The first day of classes didn't do exactly as Levy had anticipated. She ended up being five minutes late for her first class, a History course taught by Coach Dreyar. He was a kindly old man who had smiled at her from where he was perched on top of his desk. All he said was "Don't make it a habit to be late dear", although Levy suspected that there was more force and authority behind that smile than he was letting on.

Thankfully the day took a turn for the better when Levy arrived to her English elective, Survey of Fioran Poetry. She was pleasantly surprised to see she had the class with both Lucy and Natsu, who waved energetically at her when she first entered the room. The class went by quick and seemed to have an easy, chill atmosphere. Professor Conbolt seemed cool and joked around with them as class went by. Natsu seemed to particularly take a liking to him.

Levy's last class of the day was calculus, which she was dreading. It wasn't that she was bad at math, it just didn't come as easy to her as english and history. Plus the word calculus was just intimidating. The class didn't go that badly, but she still wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

After class Levy headed back to her room, sighing as she closed the door behind her. Lucy looked up from where she was sitting on the bed and smiled.

"Hey, how was the rest of your day?" She asked, looking back down at the paper in her lap.

"It was alright. But I just know Calculus is gonna be a pain." Levy fell onto her bed face first with a plop. "How about you?"

"Meh." Lucy she her hand as if to say it was okay. "I started looking at the poetry assignment though. You want to do it together?"

"Sure!" Levy rolled off her behind and onto the floor to face Lucy. The assignment was to write their own interpretation of a poem, so she figured it wouldn't be that hard. She dug in her bag for the paper and began reading.

Levy didn't get far into the poem before they heard a heavy knock on the door.

They both looked up and shrugged at each other, signaling that neither had invited anyone by. Lucy got up and as soon as she opened the door Natsu walked right in, not looking for any invitation.

"Ah man!" he exclaimed, "It's the first day of this class and I'm already stuck on this stupid assignment." He immediately made himself comfortable on Lucy's bed, completely oblivious to the surprised stares he was getting from both girls. "I only took this class to get my Lit credit out of the way. This isn't even English!"

Natsu brandished the poem out in front of him. "How am I supposed to know what this old guy meant? How is anyone supposed to know? We can't exactly ask him since he's been dead a few hundred years!" The offending poem was promptly thrown over his shoulder in distaste. "Anyways, I'm hungry you guys got any grub?"

It became normal for Natsu to come over unannounced, asking for help with the homework and trying to eat every piece of food he could find. Lucy acted annoyed and told him to learn some manners, but Levy could tell that Lucy actually liked when he came over. Even Gray popped in from time to time. They had to make it a rule that he must at least be wearing pants to come into the room after a couple incidents. Lisanna, who she met in her calculus class, stopped by often and hung out or invited them to parties.

Levy's life was busy and the strange inhabitants of Mavis Hall didn't help that one bit, but she couldn't help but think that this was the happiest she'd ever been. Her time at Magnolia University was looking to be all she wanted and more, which she reported back to her parents excitedly about.

She even enjoyed her classes- well except for the Physical Education requirement. The Culinary Arts class she had signed up for was something she struggled immensely with. At the time it seemed like a good idea. It seemed like a pretty easy art elective- and hey! she might get to eat some good stuff. She quickly discovered that cooking was not her strong suit. Everything she made was either undercooked or overcooked, and her chocolate chip cookies tasted too strongly of baking soda.

Levy was leaving lit class with Lucy and Natsu one day when she heard Professor Conbolt call to her. "Ms. Mcgarden, can I see you for a second." She waved goodbye to her friend and turned back to her professor, not really sure what was going on. Had she messed up on an assignment? All of them had been fairly easy up until this point, so she couldn't think of any possible reason for him to call her out.

"Yes, Professor Conbolt?" Levy asked as she approached his desk. She tried to look him in the eyes, but she was kind of nervous. She'd never been in trouble before with a teacher.

A tired smile spread over Professor Conbolt's face. "You're not in trouble." He said, as if reading her mind. "I just have a favor to ask of you."

Before he could finish, there was a knock on the door frame. "Hello~"

Both of them looked over to see a comical duo standing in the door frame. Coach Dreyar was grinning as per usual, but he was totally dwarfed by the unfamiliar student standing next to him. This guy had to be at least 6'0" or more, with a build that even the baggiest of shirts couldn't hide. He had long black hair and what Levy thought was way too many piercings.

"Ah, come in!" Professor Conbolt waved them over. "Levy this is Gajeel, he's a defensive lineman on the football team."

Gajeel just nodded at her, quickly looking the other way while crossing his arms.

"Anyway, all of the members need to keep up their grades and well…he would really benefit from a tutor for this class. Professor Conbolt highly recommended you for the job."

"Yes, Levy is one of my best students this semester," commented Conbolt, making her blush at the praise.

"Um, yeah I'd love to help out." She smiled, figuring it'd be good to get on the good side of two of her professors.

"I knew I could count on you," said Coach Dreyar with a wink, "I'll leave it up to you two to figure out what times are best for you. Thank you, Ms McGarden."

The professors walked away, leaving the two alone together. She peaked a glance at him, to see that he was still looking anywhere but at her. She was unsure about what to think of him. He looked different that's for sure what with the piercings and leather jacket. That plus his height and muscular frame, he could easily be perceived as intimidating. But Levy didn't sense anything threatening about him despite his gruff demeanor.

She coughed lightly to break the silence. "So, what time works for you to go over the material?" she asked in a small voice.

"Uh, usually Tuesday evenings are good." He replied in a predictably low voice.

"Okay! That works for me. I'll see you tomorrow then." she smiled and waved at him as she walked out of the room.

"See you later short stuff," he said back.

Levy was taken aback by the nickname at first, but figured he didn't mean it badly. After all she was probably very short compared to him, seeing as she only 5'2''.

Later that night, the usual crowd was in room 268.

"Oh, what did Professor Conbolt want after class, Levy?" Lucy inquired from she sat on the floor in front of her bed so that Lisanna could get a better angle to braid her hair.

Levy looked up from her book, startled that she had even remembered it. "Oh, he just wanted me to tutor some guy from the football team."

"Eh? Who?" Natsu asked. "At least I'm not the only player on the team who's doing badly in his class…"

She laughed at Natsu. "Some guy named Gajeel."

Natsu's eyes widened, "That guy? He's pretty scary, almost as scary as the co-captain Erza. He never talks to anyone but his friend Lily. Speaking of which, since when is Lily a boy's name?"

"He didn't seem so scary to me." Levy shrugged.

Natsu jumped up, a conspiratory look on his face. He looked around the room, even though the door hadn't been opened once since Lisanna came in. "Well, I heard from Grey who heard from Elfman who apparently heard from some guy that Lily went to high school with that he was on trial as a suspect in a murder, but they had to drop the charges because there wasn't enough proof."

"What?!" Lucy jumped, making Lisanna groan in defeat as the braid she was working on slipped out of her hand. "Levy you can't tutor him, you're like...tiny! He could kill you instantly."

Levy rolled her eyes, "I'm sure that story isn't true. It sounds a little farfetched to me."

"Maybe, maybe not! But you should still be careful."

Natsu nodded in agreement.

Lisanna shrugged. "I don't know, people will surprise you. Like my sister, Mirajane!"

Natsu shivered. "You mean like how she looks sweet and innocent, but will threaten to chop your balls off in a second?"

Lisanna laughed. "Not quite what I meant, but I guess that's true."

The subject was dropped, but Levy couldn't help worry about it further. What could Gajeel have done to have these horrible rumors spread about him? Was it all just something that was taken out of control by gossiping college students or was there some truth?

Also, what in the world did Natsu do to have Mirajane threaten to castrate him?