Chapter 11

The Invitation

"A friend should be one inwhose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose opinion we can value at once for its justness and its sincerity." Robert Hall

Tenten pushed the worn, iron gate inward, thanking her lucky stars that the maintenance man had not locked it while she was out. Sakura, Ino and Hinata walked in silently behind her and for that Tenten was grateful. The tomboy did not even acknowledge them as she continued towards the staircase. As they mounted the stairs she sighed inwardly. For many years she had climbed these stairs alone; not actually, since she had only been living in this dingy apartment for a few months, but figuratively. This was the first time she was allowing someone, or in this case, multiple persons inside her private life, her personal bubble, which she had kept hidden so well for, well forever.

They finally reached her floor and still the only sound she heard from her hindsight was the creaky stairs worn away from overuse and termites. She had half-expected Ino at least to stick in a humorous comment here or there, but alas, her usually talkative friend had nothing to comment on… yet.

She dug her keys out of the pocket from her sweat pants as Hinata, Sakura and Ino crept nearer to her. She slid the key into the lock and twisted it, while shaking the door knob for a few seconds before it creaked open. Tenten pushed the door inwards and stood to the side, in a hospitable manner, to allow the other girls to enter.

"Well, guys, this is it. Make yourself at home."

Sakura stepped over the threshold and gazed at her little, neat but shabby apartment. "Wow Ten, all of this is yours?"

Tenten gave a rueful smile. "Actually a portion of my scholarship money pays for my rent; so technically, the school board owns my apartment."

"I still think it's cool," Ino added following Sakura into the living/dining room. "It's like you have your own little bachelorette pad."

Hinata was the last person to enter. She walked forward, carefully studying her home, before turning to her brown-haired friend. "So this is you sanctuary?"

Tenten nodded. "This is the only place where I feel safe; the only place I can truly be myself."

Hinata smiled at her warmly and took her by the hand as she led the way into her living room. Ino was already lounging on her couch with one of my periodicals open in front of her. Sakura, on the other hand, was taking her own tour of my living room and was now examining the few personal items of importance, resting on the shelf next to my desk.

"You won all of these?" she asked as she examined the couple of soccer and karate trophies that I had won in numerous school and club competitions.

"Yeah," I responded as she lifted my MVP trophy from the last soccer season, closer to her face as she rubbed the pad of her index over my name, which had been engraved into the metal.

"At least that's the one thing I hadn't been lying to everyone about."

Ino lowered the magazine to frown at me. "Look tomboy! We're not here to criticize anything. We're just here to know you better. And you can start by telling us why you're all alone in this apartment. By yourself. In the roughest part of town? I mean, we're the hell are your parents and why on Buddha's green earth would they let you stay in a dangerous place like this by yourself?"

Tenten waited for Ino to take a breather from her rant. "Don't you guys think it's weird that I don't have a surname?"

Hinata froze. "You d-don't have…"

Sakura lifted the trophy once more noticing that only under the heading 'Most Valuable Player' was just simply her first name 'Tenten' engraved in a simple font. She looked up with a confused expression, "Ten, the only people who don't have surnames are ones that…" her voice trailed off allowing Tenten to pick up.

"I'm an orphan."

Ino's eyes widened as she stared at her friend while Sakura dropped into the nearest chair. Hinata, on the other hand, already hearing the story, looked at her brown haired friend and nodded in encouragement.

Tenten sighed and began to tell her story.

"I never met my parents. From my earliest moment till a few months ago, the orphanage in the adjourning town to Konoha was my home. The other twenty-five kids of varying ages were my siblings. We helped each other out with our school work, we trained together in various sporting disciplines and, most importantly, we watched each other's backs when going got tough. Sometimes we never all got enough to eat, so it was customary for the older kids give up a portion of their food to make sure the younger ones got enough."

Tenten's brown eyes filled with tears and she immediately shut them in an attempt to quell the salty flow from her tear ducts. "Everyone knew that I was an orphan and because of that, I was treated like shit! As though I was worthless. At first I thought that if I kept myself out of the limelight then the kids would stop bullying me, but that didn't work. The home's councilor told me that when you're different you shouldn't hide in the shadows. I knew that I was a talented athlete so she told me to try out for as much sports teams as possible.

"That's when things started looking up. I grew aggressive and soon I was the one throwing the punches when anyone tried to make me fall flat on my face. As a result, the verbal attacks stopped. People stopped making too much eye contact than necessary. I started playing soccer, running on the school's track team and joining the karate club and from there, I actually felt as though I was powerful; I had finally found something that I was good at and I was going to succeed no matter what life threw at me. But it wasn't enough since that day I found out about the blog."

Tenten stood and walked towards the window and stood before the glass, leaning her forehead against it. She stared at her woeful reflection and she allowed her tears to flow freely for the nth time of the day.

It was Hinata who finally broke the silence. "What blog, Ten?" she asked curiously, since this was the first time she was hearing this part of the story.

"There were these girls in my class last year who I've known since the third grade. These girls were the meanest, most evil people to ever walk the school yard. Maybe the earth. They make Karin, Rin and Tayuya look like a couple of pipsqueaks. They were the top terrorisers in the school. No they weren't at the top of the food chain; they were more like the girls who were somewhere in the middle who were included into the 'in' crowd for pestering anyone who doesn't have an 'acceptable background' or if they thought that someone was too pretty, too kind, too smart and so on.

"When these girls realized that I was moving up in ranks because I started making honour roll and I was being scouted to take part in varsity sports that's when they started blacklisting me."

"Blacklisting you?" asked Ino confused. "What the hell did they do, Tenten?"

"They tried to ruin me, in more ways than one." Tenten took a deep breath and brushed the back of her hand over her eyes and she turned to face her friends.

"On the blog that they ran, they posted a 'blacklist'. On this list were the names of all the people in our junior high, male and female, who they believed should die a social death. It sounds pathetic and really juvenile, because it truly is! It's just that some of the things they wrote were horrible.

"This group of girls consisted of at least one influential person that served as their ringleader. She was in the same year as me and her father was a powerful politician, so whatever she wanted her dad would just snap his fingers and make it happen.

"On the blog, I found out that she had planned to humiliate me in the worst case scenario ever. She was going to hire some guys to corner me when I was walking back home from school late. They were supposed to," she inhaled sharply and whispered, "rape me before slitting my throat."

All three girls gasped aloud. "What the…" Sakura muttered, while Ino's jaw dropped and two fat droplets ran down Hinata's cheeks.

Tenten let out a shaky dry sob. "I was so scared and the first thing I did was to tell the principal, 'cause enough was enough. But that decision would cost me my career has a national athlete. The girl was expelled but her parents paid off the judge so she got off scotch free. Even though she wasn't allowed anywhere near me she still found a way to screw with me for one last time."

She turned to Hinata. "Do you remember that someone from the national karate squad pulled out last minute from entering the tournament during the summer?" Hinata nodded.

"After I got chosen to go because I had won the state tournament, the police raided my locker at school and they found twenty milligrams of processed marijuana. I was arrested and incarcerated for three days until the DA office convinced the judge to have me undergo a series of blood work and steroid tests to prove my innocence.

"After the tests were completed and it was announced that I was clean, all of the charges against me were dropped. But by that time, the damage had already been done. I had lost my placed on the national team and even though I could have still gotten back on, I had lost my sponsor courtesy a certain politician, who was still using his place in office to make my life a living hell.

"Two weeks after I had graduated, my councilor had me signed up to write the scholarship exam so I could get into a private high school out of the province and away from my past so I could start afresh. And by some miracle I won the scholarship to attend Konoha."

She looked at all of her friends. "So now you know. I'm sorry guys. I could understand that you wouldn't want to be friends with me again…"

Tenten was cut off as three adolescent girls rushed at her and pulled her into a three-way bone crushing hug.

"You are so stupid if you think that we would allow your past to prevent us from still being your friends," commented Ino.

"More like she's stupid to think that what happened in the past is all her goddamned fault!" exclaimed Sakura, wiping the fresh tears from her viridian eyes.

Tenten gave a watery chuckle. "Thanks so much guys."

The chirping of the family of blackbirds, rising in the ash tree outside started promptly at the crack of dawn. This acted as a catalyst for the receptors in Tenten's brain to jolt her awake as though she had an internal alarm clock.

The first thing she noticed when her chocolate brown eyes opened was that someone had flung an arm of her waist constricting her movement. She shifted to the right slightly only to bump into another body with long black hair with natural midnight blue hues in the undertone. Tenten rolled her eyes. Her friends had insisted in spending the night at her apartment despite Tenten's protests ensuring them that she would be alright by herself. This had urged the three girls to call their parents to say that they were spending the night at a friend's house to finish a homework assignment, assuring them that they would get a ride back home early in the morning to dress for school.

Tenten rubbed her eyes and pushed Ino's limbs of her gently, before stepping nimbly over Hinata and Sakura, who was sleeping on the edge. She placed her bare feet onto the carpet and stretched lazily before walking towards her stove. She left the kettle on the stove and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Within five minutes the high pitched whistling of the kettle was heard and woke Hinata, Ino and Sakura from their slumber.

Tenten dried her face and walked back into her room. "Rise and shine ladies. Time for school!"

Hinata sighed and grabbed her I-phone from Tenten's small rickety bedside table to call for her limo. "Ohayo Ko! Can you pick me up at this address?" she turned her head to face her brown haired friend who whispered her address. Hinata repeated the directions to her driver and paused. She sat up straight hearing his response and frowned, "What do you mean 'why I'm in this part of town'?" Her frown lines deepened while listening to his lecture. "For your information Ko-san, my father is aware of my whereabouts and he has given me permission to spend the night here, unless you are questioning my father's authority?" she asked warningly.

The frown lines on her forehead evened out as her chauffer stumbled of his words in apology. "You are forgiven Ko-san, just be here in fifteen minutes." She clicked 'end call' on the touch screen. "Sakura, Ino, I'll drop both of you at home," she said to the other girls before pushing her tired body from the bed.

Ino and Sakura followed suit and all three girls were stretching and yawning as the traipsed into Tenten's small, cramped bathroom to rinse their mouths to eliminate their obvious morning breath. When Hinata reentered the kitchen area, Tenten was placing teacups of coffee on the wobbly secondhand dining room table for her friends to partake. Hinata picked up a cup and sipped slowly, savouring the taste.

"Hey Ten! Now that we now where you live, be prepared for outrageous sleepovers in the future," Ino said smirking as she and Sakura joined them in the kitchen.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "I knew I shouldn't have brought you here. My humble abode is going to be turned into an Ino-style salon."

Hinata's phone rang and the Hyuga just looked at the caller ID and rolled her eyes in an un-Hinata-like way.

"What's wrong Hinata?" asked Tenten, but Hinata just lifted her forefinger to silence her before answering sarcastically. "Ohayo Neji-nii-san." She took a deep breath and listened to her cousin badger her. "Apparently, you and Ko-san are of the same mind nii-san. I am currently at a friend's house so you would have to take another vehicle to school since Ko-san is taking my friends and me to school a bit later."

She stopped again to listen to Neji and the frown on her face was quickly exchanged for a look of surprise. "Thank you for reminding me, give them to Ko-san so I could pass them on to my friends later," she responded in a more docile tone than before. Then exchanged their goodbyes and Hinata hung up before turning to face her friends anxiously. "Every Christmas vacation for one week, my father takes my sister, Neji and I to our ski resort for a week and this time he's allowing us to bring three friends with us. Would you all like…"

"Yes!" they shouted in unison, cutting poor Hinata off before she had a chance to finish delivering her request.

"Don't you all want to ask your parents first, Sakura-chan and Ino-chan?"

"Of course my parents will let me go, won't yours Forehead?" asked Ino unabashedly put the pink haired girl's face dropped slightly.

"I'll have to ask them first Hina-chan, now that I've thought about it. And they would want to see the invitation as well."

"Neji will be giving my driver your invitations, so I'll give them to you right before we go to our first period classes."

"It's a deal then," concluded Tenten as the other girls set their emptied cups down and rose to leave. Hinata's phone rang once again alerting her that her driver was downstairs waiting for her. Sakura and Ino grabbed their belongings and after giving Tenten a hug, trailed after Hinata down the staircase. Tenten closed her door and made her way back to the kitchen to finish her breakfast before getting dressed for school. After all, she finally regained her zeal to attend class once more and not even her recent emotional turmoil is going to allow her to stay away from school again.

An hour and a half later, found a red-faced Tenten sprinting through her usual shortcut before the bell rang promptly at eight. She raced down two alley ways and when she had arrived at the familiar brick wall confirming a dead end, she immediately slung her bag over her neck and scaled the wall effortlessly. She jumped down to the pavement before crossing the street and running towards the wrought iron gates of Konoha High. She did not stop to catch her breath however, but to continue running until she stopped abruptly in front of her friends at their usual rendezvous point – their neighboring lockers. Tenten dropped her bag on the ground and leaned onto her locker, clutching her sides.

"Did I… make it?" she gasped still red in the face and massaging the stich out of her ribs.

Sakura, who was timing her, consulted her watch. "This one was kinda close Ten. Only thirty more seconds from the first bell."

Ino rolled her pretty cerulean eyes. "Hey at least you made it in time," she commented before turning to close her locker while muttering, "My friends are so weird!"

Hinata also closed her locker and when she faced her friends; her face wore a puzzled expression. She flipped through the thick pages in her hand, obviously counting something, before backtracking her steps for a second, scanning the ground.

"Something wrong Hinata?" Hinata looked up only to see her tall bun-haired friend looking at her with those intelligent chocolate brown eyes.

"I'm so terribly sorry Tenten. I think I may have misplaced you invitation. I could have sworn that I counted three before I came out of the car this morning."

"Hey don't fret!" consoled Tenten dropping her palm to pat Hinata's head. "Whenever you find it, you'll just give it to me, right?"

Hinata nodded and handed Sakura and Ino their invitations. "Ok course Tenten-chan and if I can't find it, I'll just ask father to make another one for you."

The second bell rang signaling the start of first period. Sakura and Ino scurried off to class after saying their hasty goodbyes leaving Tenten and Hinata to make their way to the Chemistry lab. Tenten slung her satchel over her shoulder and proceeded down the hall with Hinata when she a brainwave hit her.

"Oh crap!" she exclaimed hitting her forehead. "I forgot my text book in my locker. Go on ahead to class, it'll only take a sec," she said and retraced her steps leading back to her locker.

Now I'm going to be late, she thought as she spun the combination lock around faster than usual before wrenching the metal door and grabbing her text book. She started sprinting down the corridor only to collide with a larger body causing her to drop all of her books. She did not look up at the person's face but muttered a hasty apology and dropped onto the ground to retrieve her belongings. A long-fingered porcelain hand reached down and plucked her chemistry text book, which was the root of her problems at the moment, and passed it to her. She mumbled her thanks as the person walked past her. Her back immediately straightened as she felt a jolt of electricity passing through her body as the ends of familiar long dark brown hair flew past her face upsetting the air around her. She gasped and clutched her books to her chest before running down the passage way, making a beeline towards the lab. She was almost afraid to turn back and face him at the moment; to see those opaque eyes that still haunt her thoughts.

She entered the room and after apologizing to her teacher for her tardiness, dropped onto the stool next to Hinata. The Hyuga girl was already measuring out the portions of sodium hydroxide for their titration lab and Tenten took it upon herself to open her book to the page illustrating the titration explanations and molar calculations. As she opened the cover of the book, a strange envelope addressed to her was staring up at her. Her eyes narrowed as she opened the envelope only to reveal her invitation to the Hyuga clan's ski resort. The same one Hinata had lost!

She gasped and looked at her friend while holding up her invitation. "Um, Hinata? I think I've found my invitation."

I humbly apologise for not updating sooner, but for people who are currently writing or preparing to write SATs, British A Levels and CAPE or any other upper level examination, then you will all agree with me when I say that school is a bitch!

Thanks to all my readers and reviewers. I hope that this chapter was worth the wait!

R&R