Chapter 1: A New Project

By the way, don't own Naruto or Gaara, which I wish I did…

Characters: Kazakii, (main, Ka-za-kee) Mirra, (friend, Meer-a) Akail (friend, A-kale) Kelo (semi-antogonist, Kel-o, not Keelo) Dran (friend of Kelo) and of course Gaara.

Kazakii: Freshman

Mirra: Freshman

Akail: Freshman

Kelo: Sophomore

Dran: Freshman

Gaara: Find out

And one last thing: Kazakii's description includes dark brown hair with dirty blonde highlights. She is 5' 6'' and in between skinny and fat. The rest of the characters you can think up yourselves, I really don't care.

"Check out the new guy. He screams freak."

"Yeah, no kidding. He's wearing eyeliner, what a fag." Dran and Kelo whispered to eachother.

Kazakii glared at the two boys. She hated it when others were made fun of just because of their outer appearance. (Personal problems of her past lead to this pet peeve.) She also hated the fact that her main crush, Kelo, had sunk as low as making fun of the new student. It actually hurt her inside. She never thought of Kelo to be…

"Shallow."

"Huh?" Kelo and Dran looked at her.

"Kazakii sat in front of Kelo and to the left of Dran. "You're both so shallow. How could you judge someone just because of their appearance?!" she hissed in anger.

"Kazakii, c'mon, lighten up-"

"NO! I won't! I've gone through terrible shit about this kinda stuff. And I'm not about to let anyone else go through it."

"Kazakii, actually look at him," Kelo tried to reason.

She did.

The boy was completely engulfed in black; goth pants, wristbands, eyeliner all around his eyes...everything. Although, his reddish-brownish hair stood out compared to the rest of him. In Kazakii's opinion he was attractive. Not just attractive, HOT.

"What's the big deal? There's a lot of kids in school that dress like that."

"Yeah and they all sit together at lunch putting curses on people," Dran pointed out.

She glared again, "I dress like that, sometimes you know."

"You just wear the pants," Kelo argued lightly.

"And the shirts, and the wristbands, and the chokers-"

"Okay, okay! Sorry, back off!" he got defensive.

"Alright everyone, before we start our next project, we have a new student, Gaara," the teacher, Mr. Drune, gestured to the back of the classroom. Everyone turned to look in the back. The boy lazily exchanged glances with his wide-eyed classmates. "Okay, treat him as you would want to be, new place, new people, blah, blah, blah, moving on."

Theatre Arts I. One of the most fun classes ever. The project this time: Commercials. They were to create an original product and act out a commercial for it. As long as it was appropriate, it could be anything. Groups consisted of 2-3 people.

"Gaara, are you in a group?" Mr. Drune asked.

"I prefer to work alone," he answered semi-darkly.

"You have to be in a group of two or three, this isn't a solo project. I guess we could put you in a group of three, since there aren't any groups of two…"

Gaara looked disgusted. "I'll do fine on my own, thanks."

"Now Gaara-"

"I'll be his partner, Mr. Drune!" Kazakii broke from her group and stood by his side.

"Are you okay with that?"

"Sure," she nodded. Her classmates gawked at what Kazakii had just done.

"Okay, you may go into the theatre or stay in here. Get started."

Everyone bolted for the door, including Kazakii, but she noticed that her partner hadn't followed. Instead, he plopped down back in his seat. She walked back.

"You wanna work in here, 'kay, that's cool-"

"I didn't ask for a partner, you know," Gaara growled.

Kazakii blinked in surprise from his rudeness. "Hey! I was just trying to help you out!"

"I didn't ask for your help, though, did I?"

"You were about to get in trouble with talking back to the teacher, you dumbass! I saved you!"

"Didn't ask for that either."

"What the hell is your problem?!" she suddenly yelled.

Gaara raised his eyebrow, "I should ask you the same thing."

"ME?! Well, I don't know, maybe because right after defending you, I get killed at for just trying to be nice!" she exclaimed.

"For one thing, I never yelled." Kazakii crossed her arms angrily. "And another thing… what do you mean defended me?"

"Some of the guys were making fun of you, because of how you looked and dressed. Pissed me off, so…I defended you."

"A lot of people have made fun of me," Gaara said matter-of-factly, "but…no one has ever taken my side. So," he paused as if this was the hardest thing he had ever done, "thanks."

Kazakii smiled, "Your welcome. I'm Kazakii, by the way."

End Chapter