10 Reasons I Love/Hate my New School
Reason 0 – arrival
Hinata knocked quietly on the principle's door, waiting for it to be opened for her. She was starting all over with high school since she could no longer go to the special private school her father had been sending her to before. Her grades there had never been the best in the first place, and now that her younger sister was going there, her father didn't want to spend money on two tuitions, so she was changing schools. Not that it really mattered; they had plenty of money. But the small, tight-knit community of the private school hadn't given her many friendships, so Hinata was looking forward to public school now. Finally, the door opened to reveal a boy about her age with blond hair, blue eyes, and a friendly grin that made her blush. "Hey," he said, "I'm Naruto. Tsunade asked me to show you around 'cuzz she's not feeling too good today…" He opened the door a little wider to reveal a lady sitting with her head resting on the desk with a bottle of beer next to it. "…as you can see." He finished impishly. What kind of principal drinks during school hours? Hinata wondered, still blushing. A little late, she realized that he had introduced himself, and she probably should too.
"I-I'm H-h-Hinata." She stuttered, then blushed even harder when he quickly replied, "Yeah, I know. How are you?" He was so cute! "I'm f-fine" she muttered.
"Nervous?" He asked, but then started walking away with waiting for an answer. She ran a little ways to catch up with him, which was hard because she was wearing flip-flops, something she wasn't used to after years of uniforms.
They walked awhile in awkward silence, until Hinata asked, "Am I late? Where is everybody?" Naruto stopped, and looked around the empty hallway, as if the question had just occurred to him too. After a couple seconds, he remembered.
"Oh yeah, there's a pep rally this morning, so everyone's at that." He exclaimed, looking proud of himself. "We can go catch the tail end of it if you want." He added, looking back at her.
"N-no thanks." Hinata replied, "m-maybe the n-next one."
"Well, of course you're going to the next one!" but as Naruto led her down yet another hall (this school was like a maze, Hinata doubted she would ever find her way out) she was distracted from his happy chatter by a strange feeling of being watched. She looked down the hall until she spotted a red-haired boy leaning against the wall and seeming to glare in their direction. He was wearing black, ripped jeans and a red shirt and seemed to have the kanji for "love" tattooed on his forehead.
"N-Naruto, who's that?" she asked, almost pointing, but then catching herself. He looked like he might kill her if she pointed at him. She didn't have to point anyway; it was obvious who she meant because there was no one else in the hall.
"That's Gaara of the Dessert. If I were you, I'd just avoid him. In fact, I'm not you and I still avoid him!" He answered, laughing nervously at the end. They were getting closer to the other boy now and Hinata could see that his eyes were dark all around the edges, like he was wearing eyeliner. "He leads the toughest gang in town. They're the smallest, but they're still the strongest."
"G-gangs?!" Hinata squeaked. "How sc-sc-scary!"
"Yeah," Naruto replied his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper; then he stopped talking altogether as they passed the other boy. Once they seemed a safe distance away, he started talking again. But Hinata was still distracted, so she didn't hear anything he was saying. She felt the weight of Gaara's dark-edged stare even as she turned the corner into a different hall. It was a creepy feeling, and sent shivers up her spine. Suddenly, the bell rang, causing Hinata to jump. Naruto jumped too, but not out surprise. "All right!" he shouted, "Time for my favorite class, PE!!" Then he ran off, abandoning Hinata. She stared at him as he ran off, thinking wasn't he supposed to help me find my class? She looked down at her schedule; the first class was English. Now what am I going to do? She wondered. Out of desperation, she walked into the nearest classroom to ask the teacher there, but there was no teacher. As she came back out, she noticed the nameplate on the door. "Kakashi Hatake" It read. She looked at her schedule, and noticed that he taught her fourth period. I wonder what he's like. She thought, but did not dwell on it. Instead she went to the next classroom and was relieved to see that the nameplate said "Iruka Umino", the name that was on her schedule for first period. Naruto had almost gotten her to class…
Author's Note: Huzzah for GaaHina! I've been thinking about this story for so long, I've lost most of my notes for the next couple of chapters. :o But it'll work out I'm sure. This chapter was actually written several months ago, so if the writing style changes slightly in the next chapter, I'm sorry.
