There is something about being the new kid in school that is just universal. Everyone who's been there knows - you have to blend in and quickly. Stand out too early and you'll be labeled for life or the duration of your stay, whichever ends first. Take it from someone with experience – you don't want that.
My parents move around a lot so I've had more than my share of the "new kid" scene. It works out for me, since I keep to the shadows for the most part, so it's not like I'm complaining. I'm not. In fact I think I'm better suited for a practically nomadic lifestyle than most people my age. There's something comforting about the anonymity that comes with picking up and leaving every six months or so. Even if something goes wrong and everyone ends up hating your guts, it's only a matter of time before you can put them in the dust, so to speak. Make trails, get the hell out of dodge, or just quietly transfer to whatever academic nightmare the next town has to offer.
My name is Shikamaru Nara. I get asked that a lot and the questions usually stop there. The silly, tittering women in the front office ask me when I pick up my schedule and the teachers ask me when I arrive at each class. It's a drag, but it's a routine I've gotten used to. Like I said, it's the same everywhere. I've been here, at the Leaf Academy, for two weeks and I've seen nothing to challenge my generally poor outlook on the public education system, or our generation for that matter. I'm not complaining, though. I've grown used to burned-out, unkempt teachers and hordes of students who are somehow both offensive and boring at the same time. And I've made two friends here – a record for me.
So far nothing has gone wrong and I've blended in well enough. The Leaf is a nice enough school, though the mascot is awful – a ninja? Who thinks of a ninja as a school mascot? It's borderline racist. Still, it's a small school and generally quiet. A few of the students have even grown on me a little. There's a chubby kid who's actually really nice. His name is Chouji. Just don't call him chubby to his face if you don't want your own face rearranged. All that aside, he's a good guy and one of my two friends here.
The other one is a pretty blonde girl named Ino. Not that she thinks that way about herself. She can be really dark and this is coming from someone whose gloomy demeanor and penchant for mesh shirts have gotten him labeled as a goth more than once. If you called Ino a goth, you would probably be nearly right. She considers herself an outcast at this school, just like Chouji and me. The only difference is they've both been here their whole lives. That idea doesn't exactly excite me about my social prospects at this school but what do I care? I've got my peace and quiet and a couple of new friends. In a few months I'll probably be hitting the road anyway.
"Morning, Shikamaru," Ino says, sitting on the grass beside me. Speak of the devil. We're at least thirty minutes into our hour lunch and study hall period and where she's been is anyone's guess. As for me, I think she's been watching Sasuke chow down with the rest of the popular kids.
"Aren't you eating lunch?" I ask, eying her up and down. No traces of a tray or lunch bag to be found.
"No…" she answers vaguely, "Where's Chouji?"
"Out sick," I reply, munching on a carrot, "Nothing to worry about, just a bad case of indigestion."
"Poor Chouji," Ino shakes her head and smiles wryly, "How does it feel to have a couple of friends like us, Shikamaru?"
"It's a real drag," I tell her and we both laugh. I'm not going to lie – having cool people like Ino and Chouji around really passes the time. I just wish we weren't all so damn unhappy. I wish we were enough for each other. "If only I'd fallen in with the right crowd," I say in a fake, wistful voice. "Then I could be watching Sasuke Uchiha eat lunch."
"Ha ha. Very funny."
"I'm serious," I continue, fighting to keep a straight face, "I could be watching Sasuke biting into a turkey sandwich with those perfect teeth of his. Fate is so cruel."
Ino eyes me loftily, "You've got an overly-developed sense of humor, Shikamaru. Maybe you should be over there goofing around with Naruto." Now it's my turn to be annoyed. Even though I tend to be guarded and we've only known each other for two weeks, Ino and I have grown pretty close. Maybe we're too close if she knows my weakness for a certain blonde student.
"Truce," I say warily, "You know I can't stand those guys."
"No one with a soul could," she agrees, pulling a textbook with a lurid pink cover out of her bag. Let's see – the horrible yellow flowers were English, the ridiculous horses or unicorns were Science and the one with all the hearts was history. That last one was easy to remember because in addition to having a world star crush on the most popular guy in our grade, Ino was also madly in love with our history teacher, Mr. Sarutobi. Women can be so fickle. So this was her…math book. Right. I've spent enough time staring at it when there was nothing else to do during yet another boring lecture about corresponding angles.
"Did you study for the test?" Ino asks, noticing my eyes on her geometry book.
I groan, "Don't tell me…"
"Next period, yeah," she confirms, "You're unbelievable Shikamaru. Here, I'll quiz you."
We spend the rest of study hall drilling through a stack of note cards covered in her glittery writing, but it's pointless. The fact is I can't expect to keep up when I never pay attention in class and never do my homework. And I'm woefully behind, already, from moving around so much. Ino's going to do well; that much is obvious. When it's my turn to ask her, I have more trouble deciphering her flourished writing than she does answering the questions.
"You'll be fine," Ino tells me soothingly on the way to class.
"You don't understand," I argue, "If I bring home another failing grade in math my mom is going to kill me."
Ino laughs, but as we approach the classroom her face becomes rigidly blank. Poor Ino. This is the class – the one everyone's in. We've got the big three, the dios mios trio – Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto. I don't know what those fools in the scheduling office were thinking. I almost feel sorry for Ms. Yuhi. There's a lot of friction in this class. Ino and Sakura love Sasuke, who loves nobody, and they hate each other. Naruto, of course, is a class clown of epic proportions.
I'd like to say I don't cause any trouble compared with the rest of that lot, but it isn't completely true. Ms. Yuhi seems to hate me. I'm always falling asleep in the middle of lectures and coming unprepared to class. I guess I can't really blame her, but in my defense, I really, really hate math.
And I always seem to get distracted…
There he is, outside room 201, leaning against the wall looking like trouble itself. Naruto's blonde bangs hang in his eyes and are constantly disheveled but underneath them, his blue eyes are big and yearning. Maybe that's why he wears his hair like he does – to conceal all traces of humanity as he dominates the school with his two best pals.
He's holding a math book open, but his attention is on the crowd outside the door. So Ms. Yuhi is late again, huh? Probably another "secret" rendezvous with Mr. Sarutobi.
"You're smart right?" Naruto demands of us as soon as Ino and I are within earshot.
"Not really, I…"
"Not you," he interrupts me rudely, pointing at Ino, "Her. You. You're good at math, right?"
"If you're looking for someone to cheat off of, you can forget it," Ino tells him stonily, eying his battered textbook. It really is astonishing what someone as careless as Naruto could do to valuable school property in a matter of weeks.
"I'm not!" he says earnestly, "Come on, Ino, please help me study? I'm going to fail this class if I fail this test."
"You should have studied last night," I advise him in a fit of hypocrisy. I don't know why I have to go and draw attention to myself. Maybe I just want to be noticed. How pathetic of me.
"I was going to," Naruto says seriously, turning to me, "but I didn't want to stand your mom up."
"You know my name," Ino interrupts incredulously as he and I glare at each other.
Naruto turns back to her and smiles, "Of course I do, Ino. We've only been in the same grade forever. Come on – please, please help me study. She could be here any minute."
I have to hand it to the little punk; Naruto can be charming when he wants to be. I've seen him use similar tactics to get out of many fixes, usually involving women. It works like a charm. Despite the fact that Ino had spent the rest of her break tutoring me, she pulls out her note cards and gets to work with him. I'm left standing by awkwardly, wondering where Naruto's friends were. Couldn't Sakura be coaching him? She seemed to be doing well enough in this class.
When I look around at the faces lining the hall I see only one turned toward me – that of Sasuke Uchiha. His expression is haughty, as if he is silently communicating his disapproval of our little groups mingling. Or am I just being paranoid? I look away quickly and spend the rest of the time examining the binding of my math book. I could have made use of what quickly became another ten minutes of free time, but it seemed like such a bother to actually open up my book. Anyway, what difference would it make so close to the test? I'm not a fool like Naruto, cramming away up until the last second.
He really is a fool, a beautiful fool, in his crisp white jersey. He keeps the thing spotlessly clean, even though he wears it everyday. See, he's on the team, the soccer team, and there in lies the secret of his popularity. His hyperactivity, which makes him such a bother in class, is an asset on the field. After being dragged to the first game of the season by Chouji and Ino, I get the feeling that Naruto could run up and down that field all day without tiring out. I also get the feeling that coming to school without his jersey would be the equivalent of a normal person coming to school completely naked.
Ms. Yuhi walks up then and, before I know what's happening, Ino is beside me, the note cards zipped away in some inner part of her book bag. Naruto's dingy book is slung under his arm carelessly as he walks beside our teacher, chatting her up and clearly trying to earn some brownie points before the test. I stifle a laugh as he rushes forward to open the door for her and ends up smacking himself in the nose. His so-called friends, Sasuke and Sakura, don't even bother holding back their laughter.
"That was awfully nice of you," I whisper to Ino when I've determined that Naruto is a safe distance away.
She scowls at me and says back, just as quietly, "Everyone has a soft spot for Naruto. I mean the kid was practically raised by wolves."
I watch his back as he walks ahead of us into the classroom. I've always been curious, but too afraid to ask, "What's the deal with him anyway?"
Ino shakes her head as we take our usual seats in the back of the room. "It's a long story. Hey, good luck on the test. If you would just try a little bit, you could probably be doing really well in this class."
"Thanks for the advice, mom."
"I'm serious," she insists. She looks like she wants to say more, but Ms. Yuhi calls the class to attention. Instead, Ino points to Naruto, then to me, then slides a finger across her neck in a 'You're dead' gesture. The meaning is clear only because I know her – 'Spend the period watching Naruto and you will fail this test.'
It's official – we know each other far too well.
The test is as difficult as I would have expected if I hadn't forgotten about it. Ms. Yuhi isn't exactly known for going easy on her students. It's only the second week of class and we're already having our first test. That's the real reason I forgot. How can we be expected to remember something so ridiculous? We've barely had time to learn anything yet. When I get my test packet I leaf through it in disgust. Four pages? Seriously? This will take the entire period. Well at least then we won't have to listen to her drone on post-test. There's the silver lining.
By the time the bell rings and we shuffle forward meekly to hand in our papers, I haven't answered a single question to my satisfaction. The entire time I'm trying to remember how much of our grade this test will count for because I wasn't listening when she explained. Stupid.
I shuffle forward, my mind on the nasty prospect of facing my parents after school and as I place my test on top of the pile, my arm brushes against someone else's – Naruto's. His brows are knitted together and his jaw is clenched – he's the very picture of anxiety.
"Hard test," I say without thinking, though I'm not supposed to just start talking to him like this. It's against the unspoken social rules here.
"What? Oh. Yeah it was," he agrees ruefully, adding his test to the stack. Feeling particularly uninteresting, I walk meekly back to Ino with my hands in my pockets.
"What was that?" Ino hisses as we exit the classroom side by side.
"Shut up," I snap, hating myself and my awkwardness. Hating the fact that I probably just failed a major test in my worst subject area.
"I so failed that!"
I can hear Naruto complaining loudly, even from down the hall. I expect Sasuke and Sakura will be telling him how stupid he is. They don't exactly seem like the most supportive friends. Then, I remember telling Naruto he should have studied earlier and I feel a pang of guilt. Raised by wolves? What did Ino mean by that?
As I turn back just in time to avoid someone's open locker door, Ino catches my eye.
"What?"
She sighs and fixes me with a knowing look. "I'll tell you about Naruto after school on one condition."
I stall for a few seconds, wondering whether or not it's worth the effort to deny my crush on Naruto. In the end, I decided against it. "What's the condition?"
She smiles, not unkindly, but the look I'm giving her is fully skeptical.
"Oh, no big deal," she answers with a tittering laugh, "We just have to go shopping."