Man, Math suuuucks…, Sakura Haruno thought lazily, not really trying to pay attention to her Geometry teacher, Maito Gai. Her chin was placed in her hand and her elbow propped on her desk, with her brilliant green eyes slightly hooded in her bored state. The black board some three rows in front of her was covered in logarithms, equations, triangles, and sayings like; "Math is good!" or "Math is the center of youth!". Yeah. OK. Maito-sensei was in front of it in his forest green suit and bright orange tie, scratching more things on the board with white chalk.

In a way, fourth period Geometry was like a forty-eight minute acid trip. With Gai dressing him-self and his classroom in bright, contrasting, ugly colors, usually boring extremely long words were made psychedelic by his loud, sometimes frightening voice, and the odd shapes all around the room really topped it off. For some of the students, it really was a good high.

"Woah… dude…" the guy to her left whispered in dazed amazement. She turned her head lazily to face him. He had a gaze that was similar to hers, except that he a goofy smile on his face and his hands were underneath his desk fiddling with a Zippo. She recognized him instantly as the druggie senior she sat next to everyday. Deidara was his name? Oh, yeah… He was part of one the 'bad boys' gangs. Akatsuki? Yeah. They were notorious for doing drugs. Ino, who was the school's gossip queen, (and Sakura's best friend) had told her once. But, that was only because she had dated Deidara their freshman year.

Sakura sneezed. God, she hated chalk.

Maito-sensei suddenly burst in enthusiasm; "Pythagoreans! We love Pythagoreans people! Now, when solving…" blah, blah, blah. Jeez, no wonder she was failing. Sakura jumped out of her math-induced reverie when a note unexpectedly landed on her desk. Staring down at it, her eyes fully open now, she saw that it was from Ino. The loopy cursive of her handwriting spelled out Sakura's name, ending with a quick heart after it. She unfolded it underneath her desk:

Check out the new meat. You'll thank me later! 3

Love, Ino.

(P.S. He's sitting in front Hinata. You can't miss him!)

New meat, huh?, Sakura thought. Must be good. She turned in her seat and raised her eyes to Ino's in the back of the room. Ino gave her a thumbs up and then went back to gazing lovingly at the back Sai's head. Sai was her latest victi- er, crush.

Sakura picked up her pencil, positioned it over her left shoulder, and began absently tapping it against her neck. She tilted her head to the side as if in interest towards the front of the room, twisting her lips in a funny expression. Then she "accidentally" dropped her pencil on the tiled floor of the classroom.

Bending over her desk, she acted as though to retrieve the pencil. Instead she reached for it and glanced up at Hinata who was in the row directly to the left of Sakura. In front of her was…

The most gorgeous teenage boy she'd ever seen.

Before this guy had shown up, there had been that pot-for-brains Deidara right next to her, and then an empty desk, and then her beautiful friend, Hinata.

Now, there was a god sitting in that once empty desk. He had spiky jet black hair and it looked like he didn't take any time to arrange it. Like he just rolled out of bed. His black T-shirt fit snugly to his very muscular upper body. His biceps bugled with power and were maybe the size of her head. His pecs were perfectly defined and she was willing to bet there was a sick-pack underneath that black cotton. His Levi's were ripped open at the knees and faded, and had several stains on them, which Sakura recognized as grease. His shoes were scuffed up combat boots and were stretched out way past the end of his desk.

That was when she realized he was over six feet tall.

Jeez, she thought. He must have to fold himself in half to get into that desk…. She glanced up at his beautiful face. Dark eyebrows set over dark eyes that had just a hint of blue to them. His skin was pale, but not sickly.

Suddenly, he turned his head towards the clock at the other end of the classroom. As he did so, she noticed a metallic glint come off his face.

Oh my god…, she thought, dumbfounded. He had a silver stud in his left eyebrow. He's amazing…. She loved piercings for some odd reason. Her friends often told her it was weird that she always liked guys with piercings, but she never really cared.

That's probably the reason Ino pointed him out…

Konoha was a goody-goody small town so none of the guys here had peircings. So basically, this guy was a God-send for Sakura.

Suddenly, she noticed she was ogling the dude in the middle of class and quickly shook her head. In her star-struck state, her pencil had rolled towards the heart-throb and out of her reach.

Not thinking, she leaned forward more and stretched her hand farther. A booted foot entered her peripheral vision and landed on her pencil. The leg attached to the foot pulled the pencil underneath a desk, where a long-fingered hand reached down and picked it up.

She looked up and stared dumbly at the god of a teenage boy who was now holding her pink pencil.

Then, he did something that made her heart skip a beat and her face turn the color of her hair.

He smiled at her.

No, no, wait! He didn't smile. He smirked at her.

It was a casual twist of his perfect lips, with just a hint of arrogance. His eyes were hooded and he held up her pencil in front of his face. OK, at first she thought he was gorgeous. Now, she thought he was simply beautiful.

He was the perfect combination of bad-boy rebel and beautiful male. Sakura had died and gone to heaven.

"Is this yours?" He whispered to her, smirk still in place. His voice was melodious. It reminded her of melted chocolate tumbling over smooth vanilla ice cream. Yummy…

Sakura jumped out of a reverie for the second time that class period, after realizing she was gaping at him, and quickly nodded her head.

"Um… yeah." she said, straightening in her seat and pushing her pink hair behind her ear, blushing harder all the while.

Damn, she's cute, Sasuke thought to himself. His smirk grew wider.

He extended the pencil towards her and Sakura took it delicately with her much smaller, manicured hand.

"Thanks…" she said timidly, looking at the floor.

"No problem. I'm always lookin' to help out a pretty girl."

Her head snapped up at him in surprise. "I..uh…"

He folded his hands behind his head and winked at her.

Sakura was still trying to figure out something to say, anything, when, suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. She barely registered Maito-sensei's voice.

"Okay, people! Page 186, problems one through fifteen, due on my desk as soon as class starts tomorrow! Have a great day!"

Sakura blushed harder at the still smirking boy who slowly un-folding himself from his desk and turned around to gather up her Geometry book and binder.

Oh my God… I can't believe what just happened.

Sakura wasn't surprised when Ino's abdomen came into view on her right.

"What I tell ya?" She said grinning. "He's so your type, yeah?"

"Most definitely!" Sakura exclaimed, still reeling over the encounter. "He's gorgeous. Who is he Ino?" Sakura picked up her stuff and slipped out of her desk.

"TenTen's in his English class and she told me his name's Sasuke Uchiha." Ino said, walking toward the classroom door. Sakura followed her and the two best friends stepped out into the crowded hallway, chattering all the way. "I saw your little encounter. Did the pencil thing?" Ino said, opening her locker and putting her glittery pink binder in and pulling out her tote bag. She waggled her eyebrows at Sakura suggestively.

"Yeah." Sakura said dreamily. "I was just gonna check him out and it turned out sooooo much better! I mean, he smiled at me and called me pretty!" She was glowing, she was sure of it. Sure, a lot of boys had asked her out and told she was pretty. And sure, she had a couple of boyfriends. But, none of them could compare to that beautiful hunk of ass that had picked up her pencil not even ten minutes ago.

"Yeah, he was soooo checking your goods, girl!" Ino grinned. She fished her car keys out of her bag and began walking away. "Sai and me are gonna have lunch together, so I gotta jet. Love you girl!" She waved and walked down the stairs and out of sight.

"Yeah…" Sakura said to herself, leaning against the row of lockers to her right. Suddenly the bell rang, signaling the beginning of her fifth period class and Ino's lunch hour. She gasped. "I'm gonna be late!"

Sakura took off down the hall her messenger bag banging against her hip. She ran down the stairs and two doors down the west wing and burst into her fifth period art class.

"I'm here, Shumutzu-sensei!" Sakura yelled as soon as the door was open. She froze with her hand on the door knob as she realized what she had just done.

The teacher had a hand raised and her mouth was open as though she had been addressing the class. The rest of the class was now staring at her and several were snickering. The teacher chuckled.

"How nice of you to join us, Sakura." she said, smiling good-naturedly. "Please take your seat, kay?"

Sakura blushed furiously. "S-sorry…"

Sakura aimed to sit down in her normal seat, but stopped dead short when she realized someone was sitting in her seat. A very god-like someone.

This time, instead of ogling him, she got upset.

What the fuck? That's my assigned seat! Sakura marched forward, stomping her feet for presence. She stopped next to him and cleared her throat with her hand on her hip. He didn't even look at her. That ass! How dare he-

"Oh, Sakura!" Shumutzu-sensei said. "Sorry for not saying anything before, but I switched up the seating chart a little since we have a new student. Mr. Uchiha now has your old seat and you'll be sitting to the left of him from now on. Be sure to help him get used to our rules and such, kay?" Shumutzu- sensei went back to addressing the class.

Great, just freaking brilliant. Sakura sighed and plunked down in the seat nest to Sasuke.

The way the art room was set up is that there were two rows of double-wide drafting desks and high stools to sit on. The drafting desks were high off the floor and allowed two people to sit next to each other at each desk. Usually, the person next to you was your partner. The school was short on supplies and so you had to share everything. Pencils, erasers, colored pencils, breathing space.

Before this dude had shown up, Sakura had been the only person without a partner. And, to tell the truth, she quite liked it that way.

Sakura, turned and made sure he wasn't looking at her, and then openly glared at him.

Stupid, arrogant, pencil-retrieving, seat-stealing, so-called knight-in-shining-armor!

To make things worse, Sakura's pink razor began vibrating in her back pocket with a text message. Curious, she whipped it out underneath the huge desk and read a message from her Mom:

Sakura, I need u to perform 2nite, have a meeting 6 with board of res.

Luv, Mommy! 3

Sakura groaned. Just peachy.

Sakura's family owned a five-star restaurant in downtown Konoha, which there was a huge stage in front of the dining tables which showcased different entertainment every night. Sakura hated performing on that damn stage even though she had been doing so ever since she was six.

Sakura was a great singer. She loved doing it. When she was little, her mother would dress her up in little outfits and set her out on stage as the opening act. Back then she bounced around with a microphone and sang Disney songs. Now, her mother was encouraging her to wear sexy-looking dresses and shoes, and sing Christina Aguilera songs. That was NOT what she wanted. Rather, she would like to be in the kitchens with their sweet Russian cook, Tatiana, and be cutting chunks of chicken and reading medical texts.

Sakura smacked her forehead down on the desk top in frustration. Her cell phone, forgotten in her hand, crashed to the floor. Luckily, no one had heard it, since class had officially started and everyone was talking about the new art project. Sakura got on her hands and knees underneath the desk and retrieved the phone and battery, which had popped out upon impact. She put the battery back in it's cartridge and aimed to get up, when-

"Hey, your name's Sakura, right?" A male familiar male voice said.

"Wha-" Bonk. "OW!" Upon hitting her head, Sakura's eyes squeezed shut and she plunked back down to the floor on her butt, cell phone still in hand. She rubbed her head in agitation. "Ow… that hurt." Sakura pulled her self up and sat down on her stool, still rubbing her pink head in agitation. She turned to Sasuke. "Did you say something?"

He snorted. He didn't laugh, didn't smile, didn't even ask if she was alright. No, he smirked at her and snorted. "Nope. Get your ears chick."

Sakura gaped at him. What an asshole. Forget it. I'm so not crushing on you. She shook her head angrily and turned to pick up her art pencil, only to realize that he had it. Just perfect.

Oh, golly what a day this will be….