Konoha High
4 - Our Place
Amaya Shimizu
"So um…" I mutter awkwardly.
"What?" Naruto asks as he finishes his ice cream.
"Well…, Shikamaru told me about this place you guys have here…"
"You showed her the place?" He looks at Shikamaru.
"Well, not yet. I was waiting until we were all here. I guess once we finish our ice cream…"
"After eating? Why can't we just take our food there?" I ask. I'm clearly eager to see this place.
"That's a good idea," Choji adds.
Shikamaru sighs, and picks up his bowl of ice cream.
"Come on."
Naruto and Kiba pick up their bowls, too. They all stand up at the same time.
"Well come on." I realize Shikamaru is talking to me, and that I'm still sitting down.
"Oh umm right."
Once I get up, Shikamaru starts leading us past the fountain, through more shops, then stops at a shop at the dead end of the mall.
"Would you like to do the honors?" He asks Naruto, who nods and begins unlocking the door. Behind it is a metal door/wall, used for when a shop closes. He simply lifts it over his shoulders, then his head, and holds it open for the rest of us to come inside.
"Okay," Naruto says as he drops the door. "Welcome to our place."
Shikamaru walks to a light switch and flips it, when the lights come on, he gestures around the entire room.
"Let's take a look, shall we?" He takes my arm and starts showing me around the room. It's painted a light green and has all sorts of shelves, drawers, and stands around it. I look inside one, there are chips and soda inside. Choji snatches them from the drawer.
"You found the food stash!"
"It's not much of a stash anymore… That's all that was left in it," I tell him.
"Well that's true… Remind me to buy more food for this place, Shikamaru."
There's a flat-screen television affixed to the wall above a large shelf with sliding doors. Shikamaru slides the doors open to reveal several gaming consoles, controllers, and a huge tangle of wires.
"I got it hooked up to work again, and we kinda just started bringing in games regularly," he says.
On a bookshelf next to the TV, there are tons of games, all alphabetized and lined up neatly. For boys, they are pretty well-organized.
"Oh, oh, you need to check this out," Naruto calls me to the other side of the store. There's a merchandise shelf by the wall, with t-shirts, shoes, posters, lanyards, and a lot of other things, but unlike a store, there's only one of each shirt or lanyard.
"You see…, we kinda made our own stuff when we first started hanging out here. It seemed fitting 'cause it was a store, you know," Naruto explains.
"Cool."
I realize there's stuff almost everywhere. More t-shirts, wristbands, and a bunch of other stuff that they probably made.
"You guys really could have your own store. This is amazing."
"Thanks," they all say at the same time.
"Wait. How do you make all this stuff anyway?"
Kiba laughs, "Well… Let's show you that, too. Follow me."
He brings me to the very back of the room, behind the registers, past the restrooms… There's a door. He extends his arm, twists the knob, and pulls it open.
They push me into the room, which is pitch-black. "Uh… What is it?"
I hear someone flip a switch, and as light fills the room, I notice a sewing machine, label makers, stickers, permanent markers, colored and non-colored pencils, pens- almost everything you could see in a craft store or clothing warehouse.
"So when this place closed down… they just-so-happened to leave all their supplies, too…?"
"Yup!" Naruto answers.
"Wow."
"We just buy whatever additional paper, blank t-shirts, colored thread…whatever we need. All the tools and devices are already here."
"Seriously? And you guys like doing that?"
"Yup!" Naruto says again.
"You're like a bunch of girls…" I laugh. Guys who love arts and crafts. But at the same time, I find it pretty cool.
"Shut up," Shikamaru laughs a little, too.
"So what do you makes designs of, anyway?"
"Just random favorites… Like favorite bands, or video games, etcetera."
"Oh. Cool. I think other people would be into that. You guys should re-open this store."
"I wish. But if people found out we've been sneaking in here for the past two years, I'm pretty sure we'd get into trouble."
"Yeah… Hey, how'd you get in this place, anyway? Like…shouldn't a closed store be locked, or at least be renovated so it can be re-opened?"
Shikamaru walked around the room. He scratched his head. "Well, you see, this is kinda an undesirable area of the mall. Nobody really comes this far. So they closed this store… How we got in? Naruto picklocks the door."
I look at Naruto, who looks back at me with a proud smile.
"Master picklock, right here!"
I laugh again. This place…
"So… Could I… Maybe… Work on some stuff…, too?"
"Aha of course! Do whatever you want. The more the merrier…, something like that," Kiba says. "It'd be good to have a decent designer in here. But you know, we also have some awesome parties in this place, too."
"Invite anyone else?" I ask.
"Yep. Actually, not all of us are here… We're missing Lee. Sometimes Neji will join, too, but not too often."
"Okay."
We're all quiet for a while, then Naruto turns on the TV and starts setting up some action game.
"Shall we begin?" He asks.
"Uh, sorry bro, but um, I kinda need to get home," Shikamaru says. He's glancing at his phone… I try to peak at the screen, but all I see is an 'I'.
"Yeah…" Kiba and Choji start nodding in agreement. "Us too."
"Sorry, Naruto," I say apologetically.
"Nah. I don't care, but promise we'll have another late-night party again sometime this week. Promise."
"Okay, okay, we promise," Shikamaru smiles, then lifts the metal door again for us to get through.
"Bye, guys," I wave.
"Yeah, bye," they wave back as they walk back to the entrance.
What am I gonna do now… I look at my phone. 5 p.m., Aiko probably wants me home by now.
[…]
"Amaya-chan?" Aiko calls from the kitchen.
"Yeah, it's me.. Just got home."
"Come here!"
I walk to the kitchen and see her digging through the pantry.
"What do you wanna eat?" She asks.
"Actually, I'm not hungry…, sorry, I ate at the mall with Shikamaru and the others."
She looks at me and smiles, "Friends, I assume?"
"Yup."
"I'm glad. Had fun?"
"Yup."
"Good, now help me find something to eat."
We find more instant-ramen, beef, and uncooked rice.
"Remind me to go grocery shopping next time we're out."
"Will do," I say as I walk to my room.
I hop onto my bed, and scroll through my phone, but there's not much to look at. I hit the contacts button.
Contacts:
Aiko
Shikamaru Nara
Shikamaru…? When did I get his number? I try to think back to what I did today.
"You don't have a phone?"
"I do, but… I don't really use it anymore, since there's no purpose, other than to call Aiko."
"Well, give me your phone real quick… and there you go."
"What did you do?" I asked him.
"Nothing."
So he added his number to my phone. I guess I could try to text him. I push his name, then push "compose new message."
Compose New Text Message
To: Shikamaru Nara
Hi.
I'm waiting for a reply… then Beep! New message.
New Text Message
From: Shikamaru Nara
Uh… who is this?
He doesn't know?… Did he forget?
It's Amaya…
And sending… Beep! He replies quick…
Oh hey, aha I almost forgot. What's up?
Nothing really.. Just at home.
Bored?
Yup.
That sucks.
"Amaya! Need some help! Can you help me move the bed in my room, please?" Aiko calls, this time from her room.
"Yeah, give me a sec." I reply to Shikamaru's text.
I gotta go…, Aiko needs some help so yeah.
And within seconds, I receive a reply:
K. Haha, have fun.
I sprint over to Aiko's room, she's laying on her bed.
"I'm here…?"
She jumps up and runs to the opposite side, "Take that side and lift!"
I place my hands underneath the bed.
"Wait… Shouldn't we take the mattress off, first?" I ask.
"Uh… well, yes, actually…" She looks kinda embarrassed, but she lifts the mattress and lets it fall to the floor.
"Okay, we can start now." Aiko goes back to her side and places her hand underneath the bed again.
"One…two…three!" We both lift. "We need to put the bed down against the wall over there."
[…]
When we're done, I go back to my room, where my phone's screen is lit. Did Shikamaru send something else? I pick it up and check.
New Text Message
From: Number not in contacts
Hey! It's Ino c; Just wondering when you're up for hanging out with us again :D
I save her number into my contacts and reply:
Compose New Text Message
To: Ino
I dunno yet, and I don't really mind. Whenever, I guess. You could ask Sakura…, or, just tell me whenever Hinata's free. I wanna meet her .
Hanging out again… I'm glad to have new friends, but I'm not used to moving in between different groups of people. I just realized that my first group of friends here in Konoha is a group of all boys, and I'm not a boy. Maybe it would be good to hang out with some people of the same gender. Beep! Off goes my phone again.
New Text Message
From: Ino
Alright! I've set the date for tomorrow. Mall-again! That place is the best ;D Hinata's coming, too. It's gonna be me, you, TenTen, Sakura, and Hinata! Gonna be a blast (x
The mall again, tomorrow. Fun. I hope it'll be, I guess. I'm sending a text back, and hopefully, that'll be the last for tonight:
Compose New Text Message
To: Ino
I'm in c: