Nerdy

Thirty-Six

Sasuke was neither too early nor too late for school. He always came right on time every morning, and so he came on that morning. He stood near the doors of the main school building and checked his schedule for the day again, although he had it memorized since months. He sighed and stuffed it back in his pockets. There was nothing interesting. But then again, was there anything that interested him ?

A certain somebody's face flashed into his mind for a split second. His eyes widened and he shook his head to clear his mind.

"What a sad sight to see on such a fine morning." said that person, passing by him right at that moment.

Sasuke jumped back on hearing (Name)'s voice. He had only barely thought of her, and here was the she-devil herself.

(Name) seemed quite surprised at Sasuke's reaction. She blinked a few times and gave him a weird look, before turning to leave.

Sasuke snapped out of his trance and jogged to catch up with her. "I'll walk you to class." he offered.

"You don't have to." said (Name).

"But I want to." said Sasuke, with a small smile.

"Okay, whatever." said (Name) as she rolled her eyes at him.

She clearly noticed that Sasuke was not his usual self that morning. Maybe he ate or drank something wrong which somehow affected his brain and personality and made him somebody different.

"How are your hands ?" asked Sasuke.

"Oh, I woke up today and it was all fine." said (Name), waving her hands in front of his face.

But Sasuke still felt bad about it. A word of apology was lingering in his mind, but his pride wouldn't let him say it.

He stopped outside (Name)'s class as they reached. Many students had already come and the corridors were full of people fooling around until class started. Sasuke got quite some looks as he waved at (Name) - which she didn't return - and started walking towards his own class.

He had wanted to ask her about her arms, but he wasn't sure why he offered to walk her to her class when their classes were far apart. As he stepped into his class, he was first greeted by Naruto, who literally jumped into his face.

"Word's in the corridors that you walked (Name) to her class !" said Naruto with big, sparkly eyes.

It never failed to amuse Sasuke how fast words travelled in their school. He shrugged at made way to his seat.

"Seriously ?!" Naruto exclaimed, loud enough to make everyone else in the class shut up and look at him, before they continued with their talks.

"Yeah, I did. So what ?" said Sasuke, scowling and looking out of the window at the students who were still arriving to avoid looking at Naruto.

"And she let you do that ?" asked Naruto.

"What do you mean by that ?" asked Sasuke, turning to look at Naruto.

"I mean, doesn't she hate it when you're around her ?"

Indeed, that was true. But for some reason, that felt like a stab to his heart.

"Well, she refused but I walked with her anyway." said Sasuke.

Naruto suddenly started laughing. Although Sasuke always said that he disliked (Name), he somehow always was around her, intentionally or not.

"What ?" scowled Sasuke, but Naruto said nothing.

"Say, Sasuke, what do you think of (Name) ?" said Naruto, making himself very comfortable on Sasuke's desk.

Sasuke gave him a hateful look. "Don't put your stinky backside on my desk and dirty it." he said, but Naruto ignored him.

The first lecture they had was of Kakashi. Although the bell had gone off, the class was still in chaos. They knew that the teacher was going to be late as always.

Naruto looked at Sasuke with a twinkle in his eye. Sasuke was sure that he was upto something, but he didn't know what.

"I think that she thinks too highly of herself." said Sasuke.

"That's rather weird, coming from you." said Naruto, with another laugh.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at him. "Well, with the way she behaves with people, she won't have any friends ever." he said.

Naruto hummed in response. "True, but I think she doesn't want them. Although you say that, aren't we already considered as her friends ?"

Naruto said that with such an innocent expression that Sasuke almost pitied him, because how (Name) would have reacted at the thought of being friends with him would have surely crushed his hopes. Sasuke was sure that deep down, (Name) wasn't as hateful of Naruto, but she did not show it or perhaps didn't know how to. Whatever she did or said, it was never so bad that it would seriously hurt Naruto's feelings. Maybe she was actually quite fond of him and was unaware of it herself.

"Hey, you idiot ! Why are you smiling to yourself ? It's so creepy." said Naruto, making a very digusted face as he tried to catch Sasuke's attention by snapping his fingers in front on his eyes.

"I don't want to be called an idiot by you." said Sasuke as he narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

Was he really smiling while thinking of her ?

"Sasuke, do you like her ?" asked Naruto in a very serious tone, which was rather sudden.

Sasuke looked at him and blinked a few times. The words were caught in his throat. "Of course, I don't ! Who would like such a person ?" he said, and rolled his eyes for extra emphasis.

But Naruto had noticed how Sasuke thought, hesistated - if only for a second - before he answered. He smiled to himself in a weird sense of satisfaction. Wasn't it more as if he was trying to convince himself, make himself believe that he felt nothing about her ?

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at Naruto's weird behaviour.

"I'm sorry, students. I got a little lost on my way here." said Kakashi-sensei as he entered with an irresponsible smile on his face.

"Yeah, right. Even after you've taught here for years.." muttered some student from the back, but Kakashi-sensei didn't hear it. Or, he did hear it, but ignored it.

"Are you sure about that, Sasuke ?" said Naruto as he sat in his seat beside Sasuke's. "If you're not quick enough, somebody might just snatch her away, you know."

"Huh. I couldn't care less." said Sasuke, shifting his attention towards the teacher.

Although he said that, he wondered about thought about the conversation he just had with Naruto. He thought about that face Naruto had made when he denied that he liked (Name). Hypothetically speaking, if she was actually 'snatched away' - as Naruto so wonderfully put it - by someone else, would he really not be affected by it ?