Compliments

Chapter 1-First Day

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima

 I carelessly shoved the doors open and made my way to my locker. My same, old, boring locker that didn’t do anything but keep my books and supplies within it. I envied my locker, it just got to sit there all day and eat stuff. What a lucky little metal box. I mean, it’s not like my life sucks, or anything. I’m basically your average seventeen-year old girl who goes to any average old high school. Fairy Academy, they called it. I lived on my own by somehow convincing my landlady that I would always pay the monthly rent despite my young age. I ran away from my home a few months back, but do you really need to know about that?

 Throwing a math book that weighed three tons into the mouth of my waiting backpack, I failed to notice the girls standing before me. I looked up, and saw my small groups standing there, as if expecting something from me. I gave them a quizzical look, “is there a problem friends?” I asked quickly before stuffing a blind hand into my bag and pulling out a pack of chips. The ‘mother’ of the group lifted an eyebrow at my sudden early-morning snack. “What,” I stated between a mouthful of chips. The scarlet-haired girl rolled her eyes at me before crossing her arms over her large chest. “You did finish that history homework that night, right?” She asked sternly, but I almost knew it wasn’t a question that inquired an answer. It was a command that inquired an answer.

 “Of course I did the history homework, silly!” I lied, while playfully slapping her arm. Her cold gaze never left me, and I could tell: Erza Scarlet was not amused. “May I copy your majestic piece of parchment in second hour, oh great and powerful Scarlet?” I asked, heck, I even got down on my knees she’d better say yes. “Get up, Lucy. I’ll let you copy just this once. But that’s it,” she countered coldly, yet I could tell she was a tiny bit embarrassed by my (flawlessly awesome) behavior. The bell soon rang, signaling for everyone to hurry to class in the most annoying way possible. I waved to my small crowd of friends and hustled to my first hour.

Silently, I took my seat by the wall and started messily stacking binders and books atop my small wooden desk. After finally finishing my class preparation, I noticed a pink-haired male make his way into the room, with his little ‘gang’ following close behind. I rolled my eyes as all the present girls flocked towards him and his boys, gushing at the five students. The ‘team leader’, with his vibrant pink hair and horribly sexy sharp features and those dark eyes, made his way to his seat. It’s not like I cared. Because it’s not like I had a crush on him. It’s not like I sneaked a glance at him every once in a while in class. It’s not like I silently pleaded he would look my way just once. Because I didn’t.

I had the world’s biggest crush on the most popular guy in the whole school. And I hated it. Natsu, his name was, had a group of four guys. It consisted of a (seemingly always shirtless) raven-haired boy, a cobalt-blue haired ‘silent-type’ dude with some weird tattoo on his right eye, and an guy with that ‘I-don’t-care-about-life-I’ll-just-beat-people-up’ look painted menacingly on his gruff features. And the worst thing was, every one of my friends had a crush on one of them.

Soon, the teacher entered the class and started droning on and on about some gross math-related things. I blindly wrote notes in my messy notebook until the conclusion of the hour. And then, by some miraculous act as I was hastily collecting my supplies, I heard his melodious voice ring out to me. “Love what you did with your hair today, Lucy. It really suits you.” I barely caught a glimpse of that golden grin before he was gone. Just like that. Did Natsu Dragneel, the most popular football player in Fairy Academy, just compliment a mere bookworm? Most of all, did he just compliment me?

Setting down my lunch on the surface of the table, I pulled out a chair and sat myself down. The girls all stared expectantly at me, since I was the only one who had any classes with Natsu’s group other than P.E. “Nothing happened today, guys,” I told them, and they all sighed disappointedly and stared down at their food. “Natsu didn’t even pick a fight with Gray today? That’s new,” Erza said before taking a bite from her daily slice of strawberry cake. “Oh, well yeah but that’s not really news,” I replied blandly, yet managed to earn a sharp gasp from the aqua-haired woman across from me. “Anything Gray-sama does is news to Juvia!” Her confident voice chimed and it made me grin at her sudden burst of energy. “Oh! Levy, I almost forgot, Gajeel was caught chewing on a nail again in class,” I announced almost proudly. The petite girl looked up from her thick book and gave me a smile before returning to said form of literate. “Did,” Erza cleared her throat before continuing, “did Jellal do anything?” She asked shyly and I shook by head, while trying to hide me chuckle.

Jellal didn’t do anything. Like, ever. He was just so boring, up to this day I still have trouble finding out what the redhead sees in the guy. “Did anything new happen with Natsu, Lucy?” Levy asked after surprisingly finishing the large book. I quickly blushed, and scowled at the sudden blood rising to fill my cheeks. “Oooh!” The girls chimed at my reaction and my frown only deepened. “Nothing happened!” I quickly covered, but the three merely shot disbelieving looks. I sighed; I could never hide anything from them.

“It was just a compliment,” I huffed as I crossed my arms over my chest and averted their burning gazes. I heard a collective gasp. “What did he say?” They prodded. Why was I even friends with them? Maybe I should just form an alliance with the boys and then Natsu and I can live happily ever after and punch his little ‘fan girls’ in the faces as a happy couple. The end. “He complimented my hair! Jeez people!” I growled. As a response I got purrs of “you’re so lucky Lu-Chan!” and “Juvia is very happy!” and “he deserves a girl like you, Lucy.” I don’t get it! It’s not like was asking me out or anything, it just a compliment! Then again, it was a compliment to a lowly bookworm from the school’s most popular jock.