Day 30

Ino was having the worst time staying awake today.

She had been out later than expected with Said the night before. After seeing Disturbia he had convinced her to go grab dinner at Sonic before returning her home. Despite the late hour, Sonic had been decently crowded and they had to wait longer than usual for their food. They didn't order to-go, either, since Sai couldn't eat and drive simultaneously. And he ate slowly.

All in all, she barely got home in time for curfew, angered her father (but only to a light extent; he was more angry at Sai than he would ever be at his precious daughter), and still had to finish her chemistry homework. She had barely stayed awake in chemistry, and now she was having an even harder time doing so in English.

Gym was going to be murder.

Kakashi looked at the clock as he turned off the overhead projector and cleaned the notes off of the transparency; only a few minutes until the bell rang. "All right, remember we have a test tomorrow over the first half of Lord of the Flies."

Ino's eyes shot open at that moment and she bolted upright in her chair. Test!? First half!? She thought frantically, I haven't even read the first chapter!

Things were not looking for the young Yamanaka.

"So we have a test tomorrow, and none of us read the book?"

Sakura nodded and bit into her turkey sub, "I read, but I can't follow along. Nothing sticks."

Shikamaru lifted his head from his arms, de-shielding his sleepy eyes and blinking warily at Ino and Sakura, "Meh."

"We know you're too lazy to read it," Sakura glared. Ino didn't say anything, but instead just stared at her salad. She didn't prefer right now to speak to Shikamaru, still feeling questionable about the precious day. If Sai had been telling the truth that just might have meant that Shikamaru had been lying to her about the supposed 'annoyance' he felt towards Temari. So which boy should she believe?

"I read it," Shikamaru mumbled.

"You did!?" Sakura dropped her sub onto its try, slammed her hands into the table and stared at Shikamaru in disbelief, "You read the first half!?"

"The whole thing," Shikamaru mumbled, "My mother took away my DS. I had nothing else to do."

"So you can tell us what happened, right!?"

"It's not like I took notes or anything," he sighed and sat upright, "I could probably recap it for you, but it'd take a while."

"Perfect! We'll all get together tonight and study."

"What!?" Ino and Shikamaru nearly yelled at Sakura simultaneously.

"Well, Ino doesn't know the material either, and you're the perfect person to help us out, Shikamaru."

Ino bit her lip, averting her gaze across the table at Choji. Shikamaru drummed his fingers on the table, at a loss of words, and also looked at his comrade for help. The wrestler raised an eyebrow at them both as he stuck his spoon into a pack of pudding.

"…yeah, I read it. But I can't recap, if that's what you want." Choji mumbled in response to Shikamaru's stare, "I don't remember things until I read the test question."

"Great," Shikamaru groaned and slumped in his chair, "I really can't do this tonight."

"Why's that?" Ino raised both eyebrows.

"I'm just… busy."

"Busy," Ino nodded and looked away, "Right."

Sakura frowned and glared at the Nara boy, "You're doing it, regardless of your plans. I'm not letting my GPA drop because of this damn test."

Shikamaru met Sakura's glare with a frightened stare and nodded. He could sense her anger rising and didn't want to do anything more to stir it.

"But where?" He asked.

"Well, we can't go to my house." Sakura mentioned, "My mom would be cool with it but my dad… eh. You don't want to be around him."

"Why? Is he some overprotective control freak like Mr. Yamanaka?" Shikamaru asked sarcastically. Ino glared and prodded him with her fork, receiving a small yelp of pain in return.

"No, he's just… a drunk. A really random drunk. We never know when he's going to drink, or how much."

"And we can't go to my house," Ino added, "It's only a small apartment, and we won't want Shikamaru around my dad. If we get lucky, he could be working the whole time, but I doubt it."

Sakura looked to Choji, "Are you coming?"

"Nope, I don't need to study, I'm good with what I've got and I don't want to think anymore about school stuff than I gotta."

Sakura nodded and she and Ino instantly both stared at Shikamaru expectantly. He sighed and obliged.

"Fine, we'll use my house."

"Perfect!" Sakura grinned, "You're house is big, so if we pull an all-nighter Ino and I can just pull out some sleeping bags and stay in the living room!"

Shikamaru blinked and stared at them, "Please don't turn this into some all out slumber party at my house."

"Oh, you can trust us."

Shikamaru should've known better than to trust them.

It wasn't exactly the biggest of deals, only a couple other people had shown up, but he was still annoyed. It had started with Naruto, who had scrambled to his door with a pleading look on his face.

"Please let me stay!?" He whined and shifted the books in his hands, "I really need help with my English homework."

"Naruto, you're not even in our class. Hell you're not even in Pre-AP. You take regular."

"All the more reason to get you guys to tutor me!"

"Fine, come in," Shikamaru groaned, and allowed him to stumble through the doorway and run into the living room, where Sakura and Ino had pulled out their books and notes, all cluttering the entire surface area of the coffee table, "But if I catch you and Sakura making out once, I'm kicking you out!"

"I promise that's not why I came!" Naruto grinned, taking a seat beside the Haruno girl. Ino sighed and shook her head.

"So, what happened in chapter one?"

"Well-" ding dong! "Damnit, who the hell is that!?"

The Nara boy, extremely annoyed, turned in his tracks and opened the door once more. He stared incredulously at the visitor. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I got a tip," Sai smiled, spinning his key ring on his left for finger and shifting the books tucked under his right arm, "Mind if I join you?"

Shikamaru couldn't respond and kick him out, because Sai just shoved past him in the doorway and joined the others at the coffee, sitting comfortable beside Ino on the floor. She didn't say a word to either him or Shikamaru.

"Wait, a tip?" Shikamaru asked, "From wh- oh crap."

"What is it?"

"Shikamaruuuuuuuuuu!"

Instantly, a pair of thin arms latched onto Shikamaru's right arm, which was still holding onto the doorknob. Shikamaru looked down at the latest visitor and groaned.

"I told you not to come!"

"I know," Temari pouted, but didn't let go, "But I thought I'd come anyway. It's just a group of friends, right? What harm could it be?"

"Temari," Ino seethed, got to her feet, and joined them both by the door. Shikamaru let go of the doorknob and shut the door with his foot. "Why are you here?"

Temari smiled, "Because he's my lov-"

"Shut the hell up, Temari."

"Aww, don't be shy."

"I said shut up." Shikamaru glared down at her. The Suna transfer student stared up at him in question, accidentally loosening her grip. He easily freed his arm and walked over to the table.

"So, chapter one…"

"I'm bored."

"Well no one asked you to come, Temari."

"But Shika," She pouted and tapped a pencil on the coffee table. She was slumped over, leaning on her arms which were folded on top of the table. "I thought-"

"I told you not to come." He growled, "Now shut up so we can concentrate!"

The group hadn't gotten far within the last hour: there had been too many distractions. Naruto called for a study break every five minutes, during which he kept running into Shikamaru's kitchen and raiding his fridge (Yoshino kicked him out quickly each time, however). When the did work, Sakura would normally have to trail off from concentrating on tomorrows test to help Naruto with his own homework, and when she was finally done she'd have to go back and get Shikamaru to recap everything he had just gone over with Ino and Sai. Sai kept teasing Ino, drawing little cartoons in the margins of her notes frequently and keeping her off task. Ino could barely concentrate since Temari was around, and Temari kept latching onto Shikamaru's arm or waist, each time annoying him more and caused him to stop recapping the book to shove her away. Ino's anger built up with every passing moment of Temari's presence, and the pencil she had broken had to be quickly passed off for just faulty manufacturing.

"Look, we're obviously all having a hard time concentrating," Sai mentioned, setting down his pencil after doodling a heart on Ino's notes, "Why don't we take a break and play a game?"

"We haven't even gotten past chapter one, Sai." Shikamaru stated.

"But it might be just the thing we need to get moving. What do you say?"

"Fine! Whatever." Shikamaru threw his book behind him and shrugged, "I don't give a damn anyway. This whole plan was troublesome in the first place."

"Wonderful, so the game is-"

"Truth or Dare!" Naruto interrupted.

Sai blinked, "No, actually, I was going to say-"

"Truth or Dare." Naruto glared, "That's what we're playing."

"But-"

"Sai, let's just play truth or dare, or Naruto will probably go on a killing spree." Sakura sighed.

"Okay, fine, that works just as well." Sai leaned back onto his hands and surveyed the group, "Who wants to go first?"

"I DO." Naruto seethed.

"Naruto, chill," Sakura patted his shoulder, "He didn't mean-"

"SAKURA!" He roared. She froze and stared back at him in fear. His seething expression from the moment prior instantly turned sickingly sweet with a shiny, toothy smile; "Truth or dare?"

Sakura sighed in relief that he hadn't intended to throw a fit, and leaned back onto the couch behind her, "Dare."

Naruto's grin spread across his face, but as he opened his mouth to speak, Shikamaru slapped a hand onto his mouth and held the index finger of his other hand out to everyone.

"Wait," He said, waiting for Naruto to settle back down before he went on, "Let's establish some rules first." Naruto relaxed back onto the couch and crossed his arms, pouting that he didn't get to choose the dare he wanted to. Shikamaru retreated both hands and eyed everyone at the table, "First of all, nothing homosexual; no one here is kissing or hugging or whatever anyone of the same gender, not in my house." Everyone nodded in agreement, obviously relieved to not have to worry about that, "Second of all, no spilling your deepest secrets or getting all sappy and emo, no one wants to deal with your drama. And lastly, no ones stripping down to nothing but their underwear or less." He narrowed his eyes, "Got it?"

"Way to suck the fun out of everything!" Naruto harrumphed.

"Suck it up; I didn't even want you people over here in the first place." Shikamaru growled, then fell back onto the floor to lie down, "Go ahead."

"Fine. Sakura…" Naruto racked his brain for a replacement dare, looking up to the ceiling for help, "I dare you to…"

"I'm also not watching you two make out."

"Damnit, Shikamaru! Stop ruining everything!"

"Just to spite you," the lazy boy laughed.

"Sakura, I dare you to beat him up." Naruto crossed his arms and growled, "Now."

"Oh, come on Naruto, it's not that big of a deal."

"Do it!"

Sakura sighed and got up from her seat on the floor, walked over to where Shikamaru lay and kicked him with her foot, "Get up."

"You can beat me up just fine this way." He mumbled. Ino couldn't help but laugh. Sakura shrugged, tossed a few kicks especially hard to his stomach and chest before retreating back to her spot.

"There, happy?"

"You were holding back!"

"He's nearly asleep! It's not like he'll beg for mercy, no matter what I do!"

Naruto sunk further down, sliding his legs further under the table, which poked out the other side and created am sort of barrier between Ino and Sai. Sakura looked over to Ino and smiled.

"All right Ino, truth or dare?"

"Dare me!" The Yamanaka grinned, "I always choose dare, it's a requirement."

"All right, cool. Temari, would you be a dear and tell me the status of our lazy bastard over there?"

Temari looked at her strangely first, then leaned backwards towards Shikamaru and checked his breathing, "Fast asleep. You better not be doing what I think you are, Haruno."

Sakura ignored her and pointed at Ino, "I dare you, Ino Yamanaka, to kiss Shikamaru fully on the lips for one minute."

Waaaaah! I'm sorry guys! It definitely took too long to update this chapter! I'm sorryyyyyyyyy!

First of all, I normally type these on my laptop, but the internet doesn't work on it anymore and Word barely works either. I obviously couldn't mail the file to myself and open and finish it on this computer, and I couldn't use my network places because I couldn't access my laptop via this computer or vice versa. So I had to put the laptop on my desk, open up the file and RETYPE more than half of this thing. After that, it was just writer's block.

As for the cliffhanger, I know it doesn't seem like much but locking them in a closet isn't an option when one is fast asleep.

So… don't kill me? That'd be awesome, kids.

EVERY TIME YOU READ WITHOUT REVIEWING, MY HEADACHE GETS WORSE AND SOON GETS SO BAD THAT MY HEAD EXPLODES AND I DIE!

Which in turn, equals me not even being able to write stuff.

SAVE ME, FOLKS!