Say It With A Straight Face
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summary: "Okay, Sasuke, here's how you can prove you don't like Sakura. Say 'I don't like Sakura' five times with a straight face!" "I don't -twitch- like Sakura -smirk-" "HA! YOU DO!" "SHUT UP! I JUST... HAD TO SNEEZE!" Sure. Sequel to "Just Press 'Send' "
timeline: The characters are juniors in high school; I've also lumped Neji, Tenten, and Lee in with the juniors, to make it easier. I've made Temari and Kankuro seniors. A/U
Chapter Four
'Oh, God, why did I even sign up for this stupid class anyway? Can you say torture?!' Sakura moaned in her head, slumping over in her seat. Yes, she was in AAS, or 'Advanced Academic Strategies' class, which sucks. It was basically a class where you took notes on taking notes. B-O-R-I-N-G.
'What idiot can't take notes?' she began fuming to herself, running a hand through her pink hair like she always did when she felt restless, 'You come, listen, and write stuff down - big deal. Ugh, good thing I can still get out of this class if I don't like it. I'm sooo stopping by the counselor's office after school.'
"And then, you hold your properly sharpened pencil like this... make sure you used a district approved sharpener and the degree of sharpness to your pencil is still up to code so you don't gouge your eyes out, cuz man are those things sharp. That's how Ibiki-sensei lost his left eye you know..."
'On second thought-
"Genma-sensei, may I have the hall pass and go to the counselor's office?" Sakura asked, sticking her hand in the air and tapping her foot up and down impatiently.
Genma looked up from his 'dangerous pencils' and gave her a big smile through his pencil-handling goggles, "Sure thing, Miss Haruno!"
'Eh - he is waaaaaaay too cheerful.'
As soon as Sakura had the hall pass she bolted out the door. 'Nothing wrong with staying down here until class is over. Hm... I wonder what art class would be like...'
Sasuke literally ranout of the band room to escape from either the horde of saxophone girls that were probably chasing him by now, or Naruto, who would probably be really annoying again. Or both. What a hard life.
Because he ran, he was early as he descended the main staircase of the high school and walked through the door of the library. It was a huge room full of shelves of books, magazine racks, some nice niches with comfy, green couches and even rugs to read on, and dozens of big, wooden tables. It even had computers that actually weren't crappy. Sasuke had always liked it in here - even the lighting was nice, because the walls were made of glass, so it was like one big wall-to-wall window that the sun always shone through just right. Well, that was his opinion anyway. Actually, the library was nearly always as empty as a ghost town, especially after school. No one would ever in their right mind spend a single second more than they absolutely had to in school. Well, that was the slackers anyway.
Sasuke dropped his book bag below a table, took out his physics book, and started reading as he waited.
"Hey," he heard Sakura's voice greet him about five minutes later. Sasuke looked up to see her smiling down at him. He stopped reading and she dumped her books on the table and sat down.
Sakura flipped open her textbook to the proper chapter and met his eyes as he watched her. She smiled, "So, first we have to pick a topic. Have any ideas? I was thinking of taking a step up to quantum physics, and I've been reading Ford's essays, but we can think of something else if you want to."
Sasuke nodded. He smirked and said in a teasing tone, "How about we make a graph of the distance and speed you run away per number of minutes you read your horror novels, and then we use that to calculate your velocity of running to Ino's, my house, and Naruto's place. And then we can even-
"Ha ha," Sakura rolled her eyes, "Actually, Sasuke, I was thinking maybe we could do a study where we calculate how many Newtons there are of unbalanced forces in your head! I'm thinking that your ego is what sets you off, and by maybe 40 to 50 Newtons, but I could be wrong; we could just check-
"Hurtful, Sakura," Sasuke chuckled, smirking. Sakura grinned and laughed with him.
Outside the library, Ino and Naruto were pressing their faces against the glass wall/window, watching their best friends with a couple of identical huge grins on their faces. You know, that expression that only Ino and Naruto can do. Hinata just sort of stood off to the side, glancing worriedly out of the corners of her eyes at the unstable teenagers.
"Shikamaru's gonna win the bet - he said they'd be together by this weekend," Naruto said grinning, "Damn that genius."
"Totally," Ino agreed, remembering the conversation she'd just had with Sakura as they'd walked down to the library together.
"Ino?" Sakura had asked suddenly, looking away from the blonde.
"Hm?" Ino looked up.
Sakura picked at the strap of her messenger bag, "I... know I always act annoyed and that you're teasing me about Sasuke, but... I... uh... really do like him."
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!"
"Ino-
"I was right!" Ino sang, and started doing her 'I was right' dance right in the middle of the hallway, which looked suspiciously similar to 'Stayin' Alive'.
"Ino-
"I... was... ri...ight! Uh! Uh! Uh! Uh! I was so right! I was so right! Uh-
"INO!"
"Huh?" Ino stopped singing and jerked herself out of the weird disco moment. Good thing too - people were starting to stare.
"Just... don't tell anyone," Sakura mumbled, going pink.
"Why?"
"I think it would ruin our friendship if he knew. He doesn't like me," Sakura said, "I'm sure of it," she sighed, sounding tired.
'How wong you are, Sakura,'Ino thought, smirking to herself as she watched them through the window.
Naruto turned around and faced the quiet Hyuga behind him, "This is great, huh, Hinata?! Let's go and get ramen together to celebrate!"
"O-o-okay, s-sure." Grinning, Naruto grabbed her hand and ran out of the building, while Hinata concentrated on not fainting.
Ino smirked as the new couple-to-be (if she gets to play matchmaker, and Ino always gets to play matchmaker) on her radar left together. She looked around and groaned. Now if only she could get herself a love life. Dejected, she slumped out of the school building after them, but perked up immediately. There was always plan B - go stalk Shikamaru! Grinning, Ino ran off to enjoy her Saturday night in some bushes outside the Nara home.
"We're making great progress," Sakura commented offhandedly, leafing through a section on sigma properties as Sasuke picked up another book from the piles that were surrounding them.
"Definitely," he agreed, jotting something down in his notes. He glanced at a clock on the wall, "Hn, it's already 7:15. We probably have to-
"LEAVE!!" Shizune, the librarian screeched, as she ran out of the librarian's office at the back of the library and started picking up the science books. She threw their notebooks at them and kept running around like a beheaded chicken, picking up books.
They both stared at her with looks that questioned her sanity.
"What?! That storm is going to hit any minute, you know, and it's going to be bad!! Don't you delinquents watch the Weather Channel? Now OUT!!" she shrieked. Shizune ran them out like a cattle herder and chased them all the way out the front entrance, her arms still full of textbooks. I guess that's why no one really goes to the library - they don't necessarily enjoy being chased by a strange woman armed with heavy books.
The biting cold wind blew like a hurricane and whipped their hair in their faces as they walked through the school parking lot. As they got into Sasuke's car the sky got darker and darker, threatening to let loose the torrents of freezing rain drops inside. Thunder cracked in the distance and all of a sudden the heavens opened up like... someone dropping a swimming pool out of an airplane! Yeah, that's it! The point is, it was pouring rain as Sasuke tried to drive home, seeing as his house was closer, so they could wait out the rain there.
He barely made it to the proper street without crashing. The Uchiha carefully reached the right estate and drove slowly up the familiar drive, which was now barely visible in the downpour. As he tried to pull in, the car nearly lost control and skidded into the garage, banging against a wall with it's bumper and violently jolting the two inside.
"You okay?" Sasuke asked Sakura breathlessly, their hearts pounding hard in their chests as they clutched their seats.
She nodded back, wide-eyed and a little pale.
Sasuke listened to the rain hit the roof of the garage like someone dribbling basketballs up there, and more thunder cracked in the distance.
"Sakura," Sasuke said, a bolt of lightning illuminating his face in the dim, "You're staying the night."
Wow, that felt like a story chapter, but it feels like too much happened to make it any longer. -shrugs- The part about Sakura quitting AAS at the beginning may sound pointless, but I assure you, that plays a part in the story later.
Huh, you know, I guess because of the storm Ino's plans are now ruined. Temari's too - she gets the same idea and sometimes she and Ino run into each other in the bushes outside Shikamaru's house, which results in a cat fight. So yeah, now the Nara's think they have some sort of problem with neighbourhood cats fighting in their bushes. Shikamaru's dad actually went out there once and started whacking the bushes with a broom because he thought there were cats...
Thanks for the feedback! Much love.