Chapter 2: The School Dance

"DEIDARA!!! Come ON! We are going to be LATE!" Dana yelled at her best friend, who was currently sprawled across her couch, a pool of drool at the corner of his mouth, and soft snores escaping his pink lips. Dana felt like she was about to bust a vein. They had to be at school at 8:15. It was now 8:00. And it took 10 minutes to get there.

"DEIDARA!!" She threw her math book at his stomach. Unfortunately, it never hit it's target. Deidara caught it.

"Yea, yea, yea. I heard you the first time." He chucked the book back at her and lifted himself off of the couch. Stretching his back and hearing it pop, he smiled and turned to her.

"Ready?"

Dana stood there, her left eye twitching.

"HELL NO!!! You haven't brushed your teeth, washed your face, eat breakfast…change clothes or ANYTHING!"

Deidara rubbed his ears. "Chill."

"Chill? No, I will not CHILL!" The angry blond stormed off into her room and came back, articles of clothing in her hand.

"Here. Put these on. Use your finger or my toothbrush or whatever the hell else to brush your teeth. Use my OLAY facial scrub, and I'll shove a piece of toast down your throat on the way to school. Get. Moving."

Deidara felt himself being thrust into the bathroom and clothes thrown into his face. 'At least their clean.'

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"Whew. We made it!" Dana yelled in triumph as she stepped onto the school's territory, striking a pose. Deidara, who was barely behind he was looking worse for wear.

"Why…the hell…did…we…spr…int…all the way…here?" Deidara was hunched over, hands on his knees, breathing heavily in between words.

Dana came down from her pose and looked at her friend. "Because if we didn't, then we would have been late to school!"

"Yea. But…"

"And it was all your fault!!"

"My fault?"

"YES!!"

"How?" Deidara just finally caught his breath, but was using it for a yelling match with a girl who's mouth was a megaphone.

"YOU WOKE UP LATE!!!!"

Deidara turned red and was about to retort back when he was interrupted.

"Well, well, well. Is it the lovers spat?"

Dana turned around and looked at Baki. Baki was 19 in his junior year. Yea, he was that dumb. But unfortunately he compensated for his lack of basic intelligence with his fists. They were huge.

"Fuck off, Baki."

Baki chuckled, droplets of spit flying from his mouth. "Such dirty words for such a cute little bitch." He tried to touch Dana's butt, but Deidara smacked it away.

"Leave us the fuck alone!" Deidara hissed.

Baki laughed. "What kind of man smacks a hand away? Wanna go at it Dei-chan?"

Deidara turned red and looked Baki right in the eye. He opened his mouth and…

BRING!!! The school bell rung, interrupting Baki and Deidara's moment.

"Come ON! We are going to be late!" Dana grabbed Deidara by his blonde ponytail and pulled him through the metal doors of Hatake High School.

"Bitchy." Deidara grunted.

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Deidara sighed as he sat down to US History. Oh how he loathed that class. He raised his hand when Mrs. Kurenai called on him. 'Why is this class even in existence?'. Deidara sighed again as Mrs. Kurenai started drawling about the Progressive Era. He hated this class almost as much as he hated…never mind. Deidara blew his bang from in front of his eye and looked out of the window. 'Dana should be having gym right now.' He moved closer to the window and pressed his nose up against the class. The gym class was running laps around the track field. He looked for the tell-tale long blonde hair.

"There she is!" He mumbled to himself, blushing to find how excited he was to see his friend.

Dana was in her gym shorts and shirt. She ran track for the winter and spring seasons. 'Spring. School is almost over.' He watched as Dana skillfully ran around the curve of the track…and tripped and fell. Deidara flinched as she fell, but breathed a sigh of relief as she jumped right back up and began running. Even with her stumble, she still beat the rest of the class to the finish line.

Deidara watched as she drunk her water and then directed her eyes towards his window. She smiled and waved at him, and he felt his heart speed up. He looked quickly at the front of the desk, and seeing that Kurenai-slut was still talking about the Progressive Era, he turned back to the window and waved back. But Dana wasn't paying attention to him. She was talking to him. That bastard Spencer. Deidara felt something break inside him as she laughed at something Spencer said. Oh how he hated Spencer.

"-ara? Deidara?"

"Yes Mrs. Kurenai?" Deidara swung his head around to face the teacher.

"Now that you have kindly averted your eyes from the window, answer my question."

Deidara panicked. "Um…may you please repeat the question?"

Kurenai chuckled. "Maybe, Deidara, if you took care of your ADD, you would of paid attention enough to know the question. And if you weren't so stupid, you might of known the answer. But we'll never know that will we? Sakura! Answer the question."

Deidra turned red from fury and embarrassment. He should have been used to harsh treatment, but every time someone made him feel inferior, a whole rush of negative emotions ran through him. He closed his eyes to ignore the looks the students were giving him. He closed his mind and wished for lunch to come around soon. He could talk to Dana at lunch. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

Dana had just finished running around the track 6 times when she felt eyes on her. She looked up to the building and saw Deidara staring at her. 'Oh man. Did he see me trip?'. She blushed and waved at him. She pouted when he turned away and was about to yell his name when she heard someone calling her. It was Spencer.

"Hey Dana." Spencer smiled.

Dana was weary. This was Spencer. The school's playboy. "Hey."

Spencer faltered a little at her austere attitude but he continued. "So, you know about the school dance right?"

Dana sighed. "Why. Do you want me to know about the school dance?"

Spencer's smile tightened. "Yea. Wanna go with me?"

Dana tried. Really she did. But she couldn't help it. She laughed right in his face. "Go to the dance with you? I would never go to that dance period…with anyone, let alone you." She laughed and started to walk toward the school, intent on changing and telling Deidara her funny anecdote.

"Ha. Go to the school dance indeed." Dana mumbled.

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Deidara watched Dana plop down wearily in the seat in front of him. She then slammed her head into the table and kept it there. It was now lunch time, and Deidara was happy. He could finally talk to Dana. After he comforted her of course.

"Something wrong?"

Dana looked up and glared at him. "Know Spencer?"

Deidara winced at the name. "Playboy."

"The one and the same. He's been asking me to the dance."

Deidara blinked. "Dance?"

Dana gasped. "You haven't heard about the school dance?"

"No."

"WHAT? IT'S EVERYWHERE!!" She was flailing her arms now. Deidara shrugged.

"I guess I have been to busy to notice something as stupid as a dance. It's not like they made announcements or anything." He took a sip of his apple juice.

Dana chocked on air. "To busy? Haven't noticed? Turn around!"

Deidara decided to humor her and turned around. And sure enough, on every wall of the cafeteria, were posters announcing the school dance. More accurately they said: More accurately they said: COME TO THE HATAKE SCHOOL DANCE NEXT FRIDAY!! BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!!!

"What the hell?" Deidara screeched. In the bottom hand corner was a drawing of Deidara, with an arrow pointing from "SQUARE" to him.

Dana coughed awkwardly. "Okay...so maybe not THAT poster...but you get what I mean."

Deidara glared at her. "Whatever."

Silence seemed to engulf the two. Dana awkwardly picked at her…blob of brown stuff the cafeteria had provided for them, and Deidara sipped his apple juice, occasionally glaring at the poster. Dana coughed.

"Hm?" Deidara looked at her.

"Nothing."

Dana looked back down at her blob and stuck a fork in it. It stood straight up. "Do you wanna go the dance?"

Deidara chocked on his juice while trying to prevent his laugh. "Why would I go? Who would I go with?"

Dana blushed hard and looked back down at the table. "Well, you and I could go."

Deidara blinked at her. "Look, love you and all, but it would seem pretty pathetic."

Dana looked back up. "What would look pretty pathetic?"

"You know. Me going to the dance with you?"

"And why would that be pathetic?" Dana was starting to get a little mad.

"Well…" Deidara fidgeted. "You know…"

"Know. Please tell me." Dana was now leaning over the table, half a foot away from his fact.

"Well. It would be the pity date. You know…cuz we have no one else to go with and it'll seem like me are just…"

"Just WHAT Deidara? Please, I'm dying to know." Dana was red now and standing straight up.

"That I had to settle for you." He squeaked out.

Dana's face went blank. "I see. So you don't want to "settle" for me, because that would be awful; going to the dance with your BEST friend. I would never do that." She gathered up her glop and turned around.

"Dana wait!" he stuttered. But she was already gone. She had dumped her tray and headed out of the cafeteria. Deidara threw his drink away and followed her. She was in the hallway, turning the corner to her last period class. Then IT happened.

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Dana was seething. Was he embarrassed to go to the dance with her? Was she not pretty enough? Was she not good enough? Did she smell bad or something? She fought back tears and turned the corner, determined to banish the episode from her mind…when she bumped into Spencer…again.

"Oh hey Dana." Spencer grinned, showing off his pearly whites.

"Hm." She moved to walk past him when she heard him say. "You know the offer for the dance is still open."

Dana stopped. It would be a good idea to go with Spencer just to show Deidara up. But she wasn't that type of person. But that doesn't mean she wasn't conniving.

She turned and gave Spencer her best smile, flipping her shoulder length hair behind her shoulder. "Sorry. I would love to go with you, but I can't. Maybe next dance?"

Spencer was blown away by Dana's demeanor. It was as if…she had a personality transplant. "Sure. Yeah. Okay." He blushed and rushed away.