Chapter Two-
TenTen POV
"Hyuuga-Ouji-sama, are you alright?"
"You don't need to worry about her, Hyuuga-Ouji-sama, she's just an extra."
"Hey!" A familiar voice interjected, "Move! TenTen, Are you ok?"
The bright light was incredibly dizzy-making and sent tremors into my mind and my eyescreen was flickering, trying to figure out what to do. So it was simply blinding enough and made me squint at whatever was there. My fingers automatically twitched to make the eyescreen tremble slightly before it cleared up, looking up; my vision was clearing back up. I could already feel a layer of fake skin they had put on a part of my neck. Must've hit it against a rock or something.
Looking around again, I could see Jun squatting next to me with a worried look; she was worse than my mother. There were other people and the golden dot came into mind, only top tenners had golden dots on the eyescreen. Hyuuga Hinata's face flickered into my mind and my eyes widened a little. I ran into Hyuuga Hinata?! That would be terrible; I could just picture her hurt, innocent face now.
A wince traveled through my body and I pulled my arms up to my chest in some sort of defense. My eyes squeezing shut.
"TeeeeeenTeeeeen!" Jun's voice vibrated as she grabbed my shoulders and began to shake them. Again, my eyes snap open to be blinded by the sunlight and Jun's worry.
"I'm fine, Jun! I'm fine!" I said as firmly as I could muster without wincing. Her face held disbelief. Taking in more of my surroundings, I saw several hovercams forming a reputation bubble around a boy, who was talking to a few wardens with groupies and—people who might be—friends. He was incredibly familiar; I just couldn't put a name on him. Long brown hair tied at the very end and the same eyes as Hyuuga Hinata, except not a manga head and normal sized. He looked as though he received the pretty operation before the mind rain came around.
"Neji?"
His eyes flickered to catch onto my own, widening only a fraction and I couldn't help but feel a little pride in surprising him. Though his stare was making me uncomfortable, so I tried to stand up and a sharp pang ran through my spine. I could tell I visibly winced, so I just put up a tough façade to make people think it didn't hurt. I forced a broad smile out onto my lips and it still didn't satisfy Jun. Her scowl was just all too obvious.
"C'mon, Buns, we're taking you to the hospital." Jun said, "We don't want a scar, so you'll get it surged off."
That stopped me, "No, I don't want a surge."
She turned to stare at me for a moment like I was crazy, not one of her eyescreens was on, "Why not?"
"I just don't." I said with a shrug. A light sigh escapes her and she shakes her head.
"Well, c'mon," She said as she continued to pull me towards the dorms, "At least take one of the pain pills."
Risking a glance back, Neji's eyes caught my own and I could've sworn that he said my name.
OoO
I took a deep breath in before opening the window wide, taking a cautious glance back I saw that Jun was still sound asleep. Though I still didn't let out that breath; it might cause me bad luck later. Or now. Her hearing is incredible and she is a very light sleeper. I always had to be cautious when she was sleeping and I wanted to sneak out.
Looking down at the ground, we were on the third story of the dorm so there weren't any monitors. Though my hoverboard drifted about half a foot beneath my window. Taking a risky leap, my grippy shoes attached to the board and I began to drift away from the dorm. If I was caught, I wouldn't be able to live it down that I'd have to earn back so many merits that they would put me down. Letting out the breath of air, I could feel the morning dew settling in on my head, sort of like a crown. It was wet-making to put it simply.
I began to push my board to go faster, there was a specific number for how fast we could go, but I was always able to get around those things and press it to go beyond the legal limit. It was very bubbly-making and sent excited tremors down my spine. It felt so good, and so vital. Like I was born to hoverboard and I was naturally good at it. Though this time I wasn't wearing my hair back in a set of buns, I just let it down and let it free. The brown locks seemed to float around me as the wind soared through them.
A real broad smile spread across my cheeks as I hunched my back only slightly squinted my eyes to see through the mist building up on my eyelashes. My eyescreen was off because the city could track me by that if it was on. With a quick swipe of my eyes, the water was gone but it was a little hard to swerve around the dead rock, rusty buildings that were kept there as monuments. When they claimed the island, they called it "Japan". Whatever that was supposed to mean.
With a brief shake of my head, I continued to glide around the dead buildings as I got closer to my favorite spot on the entire island. As far as I knew, no one had tampered with it. There weren't even any metal grids near it. Only pure iron, so I'd have to get off of my hoverboard unless I wanted to get hurt.
I was getting closer and the hoverboard was slowing down as it reached the edge of the magnetic grid; my feet bracing for the jump off of the board. Then, I jumped off of it and thrill-making shivers traveled up my legs. The crashing of water soothed me and begged me to come even closer. I did.
A few tide pools decorated the edges, but there was the large waterfall cascading down the mountain side. Staring down at one of the pools, I could see a very clear reflection of myself. Smallish brown eyes with a small nose and not nearly full lips; nope, I'm just another ugly extra. Unfamiliar splashing awoke me from the reflection induced trance, and I looked up.
There, staring me down, was Hyuuga Neji.
Sorry this chapter is so short. I'm not very good about that right now. Reviews will keep me writing. And I'm trying to combine my writing style with Scott Westerfeld's.
