Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or the book The Boys Next Door by Jennifer Echols.

Chapter 1 - Re-uploaded 11/21/2012

The boys are falling in love
With girls who don't know what's up
I think we've all had enough of this now
These kids are talking 'bout love
I think we've all had enough
We've had enough of this now

Girls Do What They Want by The Maine

Itachi smirked down at me, the sun casting a golden halo around his face. His smooth black hair hung around his face, and my fingers itched to reach out and touch it - to feel its softness. He shouted to me over the noise of the boat motor and the wind, "Sakura, when we're old enough, I want you to be my girlfriend." He didn't even seem to care that the other boys could hear him.

"Sure!" I exclaimed. It's not every day the man of your dreams tells you he wants you to be his girlfriend. "But, when will we be old enough?"

His dark black eyes gazed down at me tenderly as he replied. At least, I think he replied. I did see his lips move.

"Pardon?" I sure knew how to draw out a romantic moment. His lips moved again, but I still couldn't hear him, even though the noise around us wasn't getting any louder. Obviously he was just mouthing the words, pretending to whisper sweet nothings to me. Boys did stuff like that all the time. He'd been teasing me the whole time—

"Bastard!" I jolted up in my sweat-soaked bed, swatting away the hair that was stuck to my wet face. Then I realized just what I'd yelled out. "Oops. Sorry, Mom." I said to her picture on my bedside table, although she probably hadn't heard me over my alarm clock blaring Katy Perry, "Waking Up In Vegas."

Hopefully she'd understand. I'd just had an interaction with Itachi! Even if it was only in my dreams.

Usually I didn't remember my dreams. Whenever my brother, Naruto, was home from university, he would always tell Dad and I about his dreams over breakfast. Rihanna kicking his butt at a nightclub for trying to take her picture. Megan Fox dressed as airport security, giving him a pat down. All pure (or not-so pure), male hormone-driven fantasies. It made me jealous. No, I didn't want to dream about Rihanna or Megan Fox, but if I was spending the night with Ed Westwick and didn't even know it, I was missing out on a crucial third of my life.

I'd once searched up dreaming online, and I found out that some people don't remember their dreams if they're used to getting up at the same time every day, and the body has enough time to complete the dream cycle.

So why did I remember my dream today? It was the beginning of summer vacation, that's why. And in order to start work at the marina, I'd had to set my alarm clock for thirty minutes earlier than usual. And there it was: my dream.

About Itachi: check!

Totally blowing me off, as per usual: nooooooo!

That may be happening in my dreams, but I wasn't going to let it happen in real life. Not anymore. I had a plan to make Itachi mine, starting from today. I gave Mom's picture an okay sign—the wakeboarding sign for ready to go—and rolled out of bed.

My dad and brother suspected nothing, fu fu. They didn't even notice what I was wearing, but that's alright. It wasn't meant for them anyway. The conversation at breakfast was the same one we'd had every summer since my brother was eight and I was five.

Dad to brother: "You watch out for your sister today."

Brother, through a mouthful of whatever was on the menu that morning: "Mhm."

Dad to me: "And you watch out for those boys next door."

Me: (Eyeroll.)

Brother: "I had this awesome dream about Jessica Biel last night."

After breakfast, my brother and I made our way across our yard, and the Uchiha's yard, to the complex of showrooms, warehouses and docks that made up Uchiha's Marina. The air was already thick with humidity and heat, and the sweet smell of freshly cut grass that would last the entire summer. I didn't mind. I liked the heat. And I quivered in my flip flops at the prospect of another whole summer with Itachi. I'd been going through withdrawal.

In the past, any one of the Uchiha boys, including Itachi, might have shown up at my house whenever to throw the football around, or play video games with my brother. Sometimes they'd let me play too, if they felt sorry for me. Or if their mom had guilted them into it. And my brother might, at any time, go over to their house. But I couldn't go to their house. If I had, they would have stopped what they were doing, looked up at me, and wondered what the hell I was doing there. They were my brother's friends, not mine.

Well, Sasuke was my friend. In fact, he was just as much my friend as he was my brother's. Maybe even more so. Even though we were the same age, Sasuke and I didn't have any classes together at school, so you'd think that he'd get off his butt and walk the hundred or so yards between our houses to come and see me. But he didn't. And if I'd gone to visit him, it would have been obvious that he wasn't the Uchiha I was really looking for.

After my brother left for university, my last tie to Itachi was severed. He was two years older than me, so I didn't have any classes with him, either. In fact, I wasn't even in the same part of the school with him. Of course, there was the odd time I would see him. I'd seen him once at a football game and another time outside of the movie theatre when I'd been riding around with Ino after a tennis match. But I never dared approach him. He was always flirting with glamorous girls like Anko Mitarashi or Hana Inuzuka. I was too young for him and he'd never even thought of hooking up with me. On the rare occasion that he happened to be taking the garbage out at the same time that I was check the mail, he'd give me his usual smile and a big hug and act like I was his best friend ever... for thirty heavenly seconds.

It had been a long winter. Finally, the summer was here, and I could spend every day working side by side with Itachi. The Uchiha's were always in need of extra help at the marina during the busy season, and just like last year, I had a job there—and an excuse to spend more time with Itachi. I sped up my trek across the lawn and found myself in a footrace with my brother, which was totally unfair because I had on a backpack and he was wearing sneakers, but I beat him to the warehouse by half a length anyway.

The guys had already come in and claimed all the good jobs, so I wouldn't have a chance to work side by side with Itachi. The oldest Uchiha, Shisui, was helping the full-time workers take the boats out of storage and get them ready for delivery and he wanted my brother to work with him, so they could catch up with their lives at two different schools. Itachi and Sasuke were already gone, delivering boats to customers up and down the lake. Rats, Itachi wasn't around to see my outfit. I was so desperate to start this "new Sakura" thing that I would have settled for a double take from Shisui or Sasuke.

All I got was Mrs. Uchiha. But I guess she was as good a person as any to run an outfit by. She seemed stylish enough, for a mother. Her black hair was cut to hang long and sleek around her shoulders. She seemed like the kind of mother you would want, so as not to embarrass you. I found her in the office, typing away on the computer. I sat on a stool behind her, and watching her type, I asked, "Notice anything different?"

She paused and squinted at the computer screen, "I'm using a different font?"

"Notice anything different about my boobs?"

That got her attention. She spun around and peered quizzically at my chest. "You changed your boobs?"

"I'm showing my boobs." I said proudly, gesturing at them like that woman does on the Wheel of Fortune, to show the contestants what they could win. Or in this case, what their son could win.

My usual summer uniform consisted of Sasuke's outgrown clothes: an old pair of his jeans that I'd cut off into shorts and wore with a wide belt to hold up at the waist, and one of his old football t-shirts. Underneath that, I used to wear a one-piece sports bathing suit with full coverage. As in, all-the-way-up-to-my-neck full coverage. Early on in the "boob emerging" stage, I really had no boobs to speak of, and it was a sore subject for me. Remember typing 55378008 into your calculator and passing it to the flat-chested girl across the aisle? That was me, asshole. I would have died twice over if any of the boys had ever mentioned my booblets.

Last year though, my boobs had progressed quite nicely, in my opinion. So I'd upgraded from a one-piece to a tankini. But, I wasn't ready for more exposure just yet. I didn't want the boys to treat me like a girl.

Well, now things have changed. So today, I wore a cute little bikini, with Sasuke's old cut-offs over top, like always. But, amazingly, they looked sexy, hung low on my hips, and I'd traded in the old football t-shirt for a little red tank top that ended just above my belly button and hugged my figure. I even had a little bit of cleavage! I was so proud of myself. Itachi wasn't going to know what hit him.

Mrs. Uchiha stared perplexed at my chest. "Oh, I get it. You're trying to look hot."

"Thank you!" Mission accomplished.

"Here's a piece of advice: close your legs."

I snapped my thighs together and slid off the stool. I was always being scolded for sitting like a boy. "Where do you want me?" I asked as I stomped my way to the door.

Mrs. Uchiha had already turned back to her computer screen. "You've got gas."

Oh great. I headed out of the office toward the main dock where the gas pumps were. This meant that at some point today, one of the boys would look around the office and ask, "Who's got gas?" and another boy would answer, "Sakura has gas." With my luck, Itachi would be in on the joke too.

The office door opened behind me, and Mrs. Uchiha poked her head out.

"Sakura," she called, "Did you want to talk?"

Noooo. Nothing of the sort. I'd just sought her out in the office and tried to start a conversation. Mrs. Uchiha had three sons. She was clueless when it came to talking to girls. My mother had died in a boating accident out on the lake when I was four. I was clueless when it came to talking to women. Any conversation we had was doomed from the start.

"No, why?" I asked without turning around. I had been galloping down the stairs before, but now I stepped very carefully, as if the steps were liable to break at any time.

"Watch out around the boys," she warned me.

I waved my hand dismissively. I didn't need to watch out around the boys. If anything those boys should watch out around me.

Aside from having the boys discussing my intestinal problems, I enjoyed having gas. I got to sit around on the dock and dip my feet into the water, enjoying the beautiful weather. Later on, I'd go swimming upstream from the gasoline. Not now though, before Itachi had seen me for the first time this summer. I would be getting in and out of the water and windy boats all day and I knew that my hair would end up looking like hell. So I wanted Itachi to see me before that, with nice, dry, styled hair. I might go swimming after he saw me, while I waited for people to come to the gas pumps.

A lot of rich people from the bigger cities owned summer houses around the lake, and the richer they were, the less they actually knew about their boats. Like how to dock it and find their gas caps. If I covered for their idiocy in front of their families by giggling and saying things like, "I'm so sorry, sir! I'm the one who's supposed to be helping you!" They tipped me beyond belief.

I was just tucking an especially large tip in my pocket when Itachi and Sasuke came zooming across the water in a boat emblazoned with UCHIHA'S MARINA down the side, blasting Three Days Grace from the speakers. They turned hard at the edge of the idle zone (a zone Mr. Uchiha had established to keep the boys from driving too recklessly.) Huge waves rocked the floating dock and would have thrown me off if I hadn't grabbed on to the railing. Then the bow of the boat eased up against the padded side of the dock. Sasuke must have been the one driving. Itachi would have driven up to the warehouse, closer to where they'd have to pick up their next boat for delivery. I could hear them arguing about this as Itachi threw me the rope to tie the stern to the dock. Itachi and Sasuke argued 24/7. I was used to it. But I would have rather not heard Itachi complaining that they were going to have to walk an extra fifty yards and up the stairs just so Sasuke could say hi to me.

Itachi jumped off the boat onto the dock, and the dock rocked under his weight. He was big, around six feet tall, and even though he'd worked all summer at the marina, his fair skin was only slightly tanned. His chest and arms were hard and muscled from competing with Sasuke the last four years to see who could lift the most weight (Itachi and Sasuke were like this.) Then he straightened and smiled his beautiful smile at me, and I forgave him instantly.

End of Chapter 1.

(1) Sorry NaruSaku lovers. They're strictly platonic in this story.

(2) In the manga, Shisui is actually Sasuke and Itachi's cousin, and Itachi's best friend. I needed three brothers for this story, and I was already using Itachi and Sasuke, and Shisui was the only other Uchiha I could think to use (that was in relatively the same age group.)

(3) 55378008 = Boobless

[IMPORTANT NOTE(S):

This plot-line does NOT belong to me. It belongs to the wonderful Jennifer Echols and her book The Boys Next Door. I'm merely borrowing it and playing with it for my own amusement.

Alright, I know some (most) of you are like wtf I thought this was supposed to be SasuSaku! Why does she like Itachi?! Etc., etc.

BELIEVE ME, IT IS SASUSAKU!

You have to keep reading. I can't say too much without revealing the whole plot, but I implore you to keep reading. It will eventually be SasuSaku. Things'll start heating up in the later chapters (around chapter 6 or 7) so stick with it! (^_^) ]

Constructive criticism and reviews are greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for reading.

xx Bethany