Chapter 3
“Ohayo, Sakura!”
I opened my eyes. One other pair was looking straight back into mine, a pale white pair.
I moaned and yawned. “Hinata…”
“It’s Christmas Eve!” she said happily.
I popped straight out of my bed. “Christmas Eve already??? Wow, the days have passed so quickly.”
“You were probably too focused on Sasuke,” Hinata said.
I frowned Sasuke-kun is the biggest half of my life, but my Christmas would be ruined if my thoughts kept being like this.
“I forgot all about the Christmas party!” I said.
“Christmas party?” Hinata asked.
“No one told you? It’s at my house tonight. Kakashi-sensei told mostly everyone, but maybe not a few people. Please come and tell anyone who doesn’t know yet.”
“That sounds like fun. I’ll tell Neji-niisan and my teammates.”
“Good. I’m so excited!”
“Hmm, I thought you were going to start crying because Sasuke isn’t coming.”
I frowned again. “Hinata!”
Hinata giggled. “Oh, I almost forgot.”
“What?”
“Lee sent you a present. Well, when I was on the way here, I saw Lee, and he told me to give this to you.” Hinata handed me a gift box.
“This is from Lee-san?” I said, examining the gift box. “I’ll open it tomorrow then.” And I almost forgot about the weights that I bought. I’ll give them to Lee-san tonight. I would be able to exchange gifts with everyone tonight.
“Do you want to hang out until the party?” Hinata asked.
“Oh, I have to clean up the house and all,” I replied. “As you can see, it’s in no condition for a party. Do you want to help?”
“Sure!”
“Thanks. Let’s start with my own room. This is going to be the room for the girls.”
“Room for the girls? You mean you’re going to split up boys and girls?”
“Yep. Not the whole time though. The big living room downstairs will be the main room.”
“I see."
I began making my bed. Hinata cleared and organized the things on my nightstand and desk. Lastly we cleaned up clothes and items on the floor. I made sure there was an organized amount of space for all the girls.
“Let’s move on to the room for the boys,” Hinata said when we finished.
“That’s going to be the guest room down the hall,” I told her. “No one uses the guest room, so it’s perfectly clean. It could use some dusting up, though.”
“Then let’s dust it,” Hinata said. We moved down to the guest room, each of us carrying a fluffy duster. Hinata dusted the bed and closet and I did the tables and lamps and nightstands. When we were finished, we put our dusters away and went downstairs.
“We’ll need the kitchen and the living room, so let’s start cleaning the kitchen –” But my mom was already doing the job. “Okasan!”
My mom smiled. “I’ve got this kitchen covered. You go do the living room.”
“How did you know about the party?” I asked. “I forgot all about it and never told you.”
“Mou, you’re such a irresponsible girl,” my mom joked. “Kakashi-sensei told me just yesterday.”
“Arigato,” I said with Hinata.
“That means we don’t have to do the kitchen,” Hinata said. I nodded and went with her to the living room.
“There’s a bunch of things scattered on the floor,” I said. “So we’ll start with cleaning the floor. You’ll probably know where the items belong.” We were on our knees in a second crawling all over the living room.
Hinata stumbled upon a small box abruptly. The lid of the box flew off to reveal many pictures in the container. “This must be yours, Sakura,” she said. She held up the photos in the box. All of them were of Sasuke.
I yanked the pictures out of Hinata’s hands and grabbed the white box they were in. Hinata noticed that some of the pictures were very old. Sasuke was only in his first year of the academy in a few, and others when he was a little older.
“You’ve been collecting those for a long while, haven’t you?” Hinata said.
“Yes,” I answered. “From when I first met Sasuke-kun.”
“Why? I mean, I know you like Sasuke, but why?”
“Ino and I were having a stupid, childish fight one day over who could get more Sasuke-kun pictures. Soon, I forgot all about winning against Ino that it became natural.”
“So you like Sasuke-kun that much,” Hinata said. Soon we continued cleaning and after a while, we finished.
It was clearly afternoon now. My stomach was very empty from all the work and the fact that I hadn’t eaten all day yet. It was about 3 PM or 4 now. The party would start in an hour or so. I told Hinata that she should go home to get ready for the party and I also thanked her for helping today. After she left, I went up to my room to put away the box of Sasuke-kun pictures. Then I heard the doorbell ring.
“Sakura!” I heard my mom call. “Could you get the door? I’m busy right now.”
“Okay!” I replied, hurrying downstairs. It was probably someone just early for the party.
I opened the door. I could feel the cold and bitter air outside. A few snowflakes landed on me. But there was no one there. I could just smell his scent though. I stood at the door, cold and shocked, for maybe a miracle had just happened.
