NOTICE: This chapter has been nearly completely rewritten. I had some very helpful comments about the quick pace of this chapter and I agree. I basically wrote this in a notebook yesterday while I was in class and later in the library, then just copied it into the computer. I still think it was a good idea to post it though. I got all the basic ideas down for this chapter. Now, I have just gone through and added some more scenes to create just a little more depth, though not too much as this is still just the first chapter.

Please take the time to reread this chapter. It is nearly twice as long now as it was when I first released it.

~*~G*O*L*D*E*N~*~

Today. I am going to do it today. I have to do it today or it will never happen.

With those thoughts in her head, Sasuke was especially careful getting ready for school that day. She would need every ounce of confidence she could muster and she could not be worried about she looked one bit (at least at school)..

Sasuke was grateful that she had set her alarm for 3 am (not that she had really slept at all). It had taken her over an hour in the shower and another hour to do her hair and makeup. After all, it is really hard to finish your hair when you change styles every couple of minutes, but she had finally settled on just letting her hair hang naturally but sophisticated around her shoulders.

After throwing on a bath robe, she walked downstairs to eat breakfast with her family. Her father and older brother, Itachi, were sitting at the dining room table sipping coffee and reading the paper. For them, it was just a regular morning. Her father did not receive a summer break from work and her older brother was currently interning in a law office during his summer break from college, which had started several weeks ago. She was the only one facing the anxiety of a last day. Her last day of being a Junior and her last day to reach for her dream.

"My, my, don't you look pretty," her mother cooed from the kitchen where she was still preparing breakfast.

"You look way too formal for a final," Itachi said. "Do you perhaps have a date?"

Her father's ears perked up at that word, and he glanced "casually" up from his newspapaer to look at her.

"I just wish to leave a good impression on my teachers," Sasuke countered easily. Her family teasing and questioning her was also something she had considered in her plan. "I will be asking for recommendations from many of these teachers in the fall when I begin applying for colleges, so I want them to remember a clean, responsible looking student."

"You should always look like that as a member of the Uchiha family," her father lectured, though he had returned to casually reading the paper and sipping his coffee.

"Of course, father," she answered respectfully. In her family, it did little to argue even if she had a valid argument because it would only anger her father and at the moment, his comment was really nothing more than relief that her attire was, in fact, NOT for a date (at least as far as he knew).

As they had been talking, Sasuke had walked into the kitchen and prepared herself a cup of tea. Now, she walked back into the dining room with her tea and joined her brother and father at the table. Even though she was running out of time to get ready, family meals were a highly important part of her day because it was a cultural trait of her Japanese family and her father felt it was the "respectable" thing for noble families to do. Although it was possible to get out of family meals if you had a good explanation, Sasuke did not feel like telling her parents that she needed time to get ready in order to impress a boy she liked. She was already pushing it with the excuse she gave for her hair and makeup. It was likely that any other excuses would draw unwanted questions.

However, the fact that she had accounted for the time it would take to eat breakfast did not keep her from glancing up at the clock every five seconds. After ten minutes of waiting at the table, she asked whether her mother needed any help.

"Oh, no," her mother replied cheerfully, "I'm just finishing up. I thought it would be good to make a fish recipe for breakfast since you have finals today and fish is supposed to be good for your brain functions. I found this great old Japanese recipe on the internet that is supposed to increase your cognitive abilities by 17% for an entire day."

"Thank you, mom," Sasuke said, trying to hide her grimace with a smile.

Her mother was always one to use any excuse possible to liven up a day and while that was usually wonderful, it sometimes caused problems. She had once decided to celebrate the day Sasuke got her first period by buying every red piece of decoration she could find and inviting all the neighbors over for a potluck consisting of only red foods. And, surprisingly, this felt worse than that time.

How could boys make you feel so weird?

"Here we are," her mother said finally, as she brought in some serving trays to place on the table.

"Itadakimasu," they all chanted once her mother had joined them at the table.

Sasuke ate as quickly as she dared. If she ate too fast, she was likely to get a lecture from her father about proper table manners, which would only waste her time even further. Once she was finished, she excused herself from the table and quickly walked back to her bedroom.

She now needed to figure out what she was going to wear that day. Normally, it was fairly easy for her to pick clothes, as she had a set structure of work, formal, and school wear that she would just cycle through until she had worn everything, wash her clothes, then repeat; however, now she needed her clothing to be perfect.

It was now 6:30 am, only 30 minutes before the start of class, and every piece of clothing she owned was strewn across the floor, bed, desk, and any other surface she could find. She looked around and around and around the room until she was dizzy from all the choices. It did not help the situation that now her phone alarm was blaring, reminding her that she only had 15 minutes before she had to leave for school.

Would jeans be too casual? But a skirt might look like she was trying too hard. Perhaps a cute pair of shorts, but they would have to be the perfect length: too long and I'll look frumpy, but too short and I'll look slutty.

"Sasuke, honey, it's almost time for you to leave," her mother yelled from the kitchen.

"Thanks, mom," Sasuke yelled back. It's not like I didn't already know that.

Finally, she settled on a pair of white shorts and a cute navy blouse. After throwing on some navy sneakers, she ran out the door ... only to run back inside a second later, realizing she had forgotten her backpack. Her older brother, noticing the odd blunder, gave her a very knowing look that Sasuke would be analyzing for years to come.

By some miracle, Sasuke made it to her school without crashing or getting lost. As she pulled up to the school, she noticed that the parking lot was different at this time in the morning just minutes before the bell rang. As a fanatical scholastic nerd, who usually came to school before most of the teachers, the mad chaos of cars vying for an available parking space and soccer moms clogging the streets to drop off their precious babies was completely foreign and almost ... scary. Thankfully, as a fanatical scholastic nerd, she had bought a parking space at the front of the lot to ensure she would never be tardy.

With mere seconds to spare, she made it to her first class. Her finals went by without incident. In fact, they were a welcome distraction. She had decided to wait until her last class to act. Despite the hours of testing, Sasuke felt like her last class had come too quickly.

As she made her way down the hallway towards her final class, Advanced Placement Calculus, her heart started beating in her throat and it was getting harder to breathe normally. She was so nervous. Normally, she would go straight to her classroom, but today she decided to take some time to get a drink from the water fountain, go to the bathroom, talk with some classmates, and anything else she could think of to delay her arrival.

Eventually, the warning bell rang and she had no choice but to walk into the classroom. The teacher, a surly middle aged man named Mr. Shikamaru with long brown hair in a ponytail, stared lazily at her. Typically, Sasuke would come into school early and they would play a game of chess or two, but today he had not seen her until now. However, he did not really care enough about anything to get riled by the change in his normal routine. Though her nice clothes and the appearance of makeup on her face did make him raise an eyebrow questioningly.

Sasuke tried to ignore him and shuffled quietly to her desk at the front of the class. As soon as she sat down, the bell rang and class began. It was the last day of her Junior year in high school. As such, you may expect there was a final, but because this was an AP class, the AP test served as their final and they were given an open class period durin the final exam day.

"Do whatever," Mr. Shikamaru said lazily before sitting down at his desk and "reading" (though everyone knew he was probably taking a nap).

The students did not need to be told twice. Everyone began turning towards their friends and chatting away aimlessly. Naruto was talking with a group of his buddies and as usual he was at the center of the crowd. It had taken their classmates a while to understand Naruto's charms because his honesty and determination sometimes came off as foolish and arrogant, but once a person realized Naruto's true nature, it was hard not to like him.

At the moment, he was talking with his best friend Gaara about the party he had planned for this weekend. Gaara used to be the school's bully, but after he had picked on a bunch of little kids, Naruto had beat some sense into him. After the fight was over, Gaara actually talked to Naruto about his past and his home life.

He had been designer baby, purposely born to provide some ambiotic fluid to help heal a serious disease his mother had contracted, but the process did not work. His mother died, and his father blamed him. He had been shipped off to live with a distant relative in this town from his home in Germany. When he came over as a child, he did not speak English and was often bullied by kids because of his strange looks, speech, and customs.

Naruto had helped him recover and Gaara was now quite content with his life. Though he would never be an overly cheerful or outgoing person, he was now able to speak with others and as it turned out, he became quite a good defender of the weak. He even had a girlfriend now, Leah.

In contrast to the large and lively group around Naruto, Sasuke was sitting stoically at her desk. It would take her a while to gather the courage to do what she had planned and she still could not figure out when would be the best time to put her plan in motion.

If her plan went badly, then she did not want to sit here the whole class period with that embarrasment; however, dare she hope, if it went well, she would want that extra time to make future plans. At this moment, her status as a fanatical scholastic nerd was extremely detrimental because she was severly overanalyzing the situation ... or perhaps that was just a girl thing.

With a glance at the clock, Sasuke realized that she had already spent half the period worrying. She had to act. This was the last time she would see him in months. That's right. This whole fiasco was about a guy (but you already knew that).

The object of her affection was the school's bad boy hearthrob: Naruto Uzumaki. When she first realized her crush, back in the second semester of freshman year, she had scolded herself for being drawn in like all the other idiotic, lovestruck girls in her class. It was not normal for her to like all the things the average woman liked. Though she dressed nicely, she could hardly be considered fashion forward. Though she listened to music and watched movies, she knew nothing about pop culture or celebrity gossip. And, although she loved the most popular boy in school, she was most certainly NOT a mindless fangirl.

After over two years of trying to find some trait in Naruto that would make her stop liking him, Sasuke ended up falling in love with him. She had taken the time to get to know him far more than any of the other girls fawning over him. Perhaps girls have a sixth sense when it comes to men. Perhaps they know when a man is a good catch even if they don't know why. Then again, maybe Naruto was just hot.

Though she would never know why so many other girls were attracted to Naruto, she knew enough about him to know why she loved him. Simply, he was strong. Yes, his body was strong and he could probably beat anyone who attacked him, but that was not what drew most people to him. He was strong in his beliefs.

He believed in equality and was willing to fight even to the point of a life or death situation for the people who could not reach it on their own because of bullies or even psychological problems. He believed in knowledge including not just scholastic information but knowing how to apply his wisdom to the world and when to just sit back and take a break. Most of all, he believed in hope. He believed not only that anything is possible if you try hard enough, but also that hope is not just a desire for the future but a real and powerful part of your present.

And, somehow, in learning about his beliefs, Sasuke had adopted them herself. It was the belief in hope that he had taught her that now led her to try and ask him out. She knew that Naruto had been out with countless girls in high school and that none of them ever lasted beyond a month and she knew that because of Naruto's status, he could afford to be extremely picky with the girls he dated because he had an endless supply of choices, but she could still hope.

With only minutes left of class and of her last day of having class with Naruto, Sasuke finally set her mind to the task at hand: asking out the one and only Naruto Uzumaki. If this went badly, she would use her hard earned standing as a fanatical scholastic nerd to leave class early without fear of punishment. And, as impossible as it seemed, if this went well, she hoped she could hang out with Naruto after school.

She slowly stood up and put her backpack on her shoulder in order to make a hasty retreat if necessary. She patted off any dust that may have gotten on her clothes, smoothed out her hair, and straightened out her clothes.

Her odd actions drew the attention of the entire class. Why was THE Sasuke Uchiha acting like she was going to leave class early? Even Mr. Shikamaru seemed curious, which was a miracle for him.

Taking a deep breath, she walked towards where Naruto sat on the opposite side of the classroom. She had to push through the sea of people around Naruto in order to get close to him.

Naruto's eyes followed her as she approached him. Sasuke assumed that everyone in the class was staring at her, but his eyes were the only ones that mattered at the moment.

"What do you want Uchiha?" Naruto's friend and noted troublemaker, Kiba, growled from where he had placed himself, atop Naruto's desk. Kiba deemed himself Naruto's assistant of sorts because he would often be the one to get rid of unwanted advances made on Naruto.

However, Sasuke gave him only a momentary glance before returning her gaze to Naruto. She took a shaky breath.

And, nothing happened.

She could not speak. She had spent the last month planning what she was going to say to him at this moment and now she could not say any of it. She wanted to say how much she admired him, how much he inspired her. She wanted to let him know that he was a wonderful person and do great things in life.

She realized it was a cliche to say that people "forget everything they were going to say" when faced with a difficult situation because usually you knew exactly what you wanted to say, you just could not say it. She remembered it all clearly and precisely in her head like a chemistry equation memorized for a test, but for some reason it felt like the words were floating out of reach above her body.

Time stretched on as she stared frozen at Naruto's face. Suddenly, the thought of that face scrunching up in distaste was the worst thing she could imagine. If he said "no," all her hopes would shatter. Wasn't it better to have a dream than a shattered heart? Maybe it would be better just to watch him from afar. That way, she could continue to see him happy around her.

Naruto raised his eyebrows at her to try to urge her to say whatever it was she had come to say to him. When she still did not speak after a while, he asked, though not with malice, if she needed help with something.

As Sasuke opened her mouth to speak, the bell rang. Though everyone was still curious about what was going on, one by one, they began standing up to leave the classroom.

"Let's go," Kiba said to Naruto, punching his shoulder to get him to move.

Naruto shrugged and stood up. Obviously, whatever Sasuke had wanted to say, it was not important enough for her to say. He had always been one to speak his mind especially when it was important, so it was difficult for him to understand that sometimes the most important things are the hardest to say.

As he turned to leave, Sasuke grabbed the sleeve of his t-shirt.

He glanced back to her and noticed her staring intently off to the side. Her hand was shaking slightly, Naruto noticed. What did she want? Had he offended her or something?

When she still did not say anything, he took a step towards the door, letting her hand fall slowly back to her side. Kiba rolled his eyes and motioned for Naruto to follow him out into the hallway.

Naruto disappeared from the classroom. Sasuke turned her head slowly to look at the place where Naruto had been standing.

Would she ever get to say "I love you?"

~*~A*N*G*E*L~*~

Please, please, please, por favor, s'il vous plait, onegai, please review. I really need to know whether a story is worth continuing before I waste a lot of time on it. Personally, I really like this story, but I need to know if it is even worth posting.

Revision: Please review. As you know if you read the Author's note at the top, I do listen to reader's comments and they are very helpful in making this a better story. Let me know what you liked, let me know what you didn't like, let me know what you would like to see happen, let me know what you don't want to see happen. Any kind of comment would be helpful.