~*~*~*~*Dance Partners*~*~*~*~
Tenten's POV:
I sighed. There were going to try and make me go, however I would refuse. No way in hell I was going! Not even if-
"Tenten, get your ass in the car before I drag you over," Temari threatened.
"God dammit," I hissed, gripping the railing on the porch. "What if I don't feel like it?"
Sakura tugged on the hem of my shirt even harder. Damn she's strong.
"Oh I think you're just a little scared," she huffed, now grabbing my waist.
I narrowed my eyes, still managing to cling to the pole. "Oh yeah?" I challenged. "How so?"
Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't say it . . .
Ino grinned, snaking her arm around my shoulder, before yanking violently. "Hyuu-ga." She whispered in my ear.
The name sent shivers, rocketing down my spine. I jumped up screaming. "Fuck no!"
Temari took this chance to get her lazy fat ass (no she's not really fat) out of her car and haul me away.
"Damn you," I grumbled, finally just allowing myself to be shoved in the car.
Hinata, of course, was already inside. Sakura then sat in the front seat with Temari, while Ino positioned herself in the backseat with Hinata and I.
I moaned. "What movie are we going to see anyways?"
"The Karate Kid," remarked Sakura from the front, pounding her fist gleefully.
Groaning in reply I answered, "Sounds stupid,"
Ino was actually fricken filing her nails. "Well, that's what I said but you should never judge a story by it's cover,"
I sweat dropped. "Don't you mean book?" I suggested. God Ino was stupid.
"Same thing," she replied, not taking her eyes off of her apparently imperfect fingers. I rolled my eyes.
This morning Temari had come to pick us up to go to the movies after my quite lovely therapy session, when both Ino and Sakura (not sure about Hina-chan) "knew" that we were going today. Grr. This pisses me off.
We arrived at Konoha Heights Theatre at like 11 something in the morning and just guess who was there already waiting for us. Oh, you know, Shikamaru, Naruto, Kiba, Sasuke, and our favorite bastard . . . Neji!
"No," I complained. "It's too hard,"
Ino sighed. "Tenten," she advised. "It's not that hard. Just act like you don't remember a thing from yesterday. You're good at that,"
I pressed my forehead against the window. Really I was a good actor, I mean no movies or anything but I could do it; I took a class a couple years ago and technically dancing is acting if you know how to match the mood of a song . . . just like 'My Immortal.' However I didn't think that song would really fit the situation. Too bad I couldn't just do a 'Shut Up and Drive'. Maybe more of a 'Shake It' or something . . .
"Yo guys, what's up?" I chirped, grinning, my friends following behind me.
"You're awfully happy," Naruto observed.
I raised an eyebrow. "You sayin' I'm never happy," I threatened in a low tone.
Naruto raised a laugh. "No."
"Good."
We walked into the theatre, chatting casually and bought our tickets, well, more like Hinata bought them.
Then we also got large tubs of popcorn . . . actually it was really a bucket but the label said 'Bin' and so of course we ordered extra butter, putt a whole lot of crap on it that was probably unidentifiable. I contributed cheese and salt though.
The movie was actually really good. I would've been able to enjoy it more though if there hadn't been the fact that Hyuuga was sitting to the right of me holding one of the popcorns because he was considered "responsible." I laughed silently to myself though thinking about it. The other people who got to hold popcorn were Shikamaru (because he would hog any because he was sleeping the whole time) and Sasuke. None of the girls were chosen.
Anyways, that bastard was sitting next to me. I eyed the popcorn in his lap. It was very tempting. Yes. After I had all of that ice cream the night before I still wanted popcorn.
Dammit Neji.
It's dark-
Shut. The fuck. Up. I don't wanna hear it.
Hehe. Sorry.
Finally I figured, screw it.
"Gimme some of this," I hissed, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bucket on Neji's lap.
He smirked in the dark. "Don't be such a pig," he chided.
"Watch me," then I shoved the handful of delight in my mouth, crunching it obnoxiously.
"SH!" Someone hissed from behind me. I ignored them though. They did not know the kind of pain I was in. Neji. Cynical. Bastard. Doesn't get any worse.
"Hey, you're good that's like . . . American dancing!" A/N Italics are movie stuff
Ino, sitting to my left, chuckled along with me. If hip hop was only American dancing they
We exited the theatre, laughing, crying etc. etc.
"That was really good," I commented. "You were right,"
I threw the popcorn bucket (that I had taken from Neji in the middle of the movie) away.
"Now," Sakura grinned. "Who's up for donuts?"
"Hell yeah!" I cried.
"I'm in," Ino immediately added.
Hinata just sweetly nodded. God I swear. If we said we were gonna jump of a bridge that girl would probably just agree . . .
Kiba sweat dropped. "They're girls aren't they? Shouldn't they like be . . . dieting or something?"
Ino turned to him. Oh god this was not gonna go well. Kiba, if you value your life at any level of . . . value, run . . . away . . . now.
"Dieting? You say?" Ino questioned, cracking her knuckles. "Just what would you, dog, know about DIETING?" She was about to pound his face when Shikamaru grabbed her arm.
"Calm down," He yawned.
Ino stopped what she was doing in question. "Shikamaru?" She asked.
"What?"
"Did you sleep during the entire movie?" She interrogated.
" . . . so what if I did?"
Surprisingly everyone just started laughing and laughing. We didn't even know why it was so funny. Even Sasuke and Neji were chuckling to themselves. Oh well. I do enjoy laughing fits.
"Doughnuts!" I sang happily as we walked together through a bakery. We'd all piled into Temari's car and I have no idea how we all fit. But then, it never occurred to me how the boys got to the theatre. I mean, Temari could drive because she was older than our immature 14 year old selves, but the guys? They were all our age right?
"I'll pay," Hinata said, when we arrived to the counter.
"Hina-chan!" I gasped. "But you bought all of our tickets and the popcorn. Are you sure?"
Hinata took out her platinum edition Visa card. "Of course," she smiled sweetly. "I have unlimited use as long as I'm not buying drugs,"
In my head I guffawed at the idea of Hinata buying drugs.
"Or weapons," she added.
I shook my head smiling. "I love you Hina-chan," I laughed, watching her swipe the card.
The girl at the counter pointed to us all. "Okay, what does everyone want?"
And so it went like this. Naruto that baka, ordered like, and everything doughnut. I guess like the everything bagel but . . . grosser. Ino got the lowfat glazed. Sakura ordered glazed with sprinkles. Hinata got one that had white frosting and I assumed glaze was under the frosting. Shikamaru ordered coffee, haha. Sasuke, got chocolate frosting on a chocolate doughnut. Temari's doughnut was not a doughnut. It was a cinnamon roll. Then I got glazed with white frosting and sprinkles. Neji . . . didn't get anything.
We ate outside at iron tables, carved in shapes of flowers. The sun wasn't really out either. It was pretty cloudy but then again it wasn't rainy. Just cloudy.
I tried to eat my doughnut in small bites to savor it, as did everyone else, except Naruto, who wolfed his down and went with Hinata to get another one.
"Man," Sakura said, licking some of the glaze off. "It's hard to believe we've got time off from dance."
Temari laughed. "I don't know what I'm going to do in a couple of years when I get to old,"
I shook my head. "What are you talking about? Become a teacher!"
Temari pondered this. "I never thought about that, besides college that would be a good job to raise money." she took a bite. "However, in order to teach a line like Moonstones or Jades, I would need to have more experience."
"Oh it's simple," I explained. "Just teach a younger line of little kids like Rubies."
Sakura sweat dropped. "Tenten, do you honestly see Temari teaching little kids without going completely ballistic?"
I sighed. "Not really," then thought some more. "You could teach a regular class of kids who don't do competition," (1)
Temari waved her hand in dismissal. "That would annoy the hell out of me. Those damn brats can't take any discipline."
Silently I agreed, remembering my few times seeing a regular class. I shivered. God no.
Suddenly I bolted up remembering something.
Flashback:
"What's this?" I asked, holding up a note that was posted on the fridge.
"Doesn't matter," Ino grumbled trying to pull me out of the house.
I glanced down at the note, between Ino's random tugging.
Tenten,
Please buy a card for your aunts birthday next week at Stacey's.
-Love, Hannah
Underneath the note was ten dollars. I quickly pocketed the money.
"Where are we going anyways?" I demanded.
"The movies," Sakura replied from outside. "Hurry up!"
I'd completely forgotten.
"Hey guys," I said. "You can wait here but I need to go buy a card for my aunt. Stacey's is like a block away, okay?"
The others blinked. "Okay," Hinata remarked.
Just as I was about to leave, Neji stood up.
"What?" I asked, staring at him.
"I'll come with," he replied, almost as if it was a challenge.
I narrowed my eyes, not even daring to ask why.
If I rejected him right here that wouldn't be my normal self and Ino would probably give me the stink eye.
"Fine fine," I grumbled.
Once we were out of the sight of the others I asked, "Why are you coming with?"
Neji sighed. "Well, if you got kidnapped again that would be troublesome."
"Keh." I crossed my arms. "Troublesome to save me or troublesome because you'd be worried." I glanced at him.
He contemplated his answer before replying. "Both,"
Okay okay I'll admit. Not bad, Neji. You dug yourself out of that one.
"So you would worry," I pried. I didn't even know what the hell I was doing but it was kinda fun.
We turned the corner and continued down the sidewalk.
"Somewhat," Neji answered, his eyes closed. How the hell does he even know where he's going?
"Well that wasn't a straight answer," I mused, giving him a sideways glanced which he successfully ignore, pissing me off. "What if I was killed?" I continued.
Neji now looked at me. "If anyone died that I was close to, it'd be easy to grieve."
I tried to decipher his words. It'd be easy to grieve. Hm. What does that mean. Then I realized that he said close to as in me. I shrugged it off, still not quite understanding.
Finally after a couple of awkward minutes we arrived at Stacey's. I didn't know what kind of store it really was. It was like a cross between Hallmark and Joannes.
We walked around, trying to find the card section, more like I did. Neji just followed me.
When I found it, I skimmed down the aisle looking for humor cards and finally found one that suited Aunt Akira.
"Don't worry Aunty" it said. "You're only old enough to own an antique shop,"
That was the one I chose.
"Stupid humor," Neji commented as I paid for it at the counter.
"Silence," I hissed. I was about to say something more when I noticed the rain pounding hard on the windows. "Well God damn it all," I muttered, tucking the card under my arm.
Neji watched the rain with his pale lavender eyes, as if reading it. He traced the room as if searching for something of aid for us to walk in the rain. However, nothing was found. As I stared at him I wondered if I really did like him. There wasn't that weird, and exciting pounding in my heart when I saw him though, like a crush. It was some sort of admiration and respect I guess. Did I love him? No . . . no way. That can't be possible. He was exactly the opposite of my perfect guy.
"Are you coming?" He finally asked.
I then realized he was standing by the door. Shaking my head, hoping the thoughts would go away, I hurried over.
"Ah, gomen," I smiled slightly.
Whoa! What the hell is wrong with this scene?
He didn't reply. We walked out into the rain. It was nearly impossible to see. And this rain was not nice at all. It was freezing!
For a few times, I missed Neji's glances at me but now I caught when and realized he was concerned.
"Are you cold?" He questioned, failing to mask his growing discomfort of watching me freeze.
"Y-Yeah," I remarked, not even trying to hide it.
He sighed.
We walked on and at times, thinking that we could rest a while in a shop or something but dismissed the idea because it would only mean we would have to go back out in the rain, seeing that there were no signs in it stopping. We were walking slower too.
Just then, my foot caught on the edge of the concrete and I tripped forward. Neji, caught me, his hands around my waist, he whispered. "Klutz,"
I growled, allowing him to put me upright. "If you hate me so much then why didn't you let me fall?" I challenged.
Neji gave me a questionable look. "Who said anything about hate?" He inquired.
"Well, you insult me all the time," I listed.
We both had stopped walking and now were just glaring at each other.
It was hard to see ones face though through the hard rain.
"Do you think I hate you?" Neji asked me.
No. "Maybe," I answered.
Neji raised an eyebrow, or so I thought, God forsake these human eyes.
I stood there shivering, my lips most likely blue.
Neji stared at me for the longest time before saying, "Come on,"
"Huh?" I said intelligently.
Neji grabbed my arm and pulled me around a corner where it was dry; we slumped against the wall.
"It's not healthy to be out in the rain for so long." he advised. "Especially with that attire,"
Hugging my knees to my chest, I looked down at my short shorts and cami, nodding silently.
My entire body was covered in goosebumps.
"However," Neji stated. "It's better than being covered in wet clothes. But you should be wearing a rain jacket."
I raised an eyebrow. "And you shouldn't?"
Neji gave the smallest shrug. "I'm not affected much by cold." he remarked.
I laughed. "That's ridiculous."
Neji looked at me. "Compare me to you," he ordered.
I touched Neji's arm, then mine, then his arm, then mine and realized that he was much warmer.
"Yeah I guess," I sighed.
We waited fifteen more minutes before going back out. The rain was a little light now.
When we arrived back, everyone was packed in Temari's car waiting for us. Neji and piled in with the rest of them.
"Took long enough," Naruto grumbled.
"Shut up, teme," I retorted.
"Hey, you're not Sasuke," Naruto added.
I rolled my eyes, squished between Neji and Kiba, uncomfortably.
I sat in my bed that night after a relaxing warm shower. My phone was resting on my nightstand and I sighed.
In the shower I had pondered for a long time and I now realized that I liked Neji. It was unchangeable. Dammit!
Part of me itched to tell him, just to get it over with. Another part was absolutely terrified because Neji would probably hate me for life if he knew.
I picked up my phone and scrolled through my contacts. Neji Hyuuga.
In the middle of the year I had gotten his cell phone. I don't really remember when but I was with Hinata I think. We text occasionally. Basically it's to tell each other when the next practice is etc. Maybe I'll text him and decide, I thought.
Me: Hey Neji
. . . three mintues
Neji: Why are you texting me?
Me: Can I not text
Neji: . . .
Me: Geez. So um . . . wutz up?
Neji: . . .
Me: Do u ever talk?
Neji: Yes.
Me: Well theres somethin I wanted 2 tell u
Neji: What
Me:What if i cant say it?
Neji: Not my problem.
Me: Wat if it has to do with u?
Neji: I could care less.
Me: But not if u knew what it wuz
Neji: Would I?
Me: Um. Ur makin me nervous.
Neji: Like I said. Not my problem.
Me: God ur stubborn
Neji: Can you get to the point or can I leave?
Me: Um oh ya. I uh ...like you.
I sent the message and immediately shut my fun of and snapped it shut.
"Oh my god, oh my god. What the hell have I done?"
A/N Mwahahahahahaha! I feel extremely evil. Hahaha! So you likey? Yes I like it quite a bit. Well, I have a softball tournament this weekend far away so we're staying in a hotel and my teammates and I . . . elevator tag at 12 AM oh yes! Well anyways I'm thankful for my reviewers! Thanks guys! I love you all! But I really gotta go pack for the weekend! Enjoy your weekend then! R & R!
(1) I help teach a regular class . . . they are the worst. They act so cocky when they're really not that good. Ah. Oh well.
