Elementary school field day, a whole day full of fun, excitement, activity and-
"But I wanna be on Lucy's team!"
Natsu whining…
The teacher sighed in exasperation, gripping the clipboard so tight that it began to creak. "Natsu, we both know how competitive you two get, if you're paired together then you'll probably lose for your entire team."
"So!? Field day is about fun, and we have fun when we're on the same team!" Natsu yelled back, stomping his foot for emphasis.
Ever since their first field day in second grade, Natsu and Lucy had been the two most competitive kids at Dreyar Elementary School. They raced to lunch, gym, and even the bus, the loser of each race was to refer to the winner as "your highness" or "the chosen one" until said loser's next victory.
Erza grabbed Natsu by the scarf, yanking him back to where his team sat in the far right corner of the room. "You know, if you're on different teams then you'll have a better chance of winning…" She said, forcing Natsu into his seat next to Gray.
Lunch that day was one of the hardest things Natsu and Lucy ever had to sit through. Teams had to sit together in their own secluded area of the playground, not allowed to sit with friends because it was "team bonding time". Now this wouldn't have been so if they had friends on both teams, but unfortunately, Natsu's team was full of friends, and Lucy's just had strangers.
The separate teams had definitely been great for actually playing the games, the teachers were way more relaxed and Natsu and Lucy could keep track of winning in a much easier way, but the two children had barely even talked at all that day. Even when Natsu tried to sneak over so they could eat together, he was caught within five minutes and sent back to his own team.
Most of lunch was spent with the two constantly glancing over at the other, having silent conversations when their eyes met, until one of Lucy's teammates called out to her.
"Hey, Lucy, why don't you come join us?" The only other girl on the team, Levy, asked from where she sat with her two friends, Jet and Droy.
Lucy stood, grabbing her half-empty lunch box before walking over to the group. If memory served her right, the three referred to themselves as team Shadowgear. They were an unlikely team, seeing as Jet was an unbelievably fast runner for his age, Droy was surprisingly great at any sport ending in ball, and Levy was great at every subject, picking up new material before the teacher fully explained it.
"So, why were you sitting all alone?" Levy asked as she picked up her water bottle, moving it out of the way so Lucy could sit.
Lucy began to play with the hem of her shirt as she sat down, dropping the light pink lunchbox next to her. "Well, all of my friends were put in team five, and I don't really know anyone on this team…" She hesitated, fearing they'd laugh at her for having so few friends.
Levy huffed, crossing her arms in an attempt to look serious. "That isn't fair, everyone is supposed to be on a team with at least one friend! Why were you put alone?"
"The teachers think Natsu and I get too competitive with sports, and because of that, we ruin the games for our team…" Lucy responded shyly, realizing how many times she and Natsu were the reasons for their team losing in gym class.
"They aren't wrong." Jet mumbled as he bit into his sandwich, earning a scowl and a punch on the shoulder from Droy.
Seeing how uncomfortable Lucy was, Levy awkwardly cleared her throat, effectively drawing the attention of the three around her. "Well, so that you have someone to talk to today, you can be an honorary member of team Shadowgear, if you want!"
Lucy instantly sat up, nodding her head so aggressively it began to hurt a little. "Yes, please, I'd really like that!"
As the end of the day neared, so did the final events, and with it, every child's excitement. The last two events of the day went on simultaneously, some grades would compete in the Water Cup Race, and others would attempt to hit a small target, causing the principal to fall into a dunk tank.
"Now, I'm sure you all know how the dunk tank works, considering it's not that hard to throw a ball." The vice principal yelled across the school yard, gesturing to the dunk tank that was almost done being set up. "The Water Cup Race is much more complicated, though, you must fill your cup with water from your team's bucket, place it on top of your head, and run across the courtyard so you can dump the water in the bucket on the other side! Easy enough, right? Well, obviously, there's a catch!" The vice principal paused, waiting for the groans and whines to quiet down. "These cups have three tiny holes on the bottom of them, so on top of needing to keep the cup steady, you also have to make sure it's being kept flat on the top of your head!"
The younger children began to speak their confusion as the vice principal took one of the cups, scooping it full of water and holding it up to show how it spilled out the bottom in three small, steady streams.
The vice principal hushed the students, placing the cup back into the bucket as the last few voices stopped. "Second and third grade will start with the race, so fourth and fifth will go to the dunk tank!"
Before he could even finish speaking, the children were already standing up, frantically gathering their team members before running to their assigned event.
The courtyard quickly filled with screams as students began to play, complaining that the water in the buckets was too cold or that the target on the dunk tank was too hard to hit.
"I bet I can hit the target with less tries than you can!" Natsu yelled as he pointed at Gray, drawing the attention of about fifteen students around them.
"You're on, dragon brain!" Gray yelled back with a jab to Natsu's chest, earning a punch to the stomach in return.
Before the disagreement could turn into a full on fight, Erza stomped over to the boys, sending them both a death glare until they noticed her. "Is there something wrong here, boys?" She asked, ridding of her glare for a smile when they both jumped away in fear. "Good, because you're next, Gray."
Gray instantly stood up straight, confidently walking up to the pitching line as he picked up the first baseball, quickly throwing it at the target and…
Missing by two feet.
Gray whipped around and glared at Natsu when he began to laugh, grabbing the second ball and using all his strength to keep from chucking it at Natsu's face. He slowly turned back to the target, being careful to properly aim this time, and threw the ball at the target, barely hitting it hard enough to dunk the principal.
"Ha, beat that!" Gray called proudly, cracking his knuckles as he stepped to the side, allowing Natsu to step up and take his turn.
Natsu scoffed, picking up the ball and pausing to aim before he threw it as hard as he could, hitting the target spot on as the principal fell back into the water.
Gray gaped while Natsu smirked, stretching his arms over his head as he passed Gray. "Did you pay attention, Failbuster? Because that is how you throw a ball."
"Alright, guys, we're tied with team five, if we win this, we win field day!" Lucy excitedly explained to her team, attempting to encourage them. "If we win, I-er, we can rub it in Natsu's face!"
The rest of team four looked at each other, choosing not to say anything about Lucy's weird obsession with needing to beat Natsu.
"Hey, Lucy!" Natsu called from where his team stood, forming a line for the order in which each person was supposed to go. "You tellin' everyone about how I'm gonna win?!"
Lucy scowled, standing tall with her hands on her hips. "Nah, I'm telling them how badly you're gonna lose!" She shot back, smiling cockily when Natsu's response was cut off by the teachers telling them to get in the order they decided.
Natsu and Lucy were placed at the back of their lines, impatiently waiting their turn as they cheered on their teams.
Natsu received the dripping cup first, quickly filling it with water and taking off as soon as Lucy was given hers. Though Natsu was fast, Lucy was more gentle, making sure that the smallest possible amount of water was lost.
By the time the two reached the emptying buckets, Natsu had less than half a cup of water while Lucy's was nearly full.
"Natsu, you idiot!" Gray yelled, water still dripping from his hair. "You lost so much water, you probably made us lose!"
Again, Natsu was cut off from responding, this time, by Erza. "Gray, you only had about half a cup, too, if it weren't for the rest of us, we'd have almost no water!"
The vice principal cleared his throat, stepping forward to reveal the results of the event. "After close examination, three different opinions, and a ruler, we have come to the conclusion that the winner of this race is a tie." He spoke as the children began to yell, quickly looking over every bucket to see which two were closest. "The two teams that tied were, surprisingly, teams four and five!"
"WHAT?!" Natsu and Lucy practically screamed in unison, exchanging a horrified expression as they looked over to each member of the two teams.
"Don't worry, this won't change much, it just means that both teams will have a pizza party!" The vice principal quickly explained, hoping to calm at least some of the kids.
While it worked on the rest of the teams, Natsu and Lucy didn't really care, they weren't even aware the winner got a prize, they just wanted to see who was better at sports.
"Race around the track to see who's best?" Natsu asked hopefully, a smile lighting up his face.
Lucy smirked, taking off along the track before she even responded. "You're on!"
I'm sorry this took so long, it's way longer than I thought it would be, but I guess that's good news for you guys!
The next chapter should be out faster than this one was, and it'll have more of Natsu and Lucy being competitive...