A/N: I am really struggling with writing this because I haven't written creatively in years - a degree in physics makes you a very technical writer. But I have these scenes in my head that I am so excited to get to and they are going to be soooooo good! Please enjoy this chapter and leave me any reviews with things you want to see happen, what you like, what you hate, I am open to any and all feedback.
While Sakura was getting ready this morning, she spent a little more time on her makeup to cover the new bruise that had formed on her face.
'Green cancels red, yellow cancels purple,' she thought to herself using her color correcting concealer. After making sure her face looked perfect she got dressed and rushed out the door, hoping, and succeeding in not running into her dad.
At school she went through the motions - Be Sasuke's girlfriend, be everyone's friend, pay attention in class, take good notes, and ignore Gaara. This last one was almost too easy, even though they had every class together and sat next to each other in most of them, Gaara did not speak a single word to her.
With the final bell Sakura hurried out of class to meet Sasuke by his locker, he didn't like when she was late.
"Sakura," a voice called and she turned to see Kakashi.
"Yes, Kakashi Sensei?" Sakura asked, her rush evident in her voice.
"I don't mean to hold you back, I just wanted to remind you that as a student ambassador it is your responsibility to show Gaara around club rush this Friday."
"Fuck…" Sakura muttered under her breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing, Sensei…I'm happy to show Gaara around, I'm just in a bit of a hurry right now!" Sakura replied enthusiastically, but internally she was stressed out over how Sasuke was going to take this news. Her stomach felt like it had a giant rock in it.
"Well, that's all I had to let you know, you can be on your way."
"Thank you!" Sakura called over her shoulder as she darted through the halls to Sasuke's locker.
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"You're late." Sasuke stated coldly as Sakura approached him.
"I know, I'm so sorry, but Kakashi had stopped me in the hallway," Sakura apologized, staring at her feet.
"What did he want?"
"Well…" Sakura started slowly, knowing that her response was not going to bode well for her, "Kakashi reminded me that I have to show Gaara around club rush this Friday." Sakura said quietly.
"I told you to stay away from him," Sasuke snapped.
"I know, I'm sorry, I just…I just don't have much of a choice. You know how important being a student ambassador is to my college resume." Sakura murmured. Her head was spinning from the situation, she didn't cope with anger well, or maybe it was the fact she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday that made her head spin.
"What about me, aren't I important?" Sasuke inquired with venom in his voice.
"Of course, of course you are Sasuke. I love you, you are so important." She slowly raised her head to meet his eyes. There was nothing but discontent in them. "Sasuke, I love you so much, and I promise after this Friday I'll never talk to him if that's what you want. I'll tell him to leave me alone, I'll tell Kakashi he needs a new ambassador, I don't care. I'll do whatever you want." She pleaded with him.
"Hn," was Sasuke's only response before turning and leaving. "I'm not driving you today."
With that, Sakura was left alone in the hallway. Tears slowly made their way down her face as she started walking out of the school to make her way home. 'I'm so stupid,' she thought to herself, 'I knew it would make Sasuke mad, I should've told Kakashi I couldn't do it. I'm so fucking stupid.'
Sakura turned the corner to the main corroder of the and ran straight into someone, lost in her thoughts.
"I'm so sorry," Sakura began looking up to see a familiar shag of red hair.
"..." Gaara didn't say anything looking down at the flustered pinkette.
"I'm sorry, I should have watched where I was going," Sakura repeated her apology but still was only greeted with silence. "Remember club rush is this Friday, I'll show you around - all the classes are only a half period so the afternoon can be for the event."
Sakura waited briefly for a reply, but she did not receive one. "Alright! I'll see you then," she said and stepped around him to leave.
What she didn't know was that her tears earlier had washed away some of her concealer.
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With a ring of the bell, Anko Sensei halted her English lesson.
"Alright everyone, please head to the gymnasium for club rush," she announced and students began to file their way out of her classroom.
Sakura turned to Gaara who was seated next to her, "let's go," she said and began to rise. Gaara stood up next to her in silence and she grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the room.
"Konoha High has around 70 different clubs, and they require that every student participates in at least one of them…"Sakura began rambling off and she pulled Gaara around with her. "I'm obviously in the Student Ambassador club, but I am also the Student Council Treasurer for our grade."
"Sakura!" a voice called from behind them and she stopped and turned to see Ino pushing her way through the crowd towards them. "Are you finally going to sign up for my club?"
"Gaara, you remember Ino, right?" Sakura asked and he gave the faintest of a nod, "she's the president of the flower and garden club."
"That's right!" Ino confirmed, "this year our big project is going to be constructing a sustainable rooftop garden that is going to be used to grow vegetables for the cafeteria."
"That's really cool, Ino," Sakura said.
"And we're going to plant a new pathway of flowers in front of the school. This year is going to be only done with perennials so they'll last longer so when we graduate the campus will be able to maintain its beauty easier." Ino went on into a longer conversation of annuals versus perennials and the different temperaments that different plants can grow in as they made their way down the hall into the gymnasium.
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"So what clubs are you thinking about?" Sakura asked quietly as they began to wander through the different booth setups. Ino had left them to man her club's station with one final plea for Sakura to join.
"Ummm…" Gaara began but did not continue.
"Some of the clubs are by audition only, especially the more academic ones." Sakura explained, "I had tried out for the Math Team my freshman year but I didn't make the cut." She frowned at the memory, 'it makes sense that I wasn't good enough,' she added to herself.
"Let's see, you're really smart, so you could probably do Scholastic Bowl or Science Olympiad. Well, maybe not scholastic bowl because you would need to talk for that, but science olympiad is a lot less conversational."
"No."
"Okay, what about newspaper, or creative writing club? Do you like to write?"
This time she was only answered with the shake of a head.
"Video games? Tabletop gaming?"
"..."
"Okay, you have to give me something to work with," Sakura pleaded as they walked past several tables and Gaara grunted some negative response to each of them.
"I don't want to join a club."
"Woah, that's the most I've ever heard you say," Sakura giggled to herself. "But clubs are required because Konoha High is such a prestigious school with acceptances to the best universities in the world, it's all about diversifying your resume for application season."
"I'm not going to college." Gaara stated, slightly bemused by the appalled look on Sakura's face.
"But you are so smart and talented, you have to go to school!" Sakura argued, whenever Gaara was called on in class he had never gotten an answer wrong. She had been dreaming her whole life, or at least the last two years, of moving away, becoming a doctor and being successful. 'How stupid can he be to not want to go to school?' she thought to herself waiting to see how he would respond.
"I have something lined up." he simply stated.
"Which is..?" She pried, becoming more and more curious about his aloof attitude about throwing his future out the window.
"Family business."
"I'm not going to get anything more out of you am I?"
With a small smirk from Gaara, Sakura knew this is where the conversation was going to end.
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After walking up and down every aisle of clubs, twice, Gaara finally had picked something to join. Chess Club. The perfect fit for a quiet genius. (A/N: This is going to be a short scene of Gaara playing chess, please skip to the next section if you give zero fucks about chess.)
He had to audition for the team so he sat down against one of the current members, Suigetsu. Suigetsu gave Gaara the benefit of playing white, his confidence was so high you could feel it in the air and Gaara started with one of the weirdest openings anyone on the team had ever seen.
Queen Knight to C3, King Pawn to E4, King Knight to F3, Queen Pawn to D4…And he kept building out this weird box completely disregarding every move that Suigetsu made.
Suigetsu couldn't help but laugh at the bizarre setup, there's no way this could work.
But in less than 7 minutes, Suigetsu was panicking and by the 8 minute mark, he knew there was no way out.
Gaara place his bishop to G5. "Check mate." He stated confidently and stood up to leave. Suigetsu knocked his King over and every one on the team stared at the board confused.
"What the hell was that?" Suigetsu asked his teammates, and everyone shrugged in response.
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"That was impressive," Sakura complimented nervously as she and Gaara prepared to leave the fair.
As per usual Gaara didn't respond, but there was a slight spark in his eyes. He enjoyed winning.
"I don't think the chess team has had a member so good since Itachi was a student." Sakura said, mostly to herself knowing that her redheaded counterpart was not going to respond.
"Why are you talking about my stupid brother?" A new voice asked angrily. Sasuke appeared next to Sakura and grabbed her hand.
"Gaara just crushed his chess team audition," Sakura explained looking up at Sasuke, she could feel the anger he had as he held her hand tighter. Itachi was Sasuke's older brother and a prodigy. He was a very strong contender for the most successful student to come out of Konoha High. Itachi was captain of the chess team starting his freshman year, and when he was a senior and Sasuke and Sakura were freshman, Sasuke tried out for the team. He couldn't beat his brother and didn't make the cut.
Gaara sensing the tension, separated himself from the group without a word.
"I'll see you later," Sakura called to Gaara.
Sasuke pulled Sakura's hand and led her out to the parking lot and to his car.
"But on the topic of my stupid brother," Sasuke spat as he started his car, "he's going to be home from MIT over Labor Day weekend, and my parents are requesting you come for dinner."
"I would love to have dinner with your family," Sakura replied. She used to go to the Uchiha house for dinner at least once a week. Fugaku and Mikoto were always so sweet to her, happy that Sasuke had found a nice girl.
"Wear something nice. I want to show you off." Sasuke said and proceeded to drive in silence.
Sakura sat quietly smiling, excited to be back at the Uchiha house, excited for another reason to be away from her home, but internally she was fretting. Mikoto was such a good cook, and so kind. How was Sakura going to avoid eating? How was she going to make it through that meal.
Sakura sighed and frowned slightly. Luckily for her, Sasuke didn't notice.