Blah. Hello. So far, I have…
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Sorry for not updating in so long. I've been REALLLLYYY busy. So…here is a badly written chapter.
Tenten bit her lip and looked at herself in the mirror.
"I'm honestly disappointed in you Tenten." Ino scolded, the girls were standing in the panda-bunned woman's bed room. "I thought you could have come up with something a little more girly than that.
"But I am glad that you took your hair out of those stupid buns." Sakura cut in. "I think she looks sporty and cute." The pink-haired girl walked up behind her friend and smiled at their reflected image. "Totally you."
"Thanks." Tenten giggled.
"How do you think that's cute?!" Ino said, appalled. "I thought YOU were the fashion designer. Shouldn't she get arrested for wearing that?"
"No. Though she does look disturbingly similar to her high-school 'invisible' self."
Tenten was wearing baggy long dark green pants and a not-too-baggy dark green sweatshirt and jacket over an olive-green tee. And, miracles of miracles, she was wearing the famous hat from her high-school years.
Ino had at first complained that it was fairly creepy that she had been hanging on to that olive green (yellow-rimmed) hat over the years and she should not be wearing it and then she started ranting that she would scare the crap out of Shikamaru for wearing that outfit and blah-blah-blah.
Ding. Dong.
"Oh no!" The blonde squealed in a high voice. "You have to change."
"Not enough time, Ino." Tenten snapped, ushering Sakura and Ino out of the room. She took off the outer jacket so she just had the sweat-shirt. She raced to the door and opened it as casually as she could.
Shikamaru was grinning at her. "Hi. Wow. You just brought back a lot of memories." His eyes scanned what she was wearing.
"Sorry. Laundry day." Okay that was a total lie but she didn't have any other excuse for what she was wearing. She had no energy to find anything classy or nice. Good for her, Shikamaru was dressed just about the same. With a dark grey jacket and baggy black pants.
"We don't really match though." He laughed.
Tenten giggled. "Thanks for making me feel so much better." She followed him out the door but turned back at the last second. He didn't notice. She leaned inside and mouthed to her two friends that were hiding behind a couch, 'Don't burn the building down' and then caught up to her date after shutting and locking the door.
"So….anywhere in mind?" Shikamaru asked.
Tenten shrugged. "You're the genius; I don't think such a simple thing as where to go to dinner should be such a hard question."
"It's harder than you think." The boy thought for a moment. "You want to go to that little café down-town?"
"That place is always deserted." Tenten commented.
"But." Shikamaru patted her shoulder. "They have probably the best drinks and food that any resturaunt could offer. They just don't get a lot of business."
"Is it fancy?"
"No. My mom's best friend runs it, it's nothing special when it comes to looks."
Tenten nodded. "Okay." She trailed absent-mindedly behind the spikey-haired boy through the lobby and out the door.
"My car is just on the other side." He said, slowing down a bit so she could catch up. Tenten slid her arm around his and threw him a sideways smile.
"So…how's Sakura?" He was desperately trying to not look like an idiot. It was that obvious. Tenten spared him and answered each question carefully and as positively as she could.
He seemed thankful.
Finally, he got to what seemed to be tonight's question of the day. "How's your job search going?"
Tenten stared off into the stars. "Um…I've been calling around some of the studios around town. There's one that seems really nice, just an hour's drive away." She felt herself rambling and stopped by biting her lower lip harshly with her top teeth.
Shikamaru shook his head. "You don't talk enough." He mumbled.
Tenten snorted. "I talk TOO much."
"Um….well, I can't recommend any. We artist freaks get really picky ya know."
Tenten laughed and nodded. "Okay."
"but, I'd like you to have a good job so….come up with something at least by next week okay?" Shikamaru paused for a second and let out a smile.
"I promise." Tenten said, her eyes sparkling.
"I should never have made that promise!" Tenten moaned. She propped her head up on her desk with her right arm. Her other arm was draped lazily across the pile of papers that looked like it had been hit by a tornado.
Her week for Shikamaru was almost up and she still hadn't made any progress. She hadn't been keeping him up-to-date though. After the dinner date (which was actually quite lovely) had ended, Tenten had procrastinated until she had only a few days left.
"Awe come on Ten." Sakura said from across the room. She had planted herself on the panda-bunned woman's bed. Her face was wrought with distress. For the past 48 hours the girls had been looking for some place for Tenten to work with her wedding design job. They had called around, half of the time the people said they were no longer taking applications for the renting space and the other half of the time there was nobody there.
Tenten's eyes were wide and blood-shot from the lack of sleep and the overdose of red-bull she had taken.
Speaking of red-bull… Tenten groped her desk in somewhat of a frenzy, sending papers flying as she grasped the near empty blue and silver can and threw it up over her open mouth. Only a few drops came out and she consumed those greedily. She then crunched it up, tossing it at the nearest trash-can and missed by 3 feet. She then pulled another one from seemingly out of nowhere and cracked it open.
Sakura watched with a look of near-horror on her face. "You should really lay off those Tenten." She murmured.
"Hey!" Tenten said in a loud voice. She didn't even turn to look at her cherry-blossom haired friend. "You're lucky it's not alcohol, or else I wouldn't be able to finish a sentence." Her voice wavered a little at the end.
Sakura blinked once and then slapped herself on the forehead.
Tenten began sifting through the papers again, her finger running down each page and across each line. She could barely see in the dark evening light with only a cheap plastic desk lamp to illuminate the room.
She paused for a second, seeing a listing that looked…near desirable. Lazily she picked the phone up and started dialing the number.
"Hmm? Find something?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah." Tenten sighed. "But don't hold your breath, it's getting near 7 o' clock and probably no one will be there. "
Sakura moaned and fell backwards onto the bed. "This is torture!" She wailed.
"Shhhh!" Tenten said harshly as the phone rang. She waited a few seconds as someone picked up.
Sakura bit her lip. Maybe this was the one. Then she could go to sleep! Hurray!
Tenten was quiet for a moment. "Um…hi. I am looking for some studio space to rent for wedding design?" It came out like a question. She paused. "Y-yes. Yes. Tenten. No. T-e-n-t-e-n." She smiled and then laughed a little. "Oh okay. Well, what times would be good?...Alright. Thank you miss…Temari?"
Sakura sat up. "Who?!" She yelled. Temari?! The one who had mysteriously disappeared right before graduation?
"Oh my god!" Tenten squealed. "Temari! What's up?! What are you doing?! How the hll did you go before we all left?! Why weren't you at Sakura's wedding?! I haven't seen you in five years!! Oh my god!"
Sakura snatched the phone. "Omg! Temari! This is Sakura speaking! Ahhhhhh! I haven't seen you in forEVER. What's going on?! How are you?! Since when were you in the art business?! Why weren't you at my wedding?!" She cried. Her string of questions was basically the same as Tenten's, just in different wording.
Quickly, the brown-haired girl pressed the SPEAKER-PHONE button and they both held the phone up to their ears.
"Holy crap. What the hll?" The person on the other line said.
"Temari? Isn't this Temari?!" Sakura wailed.
There was a pause on the other line. "Yes. I'm Temari Sabaku. Who are you?"
Both girls gasped. "It's us!" They both cried.
Tenten snatched the phone. "It's me! Tenten! Highschool! Green hat! Invisible!" She began to count of a number of one word sentences until Sakura won back the phone.
"You have to remember us Temari!" She yelled. "We went to highschool together!"
There was a long pause, and then there was the sound of two people speaking in hushed tones to one another on the other line.
Sakura and Tenten waited eagerly for their friend to speak up again. There was a sound on the other line of the phone being jumbled around and then a new voice arrived on the scene.
"Hello? This is Sabaku Art Studios, and you apparently are scaring the heck out of my secretary." Someone said.
Tenten narrowed her eyes. She recognized that voice. It was a man's. Sakura on the other hand was clueless. "Hello? " She said quietly.
"Hello." The voice said. They were starting to sound annoyed.
"Gaara!" Tenten snatched the phone again. She breathed slowly, trying to calm down. In through nose, out through mouth…or was it in through mouth and out through nose? She shook her head after calming down. "This is Tenten speaking." She said in a quiet voice.
"Tenten?" The voice sounded surprised. "I haven't seen you in…..forever."
Tenten giggled. "Hi. Sorry, I was just calling for a rent application. I was so excited to hear Temari. What up?"
There was a pause. "Temari won't remember you." Gaara said in a quiet voice.
Tenten's eyebrows knit together. "What? Why not?"
"Ahem…" Gaara paused. He was whispering now. "I'll tell you later. But for old time's sake, come by tomorrow around 3, we'll see what you can do about your inquiry. Bye."
Tenten nodded. "Okay, bye." She hung up the phone.
"So?" Sakura asked.
The panda-bunned woman shrugged. "Tomorrow at 3."
--
Gaara set down the phone and smiled at his sister.
"Who was that?" She asked.
"No one." He replied. He looked at Temari sadly. Right before graduation, she had been in a car accident. And she had lost her memory. She wouldn't remember who Tenten was. "We're just getting a new client for renting space. A girl."
"But there's only one space left." Temari said.
"Yeah, and she's probably going to rent it out. So you might want to go tell Mr. Ice Cube that he's probably getting a new neighbor." Gaara turned and walked away.
Temari grinned. She stood up and grabbed her purse, charging down the hall and skipped up the stairs up to the 3rd floor of the small townhouse building. The walls were brown wood, as where the floors but everything was colored with some form of artwork. She took a right, into a small room, decorated with samples and pictures from foreign places. Temari spotted the man she was looking for. He was standing over his desk, murmuring random words to himself.
"Hey Neji!" She chirped.
He looked up, he white eyes dark. "What is it?" He asked. "I'm kind of busy."
Temari stopped opposite him. "Guess what?"
"What?" The Hyuuga sighed.
Temari grinned. "There's a new girl coming. Gaara's probably going to rent her the office right next to yours. She pointed at the right wall where the place she was talking about was on the other side of.
Neji rolled his eyes. "Who is it?"
"I don't know." Temari said, the smile still plastered on her face. "I can't remember the name. But she sounded spastic though. So….be prepared." She turned and left.
Neji sighed. Oh great. Next door was probably going to be given to some hippy artist. He shivered/shuddered. Rolling his eyes again he bent down over his desk, looking over several table cloth samples, he had a wedding to plan.
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