BAND

"Some kids come for sports teams… some kids come for the drinking and partying… others just come for the four years away from home. But not us. Never us. For kids like us, there is nothing else like it. The long hours of practice, the sleepless nights before a performance, the endless cheers from a crowd… the thrill of it all. Yes. Nothing else like it. And for us that is… band."

Okay, so I'm sure you've all seen the stories of Fairy Tail in college, or Fairy Tail in a rock band... but what about Fairy Tail in a marching band? The idea came to me from my newly developed love for college marching bands, and quarantine, of course. Those kids put in the work and the end result is always amazing. I thought it'd be fun to imagine some of our favorite Fairy Tail characters in those kinds of settings and this is what I came up with. So… enjoy!

Prologue…

"Come to auditions with me."

It was a cool summer afternoon and Lisanna and I were sprawled about in my room molting away due to the sun's heat. Other than the sound of me flipping the pages to my book, and the portable fan whirring away, it was deadly silent.

I jolted up from my spot on the bed when I heard that.

"Say what?!"

"Oh, come on Juvie!" She whined. "Please?" Then, she hit me with her big, sad, puppy eyes shortly after that and usually, I was a sucker for the big, sad puppy eyes… but not today.

"Hell no, Lisanna, are you crazy?!" I asked. "The girls who usually go to those tryouts are practically professional dancers and I've never danced a day in my life! Besides, we don't even know if I'm going to Magnolia University yet…"

Seemed like it was Lisanna's turn to get riled up over something I said.

"Uh uh Juvia, I'm not playing this game with you again," she said, sitting upright on my beanbag chair on the floor. "You already said you were going to MU remember? You got your acceptance letter and everything!"

I pointed my finger in the air to rebut, but nothing but air came out of my mouth when I tried to speak.

"And I know you got accepted into St. Clover State too, but didn't you say that you weren't going there because it was too close to home? Besides didn't you say you wanted to come to MU to be closer to me?!"

She took a body dive on my bed, causing my lamp and fish tank on the nightstands on either side to tremble. I quickly hurried over to steady them, but when that was done, the white-haired girl in front of me took my pale hand in both of hers and looked at me like she was asking me to marry her or something.

I flapped my gums open and close failing at something to say. Again, I couldn't argue with the facts. Damn her and her persistency and logic! No, wait, I'm the one who can't keep my big mouth shut… at least… not from her. So I probably should be damning myself. Self, be damned!

You see, I live in Clover Town, about four towns north of Magnolia where Lisanna and her family moved, for her to go to high school. We barely got time to talk and hang out in person like this, but regardless of that, our friendship remained strong. Based on all our talks on how Lisanna's personal life was going, [I don't have much of a personal life you see] Magnolia sounded like a hoot. So when it was time to pick a college, I said to myself 'Why not give Magnolia a try?' On top of that, I needed a college that had a good nursing program and Magnolia University's nursing program was top two in the country. So really, it all lined up.

Oh… and of course I got to see my best friend everyday.

Lisanna's reasons for going to MU were… different, to say the least.

The main one being this dance team called the Fabulous Flying Fairies.

From what I gathered from Lisanna, the Fairies were just a bunch of skinny, pretty girls, in too-small leotards, miming to band music and, well… Lisanna would fit right in.

I'm not saying that as an insult or anything, but Lisanna's always practicing dancing to band music, and when I see her, I definitely see a 'pretty girl', and as a plus, I know Lis has been taking gymnastics for about six years solid. She kind of stopped when she moved away.

So yeah, the Fantastic Flurries, or whatever they're called… would be absolutely lucky to have her.

"That doesn't change the fact that I still can't dance…" I muttered irately.

And I'll take back every nice thing I said if she doesn't stop bugging me to go to tryouts with her.

"Oh come on Juvia," Lisanna pleaded some more. "I don't want to go to tryouts by myself! It's going to be scary going to a place with hundreds of girls, who knows what kind of dance backgrounds they have and then to be judged by every single one of them?!"

She mock fainted into my arms, making a ghostly sound from her lips and positioning one hand on her forehead to be in peak fainting position. I scowled and sent her rolling on the bed.

"Get off of me drama queen," I said scowling.

"You're always so mean to me…" she pouted in a baby voice that sounded like she was about to cry. I rolled my eyes and picked up my Stephen King trying to find where I left off. See, once you've been as close to Lisanna as I have for four consecutive years, you'd be quick to realize that you'd have no other choice but to be immune to her incessant begging or else you'll end up going insane.

Ah, there it is! Page 157… now let me bookmark this before she makes me throw my book again.

"Whatever you say sunshine," I droned, whilst making a crease in the bottom right corner of the page. "Oh, and I'm still not going to auditions with you, no matter what you say."

Lisanna slouched back on my beanbag with a mix between a cry and a whimper and decided to lick her wounds by scrolling through her Instagram feed.

Ah, good 'ole social media therapy.

My answer was still a firm 'no' from that day, but somehow, I ended up getting ready for tryouts along with Lisanna. During the summer, we spent a lot more time together with mostly her coming to visit me, since her guardian, Mira, wasn't as strict as my adopted mother was. We had graduated from our respective high schools by the end of May, and tryouts for the team were happening in the last week of July, as such, most of our time hanging out together turned into physical conditioning sessions, not that I minded. I was willing to do anything to help her achieve her dream.

"I don't see why you can't get your sister to help with this stuff," I say, holding her toes as she did some sit ups.

Remember that 'guardian' I told you about that wasn't as strict as my adopted mother? Yeah well, that's because Lisanna's guardian is only about three years older than her and is her big sister. Mira is also a current student at MU, which I definitely think contributed to Lisanna's eagerness to go to the institution. Also, fun fact, and you are going to love this… Mira is currently a member of the Fabulous Fairies. You would think someone who has such a close connection to the team wouldn't use any and every string possible to up her chances of making it, but Lisanna wasn't thinking like that at all.

"I don't think I need Mira's help to make it," she said in between breaths for a set.

I froze upon hearing that.

"WHAT?!" Okay… that sounded bad.

But its not that I think she can't make it without Mira's help, its just that, it was almost hard to believe those words coming out of her mouth, considering how much she doubted herself making it during our senior year. She just sounded… extremely confident.

She looked at me and smiled.

"I want to become captain of the team one day. And when I do, I want younger girls to know that you can start from the bottom and work your way to the very top even without handouts. Not knocking the girls who do of course."

She went back to finishing her last set of sit ups, leaving me without a chance to respond. She certainly was talking big, but that's just Lisanna. She's always been a dreamer. And a big one at that. Ever since we were kids, Lisanna had always been the one with her head stuck in the clouds, and I was blessed with the daunting task of grounding her back to reality.

"What? What is it?" She questioned, effectively snapping me out of my trance. "You've been staring at me for a while now. Did I do something wrong?"

I bonked her over the head with my mostly empty water bottle, eliciting a loud "ow!" from the girl in response. She glared at me while she rubbed the spot to pacify the pain. "What was that for?!"

"How can you talk about making captain when you can barely finish these sit ups properly without yapping up a storm?! Now be quiet and finish your workout so I can go inside and make some lemonade cause its piping out here!"

As she got up, she flicked me in the forearm, HARD, causing me to yelp in pain and rub my arm, while she stuck her tongue out at me and plopped a stopwatch in my lap.

"Time me," she said, and she proceeded to start running around the track.

I started the timer and watched as she starting running some miles around our park.

I didn't want to say it earlier… but Lisanna's declaration to be captain… it made my heart race. I felt so excited for her, its like her lofty vision for herself, wormed its way inside me and now I think I'm feeling just a small ounce of the sugar, spice and everything nice that makes up Lisanna.

Geez, how am I supposed to be the voice of reason when my head's getting pulled into cloud 9 too?

"Girls, do you want some lemonade?!" shouted a voice from in the house.

Okay screw this. "Lisanna!" I shouted and beckoned for her to come inside.

Brenda had a tall pitcher of ice-cold lemonade sitting on the table in the dining room. I squeezed past Brenda, who was in the kitchen making brownies, and got two cups. "Would you girls like some brownies?"

"Brenda, all these calories are kind of defeating the purpose of trying to lose them," I deadpanned.

Brenda's face turned red and she almost dropped her wooden spoon, she was so flustered. "Oh, of course, I just thought-"

I chuckled. "Brenda I'm just kidding. Of course, we'll have some of your brownies."

She perked right up upon hearing that and continued to happily add ingredients and stir.

Gosh. She was so cute.

Once Lisanna and I were both settled in and contently gulping down lemonade, Brenda came and sat with us with a melancholy look on her face.

"Oh, I can't believe my girls are going off to college soon," she said, taking one of each of our hands into her own. She smiled lovingly at us. "I remember when you were both as tall as my knees, running around here, playing on that park across the street…"

I looked at her, and her eyes began to get glossy.

"Looks like you're all grown up now," she barely managed to get out before the damn burst and a well of tears started to flow.

"It's going to be okay Ms. Foster," Lisanna said empathetically. "No matter how old we get, we'll always be your babies."

"I know!" Brenda wailed as tears streamed down her face.

Great. Now you've gone and done it Lisanna.

When she calmed down a bit, she retreated to the kitchen to put the brownies in the room, before going to her bedroom and instructing me to watch over it until it was finished.

Lisanna grabbed my hand.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Bend your hand back as far you possibly can," she instructed.

I had to pause for a second due to the randomness of it all. "Ummm…"

"Just do it!" she snapped.

"Geesh! Alright already, I'm doing it," I said, lowkey kind of terrified. "Just calm down…"

When I bent my fingers backwards, it made the little arch backwards that it always did and Lisanna gasped. She grabbed my hand and marveled at it like some unknown treasure.

"You're triple jointed!" she cried. "Now, I'm not sure of all the details… but a friend at school told me that triple jointed people have extra ligaments or something in their joints, so they're naturally more flexible! Lu-cky, it took me years to get as flexible as I am now!"

Just then, her phone vibrated against the table distracting us both. The caller ID on the phone read "BF" along with a beating heart emoji.

"Hey, isn't that your boyfr-"

"I gotta go!" she squeaked.

And with that, Lisanna snatched up her phone and scampered outside to take the call. I smirked. If there was but one good thing about Magnolia, its that it gave Lisanna her very first boyfriend. As such, now she can't put all her time and energy into pestering me… which I am okay with.

During our phone calls, Lisanna used to go on and on about this guy and how cool and handsome he was and blah, blah, blah…

The point is, I remembered at one point telling her to get a grip and to just tell this guy how she felt… she had been crushing on him for three years straight after all. Then sometime right before graduation… it just sort of happened.

I don't even know the identity of this mystery man she's so crazy about, but she intentionally kept him hidden from me because… well, I was me.

Knowing me, I would've probably looked him up on Instagram or something and found something to hate about him, then I'd use whatever inane detail I nitpicked to convince her that he was no good for her too. I don't know how, but I would've.

I'm extremely picky when it comes down to the guys Lisanna likes, and she would say that it was in no small part thanks to me, that she hasn't been able to snag a boyfriend until now. Eh, whatever. I usually just chalk it up to her terrible taste in men.

I'll let her enjoy her freedom now, cause apparently, he's going to MU too and I'll get to formally meet him then. But once I do, I am so going to dig into this guy. He'd better have tough enough skin to deal with me cause if he's scared off easily, then he wasn't good enough for her in the first place.

"Going home to Romeo?" I teased when she finally came back into the house. My remark wiped the goofy smile off her face but replaced it with a beet red blush.

"Listen Juvia, c-can I come back another day?"

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"No! It's not because of him, I promise!" she tried to assure me flailing her hands around.

I couldn't help the sly grin that attached itself to my face. "Right…"

"Juvia, come on, be serious," she said exasperatedly. "I've still got to pack, and buy things for the dorm room and… its other things too alright?" She said earnestly.

I chuckled. God, this was way too easy.

"It's okay Lis. Go be with your boo. I can take a hint," I finished slyly.

The beet red blush didn't go away as she glared at me, nor when she went to collect her stuff, nor when she uttered "it's not like that" on her way out the door.

Ah, young love.

Over the span of the next few weeks, weather it was in person, or through a FaceTime call, I helped Lisanna with physical conditioning for tryouts. During which, she somehow got me to start doing stretches to help with my leg and back flexibility and I found it to be pretty easy. In fact, after a while I even started to like it. Thankfully, my body was already in peak physical condition since I've been doing karate for a little over a decade now and I got my black belt a few years ago.

Move-in day for us freshman wasn't until the second week in August, so other than Brenda's incessant nagging for me to do it, I wasn't really motivated to pack.

I just… I can't believe I'm going to be moving out of this place. To a town I've never been to before, no less. I looked at my collection of horror and mystery novels jumbled together on my bookshelf and sighed.

Should I bring them? But won't they be heavy? I eyed my lava lamp right next to it, my bean bag chair, heck even the Christmas lights I have lining the top of my walls and blinking year-round because I think it looks pretty.

So many things I'm going to miss.

My eyes wandered over to the picture of me and Brenda smiling together the day the adoption was legalized. Nostalgia washed over me like a tidal wave and suddenly I was fighting back tears.

I think I'm going to miss her most of all.

Great, now I'm getting all sappy and sentimental too.

"Juvia, are you ready to go?" Brenda called from the hallway, followed by a jingling of keys.

Right. Today's the day before Fairy tryouts. Brenda's dropping me off at the Strauss' house so I can stay the night and help Lisanna prepare… emotionally. That also means that I'm going to going to Magnolia for the first time too. I actually haven't been to her house since she moved away. I know, that's terrible of me, but if you actually understood just how far Magnolia was from Clover Town, you'd see my dilemma. I mean, it's a six-hour ride by car… what more do I need to say?

We left our house at noon and arrived at Magnolia at half past six. It was that perfect point of the day when the sun wasn't out, but the sky wasn't dark either.

Magnolia was definitely a city town. But it was an urban city town with a lot of greenery. I liked that. There were tons of buildings everywhere, traffic lights, moving cars, but almost every main corner had a sidewalk garden, or row of trees or something. Needless to say though, it wasn't nearly as peaceful as Clover Town. This town moved at a fast pace. Maybe that's why Lisanna loved it so much. It was bright, shiny, every corner seemed to be something you'd never expect… just like her.

"You have your duffel bag and everything?" Brenda asked as she turned the corner to a subdivision.

"It's all right here," I assured her, patting the bag with all my overnight things.

"Okay, don't forget to call me when you get settled in. Oh, and tell Mira to bring you back Saturday night!"

I nodded tersely as I opened up the door as we were in front of the Strauss residence. Jeez, Lisanna and I really need to get a car. We can't have Mira and Brenda wasting gas and money all the time like this.

As Brenda pulled off, I took a moment to admire the apartment complex Lisanna and her siblings were staying at. It was a tall, two story, peach complex building. It was gated, with what seemed to be a remote-controlled fence, fancy, but it had really beautiful shrubbery on the front lawn.

So, apparently Lisanna and co. lived on the second floor.

I put my finger on the intercom and put my voice into the speaker. "Uh… hello?"

I heard a static and then a voice buzzed through. "Hello, who is this?" the gruff voice questioned. Before I could answer I heard a high-pitched squeal in the background. "Ah, it's Juvie! Elfman, let her in!"

Ah, so that was Elfman from before. Wow, his voice has certainly gotten deep. I wonder, what he looks like now? I mean, it's been a while since I've seen or talked to him.

In fact, the last time I saw him, he was this huge, human brick wall of a boy, but was really this giant marshmallow on the inside. I chuckled. The contrasts to his appearance and his personality always cracked me up.

Once they opened up the gate for me and I reached their apartment door, the first person I was greeted by was Mira.

And let me just say for the record, my breath was taken away.

"Come in," said the beautiful, mature woman standing in front of me.

I was awestruck and completely stewed in silence for a few, very long minutes.

"Well, are you coming in or not?" she had to ask again after a while.

"R-r-r-r-right! Of course, I'm so sorry!" I was jumbling up my words as I felt blood rush to my cheeks and I quickly scampered past her.

Mavis, she was so beautiful.

The last time I saw Mira, she was this brute, tomboyish little thing, who didn't care all that much about beautifying her appearance even though she was always beautiful. Oh, and she would never be caught dead without her signature ponytail.

Now, it seems as if those rough edges have smoothed out, and she's gotten curvier in the hips and chest area. Her hair fell like a soft halo around her head, and she's got a serious matronly vibe going on.

Again, who is this woman?

"Juvia!" I turned my head, only to end up colliding face first into a wall… oh wait, that's just Elfman.

"Look at you all grown up!" he shouted. "You going to Magnolia University is truly manly!" he said, crushing my lungs with a tight embrace.

"Say wha…" I drawled out, sounding like a high-pitched chipmunk since I couldn't breathe.

"Alright, alright, that's enough Elfman. She can't breathe, let her go." Mira's kind voice said.

Once the middle Strauss child let me go from his death grip, I took a few seconds to catch my breath. When I did, I caught myself between a rock and a hard place. Tat being, Elfman's over-the-top manliness and Mira's radiant beauty [no seriously, I felt like I was drowning in it].

"But she has gotten quite beautiful over the years, hasn't she?"

The ripe tomatoes in front of the Strauss' door, paled in comparison to my face right now. I mean, what do you say when such a majestic creature like Mirajane gives you a compliment?

"Sorry guys, but I need her!" Lisanna, my savior, cried as she dragged me by the arm to presumably, her bedroom.

"Are you ready?" She asked once she shut the door and locked it.

Lisanna's room seemed to be a direct reflection of her. It was hot pink and girly, yes. But was also abstract and creative like she was. For example, her wall hanging above the curtains seemed to be handcrafted out of beads and feathers. And the quilt that was acting as her comforter, I recognize from our FaceTime calls when she was still sewing it. She had an eco-friendly desk lamp littered with Hello-Kitty stickers and four giant posters on her wall. One of Harry Styles, one of Brendon Urie and two of Michael Jackson. There was also a smaller picture of MJ pinned to the board of her desk space. She's a huge fan of the king of pop, you see. On the nightstand next to her bed, there was an Amazon Alexa speaker blasting Queen music. You see, my bestie is a huge fan of the music from the 80's and 90's, which is something that the two of us have in common.

I lifted my duffel bag and waved it around.

Dear God, what was I thinking when I agreed to this?

I sighed. I only said yes because I didn't want her to feel alone during the audition, but I'm literally about to make a fool of myself come tomorrow. I hope she appreciates all the sacrifices I make for her.

"Do you have your ballet shoes? Your outfit for tomorrow?"

"Yes, yes and yes," I replied. She took a swan dive onto her bed and I plopped myself down next to her.

"I can't believe it! We're actually going to audition for the Fabulous Dancing Fairies of MU tomorrow!"

"Yep. Yay. Can't wait." I droned unenthusiastically. Lis didn't seem to notice my absolute dread for tomorrow as she was still buzzing with excitement. I smiled at her daydreaming.

Truthfully, while I wasn't all that jazzed to be going to auditions, I was beaming with anticipation to finally see the school I'll be spending the next four years at. I mean, I've seen pictures from their website, I've even taken the virtual tour, but I couldn't wait to feast on the campus with my own eyes, get a good sense of what the atmosphere there was like. Besides, based on the pictures I've seen, I've already fallen in love with it.

As we both lay their staring at the glow in the dark stars pasted on Lisanna ceiling, something came to me suddenly.

"You know, you have no sense of creative direction in here," I say lazily. "The aesthetic is all over the place."

"You're telling me, you really can't see the vision?"

I looked at the stars a little harder, the same stars we were both looking at. I didn't any sort of constellation, shape, nothing.

"Nu uh."

She smiled and scoffed. "If you can't see the vision, then you obviously can't be looking high enough."

Lisanna sprung up and walked to her dresser where she grabbed the white nail polish and started painting her toes. I looked on at her confused. I feel like there was a double meaning to her words.

"I can paint your nails too Juvie," she said, not reading my thoughts at all. "But after mines are dry. Oh! And what movie should we watch? I've got some gourmet popcorn underneath the bed for special occasions just like this…"

Her words began to turn into a lull in my ears as she rattled on. She was so full of nervous energy, but I could feel myself dozing off already. It could be the weariness from the car ride, but I slept through most of it so I'm not sure. Or, it could be the fact that this is the farthest I've ever been outside of Clover Town. Maybe it's the newness of the city, or maybe it was finally seeing old friends after such a long time.

Whatever it was, I ended up gently drifting to sleep right there on the bed. The smell of fabric softener from Lisanna's quilt and acrylic from the nail polish wafted into my nose as I dozed off.

The next morning, my first morning in the Strauss home, Mira drove us to the campus for auditions. She herself was suited up sportswear, with her hair freshly pin curled and a natural layer of make-up on her face, with dark colored lipstick, to match her black dance attire. Similarly, Lisanna wore dance wear just like Mira's, though it looked like bra and panties if you asked me, and a natural 'beat' face. She had her short hair slicked down and neatly styled. I, on the other hand, just wore black shorts with a gray 'T-shirt', the ballet shoes Lisanna recommended and lilac leg warmers. My hair was in a tight ponytail, oh, and no makeup to be seen or heard around me. They're lucky I even put on these shorts.

While she was driving, Mira instructed Lisanna to touch up the gloss on her lips, which, I for one found to be terribly concerning as she kept turning her head slightly so Lisanna could get the 'good angles'. After almost running a red light, I leaned forward from the backseat to remind the sisters I was still here.

"Am I… missing something here?" I started in confusion. "I thought we were going to audition for the team, not going to the first performance."

"It's all about the presentation Juvie," Lisanna started, skillfully coating her sister's lips as the car started to move in again. "Judges look at everything about you from the moment you enter the dance room. Your hair, your nails, your clothes. Your dance abilities are important yes, but so is your appearance. Can you carry yourself well and represent the team well outside the dance room? Do you have the Fairy 'look'? Do embody everything that it takes to be a Fabulous Flying Fairy?"

The Fairy… look?

"She hit the nail on the head," Mira chirped, her lips finally as saturated and as glossy as to her liking. "The judges don't make this a criteria for making the team, but if you're trying out for anything, you should always put your best foot forward."

I raised my eyebrow at her. "So why are you auditioning again? I thought you were already a member on the team."

"We all have to try out every year. Nobody's spot is guaranteed. If you're a vet, you always have to come with your best foot forward, because if a freshman has a better audition than you, they could very well take your spot on the team."

I had to sit back and put my seatbelt on as a police car cruised by, but it gave me a second to let what Mira said really sink in.

"That doesn't seem fair," I decided after a while.

Mira smiled at me, locking her baby blue eyes with mine for a moment through the rearview mirror. "I don't know," she said contently. "I think it keeps everyone on their toes."

When we finally reached the premises of Magnolia University, my jaw dropped and I became starry-eyed.

"Welcome to Magnolia University girls!"

There was no other word to describe it, other than… beautiful.

Even though Lisanna, Mira and I arrived at the same time, our numbers were nowhere close to one another's. Lisanna got '042', Mira got '058' and I got '073'.

They ushered all of the Fairy hopefuls from the hallway into the band room. On a gold plaque at the top of the door read 'Vermillion Hall'.

"Good morning ladies!" an elderly woman with pink hair greeted us. She was dressed in business casual attire with her hair in a bun and two strands hanging down the side of her face. She was also holding a clipboard. The room completely settled down. "My name is Porlyusica and I am the Sponsor and Overseer for the Fabulous Flying Fairies." Her statement was met with polite applause from the room.

"Here behind me are the Band Directors for the Magnolia University Marching Band. They are Mr. Macao Conbolt, Mr. Wakaba Mine, and Head Band Director Mr. Makarov Dreyar."

The room broke into mandatory applause once more, as the three men dressed up in what I'm assuming is their director's uniforms, equipped with gloves and the captain hat and everything, stepped forward. What really stood out to me was their Head Band Director. And when I say stood out, I mean, I didn't even see the guy at first until he had to stand up on a stool and wave at us for everyone to know he was here. Almost every girl in the building had some sort of aneurism. I can't even lie… I almost had one too. If I didn't see it with my own two eyes, I wouldn't believe a word you said, if you told me that there was anyone in the world this short.

"Nice to meet you all!" he said smiling and waving with a boyish grin.

I'm sorry, but I guess we were all too shocked to answer him. Porlyusica gave him a subtle glare and decided to move on.

"Thank you for gracing us with your time and presence here today. We are so glad that there are so many of you present here this morning. These gentlemen, along with some of our alumni Forever Fairies will be your judges."

As she spoke, I began to survey the room. Lisanna was right. There were a plethora of girls in here, much too many to estimate. 100? 150? No, no, no, maybe 300? On top of there being almost more people here than this room could hold, practically all of them were dressed like Lisanna and Mira! Black dance bottoms and black sports-bra like tops. Most of them were dolled up to the works too. Hair, makeup… everything.

I squirmed in my spot on the floor in embarrassment.

Suddenly, I felt very underdressed.

"I don't want to delay the process any further, so without further ado, let's get started shall we? Thank you all and good luck!"

Alright, to keep it short, the auditions were going to be in three rounds. Technique, choreography, and interview. Since there were so many of us, they split us up into three different groups at random to perform each part of the audition. And as luck would have it, I ended up in a different group than both Lisanna and Mira, the only two people I knew in a room full of strangers. Just great.

"Juvie!" Lisanna shot a glance at the Forever Fairy who was still putting the other girls into groups, and dashed over to my group.

"Lisanna!" I whisper-shouted. "Go back, you could get in trouble!"

"Oh I know, but I just wanted to wish you luck! Butterfly fingers?"

I rolled my eyes. Lisanna thinks that all best friends should have some sort of secret handshake and she made up this finger flutter thing for us to do that she calls "Butterfly Fingers". For starters, I made it perfectly clear that we can be close buddies and not have some stupid handshake, but she insists on making 'fetch' happen. Again, whatever. I did the stupid butterfly fingers.

"Do your best… okay?" I told her earnestly.

She beamed at me.

We were interrupted when another girl from our group whisper shouted to get Lisanna's attention. She squealed back and extended her arms for a hug, in pure Lisanna-like fashion. Then another girl from my group tried to get her attention too.

Oh yeah. I forgot that this was Lisanna's town now. I'm sure some of these people she's gone to school with or knows from some other place. Meanwhile, I really didn't know anybody else but her.

The technique portion started, and the girls in my group were all pretty great. They started by asking us to do different leaps, and every girl's leap was wide, high and there wasn't a toe not pointed in the building. Lisanna did her switch leap and looked as majestic as a bird. The girls in her group were impressed. Well, they should be, she's probably the best one there.

My turn was soon approaching, but not before this really small girl right in front of me had to go. Her entire demeanor just screamed 'cute' and she definitely had a face to match. Unfortunately though, her legs were just too short I guess to get the width and height that the other girls had. Poor thing.

When it was my turn, I had Lisanna's advice echoing in my head on what to do. I attempted the switch leap… and I'm pretty sure I botched it up. I saw the alumni Fairies writing something furiously on their clipboards and I blushed in embarrassment.

For the rest of the technique portion it was easy to name Lisanna a standout as she leapt wider, kicked higher and pointed her toes harder than most. When it was time to do a la second turns, Lisanna and three other girls in her group were tasked with doing it together. Lisanna ended up turning longer, keeping her planted foot in place and maintaining perfect form. Well Lisanna, and another girl, who to my surprise, ended up keeping up with Lisanna and I would say almost outdo her in terms of stamina and technique if they both didn't stop at the same time.

Woah… who is she? And how did I not notice her before?

This girl was about the same height and build as Lisanna, she wore similar dance attire like Lis did too. This girl however, had long, wavy lilac hair that she kept in a high ponytail with a red bow and surprisingly glasses on her face. From what I could tell she wasn't wearing any make-up either… well, except maybe some lip gloss and a bit of mascara, but other than that, bare faced.

Ha! So there were other normal people like me.

Other than Lisanna and the lilac haired girl from earlier, nobody else was as impressive in the technique round. Well, nobody but a select group of drop-dead gorgeous women, whom I later found out were also veterans like Mira.

When the first set of cuts came around, oh surprise-surprise, I didn't make it.

But that was fine with me, I wasn't really trying to make it anyway, but based on the heartbroken faces of the other girls cut, I can tell they felt the exact opposite. I felt really bad for them. I even saw the tiny cutie pie, who I was practically drooling over right before my turn. She looked heartbroken too.

As a matter of fact… I think she was about to cry.

Should I go over to her? I mean, I want to tell her she did fine, but would I come across as weird? And I'm afraid to go over to her and open my mouth cause the only thing that might drivel out of it, is how adorable I think she is.

The next portion of auditions was the choreography round. One of the alumni dancers was supposed to teach a dance combo with no more than 6-9 eight counts. The first thought that crossed my mind was, why was she saying that like it was supposed to be a piece of cake?! They're probably only going to go over the choreography 2, maybe 3 times at most, and if you mess up the dance you're out.

Lisanna began to engage the lilac-haired girl in a lively conversation, and I couldn't tell if that girl was a friend of Lisanna's from high school, or just somebody she befriended on the spot. Knowing her though, it could be, either/or.

As the eliminated girls were clearing out the band hall, I tried my hardest to lag around for as long as possible to watch Lisanna in the choreography round. The cute, crying girl was lagging behind also.

Maybe this was God giving me a sign to go talk to her and maybe cheer her up.

"I'm sorry young lady, but I need you to clear out the band hall." It was Porlyusica. "These are private auditions."

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to catch a glimpse of my friend." She whimpered, obviously intimidated.

So she had a friend in this round too? I wonder who?

At this point, the woman teaching the choreography had already started giving them the combos, and can I just say that it looked difficult as all hell. Mirajane seemed to be picking it up with ease. Lisanna was holding her own too. The lilac haired girl from the technique round was giving it her all too, that much was easy to tell. I saw a couple of girls have some obvious hiccups, but out of everyone, there was a certain blonde girl who was struggling the most. It was like the moves were going in her head and coming right back out at the same time. I felt embarrassed for her. It was hard to watch.

Porlyusica had finally gotten me and the smaller girl, the last of the stragglers, out of the band room for the rest of the choreography round. After a while, the door opened again, revealing a lot more brokenhearted girls, disappointedly making their way out of the building. And certainly not to my surprise, the blonde girl who was struggling from earlier exited the band hall too. Unlike the smaller girl, who was on the verge of tears, the blonde bombshell was already sobbing.

"Lucy!" the pint-sized girl cried, giving her sobbing friend a warm embrace.

Okay, now I feel totally crappy for what I was thinking earlier. I honestly just felt so bad for them. Being a Fairy was truly a competitive process it seemed.

But wait… Lisanna didn't come out the band room with them! So that must mean…

I couldn't even finish my thought before I let off an embarrassing and girly shriek, turning all eyes in the hallway to me. My cheeks started to warm in embarrassment.

"S-sorry." I squeaked.

I noticed the short girl and her blonde friend, Lucy, beginning to make their way out the building, so I jogged up to them and tapped on Lucy's shoulder to get their attention. The two of them turned to me with puffy, sad brown eyes, from too much crying or holding back tears and I suddenly felt shell shocked.

And I know I've been saying a lot of this today, but they were both so gorgeous, but I hadn't been able to fully grasp it until I was looking at them face to face like this. Lucy had literal gold instead of hair, based on the way her blonde tresses shined. She had big, beautiful brown eyes, and I couldn't tell if it was the mascara or not, but her eyelashes were super thick and long. Although, when she cried, there was no mascara running down her face, but it could be waterproof, what do I know. Regardless, she looked like a model and had the body of a Coca- Cola glass to boot. Maybe even better.

If there was a specific 'look' that the Fairies were going for, this girl would fit all the criteria. However, she didn't make it, which I guess is proof in and of itself that the judges try to be as fair and unbiased as possible.

Her shorter friend wasn't lacking in loveliness either. Although, she had a little make-up on her face, you could've just as easily mistaken her for some sort of pin-up model too. I think my favorite thing about her was her wild, blue hair. On anyone else, I don't think it would work, but for her its just perfect. Plus, I like the fact that she didn't feel the need to do anything special with her hair for the audition.

"Ummm…" the smaller girl started awkwardly.

Crap. I've been standing and staring for too long again.

"It's nothing really! I just wanted to say that I thought you two were great… and that I think you're both really pretty." I blushed when I added that last part. I can not believe I went ahead and said that! My hand went for a lock of hair from my bangs to fiddle with as I felt blood rush to my cheeks.

They stared at me for a few awkward seconds and said nothing. That's just great.

You're certainly good at embarrassing yourself Juvia!

"Thank you," Lucy said blushing. She sniffled and then smiled at me. "I really appreciate it."

"Thanks from me too!" the shorter girl added enthusiastically. She opened her mouth to say something else, but then looked at my haggard appearance and closed her mouth and smiled politely. That's when I realized… she was probably hoping to return the compliment, but then realized that she couldn't.

Fantastic. Now I felt even more self-conscious about my appearance than I did earlier.

"Hey, we gotta go, but maybe we'll see you around sometime?" she offered.

"Yeah, maybe I'll see you around sometime," I said as they turned and walked away.

The girl turned to me and nodded chirpily.

In no time flat, the hallway was empty with the exception of me. I slouched against the wall and slid down slowly.

Well… that was awkward.

I was developing a piercing headache too. I looked at the band door. This round seemed to be taking the longest out of all of them, but it was the interview round after all. I took a look around me in the dark, desolate hallway. Well, this was depressing.

I decided to spend the rest of my time waiting outside on a bench in the beautiful courtyard. I ended up drifting off to sleep. Before that though, of course I had to call Brenda to give her a status update on the audition.

I jolted awake to the sound of a car engine starting. "Huh? I'm awake!" I shouted.

I sat upright and I felt a tickling sensation on the side of my face. What the…? I wiped the sides of my mouth and felt the drool on my fingers. Could this day get any better? Now I've been drooling in a public place. And I'm willing to bet that I was snoring too.

As I looked around, I realized that the last of the auditionees were headed to their respective cars and leaving. But I didn't see Lisanna, anywhere… or Mira. Some of the girls, looked sad, others, seemed outright pissed, like the one who angrily started the car that woke me out of my sleep.

I scuttled over to one of the girls who were leaving to try to understand what was happening, but she obviously wasn't in the mood to talk. She shirked me off before I could get too close to her and shot me a glare.

"Miss look, the auditions are over. They already have who they want in there." The rude girl motioned back to the band hall.

So wait… if auditions are over… and Lisanna didn't leave…

Oh my God.

No way.

The flurry of emotions crippled me until all I could do is crouch on the ground and cover my mouth. Tears started to well in my eyes. Choking sobs started to rack my body as my feet stayed planted to the ground.

God, I was so happy…

I was just... so happy for her…

All at once, the memories from the past couple of weeks, her entire senior year, heck, even when Mira first made the team….

Lisanna's wanted this for so long… and she's worked her ass off. She deserves this.

After a minute or two, I started to calm down. Man, I must've looked like an ugly, blubbering mess, but I didn't care.

My best friend made the freaking team!

I decided to plop myself back on the bench and bask in the beautiful noon sunshine. My smile seemed permanently etched on my face too.

Magnolia was already intriguing to me. From all of these talented, beautiful girls, to their abnormally short band directors, to these highly coveted dance teams, there's already so much adventure to be had here. Maybe this was what I needed after all. An adventure. And something tells me this is only a taste of what I'll be getting when I go to school here. The left side of my lips tugged upwards in a half smile.

Well, whatever happens… I'm all in.

If there's anybody out there reading this.. anybody at all... let me know please hehe...