A/N: I'm on a role today! Back to school we go. In the story, I mean XD. I've still got another twelve days until I go back to school :P.

Chapter 8: Sleepless Nights

I met up with Neji in the school cafeteria. Surprisingly we were the first ones there. However, there was something wrong with Neji. Even I could see that.

"Are you all right, Neji?" I asked.

Neji looked up at me. His normally dazzling white eyes were dull and looked almost grey. The dark circles under his eyes didn't help that image either.

Neji shook his head. "I'm exhausted. My phone's been ringing nonstop for the last twenty four hours. I've barely slept a wink."

"Aw, I'm sorry." I said in pity.

Neji shook his head. "Don't be sorry. It's my own fault for leaving them with my phone number."

"Oh, so they're calling you?"

Neji nodded.

"Good morning!" Ino greeted cheerfully, plopping herself down beside me. "Whoa, you look bushed."

Neji merely blinked wearily.

Soon enough, the rest of the group joined the table. Neji had his head down and wasn't moving. I wondered if he was asleep.

After awhile, the bell rang and Neji hadn't moved an inch.

I tapped his shoulder. "Neji?"

No response.

I sighed. "Go ahead, guys. I'll get him up."

The group nodded and left.

"Neji, come on we have drama class." I shook him slightly. Yeah, I know that originally we had math in the morning, but the thing is, at our school, we have things called 'weeks'. I think it's so we don't get bored. But every week, our classes flip. For example, week one, I have Math, Drama, English, Gym. In week two, I have Drama, Math, Gym, English. Then it goes back to week one again. Does that make sense?

I shook him a little harder. "Neji!" I hissed.

"Hn?" He lifted his head and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"We have Drama. Let's go." I told him.

He seemed to wake up at this and stood up. People watched us leave. I ignored their stares as we tore off for Drama class.

The first thing Neji did when he went into class was go to the teacher. I don't know what he said, but Miss. Yuhi nodded in understanding and Neji sat down beside me again. He yawned. I resisted the urge to yawn as well.

The bell rang.

"All right," Miss. Yuhi began class. "Today, we will be continuing our tableaux. Who still hasn't written out their philosophies on love and life?"

Most of the class raised their hands.

"All right, I'll give you ten minutes to work on those. After that, I will be explaining the tableaux."

Neji and I pulled out our papers and propped them on our binders.

"Do you have yours, Neji?" I asked.

Neji shook his head.

I sighed and looked at my page. I thought about life. What was life to me? Slowly it began to form in my head. I just didn't know how to put it in words. Finally, I began to write.

Life is something many people take for granted. They think they'll wake up every morning and know there will be a tomorrow. But can you really be sure? When it comes down to it, I believe that life is something that should be treated with wonder and respect. Live every moment like it's your last, because that's the only way to truly get through life. Smile every second, live with no regrets, keep your bonds strong.

I read it over. It was so cheesy! I did not want to share this with someone.

"Huh...interesting..."

"NEJI!" I cried. "Don't read over my shoulder!"

Neji smirked at me. "Sorry. If it makes you feel better, I'll let you read mine."

"But I never wanted you to read mine." I protested.

Neji sighed. "That doesn't mean I don't feel the same way." Neji took his hands off his paper. "Take it if you want before I change my mind."

I smirked and snatched it off the binder. I watched him for a few seconds before reading it. He did look uncomfortable. Good. That satisfied me. I began to read.

I believe that life is always what you make of it. Just like a rollercoaster, life hurtles you along a set path giving you thrills, chills, and everything in between.

I looked at Neji. "Do you believe in fate or something?"

Neji looked at me. "No. I believe in destiny."

I looked back down at the writing. "Well, I don't think life is like a rollercoaster." I handed his page back. "If there was a set path to life, I believe it would be a train. In the end, you arrive at the same destination, but the way you go is determined by the knobs you pull along the way to change your route."

Neji gazed at me. "That makes more sense than mine." He scratched his head. "That's actually what I was trying to get at." He laughed.

I looked down at my page and began to think about what love was. I smiled as it came to me faster than the life philosophy.

Love is something that gives your life meaning. Whether it be friends, family, or an affection for a certain someone, love gives you the strength to go on in life even when things get hard.

I smiled in satisfaction.

Neji looked frustrated.

"Can't think of anything?" I asked.

Neji snorted. "I've never thought about love in a deep way before. I have no idea what it is to me."

Once the ten minutes were up, Miss. Yuhi began explaining what the philosophies were for.

"We're going to do a long tableaux that will be presented to a class if you want. But you guys know what tableaux is now. I want you all to create a set where you will all be posing in representation of what your philosophies are. You guys will be ordered by number through the class and when your time comes, you will do your part and go back into tableaux."

So that was the blunt explanation. A few people groaned in annoyance at the fact they had to tell their philosophies, but soon got over it.

Our numbers were given out in the circle and we did one quick non tableaux run through of the skit. Naruto's made the room kill ourselves laughing.

"Life is like a chocolate bar." He stated simply. "You eat it up, gradually getting to the last piece. Once you're there, you wonder 'where did it all go?' Then you try to savour every last bite until it's gone."

The class applauded at that one. Then Sasuke stepped in to take the stage.

"To me, love is like a pineapple. It's sweet at first then it just gets sour." Sasuke stated bluntly.

The class howled with laughter. Naruto slapped Sasuke on the back.

"I wonder what Sakura would say to that." I whispered to Neji.

Neji laughed. "She'd take it personally. But have you eaten pineapple before?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It is sweet at first, and then in comes the tang."

"It makes you want to take another bite." Neji snorted.

I burst out laughing. If that's what Sasuke was trying to get at, then I'd probably die laughing.

When the bell rang again, I dashed off to math class, still sniggering internally about Sasuke's philosophy on love.

.oOo.

Sakura burst out laughing just like I knew she would. Sasuke merely went pink in the face. It was lunch time.

"A PINEAPPLE?" Sakura cried. She gently punched him repeatedly on the shoulder. "You're so funny, Sasuke-kun!"

"It's true." Sasuke muttered. "It's sweet at first, but it gets sour."

"Then what?" I asked.

Neji snorted and smirked.

Sasuke frowned and looked at me. "What?"

"Then what do you do?" I asked.

He frowned further.

"What do you do when the pineapple gets sour?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I never thought that far."

"You should've." Neji laughed.

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

Neji smirked. "Because when I eat a pineapple, I love it when it gets sour and I just want to take another bite so I can taste it again."

The whole table erupted in laughs. Ino had her head on the table and was clutching her gut. Naruto was slapping the table. Sakura was killing herself laughing while unintentionally leaning against Naruto. Sasuke looked like he was going to faint.

"That was SO not what I was trying to get at!" He cried.

"Whatever you say, Sasuke," Neji laughed. "Whatever you say."

Sakura put her arms around Sasuke. "I love you Sasuke. You're so funny."

"This was what I was trying to get at." He muttered.

"Oh, Sasuke. Don't be mean." Ino laughed.

Sakura let go of Sasuke and continued to eat her lunch with a grin on his face.

"So, Neji, are you always this funny?" Naruto asked.

Neji shrugged. "I make people laugh at times when I'm not trying, so maybe."

"So, are you still tired Neji?" I asked him.

"Not right now. But I will be later." He said simply.

"What happened anyway?" Ino asked.

"Too many phone calls." Neji said simply.

"Ah..." Ino sighed.

We eventually moved on to our next classes. Joy to gym class! We were starting Ultimate Frisbee today. We went outside with a bunch of Frisbees and ran two laps around the track.

.oOo.

Neji couldn't say how many times he cursed in my head today. He wasn't usually one to swear, but when he got agitated, he got a sharp tongue. As Neji ran those two laps Mr. Guy ordered the class to run, he was doing just that. There's just something so soothing about the sound of the 'F' word when you're in a bad mood. Even if you say it in your head.

"NEJI!"

Neji cursed again. Just the wrong person he wanted to hear from. It was Rock Lee. What kind of a name was that anyway? Unbelievably, he idolizes the gym teacher. And by idolize, Neji meant IDOLIZES! Neji wouldn't be surprised if he had a shrine erected in his bedroom dedicated to Mr. Guy.

"What do you want?" Neji asked the bowl haired boy.

"Let us race!"

"Hell no." He spat.

"PLEEEASE?"

"NO!" Neji cried. Not knowing what else to do, he picked up the pace. Rock Lee caught up in half a second.

Annoyed, Neji dropped back by at least two meters. That was fun. It even got him away from Lee. Seriously, the guy was a whole new stage of crazy. And Neji thought fan girls were the worst.

"Hey, Neji!"

That's better.

"Hey, Tenten." Neji sighed.

"How's the running?"

"Don't even start."

Tenten laughed. "So, Sasuke said his brothers coming home this weekend. We're going to go hang out at his house this weekend. Are you going to come?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"So, are you and Itachi friends or something?"

Neji blinked. "What makes you think that?"

Tenten shrugged. "Well, just how he defended you against your uncle. You seem like you're friends."

Neji smirked. "Yeah, we've worked together a lot. I guess you could say we're friends. We get each other's backs because we're technically in the same boat."

"What do you mean?"

"Everybody wants me to be in their movies the same way they want Itachi to do their CGI. Basically, we understand each other and back each other up when we can't take it anymore."

"I see."

"Plus, Itachi's hilarious, so I don't see anybody not liking him."

Tenten laughed. "How hilarious is he?"

"Well, the most I can say now is that his four favourite words are 'Fire in the hole'."

Tenten laughed harder. "What about his friends? Sasuke mentioned a Deidara."

Neji snorted. "That guy is off his nut."

Tenten giggled. "How so?"

Neji shook his head. "I can't explain it in words. Just know, he's completely insane."

Tenten laughed. "What does he do?"

"What do you mean?"

"What does he do...in the special effects thing."

"Oh. He does all the pyrotechnic stuff. Like explosions, fires, stuff like that. He also choreographs stunts, and that can get completely insane at times."

Tenten laughed. "Who else is there?"

"Well, there's Sasori. He does all the mechanical stuff, like robots and puppets."

"Cool!"

"And last, there's Shikamaru. He sits up in the same office as Itachi. They work on the same films together. You can't get one without the other."

"What does Shikamaru do?"

"Backgrounds and environmental CGI. For example, he does cliffs and valleys, as well as creates giant waves with the assistance of Itachi due to his attention to detail. They work together on everything, so it's sometimes hard to tell which of the two did what."

"If you were to guess who did what, what would you guess?"

"I would guess that Shikamaru did the layouts, and Itachi added the details. It's after that that they create the movement together. When they work like that, they can create a giant wave in a matter of hours."

"That's really cool."

"You haven't even seen them work yet!"

Tenten laughed. "I'm sure I will soon."

Neji smirked. She had a point.

.oOo.

English class was totally uneventful. English class always is uneventful. Well, the first day was eventful with Mr. Hatake's reading material. But really. English class is BORING. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love reading and writing, but English class just ticks me off... We get to read depressing stories! WHEE! Sorry, I'll stop now.

Something landed on my desk. It was a folded note. I glanced at Neji to see him smirking at me before we returned to our books.

I flipped it open and read under the desk.

Mr. Hatake has a zit on his eyebrow. I looked up at the teacher and sure enough, there it was. I tried not to laugh audibly as I scribbled a reply.

XD lol Neji. You're too observant for your own good.

I tossed it back to him. He sniggered at my reply, but didn't write anything back. Ah, high school. You can't get enough of it.

A/N: Yeah I admit it, I'm just writing filler chapters right now XD. Deal friends! :D :P I think I'm going to skip the next few days of school and just go to the weekend, because weekends are fun, right? :).