Chapter 2 – School rumors

Sakura woke up in a soft bed with lots of fluffy pillows.

Hmm..? Where am I? Was her first thought. Then, the memories of the evening before kicked in.

She sat up and looked around, confused, in the big, light room she'd slept in. One of the walls, the one where you could see the garden, was made only of glass; it made a beautiful light, so that it looked like you were actually out in a forest. Beside the bed and the bed table, there was only one other piece of furniture; a big, beautiful closet.

She stretched, and got up, eager to look closer at it. She walked slowly across the room on her stiff legs and reached out her hand to touch the light golden surface. She let her fingers follow the beautiful carvings, which she found out were cut out in the form of a sakura tree.

She then let her hand fall down with a sigh. She had no time for this. While walking over to her clothes, her eyes fell on a note on the bed table. She walked closer and read the tiny message.

You can use the bathroom if you want to.

-Sai

She blushed at the thought of Sai being in her room while she was asleep, before getting her pile of clothes and going to the bathroom to take a shower.

An hour later when Sasuke stepped inside the kitchen, he looked at her, surprised by how nice she was dressed. Luckily for him, she was too busy talking with Sai to see this. He sat down as if nothing had happened, but he could not help but to look at her out of the corner of his eye a couple of times.

Sakura had decided to wear her hair loose today, except for two mini buns. She wore a white summer dress with lace, light pink leggings, a mini shoulder bag, and her own pink tennis-shoes. She looked a bit uncomfortable.

After eating, they were to drive to school in a black limousine. That was the plan, until Sakura heard of it, and denied doing so.

"Sakura," Sai said, not fully able to hide a slight bit of fatigue in his voice, "Trust me, nothing will happen to you."

"But why don't we just walk? The weather is nice and--," she looked up in the cloudy sky, "Okay, maybe not nice, but it's healthy to walk and--."

"Sakura, please." He looked like he was begging her.

"But--," she insisted. "What if something happens to us?" she murmured in a low voice.

"Trust me, nothing will happen to you," he gestured to the seat beside him. "Please, Sakura?"

She sighed as she saw her hope of getting to school unnoticed, fail. "Fine," she said though her teeth, "but it's your fault if we die in a traffic accident." Sai just laughed at her comment and with one last dark look at the car, she crawled in on the seat beside him.

As they drove, Sakura feared for the day. Not only did she arrive in a big, expensive limousine, she arrived together with the Uchiha-twins, an action she was sure would cause rumors about her in the entire school for at least two days.

The trip to school was silent. Sakura was thinking of every possible way to avoid a car accident, Sai was painting in his little sketchbook and who really knew what Sasuke was thinking about?

Finally, they arrived in front of the school. The chauffeur got out and opened the door for Sakura. She gritted her teeth and nervously got out.

As she walked side by side with Sasuke and Sai, she felt everyone's eyes on them, but she concentrated on looking straight at the doors to the main building, and somehow she managed to get over to it without making eye contact with anybody.

She sighed with relief when the doors slammed behind them; this was just what she'd imagined!

Through the whole day, Sakura heard whispers, but she avoided eye contact with anybody until lunch, when her friends, of course, wanted to know everything.

"I've already told you," she said in a tired voice, "Nothing has happened between Sai and I. I just slept at the Uchiha's, that's all!"

"That's all!? THAT IS ALL?! LISTEN TO ME GIRL!! YOU SAID YOU SLEPT AT THEIR HOUSE AND NOTHING HAPPENED?! AM I SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THAT?!"

"Ino, keep your voice down!" Sakura hissed, after sending apologizing looks to the neighboring tables. "I don't want everybody else to gossip more about me..."

"Too late," Tenten said. "Look at them!" She made a gesture with her head towards one of the tables where a group of girls were sitting. It was hard to tell if they were happy or angry, they seemed happy to get something interesting to talk about, but they kept sending glares in Sakura's direction. She sighed.

"Listen, nothing happened. Really," she said to Ino's untrusting look. "I was just eating at their house and we happened to stay up till late, and I didn't want to go home at such a late hour, okay? Nothing happened other than that.."

"Sure," Ino answered, but she continued to ask her questions for the rest of the day.

Sakura was happy when the last bell finally rang and they could go home. She stepped out to the parking lot, but then she remembered that her car was at home where she'd left it the day before. She sighed. Just her luck. Not.

"Oi, Sakura!" She heard a well-known voice call out. She slowly turned, only to see Sai waving to her from the same limousine they'd arrived in that morning and Sasuke, who was looking in the other direction. "Shall we drive you home?" Oh, how she wanted to say yes, but she knew she couldn't.

"I'm sorry, but Ino told me I could ride with her!" she lied.

"Oh! That's all right. See you tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow..." she mumbled, not loud enough for him to hear.

In the end, Tenten drove her home, since Sakura tried to avoid Ino, not in the mood to answer any more weird questions.

She locked herself in, made her way to her room and jumped onto her futon where she fell asleep for two hours, before doing her homework, putting some of the food from the freezer in the microwave, eating it, and going to bed again.

That night she dreamt a weird dream. She was alone in a big cloudy space. Sometimes she could see the silhouette of Sai, but every time she called out, he disappeared, only to reappear in another place farther away. She was afraid of being left behind and began running, but she could not catch up with him. "It's effortless, Sakura. You can't catch up with him," someone said as if they had read her mind. She turned around and saw Sasuke stand only a few feet away. Then she woke up, her face covered in sweat. She went to the bathroom to put some water on it and went to bed again. When she woke up next morning, she did not remember the dream at all.

I can't thank my beta reader, Midnight Forever, enough for helping me with this story!!

-Lostish