Note: Thx for all those who read this story, homebaked by Gaara cookies for runwithskizzers who reviewed. It really helps. Mwah.
Chapter 2
Today was Monday. First day back to school.
…
Crap.
School.
My eyes flew open and stared blankly at the immaculate ceiling, though why a ceiling would be messy in the first place totally escaped my conscience. Good point. Maybe it was because of my sudden loathing of the colour white. I hated white. It was too clean. Hm. I think I should get to school now.
Shit.
School.
Almost immediately (I have too slow reactions to be immediate), I scrambled out of my king-sized bed, and brilliantly tangling myself in the white satin sheets, tripped and fell onto the thankfully not white carpet. It hurt. The throbbing in my head from lack of sleep finally set in.
Ouchie.
I grunted in annoyance and cradling my precious head in one hand, moseyed my slow way to the ensuite on the other side of the too-far-away wall. Suddenly the walls began to spin, quite slowly at first, then so fast that I couldn't see my own bed. My view of the beautiful world blurred considerably, and I randomly developed the strange fetish to smell the carpet. It smelt so perfumy. Like deodorant.
"May I enquire to what are you doing, Sakura-sama?"
I faintly heard Anko, the head maid, speak softly, but my mind could only register a single string of unified words.
Oh right. So that's why I could smell the carpet. I was lying, probably spread-eagled (don't be perverted) face-down on the floor, my nose most likely squished so that when I woke up, it would look like a pig.
I think I muttered an incoherent response, and then dimly registered someone else entering the door.
"Sakura." A foot nudged my side. I murmured something in Sakura-language, and I probably was imagining it, but I heard a soft chuckle somewhere.
"Sasuke-kun…" I mumbled, and felt two strong hands grab my hips and heave me up so that I was leaning slumped against the bed-post on my bed.
My eyes dragged themselves open, and instinctively, I yawned and rubbed the sleepiness out with the palm of my hand. Yeah. Now I felt awake.
"Are you alright Sakura-sama?" Anko bent down slightly to stare at me face to face, "I found you lying on the floor like a dead fag just then."
"Of course she's fine," Sasuke grumbled childishly, like a small boy forced awake from his afternoon nap, "She probably lost her legs and found that she had to roll to the bathroom because she found she badly needed to wee-wee."
I glared at him. He shrugged and plonked himself next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. I guess he just woke up too. After all, he was wearing that loose black jersey and matching boxers (how cute!), black hair was adorably rumpled in all ways, and the pale skin at the crook of his neck looked strangely inviting…
"You're wearing my boxers again." I felt a slight tug at the hem of my shorts. Oh sorry. Boxers. To be put correctly, Sasuke's boxers.
I smacked his hand away and huffed. "Well sorry for wearing your precious boxers, but someone stole my shorts…I wonder who…"
I feel sleepy.
Sasuke gave me that Uchiha glare. "It was a goddamn bet. Besides, the dobe has it now, so don't blame me."
Yawning, I murmured a short "Whatever" and snuggled into his toned chest. Boy he was warm. And he smelled like…like…a mixture of rain and tomatoes. Nice combination.
A hand idly wandered to stroke and smoothen my disheveled pink hair, and a strong arm snaked lightly around my waist. Ooh this feels nice.
I was about to doze off and head off to la-la land again when my alarm clock rang. For the second time this morning. Meaning it was six in the morning.
Which meant I would officially be late.
On the first day back.
I yelped loudly and jolted out of Sasuke's arms, much to my disappointment. Okay…I am going to be late. I have ten minutes to take a shower, dress up, wolf down a breakfast, and skate to school. Great.
Sasuke took a different approach.
He cursed "Shit" and ran a hand through his already messy hair, ruffling it even more. In a sexy way. Then he stared at me.
"Get out!" I shrieked (like a normal female) and panicked.
But this was an Uchiha. Sasuke Uchiha to be precise. So unlike a normal human specimen, who would politely exit my room, he stepped closer to me, smirked and bent down and lightly pecked the tip of my nose.
"Sakura. Calm down."
Brilliantly, I whacked the side of his head. "Calm down? Are you insane? Have you forgotten my first teacher for a Monday morning? Unlike you, I don't have Kakashi-sensei for a teacher. And unlike you, I don't have a free period first thing in the morning!"
He sighed and wrapped his arms around me and hugged me.
Hugged. As in H-U-G.
Holy crap. Hell has officially frozen over.
"Sasuke? Are you drunk? Are you sick?"
He glared at me again. "No. Can't I hug a sister?"
A sister. For some reason, this hurt. I know I should treasure his acknowledgement of my life, and be actually grateful I actually have a name to him. I know I should be overjoyed at him mentioning that we were friends who lived in the same house for most of our lives. Just friends.
But I want to be more than friends.
"Of course you can!" I snapped, "but THE Uchiha Sasuke does NOT hug people because he feels they are sisters."
The Uchiha opened his mouth to snarl a reply when Anko's amused voice beat him. "Sasuke-sama, I suggest you stop screwing Sakura-sama senseless and let her get to school on time."
Oh Lord. He blushed. THE boy actually blushed.
Well, it was a cute blush. A light pinky hue tingeing his face, with a cute scrunch of his nose when he was embarrassed. His normally cold charcoal eyes concentrated unconsciously on his feet, and in return, his toes squirmed childishly. Another one of his childhood habits.
I tiredly pushed him to the doorway, and stared at the small blush still apparent on his face. The corners of my mouth lifted into a smile I had mastered to escape trouble, and tried not to turn into jelly as he glared down back at me. Oh he was going to kill me.
Standing up on tippy-toes, I brushed my lips against his cheeks and a finger calmly trailed the line of the blush, and grinned. "So adorable Sasu-chan!"
And before he could pin me down with one of those scary glares, I slammed the door shut and headed for a long shower. Who cares if I was late? As far as all the teachers and staff of Konoha High were concerned, I was related to the Uchihas, and they wouldn't care if I blew up the entire library block. Too scared of the Fugaku Uchiha. I laugh at them.
I tried to ignore the quick thumping of my heart.
The bell rang. Off to next period we go.
I had arrived a miraculously-only-five-minutes late into class, and had copied the Uchiha glare to somehow, someway scare the Physics teacher. I don't think it worked, because I'm a Haruno, not an Uchiha. But he grunted and let me sit down in my spot in the corner without a detention slip.
Now I bustled around the corridors, trying to hold down my skirt as people breezed past me, some knocking me over a few times, me knocking over a few girls drooling at the guys, then getting my own ass kicked mercilessly by those same guys who I stole the only fandom they had.
Let me introduce you to Konoha High.
Actually, Konoha High is two private schools, one Konoha Girls High, the other Konoha High for Gifted and Talented Boys, though most leave that Gifted and Talented bit out. Before, these two schools were on either sides of a mountain, but some idiot decided to move and merge the schools together. So now we have a co-ed school of Konoha High, because no one can actually be bothered to say "School? Oh, I go to Konoha Girls High/Konoha High for Gifted and Talented Boys, which is in fact merged together."
So technically, we had classes individually with Konoha Girls on one side of the school and the Boys on the other. But, every second period or so, the entire school switches ends, so you have the total of two schools crammed into the stuffy hallways. Breaks are shared between both of us for 'social interaction', not that Konoha has any.
Your social status at Konoha High was officially decided on your first day at school. There were two and a half classes.
Elite. Reject. And Others.
If on the first day of high school began with you trading lip gloss and "T3h SEX" magazines with other fellow women, you were classed forever on as an 'elite', unless you suddenly developed a breast enlargement machine which would also skyrocket you to the top. If you were those who actually remembered your homework on the first day, or it had spread you were offered a scholarship into this school, not by means of pure money, then you were sadly classified as 'reject'. Now those select few who are in between, like me, are classified as Others.
The Others are the lowest of low, with no purpose in school, with only one or two friends.
You many ask me how a distinguished girl who lived with Uchiha Sasuke and Yamanaka Ino (who both were indeed 'elites') was an Other. Well, it was because on the first day, this bitch, Amie I think, 'accidentally' tripped in the cafeteria and shoved chocolate mousse all over my breasts. And to make it worse, she apologized, and then suggested for the nearest boy to lick it off. Being the freshman I was, I looked at her horrified, and then bolted off in tears.
So I was known as a crybaby, a slut, and any other insult you can find in the dictionary. It didn't matter though.
Much.
As I hastily pushed my way through the crowd, I managed to pass the thick of it without more than a single paper cut. I cheered.
But then you should never cheer too early.
Before I knew it, a locker door had slammed into my face, the corner painfully hitting my forehead. Hm. Ouch. I yelped and rubbed that sore patch to hopefully soothe the pain that now spread to all parts of my head. My mind throbbed again. Ouchichi.
The offender didn't even notice.
Okay, I was pissed. Someone just got hit square in the face with your locker door and you couldn't even hear the Bang! that resonated through the world, or feel the fact that it hit solid objects instead of hanging midriff like a normal locker specimen would be.
Hugging my textbooks to my chest tighter with one arm and rubbing my forehead with the other, I chose to continue my lovely journey to my Biology class, instead of unleashing that new martial arts move on that unsuspecting idiot. But jeez I really wanted to show him how it felt to have a horrible bruise on the already attention-occupied forehead.
"Sakura?" The innocent voice of my friend Tenten settled me down from my tirade.
I looked up at her wearily from under my arm which was still on my forehead. "Oh. Ohayo Tenten."
"Are you okay? You seem pissed." Great observation skills Tenten.
Then a familiar large crowd happily sporting rumbles of laughter approached in the corner. Ah shit.
I bowed my head in apology at my good friend and was about to rush off when she grabbed my arm. "Ah, Sakura. Naruto was looking for you, something about his cup ramen allowance."
I released my forehead and gazed into her round eyes. "Please. I need to really go." Yeah, the great Sakura Haruno was begging.
"Sakura-san. Good to see you."
At that sound of his voice, Tenten immediately let go of me and rushed to latch her arms around her boyfriend, Neji, whose stoic face softened as she did so.
Hyuuga Neji. Cousin of my other friend Hinata, boyfriend of Tenten, close friend of Sasuke, captain of the Konoha martial arts team, an Elite. Which was a little surprising, since me, Hinata and Tenten were dubbed the only group of Others in the grade, despite our apparently large connections with most of the Elites.
And because Neji was here, it meant the rest of the Gang was here.
By Gang, I mean the largest group of Elites in the grade, the most wanted males of the school. Well, it used to be most wanted males and females in the school, but Ino and Temari were one year older, so they of course graduated last year, leaving the rest to finish our final year. Let's see. There was Sasuke (duh!) Neji, Naruto, Kiba, Gaara, his brother Kankuro, and Shino. All of them as hot and sexy as the one before.
"Sakura-chan! My ramen allowance ran dry so can you please-" That was Naruto.
"Ah. Sakura. Haven't seen ya in a long time…" Kiba for you.
"Morning." An improvement. Shino used to never talk at all.
"Tsunade was looking for you, I think." Kankuro scratched his head.
"…" That was Gaara.
And like usual, Sasuke ignored my very presence.
To clear things up, he only is pretty nice, flirtatious, childish-whatever at home. Which means he gets all the opportunities to make fun of me then. So I guess this ranks itself at the top reasons on my list of why I actually enjoy holidays. Because it's the only time he sees me as Sakura. But at school, he ignores me completely, and doesn't even glance this way. For someone who declared me to be a 'sister' in the morning, I might as well be the mop in the janitor's closet now.
I nodded my greeting to everyone, and then pushed past them as subtly as I could to get to the other block. I really needed to forget those taunts of "What's forehead-bitch doing talking to the Elites?" or "Why is forehead-slut in the same side of the school as the Elites?" For the last five years, I had ignored them. So I won't stop now.
Just as I rounded the corner, the last person to talk to me did so.
"Sakura."
Politely, I stopped and turned to look over my shoulder. "Yes?"
Within a few steps, Sasuke had reached my area of the world and staring down at me in that emotionless mask, his charcoal gaze penetrating my body. All I could do was stare coolly back at his beautiful eyes and wait for the answer. I did just that.
But instead of yelling at me to not forget to bow and worship the ground he walks on, or to curtsey in His Majesty's presence, his eyes trailed slowly up to that appearing blue blotchy bruise on my forehead.
Time just froze over.
"What happened?" His voice was soft, but I found that dangerous edge to it.
I didn't answer.
He growled quietly in my ear and I swear, that was not a shudder going up my spine. His warm breath tickled my forehead, his close proximity driving my insides to an intelligent pile of mush. Slowly, his tongue flicked out and licked my bruise caressing it tenderly, and pressed a quick kiss on my forehead. Pulling back, he smirked triumphantly at me. "There. Kissed it better for you." He sounded awfully proud at what he just did.
I blinked twice, and then regaining my senses, gave him one of those I-am-going-to-kill-you smiles. That smile covering the shock with the ironic sweet bitterness. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun. Now I'll have rampages of your fangirls stampeding after me for ever bothering the great Uchiha-sama."
He froze, but it was quickly gone and replaced by that same cold mask. "No problem. Later." And he stormed away, motioning for the rest of the gang to follow him.
Boy he was pissed. But he deserved it.
With many appalled eyes drilling holes in me, I myself stomped off to my Biology class.
Done.
