Naruto jogged down the street, huffing and puffing. He was going to be late on his first day of high school. Otherwise known as the place where dreams come to die. Now, it wasn't bad for the populars*. No, no, for them, it was their kingdom. But see, Naruto was not popular. In fact, he was at the bottom of the social food chain, which meant that this year was going to be hell.

"Not today, dammit!" Naruto thought as he entered through the front doors.

He looked at the clock, which read 7:58. He could still make it. The blonde raced towards his homeroom, attempting to beat the bell. As he rushed into Mr. Johnson's room, the bell rang, and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. He spotted the his homeroom/science teacher, who was a balding man of around sixty. He didn't seem to notice the blonde''s arrival. Scanning the class, he realized that he was the only one not seated. He made a move to sit in the only empty seat at the back of the room, but was stopped by a grunt from the science teacher. Who was currently glaring at him.

"Late on your first day," He looked at his attendance sheet for the only person marked absent,"Mr. Uzumaki? I guess that I'll have to mark you tardy."

"B-but I was in here when the bell rang!" Naruto sputtered out while the rest of the class laughed at the loser who managed to be late on the first day of freshman year.

"But you were not in your seat, so you were not technically here. Therefore you are tardy." The old man rolled his eyes and marked him tardy.

Naruto saw no point in arguing with him, and with a sigh, dropped into his seat. He looked around the room to look at his classmates. He knew a few of them, but none of them were friends. Friends? Who was he kidding. No one here would touch him with a ten foot pole. They were either laughing at him or ignoring his existence. Neither felt too good. It was even worse when he was being publicly humiliated and insulted. They just loved calling him a "loser" and a "waste of space" and who could forget "destined for a dumpster". Naruto was clicking his pen while thinking of lunch time when the intercom broke through the chatter in the room. It crackled a bot before blasting out:

"Welcome students for your first day back or first time at Konoha high school, home of the foxes! I hope you have an excellent year. Now for the announcements." a perky feminine voice said. Naruto groaned and put his head in his hand.

He could already tell this year was going to suck.

Naruto trudged out of the English classroom, thanking whatever god was out there that it was time for gym. He had already survived Mr. Johnson's lecture about lab safety (What were they? six?), Mrs. Belfrey's talk about the importance of being able to understand poems and "decipher" them, and Mr. Orochimaru's reminder of how "Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.'' (Really? This isn't some weird anime.). He was happy to let out his pent up energy in gym and practically ran the entire way there. He wasn't happy about laps, but he was cramped from being in those stupid desks all day.

When Naruto entered the gym, he headed straight for the locker room. Naruto had arrived early and currently had the entire locker room to himself. He pulled of his orange t-shirt and jeans in exchange for the tacky looking gym uniform. Who thought that forcing kids to wear orange and black in gym was a god idea? He had nothing against orange, in fact it was his favorite color, but really? The locker room doors opened and Naruto peeked to see who it was. He froze. It was only the most popular guy in school and the bane of Naruto's existence.

The one and only Sasuke Uchiha. Babe magnet and asshole supreme. Not to mention genius and martial art prodigy.

Naruto hated the guys guts. He hated how everyone loved him. He hated how perfect he was at everything. He hated how girls flocked to him like bees to pollen. He hated how the guy didn't even care about how popular he was. It irked him to no end how the guy thought that everyone else was beneath him. He hated how the girl he loved was in love with a bastard like that.

"I don't even know what they see in that bastard. He isn't even that good looking." Naruto thought with a huff.

Sasuke walked right past Naruto and opened his locker. Naruto turned and glared at his shirt in his hands while the raven changed quickly and left. After that, the locker room filled up quickly. Naruto brushed past the other boys and headed into the gym. Upon reentering the gym, Naruto noticed two things. The first thing he noticed was that the white haired gym teacher was giggling while reading some book. The second thing he noticed was that Sasuke was looking at him. Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, but Sasuke just slowly turned away. When all of the other boys had left the locker room, the teacher sighed and put down his book.

"I am Mr. Hatake and I am your gym teacher. I would have you know I can spot forgery, so do not even attempt to bring me a false doctor's excuse. Anyways, today we will be playing basketball. So pick team captains and sort into teams of two." Mr. Hatake said before, once again, picking up his book and continuing to read.

Half the class cheered while the other half groaned. Naruto was one of the ones who groaned. Team captains meant him getting picked last and he wasn't really good at basketball. Big surprise, Sasuke and Gaara were chosen as captains, who just so happen to be the two most popular boys in school. Neither of which were even aware of Naruto's existence. So yeah, he was definitely getting picked last. All of his previous excitement about gym was gone and replaced with nervousness and horror.

Has He mentioned that he really, really hates high school?

*This is what me and my friend refer to the popular folks as.

This may not be accurate with a high school schedule, but I really don't know. Anyways, please leave a review!