It was early morning, you could tell by the beautiful sunrise, which illuminated Erza's scarlet color hair.

She was sleeping on her desk. She exhausted herself the day before, what with all the preparations for today.

It hit 6.00 AM and her alarm clock went off, waking her from deep sleep. She grunted uncomfortably as she turned it off, finally noticing that she wasn't sleeping in her bed.

She then let out a tired sigh as she slowly stood up from her chair, "I must get ready for-" she fell to her knees, grasping her chair with one hand, her vision getting blurry, "I'm fine, I can't afford to be tired on a day like today.. " she muttered.

Today was the first of September, the first day of school and Erza was the student council president of Fairy Tail High. That was one of the reasons why Erza hadn't had much sleep these past few weeks. She could only work on schoolwork in the evenings and through the night, reasons for that being her part-time job and art school. Erza was always good at drawing, all of her teachers were really impressed by her and always praised her when they got the chance. She was good at her studies, too. Always the top scorer on every exam, just so she could fulfill her dream to enter a university to study arts and make a living out of it.

Though Erza's last art school exam was last week and she graduated with the highest scores, and she wasn't allowed to have a part-time job anymore because it would intrude on her study time, she would be able to sleep and rest properly from now on. Or so she thought..

She stood up to notice she still had a photo of her and her ex-boyfriend. "We looked so happy back then" She thought as she flipped it over. Erza started thinking back on past times: "We really WERE happy back then, he was the perfect person to have by one's side, until he started.." she shook her head, she didn't even want to think about it.

Erza brushed off those nostalgic, yet painful memories and slowly went to get

As she got out of the bathroom, ready to head for school, Erza noticed breakfast was prepared for her, even though she wasn't even going to make herself anything. "Must've been grandma"- she said to herself with a smile on her face.

Erza has been living with her grandmother ever since she was three. Her parents died in a car accident, so even she can't remember them, but Erza still wishes to know more about her parents. Her grandmother never spoke of them and Erza didn't pursue the thought, even though she wanted to.

Life with her grandmother wasn't bad. She had a roof over her head, warm food, clothes and a caring parent who would always listen to her troubles. She loved her grandmother from the bottom of her heart.

They did have problems with money though. Erza's grandmother couldn't work because she was too old, and it was hard nowadays for two people to live out of one person's pension, that was why the eighteen-year-old had to work whenever she could.

"Fried eggs," she looked at the plate while sitting down and getting ready to eat "Thank you, grandma"

As Erza finished eating, she washed her plate, and placed it on the table. "Im off" She said to herself, and to her home.

Erza had to come to school earlier. As she checked her phone it was 7.10 when she entered the building. She went to the teacher's lounge.

"Mornin' Erza!" greeted her a familiar voice.

Erza turned around to notice it was Gildarts calling her name. "Oh, good morning, teacher" she said while smiling.

"You don't have to be so formal around me Erza" he said while scratching the back of his head and giving her an unsure laugh.

"Yes I do, I'm the student council president, it's my duty to show an example to the other students" she said, somehow Gildarts knew she would say that.

"Erza.. you need to lighten up a bit, you're too stiff, you need to-" he stopped talking immediately after noticing that she had raised a fist and she was trying to hide her irritation.

"Yes, I understand, TEACHER," she noted the word "but could you please state your business with me?" Erza said, annoyed at Gildarts's comment.

The middle-aged teacher raised his hands in defense "Okay okay, I got it!" he laughed "The principal wanted to see you."

"The principal? What for?" she asked, surprised. Today was already planned out, so there was no reason for him to call her.

"No idea" admitted Gildarts "Probably about the after-school clubs. You haven't sorted that issue yet, have you?"

"I did, yesterday" replied Erza.

Gildarts sighed "She was probably working all night yesterday too" he thought. "Well, anyway, the principle's waiting. Go on"

She turned around and started walking to the principle's office, when she remembered something:"How's your student?" she asked.

"Which one? Natsu?" he replied, surprised by her interest.

"Yeah, that one"

"I honestly don't know" Gildarts answered "I heard he was working for the principal during the summer, maybe that pounded some sense into the kid" he went on "but I doubt he'll show up today" he let out a long and tiresome sigh.

"Don't worry, he will" said Erza reassuringly with a smile on her face.

Gildarts smiled: "I hope so, I hope so"

As she walked in to the principle's office, she remember the conversation she had with Gildarts about Natsu. Apparently, Natsu didn't attend more than half of his lessons last year. Normally he would've been kicked out of the school, but because of the strong fatherly feelings both Gildarts and the principal harbor for the boy, he was allowed to stay on the condition that he started to attend his lessons.

Between her school-work and Natsu's bad attendance, she has never seen him before, but she knows how he looks. As Gildarts described him, he had pointy pink hair, black eyes. He would never wear his uniform's jacket and would always have his headphones on. "I'd teach him a lesson if I ever met him" she thought while giving a quiet laugh.

After a good twenty minutes Erza came out of principal Dreyar's office, looking even more tired. "He doesn't want to, but he HAS to tell me to help the first years find their homeroom classes, huh.." she thought while yawning.

She made her way to the second floor where the first year's classes were supposed to be. No one was there, "Everyone's probably inside the classrooms already" she muttered to herself quietly.

"Excuse me" she heard a young voice behind her and turned around to see who it was. It was a boy with dark-blue hair, his uniform's collar's color was yellow, indicating that he was a first year, "I'm lost, where could I find 1a's classroom? he asked, politely.

"Oh" Erza went in to her thoughts, "1a.. right there, the third door down the hall" she replied while pointing her finger towards the classroom.

"Thank you!" he said happily and went to his classroom. As he opened the door, she heard: "There you are, Romeo, did you get lost.." the door closed. Erza had a faint smile on her face.

"Erza!" she heard a familiar voice. She turned around to see a girl with long white hair and blue eyes, "Mira!" she replied to Mirajane "Shouldn't you be in class?" Erza asked.

"I should, but the principal's asked me to come help you with the first years" she said.

"There's nothing to help though, all of them are in their classrooms already" she replied, while yawning.

"Even if they are, I'll stay here, go get some rest Erza, I bet you still have loads of work to do today" ordered Mirajane, worriedly.

She didn't. Oddly enough, today she didn't have any work planned, but as Mirajane is lending a helping hand, "why not take her up on her offer and get some rest?" she thought.

"Thanks, Mira" Erza replied "I'll be outside if you need me"

The white haired girl nodded and Erza made her way out to get some fresh air.

She sat on a bench below a tree. "I met him here.." she thought, but she was too tired to move to another place, and she didn't want to. It was a nice place, you could easily see most of the school yard from here, and the oak tree was a great protector from the hot sun.

Again, Erza was lost in thought. She remembered both last year and the year before that, she remembered how happy and full of energy she was, but now she's feeling like an old woman, tired and sad. Eventually, she fell asleep.

As she was sleeping, Erza felt this warm feeling in her stomach, as if some fire inside of her was trying to lit itself up again. She woke up, and noticed someone was looking at her. She looked up towards the roof, but she couldn't make out who it was because she was still sleepy. The only thing she could notice was the color of the person's hair - pink.

She felt the embrace of the warm feeling as she slowly turned her head away, closing her eyes and slowly drifting to sleep. She liked this feeling, and she would want to feel it again, but she would have never thought that this person who was looking at her, Natsu Dragneel, would soon change her life.