The moon has always been interesting. If you just sit and look at it at night, you tend to think clearly and your decisions are made faster, you think of more options, your mind is more free, and yet everything is just calm at the same time. Well, at least that's what Gray thinks.

He is supposed to feel like his world is falling apart, that everything is just breaking around him, but he doesn't feel like that. He doesn't feel the need to scream out at the ocean in front of him, he doesn't feel like he needs help. He doesn't feel.

Tomorrow, Gray would have to start a new life. His martial arts teacher will take him in from tomorrow. She has agreed that she would pay for his schooling and allow him to stay by her in the holidays, and she is willing to take an orphan in since she has done it before. Ul, his teacher, has adopted another boy, Lyon, a few years ago, who had lost his family to a bank robbery in the mall while he was at home with friends. She took him in as if he was her own son. Gray has heard that Ul had a daughter before, but he doesn't know what happened to her.

A new college; a new family; a new life; a new beginning. And it all begins tomorrow.

Gray stands up, dusts the beach sand from his pants and walks in the opposite direction of the ocean, leaving the moon and stars in its own darkness.

A commotion could be heard as the noise echoed through the long corridor, rattling against every classroom door in its wake. Many students stop paying attention to their lecturers as they listen to the shouting belonging to the Captain of the Debate team. "Who do you think you are? You can't just bump a person over and apologise when you don't mean it? Especially when that person is carrying an important project that represents the future of the college! Do you know how long it took me to make that? Three solid weeks!"

As the girl went on and on about how important the project is, Gray stands still and simply stares at the girl, giving no emotion – which is probably the reason why she thought that he did not mean it when he apologised, but he can't help it. He can't get any emotion to surface.

The girl still continued to reprimand him and he really was not in the mood to listen to a person with a stupid captain badge, so he sighs, bends down and collects all the broken pieces of the project, placing them carefully into his arms and stands. Cutting her off, he asks flatly, "Where were you heading with this?"

The girl stops, blinks and responds, "Huh?"

Gray sighs again and rephrases his previous question, "To which lecturer were you going to with this project?" He lifts an eyebrow as he waits for an answer from the scarlet haired girl in front of him.

Erza's eyebrows furrows in confusion. No student has taken her scolding so calmly, they always have either a frightened expression or they just try to run away all together – never calm expressions. And he even cleans up the mess he made without her asking (or demanding) him to. "Professor Evergreen," she answers eventually. She watches as he looks down the corridor and looks back at her.

"What room is it?" he asks and her eyebrow lifts. Is he serious? He doesn't know which room Professor Evergreen's Lab is? Is he really trying to trick her? Noticing her annoyed expression, and, for the third time this morning, Gray sighs again. "I am the new guy here. I need to know the room number so you can go to class and I can explain what happened. What room is it?" he requests again, already tired of seeing this girls face.

"Oh," her eyes widen in realisation. So he is the new student that the dean has told her about. "Sorry about that. I'll show you where the lab is." She starts down the corridor that she was originally on her way to and she looks over her shoulder at the boy that bumped her over as he silently follows her with the same expressionless face he wore at the beginning of their confrontation.

"Just tell me where the class is," he says after a few moments of walking in silence. Erza's eyebrow twitches in irritation. Is he really demanding something from me? she thinks hotly to herself as she pulls to a stop next to him, about to let him have it but he beats her to it. "I don't want you to be late for your class and seeing this mess-" he gestures to the broken project in his arms, he continues, "was caused by me, I'll explain what happened and try to get an extended time for it."

Shocked by his reasoning behind the request, Erza just turns and walks in the direction of the lab again. "Don't worry about it. I have to show you around the campus anyway – dean's request – so it wouldn't hurt if we started the tour off with the lab," Erza smiles at him, and she notices that he doesn't smile back.

"What? Really? I am no longer the new student anymore?" Lucy asks in disbelief.

Erza nods and continues, "Yes, his name is Gray Fullbuster. I am sure that he has Historical Studies with you."

Lucy smiles at the thought of meeting another person that has dared to take 'The Most Boring Major Ever'. Not one of her friends have taken Historical Studies and she was starting to feel lonely for that hour of the lecture.

"Lucy!"

As Lucy looks to the side to greet the source of the voice, she gets knocked off her bench by that very person. "Shit, Lucy! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that," Natsu apologises and helps her back onto her seat, making sure that he avoids making eye-contact with the scarlet demon that is glaring daggers at him.

Natsu has always been overly hyper and Erza knows this, but he should be a lot more gentler with Lucy. Lucy's fragile. Erza really thinks that he should get another hobby to try and drain his energy, but he is already doing so many sports, Erza is afraid that he might not have any time to study or complete his assignments.

"Natsu, what's up?" Lucy asks with a smile. Normally, when he was this energetic, Lucy knew that something good happened to Natsu, like yesterday he came to her with this huge smile on his face and he couldn't keep still because he went up in his Drama test by at least ten percent with the help from Lucy.

"There was an audition to the play by the theatre down the road," he says with such a huge grin on his face and pauses, willing her to carry on where his excitement made him incapable of speaking any more.

The smile on Lucy's face grows as she realises what he was implying. "No way!"

"Yeah!" Natsu practically shouts, laughing as he gives Lucy a hug out of excitement. Erza's eyebrow lifts as she watches the two interact, sipping from her water. "I got the lead part!"

Lucy pulls away from Natsu. "That's great. I told you that you can do it," Lucy says, laughing at how pleased Natsu is. She knew that he could do it because since she met him, he had been rehearsing the script for this play and has been doing improvised acts that freaked her out at first.

"Yeah, thanks Lucy," Natsu gives Lucy a thumbs up, his grin never leaving his face.

Erza places her water down and bites into an apple, observing their conversation. "Did you hear about the new guy, Natsu?" Lucy asks as he starts to dig into his meal. He gave a hum of agreement and Lucy just sighs, knowing that he wasn't really listening. "What's his name again, Erza? I have forgotten already."

Erza puts the apple core down and simply states, "Gray Fullbuster. Natsu's roommate." Erza's face scrunches up as food splashes at her face from Natsu spitting it out in surprise. Lucy's eyes widen in fear as Erza uses a napkin to wipe the food off her face. "Natsu..." Erza growls dangerously low and Lucy hears Natsu gulp from beside her.

"Uhm... E-Erza, do you know anything else about this Gray?" Lucy asks, trying to diffuse the situation.

Lucy sighs in relief when Erza places the napkin down and rests her head on her palm with her elbow resting on the table. "That's all that I really know. Dean Dreyar has told me to give him a tour of the college," Erza mumbles, Lucy and Natsu just catching her words. "But he never spoke or answered any of my questions."

Lucy tries to muster up the courage to ask the next question, "Erza?"

"Hmm?" Erza looks at Lucy.

She takes a deep breath, hoping that Erza would not turn violent when she asks, "Was that who you were shouting at earlier?" When Erza gives a blank face and doesn't respond, Lucy continues, "Something about a project..."

Erza thinks back to earlier today. Gray had tried to talk to Evergreen, but she just wouldn't listen and handed Erza extra activities to do as punishment for not handing in her project. "That bastard got me into trouble," Erza cuts Lucy off and the blonde and pinkette leans away from Erza as they practically see steam escape her ears in anger. "Got me doing extra work and projects for Evergreen, who wouldn't even listen when we tried to explain. If he had just let me do all the talking, I might've gotten away with getting extra time to complete the project if I had explained."

Just when Lucy thought that Erza was done complaining, Erza starts again, "And he didn't even get any punishment! I was the only one who got punished! That good-for-nothing fool." Erza crosses her arms over chest and puffs a breath out through her nose in anger as she clenches her jaw.

"Where is he anyway?" Natsu asks after a long moment of silence.

As Gray closed the door to the counsellor's office, he takes note of the slurred giggles behind him. He turns to the source and sees a brunette about his age and she is wearing a bikini. Did she just come from the pool? Gray wonders as he starts to walk away from her. Is there even a pool here?

"Hey, boy."

Gray stops and turns back to the girl. "What are you in here for?" she asks. Gray simply stares at her, wondering what she is on about. "The counsellor's office? Normally you have major problems if you are sent here," the brunette slurs and takes a sip of her bottle. She stands up and walks to Gray, holding out her hand for him to shake. He does. "The name's Cana."

"Gray," he introduces himself and lets her hand go, shoving it in his pocket.

She laughs and takes a sip of her bottle. "You're the new guy, right?" Cana asks and Gray stays silent, already having enough with people asking him questions. He turns to walk away and Cana panics, fearing that she left a bad impression on the new kid. She wants people to think of her as an easygoing girl that they can come and talk to and just have fun with, not someone that people avoid. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, wait!" Cana reaches out for Gray and when he turns around, she breathes out a sigh. She drops her inquisitive urges to know what got the boy into going to counselling and states seriously, "Listen, I just want you to know that whatever you are going through, you don't have to do it alone. If you want, I can take you out for a drink sometime, get you used to your surroundings." Cana smiles, hoping that he doesn't dismiss her like he did just moments ago.

Gray looks her over again and notes that she is genuine with her offer. He sighs and hums in agreement, giving a nod in her direction before turning and walking off, satisfied now that he can leave.

Cana stares in confusion at Gray. Is that guy serious? He agrees to plans but doesn't give any details as to how they will contact each other. She sighs, giving up on the man and walks into the counsellor's office.

Gray was supposed to go to the students' lounge; at least, that is what he has been told. There is one problem: he doesn't know where to go from here.

Gray sighs and continues walking, hoping that he doesn't look lost because that would just be embarrassing. He should've just asked that girl, Cana, for directions, but he doesn't like the way she looked at him, he feels very uncomfortable when people stare at him like he is a hurt puppy – like those people at the funeral.

All these hallways look the same, Gray thinks to himself as he stops at another split in the hallway. He sighs and drags his fingers through his hair in frustration, continuing on the hall to his left. Didn't I pass this door a while ago?

Spotting a window with sunlight shining through it at the end of the hallway, he quickens his pace and yanks the door open once he reaches it. "You have got to be kidding me!" Gray yells in anger as he realises that he has walked right out of the building to the entrance of the university. Back to the start. Now he has to walk all the way back inside the building and maneuver his way until he gets to the lunchroom. This might take a while...

Looking at her watch, Erza gets up and starts packing her lunch away knowing that in seven minutes, her next class starts. Lucy looks up from her conversation with Natsu and asks Erza out of curiosity, "Where are you going?"

After shutting her bag and slinging it over her shoulder, Erza answers, "To class. It starts in six minutes. I don't want to be late. I have already disappointed one teacher, I don't want to disappoint another. See you later."

Lucy cocks her head to the side as she watches Erza walk off. Erza is always uptight and punctual and it intrigues Lucy to no end how Erza copes with her life. She goes to social gatherings, takes more classes than the rest of the students at this college, gets high marks, does hockey and she still has time to have lunch with her friends. Lucy knows that Erza's determination drives her to her goals, but what is that goal exactly?

"Oi, Lucy! You aren't listening to me. I am a very interesting person, you know?" Natsu crosses his arms in front of him and furrows his eyebrows at Lucy, annoyed. Lucy giggles and gives him her full attention as he continues his story from before.

Erza walks out the door onto the corridor leading to the fields where most students are sitting to absorb the winter sun. She turns, rounds the corner of the building and nearly collides with a person. That is the second time today! she scolds herself. She knows that she shouldn't let her mind wander, she will get distracted from her work where one thing will lead to another and her marks will drop and she won't be able to study here anymore.

The person sighs and she looks up, her eyes narrowing in irritation. "You."

He rolls his eyes and sighs again, "I'm sorry. Again."