Lucy pulled a notebook and pencil case out of her backpack, arranging them on her desk. She looked at her watch and immediately groaned. She knew she was going to regret signing up for a class at eight in the morning. Unfortunately, when signing up for classes over the summer, she didn't have many options; she could thank freshman time slots for that. IT especially wasn't encouraging when she had to wake up, get dressed, and get ready for the day, but Levy, her roommate, got to sleep. Still, she was excited. This was her first class as a college student, and the class would hopefully be fun too. It was a class all about studying old literature, one of the first classes in the English major.
One thing she loved about Magnolia College was that there were no large lecture halls. Instead, most classes were in regular classrooms, with a whiteboard at the front. Lucy had made sure to leave her dorm with time to spare. The academic building her class was in was Wolfheim Hall, which was just across the circle from Fairy Tail. The closeness of the building made it so that she got to the classroom pretty early on. From the desk that she chose out, second row and close to the door, she watched different people file in. Some were faces that she recognized from orientation, or that building meeting, but most of the other students she had never seen before.
In total, there were maybe twenty to thirty people in the classroom by the time eight rolled around and the professor walked in. It was an older lady, who would have been rather short if not the the heels she was wearing. She introduced herself and passed around a copy of the syllabus for the semester, before taking roll call. The majority of the class was spent talking about what the course would cover. They also went through the long list of books that would be required for this class, all of which were sitting neatly on Lucy's desk in her room. She wrote down different notes about how homework would be structured, when the first assignments were due, and so on and so forth.
When the class did end, Lucy packed up her things and headed out. She had a little over an hour before her next class, and decided to go get breakfast while she could. Thankfully, she had made the decision to pack up what she would need for her next class a well. So, Lucy headed for the Campus Center. It was now just passed nine o'clock, so more people seemed to be out. Some faces she recognized from orientation, but most of the people she passed on the path were complete strangers. It wasn't until she stepped into the dining hall that she actually became self conscious about how few people she knew.
The night before Lucy had eaten with her new friends. They had all ventured together in a large herd of people who were terrified of eating alone. It was great at the time, but Lucy quickly forgot that she didn't have the same eating schedule as these newly obtained friends. After piling a generous helping of eggs and tofu sausage on her plate, she ventured over to where the hall filled with tables and chairs. The blonde let her eyes scan the room briefly. She didn't know anyone there. Not wanting to seem like she was lost, or desperate for people to sit with, Lucy found an empty table and sat herself down on the corner to eat on her own. She wasn't the only one eating alone, so it wasn't out of place. She propped her phone up against the salt and pepper shakers, scrolling through various social media apps while she shoveled food into her mouth. She was halfway done when she heard her name get called out.
"Lucy! Hey Lucy!" Standing right next to the table was none other than Natsu. His pink hair stuck out in all sorts of directions. Clearly, he hadn't bothered to run a brush through it or anything that morning. He was carrying two plates, one in each hand, with a cup of juice jammed into the bend of his elbow. "Mind if I sit with ya?"
The girl covered her mouth before speaking through bites of scrambled egg. "Rrr. Oh fur eet." She added a nod just in case he didn't understand her full-mouth speak.
Natsu carefully put his plates and cup down before sitting. "Lisanna'll be over in a bit too. She's waiting on pancakes."
"Alright." The pair began eating in silence. Lisanna came over, as expected, finding them pretty easily before sitting in the seat next to Natsu.
"So did you have your first class yet?" The white haired girl asked.
"Yeah. Just finished it a little while ago." Lucy smiled. "It wasn't bad, but it looks like it's going to be a lot of reading. Although I'm trying to do an English major, so I basically signed up for that…"
"That's true." Lisanna laughed before taking in a huge bite of pancake.
"What about you guys? Did you do your first class yet?"
"Not yet." Natsu said, whipping syrup from his face with the back of his hand. "I've got my first class after this."
"What class?" Lucy inquired. She checked the time on her phone, making a mental note that she had twenty minutes to finish up her breakfast.
"Chemistry! I'm super excited for it." A large grin plastered itself from ear to ear on Natsu's face.
"I have never seen someone so excited about a chemistry class before…"
"He's just excited about having lab tomorrow." Lisanna rolled her eyes.
"Lab's are a lot of fun. Especially when stuff goes wrong." Natsu's swiped a finger across one of his two plates, both of which had been completely cleaned off. "Well… Only if it means something catching on fire… If you just fuck up your titrations then that sucks."
"That's the worst!" Lisanna, who apparently understood what that meant, quickly agreed. "But yeah. I'm about to go to my first biology class."
"I've heard bio here is a living hell." Lucy said. She wasn't wrong too. Principles of Biology, POB as the cool kids called it, had a reputation for being one of the hardest entry level courses this school offered. The drop rate for the first week of classes was massive, and the fail rate was even higher. Lucy couldn't imagine how anyone could possibly want to be a biology major knowing that the first class was designed to make you fail.
Lisanna just shrugged though. Apparently she didn't seem bothered by this. "I just need to study my ass off and I'll be ok."
"Well, I got to get heading to my next class." Lucy gathered all of her dished and stacked them on top of each other before standing up. The other two at the table did the same. The three then walked over to the where the drop-off for dirty dishes was. "What building are you guys going to?"
"My class is in Warrod, and Natsu's is in Gran Doma." Lisanna explained. Those were the two buildings dedicated to all of the science and math related classes. They were right next to each other, and created their own little courtyard. The two buildings were on north campus, right by the gym, and were the northern most academic buildings. The only structures past them were upperclassmen housing.
"Oh really? I have a math class in Warrod next too." Lucy said, exiting the dining hall and locating her backpack in the cubbies that lined the hallway. She slung it over her shoulder and waited to make sure the others she was with were ready as well before they all left the building. "I'm really not excited for it though."
"What classes are you taking this semester?" Lisanna asked.
"My english class, calculus, astronomy 101, and one of those freshman seminars." The blonde went through her schedule. "I'm just trying to get through as many of those gen ed requirements as I can this semester."
"I'm working more on getting pre-med stuff out of the way." Lisanna shrugged. "I figured I can get the general stuff done as I go."
The three kept chatting as they walked up the path. They all said their goodbyes at the entrance to Warrod Hall. Natsu had to continue to the next building over, and while Lisanna and Lucy were in the same building, the math and biology departments were completely separated from each other.
Calculus was going to be hell. Lucy knew that very well. She just wasn't a math person. She was just going to have to slug through that class the best she could. Unlike her first class, the math department apparently didn't believe in syllabus week. There was only a brief introduction by the professor before jumping right into the material. Lucy couldn't get out of that class faster if she wanted to. The second it ended she was out the door.
Unfortunately, she had two classes back to back. She had ten minutes to get from Warrod Hall, back to Wolfheim. The building where only about a three minute walk apart though, which helped. The best part was that this was her last class of the day. While the layout of Wolfheim was a little confusing in comparison to other buildings, it didn't take long for Lucy to find her classroom.
Several faces in the room were familiar to her this time around. Though, that was probably because this was her freshman seminar. The class was designed for first years to get used to college homework and the different resources the school had, so the topic changed depending on what professor taught it. The subject for this one was Family, Marriage, and Religion. It wasn't anything that Lucy was particularly interested in, but it fit her schedule, and didn't have too awkward of a time slot seeing as it would end right before the ideal lunch time.
"Oh hey. It's you again." Natsu walked in the classroom, a smile on his face. He immediately walked up to Lucy and sat in the seat beside her. "You're in this one too? That's awesome!"
"Funny how that works." Lucy laughed. She felt like she was running into this guy everywhere she went lately. "How did chemistry go?"
"It was pretty cool." A glint appeared in the boy's onyx eyes. "We just did introduction and played a game about the Periodic Table, but she also talked about what kind of stuff we're going to be doing in lab and I'm really fired up now!"
"What kind of games can you play with the Periodic Table of Elements?" Lucy quirked an eyebrow.
"It was kind of a puzzle sort of thing." Natsu explained the activity as he pulled out a notebook and a pen from his bag. It sounded more tedious than fun, but to each their own.
The professor who walked in was a small lady with a slight accent. She immediately jumped into making the entire class do a round of introductions. There were only maybe fourteen people in the whole class, and she explained that it was going to a very intimate class because of that. As they went over the syllabus, Lucy realized that his class might require a lot of sharing about her family. There was a brief moment of panic. She didn't need people knowing that stuff, it wasn't anything she wanted to share anyways. Thankfully, before her mind could start bringing up everything she definitely didn't want to think about while she was in class, the professor reassured everyone that no one would be forced to share anything they didn't want to. The only other thing that surprised her was the small sigh of relief she thought she heard come from Natsu. He seemed like such a happy-go-lucky person. Although, maybe even he had things he didn't exactly want others to know. Was it weird that that was reassuring?
Nothing was more liberating than finally being done with classes for the day. The moment the seminar class was let out, Lucy felt a huge relief flood over her. She had successfully finished her very first day of college classes!
"Hey Natsu." She turned to the pink haired mess next to her. "Are you up for lunch real quick?"
"I'm always up for food." The guy threw his bag haphazardly over his shoulder.
"Awesome. I'm just gonna text Levy and see what she's up to. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a class right now." Lucy took out her phone from her pocket.
"Do we just want to tell her to meet us there?" Natsu asked, peering over Lucy's shoulder at the message she sent.
"Yeah probably." Lucy fit that into her text message before hitting send. The second she did, she began walking. Natsu quickly came to walk beside her. "Even though I ate breakfast, I'm super hungry."
"I think I need to start bringing snacks to class." The boy scratched the back of his head.
"Geez. How much food do you eat?" Lucy laughed.
Natsu just shrugged, shoving his hands in his shorts pockets. "I move around a lot, and I'm really active, so I burn through calories really easily."
"Do you do any sports?" Lucy asked. She'd only known Natus for a solid seventy-two hours, so she was trying to learn as much about him as she could.
"Not anymore. I used to do a lot when I was a kid, but I stopped in high school." He explained.
"Why did you stop?"
Natsu chuckled. "Long story short, I got in a fight and got kicked off the team in high school."
"You got in a fight?" Lucy's voice was filled with alarm. She stopped walking and just stared at the guy, who was now a few steps ahead of her.
"I used to get in a lot of fights." Natsu cracked his knuckles as if to prove a point. "I always won though. Just ask Lisanna."
" I can't believe it. You're a delinquent." Lucy tried to process this. Was he ok to hang around if he was just going to cause trouble? Old habits die hard, and it was starting to sound like fighting wasn't exactly a new thing.
"Oh come on Luce. It was just some good ol' rough housing in the school parking lot. Everyone in my school did it."
Lucy completely ignored the new nickname she had somehow gotten. "The hell kind of school did you go to?"
"Public school." Natsu deadpanned.
There was a moment of silence between the two before Lucy just started walking again. A few steps in and she had started laughing. She couldn't help herself. For some reason she just found Natsu's response to be particularly amusing.
When they did make it to the dining hall, and each got their own plates full of food, they found Gray already sitting down at a table with some other guy. They sat down next to him, although Gray shot a funny look at Natsu. "Seriously Flamebrain? I have to live with you, and now you're making me eat with you too?"
"Sorry I'm an awesome person Iceprick."
"Oh stop you too." Lucy grumbled. "Don't ruin my otherwise good first day of classes."
"Whatever." Gray shrugged, then turned back to his conversation with the guy next to him.
Eventually Levy joined them. The group spent as much time as they could talking about their first impressions on their different classes and professors. So far it seemed like it was all good things. Even on the first day, there was already gossip going around the school. Apparently there had been comments about some of the more attractive first-year students, and even TA's for the intro level courses. They started a bit of their own gossip too. Conversation about the different people who lived on their respective hallways, and people they had classes with, started up. Since they didn't know everyone's names yet, most of the stories were told using physical descriptions rather than names.
From what Lucy could tell, the her first semester of college was starting off very well. The first day of classes alone was manageable. It also seemed like she would have a good group of people she could eat her meals with. Even though it was just lunch time now, there were already plans for a group to eat dinner together at five. All that was left was to make sure she didn't fall behind on her homework right from the get go. Procrastination wasn't something she made a habit of.