"Second place goes to... Alvarez Acapellas!" Present Mic announced.

No way. This means that they didn't win. We have a chance at victory. The Alvarez Acapellas gave a half-hearted cheer.

"And first place goes to..." Present Mic started.

My heart thumped loudly in my ears. Time slowed down. This was it. The winners of the Regionals Singing Competition.

"... The Fairy Tail Voices!"

The Fairy Tail Voices... that's us. I jumped up with the rest of my team as we cheered and hugged each other. It was a miracle. We won! We beat Alvarez! All the clapping and the cheering in the room hurt my ears but I was too happy to care. Everything just felt so amazing. You know when you think things might turn bad but they end up good, like really good, and you're just so overjoyed? That's what it felt like. We proved to everyone that we could sing and I felt so proud of us.

As a group, we walked on stage and Brendon accepted the trophy from Present Mic. He lifted it up over his head and the audience roared with more celebration. Then we all stood together for a few pictures. I stood next to Jellal, our arms around each other's shoulders as photographs were taken. Once that was done, I hugged my fiancé and crashed my lips on his. Being here with him made this moment even more amazing.

"I can't believe we won," Jellal said.

"Me too," I agreed.

"You were such a good singer."

I scoffed. "No way. I sucked but you were really good."

"You sucked?" Jellal asked, wiggling his eyebrows cheekily.

It took a second for me to process what he was suggesting but when I understood it, my face turned as red as my hair.

"No, I didn't – no – I... ugh," I groaned after I couldn't seem to produce a coherent sentence. "Stop doing that."

"I was just saying what you said," Jellal smirked.

I rolled my eyes, unable to stop the smile that appeared on my face.

As everyone started filing out of the auditorium, the people on stage exited through back stage. We were the first group to leave and many people complimented us on our victory as we left. I looked behind me and saw the Alvarez Acapellas following slowly, looking miserable. Amongst them, was an annoyed looking Ajeel who kept scowling at the floor. Though I didn't want to, I felt sorry for him. He was a great singer and he really seemed to love it. Coming second after always coming first must hurt a lot.

I stopped walking, Jellal doing the same.

"You okay?" he asked me curiously.

"Yeah. You go on ahead. I'll catch up soon," I told him, glancing at Ajeel.

Jellal seemed to understand what I was going to do. "Do you want me to come?"

"No, thank you. I got it."

He nodded and followed after our group. I stood to the side as people walked past and I waited for the dark-skinned boy. When Ajeel saw me waiting, his usual smirk was back on his face and his arrogant aura returned. He told his friends to go on without him and he came to stand next to me. Soon, everyone had left and it was only us two in the deserted corridor.

"So, congrats on the win," Ajeel said, no sincerity in his voice.

"Thanks," I replied. "Congrats on coming second."

"You know, if you want, you can still be my girlfriend."

I didn't miss the way he avoided my compliment and I definitely didn't miss the annoyance that flitted across his eyes for less than a second.

"No thanks. I love my fiancé and I don't plan on leaving him anytime soon," I said.

Silence hung in their air. From the way Ajeel acted, I could tell he was feeling upset from the loss. I hesitated, not knowing whether I should say what I was going to say but then decided I should.

"I'm sorry you didn't win," I said honestly.

Ajeel scoffed. "Yeah right. Why would you be sorry? You just won the competition and the bet. Shouldn't you be happy? Why aren't you bragging about it and laughing in my face?"

"Firstly, that's childish. Secondly, I'm not a jerk. I really do mean it when I say I'm sorry. It must feel awful to come second after always being the best. You guys sounded amazing on stage and I could tell you guys worked really hard. You even looked like you were enjoying it."

Ajeel held a look of surprise, something I never thought he'd feel.

"I do love singing. It's the one thing I'm really good at," he said sadly.

He paused in thought, as if he was reminiscing. You see, under all that mean and rude façade, there was a small part of him that was nice. I was sure of it. And you can only find that part by being kind. It's what Fairy Tail students do best – make bad people good.

"Thank you for what you said and thank you for being nice even though I was horrible to you," Ajeel said.

Then he did a 180. His tone was back to being cruel and his eyes were a taunting smirk. "But if you ever want, you could still be my girlfriend and leave that pathetic blueberry of yours."

I rolled my eyes. "Like I said, never in a million years."

"Suit yourself. But this doesn't change anything between us. I still hate your school and we're still going to destroy you," Ajeel growled.

I shrugged, not feeling the least bit threatened. "Suit yourself," I threw his words back at him.

He glared at me one last time before walking away. There was no goodbye. Sometimes people change, sometimes they don't. I guess I couldn't help him see the light today but that's the good thing about the light – it will always be there tomorrow.

I waited for a few minutes before I walked out of the building. I respected the fact that Ajeel probably wouldn't want to see me again outside.

~ ~ ~

That's it. I'm done. I can't think anymore. I can't do anything anymore. I'm too dead tired.

It's been a few weeks since the Regionals Singing Competition and things have been looking up for Fairy Tail University. After the singing competition, heaps of people wanted to join the choir so they did while I decided to quit with my friends. As much as I enjoyed my time with the group, I wasn't a very good singer and so I didn't want to let the team down in the future.

On the other hand, things have not been going well for me. I just finished all my midyear exams today. The last few weeks were full of non-stop studying and I was completely exhausted after my exam today. I hoped I did well - I think I did well. 

I lay on my bed face down, getting a well deserved rest. Lucy went on a date with Natsu, so the other girls decided to hang out with their boyfriends. Me, I chose my bed.

A knock on my dormitory door woke me up from my peaceful slumber. I groaned and slowly got up. The person didn't seem to like how I was taking my time as they started knocking louder.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming!" I called.

I rubbed my eyes sleepily as I opened the door. Standing in front of me, was none other than my fiancé, Jellal.

"What are you doing here? I just finished my last exam and I'm trying to sleep," I complained.

"Night time is for sleeping. I'm taking you out to dinner now to celebrate the end of midyear exams," Jellal replied.

"Fine." I paused. "Will there be strawberry cake?"

"Guess," Jellal winked at me.

A smile lit up my face as I jumped up excitedly, my eyes shining with happiness and my body now fully woken up. "Yes! There will be!" I guessed.

"No."

"What? Okay, back to bed," I said, feeling tired again.

What was the point of going out if there's no strawberry cake? I can't believe Jellal tricked me like that. How could he? Actually... it was probably my own fault for getting my hopes up.

"Nope," Jellal said as he grabbed my arm to stop me from going to bed again. "I promise there will be something better. Trust me."

"Always."

I took his hand in mine and we walked off to the unknown destination. I know, there's nothing better than strawberry cake but I trust Jellal and if he says there is, then there is.

We ate dinner at a small, Italian restaurant, talking about school and how we thought the exams went. Sadly, Jellal didn't let me have any dessert. He said we would go somewhere else for it.

Now, we were in Magnolia Cake Shop. It was one of the best dessert places in this city but it was expensive and I hardly ever come here.

"What are we doing here?" I asked Jellal as we sat down at a table. "You know this place is expensive."

"Actually, it's not expensive for me. Ever since you got a job, I decided to get a job. I wasn't going to let you be the only one making money in this relationship. So, I got a job here. That means I also get discounts when I eat here," Jellal said.

"Really? Cheap cakes? You're amazing!"

"Wow. I feel like you only like me for my job now," my fiancé joked.

"Yep." I winked at him.

A waiter came to our table and asked us if we were ready to order. I was not ready; I hadn't even glanced at the menu yet. My hands fumbled to grab the menu as I got ready to tell him that we weren't ready. Jellal rested his hands on mine, stopping me from talking. He gestured for the waiter to lean down and when the waiter did, Jellal whispered something into his ear. I tried listening but I couldn't hear what he said. The waiter nodded and then walked off.

I looked at Jellal curiously. "What did you tell him?"

"It's a secret," he replied with a grin.

I let it slide as the waiter soon returned with some food. My mouth watered at its beauty but then I grew confused as I stared at the cake. The waiter set it down in front of us before scurrying off.

The cake was actually two stacked on top of each other – one strawberry cake on top of another.

"Here is a double strawberry cake that I ordered for us," Jellal said. "It's technically not a strawberry cake – it's a double strawberry cake. So I didn't lie before when I said there wouldn't be strawberry cake."

"Actually, that's one strawberry cake on top of another. So technically, there is strawberry cake," I retorted.

"No, it's like when you have a double cheeseburger. It's a whole different thing."

"But you can tell a double cheeseburger is a different thing. It's not two burgers stacked together. This, this cake is obviously one cake on top of the other. The top one is not straight on top of the bottom one – a bit of it is hanging over the edge on the left. You can clearly see the icing on the bottom cake was meant for the top since there are little strawberries made of icing sticking out from under the top cake. Therefore, it is two strawberry cakes."

Jellal looked slightly shocked before he just smiled. "That was hot."

I rolled my eyes. We didn't try to argue anymore as we started eating the cake together. It tasted delicious, though it was lopsided, leaning to the left side and the top cake was sliding off the bottom one. From the poor presentation, I'm guessing Jellal stacked them together. But like I always say, never judge a cake by its look. Double strawberry cake definitely tasted better than strawberry cake. As we ate, we talked about school and work.

"Speaking of work, Mest invited me to a frat party and he said to bring you guys too. It's this Saturday to celebrate the end of midyear exams," I said.

"How does that relate to work?" Jellal asked slightly confused.

"Because Mest works with me at the café."

"True," Jellal nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I guess it would be fun. It would be our first frat party."

"The girls are definitely going to be excited," I added.

"Same with the boys."

I was looking forward to it, especially since Jellal seems to be okay with Mest now. But I wondered; was the party going to be like normal high school parties or was it going to be more chaotic? I pictured the frat parties from movies. Drunk people everywhere, couples making out, screaming, naked people, games and crazy stunts. It was going to be wild for sure.

Once we finished the amazing double strawberry cake, we walked back to our dorms. We kissed goodnight and I entered my room. Lucy was back from her date as well as the others and they were all crowding around Lucy on her bed.

"Hey guys. What's going on?" I asked.

"Lucy's got big news for us! Hurry up. We've been waiting for you for ages." Juvia waved me over.

I kicked my shoes off and joined them on Lucy's bed.

"Alright. What's the news?" I asked Lucy.

She looked at each one of us slowly, a grin on her face as she got ready to spill the beans. Suddenly, she excitedly threw her left hand in front of us. There, on her ring finger, was a beautiful diamond ring.

"Is that-?"

"Oh my god!"

"Natsu proposed?" I exclaimed.

Lucy nodded with a huge smile. "Yes, Natsu proposed today!"

"This is good. You are no longer Juvia's love rival," Juvia muttered to herself and we shared a laugh.

"Tell us all the details," Levy demanded.

We all leaned closer, eager to know everything. Lucy blushed as she explained everything that happened. She talked about how Natsu took her to dinner and then to a park next to a lake. The trees in the park had fairy lights and lanterns decorated on them. Then Natsu got down on one knee, said a lot of cheesy, cute stuff and asked her to marry him. She didn't hesitate to say 'yes'. They kissed, made out, and... did other stuff.

"That's so romantic!" Levy gushed.

"When's the wedding?" Juvia asked.

"Well," Lucy started, twisting the ring on her finger absentmindedly, "we want it to be after university and maybe a few months after Erza's wedding so they have time for their honeymoon and then we have plenty of time to plan together."

"I'm so happy for you, Lucy. This is amazing," I said.

Lucy nodded at me in agreement. That year was going to be a great year indeed. We were both going to have weddings and they were going to be close to each other.

"I wish Gray would propose soon," Juvia commented with hearts in her eyes, most likely dreaming about it.

"Yeah, hopefully Gajeel proposes soon too," Levy added.

"I'm sure they will," Lucy said. 

We got all excited again as we launched into talking about weddings and planning what it was going to be like. I was so happy right now and nothing could change that. We were getting married in two years. Just thinking about my wedding put a smile on my face. And now Lucy gets to share my happiness. 

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I'm so sorry for the long wait!!! I know, it took longer than usual but good news: it's the holidays! (Not promising anything but hopefully there will be quicker updates.) I went to Supanova yesterday and bought so much bnha stuff (including a Deku blanket)! Enjoy the holidays! Please VOTE and COMMENT!! Thank you!