Konoha High
6 - All Together
Amaya Shimizu
"Amaya!" Aiko's voice. Why is she screaming at me this early in the morning?
I rub my eyes. "What?" I mumble. Aiko walks into my room, my phone in her hand.
"It's been ringing all morning and it's driving me insane!" She tosses it onto my bed. "Who is it, anyways?"
I flip my phone open:
Shikamaru Nara
(4) Missed calls
Aiko is still looking at me expectantly, waiting for an answer. I sigh, "My friend Shikamaru. I don't even know why he's calling me right now…"
"Well you should definitely call back! It's rude not to respond. Anyway, I'm going to the grocery store to buy some ingredients for tonight's dinner. You need anything?"
"Bring some Ramune Soda and boxes of juice."
"Flavors?"
"I don't care. Pick anything. But if you can buy more than three, could you please give the flavors some variety?"
"Sure. Well…, I'll be off. See ya."
"Thanks. Bye."
I dunno what I should do… Call Shikamaru back? Yeah…, I think I should.
Shikamaru Nara
Dialing…
Ring… Ring… Click!
"Hello?"
"Shikamaru? Hey it's Amaya. You called earlier…?"
"Oh, yeah! Uh…, well the guys are planning to meet up this afternoon. So just wondering if you're free today to join us."
"Of course, of course. What time were you planning to meet up? And where?"
"Well for now we're not sure what we're gonna do yet, but we'll just meet everyone in front of the high school. And I say around… 1 o'clock?"
"Sure. Well, see you there. Thanks for inviting me."
"Bye."
One o'clock?… I check the time on my phone. 9 a.m. Plenty of time to get ready. But…
How am I supposed to dress if I don't know what we're doing? What's the weather like? Guess I'll check… It's just gonna be the guys, right? I don't have to be so dressy then, I guess. But what if someone else we know bumps into us? Hmm…
I dig through my closet and throw whatever seems suitable onto my bed. When I'm done, I examine the pile of clothing;
A beige button-up jacket. I guess that works. Seems cold outside, anyway.
A white blouse, all frilly in the front. Well I have to wear something underneath, right? And I should look presentable.
A black knee-length skirt. I'll just wear shorts underneath.
I grab black knee-length socks and my gray Converse, then wrap a black and white plaid scarf around my neck. When I get to the bathroom, I look at my reflection. Well I guess this is it. Am I too dressy for just hanging out with friends? No… I'm fine. I don't wanna change again.
I think I put this outfit together too hastily…, I mean, I literally just convinced myself that the first things I grabbed from the pile were fine. But…, it's okay. I still have a lot of time, though. What else can I do?… I've never worn make-up- I don't think I feel like starting now. I guess I'll just…brush my hair?
My hair is long, brown, and straight. Very easy to brush. Very convenient. But right now, I need something to do. Something to kill time…
Curl it, says a little voice in my head. Where the heck did that come from? Come on, you have new friends now. You have a reason, and you have a lot of time to kill.
Ugh. A reminder of what a loner I was in Kiriga. Sure, I had some friends, but I never really stuck around for long. My friends would always change, and not in a good way. Whatever. So what was I doing again?
Oh yeah… Curling my hair. I guess I never really planned making new friends so quickly. I never really thought about how I'm supposed to be around these people. How I'm supposed to talk, how I'm supposed to react, etc…
Ouch… My finger just made contact with the curling iron. I'm not really good at these things.
[…]
An hour has passed, and I've finally perfected my hair. I don't think I've ever spent more time doing any single thing in my life. Usually, I'd think things like fixing your hair and applying make-up are just a waste of time, but this is an exception, since I had plenty of time.
It's 12 o'clock now, so I think I should start walking to the school.
[…]
New Text Message
From: Shikamaru Nara
Turn around.
I'm at the school now, just waiting for everyone else. As the message instructed, I turn around to see Shikamaru standing behind me on the stairs.
"Oh. Hey."
"Hey? You're not surprised?" He asks.
"Nah."
He looks disappointed, but laughs. "So why are you always early?"
"Because I'm not really busy…, and it's better than being late."
"Makes sense." He looks over me and waves. "Hey, Naruto!" Naruto notices us and waves back.
"Yo, Shikamaru, Amaya." He and Shikamaru start talking to each other.
"Shikamaru! Naruto!" Choji is walking toward us, with Kiba right behind. As soon as Kiba sees me, his smile disappears and his face turns red.
"Whoa…" He points at me. "I didn't know you were like that."
"Like what?" I ask.
"Now that you mention it…" Shikamaru scratches his head, "You look different." He just noticed?
"Look, look. She curled her hair!"
"Yeah, that's weird, I guess."
I can feel my cheeks burning. "What, is there something wrong with it? I can go back home and-"
"No haha, it's fine," Shikamaru's laughing. "I didn't know you would get so self-conscious."
"Well, it's been a while…" I began.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Since what?" He asked.
"…since I've made any new friends." Surprisingly, he's not frowning or anything. He's just…smiling.
"You don't think that's weird? Or that I'm weird?" I ask.
They all burst out laughing. "Of course you're weird." Is that an insult?
"We're all weird," Choji added, "So that means you fit right in."
So I fit in?
[…]
"So it's just us five?" I ask.
"For now. Later, Lee and Neji might join us," Kiba answers. "We've decided to go to that karaoke place."
"Uhh…okay."
When we get to the karaoke place, I follow the guys into one of the rooms.
"Can you get us five bottles of Ramune?" Kiba asks the employee, then looks at me. "Wait, Amaya, do you like Ramune?" I nod. "Okay yeah. Five bottles of Ramune! Uh…Melon flavor."
"Don't forget chicken wings," Choji says. The guy scribbles all of this into a small spiral notebook then closes the door behind him as he leaves.
"I'm singing first!" Naruto shouts.
"I've never seen guys so eager to sing," I comment. They all stare at me. "I mean… I might've seen-"
"We just do this as a joke," Shikamaru says. "It's funny to watch the other guys fail."
"Come to think of it…" Kiba smirks, "I don't think we've ever heard you sing yet, Shikamaru."
"Guys-"
"Shikamaru goes first!" Naruto shoves the microphone into his hand and tosses the songbook at him.
"Ugh… this is so troublesome," Shikamaru groans.
I stand up. "I think I'm going to go to the restroom for a sec."
"K, come back quick so you get to hear Shikamaru fail!"
[…]
I wash my hands then dry them with a paper towel. I can hear laughter while walking back to our room. It's coming from room 4; two rooms away from us. I'll just take a quick peek… I open the door just a little bit, so I can see the back of someone sitting close it. She has really light hair…almost white, tied in a long ponytail.
Ino? She stands up to reveal a girl with pink hair holding the microphone. And Sakura. Then I hear a girl with a soft voice, "Sakura-chan, you're good! Ino, you too!" Hinata.
"Haha, c'mon, you're good, too, Hinata." TenTen. All the girls are here?
"Yeah, I wonder if Amaya is good!" Shouts Ino, then I see an eye staring right back at me through the little crack. I back up. The door opens wider.
"Amaya, you creeper!" Ino laughs, then Sakura turns and sees me.
"Oh, hey! I didn't know you liked karaoke."
"The guys dragged me here…"
They laugh, then TenTen says, "They're here, too?" I nod.
We're just sitting here awkwardly now. I hear someone walking down the hall, but instead of continuing to the bathroom, Kiba walks into the room.
"So this is where you were!" He shouts, then he notices the other girls. "Uh…, hey." He scratches the back of his head.
"So you guys are all here?" Ino smirks.
"Yeah, whatever, if you don't mind, I'm gonna take Amaya back."
"No! Amaya is staying with us." Ino pulls my arm.
"Well…, I was originally with them," I apologize, but Ino continues to hold my arm.
"I have an idea though! Why don't you guys come into this room? We'll pay."
"Good idea…" Kiba just doesn't wanna pay. "Let me go get the rest of them."
I hear some complaints from Choji and Shikamaru, while Naruto sounds somewhat happy about the change of plans. Then, footsteps coming down the hallway and they're at the door, walking inside the room.
"Yo!" Naruto smiles big and takes a seat in between Hinata, whose face turns red, and Sakura, who glares at him and scoots a bit to her right. I've never really seen what those two are like together. So Naruto likes her, but she likes Sasuke?
Sasuke… I remember how coldly he acted when we went to get my books from the office. He caught me when I fell, but instead of saying things like, "Are you okay?" or "No problem," just "Be more careful". Jerk. Why do people even like him so much?
"Hey, Amaya, why don't you sing something?" Ino suggests. I just shake my head and apologize.
"Hinata?" Hinata does the same.
"Sorry, sorry. I don't think I'm so good at singing."
"I'll sing." Naruto takes the microphone and sets a foot on the table, posing with his arm rested on his knee. Sakura rolls her eyes. Naruto looks through the songbook more, while occasionally nodding or shaking his head. Finally, he looks up. "Got it!" He enters the numbers. "3...5...7...Oops, I mean six…"
While Naruto punches in more numbers, Sakura scoots closer to me. "Amaya! Been a while!"
"If that's what you consider thirteen to fourteen hours or so, then yeah, it's been a while."
"Haha! Well…, ugh, Naruto is actually singing. He's so annoying, right?!"
"…I haven't known him long, but I consider him a friend."
She stops smiling, "I was just joking, no need to get defensive."
"I know. I think I'm gonna go get more Ramune." I stand up.
"I'll come with you," she stands, too. We walk outside, and as we leave I can see Kiba takes the now-empty seat next Hinata.
Sakura asks the guy at the counter for more Ramune. "About four more bottles, please." He comes out with two bottles in each hand, then hands them to me and pushes some keys on the register. I give him the money and take the Ramune.
"Thanks," I say to the employee, then to Sakura, "I think I'm going to stay out here for a while."
"I can stay with you." I just shrug and sit on one of the stools at the counter.
"So," she hops on the seat next to me, "Why do you seem so eager to be alone right now?"
"It's just how I am. I haven't had friends in a long time, so this is kinda… overwhelming."
"Well that makes sense, but you seem pretty calm about everything. Cool, even. Why haven't you had friends? If you don't mind me asking."
"…People are kinda overdramatic, unreliable, disloyal, or jerks who can be just plain irritating."
"That sounds pretty harsh, on your part."
"Yeah, but sometimes it's true. I've seen it happen, and I was pretty scared to have it happen to me, so I isolated myself from people I thought would eventually abandon me. Getting too attached or placing too much trust into the wrong people is a bad idea. It's either they use you, or they get tired of you…, but in the end, they leave you. You're left disappointed and hurt…, all because you got too attached."
"So this happened to you? You had no friends?" So straightforward.
"Well…, I honestly can't say that I've experienced it so much. I just remember experiencing other people going through that. It seemed…painful…and I didn't want it to happen to me. But I had one friend. I really regret leaving Kiriga the way I did. It felt really hard to say good-bye, so in the end, I didn't. I just left."
Sakura stares at the ground for a while. "So I can see why you seemed a bit defensive of Naruto. You're really trying to make things work with these new friends, right?"
"Yup…"
"Well we're not the kind of people to abandon our friends so easily." She smiles, gets up, and starts walking back. "Well c'mon, our friends are waiting for us!"
Hinata Hyuga
When we finish with karaoke, we all start walking back home. For a while, we're all in a big group, but then one or two people would separate and walk towards their own homes. In the end, I was left with Amaya.
"I don't understand why everybody likes Sasuke," Amaya mutters. "I mean…, Sakura, and so many other girls at our school seem too interested in him, but he's pretty cruel."
I nod. "I do understand that they probably find him attractive…, but I'm not interested in Sasuke."
"Oh?" Amaya raises an eyebrow. "Then who are you interested in, Hinata-chan?" She nudges me.
"Well…, I would rather not talk about it…" I can feel my cheeks burning. "Anyway…, I'm sorry to bring this up, but Sakura told me what you talked about before you brought back all the Ramune."
"Yup," she's just looking up at the sky and walking slowly.
"Well I just wanted you to know that what Sakura told you is true. W-we're not the type to abandon our friends, and I hope you can place your trust in us… We want you to feel comfortable around us, o-okay?"
She nods. "I know." She smiles and turns to look at me. "I'm glad that I met you…Naruto…Shikamaru, Kiba…Sakura… You made it so easy for me, being new to this village and school. Thank you."
"N-no problem."
I feel a hand settle on my shoulder. "Hinata-sama?" Neji-nii-san? I look at Amaya, who's looking at who's behind me. When I turn around, it is Neji.
"It's time to go home. And my I ask you one more thing?" He says, then glares at Amaya. "Who is this?" I catch a glimpse of him slowly inching out his kunai…
"N-Neji-nii-san, th-this is Amaya-chan." I cover the knife with my hand and quickly push it back into his sleeve. I whisper to him, "She's a friend, you don't need to worry."
Neji smiles, (though I know him well enough to know he's faking,) and places his hand out. "I am Neji Hyuga, Hinata-sama's cousin."
"The guys mentioned you possibly coming to go to karaoke with us, I think. Well hey, I'm Amaya Shimizu." She shakes his hand.
"A transfer student?"
Amaya nods, and turns to me. "Well I think I should get home before Aiko-chan gets worried. Thanks for today, Hinata-chan. Bye!" She says as she walks away, leaving me with Neji.
"Good job, encouraging her," he says. "I heard the whole thing. You don't usually do that."
"Y-You heard the whole thing?… Well, she's had a difficult time with other people in the past, I figured it would be good to help her out."
"Mm… Well we should be getting home, Hinata-sama. Let's go." He starts walking, then slows down to let me catch up.
While we walk, I look up, and immediately notice why Amaya was so intrigued just looking up at the sky. The stars are shining so brightly…
"What?" Neji asks me.
"Huh?"
"You look like there's something on your mind."
"Oh, no," I laugh, "I was just admiring the stars."
He looks up, too. "Oh…" We stand there for a minute, just staring at the sky. "Wow."
"Well, we should really get home now, huh, Neji-nii-san?" I start walking ahead, and he catches up quickly.
I really hope we can all get together like we did today again, soon.