"How was the first day at your new school?" Susannah asked me. She looked at me with shiningly grey eyes.
Susannah was my stepmother. She was really nice, but she asked too many questions. I didn't care about her. I walked upstairs ignoring her question. She knew I would. She had gotten used to my silence.
My father was never at home, and, for that, I was happy. He hated my guts. He thought I was a demon and blamed me for my mothers death. You see, when I was born, my mother died of birthfever, or whatever it was called. I couldn't care less. Not to be cruel either, but you can't miss something you never had. I never had a mother.
Susannah tried her best to make me speak the first couple of months, but my brother and sister said it was a waste of time. We had just moved to a different place. My sister, Temari, and brother, Kankurou, reacted badly to that. It was like they thought we had moved to the other end of the world. We were only two hours away from our last home. I, like always, didn't care.
I didn't have any friends, nor did I desire them. They were nothing but a burden, because you're supposed to tell them everything. I didn't want to tell anyone about my past so I would always push them away. Anyway, we moved because of my fathers work.
The first day at school was like every other normal day. My brother was a year older than me in second grade at college, and my sister, a year older than him, so we all went in different classes. Of course the teachers had introduced me to my new classmates. "Everybody! We have a transferstudent in our class. His name is Gaara Sabaku," the teacher had said in a very girly tone for a man. In recess everybody kept talking to me, even though I ignored them all. I walked away from the croud. I was left alone the rest of the day, until last break. Another boy came walking up to me. "Hello, I'm Naruto," he said smilingly. He clearly hadn't got the hint. I ignored him as well, walked away, and left him smiling.
I wondered who that boy was when I entered my room, which was full of posters of hard rock bands. Many considered me an emo at my last school, but I didn't really care. I was kinda emo.
I had red hair and I was now wearing a plane white shirt and a black jacket with red flames. My trouser was simple jeans, but a little tighter than normal, and they were black too. Some chains were hanging on the pants.
Temari wore a little more punk, and Kankurou was in the skaterstyle with baggy pants and big T-shirts.
I was an over average good student in school, and my characters were mostly B and A's. If I got a C, my father would ground me, and if I got a D I would probably get punished physically. I had gotten so used to the meaningless beating, and I didn't even react anymore when he punshed me.
The next day, when I was standing outside the gate to school, the Naruto-boy ran up to me. "Hi, Gaara, whats up?" he asked me. I ignored the question. "I see you're not the talking type, but I will change that! Believe it!" he partly yelled.
I looked harshly at him. Why couldn't he just leave me alone? Didn't he understand that I didn't want his company? Seriously, he didn't. And any fool was able to understand that. I guess he wasn't any fool. He was probably the fool. After all, he was blond.
Two months passed by and in the middle of April, the Naruto-boy still hadn't gotten the hint, but I was used to his company. I didn't mind having it anymore. He was doing all the talking, even though he used to ask me questions. Sometimes I answered, but he sometimes got to personal, and I either leaned back in the grass closing my eyes, or walked away.
Even though I was used to his company, he wasn't my friend. Or was he? I couldn't tell, I never once had a friend.
One day in recess, we were sitting on the grass. Naruto was talking as always, when something came to my mind.
"Why aren't you with your friends?" I asked him, interrupting the middle of his sentence. He looked somewhat insulted by my question, but he didn't let that destroy his good mood. But I still felt somewhat bad for asking the blonde that question. Why was that?
He stopped my mind from thinking about it, and he said with his azure blue eyes looking kindly at me: "I am with my friend." He then smiled so big that his eyes turned into thin slits.
I looked down at my hands. I didn't want him to think of me as a friend. I didn't want a friend. Why did I get one? "I told you two and a half months ago that I would make you talk to me. So, believe it or not, you were talking to me. And now you even answer most of my questions, and you joined me and my other friends to a party. I mean, the only time you are hostile is when I ask questions about your family. I understand that that is none of my buisness. But, believe it or not, you are my friend," Naruto said, smiling from ear to ear. "Pluss, you even ask me questions now!" he added.
He looked even happier from that discovery. I felt a twich in my lips, but there was no smile. I don't think I'd ever be able to smile. At least not like Naruto did. But he caught the twitch.
He was about to say something when the bell called. He rose up and he grabbed my arm. I whimpered. He looked oddly at me, but I totally ignored the look and walked to the classroom. The reason for why I whimpered was because he held around a bruise my father gave me.
When I came home, my father was there too. That really wasn't usual. He never came home so early. I walked over to him and gave him my last test in Biology. He looked up at me and smiled.
"Another A! Well done, Gaara, well done," he said still keeping the smile, like nothing was wrong with what had happened yesterday when he pushed me down the stairs in rage for having ignored Susannah throughout the entire day. It was only luck that the only thing that happened was that I got some bruises. But father didn't care. He never did.
At school again, Naruto walked over to me. "What is wrong with you?" he asked carefully as he once again grabbed my arm and I whimpered. I looked to the doors. "No, I don't think so," Naruto said and took a hold on my shoulder to stop me from walking away.
"How did you get that bruise?" he asked when I finally gave in and showed him the bruise. "I fell down the stairs," I said simply. That wasn't lying. I didn't say I had fallen in accident, and I didn't make some other lame excuse.
"Did someone push you down?" Naruto asked. I looked stunned at him. "How did you know?" I found myself asking, and now I had confirmed the question. "It was really easy to guess. I mean, you never talk about your family and you're never around other people. Is it because you don't trust them?" he asked. Maybe he wasn't that dumb after all. I sat down on the ground. I told him everything:
"My mother died when she gave birth to me. Father always blamed me for that. He called me a demon, and he swore that it was my entire fault. And he started punishing me for his belief that I was a demon. He wanted to punsh the demon out of me. I once had a Bible, but he took it away from me. He said Christianity was wasted on me. I guess I became the demon he always talked about."
Naruto looked at me in pity, and understanding.
"Same here, well not the exactly same, but I was also called a demon when I was a kid. For no reason. Then my guardian, my parents are dead, moved away from that place, and we started living here. People accepted me," he said. "But your father is dangerous. What if he goes out of line one day? What if he kills you? That would be awful!" I looked away.
"I've always lived with it. Pluss he isn't as bad as he once was. He acctually went as far as burning me. I didn't get any scars, though. He doesn't punsh me so much anymore. Only once a month," I said.
"That is once a month too much. Believe it!" Naruto said and punshed his fist to the ground. "Don't worry about it," I said. "You cheer me up, and that girl over there is really goodlooking." Naruto looked at me oddly, and then smiled. "Yeah, that girl is Haley," he said as if that was really obvious. I turned to look at her once again, and then I said:
"I'm going to be fine. Believe it!" I said in the way he always says it. I did it to tease him of course. He poked me on my bruise. "Ouch!" I said.
Naruto smiled and said: "Just as you know, I did that on purpose. That's what you get for messing with the best! Believe it!"
To believe and not to believe. I don't believe my father will stop punishing me for my mothers death, but I do believe I'm going to be fine. Thanks to the friendship I have with Naruto.