Hey guys! DRE the CAT here!

Almost didn't post because I've got my BIO FINAL TOMORROW (cries) but I've got 8 followers and as long as I have 1, I'll do anything to keep those updates going for you! Let me know in the reviews if you like where the story's going. Happy Monday!

-/-

"LUCY!"

Lucy turned towards the noise of a high pitched, out-of-breath shriek that had quickly followed the stomps of somebody running up the stairs to her second-story apartment. Three seconds later, desperate knocks emanated from her front door and she quickly surged forward to answer.

Standing at the door, gasping and slightly sweaty, was her best friend, Natsu Dragneel. Natsu was an orphan, and had been ever since his adoptive father mysteriously disappeared when he was about 10 years old. A charity had stepped up to provide a home, food, and a scholarship to attend an elite private middle school, where he met Lucy Heartfilia of the renowned Heartfilia family. Although they only began talking to each other after a group project forced them to, they had instantly clicked and had become inseparable since then.

"Lucy," Natsu panted, clearly still exhausted from running up the stairs. He was wearing cargo pants and a nicely fitting t-shirt that accentuated his lean body. "Lucy, we're gonna be late. Scratch that, we're already late, thanks to you sleeping in. Hurry up! My car's out in the front."

Lucy blinked, unsure as to why she was going through every childhood memory she had ever had with him. "Sorry Natsu," she sighed, feeling nauseous. "My brain's just been feeling overloaded since this morning."

Natsu snorted. "Kay Lucy. Feeling burnt out and we haven't even really started any classes yet. Typical."

Lucy playfully punched him in the shoulder. "Typical what? Care to finish?"

Natsu grinned. "C'mon, let's just go already!"

Lucy smiled to herself as they walked down the stairs towards his car. She felt extremely grateful that although Natsu had already been in class, he had left to pick her up, even though he knew it would make him late to class. She was also excited about the prospect of meeting new people.

At the same time though, she did feel a little nauseous. And for some reason, she kept getting painful little flashes, as if she was forgetting something that she needed to remember. What was it?

They reached Natsu's car, a small green Ford that looked beaten up from both the inside and outside.

"Nice Ferrari," Lucy teased, knowing that the best way to annoy Natsu was by pointing out the clear gap in personality between car and owner. She found it hilarious that a quaint little car like that could be owned by such a passionate hothead.

Hothead… hothead… why did that sound familiar? Somebody had called Natsu that often, and Lucy knew it wasn't her. Droopy eyes? Scrambling, Lucy wrote down droopy eyes and hothead into her notebook, unsure of what she was doing but at the same time, sure it was necessary.

Natsu had been speaking, probably making jokes about his "Ferrari," but Lucy wasn't paying attention. She was too absorbed in her own thoughts, sure that something was wrong, but unable to determine what. Finally, Natsu seemed to notice.

"Oi, oi, oi! Lucy? Hellooooo, anyone in there?" Taking one hand off the steering wheel and turning to face her, Natsu started to wave one hand in front of her dazed face. Turning back to the wheel, Natsu quickly swerved to avoid running into a stop sign. "Oops."

The car's swerving brought Lucy back to life as she shrieked. "Pay attention, Natsu! What was that?"

"What was that? What was that? You totally zoned out on me, and you're asking me what was that?" Natsu growled, still confused as to why Lucy was zoning out so much. Sure, Lucy was an avid daydreamer who could get "lost in her own world" from time to time, but never to the extent where she completely lost track of her surroundings.

Lucy sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Sorry, I think I should go take a Tylenol or something, I'm really not feeling well today."

Natsu frowned sympathetically. "You'll be fine, I've actually got some Tylenol in my bag. We'll be getting to Brevard in a minute, so just hurry up and take it. You realize we're fifteen minutes late, right?"

Lucy gulped down the pill. It was going to be a long day.

-/-

Lucy hesitated in front of the door to their international history class, and Natsu tugged on the back of her shirt as if to tell her to hurry it up. Lucy gulped, anxious about the prospect of walking into a class 18 minutes late. Feeling her heartbeat quicken and slightly closing her eyes, Lucy quickly pulled the door handle and walked in as confidently as possible: back straight, neutral face, a quick nod of apology to the professor, and a beeline to the back of the lecture hall. Natsu, meanwhile, casually strolled in without a care in the world and sat in the very front of the class, as if to say, yeah I'm late, but so what?

The professor cleared their throat and continued on with the lecture, looking slightly annoyed but choosing not to make a scene. Lucy took the chance to glance around the class to see if she could find any familiar faces, knowing full well that she wouldn't recognize anybody. Forcing herself to pay attention to the professor, Lucy pulled out some paper and started to take notes.

-/-

As the lecture ended and people began to pour out into the halls, a petite girl with blue hair grinned at Lucy and stopped her.

"Hey, uhh…" the girl waited for Lucy to respond with her name, still smiling up at her.

"Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia, nice to meet you. And you are…?" Lucy acknowledged the girl and smiled back.

"I'm Levy McGarden! I love your outfit, by the way! Anyway, I- I noticed you walked in late! So umm, you can look at my notes, if you want!" Levy had started to fidget, as if nervous that Lucy would reject her offer of looking at her notes. Lucy giggled at the idea of that.

"Levy, you're an angel! Thank you so much! Should I give you my number, or something? So you can send me the pictures later?"

Levy laughed. "Yeah, I guess I am pretty angelic! Yeah, give me your phone number and I'll send it all to you. My number is…."

After they exchanged numbers, Lucy walked out with Natsu, who had been waiting for her, out to their next class. Lucy decided that she was going to have a good day, even though she had woken up late. She had just made a new, amazing friend, the class she had just been to had been thoroughly wonderful, and she had two back-to-back classes with her best friend, who had gone out of his way to make sure she got to class. What more could she want?

Natsu, meanwhile, looked a little down. He wasn't as full of life as he usually was and he walked with a slight slump in his back. Lucy giggled; honestly, he looked a little like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

Natsu glanced at the sudden sound of Lucy's laughter. "Whatttttt? Laughing at my sorrow? It feels like my soul's been sucked out of my body; you said that class was gonna be easy!"

Lucy shook her head at him. "You wouldn't be in this situation if you didn't try to follow me everywhere I went. Just because I'm majoring in poli sci doesn't mean you have to, too. Find something you like! But don't worry about that class; I'll tutor you, and you should know that I'm the best tutor to ever live!"

Natsu's hair flopped a little as he tilted his head towards her. "Nothing interests me, Lucy. I'm following you into your career, into your house, into your life. You're gonna have to feed me, and provide for me, and…"

Natsu droned on and on about how Lucy was essentially morally obligated to provide for him. Lucy rolled her eyes and let him keep talking, not agreeing with him but not saying anything to the contrary. They finally reached their next class, a general elective that wasn't needed for their major but that was necessary to graduate: English 101.

Their first class of the day had been a large lecture hall with at least 200 people, but in contrast this English class only had about 20 students. Standing at the front of the class was a small, impish man in an odd, orange jumpsuit. The white board had "Professor Makarov" written in swirly, feminine letters.

"Hello, everyone!" A delightfully delicate voice emanated from the door as a graceful woman practically glided in, her black dress waving in the bright lights of the classroom. Her hair was an unnatural white, and her pale skin reminded Lucy of a doll's. "Hope everyone's getting settled in! I'm your teaching aide, and you can just call me Mirajane!"

Professor Makarov was obviously ogling his teaching aide as she obliviously beamed out at the class. Finally, he turned to his class and started.

"Thank you, Mirajane, delighted to see you so soon. Yes class, this is English 101, I don't care if you don't think you're a writer, you're going to have to write to graduate! I understand that you're all freshman here, so why don't we all introduce ourselves first? I'll start. I am Professor Makarov, and I have been a professor here at Brevard University for about 20 years now. I am extremely delighted to be teaching at the most selective university in Magnolia, and hope that you students honor the Brevard name instead of tarnish it. Now then, let's start with the front row, left side of the class, and we'll move back from there. Please stand up and state your name, intended major, and the occupation you hope to have in the future."

Lucy gulped. She hated these brief introductions, even though she knew that nobody ever really paid attention. She was nervous; what if she stuttered, or, worse, mispronounced her own name?

The girl in the front left row started. She was a petite, delicate looking girl, and she radiated beams of happiness and positivity. Lucy could hear Natsu sucking in his breath from behind her, clearly astounded by the girl's beauty.

"Hi everyone," she started, and Lucy couldn't help but feel struck by the way that her voice sounded like a tinkling bell, giving off the same vibe that Mirajane's had. "My name is Lisanna Strauss, and I'm majoring in biology! In the future, I'd like to participate in different genetic research labs investigating the different genetic properties of the different animals! I'm really excited to be here!" As she smiled, Lucy couldn't help but notice that the girl, Lisanna, looked physically similar to the teaching aide as well, but she just shrugged it off as a crazy coincidence.

As Lisanna sat down, the boy behind her stood up. He had messy black hair and a serious face, and Lucy could see herself getting along well with him. "Hey. My name's Gray Fullbuster, and…"

Lucy couldn't hear the rest as she suddenly felt a wave of nausea overcome her. Struggling to maintain her composure, she tuned back in to Gray's introduction. "…I've always been fascinated by the different molecular structures that water can take on, and I guess I'm a little obsessed with ice, so majoring in chemistry just felt like the right thing to do. I'm still unsure as to what I want to do, but I'm still pretty young, so we'll see." He sat down, and as he did Lucy suddenly remembered that she had felt that same nausea when she had seen Natsu that morning. Grabbing the notebook where she had been recording her thoughts from the morning, she wrote down "Nausea" as the title of a new page and quickly scribbled in Gray and Natsu's name.

As more people introduced themselves to the class, Lucy found herself continuously losing interest until a familiar face stood up. Lucy sat up, excited to hear more about her new friend, Levy.

"Hi everyone! I'm Levy McGarden! I'm a history major, because I'm absolutely obsessed with history and how it's influenced the world around us! Especially all the historical discrepancies out there. I'd like to be a political advisor when I go off to the professional world, but if that doesn't work out I'd be more than happy to become a professor somewhere!"

Finally, it was Lucy's turn to present herself. Standing up, she started confidently. "Hey! I'm Lucy Heartfilia, and-"

Somebody interrupted her, even though nobody else had been interrupted throughout the introductions. "Heartfilia? As in, the Heartfilia's?"

Lucy blushed, feeling the heat rise up and spread throughout her face. "Yeah, umm, yes. The Heartfilia's, that's me. Anyway, I'm a poli sci major, and I want to become a politician when I'm older and shake things up a bit." She grinned, even though her good mood had been slightly ruined, and awkwardly sat down.

There was a heavy sigh as Natsu stood up to begin his introduction. "I'm Natsu Dragneel, and yes, before anyone asks, I am from the Dragneel family, as if any one of you should give a shit about that." He glared at the guy who had interrupted Lucy. "Anyway, I'm a poli sci major too, and I want to be a politician too. That's all."

As he sat down, Lucy turned around, smiling at him. Natsu returned the smile and gave her a thumbs up before putting his head down, as if to take a nap. Lucy worriedly watched him, as she realized that he had looked a little paler since that morning. Clearly, he was not feeling well.

The introductions finally over, Professor Makarov finally decided to start the class and began with Shakespearean literature. The rest of the class time was spent reading Macbeth, and then, finally, the class was over. Lucy turned around to see Natsu peacefully sleeping behind her.

"Hey, Natsu? Come one, wake up," she quietly tapped him, hoping to wake him up without drawing attention to either of them.

"Hmm?" His nose twitched as he slightly opened his eyes, blinking up at her. "Hey Lucy. Wanna go for lunch?"

"Yeah," she said, "come on, wake up so that we can go get something to eat."

Finally shrugging off the sleep, Natsu begrudgingly stood up and yawned. Suddenly, his skin was back to the lively tan it had always been and his eyes had that familiar twinkle in them. He grinned at Lucy, as if to tell her that he felt better. "Aight Lucy. Let's go."

"WAIT!" shouted a familiar voice behind them, laced with desperation and excitement. "Natsu, hold up!"

Natsu whirled around to the charming voice and a petite, elfish girl with short, blindingly white hair crashed into him. He immediately felt nauseous again and held his head, as if to ward off the headache that was beginning to grow. Squinting at the girl, Natsu felt an empty hole in his heart and something just felt wrong.

"Lisanna?"