And as Ino handed Sakura her drink, she knew they would be absorbing for a while. But of course, they'd talk about it all later. They always did. Maybe lounging on Sakura's balcony or Ino's rooftop. But for now, she was just going to sip her coffee quietly.
Vaguely, she noted that her hair must be mess by now. She'd have to head to the bathroom really fast when they got to school.
She reached over her shoulder and plucked a stray strand of hair to push it behind her ear. Then she glanced at Shikamaru who was carrying his coffee to his table with the guys.
There were many words she could have used to describe what she wanted from senior year. Drama wasn't one of them.
Hinata rushed double-time, winding her way through the crowded hallway as she made a mad dash for the bathroom. She got surprised cries and a ton of strange looks, but she didn't pay them any mind.
She might've looked crazy, but it was warranted.
The moment she arrived at school, she went straight to Shizune, Dr Tsunade's assistant, to grab her schedule (which Neji should have picked up a week earlier from school when he picked up his, but he didn't, the jerk) and then to her locker where she grabbed the books she needed from her bag and shoved the rest inside. It was then she managed a glance at her phone to see a text from Ino and promptly lost her mind.
Thus explaining her crazy yet justifiable sprint towards the girls' room.
She made it there in record time, pushed open the door and cried, "Sasuke's back?"
Then she saw a bunch of girls staring at her, among which she located Ino and Sakura also staring.
Maybe she'd been a little uncharacteristic, what with acting absolutely mental and not her usual quiet and calm self.
Okay, so may she had been extremely uncharacteristic.
She saw both her best friends crack identical smiles, and Sakura piped up with a, "Hello to you to, Hinata."
Then Ino resumed her role as Resident Bitch as she looked around and snapped her fingers twice, "Okay, all of you, get out of here. Now."
Since crap like that didn't exactly happen within a second and without any defiance, a fair amount of grumbling later they were alone in the girls' room (thanks to further of Ino's bitchiness accompanied with Sakura's). That's when Hinata repeated her previous question with slight variation.
"He's really back?"
"Totally," Ino answered as she ran a check of all five of the stalls for any remaining girls. "We saw him at Ramen Stand in the flesh. And he headed with the guys to school. We saw him at his new locker too. He's definitely back."
Fudging heck.
Hinata turned her gaze to Sakura and whispered, "Damn."
Sakura burst out laughing.
Hinata raised an eyebrow. Ino raised two.
"You don't seem to be taking this very seriously," Hinata observed when this went on for a while.
"No shit," Ino confirmed as she looked confusedly at Sakura.
"Guys," Sakura managed when she quit laughing. "Seriously. Why does it have to be a big deal?"
"Why?" Ino asked, her voice high and her eyes bugging out.
"Oh no," Hinata murmured. "Here it comes."
"Why?" Ino repeated, but didn't wait for an answer this time. "Maybe because you and him were paired together for an entire year in middle school?"
Sakura's shoulders started shaking with visibly contained laughter. "What?"
"And he was, like, super cute. And he's super hot now." Ino continued her reasoning seriously.
"True," Sakura murmured, still keeping her humor at bay.
"And you told me," Ino then pointed a finger at Sakura accusingly. "You missed him when he was gone."
Okay, now even Hinata had to admit that sounded absolutely ridiculous.
Sakura burst out laughing hard all over again and this time Hinata joined her.
"What?" Ino demanded as she glared at both of them. "Tell me it isn't true."
Sakura's eyes met Hinata's, did a roll and went back to Ino. "Ino, you sound crazy."
Hinata nodded in agreement. "I agree with that."
Ino scrunched her nose. "I overdid it?"
"A little bit," Sakura lied. Hinata bit her lip to keep from laughing again.
"Ugh, whatever," Ino shrugged. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure I gave you the reasons why it's a big deal."
Sakura sighed. "Okay, let me rephrase: it's not a big deal."
"But… but…" Ino sputtered. "It is. This is Sasuke Uchiha. Mr Too Cool For You Even Though I'm Just In Middle School Sasuke, who is now, Mr Super Cool For You Because I'm A Delicious Hottie Now In High School Who Probably Bangs Slutty Redheads Sasuke."
"What?" Hinata could hear the smile in Sakura's voice but she didn't look, she was too busy staring at Ino wondering if her best friend was always this outrageous.
All her life she knew for a fact that Sakura was the crazy drama queen one. Ino was the same, only a few shades lesser. Right now, though, as Ino was redefining the limits of mad, Hinata doubted it.
"You didn't take something different with your coffee today, did you?" Sakura wondered out loud. "Like, that druggie guy by the alley didn't offer you something suspicious looking, right?"
"Sakura," Ino snapped, narrowing her eyes. "Stop making jokes. We're worried for you here."
Sakura turned pointedly to Hinata. "Are you worried?"
The smart thing would've been to shut up. That was because when Sakura and Ino got it out and argued, playing peacemaker was a fruitless job.
But then again, this was important (or maybe not so after all), so she thought hard about her answer before giving it to Sakura honestly.
"Well, I was crazy-worried. But you're being pretty laidback about it, so maybe I don't have to be anymore."
"Thank you," Sakura smiled big at her. Hinata smiled back as she always did because it would be a crime not to return such a killer smile.
Then Sakura looked back at Ino. "I love you, you know it. And I get you're worried but I don't know why. This is crazy, not to mention, pointless. You don't have to freak out, I'm good—I have no reason not to be." When Ino didn't say anything, she went on, "I mean, seriously. You guys are acting like my cheating ex-husband just walked in with a floozy on his arm." That one got a smile out of Ino. "I was a little weirded out in the morning. Surprised. But that's because I haven't seen him in so long. I didn't like him or love him, he didn't break my heart or murder my parents and he sure as hell isn't my ex-husband. He's just the guy I got partnered up with in middle school, for God's sake. So nothing's up, Ino. Everything's cool. Get that crap out of your head."
"You're good?" Ino asked, studying her carefully.
"I'm good," confirmed Sakura.
And since Hinata's mouth never listened to her brain, she blurted, "Who knows, maybe you'll make friends with him or something."
"He didn't do the friend thing, remember?" Ino shot back. "Not girls, anyway."
"Well then, maybe he does now. If he doesn't, I haven't got anything to lose." Sakura stated and then went on. "Happy now? I'm totally fine. Like I said, everything's cool, Ino."
"If you say so," Ino said, still not sounding very convinced.
Hinata, on the other hand, was persuaded. Sakura had this thing about her; she didn't let stuff get to her. Even after the initial drama of last year, she seemed fine. Nothing fazed that girl.
"Now, how about we talk about Shikamaru?"
Hinata turned her wide eyes to Sakura, who was looking at Ino with a smug expression now that the tables were turned.
"Hell no. He's still an asshole. Probably always will be." Ino said firmly as she turned to the mirror and started fussing with her hair. "We're so beyond done, it isn't even funny."
"Did something happen this morning? Like, at The Ramen Stand?" Hinata questioned her friends before she walked to the mirror. Her gaze came to her reflection and she gasped.
Christ, is that what she looked like?
Her hands flew to her head to tame her wild hair as much as possible and realized she should not have rushed to the bathroom after all.
"Oh yeah." Sakura answered as she fished in her pretty red bag for lipgloss for a touchup. "While Ino was at the counter ordering. She told me about it on the way here. He was horrible. By the way, can I just add, I love how you're growing your hair out? It looks amazing."
Hinata looked back at her disheveled hair in the reflection.
It did not look amazing to her.
"Seriously," Ino agreed wholly. "And even though we kept telling you this throughout the summer, it's worth a repeat: it looks great."
Sakura added, "I totally dig how it's way past your shoulders already."
"Yeah, and you're working the whole messy hair thing. I can never pull it off." Ino went on, pulling her hair back into her usual swept back, sleek ponytail.
"Guys?" Hinata waved her hands at them, trying to get their attention. "Focus. We were talking about Shikamaru?"
"Oh, right." Sakura nodded. "Where was I? Yeah, horrible. So basically the asshole says that Ino has to steer clear from the football team this season. But the basketball team, he's good with that."
Oh my God.
Hinata's jaw dropped open. "What a jerk."
Sakura's lips quirked up. "That's one word that comes to mind."
"Anyway," Ino began when she finished brushing her ponytail. "As much as I'd like to get into the details, the bell's going to ring soon and my first class is Physics with Asuma. Not going to give him a reason to be pissed at me this year. See you, babes!"
And with that, she grabbed her bag and hurried out the door.
"She's gone," Hinata informed Sakura.
"She's also right." Sakura said. "We're going to be late."
Giving up on her hair, Hinata nodded.
"Right now I have History, AP Biology, AP English and then AP Chemistry," Sakura announced. "Ino's with me in English. You have any of these?"
Hinata shook her head. "Nope. I'll see you at lunch?"
"Yep. At the usual table." Sakura confirmed as they walked out together.
Hinata nodded.
"I'm going to make a run for it now, History's way at the end of the building," Sakura said, before taking off fast-paced through the hall. She called over her shoulder to Hinata, "Later!"
"Later," Hinata called back. She adjusted her books and rounded the corner to AP Calculus. She spotted Shino, a longtime close friend sitting by the window. She didn't think twice before dropping down on the seat next to him.
"Hinata," Shino nodded at her.
Hinata wrinkled her nose. There were many things about Shino. She loved how sharp he was. She admired his ability to be quick to understand stuff. She liked how he didn't say much, just observed.
What she never liked, though, was how formal he always was. But like the prim and proper young lady she was raised to be, she kept that to herself.
"Hi, Shino. How was the summer?" She began the tedious process of organizing her books—a habit Shino was used to ever since middle school.
"It was good. Yours?"
"Great." She looked up from her books to grin at him but he wasn't looking at her. He was looking contemplatively at the door. She followed his gaze and saw Kiba Inuzuka looking good as all get out in a plain grey T-shirt, seriously faded jeans and black boots sauntering in leisurely. He passed by a girl with a funky haircut, winked at her and settled in a seat at the way back of the classroom.
Hinata thought he could be a movie star.
He sure acted like one.
He lounged back in his seat; face relaxed, eyes ahead, taking in everything going on in the room.
That's when Hinata reminded herself it was rude to stare, not to mention incredibly embarrassing if the person you were staring at was to catch you in the act.
She still chanced it for a couple of seconds, though.
That was because he made messy hair look good.