Woot! Trying to type this out before November… (Write a novel month and watching over the cat, who is doing fine…) So… bear with me!
"Hey Hinata?"
"What?!" snapped Hinata uncharacteristically, jerking up her head in Temari's direction. Temari's eyes widened in shock before she quickly pulled herself under control. Slowly, she set her lunch tray down on the table like she was approaching a lion's den or a crocodile marsh. Hinata struggled to calm down as she barely listened to Temari's question.
"We were thinking at the end of the school year, we could do one or two songs to see everyone out… is that all right?" asked Temari timidly, and that unusual quietness made Hinata soften at once.
"Huh?" Hinata tilted her head to the side, before she shook her head to clear her jumbled thoughts. "Sure, no problem. When would that be?"
"Er…" Temari looked like she was going to say something off the topic, but obviously decided against it. "Um, I told you the end of the school year…"
"Oh. Right. Sorry, a lot of things on my mind," babbled Hinata, before digging into her jello on her lunch tray. She gave it a little poke before eating it, for Temari taught her a trick that always worked. If it didn't wiggle back and forth really fast, then it was a really good idea to dispose of it and back away slowly.
"Uh… it's kind of obvious, ya know," Temari laughed. "Well, being the awesome person I am, I won't pressure you about it. Unless it's about Naruto…?"
"What? No!" Hinata was quick to correct her. She shook her head vigorously, with her hair fluffing out as she did. "Not at all. He's been great. I've just… well… I think I'm going to need help for the next couple of months."
"Oh really? What with?" Temari inquired as she dug into her lunch. The lunch was actually edible this time around, thank goodness, since Hinata forgot to pack one. Pizza, strawberries and bananas, corn, and jello. Not bad at all.
"I'll just tell you when the others get back," said Hinata quietly. "It'll be easier, and I don't want to repeat this more than once."
Temari gave her a side glance in worry. "Oh wow, it's big."
"That's the understatement of the century." Hinata buried her face into her hands.
Hinata felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and overcome with instinct, she immediately leaned on Naruto's side. He chuckled loudly before gently taking his place, careful not to let Hinata fall over. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder and tightly closed her eyes.
"Is something wrong?" he asked her. His usually loud voice now turned quiet with concern, and Hinata just shook her head slowly.
"Apparently she's got some bad news." Hinata could hear Temari explain. "She's waiting for everyone else to come."
"Oh." Hinata felt Naruto shift over until his arms were wrapped around her stomach. Hinata let the back of her head rest on his chest. Breathe in… breathe out… breathe in... Slowly, the pearl eyed girl began to relax.
"Hey, you freaks!" Hinata nearly jumped a mile at Tenten's cheerful scream, and the snickers that followed she was oblivious to. She plopped herself down in the seat and stared at her tray of food like a vulture. "What to eat first…"
"Dessert." Temari poked her jello to see its movement. "Duh. Everyone knows that."
Tenten's eyes brightened as she looked at the red jello on her plate. "Of course! How silly of me!" Immediately, she gobbled it down.
"You're supposed to eat it slowly, moron." Temari rolled her eyes with a deliberate slowness. "It's called tasting the goodness?"
Tenten pondered this for a minute, and Hinata nearly laughed at the childlike expression on her face. "Don't know what you're talking about," she finally quipped cheerfully before eating the rest of her food. Temari just rolled her eyes again before slowly picking at her food.
"Anorexic." Sakura's voice came happily as she set down her tray with a slight bang, and Gaara was trailing behind her silently. He sat down next to her, his red hair covering any expression. Sakura fondly pushed it back and gave him an affectionate look, while Gaara sent her a small quirk of a smile.
"I am NOT!" Temari barked, but Tenten was already agreeing with her.
"You are, you are! That explains everything!" Tenten jumped to her feet and pointed a dramatic finger at Temari, who was now going crimson. Not in embarrassment, but in red-hot anger. Tenten's face, on the other hand, was positively delighted at yet another way to make fun of Temari. "How you just pick at your food, and you're really slow eating it at that, and-"
"How I'm positively an ice cream and cookie freak of nature?" butted Temari in sweetly. Tenten instantly deflated, her small bottom lip pouting out in frustration.
"Goddamn it, Temari," grumbled Tenten, right when Neji sat down. What was she about to say, we will never know, for she had immediately had Neji in some sort of death grip right before he sat down. With a patience that Hinata would never understand, Neji pried off Tenten's arms before giving her a hug that was gentler.
"Aww, how cute." Temari looked up at the ceiling. "God help me. Tenten, you were saying?"
"Saying what?" Tenten asked, tilting her head to the side in complete confusion. Her eyes glittered now in a "What the fuck was she talking about?" look.
"Oh, forget it!" Temari threw her arms in the air.
"Ugh, troublesome woman…"
"Shikamaru!"
Hinata watched on in amusement and a little bit of nervousness as the happy couples were goofing around, having way too much fun. She felt a squeeze on her shoulder to see Naruto give her a reassuring smile before he screeched at Temari.
"Temari, make them shut up!"
"Since when do I listen to you?!" Temari whipped her head in the direction of Naruto, her eyes white rimmed with fury.
"Since Hinata's got bad news and we should shut up and listen!"
That got her attention. As well as everyone else that was sitting at the table. All went silence, and luckily, Naruto's shout drowned in the roar of the cafeteria. However, Sakura, Temari, Naruto, Tenten, Shikamaru, and even Neji and Gaara's attention were focused on Hinata. She shrank back in shyness: no doubt she wasn't used to this kind of attention.
"It's really not a big deal…" she finally mumbled. "But I just want to let you know because I'm probably going to be in a bad mood…"
"It's okay; it's what friends are for, right?" Sakura asked, concern dripping from her voice. "Just tell us, we won't think you're selfish or anything."
"My dad's coming home," Hinata blurted out. She couldn't hold it in any longer."Kami help me…" she prayed. This year was going to be hard enough as is. She needed all the support she could from her friends. "And he hates me. He's always comparing me to my little sister, because she gets better grades in school. I try, but I'm not good enough. He even slapped me once, and my mom refuses to see the truth… and he'll be here for the rest of the year. I know it sounds like I'm complaining… but guys, I'm scared." She felt Naruto's fingers tighten around her shoulder.
There was a silence. Hinata dared to peek a glance, but faces she expected were exasperated. Sakura and Tenten looked pale and really worried, Shikamaru looked slightly intrigued and sympathetic, Neji had an expression of disgust and fury, and looking up at him, Naruto's look was hard as a rock and he looked like he was ready to punch something. But those reactions were nothing compared to the sand siblings. Temari and Gaara's faces were dark and stormy. Kankurou had sat down in the middle of her rant, and his expression didn't look much better. Suddenly, Hinata remembered their father. He was a nightmare compared to hers.
"Don't ever say that again," Temari said abruptly, catching Hinata off guard. "Don't ever say that's not a big deal. It may not be abuse, but I know how it is to be scared. We will help you and that's all there is to it."
"Yeah." Sakura recovered long enough to put in her input. "You can sleepover at Temari's house or mine anytime you like."
"And me." Hinata whipped her head towards Tenten, her first friend, who had a grim and determined look.
"I'll try to come over when I can," Neji put in, giving Hinata an extremely faint smile. His grades were phenomenal, and her dad wouldn't harass her as much with him on her side. Plus, her father had no idea he WAS on her side.
"And there's always the phone." Hinata jerked her head upwards at her boyfriend. "Call me whenever you feel upset. Okay? I'm always here for you." Naruto squeezed her around the shoulders.
Hinata was silent. She didn't feel shocked, part of her was expecting this, but her friends never ceased to amaze her how much they cared. Finally she managed to whisper, "Okay."
"I think this calls for a group hug. Shikamaru, get your lazy ass up." Temari got up, followed by the rest.
Soon Hinata was hugging and getting hugged by every member of their group, and Hinata grinned so wide she felt like her face would fall off.
"I really hope everyone put on deodorant today," Tenten managed to say.
"Tenten. You're asking to get punched," Sakura replied loftily, but the vein in her forehead was twitching at full force.
"What? You forgot it?"
Big mistake.
"Tenten, get back here!" Sakura screeched at the fleeing Tenten, who had chosen to run as soon as the words left her mouth. "I'm going to kill you!" She weaved in and out of the tables, and some of the kids watched in amusement.
"Okay, okay! You didn't forget! Now leave me alone!"
Hinata sighed, shaking her head. She sweatdropped as Sakura tackled Tenten, only to go flying into the trashcan. They shrieked as they knocked it over, sending trash everywhere. They were just asking for a very pissed off janitor.
"Okay, my friends may be amazing," Hinata thought, slapping her forehead. "But they have lost their minds a long time ago."
----
"All right," Temari drawled, ignoring Tenten's shrieks of pain as she dragged her by the hair back to the table. Neji shot Temari his best death glare, which was extremely scary, and Temari immediately released her grip on the brown locks and distanced herself as far from the male Hyuuga as possible. Sakura had already given up the chase long ago, pouting in her seat.
"All right," Temari repeated. "We need a really good skit for the last day of school." Of course, she was talking about the band. Her eyes were alight with passion for what she felt for the band. Hinata felt that too, she was the soul of it. The main singer. Neji eyes stopped their glowering as he bent in to listen, and Sakura was tuned into the conversation too. Tenten, Naruto, and Shikamaru were listening in as well despite having no connections in the band.
"We need to make this original as possible," Temari said in a low voice. The cafeteria disguised their discussion. "That means no more using songs from different bands. This is Blood Kitten, and it needs to launch."
"I'm writing lyrics right now, as we speak," Sakura butted in with a down-to-business tone. "I've gotten loads better, and you can always look over them, Temari."
"Sounds great. But something else is missing…" Temari bit her lip, worried.
"How about a guest appearance?"
The voice came from no person at the group. Hinata turned to see Ino. Her clothes weren't baggy, but they were looser and showed a different kind of beauty that was much more radiant. Ino was simply taking better care of herself: her hair was flowing to the slender waist instead of stick straight with gel, Hinata didn't feel blinded by liquid eyeshadow and thick eyeliner, and her eyes were sparking with mischief instead of cruelty. Ino was absent for the past week, but there was no denying it: she was stunning.
"Wow… look at you…" Sakura breathed. A slow smile stretched across her face. "Nice to have you back, old friend."
"Same. I'm sitting down." With that, Ino deftly stole the last seat in the table. Hinata had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. She couldn't expect Ino to completely change her demanding self. "Kiba's gone ahead without me. I think you guys need me more than he does right now."
"No one asked you!" Naruto snapped.
"How sweet," Temari muttered.
Ino ignored the interruptions. "Well, it makes sense. Wildfire got second place in the battle of the bands, for crying out loud. I can do a guest appearance on one of the songs; it'll make the crowd go wild. You have to admit, they liked me at least a little."
"True…" Sakura murmured, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
"So it'll be really cool if two awesome lead singers did a song together. And Sakura could still backup sing." Hinata was taken aback from the compliment, but she promptly went a little pink.
"Well, I don't have a problem with it," Temari said slowly. "Providing you don't look like a slut anymore." It was her turn to ignore Ino's sharp protest as she stared at Hinata intently. "But of course, we aren't doing anything without Hinata's permission."
"Wow. Temari never ceases to amaze me," thought Hinata slowly, now scarlet with the flattery. But she still managed to nod her head in assent. "Sure. It'll be fun. We can mix our styles with that song."
"I just knew you'd see it my way!" Ino leaned over the table to give her a quick hug. "Well, I can't wait!" Without another word, she flounced off.
Temari stared after her. "Still spoiled as all hell," she spoke at last, shaking her head with a slow deliberateness.
"Oh yeah, but we can't expect her to completely change," Naruto pointed out, and Hinata nodded sharply.
"It's better than, oh say, my sister," Hinata added, flushing a little in anger at the thought of Hanabi.
"True, true. Very true. And… there's the bell," Temari looked up. "All right guys, I'll catch you later!"
"Come on, Hinata, off to US History with us," Naruto said dully, dragging her by the hand to the class. Hinata looked behind her and waved frantically. It was amazing what her friends could do to cheer her up.
"Hey Hinata?" Neji called, causing Hinata to tilt her head in confusion. "I'm going to be coming over after school, is that all right?"
"More than all right! Thanks Neji!"
"No problem."
----
"Hinata!" her mother screamed, rushing out the door.
"What?!" Hinata jumped about a mile at her mom's unusual antics, and she shook her head before saying, "Neji's here."
"Oh, he is? Oh wow!" Her mother blinked at Neji, as if this was the first time she ever saw him in her life. "Wow! You've gotten so big!"
Neji said nothing, which was probably a wise action to take.
"Well, guess what?!" Her mother squealed. "Your father's home!"
----
Oh boy. Sometimes I wonder if I overdo that woman. I probably do… oh well.
All right guys. I cannot update until December. I just absolutely can't, no excuses. I'm glad I managed to get this chap up, because there will be none of me during November. Terribly sorry, but it's the way it goes.
By the way, I looked at Trapped in the Vortex's stats recently, and really it's kind of scary. Thank you SO much for 402 reviews and 43082 hits. Makes one feel special.