A week after our first play date, I was on my way to school, excited to spend another day with Sarah since we had gotten a lot closer. I was starting to think that when we got older, we might actually be able to date and be real boyfriend and girlfriend. I never thought I would be wondering this kind of stuff now, but why not? She was a great girl, a lot cooler and more down to earth than any of the others that I had met. I had yet to find anything wrong with her.
"Ah!"
I halted in my path when I heard a girl squeal, and the voice sounded familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"That's what you get new girl!"
That made me freeze, who else could it be? Sarah was known as the new girl around the village, was she in trouble? The sound of her scream sounded like she was in distress, I needed to find her. So I ran in the direction of the scream and turned the corner only to see Sarah on the ground, her knee bleeding with tears in her eyes. A small group of girls stood around her, glaring menacingly down upon her.
"You don't belong here, go back to where you came from!"
"Yeah, and stay away from our Sasuke!"
They spat at her, she whimpered and bit her bottom lip in shame.
"Hey, get away from her!"
I called out, clenching my fists and narrowing my eyes, the girls all turned to me in shock and blushed, turning back to their normal selves.
"Sasuke!"
"Shut up! Get away from her now!"
"But..."
"NOW!"
I wasn't taking any crap from them, they all got the point and darted off in the other direction. I didn't waste another moment before I rushed to her aid and kneeled down next to her, once I got close enough I could see that she was crying.
"Sarah, it's ok, they're gone now, they're not going to bother you anymore."
"They pushed me down."
She whimpered between her sobs and I turned my attention to her injured knee, I felt like the wind had just been knocked out of me, why would they do this to her? Sarah was such a sweet girl, I had no idea why anyone would want to hurt her. Just because she was new to the village, didn't mean they had the right to treat her like dirt.
"Here, I can fix it for you."
I dug into my bag and pulled out a cloth and some bandages, my mother always put some in their in case anything happened during training. Sarah sniffled and watched as I squirted some water from my bottle onto the cloth and inched closer to the wound, she recoiled.
"It may sting a little bit, but I'll be careful."
After I reassured her, she allowed me to continue and winced when I began to dab and clean the wound with the wet cloth. Once it was clean enough, I wrapped the bandages around her knee and tied it properly before putting my supplies away.
"There, good as new."
I met her gaze once more and stood, taking her hand and helping her to her feet.
"Thanks."
"Are you ok?"
She immediately shook her head and squeaked helplessly.
"No! They all hate me because I'm new to this village! I don't know what I did wrong, I just want to make friends!"
From what I had been told, Sarah had come from a very different place, but that didn't mean we should be cruel to her. I tried to ask her about where she came from, but she told me she didn't have much memory of the place, which I found a bit odd.
"I'm sorry, I know they're mean and you don't deserve it, you're better than all of those girls."
She blinked, seemingly surprised as what I was telling her, but then she jumped on me in a hug, which I gladly returned.
"Sasuke, you're the best!"
"I just don't want people to mess with you, they have no right."
"Thank you, you're just like my protector."
Sarah leaned back with the smile that I grown so fond of and I returned it with one of my own, she was great, I was so happy to be friends with her.
"Come on, we should head to class."
She swiftly grabbed her bag and we began to walk together to the academy, but on the way Sarah slyly slid her hand into mine, causing me to blush. She squeezed it and I shivered, why did this feel so good? Whatever reason, I didn't want it to stop and we held hands all the way there.
