tomboy - a nalu fic

chapter one

"Tag, you're it!" he shouted.

His eyes widened as he tripped over a root in the ground, grabbed the trunk of the huge oak tree in an attempt to steady himself, tripped (again) on his shoelaces, and knocked his head on the trunk he clung to. He then gracefully tumbled to the ground with a very, very feminine yelp.

Laughter threatened to spill out of my mouth. I attempted to hold it back in mock politeness, but took one look at his pained expression, and snorted. I bent over, clutching my abdomen, and burst out in a series of giggles. My friends seemed to find the situation equally as funny as I did, because before I knew it, we were all laughing. 

A pissed-off Gray was rubbing at the swelling bump on his head and his bruised knee glared up at us through his bangs.

Gajeel, Jellal, and I made a show to emphasize our boisterous laughter by pointing at Gray and slapping our knees.

"Hey, quit laughing at me, guys," Gray whined.

He attempted to stand with wobbly knees, only to fall down again with another yelp.

If it was possible, I'd laugh even harder. Tears leaked out of the corner of my eyes and I tried to breathe.

I was so immersed with laughing at Gray that I didn't notice that the laughter around me trickled to a stop. Confused, I looked at my panting, red-faced friends and calmed down. After regaining my breath, I noticed the slightly nervous expressions (read: slightly nervous expressions, because Gajeel and Jellal would never, ever show that they were nervous) on my friends' faces, and slowly followed their line of vision.

I turned my head to meet the cold eyes of Gray, whose mouth quirked upward eerily. His hands were raised, and his fingers wiggled. He laughed. Gray had a great evil laugh.

I gulped and paled as he stepped closer.

I, Lucy Heartfilia, was officially doomed.

He pounced on me, tickling me, and said, "You really seem to like laughing, don't you? I'll show you-"

Minutes later, my friends surrounded me, and I was the victim to their evil fingers. They tickled me until I had tears pouring out of my eyes. Kicking their hands away, I choked out a, "S-s-ahahahha-stop it!"

They thankfully decided to pity me, and ceased their actions.

I stood, bent over and clutching my thighs as I regained breath. Blades of grass had created a home similar to a nest in my short hair, and my basketball shorts sported the green hue of grass. My red t-shirt was wrinkled, and I smoothed it out. After dusting myself off and composing myself, I remembered that Jellal was it, screamed, "Jellal's it! RUN!", and dashed away from the oak tree and everyone else.

There was no other way better than this to spend my last day of summer vacation.

The light gray clouds that resembled fluffy and soft cotton balls were beginning to dissipate, and the bright blues of the sky showed itself once again. The sun peeked behind a cloud, its rays of light reached the vast expanse of the meadow that my friends and I played in. My face broke out into an ear-to-ear grin, and I was content.

***

My mom shook me awake, and I batted her frantic hands away. "C'mon sweetie, don't be difficult. It's 7:00! Wake up, it's your first day of sixth grade! Aren't you excited?" she said.

"Hnngh," I mumbled. School could wait for tomorrow...wait...school?

I cursed the world as I rolled out of my bed onto the floor. I spent three minutes kicking the cocoon of blankets off me.

After much protesting on my end to my mom on how I didn't want to go to prison, I reluctantly hurried through my morning routine and breakfast and soon found myself seated on the school bus next to Natsu. Even though he didn't hang out with me as much as the others (we were acquaintances), he gave me a toothy eye-smile. I felt something slightly flutter inside me, but ignored it and gave a similar smile in response and adjusted my black backpack on my shoulders.

I was wearing slightly loose denim shorts and an oversized white t-shirt. I had my lucky NBA cap on my hair, which was down. My black converse's laces were untied. 

I just wanted to wear my Jordans, basketball shorts, and a loose t-shirt. I wanted to keep my shoulder-length hair in a ponytail. I wanted to wear whatever I wanted. However, a nagging mother that cared about their child's looks for "first impressions" prevented me from doing so. I had mentally thrown a fit, but managed to sneak my hat past her eyes as I left the house.

After some time, the bus stopped at the curb at the entrance of Fairy Tail Middle School. I sighed with Natsu. How bad could it be, I thought, and stepped out of the bus into the grounds of what most people called prison.

***

Miss Colbi, my new teacher, led our class to lunch in a single file line. She was an extremely strict and orderly person, and insisted on complete order even though everyone else besides us walked freely. I hadn't really seen Natsu much this summer, so I tried to ask how his summer was until Miss Colbi shushed him loudly. After muttering an apology, he turned back into the straight line. I snorted softly in amusement.

After glancing at Miss Colbi's camo heels, I gave her the name Military Lady.

We had arrived at the cafeteria. Natsu waved a farewell to me and left to go sit with my friends.

They're probably his friends too, I thought as I followed him and plopped down my superhero lunch box

"Lucy!" they greeted, minus Natsu, who was looking at me with a confused expression.

"Wait, why are you sitting here?" Natsu asked. Gajeel, Jellal, and Gray deadpanned.

"Well, flame brain, the spicy food's probably messed up the pea-sized brain that you surprisingly do have! Lucy's our friend, so she can sit here whenever she wants," Gray responded, exasperated at Natsu's idiotic choice of words.

"Watch it, ice pee!" Natsu angrily said. I snorted at his choice of insults. I could do way better.

Natsu and Gray were polar opposites. Natsu was the literal definition of fire and loved eating spicy food and it obviously never was spicy enough for him. Gray had a cool personality, and enjoyed eating frozen treats like ice cream and popsicles. He preferred winter, while Natsu preferred summer. The two would fight often, arguing at the most trivial matters.

Natsu turned away from Gray's shaking fists.

"Luce, where are your girl friends?" Natsu asked.

"I don't have any," I responded nonchalantly. I never really dwelled upon the fact that all my friends were boys, and was thankful that I had any friends at all. "Why do you ask?"

Natsu pulled a face, and got up with his lunch and moved to another table.

I furrowed my eyebrows.

I shrugged and continued eating with Gajeel, Jellal, and Gray. Food over Natsu any day. I wondered if my choice of friends was really bizarre after all, and was wrapped up in my own thoughts until lunch came to an end.

***

hey everyone, i hope you liked this chapter! what do you think? it was really fun to write this~

thanks for reading!

love you all,

mo-ch-i