Chapter 2: A long ways away, in a different time...
Kiba
Hinata is still covering her face as I pull her into the nearest janitor's closet I can find.
"Let me see," I say as I pry her hands from her eyes. The veins trail away from her eyes and her eyelids look swollen and puffy. Her eyes were completely white and glazed over. I had never seen anything like it. After the first time it happened, I had googled like crazy and found nothing even remotely similar. It wasn't an infection, wasn't pink eye, wasn't cancer (thank god). I had no other explanations. Every time it happened, I pulled Hinata aside and waited for it to die down, which never took long at least.
Her milky-white eyes are full of tears. "W-why does this keep h-happening? W-what's going on?" she whimpers.
"It's going to be okay, see, it's fading now," I soothe her. It's lucky we have similar schedules, because I can be there when she breaks down like this. "Are you going to be okay?" I ask.
She hiccups a few times, but nods. She looks up at me, and I see her eyes are back to normal now. "Let's head b-back to lunch," she whispers in her tentative voice. I follow her out of the closet. I worry about her. Her cousin is cold and distant towards her, so she has no family here at boarding school. She has me, but I'm not welcome on the girl's floor (Long story that involves silly string and super glue). I wish I could do more for her, especially with this weirdness with her eyes. She is trembling a little still as we take out seats in the cafeteria. My eyes immediately find the table holding the boy with the baggy hooded sweatshirt and dark glasses which he is constantly hiding behind. He's always alone, and silent, and I can't help wondering who exactly he is.
"You c-could invite him over," Hinata whispers to me. I shake my head vigorously, and she sighs. "You'll get nowhere b-boring a hole in his head with your eyes," she chides gently. Yeah right, like I'll just ask him over. I've been staring at him obsessively all year, which Hinata has never failed to notice. But I can never work up the courage to approach him. We both have our problems, Hinata and I, and we can only hope they get resolved very, very soon.
Neji
I find that sitting on the roof provides a sense of peace that a crowded cafeteria never will. I can quietly meditate without interruption. I don't believe that students are technically allowed to be up here, but no one has ever caught me and I don't care enough to let it bother me.
I find my thoughts are always unsettled. I feel an intense amount of unease with my surroundings. I could attribute it to the simple and mind-numbing classes I am forced to take, or the solitude I shroud myself in, or the mark on my forehead that I can find no explanation for. But, if I am being honest, I have no clue as to why I should be feeling so ill at ease. It's as if something is out of place, and it's on the tip of my tongue, but every time I chase that thought it runs away from me. I sigh and uncross my legs. I may as well eat. Meditation is getting me nowhere today.
Ino
"Did you see the episode of The Bachelor yesterday? Oh my god, so unreal,"
I giggle along with the other girls I'm seated with. They start up a feisty debate over who will win the series. I listen with one ear, but in all honesty my head is somewhere else. I had the weirdest dream last night. I was a ninja, yeah, a ninja, in a town where everyone I knew was a ninja, and I had the power of mind control or something. It was weird, and disconcerting, but it felt very real. It had been plaguing my mind all day, so I was glad I could spend some time with my girlfriends to take my mind off of it.
I laughed at some inane joke Clarissa, my BFF, had said. I pulled myself back to the conversation. Pffff. Ninjas. What am I talking about?