A/N.*inhales sharply* Guess. What.

I FINISHED MY SCIENCE FAIR! *Happy Dance* Now I can solely focus on writing until next year's SF. ^^

If anyone read and reviewed my MothxPuck oneshot...

OH MY GOSH, thank you! I didn't realize I would get so many reviews in three days! Yeah, I know 12 reviews sounds small, but I got 12 in THREE days...that's epic. Usually I get 5 each week. Thank you to everyone who liked 'In A Different Light'. Also, my one-shot winners for that...
Winner of Song (They found out what the song in the one-shot was): Adorakble Snowman aka Jay!
Winner of Maximum Ride Reference (They found out what the MRR was): Puckabrina-Percabeth-Fax10!

For those curious, the song was Someone Like You by Adele (a bit obvious because I put too many clues...). The MRR reference was the kids in the taxi. ^^

Replies, replies...
To Cheesy Dork: I checked it out, and Gakuen Alice (Alice Academy) doesn't have a student/teacher relationship. Um, she sleeps next to him because she's scared (she's like seven or so, right? I forgot the girl's name) or something, but they have no romantic relationship. I think she likes the boy,..oh, what's his name? Oh! Natsume! So...yeah. I haven't checked out the other anime (it's an anime, right?), but I'll look at it soon.

To Lara D aka Abigail taking over my account: Thanks for giving a nice review but GO ON YOUR OWN FF BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE I'M TALKING TO MYSELF!

Enjoy Ch...9!

Chapter 9: Joining

Daphne climbed into the slightly swaying compartment on the Ferris wheel carefully, holding tightly onto the railings. When her whole body was over the gap between the compartment and dock, she quickly sat down so she wouldn't fall. Mr. Firay followed, casually stepping in without a worry. He sat across from Daphne and the worker closed the gate, sending Daphne a knowing smirked. She blushed, looking away from him. Her gaze fell on the crowd waiting in line. "What happens if someone sees us?"

Mr. Firay chuckled. "Depending on who it is, either we'd have to think of a pretty convincing excuse as to why we are riding the Ferris wheel together, or it wouldn't matter. There's nothing wrong with a teacher and student going on a ride together, unless you think of it the wrong way."

Daphne pondered over this, then nodded, and the compartment suddenly lurched forward. They moved for about thirty seconds and it stopped again, to unload people and have people get on. Mr. Firay sighed and looked at all the people below us.

"Do you like Ferris wheels?" Daphne asked, frowning slightly. She hadn't even asked if he was fond of them or not. The fairy might have a fear of Ferris wheels for all Daphne knew.

Mr. Firay shrugged. "I don't hate them," he responded insouciantly.

"Oh."

The compartment began to move again, going higher into the air. Daphne licked her lips nervously. In her excitement to go on the Ferris wheel, she had forgotten that she was afraid of heights. How ironic was that? After she had fallen off the magic carpet one training day, she had sworn to never fly unless with Puck there to catch her. Daphne then glanced at her teacher. Well, Mr. Firay is a fairy...

Daphne didn't trust him fully though. She placed her hands securely on the seat, hoping the compartment would stop they were about halfway from the top, the Ferris wheel started moving full speed. Daphne stared wide-eyed at the ground below them. Since when did Ferris wheels go so fast? She reached out and gripped the pole in the middle.

"Are you scared?" Mr. Firay asked in a teasing voice.

"No," Daphne lied, swallowing hard as they continued higher.

"You won't mind if I rock the compartment then, would you?"

Before she could protest, Mr. Firay stood up and started shaking the compartment. Daphne wrapped her arms around the pole and geld on tightly as her teacher violently shook the only thing keep them from falling and dying. I can't trust him at all! Daphne's mind screamed at her.

"Scared now?" Mr. Firay asked.

"Stop!" Daphne cried, her heart racing. "Please, stop!"

Mr. Firay laughed. "Say you're scared."

She glared at him, and forced herself off the seat. Clinging onto the pole, she kicked him as hard as she could. He lost his balance and fell towards her. She shrieked as his weight pushing on her made it impossible to hold onto the pole and they both fell on Daphne's seat, making the compartment rock even more violently than it already was.

Daphne frantically grabbed onto Mr. Firay, wrapping her arms around him, and gripping onto the back of his jacket. Daphne's breath quickened, and she squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the rocking to stop. Mr. Firay sat up, dragging her with him. Although she was pissed at him, Daphne couldn't bring herself to let him go. Soon the compartment was only rocking a little, and she opened her eyes, her hands still shaking and attached to his jacket.

"You're a jerk," Daphne accused, her voice cracking.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, looking amused. "I didn't think I'd fall..."

"Why are you like this?" Daphne demanded, slowly making herself release him.

He straightened out his jacket, smoothing the wrinkles she had made. "Like what?"

"This! You always say something mean to me and then apologize, and think everything is okay!" Daphne cried, throwing up her arms. The compartment shook again, and she leaned forwards, grabbing onto Mr. Firay again. He put his hands on her shoulders after a moment, then Daphne let go of him.

"I'm sorry," he said frowning. "It's just my personality."

"Well it's not a good one!" Daphne told him.

"I know," he responded.

"Yeah-wait, what?" she said, staring at him.

"I know I have a horrible personality," he told Daphne, rolling his eyes. "I'm not blind."

Daphne felt the compartment stop and looked around her before she could stop herself. Dizziness swept over her when she realized they were stopped at the top. Usually she would be feeling excited, but after her near death experience, she was feeling sick. She pushed herself away from the side, but before she could sit back, Mr. Firay grabbed her and pulled Daphne towards him.

"Wait," she said, trying to pull away from him.

He held her tighter, and slid her down right next to him. "No. I know you're scared, so it's okay."

Daphne chewed her lip, but sighed. He was right; she was scared. And being closer to him made her more comfortable-not that she was going to let him know that. "Fine. But now you have to tell me why those men tried to assault you in the woods."

Mr. Firay chuckled. "Straight to the point, huh? Don't you want to know why I became a rebel?"

"You mean gangster?"

He gave her a look. "Do you want to know or not?"

Daphne looked up at him. If she said yes, would he tell her? Or would he be his usual self and say something along the lines of "like I would tell you"? After a moment of hesitation, she nodded. He was the one who offered.

He snorted. "Like I would tell you."

Daphne tried to move away from him. I knew it! He held her fast though, and laughed quietly. "Just kidding," he said, smirking. "I'm not exactly sure when I started. See, when my mom died, her will said to send me to regular school, and I could take the throne if I wanted. I didn't really, so my cousin, Peaseblossom, is currently the King of Fairy, and I was told to go to school. I started either in my freshman or sophomore year of high school. It just so happened the that school I went to had a bunch of members from the town's gang attending it too."

Daphne remembered the fiery red head. "Were all the gangsters Everafters? Like Peter Pan?"

Mr. Firay said, "Firstly, rebels. Secondly, not all. We still had to keep our identities a secret, so I went by Mattheis Firay, or Matt. And a reason I joined was because I wanted to irk my brother by teaming up with Peter." He smirked to himself.

"That doesn't mean you have to join them," Daphne pointed out.

Mr. Firay hesitated for a moment, looking uncomfortable. He let out a long sigh before continuing. "That's not it. I didn't join out of my free will right away. At first, I was just like every other normal student. I got good grades, played basketball on the school's team, and had friends. Mind you, they were mortals. But one of my good friends was a complete stereotypical nerd who was made fun of all the time."

Daphne stayed quiet, nodding her head when she felt the need to. Mr. Firay stretched, resting his arms on top of the seat. Daphne leaned forwards to make sure that she wouldn't accidentally lean back onto his arm. Sitting next to him like this made Daphne feel like they were a couple taking a ride on the Ferris wheel. Her face heated slightly at her thoughts. Luckily, Mr. Firay's voice interrupted them.

"I'm not sure about nowadays, but back when I went to school, we had the classic bullies who literally beat people up for lunch money and all that."

"Weren't you in high school like four years ago, Mr. Firay?" Daphne asked.

He rose an eyebrow, ignoring her question. "I told you to call me Matt out of class."

Daphne looked puzzled. "But you're name's Mustardseed-"

"Well, I'm telling you to call me Matt. It sounds like I fit in, so call me Matt," he ordered.

"Sorry, er, Matt," she responded, looking at her lap. "Please continue."

He chuckled. "Anyways, I bet you guessed it, but my friend was beaten up constantly. He never told me though. So one day after practice, I was walking out of the locker room and I ran into four guys beating him up. Without thinking, I dropped my equipment and attacked them."

"All four?"

Mr. Firay nodded. "It was easy. They were all down for the count in five minutes flat. It just so happened that the leader of the school's gang was watching and he wanted me to join them. Do you know what happens when you refuse to join a gang?"

Daphne shook her head. Mr. Firay suddenly started to take off his shirt. She grabbed it and pulled it back down, blushing madly. Holy unicorns.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, avoiding eye contact.

"Relax," Mr. Firay responded with a snicker. "I'm just going to show you something."

Daphne frowned, and let go of his shirt. He pulled it up again, and showed her his back. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw a large, pale, scare across the top of it. Daphne slowly reached out and touched the smooth skin.

"What did they do?" Daphne whispered.

Mr. Firay let out a bark of laughter. "What do you think? They all got together and beat me up until I said I'd join."

Daphne looked lower on his back and saw another scar. She touched it and Mr. Firay arched his back slightly. "What's this scar from? And wait, aren't you kind of immortal? Shouldn't these heal?"

"From lighters," he responded. "And you're right, but Peter Pan had a dirty trick up his sleeve and rubbed some poison on it. It's not too fatal if you're a fairy, but it won't ever actually heal. Same for the other scar."

"Oh my God," Daphne said, pulling her hand away. "You didn't tell the police? I mean, you could've left out the poison part but..."

"And get myself killed?" Mr. Firay responded, pulling down his shirt again, and looking at Daphne with an eyebrow cocked. "I don't think so."

"But-"

"They knew I was stronger than the leader," Mr. Firay explained, ignoring her. "That's why they all got together to force me to join, If there had been only like, five or seven of them I could have taken them. Twenty, not so much. And some were Everafters-harder to fight. And since I did join, I was able to easily stop the bullying at the school. My friend was never harassed again."

"So why didn't you just join before they beat you up?" Daphne asked.

Mr. Firay shrugged. "I hadn't thought about being able to stop the bullies at school if I was in the gang, so that's why I refused at first."

"So you went through all that just for your friend?"

"Pretty much," he said with a shrug. "But it was also for everyone who was being bullied as well."

Daphne stared at Mr. Firay. I had been wrong about him all along. He wasn't some jerk who didn't care about anyone but himself. In fact, it was like he cared about everyone else more than himself. He had gone through all that, plus having both his parents die? Guilt washed over Daphne. It felt like her heart had dropped into her gut. I was the jerk here; not him. Suddenly, her eyes felt wet, and she blinked furiously. Mr. Firay put a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. He almost looked as guilt as she felt, which threw her off guard. What was he feeling guilty about?

"Are you okay?" he asked in concern. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry..."

That's why he felt guilty. Daphne shook her head quickly. "That's not it...it's just...I had pinned you as a self-centered jerk, but I didn't know you at all, so I was just assuming things and I feel really bad about it because you're actually a nice person who would do all that for your friends and yet the whole time I knew you..." Daphne stopped her rambling.

Mr. Firay's face was twisted into an expression she didn't recognize. "It's okay. Being a jerk is part of my personality as well. That just isn't my whole personality."

"I'm a jerk too," she pointed out.

"No you're not," Mr. Firay said with a sigh. "You're a Grimm; helpful and strong-willed. You're just an honest girl...who cries easily. And who is probably very gullible," he added as an afterthought.

"How'd you know?" Daphne asked.

Mr. Firay grinned. "I just get a feeling from you."

Daphne couldn't help but smile back at him. She was seeing him in a new light now. But seeing him in this new light made her heart beat increase, and her stomach churn. She couldn't pull her gaze away from his handsome face. Even though she hadn't had much to do with guys, she definitely recognized these feelings. And it wasn't a good sign.

A/N. *happy dance* Ah yes, a filler-ish chapter. I finished this early so be happy. I'm most likely going to update again tomorrow, so look out! And something I see...

Nine Chapters.
Sixty Reviews.
Over 100 visitors a Day.
300+ hits a Day.

That's messed up. Where are my reviews? Your reviews will make my updates come faster (well, not really. I'm not a review hoarder, know that. I just love feedback! Makes me feel special! ^^)!

Anyways, I'M SO EXCITED FOR TOMORROW! MY AUNT'S FAMILY IS COMING TOMORROW FROM SAN FRANCISCO!

Okay, well. See you tomorrow!
~LαΓα