-Hate, Love, & All of the Above-
Summary: This is a story for every guy who has ever tried, every girl who has ever hoped, and anyone who has ever been taken completely by surprise. [Sasusaku/ Shikaino]
Disclaimer: I own none of the recognizable content.
-Prologue-
-Ten Things I Hate About You-
Nara Shikamaru stood outside the glass doors to the office of his newest school, observing the school populaces' reflections. He was not unaccustomed to being the new kid at school. In fact, in the past four years he had been to seven different schools in seven different towns; his father had to move around a lot for work and Shikamaru never stayed in one school for more than a few months. It was just a fact of life that he had come to terms with years ago.
The newest school seemed in line with all his previous ones. The teachers would hate a large part of their class and resent their career decision. The school would have the same institutional feel to it. The popular kids would feel just as fake and superficial. The nerds would be just as smart. The weirdo-freaks would be just as strange with the same eclectic interests. There would even be the loner with the greasy hair everyone picked on.
He was expecting the same treatment he had gotten in all previous schools. They would stare at him at first; he was a novelty, a change in the monotony of their high school days. New things always drew attention to them, but that attention was always short-lived. New things were only new for a few months. Once the novelty of his appearance at school wore off, he would fade into the shadows. The students would simply ignore him; he would eventually become just another one of them.
Even when he was still a novelty, nobody ever bothered to get to know him. They were too stuck in their ways to break out and get to know someone else. So when he left the school after only a few months, nobody would miss him because nobody really knew him. It was always the same.
He walked into the principal's office and met the same harassed looking secretary that sat before the principal's office at every school. She was busy filing papers and answering the phone, insuring the school ran smoothly. At first, she didn't even realise he was there. He cleared his throat and the dark-haired woman looked up, a surprised expression colouring her face.
"Can I help you?" she asked sweetly, attempting to not let the stress of organizing a school of nearly three thousand cloud her voice. Shikamaru could still hear it though. He had faced so many similarly harangued secretaries in his schooling life that he knew exactly what to listen for.
"My name is Nara Shikamaru. I just moved to town and today is my first day here at Senju High School," he stated expertly. He had said the same thing so many times before that he knew exactly what to say and how to say it.
"Ah yes. Well Tsunade-sama is busy at the moment. If you wouldn't mind taking a seat just over there, I'll retrieve you when she's ready to see you," she stated, motioning over to the chairs lining the opposite wall. From the way she recited those words, Shikamaru believed she too had committed them to memory as a result of repetitive use.
He moved to sit down in the chair closest to him, but was nearly bowled over by a dark male who had entered the office. Shikamaru stuttered out an apology, hoping to avoid a confrontation. The other male didn't acknowledge his apology in the slightest, but didn't acknowledge his presence either, which was the way Shikamaru preferred it. Being invisible had been the only thing that had made a nomadic lifestyle bearable. Had he formed any attachments at his previous schools, he would have surely gone insane.
The dark male continued on to the secretary's desk. He leaned on his arm and quirked an eyebrow suggestively.
"Shizune, aren't you looking fine today," he schmoozed the dark-haired women. She rolled her eyes at his antics, but Shikamaru was able to make out an amused smirk that momentarily crossed her face.
"Uchiha Sasuke, welcome back. Enjoy the break? We here on staff certainly missed you. My days were empty without your daily visits." Shikamaru couldn't help but chuckle to himself at the sarcasm that filled her voice with her statements. Whoever this dark clad boy was, he obviously wasn't very well liked at school, at least not by the staff.
A moment later, a blonde woman emerged from the room behind the secretary's desk and scanned the main office. Her eyes came to rest on the boy named Uchiha Sasuke and a scowl crossed her face.
"So you're back are you?" she questioned, her voice full of unconstrained contempt, "Hope you don't screw it up this time." She then turned to Shikamaru, silently observing this odd interaction and motioned for him to follow her.
Once he was inside and seated at a chair in front of a large mahogany desk, the principal closed the door and went to sit in front of him.
"Welcome to Senju High School, Nara-san. I'm the principal of this school, Tsunade. If you have any questions or problems, your guidance councilor would love to hear about it. I deal with academic issues only. I do not need to hear about your petty, personal problems. Got it? Enjoy your time here and I hope to never see you again. No matter what some of the students say, this is a truly wonderful school."
Her words momentarily stunned Shikamaru. He hadn't expected that the principal would say something so crass and straightforward. He then quickly regained himself and stood to leave. Just as he reached the door, Tsunade called out to him.
"Send the deadbeat in, would ya?"
He nodded and, when he got back into the main office, told Sasuke the principal wanted him. Shikamaru then made his way over to the secretary and picked up all of his required papers.
The bell signaling the beginning of classes rang and Shizune gave him a look that suggested he should get moving to class.
He pulled out his schedule and the map and tried to find his English class. In the process, the books and papers he was holding under his arms slipped and spilled out on the floor. He swore under his breath, internally commenting on how sucky this day was turning out.
He reached for the papers that had spread all over the floor only to find someone else had dropped to their knees to help him. He followed the arm up to the face of a slightly podgy, light mahogany haired boy. The boy smiled a friendly smile and stuck out his hand to give Shikamaru back his fallen papers.
"Hey, I'm Chouji. I haven't seen you around school before. Are you new here?" he asked, standing up and dusting off his jeans.
"Yeah, I'm new. I moved here from Sunagakure. It was a lot drier there. I'm Shikamaru, by the way," he replied awkwardly. In all his previous schools, he had never really talked to anyone for anything other than schoolwork. He wasn't sure where he should take this conversation, but was thankfully saved from that by the better conversational skills that Chouji possessed.
"What's your first class? That map is ancient. I can show you where your class is a lot better than it can." Shikamaru thought about his proposal. He had avoided interpersonal contact outside of academia to not be hurt when he inevitably had to move. But at the same time, he wanted to make friends and not just be alone for once.
"English, and your directions would be a great help."
Uchiha Sasuke stood outside the school, staring up at the front doors. He hadn't walked through those doors in a year, not since he'd gotten himself suspended. He'd snuck up to the roof the evening of the first Friday back from school and began hosting a concert. Slowly a crowd had congregated on the football field below the roof. However, before it could get any larger than a small group of people, Tsunade had appeared on the roof and shut it all down.
He had thought the rumour of his exploits would spread throughout the school with a vengeance. It seemed, however, that his absence had spawned a myriad of rumours. There were eventually so many that even those who had been at his impromptu concert weren't sure which one was the truth.
He walked into Tsunade's office, his second home for the past few years, thinking to himself how good it felt being back. As Sasuke took a seat in front of the principal's desk, he thought about the sheer number of times he had been there before. In fact, Sasuke nearly spent more time in the office than in class, and not just because he skipped most of his classes.
"Well, well, well, you've come crawling back to us, have you? I hope you've changed in your year off and won't pull the same stupid stunts you did last year." Tsunade remarked from the other side of her desk, her hands crossed in front of her face so only her shimmering blue eyes could be seen. It was a look meant to strike fear into the heart of every student who sat across from it. But Sasuke had been on the receiving end of that look so many times that it no longer had any affect on him.
"I missed your dazzling smile and quick fire wit. I just couldn't stay away," he stated, the sarcasm dripping through his voice and forming a puddle on the floor in front of him.
Tsunade rolled her eyes and then motioned to the door.
"Out! And make a note to not see me twice a day this year, Uchiha-san. I don't appreciate our visits as much as you do." Sasuke stood, bowed slightly to the blonde, and then sauntered out of the office, his ever-present smirk on his face.
It sure was good to be back.
Sarutobi Ino skipped into school, a happy-go-lucky smile on her face. She loved school because everyone in school loved her. Every single day she was bombarded with requests for lunch, study partners, or simply to hang out. People were always coming up to her just to say hi, or just be near her. Everyone loved her and she loved being adored. For Ino, high school was perfect.
She walked up to her friend, a dark-haired, blue-eyed, skinny girl by the name of Ami. Ami was standing next to her locker, looking confused and completely lost. She may have been the blonde's best friend since they were in kindergarten, but she was duller than Ino's favourite pencil. The only reasons she kept Ami around were because she was as popular as Ino, an excellent gossip, and made Ino feel like a Mensa member.
"Hey, Ino, have you seen my bio textbook?" she asked, a look of absolute confusion gracing her flawless face. "I can't seem to find it anywhere." Ino sighed under her breath and reached into the locker, pulling out the bright green textbook that was right in her field of vision.
"Right here, Mi," Ino stated simply, handing it over to her friend and trying not to let the look of distaste show. Ino needed people to like her. If they didn't, she felt insecure and out of control. Ino needed to be in control. So she put up with her friends idiocy and tried her best to not show how much it annoyed her.
"Silly me!" Ami giggled her freakishly high-pitched giggle before closing her locker and turning to her friend. "So, you excited for school this year? We're finally seniors! Queens of the school! Everyone will look up to us and want to be us! It's going to be so fantastic!"
Ino smiled and nodded, trying to remember all the reasons she kept Ami around as her friend. Luckily, more of her friends showed up at that moment and Ino was able to talk with those who were slightly more intelligent than Ami. She only had one more year of putting up with Ami before she was free.
Sarutobi Sakura sat in her car, her feet resting atop the dashboard. Music blared loudly out of her car speakers. Sitting in the passenger seat, looking bored and frustrated was Sakura's best friend, Tenten. She knew her friend found this stupid waiting game annoying and pointless, but Sakura still felt the need to sit in her car for half an hour before class.
Over the years she had carefully constructed a rebellious, uncaring persona. She showed up late to class to keep up appearances, no matter how much her friend complained. If she ever showed up for a class on time, her painstakingly fashioned persona would crumble.
And so, Sakura spent the first thirty minutes of every class sitting out in her car with her best friend. It was a tradition now set in stone.
"And that's 9:00. Time for class," her friend Tenten said. Sakura chuckled at her friend. It was tradition to wait out in the car, but Tenten really disliked just sitting in the car. The brunette found it boring, but Sakura had insisted. If they were to simply wait at home, her father would definitely find out about her habit and he'd go ballistic. It was only by waiting in the car, and answering any and all school phone calls that she was able to avoid the wrath of her father.
Sakura got out of the car and walked into the school behind her friend, imaging what the new school year would have in store for her.
-To be continued-