"No idiot. I'm saying that's a theory Sigmund Freud proposed—it has to do with the psychosexual development in childhood, ya know, the five stages we talked about in class Monday?" Her shoulders hit the wooden library chair, the long strands of hair falling down her back. She shakes her head in defeat as she earns another look of utter confusion from the blonde across the table from her. She sighs, running her manicured hands through the hair framing her face.
"I hate this class. Do I really need it?" He whines, crossing his arms as he sits back in his chair as well. His spindly legs extend under the table towards his partner-in-crime and study buddy. Her feet rest comfortably and still as he flaps his legs side to side, his feet flopping on either side of hers, trapping them between his.
"Yes. It's a social science credit for you. Besides it's not half bad. Sure, Professor Ibiki is strict on deadlines but maybe if you wouldn't stay out all weekend, you'd get your work done by the Sunday due dates." She closes her laptop and puts it into her bag, kicking his shin with her foot in the process causing him to grunt. "Besides, Shikamaru already took this class and sent me his notes which I'm tempted not share with you."
"Sakuraaa, seriously? You've had his notes the past month and haven't shared? I've had to take my own notes." He gets up from the table throwing his backpack on his shoulders, waiting for her small form to stand up as well. She rolls her eyes, standing up and putting her backpack on as well. Her phone vibrates, the group chat with Ino, Tenten, Neji and Shikamaru full of gifs. She scrolls through the messages she's missed as they walk out of the library and towards the science building across campus.
They enter the lecture hall and take their seats in the second row towards the middle of the room, the perfect seat to take notes in Sakura's case, and watch the latest basketball highlights for Naruto. They make themselves comfortable and his black hoodie moves into the seat next to Naruto. Sakura rolls her eyes; her distaste for the Uchiha painted on her face as she mugs him; her eyes moving down his body as he gets his notebook out ready to take notes. He gets into a one-sided conversation with the blonde right next to her, causing her to 'hmph' and pull out her phone finally replying to the group chat.
Professor Ibiki walks in and as usual, Naruto watches basketball highlights while Sasuke writes his notes neatly; spaced evenly across the lined paper and Sakura quickly taps her keyboard, her eyes not once glancing down at the keys. As class wraps up, Professor Ibiki reminds the class of the assignment and discussion posts due by Sunday at 11:59pm and the group project due at the end of the semester. Sakura packs up her things quickly, not wanting to engage in an awkward exchange with the Uchiha.
It's not that she hates him, in fact it's probably about two notches below that. She's cordial around him for the sake of Naruto, and that's pretty much it. When she moved to town when she was 8, Naruto was her first friend naturally; his thundering and gregarious personality radiated happiness for miles. It was no surprise he befriended every child in the school, even the young Uchiha with his guarded and unemotional demeanor; how the two were friends always floated to the top of her thoughts, they were opposites. Look at her and Sasuke; ever since she moved to town, they've been rivals, unsung enemies.
It all started on the playground when she asked if they wanted to play on the swings; Naruto was quick to agree, and Sasuke reluctantly agreed because sitting in the grass picking the flowers was only so much fun by oneself. The only problem with the three of them playing on the swings was the two swings; Naruto took one and Sasuke headed towards the other, causing young Sakura to huff.
"Sasuke! Ladies first!" She crossed her arms, watching the two boys swing through the air together.
"I don't see any ladies." Was all the boy said, causing her face to turn red and imaginary smoke to blow out her ears. She huffed again and turned on her heel and sat in the grass behind them, waiting for her turn she transformed the clouds that dotted the blue sky into as many animals as possible. 'Stupid boys' she thought 'especially ones who don't know what a brush is.'
The science fair when they were 12 really confirmed her dislike for the Uchiha; she had encounters with the boy that sprinkled annoyance towards his existence here and there, but the science fair really set her off. Learning was exciting and an escape for Sakura and science excited her in a way no other subject did. After hours of research, preparation, planning and finally construction her project was finished, and it was her pride and joy.
Sakura, equally fascinated and disgusted by the smell of the gym decided to take samples with cotton swabs off multiple surfaces around the school to show how dirty the surfaces were and to advocate for better cleaning procedures for the sake of everyone. Her findings were what she expected, and she had plenty of evidence in Petrie dishes to help support her cause. Sasuke, being good at everything especially showing Sakura up it seemed like, decided to build a solar oven, and showcase the power of the sun. And of course, to bring people over to his booth and steal everyone's attention, he had a plate of cookies baked in an actual oven as a tasty snack as he explained his project to the judges. He got first place to Sakura's dismay.
High school was an all-out war between the two, an invisible rivalry to the world but an everyday battle between them. Sakura joined the debate and robotics teams, Sasuke was on the basketball team with Naruto and due to Naruto's negligence to study, he was threatened to be kicked off the team almost every semester. Sakura being his best friend, tutored him after school in the library when she didn't have any club obligations and of course Sasuke tagged along. Her way of tutoring Naruto was different to his, so a fight typically ensued after 30 minutes leaving both red in the face and huffing at each other, leaving Naruto to break the tension with a joke about how they should 'just get together already' and 'everyone knows you two have liked each other since we were 8' which only caused the two to gang up on him.
They fought for the best grade or rather, Sakura would get her grade back and Sasuke would slip his paper across the table, and she'd ball her hands in fists, squinting at the boy as he shrugged and continued to work. It infuriated her, how smug he was; he played basketball with Naruto and was the captain of the varsity team their last two years of school and he still kept his perfect GPA up. He never asked questions in classes they shared, and he always finished his homework before she could even get through half the assignment with Naruto when she tutored him. It also didn't help how good he looked while he did everything and that was probably the most annoying thing about him.
The way his eyebrows smushed together when he was trying to solve for 'x', or when he would bite his lip as he tried to articulate his thoughts for an essay. She'd never admit he was cute, because that's all he was, cute. His annoying personality, always competitive and arrogant as he did anything; he knew he was cute which made him not cute.
Graduation night was a little better, she was valedictorian with Shikamaru but being the lazy ass, he was and still is, he declined to speak at the ceremony because that would require him to actually do work and write a speech. A low grade his sophomore year caused Sasuke's GPA to drop lower than hers, and that was all she needed that night. To her surprise, he congratulated her, in his weird emotionless voice. She thought he was taunting her in some sick, twisted way.
She hoped that night would be the last time she ever had to see the boy. Sure enough, as she moved into her dorm freshman year Sasuke ended up on the floor above her, his roommates none other than Naruto, Neji and Lee. Of course, their freshman year Naruto got them into all the parties and sometimes, he would tag along. He wasn't as annoying as he was growing up, but he was annoying enough. Sakura would catch him staring at her sometimes, making her self-conscious and she'd eagerly pull her skirt down quickly to further conceal her exposed thighs—he'd just smirk and look away as he'd take another swig of his beer.
It also didn't help they ended up taking a few of the same classes, just basic gen eds everyone had to take and of course they ended up in the same class, on the same day, with the same professor. It wasn't bad, he sat across the room from her, and they ignored each other, that was until the discussion posts. She always made a post early to get it over with, and then later in the week she'd come back to make her 2 required responses and sure enough on every single post, Sasuke Uchiha was the first to respond to her post and every single time he disagreed. Every. Single. Time.
"He's doing it on purpose!" She screeched in frustration, Ino and Tenten sitting on their beds with their homework spread out around them. The girls agreed, theorizing his reasoning for it. The only theory they could come up with—Sasuke Uchiha is an ass. An annoying ass. Sakura wanted to punch something and Tenten quickly threw a pillow towards the fuming girl, telling her to scream into it instead to save them all from having to pay a hefty damage fee at the end of the year; Ino and Tenten listened to muffled screaming for a solid five minutes.
Sophomore year and he's still annoying, even more so or maybe it's because it's not just him and her; you add Naruto in and there's irrefutable tension. Always grumpy, always detached, always… like Sasuke Uchiha. With the three of them taking Introduction to Psychology together it meant they spent more time together, at least more than she liked but being the good friend that she is, she smiles and puts up with the sarcastic remarks, cold, lingering stares, and weekly discussion responses laced with taunting disagreement.
Sakura walks back to the dorm alone, wanting to escape her busy Wednesday schedule. She makes her way up the stairs to her room and unlocks the door; a snoring Shikamaru in Ino's bed greeting her eyes. She discards her backpack and sets her laptop up at her desk, checking her planner and looking at the assignments that are due later in the week. She scrolls through the discussion post in the intro to psychology class she just escaped from and sure enough a notification reading 'Sasuke Uchiha commented on your discussion post' pops up. She clicks the window and reads his comment:
'I disagree. I think Freud's theories were and still are influential in the field and despite your personal beliefs, can still be studied but due to how controversial they are and the lack of scientific evidence to support such theories, we will not. It is hard to analysis something when there is nothing there to analysis. As we discussed in class the Oedipus complex— how can we scientifically test something involving one's libido if everyone's different?'
Rage. All she feels bubbling in her muscles and boiling through her bones is rage and all she wants to do is punch something, or rather someone in the face. His irritating face smothered in satisfaction appears in her mind; she's seen it so many times: when he won the class spelling bee when they were 10, when he correctly guessed the number of candies in the jar in the library when they were 14. He knew how to push her buttons then, acknowledging her a little more than usual through intense and prolonged eye contact, offering her words of encouragement and congratulating her on coming in second or what really riled her up- offering her help on a math problem when they were 13 because he saw she had missed one on the quiz.
She shuts her laptop and calmly presses her eyelids together, inhaling and exhaling as she thinks about happy things like kittens and puppies and not Sasuke Uchiha. Her phone vibrates and she looks at the text on her screen, her mood immediately turning sour again. Due to being in the same friend group for years they ended up with each other's numbers at some point which was hell years ago but as they got older, they never texted each other unless it was to check-in and see if the other had seen their blonde friend.
'Library at 6 tonight' she stares at his message, weighing her options of not showing up and letting the two do research on their own and possibly getting a bad grade or showing up and dealing with 'Mr. Grey Skies All the Time'; she should probably go. She sighs, getting up from her desk and flopping backwards onto her bed.
"Intro with Ibiki?" Shikamaru's raspy voice asks, he's on his side facing her, his hand propped under his head as he lazily stares at her across the small space. She groans and he chuckles; that's enough confirmation for him. Her phone vibrates again, and she brings the phone to her face.
'And don't think about skipping'
She grabs one of her Squishmallows and screams into it, letting all the frustration flow into the soft, pink, plush body of the axolotl.
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a/n: ive had this sitting in the arsenal so i figured id just upload it. i love sasusaku being academic rivalssss hehe. anyway im hoping to update TTAPP and OGAP tomorrow or the day after. love yall showing my writing love it makes me so happy. ok bye.