It was a great day to start the first classes at Fairy Tail College. Lucy Heartfilia had recently finished her undergraduate degree and now, she was 20 years old, had changed college to continue her path in literature and fulfill her biggest dream, to be a famous writer. Fortunately, she was not alone, although she still felt awkward about moving towns and seeming to start all over again. She had her best friend, Levy McGarden. They were inseparable and always did everything together, always supported each other and that was the reason they had been friends for years. Lucy was the opposite of her friend, Levy always had an easy time making friends and could have fun anywhere, but Lucy was a little more shy and didn't trust people as much, especially guys. She didn't know if this lack of trust was because she had suffered a lot in the past with her relationships where the boys just treated her like an object, or if it was because her father had never been a good man to her mother. He had left her a long time ago and she still couldn't understand how her mother had managed to forgive him, but she tried not to think about it too much.

"Hey! What are you thinking? You're looking at the middle of nowhere again."

Lucy was interrupted from her thoughts again by Levy's voice, as she waved her hand in front of her face for attention.

"Oh, it's nothing. Sorry, I was just distracted again."

"Don't try to fool me, Lu-chan! I already know you perfectly well, you were thinking about something, and by the look on your face, it's not irrelevant at all."

"Don't worry, I'm not thinking about anything important. I was just distracted for a while."

"Well, I guess that's just nerves about going to Fairy Tail. I told you not to worry, it'll be fine! We're going to have a lot of fun, you'll see. I just hope the food is great."

"Are you really thinking about food at this hour?"

"My breakfast was nothing special! You know I need to eat well to keep all my energy up for the rest of the day."

"I think it's going to be a college just like the others. I bet it will make me even more homesick and I'll regret coming here."

"Don't be boring! Fairy Tail is one of the best colleges in the country! You know perfectly well why we came here, it's the best college to give us the best opportunities in the future. That's just your little head feeling homesick and talking nonsense."

"You know I'm not used to being in a new environment. On top of that, with so many new people I don't know."

"Don't be so dramatic, I'm sure we're not the only new people in town. There are a lot of people coming to Fairy Tail for the first time and coming from a long way to be here." she gave Lucy's arm a little slap and smiled, "Cheer up! We're starting a new chapter. Who knows, we might even find our friends for life and maybe some interesting boys too." she winked.

"I don't see what's so interesting about that. You know most guys are all jerks." she rolled her eyes, "But okay, you win. I'll try to be more upbeat just so I don't have to listen to you complain the whole time."

"That's just what I wanted to hear!"

The walk to college was not long and we quickly found the huge gate at the entrance. The college was modern looking, there was no doubt that the appearance was one of the things that made people want to come here. Levy quickly took the paper with the map of the college and its respective rooms. She looked carefully and found the class she would be taking next, while Lucy did the same.

"Well, it looks like we are in different rooms. I'll try to find my way there. See you when the first class is over?"

"Sure thing." Lucy smiled as she watched her friend walk away.

After walking for a few minutes lost among the halls of the college, Lucy finally found the door to her class and peeked inside. She didn't know why she had done that, since all the people inside were strangers and she didn't know anyone. As she continued to look into the room, curious, she felt someone touch her shoulder and turned around.

"You'll need to go into the room if you want to attend class. Teachers don't have a habit of giving the class to people standing outside the door." the mystery girl smiled, "Hi, you must be new here. I'm Lisanna, nice to meet you."

"Hi, I'm Lucy. Sorry, I'm still trying to get used to all this."

"Don't worry, it's normal. No one is expecting new students not to make a fool of themselves."

Lucy was a little thoughtful at that comment because she didn't know what the girl meant, but she tried to ignore it. She was already lucky that someone had talked to her on the first day, and Lisanna seemed nice for trying to help her.

Before she could get into the room, the teacher finally arrived and stared at the two of them in the doorway. Lisanna smiled and Lucy just kept quiet as she looked at the teacher for not knowing his name or what to say. It was all very strange to her.

"Good morning, professor."

"Good morning, Lisanna. I see we have a new student here, am I right?" he looked at Lucy curiously.

"Yes, sorry... I'm Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia."

"Welcome to Fairy Tail, Lucy. I'm sure you'll enjoy being here. Shall we go in?"

After everyone was seated, Lucy looked at the people in the room to try to get some impressions. A few minutes later, she started hearing some girls behind her whispering low and letting out some giggles. She was confused and when she tried to look back, Lisanna spoke up to get her attention.

"Don't mind them, they are reacting like that because they already know who is coming into the classroom."

"Do you have a problem, Lisanna? Are you jealous because you don't have his attention?"

"And who told you that?" Lisanna turned back to confront the girls.

"Do you really think he would want something with you? He'd sooner try something with your sister, since she's much more interesting than you."

"You want to start a fight on your first day? I don't think that's such a good idea." Lisanna was about to get up when the teacher scolded them for talking and told her to sit down again. She did so and rolled her eyes, "These girls are so annoying."

"I'm sorry, but who are they talking about?"

"Oh, right. You don't know yet. According to most of the girls in Fairy Tail, he is the most handsome guy here. His name is Natsu Dragneel, you're going to hear a lot about him here."

"Really? That seems a bit over the top." Lucy laughed just thinking about it.

"He has all the girls after him. It's like he's a god walking around this college. The problem is that he wants nothing to do with most of the people who go after him. He got that name because he is too gentlemanly and kind to the girls, but he is quickly able to break the heart of any one he doesn't want to accept. This has almost turned into a competition among some of the girls to get his attention."

"That's a little weird. I couldn't imagine doing that kind of thing, I think it's pretty silly."

"I agree too."

"That's very funny coming from you, Lisanna. Weren't you the one who had tried to get close to him a long time ago?" one of the girls in the back said as she giggled.

"Really? Does that mean you like him too?" Lucy playfully smiled.

"I can't say he's not quite attractive and interesting. Unfortunately, he hasn't been involved with any Fairy Tail girls in a long time, I think he must have even made a pact with himself by now. He just got sick of having all the girls after him and wanted to put a stop to it, even though he continues to be kind to all of them." she smiled, "Still, I think I'd have a better chance than these two back here. I live in the same place as him, I walk with him on the way here from time to time."

"Sounds like you have a good head start then!" Lucy smiled, "Who knows, you two might be together someday."

After the class ended, Lucy said goodbye to the girls and left the room to go find Levy quickly. She had been a little disappointed not to see the boy they had been talking so much about, since he turned out not to show up for class. She wasn't particularly interested in the boy because she wanted to keep her mind occupied of such things, but she was curious about what he would look like. When she finally found Levy, she walked over to her and noticed that suddenly, a tall black-haired boy bumped into her friend.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to." Levy said as she looked at the tall boy.

"Watch where you're going, shorty!"

"What?! Say that again."

"Are you deaf? I said watch where you're going, shorty."

"Again?! I don't know you, but I swear if you call me that again, I'll get to your face a lot faster than you think."

"Whatever you say, shorty. I have better things to do than stand here talking to you."

"Didn't anyone teach you any manners? You're nothing but a rude gorilla!"

"What did you call me?!" he looked at her angrily and Lucy tried to walk over to her friend to stop that fight.

"Excuse me, are you deaf?" Levy gave a teasing smile.

"You're very cute, shorty. For a newbie, you've got a lot of balls. Let's see if you're that funny when I put you in your place."

"That's enough, Gajeel!" a boy's voice boomed from down the hall, "There's no point in you starting a fight with a girl."

The boy reached over to his tall friend and put his hand on his shoulder to calm him down and end that fight. Lucy did the same as she walked over to her friend and asked her if everything was okay. Levy just turned around again to look at the tall boy who was called Gajeel and stuck out her tongue so he could see. He just ignored it, although he had an angry expression wanting to continue the fight again. The other boy turned to Levy and smiled.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. Thank you for the help, that gorilla is insufferable."

He just smiled and nodded. He glanced at Lucy and although she couldn't ignore the boy's unique appearance, she nodded back and he walked away with his friend. Lucy couldn't help but notice the pink color of the boy's hair. She had never seen anyone like that before.

"What the hell was that?" she asked while looking at Levy.

"That gorilla started it! I was completely relaxed." Levy crossed her arms as she spoke indignantly.

"You know better than anyone that the best medicine is to ignore."

"I wasn't going to let a gorilla like him go and disrespect me like that! If he wanted to start a real fight, you can be sure I wouldn't sit still."

Lucy couldn't contain her laughter, "Levy, come on. He's more than half your size, you wouldn't even make it to his shoulders."

"Are you making fun of me too? That's really funny!" she tried to look at Lucy with an angry expression, but as she saw her friend not being able to stop laughing, she couldn't contain herself and they both ended up laughing at the situation.

After school ended, Lucy and Levy left for their respective apartments. Although they lived in separate apartments, they were next door to each other, so they were practically neighbors. Just as Lucy was about to arrive at her door, she heard someone talking and quickly recognized the two voices.

"Oh, come on! It was that short girl who started it, I was totally pissed that you interrupted halfway through!"

It was the voice of that tall boy, Gajeel. The other voice corresponded to the friend who had interrupted the fight.

"Shut up, Gajeel. You know perfectly well that girl could never do anything to you. You were the one being an asshole trying to have a fight with her. Leaving the girl alone was the best thing you could have done. Go on, now go get me a beer for saving your ass."

"Go to hell! I'm not paying for anything. Don't you have any girls to go screw with and stop bothering me?"

Lucy walked toward the voices to get a closer look and try to see what they were doing, out of curiosity. However, as soon as she got to the same place where they were, the pink haired boy noticed her presence and quickly crossed his gaze with hers. Lucy turned and tried to run away before he said anything, but it was in vain. He noticed her presence and started walking towards her with a look of curiosity.

"Hey, wait up!" he walked towards Lucy and she couldn't get away, "I know you, right?" he looked carefully at her again, "You're the girl who was with that short girl Gajeel wanted to fight with, right?"

Lucy nodded her head slowly. She didn't know what to say, let alone how to react. She didn't know if he would get upset that she was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation and she got nervous. He paused for a few moments pondering what to say and sighed, putting both hands to his head.

"Shit!" he paused again, "Do you recognize me?"

"What do you mean?" Lucy frowned.

"Do you know who I am?" he repeated again.

"You're the boy who helped Levy at school."

"Are you trying to fool me?" he was getting impatient.

"She's new here, Natsu. I don't think she knows who you are, idiot."

"Gajeel, shut your-"

She was still confused about what was going on, but after hearing that name, she stopped to think for a few moments and suddenly the conversation she had had with Lisanna came back to her mind.

"Wait a minute... Are you... You're Natsu?!"

"Shit!" was all the boy said.

"Now this is something I wasn't expecting." Gajeel said as he let out a laugh, "Say goodbye to your cherished popularity and reputation."

"Shut up, Gajeel! This is your fault!"

It was at that moment that Lucy realized everything. That was the boy that Lisanna and the other girls had talked so much about. She had to admit that it was not what she had expected to find. The boy was as handsome as the girls said, that she couldn't deny, she could see why all the girls were after him. However, after seeing that he wasn't exactly the guy they idealized so much, she couldn't help but find it funny. He was sitting in a strange way when she found him, with a beer in his hand and talking in a different way than he did in college. She tried to contain her laughter, but couldn't after she realized that she had accidentally discovered his secret.

"I have to admit that this is not what I expected when I heard about you." she laughed.

"Did you hear that, Natsu? Looks like your cover has finally been blown, especially by a new girl." he continued to laugh at the situation.

"If you don't shut up, you can be sure that you won't have any more teeth!"

"That sounds rather like someone who is such a gentleman." Lucy commented.

"Shit!" Natsu slowly approached Lucy and she pulled away at the same time, "Listen to me, girl. You're not going to tell anyone what you saw here, right?"

"Hmm, I'll think about it."

"You're challenging me, is that it? You're brave, for a new girl."

"She's just like her friend." Gajeel smiled.

"Shut your mouth, Gajeel! Don't make it worse." he looked at Lucy again, "Are you sure you want to get into this, girl? I don't handle people who challenge me very well."

"Good. In that case, why don't you stop me right now from telling anyone? I can just tell people you tried to threaten me too."

"And who's going to believe that? Especially in a girl who just came to town. Just stay out of matters you can't handle."

"They might not take my word for it." she pulled her hand out of her pocket with her cell phone in her hand and showed it to him, "However, they might believe your own words when they hear this recording."

Natsu was completely speechless as soon as he saw the cell phone in Lucy's hand. He was furious and tried to reach for the phone, but she sidestepped and walked even further back while smiling. She loved the fact that she had the upper hand and couldn't stand the fact that she was being threatened by some guy like that.

"Listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. I may be new here, but I'm not a fool. I can't stand guys like you, who deceive girls and pretend to be something they're not in order to get their attention. I can't stand guys who try to be the greatest, but then are really just trash. I have no problem revealing your secret to anyone."

Gajeel continued to laugh at the situation as he saw the tension that was starting to build between Natsu and Lucy. He found it quite funny that his friend was finally found out after so many years of keeping up the same facade.

"Don't tease me, girl, or you'll be sorry."

"Oh, are you threatening me again? I'm sure the people at Fairy Tail will be quite pleased to hear that."

She continued to smile to tease him, which only made him even angrier, although he managed to hold back on the rest of his words. He said nothing more and just huffed, grabbing his things and signaling Gajeel to leave. As they did so, Lucy kept smiling at him so as not to give away the weak part. Once they both left, despite Natsu not taking his eyes off Lucy, she finally managed to take a deep breath. She had discovered his secret and she had no idea what to do with that.