It was a nice day in Magnolia city. The sun was shining, and the feeling of summer was still left in the air. To Natsu's surprise, it wasn't raining, when almost every first day of school was met with a shower of rain.

Natsu was slowly walking down the path he usually takes when going to school. He was still hoping he wouldn't meet with Gray, which he almost always did, because Gray didn't live far from where Natsu did. He honestly did enjoy walking with his friend to school, because they would always talk about the most random of topics, girls included.

Surely enough, there was Gray. He was standing near his house as if waiting for someone.

"Please don't tell me you've been waiting for me" said the annoyed Natsu while turning off the music from his phone.

"What do you think? Why would I ever wait for you, dumbass. It's you who's always following me around" replied the dark-blue haired teen.

"I do NOT!" shouted the angry Natsu, "Well, then if not me, WHO are you waiting for?-he asked, curiously.

"None of your business" stated Gray "What have you been listening to?" he asked when he noticed his headphones, "Dustin Beaver again?" he mocked Natsu.

"Where the hell did you get that idea from?" asked the surprised yet irritated Natsu, "You're the one who's always listening to Driftey Smears" he started laughing. He remembered the time when they were at Gray's place and Lucy was listening to Smears on Gray's computer.

By this point Gray was starting to get angry: "You wanna go, bitch?"

"Bring it!" replied Natsu, happy that he finally got his friend pissed.

"Hey! Stop it!" shouted a familiar female voice, "It's not nice to fight, Natsu."

It was Juvia, "You finally decided to show up" said Gray while receiving a kiss on the cheek from her, "Thank you for waiting for me, lover" said the excited Juvia, happily, though Natsu was resisting the urge to facepalm, "Hello to you too, Natsu." she smiled.

"Aye" he replied, depressed by the fact that Gray had found a girlfriend before him."Damn the bastard" he thought, "Let's go or we'll be late"

And so they started to make their way to school. Juvia and Gray were chitchatting about everything, including Natsu, which made him even more pissed off.

They finally arrived. The three were standing right near the school entrance.
-"Another year, huh?"-Gray said with a sort of nostalgic voice.

"Oh shut up, you're sounding like an old guy" Natsu taunted him, though Gray ignored the comment.

"Let's make a lot of good memories this year, too!" said Juvia, excited by the thought of spending another year with Gray and the others as classmates.

"Aye" replied both Gray and Natsu.

A few moments later, they were in their classroom greeting all of their friends. A blond girl came up to Natsu: "Hey, long time no see," she smiled.

It was Lucy, one of Natsu's best friends. Natsu had a hunch that she like him, but always brushed it off as if it was only his imagination.

He never did think of Lucy as anything more than a friend. "Hey, Luce," they hugged, "Yeah, it has been a while" he smiled, happy by finally being reunited with his dear friend.

"How was your summer?" she asked.

"Working for the old geezer, damn he's a slave driver!" he exclaimed, "sometimes he'd ask me to not only do the work during the day, but the night shift too.. Though I did make a lot of money."

"Good to hear" she replied, happily, "where were you working anyway?"

"He owns a hotel outside of town. A small but nice place out in the middle of nowhere." he said with a smile on his face.

Lucy remembers Natsu saying that when he finishes his studies he'd like to have a small house in a peaceful place somewhere out of the city where's it's nice and quiet.

Before she could reply, their homeroom teacher, Gildarts Clive, entered the class: "Get to your seats."

"See you after homeroom" Lucy said.

"Aye" Natsu smiled.

After everyone got to their seats, Gildarts continued: "Another year of school, huh. I hope you guys will at least try put in a bit more effort in your studies this year, especially you, Natsu."

Natsu wasn't the brightest of students. He would always forget to study for his exams, or so he said, that's why he's always gotten the lowest scores in tests.

"Oh shut up, old ma-" before he even finished his sentence, a book came flying straight for Natsu and hit his forehead, "Ouch, damn it!" he grunted.

"What did you call me..?" Asked Gildarts, with an evil smile and a dark aura around him, patting his ruler against his hand. Seems like he's been waiting to punish Natsu for whatever reason for some time now.

"An old gee-" The ruler met with Natsu's pink head, "Damn it, that hurts old man!"

The whole class was laughing. By this point Gray was bursting into tears from laughing too much.

Homeroom was finally over. Natsu decided to go to the roof of the school for a breath of fresh air. While there, he noticed that he had a pack of cigarettes in his shirt's pocket and a lighter. He was tempted to smoke, but thought "Why the hell did I even quit if I get tempted to smoke again?" and brushed the thought of it off, though he didn't throw the pack out.

While on the roof he noticed a red haired girl sitting outside on a bench below a tree. Natsu was surprised by how beautiful she was, never in his life has he seen such a beautiful person. She had long red hair and she had a bit of make-up on. Not too much, but just the right amount. Her uniform collar was blue, a sign that she was a third-year. Natsu's was brown.

Natsu never could understand the mood of a person by looking at them, but this time he could clearly see that the girl looked sad. "Her boyfriend, probably"- he thought.

The girl suddenly looked up to see Natsu looking at her from the school's roof. He blushed and looked away, surprised that she noticed him. She tried to make out who he was, but she didn't know him. The girl then smiled and turned her head down, eyes closed. It looked like she was sleeping to him, but she wasn't, she was enjoying this moment of peace and quiet, with a person she didn't know and with whom she was close but yet far apart. Natsu thought the same. This wouldn't be the last time they enjoyed each other's company like this. He would always want to see that girl. That girl who he would later know as Erza Scarlet.