Red Ink

Chapter 4

PE went smoothly, and Erza learned many things about the weirdos around her. Cana calling herself straight was indeed a lie. Lisanna was often comedical relief. Erza was not Juvia's only Love Rival™, Lucy was too. Levy was a tiny cinnamon bun who will legit beat you up if you hurt her friends. (Her punches don't hurt but no one says anything,) Third period math was boring, and Erza sat in front of the class so she couldn't just zone out. Finally after a grueling hour of class expectations and rules, it was lunch time.

Ahh, the most intresting time of school. Eating lunch, and forming drama, and doing homework, and eating lunch, and dancing on benches... Erza wasn't really in to the drama or the last part, but that's what seemed like what would happen among these kinda people. Lets just say, she was half correct.

It began with Erza once again being dragged along by Juvia. She had gotten used to that, and stopped trying to resist by now. They wove through crowds and lines of Extra Classmates, and Erza was suddenly extremely thankful she chose to bring a packed lunch the first day. Finally, the pulling stopped as the two girls stepped through a separation in some hedges. A raised platformed filled with girls lay ahead of them. Erza recognized Lucy, Levy, Lisanna, and Cana. They all sat on a cement bench, taking out lunches and eating. Other girls were reading books or playing games or snoozing on shoulders. It looked so aesthetic.

"HELLO!!" Juvia yelled, and surprisingly, no one paid attention to her loud out burst. She puffed up her cheeks and shuffled over to the bench, as Erza followed. Everyone welcomed her warmly, and Erza's cheeks seemed to flush just a tiny bit. She sat down towards the middle, right in between Levy and Cana.

"Soo, what did you bring today?" Lucy inquired, at a mildly awkward attempt to start a conversation. Erza unzipped her basic lunch and showed it to Lucy.

"Well, I always have rice since its easy to make in the morning, and umm... This time I brought sausage, hard boiled egg slices and cheese." Lucy looked over at Erza and tiled to her head.

"Hmm, you seemed like a sweets type of person." She wondered aloud. Erza glanced back into her lunch, and saw Lucy was right.

"Oh, but this morning, I made brownies, would you like it?" Erza offered, holding up the one slice she had broght with her. Lucy's eyes twinkled.

"Oh, that's really sweet, but I don't think I should take your only brownie?" Lucy smiled crookedly and waved her hands a little. She was just being polite and Erza saw through her act.

"Oh, no.. I want you to have it, I'm not too fond of sweets." Erza insisted, and thrusted the small treat towards Lucy. She took it finally, but slowly. Lucy moved to take a bite and -- her face changed to pure bliss.

"THIS IS DELICIOUS! What, did you grow up among bakers or something?" Lucy joked and grinned widely.

"Um actually, yeah, my mom and dad own a new bakery around here called Fairy Tail. They taught me pretty much all I know." Erza scratched her head shyly. Did it sound like she was promoting the business?

"Woah...really?!" Lucy beamed, genuinely interested. Erza looked up again, surprised. Was she really that cool?

"I want all of us to come over once and taste your awesome baking!" Lucy suggested, still smiling widely.

"Yeah," Erza respond, returning the smile. She turned back to her lunch and resumed eating. Everything tasted great and Erza wondered about Kagura. Did she meet nice people too today? Does she like it here? Is she siting with someone right now? She was pulled out of her thoughts abruptly by Lisanna dancing around in front of them yelling.

"Okay, what game should we play today? Pocky? PoCKY GAME IT IS." She decided quickly by herself. She glided back to her backpack to grab pocky obviously and stuck one strawberry flavor in her mouth.

"Mow mho is tha fictum thothay." She managed, with the food in her mouth. All the girls covered their mouths except for Erza who had no idea what was going on, and poor Levy, who didn't notice it was the Victim Time™. Lisanna took the chance, and dove into Levy's lap.

"Hewwo, boowiful." Lisanna purred, and winked over cheesily. Levy broke into a fit of giggles and the other broke off and piece of the pocky.

"Eh, here, since you didn't scream this time." She mumbled and shoved half the stick of pocky in Levy's mouth. Everyone giggled at Lisanna's little remark. Something else drew Erza's attention though.

"Oh? What's going on here? Was Levy the victim this time? Gihihi." A boy chuckled. He and 3 other guys starred at Lisanna in Levy's lap and chuckled again. Erza's immediate thought was, 'They look like a pack of wolves.' which was followed up by, 'Wait a second. Who tf says 'Gihihi' .....like ever. Should I run?' Erza mentally dead panned. Wait, the other guys looked familiar. One was Gray, then there was the boy with raven hair, and then the one Mr. Guildarts was upset about having in his class...Natsu. The one who laughed was new to Erza, and had lip rings, nose rings, and earrings. He was really tall too. Even so, Erza found her eyes wandering back to Gray, and his tattoo.

"Oh, I'm sure you'd LOOVEE for Levy to be YOOURR victim, eh, Gajeel?" Lisanna smirked and Levy's face exploded into red. Gajeel looked away awkwardly, probably hiding a blush, and Erza understood the situation. He was Gajeel and she was Levy and they were definitely a thing or on their way there.

"So Erza Scarlet, is it?" Gray spoke up slyly and made eye contact with Erza. She took one look then avoided those dark eyes. For some reason, her heart sped up and her cheeks flushed again.

"And you don't remember who gave you that name?" He asked, his smirk faltering for a second.

"It wasn't your parents?" The Natsu asked, with a super confused looked on his face.

"Um.. no." Erza said, not really wanting to elaborate. She would tell these people about her family sometime later.

"Ahh, okay." He sighed, and Erza was grateful for him not pushing the subject. Lisanna went back to.. whatever she was doing and Gray started teasing the raven haired boy about how low his shirt was unbuttoned. Natsu bothered Lucy about if she had any candy. Next to Erza, Cana pulled outa Monster can and opened it.

"Hey, those aren't allowed you know," Levy started.

"Screw the rules. I have money." Cana stated blankly and Lisanna whipped her head around.

"DBZ abridged and now Yu-Gi-Oh abridged in consecutive chapters? The author must be drawing a blank here." Lisanna said.

"What." Levy said.

"What." Gray said.

"What." Gajeel said.

"What." Lucy said.

"What." Natsu said.

"What." The raven haired boy said.

"What." Cana said.

"What." Juvia said.

"What." Erza said.

"What." Lisanna said.

"Yeah okay, so what class do you have next Erza?" Cana asked, choosing to ignore what Lisanna just said.

"Oh, um I have Home Ec. next." Erza responed, hoping one of the girls had that class too.

"Coolio, I'm pretty sure Lucy has that too. She can guide you there" Cana explained.

"Mmk." Erza hummed, and got back to her half eaten lunch.