I'm going to do something I haven't done in a LONG time. I'm going t write a disclaimer. Here it goes.I do not own Naruto.

Now, Solipsism - is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist.

Also, I feel that the introduction part is slowly starting to wind up and starting in the next chapter, you'll be welcomed to my lunatic imagination, if you catch my drift.

OC ALERT in this chap. (The first time there are going to be OCs in my stories that are actually a little important)

Thank you everyone who has reviewed~~! I try updating as often as possible (despite the lack of time on my hands) and will even go as far as to take my stone-age laptop to school where my classmates are playing FIFA 12 on their freakishly new comps. But I have a perfect comeback to 'is that piece of shit YOURS?', one that won't leave me looking like a loser : "Well, yeah. I do have a HP ENVY 17 at home, but I didn't want to make y'all jelly by showing it off at school, y'know?'

Also-ALSO, I had this really weird idea of creating kind of an 'author's page' on fb or sth, for the original books that I'm writing. If there are people who'd be interested in getting various info about them (revealing the summary, previews, character designs done by my sweetie CookieDarkness as I'm writing them and finally, whether they'd be available in stores as well or sth. wishful thinker lol), it would be a lot easier to stay in touch and communicate that way. Y'know what I mean? IF there is anyone who thinks the idea is worth something, lemme know, otherwise, I probs won't bother. Btw, I'm working on a novel based on 'Will you save me?'

AND FINALLY, as much as I love reviews, it's kind of sad when they're anon and I can't reply to them, SOO~~ to THE REPLIES ANONS THAT REVIEWED:

anon: I thank you from the bottom of my heart, you're too sweet~~ And see? I did!

Envyyy: I do know now, thank you for letting me know! :D I hope this chapter will do~~

Sozzy for the long ass A/N. Heh. Here's the chap:

Chapter 4 - Invitation

When the bell finally rung, Deidara thought he was going to drop off dead. He already felt like a zombie, and there were stillfour hoursto go! He sighed heavily and pushed the chair back, standing up and grabbing his books off the desk.

A nudge into his ribs made him look to the right, finding Pein standing there, blocking the way of people who were trying to get through to the door. An irritated sigh sounded from behind him and a girl decided to climb over the desk. The boy following her made it easier for the others by just pushing the desk out of place, enlarging the aisle. The others followed his footsteps.

Pein ignored them completely, his attention focused on the blond boy. "You coming with us?"

"Where?" Deidara asked, standing still as Pein was blocking his way also. "And who is 'us'?"

"To the canteen. And I know someone else who is going there with us, if you catch my drift," Pein said suggestively, winking at him with a snide smile. Without waiting for an answer, he turned around, heading for the door, leaving Deidara looking after him dumbly. Eh? Come again?

It was only when the other S-rank students passed Deidara, one of them brushing gently against his arm, that he actually caught on. His face lit up immediately, mouth becoming wide with a smile. That was until he felt someone else bump into him, this time, not so gently.

He was pushed against the desk, causing him to drop his books. Bewildered, he snapped his head towards the attacker, seeing the scorpion calmly continuing to walk towards the door as though nothing had happened, Konan, Itachi and Tayuya following him.

None of them even glanced in his direction. Their behavior seemed to hint that they were ranked too high to notice trash like him. God damn it, he was in the same rank as they! What made him different, aside from the fact that he was new there?

Deidara shook his head, hiding behind his fringe again. "What the fuck?" he muttered under his breath, walking out the door as the last student to leave. He'd learnt that there were lockers on the first floor where students could drop off their books in between classes. Convenient.

Shoving his hands into his pockets – a habit of his when he wanted to keep a low profile – he made his way to the south-east building. The hallways were wide and gray with large windows in the walls, packed with students Deidara disregarded. When he stepped inside, he found three hallways leading in different directions, in addition to the staircase on the left, which led both up and down.

He knew where the shrink's office was – unfortunately – and from what he'd gathered, he guessed the gym was on the second floor, but he didn't have a clue about the whereabouts of the canteen. People were roaming from left to right, from right to left, up and down, down and up, like they had nothing better to do than to confuse him.

It surprised him how self-centered he'd become. Everything seemed to revolve around him, he saw people's actions as ways to affect him. Taking steps towards solipsism, perhaps? Taking a deep breath as a way to compose himself, he patted on the closest passer-by's shoulder, making them turn around. The chosen one was a purple-haired girl with a lip-piercing and a tattoo covering the left side of her neck.

"Hm, where's the canteen?" Deidara asked stoically, trying to seem as cold and calm as possible. The girl blinked. Momentarily, her gaze wondered down to his outfit, before darting up again to meet his eyes. She jerked her thumb at the center hallway, before turning on her heel and taking off. Deidara raised his eyebrow, surprised by her behavior.

Brushing it off, he started walking in the given direction, maneuvering past the other students. Now that he'd witnessed the scorpion's attitude - acting like an asshole and bumping into him and walking away as though nothing had happened - he wondered whether Pein's advice had been that judgmental after all. Maybe there was more to the scorpion that he didn't want to know about?

Was he really anxious to see the scorpion in the canteen, even after what had happened? Deidara stopped in the middle of the hallway, trying to make sense of his feelings. Yes, indeed he was. Very anxious. Flipping his bang to stay out of his right eye, he continued walking.

From there on, it wasn't difficult finding the canteen. A hallway with red floor and white walls greeted him along with the line of students waiting in the cue for lunch. He joined the queue behind a bunch of girls.

Leaning against the wall, he couldn't help gazing at the girls as there was nothing else for him to do in the line. There were four of them – one redhead, two blondes and one brunette. The redhead had short spiky hair and manypiercings in her ear. Her facial features were strong and sharp, her body seeming thin and bony. The black button-up shirt she was wearing emphasized the narrowness of her shoulders, giving her an anorexic look. Her face was pale and eyes coal black.

The brunette next to her had long wavy hair that was pulled up in a ponytail. Her creamy skin and green eyes gave her a pleasant and friendly look that didn't quite fit into a reform school. She was dressed in a dark blue button-up shirt and a black, not too short, flared skirt. She was the tallest of the four and looked the most mature.

The two blondes were the exact opposites to each other. One of them had peach blonde thin hair that fell straight down her back. Her face was covered in make-up – blood-red lips lined with a black pencil, thick eyelashes, thin arched light-brown eyebrows and panda eye make-up. Deidara found her look cool, even though he would've never been interested in her. She was tall as well, and thin, wearing a black leather zip up dress with blue sleeves and stiletto boots. The skin above the boots was covered by fishnets.

The other blonde was much shorter due to wearing checkered slip-ons instead of heels. She had a tomboy look; her face was clear of make-up, her sandy blonde hair loosely falling down her back. She was dressed in a pair of dark jeans with knee holes, a blue T-shirt with an O-neck and a checkered necktie hanging down to her stomach.

"I heard it was supposed to be on the sixth floor tonight," the redhead answered to the question Deidara hadn't heard. "In the trio's room."

"Where else?" the blonde with make-up on commented, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"Um, guys," the tomboy blonde started, looking ill at ease as she'd cast her look on the floor. "Is hegoing to be there?"

"Who?" the redhead asked the same time the other blonde rolled her eyes again and said, "Of coursehe is, since it's his room. You still have so much to catch up on, Kei."

The tomboy girl was called Kei, Deidara made a mental note and listened on.

"Who is she talking about?" the redhead asked again, patting on the girly blonde's shoulder to catch her attention. "Hm, Setsu? Who?" The other blonde's name was Setsu, apparently.

Setsu turned around, pinching the bridge of her nose. She seemed to be the hotheaded one, the type to overreact easily. "Oh, she's been going on about Sasori ever since I showed her his picture last winter. Can you believe it, she actually beat the shit out of a seven-year old boy to get in here and to see him?"

Deidara felt something sharp pierce through him and it didn't take him long to figure out what it was that made him hate the tomboy, Kei. No, it wasn't the fact that she'd attacked someone much smaller than her. It was competition. Suddenly, Deidara felt really self-conscious. He was really not good in love games, never had been. How could he compete with a girl?God damn it, he felt like he was losing already.

As the conversation went on, Deidara grew more and more irritated at the girl, his mood below zero in a flash. Moronic fangirl, go rot in a ditch.

"Oh right, you're new here, Kei. I keep forgetting," the brunette said, giving a light-hearted laugh that lived up to her friendly appearance. "So you probably don't know this, but Sasori is in a so called trio, together with Itachi and Pein. Do you know them?"

"Yeah."

Deidara took the info about the trio as valuable information that needed to be remembered. The cue had gotten shorter and he'd reached the door of the canteen. He grabbed a tray off the pile next to the counters and set it down on the counter, pushing it forward as he moved. The girls were still talking.

"Wait, is it going to be a party or what?" Kei asked, looking like an immature child next to the other girls. Her ignorance made her look somewhat innocent and naïve, the newest additions to Deidara's list of 'personalities that piss me off'.

The redhead snorted, placing a can of diet coke on her tray. "No, we're going to drink tea like the British men we are."

Setsu laughed at this, Kei putting on a slight pout at the joke. "Ha ha, very funny, Chika."

The redhead is Chika, Deidara noted, picking an apple from the green bowl on the counter and moving on.

"You're too naïve to be a devil, Kei," Setsu said, piling salad onto her plate. Deidara had already taken everything he wanted – a glass of cherry juice, an apple and salad – but didn't want to leave yet, since it seemed like there would be some more info to come, so he pretended to be busy as the girls went on.

"A devil?"

Setsu let out a loud irritated sigh, growing tired of the other blonde's endless inquiring. To spare all of them another load of sarcastic comments, the brunette spoke instead. "Students in ranks from S to B are called the devils."

Setsu chuckled. "While the ones in rank C and below are called angels."

Kei made a surprised face. "Why?"

Deidara rolled his eyes; even he could figure it out. Why was that bitch so stupid? The scorpion would've had to be just as stupid, if he was really going to fall for her. That thought soothed Deidara a little, although her distaste for Kei never faded.

"Partly because of their ridiculous white uniform pants," the brunette said, chuckling.

Setsu shook her head. "That's just you, Hatsu." – Hatsu, the brunette. - "Mostly, because they were angelic enough to not be able to climb up to the same level as us." Her tone was mocking; Deidara wasn't sure whether she actually meant it or whether she was just joking and trying to be funny.

Deidara repeated the names in his head to memorize them. Setsu, the goth blonde. Kei, the blonde tomboy fucker who dreams of having a chance with my scorpion.Deidara actually grimaced at her name. Chika, the girl with short red hair and many piercings in her ear. Hatsu, the brunette, looking the most mature.

Deidara decided that he'd had enough of the conversation and left the counter. There were only a few desks occupied by teachers in the same room, but an open double door led to the rest of the canteen. That room was about ten times the size of the first room with counters and food.

The walls were boring white, the tiled floor a colour somewhere between gray and purple. Next to the door against the wall was a line of counters that went on till the coffee machine standing against the side wall. On the counter were baskets of bread and white bread on it, along with a few jugs of lemon water.

Across the room, in the left corner were shelves for the dishes and a trash can for the leftovers. The rest of the room consisted only of round tables and chairs, with the exception of a few square tables against the walls.

Deidara gazed around unsurely, not knowing where to sit. All the tables seemed to be full. Well, not allof them, but Deidara didn't exactly want to go sit down with a bunch of whores, or a bunch of homicidal-looking gangsters, or with we-have-no-idea-how-gross-PDA-is couples. And that pretty much singled out all the tables.

Sighing, Deidara started walking towards the whores, deeming them to be more tolerable than the rest, when a whistle from across the room made him snap his head up. He looked around for a second, before noticing Pein waving at him from a table of S-rank students. Acting on their own, Deidara's eyes scanned the people in that table, finding the scorpion almost immediately.

He had sunk his teeth into an apple at that moment, taking a big bite out of it, before looking down on the table. The corner of his mouth curved upwards a little and his body shook as he chuckled, his look affecting Deidara like a drug. He felt his jaw drop open.

Then there was the whistle again that managed to bring the blond back to Earth. He looked back at Pein who had raised his eyebrows at him, gesturing for him to join them in the table. As much as Deidara really, reallywanted to do exactly as he was told, he really, reallydidn't. Trying to imagine himself at that table, he flashed to him sitting there and blushing, eyes cast down. What a perfect way to make a fool out of himself and then spend the following night kicking himself for it.

But Pein didn't leave him alone. It had already begun feeling weird just standing there, but it was the redhead shouting his name over the canteen that made Deidara start moving and make his way across the room to the table. Gingerly, he plopped down on the empty chair next to Pein, setting his tray down on the table. He felt his cheeks tint red when thinking about what impression he must've left and he cast his gaze on his legs, acting just like he'd imagined.

"What is that bundle of nerves doing in S-rank?" Deidara heard someone say. The tone irked him and he glanced up. The bluenette, Konan, was looking at him with an insolent expression, playing with the glass in front of her.

A weird, growling noise came out of Deidara's mouth before he could stop it and he hissed, "None of your business."

The table quieted for a moment and Deidara noticed self-consciously how Sasori looked up from the table at him. What did I just say? Scratch that, KILL ME NOW,Deidara screeched in his mind, his face heating up again. Embarrassed to the core, he cast his gaze down.

"This one seems to be fucked up. I like him and I shall keep him." Deidara looked up again, seeing the pink-haired girl – Tayuya? –smirking at him. Deidara blinked, breaking the eye contact for a split second. He stared into the girl's eyes, her words confusing him.

It was only when a hand came up to her chin, jerking it and making her look behind her that Deidara noticed the girl was sitting on Itachi's lap. The dark-haired boy was gripping her chin was only for a moment, though, before Tayuya slapped his hand away and broke free. "Oh cut it out, emo Romeo. This fucker is interested in girls just as much as I am interested in getting kicked off a cliff."

"And you would know how...?" Konan quirked an eyebrow, resting her chin on her hands and giving the other girl a sceptical look. "From your own experience?"

"Whore-ish bitch, please.It should've been obvious to anyone by the way Blondie was staring at Sassy before. Use your eyes, bitch, since you obviously don't have a brain."

The careless reference to him staring at the scorpion made Deidara want to strangle the girl right then and there, but he somehow managed to brush it off with an oblivious look. Trying his best to look as ignorant as possible, he stared at the cat fight wide-eyed, acting as though the girls' way of interacting had been the only thing to catch his attention. Whatever you do, donot look away now. The scorpion. . . do NOT look at the scorpion!

"Anyways, Blondie," Pein broached, disregarding the girls fighting. "You coming to the welcome party tonight?"

Deidara felt safe about glancing at Pein as he was sitting in the opposite direction to Sasori. Without wasting time at asking why it was called the 'welcomeparty' and what was going to be happening, he decided to be straightforward. "What time?"

"Starts at seven o'clock."

There was no thinking about it, of coursehe was going. There was no other way, he had to use the chance he was given. After all, who knew when he would've gotten another chance with the scorpion? "I'll be there."

-x-

The rest of the lunch break had gone on quite smoothly – no one had been asking unnecessary questions from Deidara and he hadn't had more reasons for blushing, except for the fact that the scorpion had been sitting in a meter's range. He still considered the break a success.

The rest of the classes dragged on at a snail's pace, but once they were over, the stabs of anticipation threatened to kill the blond boy. He rushed to his dorm room, ditching his books on the desk and bolting for his wardrobe. There was no way in hellhe'd be losing to someone like the Kei tomboy bitch.

To be continued...