"When I play a fighting game, I press random buttons and hope for the best."
-Teenager post # 7839
CHAPTER 7: DETENTION
8:28 AM
Vacant Room, Third Floor, Fairy Hills, Magnolia, Fiore
She had been dreaming of candy-colored clouds and little dancing white puppies. It was pure bliss; she was wrapped in a soft, warm, gentle, transparent bubble; overlooking kingdoms of cutesy snowmen who swam in pink, gently flowing rivers.
But the bubble in which she was encased in suddenly vibrated with a mumble, sounding like a faint "Gerroff me," or perhaps a jumbled "Five more minutes."
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the speaking bubble, and her hands moved to touch and pop the bubble, but finding out she was actually poking at someone. Her chocolate brown eyes flew open in shock and awareness.
The first thing she saw was the white, scale-like scarf; the first sensation she felt was his warm hands wrapped tightly around her, and so the first thing she did was push the stranger off the bed with a loud, dignified 'Kyaa!'
"What's the big idea?" the offended muttered, rubbing the spot where his head hit the floor and confusedly staring at the blonde-haired girl who gathered the sheets of blanket around her.
"Who are you?!" she exclaimed, "And what have you done to my purity?!" she shrieked, further clutching the sheets around her.
He tilted his head in genuine lack of understanding of what in Fiore's kingdom she was talking about.
'Purity? Oh, she must mean 'that.' He thought in realization.
He smiled brightly, "Don't worry; the others took good care of it last night."
She almost fainted hearing those words.
"Puun?" a new voice muffled by the sheets startled the poor blonde-haired girl so much that she flung the struggling thing across the room the second it emerged under the covers.
"Hey, why'd you do that to 'purity'?" Natsu Dragneel asked, watching as the girl stumbled across the floor towards the cute little guy.
Flashes of the river, the rainstorm, and someone swimming towards her flooded her memory.
"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" Lucy cried out, proceeding to help the white thing to its cute paws. The little guy mumbled a grateful 'puun' with dizzy eyes.
She then turned to the pink-haired boy, who was currently sitting on the floor, with a frown.
"You don't mean he is the 'purity' you're talking about, right?" she asked incredulously, while the boy slightly nodded.
"Well, he is white and pure, y'know." He retorted, as Lucy simply sighed and closed her eyes in relief.
'Nothing happened. No need to panic. I'm not going to be a mother. Thank Earthland.' She reassured herself.
"What happened yesterday? And where are we?" she asked, looking around the unfamiliar room, and with a shriek that made the fire mage think she suddenly saw a dragon, she asked.
"What time is it?!"
12:03 PM
Class 3-A, Building A, Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
"We're so sorry!" a certain blue-haired girl bowed low while gripping a huge textbook. Lucy simply waved her hands and smiled nervously at everyone around her. She's never been surrounded by her classmates, and its drawing attention. And attention, whatever kind it is, isn't good; she mused.
"It's okay. It's fine." She repeated for the umpteenth time, but the ten girls who formed a circle around her shook their heads vehemently.
"We forgot about you when we were all rushing to get to school early." Laki Olietta exclaimed,
"Yeah, and we didn't even know we were classmates until Gray told us so." Cana said forlornly,
"And to think we left you with him," Mirajane sadly spoke, looking towards the fire mage who was in a contest of fire-ice eating with his cryomancer rival.
"Juvia hopes he didn't burn your hair or accidentally fire-punched you." The water mage supposed, earning another 'No, he didn't,' and 'It's all fine,' from Lucy.
"Well I, being the class mayor shall-" Erza Scarlet paled while reminded of her position, "I mean, I guess we could threaten Fullbuster to convince the professor to withdraw your ticket to detention."
"Yes, being tardy because of Natsu Dragneel could be a valid excuse. In other words," Sherry started, "Love."
Lucy couldn't disagree more.
"Alright then, it's settled." Erza turned to the ice mage, "Fullbuster! We need you here at once." She bossily ordered, the ice mage deliberately ignoring the pushy requip mage and continued eating huge chunks of ice.
"No, really. It's fine. Besides, it's only once. And how bad could it be?" the blonde-haired girl reiterated, thinking about how much jeopardy them giving her attention would cause trouble.
'It's just detention. And then everything will be back to the ordinary, normal, unnoticeable days.' Or so she thought.
3:40 PM
Vacant Classroom; Building C, Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore
The black sheep of Fairy Tail High gather in a vacant classroom for a special meeting called 'detention.'
Other than the usual rowdy students, there was one new, unfamiliar and unnoticed blonde-haired girl, sitting by the window to the right, writing away in a black notebook while students around her took their time doing whatever they were used to doing; i.e., sleeping, eating and chatting.
'To the Book I refuse to call Diary,' she wrote in a not-so-very elegant handwriting.
'High school. That one word that brings every single situation, ranging from invisibility moments to moments where the whole school stare and look at you possible.'
She looked at the students who began throwing paper airplanes, pen slightly stopping before she continued.
'High school. That one place where, as quote by one of our school's most well-known troublemaker, Gajeel Redfox, 'The weak becomes food for the strong.' is actually implied.'
She noticed the look of disdain on the meek teacher's face in front as she attempted to quiet the class down.
'High school. The place where things in skirts six inches below the waist rule ogres who walk the corridors of the very school.'
She turned to her right, directly staring at a girl who had her feet propped up against one of the desks.
'High school. The place where boys whose heads are literally stuck in basketball hoops rule girls who swoon to their every move.'
She directed her stare to the front, where a boy was twirling a basketball with his index finger.
'High school. The noun which describes my hell.' She sighed out loud.
'High school. Detention was the worst; no magic was allowed, and long story short, I got it when me and a classmate of mine were late for more than an hour because… of certain reasons.'
She looked around the room, the teacher just walked out in tears.
'And, well, I love to write. So right now, I shall right to the very core of my emotions.
So, my name here at Fairy Tail High isLucy Valentine.
My passion is writing and magic. Everyone, now that we're at our last year in high school, had seemed to have found and chosen what certain aspect of magic they excelled at. Some had been born as natural fire mages, others found water easy enough to control, some had never been bothered by the ice's coldness, and others were fond of weaponry and requipping.
Meanwhile, I'm just sitting here like,that wall… is a nice wall.Story of my life.
But I don't pity myself, I never had, and never will get to the point where I turn my speakers to full blast playing sad, depressing music. I'm just not that desperate. I mean, okay, sometimes I get a little carried away and end up eating plates of-that's not the point!
Let's continue. I shall have my specialized corner of magic at the end of the year. This is my promise to-'
"Well, what do we have here?" Lucy literally jumped out of her seat and hurriedly closed the black notebook, looking behind her to see Fairy Tail High's very own Sorcerer Weekly violence and destruction sensation, Natsu Dragneel, looking past her shoulder.
"Hi." He smiled. She stared with no emotions present.
"Hi." She replied, her eyes turning towards the blackboard as he wracked his brain for things to say. Natsu Dragneel felt compelled to talk to the blonde-haired girl. She was so unlike everyone at Fairy Tail, she was unnoticed, and disregarded, and she was so quiet that it made him curious to know what was going on inside that pretty head of hers.
He pulled a chair and sat beside her, much to her dismay. "Oh yeah, I haven't even formally introduced myself. I'm-" he started to say, until she cut him off.
"Natsu Dragneel. Fire mage. And my classmate." She finished monotonously.
Something was off about her, Natsu thought; it seemed very hard to converse with her.
"So your name's Lucy Valentine, huh?" he asked, she replied with a tense nod.
'Now what?' he thought, actually thinking about things to talk for the first time.
"Sorry for getting us into detention." He started the conversation once more, as she sighed tiresomely.
"It's fine."
"And for shocking you this morning."
"It's fine."
"And calling your pet 'purity.'"
Lucy wanted to just drift away.
"And for-"
"You know what, I'm sorry. I don't feel so good today. I'd appreciate the silence." Lucy ended the conversation with that sentence.
"Oh, ok." He replied. She was motionless, keeping her eyes on the board and waiting for him to just go away.
Unfortunately for her, he didn't. He continued to sit there beside her, tapping his fingers relentlessly on the desk. He flicked his eyes from her to the front, and she sighed in annoyance.
"It sure is noisy in here." He dully commented, and she rued the remaining minutes of detention.
"Yeah." She replied back, making it painfully obvious that she wanted to be alone.
Two awkward minutes later and Natsu couldn't stand the inactivity.
"Wanna go get some ice cream later?" he turned to the blonde-haired girl with hopeful eyes.