I've never really been popular in school, but I sure have tried, but my shy demeanor doesn't ever seem to clear up. But going into my freshman year in high school, I refused to be shy this year. I was going to be normal. I wasn't going to hide, or stutter or anything. I've heard that there's a quite a few students that refused to go to the school unless they were freshman. I don't know what that's all about, but I guess I'll see. My cousin Neji and I walked to school together like we had since he first moved in with my family and me. My younger sister Hanabi is just going into the 6th grade, so she doesn't walk with us. Neji is a year older than me, and assures me that the first year of high school isn't as bad as people make it out to be, but that doesn't mean anything. Neji has always been more popular than me. He's never had trouble making friends like I have. Although a downfall for this year is that we all have to wear uniforms. So all of the girls are stuck with skirts, and blouses, but I like to cover the blouse with a school sweater. We reach the school, and then walk through the doors. We're all supposed to gather in the lunch room. All of us already got our schedules and locker numbers, so all we have to do is wait for the bell to ring. Neji and I stand there for a moment, just looking around. Neji spots a group of girls yelling at him and smirks.
"Good luck, Hinata." He says, and walks towards the table.
"Thanks." I say.
"Hey, Hinata! Over here!" I hear someone yell. I look over to see Kiba, sitting at a table with Shino. I sigh with relief and walk over to the table.
"Hi, guys." I say, sitting down.
"Hi." Shino greets quietly.
"Hinata, did you hear? There are quite a few new students that demanded to be freshman." Kiba says, looking at me.
"Yes, I did. D-does anybody know who they are?" I ask. Kiba shakes his head. I'm trying to figure out who it could be when they walk through the door. There are seven of them, all boys. Lots of girls around me swoon at the sight of them. I merely nod toward them, tapping Kiba's arm.
"That must be them, eh?" Kiba asks, nodding to them. Shino turns around and looks at them. As I said, there are seven of them. The one that seems to be leading them has blood-orange hair, and lots of piercings in his face. You can see the piercings continue down his arms, and bumps on his shoulders conclude that there is more. Another one has black hair and red eyes. He resembles Sasuke, and I almost mistake him for Sasuke at first, but have to look again to check. There's another red-headed one, except he has dark brown eyes and nothing seems to be of interest to him. The one beside him has blonde hair pulled back into somewhat of a ponytail, and his bangs cover one of his ocean eyes completely. One has blue skin and blue hair and resembles a fish-like look. The last two are a guy with silver hair and pink eyes and he has some sort of weird necklace on, and is cussing form the minute he steps in the building. The other has a mask that covers his mouth but his eerie jade eyes speak for him. They all look way too old to be freshman.
"They're….rather interesting." Shino comments turning back around. I nod. That's when the bell rings. The group of seven begins making their way down a hallway with lockers. I sigh and get up. After double-checking my locker number, I begin down the same hallway. I find the locker easily enough, and then soon figure out that Kiba is just one locker away, with Neji being the locker between. Shino's locker seems to be on the other side of Kiba, but I still don't know who is on my other side. As I'm twisting and turning the lock and trying to open my locker, I see a dark figure come next to me and start to open their locker. I get mine open and then turn over to see who it is. I'm frozen as I look over and see the boy with lots of piercings from before. I quickly look away, hoping he didn't notice me. He doesn't, he actually doesn't seem to even notice me at all until he shuts his locker and finds me there, shoving all of the school supplies into my locker. I look over and find him staring at me. I look down and feel my face slowly start to redden. He just keeps staring at me. What does he want? Thankfully, Kiba comes over.
"Hinata, you ready?" Kiba asks. I turn around and shut my locker.
"Y-yes." I say, and follow him to my first class.
"That guy was like, totally staring at you." Kiba says, looking behind us at him.
"Yeah….I-I dunno why." I say as we walk into the classroom. The teacher tells us to stand at the back of the room until all of the students arrive because he has a seating chart. We as told, and to my surprise, the same orange-haired guy comes in and stands at the back of the room. He sees me and continues to stare at me. I shrug it off and try to ignore him, but it's difficult. He has really weird eyes. When all of the students are in, he takes roll with use standing and then starts giving out the seats. The desks are set up in pairs of two. The teacher calls Tenten's name, and then Kiba's. Right after he calls my name, and then a name I don't recognize. The guy with all of the piercings sits down next to me. I am just having the best luck today. He continues to stare at me. The teacher then passes out stickers that we have to write out name on. As I reach down to grab the marker, he does as well.
"S-sorry, g-g-o ahead." I murmur. He takes the marker and then writes his name on the sticker and sticks it to his shirt. It turns out that his name is Pein. I then take the marker and proceed to write my name on mine, and then stick it to the school sweater I'm wearing. I grow rather uncomfortable with his staring. It's like he doesn't ever look away. Why does he keep looking at me? I finally get the nerve to ask.
"W-why are y-y-you staring a-at m-me?" I manage to get out. He blinks and gives a confused look as if he didn't know he was staring. He looks down.
"Oh, sorry." He says quietly. I look away. The bell rings and everyone gets up and starts to leave. I gather my things and stand up.
"Uh, I'm Pein, by the way." He says. I look up, surprised that he's talking to me.
"I-I'm Hinata." I say quietly.
"Sorry for staring earlier." He says.
"T-that's okay." I say, and leave the classroom. I don't think he knows how intimidating he is. Tenten comes up next to me in the hallway.
"Ugh, Hinata, I'm so jealous! You get to sit by the new kid and I get stuck with Kiba!" She complains jokingly. I would gladly switch with you, I think and fake laugh. Kiba comes up after she's gone.
"Why does that guy keep staring at you?" He asks.
"I-I'm not s-sure." I reply.
"It kind of creeps me out." He says, eyeing Pein as he walks by. I shrug it off. He can't be in that many more of my classes, right?
Wrong.