She put a little more bounce in her step as she walked into school the next day, thinking of her mother's reaction to her new look.

"Are you sure about this, dear?"

"Yes, mother, very sure." She opened the box and quickly skimmed the instructions, running the bathroom sink tap until it was warm. "I'm tired of pink. I thought this would be cute on me anyway. She stuck her head under the flow until her hair was completely and evenly soaked, then she pulled back and opened the little bottle. There were little plastic gloves for her to wear as well and she pulled those on before running the black ooze through her hair. It took effect immediately, covering all pink, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

Once it was all done and dry, she inspected it in the mirror, grinning. She'd even done her eyebrows to match. It was great. She looked totally different. Nothing like her old self. That ought to shut up those idiots at school.

"But I liked it the other way, dear. you shouldn't change yourself because other people think it's cool."

"Aw, Ma, you know that's not the only reason. I was...thinking about what you said. This is our home. And I don't ever want to be dragged home, so I thought...well, a disguise might help if he ever tries...well, y'know. But I gotta get my homework done, so I'll see you later, mom." That ended the discussion.

When she'd finished her homework, she inspected her hair in the mirror for a while longer before going to bed. She was satisfied, and hoped others would be just as shocked. "Okay," she told herself. "This is it. This is how you know they won't laugh at you for being weird anymore." A fire of triumph burned in her eyes as she swung open the doors and stalked down the hall. "This is the day you show that bastard..." she turned into her homeroom. He was there. Good. "Who's the boss." She set her bag down on her desk loudly, making many around her jump as she sat. All conversation in the room stopped.

"Did you..." Sasuke asked, eying her head...or what was on top of it.

"Whatever do you mean?" She brushed a lock behind her ear, ignoring him from then on as the teacher came and started the school day.

In her class right before lunch, she prepared herself. She was planning on sitting with them, but she knew there was the possiblity they'd say 'no'. The bell rang, and she grabbed her things and shoved them in her locker before hurrying off to get in the lunch line.

She got there and startred fishing around her pockets to find she had no money.

"Dammit!" She said, looking for her wallet. It was nowhere to be found. She was almost at the front of the line. She started to panic--not cool if you were trying to look cool.

"Excuse me," someone said, breaking into her thoughts. She looked up to see a boy in a green shirt, with a terrible bowl cut looking down at her. "Is something wrong?"

"Umm...oh, I lost my wallet, and I can't find my lunch money..." she finally managed to say once she'd stopped staring.

"I see. Well then, allow me." He pushed her tray forward, along with his own and paid for both. Then he carried hers for her to an empty table.

"Oh...thank you..."

"Lee. You can call me Lee." Then he flashed here the most terrible wink and the light bounced off his teeth. He was kinda scary...but then again, he'd saved her--sorta. She threw a sideways glance at the table wit Sasuke and the blond girl, but sat with Lee anyway. She couldn't just leave him after all he'd done.

So much for changing their opinions of her.

"Remind me I owe you for that."

"Do not worry about it. My treat."

"Are you sure?"

"Quite."

"Well, thanks again Lee." Sakura smiled and dug in, grabbing her spoon and going for the soup.

"I have yet to learn your name."

"Oh...wow, how rude of me. I'm Sakura Haruno, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well. I hope you do not mind that i chose your seating place."

"No, it's fine. I wasn't planning on sitting anywhere in particular." Lies.

"Good. I was afraid i had taken you away from your friends and you felt compelled to sit with me."

"Oh, no, not at all, I don't mind. I don't really have any friends, so this is actually good." She sipped her soda and finished up her soup. "So, Lee, what do people do around here for fun?"

"Well, this town is small, so there are not many places to go. We have...a bookstore and a small shopping mall if you like them. But to make up for our lack of attractions, we have many parties."

"Really? Who's having one next?"

"I believe that would be Ino Yamanako. The blond girl sitting with the Uchiha." Lee pointed, and Sakura followed his finger to see the pretty one she'd seen earlier. So THAT was Ino Yamanako.

"How does one get invited to these parties?"

"Um...I don't know. She just...invites people at random, I guess."

"Do you ever go?"

"Of course! I must make an appearance so as not to insult the host!" Lee struck a happy pose, and Sakura looked on with curiosity. This Lee character was a weird one. But she didn't exactly dislike him.

"So all I have to do is get noticed by her?"

"Yes." He nodded, fist in the air, for some reason. "That's all. If you make an impression, she's sure to invite you."

"Really...well then, Lee, would you mind doing me one more favor?"

"Sasuke, wait up, I'll walk to class with you!" Ino called, quickly extracting her books from her locker and grrabbing a folder and a notebook. She slammed the door shut and hurried after the reatreating figure of the beautiful boy that refused to wait. "Sasu--oof!" Someone ran by and bumped her shoulder, causing her to drop everything,

"Hey! Watch it!" He rounded the corner so she couldn't see who it was, all she was was his green shirt. She bent down to gather her things, bumping hands with someone else. Startled, she looked up to see the new girl.

She looked different with her hair black--more normal. Probably what she was going for. She gathered the loose papers and handed them to Ino. "Here ya go."

"Oh, thanks."

"No problem." She got up and adjusted here own books in her hands, and flipped her hair over here shoulder. "I'll see ya."

This girl...wasn't as bad as some people had first thought. Just because her hair was pink, they'd thought she was weird. Ino shook her head. That was a terrible way to think.

"Hey!" She called to the girl. "Wait up a sec!"

A/N: So you've probably guessed by now that Ino's gonna invite Sakura to the party. And to those who were angry with me about her hair...sorry?