She brushed her hair as she sat in front of her vanity mirror. The first day of high school was a big step for a girl to undertake, it was like a leap into womanhood. It wouldn’t be long before she’d be driving, then she’d get a job, then partying, then she’d be attending college, and then she’d be her mother. Scrunching her nose up at the idea, she continued brushing her bubblegum pink hair until all the knots and tangles were undone. Grabbing a tube of her favorite lipgloss, she lightly dabbed it on.

“Sakura! You’re going to be late!” her mother yelled from the kitchen. The fourteen year old sighed and rolled her green eyes as she stood up from her vanity mirror and ran over to her closet. “Did you hear me, Sakura?”

“Yes mom!” Sakura shouted as she grabbed uniform and quickly slipped it on over her slender body. Fixing the pleats of her skirt and the collar of her blouse, Sakura tied the blue tie into a nice neat knot. She grabbed her knee high snow-white socks and pulled them on. Nodding to herself Sakura, turned and grabbed her beige courier bag and left her room. This was it, she was only thirty minutes away from taking one of the most important steps of her social life. Sakura didn’t know what it would be like, but she was thinking it would be amazing. All the magazines and books she had read over the summer told her high school was the greatest moment of your life.

When she came into the kitchen, her mom put her plate on the breakfast bar and poured her some orange juice. Thanking her mother, she quickly scarfed down her toast with strawberry jam. Shoveling the scrambled eggs into her mouth, Sakura picked up her glass of orange juice and chugged it. Her mother gave her a look of disapproval and shook her head in annoyance. Mumbling an apology before letting out a small burp, Sakura rushed to the front door to slip on her shoes and head out to the bus stop. Sitting down by the front door, Sakura slipped on her shoes and stood up taking on last look in the small mirror they had up front. Clean uniform, polished shoes, nicely combed hair, white smile, and her school supplies that was about as good at the bubblegum haired girl was going to get.

“Have a good day Sakura, make good choices!” her mother called as Sakura opened the door.

“Okay, I will! See you this afternoon,” she shouted back just before closing the door. The morning sun warmed her skin and the dew on the grass gave the air a crisp feeling. Taking in a deep breath, Sakura started walking down to the end of her street where the bus stop was conveniently located. As she was walking she saw a few other students gathered at the end of the street. “Just smile and be friendly.” Sakura had been giving herself countless pep talks the last two weeks of summer and still none of them seemed to be helping much.

The roar of the bus engine sounded and Sakura gasped as it pulled up beside the few students. Yelping, Sakura waved her hands in the air in hopes to get the bus drivers attention. She started running and made it by the time the last student had climbed on. As she climbed up the steps of the yellow limousine, Sakura freaked out for a moment at the number of students. She almost couldn’t find a seat from all the students leaning about and flailing their arms while telling stories about their summers.

“Um, may I sit here?” Sakura asked politely to a girl with two buns in her hair. The brunette looked up at Sakura for a moment and scooted over to make room. Thanking the girl, Sakura took a seat and the bus started rolling down the street. In the next ten minutes she would be an official high school student.

“You’re new aren’t you?” the brunette beside her asked.

“Yeah, I’m a freshman.” Sakura nodded.

“I can tell, you look nervous,” she chuckled with a roll of her brown eyes. This girl seemed friendly enough and was very beautiful on top of that. She probably had a boyfriend and lots of friends, she was probably a popular girl. “You shouldn’t be though, it’s just school.”

“Are you new? I mean that’s a dumb question, but you seem like you got it all figured out.” Sakura had laughed a bit at her own words, but the girl beside her just stared at her with a raised brow.

“I’m a sophomore and I was just like you, high school isn’t what you think it is,” she explained. “It’s actually much worst.”

“What do you mean?” Sakura asked completely confused by the girl’s insinuation.

“I mean boys are trouble, girls are backstabbers, classes are hard, and school lunch food is disgusting,” the brunette looked like she was imagining her first day at high school, she would probably be a good friend to have. Someone who knew the ropes, knew where everything was, and she probably even knew who was who. “You’ll see what I mean, by the way I’m Tenten.”

“Thanks for the advice, Tenten,” I said with a weak smile. “I’m Sakura, so any tips on how to avoid any dangerous first day mistakes?”

Tenten laughed and looked out the window as we pulled up into the school’s bus drop off area. She stood up and slung one backpack strap onto her back, and Sakura did the same. “Yeah stay out of everyone’s way.”

They began filing off the bus and when Sakura stepped onto the sidewalk and looked up at the school, her heart started beating uncontrollably. Up ahead in the courtyard, she heard hundreds of student chattering about their summers and classes. Swallowing hard, Sakura slowly began staggering up towards the courtyard. This was very terrifying, she didn’t know anyone and there were so many people. Surely there had to be someone she knew of from middle school or from her neighborhood.

“Hey Sakura,” Tenten called, walking up beside her. “Just breathe, that’s the first step to surviving high school. Welcome to Leaf High.” Tenten patted her on the shoulder and walked off, leaving Sakura all alone in a sea of high school students. She was about to protest, but Tenten had disappeared so quickly within the crowd. Not knowing what to do, Sakura pulled out a piece of paper from her bag. She had wrote down her first class and the room number. Figuring she should head inside the massive building, Sakura ventured inside the school’s hallways.

“Just breathe, okay,” Sakura muttered to herself as she tried to find her English class, room number 124. Obviously it was a first floor class, now she just had to find the twenty-four part. As she walked down the hall, she saw the numbers going higher and higher with every room she passed. Finally she came to the last room before she’d have to go around a corner. Entering the classroom, Sakura saw only a few students scattered around the room. She took in a deep breath and walked to the first aisle of desk third seat from the front and three seats from the back.

“Don’t look so nervous,” a soft voice came from two rows over. Sakura looked over and started laughing upon seeing her elementary school friend, Hinata Hyuga. The pink haired girl instantly felt ten times better than before. “Isn’t that what you used to tell me?” Sakura was surprised by Hinata. Before she was the shy, stuttering, sheltered girl, but now she seemed more confident and eloquent. Her hair was still short like it used to be, her eyes had a vague hint of a warm lavender hue, and her skin was like a porcelain doll’s.

“Wow, you look so different,” Sakura laughed lightly, brushing her pink hair behind her ears. It was good to see Hinata so happy and confident, she was really shining. “I didn’t even recognize you.”

“Well it’s been three years or so,” Hinata said with a soft smile. “You look the same, just older.” It was a compliment, Hinata always thought Sakura was a pretty girl and her hair made her so unique, but it was her torment for the longest time. Hinata told her that having pink hair was the coolest thing cause everyone would always know who she was, but Sakura thought that was a bad thing.

“I can’t even believe we’re freshman,” Sakura commented, twiddling her thumbs. “Can you?”

“No way, I’m excited, but scared and I don’t know,” Hinata smiled and stood up, walking around the desk to sit in front of Sakura. “I want to join some good clubs and makes lots of friends, you know?”

“You bet I do, I feel the same way,” Sakura agreed with a laugh. While they were talking about being high schoolers, the bell rang and all of the seats in the classroom were filled. Not even a minute later a woman with warm red eyes and long wavy black hair came inside. All the students quieted down as she put her stuff on her desk and looked amongst the students.

“I’m Kurenai Yuhi, I’m your homeroom teach were you will spend fifteen minutes every morning,” she explained while pulling a stack of papers out of her bag. “I have here your schedules, lockers, and your club signup sheets that you will turn in during your lunch period.” She showed the students the large stack of papers.

“Hopefully we’ll have lunch or a class together,” Hinata whispered to Sakura, who nodded in agreement and crossed her fingers, wishing the same. Kurenai was calling out students names and finally got to the H’s.

“Haruno?” Kurenai called, causing Sakura to lift up her hand and reach for the papers. She opened the small folder that was filled with a dozen sheets of papers along with her locker and it’s combination. Her green eyes landed on a yellow colored paper and saw it was her classes she would have for the year.

“I have fourth period lunch,” Sakura said, looking up at Hinata.

“Hyuga,” Kurenai called out and Hinata held up her hand, taking the folder of papers. Hinata quickly opened hers and dug for the yellow paper and smiled, seeing she and Sakura had the same lunch period. Both girls were excited and gave each other quiet high-fives. It didn’t take much longer for Kurenai to finish handing out the folders. Once she had finished, she told everyone to go over the paper work and to make sure everything was correct and once they had finished that they could wait for the bell and go onto their next class.

“Any classes together?” Sakura asked, placing her schedule next to Hinata’s.

“No, just homeroom and lunch,” Hinata said sadly. “We have the same teachers though.” She pointed at some of the teachers names and Sakura nodded in agreement.

“We can help each other at least,” Sakura said with a smile. The bell rang a few seconds after she spoke and everyone quickly started exiting the room. The two girls stood up and walked out into the hallway, both of their classes were on the second floor, so they started walking towards the stairs together.

“Well I’ll see you at lunch, wanna meet by the cafeteria doors?” Hinata asked once they got to the top of the stairs. They both stepped off to the side to avoid being in the way and being shoved by rushing students.

“Sure thing, I’ll see you then,” Sakura waved to her and Hinata nodded before walking off to find her next class. Once again Sakura was alone and had to go it alone, but she felt better knowing Hinata would be there for her at lunch. Out of everything, sitting alone at lunch is what scared Sakura the most.

Looks like things were going to be a little easier than she was excepting and that was something she was really grateful for. Turning on her heels, Sakura started going down the hall in the opposite direction to her Literature class.

Even though it was only the first lunch out of the two that there were durning the day, Ino Yamanaka was amazed by the large amounts of students running around the courtyard and cafeteria area. She was having a great first day so far, it was a good thing she was apart of the dance team project during the summer. It basically put her on the team and gave her some friends for the first day of high school, it was similar to the boys football team. Her blonde hair bounced on her back as she walked across the courtyard and even though she’d made quite a few friends, she had found anyone she knew yet.

“So is high school everything you dreamed it would be?” a raspy voice came from behind her and the blue-eyed girl turned around. She smiled weakly upon seeing her childhood friend Shikamaru. They didn’t talk very much, in fact if they weren’t neighbors and their parents weren’t such good friends they’d probably completely ignore each other. Brushing her blonde fringe out of her face, Ino popped one hip out and gripped her purse strap. “Obviously it is, you aren’t crying.” Shikamaru snickered at his own joke. When Ino got stressed the waterworks always came on.

“Very funny, and yes it is,” Ino said snootily, causing Shikamaru to raise his brows and laugh lightly. He always knew she’d be one of those Queen B’s of the school when she got their. “And you’re still a loser.”

“Give me a break,” Shikamaru retorted with a roll of his hazel eyes. Ino would like Shikamaru if he wasn’t so lazy and was a little more buff. He was scrawny, lazy, and annoying to her. If they hadn’t grown up together she probably wouldn’t be able to handle him. “For a loser, you sure do like keeping me around.”

“You’re my neighbor, not exactly easy to ignore you,” Ino muttered with a roll of her eyes. Shikamaru scoffed and started walk and Ino followed after him. “Ok, I’m sorry we can be friends. This is high school, time to grow up.”

“Yeah we’ll see how that works out,” Shikamaru muttered as they walked towards the canopy for students who wanted to eat outside. Ino looked around, trying to see if she could find anyone else she knew aside from Shikamaru. She liked the boy, but she didn’t really want to be stuck with just him. “You can go, you don’t have to sit with me.”

“I know, but I don’t see anyone else I know.”

“Oh and here I thought you were staying for me,” Shikamaru commented with a roll of his eyes. Ino got a bit huffy and puffy, but she let it go and plopped down on the bench of the wooden table. The pineapple head chuckled and pulled out his cellphone to call some people, unlike Ino he’d rather call instead of wait impatiently.

----------

Meanwhile inside the cafeteria there was a bit of a disturbance. Sakura and Hinata had both located each other with ease and were currently in line to get some food, but things took a turn for the worst when two jokesters accidentally and unintentionally messed with an upper class-men. Sakura’s eyes darted back and forth as chocolate milk split down the back of the redheaded upper class men. He had moved so quickly and Sakura gasped when she was practically thrown against the wall by the huge football player. Hinata had her hand over her mouth and was shaking her head.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the bulky redhead growled as he grabbed the spiky-blonde haired boy with bright blue eyes by his shirt collar. Sakura narrowed her eyes a bit and realized that was the kid that had just moved into her neighborhood at the beginning of the summer. He was always at the pool or basketball courts hanging out with Kiba. And no surprise that the other kid happened to be Kiba Inuzuka, who had been pushed up against the wall by the redhead’s friend.

“It was an accident,” the blonde explained, but the redhead only gripped his shirt collar tighter and started lifting him off the ground. Kiba was protesting and telling him to let him go, but the redhead wouldn’t hear it. Sakura was starting to panic and didn’t know what she was doing, but she grabbed a water bottle from the ice chest on the counter and chunked it at the boy’s head.

“Put him down!” Sakura snapped when the redhead turned to look at the person who threw the water bottle. He shoved the blonde against the wall and let him go, giving Sakura his complete attention. Her heart began to pound as his face turned beat red and his eyes narrowed at her darkly.

“Think your tough you little bitch?” he snorted, about to grab her arm, but he was grabbed by someone else.

“That’s enough Mr. Hiwatari,” said a teacher with silver hair. He had a mask covering half his face, which Sakura found a bit odd. The redhead glared at the teacher, but seemed to have relaxed a bit. “Go to the office to get a shirt to wear for the day.”

“Yes sir,” Hiwatari grumbled, shoving out of the lunch line.

“Mr. Tanaka, why don’t you let him go and go with Mr. Hiwatari?”

“Watch yourselves,” Tanaka growled, letting go of Kiba. Sakura watched the two walk away and looked back at the silver-haired teacher. She just now also took notice that most of the student body was watching the scene and that the eight lunch ladies were very annoyed.

“Okay, nothing to see here get back to your meals!” the teacher called out, waving for everyone to move on. It only took a few seconds for everyone to disperse and the chatter to start up again. “Let’s not have this happen again, shall we?” the man asked, looking at Sakura, Kiba, and the blonde boy.

“Yes sir,” the all replied together. Happy to hear that, the teacher excused himself and went back to monitoring the rest of the students in the cafeteria. Hinata let out a sigh of relief and walked up to Sakura.

“Are you crazy?” Hinata asked in bewilderment.

“I couldn’t just let him punch the kid,” Sakura defended and looked at the blonde kid who was adjusting his tie and blazer. Kiba was doing the same and dusting off his pants. “Kiba, it’s the first day of school.”

“Chill out Sakura, we didn’t mean for the milk to spill on him,” Kiba retorted, fixing his already messy and crazy dusty brown hair. Sakura scowled at him and looked at the blonde who was smiling like an idiot and rubbing the back of his neck. “You remember, Naruto?”

“Stupid, just stupid,” Sakura muttered turning around to grab something to eat and a drink. Hinata looked at her friend and turned back to Kiba and Naruto. She had known Kiba for a while because they went to elementary school together, but that Naruto kid was new. He was also somewhat cute, but she’d be too shy to ever admit it out loud. Waving goodbye, Hinata followed Sakura out of the lines and over to the tables by the windows across the room.

“She was really pretty,” Naruto commented, watching the two girls walk away.

“Who? Hinata or Sakura?” Kiba asked, grabbing a slice of pizza and putting it on his tray.

“Sakura,” Naruto replied with a half drooling smile, making Kiba gag. Paying for their food the two boys headed outside to sit under the canopy and hopefully they wouldn’t run into anymore trouble out there.

Once they were outside, Naruto and Kiba found and empty table and took a seat. They started eating and talked about the incident that had happened inside. Naruto started laughing and looked across the way. Sitting under a tree all alone was a kid with pitch black hair. He had headphones on his head and had his legs stretched out in front of him with his eyes closed. Naruto could tell he was awake though, because he was bobbing his head.

“Hey isn’t that the kid that worked as a life guard at the pool?” Naruto asked. Kiba looked over his shoulder and stared at him for a moment before turning back around and nodding his head in a yes gesture. “Is he an upper class men?”

“No, I think he’s our age.”

“And a life guard?”

“Naruto our pool is only five feet deep. And he wasn’t really a life guard, his brother was, he was just the kid at the concession stand.” Kiba looked back at him and tried to remember his name, they had lived in the same neighborhood for three years, but they never really talked to each other. “I believe his name is Sasuke or something like that.” When Kiba looked back at Naruto he was gone and making his way over. “What are you doing?”

“Hey, wanna come sit with us?” Naruto asked, standing in front of Sasuke. Obviously he couldn’t hear him over the music, so Naruto kicked his foot lightly. The boy sitting on the ground opened his eyes and looked up at Naruto.

“What do you want?” Sasuke asked, pulling his headphones off. He sounded rather pissed off and Naruto didn’t know if he wanted to invite him over anymore.

“Don’t have to be so angry, you looked lonely so I thought you’d like to come sit with us right over there,” Naruto explained, pointing to the table Kiba was sitting at. Sasuke followed Naruto’s hand and snorted, standing to his feet and dusting the grass off his pants.

“Leave me alone,” Sasuke replied and walked away, leaving Naruto annoyed and confused. That kid had apparently woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Shaking his head, Naruto wandered back over to Kiba who was holding in some laughter.

“What a grump,” Naruto complained as he sat down. “Is everyone around here such a stick in the mud?”

Sakura and Hinata wandered over to the club table displays. They were all amazing and Sakura wasn’t sure which she wanted to join, there were more than a dozen. Both girls had ventured to different tables, but what caught Sakura’s attention was the artsy kind of clubs like music, choir, theater, art, and dance. All the sports offered at the school were there as well and Sakura almost went over to the volleyball table when she saw Tenten, but she wasn’t a sporty girl. The pinkette smiled when the brunette looked at her and nodded. Laughing lightly, Tenten walked over to Sakura.

She wore a gym uniform with a volleyball symbol on the right sleeve. They greeted each other and Tenten asked her what she was planning on doing. Sakura had no clue though, they could only be in two in order to fit it into their schedule and that would be more than enough for her to handle. Sakura turned to the art table and looked at the different displays. There were clay pots, paintings, sculptures, and charcoal drawings. She’d always had a knack for that kind of stuff, but what was on the table was showcase worthy.

“All these students have such awesome talent,” Sakura explained and looked over at the sports teams that had trophies and medals displayed on their tables along with pictures from different games. “It’s kind of intimidating.”

“Don’t be, you join to get better after all and it’s a whole lot of fun. I’m in volleyball and archery, best things ever,” Tenten explained, gesturing over at the two tables in the corner. “Just do something you love.”

“What are your recommendations?” Sakura asked.

“Well are you more sporty or artsy or maybe brainy?” Tenten nodded over to some of the more educational like stuff such as science, math, history, and writing. Sakura scrunched her nose up at that, she didn’t want a double load of any of those subjects. “You don’t look sporty, okay art it is.” Tenten pulled her over to the tables and walked away. The pinkette was a bit confused, but shrugged and went to admire the works of the artsy students.

As Sakura was walking around, she stopped when she got to the music section of the arts. A group of kids all stood in front of a table, there were about eight of them. It was probably a preview and just when Sakura was about to walk away they group started harmonizing. Her eyes widened as they all started to sway and dance in a way. She laughed lightly as they started singing and the lead stepped forward.

“You think that people would have had enough of silly love songs,” the lead had such a strong voice and a very energetic personality. Sakura found herself bobbing her head to the music and looked at the radio behind them that was playing a beat, but the vocalizations took control of everything. “But I look around and I see it isn’t so, some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.”

Sakura laughed as the lead came over to her and stood beside her clapping his hands and gesturing for her to sway with him. The pinkette nodded and started to dance with him, he smiled at her and nodded going back to the choir and stood in the middle. They all started clapping and snapping their fingers as they sang together. Hinata came over and nudged Sakura who was shrugged her shoulders, but was having a good time.

“I love you, yeah I love you, I love you,” the lead sang with such grace and his voice gave her skin goosebumps. He was a senior, Sakura was sure of that from the badge on his jacket. “I can’t explain the feelings plain to me, so can’t you see?” he sang, looking like he was having the time of his life.

“He’s amazing, they all are,” Hinata said and Sakura found herself agreeing. That boy was so cute with his dance moves, neatly combed hair, bright smile, and honey brown eyes. “Did you join any clubs yet?”

“I think I might just join this one,” Sakura replied, gesturing to the choir as they sang and danced.

“Love doesn’t come in a minute, sometimes it doesn’t come at all,” the lead sang and spun in a circle. “I only know that when I’m in it, it isn’t silly love isn’t silly.

While the choir had gained quite a crowd, Ino had walked up to see what was going on and laughed as they all danced and harmonized together. She had lost Shikamaru in the mess, but didn’t mind as she found herself singing with the group. The lead saw her and walked over to her and took hold of her and spun her around. Everyone clapped and Ino laughed with excitement as he serenaded to her, getting down on one knee. Her blue eyes never caught sight of a pinkette across the way, who was both surprised and annoyed.

“You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs,” the lead singer got back onto his feet and rocked back towards the group. “But I look around me and I see it isn’t so, oh no some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.”

Kiba and Naruto had even come into the mess and were watching with a hint of confusion and another hint of interest. They figured they’d join a sports team or two, but this was actually pretty cool to them. Naruto couldn’t sing though, so he’d aim for just an instrument or something. Kiba though, he could sing and play guitar those were his favorite things to do in his free time, but no one really knew that about him.

His eyes drifted over to a blonde girl, slender, cute, and shimmering blue eyes. He titled his head and noticed it was Ino Yamanaka that bratty girl that always came to the pool. She looked really pretty in her uniform, Kiba was impressed. The song started to slow and his attention went back to the group of high schoolers singing in front of everyone. The music stopped and everything went silent for a moment.

People began to cheer and clap for the group as they bowed and thanked everyone. The lead stepped forward and started a speech, “I would like to thank you all for listening, I’m Takeshi and we are Leaf High’s Vocal Ascension.”

“If you’d like to join, auditions are this Friday after school in the auditorium, sign up sheet is right here.” The choir teacher, shook the clipboard in the air and placed it back on the table. Everyone started dispersing and went back to looking at the other clubs. Sakura looked at the sign up sheet for a moment, but walked away. She wasn’t a singer that wasn’t her thing, maybe dance or art, but never choir.

-------------

It was the last period of the day and Kiba was grateful it was gym. Smelling like a dirty sock in his other class would not be a turn on for anyone. He wanted girls to like him not be repulsed. As he walked down the hallway towards the gym, he heard whistles and sneaking screeching on the hardwood floors. He entered the practice gym and saw a tall man, wearing a green jump suit and a bowl haircut. The coach looked somewhat familiar and then it hit him, literally.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” Kiba growled, when a kid that looked just like the coach had ran into him. Kiba’s brows furrowed as he eyed the kid up and down, he looked like a xerox copy, maybe they were related. Same clothes, hair cut, bushy eyebrows, and dorky looking smile. “Whoa.”

“My apologies, I have to run one hundred laps around the gym before the end of the period, please excuse me!” the kid took off running and Kiba blinked a few times not knowing what had just happened.

“Hey clear the runway!” another kid with long hair tied in a low ponytail and light lavender eyes zoomed passed Kiba. He stepped aside and watched as several groups of boys ran past him. The coach blew his whistle and they all slowed to a walk, but kept moving.

“Chouji stop eating you’re not supposed to have food or drinks on the court.” Kiba’s ears perked at the sound of a whining voice. He walked towards the sounded and saw a group of teenagers all standing around by the bleachers. Ino yamanaka, Chouji Akamichi, and Shikamaru Nara were all standing by the foot of the bleachers while other students were sitting around on them, looking bored and annoyed particularly the girls.

“Is this Mr. Nakamura’s class?” someone asked from behind. Kiba turned around and saw Sakura looking down at her schedule. “Oh Kiba, it’s you.” She looked up at him and chuckled lightly.

“You’re guess is as good as mine,” Kiba commented and started walking towards Ino and her group. Sakura followed not really paying attention as she was looking through the brochures of clubs, they had until Friday to pick, but she was still unsure of what she wanted. Hinata on the other hand had signed up for both clubs today, science club and volleyball. “Hey, is this Nakamura’s class?” Kiba questioned as he approached the group.

“Yes it is,” Shikamaru replied before looking over at Kiba and Sakura. When his eyes fell on the two he snickered and nudged Ino. He knew that Sakura and her weren’t exactly the best of friends, not like they used to be. It had been so long since they had seen each other since like fourth grade. “I guess everyone is going here now.”

“Pretty much, what’s up?” Kiba asked, bumping fist with Shikamaru and then Chouji.

“Forehead.” Ino nodded.

“Pig.” Sakura nodded back, causing the three boys to shake their heads.

“Come on girls, it’s been forever already,” Shikamaru protested, he mainly didn’t want to listen to their annoying arguments and fights. It was bad enough he was Ino’s neighbor and had to hear her complain all the time. He wanted to be chill at school, of course, that was a far off reality. “Let’s all just get along, take your anger out in the class.”

It was too late though both girls were snapping at each other, making snide remarks and throwing hissy-fits. Shikamaru groaned and walked up the bleachers to let the girls argue. When they were done they’d join them again. Kiba sighed and shook his head, following Shikamaru while Chouji munched on some chips and went with him.

“This is going to be a nightmare,” Kiba snorted as he watched the girls.

“And it just got worse,” Shikamaru nodded to a handsome boy with dark hair and dark eyes. “Now they have someone to fight over too.”

“That guy lives in my neighborhood, he’s really quiet and doesn’t seem to like anyone.” Kiba watched as he walked up the bleachers to the far corner and sat down all alone just listening to his music. He remembered at lunch when Naruto tried to invite him over he gave him a cold shoulder and just walked off. Kiba figured he’d treat the girls no differently if not worse cause they’d be following him around like love-sick puppy dogs.

“Overall, I give this day a five out of ten,” Shikamaru muttered, leaning back on the seat behind him. Kiba raised an eyebrow at him and gestured for him to explain his reasons. “I mean I didn’t really meet anyone new, well I mean I met people I knew, but I know them better. Let’s just say this is going to be a long year.”

“I second that,” Chouji agreed with a nod. Kiba’s eyes drifted to Ino and Sakura arguing, then to the group of teens running around the gym, and finally up to Sasuke. Shikamaru had a point it was going to be a long year and he wasn’t sure if he was ready for it, but he’d have to get over it. Maybe once clubs started rolling next week and he made some more friends things would get better, for now though high school wasn’t what he was expecting. It was somewhat of a dud and everyone seemed to really build it up, he had yet to find that hype. Hopefully it would be soon, if high school was supposed to be the best and worst years of a person’s life, he wanted to experience it.