Somebody
By. Misery's-Toll
Chapter Three: Clipped Wings
I followed you last night
I watched you turn the lights out
I know it wasn't right
I watched in fear and doubt
It's gotten to be that way
- "Going, Going, Gone" by Stars
Mom
had to leave early this morning
for a meeting
so Ino
drove us to school.
She
dropped me off
a block away from
the school
so that
no one would know
that
we carpool together.
It was raining
again.
In History, they learn about the previous mayor of Konoha, a man named Namikaze Minato. Sakura learns that he had a child the night he died, taking a bullet to save his newborn son, and his wife. The wife and child disappeared to start a new life.
The teacher, Asuma-sensei, lectures a lot, despite his lazy disposition.
Karin sends Sakura glares all during class. They sit at opposite ends of the table, Karin at the head and Sakura at the tail. When the bell rings, Sakura is the first person out of the classroom, and by the time Karin gets out to give the girl a piece of her mind, she's already gone.
Disappear...start a new life...with the angel and Ino.
Sakura is staring at the ceiling in her Honors Biology class, sitting in the desk with a sheet of paper with her name on it. She has always hated science, because of gravity and how the laws of physics prevent her from flying. She can hear Karin's high-heeled boots hitting the linoleum floor, and she knows the girl is coming towards her. Sakura thinks that maybe if she stares long enough, the ceiling will realize that it's tired of abiding by physics, and it will fly away, and then the piece of paper in her hand with her name on it will fold itself into a pair of tiny white wings, and attach themselves to her back, and she would fly into the air, escaping Karin, and then Sasuke, who's sitting in the desk catty-corner to hers, will follow her with raven's wings, and-
"Get up."
Sakura automatically averts her eyes from the ceiling, and towards Karin's face, but too late realizes her mistake; she doesn't get second chances. The ceiling won't allow it.
"Are you stupid? I said get up!" the red-head shrieks.
Sakura doesn't want to anger the girl. Karin is half a foot taller than her, and is very good in P.E. The rosette-haired girl stands.
"Come with me, bitch," the red-head says, pushing her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose, "And take your stuff."
Sakura complies, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Karin grabs her forearm roughly, and begins to drag her from the room. Sakura manages one last pleading gaze, hoping anyone will help her.
Sasuke is staring at her, his expression inscrutable.
The floor is
hard.
Karin is
mean.
Sasuke is
confusing.
"That stupid
ho!"
Two slaps and a
punch to the
eye.
My head hits
the tile and it
jars my
skull, but
it doesn't bleed
and for that I'm
thankful.
Because blood would be difficult to explain when its there every day and
You're not allowed to shower.
Karin hits me
a few more
times
but
I've drawn into myself
and I am
staring at my
Sketchers.
One of the laces
is gone
and
the tongue
is missing
from the other.
They're ripped
and the suede is
torn and
dirty.
The plastic is
coming off
too.
"This
is a message to
your dear friend
Ino!
Tell her to
back off!"
Karin opens my backpack and
dumps my stuff
in the toilet.
She
exits the restroom
without another glance at
me.
How will you explain that to your mother?
But
now that she's gone
I can
feel every spot
she hit me in
and
it hurts.
I
pick myself up and
clean myself off.
My eye is already bruising and
blood is trickling from
the side of
my mouth.
Suddenly
the crescent-shaped scabs
on my shoulder don't
hurt so much
in comparison.
Sakura sits by herself under the same cherry-blossom tree as yesterday. She doesn't feel like eating because her stomach is sore from where she was hit, and her mouth hurts from being punched.
So she watches Ino sit with Shikamaru and the large boy. They are sitting across from a boy Sakura doesn't recognize today, but they don't speak to him. He looks closed off. He has black hair, black sunglasses, and a high-collared jacket. Her thoughts are drawn away by a small voice.
"Ano...may I sit with you?"
Sakura looks up and sees Hinata staring at her with pleading white eyes. The pink-haired girl is surprised, and it takes her a few moments to respond, but finally she nods. Hinata sends her a timid smile, and sits beside her.
Hinata wears clothes that are too big for her. She wears a tattered blue sweatshirt that seems to swallow her, and a pair of large shorts that only barely peak out from underneath her top. She's wearing Ked's that have been colored with Sharpie, but no socks.
She's shivering, Sakura notices. Her clothes are already wet, so it doesn't matter that she's sitting in the grass.
Hinata doesn't eat lunch today either.
Hinata doesn't ask Sakura about her bruises, and Sakura doesn't ask Hinata about her ruined clothes. Sakura just gives up her raincoat she's been sitting on, and drapes it over Hinata's bare legs.
The two don't speak to each other, they just stare off into space, two fledglings whose wings have been clipped, and will never see the chance to fly.
Sakura is bad at math. The teacher assigns her a desk near the front to make sure she learns, replacing another student with her. She sits next to a brunette girl with her hair in buns at the end of the front row. She's given a test to see how much she knows about Geometry, and while she finishes quickly, she thinks its because she has no idea what she's just done.
Sakura is bad at math, but she thinks she likes the class. The teacher's name is Ibiki-sensei, and while he's tough, and he's not handsome, Sakura thinks he has a good heart. He allows the students to speak to each other at a low volume, so that they can ask each other questions and learn communications skills. He tells Sakura that he hopes that students will make the correct choice, and learn, instead of just chatting. The decision is up to them.
She learns that the name of the girl who sits beside her is Tenten. Tenten named herself when she was young. Tenten was a homeless orphan found by the Hyuuga's when she was very little, and has grown up alongside Hinata and Neji. Sakura also learns that Tenten is very good at math, and numerous other subjects, but she just wants to be an artist. Tenten says this with a hint of despair, but Sakura doesn't ask. She just tells Tenten that she wants to be a doctor someday, and wishes the brunette luck.
Because somehow you know that you're surrounded with people with dreams they can never reach.
But wishing luck helps ease the pain at least a little.
Hinata is also in her math class, but Hinata sits on the opposite side, near a window, where she stares off into space instead of doing her work. Students snicker at her and throw paper balls at her, but she pays them no attention, and Sakura wishes she could be more like Hinata.
In Japanese class
is Sasuke.
Sasuke
doesn't
say anything
when I enter the
classroom.
He doesn't even
look at me.
He sits there
speaking to
Karin.
As though she doesn't have everything already.
Neji is
in this class too.
I'm glad that
I know a little more
about him.
Hinata speaks highly
of him.
She says he is
excellent at
the art of
fighting.
Tenten says little
about him
but
I can tell she
cares
by the tone of her
voice.
But when I
enter
the classroom
he glares.
The teacher,
Jiraiya-sensei
writes Japanese novels.
He's kind of
large and
wears rings on
his fingers
and has a red
face.
He sits me next to
a boy with
crimson hair
and stunning eyes.
And when he looks at me
when I sit down
I see that on his forehead
he has the kanji symbol
for
love.
I look at him
and
say very seriously
"Do you
feel it?"
He just stares.
"Do you feel
love?"
He looks away
silently
and I take that
as a no.
Do you want to fly away with me?
Ino
doesn't want to
walk
from her locker
to mine
so
When I finish
at mine
(I'm glad that
none of my teachers have
issued books yet)
I walk to hers
where
Sasuke is
standing aside
waiting for Ino to
leave.
I swallow nervously
and say
"Hello,
Sasuke."
He nods at me
in greeting.
"Ino, are you
almost
finished?"
When school is
over
Ino doesn't even
ask
about the bruises.
She just
accepts that they are
there.
As though
just because I'm Sakura
I'll be coming home
with new bruises
every
day.
She causes over half of them.
So
I don't
really deliver
Karin's message.
But somehow I don't think
she would really
care.
I think maybe
she might be satisfied
with just
hitting
me.
Because you're the world's public punching bag.
Ino leaves me
at her locker
and tells me she's going to a movie
with
Shikamaru and
Chouji
and that I have to
walk home.
And I think that maybe
Chouji is the large boy
from lunch.
So when
Ino leaves
Sasuke just stares.
When Sakura begins to walk away, something surprising happens.
"Wait."
For a second, Sakura doesn't know whether
he's talking to her
but she
stops
anyways.
Because no one else
is in this hallway
this late
after school.
Sakura turns around to face the boy with a pretty face, and raven's-wing hair, and shining obsidian eyes that look like they've seen too much, and offers him a small smile. He's staring at her, but he doesn't look like he's going to say anything, so she just says, "Goodbye, Sasuke," and continues to walk away.
"Do you...need a ride home?"
Sakura doesn't turn to face him, because she's smiling too widely, but she says in the calmest voice she can manage, "I'm not allowed to ride in cars with sixteen-year-old drivers, except for Ino."
She quickly claps a hand over her mouth and spins around, "Pretend I didn't say that. Ino doesn't want people to know that we live together."
"My car's in the shop," he says in a monotone voice, not showing any acknowledgement to her final comment, "My brother --he's twenty-- is driving."
Sakura thinks that her mother has never told her not to ride in cars where the brothers of sixteen-year-olds, so she just nods, "You don't need to do that. I wouldn't want to intrude."
He stares at her with those shining black eyes, stoic as always
and she thinks that
maybe he
doesn't care about
those sorts of things and that
even if she
was morbidly obese
and had
warts
he would drive her home
because
that's the kind of boy
he is
because
he's an angel
an angel who has just
forgotten how to fly,
so she
accepts his invitation
because
if she had those things
he'd probably be even
more
likely to
take her home.
And you have a large forehead and pink hair.
As they exit the building, Sasuke brings up something that surprises Sakura.
"You're the one who I'm supposed to be sharing the locker with, right?"
Sakura just stares at him with a soft smile, not quite willing to give Ino up, but not quite willing to give herself up either. He seems to understand, and they remain in comfortable communicative silence even through the car ride, when she meets Itachi for the first time, and when they stop at her house to drop her off.
But Sasuke doesn't
walk her to the door because
Sakura's mother
and father
are
in the window,
kissing and
he doesn't want Sakura to know
that he
knows.
And he
understands.
But you'll never know.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
A/N: So, maybe I update a little too frequently. It's summer though, and I'm bored out of my mind. So...there. :D
Please review!
-MT