Chapter 2

Gray and Lucy, the first two new students in a very long time, adapted very quickly to school life. In a matter of days, Lucy had every student in the school eating out of her hand. All the girls wanted to be her, and all the boys wanted to be with her. She quickly joined our group of friends, and I think we gave her a much-needed break from all the attention. Erza and Jellal were happily dating, making Jellal's interest in the blonde equal zero percent. Lisanna, Erza, and Cana were too kind of souls to get caught-up in catfights fueled by envy.

Me? I felt nothing towards the blonde, which was shocking. I've never slept around or anything, but I never minded taking a peak. Lately, though, no one was catching my eyes.

"So we were thinking about having a party tonight," Lucy said during lunch one day. "Since it's the end of our first week, after all."

"You thought we should," Gray mumbled under his breath. He leaned back further in his seat, if that was possible, and spend an unnecessary about my time stirring his chicken noodle soup. I knew that the school's food wasn't amazing, but I wasn't sure why he would not even try to eat it.

Despite Gray's comment, Lucy went on to explain her plans for the party. I only listened to part of the conversation, and instead concentrated on watching Gray and his ever-changing facial expressions. Lisanna said that she was going to try and bring Mira. Gray lifted a piece of chicken onto his spoon, cringed, then let the chicken fall back into the soup with a plop!. Cana offered to watch the bar that night for Mira to go out. Lisanna said that was great. Gray tugged at the collar of his sweater, giving me a tiny glimpse of his collar-bone. I snapped my gaze from him to Lisanna and tried to follow the conversation harder. I must have been looking at Gray longer than I thought because the table was already talking about the Chemistry lab we did that day.

I decided that I wouldn't pay attention to Gray the rest of the day. And by doing that, I was almost able to imagine that this Friday was no different than the week before and the week before that and the year before that. When we had to peer-edit a paper we wrote in Language, Lisanna was quick to be my partner, just like always. And in gym class, Jellal silently stood by my side while we played volleyball. The day passed quickly that way.

Before I left school that day, I stopped at my locker, just like usual. I grabbed the bag hanging up on one hook, put all the books I needed for my weekend homework inside, and threw it to the ground beside me, just as I had done a million times. My black jacket came next, followed by a quick look in the mirror. A few strands of hair were sticking up in the back, so I tried to smooth it down with my fingers.

"Excuse me," a timid voice spoke. I looked to the side, completely surprised. My eyes widened slightly when I saw Gray, and he quickly looked away in embarrassment. "I just, uh, need in my locker," he rambled quickly.

It seemed that I had done so well ignoring Gray that I had truly gone back into the day-to-day routine like I had before he and his step-sister arrived that Monday. I picked up my bag, giving him access to the locker that was directly beside mine.

"Natsu!"

Lisanna came bounding up behind me, right on cue. Usually by now, my hair would have been fixed, but since Gray distracted me, the white-haired girl let out a giggle, licked her thumb, then smoothed down the strands. It amazed me that Gray and Lucy had disrupted my daily life so much in the past week, yet this was the moment that truly made me realized what was going on.

A new family has moved to Magnolia.

X

"Where are you going, Brother?" Sherria asked me that night.

I turned around and looked at my sister, who was standing in the doorway to my room. I nodded my head towards my bed, giving her the permission she needed to shut my door and sit down. I continued to search through my dresser, looking for a shirt. I picked up one, scowled, then began my search again.

"Where are you going?" Sherria asked again. "It's Friday night. Shouldn't Lisanna be coming over any minute?"

I glanced over at the alarm clock sitting on my nightstand. 6:57. Sherria literally meant a few minutes, seeing as in three minutes Lisanna would knock three times on the door to my house. My mother would greet her, acting surprised and saying how nice it was for her to stop by. Lisanna would say that she just wanted to help me out with some homework, then Mom would let her upstairs. I would hear three knocks on my bedroom door, even though it was open, then she would sit at my desk. Twenty minutes later Mom would come in with hot chocolate and cookies. Then, in one hour, Dad would come up and say that Mira called, looking for Lisanna, even though everyone knew where she would be. Lisanna would act surprised, say that she had a shift at the bar that she forgot about, kiss my cheek, then leave. It happened every Friday like clockwork since eighth grade.

"I'm going to a party," I finally replied. I didn't even have to look at my sister to know that she was completely shocked. I knew that she would go on about the fact that Saturday was the night that I always went to the bar with my friends, even though I wasn't supposed to drink, but I didn't give her the chance. "We're mixing things up this weekend." It was quite the understatement.

"Why are you worrying so much about what you're going to wear?" Sherria asked.

I froze, realizing that she was right. I had touched nearly every shirt I owned, yet I hadn't put one on yet. I still stood shirtless in front of my dresser. I quickly grabbed a shirt and put it on. I was pleased that my last minute decision wasn't totally terrible, just the shirt we all got the Sophomore year when we all went on a field trip to the aquarium, the very one that every Freshmen and Juniors got to go on. My friends and I would be going to a zoo on March 12th in the Spring, since Seniors get to have a different trip.

At seven o'clock, rather than Lisanna coming over, I left. I called out to my parents that I was leaving as the door shut behind me, just so that they wouldn't get a chance to question my odd behavior. I got in my car and pulled out the piece of paper I scrawled Lucy and Gray's address on. Everyone else already had Lucy's number, but I refused to let her have mine, so she wrote down her address for me instead of texting it. If I put her name into my phone, it would be accepting that there was a new family in Magnolia, and I wasn't about to do that.

I knew the streets of Magnolia like the back of my hand, so it didn't take long to find her small house on Strawberry Street. Everyone else was already there, so I quickly parked and hurried up to the door and briskly knocked. A short woman answered the door, her blonde hair cut short to frame her face. She smiled brightly at me. "Ah, you must be Natsu. I'm Layla," she said. I didn't miss her quick glance up to my hair. Clearly, that was my identifier tonight. "Please, come in. The others are in the living room."

I followed her inside and she led me to the living room. Lucy and Mira were both sitting on the couch, fully engrossed in their conversation. Erza was sitting on Jellal's lap, and they were talking to Lisanna. They all had mugs in their hands, no doubt with either hot chocolate or coffee inside.

"Natsu!" Lucy said brightly, seeing that I had entered the room. "I'm glad you made it. If you want something to drink, there's hot chocolate and coffee in the kitchen just through there." She held out her hand and pointed in the opposite direction in which I came.

I wasn't exactly thirsty, but I figured that drinking hot chocolate would at least allow me some sort of normalcy that night, so I went down the hallway. I found the kitchen easily, seeing as there was a large entryway to the room. Layla was leaning across the counter beside a large man with wild black hair, who I guessed was Gray's father.

"So if we could increase what he lifts to 250, then he could gain some muscle by November," the man said. "Of course, then he'd be gaining weight. We don't want him jumping a weight class."

"Honey, it's only the beginning of October," Layla said gently. "We have time."

"I know, but-" He cut his sentence off when he noticed me.

"Uh, sorry," I apologized. I couldn't even remember why I had come into the kitchen. All I could think about was what they had been discussing and the large gash on the man's forehead. "I'm Natsu," I supplied, even though they hadn't asked.

"Ah, yes, the boy with pink hair," the man said with a light chuckle. "I'm Gray's father. You can call me Silver."

"It's nice to meet you," I said. I drew my eyes away from his scar and tried to think of something slightly intelligent to tell him. Instead, I just ran the similarities between him and Gray through my mind. Gray. "Is Gray here? He wasn't in the living room."

"He's not very fond of parties," Layla said simply. "He's up in his room if you want to go see him. It's the second door on the right."

I thanked them both before hurrying up the staircase I saw before entering the kitchen. I wasn't exactly sure what possessed me to find Gray when I had originally been in search of something normal. Seeing Gray would be the complete opposite of my original goal, yet I was actually excited to see him. His bedroom door was closed. I was going to knock, but since Layla had told me to just go in, I opened the door and hoped I wouldn't walk in on him changing.

What I saw was even more distracting.

Gray was on his stomach doing push-ups. His hair fell in front of his face, shielding me from his line of vision. His glasses were sitting beside him, which wasn't a surprise since they barely stayed on when he crinkled his nose. They would never stay on during exercise. What really threw me off, though, even more than him being shirtless, was the flexing of his shoulder muscles. I watched as they stretched when he moved his nose to the floor, then relaxed when he came back up to a plank. I realized I couldn't watch him all day, and I was surprised to say I wanted to., I knocked twice on the doorframe, making my presence known.

Gray leaned back on his knees and quickly grabbed his glasses, throwing them on his face. He looked up at me with wide eyes. A few beads of sweat rolled in between his eyes, and his hand moved up to catch them before they reached the tip of his nose. And, unlike the first day when I saw him and my eyes roamed randomly, I was instantly drawn to his chest. His arms were lean yet had a lot of muscle. His pectorals were defined, and he had a clear six-pack. My eyes drooped just a little lower. I snapped my gaze up quickly, not wanting him to catch me staring. Why am I starting?

"Hey," I said, struggling to keep my voice even. "I just noticed you weren't downstairs and decided to come see you." I hoped that he didn't think I sounded as weird as I thought I did.

If Gray minded, he didn't show it. He just nodded once before finding his shirt, which was the same sweater he wore to school, and slipped it on. "I was just doing some homework," he said. I wasn't sure what kind of homework he could be doing since I didn't ever remember getting homework in gym class.

"Are you going to come down?" I asked.

"No, I'll probably just stay up here," Gray said. He motioned to his desk where I saw a stack of books, the type of homework I was familiar with.

"Sure," I said easily. "I'll see you later then."

I left him alone, though he didn't give me the same luxury. The image of him was burned into my mind, and he was all I could picture that weekend. When everyone noticed how distracted I was at the party, I said that I was just thinking about the homework I would usually be doing on a Friday night. I never opened a book when I did go home, though. Not that whole weekend.