High School, What a Drag (Naruto Fanfic)

Drags of Speeches

 "What do you mean you're not giving the opening speech?" Naruto while the other teen shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Getting the position of class representative is a major drag, so I simply got enough right on the entrance exam to allow me to enter the school, and be in the first class section." Shikamaru leaned back so he could stare at the lights up on the ceiling."

"What's a major drag?" Choji pulled a new bag of potato chips from his bag. He'd taken up a seat in the auditorium of the school next to Shikamaru, and Kiba sat on the other side. "You not getting the class representative position, and instead some nobody nerd getting said position."

Naruto nodded his head from where he sat next to the chubby teen. Shikamaru turned his head upon hearing Kiba set his bag onto his lap, and watched as the young man opened the already partially open bag to reveal a small dog. The teen sat the pup down onto the chair next to him, and then turned to look at Shikamaru. "Choji's right. You should have been class rep. Who is it if it isn't you?"

"Don't know. Maybe the other kid who skipped a grade." Shikamaru went back to staring at the ceiling wishing he could sneak away to take a nap on the schools roof.

"Another?" Naruto blinked a couple of times.

"Principle Tsunade mentioned something about me not being the only student this year who skipped a grade."

"Bet it's some kind of nerdy nerd." Kiba folded his arms as one of the Freshman high school students came up to him. "What?"

"I think you're in my seat. Actually..." The teen pointed at the dog sitting on the chair scratching it's ear. "There's a dog sitting in my seat."

"Is your name on this seat?"

"Well... no."

"Then it's not your seat, so get lost."

Shikamaru let out a sigh as the teen took off. "You guys do realize the seats are meant for the incoming Freshman class and each of us have an assigned seat."

The teen watched as another student walked up only to walk away upon seeing Choji making a mess of the sitting area, and licking his fingers. The chubby teen continued to munch on his snack. "Doesn't seem to be a problem."

"What a drag."

"You know what. I'm going to be class representative when I get into high school. It's going to be this high school as well."

Shikamaru's eyes blinked a couple of times, and he then turned to look at the blond haired teen while his two other companions started to laugh. Imagining Naruto as the class representative Freshman year simply drew a blank.

...

Gaara was fine with making the speech.

"Stop lying to yourself Temari. Gaara is far from being fine with any of this. You're just hoping that your luck about nothing happening continues for the rest of the day." The female took a deep breath as she stood backstage with her three siblings. Every so often another student would pass by, and look at the three before hurrying off.

"Don't worry." Kankuro earned up against the wall backstage. "He's somehow managed to get this far, so what could possibly go wrong."

"You know the longer Gaara goes without something happening the more likely something was going to happen, and the worse that something is." Temari's teal eyes darted over to where her youngest brother waited to be introduced to the freshman class, and the corners of her mouth pressed down and in.

"How can Gaara mess this up Temari? All he's doing is making a speech."

"How often to you hear Gaara say something positive?" Temari took a deep breath.

"I'm sure he gets the importance of this speech." Kankuro turned his head so he was looking right at their younger brother. His mouth opened up to ask his brother whether he understood the importance, but instead Temari watched him freeze.

"Yeah. You're doubting your own words. Rather ironic considering the confidence I had in Gaara this morning." The red haired teen remained perfectly still as he waited to be introduced. He then stepped onto the stage and stared out at the freshman class. The silence made Temari tense up even more, and a crick settled in between her shoulder blades. She watched as Gaara finally opened his mouth, and the words for his introductory speech came out.

"I don't care."

Temari's bright teal eyes blinked a couple of times as Gaara walked off the stage without giving her a second look, and out of the corner of her eye she could see Kankuro collapsing in a fit of laughter. The utter shock bit back her urge to lecture the older of her two brothers about the situation not being amusing, and the silence which followed caused her to tense up even more. She worried her lip as she debated whether to go after Gaara to berate her youngest sibling, or to go out and apologize for his lack of social finesse.

The sound of someone clapping caught her off guard enough to blink herself out of her stupor. The sound of clapping obviously came from only one person. Temari's throat tightened as she saw the young man from early surrounded by three people who didn't look like they went to their school. "I can't believe it."

"What do you mean?" Kankuro's laughter stopped, and he stood up.

"It's that kid from the train."

"Him? He's the one clapping..." The eldest of the two brother's stopped speaking when a few others started clapping for what Gaara said. He winced when the sound of clapping was joined by another sound. "Is that a dog howling?"

"I think so..."

"What the hell is going on?" Kakuro peeked over her shoulder to see the small group. "What... that's really messed up!"

Suddenly a few others in the auditorium started clapping, and then the entire freshman class joined in. Temari noted the look of shock on the face of the person who introduced Gaara to the freshman class. "Yeah... this is really messed up."

...

Shikamaru expected the speech to be a drag as Kiba was right. The person most likely to earn the spot would be a high achiever who might not know how to speak to the class. His eyes shot up when he saw the red head kid step onto the stage. "Him? This might actually be interesting."

Choji stopped chewing his food. "Shikamaru?"

"Ran into him on the train this morning." Shikamaru felt the corners of his mouth twist into a smile. "Man... didn't expect him to be the class representative. And considering what I heard..."

A silence fell over the room, and someone let out a cough indicating they were becoming impatient waiting for Gaara to say something. Naruto leaned forward with his eyes narrowed, and Kiba's eyebrows shot up indicating he wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or amused. The words then came out from Gaara's mouth. "I don't care."

The red head on stage proceeded to walk off as the words sunk in. The smile on Shikamaru's face twisted up into a full grin, and he began to clap. Naruto turned his head. "What?"

"I can live with that sentiment. If it's a drag I don't care."

Kiba let out a laugh, and began to clap along with Shikamaru. This caused his dog to begin to howl as Choji and Naruto joined in. The other students looked on in bewilderment, and then a few others started clapping as well. Shikamaru honestly wasn't sure if they started clapping because the sentiment was contagious, or a few well placed glares from Naruto and Kiba did the trick. The clapping simply happened.