The New Definition of Me
Chapter the First:
New Kid in Town
I looked up. The ever-daunting building and thought of high school loomed over me, taunting me. It would be my freshman year, which in itself is quite the handful, but I had also had a stressful summer in which it was discovered that my father was gay, he divorced my mother (who actually took it quite well), and my mother and I became steeped in debts caused by my fathers old black market deals, not to mention the threats, which is why we moved here to Konohagakure no sato in the first place.
The threats stopped after we moved here, and my mom got a very well-paying job, so all I currently had to worry about was starting a year in high school without knowing a single person. Not exactly my definition of fun, but as they say, Shikata ga nai.
As I walked through those time-honored doors, I glanced at my schedule to see where my homeroom would be. Room 104, my homeroom, was on the first floor according to the floor map I had memorized.
When I arrived, I was assigned a seat next to a shy girl who introduced herself as Hyuuga Hinata. Her hair was a midnight variation of navy blue, and she was wearing a cream colored sweatshirt with blue sweatpants. During the few minutes of Homeroom where the teacher, one Yuhi Kurenai, wasn't retelling the district-mandated homeroom procedure, Hinata and I became friends, and we compared schedules. I only had homeroom, Literature, Lunch, and two study halls with her.
After the bell rang to signify that students should proceed to their next class, my new friend showed me to my first class, Foreign Language (English), in room 215 on the second floor, and then went her own way. I had decided that her action was very kind, because none of the teachers were bothered by tardiness on the first day, especially such a kind teacher as my English teacher, Iruka-sensei.
Of course, being a kind man, Umino Iruka was the type of teacher to let students sit wherever their hearts desired. This was an action that I didn't want to react to and had no easy reaction for. If I wanted to make more friends, it would probably be best that I sit near where all of the other girls were- swarming around an unfortunate soul of the male persuasion. However, if I sat near them, it was likely that they wouldn't accept me unless I accepted their human idol, which I doubted I would do: boys of that type weren't exactly anything similar to a preference of mine.
I decided it would be best to sit as far away from the 'popular' students as possible while still trying to be friendly, and ended up seated next to a girl with mouse-brown hair seated atop her head in twin buns. She looked to be a year older than me and had added a Chinese flair to her school uniform that made her seem more unique, and more like my type of friend. I do prefer to keep away from the intellectually delayed and obsessed girls like those crowding around that boy.
This girl, Tenten, I deduced from the conversation she was having with the boy behind me, further intrigued me when she didn't flirt with the quite handsome brunette adolescent who looked to be her age. In fact, they talked as though they were the best of friends, even with all of the rough words.
The boy noticed that I had sat down in front of him and politely gave his name and year. He was Hyuuga Neji, a second year and one year older than me. He had eyes of lavender mist, like Hinata's. Upon my asking about their familial connection, he confirmed that Hinata was his cousin. He introduced his friend, Tenten, and said that she also was a second year. I felt quite lonely, being the only first year in our little corner, but that quickly transitioned to happiness when they invited me to sit with them at lunch also, seeing as they too had the third lunch.
We had no time for further communication, as Iruka-sensei began to speak, telling the class that the seats they had chosen would be their seats for the rest of the year, unless there was a problem that caused a seat change. As Iruka-sensei called the roster, he wrote down where everyone's seat was on a chart for substitutes.
"Uch-" Iruka-sensei began, but stopped as he saw a blur settle into the seat in the back left-hand side of the classroom (left from Iruka-sensei's point of view).
In the corner seat, behind Tenten, sat the boy that all of those girls had been drooling over. I suppose that I could say he was good-looking, but not as good-looking as the girls that surrounded him made him out to be.
"I'll sit here," the boy said.
"Alright then, Sasuke, I do hope that you realize you will have to sit in that same seat for every semester," Iruka-sensei complied, moving on to the rest of his pupils.
When Iruka-sensei was finished with the seating, he let us socialize for the final ten minutes. Tenten and I started to become closer, and Neji and Sasuke glared at each other for the remaining time. If Sasuke didn't like Neji, and his seat change had caused him to sit next to this person he did not like, then what was his reason for switching? Perhaps he liked Tenten? No, he probably moved to get away from his stalkers. Not that I was inferring that the girls who followed his every movement and tried to set up cameras in the boys' lavatory to spy on him were overly-obsessed or anything.
The English class was let out, and I lifted my possessions from my desk, walking out the door whilst talking to Tenten. I must not have been paying attention, because I knocked someone down, and from the look on Tenten's face, it was someone important.
"I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going, please forgive me!" I pleaded.
"Hn. Meet me under the tree during lunch. You'll know it when you see it," was all he said before he was gone in a swish of his silky black hair that had been forced into a ponytail.
And my heart thumped faster, whether it was because I was a bit scared as he was much older than me, or because I think a lesser girl would have fainted if that voice and face had been directed at her, only time could tell.