay if you don't want to accept," he says in a slight mocking tone.
"I'll do it," I stand up and extend my hand toward him. "Deal."
He raises himself from his seat and studies my face. He smiles and begins to shake my hand. Before I let go, he quickly pulls me towards him and gently presses his lips against mine.
"It's a deal," he responds with a low voice.
"Your lips taste like coffee," I mutter with my head down.
"Not your coffee," I feel him place his chin on top of my head. My face has never blazed so much before.
With a tense feeling being masked by Natsu's and mine good-natured threats, the only thing we can do is wait for the festival and see who must make our Christmas dinner.
"We get to see who is on what team today!" Levy shouts, shaking my shoulders from side to side.
"When do we get to see the teams?" I question as we walk into English.
"After school. There's a board up with all the teams at the front of the school," she informs.
The students aren't the only ones excited for tomorrow. Natsu's aura is radiating with the same feeling. Natsu seems so into tomorrow he doesn't bother to teach today.
"Tomorrow I won't be looking at you as students, I will be looking at you as an opponent," he paces around the room. "So I expect you all to do the same. See me only as a competitor, alright?"
"I've never seen a teacher like this," someone grumbles.
As soon as the bell rings, a mob quickly forms throughout the hallway in the direction of the school's entrance. Levy holds onto my wrist so we don't get separated. We get pushed to the entrance slowly but surely and I eventually can see the board covered with named become visible. I rise onto the tips of my toes and squint. My attempts don't work so Levy and I wait as patiently as we can.
At last we get to the board to where we can see the team names and I scan it for my name.
"We're on the same team!" Levy and I high-five each other enthusiastically. We turn back to the board to find out who the other three people are.
"Gajeel, Cana," Levy reads.
"And Sting," I finish for her.
We squeeze out of the swarm and look around for our team mates.
"Found them," Levy points at the three that are already together. We step towards them.
"Not a bad team," Cana shrugs.
"It worked out better than expected," Gajeel murmurs. Sting nods wordlessly.
"I wonder how the others are," I search for the remaining people in our group of friends.
I begin to hear sobbing noises and I turn around to see where it's coming from. A wailing Juvia slowly trudges towards us.
"Why can't Juvia be with you?" she cries in between hiccups.
"Who is on your team?" Levy pats her lightly on the shoulder.
"Strangers!" she sniffs several times. "Wendy and Romeo are on another team together!"
"You'll be alright," Cana smacks Juvia's other shoulder that isn't being patted by Levy. Wendy and Romeo come to our group seconds later.
"Sorry, Juvia," Romeo glances at her while she gives him harsh glares.
"Why don't we all go out to eat?" Levy proposes to lighten the mood. "We're already here and we can prepare ourselves for tomorrow."
Everyone accepts the invitation in unison except me. They all stare at me and wait for my response.
"Yeah, I'll go!" I stammer. "But I forgot something back inside so I'll meet up with you all at the station."
"We'll wait for you," Cana speaks for the group.
"It's okay," I smile at them as assurance. They have no other choice but to oblige.
I speed walk to Natsu's room and I'm out of breath arriving to his room. I open his door and see that he isn't here. As I'm catching up with my breaths, I pull out a pencil and a small piece of paper to write down that I won't be able to go to the rooftop. I fold it up in a small square and place it on the middle of his desk.
I step out of his room and instead of meeting up with air I meet up with a chest. I look up at the person.
"Why were you in Natsu's room?" Sting looks down at me curiously.
"I forgot my favorite pencil," I tear my eyes away from him and walk towards the entrance of the school. He follows me without asking for more information.
"I came to look for you because you were going to miss the train," his eyes widen as he finishes his sentence. "The train!"
Without realizing what's happening, I'm being pulled by Sting to the station. I've been through this too many times with Natsu. With another hand holding onto mine, it doesn't feel right. Even when I reach the station regaining my normal breaths it feels funny. Everything feels wrong. I pull my hand away from Sting's roughly when we get to the group.
"I thought you weren't going to make it!" Levy breathes out in relief.
"Sting pulled me here," I nod my head towards him.
"Good thing he did because the train is here," Cana announces.
We enter the train and stand together as a group. A happy feeling floats inside of me; this is my first time on the train with friends. We don't stay on the train for long and we step off after a few minutes.
"Table for eight," Gajeel says to the terrified man at the front of the restaurant. A déjà vu feeling comes over me as I notice the scene plays out exactly like the night we all went to karaoke.
"This restaurant is mainly known for its burgers," Levy tells us.
I sit in between Levy and Juvia. Half of the group sits on one side while the other half sits on the opposite side. Sting sits in front of me, his foot stepping on mine every so often.
The restaurant is empty due to the time of day, so we have the place for our loud selves. There are several TV's hanging off the walls showing different shows and pictures are displayed everywhere. It's hanging off the edge of being tacky, but with Levy's constant drooling about the burgers, the food must make up for it.
We receive our drinks and after that we order our burgers. We all slurp our sodas silently waiting for someone to bring up a topic.
"Are festivals fun?" I ask.
"We don't get to do anything for the whole day. You get to either be outside or in the hallways," Gajeel responds. "Of course it's fun."
"I remember last year we were all freezing because the theme was summer," Cana reminisces. "I will never forgive the person who decided to have a hula dancing contest outside."
"And we had to drink that sour lemonade," Levy and Wendy shiver simultaneously.
"This year will be fun because it's sports," Romeo states. "It's like having gym all day."
"Without having annoying Elf-sensei," Cana adds.
"Juvia hopes that she will see Gray-sensei in a tight shirt," Juvia claps her hands at the image only she would be able to think of.
"Don't forget tomorrow is the most popular day for confessions," Levy comments. I feel another step on my shoe and Sting and I look at each other. He stares back with pink cheeks.
"I'm nervous to see what the classes have created," Wendy speaks. "I worked so hard last year on our station."
The table agrees adding their own opinions on the festival. I stay silent and listen to everyone.
"What about you, Lucy?" Sting notices my silence. "How was your cultural festivals like back at your other school?"
"We didn't have festivals," I reply.
And as expected the rest of the table, other than Levy, slam their hands on the table in shock.
"How?!" everyone yells.
"My school was boring," I answer plainly. I see someone walking towards us with a tray in their hands and I smile. Everyone follows my eyes and as our burger is placed in front of us we all have wide grins.
My mouth waters at the melting cheese below the crispy toasted bread. We all take our bites at the same time and everyone leans back in their chairs in happiness. We're all depressed once the burger is inside our stomachs. After some more conversations we pay for our food and exit the restaurant.
"How is it already sunset?" I look up at the orange sky with disbelief.
"We spent two hours in there," Cana checks her phone for the time.
"You know what they say," Sting says. "Time flies when—"
"I wasn't having fun," Gajeel barks.
Sting puts his hands in front of him as defense with big eyes.
"I wish us all luck tomorrow!" Levy puts her hands in the middle of the circle, beckoning us to do the same. Once everyone's hand is in the middle Levy shouts, "On three say fight! One, two, three," we all take deep breaths, "fight!"
"I didn't know you could be so energetic, Gajeel," I sneer. He gives me a terrorizing glare. I've gotten used to his intimidating looks but it never fails to scare me.
"Who is going where?" Cana inquires.
Levy and Gajeel point the same way, as do Wendy and Romeo but in the opposite direction. Juvia and Cana point the another way and Sting and I point the same direction.
After waving goodbye to everyone we all begin walk our separate ways.
"We always walk the same way," Sting chuckles.
I nod, "It's a weird coincidence."
"So about tomorrow," he says timidly.
His tone makes me look up at him with a questioning look.
"I want to tell you something tomorrow."
I raise an eyebrow, "Why can't you tell me it now?"
"I'm too nervous to tell you," he replies.
"There's nothing to be nervous about," I try to persuade him.
"I want it to be tomorrow," he shakes his head. "I just wanted to let you know in advance. Try to make some free time for me, okay?"
I have never heard such a genuine voice in my life. "Okay," I tell him.
"Thanks," he grins like he just won a prize.
We walk to the station together with light and funny conversations Sting always manages to create when we're together.
"It's been a long time since we've talked like this," I say with a smile.
"I missed it," he responds shyly.
"The train is coming," I begin to step closer to the yellow line.
"I'm going to take the other train. It'll take me home faster," he explains.
"Okay," I wave at him. "See you tomorrow!"
I didn't think his eyes could get any brighter but I was wrong. His eyes shine to where his royal blue eyes seem to be turning white.
"See you tomorrow, Lucy," he says softly and waves back.
I sit down in one of the empty seats and daydream about how the festival will be like tomorrow. I pray for Natsu because the students will most definitely win.