"Where do you think we should sit?" Cloud asks as she and May step into the Cafeteria. "I mean, they couldn't have been serious about not hanging with them right?"
May looks briefly in the direction of a very familiar set of males. Cloud follows her example and her eyes narrow.
Itachi is bent over a book. If he feels them looking at him, he does a very good job at pretending he doesn't. Deidara has his earbuds popped in his ears, his sapphire eyes pointedly looking anywhere but at the sisters. Hidan looks up over his coke, meets their eyes, and as if suddenly remembering something important, turns to rummage in his backpack.
"Bastards." Cloud growls under her breath. The sisters turn to their last hope, in the form of an agitated looking ginger.
Sasori meets their eyes, obviously discomfited, and shoots them an apologetic look but does nothing otherwise.
May huffs. "I cannot believe those assholes! Even Sasori!."
"We better start believing it." Cloud says and shoots the Akatsuki table a dark glare. So they had been serious about it. What a bunch of selfish assholes!
May tugs at Cloud's arm.
"Come on, let's just go sit at Sakura's table."
Cloud and May grab their lunch and sit at Sakura, Ino, Hinata and Tenten's table. Naruto waves obliviously to them while Sasuke raises an eyebrow, wondering why they decided to sit with them.
Sakura and the rest sport surprised looks on their faces as the Jefferson sisters slide in to their table.
The sisters greet them half-heartedly and proceed to eat their breakfast, while the rest of the girls share a knowing look. They stare pointedly at the sisters.
"What?" May asks, her tone snappish. Cloud stabs at her waffles a little too hard.
"Okay, spill." Ino shoots them a stern look. "Why are you here instead of at the Akatsuki table?"
Cloud swallows back her anger and adopts an innocent look.
"Why? Can't we sit here with our favorite girls?" She asks and this time, it's Sakura who gives her a look.
"Come on. You guys were all buddy-buddy yesterday. What's the deal now?" Tenten chimes in.
Cloud's innocent look wavers and she scowls darkly.
"Just drop it okay?" May says, fearing that she or her sister would explode if provoked further.
Ino pouts indignantly and Sakura gives Cloud a look, which basically sums up to 'You're spilling everything to me later, understand?'
Cloud mutters under her breath and continues mutilating her waffles with her fork
The bell rings, signaling the start of the first class of the day. The group sighs and shoulder their bags. When Sakura moves in to join the sisters, Hinata gives her an inquisitive look but says nothing about it, instead opting to join Ino and Tenten on their way to class.
Sakura, Cloud and May walk to the arts class in silence and the pinkette waits till they are at the entrance to pounce.
"Alright." She says sternly. "Shoot."
Cloud and May stare at her blankly.
The pinkette taps her foot on the floor impatiently. "You've been upset all day and you're going to tell me why. NOW."
The sisters are saved from answering (or are they?) when Sasori and Deidara arrive, both looking sullen.
Sakura's attention drifts to her cousin and she raises her eyebrow when neither Cloud nor May greets the ginger and vice versa. Deidara just stands there looking uncomfortable, hands fiddling with a piece of clay.
The warning bell rings and Sakura curses.
"I've gotta go now, but you're telling me later right?" She skewers the sisters with her green eyes and when they nod slightly, smiles and walks away, waving at Sasori.
A tension so thick that it seemed impossible to be cut even with a hacksaw descends upon the four standing near the door of the Art class.
Giving Sasori and Deidara both dirty looks, Cloud hugs May briefly before departing to her own class.
May sighs, drawing her scarf closer to her and makes to open the door but her arm is grabbed suddenly.
Irritation flooding her features, she turns to see an uncomfortable Sasori.
"May, I-," The ginger is cut off by May, who tugs at her arm, giving him a cold look.
"It's fine Sasori. You've already made it clear that your little gang matters to you more than family." She grinds out and storms into the classroom, but not before glaring at the blonde next to Sasori.
The ginger sighs. Screw him.
The duo shifts around uncomfortably, watching the girl storm her way to their table. Sasori takes a deep, settling breath and trails along in after her.
They slide into their seats. May has her music blaring, so loud that people from across the room could jam out too, and her pencil flies in front of her-sketching out the beginings of something gory.
Good old gore. Always there for you when your mind is plagued with murderous intentions and death.
And drawing it is a lovely way to vent.
Sasori stares at May for a few moments, frowning. Deidara fiddles with his clay stiffly, eyes shifting back and forth between May and the gray substance in his hands.
The awkward, horrid silence makes the two male's stomachs flop. Sasori knew this was going to happen. He'd tried to talk to Leader, to warn him of their possible reaction. He'd been adamant about their recruitment and Sasori had been sure Leader would at least listen to him.
But no. And now both girls are pissed beyond comprehension because they aren't allowed to talk to them, or even acknowledge their existence.
Sometimes, life sucks.
The sound of something snapping draws his attention forward again. May stares blankly at the paper before her, gaze zeroed in on where the pencil meets the paper. The lead tip has broken, scattering small slivers of lead about the grotesque drawing.
She lifts the pencil up and then it snaps in her palm.
The two broken halves clatter against the table noisily.
Her stool scrapes against the floor loudly as she jerks back, fingers gripping the paper. She then proceeds to tear it to shreds along her way to the trashcan beside Chiyo's desk. Watching the slivers of gray and white paper trickle down into the can, like snowflakes falling, May grits her teeth and then twists back around towards the table. She slowly trails back and picks up her bookbag, just in time for the bell to ring.
Then she silently exits the class.
Pushing past people, May makes her way to Kakashi's class, wondering dimly if he knew Pein and Konan's intentions. She decides not to dwindle on it as she enters the room.
Instead of moving all the way to the back, she takes a sharp right and slides into the third seat from the front.
Sasori and Deidara enter the room moments later, the former looking slightly wounded at May's choice of seating. Itachi and Kisame enter soon after, both looking slightly grim, with Hidan and Kakuzu trotting in behind them.
And then the warning bell rings.
May curses softly. Of course Cloud would skip.
Or try to anyways.
No more than two seconds later, Naruto enters the room with an outraged Cloud slung over his shoulder. He tries to ignore her hits and kicks as he stiffly makes his way back to where Itachi sits. He sets her down and twists her around sharply before she can say anything.
"Alright, kiss and make up." Naruto snaps, looking pretty agitated for a normally bright light of sunshine, "I miss my funny Cloud."
Cloud looks murderous, amber eyes locked on the stiff weasel.
Itachi meets her steely gaze with an unreadable expression on his face. After a few seconds of staring at the enraged blueberry, none of them speaking, Itachi stands up gracefully.
"Kakashi-sensei," He drawls smoothly. The silverette raises an eyebrow, all too aware of what was happening.
Cloud watches him intently. He really wasn't going to do what she though he was going to do right?
Itachi's next statement made her re-think this.
"I wish to change partners."
Cloud bites back a retort. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing that his words had affected her. Fashioning a dark look onto her face, she glowers at both Itachi and Naruto before collecting her things and joining her sister at the front.
Kakashi frowns slightly.
"Alright. Itachi, partner up with Deidara. Cloud and May, you can partner with each other." He concludes. It wasn't like Cloud and May wouldn't have partnered with each other even if he had told them not to.
Deidara mutters a curse under his breath and moves to the Weasel's desk. The dark haired teen looks even more frigid than usual, with his hands intertwined in front of his face.
"What the-," Deidara trails off when Itachi is broken out of his thoughts suddenly, a flying object hitting him squarely on his dark head.
Itachi looks forward to see Cloud glare at him and then turn back around to May.
Itachi's and Cloud's doll falls with a thud onto the desk and the Weasel glares at it. The ugly thing starts to bawl and both the boys ignore it, letting it wail.
Cloud smirks triumphantly at the front but the look soon dissolves into a sullen, un-Cloud-like look.
May glares at her own doll, willing her laser vision to take over and skewer it to oblivion.
Sasori sighs long sufferingly from his desk, eyeing the sisters. What the hell had they gotten themselves into?
Kakashi hands the rest of the class to the kids and it isn't long until the bell rings, signaling the start of lunch.
Cloud and May shoulder their bags and storm out of the classroom without a backward glance.
"Fuck this shit." Hidan curses as the Akatsuki group together, watching the sisters as they walk out briskly.
"I actually fucking miss the bitches. Why does Leader fucking want them anyway?" The silverette asks, keeping his voice down for once in his life, lest someone overhears.
Sasori frowns slightly.
"Their parents are highly influential politicians." He grinds out unwillingly. Leader probably thought that the girls' parents would be of help to reach their... goal.
"Tch." Deidara hisses, catching onto Sasori's silent statement. He didn't like this one bit. It was totally not fun to hang out with the Kiwi when she was being all bitchy.
"Itachi, what do you think we should do?' Kisami asks in his gravelly voice and all eyes turn to the stone-faced Uchiha.
"Are you not part of the Akatsuki?" Itachi grounds out icily. "Have you not sworn allegiance? Are you about to betray the organization for the sake of two girls?" His voice becomes even more cold as he proceeds. The rest watch him with grim looks.
"Leader's order was simple and I mean to follow it." He concludes and shoulders his bag before walking elegantly out of the classroom.
However, Itachi's stone-faced facade dissolves slightly as he walks down the hallway.
It was simple, yes. But he never said it would be easy.
Meanwhile, the Jefferson sisters grab their lunch almost robotically.
Cloud's amber eyes scan the Cafeteria, catching Sakura's eye briefly and she looks away quickly.
"Let's go to the school grounds to eat today." She says and tugs on May's arm with the hand that it not holding their food.
May's eyes catch Sakura and she catches on.
"Yeah, okay."
They start towards the door and reach it about the same time the Akatsuki do. Cloud ignores them as she passes, eyes focused on the outside world, and May shoots them a dark glare. The door shuts behind them with a soft thud. Itachi pushes on ahead into the line, features painfully stoic. The rest sort of stare at the door like wounded puppies for a few moments before trailing over to the table.
No one is really hungry, save for the stubborn Uchiha.
The girls seem to suffer from the same problem. "Do you want to skip the rest of the day?" Cloud pokes at her dango stick.
May pauses for a few moments. "Well it is Friday, so I doubt too many people would notice."
Cloud nods and stands, spying two ginger heads, a flash of silver, and a certain blonde shuffle behind a tree nearby. It's obvious Deidara doesn't know they're trying to hide.
"Come on." She tosses her uneaten lunch into a garbage can and starts towards the dorm.
"Cloud, May!"
Cloud cringes and glances towards May. Her sister sighs softly and stops walking so Sakura can run over. Sakura skids to an elegant stop, breathing heavily. She frowns at the two before her.
"Alright. Explain." Sakura folds her arms across her chest.
Cloud steps forward and throws her arms around Sakura's shoulders. "We love you, Saks. But please, please just let us work this out first. It's a lot to explain and we don't feel like talking about it." She tightens her grip. "It hurts."
May smiles inwardly.
Sakura frowns deeply, hugging the blueberry tightly. "Okay, okay. Just avoid Ino." The girls separate and Sakura laughs wistfully, "She'll hound you. Just promise to tell me when you can."
Cloud nods and loops her arm through May's. "We'll see you later."
Once the girls are far enough away, May cracks a thin smile. "That was low."
"I wasn't in the mood to pour my heart out -especially not with certain people listening in."
May furrows her brow and turns to see a familiar group of males lounging behind a tree and the smile instantly disappears from her face.
"Oh." She says, her eyebrow ticking in displeasure. "They say that they would cut off all contact with us but they stalk us?"
Cloud lets out an annoyed huff.
"Tell me about it," The bluette says. "Let's just go back to the dorms."
They trail through the campus and towards the dorm. Shizune glances up from her desk, lifting a brow at the two girls as they approach. Cloud, being the expert actress that she is, is sporting a painful grimace and abnormally pale skin. Her arm is slung around May's shoulder.
"We don't feel very good." May drawls slowly, swallowing back pretend throw up. "Can we be excused for the rest of the day?"
Shizune nods quickly. "Sure, feel better you two."
They nod and continue briskly down the hall. Once they are clear from her view, they revert back to normal and speparate, shooting each other smug looks.
They were good at getting what they wanted. Almost too good.
May unlocks the door and Cloud drops her key lanyard onto the dresser. They both let out sighs.
"This sucks." May scowls, flopping back onto her bed. "I didn't think they'd actually do it."
"I'm going to kill Itachi sooner or later." Cloud growls, turning on her laptop. "He was a dick."
May nods. "I could see him being one though."
Cloud logs on and the pauses, laughter bubbling past her lips. "What if...what if he acts like one to compensate for not having one!"
"Oh god." May chortles, "That could very well be true! He'd have to make up for it somehow."
They dissolve into fits of giggles. Once Cloud's computer is up and loaded, she twists around towards it and pulls up a new word document. "I have an idea. I'll explain later. Leave me alone."
May rolls her eyes. Cloud usually said something to that effect whenever she started writing, because their parents liked to constantly interrupt. So it had become habit. May didn't mind though. She didn't like it when people tried to talk to her while she was writing either.
So the black haired female pushes the power button to her own computer and sprawls out on her bed in front of it.
Instead of writing however, she pulls up her email and instantly finds one from their parents. She opens it and scans it over. Basically, they want them to meet them at a small coffee shop at the end of the block tomorrow, and then they can go from there to the pier.
She eagerly replies. She can't wait to see her parents.
A sickening feeling makes her stomach churn. Will they tell them about the Akatsuki disaster?
May shakes her head slightly. No, it wouldn't do to worry their parents this way when they were dealing with their careers. Besides, it was stupid anyway. Who needed those Akatsuki idiots? Well, she'd better tell Cloud the news.
"Cloud," She says and pokes her sister in the side.
The bluette growls under her breath, ignoring her sister and continues typing away furiously.
"Cloud~," May sing-songs and pokes her sister -harder.
"May," Cloud growls warningly. "I swear, if you do that one more time, I will go all Cloud on your ass." The bluette glares terrifyingly at May and goes back to writing.
The noirette simply smiles to herself and stares at her sister -who is squinting at the screen.
A few seconds later.
"Clou-" May's sly voice is cut off by Cloud's outraged scream. The bluette curses, slamming her laptop shut.
May merely smiles innocently. "Mom and Dad want us to meet them at a cafe down the block tomorrow." She seems oblivious to her sister's bad mood.
A dark cloud seems to hover over Cloud's head as looms over her sister, fingers dangling in front of May's face eerily.
"Alright, mortal. Witness the true power of your overlord!" Cloud cackles evilly.
May's facade cracks a little.
"TICKLE FIGHT!" Cloud hollers.
"Oh fuck".