Music of Africa: Sakura & Sasuke's Love Journey

I remember the first time I met her. She was sitting on a bench, leaning against a tree, with a book in hand. I had never seen her around before, but she wore the same uniform as we did, so I assumed she went to our school.

I was late for class, and was rushing down the corridor when I saw something out of the corner of my eye that made me stop dead in my tracks. It was a mane of orange hair - it looked like a fire burning brightly behind her head, except her hair wasn't on fire and it was beautiful. She didn’t look up from her book when I approached her - which made me wonder what kind of person sat alone reading a book outside. Finally, after a long moment of silence, I cleared my throat and spoke to her.

“Uh… Hello?”

I heard rustling as she closed her book and placed it on top of her lap. That was when I saw what she had been reading - it was not just any book; it was bound in red leather and had a beautifully drawn raven on the cover. The title read: ‘The Raven Prince’ by Rachel Hawkins.

“Hello there!” She said enthusiastically. She then proceeded to get up from the bench and shake hands with me - except she got so excited that she almost knocked me over as she jumped up to greet me. Shocked, I immediately tried to steady myself before taking her hand and shaking it firmly. It seemed that this girl didn’t get many visitors since she insisted on shaking my hand again. After what seemed like an eternity of shaking hands with each other (probably only a few seconds), we both dropped our hands simultaneously and she continued talking without missing a beat.

“I haven’t seen you around before! What’s your name? How are you? I’m Sakura! What are you doing here? Enjoying the weather? Do you play any instruments? Can I see your phone number? Are you single? Do you want some tea? Oh wait, is your name Sasuke or Naruto? You look like one of them… Oh well! Would you like to hear about my favorite instrument? It’s the violin! They say that music is the language of love! Do you agree with them? That sounds like something you would say! Have you ever played the violin? People say that it sounds like angels singing… Oh wait, did you already say your name is Naruto? That makes sense now! You do look a lot like him! People always tell me how much they love my hair… Wait no that was supposed to be secret… Well anyways do you want some tea or not?! Or maybe soda if you don’t drink tea! Have you seen my new shoes!? Are they cute!? Do they go well with my outfit!? Is this outfit too casual!? Should I change!? No wait!! Don’t leave yet! Look at my hair some more! How do people say it looks like fire!? Or do they say that it sounds like fire!? Are we going to listen to music together now!? Are we going to watch birds together too!? Where are all these birds coming from!? There aren’t usually this many birds here during school hours… Is there going to be another performance happening today!? Should we watch it together?? What were those people selling over there?? Were they selling food or were they selling tickets for the performance?! Do you want some snacks or should we eat lunch together instead?! Oh wait!! We just ate lunch together!! Well if we don't eat lunch together what will we do then?! Let's play Jenga together!! My favorite game!! Wait wait!! Did people call us SasuSaku or SasuNaru yesterday?! Did they think we were dating or just friends?! This isn't going well at all!! *Sigh* Okay let's start over again!!! My name is Sakura!!"