A/N: I've recently realised I made Sakura's birthday sort of correspond to mine. I'm sorry about that. I know her birthday's on March 28th, I just didn't think about it until I was thinking up new ideas for upcoming chapters. I actually wanted to do one about her birthday, later in the story. Oh well. I'm too lazy to go change it now, so fuck it. Let's just say, for the sake of this, that her birthday's in September.

I love school. I really do.

It probably has something to do with the fact that in college, we can choose the program we want to study in, and there are such cool programs like Cinema. Yes, Cinema. Where you learn how to properly make and watch movies, along with using professional equipment and having a whole class on how to take a pretty photograph.

What's really cool, though, is that between a third and a half of the first years don't come back for the second year, so the number of people goes down and the number of strong bonds between the students goes up. And there's no drama, like in the Theater program, because everyone is more on the introverted side and no one really feels the need to be mean to someone else. So we're all just a bunch of cool people, who like the first years (some programs have a tradition of being complete douchebags to the new students) and who are considered pretty high on the pyramid of coolness.

And the parties are freakin' epic.

We don't have many druggies. A lot of people smoke cigarettes, especially the teachers (I don't smoke, the smell makes me sick), but no one really gets high. Unless you consider coffee and chocolate actual drugs. We all prefer booze, truthfully, and that suits me just fine. I might have a drinking problem later, but right now, I'm happy getting drunk every now and then.

Although, during school, I can't drink as often as I'd like, because I'm on the soccer team, and that requires my entire focus, but the girls like partying after matches just as much as Cinema students like partying every school night. We just can't drink too much, not to get kicked off the team, and we can't drink before games. Because that'd be stupid.

Most of my friends at school were already my friends in high school, but the Cinema kids are just so awesome that I've already made friends with most of them, which is weird for me, because I've never been a really popular kid. I started having friends only in high school, except for two people, one of them not being my friend anymore and the other having completely gone off the radar in our last year.

Last cool thing about my school: the teachers. Well, most of them. The Cinema ones, anyway. You know, the kind of teachers that are laid back and funny, that connect with the students but that still find a way to be respected and to get the students to do their work. Work that, by the way, we all really enjoy doing. Yeah. There are three teachers like that at my school, and they all teach in Cinema.

So now, you understand why I couldn't have been more eager for today to come. The first day back to school after the Christmas holidays, and it's today. Schedule in hand, school bag on my shoulder, iPod earplugs blasting music in my ears and huge snow coat making me sweat my life away, I walk solemnly towards my first class of the day, which is Techniques: Video Creation 4 and possibly my favourite class ever.

In short, I'm having the best day of my life. Until...

"Ow!"

"Oh, sorry!"

"..."

"Oh... Hi."

Until I run into someone and realise that that someone is Sasuke. Probably-infatuated-with-me Sasuke. Wasn't-supposed-to-cross-my-path-ever-again Sasuke.

Crap.

"Hey... Sakura." He does have a pleasant voice, I forgot about that. "How are you?"

"Uh... I'm surprised to see you. Here. At my school. Are you following me?" He chuckles. How can he chuckle! He's freakin' stalking me!

"This is my school too, you know." How many years ago was that? "I'm in my last year." Oh.

"Oh." I feel stupid. "Me too." I feel stupider.

"I know." Do you? "What's your first class?"

"Uh..." Should I tell him? "Video Creation." This might have been a bad idea.

"What?"

"Video Creation," I repeat a little louder. I have a tendency of talking really low when I'm sober.

"No, I heard you. It's just not a course."

"What! Of course it is!"

"How is a class about creating videos useful in Administration?"

"Admin-... I'm not in Administration."

"Oh."

"Why did you think I was in Administration?"

"The Winter Formal. That was for the Administration students."

"Oh. A... friend invited me."

"Oh." We seem to be saying that a lot, today.

"Yeah..."

Awkward silences. I hate those. And this idiot is ruining my perfect day with his awkward silence. He doesn't look awkward (it's been established before, he's gorgeous), and I never thought he could ever make me feel uncomfortable – well, more uncomfortable than that one morning – by being uncomfortable himself.

"Well." Must. Break. Silence. "I'll be going, now. Bye."

That dude is really changing my perspective of the male population. I'd never found anyone so handsome before, nor had I ever been so awkward around a guy since about two weeks into my first semester (I went to an all-girls high school, and until I met my ex-boyfriend, I was rather shy around men), and I've definitely never run away from a guy so fast in my life. Except maybe when playing tag in elementary. But that didn't count. The Kiss tag was horror in the eyes of every girl in the school, because only the boy we called Blubber Boy would ever chase us around the school yard to kiss us with his blubbery, profusely-salivating mouth.

By the way, Administration kids have the most boring parties I've ever heard of! I don't know if I should be proud or worried, or even surprised that Sasuke (and two other students) got as drunk as I was that night.

Still pretty bothered, I let myself fall into one of the chairs of the Video Creation classroom. It takes me a few seconds to notice the fact that I arrived pretty early and that only two other students are in the room with me. One of them, called Kiba, is sleeping on his table in the back of the class, while the other one, called Temari, is writing in a notebook, a row behind me. Once she takes notice of my arrival, she raises her head and waves to me with a little smile. I send a smile back and she goes back to writing.

In the next few minutes, the other students fill up the room one by one, and I greet everyone, politely enquiring about their holidays. By the time the teacher, Hatake Kakashi, arrives and sets his things down, pretty much everyone is here. Only three of my friends are missing, but they're known for being late a lot, so I don't worry myself with their absence.

I barely notice when they arrive, however. My mind is plagued with the Sasuke matter. Why was he so friendly, this morning? He'd seemed rather annoyed with me when I left his house, more than a month ago. Surely he couldn't have forgiven me so easily. He looks like someone who holds grudges. Hell, he doesn't even look like someone who would be friendly to people. He's in Administration, for God's sake! They're not even friendly among themselves, in that program. They just keep things polite and proper, just in case they'd have a favour to ask somewhere in the future. One of my friends, Naruto, has a girlfriend who's an Administration kid (they were the ones to invite me to the Formal) and she says she doesn't have any real friends in her class.

So why me? Why was he nice to me while I was a jerk to him back in December? What's so special about me that he didn't give me the cold shoulder this morning? Maybe he's found out something about me, something he could blackmail me with. Oh my God, maybe he'll threaten me to spill the beans about my slightly strong appreciation for alcohol to whoever is important enough to punish me about it! His politeness was probably only a mask to make me trust him.

I can already imagine what's going to happen. He'll force me to have sex with him in exchange for his silence. Of course, I won't complain at first, because man, that dude knows how to please a woman, but eventually he'll get violent, and I won't be able to get out of his torturous grip because I won't want him to tell about my drinking habits. It'll ruin me and I'll end up failing my entire semester, effectively ruining my whole future, and I'll have to move away and create myself a new identity and a new life so that he doesn't find me.

"Half an hour, that's pretty good time. Alright, guys, we're done. I'll see you all next week."

"Sakura?" ("Has anyone seen Idate? Oh, he's not coming anymore? Alright, off the list, then.")

"Huh?"

Ino's waving a hand in front of my face.

"Jesus, Sakura, where's your focus? You spaced out the whole class."

"I... I did?"

"Yeah. I didn't even get my hug. I haven't seen you in six weeks, idiot, you should be tackling me, right now."

"Sorry, I was thinking."

"Wooow, I didn't know you could think," Naruto jumps in, making my brain hurt with his bright orange snow coat.

"Shut it, dumbass, you can't think. It gives you a nosebleed." Ah, Ino. The queen of all things tactful and subtle. "Sakura's just thinking about a guy, aren't you, Sakura?"

HOW DID SHE KNOW? She scares me, sometimes.

"Uh..."

"Temari said she saw you talking to a fine piece of man meat, this morning. Come on, spill."

"Oh. Yeah, I was thinking about him. I think he might blackmail me." I swear, the look she's giving me right now, she wouldn't have even come close to it if I'd told her I was shaving all my hair and becoming a Buddhist monk.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Do I look like I'm kidding? He was way too nice to me, this morning. It's not normal."

"Why wouldn't he have been friendly?" Naruto asks.

"Well, you know the Winter Formal you and Hinata invited me to?" He nods. "Well, he's a classmate of hers, and I sort of got drunk and hooked up with him there. He brought me back to his house. We... Well, I won't tell you all the de-"

"Was he good?"

"Ino!"

"What? I have a right to know."

"No, you don't. Anyway. The morning after, he... he acted like... like he wanted us to be, you know, together. Like, together, together. A couple."

"What's wrong with that?"

"She vowed she wouldn't fall in love after what that asshole Idate did to her. He's not coming back, by the way, did you hear? He dropped out."

"Did he? Shame."

"Uh, guys?"

"Yeah, rumour has it he had enough of seeing Sakura be a strong and independent woman who didn't crawl at his feet, so he packed his bags and went to find another girl to screw over. He's somewhere in the States, I think."

"Guys?"

"So he's done hurting Sakura?"

"It would seem like that, yes."

"Guys!"

"What?"

"Don't you want to hear the rest of the story?"

"No, I can imagine the rest. You've become a bitter woman, Sakura. If you don't watch it, you'll end up an old maid."

"You have to be a virgin to be an old maid. That hasn't been my status for almost a year, now."

"Aaw, my little Sakura grows up too fast."

"Weren't you saying I was a bitter woman just two seconds ago?"

"Well, I'm not saying it anymore. Come on, if we hurry up, we might make it to the main entrance before everyone else is dismissed from their classes. You wouldn't want to catch the second year Administration class, would you?"

"Oh, hell no."

"Hey! I want to catch it," Naruto protests. "My girlfriend's in that class."

"Yeah, but nobody cares about you." What'd I tell you, about Ino and tact?

"And, wait... You got drunk at the Formal?"

"Uh... Yes?"

"What is wrong with you, woman! You know what happens when you drink."

"Don't worry, I was in the safety of a bathroom."

"I don't care about your safety, I'm concerned about other people's safety. You could've hurt someone!"

"Well, thank you for worrying about me. And yes, I could've hurt someone, but I didn't. It was a really pleasant night, actually. Only the morning disappointed me."

"Dudes, if we don't leave right now, we'll be caught in the flood of the century."

Ah, Cinema friends. Can't live without them.

My current place of residence is a student-only apartment near the school. Naruto and Ino live in the apartment right next to mine. I live with Temari and two other people, but they all either leave for school long before me or long after me, so I rarely talk to any of them. They're Cinema students, and all of them are really nice people, but we don't interact much. It suits me fine, since I'm almost always over at Ino's and Naruto's, but I guess I could try and make a socialite of myself a little more often, just to get to know them better.

Oh, well, whatever. I'll cross them eventually. And I'm pretty close with Temari already, anyway.

Right now, I have a possible blackmailer to worry about.

A/N: Kind of a boring chapter. More exciting things happen in the next one. See ya next week!

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