What's more embarrassing than being the last one sitting in your study hall? I have no idea. It was so embarrassing to have the teacher have to tell me that study hall was over. Most students usually rush out of study hall, in a rush to get out of the boring silence. What was wrong with me today? Oh yeah. Sasuke asked me to borrow my pencil. Now I feel like the proverbial school girl with a huge crush on this super hot guy. Oh wait. That's exactly what's going on. How wonderful. (That was sarcasm to anyone who didn't catch it.)

~ Is Love REALLY Worth It ~
Chapter 3

Sakura rushed out of the classroom, cheeks flushed, and hurried to her locker.

"Sakura! Wait up!" Temari called out. Once she caught up, she asked, "What's wrong? Are you sick?" She held up her hand to Temari's forehead.

"No….the most embarrassing thing EVER happened in study hall…" Sakura trailed off, her blush deepening. "Sasuke asked to borrow my pencil and I went all stupid…."

"Oh no….Sakura I'm sorry!" Temari said sympathetically, understanding exactly what Sakura had meant.

"It's ok." She paused, then burst out, "He didn't give it back!"

"What? Did he steal your virginity or something?" Ino joked, not having heard any of the conversation.

Sakura blushed. "Very funny Temari."

"Yeah, give the girl a break! She may be good, but I don't think that she's THAT good!" Temari said, causing Sakura to blush even more.

Sakura tried to distract the girls by reminding them that they were all going to hang out later on in the evening. "Would anyone like to make our evening into a picnic while we watch the sunset, and just have girl time? We haven't had girl time in a really long time."

"That sounds like fun! I know that I could bring the basket and the blanket, and girl time is much needed!" Ino said, and Temari and TenTen instantly agreed with her.

"What's this about a walk?" a shy, quiet voice said from behind Sakura.

"Oh, hi Hinata! Where have you been?" Sakura said, curiosity showing all over her face. "We had discussed the walk earlier, but you weren't there."

Hinata blushed, making the girls even more curious. "I was...I was just..." she trailed off, her face a lovely shade of red. It looked like she'd spent way too long on the beach and was burnt to a crisp!

"What's his name?" Temari asked, nudging her.

"Wh-wh-what do you mean?" She asked, ducking her head shyly.

"You know exactly what she's saying." Ino said, winking at her.

"Alright you guys! Give her a break!" Sakura said, sympathizing with her due to her current situation.

"Sakura, you ruin all the fun!" Temari said, mock pouting.

"Oh shush Temari." Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "Alright guys. I'll see you around 7 at my house. Let's all pitch in for this, eh? Hinata, you bring the drinks, Ino has the basket and blanket, Temari why don't you bring an appetizer or something, TenTen, you can bring desert, and I'll provide the main dish. Sound good?"

They all agreed, then split to go to their last class.


Sakura hated her afternoon classes because she had them all with Sasuke. She had the torture of watching her every move, not sure if he was even paying her the slightest bit of attention. She didn't want to look like she didn't know anything, nor did she want to be the class nerd. Neither were very good options, and the only one that was left was to try and walk that fine line between knowing all the answers and not knowing anything. Right. Just be an average student. Don't stand out, just be the best actress that you can.

That's easier said than done, especially in her math class.

"Sakura, what's the answer to problem number 45? It looks like the majority of the class had a problem with solving it." her teacher asked her, coming to stand next to her desk, wanting to see her work or have her answer the question.

"Um..." she looked down at her notebook, and she knew that she had the right answer. She hadn't had any problems with the homework, and math was one of her strong subjects.

"Why don't you start off by reading off the problem?" the teacher suggested, trying to encourage her to read the problem.

" Question: For some positive real number 'a', the first 3 terms of a geometric progression are a - 1, a + 3, and 3a + 1. What is the numeric value of the fourth term? The answer choices are as follows: A is 25, B is 32, C is 36, D is 100, and E is 9."

"Now, how did you choose to solve it?" The teacher tried coaxing, hoping that it would help her to volunteer to solve the problem. You see, the teacher knew that she wasn't dumb. She was perhaps the smartest student in his class. And she really hated acting like she was dumb.

"Um, well, you see..." Sakura trailed off, trying desperately to think of something, but found nothing that would excuse her answering the question. She sighed, knowing that there really wasn't one good enough, and if anything she would just embarrass herself even more by trying to get out of it. "The answer I got is as follows, along with the work that I did:
a + 3 = k(a - 1)
3a + 1 = k(a + 3)

(a + 3)(a + 3) = (3a + 1)(a - 1)
a2 + 6a + 9 = 3a2 - 2a - 1
2a2 - 8a -10 = 0
a2 - 4a -5 = 0
The solutions of this equation are 5 and -1. The only positive solution is 5, so the progression is 4, 8, 16. The fourth term will be 16·2 = 32 " She paused, not daring to look around the classroom, so she looked right up at her teacher, and decided that she could care less about everyone else. The look of pride on his face made up for any embarrassment that she woulda felt.

"Very well done, Sakura. Very well done." The class session continued, and they were assigned more homework, which she knew that she would have fun doing later. Math never bothered her very much, and she loved the constant challenge that she faced.


Sakura stood in front of her locker, her last class done, and packed up her bag, thinking about study hall that day. She hadn't talked to him since the day he left. He'd promised to write letters, but he never did. She tried not to hold it against him, but for some reason she faulted just him for everything. She thought back to his promise.

As he'd handed her the bracelet, he'd said, "I promise to write you about all of my adventures! I don't want you to ever forget me, because I won't ever forget you!" She had just stood there, tears streaming down her face, not understanding why her best friend had to leave.

That night, she'd sat at her kitchen table, her parents trying to get her to eat, but she didn't want to. Not if Sasuke were leaving. She tried to ask her mom why he had to go, why he couldn't just live with them, but she said that Sasuke's mommy would miss him. "But I'd miss him so much more!" she had shouted, then ran up to her room. Her father was going to get up to stop her, but her mother had laid a hand on his arm, stopping him from getting up. She knew that I was just upset. Heartbroken. She knew that all my childhood dreams were being destroyed.

I was a shell of a person once he'd left. I didn't really have many friends, and I didn't have any desires to make any. I wanted my best friend back. Everyone else just sucked.

Finally, I met TenTen, Hinata, Temari, and Ino. We all instantly became fast friends, and sooner or later my memories of hurt and pain towards Sasuke leaving faded, leaving me with just a bracelet and my fond memories of my love that I had for him.

Needless to say, finding him back at my high school my senior year of school was a huge shock! I didn't even know what to say or do! But soon that was all solved because he didn't say anything to me. Well, anything special. The first time that I laid eyes on him in all those years, my heart froze, and I wanted to run to him and throw my arms around his neck, and ask him where he's been all these years. I kept walking towards him, and was about to say something when out of the corner of my eye I saw a girl running towards him. She kissed him enthusiastically, giggled, and snuggled into his chest. I was frozen into place, not able to look away but hating myself for looking at the man of my dreams in someone else's arms.

"Hello, Sakura. It's been awhile, yes?" Sasuke had said, cool voice and all.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? My mind had screamed. I steeled myself and said, "Yes, yes it has, Sasuke." And I just kept walking, not even bothering to give him the time of day. THIS WAS RIDICULOUS!

Snapping out of walking down memories lane, she grabbed her sweatshirt and walked out of the school building, towards her car so that she could go home. And get away from all the memories that were causing her to be depressed.

TO BE CONTINUED!


A.N.
This is the website that I got the math equation from. I wanted to cite it so that I wasn't stealing someone else's work.
*I tried to post the website, but for some reason it won't let me. The title of the site is Free Test Online, and it's under the math stuff*

Hope you enjoyed!

~NightBeast