Day 16
Ino sighed and rested her head on her desk as the eight-thirty-five bell rang. Tutorials were over, and she could take a short ten-minute nap before class started. Man, did stoichiometry ever suck.
When am I ever going to use this in life? She groaned inwardly, letting her eyelids droop and taking a deep breath, I'm not planning on be a scientist or anything.
She sighed and sat up in her chair for only a moment before sliding down into it. She wasn't Shikamaru; she couldn't sleep under the bright light of the class room. She'd just have to wait the morning through until lunch, when she could get some caffeine in her system. I knew I should've gotten some coffee on the way here.
One by one, her first period chemistry classmates filed in and sat in their seats, and those that had joined her for tutorials that didn't have this class first period left. Iruka graded some last-minute papers at his desk so they would be ready to pass out that day. Hinata Hyuuga eventually ran in with a panicked face, asking in her high-pitched voice for Iruka's help on her homework that she hadn't finished. Her cousin Neji stood in the doorway snickering, before saying goodbye and leaving for his first class. Hinata paused, turned and yelled a thank you to Neji for the ride there (or what seemed like a yell for her) before frantically turning back to Iruka and digging out yesterday's assignment. Kiba Inuzuka walked in a dropped his bag on his table, and then walked over to Iruka's desk to see what was going on, sticking his nose in other people's business as always. He pointed something out on Hinata's page, she gasped and nodded and rushed to her desk to fix the problem. Kiba smirked at his own genius.
Ino rubbed her hands against her face in one last effort to wipe away all the sleep. She squinted her eyes together, gritting her teeth to try and stifle and upcoming yawn, but couldn't fight in and gave in, letting her jaw stretch open and let the yawn escape. Her arms fell onto her desk and she slowly opened her eyes…
…to see Temari glaring right at her.
The named dropped her bag to the ground without breaking her stare, and then slit a finger across her throat before turning and sitting down. Ino blinked, and then rubbed her face again.
It's too early.
Kakashi was reading another one of those strange books. Naruto had told her the whole story, about how the Senior Class English teacher, Jiraiya, had gotten Kakashi into it. Now whenever Kakashi wasn't teaching, he was putting off his work and reading another strange book. Half the time, if a student asked for help, he would read during his work. And since he preferred to do less work and more play, his class was pretty fun. He was one of those rare goofy teachers you only come by once in your lifetime.
But sadly, he was in lecture mode right now, switching out notes on the overhead that everyone was required to right down. While scribbling, Ino looked to her side and whispered to Sakura.
"Psst! Sakura!"
Sakura looked up and questioned her with her eyes, then looked back to her notes.
"Did you get a date yet?"
Sakura merely shrugged. Ino frowned and tapped her pencil loudly against her desk. Kakashi paused, looked over at her, and frowned.
"Ino, stop that, it'll break the lead."
Ino halted her pencil automatically and raised her eyebrows at Sakura, mouthing the word, "Well?"
Sakura sighed and waved her pencil at her, "I'll tell you later."
Ino frowned, but nodded. No sense pushing her.
Even if Sakura had been the one to push Ino.
"The day is going by way too slowly."
Ino shoved a fork in her salad, crushing the vegetables beneath it. Shikamaru pulled his head up slowly from the table and yawned, barely opening his eyes.
"What do you mean? The hours are flying by…"
"Easy for you to say, you sleep the whole time." Ino shot him an accusatory glance, "It's amazing that you don't have so much energy, Shikamaru, because you surely get plenty of sleep."
"Meh," Shikamaru said simply, not wanting to bring up an argument. He reached over and plucked a piece of lettuce hanging from the plastic box that contained Ino's salad and shoved it in his mouth.
"Hey! Keep your slimy hands away from my food." She said teasingly.
"Slimy?" He sniffed at his hand, then grimaced, "Gross, you're right. Be right back." He stood from his chair and went for the boys' bathroom.
Ino frowned, genuinely disgusted this time, and returned to poking at her food with her fork. Choji arrived and sat down with his usual mound of food. He plopped into his seat and raised an eyebrow at Ino.
"You gonna eat that?"
"Eventually," Ino continued to poke at her food for a bit until she eventually stopped, then grimaced at her now-realized mistake, "Argh, I forgot dressing. Choji, you wouldn't by any chance have some ranch in the heaping of food there?"
Choji looked at her as if she were crazy, "No."
She sighed, "I'll be right back," and left the table.
Mere seconds later, Shikamaru sat back down at the table rubbing his hands, "Damn these bathrooms here. I swear, if I see one more sign reminding me to wash my hands, and then find out that the freaking soap dispenser is EMPTY, I'm going to kill something. I was scrubbing my hands with water until some kid gave me some hand sanitizer."
Choji grimaced, but stuffed his face all the same, "Excited about the dance, eh?" He grinned.
Shikamaru stared blankly at him, "What?"
"You're going with Ino, right? You've never gone to Homecoming before."
"She kind of bribed me into it," Shikamaru yawned, "But I don't really mind. You know how things are for her, she's moving all the time. She's missed out on a lot."
"You're such a gentleman."
"Shut up."
"Yamanaka."
Ino whipped her head around as she tugged on her gym shorts. Temari stood against the lockers, her gym shirt still not on and instead draped over her shoulder, scowling. Ino cocked an eyebrow.
"Can I… help you?"
"I told you, damnit, to stay away from Nara."
"Yeah, well…" Ino hesitated when she realized that she didn't know Temari's last name, but went on, "…Temari, we happen to be good friends." Ino slammed her locker door closed, then turned around and crossed her arms, giving Temari a very pissed-off glare. "I'm sorry if you have an issue with that."
"You better watch yourself, bitch," Temari walked up closer to the younger teen, towering over her, if only by an inch or two, looking down at her like she was a mere ant, "You wanna know what happened to the last girl that tried to steal him from me?"
"Steal him from you? He doesn't even like you."
"I broke her arm," She growled, ignoring the comment, "And a few other things. She cried so hard she begged her mother to transfer her to another school."
"Such empty words," Ino smirked and shoved by her, "I'm not intimidated by you; I've been threatened by worse."
"Liar. Like what?"
"Try guns." Ino stepped out of the locker room and closed the door behind her. She sighed and rested a hand on her chest. Her heart was beating at an alarming rate, and she threw her head backwards to hit the door behind her.
"This is too much to handle."
Dodge ball was definitely Ino's least favorite sport.
She spent a good deal of the time hiding behind Sakura, trying not to get hit. Dodge ball was always the one sport she didn't try to participate in. It reminded her too much of the war front. Unfortunately, today was the hardest day to skip out on, because the balls were nearly undodgeable. Why was that, you ask? They were all going at her. Again, why?
Temari was pissed.
And she was on the opposing team.
Shikamaru had taken a hit early in the game and was nonchalantly sitting in the stands off to the side. Inu frowned at him; he was the reason for this, after all. The reason why Temari was so pissed off at her.
She clutched her stomach and winced. It didn't help that she'd just eaten lunch, too.
Whose wise idea was it to give the PE class A lunch?
Bam!
And in a second, Ino's human shield had fallen to the ground.
"Haruno, out!"
Sakura stood up slowly and rubbed her sore right shoulder where she had been hit. She waved a hand at Ino as she departed for the sidelines, "Good luck."
As the Yamanaka watched her only hope of survival walk away, she felt her heart beat speed up in fear. She wasn't looking forward to being pelted upon by foam balls by the blonde madwoman across the court. She surveyed her remaining comrades: Hinata had stricken lucky and was shaking in a far corner, still untouched. That wouldn't last long, Ino could tell by the malevolent look of Temari's younger brother across the court. Naruto was running around like crazy, picking up and throwing balls at the opponents at a thousand miles per hour, but each one missed. Last of all was Shino, standing over by Hinata, completely unfazed by the game. If something came his way, he merely stepped out of his trajectory path and did nothing more.
Survey says… Ino's got no hope now.
One ball smashed into the floor not ten feet from her, then rolled across the ground until it bumped into her foot. She bent over and took it, holding it in one hand. She looked across court.
Temari smirked back at her.
Fire began to rage deeply within the Yamanaka. Everything Temari had said to her before, ever since she had moved here, ever since she had first laid eyes on the pineapple-headed, lazy-ass bastard that she shared a schedule with, started to replay in her mind. And the more it played, the more she wanted to pound her smug little face in.
She hurled the ball.
Temari was able to dodge the ball just enough that it only grazed by her head, and she clutched her ear after it had passed in pain. It may not have hit, but the ball had been flying right past her right ear… she looked at Ino in shock, and then soon relaxed into a smirk.
"So we're finally going to get serious, then?" She caught a ball that had just bounced off the ground from Naruto's direction without breaking her gaze on Ino, "Bring it!"
Temari growled and threw the ball with all of her force, and Ino poised herself right in its path to catch it. Her arms were twitching; she had to brace herself for impact. Temari was a strong girl…
She caught the ball, immediately encircling her arms around it so that it wouldn't fall. The force caused her to take a few steps back in order to keep from falling. She gritted her teeth, absorbing the pain that had been distributed to her chest. Her arms twitched even more.
She stood straight and loosened her grip, looking Temari straight in the eye. She grinned.
"You're out."
"Bitch," Temari growled as she walked over to the sidelines. But a steady, smug grin slowly appeared on her face as she made her way over to Shikamaru. The said boy didn't even acknowledge her presence, but instead continued staring off into space, his arms crossed and eyes half closed. This was the one class he couldn't get any sleep out of, thanks to Gai…
Ino growled. She didn't even notice that that ball she had caught had gotten Sakura back in the game.
Enraged, Ino picked up another ball and hurled it as fast as she could. It flew upwards and hit the backboard of the basketball hoop on the opponent's side, right in the middle of the white square. Her entire team cheered and ran back into the game.
"Ino, you're on fire!" Sakura grinned.
Ino didn't notice that either. She just kept her gaze locked on the other team's players, still out of commission. She clenched her fists in anger, twitching once more.
"Temari, you bitch!"
Everything ceased at that moment. Hinata, who had fallen to the floor after being pelted in the face by Gaara, froze on her hands and knees in the middle of scrambling back to her feet. Shino had turned his head from his little corner and his hands fell out of their cozy position in his pockets. Naruto had frozen in mid-run, his hand drawn back and poised to throw a ball at Gaara in revenge for striking down his team mate. Sakura, who was about to pat Ino's back for her amazing evolution in the world of dodge ball, who had stood only inches behind her when Ino had made her exclamation, dropped her jaw. Even Shikamaru took the moment to stare at Ino in question.
"Ino, are you all-"
"You think you're all nice and safe over there, don't you? All cozy on the sidelines! Sitting there, nice and smug, with Shikamaru! I guess bitches are attracted to lazy bastards!"
Shikamaru raised his eyebrows and drew his head back in surprise, "Ouch."
Temari scowled and stood up from the bench, striding to the middle of the court where Ino stood. She stopped only inches in front of her, utilizing the two-inch height difference to her advantage to look down on Ino mockingly. She narrowed her eyes.
"Which bitch are we talking about?" She seethed, "You or me?"
"Both of us," Ino forced out the strongest voice she could. Her knees grew weak, and she had to do everything in her power to keep from being intimidated.
"A challenge," Temari laughed and crossed her arms, "Not a very good one, but one all the same."
Ino gritted her teeth once more and reached behind her, plucking the dodge ball out of Sakura's hands without averting her gaze off of her blonde rival.
She smashed it right into her left cheek.
"Round one, dodge ball." Ino growled, as Temari stumbled back and held her cheek in pain and stared at the Navy Brat in shock, "Winner: Ino."
LazyCloudwatcher: What was that about?
Ino stared at her computer screen in amazement later in Web mastering. Shikamaru was never one to start a conversation, much less when he could be playing chess against Asuma or sleeping. She hastily typed a reply.
NavyBrat: Girl stuff.
LazyCloudwatcher: Which means beating each other up and then you getting sent to the principal's office. Nice.
NavyBrat: Haha, very funny. I guess I'll have a hard time getting this one past my parents.
LazyCloudwatcher: You've beaten people up before?
NavyBrat: No, that's why it'll be so hard!
Ino sighed, relaxing back into her chair. Things between her and Shikamaru continued to roll smoothly, and for now that was all that mattered to her. Then, come tomorrow, she'd meet up with Temari and fear for her life once more.
Could Temari really steal the lazy boy from her like that?
Ino didn't understand why it bothered her so much. She merely only wanted to stay good friends with the Nara, and actually feared anything more than that due to the expected moving sometime in the near future. But thinking of him being with another girl, especially Temari, the bitchy blonde exchange student from Suna High, really pissed her off.
NavyBrat: We're still on for the dance, right? I bought tickets yesterday…
LazyCloudwatcher: Yeah, I guess.
Ino smiled. Everything was all right.
For now.
"No. Sakura, you're lying to me. I know you didn't just tell me what I think you told me."
"I'm serious Ino, he's my date."
Ino collapsed back onto her bed, and rubbed her face, trying to get all of the chemistry to disappear from her mind so it didn't clutter her thoughts whenever she closed her eyes. She groaned into her Bluetooth headset, "But... why!?"
"He asked, and it's not like I had anyone else to go with."
"Go stag."
"Not my thing. And he's not that bad, Ino, seriously!"
"Did you see him in gym today? He's a madman!"
"I know he acts strange, but he can be sweet if you catch him at the right moment..."
Ino shook her head, shoving her homework into her backpack, "At least you're not going with Lee, he's just..."
"Too strange?"
"Yeah."
"He's just really nice!"
"Sakura," Ino glared into the headpiece, "You have a hard time saying no, don't you?"
"What!?"
"You can't admit that both Lee and Naruto are totally nutcases, and you said yes to a date with this said hyperactive knucklehead! Are you sure you're thinking straight?"
"...Yes."
"Goodbye, Sakura."
"Wait, Ino-!"
Ino hung up the phone. She knew another nutjob.
AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER FINISH THAT CHAPTER. GOOD LORD, THAT TOOK TOO. LONG.
I think the next one will end up being more silly than actual plot material… like… FILLER!!!!
(watches everyone die)
Mwahaha!
EVERYTIME YOU READ WITHOUT REVIEWING, A FROG HOPS AROUND A FOREST UNTIL IT ENDS UP IN A HIGHWAY AND THEN SITS THERE CURIOUSLY UNTIL A BIG OL' TRUCK COMES BY AND THEN DOESN'T MOVE SO IT GETS SQUASHED!!!!
Save the frogs, kids.