All this time they had me thinking: love's a boat that's long been sinking.
But you made the claim that taking a chance is embracing the change
I count my blessings knowing you will take me home.
Love won't bring me down, oh no.
___
Much later, she would look back on it and smile at the irony. Of course, it had all probably started much earlier- God knows it had with her- but still. It was just one of those moments that stuck.
Sakura Haruno was a senior at Konoha High. This was her year, she thought, her year to shine. This was supposed to be the best year of her life, or at least, one of them. She had been simultaneously dreading and looking forward to this since freshman year. The dread stemmed from the weight of so many expectations; the excitement was self-explanatory.
Senior year. She laughed giddily as she walked out to the car she shared with her mother, a green Toyota. The time of day (7:00) didn't even bother her, she was too pumped. This was gonna be great.
She pulled out of the driveway, put her iPod on Shuffle, and took the familiar old route to school. She had barely parked and left the car when she was bowled over by an energetic, overenthusiastic, happy face.
"Mmmff...Naruto! What have I told you about knocking people on their asses?! Seriously! Just a hug would do it..." Despite her annoyed appearance, she couldn't help but laugh. Her blonde buddy was just too damn lovable to stay mad at for too long, she mused, which would definitely help him on his quest to be Homecoming King.
"Sakura! I've missed you SOOO MUCH! AAHHHH! SO MUCH. How long has it been?! We HAVE to go out to lunch today and catch up!" Sakura laughed again.
"Naruto...we hung out last weekend."
"Yeah, but Sasuke was there so it doesn't count! It's no fun when he's killing all the joy with his angst, you know?"
"Well yeah, that and you challenging him to an arm-wrestling match every 30 seconds does make it kind of difficult to talk..."
Naruto beamed. "So does that mean we can go out to lunch today? Huh? Does it?!" Sakura sighed and smiled. She didn't know how Naruto managed it; despite being an orphan, he was always so upbeat..."Yeah. Well actually, I'm not making any promises for today. But definitely sometime this week."
The bell interrupted their conversation shrilly, and Sakura jumped. "Shit! I didn't realize we'd been talking for so long! Come on Naruto, we have to go get our schedules in Homeroom!"
With that, the two friends headed into the large brick building.