One of my New Years Resolutions is to stop writing Author's Notes entirely. Seriously.
Edit:
So just for clarification, this story isn't going to be a "Nali" story. I don't want to say too much without spoiling what will happen.
"Jessica! Holly! Levy!"
At the call of their manager, two waitresses, one a seventeen-year-old with half of her jet-black hair shaved, the other, a nineteen-year-old brunette with her hair in pigtails, both came skating over in orange sundresses.
"Levy? Where is that slacker?!" The manager inquired.
"Um… probably in the bathroom?" Holly, the older of the two offered.
"Whatever, just make sure she's not slacking off, or she's fired!"
Holly smiled nervously, as it was all she could do.
"Remember your training ladies," the manager continued. "We're expecting a big crowd today and we're hoping to impress."
"Yes ma'am!"
"Yes ma'am."
After being dismissed from the older woman, the two waitresses shared a knowing look.
"Are you going to look for her or…?" Jessica asked. She raised a jet-black eyebrow in her co-worker's direction. The look in her sparkling blue eyes, told Holly that she was just about over it.
"I'll do it," Holly offered exasperatedly. Afterall, she was the one who tried covering for her in the first place.
Now, where was that troublesome little blunette?
Holly found Levy sprawled on the ground behind the cashier's counter where people would go to pay for bowling games and get their respective shoes for said game.
"Levy!" the girl hissed. "What are you doing here?!"
Like the emerald eyed brunette standing above her, Levy wore an orange sundress with the Marcus' emblem across her chest in big white font, she had a silk orange scrunchie piece scrunched up on her left upper arm. Her wild, armpit length blue hair cascaded on her shoulders and the ground surrounding where she lay, with only her bangs being pulled back by a long orange headband tie.
Levy rolled over, letting her disinterested brown eyes bore into Holly's green ones. She had on knee high, white socks with no shoes and decided to stop kicking her legs back and forth when she rolled over. She revealed a notebook on the ground.
"I'm bored," she said plainly.
"Huh?"
"I was bored," she said, picking up her pencil and tapping it on her open notebook. "So, I decided to do my homework."
Holly's eyes just about popped out of their sockets as she watched the shorter blunette gather her belongings.
Holly started to panic. Was this what kids did for fun these days? She knew she hadn't been out of school that long, but she already felt so out of the loop. Levy looked at her skates and sighed.
This job was so boring.
"Well Levy, you can do your homework after your shift, but we have to go now!" She said frantically, holding onto Levy's shoulders and ushering her back to the pizza parlor.
In all honesty, Levy found her homework to be painfully boring too, but it just seemed like the better alternative to actually doing her job.
"I told the manager you were in the bathroom to save you some time, so go!" And with that, Holly pushed the blunette waitress on the floor. The momentum from the push made her roll quite far into the dining area. She looked around as people began to pile in.
Awkwardly, the waitress shuffled over to a waiting table holding a smiling teenage couple. During training, they taught the waitresses how to roller skate to wait tables, but truth be told, Levy couldn't be bothered to learn anything more than not falling on her face.
"I'm boooooored," Levy drawled when she reached their table. The boy looked at his date, then at her confused.
Was this supposed to be their problem or something?
"Do you happen to have some way to entertain me?"
The couple looked perplexed.
"Um, no. Sorry?" the poor boy offered.
Thankfully, on her way back from delivering orders Holly noticed the train wreck as it was about to unfold at her coworker's table. "Levy!" the brunette cried.
"I am so sorry about that," Holly said pulling Levy from the center of the table firmly to her side. She cast them a nervous smiling expression before she continued.
"Can I take your order?"
After skating away from the table with orders memorized and Levy in tow, Holly stopped short right before they reached the kitchen. The brunette grabbed onto her shoulders and looked her square in the eyes.
"Okay Levy, I want you to stay right here while I wait the tables. When I come back to this area with the orders, all you have to do is tell them to the kitchen. Alright?"
Holly knew she was going to be taking on an incredibly difficult task. Each waitress was assigned a third of the pizza parlor section to wait all the tables in that area. Jessica was managing hers just fine, but now Holly was going to have to do her own and Levy's.
Levy let her eyes wander from Holly's to somewhere behind her. She wondered what they made those strobe lights out of…
"Levy?"
"Oh, yeah, sure," Levy said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Holly sighed. She hoped this would all work out.
Levy stayed put, watching as her coworkers and customers mingled on the floor. She watched as customers paid their way in and then were seated from the entrance. She also watched as this group of kids all wearing the same school uniform strolled in and were seated at a booth big enough for six.
Well they seemed somewhat interesting.
"This is fucking awesome!" a boy with pink hair cried.
Pink hair huh? Levy hummed in interest.
"Would you shut it!" a girl with short platinum blonde hair screeched. Her arm was latched onto a boy with dark, raven locks, an opened button-up shirt with a silver cross chain hanging from the outside and his hands buried deep in his pockets.
A couple? Interesting. But the boy didn't look too enthused.
"Sorry Lisanna…" the tan pinkette whimpered.
The girl named Lisanna, gave a look to the ceiling, and then rested her other hand on the already latched arm of the raven-haired boy next to her.
Hm. That was an interesting interaction.
There was a blonde girl who was clenching her stomach with her face grimaced in pain. The honey blonde boy next to her noticed this and jabbed the pinkette in his back, murmuring something irately to him, gesturing to the girl.
"Oh crap, Luce!" The pinkette yelped. "Sorry!"
Levy raised an eyebrow. What was that all about? Indigestion?
Another interesting dynamic.
As the pinkette and the honey blonde boy doted over the girl named 'Luce', the girl named 'Lisanna' and the boy she was holding turned around to see what was going on.
Lastly, there was an overweight boy wrapped up in an unflattering jacket and hat combination, along with baggy school pants (compared to his other male counterparts') who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there... or better yet, like he wanted to be wearing pants drenched in gasoline on the way to hell.
Levy was starting to question if he even came with them at all.
Something about seeing the six of them together just piqued Levy's interest for the first time that night.
A wicked smile graced her lips of its own volition.
And thus, ignoring Holly's instructions, Levy skated over to their table without hesitation.
Jessica watched the tiny blunette skate gleefully from the corner of her eye.
Something was off. For starters, Levy was actually putting some effort into something instead of just trying to shirk off her responsibilities and staying out of the way with an air of cool disinterest. Jessica noticed the blunette carried a large smile on her face as she skated over.
Jessica knew that smile.
Nothing ever good came of that sinister little sneer of hers.
The raven-haired waitress looked at the current apple of Levy's eye and sighed.
She honestly felt sorry for them.
Roller Skating Rink Madness pt.1
Marcus' Entertainment Palace was truly palace-like in stature. As Natsu and the others walked past the entrance after getting their coupons scanned, the pinkette marveled at the architecture and stunning aesthetics. At the very center of the wide-open space, was a large, well-lit, circular island that obviously stood as a cashier station as it contrasted with the rest of the dark, dimly lit building. Going off to the far left, would lead you to the larger, and louder arcade section, that was buzzing with video game effects, children and teens, talking, laughing and shouting. To the far right of the cashier station was the bowling alley section, that had lanes for bowling going wall to wall. Every lane was occupied.
Lastly, was what was right behind the cashier island.
Stationed behind the register was a dining space, apportioned to be the pizza parlor with lots of booths and tables. People wouldn't go and serve themselves, but rather would be seated and would have to wait to be served by waitresses on roller skates, following the theme of the establishment.
"Woah!" Natsu marveled again.
Lucy had stars in her eyes. "It's so big!" she cried.
Gray let out a low whistle under his breath.
Before long, they were all guided to a booth large enough to hold six people and they took their seats. Loke, Lisanna then Gray, in that order, sat on one side of the table, while Juvia, Lucy and Natsu sat on the adjacent side.
"So why the heck are we eating first?" Natsu started. "Don't people usually get cramps and crap after doing stuff after they eat?"
"Yeah, well," Gray retorted. "The lady seated us here first so we could eat. You're welcome to leave if you want to waste free food."
Natsu's ready protest died in his throat. He slouched in the booth quietly. As much as he wanted to argue, he had never been one to waste free food. He had never done it in the past, and he certainly wasn't about to start now.
Oh, and he sure as heck wasn't about to let Lucy do it either.
"Good afternoon!" A petite, blue haired waitress greeted. "Welcome to Marcus' Entertainment Palace, can I take your order?"
"Oh, uh… we're just here for the special," Gray said sheepishly.
"Oh, I know!" Levy chirped cheerfully.
She most certainly did not.
"What drinks would you like?"
"It comes with drinks too…?" Natsu asked cluelessly.
Loke slapped his palm against his forehead forcefully. "Have you ever eaten out before?"
Natsu made a face. He certainly wasn't about to say no… but he couldn't exactly say yes either.
"I'll have the iced tea," Gray said. "Oh wait… will that be extra?"
"Course not."
Levy had absolutely no freaking idea.
"Can I just have a water please…" Lisanna chimed in from next to him. "Also, is there a chance I can get my pizza without meat? I'm a vegetarian."
"Get me a pop babe," Loke added confidently. "I don't really care what flavor; I'll drink whatever you pick for me." He ended his statement with a evocative eyebrow wiggle in Levy's direction.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Natsu was trying to help Lucy make a decision.
"What do you want to drink?"
"Uhm…" Lucy was lost. She was looking at the entrée menu for the drinks and she couldn't find anything that looked really thirst quenching. When Natsu noticed this, he took the menu out her hand and swapped it, with the drink menu with a little chuckle under his breath.
Typical Lucy.
After a quick scan of the drink menu she quickly came to a decision. "Pina Colada!"
Natsu started to wheeze after hearing her choice. "Doesn't that have rum in it?" he questioned.
The last thing Natsu needed in his life was to be carrying a drunken Lucy all the way home. God knows she was already enough of a handful fully sober.
"Well, what do you want me to get?" She asked.
"Will you be okay with getting what I'm getting?" He asked her carefully.
"Well what are you getting?"
A wicked grin broke out on his face.
"Fruit punch with a strong shot of hot sauce in it!" He shouted.
The other side of the table grimaced.
"That's disgusting," Gray deadpanned.
"I hope you're not planning to subject my poor little Lucy to that," Loke said indignantly.
"Lucy honey, surely you don't want to drink that… do you?" Lisanna asked sympathetically.
None of the criticism of his tastes seemed to damper the glow Natsu had on his face since he announced his drink. This was a treat, so he damn sure was going to make the most out of it.
Lucy shook her head smiling. "No way am I not going to drink this!" She said excitedly. "Don't you see how excited Natsu is? I can't wait to try this out now to see what's got him smiling so much!"
Natsu turned to her with a big cheesy grin. "That's my girl!" And then they high fived.
The others all looked on at their show of camaraderie with off-put expressions. Loke looked like he was on the verge of tears. "My poor Lucy…"
Juvia sat quietly in the corner looking over the menu options. Nothing seemed appealing to her. In fact, she felt as if she was becoming nauseous just sitting there… idle. She knew she couldn't sit there and enjoy herself even if she wanted to.
So, what was she really doing?
Nothing that matters.
And none of the others could ever understand that.
"Do you have any tea?" she asked softly. Regardless, she still decided to order something.
Natsu jumped a little hearing her voice. She had been so quiet, he nearly forgot she was there.
"Hot tea?" Juvia clarified, after Levy said nothing, dumbstruck.
Again, Levy didn't know what the hell was on the menu. She couldn't be bothered to recall any of the details of the menu board they told the waitresses to memorize during their training.
"Um-"
"Never mind," Juvia said quickly. "I'll just have some water."
Levy smiled. A big bright smile, that no one could tell the phoniness of.
"Okay! I'll be back with your drinks in a second!"
The blunette turned away, shuffling on the skates lost in her own, happy little world. Jessica eyed her again on her way back to kitchen serving another table. Levy felt the heat of Jessica's gaze from across the room and turned to give her suspicious coworker a devious half smile.
A half smile, that made Jessica's stomach quiver.
What was that girl planning?
After a while, Levy came shuffling out of the kitchen with a tray full of drinks in tow. When she arrived back to the table, their conversations all died down.
"Here you go," she chirped. She grabbed a glass of Coke soda from the tray and handed it to Loke, she handed Juvia and Lisanna their waters, and Natsu and Lucy their spicy fruit punch drinks. Gray's iced tea was the last on her tray, and as she was taking it off the tray hoisted on her shoulders, she 'accidently' wobbled on her roller skates, causing about a quarter of the boy's chilled beverage to spill on his shirt.
The boy jumped.
Lisanna's gasp was all that could be heard as all eyes at the table turned to them. Gray looked down at the sticky, brown liquid dripping down his polyester shirt in disbelief.
"Oh my gosh," Levy cried. "I am sooo sorry!"
"Ah, don't worry about it," Gray said, grabbing some tissue to start cleaning the mess.
Natsu's shock, immediately transformed into laughter, as he didn't waste any time in outright laughing at the boy, pointing to his spilled drink.
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"
Lucy swatted him forcefully on the arm for this.
"Ow! What was that for?"
Lisanna grabbed some paper towels and reached over to help Gray. "Here, let me…"
"Let me help!" Levy said ghastly, in an almost panicky matter, helping Gray to clean up the iced tea.
Lisanna paused, stunned.
Levy took the napkins and rubbed the stain that was mostly on the chest of his shirt with as much force as she could muster.
She rubbed, and rubbed, and rubbed, and rubbed, and rubbed, feeling more and more of Gray's chiseled chest hidden beneath the fabric of the shirt. With a sly smirk on her face, she let out a soft, audible hum.
Nobody else seemed to notice this but Lisanna.
"Hey," Gray started, holding her hand so the blunette could stop her ministrations. That moment when their hands touched, the boy and the waitress made eye contact, and Levy tried her best to make it last for as long as possible. Gray was none the wiser.
"It's okay," he said. "This obviously isn't working."
And with that, Gray just unbuttoned the rest of his shirt, revealing only his undershirt underneath and outlining more of his chiseled abs and pecs. He let out a little groan as he further assessed the stain. "Ugh, I'll just have to wash this when I get home."
"Really?" Levy asked. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. You're fine." He said tersely.
"Wow! Thank you!" she cheered.
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Officially overstaying her welcome, Levy decided to strike up a conversation.
"So…" Levy said, making her way around the table until she was right by Loke. "You guys are from Fairy Tail right?"
She cupped her face in her hands, leaning over the table smiling. "I've heard so much about it! I'm so jealous that you all get to go there cause every time I hear about it; it sounds like so much fun!"
Natsu would beg to differ, but fortunately for her, he wasn't the first to answer.
The whole time she talked, Levy couldn't help the conniving expression she was concealing under her innocent guise, as she sensed the jealousy emitting in waves from Lisanna. The platinum blonde was glaring at her the whole time.
"Oh, most definitely!" Lucy chirped. "Fairy Tail's the best! I'd recommend for anyone to go there!"
Levy shot the blonde an overly critical glare. Lucy almost seemed to be shining as she talked about her school and how much she loved it. As she talked, Levy made a mental note to herself that she was probably the pretty popular girl… a bit of an airhead though.
"Well, any girl as cute as you babe, would fit right in at our school," Loke added with a suggestive wink.
Levy let out a small, unimpressed hum that nobody else could hear from her chest.
So she was right… he was the pretty boy of the group.
Levy shot him back a sly wink and did the 'call me' gesture with her fingers, behind the backs of Natsu, Lucy and Juvia, and without anyone else noticing. This caught Loke completely off-guard, as he was stuck there with a frozen smile on his face.
To the person that interested Levy the most at the table, because of his peculiar hair color, Levy turned her attention to Natsu.
"And what about you?" Levy asked sweetly.
"What about me?"
"What do you think about your school?"
"Ummmmmmm, it sucks?" he said off the top of his head.
Lucy swatted him sharply on the arm, while everyone else at the table rolled their eyes or groaned.
"What?"
"You'll have to excuse our braindead friend Natsu," Gray stared. "He's suffering from severe physical trauma to the head."
"Why you- "
"Bring it on, you twat!" Gray said getting up and slamming one foot on the table.
Levy noted the interaction between the two and the drastic change in Gray's character from the gentlemanly side shown before.
Could this have been the interesting thing she was looking for?
Levy smirked manically.
These six would make the perfect test subjects.
Speaking of peculiar hair color, Levy noticed the silvers of blue hair that slipped out from underneath Juvia's hat. Levy's interest reached its uttermost peak, when she realized that it was a girl wrapped up in all those clothes.
Oh boy, was this going to be fun.
"Boys! Boys!" Levy said, in an effort to calm them down. "No need to fight over it!"
Gray and Natsu glared at each other from across the table, both not wanting to back down first to appear inferior to the other. Then finally, Gray sighed.
"Sorry," he said, as he disarmed and sat down.
"Ha!" Natsu glowered in his triumph, pointing a finger at his biggest rival.
"Oh, shut it you bumbling idiot!"
"Say… Natsu, was it?"
The pinkette paused his glowering to focus his attention back on Levy.
"I've been meaning to ask this for a while now, but I didn't want to be rude… but… your hair… is pink its natural color?"
"Well… yeah…" he answered dumbstruck. "Oh, and it's not pink its actually salmon."
"Oh sorry!" she squeaked. "Hey… do you mind if I touch it?"
Natsu had to look around the table at the others, just to make sure he wasn't the only one witnessing this. This felt so weird to him.
"Um… okay?"
Levy did a little jump for joy. "Thank you!" Without another thought, Levy leaned over and placed her palm right on his salmon colored spikes, immediately taken back by just how soft and glossy they were. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers.
"Woah…" She gasped out loud, which was her genuine reaction.
After a few more seconds of this, she shuffled closer. "Hey, you mind if I wedge to the other side, just so I can feel it a bit more?"
Lucy watched with wide eyes as Levy ruffled in Natsu's hair. Her heart started to swell with happiness.
There was someone else who looked like they were enjoying Natsu almost as much as she did!
As Levy shuffled her way in between Lucy and Natsu, she had 'accidently' slipped on her skates causing her to fall, and on her way to the ground she reached out and took Juvia's hat with her. Cascading waves of shiny blue fell like rivers of flowing water around Juvia's back and chest.
Juvia, being caught off guard at the sudden absence of her hat, let out a loud gasp.
All eyes turned to her.
The blue hue of her hair accentuated the exotic beauty of her eyes. Her azure-colored eyes, slightly slanted in shape and paired with long, thick but spaced out eyelashes were truly stunning. Both her hair and her eyes were accentuated perfectly with her clear pale skin. Her small, button-like nose and semi-plump, naturally pink lips, all complimented and completed the feminine nature of her face.
Levy smiled at her handiwork.
The reveal of Juvia's blue curly hair, was both shocking and dramatic for everyone at the table.
A small blush started to form on Lucy's face.
"Wooahh… so pretty…"
They all stared wide eyed and gawking; truly appreciating just how beautiful Juvia was.
Juvia on the other hand, sat there mortified.
"Your hair is so beautiful," Levy said breaking the ice. She started to fiddle with a lock of her own blue mane. "And see, its blue like mine!"
In one swift move, Juvia forcefully yanked her tam back from the waitress, glaring at her the whole time.
"Say…? Why do you hide your hair?" The shorter girl asked innocently enough. "Is it because you're ashamed of it?"
Levy's words felt like dull thumps against Juvia's ears. In fact, all the sounds in the pizza parlor smushed together to produce one big mish mosh of sound that didn't register to the blunette at all.
All she could hear clearly was her own heart, beating clear as day in her chest.
Lucy. Natsu. Lisanna.
Gray. Loke.
The their dimly lit faces started to blur as her mind began to spin.
She felt…
Exposed.
Her face began to feel hot beneath her skin. Her world was being tipped slightly on its axis with no point of center.
Were her hands getting clammy?
She couldn't tell.
"… via? Juvia!"
She immediately snapped back to clarity.
"Yes?" she managed.
"Are you okay…?" Lisanna, or someone at the table asked her. Right now, it was hard to put a face to a voice.
"I'm fine!" she insisted, and with a bone chilling gaze over her shoulder she finished icily with: "don't follow me."
The other five just sat there in an uneasy and uncomfortable silence after the blunette abruptly got up and left the table. They could obviously tell something was wrong with her… but they weren't able help.
And yet here they were, laughing and enjoying themselves without giving her a second thought.
Levy noticed the mood shift at the table and let out a heavy sigh with eyes half-lidded.
How boring…
Well she's had her fun. But this group has officially lost its interestingness to her. She began to move.
"Well, I guess I'll go check on your food now-"
"Don't."
Levy turned around in surprise to see who had rudely interrupted her. And it was Natsu.
"I don't fucking want it if you're going to be serving it," he finished with a rage-induced glare.
Everyone turned to him as he had his eyebrows in a knot and eyes squeezed shut. A small vein was beginning to bulge on his forehead.
"Natsu?" Lucy questioned confused. She deduced he must've been really mad, because most times when they were together like this, he would've taken more care at cursing around her. However right now, his emotions were just erratically and unceremoniously cranked up to ten.
Levy jumped a little in fright at the deadly glare he shot at her.
Woah. Sca-ry.
Perhaps she might've spoke too soon.
"Wha-what do you mean?" Levy stuttered, feigning innocence.
"Drop that stupid innocent act you've got on," he spat harshly getting up. "It's really starting to piss me off." With that, he stormed away from the table in the direction of the roller-skating arena, giving no regard to the free meal he was forfeiting.
Yep. He must've really been mad.
"Yeah," Gray said coolly, getting up. "I'm suddenly not in the mood to eat anymore."
Lisanna looked on at Gray as he started to walk in the opposite direction of Natsu, into the arcade arena section. She frantically got up, picking up his thrown about school shirt going after him. "Gray? Hey, wait for me! Don't forget your shirt!"
Loke stood up silently too, opting not to say anything, but instead gave Levy a disapproving look before he too walked away, leaving only Lucy at the table.
Looking at the empty open seats surprised the blunette but not by much, as she blew a stray strand of hair from her face. "Whatever."
The blunette looked at Lucy. The blonde looked back.
"I guess you're going to leave now too huh?" Levy asked starkly, finally giving up the innocent act she was playing before.
Lucy continued to stare at Levy and blink, with wide, innocent doe-brown eyes.
The waitress decided not to wait for an answer, as she turned and skated away.
So we have an introduction of another major character... Levy.
Yay!