F R E E F L Y T E

Chapter 1
Meetings

She would fly, if she were not bound to the ground with legs.

She was always looking up to the sky, wherever she went.

She was often distracted because of that. During class, her seat just happened to be next to the window, and seeing only the side of her face became a common occurrence, even after the teacher moved her seat to the farthest point from the windows.

She often watched the birds with longing in her eyes, a dreamy look on her face as she watched the clouds passed by, hanging in the blue sky without a care in the world.

Kinomoto Sakura was indeed a strange person.

School seemed to be a mere annoyance to her, like a fly. Always there to bother you, and never leaving, even after swatting it away.

The bell rang, and students poured out of classrooms and rushed into the hallways, relieved that they were one period closer to going back home to their games and whatnot. Sakura was pulled out of the classroom by a certain Daidouji Tomoyo, laughing as Sakura moaned, eyes still looking out the window and into the blue sky.

Then the tiny glimpse she had of the window disappeared altogether and she sighed, wishing she could be outside instead of being cooped in a large building filled with immature boys and girls, flirting with one another.

What horrible luck she had.

This could not be healthy, this staying-inside-for-many-hours. How… pointless. On such beautiful days, they should be learning outside, with much-needed fresh air filling their lungs. The regular old school air was horrible. Especially on a Monday, when everyone's brains were dead.

"Tomoyo, if you don't let go of me, I will be forced to make you let go of me."

Tomoyo simply laughed and continued to pull her along, knowing that Sakura was far too nice to actually do anything with her threat.

'Well, at least it's lunchtime,' she thought with a sigh, wishing, once again, that she could be outside.

Perhaps if she finished lunch quickly enough, she could go outside for a while.

Jeers and laughter greeted her as she entered the lunchroom, but she serenely ignored them all and instead continued on, walking to her lunch table calmly.

Maybe she should give her thanks that she wasn't a target for them, though that would be cruel, since they were targeting someone else.

A group towered over a hunched figure, obviously scared to death. "What's wrong? I thought you were oh-so-good at gym. Why don't you beat us up? Huh? Oh, wait, that's right, you can't actually do anything in gym, you just got all the questions on the test right."

As Sakura walked by them, she murmured, "You know, our 'gym' teacher won't be happy if she heard you say that. She's said over and over that you need to call the subject Physical Education, but perhaps you didn't hear, seeing how you're making fun of someone who got the Education part right."

The group turned towards her, annoyed. "What do you know, Miss Oh-So-Proper Sakura?"

She stopped and looked at them. "When did I give you permission to call me by my first name?"

"When didn't you?"

"That's a stupid question. From the moment I was born."

The guy snarled. "Shut UP! Why don't you just stuff your head into a window, watching your little birdies?"

"Why don't you do us ALL a favor and shut up as well, and stuff your head down a toilet?"

The room tittered and snickered as Sakura continued walking on, leaving the bullies behind her, fuming.

Tomoyo sighed. "Can't you go a day without picking a fight, Sakura? In all truth, I'm amazed by the fact that no one has beaten you up yet."

She smiled mysteriously. "Ah, Tomoyo, the problem with boys is that they all think we women are weak and useless. Funny how that happened, considering how without us, they wouldn't be born. Though the advantage is that they can't hurt us, lest we be 'hurt'."

Tomoyo smiled. "I can practically feel the idiocy in the air, tainted by idiots."

"That was rather redundant, but yes, there is quite some idiocy in the air."

Sakura finished lunch as quickly as possible, managing to get outside. For some strange reason, they gave everyone a 25 minute lunch, and if they finished, they could go outside.

'And here I thought that teachers were supposed to encourage getting fresh air.'

Sakura sneaked out quietly, not wanting to deal with more idiots than she had already that day, and did so quite easily. All of them were oblivious, and she probably could've walked right in front of them and they wouldn't have noticed.

Crisp, beautifully fresh air entered her lungs. It might have been a bit cold for her liking, but then again, she had always been a touch sensitive to the cold.

It was autumn, Fall, the time for leaves to die. They serenaded their death with breath-taking colors of paint, and then they were gone, as quickly as they had come into her life.

No one appreciated the beauty of nature anymore, and it was such a pity. Not Tomoyo, and especially not those idiots that filled her school. Though, not all of them were bad. Like Chiharu, or Yamazaki. They were fun to be with.

Sakura got another intake of fresh air before the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch, and the end of her short freedom.

She sighed and entered the building again, eyes trained on the sky until it was out of sight again.

~:~*~:~

Tick, tock, TICK. Another minute. One more minute, and this interminable droning that belonged to her teacher would be cut short. She practically begged the clock to go faster.

Tick… Tock… Tick… Tock…

So close, so close… TICK. Sakura was ready to jump for joy as the bell rang. She gathered her things as quickly as possible and made her escape.

Sakura rushed out the door, the sky greeting her with wisps of clouds curling in random spots of the blue. She smiled and began walking, eyes never leaving the sky, until-

Yeah. She should have guessed. It would have been just her luck to crash into someone.

"-Oh. Sorry," Sakura said, not sounding sorry at all.

The boy looked at her, his eyes the most interesting shade. She'd never seen an amber before. Like a molten gold, with some hints of orange-ish red.

"Yeah, sorry," he mumbled quickly before taking off, mumbling a string of curses that made Sakura grin, a tiny blush on his face.

Their first meeting - check.