All I have to say is thank you. I am so happy to just know that someone, somewhere, reads what I have to write. And for those of you who took the time to write a review, I am forever grateful. Whether good or bad, what I wrote gave you something to think about, at least enough for you to want to say something about it. Please continue to read what I have to write, and review if you can. So, here's chapter three.

"Luce, what's wrong?" Natsu fell into step with Lucy as they walked to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Nothing. What do you mean? I'm fine." Lucy tried to walk ahead of Natsu so that he wouldn't see the tear stains on her face.

"Luce, you were obviously crying during class, and you ignored me! Those are both red flags for upset!" Then, Natsu realized something. "Is it because of what happened in the courtyard this morning. I'm so sorry about that Luce, really. I'm not exactly sure what happened."

"Just, leave me alone, ok?" With that, Lucy walked the rest of the way to the cafeteria alone. She left Natsu, standing in the middle of the hall, astonished. How had he messed things up so badly, so quickly?

Natsu's P.O.V.

I walked up to Gray, who was sitting at a table with Lyon in the cafeteria. When I tapped him on the shoulder, he turned to look up at me.

"What do you want, Flame Brains?" He laughed at his own joke. I rolled my eyes, it really wasn't the time for this.

"I need to talk to you, now." I walked away, hoping he would understand and follow. I made it to the courtyard and sat down, to be joined within moments by Gray.

"What's up?" He knew that something was wrong, or he would still be teasing me, like always. Even though I'd just moved there, I've known Gray since we were kids. our parents were good friends, so naturally, we saw a lot of each other.

"Do you know that girl, Lucy?"

"Yeah. What about her?"

I took a deep breath, hoping he wouldn't hold this against me. "What's this 'Fruit Girl' business? It seemed to upset her a lot. She was crying all though class, and she wouldn't talk to me."

Gray turned to me. "Man, I don't know if it's my place to tell you this."

"Please," I begged.

"Ok, ok, but don't blame me if she gets mad that you know. All she wants to do is forget, trust me." Gray sighed. "Last year, there was this Sadie Hawkins dance, you know, where the girls had to ask the guys. Anyway, Lucy was going to ask out this guy, Hibiki, who she had kinda become friends with in class. They didn't really know each other, though. They were just school friends. So, Hibiki is this really popular guy, right? And Lucy is this total bookworm that nobody has even noticed. Minerva overheard her talking to Levy, though, about how she was going to ask Hibiki to the dance. Of course, Minerva didn't want this actually cute bookworm dating a popular, so before Lucy had the chance to ask Hibiki out, she put together this whole video about 'Fruit Girl'. It was basically a bunch of people bashing Lucy, and at the end, Minerva edited it so that it seemed like Hibiki said that Lucy was ugly, and fat, and a total loser. You could tell it was edited, but people just ran with it. Suddenly, Lucy was known all over school as 'Fruit Girl'. Hibiki actually wanted to go to the dance with Lucy, but she refused, because she didn't want to drag him into her troubles. It started to get pretty bad, too. The video had gone viral on YouTube. Not to mention that Lucy ate in the bathroom everyday for the rest of the year because she refused to sit with us, thinking that it would cause us trouble. Then, at the end of the year, Lucy had to give a speech because she was at the top of the class. While she was talking, a bunch of jerks started throwing fruit at her, and booing her off the stage. She ran out of the room crying, and spent the rest of the summer trying to keep a low profile."

I just sat there, letting it sink in. Lucy had been bullied last year, big time, and nobody had done anything.

"Why didn't Erza stop them? She seems like the type of person to stand up for her friends."

"Lucy wouldn't let her. She said that if Erza laid a hand on anyone for her, she would stop being her friend. And the worst part is, I don't think Lucy ever found out that it was Minerva's fault. None of us had the heart to tell her when we found out, and when we finally got up the nerve, we couldn't do it because it would just bring up bad memories, you know?" Gray stood up. "Look, I've gotta go, Juvia's gonna get worried. See you later."

"Yeah, see you later."

Now I understood why Lucy was so upset. And it was all my fault. If I hadn't called attention to her in the courtyard, nobody would've noticed she was there, and they wouldn't be calling her names again. I resolved to stay her friend, no matter what, and stand up for her, no matter the consequences.

Normal P.O.V.

"Hey," Natsu said as he slid into his seat next to Lucy. When she didn't reply, he added, "Gray told me what happened last year. But don't worry, I won't let the same thing happen twice. If anyone says anything to you, tell me, I'll handle it."

Finally, Lucy looked at Natsu. "You just don't get it, do you? None of you do. I don't want you to do anything. Anything that you could possibly do would make you just as bad as them. That's not what I want. So, for now, I'll wait it out, just like last year. Eventually, it should blow over and everything will go back to normal. But, my only chance at that is to not be associated with you. So stay away, got it?" Lucy turned back to her book, thinking that she had won the argument.

"No, Luce, I don't get it. I guess I must be stupid or something, because I don't understand why someone would go through what you have and just sit there, not bothered at all. You have to do something about this! No more sitting by and letting them harass you! If you won't let your friends stand up for you, then stand up for yourself! I'm not saying that you have to be violent, just stand up for yourself. Words can be just as powerful as a fist. And no, this is not something that you can choose to do or not. This is something that you have to do. Something that you owe to yourself. From what I know of you, you are a good person, Lucy Heartfilia, and I will not stand by to watch you get beaten down by some petty bullies. That is the one thing that I will not do. So, no, I will not stay away, not as long as you can't stand up for yourself."

Lucy walked out of the school to be greeted by a chorus of "Fruit Girl!"s. She stopped in the middle of the crowd of students and turned around slowly, looking at each and every one of them.

"You know, I get it. I understand why you guys do this. You're just so pathetic, and you feel so insecure that you have to make fun of someone else, for fear of standing out, and being the one person who doesn't. You let the populars influence your every move. If they tell you to jump, you say, 'How high?' And, you know, I feel bad for you. Because you're all just their robots. All you do is what they tell you. I didn't do anything to anyone in this school to deserve this treatment, which means that the real problem isn't me. So, ask yourselves, 'Why am I doing this? Why am I bullying someone who has done nothing to hurt me, or any of my friends? Someone who hadn't bothered anyone here? Someone that nobody even knew before someone anonymously posted a video bashing her?' Ask yourselves those questions. Take some time to really think about it. You'll be surprised by your own answers." Lucy turned back to the front doors of Fairy Tail Academy to see Natsu smiling the brightest smile that she had ever seen. He walked right up to her, everyone watching, and they walked home together without another word to anyone else.

Girl power! Whoop! Whoop! Go Lucy! I'm so proud of her. (Jeez, now I sound like my mom.) I hope you guys enjoyed the third chapter of "Fruit Girl". Please review with any feedback that you have, good or bad! Thank you so much for reading, it means a lot. :)