A/N- Hello! Welcome to a typical Naruto high school fic involving action, humor, romance, and teenage DRAMA! If this does not interest you, please feel free to leave now before you are sadly dissapointed. (That's right haters, just keep walking, nothing for you to see here :P) This is my first major fanfic, and it should run around 25-30 chapters. Possibly more! I promise it gets better after the incredibly long explanation in the first chapter. YES, there will be at least three OC X Naruto character pairings. Once again, if you have a PROBLEM with that... *points to door* door's right there. Now, for everybody else, enjoy! :D
"Okay, so, this is the best dream ever," I think to myself as I sit on the deck of a cruise ship, enjoying the warm tropical sun and the cool sea breeze, while sipping on a Hawaiian ice that's just been handed to me by Johnny Depp. "Yep, this is pure, sweet, unadulterated happiness!" I affirm to myself by savoring another taste of my pina collada and pink bubblegum flavored magic ice in a cup.
"I just pray I don't wake up ANYTIME soo…"
My thought was cut off by the blaring of one of my favorite Japanese songs over my iHome alarm clock's insanely loud speaker system, promising me that YES this was JUST a dream, and the fact that it's Monday at 6:00 in the morning means I need to get my ass out of bed NOW, or I'll end up fashionably late on my first day back to school after Winter Break.
"You know the closer you get to something…"
"…the tougher it is to see it," I jump into singing along with the English chorus.
"And I'll never take it for granted…"
"LET'S GO!" I shout the last line of the song as my battle cry and inspiration to spring out of bed (almost banging my head on my dresser and then tripping over my own two feet in the half second long process), then running to the bathroom to pee and put my clothes on. But when I sit down to take a whiz, I realize something:
"This was the first night in the past three months that I didn't have The Nightmare."
I restated my thought out loud, my amazed voice echoing off the bathroom walls clearing my tired head of that early rising kind of daze and helping it sink in.
There. was. no. nightmare.
"Alright! NO nightmare AND Johnny Depp? Fucking SWEET!" Punching the air with victory and standing up, I realized something else as well.
"Maybe the new semester could be a new start for me…and maybe I can FINALLY put that darkness behind me."
This good advice and much more like it, such as "Don't fail Chemistry this last half," and "Maybe I could TRY going to the JCC again," and "I should make my friends another Fucking Cookie!" is the constant babble in my mind as I walk over and look in the mirror.
Then, I catch what I thought second to last, and stare deeply into the eyes of my refection.
"NO," I reprimand myself in the mirror. "What are you thinking? You and I both know setting one foot in that room would be our funeral…"
Her haunted looking hazel eyes are still staring into mine, so I ignore the girl in the mirror who looks just as scarred as I feel inside, and quickly ready myself to walk back into the wonderful chaos my high school life in 10th grade has become. I replace my black satin nightgown with a black sports bra, a black and red plaid dress that goes down to just above my knees with black lace on the bottom, a pair of black leggings (because my school is crawling with perverts who would look under there if I didn't), and, you guessed the color!, BLACK socks with a pair of knee high BLACK boots over them. See a pattern here?
Deciding also to accessorize a bit, I grab a pair of black fingerless gloves, each with two red bows connected by a chain with a heart attached to it. Slipping them on, I then choose a set of earrings that look like silver webs with ruby red spiders sitting in the middle, and put those on too. Finally, I yank open my jewelry box and snatch my favorite hairbow made of black lace with a skeleton in the middle, and slide it over the left side of my head over a part of my slightly longer than waist length dark brown straight hair, which I then proceed to brush. Finishing up, I put the brush down and glance myself over in the mirror. "I look badass and kawaii desu, as per usual," I affirm inside my head, just like before every other school day.
But, once again, am caught by something that just now surfaces from the unconscious land of my crazy and gothic thoughts that was tugging at the back of my mind since I started getting dressed. "This is what I was wearing on THAT day." I push the sudden realization away, just like I wish I could with every other memory of that horrible experience.
So, to cheer myself up, I do some more one sided conversing with the girl staring at me who's going to play the same game I have to as she acts like she's not a victim.
"Who the fuck CARES what you're wearing? You look EPIC, and amazing, and you have every right to! So get out there and kick some ass, girl!"
At just about this point, I turn around to find my mom standing there, staring at me, giving me her universal "I-know-you're-not-trying-to,-but-you're-freaking-me-the-fuck-out-by-talking-to-yourself" look.
Whoops. Didn't think she'd be up this early.
"You ready there, Mrs. Narcissist? Or do I have to drag your ass away from your god-damned reflection?"
It wasn't quite as mean as it sounds, considering she said it with a big ole' grin in a voice dripping with kind sarcasm. I decided to fuck with her a bit by pretending to blow myself a kiss and wave goodbye to that other girl who looked just as stupid as I'm sure I do now, turning back to see that her grin had gotten wider, and for the first time since that day, matched the one that I was suddenly wearing again.
I love my mom. I really do. As lame as that might sound coming from a 16 year old starting her second semester of 10th grade. But it's exactly BECAUSE I care about her that I never told ANYBODY about what happened that day…especially her. No one can EVER find out…except that girl in the mirror. I blew a kiss to her because I know she's broken inside…just like me.
So, now that we're in the car on the way to my school and god-knows what's waiting for me when I get there, I suppose I owe you at least a little bit more of an explanation! My name is Savannah Hope. I'm that girl who dresses in all black and gothic clothes, sits in the emo corner of every classroom, and talks to no one. At least…that's who I was in 9th grade. That was before the transfer students came. But more on them later!
That was ALSO before I met Taylor and Champayine at the very end of 9th grade, the ONLY two people I actually cared about before the transfers came. But, more on them later!
But, in all seriousness, I need to clarify to you just who these kids are. So, let's talk school. And no, I won't change the subject this time. Promise. I live in a dinky little town near Daytona Beach called Port Orange. If you have heard of neither of these places, more power to you! You're one of the lucky ones not trapped in this town of assholes and hypocrites.
I attend the school that is this town's oh so precious "pride and joy," Spruce Creek, which everybody thinks is some kind of glorious, outstanding, "world famous" high school, meant to be an example to encourage and inspire countless people around the planet.
Back in freshman year, I thought that this was all the biggest load of bullshit that you could possibly serve on a golden platter. The teachers were either REALLY amazing, which was sadly the distinct minority at the time, or, the 99% of assholes they hired out of god-knows-where to torment us, embarrass us, and not teach us CRAP. YAY.
Also, 99% of the school population in general were assholes: Douchebag jocks (well…there's still some of those), bitchy little sluts (still got some of those too), and then…there were the IB kids. And yes, we still have quite a few of those now, but the transfers enrolled in the IB program are cool for the most part.
They're smart, but not in the same "I'm-gonna-look-down-my-nose-at-you-like-shit-on-my-shoe-cause'-I'm-just-such-a-fucking-little-genius" kind of way.
They're smart in a quiet, calculating, deadly kind of way. More like "I-could-find-sixty-different-ways-to-kill-you-right-now-and-completely-get-away-with-it-but-instead-I-choose-to-mercifully-let-you-live" kind of way.
I hated being in the program before they came. Hated it with a burning, fiery, motherfucking PASSION. RAWR. I still hate it now, but just because I'm failing the extremely hard classes, and also cause', well…half the time, I'm just too lazy to do the damn work! Hahaha!
I've already decided to drop into just AP classes and other electives next year, considering there's pretty much NO busywork, and cause' there's virtually NO stress. Plus, the kids in those classes are HILARIOUS.
There's this one, or I should say TWO guys in my 6th period who are just so fucking random. One calls everybody Jerry, and the other one's always screaming DATEBAYO and talking about ramen. Don't worry, you'll meet them later.
So. Now we've reached the question of the students that turned the Creek upside down, and who made going to school a somewhat enjoyable thing again. I say somewhat because…well…not all of them are good. But still! These kids are incredible! Believe it! (Oh god, guess they really are rubbing off on me…heheh. They're pretty awesome.)
It was at the end of 9th grade, around when I met Taylor and Champayine, that the school announced a sudden unexpected decision (sounding like someone pretty important had decided to pull some strings, if you know what I mean): There was going to be a major high school foreign exchange student program implemented next year, called LEAF. I don't think it stands for anything…it's more like a codename for a secret project or mission or something.
Anyway, the goal of the program was to integrate an entire school of Japanese students from a place called Konoha into Creek, in order for them to spend one year immersed in our Western culture and education system. Don't ask me why.
Supposedly back in the Country of Fire where they come from they were being trained as ninjas, but one day the principal of their school (or whoever the hell's in charge over there) suddenly decided they needed a more broad education in the useless crap we learn over here versus just their totally badass ninjutsu and taijutsu training.
So, they did some researching, and what did they find? The propaganda Creek spits out seemingly everywhere in order to brainwash all who read it into thinking that it's some damned "super school" that can and will do all it can to help it's students become both happy and successful.
What a load of crap…yet, this person (I think her name's Tsunade) jumped at the chance to ship her kids off to Creek, "where Hawks soar." Poor woman. She had no idea of the useless hellhole she was sending them off to.
ANYWAY, more explanation: This program has been set up into two phases. The first, already implemented at the very beginning of this year, was designed to send us the primary half of Konoha's students, simply called Group A. There's an inside joke that Group A is the "seme" group because the kids who came over first were apparently "more aggressive" in their desire to be transferred here (and for the record, my friends came up with that, NOT ME).
Although the second half comes in today because they don't have a choice, I've heard that ALL the students are excited to come here. Group B was just…more toned down and laid back in their excitement. Which kinda sounds to me like these are the kids who didn't really give a fuck either way, but, hey, they'll be here today whether they like it or not. But they should. Even I like that school now, so why won't they?
The line of cars waiting to enter the school is normally long. But today, it is INSANELY long, with about twice as many cars. Which gave me the excuse to just explain all that crap to you. The line is just barely inching forward every few minutes (good thing I got up early), my mom is starting to yell some not very nice things at the traffic guard, and I'm bored…so, I find my mind wandering about what exactly the second phase of the LEAF program involves.
Besides just Group B coming in, out principal Doctor Sparger promised us that there were some "surprises" built into the second part of the project. Huh. Maybe that explains all these damn cars backed up for what feels like a mile.
After about 15-20 minutes of crawling towards the school at a painfully slow rate, we finally turn into the drop off loop. As we wait for the last of the cars in front of us to move up so I can GET OUT already, I text Taylor and Champ and tell them I'm at school.
"Hey, I'm here. We meeting at the usual spot?"
Taylor: "yea, we're already at ur locker"
Champ: "savannah-chan, hurry up and get here, there's big news!"
Big news? This catches me off guard a bit. Wait…does this have something to do with the "surprises" the principal warned us about? Probably. Oh god, do I even want to know? I realize I have to go find out whether I like it or not as we pull up and stop in front of the double doors of one of the east entrances to Creek...the same one I walked into on that day and every one since then.
"NO! Thoughts of that are EXACTLY what I don't need right now! OR EVER!" I shout at myself inside my head before I get out.
Apparently, at least a little of my inner anguish is showing on my face as I exit the car and turn to close the door when my mom looks at me and says, with a sympathetic look on her face, "Honey…you'll be fine this time around. I can tell."
A normal teenager would have just growled "Whatever" and slammed the door. I smiled at her, though it didn't reach my eyes like earlier, and just quietly replied "I know, mom. I have to be."
Then, softly closing the door and turning to face the hall where my friends were waiting to tell me about all the shit soon to go down (the good kind), I begin my walk towards whatever the hell's waiting inside.
A/N- Hope you enjoyed! :D And don't worry, Savannah's inner turmoil that's haunting her will be revealed bit by bit. It's the major suspense of the fanfic, so I can't afford to give it away TOO quickly. But I shall give you one hint!: Who else would be cruel enough to scar a 16 year old girl for life? Even that be saying too much, but still! XD
The Akatsuki, Tsunade, Neji, and Savannah's friends come in next chapter, so look forward to that! You can expect updates during weekends and the summer at random intervals, but I PROMISE to update again relatively soon between chapters!
