I woke up early in the morning and cooked breakfast. Akira was always sleeping, so I had time to myself. I left some food for him, because he got mad at me if I didn't. I washed my dishes carefully and put them in the drying rack. I had no time to dry them by hand like I usually would. I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my backpack, heading out the door quickly and quietly, so as not to wake Akira.

The door clicked shut behind me and I whirled to face the street. The sun was shining brightly, and normally I would've been happy about that, but the previous night I had gained new bruises that ached, so I couldn't even fake a happy face. It was fairly warm out, but I wore long sleeves to hide the growing purple marks on my arms. I was pretty sure I had one under my left eye as well, but I couldn't feel it, so I left it alone. Ordinarily, I would have put make up on it.

The walk to school was normally relaxing, and a little me time, so I usually enjoyed it. It was the best time of the day, because I was walking away from my home, and I was happy. The other kids couldn't wait for the end of the school day, but I dreaded the very same thing.

The school came into view over the top of the hill, and I skipped the rest of the way there. It must have looked a little strange, a high school sophomore skipping to school. Who cares?

The big metal doors of the school instilled fear in others, but brought me relief, and every morning I walked through them and practically ran to homeroom, taking my usual seat in the middle of the row by the window. Homeroom only lasted ten minutes, and the teacher in charge of it only took attendance and told us if there was an assembly, so I usually stared at the gorgeous scene out the window until first period started.

Almost everyone was there by the time I walked into the room. I took my seat just as the teacher walked into the room. Our teacher had a terrible bowl cut no one could tell him to get rid of, and eyebrows that were easily two inches thick. He had an overly enthusiastic attitude about life in general, and he really stressed the whole "Live while you're young" thing. Every morning he practically danced into the room, and this morning was no different.

"Hello everyone!" he said loudly, and everyone groaned sleepily. I stayed silent, not quite paying attention to any of them. I hummed happily to myself until something caught my ear.

"...water damage to the gym." I missed the first half of the sentence, but I knew that nothing good would come of that. The bell rang, though, so I had no time to ask any questions. I grabbed my backback and headed off to chemistry.

It was lab day. The worst day of the week. Two and a half straight hours of mixing chemicals. I was partnered up with Sakura Haruno, though, the smartest girl in school, not to mention a future doctor.

I fixed the two buns on the top of my head and strapped on my safety goggles. Sakura and I donned our lab coats and walked behind one of the black-top tables.

"Okay, today, you'll be making a combination of chemicals and experimenting with the acidity. In front of you there are twenty test tubes with unknown chemicals in them. behind those are twenty others, which you will add in small amounts to the test tubes directly in front of them. There is also a vial of indicator which you will add one drop of to each of the first row tubes. Be careful when mixing, some may be dangerous. Wear your gloves!" Sakura and I slipped our hands into the too-big gloves and began.

I added the indicator to the first row and then picked up two of the tubes. I took the second row tube and added the contents to the first row tube. The color changed from clear to purple. I recorded it on the sheet and did another. This one turned blue.

I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw Sakura doing hers. She was already on her fifth. She picked up her next one and with a steady hand poured the second tube into the first, placing then gently back in the holder and writing down the results. I was gaping, I realized as she looked up and called out a warning to me.

"Hey! Pay attention!! Tenten!"

BOOM!!!!

The test tube in my hand exploded, cutting my fingers and leaving soot all over my face like some sort of cartoon cliche. I coughed, waving away the smoke in my face.

The teacher came rushing over with the first aid kit and pulled out the tweezers, cleared off a spot on the lab table and began pulling the bits of glass from my cuts. I winced as she worked.

There was alot more glass than I thought possible piled on the table, bloody and jagged. I didn't think there was enough room in my hand for all that. A sudden stinging in my hand caused me to look back at the work the teacher was doing. She was wiping my hand with a damp cloth, most likely doused with some sort of antiseptic. It stung horribly and she wrapped some gauze around it temporarily.

"Go to the nurse, I'll have one of the boys walk you."

"O-okay," I said. And held tightly to the gauze wrapped around my fingers.

"Neji, take her to the nurse, please." One of the boys on the other side of the room stood up and turned at the sound of his name. His eyes were purple, and I recognized him, but I didn't know him well. We had spoken on a few occasions, but other than that didn't know a thing about each other.

"Yes," he said, and shed his coat and glasses, walking toward me. I followed him out of the room, still tightly clutching the gauze to my fingers. I ditched my glasses before I left.

The nurse's office was on the other side of the school, so it was going to be a long, quiet walk there.

"You're clumsy, aren't you?" he asked, suddenly, making me jump. I hadn't expected him to say anything, so it surprised me even more than it would have with anyone else.

"Um...yeah."

"In more ways than one."

"What do you mean?"

He stopped, and looked at me before continuing on. "Nothing," he said. I was confused for a moment before I let it go.

I noticed then that I was bleeding through the bandages. The smell was starting to waft up to my nose, as well as Neji's apparantly.

"I can smell that from here," he said. "It's more serious than we thought. Come on." He grabbed my uninjured hand and pulled me along faster than the pace I was walking before. I was almost stumbling to keep up and we reached the nurse's office in a few minutes, though I was panting from the running. Neji seemed unaffected. He forced me to sit in a chair and went to talk to the nurse in charge.

"She cut her fingers pretty bad. She's beelding through the bandages. The chemistry professor cleaned it up a bit, but..." he trailed off as the nurse rushed over to me with more gauze.

Neji sat and watched her work, never taking his eyes from mine. I was self-concious. Was there something on my face? I reached up and brushed a lock of hair from my eyes, slightly pink in the face.

There was pressure on my hand as the nurse gave it a better wrapping. Once she was finished, she taped it shut and instructed me to come back the next day for a replacement wrapping.

"Okay," I said, and walked back to class. By the time I got there, everyone was finishing up and filling in the charts. Sakura let me copy the information from her paper, though, so I could do the work.

"Thanks," I whispered. She nodded. Once I was done, the teacher dismissed everyone. We had lunch directly after that, but I had no appetite. I just sat at my table and stared out the window, waiting for gym--the last class of the day--to start. The bell rang and I headed off. I was the first one there, since I didn't have to take care of my plate, so I changed and went into the gym early.

Turns out I wasn't the only one early. Neji was also there. I didn't get a chance to say anything to him before the other students started pouring into the gym as well.

I was a bit surprised to see the boys in the gym with us, but the gym teacher explained. "There was water damage to the other gym, so today's class will be co-ed" he said. Then he told us we'd be playing dodgeball. He split the girls and guys into two teams, and rolled balls intothe center of the floor.

"I don't want to hear any complaints, this isn't gender exclusive and the teams are even. It's completely even."

PHWEET!

The whistle sounded and people rushed forward, tossing back the balls to their teammates. I caught one and whipped it, hitting one of the opposite team's members in the shoulder, and had they not moved, it would have been a headshot--an illegal move.

I had perfect aim. People who had me on their team always cheered for my skills. A ball came flying toward me and I ducked, allowing it to fly over my shoulder, and with my left hand--the bad one--I caught another one that was flying at my head, whipping it straight back at the person who threw it. I winced as the pain really set into my hand from catching the ball.

I nearly missed as another ball came at me, but I ducked. It grazed the top of my head, and I stepped back to avoid another, accidentally backing into someone.

"Sorry!' I said quickly, turning around. It was Neji. I hadn't realized, but the other team was out.

"In more ways than one," Neji said, poking my cheekbone. It hurt to the touch, and I could feel the bruise.

PHWEET!

Neji and I were the only ones left on our team. Everyone cheered that we had won, and came to congratulate us, but I ran from the room. I ran straigt to the locker room, where there was a mirror.

My shiner was indeed coming through. I leaned my forehead against the mirror.

Dammit.