I hurried down the hall, down the stairs, into the cafeteria, barely catching my breath before Cana looped her arm through mine and whisked me away to our usual table. It was the same as every day. Natsu was scarfing down food, Juvia was clinging to Gray who was trying his best to ignore her, Lucy was rubbing out a headache, Laki was writing down notes on a new project she was making for wood shop, Erza was eating strawberry cake, Kinana was texting her mysterious boyfriend, and Mira and Lisanna were gossiping quietly. I plopped down in my usual spot by Lucy and Cana sank down beside me, taking a deep gulp from her water bottle that I suspected was actually filled with vodka.
Loud whoops and laughs were echoing across the cafeteria and the source was no mystery. Across the cafeteria, at a table against the opposite wall, was where Gajeel and his friends sat (if you could call them that). None of them really fit in with anyone else, so they all sat together at lunch and hung around the park after school. Most of them were orphans or foster kids. There were Wally and Sho, who'd grown up in the same group home and suffered abuse at the hands of their caretaker. Erik, a boy obsessed with reptiles, who'd lost his eye in a freak accident. MacBeth, whose father had died in a mysterious explosion. Jellal, who rarely showed up for school, and when he did, always seemed different. Sorano, who'd been separated from her sister at a young age and constantly romanticized death and angels, believing herself to actually be one.
That's not to say all orphans or foster kids turn out bad. Like anyone, it depends on circumstances and upbringing. Gray was an orphan and he and his "frenemy" Lyon were both in the care of a wonderful woman who treated them like her own children.
Lyon and his group were nice enough. We went to the same parties and sometimes hung out as a group, but they weren't exactly our closest friends. Lyon along with his friends Toby, Yuka, and Sherry, and her younger cousin Chellia, a sophomore, thought themselves the coolest kids in school, but that title went to Laxus Dreyer and his Thunder Tribe.
Nobody knew why they called themselves that. Maybe because of the lightning bolt shaped scar he had over his eye. Either way, he and his friends Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen ran the school, and not just because he was the principal's grandson. Laxus was tall, buff, and handsome. Cana described him as "sex on legs". The girls at school were all over him constantly, but Freed never let any girl who wasn't Evergreen or Mira get near him. Mira was only "allowed" because she worked in the principal's office as a student worker. Laxus was a jerk sometimes, but Mira kept him in check.
I glanced over at the Thunder Tribe's table and noticed something different, and it wasn't just Freed's absence. Lisanna and Mira's brother, Elfman, was there, looking extremely out of place due to his hulking form. At six-foot-eight, he towered over everyone else in the school, even Jura, the coach of the martial arts teams. He was sitting next to Evergreen, who seemed to be avoiding his gaze. Mira and Lisanna looked over toward him and started giggling.
"Hellooo? Earthland to Levy?" Cana's hand was waving in front of my face.
I blinked and looked at her. She was staring at me as if she was waiting for something, as were Lucy, Erza, and Juvia.
"Sorry, what?"
Cana rolled her eyes and took another swig from her water bottle. Sighing and smacking her lips, she said, "I asked what's up with you and Tall, Dark, and Pierced?"
For the millionth time today, I blushed. "Nothing. He was staring at me and when I went to the library he was there and..." I trailed off, not wanting to tell them what I'd seen, knowing it would get back to me and he'd end me. He was huge and I... well I wasn't even five feet tall.
"Oh uh-uh! You're spilling all the dirty secrets now!" Lucy said, putting her hand on my cheek and jerking my face to look at her.
"Lu!" I exclaimed, pushing her hand away. "Nothing happened! He was just having lunch up there. Lots of students do. Freed was up there, too. Wanna know what he was reading?" I rolled my eyes.
"Yes but Gajeel?" Erza posed a question, cocking an eyebrow. "It's a bit out of character for him."
"Do you blame him though?" I said, gesturing to his usual table. "Maybe he wanted to be somewhere quiet for lunch."
"Juvia thinks you're all a bit judgmental toward Gajeel. After all, we transferred from the same school. We were good friends," Juvia said, looking down at her hands.
"Yeah, but Gajeel's a dick and you, well, you're," Gray said, but blushed before he said exactly what Juvia was. Still, it was enough to turn her attention to Gray and away from me, and for that, I was grateful.
"Hello, ladies," a smooth voice behind us said and Lucy rolled her eyes.
"Loke," she greeted.
Loke grinned and pushed his tinted glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Whadaya say, Luce? Ready to give me a chance yet?"
"I have a boyfriend, you perv!" she hissed, jumping out of her seat and heading out of the cafeteria in a huff.
Natsu slammed his hands on the table as he stood. "Do I need to teach you another lesson, punk?"
"Natsu, don't," Erza warned. "You don't want to get into another fight. Principal Dreyer would have your head."
He glared at Loke, but let it go and grabbed his and Lucy's lunch trays, discarding them before following her.
Loke slid into the seat beside me. "What about you, Levy? You're single, right?"
I ignored him and picked up the book I'd been forced to check out, opening to a random page.
"'History of Jazz'?" Erza asked, leaning over the table to get a closer look. "Since when are you into music, Levy?"
"Since now," I snapped, rising from the table and turning on my heel. "I'm going to be late."
"Lunch isn't over for another twenty minutes!" Cana called after me as I walked out of the cafeteria and to my locker.
Once there, I shoved the book inside and sighed. Today was going just great. I stuck my head in and rested it against the locker floor and let out a huge groan I didn't know I'd been holding in.
"Lose somethin', Shrimp?"
No. Not him. Not now.
Slowly, I pulled my head out and turned to face him. He was leaning against Lucy's locker, arms crossed, staring at me with an amused look on his face.
He had no business looking so hot.
I replaced my History and English textbooks with my Biology and Math books and closed my locker door before turning around.
Before I could even take a step, he reached out with one strong arm and stopped me.
"Class ain't for another twenty minutes, Shorty. Where ya goin'?"
I turned to face him, craning my neck to look at him. He was six-foot-one. I was four-foot-eleven.
"Why do you want to know?"
My stomach growled.
He looked down at me. "Didn't ya eat?"
I looked at my feet. "I didn't get the chance."
"Come on, Shrimp. I'm buyin'," he said, slinging an arm over my shoulders and all but dragging me down the hall.
"W-what? We can't leave school! We won't get back in time for class."
"Relax, Shorty. We're not goin' anywhere."
His words didn't convince me as we reached the front door of the school.
"Wait here," he said, leaving me at the entrance as he left.
I sighed and turned to go back to the cafeteria.
"I told ya to wait," his gruff voice said behind me, joined by the smell of pizza from my favorite place. "Now come on."
We walked down the halls, up the stairs, back to the library. He stopped by Freed's table and handed him a couple of slices.
"Yer brain's no good on an empty stomach," he told Freed, who simply nodded and continued highlighting passages in his book.
We made our way back to the couch where I'd run into him earlier. His backpack was still there, along with a notebook, some loose sheet music pages, and a guitar I hadn't noticed earlier.
He caught me staring at the book, trying to read it upside down as I sank down onto the couch.
"You can read 'em if ya want. I'm not shy," he said, digging into the pizza.
Curiosity got the best of me and I picked it up, flipping through it as I ate a slice of pizza. It was sausage, my favorite.
The notebook was full of songs, written by him. I noticed a similarity in all of them. They all contained the line "shoo-be-do-bop".
Some of the lines stood out to me. It was like he was describing me, but he couldn't be. I wasn't anything special.
I closed the notebook and handed it to him.
"I know you and yer friends are scared o' me, Shrimp. Ya don't have ta pretend."
"I'm not," I said truthfully. "And neither is Juvia."
He thought for a minute, chewing on his pizza. "Yer right. Juvia's always been real kind to me."
He leaned his head back against the couch and closed his eyes. "If yer not scared, why'd ya keep lookin' away in homeroom?"
I blushed and picked at an imaginary piece of fuzz on my tights. "I can't tell you," I mumbled.
He opened one eye and grinned. "Gi-hee. I'll get it out of ya sooner or later."
We spent the next fifteen minutes before class talking, laughing, and eating pizza, and when we walked into Biology together, we got strange looks. Our seats were across the room from each other, but we both kept stealing glances throughout the period, and he even walked me to my math class after. I couldn't focus on anything Mr. Horologium was saying. My thoughts were full of small apartments filled with books, a black cat curled up on the couch, metal decorations made in welding class hung on the walls.
"Shoo-be-do-bop" echoed in my head.
What was happening to me?
