Chapter 1 Surly Waters
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Birds were chirping overhead. The early morning sun shone down. Hinata Hyuga bit into her vanilla bean scone and drank down her orange juice. Sweets made everything better. Even breakfast with Hiashi Hyuga, himself.
Hiashi patted Anko's belly and cooed. "Hey there Priscilla! You're going to beautiful like your mom one day!"
Hinata would have found the scene cute. But Anko was 25 years old and pregnant with a man more than twice her age. Anko was Hinata's stepmom. As if that was not horrifying enough, Hiashi was Hinata's father by blood.
"You know Hinata, Ino's dad said she just got accepted to Konoha University. She's going to study Business-Law. What do you plan to do, darling?" Anko asked with unsteady sophistication. The lady sported a pixie cut. Comely enough, she had blue hair and gray eyes.
"Yeah, I'm going to Konoha with Ino too. But I'm going into their Nursing program." Hinata said civilly. It's hard to be nice to someone who talks behind your back often.
"You're going into Nursing!? Why not pre-med or pre-law? Go into engineering for pete's sake!" Hiashi ranted. He threw up his arms.
"Nurses are people too stupid to go to med school." Hiashi went on.
Or too financially broke. Hinata thought.
"Dad! Here's the plan. If I fail the first year of nursing, I can work as a nurse's aide. That's about $24,000 a year.
"If I pass two years of nursing, I can work as a registered nurse. That's about $40,000 a year.
"If I make it through four years of nursing, I get my bachelor's in nursing. I'll make about $54,000.
But that's all before I have to pay tax." Hinata explained. In case she fails, Hinata wanted to be able to support herself.
This whole situation was goddamn pathetic. Most parents have already found out what their kids wanted to study a year ago. Ino's parents had guided both Ino and Hinata through the college application process.
Hiashi was only getting the news now. It wasn't like he ever cared to begin with. The CEO in Hiashi just wanted another table topic to brag over. But his daughter decided to be a nurse. A goddamn nurse. That was not something worth bragging about.
Hinata had spent her whole life between boarding school and summer camps. She didn't get to see her father often. That didn't bother her. What really bothered her was that she didn't get to see Hanabi that often. The sisters texted and videochatted daily. It was nice having someone to laugh and cry with.
Fortunately, Hanabi was not here right now. School ended later for Hanabi than Hinata. Hanabi was still in middle school. If Hanabi was here, the girl would have shoved Hiashi into the pool. No one messed with Hinata when Hanabi was around. That girl was fierce. Maybe a little too fierce, sometimes.
"So basically, you are playing it safe. You built an entire plan around the fact that you'll probably fail. Is that right?" Hiashi asked.
It's called a back-up plan. Hinata argued—you know in her head. Hinata always had a back up plan. There was a paranoid sense of independence she lived by.
"Well, I got something to teach you. It's a competitive world out there. You have to change your major. Do engineering maybe. You always hang out with those science freaks. Maybe they'll let you cheat off their notes." Hiashi wondered.
"Yeah! That's it, Hinata. Change your major to pre-med or business. Nursing is skanky. It's a blue-collar job!" Anko chirped in.
"I am not going to change my major." Hinata said firmly.
Hiashi pushed himself up over the patio table. "You live under my roof. You follow my rules."
"Well, father, I'm going to excuse myself for a minute. I need to use the lady's room. Can we talk about this later?"
The breakfast bunch broke up. Hinata snuck some scones for the road.
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Everything Hinata needed was already in her two suitcases. This was how you live when you moved from home to boarding school to camp every three weeks. She had everything she needed. Her laptop, her papers, and her clothes.
She loaded the two suitcases into her car. Hinata thought she could hang out at Hiashi's house. She wanted to spend a bit of time with Hanabi before she leaves. So much for that idea.
Hinata was a dumb bluenette who should have seen the writing on the wall. In the past, Anko always drilled her. There was always something. Anko would always dig up something about Hinata that Hiashi would not approve of. No. Hinata was sick of that game.
She drove herself to Tenten's condo.
Hinata did not need Hiashi anymore. Hinata had a full scholarship to Konoha University. Her tuition, room, and board would all be paid—all $45,000 per year of it. The only problem was that the scholarship doesn't kick in until six weeks from now. Hinata dialed Tenten on Bluetooth.
"Hey! Hinata, how you doing girl?"
"I'm fine, thanks. Listen, is it okay if stay at your place for while? I'll help out with the rent."
"Sure! When are you staying? Neiji's staying over this week."
Neiji was Hinata's cousin. He was also dating Tenten.
"Oh! Well can I stay over next week then?" Hinata asked. She would just stay at a motel for now.
"Yeah! Of course, honey!" Tenten said. "And congrats on that full ride. You're going to love Konoha University. It's so posh."
"Thanks Tenten, you're the greatest." As good a friend Tenten was, Hinata didn't want to ruin her time with Neiji.
Staying at a motel for a week would only hurt her bank a little...a lot. Seven days times $70. About $490 for just a one week stay. Damn California was expensive.
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Hinata studied at the Konoha University library during the day. Hinata could only keep her full ride if she kept a 3.5 GPA. Nursing, despite her father's assessment, was a hard major. She needed to study ahead if she wanted to keep her funding.
After studying for 3 hours, Hinata gathered her belongings into her backpack. What did she want for lunch? Ramen? Ramen was cheap.
Hinata head towards Ichiraku's Ramen Shop in the Konoha U Cafeteria. Close by was a stand with the banner. "Be a Konoha Katfish! Join the Swim Team!"
Hinata had blue hair and a slender build. She felt at home in the water. Hinata used to be in the high school swim team. She could swim 500 meters freestyle in around 5 minutes. With nursing school approaching, she wasn't sure she could juggle swimming in the mix.
"Hey! Are you a swimmer? You look like a swimmer to me." A blonde guy joked with her. He was handsome. Boys in high school were all cute and cuddly. But by the time they got to college, they were drop dead manly. Hinata was feeling the affect he had on her. He could ask her to do something very stupid—and Hinata probably would do it.
"Yeah! I used to swim a bit." Hinata said humbly. She took the brochure he held out to her. "So when does tryouts start?"
"It's going on all week. Today's the first day. I would tryout today, if I were you. It makes a good impression with the coaches, ya know? I'm already in the team, returning students tryout in the spring." He said.
Hinata read the brochure. Tryouts starts today. Swimmers that qualify could live in the dorms four weeks earlier than most freshmen. God was on her side!
She would stay at the motel for a week. Stay at Tenten's for a week. The rest would be covered. Hinata would make tryouts, she knew she would.
"Wish me luck!" Hinata whacked blondie on the arm with the brochure.
"Good luck!"
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AN: No drama like family drama to really stress you out. It's good to purge.