Compliments

Chapter 10-Partners and Spoiled Reputations

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima

I walked out of the locker room with Gajeel beside me. Not much different from any other day. Until I saw Lucy, that is. Because I never saw Lucy. She said her and Levy had always read during P.E. so, naturally, I didn’t think I would see her or the small blue-haired girl. Gajeel and I shared looks, and made our way to the girls.

“Funny seeing you here,” I commented slyly, and Lucy gave me a hateful glare. I laughed at her puffed out cheeks.

“Yeah, well since we’re the combined forces now I thought maybe Levy and I should start participating in P.E.” she practically muttered.

“If you’re not too out of shape!” I laughed and she smacked my arm, making me grin down at her. She looked up at me, a scowl painted across her face.

“I work out everyday to make up for P.E. I’ll have you know,” she shot back smartly, and a small smile split across my lips.

“Who’re you two?” the gym teacher asked Lucy and Levy demandingly, and Gajeel and I had to stifle our laughter.

“I’m Lucy, and this is Levy, sir,” Lucy responded firmly, motioning her hand towards her bookworm friend.

“And why haven’t I ever seen you two around before?”

“I don’t know sir, but we’ve always been here.” I was impressed. Had Lucy planned this all out beforehand?

“Are you doubting me?”

“No sir, but I assure you, we’ve always been here.”

“Then why did you introduce yourselves?”

“I had to answer my teacher’s question, yes?” I saw the triumphant glint in Lucy’s doe-brown eyes as the gym teacher soon gave up, flustered, and continued to take attendance.

The gym teacher walked down the makeshift aisle between the girls’ and the boys’ line.

“Today you’ll be partnering up and racing against them. I’ll let you choose your partners for today since this isn’t really anything important.” Partners, huh?

“So, go pick your partners, and pick a cone for your racing place,” our gym teacher said, and everyone immediately scrambled towards their friends. So I obviously sprinted like my life depended on it towards a certain blonde. Sure, I might’ve knocked over a person or two, but is that really important?

“Lucy! Lucy wanna be my partn-!” My voice was cut short as I saw the ginger talking to my partner.

“Oh, sorry Loke, looks like I can’t be your partner, see, Natsu’s been begging me to be his partner so I can’t break his heart, now can I?” Lucy mockingly apologized, and latched onto my arm. I stood dumbstruck for a moment before I realized what happened.

“C’mon Natsu, let’s go pick a place to race,” Lucy tugged me along to an open cone, me still a bit amazed at her previous movement. Even if it was justfor show, I didn’t care.

“You do realize you’re racing against the second to fastest guy in this whole school, right?” I bragged, and Lucy raised a thin eyebrow.

“That’s quite a name you got there,” she teased, “who’s the first fastest?”

“Laxus Dreyar,” I muttered and Lucy chuckled lightly beside me.

“Well then, looks like I’ll have to beat two boys,” she said, and I looked down at her, a smirk nagging at the corner of my mouth.

“Sounds like a challenge, Miss Heartfilia,” I replied, a now wide smirk planted firmly on my lips.

“Alright! Everyone got their partners? Good. When I blow the whistle, one pair will race down to their opposing cone. I’ll record the times for everyone, and we’ll go down the line until everyone’s gone. I’ll tell you who won at the end of class,” our gym teacher said, and he blew the whistle, a metallic scream polluting the air, and the two teenagers sprinted down the dirtied floors.

Several minutes later, it was mine and Lucy’s turn, and she was gonna eat my dust. Acting all high and mighty like that? Psh. Sure, maybe she was cute, and she had good grades, and she had the type of humor I liked, but that didn’t mean she was gonna beat me in a race. My motto? Faster than a wildfire. There’s no way she would outrun me. The whistle blew, and the two of us took off. And, of course, I was already winning. I tore down the line, almost there. In a flash, I was touching the cone, my mouth ready to present a triumphant smirk. But, that smirk was short-lived. Because when I looked up, I saw my blonde partner standing there, her hip cocked to the side, yawning as if she had been waiting forever.

“Looks like you’ve been knocked off of your high horse, Mr. Dragneel. Next up, Laxus Dreyar,” she purred, and walked proudly to the wall, where we had to line up when we finished.