DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Naruto or its characters. Mori, Aya, the poem in the story, and the plot are mine to do with as I please though! Hinata does not stutter. Because I did not write it out. Kankuro does not wear make-up. That's your needed information.
I stood, about to say something else. Gaara, however, was out the room before I was out of my chair. I wrinkled my nose in distaste of his departure and continued to stand. Mori then hurried me and a jabbering Naruto out the room and to my newest locker. After an awkward minute, Naru excused himself and Mori started with the questions.
"Are you fucking crazy? Did you have no clue who that redhead was? Or what you were doing? Seriously Aya! Did you just completely lose it?"
"Did you forget I just moved here?" I asked with a sane voice.
"Maybe…"
"Anyways, I know who that was," I stated proudly. "That was Gaara."
Mori proceeded to look at me as if she were itching to hit me over the head. Thankfully, her resolution to become a pacifist saved me. Even if it did not last in later times, it had helped me out here. "Sabaku no Gaara! That's who it was. And you just… spoke to him." Now I looked as if I could hit her over the head.
"Mori, who the hell do you think you are?"
"No, it's different, the stories-"
"I don't care if he's secretly a blue elf with six eyes, you can't judge someone like that!" More people were stopping to listen, but it's not like I cared. Mori shot them glares made of the same stuff atomic bombs are constructed from.
"Aya, you have to listen."
I stayed quiet, watching her with a glare and defensive pose.
"Gaara's not normal; he hardly ever speaks to anyone. I'd understand if he were shy or something, but he won't even speak to his siblings. And both of them are older, but they act as if he would kill them in their sleep if he was simply bored enough. It's not right. Gaara doesn't ever smile, laugh, or talk. So you on your own have just created a miracle. Don't be surprised if you're approached by his older sister and her friends. Or even his older brother. I can't tell you how they'll react though…"
"Mori-san, you're acting as if I'm going into battle and not making a friend," came my reply.
"If you really want to be friends with Gaara, I'm on your side because I know you won't quit." She paused, and looked at me sheepishly. "I know what you're doing; you're taking away you thoughts on your pain and focusing on someone who needs you. That's just how you heal yourself. So I'm in."
A smile exploded on my face. Sure, I didn't deal in the best way, but it was my way. And Mori wanted to help me. "Thanks."
"Oh, geez. We have to get you to class. Come on, you have the next class with Naru's girlfriend, Hinata."
I followed Mori to Hinata's locker after throwing all my stuff in my own. Hinata, I guessed, was the girl with raven hair, a blushing face, and lavender eyes. No, I'm not amazingly cool with a special mind-reading ability; Naruto was holding her from behind and nuzzling her. I wanted to comment, but decided not to when I saw how skittish she already was.
"Naruto, stop embarrassing your girlfriend; she already has to say she's dating you," Mori called as we reached them. Naruto, the good sport he is, chuckled and let go of Hinata, who was giggling.
"Hinata, this is Aya. I'm sure you've already heard," Mori said, gesturing to me.
"Yes... I'm Hyuga Hinata," she said with a soft smile as she turned to me.
"I'd introduce myself, but everyone is doing so for me."
She laughed, a bit of her shyness going away. "So we have the same class next?"
"Uh hum."
"Well, it'd be bad to be late, so we better head to class…" She gave Naruto a peck on the cheek, to which he pouted. Hinata laughed kind-heartedly at him and waved a goodbye.
It was a mostly silent walk to class, going about twenty steps down the hall. I definitely liked how small the school was. Hinata offered to explain to the teacher, but I waved her off with a thanks and an explanation that I'd 'done this a million times over.' I had, really. So with the same blank look and same feeling of being watched – because I, yet again, was being watched – I told the teacher my name and gave her my schedule. She was very different from Kakashi, seeming to taker her job seriously. Her hair was a dark color, almost black, and hung just above her shoulders. This teacher seemed rational, level-headed, and easily stressed. Which is nothing like Kakashi.
"I'm Shizune. Have you ever taken a Keyboarding class?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am. I've taken two."
She beamed. "Good." Shizune looked around, searching for where I should sit. My own eyes – a light grey in contrast to her own black – closed as I kept a yawn back. "Ah. You can go sit between Inuzuka Kiba and Gaara. They're right-"
"Oh, I know Gaara. Thank you Shizune."
Shizune smiled at me again, which I returned nicely. After she turned to go to her desk, I walked silently to my computer and sat.
The red head turned to me with a slight glare, which I answered with a raised eyebrow. "Are you stalking me?"
I blinked. That's definitely not what I thought he'd say. It was actually funny.
A laugh bubbled out of me, but Gaara kept his dry look. "You're funny, but no I'm not stalking you. However, you may have heard from Mori I was amazingly amazing and demanded to the secretary that my schedule must match yours as closely as possible. To which the secretary must've replied, 'How may I help you?' with a smile."
Gaara simply turned back to his computer's screen. A chuckle reached my ears from my left side. Gaara and I each turned our attention to the Inuzuka boy. Gaara, admittedly, did not seem to care. I'm sure he wasn't at all interested in what kind of exchange 'Kiba' and I were about to have.
"Nice one." I beamed at his comment, then turned and stuck my tongue out at Gaara in an incredibly childish way. This caused Kiba to laugh even more. Again, the red head glared daggers at the laughing person.
"Hn."
"That is not a word, let alone a response."
Kiba went to laughing again, and something like a growl escaped Gaara's throat. I could not comment because Shizune was telling us our assignment. Thankfully, it was just a short memo with a table. I finished in about ten minutes, printed it out, and turned it in to the tray on Shizune's desk. Once I sat back down, Kiba turned to me with a smile.
"I'm Kiba," he said simply.
"I know. I'm Hishiro Aya," I replied with my own grin.
"I know. So do you like the school?"
"Well, it's pretty good compared to a lot I've went to, and the people are okay." When I said the last part I rolled my eyes towards Gaara again. Kiba grinned wider, but couldn't comment due to an interruption by the intercom coming on.
I recognized the secretary's voice and my eye started twitching. "Shizune, could you please send Inuzuka Kiba to check out?"
Kiba left, bidding me farewell with a grin. Once he was gone and my eye had stopped twitching, I pushed my keyboard towards the screen of the computer and lay my head on my arms. Silently, I studied Gaara with hazy-feeling eyes. He was playing solitaire, hardly concentrating. When he looked at me, I was still staring at him. The red head looked kind of confused to see me looking at him so intently, but I didn't let my gaze waver. With what could have been described as a mental shrug noticed outwardly, Gaara returned to his game. About every ten seconds he glanced over at me. Finally, he was staring back at me.
"Do you have a problem?" he asked with a dark tone, his voice incredibly quiet.
"No," I replied, just as lowly.
"Then why are you looking at me?"
"Because I can."
"And why do you continue to stare at me?"
"Hmm… It's most likely because you're interesting. Is that a problem?" When Gaara remained silent, I continued. "Okay, then." With that said I turned and picked up the pen Kiba had left. "Do you have any paper?" I asked the red head.
Silently, he tore a sheet out of his notebook and handed it to me. I thanked him and began doodling. First, I drew a rose and a couple anime faces. When that got boring, I proceeded to write a short poem. I decorated the sides of the paper in all kinds of band names, faces, and random eyes before titling my poem.
Until
One love, one lifetime,
That's all we get.
One chance, one death,
Live until you're maker's met.
I felt Gaara's eyes on me the whole time, and I'm sure he read my one-stanza poem too. I continued to doodle, until I was completely out of ideas. Finally, I lay my head down with a long yawn. Ten minutes later, I was out the door and rushing to my locker before even Gaara. Mori waited patiently, inspecting her black-painted nails with big, sky blue eyes while leaning against her locker (placed right next to my own).
"Mori-san," I called out to her. She glanced up and beamed, then wiggled her eyebrows, which is her motioning for me to turn around. I did, only to see an older boy with spiked brown hair and even darker brown eyes. His jaw was taunt, but everything else about him said laid-back or lazy. Something about his facial features - the smooth curve of the jaw, the straight nose - and slightly muscled build reminded me of Gaara. That made me pretty sure this was Gaara's older brother. Before he reached me, Naruto and Mori were on either side.
"No need for bodyguards. I'm not going to hurt two pretty girls and a class clown," said the boy. Mori blushed and sent me a look, our signal for Mori being interested in something...or one. The boy leaned against my locker and looked me up and down, as if trying to see whether or not I was worthy of him talking to me. He was pretty damn cocky for a boy just a year older than the people he was talking to. "Where are you heading to?" he asked me.
"Careers."
"Hn. The teacher will kill you if your late, so just text this number. I'm Kankuro, and you can obviously tell whose brother I am. If my sister bothers you, just tell her that it's taken care of. Temari may try to scare you, but don't let her. Get in her face if you have to, I don't care." He handed me a small slip of paper and walked off, glancing back to wink at us. I made sure he saw that I rolled my eyes at him. The look Kankuro replied with was slight surprise and humor. It seems he didn't get a lot of attitude from girls. And Mori was a sure sign that a lot of females found him attractive, if not addictive by the look on my best friends face. Maybe someone should slap her…
Naruto growled low in his throat, a near-feral sound. "He seems like a great guy," Naru said with bitter sarcasm.
"I guess you don't like him?" I asked.
"He used to flirt with Hinata." That's all the explanation Naruto needed to give.
"Ah. Well, I think if someone shaped up the playboy attitude he'd be cool. And I'm sure Hinata would never leave you. Geez, Naru, she's freakin' in love with you!" I replied.
We walked to Careers in silence, Naru thinking hard about my words. The class passed without much going on. Naruto made fun of the teacher, made everyone laugh, and made his was to the hallway for 'being disruptive.' I figured this was a daily event. The teacher was some old guy whose name I didn't even get. He practically demanded I choose a Career Cluster in two minutes, so I picked one and felt like hitting the teacher in the face. I didn't though, because I honestly slept most of the period after Naru was sent into the hall. It got way boring from there…
When the bell rang for lunch, I sprinted out, running right into Naruto. We both laughed and steadied ourselves. "You okay?" he asked, still laughing.
I continued to walk to my locker. "Yeah, see ya at lunch!" I called to him. He waved me off and went – I'm sure – to find Hinata. This time, a blonde was waiting at my locker. With the look of her two friends whispering lowly as I approached, I figured this was Gaara's older sister. I stopped about two steps short of my locker, and raised an eyebrow. "Welcoming committee?" I questioned sarcastically. I walked closer, and they backed off enough for me to put my things in my locker.
"Not really." The blonde smirked, and continued to talk, "I'm Gaara's sister, Temari."
"I could kind of tell. I'm Hishiro Aya, and I'm sure you don't know my siblings so I won't even bother." She didn't look nearly as much like Gaara as Kankuro did, but the older siblings shared an air of confidence. Temari's deep blue eyes and spiked blond hair didn't resemble either of her brothers.
"Sarcastic aren't we?" Temari asked, not bothering to state her business.
"Why, yes. Thank you for noticing." I closed my locker, twisting the number to zero so I wouldn't have to spin it after lunch.
Temari glowered at me, and I returned it with a big smile. "What was it you wanted? Because your brother, Kankuro, told me everything was taken care of."
"Good for him. I'm here because I can be, not because my little brother sent me."
"But aren't you here because of Gaara?"
She looked as if she could hit me, but instead took a deep breathe. "Just tell me, what are you doing?"
"Breathing, living, recovering, helping, making friends." With that, I just walked off, not caring what she thought at the moment.