The It School
Chapter Two:: This Is Why We Whisper
Written By:: Riz-I

"Why is everybody looking at you?" Shikamaru yawns as he asks. I don't really blame him- since Lady Luck's latest announcement, people are literally just skidding to a halt when they see me.

How does everybody know 'Cherry Blossom' is me? This is why Gossip Blog secret identities never work, see, you can just read what was written at a later date and be all 'OH!! I know who did that- so that means (insert GossipBlog name here) is actually (insert real name here).' People aren't as stupid as they seem. Some midget new Year Seven stops to gawk at me and his friend ends up walking straight into his back…

Clearly.

Like I was saying- thinking, whatever- you can't really keep identities a secret. The Deer? That's obviously Shikamaru. The Flower? Well, that's easy. Ino Yamanaka. So called because Yamanaka Flowers is the place to go to get flower arrangements; a bouquet of roses from them costs more than my Apartment. The Game? Temari. So called because… well; I don't really know why. She just is.

"So, where are we headed?" I look at Shikamaru who is now scratching his head and yawning at the same time.

I shake my head at him. "Don't follow me."

He raises an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

"You've been 'It-Claimed'." I peer into his dark, sceptical eyes, "Twice!" I hold up two fingers and spin around to walk away. He catches my wrist.

Okay. Wrist. Burning. Pineapple Guy. Claimed.

Twice.

He pulls me close and I'm sure he's going to confess. Oh please let Lady Luck report this. For once in your damn gossipy life report something useful! That said- what kind of a guy confesses after knowing somebody for about ten minutes? Oh my God. What if he's some sort of pervert- Lady Luck mentioned the two newbies having a reputation… What if Shikamaru's is 'axe-murderer/ pervert'?!

"You were about to step on an ant hill." He shoves me to the side and lets go. He starts walking ahead while I stand, amazed, and rub my wrist. He suddenly stops, turns his head and tilts his head to the side, "By the way. What's an It-Claim?"

I gape at Shikamaru. Well, of course he doesn't know what an It-Claim is.

Poor boy.

I walk over to him, pat him on the shoulder and then begin leading him to a slightly more secluded area. As we walk, I talk. "You remember those people in Form? The ones who you say are 'troublesome'?"

"Hn." He grunts. I take that as a yes.

"They're the It Crowd." At this, I am given a cynical look. "No. I'm not joking. You've heard of The F4 from Hana Yori Dango, right?"

How could he not have? Everyone's heard of it. As I expected, he nods his head.

"Well, the It Crowd is sort of like that. Except there's 16 of them."

"So- they own the school?"

"Yep."

"And an It-Claim would be…" his face clears for a second. "When one of them claim something?"

Well, he had to be a genius to pass the scholarship exam. "Pretty much. Just… not something. Someone."

We sit down under the large oak tree near the bike sheds. I lay down my blazer, sit down and lean back on the tree. Shikamaru just lies straight down on the grass. "So, who claimed me? And how do you know?"

"Ino; she's the one with the blonde hair, blue eyes and killer body and Temari; the other one with blonde hair, blue eyes and a killer body." Shikamaru smirks slightly.

"Shame really," he sighs, "Since my type is dark hair, black eyes and slightly chubby."

Ding-Dong, loves. My Gossip senses are tingling. Well, not really, it's more like some kind of a field day with Gossip Pollen being THROWN my way... I have news for The Game and The Flower. Seems you both are going to have to do a bit of changing if The Deer is the man for you. For I have it here that his type is not the thin blonde bombshell, but rather the voluptuous dark haired siren. Seems the innocent blonde & blue eyed combination isn't what's going to win over the first ever non It Crowd male to get an It- Claim, oh, my bad, he got two. I'd better hurry on those background checks. Unless somebody would like to come forward with something? No? Alrighty then. I'll have to come up with some sort of gift for one 'Ramen King Of The It School Kingdom' who tells me that Sora , after leaving us in Year Nine, committed suicide in the Summer leading up to Year Ten. Let us all take a moment to mourn his loss… Okay. Moment over. If he wanted to just give up , more fool him. Because we at the It School aren't quitters, are we? Remember lovely's, we here are the It School… And this is where it's at.0-7-7-L-A-D-Y-L-U-C-K. Kiss. Kiss.

I look at Shikamaru and then point towards the speaker on the wall of the bike shed, "And that, 'Mr Deer', is how I know."

"What was that?"

I sigh and begin tugging up lumps of grass, "That was Lady Luck on GossipRadio. Our. School's. Very. Own. Gossip. Radio." I accent each word with a tug.

The boy puts his arms behind his head and whistles. I take this as a sign to continue. "I mean, if it was a gossip blog at least it's optional. You don't have to read the pointless shit about other people. But there are speakers in the dorms!! She is the Morning Alarm!! You have to listen!! And she knows everything. Even the stuff nobody texts her about!!! How?!" I realise that I've pulled up all the grass in the little spot in front of me and am currently clawing up bits of dirt. "Ew." I begin trying to scrape the mud out.

"Maybe the speakers are two-way."

"What?" I stop scraping.

"I said, maybe the speakers are two way. That's how she knows everything."

Now there's a thought…

The bell rings.

"What lesson have you got next?" I ask, expecting him to pull out his Planner. I should have guessed Mr Genius would have memorised his Timetable already.

"Biology with Kabuto in the Leaf Building. What about you?"

"Chemistry with Asuma in the Fire Building . Guess I'll see you at Lunch."

"Yeah. I guess." He yawns once again and then heads towards his lesson.

I stretch out, slide my blazer back on and pick up my bag. "Oy! Spiller." I roll my eyes and spin, ready to face whoever it is; "What?" I growl.

A grinning Naruto Uzumaki greets me. "Hey!"

I just stand and gaze at the hyperactive blond teen, he's pretty good looking I guess- not a patch on his best friend, 'The-Glacial-One-Who-Kisses-For-Money', but still, he's not bad. I try not to say stupid things, I really do. But they just come out. "Is your hair supposed to be that canary coloured?"

"YEAH!! Well, it's supposed to be egg-yolk colour. You know, like egg ramen. But the guy put in a bit too much gold." He grins as I realise that to someone like Naruto- who has roughly the IQ of a bowl of egg ramen- my question had been perfectly plausible.

You'd think I'd say something normal next. But my brain wasn't quite done. "Why are you speaking to me, Egg Boy?"

"Because I wanted to ask you something," he pauses to scratch his head and grin moronically at me, "Do you want to go out sometime?"

True to form, my brain/mouth filter failed yet again. "Yes!! Are you kidding me?!" So much for playing hard-to-get to reel 'em in…

"Really?!" He grinned. "No joke? You'll really go out with me?!"

The normal part (no matter how miniscule it may be)of my brain kicked in right about here. "Of course not!" Naruto's face fell. "Come on! You can't need the money that much. It's not like you're here on scholarship." I almost laugh at the thought of Naruto 'One-Plus-One-Is-Eleven' Uzumaki getting in on Scholarship.

He looks at me, dumbfounded. "What money?"

"Ino's paying you, right? To wind me up? Ask me out? Get me to say yes? Then you can all laugh at me and whatever?"

"Huh?" His astounded face makes me want to punch him. "Sakura, you're really weird. Why would I do anything Ino says?"

"You mean-"

Naruto grins, "I really do want to go out with you!! So, you will, won't you?!"

I glance at my watch. Bloody hell! I'm late. And my lesson is with Asuma… who's going to make me scrape off the chewing gum from under the desks as a punishment... I look at the grinning (just slightly moronic) boy in front of me. I roll my eyes. "Fine."

"SCORE!! Okay. Meet me at the Dorm Common Room at seven, 'kay?" (Okay, scrat that, extremely moronic boy).

"Whatever." I turn and start walking towards the Leaf Building.

Did that just happen?

Today this could be… the greatest day of our lives! And there go the timeless words of Take That. Well, maybe not your lives, but most definitely it could be mine. How much gossip have I got for you today? It seems the U Boys are planning something. Both missed their first classes after break and I know for a fact one of the U Boys has planned a date tonight. I also know for a fact that while they were plotting in what they considered to be the 'Privacy' of the Men's Toilets, the words "Spiller" and "Ruin" and "Destruction" and "Ramen" were mentioned. With any number of even more suspicious words in between. But I'll leave that to tomorrow. I have the feeling something big is on the horizon… Now then. A little Personal Housekeeping. Don't text me Personal Messages to read out. I really don't care if Karin Baby-Doll loves Suigetsu Honey-Bunch. Now, if Baby-Doll and Honey-Bunch were to be caught doing the dirty behind the bike sheds by say, the other U Boy… well, now that would interest me. I'm telling you now, Lady Luck only deals in Gossip. Because you know, every roll of the dice turns out something new. Especially here at the It School… because this is where it's at!! 0-7-7-L-A-D-Y-L-U-C-K. Kiss. Kiss.

There are times when I wish I were stupid.

But I'm not.

'The U Boys' are Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha.

And if there are four words you don't want to see together where those two are concerned, they are; 'Spiller. Ruin. Destruction and Ramen'.

Especially if you know for a fact that you are 'Spiller'.

And that you are going out with one of the 'U Boys' later that night.

And that something is going to happen to you.

Something involving; ruin, destruction and ramen.

So seriously, what possessed me to come meet Naruto at the Common Room at seven?

And why did I wear my best jeans?

The ones that make my ass look bootylicious?

And why, when Naruto just asked me if it was okay if we gave Sasuke a lift did I say 'Yes, why not? The more the merrier!'?

You want to know why?

Because I; Sakura Haruno… am an idiot.

Don't judge me, okay? I mean, when I went back to my dorms that night, I totally planned on plugging into my iPod, doing my homework and then just falling asleep. But when I put it on Shuffle; what song should start playing but 'You Know I'm No Good', Amy Winehouse?! And I decided that, you know what, if I was going to be a social reject for the rest of my life, I may as well get some pay-back for all my suffering.

And that's why I came down here. In my best jeans.

To teach the 'U Brothers' a lesson.

And so what if I'm (just slightly) a sucker for a pretty face.

I mean, come on…

Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha have two of the prettiest faces on the planet… Seriously.

The next time I make a stupid plan after listening to a song on my iPod, would somebody please take me to the side and say to me, "Sakura, this is a stupid plan you have concocted after listening to a song on your iPod. Don't do it because it will only result in you screwing yourself into the dirt."?

I'm just about ready to crawl into bed and lick my wounds and relive the horrors of that evening under cover of the peace and private of my own blanket when:

Anybody ever seen the Grey's Anatomy episode where Meredith thinks she's going to die and so doesn't want to get out bed that morning because she just knows she's going to die? And then later that day she winds up in a bomb blast? You see, this morning… I had that. Except the complete opposite. When I woke up I couldn't wait to get out of bed because I just knew it was going to be a great day. And guess what? I have for you the biggest scoops of the year. Hell, I'm going to go ahead and say this is THE BEST GOSSIP I HAVE EVER REPORTED ON GOSSIP RADIO!! Bet that got your attention. Heh heh. So, darlings, here goes… First of all, I got the deets on Shikamaru Nara and Kiba Inuzuka. We'll start with Kiba then, shall we? Star football player at his previous school, great with animals and plans on going into Veterinary Science after his two years here. He's pretty good looking and is, despite his pre-dating, typical 'player' behaviour, a loyal boyfriend… Shame he can't pick girlfriends of the same calibre. Coming here appears to be more of an escape route than due to pure ambition. Sorry Kiba, hun. But the stuff I have on you is just too good. Hear this all ,I have it that young Kiba moved here due to his ex cheating on him with his best friends. Yes. You heard that right. Friend-S. Plural. It seems if you're after puppy love with our cute little future vet- you're going to have to give him a heap load of TLC. Now we come to the real juicy stuff. Shikamaru Nara. Why didn't you tell us babe? You know. That your alias in the working world is, listen closely everybody. Because you are currently sharing a School with none other than… G.M Nara. Genius-Model Nara. The one who single handedly re-launched Nara Corps. And made it the third biggest company in the business world today. After Uchiha and Hyuuga Corps. Obviously. Not to mention one of the hottest guys on the planet. I see why you decided to keep your hair tied up. Seems The Flower and The Game both have to step it up- again. But compared to what I'm going to reveal now, G.M Nara's presence amongst us is nothing... It would seem The Sex and the Fox both showed our Little Miss H-Blossom a pretty good time earlier today. Well. It was good for them. Maybe not so much for Miss H. The three of them took a little trip to Ichiraku Ramen where I just so happened to be, and you'll never believe what I saw unravel before my eyes. And what secrets I heard whispered in the booth-next-booth; the U Brothers have concocted a plan so cunning I'm half tempted to spill it all to Headmaster Sarutobi; but unlike Miss H- I'm not a Spiller. Anyway, this plan, should it come to fruition, could catapult the It School to unprecedented fame and fortune. Yes. Fame and fortune so large even The Sex- who most definitely has no lack of either- decided to cash in. The only problem is; the U Brothers need the unfaltering support of Little Miss H-Blossom. However, being the good, virgin girl that she is, neither The Fox's proposition of free ramen for a year nor The Sex's offer of- well, what do you think?- could persuade her to participate. I believe her exact words were: 'If we get caught, you guys are going to blame the whole thing on me, aren't you?' to which, after The Fox replied 'Of course.' She got up and stormed out. Might I say, Miss H, your jeans are most flattering on the ass, do text me and let me know where they're from. Heh. All I can say is, I'd be with her on this- because this plan could potentially go in two directions, and there's no turning back should either happen. Direction One: As I previously mentioned, the school and it's students could become the most talked about the world over. Or, Direction Two: and this is, at the moment, more likely. The school could become a Z-List School overnight, resulting in every single student and their entire families (and I mean entire families; grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, even distant-cousins-however-many-times-removed) could lose their entire fortunes. Overnight. Think long and hard about this one boys. And Miss H. Do not. Under any circumstances, give in without giving due consideration to the fact that many students have private security at their disposal. Security that would do their bidding even if they were to say, lose their fortunes overnight. Just, a, you know, friendly warning. So, everyone, goodnight. Look forward to your Gossip Alarm tomorrow morning. And remember ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and of course, the It Crowd… This is the It School. And this is where it's at. 0-7-7-L-A-D-Y-L-U-C-K. Kiss. Kiss.

There's a soft tap on my door. I groan, tiptoe over, and peer through the peephole. Sighing, I unlock the door. "What?!" I all but growl.

"Thought you could use a friend."

"And why would you think that, Pineapple?" I raise a sceptical eyebrow at him.

"Okay. You got me. I can sense a large group of hormonal girls rushing towards my dorm room. I want to shack up in yours for tonight. You told me at Lunch that you had a single."

I look at the face of G.M- sorry, Shikamaru Nara in the moonlight. I sigh. "Whatever. Come in."

I lock the door and turn around to find Shikamaru strewn across the small couch I crammed in here. He has one arm bent with his forearm across his eyes and the other one grazing the carpet. Sensing me watching him, he removes the arm and turns his head to gaze right at me. "So tell me," he smirked, "What's this grand plan?"

And boy do I ever tell him. And by the time I'm done… That little smirk of his is nowhere to be seen. He's sitting up and staring at me with shock-widened eyes. "S- Sakura." He chokes. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?" I gaze right back into his eyes, and I have the feeling mine are more resigned than anything else. I tell him the words that our-lucky-lady-of-unrelenting-blabbermouth-syndrome couldn't possibly have heard. The ones Sasuke Uchiha had whispered in my ear when he grabbed my arm when I was storming out the front door of the Ichiraku's; "Hey Spiller. Have you heard about my brother?"

"Who hasn't?!" I whisper-growled back. Seriously, Itachi is the black-sheep of the Uchiha family; a player and the leader of the most dangerous Underground Mob around.

"Would you like to meet him?"

"No!" I growled this time. No 'whisper' about it.

"Well then, I suggest you reconsider." And then he let me go.

Shikamaru is just about to comment when there is a loud banging on my door. "SAKURA HARUNO!! OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW OR I SWEAR I'LL POST POISON POLLEN UNDER YOUR DOOR!!" I look alarmedly at Shikamaru. "Hide!", I quickly push him into the en-suite (because obviously the It School has this kind of luxury, surely the babies of the world's elite can't use *gasp , horror* communal showers) and rush to the door. Luckily (or not) it's just Ino.

I open the door a fraction. "Whadd'ya want?"

"I need to talk to you."

"About what."

She raises a blonde eyebrow at me; plucked, tweezed and arched to perfection. "What do you think?"

"Listen, I can't tell you the plan, okay?! They'll like, kill me or something."

Now she just looks plain confused. "Huh? What are you on about? I'm talking about Shikamaru. Now move aside! I'm cold. You'd better have a heater in here, Spiller." And she pushes past me into my room.

Sitting down on the bed, she crosses her legs elegantly at the ankle, her lavender coloured silk camisole and shorts catching the moonlight. "Now then, Spiller. I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse." She examines her nails and then looks directly at me.

"And what might that be?" I ask, buying myself time as I think how to get rid of her.

"Well, Spiller." Her bright blue orbs are locked on my jade green ones, "Help me win Shikamaru… And I'll help you win Sasuke."

She pauses for effect.

She thinks she has me bought, doesn't she?

And true. Sasuke Uchiha may have the prettiest face I have ever seen.

And also true, I may be a complete sucker for pretty faces.

But I am not, as I have previously mentioned, stupid.

And, keeping my eyes locked on Ino's smug ones- I begin to laugh. "No thanks." I laugh. "I'd rather go out with Chouji."

And that's when a small, masculine chuckle comes from the en-suite. We both turn to look at it.

Ino's eyes widen.

A grin breaks across her pretty, pretty face (I am only a sucker for male pretty faces). "Who's that, Spiller?"

"Nobody."

"Nobody, eh? Tell me, what's number 17 on the school rules?"

"N-no members of the opposite gender to visit dorm rooms after 7."

"And what time is it now?"

"Erm. About 11."

"Good girl. Now," She stands up. "I'd like to make a slight readjustment to our bargain." She comes and stands right in front of me, she has to look down at me being at least 5 inches taller. "You get me together with Shikamaru… and I don't get you kicked out of this school."

And then she glides out of my room. Shutting the door with a soft *click* as she goes.

A/N: So, let me know what you thought; by clicking that review button. Oh, and since anonymity is super allowed on Fanfiction, I want to try something. If you actually do read the author notes- do please leave me (in a review) some of the juiciest gossip you've ever come across. Because however much we may like to deny it, everyone loves a slight bit of gossip- and who better to gossip to than someone who doesn't have a clue who the people involved are so won't tell- and who may just use it in one of her future chapters (credits to you, obviously).

I'll break the ice:: Today, it turned out that, over the Half Term, one of my friends' mum found the Morning After Pill in her bedroom. She didn't even know my friend HAS a boyf. Let alone that she's having... well, you know... with him.

Moving On::

Did anyone else get that thing where FanFiction wouldn't let you log in? Yeah. Well, Half Term's over and so I've got slightly more incentive to update this- because we all know school is where the best gossip happens. ^_* Anybody watch Grey's Anatomy? It is the best show in the history of shows. Missa (who is a legend. Go read her stuff if you haven't, she's iMissa) and I pretty much are agreed that McSteamy & Viper from like, episode two, are t' sex. Go watch it. Seriously. ^_^ As for me- Chemistry test and Romeo & Juliet (who were not in love, despite what most would like to believe) Presentation looms tomorrow. Kiss. Kiss.