When people passed by the record shop—the one near the high school and the jumbo-sized Starbucks—it was usually deserted.
After all, the record shop looked morbid and there was never anybody behind the cashier. So who would actually go there?
But abruptly, the people who usually passed by the record shop started noticing a young girl. Regularly in front of the store, decked out in a gray jacket with the hood up to hide her hair, and dark skinny jeans, she was a mystery to those people.
A mystery, yes. But one that none of them wanted to solve.
And as she stared up at the record shop, the girl didn't see "deserted" or "morbid".
Sakura just saw a dream.
s
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y
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m
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p
symphonia
—all she could hear was it
h
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a
Not many teenagers knew the pink-haired junior girl who was in the same high school as them.
At first, she had been somewhat of a big deal, since she had transferred in the middle of the year, and everyone always pays attention to new students.
But slowly that died down. She wasn't anything exciting. Her hair wasn't even noticeable underneath the hood she always wore. She certainly didn't pay them any attention, so why should they pay much attention to her?
Sakura knew all this, yet she didn't care. What she did was listen to her teacher's voices in class—alone—sit outside at lunch—alone—and disappear after school—alone, alone, alone—to wherever it was she went.
(Her classmates certainly didn't know.)
Maybe, that's why, when Sakura Haruno ended up missing from school for a few days, nobody really noticed.
Except, of course, Those Who Always Observed.
(And the teachers, too, but nobody really cared about them.)
Naruto Uzumaki, Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuuga, Neji Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Shikamaru Nara, and Sasuke Uchiha were a few of Those.
The first two because they were loud and popular and perceptive and they mostly knew everything that went on around their turf.
The third because she was quiet and shy and she was hyper-aware of anything that was Out of The Ordinary.
(And Sakura Haruno was most certainly on the list of Out of The Ordinary.)
The last four because they were sharp high school geniuses and they watched and they listened, even when it may have seemed like they didn't.
And, those few days—when she seemed to have vanished—were only the beginning.
Because, then, Sakura appeared again, on a Monday with her trademark gray jacket, and she seemed perfectly normal.
Or, at least, as normal as Sakura could get.
But that didn't make any of Those have any less of enquiring minds. In fact, their curiosity only grew more.
But remember. It was only the beginning.
.
.
Sakura turned the corner of the street to school and strode to the gates. She was in no hurry to get to class on time. Nobody ever noticed her, after all. And, she supposed, that's just the way she liked it.
Her ways weren't exactly considered "normal." And people always shied away from people who weren't like them. But Sakura hadn't been just like anyone, ever since she was born. And there was nothing she could do about that.
The rays of the sun beat down on her hood, and she gazed up, watching the bright light with a stoniness that would have been frightening, had anyone else seen it. Pulling her hood down again—because it always rode up her head, showing off her hair, which she didn't like at all—she broke out into a faster walk.
A car honked behind her, and the classmate of hers riding in it, opened the window and flipped her off. Honestly, people got mad over the most ridiculous things. They should really have learnt by now, that the things they got mad over, were nothing.
Nothing compared to blowing their ears out with a gun.
Nothing compared to stabbing their eyes out with the sharp end of a broken headphone.
Nothing at all.
She made an obscene hand gesture right back and ran along to class.
When she entered the classroom, nobody acknowledged her. So she went ahead and took a seat in the very back. Then she took out her iPod, lifted her headphones to her ears and pressed play. And everything faded away.
Until someone decided to pluck her headphones off her head.
"Hey!" said the blue-eyed boy, smiling so brightly, too brightly to be possible, almost brighter than the sun. "Whatcha' doin'?"
Sakura did not answer; only stared at him like he was an utter moron. But Naruto was not to be dissuaded. "You've been here for awhile right? 've never talked to you before and I thought I should coz, well, you're always alone and that can't be fun. Right?"
Her impassive face did not change. She merely raised an eyebrow at him and Naruto was reminded completely of Sasuke-teme and his stoicness and blah.
But this girl wasn't like Sasuke. He could feel it. Sasuke was quiet and sarcastic and impassive and sometimes apathetic and he never really seemed to care about what was going on, but this girl was just….blank.
Like, like, a sheet of paper that hadn't been written on. Or a song that was made of up of empty words. As if nothing was there.
Because, when Naruto looked into those eerie
(beautiful, lovely, gorgeous, vacant)
green eyes, he didn't see anything.
And it terrified him.
She stood up, then, not looking at him and said, "Bathroom," then headed out the door, leaving Naruto staring after her.
It took him a second to realize that she had left her iPod and headphones in his hands and, out of curiosity, he put them on and pressed play.
Bewildered, he listened for a minute, took the headphones off and stared at the iPod. Then he put them on and pressed play again.
Same result.
When Shikamaru came and asked him what was wrong, Naruto just grinned at his friend and said that it was absolutely nothing. Shikamaru, sensing something was off, but not one to pry, told his friend to sit down before Kakashi came in and caught him up and about the room again. Naruto did so, falling into his seat next to Sasuke and Shikamaru—the former who was staring at him, like he could tell something was incredibly wrong—, leaving the iPod and headphones on the desk.
And when the girl came back, put them on again, Naruto couldn't stop staring.
Because she was listening to absolutely nothing.
A/N: so this has been in the works for quite awhile. i just never got around to finishing the first chapter until now.
please don't forget to revieeeeew~
:)
-soul