I know this is a short chapter, but I had to put it up. More goodies really soon. Enjoy!

That afternoon, Sophia joined the girls at the snooty café to finish their homework.

"You know what we should do this weekend?" said Ino.

"Let me guess," said Tenten.

"SHOPPING!"

"Yep. I was right."

"We'll get some dresses, and shoes. I need new boots…" she trailed off into her own little world saying things to herself as though she was the only one there. It was quite endearing unless you were Tenten. She found the whole concept obnoxious and was thoroughly annoyed.

"What if we all went out and played a game of soccer?" suggested Tenten. The girls reacted quite the same way that they did to Ino. It even shook Ino out of her magical shopping land of dreams and unicorns.

Sakura decided to play peacekeeper this time. "Why don't we watch a movie? Ino's and my place popcorn and ice cream?" So they planned that for Saturday night, they would go to Sakura's place and have a movie marathon. It was between Pirates of the Caribbean and a Pixar movie marathon. The decision was too hard to make just then.

Thursday passed without incident. They hung out at the café once again, teasing each other and cracking dumb jokes. Calculus on Friday morning was just the same. Kakashi-sensei told them to split up into partners.

"Do you want to hang out tonight?" Gaara asked really quickly.

"Sure. What do you want to do?" He just shrugged. "Sounds awesome!" she said without a trace of sarcasm in her voice.

(I know what all of you are waiting for, so I'll just cut to Gym.)

"Okay, so when she leaves her stuff unattended, you go and steal the shorts, do you understand?" whispered Karin to her cronies. Sophia went off to change into her one-piece in the bathroom, leaving her towel and shorts on a bench. "Go!" Michiru ran to grab the shorts. "Awesome. Give them here." Sophia came back carrying the clothes she had changed out of, so that they still couldn't see her thighs. "Sneaky bitch."

Sophia reached out to grab her shorts to find they weren't there. "What the hell?" She looked around, under the bench, in several of the lockers, under her towel, but she still didn't spot them. "Fuck. What am I supposed to do?"

Karin decided now was the time to make her move. There was no point in her plan if she couldn't show the whole class her secret. "Looking for something?" she asked Sophia, holding up her trunks.

Sophia's face hardened. "Yep. I didn't realize stealing was a common practice here. Give them back."

"Come and get them."

Sophia wrapped her towel loosely around her lower half in preparation to go after her. "Gladly." She walked forward, but Karin ran into the doorway leading to the pool. "Fine," Sophia muttered to herself. She ran forward. She slipped on a puddle, just as she got through the doorway. "FUCK!" she yelled. Her head hit the tile with a large smack. Karin just smirked and threw her shorts backwards over her shoulder into the pool and walked away.

Gaara heard a girl's yell, in English, and figured it had to be Sophia. He looked over to her friends and they looked kind of panicked, as though they figured the same thing. He looked back at the doorway leading to the girl's locker room and saw a pair of feet. He ran over to her. It indeed was Sophia. "Shit," he said to himself. She was unconscious, and there was a decent pool of blood from under her head. "Gai-sensei!" he yelled.

He appeared over his shoulder like lightening. "Yes, Gaara?" He saw the girl lying there on the ground. "What in the name of youth and beauty happened here? Get her up to Shizune. Now!" Gaara picked her up, cradling her head, elevating it above her heart so that she would lose less blood. He hurried off, down to the nurse's office.

"What happened?" asked Shizune when he carried her in. "Put her on this cot." He laid her down.

"She fell."

Shizune was no longer paying attention. She was muttering to herself. "She's lost a lot of blood. We should probably get her to a hospital. Loss of consciousness isn't good." She reached over to a phone, and called while grabbing ice and a pillow.

Gaara was still in shock. He just kind of stared at her. He finally noticed something on her left thigh. He hadn't seen it earlier because her towel had been wrapped around her, but it had fallen off when he had put her down. He tilted his head to see, but he recognized them. He knew what they were at first glance. Pale horizontal scars littered her thigh, making a grotesque ladder leading to her knee. He had to squint to make out some writing though, because it was in English. "I hate myself" was scribbled between two long scars. "Failure" was written sideways along her thigh.

Gaara sighed. He was so confused, but not upset. He felt like he understood her. Gaara hadn't mutilated himself, well besides his 'tattoo,' but he understood depression, very well. The constant lying, the fake fronts you put on so people don't think you're having a bad day, hating every bit of yourself, and the loneliness. He knew it all, but he didn't know her. And he resolved to, as soon as possible.

Shizune still scrambled around, finally taking notice of him again. "What are you doing here? Get back to class." He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he forgot he was in the middle of gym class. He walked back, very slowly. When he returned, he was swarmed by Sakura, Tenten, Ino, and Hinata.

"Where is she?"

"Is she okay?"

"What happened?"

"Will she be alright?"

He was taken aback. "Uhh… She's in the nurse's office. She's unconscious and losing blood. She should be fine, but I think they're taking her to the hospital."

"The hospital?"

"Unconscious?"

"Losing blood?"

"Oh crap."

"GIRLS! Get back to swimming or I'll make you do 10 more laps!"Anko shouted.

Gaara joined his friends and wondered whether the girls knew about her scars, about her depression which had to be ongoing because some of the scars weren't that old. For the fifth time that day, he was snapped out of his thoughts. This time it was by Naruto throwing a ball at his head.

"Come on! We're playing water polo! We need even teams because Shikamaru refused to play." Not too far away, Shikamaru was floating on his back, sleeping. He was pretty talented to have not drowned yet.

Sophia wasn't in the next two classes, so Gaara resolved to stick with their plans, no matter where she was. He went to Shizune and asked what hospital she was at.

Okay, so I was kind of uneasy about this. I hope I don't lose any readers for that. I promise it's not going to be ridiculously depressing. I've been planning this from the start. It won't change her dynamic at all. Anyway, I hope this wasn't anti-climactic for anyone. Prepare for some adorable in the future to compensate! Review please!

Thanks to: donutconection, iluvninjas, Ninja-Bunny-Master, and Shadow-Ninja-Captain69 for reviewing!