BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

I groan.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"SHUT UP!"

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"IKILLYOU!"

And I smartly pounce out of bed and slam my palm on the damn alarm clock. Astonishing myself along the way.

"Rise and shine, you."

I look up, in my pajama glory, and see Ino, all dressed, leaning casually on my wall. She grins, and I know it before she opens her mouth.

"It's the first day of the last year of high school."

I ride the bus to school. It's not as stinky and gross as everyone says it is. Ino and I always choose the front, because everyone else sits in the back.

But we're not riding the bus today. Instead, we're taking Sheriff Haruno's cruiser.

"Dad, you should have woke me earlier." These waffles are so good. Crisp and overloaded with syrup.

I have to shield my eyes from the sun a little so I can see my dad and Ino, the latter looking very impatient.

"Eat, fool, eat," she whispers. I don't know why she's trying to be quiet, she's just not capable of doing that. Is it my kitchen?

"Have another waffle, Sak." My mother attempts to delay my departure for school, (which irritates Ino, it's so obvious. We just like going to school early.) but I stand up. Quick enough to be firm, slow enough to be nice.

"Nah, Ino's gonna cry if I do." I take my new Jansport backpack, an orange one with flowers and shit, and head out, not forgetting to say goodbye to my mother.

"Why do you want to be so early anyway?"

"Because." Ino rolls her eyes and I settle down for another speech. "It's senior year, duh! And I can't wait to see everyone."

I wrinkle my nose. "Like, who?"

You know how in a small town like Konoha, everyone's supposed to know each other and they're all this one enormous, friendly group?

Yeah, NO.

Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuga, and Tenten. They're my mains. Sometimes Choji Akimichi and Shino Aburame, but you know. We are not enormous. We are not special. But we practically own Konoha High School. Probably just because Choji is fat. Or because Shino never says anything. Or maybe it's the sexy pink hair. But I've never been satisfied with my social life, it never suited me.

"Oh, you know. Hinata, Tenten, Choji, and Shino. The crooowd." She stretches the ow as if she's really hurt, tacking on the d delicately.

"Doesn't any of them want to be a police officer?" My dad asks hopefully, manning the steering wheel with one hand.

Everyone knows that the Konoha Police Department is in need of officers. There's only three: Officer Kakashi Hatake, Officer Anko Mitarashi, and my dad.

I laugh. "Nope, sucks for you!"

"Ohmygosh, we're here, we're here!"

"We've been here a million times, you moron."

My dad laughs too, a booming sound in the small cruiser.

WELCOME BACK, FLAMES!

STUDENTS ARE TO GO TO THEIR ALPHA-ADVISORIES (ASSIGNED BY SURNAMES) WHEN THE BELL RINGS TO RECEIVE THEIR NEW SCHEDULES OF THE YEAR.

A-E: ASUMA-SENSEI; GYM

F-K: KURENAI-SENSEI; COURTYARD

L-R: GAI-SENSEI; AUDITORIUM

S-Z: IRUKA-SENSEI; THEATER

The courtyard is Konoha High's pride and main attraction. Flowers of every color, every kind, and every shape are planted in an wide oval. In the very center of the oval is a lone willow tree. The tree and the flowers don't compliment each other in any way, they actually look really ugly together, but when you're in the courtyard, you get the feeling you're in Wonderland or something.

So I'm in Wonderland with Hinata, where Kurenai-sensei's giving The First Day Of School speech that's actually aimed at the little freshmen. See, it's the whole school that's divided into Alphas only by their surname, instead of by grade. On the first day at Konoha High, the syllabuses (syllabi?) are passed out, the teachers tell you what you already know, and you get the first taste of your sixth or seventh classes. That depends on how much shit you take on.

Hinata and I aren't paying much attention to the spiel, until Kurenai-sensei says "go out early".

"Okay, guys," Kurenai-sensei claps her hands. "Since we have ten minutes left before you all head to your first period, I will let you go out early-"

"Yessss."

Hinata giggles softly at the idiocy of people.

"Except the seniors."

"Nooooo."

"So go on now, bye," Kurenai-sensei dismisses most of the class.

"Have a good break, Sakura?"

"Hinata, you're so pretty today!"

Told you we own this place.

Hinata smiles at her fans, while I silently offer them half-hearted thumbs-ups. I was always the reclusive one.

When the Alpha dwindles down to about twenty-five seniors, Kurenai-sensei draws out a stack of stapled packets from her binder.

To be honest, I'm actually excited. Every first-day-of-school in Konoha High, the seniors were held behind in their Alpha. I always wondered about what happened to them.

"Community Service!" Kurenai-sensei waves the packets at us rather smugly, and distributes them.

Are you serious?

I always thought it was a field-trip to Disneyland or Paris or something fabulous like that.

I think of my mom, and helping her out at home. Yeah.

"Every senior is required to serve fifty hours at a place where you can make a difference," Kurenai-sensei explains. "To a community, not your family."

Dammit.

"I will not accept baby-sitting, cooking at home, chores at home in general. No helping at a relative's business..."

HA, Ino can't work at her parent's flower shop. I whisper Ino's name to Hinata and snicker at Ino's expense. Hinata smiles and understands, but she's too nice to laugh at best friends.

"However, some great ideas include picking up trash around our campus, or anywhere, actually. You could help teach at a class, volunteer at a library, help out a daycare. You guys remember Temari Sabaku?" We nod. Temari graduated last year. "Yes, she had a garage sale and donated the money to the orphanage up in Suna."

The seniors are silent for a moment, wondering what to do for our community service. I'm just remembering Temari's garage sale. I bought her red skinny jeans for two dollars. I will never understand why Temari sold something so precious. She just told me that they were just too small for her. I love Temari, no matter what her pant size.

"You will write a report, and the format for that is in your packet. Your due dates are too, everything's there for you. I don't expect you guys to stop global warming or something extravagant like that. Just be creative. Okay," Kurenai-sensei claps her hands again, and I marvel at how ordinary the action is. I think I'll start doing that. Clap, clap.

"You're dismissed, and good luck on your projects!"

Lunch is eaten in the cafeteria, a place filled to the rim with school spirit. White banners are tacked on the red walls proclaiming useless things like "Go Flames!" and "Burn, baby, burn!"

Reminds me of High School Musical. Disgusting.

So every lunch, I sneak out of the cafeteria and eat my lunch in the courtyard. I never worry about getting caught, because it never happens.

Today, Shino is my companion. Ino's excuse for staying in the cafeteria is, "It's the first day of school, people miss me! They haven't got their dose of me in forever!"

Ino, like Hinata, Tenten, and I, is a goddess in KHS. While I really don't care about this status, Ino uses it. In truth, the student population's devotion to us amuses her, and she just plays along. She loves the spotlight anyway. That's the major difference between Ino and me.

If some weirdo winks at me, I flip 'em off.

If some weirdo winks at her, she winks back, even more rougishly.

When a tiny sophomore girl asks for my autograph, I take out my scissors and slice her piece of paper.

When a tiny sophomore girl asks for Ino's autograph, she signs her name gladly. With a heart. In sparkly pink.

So, my best friend is busy in the cafeteria while I take a walk with another friend, Shino.

"I missed you, you know."

"Sakura, you saw me yesterday, I came to your house."

"Ah, you bake good cookies."

Shino rolls his eyes. I love love love Shino. No one has ever heard him talk except Choji, Hinata, and me. He's invisible to everyone, except for us, and that makes me feel special.

Also, he's great conversation. Ironic, no?

"So what are you doing for your project?"

"What project?"

"Community service," I reply patiently, even though Shino's just messing with me.

"Bugs."

"Specifics, give me specifics!"

"I don't have any, I just know what I want to be involved with this project." Shino pushes up his shades.

You wouldn't believe how many people have started wearing their own shades to school.

"Bugs. Well, you could. Uh. Make an ant farm."

He shakes his head in disapproval, and changes the subject, that clever ass. "What are you doing?"

I shrug happily. "I prefer to wait for a little while. The due date's in December, before Christmas break."

"You should help out your dad."

I snort. "Yeah. I could flag down the fast ones."

This town never strays higher than 35 MPH. My dad definitely has it easy when he's got highway duty.

"Your dad does quite a lot," Shino drones, and he drifts away, back to the cafeteria.

An outsider would think Shino is a man of mystery or some other stupid thing like that, but I personally think he's got an over-sized ego with the idea that he's king of the world. Of course, that's coming from me.

I've heard about fancy dinners before, read about them and all. Formal dresses. A salad fork, a spoon for your soup, something for bread and butter. And the dessert is always cheesecake. Always.

Every night at the Harunos', dinner is small and comfortable. Not anyone can feel awkward. Seriously. We should be a talk show or something.

"So, I stopped by at the prison, and the first thing I hear is this singing. Came out of nowhere. And I wondered, who the hell could that be? As I pass by the gym, I find -"

"First, tell me what they were singing."

I glare at my mom, who ignores me and continues to stare intently at my father.

"Keep going, Dad," I say.

"Mmm, these peas are good."

"DAD."

My dad grins apologetically at me, the way every father should. I know I'm lucky. "Sorry, Sakura, but I don't feel like finishing the story. I just remembered something really important."

I brace myself for anything. An earthquake, a car, good news, bad news...

"Don't you have that community service thing?"

I nod, deflated at the thought.

"You should help out at the prison. It will be good for you."

What kind of dad would suggest a place for crazies as a project to his only daughter?

"... are you sure?"

"Sakura." My father's usually easy-going baritone morphed into a forceful "you-must-do-what-I-say" tone. "You must do what I say."

"Sasuke Uchiha's in there," my mom threw in casually. "Weren't you always curious about him?"

"Not always, Mom." Actually, I couldn't care less. I can't actually remember him, not even his face. I've never talked to him, not within that range. Of course, I was naturally puzzled when my father informed me that Uchiha Sasuke and a bunch of other guys were dumped at Konoha's Prison sophomore year.

This place is so small, they put the adult bad guys with the teenage bad guys with the kid bad guys, although I'm positive we don't have any of the latter.

But I lost interest in my fellow classmates when exams came up. I'm a genius, at least that's what they say, so I gotta keep up with the facade.

"Alright, Sakura, then I'll see you tomorrow, right after school at the prison," My father winked conspicuously, and before I could even whine about the earliness of this project, he bade my mother and me good night and trotted upstairs.

I pierced my mother with the most evil eyes I could muster.

"You're not on camera, honey, don't give me that. And don't forget to tidy up the kitchen." She beamed at me, which was a huge contrast to her stern words. "Sleep tight!"

School has never took up my time as much as I'd like. I always find some extra time with nothing to do. Students at Konoha High strut the halls thinking their lives are it. That this is the peak of their life, that just because they're still in high school means that they're the superior generation now.

I just can't wait to get out of here.

I mean, look. I'm not exactly the most bubbly person out there. I'm not.. Ino, who always finds a way to bring things to the next level, so she's always on the move. For me, I can't find high school a rich and great experiment, like what everyone else says.

Because, once I graduate, that's when real life begins.

The day has flown right past me, I can't remember what Hidan-sensei said about Banana Karina or something, kidding, but you get my drift, right? The only thing I'm aware of how grim the prison looks. Nothing less of my expectations, sure, but it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that people my own age live here, in this insipid institution.

I glance hastily at my black Nissan Altima. Carjackers are bound to live here too, right? I throw my worries away, and walk inside the main building.

"Sakura! Your dad's waiting for you in the courtyard." Anko Mitarashi, who is guarding the doors I just entered, grins at me, and points towards the hallway directly behind the desk that sits in the middle of the oval-shaped main room. "Don't worry, the only prisoners in the courtyard are the bratty murderers."

Even though I've known her for half of my life, and she was just ten years older than me, I have to clench my fists to keep myself from flipping her off. "Thanks," I say with obvious-forced-irritation. She laughs loudly, an open echo in the oval-shaped room.

The courtyard only holds a basketball court, a grass field, and multiple benches that were scattered about. There's only two "bratty murderers" playing basketball, maybe no more than twelve years old.

Crazed.

Once I locate him, I join my father on one of the benches.

"Hi, baby!"

I scowl. "Dad. How long am I doing this?"

"How many hours do you need?"

"One hundred." I cringe. One hundred hours in a prison sounds traumatizing.

My father scratches the short black stubble on his chin. "Hmm. Two months."

I yelp. Yes. Like a dog. "Dad, that's at least a thousand hours!"

"Oh, I know."

I jump off the bench, and run a desperate hand through my pink spikes. Harunos are adamant. There are no loopholes to escape through in their arguments. I should know.

"A thousand hours in a prison," I say out loud. "Dad, what exactly am I doing here?" What am I putting for my report?

He leaps off the bench, landing smoothly next to me. (I thought he was forty-nine...?)

"You're working with those boys from your school. Uchiha and them." He advances back into the main building, leaving me to follow him clumsily.

We stop at a separate building, specifically for Uchiha and his boys, my dad explains. He leads me inside, and we're standing in a single hallway that goes straight down. Doors align the way, and my father knocks on one of them.

For some reason, I find myself wishing I took the time to know them in sophomore year.

The door opens cautiously, and a beautiful face pokes out. His features are obviously Uchiha, and dark blue-black chaotic spikes frame his face.

Sasuke Uchiha looks every bit as he did when he was a sophomore. Prison doesn't seem to have any effect on him. There is no way I could forget this face, even two years later.

My dad says, "Uchiha, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Sakura Haruno."

Sasuke takes one look at me, and scoffs. "I'm not interested."

"Neither am I," I hear myself burst out calmly. "But that's not the case. I'm working here now."

He stares at me more intently, and I gotta keep my pride up to stare back defiantly. It helps.

"Yeah, I remember you."

So you like it? I'm gonna make an effort now to stay committed. I'm done with the oneshots. For now. Haha.

Reviews are much desired, yo.