Okay guys I'm really sorry. I was going to post this two days ago, but every time I got down to writing it, I got really short chapters. This is kind of miscellaneous crap, but I needed to get something out. I would love criticism because I don't like this chapter very much. Anyway, here it is, Enjoy!
The guys walked out of the classroom, bags slung over their shoulders. "Well that was troublesome," said Shikamaru.
"You're telling me. Just another girl trying to get with us," said Sasuke, bored.
"I don't think you're being fair!" cried Naruto. "She doesn't seem interested like that. She insulted Neji when they first met!"
"Who knows how American girls try to flirt?" said Neji matter-of-factly.
"Why is it that you're all so convinced that everyone is in love with you?" asked Gaara, probably speaking up for the first time that whole day.
"What are you on about?" asked Sasuke.
"She just got here, and you think she's falling all over herself so she can spend time with you? Really? I think she just wants to get to know some people since she doesn't really know anybody yet. Though, I don't think she should really have to get know a bunch of self-absorbed asses like yourselves."
"Calm down Gaara. You don't want to get a heart attack," said Shikamaru. Gaara frowned.
"Yeah. Why don't we all go back to our place, catch up from over the summer, does that work for everyone?" They nodded and headed to Sasuke and Gaara's room. They all got out their homework and started working.
Gaara stared at his math homework for a while before saying, "I don't understand this question."
"You know what I don't get?" asked Naruto.
"You don't get a lot of things, be more specific," said Sasuke.
Naruto glared for a second, and then said, "Gaara-san, how is it that you're in Calculus when I'm still in Geometry?"
"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you can't add," teased Sasuke again. "Though I do wonder sometimes why Neji and I are the best in the class, but you're in a higher math than we are."
Gaara replied succinctly, "I studied."
"As did we," said Neji.
"Shikamaru, can you help me out?" asked Gaara because although Shikamaru was in the same class as Neji and Sasuke, he already knew basic calculus.
"Troublesome, but sure." After a few minutes of explanation, Gaara figured it all out and was able to finish the rest of the problems, but Shikamaru said, "I'll help you if I have to, but I'd like to avoid the extra bother, so if you could find someone in your class to help you, it'd be much less troublesome."
"Maybe for you," muttered Gaara.
Not long after that, Naruto started getting really antsy. He kept shuffling around and pacing. Eventually Sasuke threw a pillow at him. Naruto then declared that he would make some ramen. No one was really surprised by this as he was quite addicted to ramen whether fresh or instant.
After a while they decided to get Call of Duty out, but Naruto was forbidden to play as he still had homework in four classes left to do. Hours had passed and Naruto had finally finished so he went up to make some more ramen. A huge pot of it actually.
"Any there for us?" called Sasuke.
Naruto stood on his toes to see over the pot. "Did you want some?"
Sasuke slapped his forehead. Someone had knocked on the door. "Nevermind." Naruto came out from the kitchen to see who it was. Gaara and Neji had turned around from their seats, and Shikamaru woke up. Vaguely hoping it was a pizza man, though he hadn't ordered any, Sasuke opened the door. His eyes bugged out, and his jaw dropped. There was Sakura Haruno, probably one of the hottest girls in the whole school, and one of the least annoying as well, in pink lingerie. He had heard some giggling in the back and presumed it was her friends but didn't bother to look until she took off down the hall.
He heard Tenten call, "Hope you guys enjoyed the show, boys!" He shut the door, utter confusion on his face.
"What the hell just happened?"
"I think you should go check the mirror in the bathroom," said Neji, stifling a laugh.
"Why?" But his question was answered when he noticed his nose was bleeding. He grabbed some tissues to wipe it all up, but when he went back out everyone was laughing. "You guys suck. What do you think they're up to anyway?"
"Probably some stupid dare during a sleepover. Troublesome."
"I bet Teme didn't think so. Huh, Sasu-kun?" Naruto teased.
"Go fuck yourself. Give me that." Sasuke snatched the bowl of ramen from Naruto's hand and sat down, glaring down at the noodles.
"You know, Haruno is pretty hot. Maybe I should ask her out…" Neji said pensively.
"WHAT?" Sasuke yelled. "Why would you do that to me? How- I don't eve-."
"Calm down. I was just joking. Nice to see you aren't though."
"Like you don't want to screw Tenten's brains out," sneered Sasuke.
Neji turned bright red. "That's differ- Not important-Why would you even brin-" he stumbled before eventually settling on, "Grrr…"
"This is getting troublesome. I'm going to sleep," and with that Shikamaru passed out on the couch.
"I agree with Shikamaru. I'm heading off to bed now. Night." Gaara left the living area for his bedroom off to the left.
"Well, I suppose we better be heading out too," said Neji, picking up the still sleeping Shikamaru. "See you tomorrow."
Only Naruto and Sasuke remained now. Sasuke glared at him until Naruto finally asked, "What?"
"Get out!"
"But the ramen!"
"Out."
The next morning in calculus, Kakashi sensei began the class by saying, "Today you'll be working in partners. Turn to page 394. Do all the even numbers on the page."
Gaara heard a girl's voice to his left. "Do you mind working with me? I don't even know the names of anyone else in the class." It was the new girl. She was smiling anxiously.
"Sure." She pushed their desks together and put her book in the middle of their joined desks.
"That way we'll only need one. Okay, first problem. Ooh, fun" She got out her calculator, a TI-89 in fact, punched a couple of keys and scribbled down what might as well have been gibberish for all that Gaara could understand it. She looked up at him, eyes wide. She smiled, "Need some help? I've actually learned this bit already, but this was the closest class that they could put me in because the next course was too advanced. Sorry if that seemed a bit intimidating; I'm not actually that brilliant. But I used to tutor and stuff so this stuff is like second nature to me. What's up?" Gaara kind of just stared and blinked. That was quite a bit of information to process and she said it all very fast.
"Umm."
"No, it's fine. Is it the syntax you don't understand? Or the fact that it's worded a bit awkward. I think they could have phrased that a bit better, it's not entirely clear whether they meant the original function or its derivative or even its second derivative for that matter."
"What?"
"Nevermind. Just tell me what's going on in that skull of yours."
"Okay, well I don't really understand how the lesson in the earlier part of the chapter connects…" She helped him through a few of the first problems then he got the hang of it. They worked through the rest of it before the rest of the class was done and just talked for the rest of the period.
"Hey… So sorry about yesterday with Sakura and the giggling and yeah…" Sophia muttered.
"No. It was hilarious watching Sasuke trip all over himself. Do not apologize. So why did she do it anyway? Truth or Dare?"
"Yep. They decided they needed to get to know me, so Ino made us play it. Didn't end up being so bad, well for anybody but Sakura, and I guess Tenten, and Hinata. Ino's was pretty embarrassing too."
"What did you have to do?"
"Truth or Dare?"
"Either. Both."
"I had to do Chubby Bunny for one of the dares. And for the truth…" she broke off. "Let's just say it was a bad break-up. The rest of it would be breaking sleepover code. What happens in a sleepover stays at that sleepover." She stuck her tongue out. She then put her hand in front of her mouth, breathed on it and sniffed. "Oh god. Really bad morning breath. Do not breathe for the next few minutes. I beg you."
He laughed. "I promise." She stuck out her pinky and they shook. "Hey, do you think you could help me a bit?"
"Sure. No problem. What's up?"
"It's just I usually go to Shikamaru for homework help, but he recently said it was 'too troublesome.' Do you think you could help me out instead?"
"Of course! Do you want to meet today? Oh wait that doesn't make sense, we already finished it. Hmm."
"We could hang out anyway, if you want." Gaara inwardly slapped himself. He felt like he sounded like the biggest loser in the world. Thankfully for him, his source of anxiety was different from Sophia's.
"That'd be great. I wasn't sure if I would be able to make any guy friends here, especially with my failure of an attempt to try to hang out with you guys yesterday. I hope your friend Neji's ego wasn't too bruised. I didn't mean to be so rude. I just sometimes get kind of… really pissed off. Where do you want to go? I'd suggest a really nice hipster-y café that plays jazz and displays paintings from local artists, but I just got here. Oh and I'm also, not a douche." He laughed.
"There's this diner. It's got really nice burgers." He looked her up and down. She was kind of twiggy. He hoped she ate, otherwise that was kind of a fail.
She surprised him when she said, "Do they have bacon?"
A little confused, he responded, "Yeah…?"
"Awesome. I'm so there. As long as you help me get there of course… I still don't really know where it is."
"We'll leave after English." The bell rang.
"That's my cue. See you later." She dashed off with her backpack, rushing to getting to chemistry.
Nothing much happened. Sakura was still recovering from having to see Sasuke in Math the previous period. The rest of them couldn't help but burst into laughter every ten minutes or so. Kurenai kept looking over the lab instructions to check if she had a funny typo or something. Sakura was apprehensive to enter Japanese because Sasuke would be in there. Tenten just shoved her inside. Class was normal, well at least as normal as a class taught by Itachi Uchiha could get. They read some classic writings of some sort. (If you can't tell it's like 4 in the morning and I can't be bothered to put legitimate things out there. Maybe I'll fix it later, but I probably won't.)
The girls sat together in the cafeteria, eating a variety of foods, ranging from Ino's pathetically small salad to Tenten's enormous Sloppy Joe. (Don't ask me why they have this food in Japan. See previous interruption.) "I'm so exhausted from the sleepover yesterday. I don't think I can put up with another one of Anko's workouts," said Sophia with a huge yawn.
"I know what you mean, but luckily Tuesdays are health," said Sakura.
"Luckily? It's so boring. Gym is good for one thing, interrupting the tedium of the rest of the classes. How on earth is another class lucky?" Tenten yelled.
"T-tenten-chan. Calm down, please," said Hinata. Tenten just frowned.
Later in Health, "Girls! You'll be instructed by Gai-sensei. Go to the classroom to left of the gym. Gai-sensei and the boy's class he teaches during this period should be in there. If you need me I'll be smoking-I mean drinking-I mean resting in the teacher's lounge." With that announcement, Anko left. The entire group started moving toward the class, Tenten at the very back.
"Girls! YOUTH and BEAUTY radiate from every pore! Sit and give the class the cancer of YOUTH." Everyone but Gai and Lee sweatdropped. "Now! Today we will be learning about (insert generic body part here) and how it is BEAUTIFUL!" The rest of the class was just as awkward if not more so. Sophia began to extremely pity the guys who had to deal with this every day. "Boys! Tomorrow we will play basketball. Girls! Anko will be taking you to the pool, so remember to bring swimsuits." The class got up from their chairs to leave, but Sophia was stuck, shortly petrified. Swimming? Already? I was really hoping I could get away with no one knowing for a little longer. I just got friends, too. Calm down and get to class, otherwise you'll really be screwed. She managed to shake herself out of her stupor and run to catch up with the rest of them.
History with Iruka-sensei was boring as usual. Anyway, nothing that interesting happened. He assigned another chapter to read, which presumably they would discuss the next day. In English, Asuma-sensei decided they would split up to play different games from Whose Line is it Anyway. Sophia's group played press conference, the dating game, and questions only. By the end of class they all had cramps from laughing so hard. Tenten screwed up during questions only by saying fuck, which she quickly tried to turn into a question by raising up the inflection. When Asuma dismissed them, Hinata asked, "Sophia, aren't you coming with us?"
"I'd love to, but I promised Gaara I'd hang out with him today. I'll try and stop by later, though."
"Wai-" called Tenten.
Ino interjected, very loudly and not subtly at all. "Have fun Sophia." She elbowed Tenten in the ribs and promptly turned around, pushing everyone towards the door as quickly as possible.
"Sorry about that. I don't know them well enough to explain the crazy yet, but I'm still sorry," said Sophia.
Gaara just nodded and started heading out of the classroom.
Alright, so what did you think? Be honest in the reviews. Even flames are acceptable, I just really want some feedback. Complaints, suggestions, things that you liked. I'm begging with big puppy dog eyes. If you want to find out why she's so apprehensive about swimming tomorrow, then you should review and you'll find out in the next Chapter!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
~MorwenKazul