Dinner.

Dinner time to be precise.

Dinner sucked today but I guess my quietness didn't help either. The tension was so thick that you could practically cut it through with one of those long and sharp cutting knives.

"So," Mom started. "how was uh… school?" She asked tentatively.

That was my mom for you. She always hated the silence. She never allowed it. She would do anything to stop it from being silent.

I, on the other hand, welcomed it with open arms.

"Decent." Karin replied.

Suddenly, all eyes turned on me. I was staring down at my feet from under the table. I could practically feel Karin's smirk on me but I looked up anyway just to clarify. She was in fact smirking at me. I looked away quickly before giving my reply.

"Fine."

Mom raised a delicate brow in a furrow as she looked at the food in front of her. She stabbed the carrot with her fork.

"What is this dare I ask, Sakura?"

I looked up to notice all eyes on me again. Mom was glaring at the piece of food on her fork. "It's a carrot."

"No it's not. Carrots are soft and warm. Not hard."

At that, I stabbed a carrot on my plate with my fork. It was mushy.

It was over mushy.

It was overcooked.

"Sorry. I'll do better next time." I murmured. My head was bent down as if the floor suddenly got so appealing.

"See to it that you do."

That would be it. It doesn't sound real bad though. At least… at dinner time it isn't.

When mom and dad both get something to drink… it's game over for me.

And with that, I got up from the table and limped over to the sink to start washing the dishes.

The worst thing about my parents though?

They didn't even notice me limping.

From where Karin kicked me repeatedly today.

Not one glance.

Not one acknowledgement.

Do I even exist to them?

Frostless Ice

Chapter 2

Unnoticeable

"Haruno Sakura!"

I glanced up dully to see Kakashi-Sensei looking at me expectantly from the black board. His hand had a stick of white chalk while the other held up a piece of paper from our recent Math test that we just got back. I got a fifty eight out of one hundred.

Well, I didn't.

Karin did.

She made us switch papers at the last minute before Kakashi-Sensei collected them. It was nothing new. She always made us switch papers. Ever since sixth grade.

Karin was failing more than half of her classes in sixth grade. Mom and dad intervened and asked her why she was doing so badly in school. Well, they should have. Instead, I did something I deeply regret. Deeply regret.

Karin was walking home from school. She had her math test in her hands and was currently shaking her head in disbelief. I raced up beside her.

"Something wrong Karin?" I asked loudly; a big smile adorning my face.

"Uh… what did you get on your math test?" She asked.

"A one hundred. Same as usual. Why?" My long pink locks fell in my eyes before I noisily blew them out but they just came back. I used my hand to push them behind my ear. I glanced at Karin in question.

She in turn showed me her test. I grabbed it from her outstretched hands before looking at the seven pages. I looked from the seventh page all the way to the first before I noticed the big fat red pen marks on the first page giving out her grade on it.

26

"You got a twenty-six out of a hundred? How did you possibly manage that?"

"Don't give me that! It's bad enough I'm failing math but I'm also failing more than half of my subjects!" Karin put her head in her hands before giving a massive shake as tears cascaded down her face and onto her hands. I sighed as I saw her having a sort of panic attack. "Oh, Sakura! What am I gonna do!? Mom and dad will see this and then ground me! I have to go out Saturday! I have a date!"

I thought for a moment. Well, I guess that could work.

I grabbed my test out from my back pack and a pencil before erasing both of our names on them. I scribbled down my name on Karin's, and Karin's down on mine.

"There. Now you won't get grounded."

"Sakura! What are you gonna do when they ask why you failed!?"

"I'll say that I just didn't study enough or I didn't get enough sleep. No biggie." I smiled as Karin hugged me hard. I could just barely breathe but, I guess that at the time that was okay with me.

"Thank you Sakura! I will never forget this! You will never regret this!" She said loudly as we neared home.

I came to know later that, she would never forget that in fact, she would make me do it just to save her. I would regret it later while she didn't give a damn. It was my grades that I was giving to her.

I gave her my homework.

I gave her my tests.

I gave her my quizzes.

I gave her all the answers.

While I got her crappy homework.

While she gave me her tests.

While she gave me her quizzes.

While she gave me no answers.

I want answers. I don't want to keep giving my sister all of my grades. She didn't deserve them yet somehow, I couldn't say no. I don't know how Karin did it but, somehow she ended up brainwashing me into thinking that I didn't deserve to know why or how or anything for that matter. It was all about her.

And it still always was.

"Care to take your paper any time soon Haruno?"

I shook my head quickly to get rid of the past before grabbing the test and sticking it randomly in my back pack. It didn't matter to me any more. I got used to the idea of me failing.

"Haruno, please see me after class." I nodded. Kakashi-Sensei went back to handing out papers.

The period ended quickly. It felt like I wasn't even there. I didn't believe I was considering that I was thinking about the day that I gave Karin my test and took hers. How I wish that I could erase that whole day. Back then, Karin was actually nice. She didn't beat me up or treat me like shit. She treated me with emotion. Like a regular person.

Until she figured out she could control me.

That's the problem with me. I'm too weak. I'll just let anybody come in and screw up my life.

I got my stuff together after the rest of the class walked out of the room to go to fourth block. I walked up to Kakashi-Sensei's desk as he looked up from his book. It was orange and named Icha Icha Paradise. In other words, a porno.

"Haruno, you are failing my class. I feel like you need a tutor. What do you think about that?" He questioned me. My face grew red a bit. I could feel it heat up.

"It's fine." Short, sweet, and to the point. "And, who would you have in mind to tutor me Kakashi-Sensei?"

"We will see, but for now, I want you to move up front. I want you closer to the chalk board okay?"

I gulped. I couldn't move up front! How was I going to give Karin my test for when she needed it? I could give her my homework at home while she gave me her half completed piece of crap but… this couldn't work! Well… maybe I could just write her name down instead of passing it to her. I hate it when I overreact like that.

"Fine."

He looked at me questioningly. "Sakura, are you alright?"

Those three dreaded words.

I did what came naturally to me; lie.

"Yeah. I'm fine Kakashi-Sensei."

After that horrible confrontation, I was allowed to go to my last block. Konoha High has four blocks a day meaning four classes a day. We have two semester's though so we get our eight classes. It's easier though because you don't have that much homework to deal with if it were eight a day like in middle school.

Middle school.

Now that brought back memories. A lot of them good but also a lot of them bad. Very bad.

I continued on my walk to fourth block; wood shop. It was probably my hardest class ever because I had to work with wood. I had to get the measurements right, I had to cut them right, I had to make sure that they fit together, and a bunch that's just for starters. I also had to learn how to measure. Wood shop required a lot of math like fractions and such. It was a challenge but I quickly got used to it. I often had to help others though because some of the class was struggling with making the projects. Asuma-Sensei helped them but a lot of the class he wasn't really there. He was always watching but you just couldn't see him but he always kept tabs on the class so you were without supervision but yet you weren't. You thought you were but yet you weren't. Asuma always watched. Nobody knew how but he warned them.

Ever since Aiko a few weeks ago got written up for using one of the machines to scare the other students when they all thought Asuma wasn't there, we've all been well behaved. Nobody knows how he did it though. As soon as Aiko started taunting the students with the machine, he was there. Within a minute he was there. It was really weird.

The other weird thing about wood shop class is that there's only one other girl in the class. The rest are boys. Regardless, the class isn't that big but, still. Big enough to notice the difference between genders.

The other girl in the class was somebody whom I never really talked to. I never really talked to anybody aside from Ino when she decided to show her presence around me. It was actually a girl named Sayomi Takahema. Sayomi wasn't really a quiet girl. Rather, she liked to do things her way. She liked to be active. I felt awkward around her because she was practically friends with everybody in Wood shop so she talked all the time while I just stood around. Sadly, nobody really noticed me. Nothing new though.

The boys in wood shop were Choji Akimichi, Sasuke Uchiha, Shin Tike, Kiba Inuzuka, Sai, Yukio Ito, Jun Tanaka, and a few others. I can't remember all of the names but those are some of them. I have never talked to any of them aside from helping out. I usually wait for somebody to talk to me before I talk back. I'm not shy or anything though. It's just, I won't make an attempt to talk to somebody who I know doesn't want to talk to me. It doesn't make any sense in my book.

The door creaked open as I pulled on it before entering the wood shop room with a late pass. I was about ten minutes late. It didn't matter though. We weren't doing anything today except watch a movie. Not a good movie either. It was all about wood and how lumber jacks chop them down and stuff. Not my ideal way on how to spend my last class on a Friday afternoon but it'll work. At least I don't have to act busy all of the time in the lab just to make people think that I don't want to talk because I don't. More than half the time I spend in the wood lab, I don't talk. Again, nothing new.

Asuma looked up as he was taking his MAC laptop that the school gave him and placing it on one of the desks while hooking it up to the projector. He placed the DVD in before giving me his full undivided attention.

"Sakura, do you have a late pass for me?" I nodded and then handed it to him before taking my rightful seat. All the way at the back of the class. Where practically nobody else was. I sat a seat away from the teacher's desk which was in the far corner of the room farthest from the door. I had originally sat up in the middle but I decided that I really didn't like that spot so I had asked Asuma-sensei if I could switch. To this, he said yes as anybody could probably tell.

"Okay, so watch this carefully kids. I am not Kakashi so I, unlike him, will be watching you guys with the utterly huge care that you guys cannot possibly function without." He smirked. All the while, he reached into his desk drawer and pulled something out. Nobody could tell what it was because he had stuffed it into his pocket.

At his words though, half of the class erupted into a chorus of, "HEY'S!" before he chuckled and started the movie. The next minute, he was gone. At this though, everybody started talking to one another. It seemed like I was the only one paying attention.

I was the only one paying attention I realized because as soon as the movie ended, Asuma-sensei appeared and gave us all a sheet to work on that was related to the movie. I was able to complete all twenty-five questions. No problem. Until that is, when the others saw that I was done. They grabbed the space around me and crowded in; each of them claiming their own seat beside or among me. This is quite possibly the most I have actually been noticed in a few years. It was quite sad if you thought about it that way though.

"Hey! You! Your finished right?" A guy that so happened to be screaming in my ear even though he was right next to me said.

Of course. He didn't even know my name.

The only person who didn't actually migrate towards me for answers was of course, Uchiha Sasuke. Because, apparently asking for somebody's help, let a lone a girl, was completely out of the question. He preferred to do it all on his own.

The fucking sexist.

"OI! GIVE ME THE ANSWERS!"

The people here didn't even have manners. But, of course, I gave them all of the answers. I wanted my sister Karin to be proud of me for being nice. I wanted her to just be proud of me. Maybe if that happens, she'll call me her sister again out in public.

By the time I got my paper back, we had about a minute left in class. The time itself was bad but nothing compared to my paper. Apparently people find it 'funny' to erase somebody's answers and then write in black sharpie looser all over the paper. I looked at my nonexistent answers and then the unreadable questions. Meaning I couldn't even write the answers at home even if I wanted to.

I would just have to ask Asuma for another o-

"Hey, if you tell Asuma we did that, we will personally make your life a living hell."

I sighed in defeat but that didn't last long as the boy seemed to start talking to me all over again in a snide and insincere way.

"You can't even ask Asuma for another one." He grinned so menacingly that if I wasn't so used to it by now, I would have flinched and looked away. Instead, I just stared past him at the board. It seems to be getting more and more interesting each and every single day.

Then, the bell rang and Asuma-sensei came back inside the classroom just as all of his students were leaving to go home. I followed after them shortly but only after everybody had already left.

When I was walking outside, the first thing that I noticed was that Karin was strutting over to some boy by the water fountain out front. I sighed at her childish antics. It was very befitting for her if she wanted to take the role as the girl you want to be like. Of course, a ton of girls envied Karin but then again, a lot of girls hated her. They said things like she wasn't beautiful. No, she was pretty. She wasn't smart. No, she was intelligent. She wasn't all that. No, she was more than that. She wasn't worth the time of day. No, because she was worth that time of year. Everything.

Whenever somebody insulted Karin when I was around, I always told them that she was great. Their next reply?

"Who the hell are you?" One girl sneered at me. She had long brunette hair and nice oval shaped green eyes. The brown and the green seemed to suit her more than it should. She was twisting her straw around that was in her medium sized milkshake from some fast food restaurant from the United States.

"I'm…" My breath caught in my throat. I couldn't tell them my name. They might be little Karin even more if they knew that I was her sister. "Soya." I answered lamely. It was actually times like this when I want nothing more than just crawl under my bed and just die. Right then and there.

Because as soon as I said that, not even five seconds later, the girls drink was being poured all over me. I couldn't think. I couldn't even breathe. All of the students around me started laughing so much that it looked like it hurt.

I want to laugh like that… To have not a care in the world. Only living for that moment even though you knew that it would be over soon. That when your older, you'll look back on this and just gently shake your head. It made my heart ache to see something that I might never have.

"Haha! Look at you! Hey everybody! This girl looks like a monster!" The halls were filled with laughter. Painful laughter. The kind that made my stomach do flip flops all around and have butterflies. But not the good kind. No, the bad kind actually.

But, that's when my 'savior' arrived. At one point she was. Just not right now. She wouldn't do anything for me because I might soil her reputation.

Karin looked from me to the girl and then back before glaring at her. I smiled. She was going to defend me!

"Misa! I told you to leave the less fortunate alone! Now look at what I'm going to have to do!" By this time, everybody had stopped laughing and was just listening to what Karin was saying.

After that, I knew not to get my hopes up anymore. Karin wasn't going to defend me. She was going to defend herself. Just like what she's always told me. She comes first on the list of the top of the food chain. I, on the other hand, wasn't even on the food chain. I was-am the worst. That nobody should even really associate themselves with me. That even noticing that I exist was bad enough.

Karin let me have Ino as a friend because she hates her. Otherwise, if Karin liked Ino, then Ino wouldn't like me because of what Karin says about me to her friends. Let alone the whole school.…

I know that I should feel outraged at all of this but I don't. At least she was sticking up for me. It was just how she spread it out to others.

I didn't mind. As long as I get mentioned as her sister soon.

When I got back to the house, I noticed a silver pimped out mustang in the driveway. My breath hitched in my throat before I turned and ran inside the house to see something that I never wanted to see.

I saw a boy sitting on the couch with Karin in between his legs.

The boy that she was now flirting with, and who was flirting back, was inevitably Ino's boyfriend. It wasn't until Karin started kissing him, while he started feeling her up, that I actually got up the nerve to move from my spot.

Unfortunately, fate was not on my side today or any other day because as soon as Karin stopped kissing Ino's boyfriend, she spotted me in the hallway.

"Oh, Sakura!" I stopped right on the spot and slowly turned to look at her. "Would you come here for a minute?" I slowly walked over to her as she put her hands on my shoulders. She looked in my eyes.

"Be a darling and don't tell Ino about this okay?" I didn't do anything. "And if you do," she chuckled darkly, "there will be hell to pay."

I nodded solemnly before trudging away from my sister and my best friends cheating boyfriend. There was only one thing going through my mind after this whole ordeal was what felt like a few miles away.

Do I tell Ino, my best friend?

Or obey my sister?

XxXxX

Me: Hey guys. I probably won't be able to update for a while. School is really taking it's toll on me this week... . Stupid homework.

Oh, and the words in italics? Those were a flashback. But, you probably already know that.