IV: no other way

Characters: Lucy, Natsu, Levy and Wendy. [along with brief mentions of Gray here and there.]

AN: Enjoy. Important stuff at bottom. :)

"I CANNOT believe I failed that math test!" exclaimed a girl as she mock - angrily stomped down the halls of Magnolia's prestigious charter school. "You know how good I am at everything, right, Lucy?" A girl with long blonde hair laughed. "Way to sound humble, Levy," she teased. Levy's shoulders slumped. "You know what I mean."

Lucy Heartfilia and Levy McGarden were both sophomores, fairly quiet and mostly obedient (at least, for their generation).

A ball of pink energy bounded up between them. "Luce, Luce, Luce! Guess what, guess what, guess what?!"

"Natsu! You scared us!" Lucy dramatically slapped a hand over her chest.

"I got an A on my geometry test! I win, I win, I win!"

"Win what?" Levy asked curiously.

"Oh," he said, finally taking notice of her, plodding along next to Lucy. "I made a bet with Gray that I wouldn't pass - and I did!"

Lucy smiled, rolling her eyes at him. "I told you that you would, and you didn't believe me! Goofball." Natsu beamed, his grin wide and bright.

"You passed a test?" rumbled a deep voice from behind them. They all pivoted to find Gajeel Redfox, geometry extraordinaire. "For your information, I did, actually."

"That's surprising."

"Hey!"

His scarlet eyes shifted from Natsu's puffed - up, angry cheeks to Levy's frustrated ones. "Hey," he greeted her. She sighed. "Hi," came her unusually glum response. His brows knit together. "Whassa matter, eh? Yer always so smiley, midget."

She glared at him over the rim of her glasses. "Tch. That's not my name. And if you must know, I failed a geometry test."

He stared at her, then burst out laughing, attracting the attention of Natsu and Lucy. "That's all? Ya failed a test?" Her cheeks burned. "Well - it's not like it's the - the - I just don't get all the theorems. I can do math just fine, I just - "

He grinned. "Meet me in the library at two - fifteen tomorrow. I'm tutoring geometry - deficient students."

"I am not geometry deficient!" she hollered at him from the top of her lungs. People were staring, but she didn't care. He infuriated her to no end. He never used her name and always poked fun at her height. She couldn't understand how he and Natsu were friends.

Whatever. She did not need tutoring of any kind - she could be considered an intellectual genius by most.

"See ya, Luce," she called out as she headed towards Chemistry.

"No, no! Ya gotta match the numbers up right so ya can make a proportion! Got it?" A small, big - eyed girl with long, dark (almost blue) hair wiggled in the chair next to Gajeel. "But I don't get it! Why do I have to figure it oooout?" she whined. Gajeel rubbed his temple. He had a dull headache - he could feel it lurking back there - and a sore throat. Of course, being much too stubborn to admit that he felt sick (being sick is for sissies, as he had once told Natsu and Gray); Pops sent him off to school anyways. And as a reward, he got to tutor a freshman. Who was smarter than him.

Exactly why was he tutoring her again? Sure, she was struggling a little bit, but the kid was fourteen and she had her Geometry down. So excuse him for being mildly irritable.

"Because that's what state law requires! Now quit moaning and pick up yer pencil."

Her bottom lip trembled. "All the other girls said that you were really mean, and I defended you, you know."

Silence.

"Yeah, and?"

"Well, it looks like they were right!"

"That's no way to talk to a tutor, Wendy," chimed in a new voice. They both turned to see who had interrupted their session and found Levy facing them, brows furrowed. "And honestly, Gajeel, couldn't you be a bit more...I don't know, gentle?" He grunted, eyes sliding away from her.

"What're you doing here?" he grumbled, scrubbing a hand across the back of his neck. She hung her red bookbag over a chair. "You said to come to tutoring with you at three - fifteen. So I did." Her eyes dared him to argue.

Huh. The little rascal had spunk. Who knew?

"Thought you din' like me."

"Well, there's no other way to get my Geometry grade up."

He said nothing.

Point, Levy!

"Sit down and get out anything ya got, then," he muttered. Suddenly, Wendy jumped. "Oh! sorry. My phone's vibrating." She unlocked it and proceeded to read the text she had received. Her eyes widened. "Uh...I've gotta go. My mom is waiting for me outside and stuff. We still have to pick up groceries and everything, so…" she threw her backpack over her shoulders. Before leaving, though, she stopped and turned to face Gajeel and Levy, sitting in their respective chairs.

"Um...thank you for taking the time to tutor me, Gajeel - san," she said hurriedly.

He waved her off. "Go home and watch some TV or somethin' kid. Don't spend your entire life jus' focusing on school, or you'll miss out." She blinked at him, surprised because of his kind words.

"Y - yeah." With that, she finally left, the glass door falling shut behind her.

Levy looked up from her Geometry textbook. "I had no idea you liked kids so much," she said. Avid curiosity was reflected in her gaze.

"I don't, really," he answered; not looking at her.

"Oh."

"So, what are you struggling with?"

"Um, well - it's always the postulates and theorems that mess me up. Like, with proofs, you know?" He nodded. "Proofs don't gotta be perfect, just acceptable. Make sure you're puttin' in a real effort, and you'll get the grade."

She twirled her pencil in her hand. "Okay. Can we do some together, just to...you know, practice?"

His lips twitched in amusement. "Maybe we should do Chemistry some time, too?"

Her cheeks reddened. "H - hey, that's not funny! You're teasing me!"

"You make it too easy, shorty."

"I most certainly do not! Can we do Geometry now?!"

He remembered thinking one thing: she was awfully pretty when she blushed.

AN: I liked this one a lot, fufufu. I know, some of you are wondering where all the other characters are, but don't worry, my friends - they will come in soon. It's just that I'm more accustomed to writing about Levy and Gajeel than anything else. Other characters will gradually come in. Or so I plan. And not all of these one - shots will be set in modern times. Just so you know. Come back next time, please! My hope is to finish the next chapter as soon as possible.