and everything nice.

five.

chapter five: until the roof meets the floor [alternatively called: sakura-chan's first konoha party]

note: mentions of sexual harassment made.

✧.*

sakura checked the time on her phone as she hopped out of her car. 6:54 pm. technically early but not embarrassingly so. also there were other cars stationed in ino's huge roundabout driveway, so it wasn't like sakura was the first one there.

she had to admit, it was pretty overwhelming driving up to ino's huge mansion. probably worth more sakura's entire family. she wasn't poor, and was raised in a respectable middle-class lifestyle, but to ino and probably 95% of the school, she was poor.

sasuke's house was big too, a massive mansion actually, she remembered from dropping him off the night before.

she wondered if he would be at the party.

sakura made her way up the stairs to the front entrance, carrying a bag full of her things on one shoulder. just as she was about to ring the doorbell, the door opened to reveal an apathetic ino ushering her in.

sakura looked at her puzzled, "how did you know-"

"i saw you pull up in the driveway. now let's go, you're late." the blonde said, rolling her eyes.

sakura scoffed, "i'm actually 5 minutes early thank you very much..." her sentence trailed off as she began to take in the grandeur entrance. two beautiful staircases flanked each side of the foyer, in between them a bunch of space and a flow-path into the living room. the ceilings were incredibly high, with lots of art painted on them, and a crystal chandelier hung right in the center. it was something sakura had only seen in movies.

ino sighed, "okay if you're done gawking we can go now. we're all getting ready in my room. and i hope you didn't bring some tacky outfit; if you're coming with my group, you've got to serve like the rest of us. people have high expectations for us you know, what are they gonna think if they find out i'm letting just anyone join the entourage."

sakura was pulled out of her amazement by ino's rant, now riddled with annoyance. "my guess is they won't care. not everyone's constantly thinking about you. now are we gonna go get ready or not?"

her icy blue eyes narrowed at sakura before turning away. sakura followed ino up the flight of stairs and down endless hallways before stopping in front of a door she presumed led to ino's room.

inside, tenten sat at a vanity doing her makeup while hinata stood in front of floor-length mirror, styling her hair into a side swept braid. both were still wearing their sweats, all the party outfits being sprawled on ino's bed. lana del ray was being played from a surround sound system in the room, and fumes of chanel and dior filled the closed setting. to say the room was a mess was an understatement: expensive shoes were scattered throughout the floor, pretty fabrics and silks lay vacantly, teen magazines and CDs, all essentials to getting ready, littered the ground and the tables. it was like something out of a renaissance painting.

noticing her presence, both girls turned to sakura and smiles appeared on their faces.

"hello sakura!" hinata gently greeted as she walked over and hugged the girl.

tenten looked at the pink-haired girl through the mirror of ino's vanity. "you made it! i'd totally get up to hug you but i desperately need to get this eyeliner right." to which sakura just chuckled.

ino closed the door behind her and crossed her arms. "so the bathroom's open, it's got a mirror and good lighting so you can probably do your makeup in there or something while tenten finishes up." she shrugged.