She was his neighbour, much to his chagrin.
Not next-door neighbours, oh heavens no. He couldn't fathom the idea of living beside that ridiculously loud fan-girl with her obnoxiously pink mop of hair. Sasuke was pretty sure her shrill voice could be heard through the walls of both his and her houses despite the distance her house was from his (which would never be far enough).
Sakura's house was located up the hill to the left, the lush array of plants ranging from azaleas and African violets to passion fruit plants in her driveway distinguished her home from the rest of the plain households within her street.
The house further up the hill to the right belonged to his best friend (but don't ever tell him that) Naruto, which could be identified easily by the skilfully designed crack in his window resulting from a very well-aimed swing from Sasuke himself. But that's not the issue here.
This nuisance, this pest – Sakura Haruno was his problem.
Not only was her voice loud enough to make a deaf man's ears bleed, that girl was such an inquisitive dumbass that he was surprised (well, as surprised as an Uchiha can be) to find that she gained a full scholarship to attend one of the most prestigious schools in the state.
He was fuming when he found out it was his school. She already ruined his afternoons; did she have to be a bother in the mornings as well?
Every day Sasuke used looked forward to a match of basketball with his gang of neighbours, but of course Sakura had to join in. She just had to be the only female neighbour who was willing to get 'down and dirty' with a bunch of hormonal teenage boys. Take that as you will.
Anyways, back to the dilemma.
Konoha High would reopen from the summer break tomorrow morning. His mother gleefully chose the night before to tell him that Sakura would be joining year 11 – his year group, even though she would be a year younger than everyone else.
A sigh escaped his lips as he mentally whined and sulked (key word: mentally); why did she have to join his year group? He could see how things would all turn out. It was some twisted high school version of final destination: he knew his life was doomed the moment he met that pink haired banshee but he couldn't do anything about it.
Normally he wouldn't really bother to give such things a second thought, but this was Sakura he was talking about! She knew where he lived! Who knows what girls like her were capable of? Besides, since she's managed to worm her way into the hearts of his deceived neighbours (whom he also happened to hang out with during school hours as well), she might wrongly assume that she'd be welcome in their group and may linger around him longer than necessary.
And if she hangs around him longer people may get the wrong idea, rumours will fly and we all know how the rest of it goes.
Although Sasuke never really paid attention to the gossip that revolved around him (heck, there was one time when word got round about him being gay with Naruto… even though he was slightly offended by the fact that people would assume he'd have such bad taste in men, Sasuke actually considered admitting to the lie just to keep the fan girls at bay. But upon considering the possibility of having fan boys, the Uchiha banished the idea from his mind and decided to ignore the whole rumour altogether), this was the first year of his external exams and – being a true Uchiha, he was a very ambitious student: he would ensure that nothing would be able to distract him from his studies.
Not even some girly gossip.
With that thought in mind, the youngest Uchiha rested his head against the pillow and dozed off into a dreamless state of sleep.
'Sakura Haruno, you never have and never will be important enough to distract me. So you better stay out of my way the moment you step into school grounds.'
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