Cheerleaders
Dedicated To Confusion

I froze at the feeling of his lips against mine, a cold shiver slithering up my spine. It was nothing, just a quick peck – I knew this but my heart was thumping so fast. He was already pulling back, and I reached forward, unconsciously, and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Sai…" I began, but my words lost themselves in the air.

I like him a lot, I thought to myself nervously.

His face betrayed nothing, but his eyes were like the pages of an open book. Regret, happiness, sadness, confusion; I saw it all through his eyes.

"I-I'm sorry." He said suddenly, and slowly, these things I could see were translating themselves into an expression. It was so hard to read – yet I understood every word.

Without a second thought, I pulled him back towards me, and gave him my own kiss. It was something bolder, yet softer. I didn't know him. There was so much about Sai that I never tried to decipher. I liked him and he liked me – but how deep did that go? I wanted to understand him. I had both my hands on his cheeks now, forcing him to stay with me, just a few more seconds, and he obliged.

Finally I let him go, though his face and mine were still so close I could feel the hot breaths erupting from his nostrils, and surely he could feel mine, escaping my parted lips. My common sense told me it was too early – but my heart was beating in a frenzy. I wanted to kiss him again.

I thought, I like him too much. One image of Itachi flashed in my mind. People stared, but I didn't care, I stared straight at him.

"No, I'm sorry. Sai-kun, we don't know each other. A-And I think that should come before anything." I said so faintly, I hardly realized I was saying it. "Jeez, I don't know what came over me." I felt my face darken, and we leaned closer to each other, again. I had spoken but my own words were def to my ears. I didn't want to hear them – I just wanted him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he leaned down to meet me. It felt so normal, so familiar to have him in my grasp.

"Sure," was all he could say, before our lips met again.

I came back home, feeling oddly blissful, light on my feet… and tired. I let my bag drop at the door, flung off my shoes and unzipped my sweater. I walked into the kitchen. What? No cinnamon rolls today? I sighed and opened one of the fridge doors. It looked pretty deserted in there. I picked up the carton of orange juice and shook it. Before opening it, I checked my surroundings. Finding no one in immediate sight, I drank the juice straight from the carton.

"Sakura?" I heard my mother call, and nearly chocked on the beverage as I quickly pulled the carton from my lips. I gulped loudly.

"Yes, I'm home!" I yelled back. I heard her footsteps coming down the stair case and hid the carton back in the fridge before closing the door.

A second later, she appeared at the island and put her elbows on the counter. "You're a little late, sweetie. Where were you?" She asked, her mischievous tone causing overexagerated eye-rolling on my part.

Don't give yourself away. Don't give yourself away. "Not with Sasuke." I muttered, pulling off my sweater.

"Well," She said, smiling brightly, "Your lip gloss is a little smudged."

I felt my stomach churn but kept a calm composure as I nodded. "I had a donut." I explained (cough, lied, cough), running my finger along my lips. "It was good." I said and folded my sweater over my arm. I held my head high as I walked out of the kitchen and into the hall, where I found the staircase and quickly ran up.

"By the way, your friend called!" She yelled from the end of the staircase, still smiling.

"Okay, thanks!" I replied, and literally ran into my room. As soon as I was inside, I closed the door behind me. I nearly collapsed onto the floor, leaning forward so my awaiting desk chair caught me. I sunk into my seat and tossed my sweater onto my bed. I was now only in the thick white uniform shirt, grey, white, and blue chequered skirt and black leggings.

I let out a long sigh before sitting up straight and picking up the cordless phone on my desk. I checked all of the calls I'd received. My heart was beating hard, going way too fast. I put my hand to my chest. Hopefully, a heart attack was improbable.

"Who's this…?" I mumbled to myself, forgetting my frantic mood for a moment. The system had identified the phone number but there was no name. I took a deep breath and pressed TALK on the cordless phone. I put it to my ear and waited.

"Hello?" The voice on the other line was light, female – and familiar.

I swore under my breath. "Um. It's Sakura." I mumbled.

There was a silent pause on the other line, and I faintly heard a cat's meow. "How could you?!" She yelled loudly into the line.

My jaw hung loosely. I quickly composed myself. "Well, I-"

"No. I don't care. You know who was recruited? Some guy who has a hydration problem. He needs to drink water every fifteen minutes, Sakura. Fifteen minutes. This is a soccer game, and he wants to drink water every fifteen minutes?!"

"Just let me-"

"No. I don't want your explanation. We were supposed to do the routine and you ditched us. And guess what? Tsunade-sama nearly skinned our asses for not being ready. Why weren't you there?!"

"I-"

"No! Be quiet, woman. You nearly screwed us over, but I – we're – giving you another chance. The game is on Thursday. Don't forget. All you have to do is catch three flips and steady the pyramid. Oh, and since you're still new in the squad, you can sit out the cheering routine. Because, you see, if Tsunade-sama isn't impressed she's getting rid of us. Why? Not because she doesn't like us. But we cost money, and she's strict about having the necessary funds for the actual teams. We can't be the best if we don't have the best equipment, Sakura."

I nodded, and said, feebly, "Okay."

"I'm sorry, and all that, but this is really important to us, okay? Thanks. Bye." And then Sakura's ear met the dial tone. She pressed the END button and put the phone down.

Wow. So much in one day? I stood from my seat and let myself fall on my bed.

And then the aching in my chest was too hard to ignore. Karin had just yelled at me – and now I felt ashamed and regretful. It had been my fault, totally and completely mine. Itachi had even warned me. But Sai… It was too much pressure. There was too much attention. How had I even survived until now? Just like I'd thought; I wasn't at all cut out for this.

I was still Sakura: the nobody and the coward with the large billboard forehead and the bubblegum pink hair. How disgusting.

I turned to bury my face in my pillow, and cried.

I woke up in the middle of the night, still clothed in my uniform, legs hot from wearing leggings the whole time. I checked my clock; 3:57 AM. Wonderful. I rolled over and slowly sat up. The light had been turned off, probably by my dad, who was big on energy consummation. I tripped, hopped, and leaped to make it around the things on my carpeted floor and to open the door. There was nightlight plugged into the hall in the hallway. I rolled my dry, hurting eyes.

I'm an idiot. I'm a freakin idiot and I should slap myself for being so stupid, I thought to myself, my tears long gone. Instead I had a glare in place.

I tiptoed down the stairs soundlessly, feeling like a panther on the hunt. I got to ground level and hurried to the front door, where I'd left my bag. It was open. I swore to myself, and then covered my mouth. That had been a little loud. I kneeled down in front of it, and the moment I grabbed it, I knew who the culprit was. I shuddered as I lifted my hand to my face.

Drool.

"Phantom…" I growled under my breath. He had opened it and… stolen my tuna sandwich? My eyes found the worse of the crimes. My uniform was there, in plain view. I pulled it out of my bag in near pitch darkness – there were night lights down here, too. Now I was really mad. A part of the skirt was torn and there was slobber all over the green top.

I swore even louder, but I was too mad to care who might've heard. I quickly took out the cheerleading uniform and ran down the stairs. I was still in my school uniform though – and it was chilly downstairs with just the T-shirt as my top. It was thick enough not to be seen through, even when wet, but it didn't make me any warmer.

I finally made it to the laundry room. Here, the cement floor was bare – and freezing cold. I was glad I had my leggings on, working at keeping both my feet and legs warm. I felt the Goosebumps appearing on my arms, though, so I quickly threw the shirt, as well as other laundry into the machine. I started it before I ran to a pile of boxes along a parallel wall and retrieved the one (labelled) where we'd stored the sowing machine. I didn't hesitate to run right back out. The basement was still crowded with boxes, some still full, so I had to watch my feet as I got to the stair case, walked up to the main floor and closed the door to the dark, cold room below.

I tittered to the living room, where I took out all the equipment and string needed to repair the skirt. Needless to say, it would be a long night.

Sai was absent for the whole day of school. I was both relieved and disappointed. I was glad I had some time to think about what had happened just the day before, but I still wanted to see him. I had to clear some things up – this time without listening to my hormones (they all said, "Kiss him! Kiss him!"). Karin was especially sour with me. I could understand why, since she was the only one going AWOL. Also, I hadn't told anyone about the incident with my uniform and didn't intend to – unless of course they noticed the obvious rip that made a squiggly tear up my thigh.

Anyway.

I had just left my last class – it was 11:40; lunch – when I spotted them, halfway down the hall. The first thing I did was stop. So suddenly so, that I created a five people chain reaction crash behind me. I muttered a quick sorry before barely sprinting away and taking cover by Hinata's locker. She didn't seem to have noticed the scene going on so blatantly a few… maybe a lot of meters away.

"Hey, Sakura-chan," She said with a smile, though she didn't look at me, only blinked at the inside of her locker as she opened it.

"Hi." I said, and then I watched her but away her things.

She started talking, but then I had already focused on what had been disturbing me the moment I stepped out of the classroom. It was Karin, flirting with another student. At first, I'd thought it was Sasuke, but then I realized they looked nothing alike. I didn't recognize him. He had a slim athletic build and his hanging hair was practically blue-white. I narrowed my eyes as he reached for her, but she put a hand to his chest to push him away.

I would've been fine with that reaction. Karin was a pretty girl. Her outer exterior made her seem like the quiet, studious type, with her glasses and calm eyes, but she was brave and bold and as unique as her hairstyle. She must've been approached by more than a few guys in her lifetime.

But Karin's hand stayed on his chest just a little too long. I knew the signs, and this was bad. I'd once been a quiet observer, and I'd seen my fair share of high school drama.

This is horrible, horrible, horrible.

They were definitely flirting with each other – both of them laughing or giggling or smiling or smirking or grinning.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, I thought in a mild state of panic.

Wasn't she supposed to go out with Sasuke or something? The boy she'd been chased for weeks, maybe months? I couldn't let it happen.

I walked right around Hinata, hoping that she hadn't still been talking and thought I'd ditched her. I kept a steadied stride, though. I had to fix this, I knew. Just one warning and that's it, I told myself, You don't need to get involved. You've already been yelled at once.

But people make mistakes right? It suddenly occurred to me that I was probably making one as my foot made for another hit to the ground. Karin began looking around cautiously as the light haired boy spoke to her. I stopped, my shoes squeaking on the floor. Slowly, she was turning her head in my direction.

Had she heard me? She couldn't have.

Did I have time to turn back? I didn't get the chance to make such a decision - someone had come out of nowhere and slid in front of me.

Suddenly, safe; we were both out of each other's sights.

"Sakura-chan! Where were you?" Kiba asked, throwing an arm around my shoulder and making me swivel around weakly.

"Um... Hi… Kiba-kun…." I breathed, barely. I began mumbling a few more incoherent things, so which he frowned and 'huh?'-ed at, until he realized I was looking over his shoulder.

He turned his head, but Karin and the boy were already gone. "What're you looking at?" He asked, but left me no time to answer, "Anyway, Ino's in the clubroom yelling her head off for a meeting. You might want to get your butt over there."

I licked my dry lips and nodded. "Okay." I said quietly, and let him turn me around and begin to lead me there. I was still prone to losing my way around the huge school so I didn't bother arguing.

I heard Hinata skipping to our side before I saw her. It seemed like she hadn't seen anything either. We both headed to the clubroom. Kiba insisted on joining us, sending winks around the room, but Hana was quick at shoving him out (though with a little more force than necessary) and slamming the door behind him.

"All right, everyone's here? Wonderful! Now, now…" Ino said, putting a hand to her chin. She suddenly turned to me with a sharp, slicing stare.

"Sakura-chan…" She began.

I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I…" I don't know what to say.

"You…?" She asked.

Temari waved, telling her to stop. "I'm sure Karin already told you about it." She said slowly, twirling hair around her finger. "I'll let you off, for now."

Tenten nodded, and then looked around quickly. "Where is Karin, anyway?" She asked slowly, beginning to frown.

Temari giggled. "With Sasuke, maybe?" She said, nudging Ino with her elbow.

Ino glared at her. "Shut up, Temari. I told you, I'm totally over him." She muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

Temari rolled her eyes. "Of course, sweetheart. That's why you're so totally cool with Karin scoring a date with the man of wax on her first try." She said dryly, mirroring Ino's crossed arms.

Tenten laughed an airy laugh. "Oh, Temari... what about Shikamaru? I mean, having Ino with Sasuke would make him a free, easy catch." She joked.

Hinata coughed lightly at the darkening atmosphere.

Temari scoffed. "That player? He can kiss my ass." She muttered with fine vulgarity, though she sent a hesitant glance at Ino. The blonde smirked and shrugged. They both laughed then, leaving me standing like a dedicated wallflower in utter confusion.

It seemed I was right about one thing. Perfection was a sin – and Sasuke suffered from what some may call it; a gift. Surely, he had imperfect parts to him, like any normal person. Without really realizing it, I swore to myself to depict him into the smallest parts and analyze every right and wrong I could lay my hands on. He must have faults. He must.

A/N: Well, there you goes.

Can you guys guess who the new guy is?

...

If you can't, pity is all that I know.

Enter Suigetsu! Fluent in the language of Flirt, and ready to tame the squad's fire!

That was so lame, even I feel ashamed.

(SHAME)

And that's a freakin accomplishment for me, too.