Kaida was sat in a seat about half way along the coach, thankful for having her pick of the seats, the little village she lived in was first stop on the journey so it was completely empty apart from the driver. The only disadvantage would be that her suitcase would be one of the last to be unloaded. She stared pointlessly out the window, not even trying to follow the rushing scenery with her eyes, after what felt like an age of boredom, she dug her iPod out of her bag and put it on 'shuffle'. Supermassive Black Hole by Muse came blaring out of the headphones, not strictly speaking her favourite song, but it blocked out the country music the driver had put on, and started singing tunelessly and loudly to. Soon enough her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep again.
Gaara was perched on the top of the wall, staring out over the rows of big, expensive houses that he couldn't care less for. Kankuro, his older brother by one year, leaned against the wall by the suitcases. His older sister and Kankuro's twin, Temari, was chatting on the phone about seemingly nothing. As the minuet hand ticked past four on his watch, Gaara spoke.
"It's late," he said tonelessly, referring to the coach that was meant to take them to school
Kankuro looked up at his younger brother, wondering how he knew what time it was without even having to look at his watch. Gaara had always been weird, although no one dared point it out, not if they knew what was good for them. Another sixteen minuets passed and the coach pulled into the stop and the doors opened, a moment later the driver stepped out and opened the storage hatch for their luggage.
"Sorry we're late!" said the driver, his accent something you'd expect from a farmer "Miss Lazy-Bones in there over slept!" he continued to speak as he loaded their cases on "I think she's fallen asleep again though," he didn't seem to notice that only Kankuro was still stood there, not even listening to him, just checking all their cases were loaded on.
Not intending to let anyone sit by him, Gaara took a seat near the middle of the coach and sat with his back against the window, and with his feet on the seat next to his. Kankuro and Temari sat near the front. Across from him was a girl, this must of been the girl that made the coach late. He recognised her as Kaida Himura, the only person who could rival him in every last subject, neither of them were necessarily the best, but there was always a rivalry between them that no one seemed to be able to explain. As usual she wore battered, ripped jeans, old converse, red t-shirt, and her black hair had red streaks through it, and her old leather jacket on the seat next to her, and she was asleep, with head phones fitted securely over her ears. As the driver started the engine, Gaara wrinkled his nose in disgust as obnoxious country music twanged out of the speakers and the driver started singing along to the winy, toneless lyrics. He was quick enough getting his iPod out of his bag and the song didn't get stuck in his head.
Three stops later, three girls got on, he recognised them from his own year, but he didn't know their names, he didn't care to remember. They quickly took the seats in front and behind the girl sat opposite him.
The one with long blond hair tied back in a pony tail, with her fringe covering most of the right side of her face, leaned over the back of her seat, and so did the girl with pink hair sat next to her. She poked the girls shoulder repeatedly.
"Kai! Kai, hay Kai! Kai, wake up!" she pestered "Kaida!"
"What?" she asked, not opening her eyes but clearly pissed off
"Guess what!"
"What?"
"No guess!"
"No"
"Guess!"
"No"
"Ino, just tell her" said the girl with dark hair sat behind Kaida
Kaida was none to happy to be prodded awake by Ino Yakamana, refusing to open her eyes but forced to answer.
"What?" she asked bluntly, ready to punch Ino in her thickly make-uped face if she'd been woken for no reason.
"Guess what!"
"What?"
"No guess!"
"No"
"Guess!"
"No"
"Ino, just tell her," said the soft voice of the girl sat behind her, thank the gods for Hinata Hyuga
"Fine then," she pouted, then turning back to Kaida "I've got a boyfriend!" she announced brightly
Kaida opened her eyes and looked at Ino through her fringe "No you haven't" she said, knowing fully what this girl was like "You're torturing some poor boy by flirting with him and letting him think he's your boyfriend, when actually all the while you're just using him to make Uchiha jealous, which I can tell you now, you're failing epicly at, because as I will tell you time and time again, he doesn't fancy you at all."
Ino looked offended, but she was clearly acting "How dare you suggest I would use anyone like that! And Sasuke does fancy me! He just"
"Doesn't know it yet?" asked Kaida, finishing the sentence for her "So who's the unfortunate bastard then?" she continued, turning off her iPod and stowing it back in her bag.
"Kiba Inuzuka," said Hinata timidly from behind them
"He's in our mentor group right?" asked Kaida, Hinata nodded. The schooling system in this country was complicated, there was Konohagakure (their school), Sunagakure (The school the three transfer students had come from three and a half years ago), Amegakure, Otogakure, Kirigakure, Kumogakure and Iwagakure. Each school would compete in tournaments throughout the year. They didn't know about other schools, but Konohagakure was split into mentor groups. Ino was in Asuma-sensei's, Sakura was in Kakashi-sensei's, and Hinata and Kaida were in Kurenai-sensei's.
"Doesn't he get on the next stop?" asked Sakura
"Yes, I think so" said Hinata
"Hmm," mused Kaida "So do most of the guys in our year, well, most of them"
"Yeah, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akamichi, Shino Aburame" Sakura began counting them off on her fingers
"Naruto Uzumaki," Kaida threw a meaningful look at Hinata
Hinata pretended to miss this, although her cheeks were slightly pink "And Sasuke Uchiha." she finished the list
Kaida frowned as the driver turned up the country music and pulled her iPod back out of her bag, along with its portable speakers. She flicked through the playlists before settling on one labelled 'Mutual' this was one she'd organised specifically for when she was with friends, no metal, no Pop, nothing 'depressing' and nothing cheesy or romantic. 'Starstrukk' by 'Katy Perry and 30h!3' came on, clearly heard throughout the coach, there was a cheer as it was discovered that it was effortlessly louder than the tinny stereo the driver had.
The coach pulled to a stop, where a couple of kids from the year below got on the coach, followed by the rowdy Land of Fire year 10's. Ino hasitilly pushed Sakura from her seat and pulled Kiba towards her and Kissing him more passionately than necessary. Kaida mimed being sick which made the guys around them, plus Sakura and Hinata, minus Sasuke and Shino, laugh loudly. "What's so funny?" asked Kiba, breaking away from Ino, his friends just shook their heads. Ino's eyes were flicking round to make sure Sasuke was watching, but he'd simply looked away from the distraction and took the seat behind a kid in their year with firey red hair, nodding in greeting. Ino took this as a success then sat down.
Sakura, looking slightly disgruntled, was about to sit by Hinata but Kaida shook her head a fraction, her eyes flicking towards Naruto, who was now left with the only choice of sitting by Hinata if he wanted to sit near his friends without being constantly ridiculed by Kaida. Gladly he swung down in the seat next to her and tried to strike a conversation.
"Hi Hinata!" he said brightly
"H-hello, N-naruto-kun" she managed to stutter out
"How was you holiday?"
"Fine," she squeaked, the more she spoke to him, the harder it seemed to be for her. Naruto went into great detail of his holiday with his Godfather, which the girls knew Hinata was only too happy to listen to.
Sakura rolled her eyes and sat next to Kaida, smirking. When the now completely peeved driver roared at them to sit down, they laughed but did anyway. As soon as they were going again, Ino stood up to kneel in her seat, facing Kaida, Sakura and the now red-faced Hinata.
"So who's this lad you've met then Kai?" she asked, a 'give-me-ALL-the-details' look on her face
"I can honestly say I don't have a clue what you're on about." she said in a bored tone
Ino smirked knowingly, her eyes sparkling mischievously "Oh, you know... this boy you're not telling us about!"
"And what brought you to that conclusion?" asked Kaida, bored and staring out the window
"Oh, I can just tell..." she said mysteriously
"And you've got D.E.B written on the back of your hand inside a heart" added Sakura, bursting Ino's air of mystery.
Kaida looked shocked at her hand, she thought she'd washed it off, obviously not enough. She quickly folded her arms. "If I had anything to tell you, I would of told you already." she said
Kaida looked at her door shocked, then at Hinata, who seemed equally shocked. Even though the same rooms were assigned every year, but they sill put a list of the people staying in that room on the door. For the past three years it had just been Kaida and Hinata on that list, but now, beneath the golden number E34 was a different list, displaying:
Room E34:
Kaida Himura
Hinata Hyuga
Mei Koizumi
Who the hell was this Mei Koizumi. Kaida could only pray that the girl hadn't arrived yet, it saved her the trouble of having to explain the rules after she'd settled in.
Gaara turned the key in the lock and it happily clicked open. Thankfully he'd never had to share a room with anyone and all the posters he'd left on the wall were still there, untouched. Something lingered on his mind. There was something different about Kaida Himura, she somehow seemed... happier... than last year, when she'd kept herself nearly as secluded as he did.