Was this update faster than my last one? I don't know everything's kind of blurring together. Here's Chapter 6 ENJOY

Mira leaned against her locker, scanning the hallways until a familiar brunette came into view. She couldn't help but jump in excitement when she saw the paper bag her friend was carrying. "You got it?" she asked the second Cana reached her.

"Oh, I got it alright." Cana smirked, nodding to the brown lunch bag in her arm.

"I should've texted you about it earlier, but you know my best ideas can come at times like 6 in the morning." Mira joked, "Was it hard to find?"

Cana shook her head. "Maybe for someone average, but I have my connections."

"What is it? Is it…" The white haired girl smiled giddily, "Dangerous?"

"Y'know, I don't really know. But I do know that it will definitely mess up Mr. Conbolt's titration lab." Cana snickered, and handed Mira the bag. "I can trust you with this?"

Mira nodded. "Of course."

"And you know what you're doing?"

"First I mix it up with water. Then I run to the chem lab, put a splash of it in the long tube-y thing, dump the excess, throw away the bag, and then run right to second hour."

"And only in Gray and Erza's lab."

Mira nodded. "Only."

Cana clapped her hands with delight. "You're a natural!" she laughed, and the two started walking down the hall.

"So, between you and me, how'd you get it?"

"...It's better if you didn't know."

"Erza?"

Erza suddenly snapped out of her thoughts. Her vision focused and she saw Gray sitting beside her, looking at her expectantly. "What?"

"So are you gonna get the sodium hydroxide, or are you gonna keep staring at me?" he asked.

Her face reddened, remembering the important chemistry lab that was currently taking place. She cleared her throat. "Yes, I'll get it." she agreed. She quickly made her way to the back of the lab, beaker in hand. As much as she hated to admit it, Gray was right- she had been staring at him. But for what reason? She looked back at her lab partner, watching him wipe his glasses with the end of his dress shirt. Right. She turned back around, nodding to herself. It's the glasses.

She returned to their table, beaker full of sodium hydroxide. "Okay, did you do the correct titration set-up?" she asked, any trace of her zoning out earlier completely erased.

"I diluted the acid, but there's stuff in the buret."

Erza frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Look." Gray pushed the long, glass device towards her. "There are white streaks down the sides. And I'm pretty sure there's liquid at the bottom of it."

She squinted, and upon seeing the same problems Gray saw raised her hand. "Mr. Conbolt, there are things in our buret."

Their teacher walked over, arms crossed in front of him. "You know, the other tables were saying the same thing…" He squinted at the tube, before shaking his head. "It's probably leftover solution from first hour. You can rinse it if you'd like, but you can still do the experiment." he approved, and walked away.

"Alright." Gray shrugged. He grabbed the beaker Erza was holding and put it under the buret without another thought. "Acid?"

Erza handed him the other beaker. She watched as Gray poured it into the top of the buret. "Turn the knob." she instructed. Gray nodded, turning the blue dial at the bottom of their setup. So far, things, had been going smoothly: their setup was perfect, their measurements were nearly exact, and their results were going well so far. She watched the liquid in the vial slowly decrease. It would have to take something big to mess up this lab.

...and that was all it took.

Between her watching the liquid decrease and Gray reading off the numbers, the liquid in the tube started to bubble. "W-wait- " she stammered, when the bubbles suddenly shot up and out of the tube.

"What the- shit!" Gray exclaimed, jumping away from their setup. The acid spilled out, bubbling rapidly and spreading across the black lab table.

"Gray, what the hell?!"

"It wasn't me! I swear, I did nothing- "

"TURN THE DIAL!" Erza suddenly realized, but it was too late- the beaker at the bottom of their setup started to bubble as well, pouring over the edge and onto the table. The clear liquids were now thick, milky substances that coated their table. They watched in horror as their perfect lab was destroyed before their eyes.

"...Oh my god." Lyon, who was across the room, commented, before cracking up. But the white haired boy suddenly stopped, as his lab station began to follow the same demise as Gray and Erza's.

Within a matter of seconds the entire lab was in a panic, the same mess occurring at every table in the room.

Mr. Conbolt walked in, a stack of papers in hand. "I have the lab questions, so come up once you've- " He stopped, seeing the mess around him. "What the- what in the world?!" he exclaimed. "What is this?"

"We were just doing the experiment- " one person explained.

"But something happened- " another stammered.

"It started with Erza and Gray-sama!" Juvia blurted, pointing to Gray and Erza's table.

Mr. Conbolt turned to the two of them. "You two?"

Erza held her hands up in embarrassment. "Mr. Conbolt, if I can explain, I had nothing to do- "

Gray scoffed. "You had nothing to do with it? You had just as much to do with it as I did!"

"I meant that we didn't do anything- "

Mr. Conbolt held up a hand, and the two stopped talking. "I want every table to have this clean by the end of the hour, but I also expect to see the two of you," he pointed to Gray and Erza, "after school." As he walked away he shook his head. "In all my years of teaching…" he muttered.

Erza turned to Gray. "Great. I'll be missing debate due to your shenanigans."

Gray scoffed. "You're not the only one missing something. I was supposed to practice with Natsu and Lyon after school."

"I guess we'll be staying for a while, then."

"You better bring food."

"Hand me a towel, Gray."

"...Or not."

Lyon walked into his third hour, recognizing two of his friends seated in the center of the room. He took his seat in front of them. "Hey, Mira. Cana." he greeted, nodding at both of them.

"Hey Lyon." Cana responded, turning to him. "What's up?"

He shrugged. "Not much. Did you do last night's homework?" he asked, referring to the half-page of notes on Egyptian art.

Cana snorted. "Did you really ask me that?"

"Of course you both didn't." Mira laughed, handing Lyon her notes.

"Thanks, Mira." he responded, taking the sheet of paper gratefully. "You know, Cana, you should really start doing some homework." he pointed out, rapidly copying down her answers onto his own sheet of paper.

The brunette waved his comment off. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll have it done before class is over."

"Why don't you do it now?" Mira asked.

"Because right now I want to relax." Cana responded, leaning back in her seat. "And besides, Mira, you're in no position to tell me what I should do."

Lyon sat up, hearing her oddly confrontational comment. He hadn't heard of Mira and Cana ever fighting, but he had heard of Mira and Erza fighting. And if Cana and Mira fighting was anything like that, he knew he had to stop it. "Hey, there's no need for that…"

Mira scoffed, Lyon's comment going unnoticed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Um...guys…"

Cana leaned forward. "Tell me why I heard about a huge chemistry accident last hour."

"Accident? You mean miracle? Thanks to me, Gray and Erza are staying after school together."

"Thanks to you, it all looks suspicious! You were only supposed to put the stuff in their vial, not everyone else's!"

Lyon leaned back in shock, his peaceful intentions now forgotten. 'Wait, that was you guys?"

His comment was ignored once more. "But there was so much of it, I had to distribute it! You know how I feel about wasting things." Mira defended herself.

"But you should have put it in only their vial!" Cana pouted, crossing her arms. "C'mon, we could've gotten an explosion or something- "

"Wait." Lyon interjected. The two turned to him, surprised at his sudden change in tone. "You're responsible for the lab thing?"

They nodded proudly. "Yep. Pretty genius, huh- "

"What the hell, you guys? It was funny, I'll give you that. But my trial was completely messed up, and now I won't have the right data to write a perfect lab report!"

Cana frowned. "Relax, would you?"

Mira nodded. "Yeah, we were just contributing to the intervention- "

"Intervention my ass, you guys know how borderline my chem grade is- " He stopped talking when someone stopped at his desk.

"Hello, Lyon." Juvia greeted, holding her books to her chest.

Lyon gulped at her sudden presence. "Hey, Juvia, um, what's up?" he managed to speak.

"Juvia heard your frustration with the experiment, and…" She handed him a packet. "Juvia found the answers online...if you're interested."

Lyon looked at the packet in shock, all his anger now vanished. " I- t-thanks, Juvia." he stammered, taking the packet appreciatively. The blue haired girl simply nodded before walking away.

Cana and Mira grinned at each other as they watched Lyon stare after the other girl. Interesting.

Gajeel was slumped forward in his seat. Mr. Clive was at the front of the room talking with a student, and his classmates were talking around him, but he remained silent. He watched the second hand of the class clock tick ever-so-slowly. He wasn't going to talk to anyone around him, so he looked at the person in front of him and kicked their desk, on beat with the ticking of the clock.

Levy turned around, looking at him above her red glasses. "Are you going to stop?"

"When something interesting happens." he responded, his bored expression unchanged.

"Something interesting is happening! Are you reading chapter 12?"

"Does it look like I'm reading chapter 12?" Levy looked at him, noticing that there was nothing on his desk except for his slumped position. He hadn't even bothered to take out his book, nor open his backpack.

She sighed. "Mr. Clive finally gave us reading time, and this is how you spend it?" She wanted to evoke to him any sort of interest in the book, but Gajeel remained the same, giving her nothing more than an unamused grunt. "Alright, fine by me." she stated, turning back around. "The only thing that irks me more than someone that doesn't give my notebook back is someone that doesn't like reading."

Gajeel raised an eyebrow. "Who said anything about a notebook?"

"Finally, someone asked!" She shut her book, turning back around. "I'm talking about Gray! I'm all for helping him out, but honestly I hate it when people take my things." Gajeel shrugged, still unaware as to what she was talking about. "My notebooks! You know, how they're using them to make him seem smarter to Erza, so she won't yell at him anymore…"

He shrugged. "Why don't you just tell him?"

She shook her head. "No, no. You know what? This is good. They can keep them, so they think I'm fine with it. And then out of nowhere- BAM! I'll take them back and that'll be the end of it."

Gajeel snorted. "That's dumb. I say fuck Gray's plan, and get your notebooks back now."

"It's not dumb! This way they'll know I'm not only serious, but also that I'm making a statement."

"Y'know Gray got 100 on this class's chapter 11 quiz, right?" Gajeel leaned forward. "He hasn't read past chapter two."

Levy's brow twitched in annoyance. "You know what? It's fine. I'm sure Lucy will agree with my plan.." And with that she turned back around, continuing her reading.

Gajeel looked at her, before clicking his tongue. He knew Levy wasn't going to do anything about it, but he knew exactly what needed to be done. "Stubborn." he muttered.

Cana was standing at her locker, not caring that her five minute passing time to 7th hour should be spent walking to her class. She looked into her locker mirror, holding the outside of her eye with one hand and applying a line of eyeliner with the other. While she did have time to get whatever chemical she used for Gray and Erza's chem lab, she didn't have time to finish her makeup.

"Well hello, gorgeous- oh! I mean, flawless."

Her hand jerked upward, a black line marking her surprise. Speak of the devil. She rolled her eyes before turning around. "Y'know, Hibiki, I'd really like to be able to touch up my makeup in peace."

The blonde haired boy waved off her comment. "But what for? You're beautiful without it."

"You're the reason I'm putting it on!" she scoffed. Hibiki happily raised his eyebrows, but Cana held up a finger. "Ah ah ah, don't flatter yourself. Because you asked to meet so goddamn early this morning, I didn't have time for eyeliner."

"Might I remind you that the meeting was your idea in the first place? And that you asked so last minute?"

She turned back around, licking her finger and wiping off her mistake. "I needed something, and you provided. Thanks, but that's all." She carefully redid her eyeliner, hoping that he would go away.

"That's not what I was thinking."

She put her makeup down, turning to him once more. "Not what you were thinking?" she repeated.

"An eye for an eye, Cana. I gave you the materials, and now you owe me something in return."

"If you're thinking I'm giving you anything from my alc stash, you're greatly mistaken- "

"I'm thinking downtown on Friday night."

She scoffed. "Right. And I'm thinking about quitting school to become a country singer."

"Look, it doesn't even have to be Friday." He shrugged. "I think you're an interesting person, and I'd like to spend time with you." He gave her another one of his smirks. "Or will you not pay back a favor? Because that substance was especially hard to find."

She inhaled deeply, trying to calm her irritation. "You annoy me to no end, I hope you know that. But," She crossed her arms. "I do honor the favor system."

"Is that a yes?"

"I guess. But I'm only doing it 'cause once it's over I'm not spending time with you outside of school again."

"Sounds good to me!" He stepped backward, holding a hand over his chest and bowing. "It's been a pleasure, Miss Alberona."

"Yeah, whatever." she responded, just as the one-minute bell rang. Hibiki gave her a final wink, before walking down the hall to his class. Cana watched him go, noticing the happiness in his step. And while she grit her teeth in irritation, she couldn't help but feel her heart beating the slightest bit faster. Was she...excited?

She shook her head. Absolutely not! She slammed her locker loudly, a squeak suddenly sounding from behind her. Cana turned around to see Lucy walking past, startled by her sudden rage. "Cana? What's wrong?" the blonde asked, looking at her cautiously.

"He needs to get out of my life!" she spat, before storming off to her 7th hour class. Lucy stared after her, tilting her head in confusion.

Mr. Conbolt strode into the chemistry lab, grinning once he saw the two people standing inside. "Great, you both showed up." he greeted.

"Of course, Mr. Conbolt. We're both incredibly sorry and ashamed for our mishap earlier." Erza apologized, bowing her head.

"No worries. Your hour cleaned up surprisingly well. But you know what's weird? None of my other classes ran into the same issue." He shrugged, "Anyway, you're both on dishwashing duty." he spoke, handing each of them a sponge and a towel.

"Dishwashing? I'd rather do extra stoichiometry homework." Gray snorted.

"With the sudden peak in your grades, I'm not surprised that you would." Mr. Conbolt responded, earning an embarrassed expression from Gray. "I expect every beaker, vial, and graduated cylinder in those bins," he pointed to the back of the room, "to be clean by 4:30."

Erza raised her hand. "What about the vials in the glass recycling bin? Do we have to wash those too?" Gray frowned at her gesture. We're not in class anymore, jeez…

"No, that won't be necessary. They're all getting recycled anyway." He nodded at the two of them. "I'll be in my office if you need anything." He grabbed his laptop from the front of the room and left, closing the door behind him.

Erza immediately went to the back of the room, grabbing a container of beakers. "What are you doing?" Gray asked, watching her go straight to one of the sinks.

"What do you think I'm doing, Gray?" she responded curtly, turning the water on and coating the beaker in soap.

Gray rolled his eyes. "I know what you're doing, but...why?"

"You heard Mr. Conbolt. He wants everything washed by 4:30, and it's currently 3:37. We have less than an hour to complete this task."

"Yeah, but there are only four or so containers of beakers! We have plenty of time." he explained, stretching his arms in his place. "Did you bring snacks?"

"Listen Gray, I'm bent on getting out of here at 4:30." Erza set a clean beaker in the rack beside her. "And no, I didn't get any snacks."

Gray groaned in annoyance. "Staying an hour after school, and no snacks? I'm calling Lucy." he stated, pulling out his phone.

"You have three containers of beakers to clean out." she warned.

He frowned at her, but he knew she was right. He put his phone in his pocket, before stationing himself at the sink next to Erza's. "You got a technique for this?"

"It's like washing your hands, a concept that I do hope you're familiar with."

"It was a simple question, jeez."

Erza shook her head. "Sorry. I've been a little on edge lately."

Gray snorted. "A little?"

"Alright. Slightly more than usual on edge."

"There we go."

"School has been stressful lately."

He chuckled. "Yeah, right." Erza tilted her head in confusion. "Come on, Erza. You're a part of a bunch of clubs, you do sports outside of school, and you have a 4.0. If anyone can balance anything, it's you."

"I've had a lot on my mind lately." She looked at him, noticing that he had tucked his glasses into his shirt pocket, reminding her of his weird change. She almost laughed to herself- she couldn't tell him that his new behavior was what she was thinking about. "It's nothing." Gray then shut off his water, walking to the back of the room. "Where are you going?"

"Sounds like you need a stress reliever." he responded, carefully picking a small vial from the recycled glass bin.

She watched him walk to the middle of the room, raising the small container in the air. She frowned. "Gray, what are you- " She yelped in surprise as he dropped the vial, the glass shattering on the hard, tile floor.

"Hey, look at that!" he laughed, turning back around to grab more.

"Gray, you can't do that! That's, that's...that's vandalism!" she panicked.

"Try it." he told her, holding a small vial out to her.

She frowned at his offer. But she shut off her water and walked towards him, taking the vial in her hand. She hesitated, before letting go, watching the glass shatter below her. But instead of getting angry at him for being a bad influence, she felt...relieved.

Gray applauded her. "Better?"

Erza slowly nodded in agreement. "Yeah..."

He handed her another vial, grabbing one for himself as well. "Same time, alright?" Erza nodded, and they dropped their vials to the floor. They laughed, the glass pile on the ground increasing in size.

Erza threw another one to the ground, laughing as she did so. She held her hand out to Gray expectantly, but the dark haired boy shook his head. "That was the last one." he revealed.

"Oh." she frowned, trying not to show her disappointment. They both stared at each other, an awkward silence falling between them.

"I can pick up the glass- "

"I'll get the broom and dustpan!"

Erza ran to the opposite side of the room. She handed Gray the small broom, letting him sweep the remains back into the glass recycling bin.

While he swept she went back to her sink, washing her remaining beakers. And while the time they had to clean up was cut short by their impromptu activity, for some reason she couldn't help but smile to herself.

Sorry if all the chemistry terms are confusing. If you can't already tell it's my hardest (but also my most enjoyable) class this year, and I have to review in some way, right? And yes Erza does have a thing for glasses. Also, I knoooowowow that there hasn't been much Nalu at all, but I promise they'll have their thing next chapter! Developing this many characters without making chapters too long is a challenge, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. I hope you all enjoyed, and leave a review!

-Pinky