Mr. Brightside
A/N: Special thanks to all that reviewed last chapter! I'll be able to update generally quickly, like today; there'll be a double! Full details at the end of the chapter. : )
Chapter Two
I'm Coming Out of My Cage
I am sure you're confused, since I mentioned before that Konoha Elite is an alternative educational system for the rich and snooty, and I'm using old beat up computers, riding my recycled bike to school, locking it up with some random bolt lock I found that kind of sort of fit in with the key I had found the week before by the dumps.
Well, you have all rights to be confused.
I am no longer rich, meaning that, at one point, I was. Excessively.
My parents divorced, and my ditwad of a father did not pay child-support. My mom went from Princess to Duchess to Cook to Maid to Whatever-Is-Worse-Than-That in a span of two years. We moved out of our huge, expansive house in Suna during my first year of high school, to my grandparents' house. It didn't really work out there, seeing as Mother was always harassed for not working as hard as she should be, especially adding in the fact that she did have a fifteen-year-old daughter. Grandma and Grandpa stopped helping her, because they figured she was old enough to afford the McDonald's Dollar Menu food.
Safe to say, we were gone by the end of that school year. For sophomore year, we tried homeschooling. AND THAT'S when I seriously started second guessing my extreme love of my mother. Maybe it was because there was too much time I was spending with her. She was always there. Did she go to work? No. Did her inheritance seriously suffer? Yes.
Anyway, my independence was shriveling to the size of a prepubescent raisin. By time I went to high school for my Junior year, I really realized how much Mom had suffocated me. I started rebelling at home, but my inner whatever-ness was released in my English classes, so much so that I was offered a Writing & Literature scholarship to, you guessed it, Konoha Elite. Apparently, Ms. Whitaker, my teacher had connections with the principal of Elite. The plain fact is that I got a full scholarship because of my wondrous talents, which is partially fantastic because there is no way I'm even half as rich as these people are.
Nobody knows that I'm not carrying around twenties as change, and hundreds as one-dollar bills. Nobody will ever find out, either. Why?
They probably won't bother to freaking find out.
L O A D I N G . . . .
Today, I discovered that this was not going to be a normal high school year. I wouldn't be able to walk through the hallways and, with a few stares at my neon flash light of weird some people call hair, make it to my class. At that point, I would pay attention just enough to do my homework and get no less than a B-, because the subject matter was so simple I could probably just scan over the chapter and ace the test with a one-hundred percent.
No. Nope.
This year, it was going to be different. And not the good kind, either.
L O A D I N G . . . .
I knocked on the door; a big wooden door, the numbers 107 engraved above the frame, and waited until I heard a muted, "Come in," from the inside of the room. I took a big breath, and then twisted the golden handle, pushing it open in the same movement.
It was if all eyes were on me. Because they mostly were.
Silence enveloped the room with my entrance, and I gathered enough courage to scan through the crowd that was staring at me. There were absolutely no ugly people. I expected to see at least one atrocious, otherworldly unattractive face with radiating acne that would glow red, and if you stared at it too long, explode.
It didn't even seem like anyone, including the boys, left home without a decent amount of hairspray and Chapstik™.
I was not going to fit in. At all.
The sound of a clearing throat toward the front of the classroom ripped my gaze away from the pupils, and to a man leaning casually against the whiteboard, tossing a blue EXPO marker in his left hand, his right comfortably placed in the pockets of dark dress pants, iron creased down the legs. He donned a forest green shirt that I was beginning to learn was one of the school colors, along with gold, and a nice silver watch played on his wrist.
What was most interesting about him, not as if his clothes were the new high point of my day, was that his hair defied gravity, sticking straight up in a messy, spiky modern style. And, it was either grayish silver naturally, or dyed so. I thought he was pretty cool, a teacher's assistant at most with a lax attitude like that, and if all the educators were as laidback, my school life here wouldn't be half that bad.
"Hello, I'm Kakashi," he grinned beneath his mask that I totally forgot to mention, "You must be Haruno Sakura, the new student?"
The bad part about moving to a big city months late into the school year as a senior is that everyone gets ridiculously excited. Murmurs replaced the silence, and I sighed tiredly. He had asked me to introduce myself.
I walked carefully to the middle of the classroom reluctantly, the teacher insisting that I should move more toward the center and get away from the door as if I were going to make a run for it. Which I was so planning to do.
Goosebumps popped onto my bare legs in nervousness, and robotically I turned about face, which earned a couple of dry laughs. I stared at my brand new low-top black Converses fiddling with my fingers to pass the time.
Oh, look! I have a broken nail. Darn…I should get that fixed. Maybe I could go to the nail shop that I saw on the corner by the library after school. I think I should get French tips. Those are always cool, right? Right. Totally. Maybe while I'm there, I can get a pedicure, too—
"Go ahead, Sakura-san." Kakashi-sensei warned, "I do have a lesson to start."
I groaned to myself and lifted my head, only to want to shoot myself. There were so many people. My green eyes widened for a moment while I gulped roughly, a nervous sweat started to bead on my brow. Somewhere toward the back, someone coughed, and it was then that I decided enough was enough.
A smile rose onto my face as I waved, all five of my fingers wiggling. "Um, hi. Like Kakashi-sensei said, I'm Sakura," I rolled on my feet from heel to toes, rubbing the lobe of my ear to relax myself. "Feel free to just call me that. I don't need the –sama or the –san, or anything. Um…I used to live in Suna until this year and um…I'm seventeen…"
I glanced to Kakashi then, begging him with my eyes to let me be done already. What else was I supposed to say? The silver-haired man closed a mathematics book he was referencing from with a slam, and he raised his eyebrows. "Anyone have any questions for Sakura-chan?"
All hands shot up, and I could only guess that Kakashi had gestured toward a girl in the third row, smack dab in the middle. She had pretty glasses on her face, and bright vibrant red hair. She grinned, "Is your hair really pink?"
My face fell, eyes narrowing deviously, so she added quickly, "N-not saying that it looks fake or anything. My friends and I were just wondering. The loose curls look adorable with the shape of your face, by the way."
I let her slide, since the compliments sounded sincere and it did take me forever to curl my hair this morning.
"Yeah, my hair is really pink. My mom is redheaded and my dad is blonde, so…" I was going to say something Bio-nerd, talking about co-, complete, and incomplete dominance, but I decided against it, "I guess they just mixed like crayons."
She nodded, apparently satisfied with my answer, and the hands were lesser in number, though a few were still raised. I nodded toward a blonde boy with blue eyes like the ocean. He seemed like he was friends with everybody, or at least very friendly. "Go ahead," I said pointlessly.
He smiled an infectious one. "Right, so I was wondering if you have a boyfriend in Suna or—"
The sound of a ruler smacking against a wall slapped, and I jumped, as did the boy, who froze mid-sentence. Kakashi stared evenly at the blonde teen when he reached my side, tapping the meter stick in his hand threateningly with each word he spoke, "Naruto. Not. Appropriate. For. Class." A couple of beats passed, and then he faced me, grinning again.
Split personalities much?
"You can take a seat right there, next to Ino-san." He pointed toward a girl with platinum blonde hair and a twinkle in her baby blue eyes. She grinned and waved at me, looking way too excited for my liking. Either way, the empty seat was a window seat, and I like to space out.
L O A D I N G . . . .
Ten minutes into the lesson on solving derivatives, I felt a poke on my shoulder from my right, and glanced at Ino with a questioning look, only to see her scribbling points and notes down as Kakashi spoke with her black pen. I rolled my eyes, blaming the wind or something, and focused back to my notebook, only to see a tiny, folded piece of paper right in the middle.
I looked toward the blonde girl again before I unfolded it, and she smiled, mouthing, "Open it."
Shaking my head at being so easily distracted, I unfolded the paper as told, and read the words, formulating my reply shortly after.
Hey! You said you were from Suna, yeah?
Yep.
I wondered for a second if I should right more, but I erased the letters before they could form words. She doesn't need to know why and when I moved if she doesn't ask. I folded the paper back up, positioning it in my palm in a way that hid it when I reached over and pretended to admire her handwriting. When Kakashi turned back around, I dropped the square.
Seconds later, the paper was on the floor near my shoe.
That's cool-sauce. At least you moved now, instead of after Winter Break, even though you did happen to miss my birthday. It's fine; I'd rather you come now instead of in March when we're doing midterms and stuff.
Srry I missed your birthday. That kid who asked me if I had a boyfriend or not—his name was Naruto?
UH-HUH. He's such a dunce. Ignore him. His friends are delicioso though.
Delicious? Like…
NO-NO! XP I'm just saying they're hot and delicious like sizzling bacon on a sidewalk in a billion degree weather! Do I look like some slut to you?
…Yes. ^^; just playing.
You had better be, Haruno! As I was writing before you oh-so-rudely interrupted me…they're all hot. Especially Sasuke-kun.
Sasuke?
Uh-huh. He's sitting next to the fat kid inhaling potato chips—Choji. You'd be lucky to even get him to talk to you, let alone look.
I looked around the room for the so-called fat kid, making a funny face when Ino was smiling smugly, probably proud that she had distracted me so much from learning that I wasn't even trying anymore.
Just three seats away from Ino was Choji, and—and, was that the kid from this morning? He glanced at me, looking back at the board for a split second, only to take a double take, dark obsidian eyes boring into mine. Kakashi's sermon (because that sure wasn't a lesson, let me tell you) drizzled to a quiet hum in the back of my mind, and my head swirled, locked in a trance with him.
He nodded his head in a type of dazed hello, and I smiled back, heart beating a mile a minute. To calm myself I took a huge breath, trying to clear my raging mind. As soon as I exhaled, I grabbed the note-filled paper so fast that Ino jumped a little.
I must be a freaking four-leaf clover then, because….
My 'e' dragged on when a shadow hovered over my desk, the silver watch from earlier filling my vision as a hand gripped the note. My stomach plopped to the ground and plummeted through the various levels of sedimentary rock, finally finding its home in the fiery pits of hell.
"What is this, Ms. Haruno?" Kakashi-sensei asked curiously, flipping the notebook paper over, inspecting the pen and pencil decorating it. "Is this a note?" A purely evil smile decorated his face while a sheepish one danced on mine.
I giggled. "No…it's just loose-leaf paper with words on it…"
L O A D I N G . . . .
Ino was waiting for me outside the door when Kakashi let me out after a stern talking to and warning about his strict policy on notes. Usually, he has students read them aloud, in front, loud and clear.
I was a little shocked walking out and seeing her there, her books propped into the curve of her hip, one hand holding them, while she was checking her nails on the other hand. When the big door clicked behind me, she looked up with a smile.
"Ready?" She asked me.
My eyebrow rose in question. "For what?"
Ino flipped her hair over her shoulder, answering my question with a laugh, "Lunch, silly."
L O A D I N G . . . .
I think my friend count just went up by one.
HOLY.
SHIT.
FUCK.
L O A D C O M P L E T E
a/n: I hope you enjoyed this chapter even though not much happened in my opinion. I promise it will pick up, and it will because I'm already working on Chapter Four, so…
ON TO THE NEXT TOPIC OF DISCUSSION!
Updates, regular updates, should be every week depending on how busy I am. When I say every week, I mean randomly. LOL. As for now, I have a double update planned, since I work ahead and will be going on vacation.
Anyway, thanks for all the reviews and support last chapter!
WINKS!
~Lillypop414
Review, loves!