The first day of school rolled around and he was a junior. Nearly the top of the food chain, and definitely appreciating it. No underclassmen dared take the rigorous classes he did, and Sasuke always made sure to remind them. He was unflappable on the football field, a brilliant mind in the classroom, and a shoe-in for valedictorian the next year. His friends all knew his plans for the future, and most were envious of his ease with whatever he put his mind to.

Math followed Spanish. Though his seat was smack against the coveted window in the classroom, something he claimed with his own charm, he found himself distracted by his classmate's hair. No one should have that ridiculous shade, he thought, but he couldn't keep his eyes away. The teacher droned on math concepts- basic limits and trap rule- that they would need for their Calculus class, but the math whiz couldn't focus.

Why in the world is her hair the color of a flower?

The next day, he sat in the same place, and she took her seat in front of him. The pink wave spun around and landed partially on his desk. He slouched in his seat, folding his arms, and glared, willing it to leave. She expertly took her hands to the nape of her neck and in one fell swoop yanked all of it away. His math homework glided to the ground amidst the shared space of their desks.

He frowned and maneuvered under his seat, snatching the paper. In an attempt to make her feel his glare, he relentlessly bore a hole in her back with his eyes.

Either she was a ditz- unlikely for a Calc student- or was simply ignoring him.

That drove him crazier.

As they went over the homework, Sasuke scowled when he missed a problem. However, her chair shook giddily when she was correct. His footrest bounced around and he again attempted to make her stop with a simple glance.

She remained unresponsive.

More on trap rule for the day and Sasuke learned he had to multiply the entire problem by one-half to get it right. He made a note on his paper, but he noticed the pinky in front of him had nothing on her desk. Though, he frowned, he might not've been able to see through her curtain of hair.

He noticed it barely shook when she spoke. As she answered a question, it remained pinned at her sides, slightly thinner than her already small profile, and as obedient as a well-trained dog. He tried to find some small amount of satisfaction in her likely spending so much time on a vapid pursuit, but his anger only burned brighter than he was being upstaged by a prep.

His older brother hadn't worked so hard to get him into this school for that to happen.

Months flew by, and she never missed a day of sitting right in front of him. Today her locks were trapped up in a ponytail that never even swung. Sasuke was glad to have a better view of the board, but her smug little victory dance at properly deriving a function made him want to yank her hair.

He was above it, though, he decided. If an Uchiha harmed someone, it would only be in self defense.

The week zipped by in uneventful ease. He studied diligently for the quiz the next day and was confident. After all, he only had to memorize the derivatives for trig functions and remember how to plug into his calculator to determine their value. Simple.

Entering the classroom smugly, he slumped down into his regular seat, burying his hands in his hoodie's pocket. Mentally he ticked off several derivatives just to brush up. First block Spanish had fuzzied his mind on math too much for his comfort.

Then she walked in. Her hair was frizzy, wavy, and puffed out at her sides. Either the rain had attacked her more brutally than most or the power outage from the storm was still effecting her neighborhood and disabling her straightener. Sasuke nearly felt sorry for the pinky- no matter how much his chest puffed out to see her frazzled.

She slunk down into her chair and twisted the pink mess of hair into a bun low on her head from its weight. Her face found its way into her hands and Sasuke could hear her sobs log after he saw her back spasm quietly.

Suddenly, guilt washed over him like the torrents of rain outside. His mouth turned down at the corners as he tried to recall her name, but for the life of him it was gone in a sea of derivatives and conjugations of past participles. Nearly asking her in Spanish, he questioned, "Are you okay?"

She never wore make-up, he realized, when she turned to look back at him. Her chest rose and fell erratically and her hands clawed at her face to force the tears away. A pitiful sniffle escaped her. "Yeah," she lied.

Sasuke sighed heavily. "This class or another?"

"This one," she confessed.

He nodded. "Which derivatives are you shaky on?"

"Tangent- is it secant or secant squared, or-?"

"Secant squared. Think of trig identities and try to figure it out from there."

She nodded, sniffling heavily. Her bun quivered as she spun around and dug in her pencil case for the necessary implement. "Oh no," she gasped.

"Here," Sasuke muttered, handing her a spare from his pocket. "Take it."

Genuine gratitude flooded her face as she sputtered out words of thanks.

He shook his head. "It's fine."

After class, when Sasuke was dragging his backpack off the ground, he heard a pencil rolling on wood. The girl smiled back at him, her teeth not as white as he had figured they would be.

"Thank you," she grinned.

He was taken aback. "Uh, you're welcome."

"How can I repay you?"

"For what? Borrowing a pencil and reminding you of trig identities?" His quiet nature seemed at the back of his mind.

Her grin softened and as she pulled her purse over her head, she laughed.

"What?"

"I'm new this year," she explained.

Sasuke nodded. He put two and two together when his friends started talking about the hot new chick with weird hair.

"And some girls warned me about you," she frowned, clutching her purse strap tightly. "But I don't know why."

Sasuke felt his stomach flip. For all these months, he had been celebrating this girl's failures and all she had done was excel at math. He sighed. "I'm not that nice."

"You were nice to me."

The days turned into weeks and soon the semester was over. Integrals had nearly kicked his butt, but the girl- he learned her name was Sakura- had coached him through ways of thinking backwards. She always chided smartly when he forgot to add the 'plus c' on indefinite integrals and smacked his paper with her first two fingers when he was right.

Her eyes sparkled jade when she was happy and muted into a deep forest when something upset her. Rain made her happy, and snow did too, but the cold that accompanied the two, Sasuke discovered, made her eyes the saddest color he ever had seen green be. His letterman jacket- which he had proudly worn since the leaves began to turn- found itself nearly permanently lodged onto her drooping shoulders when the harsh November rains came plummeting onto the campus.

With their final turned in, the pair high fived each other and Sasuke found himself with a grin plastered across his face. Sakura was the cause. His friends had told him he wore a lighter expression in those days.

They met up over Christmas break in the local mall's bustling food court. Sakura sheepishly held his letterman in her arms with a coat around her.

"I meant to give this back to you after the final," she sighed, "but I was so glad to be done with that class that I forgot."

"You can keep it."

"Oh no, it's yours! I couldn't dream of taking it."

He looked away and felt heat creep onto his face as he said, "I think my girlfriend can keep my jacket as long as she likes."

"Sasuke?" she leaned in closer.

The heat intensified as he turned to face her.

"Your girlfriend? Is that what this was about?"

He was quiet for a moment. "Yes," he finally admitted.

She frowned. "Sasuke... I'm sorry. I'm already dating someone." Her wide eyes pouted up at him.

Sighing, he slumped in his seat. He ran his hand through his hair and muttered, "I should've guessed."

"We can still be friends, though," she grinned, her hands grabbing one of his.

He nodded. "Where do you wanna go first?"

Her eyebrow quirked.

"We're at the mall," he frowned. "Might as well."

The semester passed in a daze and senior year was an even blurrier time. In what felt like a blink, Sasuke found himself reaching out for his principal's hand with one of his and the other grasped at a diploma. He delivered the valedictorian speech and Sakura gave the salutatorian one with a shaky voice and knocking knees. Her boyfriend clapped the loudest at the end and she blushed angrily at him afterwards.

He took pictures with my friends and she with hers. He never knew what college she was going to, unfortunately, but she promised to find him on Facebook. He knew it wasn't enough.

One day at college, he was wandering the halls with his older brother. Even if the break was a week long, he still was too busy to go home. The world was in bloom and buds weighed down the weakest of stems with the promise of color to plague the walkways of the campus in just a few days.

Itachi laughed to himself and Sasuke asked him what about. The older Uchiha pointed to a woman with short, wavy pink hair.

"I've never seen the draw to dyeing one's hair," he smiled. "Especially such a vibrant shade."

His younger brother was struck dumb and didn't blink for the few seconds as she turned around, amiable eyes flashing the brightest green. A joke was too funny for her to keep it in. Sasuke had heard that laugh before.

"It's natural," he breathed out nervously.

"What is, Sasuke?" Itachi asked, concerned.

"Sakura?" he asked, ignoring his brother.

The pinkette bounced on her heels for a moment until recognition dawned on her. "Sasuke!" She ran over to the two Uchiha. "I hadn't seen anyone from high school here at all. I can't believe it took me two years to find you," she frowned, hands on her hips.

"Itachi, this is Sakura." A small smirk lay on his face.

Itachi struck his hand out for the girl to shake. "Pleased to meet you," he smiled.

"Nice to meet you, too, Itachi."

Turning to glance at his younger brother, Itachi motioned to the girl.

Sasuke nodded. "Would you wanna come eat with us?"

The girl laughed freely. "No, no! I'm tired of eating out. The both of you come to my apartment- I'll make you something!"

Itachi grinned at the prospect, but Sasuke hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Aww, come on," she hit him playfully. "Let me repay you for all your Calc help."

He nodded, the back of his neck red and his stomach unsteadier than it had been in years.

Years later, the Uchiha would look back on high school rather exasperatedly. Sure, he had gotten into his dream college because of the grades and, heck, a football scholarship didn't hurt, but overall the years seemed to be four long periods of waste. Waste because he never got to be quarterback. Waste because he never scored a winning goal. Waste because he never even got Sakura's number despite their strong friendship.

But something in him never let him hate his tenure at the local teenage hall of learning too entirely. Whether it was the beautiful pink haired woman he married or the three children that soon followed, though, he has yet to decide.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm being lazy and avoiding my chaptered fic. Oops. Please review if you liked this- I had fun writing it! As always, if you liked this story, try out my others- several of them are styled like this one even if not in the same universe.