"ZEREF!" Jace yelled, running up to me and flooring me to the ground with a large hug. I laughed as he got off me.

"Jace!" I bro-hugged him again. Sara walked up to us, standing next to me awkwardly.

We both stood up and I faced the bench. Naz came running up to me next, swinging her arms around my neck and pulling me down to her height. "Zeref! It's really you!" her eyes widened, staring at my face and more specifically at my eyepatch.

"Nice to see you guys again." I pulled myself away from Naz while ruffling up her blonde hair. It had become more wavy and I noticed that her hair came down to just below her rib. She rolled her eyes laughing.

Hesitantly, I paused, looking up at Malia. She stared at me from a distance, surprised at my appearance. We all fell to a silence, realising the eye contact I had made with Malia.

Surprisingly, her hair was up in a loose bun, strings of hair falling onto the sides of her face. She wore a large grey zip up hood over her uniform and light mascara. Her freckles were apparent under her eyes and her cheeks weren't as chubby as last year. Although, she still wore the same silver rings and her nose was still small and button-like.

I sped towards her, crushing her in a hug while inhaling her sweet scent. Letting out a muffled whelp, she tried to pull away before relaxing into my arms. I was a head taller than her, making it easy for me to lean my chin on her head.

"I'm sorry Zeref." she wrapped her arms around my waist and for a moment, I felt like it was just us. My face felt warm as I stayed quiet for a second.

"Likewise." I hesitantly returned.

She pulled herself out of my arms, smirking at me. "You look nice." she complimented as I scoffed, brushing my shoulders as if to flex.

Naz came up from behind me, poking and punching my biceps.

"Damn! They're real!" she squealed girlishly. I flexed them, smiling at her childish behaviour.

Sara walked up to me, stroking my biceps too. "Cool!" she smiled enthusiastically. I flinched at her touch and moved away from both of them.

"Yeah." Naz avoided looking in Sara's direction and spoke bluntly, taking a step away from her with an awkward half smile with her lips in a line. Malia also stopped laughing as Jace sneaked behind Naz, taking her lunch.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Naz yelled before chasing him, "Come back here Stinkend!"

"Shut up, you cave troll!" Jace smirked before running off with her lunch, "Aaarghh! She's chasing me. She's chasing me!"

The remaining 3 of us laughed as Jace lit up the atmosphere with his foolishness. I missed this nostalgic feeling, I was grateful that the gang was back together again; it felt surreal.

Suddenly, I felt a tug at my arm. I peered down to see Sara.

"Let's go Zeref" she pouted, sighing. I gave her a confused look before pulling my hand out of her grip for God knows what the 7th time. Why was she so touchy?! She looked shocked and a hint of anger started to rise in her eyes.

"Stop being petty Sara. we forgive you." Malia smirked, biting into her red apple with a satisfying crunch.

**

-Malia's POV-

'Noooo! Why are you forgiving her? Put her in her f*cking place!' Nina scolded me in my head but I ignored her, rolling my eyes.

Sara's face twisted into an angry cat. "ME?! PETTY?!" she stepped forward, trying to intimidate me. I chuckled, nodding my head at her. She gasped, tears flowing down her cheeks. Her eyeliner mingled with her crystal tears, turning them black as black tear marks appeared down her face.

"Oh my god." Naz came to stand next to me with her hair messy and half a sandwich in her hand. "Sara. Really? You better shut your mouth or the next thing coming out of it will be your teeth." she raised her eyebrows, taking a step forward.

"Threats only work on someone who has something to lose." Sara shot back. This shocked Naz as she staggered back.

"But you do have something to lose. Your teeth." Jace humoured, laughing at his own joke while nudging me to laugh along too. I chuckled slightly when out of nowhere, Sara stormed right up to my face, inches away from me.

She tiptoed, meeting my eyes, screaming in my face as if it would automatically make me cower. I scoffed, trying not to laugh as I looked at Jace. He held his mouth, laughing as quietly as he could. I knew better than to look at Naz as she disappeared behind me. All I could hear was cackling in the back along with Zeref who was wheezing. There was a lot of slapping behind me as well, along with aggressive laughs.

"Clearly shutting up doesn't exist in your dictionary." I bit my lip, holding in my laugh.

A lot had happened since Zeref had left. Sara had become so consumed into who was right and soon transformed into a whole new person. She made it her mission to turn everyone against me and when it didn't go as planned, she became more eager to hurt me. I let it slide, feeling like her mean pranks were karma.

She would do small things like pour water over me or rip up my books and I held back, not wanting to hurt her. It was okay though. I had nothing against her; I didn't get injured because I would heal straight away due to my spirit wolf's power.

'The only thing injured was our pride.' Nina said in an annoyed tone.

Naz couldn't stand back and watch so she finally sided with Jace and I, which made Sara even angrier.

"You're so fake." Jace Said, standing next to Zeref.

Zeref looked between us, confused but he luckily stayed silent. He grabbed the apple from my hand and bit into it while walking to the bench behind us. I couldn't help but smile to myself.

Zeref was back.

He sat on the bench, watching the drama unfold.

I glared at her, already fed up with her constant need to start drama. She swung at me and I dodged easily. Naz gasped, grabbing Sara's wrist with ease and glaring at her.

"Stop." Sara whimpered, her ears flat on her head. We stared at her blankly, waiting for her to try and fight us like she normally did but surprisingly… she ran away, accidentally flashing us with how short her skirt was.

"I've been blinded!" Jace rubbed his eyes, as Naz burst out laughing. I shook my head at them, sitting next to Zeref.

**

"So I've been training this whole time." Zeref finished his story, playing with the rings on my fingers.

"I still can't believe you're the lightning contestant. I thought all that was a myth." Naz's jaw was on the floor as she gawked at Zeref. "And I still can't believe YOU both KNEW and didn't tell me!" she slapped Jace's shoulder, rolling her eyes.

"Ow! Sorry, it wasn't our place to tell you." Jace grunted, rubbing his shoulder.

"So what now Zeref? What's gonna happen?" I sighed, looking at his pondering state.

He looked down at my rings, tracing the patterns carved into the metal. "I don't know. I think I will finish school and keep levelling up. It will help me when the tournaments become more serious." he looked up at us, finally dropping my hands next to me. "But for now, I wanna get stronger. I'm glad there are no more secrets between us." he smiled, relieved.

My heart stopped at the mention of secrets. Should I tell them?

'No! Malia, you don't even know how to control your spirit wolf yet and you want to tell them?!' Nina warned in my head.

I wanted to tell them but in the end, I decided against it. I will tell them soon.

"What about that eye patch?" Jace asked and all of us immediately looked at the odd thing.

"Uh- this. Don't worry about it." he replied before getting up from his seat and speeding into the building while pulling Jace along with him.

"WAAAAAARGHHH!" Jace let out a scream as Zeref super sped across the school grounds.

Naz sighed, also standing up. "They always seem to forget that I am in their class!" she rolled her eyes as I giggled. "Boys. I swear one day I am going to strangle that Stinkend. Like I am gonna crush his windpipe and cackle as his eyes roll back and he chokes from the lack of oxygen until he dies-"

"I get it." I laughed. She laughed too; thick, black mist rolled around her feet in big wreaths, which gradually, as they started to crawl up her body, surrounded her body. The thick cloud around her dissipated, leaving nothing left except the traces of her mana signatures. She teleported.

'The smell of demon is oozing all over him.' Nina scoffed.

'Mmh.' I agreed with her. Although he covered his mana signatures and demon aura somehow, I could faintly smell it. Something happened to him in the past couple of months.

'He will tell us when he is ready.' I sighed, also getting up from the bench.

'MUAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Or you could expose his secret to the whole school and rip off that stupid tacky eyepatch and-'

'Shush.' I turned off Nina's voice in my head as I felt her retreat to the back of my mind.