【Re:Freezing】 | Gray Fullbuster x OC

34. The S-Class Promotion Trial Is A Go!

The candidates for S-Class Exam were announced.

Karissa was standing next to Gray when her name was announced and gave him the most smug 'I told you so'. She was right. Doing jobs last minute didn't really help because the master was watching them throughout the year.

"This year's gonna be tougher than ever." Gray sighed and crossed his arms as he leaned back in his seat. Lucy and Karissa, who were sitting by his sides, glanced at him as he closed his eyes thoughtfully.

"Is it the first time for all of you?" Lucy looked at Elfman, Karissa, Gray and Natsu.

"Nah." Gray pointed his thumb at Karissa. "She was officially a candidate for last year's exam and I was the potential candidate."

"Potential candidate?" Lucy cocked her head.

"Last year, the candidates were allowed to choose a partner that could also rise to S-Class if they did just as well." Karissa explained easily, remembering how excited she and Gray were to do the exam until a whole wall named Pandora crushed them.

"And you guys failed!" Natsu grinned, causing Gray to scowl at him. Karissa let out a soft sigh at this.

"At least I have an idea of how these exams go unlike a certain fire idiot." Gray spat. "You'll just be charging in head first and probably fail before you know it!"

"You wanna bet, pervert?!"

"I—"

Karissa rolled her eyes and yanked Gray back into his seat when he stood up to butt heads with the pink haired wizard. "Sit down."

"Um," Lucy cut in with a nervous laugh. "So, has everyone already chosen their partners?"

"I'm partnering with Happy, of course!" Natsu beamed at his blue feline friend who raised his paw in agreement.

"Happy?! That's not fair!" Elfman frowned deeply. "If the exam is a race, then flying would make it a breeze!"

"You think so?" Karissa rested her elbows on the as she locked her hands and rested her chin on the back of her fingers, smiling at him like as if she just finished making work of her latest victim. "I think it makes them easy prey."

Happy slowly shuffled away. "Karissa... you're scaring me."

Gray nodded. "I got not objections. He'd only be a drawback when it comes to fighting."

"You're both awful." Happy sweat dropped at the two ice mages. But then he shook his head and raised his fist in determination. "I'm going to make Natsu an S-Class mage, for sure!"

"I'm not holding back, even on my friends." Natsu stood up and crossed his arms as he looked at Elfman, Gray and Karissa.

"You shouldn't because I'm not going to show you mercy." Karissa said in a blasé manner and then took a sip of water as Natsu and Happy bolted off to train for the week.

"Um..." Juvia looked down as she fidgeted in her seat next to Wendy. "Juvia would like to withdraw from this exam..."

"Eh?! Why?" Wendy gasped.

"Well... I want... to partner... with..."

Karissa leaned back in her seat, bumping her shoulder with Gray and looked up at the ceiling. "You can't partner with Gray." She already knew who he was partnering with.

Juvia's head snapped up and she pointed her finger at Karissa. "Don't tell me Karissa-san is backing out to be Gray-sama's partner?! Gray-sama isn't yours! Let Juvia have a turn!"

Karissa's eyebrow twitched. She looked at Juvia with major offense. "I'm not backing out of this just to be someone's partner. If you just want to be someone else's partner then go tell the master right now so he can choose another candidate." Gray saw Karissa's fist clench on her lap and he grew a little tense when he could feel her getting irritated by Juvia. "People would kill to have your place."