Shinobi High: Kirafa POV

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" a voice called into my room.

I groaned and buried my face in my pillow.

The sound of an air horn blasted in my ear, and I jumped awake.

"Athena! That was totally uncalled for!" I screamed at the tan, dark-haired girl before me. She was one of my best friends… We both had no parents, so we lived together.

"But Kirafa, you wouldn't have woken up if I hadn't!" Athena teased back.

I glared at her and marched into my bathroom to do my hair. Today was my first day at this school (not to mention first day of summer term), so I wanted to look good.

I finished with my hair and found my uniform. "Hmm… Not too bad, Better that my old school," I critiqued, putting it on. At least it didn't clash with my scarlet hair.

I went downstairs, enjoying the smell of bacon and hash browns. Athena handed me a plate. As I ate, my heart started beating faster and faster in apprehension. I was dying of nervousness. Would people like me? Would I be bullied like I was I my old school? Would I ever make any friends? What about love?

"…Kirafa? …Kirafa!...Kirafa!"

"Waah!" I jumped as Athena shouted at me. "S-sorry…what is it?"

"It's time to go."

I gulped, trying to calm my racing heart. "OK…"

We started walking. It was a short walk from our house, and Athena was trying to cram in all the advice she could.

"Your Biology teacher is really strange, never, ever, ever make him mad. And never, ever eat the school burritos. They wreak havoc on your digestive system."

"I don't like burritos," I reminded her.

"I know, I know. And a word of warning," She continued as we opened the door to the school and walked in, "See those thugs over there?" She pointed to a group of strong and scary-looking kids. There were about ten of them, but only one was a girl.

"I see them," I answered. "What about them?"

"Stay away from them. They're a street gang called Akatsuki, and they're every bit as strong as they look. And some of them have anger management issues."

"Lovely…" I gulped. I would have to walk right past them to get to my locker. Knowing my luck, at least one of them was going to be in each and every one of my classes.

The bell rang and I started walking, avoiding running into the bajillions of people in the hallway.

I had totally zoned out when suddenly I felt myself crash into someone. I blinked and looked up. He has silver hair, and as he whipped around to glare at me, I recognized him. Akatsuki.

I opened my mouth to apologize, but he cut me off with, "Hey whore, care to watch where you're walking?"

I stared at him incredulously. "Did you just call me 'whore'?"

He continued to glare at me, and I was strongly considering kicking him where the sun don't shine. But I didn't do that.

"You know, silver-haired stranger," I started cautiously, "compared to devil child, witch, and demon…" I put on my perkiest smile, "Whore doesn't even come close to the worst thing I've been called!" I sang, then pushed past him and continued to my locker. Behind me, I heard someone say, "What the ****?!"

I was in the process of getting my Biology stuff when the Akatsuki girl came up to the locker next to me. She had blue hair and a rose clip made out of paper. She glanced shyly at me before opening the locker to my left.

I closed my locker after grabbing my textbook and started to walk away, until I heard the Akatsuki girl behind me.

"Oh…wait!"

I turned around and looked at her.

She averted her eyes shyly. "Um…I'm sorry, about earlier."

"You mean, when I ran into silverhead?"

"Uh…yeah. He's always been a bit rude. I was going to tell him to cut it out, but then you left, so…"

I smiled. "It's fine. I've had much worse things said to me."

She smiled back. "I'm Konan, by the way. Are you new?

"I'm Kirafa. Yeah, I just transferred here."

"Nice to meet you, Kirafa! We should probably get going now, though."

I waved and set off to the Biology Lab. Hey, it was only 7:45 and I had already made a friend…and an enemy.

I stepped into the Biology Lab, and saw and absolutely fantastic sight (and I am being really sarcastic).

Silverhead was sitting at one of the tables in the back corner. I don't think he saw me walk in I sat in the seat farthest away from him - the other back corner – and prayed that fate would be kind enough to not let him be my lab partner.