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Aʟʟ I Eᴠᴇʀ Nᴇᴇᴅᴇᴅ
Chapter 5 - Party Invite

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Opening the door of his house once arriving home from school, Gray lazily stepped inside as he closed the door behind him. He finally was home after a long day back, which in his opinion wasn't fun at all.

He took off his shoes and left it by the door, setting his backpack down in the same spot - relishing the cool air for a moment, Gray sighed. He ruffled his hair as he turned towards the kitchen, where his blue-haired sister sat coloring.

"Hey Wendy, how was the first day of school for you?" Gray asks with a smile spread across his face.

At his brother's voice, the girl snapped her gaze to him who was approaching her. "Gray!!!!!" she screams in excitement throwing her crayon to somewhere on the table, to then stand up on her chair as she held open her arms for a hug.

Wendy Marvell was a 6th grader, and an adorable one too. She got away with everything with how cute she was - always has since the day she was born. She is known as Gray's step-sister, and although not biological siblings, they still acted as if real brother and sister. Wendy loved swimming and was getting swim lessons from an instructor in a month or so. Wendy is so sweet and is the favorite of all of Gray's friends.

Gray embraced his sister as she giggles, wrapping her small arms around her brother.

As they break apart, Gray glances at her coloring page and his head is immediately spinning. The girl had been practicing coloring in the lines, and her long training seemed to be paying off. "That looks amazing!"

"Thanks!!" she giggles, hopping off the chair and picking up a crayon to resume her drawing. "Mrs. Rodgers gave me this coloring sheet to bring back to school tomorrow and paste on the whiteboard!!"

"That's so cool, I wish my school was that interesting...." Gray says as he trails off, walking over to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water.

Wendy tilts her head and sticks out her tongue swiping it over her bottom lip, mildly concentrated in her art. "How was your day, Onii-San?" she asks, still coloring.

"It was somethin', alright..." Gray tilts his head back as cold water slithers down his throat, refreshing him to the t.

Suddenly, sounds of footsteps came from the stairs to reveal none other than Silver Fullbuster - Gray's Father, and Wendy's step-dad. He worked as an ice sculptace for a company and gained lots of money because of it. Silver married Gray's mother, Mika, who sadly was deceased. She had died in a car wreck which had broken both Silver and young Gray's hearts.

After about 9 months of sulking over his late wife's death, Silver had decided to go out and find true love again. Soon enough, he had run into a woman named 'Skylar Marvell' who was previously divorced and had a 2-year-old daughter - which was Wendy. She had gotten divorced due to an abusive relationship - her ex-husband appeared to not want Wendy and only wanted his wife to himself. He had tried multiple times to kill Wendy until Skylar had enough and divorced her maniac of a husband.

A year later, Silver married Sky and legally changed Wendy's and Sky's surname to 'Fullbuster' making him, Gray, Wendy, and Skylar a family. Sky also had a Mother, whom Wendy loved dearly (Yes, Porlyusica is Sky's Mom).

Gray loved his Step-Mom - she wasn't like the fairy tales where step-mothers were wicked. Sure he missed Mika, but he knew his mother wouldn't want him to be sad over her. She hated seeing Gray sad, she had told her son when he had slipped and scraped his knee on the pavement.

"Don't cry, baby." Mika's soft voice soothed Gray as she patted a wet towel on her son's knee, wiping a tear running down Gray's cheek at the same time.

Gray sniffed as he tried holding back his tears, trying desperately to do as his mom said. He was at the age where he thought he'd get in trouble over everything.

Mika held her son's cheek in her hand as she momentarily paused cleaning Gray's knee, looking at him with such love words can't describe it. "I hate seeing you cry, pumpkin. It makes your Mama want to cry as well. Your Father hates seeing you this way as well since you resemble me in some way. He hates seeing me cry, as well." Mika laughs, putting a hand over her mouth. "So hold back those tears, for Mama at least. She loves seeing that radiant smile of yours, so let it shine bright."

Gray smiled sweetly at his Mom, he loved her dearly and had a year left before he lost her.

So, knowing full well that Mika was watching him from Heaven, Gray hid his tears and decided to accept this new mother - and Grandma - of his. It would be what his Mom would want him to do.

2 more years later after Skylar and Silver got married, Gray and Wendy were the best of friends, and were 7 months away from getting another best friend to play with - Skylar was expecting a baby that she and Silver had created. But, fate was not on the Fullbuster side. Whilst at work, there was a shooting. Skylar had tried escaping to protect her and her baby, but sadly was caught off guard and was shot by the shooter - she died hours later. Wendy, Gray, Silver, and her mother at her side whilst passing.

It cracked Silver's heart even more once his second wife now passed away. He barely talked to Gray neither Wendy - which Wendy and Silver acted like real Father and daughter now - while being gloomy for a whole month. Porlyusica was left to take care of her Granddaughter and step-grandson on her lonesome before she decided to smack the sense into Silver. One day, out of nowhere, Silver had started taking back responsibility and loved his children, not showing any sadness.

It was 10 years later now, and the three of them were still a happy family. Silver had sworn off marrying, in fears of the same thing happening to his next wife - her dying and then him sulking for a whole month.

"Ah, there he is! The man himself!" Silver spoke, a low laugh ripping from his throat. "What took you so long to get back, kiddo?" he turned around and made his way to his favorite daughter, wanting to give her a kiss on the forehead.

Gray screwed the cap back on the bottled water, looking at his father lazily. "Got in trouble and had to visit the Principals office."

"YOU WHAT?!" Silver screamed, looking behind him at his son, another giggle coming from Wendy at her Dad's scream as he leaned down to fulfill what he wanted to do.

Gray rolled his eyes, walking around the counter to sit next to his sister. "Got in trouble, and visited-"

"I know, I know. I got that part. Why were you in trouble?" Silver asked, also taking a seat next to his beloved daughter.

Gray shook his head, furrowing his brow. "Eh, some stupid reason. With the new school student switch, we're not allowed to fight on school grounds."

"So you got into a fight." Silver asked, just to be sure - to which Gray nodded his head. "On the first day back...? You couldn't even follow the rules for one day?"

"Listen, Dad. A kid from my school was being bullied by the other and we stood up for him-"

"Wait, wait, wait.... 'We'?" Silver interrupted. "So you mean to tell me your gang did all of this with you?" Gray nodded his head once more, taking another swig from the water bottle he had retrieved a while ago. Silver laughed again. "You gotta be kidding me! Even Lucy?"

"Mhm." Gray hummed, still drinking the water. "It was all of us, and we got in trouble and were going to be punished but ended up not being. The people we got in the fight with didn't get punished, so Principal Dreyar called off ours."

Silver still continued to laugh, to which Gray tilted his head at, Wendy doing the same - she just wanted to see if he was okay or not with how much he was laughing. His face was turning red after all. "You all are some idiots."

"Yeah, because standing up for someone is a bad thing." Gray glared at his father as he said what he had said with well-heard sarcasm. Gray leaned back and placed the water on the table. "Blame it on Natsu, he started it."

Wendy looked at her brother with a sweatdrop. "Why are you always mean to him, Onii-San?"

"It's easy, that question, I mean. It's because he's a dumb-a." Gray says without hesitation, smiling at his sister's innocent confusion.

Wendy looked over to her father. "Daddy, what's a 'dumb-a'?"

"Oooookay- on that note...." Silver stood and walked over to the pantry full of food. "What do you two want for a snack?"

"Oreos and milk!" Wendy says with pride and face a gleaming. Both Gray and Silver laughed at this.

"Gray? How 'bout you choose a healthy snack since my little dragon princess over there chose a sugary snack?" Silver looked to his son for suggestions, the teen just shrugging.

Gray pondered and thought of every vegetable Wendy had to like. "Carrots?"

Wendy nods her head rapidly at her Dad, agreeing with her brothers choice. "Okay, Oreos and Carrots it is!"

"YAY!" both Gray and Wendy said at the same time, laughing with each other for being in sync.

At that same time, Gray's phone buzzed and kept up with it. He took the device out of his pocket as he stared at who was calling him. Lucy's name was seen and Gray excused himself for the while.

He answered. "Hello?"

"GRAY! YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT!" the girl shrieked from the other side of the receiver, Gray moving his phone away from his ear, the ear-breaking shrill being painful.

"Is it worth losing my hearing, because I am pretty sure that happened just now," Gray says amusingly, finding himself funny.

You could pretty much hear the glare Lucy was giving Gray even through the electronic. "Funny." Lucy gave the fakest laugh Gray had ever heard in his life, he just had to snicker.

"That laugh of yours is what is funny," Gray says with a cracked smile, him having way too much fun.

"Just shut up and let me talk, would ya?" Lucy says unamusingly.

Gray sat down on the couch in the front room of his home, lounging back. "Okay, okay. Fine. What is this 'thing' I won't be able to believe?"

"Okay, so I was just minding my own business when I got home...."

"Uh-huh...?" Gray urged her on to continue.

"When suddenly I get this text saying that all Magnolia Highschool was invited to a party Fiore High was throwing for the first day of school!" Lucy says excitingly through the phone.

''Wait...who invited us?" Gray asks, sitting up straight from what Lucy had said.

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know, all I know is that there is a party and we are going!!!"

"What if this is some setup, you know like Fiore Highschool is just inviting their rival school to make a fool out of them?" Gray asks, being very skeptical of all of this.

Lucy bites her bottom lip as she taps her chin, although Gray can't see this. "I have a feeling it's not going to be like that."

"You owe me a hundred bucks if we get embarrassed by Fiore High," Gray says very seriously.

"Fine, fine. I can just borrow money from my Mom to do that. Do I get anything if Fiore doesn't make a fool out of our school?"

"Hm... I can tell Natsu you like him for you. That's a prize, right?"

Gray could feel Lucy's blush even through the phone. "SHUT UP GRAY, YOU'RE SO ANNOYING!!!"

Gray just laughs as Lucy frantically yells at her friend why she doesn't want to tell Natsu yet. "Just forget about me getting anything if we don't get beaten up by Fiore. I know you'll want to tell Natsu, so I won't do this bet." Lucy says after all the yelling.

"You have a point... Anyway, is that all? I'd like to get back to spending time with my Dad and Sister."

"Of course! I have to call Erza now to tell her, anyway. I will text you with more info about when it's going to be. Kay?"

"K. See ya, Lucy."

"See ya! Say Hi to your Dad and give Wendy a kiss on the cheek for me!!  Toodles~!"

"Ya, bye." he hangs up and puts his phone back in his pocket, standing up from the couch to walk back to the dinner table.

Was Gray wanting to go? Of course. Was he skeptical about it still? Why wouldn't he be?

He'd just have to wait until the party to find out exactly why Fiore invited him and the rest of his school mates. There was sure an explanation why this was all happening - Gray just couldn't lay a finger on it.

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