DISCLAIMER: I do not own Itachi Uchiha, Akatsuki, or anything else to do with Naruto. Having said that, this plot, this story and all other characters not associated with Naruto are my own. Thank you and enjoy.
Hello! My name is Zana! I'm sixteen years old and today will be my first day of eleventh grade. UGH. I swear, what school starts at 7:40 in the morning?! Seriously, what the hell. Since it was the first day, all of the juniors had to report to the school library to pick up their class schedules. Our school has a weird system for classes; we work on a semester system. The first semester is from august until December, and the next is from January to June. But, the difference is, the first semester we have four classes and the second semester are four different classes. But enough about my school system!
I just yawned as I made my way up the steps to the library entrance. I pulled back my long dark hair into a messy bun and rubbed my grey eyes to get the sleepies out. I'm glad I got here earlier than usual; otherwise this place would be crawling with the morons that call themselves students. I received my schedule from the librarian and walked away just as the torrential hordes of students rushed toward her. I was pretty short, so I managed to squeeze through the crowd and I found a quiet corner to take a hard look at the orange paper in my hand:
1. Art 3 101 Enry
2. Peer Helpers P36 Herb
3. CP US History 405 Korner
4. AP Calculus AB 122 Messnir
Overall, well rounded; I thought my schedule would have consisted of harder classes. My friends tried to persuade me to take AP US History and AP Art History and AP English, but I want to be an engineer in the future. I have no idea how History, English and Art would help me achieve that. So I kept my focus on all of the math classes. Art would be pretty easy. Peer helpers was a completely new class and I had no idea what to expect.
The teachers weren't too bad; except Korner. I have heard so many horror stories about him. Every year he manages to get at least one student expelled and many more suspended. I think he's just jealous that we're young and he's not. Herb; I had her before for English but I don't know what the hell Peer Helpers could be about. Maybe the school is just trying to find smart kids to tutor the not-so-smart ones for free.
The warning bell rang, signaling the time to make our way to class. Fortunately, the art building wasn't too far from the library; it was the trip from Art to Helpers that I was worried about. As I was walking to class, my attention was diverted.
"Zana! Are you headed to art as well?!" I quickly turned around and saw Rachel waving and smiling.
Behind her trailed Kristy and Caroline. I smiled and waved in return and waited for them to catch up.
"Yea, I've got art three; I'm excited," I said with a big smile. "How were your summers?"
"Nothing new; sat around and got fat," Kristy pinched her stomach to show us the so-called fat.
"I started studying for the SATs and ACTs," Caroline said matter-of-factly. "We gotta take those this year if we want to get into great universities."
"What other classes do you have Zana?" Rachel asked curiously.
"Calculus, US History, and Peer helpers," I listed off the top of my head.
"When is calculus for you?" Caroline inquired as we entered the art room.
"Fourth," I said.
"Awww, I have it third! At least we have one class together!" Caroline smiled.
"Well, we all have lunch together too," Kristy said optimistically.
The four of us grabbed a table near the back. The final bell rang signaling the start of class. We had an hour and a half in this class. Our teacher, Ms. Enry, started taking roll. After she did, she passed out the syllabus and began reading through it. My mind tuned her out automatically. It wasn't on purpose! I have a hard time focusing on things I find unimportant. I can read the syllabus whenever I need to. When she finished, she gave us an assignment for the day; to draw the pile of rocks that were at the middle of our table.
"Ugh, really? Rocks? It couldn't be flowers?" Rachel groaned.
"Well, she never specified realistic or not," I said coyly.
I put my head down once I got myself a paper.
"Zana, you okay?" Caroline asked.
"I'm still in summer mode," I complained. "And it's too early in the morning."
"I agree," Caroline said thoughtfully then changed the subject. "Are you guys going to Homecoming?"
"Uhm, we got two months till then Caroline," Kristy replied uncertainly.
"It's still fun to think about thought," Caroline insisted.
I put my head down again and rolled my eyes at her statement. To be honest, Caroline and I had a weird relationship. Last year, in my pre-calculus class, I had a crush on a guy named Jeromy. He was so sweet to me and so nice to me and we worked on classwork together. Out of the blue, Caroline asked him to the Sadie Hawkins' dance, even after I told her how I felt about him. Worst part is, he said yes, and then they went out for months. By then, the damage was done. Since then, I always was polite to her, but I didn't really consider her a friend.
I took out my ear buds and plugged in. Before I knew it, my drawing was done and it was time to go to our next class. I said a quick goodbye to them and powerwalked to my next class, in portable 36. It was clear across campus and I entered the room just as the final bell rang. I knew Mrs. Herb from ninth grade so I figured if I talked to her about my situation, she would understand where I was coming from.
"Zana! It's good to see you again," Mrs. Herb stated when she saw me. "It's been awhile."
"Yes it has," I smiled and pulled out my schedule. "I actually wanted to speak with you. See, my first period is at the front of school and I have to come all the way here after. Would I be marked down if I was, let's say, 30 seconds late?"
"Well no, but I can't give you more than a minute leeway," she shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry."
"One minute is more than enough, thank you so much," I said gratefully and turned to take a seat.
Fortunately for me, people were still goofing off. That and I knew some people in this class.
"Zana! Here!" I saw one of my close friends, Emily, call out from the corner.
I couldn't help but smile. With her were Ben and Justin and a couple other guys who I've seen in some of my classes. The tall one was Stefan and the short one was Adam. They were nice guys but I kept my distance; they fooled around with the wrong crowd.
"What's up Emily," I smiled and sat in the chair next to her.
"Paco; this year, I'm going to change my name to Paco," Emily said seriously.
"Uhm, are you sure about that?" Justin asked tentatively.
"Yea, so you all better call me Paco!" Emily/Paco insisted.
Even when Mrs. Herb took roll, Emily told her to change her name to Paco. I shrugged internally; whatever floats her boat. I just leaned back in my chair and listened to Mrs. Herb talk about what the class was about.
After I had a general idea, my mind just wandered off into the abyss of dreamland. This class is basically opening the eyes of everyone and not to judge people based on appearance. For the next few weeks we would be telling life stories and then begin going to classes and spreading the message. I pulled out one of my favorite manga of all time, Legal Drug, and began reading from volume one.
"Hey, I've read that one before; not many people know about it," the guy sitting behind me said quietly enough so I could hear him.
I turned around and saw Stefan sitting behind me. He had wild dirty blond hair and was fairly tall for his age. I remember him being in my English class in ninth grade. What were the odds of him being in my class now? I was about to say something but someone took my book out of my hands before I could even begin reading.
"Zana, come on, don't ignore us," I heard Ben's voice.
I guess Mrs. Herb was giving us time to socialize.
"Long time no see Ben, how was your summer?" I asked politely. "May I have my book back please?"
"As long as you don't read it," he teased me.
"Fiiiiiine," I rolled my eyes and stowed my book back into my backpack.
For the rest of the class, Paco, Ben, and I talked to each other; our events over summer, our plans over the school year and what we plan to do with our futures. We also talked about what the class would entail. A few minutes before the bell rang, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders and start giving me a shoulder massage.
"Wow Zana, you have a lot of knots in your shoulders," Justin said worriedly. "Just sit back and let me work my magic."
So I relaxed and Justin really did work magic. In the five minutes left for class, I felt so much better.
"Justin, I swear you should just be a massage therapist," I said gathering up my stuff.
"I should," he mused, then looked down at me. "Zana, when did you get so short?"
"What? I've always been this tall; you got taller," I said looking up at him.
He just smiled and patted my head, "Well, you just stay short and cute."
"Wha?!—" I started to say but the bell interrupted my incoming thought.
"Come on, class time! You're with us," Ben grabbed my arm and started pulling me along.
"See you later Zana!" Emily/Paco said, waving good-bye.
Ben, Justin and I walked together to our US history class; apparently we had this class together.
"So, what's the scoop on Korner?" Justin asked curiously.
"Well, he gets at least one student expelled each year and multiple students suspended," I rattled off what I had heard from Jeromy last year. "We should be scared."
"Psh, no teacher scares me," Ben boasted.
"Ben, be careful," I warned him.
The three of us entered the classroom and immediately fell silent; the atmosphere in the room was quite somber actually. I glanced to the corner and saw Korner sitting at his desk, patiently waiting for the bell to ring. We made our way to the corner opposite the door and sat at the table. Ben sat next to me and Justin sat across from Ben.
"See, it's not so bad," Ben whispered quietly, although I had to strain my ears to hear him.
"Oh my god, look at him," a couple girls at the table next to ours started whispering. "He's fucking gorgeous! Is he new here? I've never seen him before."
"Shiiiiit he's hella hot," another girl whispered.
I followed their gaze and it landed on the door, where there was a male, standing and looking around the classroom. He looked like he walked into the wrong classroom by mistake, but I could just be seeing things. I have to agree with the girls a table over, he is handsome. Dark eyes, pale skin, average height of maybe 5'8, and built. He was wearing jeans and a plain black, fitted t-shirt which accentuated his toned arms and torso. His hair was as dark as night, pulled back into a loose ponytail, and his eyes seemed like endless tunnels to which there lay no end.
"Wow…" I breathed out. "Fuck. He is hot."
"Since when do you curse Zana?" Ben shot me a look."
"Since the god of all things sexy walked into this room," I stifled a giggle.
I could feel Ben and Justin roll their eyes and I couldn't take my eyes off this beautiful creature that had walked into my third period history class. Even if Korner was going to be a hellish teacher, at least this eye candy would make everything much more bearable. He took a seat at the table nearest to the door, but he was in my direct line of sight; I had an uninterrupted view of his beautiful face. At least, I did until they showed up.
A gaggling group of three of the preppiest, most hipster girls you would ever see. They all looked almost the same, and I knew I wasn't going to be getting along with these girls, although I would have to. See, my problem is that I'm too nice for my own good. So even if I don't like someone (i.e. Caroline) I still am nice to them because I can't tell them off. I would feel so bad and then the stress would build up on my soul until I apologized. It really sucks.
The bell rang and everyone instantly fell silent. Korner sat for a few more moments and then slowly stood up.
"Welcome to US History, where you will learn not to repeat past mistakes," he said sternly. "Let's begin with roll call."
He started calling out names, and one by one, everyone answered, "Here!" at least, until my name came along.
"Zana Hyden?" he looked up from his clipboard and his gaze swept the room.
"Present!" I called out, a little too excited.
He stared at me until I lowered my gaze to my desk, and then moved on. The names went on and on, until another person replied with the same remark I had.
My gaze shot up from my desk and I saw Mr. Gorgeous with his hand raised, although, Korner's gaze did not faze him a single bit. In fact, Mr. Gorgeous seemed like he was making Korner squirm and boy was he squirming. It was a stare-off between teacher and student. My eyes never left Mr. Gorgeous and I could have sworn I saw his eyes flash red, but it was gone as soon as it came. Korner put away and clipboard and began passing out textbooks. He explained we would do a chapter a week and every Friday there would a test. Each section should be read, and summarized and turned in by the end of the week. With that, he left us to do our thing.
"That's it? We sit here and read and take notes?" I hissed, somewhat angry that he wouldn't be doing any talking.
"And there will be absolutely no talking Ms. Hyden!" he barked out.
I winced and went back to my book. I grumbled internally; I hadn't even been paying attention to Mr. Gorgeous's name. Nor had I been paying attention to annoying girl group who had decided to sit next to Mr. Gorgeous for the rest of the semester. I snuck a glance at Mr. Gorgeous, damn this name is going to stick, and immediately my stare was met by the gaze of one girl who was sharing a table with him. If looks could do damage, I'd probably be dead right now.
Great, now even my eye candy is gone. What the hell. I decided to just focus on my work and block out everyone and everything else. It happened, but in the back of my mind, I felt a pair of eyes on me. Maybe it was the bitch again, maybe it was Korner, but I was too scared to even look up. I sighed and mentally slapped myself; since when had I become that much of a chicken? So I chanced a look up. Korner's gaze was on his computer screen and the bitch was trying to get the attention of Mr. Gorgeous, who looked as if he didn't have a care in the world. He was just trying to complete his work. Satisfied that I was going insane, I went back to my work, but the moment I looked down, the feeling came back. Trying my best to ignore it, I began mouthing what I was reading.
'As the revolution came to a close, we begin to see…' but it didn't help at all. My head shot up and I finally found out who had been staring at me all along: Mr. Gorgeous. I couldn't believe it. But he was still staring. I stared into those endless tunnels and felt myself getting lost; there were absolutely no emotions. What had happened in this guy's life to where his eyes show no emotion at all? A blush began to creep to my face and I quickly broke eye contact out of embarrassment. I tried to focus on my work but ended up doodling instead until the bell signaled lunch.
Ben, Justin and I were the last people out, since we did get the seats furthest from the door. Once we were outside, Justin spoke.
"Dang Zana, I'm pretty sure Korner hates you now," he shook his head. "First day and you're already on his radar."
"The guy has insanely good hearing, how the hell was I supposed to know he could hear whispers in the back of the room?" I almost hissed, and continued looking for Mr. Gorgeous.
I don't know why I was looking for him, maybe I developed a crush. Maybe a part of me hoped that the stare we had shared was a start of something special, but that was my romantic side talking.
"So, did you guys catch the name of the other guy who said 'present'?" I asked innocently as we made our way to our normal lunch spot.
The building where we had our history class was just one courtyard over from our normal lunch spot.
"I think is name is Itachi, Korner completely butchered the last name," Justin said quickly.
"And the girl across from him is Carrie Ream," Ben said darkly. "She's one you don't want to mess with."
"Ugh, who the hell mentioned Carrie?! Don't say her name; she's number one bitch at this school!" I heard my best friend Shelby call out.
"Yea! Stupid dimwit thinks I'm a cutter," my other best friend Serena rolled her eyes.
"Zana, why do you mention her?" my final bestie, Maggie, asked me.
"She's in our history class and kept shooting dagger looks at me," I said frowning. "I have no idea what I did to her in the first place. I didn't know she existed until today!"
"You're lucky then," Maggie shook her head and took out her lunch.
I dug through my backpack to pull out the lunch my mom had made for me: PBJ complete with carrot packet, an apple and a bottle of water.
"God, my mom is going health nut on me," I groaned. "I miss my Skittles."
Kristy, Caroline and Rachel showed up minutes later along with Joann, Joey, and Randy. Even though we had a huge circle of friends, we had our little groups. Shelby, Maggie, Serena and I sat on the bench and chattered about our first day of school.
Little did I notice, but Itachi had taken refuge on the bench beside ours. And he was followed by Carrie and her clique.
"So Itachi, we should totally hang out sometime!" Carrie said and then glanced at me. "I could totally show you a good time."
With that, she left, leaving Itachi, AKA Mr. Gorgeous, to brood over her offer.
I pulled out my manga Legal Drug again and started reading volume one. I've read it so many times before, but I can't help to read it again. My friends faded into the background and it became me and the book. I felt stares again and looked up abruptly. Anthony was walking by with his friends, staring at me while doing so.
"What's his issue?" Shelby gave him the evil eye and he disappeared down the hall.
"I used to have a small crush on him last year," I sighed. "I guess he found out. Ah well. No more feelings from me though. He lost his chance."
I went back to my novel, praying for no more interruptions. But another one came again, this time, it was someone standing over me, blocking the sunlight.
"Now what?" I said irritably and looked up, only to find Mr. Gorgeous standing over me, looking down.
"Can I see your book?" he asked his voice like ice.
"Uhm, sure," I said uncertainly and handed him my novel.
He flipped to the back and read the summary, all the while I just stared like an idiot. Why is he here and talking to me? Does he like manga too? Is he going to be weirded out? What the hell is he thinking?
"It sounds pretty cool, do you mind if I borrow it?" he asked me, not giving it back to me.
"Uh, sure I guess," I said, still in shock that he was talking to me.
"Thanks," he murmured, grabbed his stuff and walked off without another word or glance.
I regained composure moments later.
"What the fuck did I do that for?! I hardly know the guy and I gave him my beloved baby novel oh my god what if he steals it?!" I nearly cried and my friends looked at me. "What if he spills something on it? Or worse...FOOD! NOO!
"Uhm, I think its official, she's insane," Maggie commented but stifled a laugh as she watched me go bat-shit insane over a book.
"Zana's got a crush, Zana's got a crush," Serena sang out.
"Shut up serena!" I nearly yelled but blushed; she was right.
"Well, he's cute, and he talked to you, what do you think Zana?" Shelby asked me thoughtfully.
"I have no idea, I can't think around him, he's too good looking," I muttered and looked away.
I grabbed my backpack just as the bell rang. I bade farewell and made my way to calculus class. I just hope he gives me my book back. I would hate to have to buy another one.
I thought about the first day so far; I made an enemy, I have a new crush, and I'm going insane. Wonderful! Life is perfect.
"Welcome to calculus class! Please find your name on the desk and take a seat," Ms. Messnir said cheerfully.
And instantly I felt better. The desks in her room were arranged in groups of four so I took my seat and snuck a glance at the names around me. I nearly froze when I saw Itachi's name. His last name was Uchiha. Weird last name, but then again, aren't all last names?
"Well, well, we meet again," I heard his familiar icy voice laced with amusement.
I just kept my gaze on my desk, "Hello."
He took his seat and pulled out my book and began reading. The bell rang and Messnir began talking. She said that this would be a hard class, yadda yadda. She passed out review packets; basically first week was math review of the entire subject of math we had ever learned before this class. It was a pretty thick packet, due Friday as well.
Math was my strength, so I started on the packet. I enjoyed completing the problems, and before I knew it the bell rang. I even forgot the fact that the Mr. Gorgeous was sitting next to me the whole time. I packed up my back and booked it out of class. I was down the hall power-walking to my car when a voice stopped me.
"Zana!"
My heart instantly skipped a beat because I recognized Itachi's voice. Damn. I think I'm in love.
"Your book," he said quietly and handed it back to me. "Are there other volumes?"
"Yea, I can bring them tomorrow if you want," I said, accepting the book back; at least I can think now.
"That would be awesome, thanks," he said quietly and walked away, leaving me with my book.
I didn't have time to think after that; I was running behind schedule. I volunteered at a hospital every Monday after school and I didn't want to be late.
That night at home, I lay in bed trying to fall asleep, but Itachi's image just kept running through my head: his skin, his hair, but especially his eyes. His eyes spoke everything. He's seen things no one should see in their lifetime. He's a closed off person; even his voice shows little to no emotion what so ever. Either way, I looked forward to seeing him tomorrow…and the rest of my friends of course!
A/N: Sorry this chapter was a lot of her thoughts, but I think it got the point across! I honestly didn't think the first chapter would be so long. Please review and let me know what you think! Thank you