Hey, peoples! How's life goin'? So, the poll was a huge success. The thing is, there wasn't one clear winner, so I decided to incorporate two of the ideas into this chapter. Read to find out which ones were chosen!

Chapter Ten

Lucy's P.O.V.

"Miss Heartfilia! Miss Heartfilia!" I could vaguely hear the words through the grogginess of sleep. Once I fully registered what was going on, my head shot up.

"Huh? What?" I said, looking around the room. I had fallen asleep in class. Again. Lately I'd been up till all hours trying to get the store ready for Homecoming. I know, it's a market, what does that have to do with Homecoming? Well, Homecoming means dates, and dates mean dinner, and dinner means food, and food means restaurants, and restaurants mean cooking, and cooking means ingredients, and ingredients mean the market. It's a pretty busy time of year for us, especially because I'm the one who's basically running everything- my dad has been out of it since the anniversary of my mom's kidnapping.

"Would you like to answer my question, Miss Heartfilia? Or am I interrupting your beauty sleep?" I looked around for help from anyone. I turned to Natsu, who was sitting next to me. He quickly scribbled something on his notebook pushed it ever so slightly towards me. It said:

Q- What is the quadratic formula?

I looked at Natsu, hopefully portraying my thanks to him. Then I glance up at Mr. Nikon, my math teacher. He had a condescending smile on his face, as if to say, "This is what happens when you stupid teenagers don't care about school."

I stood up and smiled at Mr. Nikon. He looked surprised to see me actually happy about this. "Well, Mr. Nikon," I started," would you like me to recite the quadratic formula, or tell you how it is used? I could do both, if you want."

Mr. Nikon was obviously upset that I had one-upped him. "A recitation will suffice," he said as he pushed up his glasses.

"The quadratic formula says that x equals -b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus 4ac all over 2a." I sat back down, please that I'd saved myself. Correction, Natsu had saved me. I looked over to him again, hoping to catch his eye so that I could thank him, but he was furiously writing something in his notebook.

Finally, lunch. That period could not come soon enough. I was starving. I grabbed everything that looked good in the lunch line, paid, and sat down at my usual table with the squad.

The only problem was, the squad wasn't there. I looked around the crowded cafeteria, but I couldn't find any of them. Not Levy, not Erza, not even Natsu, who was always excited to eat. Something was up, and I was going to find out what that something was- just as soon as I ate my lunch.

"Listen up, everyone! The state preliminaries are coming up! I need you all to be in your best shape. This is the time to put in some extra effort. Run whenever and wherever you can! At the end of practice, I will give you all the new practice schedule. It will seem like a lot at first, but it's worth it. So, all have left to say is; DO YOU WANT THIS?!" Coach Laxus yelled. We all screamed "yes". "AND ARE YOU READY?!" Another "yes." "THEN GO GIVE ME FIVE LAPS AROUND THE SCHOOL!"

By the end of practice, we were all tired. We sat on the ground around Coach.

"Alright, guys, that was a good practice! Nice effort out there!" Coach attempted to rally us, but we were all far too tired to be excited. "Um, anyway, there is one more announcement I would like to make." Now we were interested. "I will be posting who is participating in which race in the preliminaries outside the locker rooms. Be sure to check before you leave."

We may have been exhausted, but we found enough strength to run to the locker rooms and change as quickly as possible. I don't think I've put on a pair of skinny jeans that quickly since that evening. Once fully dressed, I grabbed my backpack, and jogged to the door. Just outside, pinned to the clipboard, was the list of names and races. The A race was for the best of us, the B, the good ones, the C the okay ones, and so on. The list read:

JAKE- RACE B

ULTEAR- RACE A

MINERVA- RACE A

JACK- RACE C

GRACE- RACE B

THOMAS- RACE D

BEN- RACE A

ALLY- RACE C

SALLY- RACE D

MERUDY- RACE B

I read the list over and over again, but my name wasn't there. I saw Coach walking by, so I ran up to him.

"Coach, why aren't I on the list?" I was frantic to get an answer.

"Calm down, Lucy," he said, looking slightly amused.

"Am I not participating? Am I not good enough, or something? Why aren't I on the list?!" By this time, I was panting from trying to yell and keep up with Coach's fast pace at the same time.

Coach stopped walking and turned to me. "Lucy, you're not on the list because you're too good. I want to give the others a chance to win.'

"But-" I started.

"But, that isn't fair to you?" Coach guessed. I nodded. "Well, that's why I entered you in a different race. The official name for it is The 100. Basically, all over the country, hundreds of student athletes will be competing in the prelims for this thing. It's the best of the best. Then, the best 100 runners will move on to the semifinal, and from there, the best 10 will make it to the finals. The winner gets to meet the president, and they get a full ride to the college of their choice."

"Wow."

"Yeah, 'wow' is right." He turned serious for a second. "You're going to have to train extremely hard from now on, got it?"

"Got it, Coach!"

I walked over to the boys' locker room to wait for Natsu. He and I had practice on the same days, so we always walked home together.

Rogue walked out, and gave me a questioning look. "What are you doing here Lucy?"

"What do you mean? You know Natsu and I always walk home together."

"I thought you knew," he muttered under his breath. "Um, well, Natsu didn't come to practice today."

Why the hell did he miss practice? He never missed practice! Damn it, Natsu, why did you have to miss practice.

"Oh, um, okay. Well, I guess I'll walk home with Erza and Gray, then." Erza played field hockey, and Gray was on the soccer team.

"They weren't in practice either."

"Do you want me to walk you home, Lucy?" Sting. Why did he have to show up at exactly the wrong moment- when I was upset that Natsu bailed on practice and neglected to tell me.

I turned around to face him. "No, Sting," I smiled," I'm fine, thanks. I'd rather be eaten by a pack of wild dogs." I walked away before he could respond.

As I walked home, I wondered why none of my friends had been at lunch… or practice. What was going on with them? I thought about all of the possible reasons as to why they wouldn't be around, but none of them made any real sense. Maybe they were ignoring me or something. But why would they do that? Had I done something wrong? I didn't remember doing anything mean or offensive.

When I got to the block that my house was on, I saw something colorful flash by. I stopped, and back-tracked. It was a sign, but all it said was "H". I almost screamed when someone grabbed my hand.

"Lu!" Levy jumped on me, and gave me the biggest hug ever.

"Levy, where have you been all day? And what about everyone else?"

Levy smiled. "Oh, they've been busy. We all have."

"Busy doing what?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing much." Her tone was coy.

We kept walking towards my house, and I filled her in on my day, when I saw another sign. This one read "O".

"Levy."

"What?" she asked, trying to keep a giggle in.

"Do you have any idea what these signs are for?"

"None at all," Levy said.

I started to get in interrogation mode, but before I could reply, Levy took off running towards my house. I chased after her, and all the while, we kept passing signs. The next one was a "M", then an "E", then a "C", next an "O", followed by another "M", and then an "I", shortly after a "N", and finally, a "G". The last letter was standing right in front of my house. In the driveway stood Erza, Jellal, Levy- who was now out of breath-, Gray, and even Gajeel. Lastly, I spotted Natsu. He was standing at the front of the group, and he was holding a sign that said "?" in his hands. I started to put the pieces together, and I gasped.

Natsu walked up to me, looking happy but extremely nervous. "Luce, I really like you. And I would love to spend my first Homecoming at Fairy Tail High School with you."

"I-I don't know what to say," I stuttered.

"Before you decide, I want you to listen. I made a list of all the reasons that you should go to Homecoming with me." He took a deep, shaky breath. "Number one, SALMON and yellow go well together. Number two, I know that you like food, so I'll treat you to dinner. Number three, we like the same music. Number four, we're both great athletes. Number five, you smell good- like vanilla, and I smell like peppermint, and I think they would make a good combination. Number six, you own a market, and my diner gets all of their ingredients from your market, so it'll be really awkward if you say no. Number seven, you're like the sun, and I love fire. Number eight, I'm always happy when you're around. Number nine, from the first time I saw you, I knew I would fall in love with you. Number ten, I'm in love with you." He let out a sigh, as if he'd been anticipating this moment for months. "So, Lucy- no, Luce, will you give me the honor of being your date to Homecoming?" He looked at me with worried eyes.

My palms were starting to sweat, and I could feel everyone's eyes on me. Finally, I got up the courage to speak.

"Natsu Dragneel, I thought you'd never ask."

I don't know about you, but I'm so excited for them to go to Homecoming together! It's going to be a school dance to remember, I'll tell you that much. (I have so much planned.) Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and the next one will be coming you ASAP. Thanks for reading!