"Hey, you ok?" Tenten asked Sakura.
Sakura looked up and shrugged. She had just zoned out thinking about the events going to take place at the school. Fortunately it was Tenten driving so she didn't have to concentrate on anything else. "I just have a really bad feeling about today." She explained, looking out the window as they neared the school parking lot. As they neared it they saw that Gaara's group was standing a lot closer to the parking lot than usual. Like they were waiting for someone. "And now I'm freaked out."
"Just tough it out." Tenten replied, pulling into a parking spot. "It's not like you can do much else." As they were pulling in Sakura saw Leyna's small group of friends standing a ways away from the other group. Tenten stopped the car and the two undid their seatbelts.
"Yeah I guess." Sakura replied. As she got out of the truck and shut the door she saw Gaara's group look at her. Not the entire group of course. Just the people she saw on her first day here, the usual crowd. And they all had grim looks on their faces. She thought to herself, "And so it begins."
She began walking towards them, and they towards her. They met halfway. The whole group was looking at Sakura. "Hey Tenten." Temari tore her gaze from Sakura to greet her friend.
"Hey," Tenten replied, looking at the group. One look at her showed that right now she really wanted to get away from this situation.
Temari looked back at Sakura, "We need to talk to you."
Sakura sighed and shut her eyes; this was not going to be pretty. Then she opened her eyes and crossed her arms on her chest. "I'm listening."
"We saw you yesterday with Leyna." Naruto burst out.
"Yes, I'm aware of that." she replied slowly.
"Sakura you can't hang out with her anymore." Temari told her.
"She is out casted by us." Neji explained, leaning back on a car, "It would be considered an insult to us if you hung out with her."
Sakura frowned and glared at them. She looked at all of them. Everyone, even Naruto seemed firm on this. The only one who looked slightly hesitant was Hinata, but that was probably just because of her nature. Her gaze went to Gaara. Even though he hadn't said anything, one look at him told enough about his opinion. He stood near the middle, looking down at her, as if she was a child that needed to learn not to steal from the cookie jar. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Leyna looking at her anxiously.
"I don't care." She replied. Sometimes she hated her 'have to do the right thing' attitude. And this was one of those times. She would really like to just say 'alright' and keep hanging out with them with no problems. But her stupid conscience wouldn't let her. So for now she had to just go with it. "If you don't like her that's your problem. But I'm not going to stop hanging out with one of my friends just because you guys have some issue with her. See ya."
She began to walk away, knowing that she could probably no longer be friends with any of them anymore. The looks on their faces varied from hard to surprised. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, if you hang out with Leyna you're out of the group." Temari's voice added in.
Sakura turned around, "Yes I established that." She turned back and resumed walking away. The last person she looked at in the group was Tenten. She made her thoughts evident in her expression, "Why didn't you help me?" Tenten just looked from Sakura to the group, as if confused and uncertain. So apparently she was alone on this. Great.
She continued walking and refusing to look back until she made it to Leyna's group. When she arrived there Leyna looked at her gratefully. "Thanks for doing that."
Suddenly all the bad feelings the pink haired female had for leaving Gaara's group left. In fact now she was almost feeling guilty for having such feelings. "Don't worry about it." She assured her friend.
Leyna then proceeded to introduce Sakura to her group of friends: Kiya, Daichi the only male of the group, Amora, and of course Nami. It turned out that Amora was actually in her third class. So Sakura wasn't going to have to be alone in any of them.
When the bell rang for first block to begin Sakura walked in with Nami. They sat down on the far side of the classroom where there were a few desks around them that seemed to stay vacant. She noticed a few looks as she sat down. There were traitorous looks from Gaara's group, and surprised looks from Sasuke's. For a while neither girl spoke to each other, but then Nami turned to look at her. "I need to get a few things straight with you."
"Ok..." Sakura replied.
"First, don't think just because you made a big episode in the parking lot that you're automatically 'in' with us. Leyna might be overjoyed to have you with us, but not all of us are that accepting. That leads into my second point. You have to actually stay with us. Don't hang with us for a little while then go crawling back to Gaara's group the second they want you back. And do not pity us. Just because we're not part of the gangs does not mean that we're lower than anyone else. Got it?"
Sakura nodded, kind of irritated that Nami was questioning her like this. "Just to let you know, I did not plan on crawling back to Gaara's group, I don't have any intention of going back. I do not pity you. As for the first thing you said, I didn't think about it, but it does make sense now that I have."
"So you do realize that most of the school is going to hate you know right?" Nami's harsh and commanding tone continued.
"That I realized instantly," Sakura replied, her tone of annoyance beginning to match Nami's. "Anything else you want to update me on?"
"Just one more thing. Why exactly do you want to part of our group?" With this sentence Nami gave her a questioning and demanding look.
"Because I'm friends with Leyna and wish to remain that way. And yes I would like to befriend you and the others as well. Even if it means becoming an outcast and being interrogated by you." She didn't mean to add that last part, but her temper was beginning to flare up. She didn't like the way Nami seemed to act like she couldn't be trusted.
To her surprise Nami grinned. "I like people with backbone. And your reason seems good enough, even though that doesn't mean I'm letting you into my good graces instantly. I won't question you any further."
Sakura was about to comment but then Nami put her iPod headphones in her ear and took out a sketchbook and focused on drawing inside of it. So Sakura took that as a sign to do something else. So she retrieved her own iPod and began to play a game on it. She was pretty into it. Well at least she was until she felt something hit her back. At first she thought she was imagining it but she turned down the volume on her iPod just in case. She heard Ino and a few other people from Sasuke's group making comments about how Gaara's group must have thrown her out and now she was desperate or something. Then she heard them laugh about how Nami was trying to get Sakura to go over to the dark side. And that Nami's mother must be so ashamed to see her daughter dressed like that. That kind of confused Sakura. Sure Nami had black hair and a darker style of clothes; she didn't think that Nami was Goth or anything. She saw a wad of paper whizz by, except this time it hit Nami. "Just ignore them." Nami mumbled to Sakura, obviously annoyed with what was going on. "They'll stop eventually."
Sakura paused for a moment, and then announced "No, I won't ignore them." She took her iPod out of her ears then turned around quickly enough to catch the next wad of paper coming at them. She threw it back at them and started talking to them. "First Ino, it was me who ditched them. Secondly I wouldn't be talking about someone else's style choices. For one thing that dress you're wearing was in style three years ago, and putting a belt on it won't actually help you all that much. And brunette girl beside Ino, I remember seeing that exact outfit in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. So shut up."
The whole group of girls were silent and surprised, especially Ino, who was wide eyed. Sakura took that as a good sign and turned around in her seat. When she looked over at Nami she saw that she too was a little bit in shock. "What? Sakura asked quietly.
"...That was awesome!" Nami exclaimed quietly.
After that the teacher walked in and began their lesson. The rest of the morning they didn't say very much to each other, but did occasionally have a short conversation. Sakura could tell that even though Nami really liked what Sakura did with that group of girls, she was still trying to see if she should befriend the pinkette or not.
At lunch Sakura went over with Nami and they began to walk outside the school. Sakura was confused and began to look around but didn't say anything. They continued walking until they reached a silver beat up car. Nami took out keys from her pocket and unlocked it. Then she opened the driver's door and looked over to Sakura. "Hop in."
Sakura nodded and opened the passenger seat of the car and went in. When they got in she asked Nami "So where are we going exactly?"
"To the mall." Nami replied absentmindedly, turning the keys into the ignition. "We always go there for lunch." Then the black haired rebel pumped up the music so that it was almost deafening and proceeded to drive away from the school. She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel along to the metal music as she sped all the way to the mall. Then she parked close to the large building, turned off the ignition, took the keys and got out, Sakura soon followed. As they walked away Nami lifted her hand with the keys and pressed the 'lock' button. The car beeped in response.
The mall entrance they were closest to was the entrance to the food court (obviously planned out). So they walked directly into the food court and sat down at a table with the others. "Hey," Leyna greeted them. The others nodded in response. "Anything fun happen in lunch today?"
Nami and Sakura looked and each other and shook their heads. "Not really." Sakura replied. Over the course of the lunch Sakura began to know more about the close group of people and vice versa. Like how Kiya, Daichi and Amora were trying to figure out if they should befriend Sakura, although they weren't as up front about it as Nami was.
As Sakura and Nami drove back Sakura thought she made headway with them. They seemed to be more accepting towards her, and she began to learn more about them. All of them seemed to have their own distinct personalities; Nami was the obvious pessimistic rebel of the group, Kiya was the artistic one who always had to have a notebook with her in case she had an impulse to write down a poem, Amora, the know it all who actually got better marks then Sakura did (Amora seemed to be quite proud of that), Daichi who was the only one who wasn't completely outs casted like everyone else. That was due to two factors: his ability to be outstanding in whatever athletic event he tried, and his movie star good looks. The other girls seemed to like joking that if sports didn't work out for him, he could always be a male model. Lastly, there was Leyna. This really surprised Sakura. It turns out that Leyna was not the shy nervous girl Sakura first thought she was, but in the group she was actually the bubbly one. Once she actually got really comfortable around someone she was outgoing.
They made it into the parking lot before the first bell rang. As they pulled in Sakura caught sight of Gaara and a girl on his lap. By the looks of it she was Mizuki. So that's who he was dating. But judging by the way he was acting he didn't seem too interested in her, even though she seemed really into him. That thought made Sakura blink. Why did she care about the person he dated? It wasn't like she was friends with him anymore.
She forced her eyes away from the couple and walked into the school. After speed walking to her locker to retrieve her gym clothes and keeping the same pace into the gym she managed to arrive on time. As she walked into the change room she heard the whispers she had heard throughout the morning about her not being in Gaara's group anymore. She bit her tongue in order to not lash out at them, even though she did glance at them. She switched her attention and searched for Amora. Looking around for a few moments, she found the girl near the very back of the room with a rather annoyed look on her face. Sakura walked up to her. "What's up?" she asked.
Amora shook her head, "Nothing, I just hate gym class. It is an incredibly waste of energy that could be applied to other, more important, endeavours."
Sakura paused for a moment, not knowing how to reply to that. So she settled on saying. "Ouch." Then she dumped her change of gym clothes on the bench beside her and began to take off her shirt.
"What are doing?" Amora exclaimed.
Sakura stopped and gave her a weird look. "Changing, it's a change room. That's kind of what you do."
"Not in front of me you don't!" Amora replied. "I change in the bathroom so that I don't have to see people's unclothed bodies. The only reason I'm still here is so that I can put the regular clothes here."
"Ok, I'll change somewhere else in the room then." Sakura took her clothes and began to walk to a different part of the room.
Amora stopped her. "No it's fine. I'm about to leave anyways." She hurriedly walked out of the change room. Some people that had been eavesdropping on their conversation giggled. Sakura stopped them with a challenging glare. As she did she noticed Hinata looking at her. Somehow she had an urge to smile at the girl, but quickly reminded herself that they were no longer friends. She quickly turned away and began changing.
Soon she finished and went out to the gym, quickly taking her place beside Amora. "Sorry about what happened in there." She apologized.
Amora waved her hand, seeming calm about the ordeal. "They usually giggle about me for one reason or another."
"Alright." Sakura smiled uneasily, feeling glad that she was alright, but bad for how her new friend was treated.
Just then Gai walked in and she heard Amora mumble, "Let the torture begin."
Gym passed relatively quickly for Sakura, but she could tell that for Amora, it felt a lot longer. The girl seemed to have little to no physical abilities (or hand eye coordination) and an abundance of clumsiness. For this reason (and the obvious other reason) almost everyone else in the class seemed to avoid including her in any of the activities. They seemed to do the same with Sakura. It felt strange for her. Usually even if she wasn't popular she was good enough in gym for people to include her. Heck she was usually the one including other people. She hadn't felt left out quite like this before.
Her next class wasn't much different from the others. She walked in and automatically started hearing people talk about her. This time she didn't even bother to look at them, but she couldn't bring herself to ignore them. She just gritted her teeth and tried to bear it. The one good thing was that Leyna seemed happy to see her. Leyna noticed Sakura's discomfort and quickly told her cheerfully, "Don't worry; they'll just ignore you eventually. At least that's how it is with me."
Sakura was going to comment but right before that their teacher walked in and gave them their assignment. So she waited until after he gave it. "I hope your right." She replied to Leyna.
"Same. Although for you, I guess it might be different seeing as you used to be one of them. Even if it was just for a little while. And I do feel sorry for you. I mean, you have to live with one of them." Leyna replied.
Sakura hadn't thought about that. What would Tenten be like? Sure Tenten was friends with them, but she and Tenten were stepsisters and that mattered more right? But the way Tenten looked when Sakura had looked at her this morning, like she was trapped in the middle, not sure who to give her alliance to. Would Tenten pick Gaara's group over her? That thought made Sakura feel sick. "Do you think this color of hair looks good on me?" Leyna asked, playing with a strand of black hair.
Sakura nodded, grateful to be able to take her mind off her stepsister. "Yeah."
"I'm thinking of changing it back. It used to white blonde before this." Leyna replied, looking at the strand. "It looks more natural."
"Well however you have it, blonde or black, it will look more natural than mine." Sakura pointed to her own pink hair. The two laughed.
With Leyna's help Sakura was able to keep her mind off Tenten and everything else that happened during the day. But afterwards, her mind drifted back to it. After a quick decision she decided to walk home, and quickly told Tenten it then left before the brunette could respond.
She chose to take a long way back, through a walkway that was surrounded by trees and rarely used by others. Thinking about the day's events, she almost felt like crying. She had never been a true outcast before. Yes her hair color made people sometimes think of her as freakish, but she had never been a complete outsider before. To know people were spreading rumours about you, making fun of you wherever you went. To put it simply, it sucked, she hated it. But it wasn't like she could do anything about it, she chose to be where she was, and doubted she could, or would, go back to the way it was before. Her usual tactics of dealing with people she didn't like weren't going to work her. Intimidation wouldn't work unless it was just one on one, she couldn't fight the entire school, she was stuck with this.
Yes she had new friends, and for that she was grateful. But the hurt she felt overpowered that gratefulness. Especially knowing that her own step-sister might have joined the people that made her an outsider. She felt powerless for not being able to change it, weak for knowing this, crushed for knowing her old friends betrayed her for the simple reason of her making a new friend, pathetic knowing that the majority of the school would now mock her for being an outcast, and a thousand other bad things.
A tear slipped down her cheek. What had she gotten herself into? She paused and wiped the tear away before continuing her walk home. She didn't notice a redhead that had stopped to watch her.