Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima owns the series. This story was just made for fun.
Summer Red, Part 2: The Strict Conditions, The Beautiful Blonde Flower Arrangement & The Sunlight of The Summer Meeting
Cana walked into the principal's office with a frustrated look on her face, wondering what her new punishment would be for shirking her responsibilities to save the life of a complete stranger, and she proceeded to sit down in the cushy chair that was in the color of dark green. The dark green chair greatly complimented the juniper green desk that was in front of it, along with how the chair and desk both fashionably went quite well with the forest green walls that were matching the mint green carpet. Cana's feet gently rested on the carpet, and she saw the principal place her chin on her hands.
The principal of the Kimono Dance Academy was Haruka Celadon, a girl with long and wavy juniper green hair that fell to her hips, and she was also deemed to be the best dancer in the academy. Since she was the best dancer, Haruka felt like she deserved to be the person who would create the academy's important rules. One of those important rules involved how students weren't allowed to just impulsively leave the school grounds, even if they had good reasons for thinking that they absolutely had to leave, and Haruka simply frowned at the space of her desk that was in front of Cana.
She wondered about what the best punishment would be for the violet-eyed student in this situation, since hearing from Hizuki about someone's life being in a high amount of danger did make Haruka have other thoughts that didn't pertain to Cana's punishment. Instead, they pertained to the image and perceptions of the Kimono Dance Academy. If the school ever became known for not caring if people died on the grass or in the portion of the river that was considered as part of the school's property for their own uses, then upcoming students wouldn't want to attend the academy.
Haruka didn't want to have to throw away all of the applications that were sent in to the Kimono Dance Academy during the middle of the school's spring semester, so she wanted all of the new students to feel like they would be going to a great dance academy that cared about their safety. One way to do that would be for Haruka to talk to the girl who nearly died in the river, but she couldn't force her to never tell anyone about how she almost passed away on the Kimono Dance Academy's premises. Instead of coercing her to make the school look good in a situation where the Fiore News media would hear about the almost-tragic incident that occurred, Haruka smirked in a scheming manner at how some simple words of persuasion would be helpful in that situation. Although, her idea soon involved someone else doing the persuading when she glanced up at Cana.
"Cana Alberona, going off-campus and taking that girl to the hospital without officially being granted permission from me is a major violation of the academy's rules! You broke the rules to take someone who presumably attends a different academic school or dance school to our town's hospital, based on an impulsive decision. Therefore, I want you to not even think about denying this punishment. You are either going to persuade her to attend our school, or you're suspended for the rest of this semester and the fall semester." Haruka sternly explained to her, as she roughly slammed her hands down on the desk.
That prompted Cana to reply with a shocked look on her face, perceiving the request to be absurd, "You can't be serious, if you're saying that! Haruka, I can't just convince a stranger to attend the Kimono Dance Academy! She's never been a student here or been at any dance competitions, from what I remember! Even if I ever did see her before, she may not like dancing!"
"You certainly won't like the penalty of not getting to be dancing, Cana. This is your first infraction of the summer semester, and ninth infraction overall. You certainly came close to getting yourself kicked out in the previous two semesters with four infractions in both semesters. Five strikes in a semester means you'd never get to see plenty of activities that happen here at a school where things change with each semester, so successfully do me this favor or four more strikes are coming your way." Haruka refuted in a calm manner, not wanting to hear petty excuses.
Cana explained to her in a calm tone, her eyes widening from remembering an important issue, "Doing that favor for you might be tough, since Lucy is in a medically-induced coma. Maybe she won't be comatose forever, Haruka. Over time, her very severe injuries could heal."
Upon hearing that the girl's injuries were very severe, the green-haired principal widened her mint green eyes in pure shock. She had heard from Hizuki that a girl in the river was badly injured, but not to the point of them being severe enough for her to be in a coma. Haruka wondered how Lucy's injuries could've been so harsh to the point where she floated down the river, and that made her realize the fact of how it would be important for Lucy's medical records to be transferred to the Kimono Dance Academy. Not only would the school have her full medical history, but they could see which school Lucy came from.
The location of that school could have something to do with where Lucy floated from, since certain academies were in certain towns. Haruka had sent a group of dancers from the Martial Arts Dance Team to go check out the blood trail in the river yesterday, since they were highly trained to see and smell blood during dance practices, and they would probably be able to find the general starting point for here Lucy's blood would be before she fell in the river. Even if her blood was lightly on some grass, that dance team could sniff it out.
Their impressive skills made Haruka smile at the thought of them being very successful like they always were on scouting jobs pertaining to scents or fighting dancers from other schools, but the sight of Cana still sitting across from her only made Haruka frown. Cana hadn't been as skilled as those students, which was also evident because of her test scores, and the fact that Cana did poorly on the final exam made Haruka feel like some drastic steps had to be taken for her to ensure that Cana wouldn't keep getting bad scores to lower the school's average results on tests or ruin the Kimono Dance Academy's reputation.
"Since your test scores as a second-year student haven't exactly been great in intermediate-level classes, Cana, I'm omitting a dance technique as your end-of-semester final exam." Haruna told Cana while continuing to look stern, feeling like this was the most suitable option.
Cana stated with a happy facial expression, feeling like history wouldn't repeat itself, "Thank you for that, Haruka."
"I wouldn't be so thankful if I were you, Cana. In exchange for that little benefit, your personal final exam will be to make Lucy Heartfilia enjoy life as a student at this school. If she wakes up from her coma before the summer and fall semesters end, you have to make her want to stay here. If you can accomplish that, then you're free to be in advanced-level classes again." Haruka explained to Cana, before smirking at her plan like she left Cana with no other choices.
Upon hearing those requirements, Cana merely nodded and gave Haruka an obedient look. That made the principal slowly get up from her chair, showing Cana that she wore a mint green kimono with a dark green paper fan poking out of her kimono's left pocket while the pattern on her kimono featured matcha green clouds that looked like matcha green tea made from high-quality powder, and Haruka also wore pale green wooden sandals. They were as wooden as the ledges around her office's square windows, which she walked towards while they were behind her desk.
Cana was about to go behind the desk and try to get a personal look at her test scores that she had ignored in the spring semester, but the sudden sound of Haruka loudly snapping her fingers was a signal for Cana to know that their meeting was over. Cana had now been dismissed, only staying around in the office for a few more minutes to see Haruka go to a copy of Cana's summer class schedule that was on the computer, and Haruka wasted no time printing out the copy for Cana. After Cana saw the schedule quickly emerge from the printer, she watched Haruka place it in her left hand right before the principal gently pushed her towards the office's door.
As Cana walked towards the door and opened it, she simply sighed about the new situation that she was in. Cana had to convince Lucy Heartfilia to join the Kimono Dance Academy, as well as make sure she enjoyed herself enough to not talk about nearly losing her life on the campus. If Cana helped her do those things, then she would get to stay at the Kimono Dance Academy instead of being expelled. Cana didn't want to get expelled, especially since this was only the second morning of summer classes. She would have to go to her first class, which would start in fifteen minutes.
20 minutes later, in a flowery garden...
Cana's first class of the day was focusing on flower arrangements for dancing as a kimono girl, since there was the idea that Kimono Girls needed to blend in with certain people for espionage jobs like flowers that couldn't stand out from others in a bouquet. Cana's first assignment in this outdoor class was to simply pick some flowers that she deemed to be beautiful while making sure that they wouldn't stand out too much in the overall arrangement of the bouquet, and she went off into the nearby forest with some underclassmen who all giggled happily about the assignment.
Those girls all began to pick flowers that were in cute colors such as pink, since flowers in different shades of pink didn't majorly stand out from each other. However, Cana chose to pick some yellow flowers from a nearby shrub that had dark green leaves. The shrub's pastel yellow flowers were complimented by the green leaves, but not being able to pick leaves for this assignment made Cana look elsewhere for other flowers that she could add to her two pastel yellow roses. The roses soon had two plain yellow daffodils join them, and Cana smiled nicely from finding them on the ground.
Cana also found some lemon yellow tulips growing in a different patch of plain green grass, and she picked three of those tulips. She made the tulips be in the middle of the bouquet that she held in her right hand, the other flowers merely bordering the triangle of tulips, but the sweet-smelling flowers also seemed like they could be complimented by one other type of flower. Getting a fourth type of flower was like making sure that a Kimono Girl could definitely blend in with several different types of people, whether they were gang members or unofficial dance groups who were trying to make high amounts of money after stealing dance routines from other people.
She decided to gently take a flower from another student's display when they were too busy wondering if they needed more than ten of the same flower for a great bouquet, and Cana had taken a rose that was in a blonde shade of yellow. That flower made her assortment be complete, and Cana went out to the forest's entrance. The entrance of the forest led her to a meadow where there were several beautiful flowers blooming together, and Cana noticed how the flowers in a blonde shade of yellow seemed to be glimmering from the sunlight coming down on them.
"Those flowers are pretty beautiful." Cana simply thought to herself with a nice smile on her face, really liking how the flowers displayed their beauty.
The female teacher of the class asked Cana with a curious facial expression, "Cana, have you found the flowers that you need? If you found some that you really like, then do you want a vase for them when school ends?"
"Not really. A vase isn't something I need, and also it's not like I would need to bring a vase of flowers to anyone." Cana responded with a calm look on her face, her eyes having an uncaring look in them for a moment.
Cana denied the idea of having a vase of flowers for herself, but letting her eyes glance at the blonde yellow flowers for a moment made Cana start to think about something interesting. She remembered how Lucy Heartfilia's room at the hospital didn't even have a vase on the nightstand, not even having some flowers grow in a pot for a hospital patient to feel somewhat more comfortable, and Cana felt like she probably would have to come back here after the school day ended. Although, Cana wouldn't just be back here for the vase.
Getting some beautiful flowers for Lucy to have in her room would probably be somewhat appealing for Lucy to at least start having the small thought of joining the Kimono Dance Academy, since she could interpret that action as someone from the school being nice enough to come see her when she was heavily injured. Even though Lucy didn't go to Cana's school right now, it would be a nice way of getting students from different schools to view each other as friends. Plus, becoming Lucy's friend would allow Cana to have an easier time convincing her to join the Kimono Dance Academy.
If Cana could make those important parts of her plan perfectly connect to where she'd have a new friend and avoid getting expelled, then the joy from that success would be as great as puzzle pieces coming together to display an image of a beautiful flower. Cana started to let out a soft cheer at those pieces of her plan, viewing them all to be very simplistic pieces that emerged from a task that had initially seemed complicated for her to accomplish, and she even ran into the meadow for the purpose of just enjoying the aromas of the various flowers that smelled as good as the blonde flowers.
"Since this is now your second time in this class, are you taking it seriously to where you're happier from being around flowers?" The teacher calmly asked Cana with a nice smile on her face, as she saw Cana smile from just taking in the scents.
That prompted Cana to comically look flustered, nearly forgetting the assignment, "Oh, um.. yeah! The flowers make me very happy, Ms. Takahashi, so please come see my arrangement!"
"All right." Kyoka Takahasi responded with a kind smile on her face, getting off a small grey rock that was near the meadow.
After walking through the meadow, the teacher watched Cana place the blonde yellow flower in the center of her arrangement. That flower was followed by the trio of lemon yellow tulips forming a triangle around the main flower, and the plain yellow daffodils were bordering the left side of the triangle. In contrast to them, the pastel yellow roses bordered the right side of the triangle. The arrangement was interesting to Kyoka, who put her index finger sideways while thinking about how she hadn't seen an arrangement of flowers like this one before.
Cana's arrangement was intriguing, as her flowers blended together in a very great way to where none of them were really standing out. That only meant her flower arrangement had perfect harmony, since each flower worked well with the others to make them all seem like they were part of the arrangement without any colors also offsetting the others, and Cana's decision to place one of the most beautiful flowers in the middle was like placing a Kimono Girl in the middle of a large crowd consisting of other schoolgirls who practiced different types of academics. However, that girl's beauty was like the main flower in how it still seemed to sparkle within a crowd without losing its gleam.
Since she was so impressed by Cana's flower arrangement, Kyoko gave a thumbs-up to her student. Cana felt happy to receive that small bit of praise from her teacher, glad that she massively improved on this assignment from back when Cana had to deal with the poor grade she received on it in the previous semester, and this good grade made her feel like one of her summer classes wasn't a waste of time. In fact, this class wouldn't be meaningless for Cana because of how the assignment gave her an idea for her task of being persuasive towards Lucy when she woke up from her coma.
Seven weeks later...
Cana's idea for persuading Lucy to join the Kimono Dance Academy had to be halted for the past seven weeks, due to each day involving the fact of how Lucy hadn't woken up. Cana didn't even bother ever nudging her or trying to be loud in the hospital room, since she didn't want to get kicked out, and those actions also wouldn't wake up a comatose individual. Lucy never moved a finger while resting in her hospital bed, constantly asleep with the bandages over her eyes and the rest of her body while her breathing was only still active for her to constantly ingest medicines from the new grey rebreather that was on her mouth.
As Lucy was resting again, Cana walked into the hospital room with a calm smile on her face. She was here at the hospital after another day of school ended, coming in during visiting hours, and Cana held an orange vase in her hands. The vase contained all of the flowers that she had picked out for the flower arrangement in her first class, and Cana was merely replacing a previous vase that she had left here in the previous week. She replaced it because of how one of the doctors had accidentally knocked over that vase, causing it to hit the floor and break while the flowers were left only in a puddle of water.
The flowers needed to be in a vase for their stems to be soaked in high amounts of water, as that would help the flowers thrive. Cana hoped that this group of flowers would grow well while they were near the window, being in the perfect position to absorb the sunlight. The rays of the sun's light also came through the window to gently touch Lucy's body, brightening the appearance of the blonde-haired girl while the light provided her wth a slight bit of warmth, and Cana merely stepped away from the window to let the sunlight make Lucy's bandages glisten as much as her blonde hair.
Cana turned around to just glance at Lucy's short blonde hair, noticing how it had only grown two or three inches over the summer, and Cana simply stroked Lucy's hair for a few seconds. She hoped that Lucy could somehow feel her soft touch, her hand being very soft like it belonged to a person who cared entirely about Lucy instead of wanting to gain anything for themselves from speaking with her. Cana hadn't seen much of a problem with persuading Lucy to join her school as a way for Cana to not get herself kicked out of the Kimono Dance Academy, and she felt like Lucy would totally trust her. Cana saw a tear fall from the bandages covering Lucy's eyes, however, and she watched Lucy's mouth be so wet from ingesting medicine to where her lips came off of the rebreather. She was able to take a breath of fresh air, before wincing in pain, and Lucy uttered one word.
"M-Mai..." She stated in a soft and pained whisper, as more tears emerged from behind the bandages.
Cana asked aloud while leaning down to be closer to Lucy, looking curious at something she misinterpreted, "My? My what? What is it, Lucy?"
"M-Mai..., don't do it. Please don't... M-Mai!" Lucy softly whispered, before exclaiming the girl's name and making herself sit up like she was trying to get out of someone's arms.
Lucy sat up in the bed, her lips forming a puzzled look as she seemed confused about what was in front of her. She attempted to make her arms be raised to touch the bandages, only to wince from feeling a strong amount of pain throughout her body, and Lucy couldn't even move a muscle without feeling pained. Her current predicament prompted Cana to gently peel away the bandages from the spots where they were slightly loosened, allowing Lucy to have the bandages fall down on to her lap, and Lucy's eyes had been closed during the removing of the bandages.
After the bandages were no longer around her eyes, Lucy slowly opened her eyes to see that she was in a hospital bed while she also had a visitor. Lucy wondered if Cana was an off-duty doctor, noticing her orange jean jacket over the brown bra that went well with her brown Capri pants. Lucy smiled nicely at how her visitor had some interesting attire, before wondering if she had suffered some form of amnesia. Lucy was absolutely clueless about the identity of this woman, intensely noticing her long brown hair and tan skin like she was trying to associate her appearance with a certain name.
No names came to Lucy's mind, and she merely gave Cana a very blank stare. Cana looked back at her with a puzzled facial expression, wondering what Lucy was thinking about in this moment, and that made her simply look a bit embarrassed. Despite how she just did something nice for Lucy, Cana hadn't even introduced herself yet. That probably pertained to why Lucy was looking like she had to really wonder if they had met before, and Lucy had been in a coma for nearly the entire summer to where she hadn't met anyone new.
"Hi, Lucy. My name is Cana Alberona, and it's good to see you're awake. I'm the person who brought you here, and it's good that I saved you from dying in that river near the Kimono Dance Academy." Cana explained to Lucy with a kind smile on her face, glad that Lucy wouldn't die while in a coma.
Lucy responded to her with a surprised facial expression, attempting to recall the visitor's words before calmly asking with a curious look on her face, "Cana Alberona... Kimono Dance Academy where there's a river.. Cana, how long was I asleep here and in the river?"
"You were asleep for seven weeks, Lucy. You practically slept through the whole summer, and the fall semester of school is starting soon. If you want to go back to your old school, then you could-" Cana replied to Lucy with a calm look on her face, before thinking about how Lucy had her own thoughts about school.
Lucy responded in a worried manner, her eyes suddenly widened as she recalled recent memories pertaining to her old school, "No..! No...! Not another year of it! Not after what she...! No!"
Cana attempted to place one of her hands on Lucy's shoulders to calm her down, only for Lucy to quickly move her shoulder in a shoving manner to get Cana's hand away. She started to look at Cana, only to briefly see the image of Mai Kinoyama looking startled at Lucy for fighting back against her, and it seemed like Lucy wasn't ready to think about the current day. Her thoughts were focused on her trauma, as she began to remember herself being in Mai's dark room and having sex with Minako before that brutal prank occurred.
The memories of that brutal prank made Lucy start to have other memories, flashing right before her eyes, such as when she and Mai had a breakup only one month after they had sex. The fact that Lucy even had sex with Mai caused her to tightly grip the white bed sheet out of frustration, hating how that entire relationship and friendship had been based on Mai being so disgustingly selfish to only care for her own goals. However, the vast majority of Magnolia Academy's students were probably blinded by her fake niceness to where they would never know her true personality.
Lucy unfortunately knew about Mai's true personality, knowing how she was a vicious narcissist who pretended to be a victim after being quite hurtful, but Mai had recorded photos of Lucy having sex with Minako. Those photos were sent to every student at Magnolia Academy, meaning that people would be asking her about being in a skimpy bra and underwear during sex with Minako while they would probably be assuming that Lucy cheated on Mai. Mai even pretended to seem like Lucy had been abusing her on the day where the breakup occurred, which meant that students would probably view Lucy as an abusive person, and she felt like her reputation at Magnolia Academy would be a bad one to where she couldn't make any friends when she'd be a second-year student.
"I... I don't want to go back to Magnolia Academy. It's... just too much, and the cliques...!" Lucy stated aloud with an anxious look on her face, before closing her eyes and seeming frustrated.
Those words prompted Cana to tell Lucy in a calm tone, slightly widening her eyes in amazement from feeling like this was a great opportunity for Haruka's plan to work, "Listen, Lucy. If you didn't have a good time at Magnolia Academy, then join the Kimono Dance Academy. It won't be easy for you at all, especially with the condition that your body's in. Although, we have a great physical therapy class and I'm sure that some accommodations can be made for you."
"Cana, I... guess that I could transfer schools. Although, I never even signed a withdrawing form or even got out of my apartment. Speaking of my apartment, I didn't even pay the monthly rent of seventy-thousand jewels. Cana, that means I even have nowhere to go and I'm surrounded by a bunch of strangers. I... I don't want to get hurt again." Lucy told Cana with a look of worry on her face, before realizing a harsh truth about her apartment's rent being an issue.
Cana told her in a confident manner, sounding very manipulative and persuasive with a bit of seduction in her voice to seduce Lucy into thinking about the idea, "If you've been kicked out of your apartment and you're far from Magnolia Academy, then you'd have to find on-campus housing or live close to the nearest school. Right now, you're near the Kimono Dance Academy. There's nothing wrong with dropping a plain school uniform for a kimono, Lucy."
Lucy simply looked into Cana's eyes, seeing them be filled with confidence about how this would be a good option for Lucy to have a nice restart for her life, and the assurance in Cana's voice seemed a bit hypnotic to Lucy. Her words seemed a bit manipulative on the surface, but it was like Cana gave her a good offer that couldn't be refused. Lucy softly smiled about it, before immediately frowning, and she simply stayed in bed while thinking about what to do. The fact that she needed time for giving Cana an answer caused the brown-haired girl to turn around and leave, but Cana giving her a friendly wink with one eye as she went out the door made Lucy wonder if this was a sign of someone wanting to build trust with her.
How was Chapter 2 of the main story? This chapter was meant to display how Cana has self-interested motives when it comes to getting Lucy to attend the Kimono Dance Academy. Lucy doesn't exactly trust Cana for seeming friendly and manipulative in a supposedly positive way, and that's due to her trauma from what Mai Kinoyama put her through. Lucy and Cana will have a slow friendship, but the CaLu being slow just allows it to have proper buildup for certain plot points. I'll update as soon as possible. :)
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