Hi! Happy New Year! 2k15! Whoop! Whoop! I hope this is a good year. Anyway, here's a new chapter! I hope you enjoy! R&R

Chapter Five

Normal P.O.V.

Natsu walked up to Lucy, who was waiting for him outside of the school gate. She looked nervous, almost as if she was expecting someone to come up to her and pull down her skirt.

Lucy turned and saw Natsu walking towards her. When she did, she jogged towards him. "Natsu!" she yelled. When she got closer, she said,"Have you made your decision yet?"

"Yeah," Natsu grunted, pulled his book bag back onto his shoulder. "I have."

"And?" Lucy said excitedly. She just knew that Natsu would keep her secret. They were friends, right?

"And, I decided not to keep you secret. What if Minerva doesn't really know about you? Or what if Sting made up some stupid reason to her that he was seeing you in private? I don't want to see you get hurt, Luce. I'm doing this for you." Natsu started walking away from the crestfallen blonde.

"Natsu! Wait up!" Lucy had to speed-walk to keep up with his fast pace. "Please! Please, don't tell anyone. They would start again, and I don't think I can go through that again. Not to mention that it would hurt Sting," Lucy begged.

Natsu stopped walking and turned to his friend. "Luce, you don't have to go through that again. I'm going to be there for you. I won't let that happen to you again." Natsu paused, and then he started walking again. "And as for Sting, I don't really care what happens to him. What he's doing to you is wrong, Lucy. Until you realize that, I just have to deal with it for you." With that, Natsu walked into his homeroom, leaving Lucy outside to think.

"Everybody, line up! All of you are going to race around the track once, and then we're going to race for endurance. Both boys and girls are going to be racing at the same time," Coach Laxus announced. The students groaned. None of the girls liked running, except for Lucy.

"Alright, who wants to go first?" Laxus asked, expecting it to be all boys. To his surprise, Lucy raised her hand excitedly. Minerva looked over at her and raised her hand confidently in response. Laxus raised his eyebrows, this was definitely a change.

So, at the start line stood Natsu, Gray, Minerva, Sting, and Lucy. Laxus blew his whistle, and they were off!

Right at the start, Lucy was in the back of the pack, but this was normal for her. She always quickened her pace as she went on. Natsu was in the front with Gray and Sting on his heels. Minerva was just in front of Lucy, and it was clear that she was not good with running. This wasn't for long, though. Soon, Lucy had surpassed Minerva and quickly caught up with Natsu. At this point, they were about halfway around the track. Lucy continued to speed up, and Natsu provoked her, pushing her faster still. He began to regret that, though, because then he could't keep up. Lucy left him in her dust as she crossed the finish line. Levy and Erza were cheering.

Laxus walked over to the winner. "That was very impressive Lucy. It's a new record for the school. How long have you been running track?"

Lucy laughed as she caught her breath. "Not a day in my life. I have to run when I make deliveries for my dad's store, though. I guess that helps."

Laxus was in shock. How had she gotten so good without any proper training? "Yeah, I guess I'm going to have to get the whole track team to make deliveries for your dad to gain some experience," he laughed. Then he had a thought. "Hey, have you ever considered being on the track team? Or cross country? I think you would be great at both. I coach them both, cross country in the fall and track in the spring. Why not give it a shot?" He looked hopeful.

"Oh, I don't know, I don't think I'd be any good. I've never been on a sports team before."

Natsu clapped a hand on her back. He had just finished as second place and was grinning from ear to ear. "I think you'd be great, Luce. I'm going to join the football team, then we'd both be on teams!"

Sting came over and jumped in. "No, Lucy offered to be the new manager for the football team."

Natsu turned to glare at Sting. Lucy had this great opportunity, and here Sting was taking it away from her.

Laxus decided to interrupt the teens. "Actually, boys, Lucy will be participating in both cross country in the fall and track in the spring. Otherwise, I will fail her in gym." Lucy looked at him in awe. Did her really want her that badly? Or was he just trying to stop a possible fight between the boys? Either way, she was thankful.

"So, why haven't you told the whole world about Sting and me yet?" Lucy asked as she plopped down next to him in science class.

"I have my reasons," Natsu smirked.

"Oh really? And what would those be?" Lucy teased.

Natsu's face turned serious. "I don't want to hurt you, Luce. I know that this path is the best in the long run, but before that, it's going to be rocky. I don't want you to be mad at me. I mean, we're friends, right?"

Lucy laughed at the fact that she had just met Natsu and he already assumed they were friends. It's not that she didn't want to be his friend, she had just never met anyone as trusting as him.

"Yeah, I probably will be mad at you, Natsu. I mean, you won't only be hurting me, but Sting. I don't want him to be hurt just as much as you don't want me to be hurt."

"How did Sting rope you into this again?"

"He didn't 'rope' me into anything." Lucy sighed. "He told me that since a lot of girls are in love with him- which is true- and since they could be pretty vicious when jealous- also true- he wanted to keep me safe from them. And he told me that he was new to this whole commitment thing, and that he just wanted to make sure that I didn't get hurt." Lucy was proud of the fact that her boyfriend wanted to protect her, and she was certain that Natsu would approve of his motives.

"God, Lucy, are you stupid?! He's playing you! Anyone with brains could see that! He obviously gave you that idiotic excuse just so that he could make out with you and Minerva at the same time. I can't believe you didn't see it! I mean, how daft can you be?! Sting doesn't actually like you, you were just an easy target because you were vulnerable when you became friends!"

Lucy looked at Natsu with tears in her eyes. He instantly regretted every word. Lucy ran out of the classroom, mumbling something to the teacher about going to the bathroom on her way out.

"Lucy, do you want to walk home together?" Sting ran up to Lucy after class.

"I thought you didn't want to be seen in public with me. I get it, I'm not 'Little Miss Popular' like Minerva," Lucy said, obviously upset.

"Woah, where did you get that idea? Did Natsu put it in your head? I'm going to kill that guy. He just waltzes into school like he owns the place and then-"

Lucy cut off her boyfriend. "Natsu's not the problem, you are. We are. You're not keeping us a secret to protect me, are you?"

"N-no, but-"

"Then give me one good reason not to dump your sorry ass right here, right now."

"Lucy, you don't understand! I started going out with you because your dad asked me to, but when we got to know each other-"

"I don't want to hear it, Sting! I can't believe that you would go out with me if you didn't like me! And you did it just because you were forced to! God, I can't believe I didn't see it before! We're done!" The whole school was watching them by now, including Minerva. She was pissed. She looked like someone had just taken her part in the school play or something.

They all knew about their secret relationship now, or they could guess.

Lucy started walking home alone, but Natsu soon caught up with her.

"Hey, Luce! I heard that you broke up with Sting in front of everybody. And I'm really so-"

"I don't want to hear it, Natsu. You had no right to meddle in my love life. We may be friends, but I've only known you for a couple of days. You called me stupid, and daft! I'll have you know that even thinking that my boyfriend was a player was hard, let alone confronting him about it. Did you know that it turned out that my dad asked him to ask me out? You may have saved me a lot of heartache in the future, but what you can't save me from what I'm feeling right now. And the way you went about it…." Lucy entered her house, and closed the door in Natsu's face.

So, Lucy broke up with Sting, eh? Do you think that will be the end of him? And Lucy's mad at Natsu too, huh? Please review to tell me what you think so far! Did I make a bunch of typos or grammatical errors? Or was it just that my writing sucked in general? I can take the heat, so please review, they mean so much more than a follow! Thanks for reading, and PLEASE REVIEW!