"I've never been in love. But I imagine it's similar to the feeling you get when you see your waiter arriving with your food."

-Zack Galifianakis

CHAPTER 11: START

9:27 AM

Class 3-A, Building A, Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore

Erza Scarlet was beyond livid.

How could this happen? She thought; how could a mortal who is actually better than her in Strategic Planning, her best subject, exist?

Coming up with strategies were child-play to the scarlet-haired girl. She did, after all, made sure to match every second of requipping to the situation at hand; she did mind-calculations of how long it would take her to requip then to attack, all the while forming a defense technique in seconds.

That was until the professor decided to fry their brains with a problem so difficult, she couldn't even begin to comprehend what, where, or how to attack the opponent's base. The star students then started scurrying away at their own sheets of paper, and Erza, supposed to be the best in Strategic Planning, wasn't even halfway through when someone, a certain someone, volunteered to solve and explain.

"It's quite simple," he said; looking as dull and boring as ever. Erza silently mocked the arrogant class mayor.

Until he started writing legibly on the chalkboard.

'Curses,' she bit her lip, 'No wonder they voted him for class mayor when I wasn't around.'

And then her sneers and doubts that he was going to make a fool of himself was shot down the drain when in less than five minutes, the solution and clear answer was written neatly on the board.

So she sat there, figuring out why the heavens were punishing her as Gray Fullbuster, the most detested ice mage in her eyes, solved and explained away at the drawn opponent's base on the board.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period, and the ice mage made his way back to his seat, a sly smile over his prepossessing good looks.

"What are you acting so cheerful for?" she glumly crossed her arms when he was passing through the aisle.

He let out a breathy chuckle, "Such a wonderful ball of joy you are." Gray Fullbuster stopped by her chair and smirked in amusement.

"You sure you're up for this school presidency challenge, Scarlet? I won't say anything if you back out now." He leaned his arm on her armchair, looking down at her in victory.

Erza, feeling dangerously murderous, calmly replied, "I solved the problem before you even raised your hand."

"Yes," he sighed with delight, "And your name isn't Erza Scarlet. You did your best in vying for the position though." He finished and coolly walked away, as though he had already been announced the Supreme Student Government's president, she ghastly thought.

"Erza, will I be in prison if I-" Natsu Dragneel came running to her side, about to ask whether it was illegal to blow up someone else's lunch as a prank when he caught sight of her eyes.

He swore he could see the tiny lit-up flames in them.

"You… doing fine?" he flinchingly asked, eyes drifting to the obviously pleased ice mage beside the window at the back in question. Gray Fullbuster simply shrugged, feigning ignorance.

"Excuse me while I go drown someone in intimidation." She muttered and got up, heading towards the door with a menacing aura around her.

12:32 AM

Corridor A, Bulletin Board of the SSG, Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore

'This is it.' Erza gulped and read the announcement with fiery eyes.

The Supreme Student Government Elections were finally taking place, and though the positions were, basically, the majority votes type, the presidency spot was determined differently.

Fifty percent comes from the majority votes, and the remaining fifty comes from Master Makarov, who gives them a new quest each year.

"I wonder what Master Makarov would make you guys do this year." Mirajane smiled while looking at the announcement.

"Last year was acquiring a pinch of Vulcan fur." Levy commented, pushing her eyeglass up a bit.

"It took me the whole Saturday to do just that." Erza sighed, recalling the memory.

"Good luck this year, Erza." The rest of Fairy Hills Dorm girls cheered on, Erza smiling confidently in response.

3:54 PM

The Cake Shop, Fairy Tail High, Magnolia, Fiore

Lucy stared in wonder as Erza Scarlet juggled eating strawberry cheesecake, writing an essay for she-doesn't-care-to-find-out, reading and highlighting words on 'Sorcery and Ancient Magic,' drawing a sketch of her new dream armor to be added to her collection, and talking to her.

"So as I was saying," Erza swallowed a spoonful of cake, "This cake needs some Fairy Glitter for it to be the Heaven's Wheel Armor."

Lucy blinked. That was what she heard, alright.

Erza wrinkled her nose, "Wait, what did I just say?" then she mumbled a few more incomprehensible things that sounded like some dead language and highlighted an entire paragraph from the book.

"Erza?" Lucy asked, trying to get her attention. 'Trying' being the keyword.

"And the elections; have I threatened-I mean, convinced you to vote for me yet?" Erza asked, flitting her eyes to and fro.

"Erza, I don't really see why-" Lucy was cut off by the frantic speech of the requip mage.

"And the newest edition of Sorcerer Weekly. Did you know that Fairy Tail High was quoted as 'one of the most violent-"

"Erza!" Lucy closed the book, grabbed her spoon, and put a hand over her essay. The scarlet-haired then finally quieted down; Lucy realized as she sighed in relief.

"Okay, so what did you want to talk to me about again?" the blonde-haired girl asked, momentarily staring at the clock right above the requip mage's head.

"Oh, yes, that's right; they should be here any minute now." Erza skittishly replied.

She had been juggling things alright; but there was one more thing she was trying to do that Lucy wasn't aware of.

They sat in awkward silence as the clock ticked on.

"Yep, that's what he said," Erza glared at the door in scorn, as if it would finally produce the people she wanted to see, "Any minute now."

Lucy was too confused and tired to ask any more questions. And just as she was about to stand up, apologize, and walk out of the cake shop, the tinkling bell of the door opening sounded.

'Finally,' Erza thought,

"Over here, you precious, timely, early, classmates of mine." Erza Scarlet called out and tried to smile, only it resulting in a gruesome upward twitch of the lips.

Natsu looked frightened at the sight of a trying-to-smile Erza and turned to Gray, "I don't think breathing the same air as Erza is safe right now."

The ice mage, however, continued to push Natsu Dragneel towards the two girls.

"Sorry we're late." Gray flatly said with a sigh as they both sat down.

"Yes, I forgive you." Erza coldly replied before turning to Lucy.

"So I heard from Juvia that your necklace was still missing, right?" the requip mage asked, Lucy silently nodding and dreading at where this conversation was going.

"Natsu here wanted to be a good Samaritan and help you find it. So seeya." Gray was about to stand up until the scarlet-haired girl forcefully tugged his arm back. He could have sworn he heard his bones crack.

"What?" both Natsu and Lucy said in unison.

Erza glared at Gray with every ounce of hatred she could muster, as if telling him telepathically, 'Haven't you explained the plan to Natsu yet?'

"Fullbuster here was actually trying to say that if you wanted, the three of us could help you look for it." Erza explained.

"Yeah, the two of them could help you look for it. Bye." He stood up once more but Erza, unrelenting to let him get away, dragged him back once more; this time keeping a firm grasp on his wrist.

"So what do you say?" she pleasantly asked, as if she wasn't threatening a certain ice mage with her death grip at all.

Lucy looked uncertain at the trio.

"Natsu, say something useful." Erza whisper-shouted at the fire mage.

"So, uh, yeah." Natsu tittered and felt jittery for the first time.

'What the heck am I supposed to say?' he inwardly panicked as Lucy stared at him.

So he settled for the most common thing to say to normal people.

"How's it going, Lucy?"

Erza Scarlet groaned and felt like grabbing a piece of wood to whack both Natsu's and Gray's heads.

9:13 PM

Fairy Hills, Magnolia, Fiore

"I'm fine, Jellal." Erza hurriedly replied through the phone and wrote down another line of facts on her Enchantments notebook.

"You sure don't sound fine, you know." He replied with a worried voice, and the scarlet-haired girl sighed; it was the first time in a few months since her childhood friend called. And here she was, being such a good friend to not even spare a second to talk to him.

'I'm a horrible person.' She thought.

"And I can hear the page of your notebook tearing." He commented, as Erza tore off another page from her notes.

"I got confused earlier and wrote down things from Natural Magic in my Enchantments notebook." She reasoned, now flitting through the dictionary to find a certain word.

"Relax, Erza; it's our last year in high school. No need to get so uptight now." Jellal further comforted, as she simply tugged her hair in frustration, asking herself where in Earthland did she put her Strategic Planning notebook.

Erza sighed, "Jellal, I'll talk to you some other time. When I'm less… busy." Her eyebrows scrunched as she read her essay for the nth time.

"Alright then. Just calm down and try to get some sleep. I'm sorry for calling at such a bad time. Good night." He said.

And she just spaced out for a second or so.

He cleared his throat, "Goodnight, Erza." He said one more time, her replying with an unusually high 'Goodnight.'

The call ended and she leaned against her chair, head facing the ceiling and eyes closed. Her hand weakly gripped her phone as she felt the fatigue finally taking over.

And then she felt a faint vibration from her phone.

'You're aging.'

Gray Fullbuster had sent and she deliberately ignored it. A few minutes later though, she received another text.

'Seriously. You're acquiring memory loss from aging.'

She furiously typed back, annoyed ten times more than usual.

'GO AWAY.'

Yes, it was on caps lock. And she considered just turning off her phone until his next message hit her on the head.

Erza Scarlet silently read the message and loudly groaned, getting up and burrowing her head in the mish-mash of pillows on her bed.

'You accidentally put your notebook in my bag, Scarlet. Come get it.'

Erza typed back to the ice mage.

'Bring it over.' She pressed the send button.

A few seconds later, 'My favorite TV commercial is on. Can't get up.'

Erza rolled her eyes heavenwards and she thought she heard a faint knock on her balcony door. She shrugged it off and was about to type back until the knocks became apparent.

She narrowed her eyes and requipped her twin katanas.

But just as she opened the curtains, a half-naked, dull-looking Gray Fullbuster met her view; casually leaning over the rails with a hand in his pocket, the other waving her notebook in the air.