Author's Note: Hello! I'm currently doing my best to get more chapters up consistently. :) Hopefully this will be finished soon! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story and for all of your great reviews! Again, I'd like to thank my Beta's - MelancholyMadness and TheRamenNoodleGirl - for helping me improve my writing. You guys are the best!

Please let me know what you think!

In art class I had started working on a picture of a cherry tree - something that I had found a picture of online and couldn't resist attempting to paint. I had immediately thought it was beautiful and, since my name meant "cherry blossom", I thought the picture was a fitting project for me. Beside me, Hinata was in a discussion with Deidara about the dimensions of her piece.

"Sakura Haruno," I turned around and Sai - the usually silent boy - was behind me. Something told me he didn't know much about personal space because he was definitely in mine.

"Er, yes?" I replied, taking a step away from him at the same time. I knew that he was one of Ino's friends, but we never really talked. In fact, our interactions hadn't been very polite after he'd called me ugly (it was a long story, he'd actually gotten a lot better at social interaction since then).

"Would you like to get coffee with me sometime?" He asked with very little emotion. "It would be a date, of course."

I suddenly found a good amount of the art class (it's not very big, okay?) staring at me. Sai's question had caught me off guard - I never expected something like this from him, especially after the whole "ugly" fiasco. Ignoring the stares of my peers, I managed a smile. "Sai, you're a great person, but I just want to be friends."

"I see," he scrutinized me for a second, "you really do like Uchiha." He then turned around and walked away.

I heard a giggle beside me. "Don't say anything," I warned Hinata.

"Not at thing," she looked at her painting, hiding a smile.

Rumors of my "brutal" rejection of Sai in Art had spread through the school faster than I had expected. In fact, Ino even called me about it after school.

"Do you have something to tell me?" Her voice was expectant over the phone.

"About what?" To be honest, I had already forgotten about that particular interaction that day.

"About you rejecting Sai in art class!" Ino exclaimed. "I heard it was absolutely devastating for him. Apparently someone found him crying in the bathroom." I could tell she wasn't being serious, she sounded too amused.

"Really?" I answered. "Because I remember him saying something about how I 'really like Uchiha' and returning to his painting."

"No way!" Ino laughed. "He really said that? I was just joking about what I heard - I know they're just rumors. That's what happens when the whole school knows who you are, I guess." Was I really that well-known?

"Oh he definitely said it," I rolled my eyes, even though I knew she couldn't see. Now everyone probably knew that I liked Sasuke, if they didn't already.

"I'm going to have to have a talk with him about accepting rejection." Ever since Sai had transferred in (which was strange in itself because it was in the middle of our senior year), Ino had taken him under her wing to help him integrate into the student body. He really needed it too - Sai was sometimes too blunt. He was really improving though, and he was an amazing artist. Deidara was even impressed enough to let him into Art IV late into the year.

"Please do," I said sarcastically. I didn't care enough to be upset about the situation. Besides, I was sure that Sai didn't mean anything by asking me out. Not anything bad, anyway.

"Hey, before I forget," Ino said suddenly, "what do you want to do for your birthday? I know it's coming up this month."

Oh yeah. My birthday, March 28, was coming up in a week or so. "I'm not sure," I admitted. "Nothing special. Maybe just a small party with you, Tenten, and Hinata." What had I done last year? I couldn't even remember.

Ino pretended to yawn. "Boring, but nice," was her reply.

We talked for a few more minutes and then hung up. I wondered if Sai's feeling had really been hurt. I seriously doubted it - he seemed to still be friendly with me when I saw him after school. I decided not to worry about it.

The day of my birthday, my parents surprised me with a small cake in the morning.

"Happy Birthday sweetie!" My mom beamed.

"It's hard to believe that you're already an adult." Was it me, or did my dad look a little emotional?

"This is great!" I proclaimed. The cake was strawberry - my favorite.

"We have presents for you," Mom said, "but we can wait until after..." she trailed off. "After school of course!" She was acting a little weird. I looked at my dad, who shrugged.

Cake for breakfast meant that the day was off to a good start. I had always been one to downplay my birthday, but secretly I liked it. Even if it was just another regular school day, I felt special. Today was my day. Even though I had never really been one to make a big deal out of my birthday, I still enjoyed it immensely. Especially now that I had my friends back to celebrate it with.

Still, today was a regular school day and that meant that I had to wait until the evening to celebrate with my friends. Ino talked about coming over later with Tenten and Hinata (what we had discussed on the phone), and I got wished a "Happy Birthday" by most of my friends at lunch.

The only one who hadn't wished me a happy birthday had been Sasuke and, although I hated to admit it, I was disappointed. He had seemed kind of distant all day with no explanation.

After school, when I was about to get into my car, I heard someone behind me. "Hey, Sakura!"

I turned around. It was Sasuke, looking relieved for some reason. "Hey," I said. "What's up?"

"Happy birthday." He looked guilty. "I'm sorry I haven't gotten the chance to tell you yet today."

I had been sure that I wouldn't hear from him today, so it was a nice surprise that he had come to find me. Any feelings of disappointment that I had felt before quickly disappeared. "Thanks," I beamed at him.

"I was looking everywhere for you," he continued. "Let me take you to get coffee - my treat, since it's your birthday."

"Only if you insist," I joked. I was actually pleased. It meant something to have Sasuke offer to buy me coffee on my birthday, especially after he had seemed distant all day. Besides, Ino and the others weren't supposed to come over to my house until later that evening. We were just going to eat some more cake and watch one of my favorite movies. I hadn't even planned on doing anything with Sasuke.

He picked me up from my house so we could ride in the same car. He was acting a little strange, but I thought nothing of it. He was probably just trying to be considerate or something.

We pulled up to the coffee shop, not uncommon for us since we had been using it as a meeting place for whenever I needed help with my Vice President duties. The inside was painted with earthy colors and I could hear music from one of my favorite bands playing. I watched as Sasuke walked straight up to the barista and ordered us drinks: a latte for me and black coffee for himself. I was touched that he remembered my order.

"Have you had a good day so far?" He asked politely once we were seated by the window - our usual seat, when we'd meet up to talk about Student Council business. The window was cracked today, so we would occasionally catch a chilly breeze from outside - a nice contrast from the warm environment of the shop.

"It was pretty normal," I replied, "but good."

Sasuke nodded. He was still acting distant, but I wasn't sure why. He was barely meeting my eyes when he spoke.

"Are you okay?" I smiled hesitantly. "You seem a little off today, no offense."

"I'm fine," he responded and took a sip of his coffee. I had always wondered how he could drink it black like that. I loved coffee, but the taste of it alone had always been too much for me.

"Well," I stated, suddenly aware of how small the tables inside the coffee shop were. Occasionally, his knee would brush against mine accidentally. "I'm happy to say that I finally got a venue booked for prom."

"That's great," Sasuke said, sounding amused. "Right before the deadline." He was smirking at me.

"Oh, shut up." I laughed. "At least I got it done. That's not something you could say about your other Vice Presidents." It was true. I had heard from Principal Tsunade herself that no one ever met the due dates for prom. It was a miracle that prom happened at all some years. Come to think about it, that was probably why the class before us had their prom in the gym.

"Is it true that Sai asked you out?" Sasuke's question interrupted my thoughts. I could tell that he was trying to be nonchalant about it, but I knew him well enough to realize that he had been thinking about it all day.

"Maybe," I teased. "Why do you want to know?"

He smirked again. "It's been going around the whole school." Since when was he one to listen to rumors?

"Well," I considered. "I guess I need to set things straight then. Yes, he did ask me out and yes, I did say no. It wasn't as horrible as the whole school would want you to think, though."

"I figured." He looked a little relieved. Was Sasuke jealous? "I've been meaning to ask you something..." He trailed off, refusing to meet my eye.

"Well?" I asked expectantly. "What is it?"

He opened his mouth like he was about to speak, but stopped and suddenly looked at his phone. "I forgot," he sighed, "I need to get my copy of The Canterbury Tales from Ino's house. Would you mind coming with me before I drop you off?"

"That's fine," I answered, forgetting about what we had been talking about before.

Sasuke seemed to have calmed down a little on the car ride back. Had he really just been dwelling on the Sai thing? Was he jealous? I smiled to myself, and looked out the window. He still wasn't talking much, but at least I knew it wasn't because of me.

When we arrived at Ino's house, I noticed that Naruto's car was in the parking lot. "Did he leave something too?" I was just joking, but Sasuke sighed.

I guess I should have been expecting it - I was friends with Ino after all and she wouldn't take no for an answer about throwing parties. I wasn't sure why it came as such a surprise when I saw all of my friends as I walked through the door.

"SURPRISE!" Several voices shouted, and I jumped a little, losing my balance and falling back into Sasuke. Thankfully, he caught me just in time and when I looked back at him I couldn't help but blush. Sasuke met my eyes with an amused look, and I blushed harder. It was like everyone at the party had disappeared for a second - even though I was embarrassed I didn't want it to end. Then, I came to my senses.

"Sorry," I muttered to him once I regained my balance. Hoping that no one else could see how red my face had gotten, I moved to hug Ino. "Thank you for this," I grinned.

Ino's living room had been decorated with pink streamers, with multi-colored balloons that looked like they had been blown up and thrown all over the place. A banner hung across the window that said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" in metallic letters. They must have been setting everything up while Sasuke distracted me.

Everyone that mattered was there - Hinata, Naruto, Tenten, Neji, Shikamaru, and of course Ino and Sasuke. I was flattered that my friends had made an effort to do this, especially since it was in the middle of the week.

"Tenten helped with everything," Ino shrugged. "I actually asked her to help because she's so badass at organizing events already." That was true - I was always asking Tenten for help with prom stuff.

"I hope you don't mind," Tenten smiled. "Your parents said it was okay for us to steal you for your birthday." I thought back to this morning when my mom had been acting funny - she was probably just trying to hide the surprise.

"It's great," I hugged her. "I feel bad for not doing something like this for your birthday!" Tenten's party had been a couple of weeks earlier - Hinata and I had thrown a sleepover party for her with just the three of us, and the next day Neji had taken her out all day.

"You know I don't like surprises," Tenten said, like it was obvious. "Only if it's for other people."

The party, although I hadn't requested it, was actually really fun. It started when Tenten brought out a few supplies: paper, pens, and a bowl.

"What's this for?" I stared at the paper.

"Party games, silly!" Ino answered. "We thought it would be nice to do something other than watching movies."

I shrugged. "Sure."

The first game involved everyone writing down something they liked and disliked on a piece of paper and placing it in the bowl Tenten brought out. Then, once everyone had written something down, we each drew out a paper and had to guess who had written it.

Hinata went first because she was the closest to the bowl. "Hmm..." She studied the paper. "Likes: Football and ramen... Dislikes: Sasuke." She looked at Naruto, who was sitting beside her.

"Why do you think it was me?" Naruto said indignantly, but couldn't help grinning at her.

"You don't really dislike Sasuke," I laughed.

Naruto was next, followed by Shikamaru and then me. When it was my turn, I stared at the paper:

Likes: Chess

Dislikes: Stupid people

"Okay guys," I shook my head, "the 'dislike' could be anyone!" I looked around the room. Naruto's had already been guessed, and so had Ino's. I thought harder about it - who liked chess? "Shikamaru," I guessed.

"You got me," Shikamaru said from where he was sitting next to Ino. He sounded bored.

The rest of the game got harder, with Neji's likes and dislikes (the only people in the room that really knew him well enough to guess were probably Hinata, Tenten, and Sasuke) - not to mention how Tenten completely threw everyone off when she didn't put "sharp objects" as her likes.

"Ha!" She exclaimed, when we all failed to guess hers. "That means I win."

"You can't win this game," Ino insisted.

"Who decided that?" Tenten said. "I always win."

"No," Ino argued, "because if you could win this game I would have."

"Why don't we play another game?" Hinata suggested. I knew she was just trying to avoid an argument.

"Okay," Ino agreed. "Let's play a game that you can win." She gave Tenten and evil look, which Tenten returned vehemently.

The next game was sort of like the newlywed game. Like the name says, it's usually a game that couples (usually newly-married ones) play to see how well they know each other. Since no one at the party was married, we were just going to partner up and answer questions about each other. It suddenly dawned on me that everyone was a couple except Sasuke and me - and I knew that if Ino had any say, I would be paired with Sasuke.

"Hold on," Tenten said. "Let's make this harder. That way, we know that whoever wins is the true winner." She had a scary look in her eye.

"This is just a party game," Hinata tried to keep the peace again. "I don't think we need to-"

"Let's do it." Ino interrupted. "Random partners it is."

We ended up drawing the names of our partners from the same bowl we used for the "likes and dislikes" game. It would definitely be interesting, I thought. Ino ended up getting Naruto, which was probably to her advantage because they were pretty good friends, and Tenten had ended up getting Hinata as a partner. That left Shikamaru paired with Neji, and Sasuke with me (somehow I felt that Ino had managed to do this, even though I couldn't prove it).

Sasuke smirked at me when he pulled out my name from the bowl. "How much do you know about me?" He taunted.

"You'll have to find out, Uchiha." I grinned back at him.

Tenten had a list of questions that she would read from. The objective of the game was for one partner to answer the question and the other to guess what they were going to say. Both her and Ino were deathly quiet - I could see looks of relief on their boyfriend's faces, possibly because they didn't have to be paired with their overly-competitive girlfriends.

"I'll do the guessing," I told him. There was no way he knew more about me than I knew about him right now.

"First question," Ino read from Tenten's notecards. "What is your partner's favorite color?"

"This is just a warm-up," Tenten said. "They get harder."

This was easy, I thought. It was blue of course. Everyone got this question right, so we were all tied.

Like Tenten said, the questions got harder. They progressed to "When is your partner's birthday?" and "What is your partner's favorite food?", until they were ridiculously detailed.

"You've done well so far, Ino." Tenten said. They were tied (having missed a question about their partners each). Sasuke and I had switched a few times, and we had done pretty well. We were behind a little because I knew him better than he knew me (which was to be expected). At this point, everyone was just watching the showdown between Tenten and Ino, because we were all tired of playing. Poor Naruto and Hinata.

"So have you," Ino grudgingly replied. "The next question is... 'When was your partner's-"

"Hello Sakura." I shrieked. Konan was standing beside me.

"This is a surprise," I looked up at her. She was staring down at me with an unnerving smile. "Are you here for any particular reason?"

"It's your name day," Konan replied.

"Hey," I suddenly had a thought. "Does this mean I'm nineteen now, since I've already had an eighteenth birthday before?" It was mostly a joke, but I was sort of curious.

"It doesn't work that way," she said vaguely.

"So do I get anything at least?" I was trying to be funny, but she didn't look amused.

"We do not give material gifts."

"Whatever," I said dismissively. "Can you at least tell me how I'm doing? It's hard to tell with Sasuke sometimes. Like, he seemed jealous in the coffee shop today. I just want to know if I'm getting close at all."

"I cannot say." She was as vague as ever.

Suddenly, I felt enraged. "Then why are you even here?" I glared at her. "I'm trying to enjoy possibly the last birthday I will ever have and you're here to not respond to my questions and remind me that I'm probably going to die in a couple of months! Can't you just be helpful for once!?"

"Your time is running out," Konan said. She looked a little sad, but that could have just been a trick of the light.

"Go away!" I shouted.

"Is everything okay?" Sasuke asked quietly. Everyone else was watching Ino and Tenten, so thankfully they didn't see my expression. "You look... angry."

"Everything's fine," I sighed. "This is the best birthday ever."

Once all of the festivities were over (Ino and Tenten ended up tying in the game - they would have gone on longer if Hinata hadn't insisted on not being able to play anymore) and we'd had cake and opened presents, it was time to go.

"Let me take you home," Sasuke insisted. "It's my fault you don't have a car here."

I said goodbye to my friends, making sure to thank Ino and Tenten especially for planning everything, and then we left.

Once we were in the car, I had a thought. "So this is why you were acting so weird today," I said. "You're usually a lot more collected, Uchiha."

He smirked. "What are you talking about? I distracted you, didn't I?"

I laughed. "You did," I agreed.

"I'm sorry I failed you on the partner game," he was still smirking. "I've never asked you what your favorite book is."

"It's Pride and Prejudice," I responded. "For future reference - you never know. Besides, can you imagine if we had actually won? I would be scared with Ino and Tenten acting the way they were."

To my surprise, he laughed. "I never realized how similar those two are."

"They could be friends," I shook my head, "if they weren't so stubborn." Internally, I was screaming. When was the last time I had made Sasuke laugh? I had missed it so much.

"I wish we could have become friends sooner," Sasuke said suddenly.

"Why do you say that?" I asked. My heart was suddenly beating faster.

He shrugged. We were almost to my house. "I feel like I've known you longer than just this year," he explained. "I just can't help thinking that after all this time, I never knew you."

But you did, I thought, I'm just the only one who remembers. "It's okay," I said eventually. "We're friends now, aren't we?"

He smiled. I had missed his smile. "You're right," he replied. "I should really stop dwelling on the past."

"Maybe that would be for the best," I agreed, secretly wondering if I should be doing the same thing.

When I walked inside, my parents were waiting for me with their own presents. It was really nice, actually. I had missed spending time with just my family because we had all been busy lately. I would miss this, I realized, whether my fate was dying or just moving away to college.

It would be hard on my parents, I thought, whatever happened. I chose not to think about it that night - my birthday had been great, and I wanted to savor it while I could.