What can I say, I'm bored, and I need to practice writing.

Italics are thoughts.

"Don't forget your lunch!"

"Got it already, mom."

Sometimes I think my mom is more nervous about my first day of school than I am. Although I'm pretty darn nervous now. Today's my first day in a whole new school. I feel a fluttering in my stomach worse than the time I accidently broke my mom's favorite porcelain vase, and I waited in suspense all day for my punishment.

It's chilly out today. I wrap my sweater closer around me. I've walked this way a hundred times, back and forth between our new house and the school, so that I wouldn't get lost on my first day. But now I'm too nervous to pay attention to where I'm going, and I take a wrong turn. Right into someone. The force of another body hitting mine sends me falling right onto my butt.

"Ow!"

"Oh wow, I'm really sorry!"

I look up into a big pair of blue eyes, and a hand reaches out to me. I take it and the boy helps me up.

"I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to run into you like that! I was on my way to meet up with my friends and- wait are you going to school? You know it's that way right? Are you lost?"

He says all this at a million miles a minute, while I just stand there, most likely with the dumbest look on my face as I try to keep up.

I think he finally caught on that I was not catching anything he was saying, because his blabbering audibly screeched to a halt. No really, I swear I heard a record squeal.

"Sorry," he says as he reaches up and scratches his head. He shakes his messy blond hair out and reaches a hand out to me. "Naruto Uzumaki," he says as I shake his hand.

He looks at me expectantly.

"O-oh! Reiko Sugiyama."

Naruto looks puzzled at this.

What, is my name weird?

"I've never heard that name before. Are you new here?"

I nod. He looks excited at this.

"D'you wanna walk with me? I could help you out an' stuff!"

"Uhh, sure."

"Sweet! I'll introduce you t'all my friends and-"

I tune him out about there. Not that I find him annoying, but I want to enjoy the last bit of summer, the last taste of freedom before school finally, offically begins. We walk past a small park filled with tons of trees, some of them shedding brightly colored leaves. A couple and a child play in the park with a small, yappy kind of dog. I sigh. I miss the old house, surrounded by hundreds of trees. We turn left around a corner and as I look around, I notice two teens waiting up ahead. Naruto suddenly grabs my hand and he's litterally dragging me towards the two, a boy and girl.

"Sakura, Sasuke!"

The two turn towards us, and both look slightly alarmed that Naruto is nearly ripping my arm out of it's socket in his haste. And just as fast as he'd bolted before, he stops without warning, and I fall flat on my face.

Gravity:2 Me:0.

What is it with today? I really hope this isn't an indication of what's to come this year...

"Naruto!"

I feel a pair of arms slipping underneath me, pulling me up to a standing position.

"You okay?"

I nod. The dark haired boy that helped me up looks closely at my face. I gulp slightly, and my face starts heating up.

Ooohhh, he's cute. But why is he staring at me like that?

He suddenly lets go of me and starts rummaging around in his heavy looking backpack. My heartbeat slowly returns to normal.

Uhh, okay?

"Sakura, I didn't mean to, really!"

I turn my attention to the girl and Naruto. She has the collar of his shirt gripped tightly and is glaring at him. Like evilly glaring at him. He looks like he's about to pee his pants.

"Don't apologize to me! Tell HER you're sorry!" With that she flings him towards me.

Not again!

I'm about to dive onto some random person's lawn to avoid him, but he manages to stop himself.

Phew

"I'm really really REALLY sorry! I didn't mean to- hey, your face!"

I deadpan. What's wrong with my face?

Suddenly I notice a warm sensation trickling down my cheek, and a stinging pain above my right eye.

I'm about to reach up and touch the spot, when the other boy, Sasuke, grabs my hand and turns me towards him.

WTF?

But I see he has some gauze and adhesive bandages in his hand.

Ooohhhh.

"Hold still."

He grabs my face with one hand and starts wiping blood away with a moist little cloth. But then it starts burning and I realize it's an alcohol pad.

"OOOWWWW!"

Naruto's looking like he just sat on a puppy, and Sakura looks like he just sat on HER puppy.

Sasuke's intent on cleaning the wound above my eye.

I bite my lip through the stinging pain.

So far, today SUCKS!

Sasuke finishes cleaning the wound and places a two bandages over the cut. He hands me a small box of bandages and a handful of alcohol pads.

"So, why do you-"

"Naruto."

"Ah. Thanks."

He nods and put the rest of his 'first aid kit' into his bag.

"Are we ready now? It's getting close to 8," Sasuke said as he glanced at the black watch around his left wrist.

"Yeah," Sakura and Naruto both reply, and I nod.

I introduce myself to Sasuke and Sakura, and Sakura again makes Naruto apologize to me. But soon enough the three are in casual conversation. I suddenly feel like I'm intruding. They have a close-knit, almost intimate friendship, and it's obvious enough even for me to feel it. Sakura and Naruto chatter back and forth, occasionally joined by Sasuke, in a way that seems rehearsed. I slow my pace so that I move out of their conversation. Nobody seems to notice, so I study the buildings and streets we pass, watching Sakura and Naruto bicker playfully through the corner of my eye.

We walk for several more minutes, before I hear Naruto groan loudly. I look over, and I see the school looming a block away.

"Savor it while it lasts, Naruto," Sakura says, punching his shoulder. He sighs and grins back at her.

"So, Reiko."

My heads snaps to face Sasuke. He's giving me an odd look, and I can't seem to dechiper it.

"You're in our grade, right?" I nod in affirmation. "Let me see your schedule." He stops and faces me completely, holding out his hand. Naruto and Sakura stop as well, but I hear several other kids shout their names, and they run ahead to greet their friends. I hear a few yell for Sasuke, too, but he doesn't acknowledge them. He glances over my schedule and hands it back to me.

"You have a few classes with the three of us, so we'll be able to help you around."

How the-?

"O-okay. Thanks a lot. It'll really help." He nods and we start towards the school again.

"But how did you-"

"I have a good memory."

Creeeeeeppppyyyyy... But hot.

I feel my skin melt off my skull as I think that, and nearly end up tripping over my feet.

I'd been to the school several times over the summer, both with my mom and alone, and I'd always felt fine approaching it. But now it seems foreboding, haunting.

Grreeeaaaaaaaatttt...

"If you're nervous, don't be. It's not that scary. You'll blend right in."

Yeah, my skin and guts are all the way home now.

He laughs at what I'm sure was the most freaked out expression ever on my face.

"Well, I have gym right now, so i'll see you around. and don't be afraid to tell Naruto to shut up once in a while. Kid gets annoying fast." He smirked and as I said 'bye' turned and headed down a separate walkway.

As for the part about blending in, he lied. As I walk through the front court, a number of kids give me odd looks and point and whisper to their friends. I swallow hard and try to hide myself in my sweater. And there's no sign of Naruto or Sakura anywhere.

Kill me now, kill me now, kill me now...

Kona Junior/Senior High School is 'a small, community-centered, student oriented facility.' I remember the principal saying. She was a no-nonsense woman whose attitude clearly demanded respect. Which I meekly handed to her on a gilded platter. My mom had obviously been delighted that I wasn't being enrolled in a school filled with juvenile delinquints. After speaking with the principal, she'd dragged me down to the local store to pick up tons of school supplies, more than half of which I hadn't even needed.

The sounds and smells of a new school year hit me full force as soon as I step through the open double doors. Kids of various grades and appearances chatter on wildly to each other, each one retelling their summer in minute detail. I reach into my pants pocket and take out the little slip of paper that has my locker number and combination written on it.

Locker # 380 Combination # 47-7-39.

I glance around at the lockers I pass. Kids are hurriedly piling their belongings into their lockers.

347.

I see a girl with pretty pale eyes listening quietly as a boy with messy brown hair tells her about what he and his dog, 'Akamaru' did all summer.

362.

Sakura is there, talking, no wait, arguing with a blonde girl in a miniskirt.

379.

A boy with bright red hair, placing his supplies neatly into each self.

380.

I feel a shiver of apprehension run down my spine as I touch the lock. I turn the dial according to my combination and mess it up the first, second, third time. My locker finally creaks open, just as the one next to me slams shut. I jump violently and look over. Light aqua eyes stare back, then are out of my field of vision, and are soon lost in the swarm of students. I shrug and turn to the task of fitting all of my supplies in the little space available.

I hear a really annoying bell go off three times, and suddenly, the swarm moves even faster. Groups of kids hurried to grab their stuff and find a place inside the rush.

What the- Oh crap, the bell!

I finish shoving everything into my locker and slam it shut, and I'm halfway down the hall when I realize I forgot my schedule in my locker.

Yeah, today definitely sucks.