Beams of unsparing light shone on the weary town beneath. It was the starting point of summer, where black hair turned brown and constant perspiration led to unpleasant smells. Typical. Tenten chewed on a piece of gum that lost its flavor, occasionally blowing a light pink bubble while staring out the window. It was summer vacation, and she had been looking forward to it all year, but right now, she wished she hadn't. A warm and dusty breeze wafted in through the open window, and she released a pent-up sigh.
"So much for summer." Tenten murmured sarcastically. Standing up off of the plain brown chair, she shifted her knee to the edge of the windowsill, letting her weight dangle on it. Then, she swung her other leg over and jumped gracefully out the window, landing on her two feet. Music pumped into one ear, while another earphone lay dangling at her side. Sighing once again, she couldn't help but scoff at her own situation.
It was 5 days after the last day of school, and instead of going on trips with friends like the other people she knew were, she was stuck at home for the whole gosh-darned summer. And her parents (currently at a trip in the mainland Asia) said it was supposed to be fun. Tenten rolled her eyes. What part of this was fun?
"…You! Hey you! Watch out!" She turned around and was met with the view of a speeding metal shopping cart filled with metal boxes and the like rushing toward her. Sighing as it came towards her, she placed her palm against one of the boxes and jumped over the cart, her feet sweeping when she pulled the cart back with one hand and held her balance with another. A group of people sprinted over to her, panting in exhaustion from chasing the cart. Tenten recognized the stupid fools; they were the supposedly 'popular' crowd from the prestigious school Fire-Leaf Academy, Konoha Branch, currently her school of attendance. Of course, since she wasn't rich like the other students, she was there on scholarship.
"We're, like, so sorry. 'Cause there was this, like, really, like, hot guy. And I didn't really, like, notice. The cart moving. So, sorry!" The school prep (who was always wearing indecent length skirts and tops) declared-er- preppily her blond hair marking her as Ino Yamanaka, the most popular girl. Tenten really didn't care. So when other populars came to apologize to her, or insult her, or both, she gave only one answer to all of them.
"Huh? What were you saying?" Tenten, of course, was daydreaming of what to do with her summer and the delectable thoughts of sweet, tasty dango, and was too busy to notice the squawking chickens that came. Well, they sounded like chickens to her uninterested and I-don't-really-care-I-want-dango mind. Because of this, an exhausted and pissed off popular named Hyuuga Neji went up to her, and said something that he would regret. A calmer, but still angry, Uchiha Sasuke followed.
"Don't you know I am?" They both said in unison, but interrupted by the breakout of squeals and cheers in the background. Tenten tilted her head to the side in habit, raising a hand to point at Neji.
"You're…Whitey" she shifted her index finger to Sasuke's direction, "and you're…Ducky." Tenten responded emotionlessly, her natural monotone obvious. her parents and brother had always referred to it as 'troublesome'. But, habits like hers die hard. Especially since she was born with them.
"What?!" She listened to the wonderful chorus of voices before running past the angry group and hoping to find a hiding place at her part-time job. And maybe grab some of Anko Mitarashi's homemade dango along the way.