Three

Saving Deidara

Katsumi

"RISE AND SHINE SHORTCAKES! YOU GOT A LONG DAY AHEAD O' YA!" Sakura yelled. I looked at the clock. 7 am. Ugh.

"Mmph…" I grumbled. "Where's Temari?"

She snickered. "Already gone. And I'm out the door. Later!"

Well she woke me up so I had at least enough time to get a little breakfast. I was just pretty much thankful Sakura didn't kill me in my sleep, so I grunted and went to put on my uniform in the bathroom. It was really nice it there. I didn't have time to take a shower though, so I just threw on some red plaid legwarmers, a white snowman scarf, and a black lace bow, practically running out the door.

The dining hall was filled with kids eating on long wooden tables. I looked around and found an empty chair next to Gaara and sat. Shoot! I forgot my perfume! "Hey, Kat! So you met Sakura, huh?" he said smiling.

"YOU KNEW ALL ALONG THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN DIDN'T YOU!" I said angrily, but not really. I could never really get mad at Gaara.

He snickered. "Well, of course I did. Sakura's in love with me, remember?"

"Ugh. How could I forget?" I piled huge amounts of food onto my plate. She's more than just in love with him… She's obsessed! "And by the way, you won't be getting that cloak back."

"Why not?" he asked, but I was pretty sure he knew the answer already.

"You'd have to pry it from Pinkie's cold dead hands."

"Heh, heh… I really wish she would stop confiscating all my stuff. She probably has a whole closet-full of things she took/stole/confiscated from me or other students that I'd loaned stuff to. What can I say, The girl's got a nose." he said. "But so do I. Hey, I like what you did with the perfume." he said, still smiling.

"What perfume?" I asked completely puzzled.

"The one you have on right now. You smell like two different types of monster, but I can't place which ones. What'd ya use?"

"Um, I didn't. Actually, I forgot to put some one today."

"Well, ya don't smell like Sakura or Temari. Interesting…"

"If your done with making me into a living science project, could you tell me where to get my schedule?"

"Oh, that's right! I was supposed to give it to you! Here," he handed a small scroll to me and I started to read it:

Katsumi Toma's Schedule

8:30 1st period: Monsters 101

9:30 2nd period: Potions

10:30 3rd period: Free period, pick:

Monday & Wednesday: Choir, Wood Tech, Spanish

Tuesday & Thursday: Band, French, Metal Arts

Friday: Cooking, Medical Services, Art

10:40 4th period Magical Creatures

11:25 5th period PE

12:15 Lunch

1:30 6th period Charms

2:20 7th period Equestrian Studies

3:10 8th period Battling

"Hey, thanks man!" I said still stuffing my face.

"No prob. You'd better get to the Library though, before the bell rings. You wouldn't want to be late for class or without books on your first day!"

"Eek! You're right!" I stuffed my face with some more random food and took off for the library as fast as I could.

When I got there, I saw a lady with dark sunglasses wearing a scarf over her head. She looked maybe in her mid-twenties, but the outfit she wore looked like it belonged to a hundred-year-old lady. She was wearing gloves, a scarf around her neck, and a long dress. She was in a wheelchair as well. I thought she was crazy; it was probably at least ninety degrees outside, but she kept it even hotter in there, and she wore all of those clothes! Talk about strange!

"What can I do for you, missssy?" her voice sounded raspy like she smoked two packs a day, but I could tell she didn't, and she prolonged the 's' like she was some sort of snake.

"Um, yes, I'd like my books please." I replied, handing her my schedule.

"I'll be back. Jusssst wait here child."

I was kind of creeped out by this lady. I mean, she was so…

"Here you are darling." I didn't even see her come into the room. She handed me a huge stack of books, and I could tell that all of these were definitely not going to fit in my tiny Gir book bag.

"Let me get thossssse for you sssssweetheart." she said, stuffing the books into my bag until it looked like it would explode. Then she tapped the bag, and the books instantly shrank. "There you are darling. I've

enchanted your bag so that if you take out the books, they will turn normal size again, but when you put them back in, they will shrink.

I gasped. "W-wow! Thank you Mrs.…?"

"Ms. Dusa, if you please."

"Well, thank you so much!"

"You're welcome dear." and I started out the door so I'd make it to class on time. Then I remembered that I was going to ask if I could study there later, but when I looked back she was gone.

As I walked through the hall to my first class, (call me crazy) I saw Tobi and Kisame beating up Deidara! If there is one thing I could NOT stand, it was people beating on someone who hasn't done anything wrong.

"HEY!" I yelled at them. They looked at me, then each other and laughed.

"Ha ha," they laughed, "so you're taking help from girls now? Pathetic!" Okay, so now they're sexist? They dropped Deidara and walked over to me.

Even though they were huge and there was a chance Kisame would eat me, I wasn't afraid. "DO NOT hurt him!" I definitely couldn't take some of my least fave characters beating up on my second most favorite character.

"Oh yeah? Who's gonna make us? Little girl." Tobi said in a mock-baby voice.

I gave him my signature glare that my dad taught me when I was little, where my eyes flashed red for a second. They stepped back a bit and narrowed their eyes. "Don't get in our way next time, or you'll pay, got it?" said Kisame.

The two walked away, chuckling like they won or something. "Jackasses." I said, giving them a nasty glare as they walked down the hall.

Turning around, I helped Deidara up. He cleared his throat, "Uh… thanks for that back there. Your Katsumi right?"

"No probs." I smiled and give him a thumbs up. "If there's one thing that I absolutely CAN NOT stand, is bullying. And… how'd you know that was my name?"

He laughed a little and whispered, "It is true." then said louder, "We sat next to each other on the bus, and I saw the name on your suitcase."

So that's who he was! I ran out of ideas to say on that subject so I started a new one. "So, what class do you have next?"

"Ugh… Monster 101. You?"

"Same." I smiled.

We walked with each other to first period and he opened the door for me. I looked up at him and noticed that he was a lot taller than everyone else too. I wasn't alone! :D

As we stepped in, we saw there was only one empty two-seater desk left and we sat on stools. There was one short one, and one tall one. Of course, I sat on the tall stool and he sat on the short one, and we were still the same height sitting down. We giggled (that's right. I said Deidara giggled) a bit, but had to stop when the bell rang.

"Hello, class," said a tall dark brown haired woman about 24 looking. She was dressed in a light lavender shirt and dark brown jeans, "my name is Ms. Melancholy, and today, we'll be learning about the two runners up for the most powerful monsters in the world; Vampires and Ice Foxes." Mrs. Melancholy! Me and Deidara looked at each other with huge grins.

"A few ways to identify a disguised Ice Fox are," she started, writing on the chalk board, "They sometimes have fox ears and tails, they can make and control ice, and when they get really mad, their eyes glow red." This time Deidara wasn't smiling. He stared at me wide eyed.

Deidara thought, Does that mean… could she be…? No… but the prophesy tells…

Ms. Melancholy continued, "But that doesn't even compare to the amazing abilities of a Vampire. Each Vampire has their own element; water, fire, earth, or water. They have unbelievable strength and agility, and a disguised one has their powers cut in half. To be disguised, they must wear a Rosario around their neck at all times. Also, to add to that, they have very, very sharp canine teeth, and crave blood at times, but can eat regular food." I unfolded my snowman scarf to hide my Rosario. This time, Sakura was staring at me from across the room. I'd always had sharp canines, but… my dad… if he's this… Ice Fox… and my mom… a Vampire…"

I felt like everyone I knew's eyes were on me.

So I decided to make a quick escape. "Mrs. Melancholy?" I raised my hand and asked. "Can I go to the bathroom?"

"Take a pass."

I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could, and knelt down on the hard, damp, blue tiled floor. Pulling out my Rosario, I could see that it was cracked. Tears streaked my face by this time and I realized I had almost no humanity left within me.

The bell rang for class about thirty seconds later. Stupid bell.