Teenager.

That is what she was.

Not a child, but not a woman. Caught somewhere in the middle. Tangled between being expected to be grown up, but still treated as a child. She lived in a web, spun by confused spiders, mismatched shapes, tessellateless polygons, uneven thread.

Yes, teenage years are the ones that define who we are, and who we will become. We live in a cruel web, designed to challenge us in every aspect. Some of us will grow up to be predators, spinning intricate traps, dominating the species; and some of us will fall into these traps, engulfed as the prey.

Sakura Kinomoto.

Gentle appearance. The perfect upbringing. She was destined to be a charming, well mannered young lady, and was given every opportunity to be whatever fulfilled her desire.

And of course, she took it.

When her parents hosted dinner parties, Sakura played the respectful daughter. When her parents took her for a night out in the city, she would act appropriately. When her parents would brag about their accomplishments at work, she would hear them and respond accordingly.

Indeed, to their eyes, the Kinomoto Princess was the dream child; But underlying her pure exterior, waited a character not quite like the daughter that they were familiar with.

Teenage years are often referred to as the 'selfish' years of our lives- These are the years in which we rebel against our elders, longing for control over our forever misted futures. Yes, Sakura Kinomoto's fate was to become an angel in the eyes of all, but perhaps it was the negligence of her family towards her inner teenager, which formed a hatred inside of her. A hatred of all things 'proper', of all things 'correct' and 'formal'. She would choose not to become this figure of envy by all onlookers- as such.

Instead, she would become much, much, worse.

And she would love it.

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Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a story for those who enjoy happy endings in a land of dreams and harmony. This is not a story where everyone gets what they want, or even comes close. This story, is about how life works. There are people who win, and there are people who lose, and at the end of the day, the good guys don't always come home with first place.

So sit back in your seat. Enjoy my overuse of clichés, because English teachers who are against it, can simply kiss my ass. Don't mind the excessive punctuation or in some portions of the story- too many dashes- as just demonstrated. If you don't like this story, then I don't care. If you like this story, then I don't care. Trust me when I say I'm not a bad person, just a little cocky- at the moment! Hehe.

I should also warn you that if you don't like: Sex, drugs, alcohol, swearing, violence, etc. Then click the back button on your browser. I'm not too sure what kind of messed up shit is going to be in here. Yay.

Oh, reviews are nice too, I guess. Feel free to ask any questions… Apart from 'what's going to happen next?' D: Haha.

Yay, story time!

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Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

'No… It can't be….'

Tomoyo rolled over and buried her head under her pillow. 'Anything but school… Please God, just let me have one more day…' She took in the musty scent of the sheets that seemed to have never been explored, beneath where her pillow had been- the air that she was breathing in, slowly turning warmer as she exhaled out into the mattress before inhaling the same air back in, in a circular pattern.

Today seemed like just another ordinary day, apart from the fact that the sun was about 90 degrees lower to the east than her usual time of waking for the past 3 months; but it was like there was a familiar pit of guilt and denial in Tomoyo's stomach, that was telling her that she should probably be getting up.

Tomoyo had a bad habit of putting things off. Her friends would joke that her motto should be 'Procrastinate later'. It didn't occur to her at the time, but the real reason behind her disorganization was that she had no idea where she was going. Some days she planned to be the model student, and other days she wanted to be the snotty cheerleader, and she quite often had this strange urge to join the group of punks.

Thump, thump, thump.

Oh no. She could hear her mother coming up the stairs to wake her. How she hated when her mother would come in this early. Tomoyo would already have been awake for a few minutes, yet for some reason, she felt that it was her duty to re-wake her daughter.

"Rise and shine… It's Monday morning and you know what that means, don't you?"

"I know mom… I know…"

Mornings were the most rushed part of the day for Tomoyo, she had to be at school for roll call by 8:30 and it was already 7:00, plus it took her a good fifteen minutes to get to school. So that gave her an hour and a bit, not bad when you think about it that way, but for her, it was go-go-go!

Breakfast, shower, brushing teeth and washing face. Fine. Finishing covering her math book and packing her bag. Fine. Feeding her fish and her cat. Fine. But now for the hard part: What to wear?

If you're not familiar with TGAOS (Teenage girl apparel obsessive syndrome), then let Tomoyo introduce it to you. First and foremost, what shirt to wear? Pink? Too girly. Black? Too emo. Blue? Too predictable. Yellow? So last season. And green? Well that just speaks for itself!

So after at least an hour of mixing and matching, changing her underwear at least seven times, and her socks- twice that- she finally found an outfit that she was happy with.

Giving her hair a quick flick to the side in front of the mirror, she heaved up her school bag and grabbed an orange from the fruit bowl on the kitten bench on her way out, closing the door with a half hearted slam behind her.

The air outside was crisp, and chilled Tomoyo's lungs ever so slightly, just enough to cause her to shiver a single time- thin hairs on her outer arms sensitive to the feeling of nakedness under the cold sun. She passed the enormous oak tree that resided on their front lawn, which acted as a good source of shade in summer, as it created a canopy to shield the heat from Tomoyo's bedroom window on hot days. As fall was creeping ever so surreptitiously into the green of Tomoeda's homes, dead leaves scattered themselves about the pavement, and rolled gently in the wind.

If there was one thing that she was thankful for, about school, was living close. Tomoyo was fortunate enough to save herself the embarrassment of having her mother drive her to school in the mornings as it was only a ten minute walk from her doorstep. The idea of being in 12th grade excited her. Being a senior not only meant having privileges such as being able to leave school early and have free periods, but it also meant social domination over those of lower grades. It sounded rather bratty to put it that way- but it was true.

However she began to doubt her chances of this. Tomoyo was a normal kid. She wasn't really that pretty, and her marks were only average or a bit above. She supposed that her family were probably middle class, and it's not like she really hung out with the 'in crowd'. But this didn't stop her from having fun of course… It just meant that the kind of fun she had didn't involve items such as alcohol and condoms.

Tomoyo had walked to the corner of the next street before a familiar voice called out to her.

"Hey Tomoyo! Wait up!"

She knew instantly. Syaoran Li, her friend since the first day of high school. She'd been alone at her new school after all her friends had gone to a private school run by nuns. Tomoyo had laughed endlessly at the repulsive uniforms that her friends were forced to wear, but deep down she wished that maybe she could join them, but her parents couldn't afford the fees. Syaoran had sat next to her in math class that day- and they soon found a common hate of volleyball and geography. It didn't take them long to get to know each other, and since then, they had become best friends.

"Surprized you made it out of bed this morning, Li." She said, turning her head over her shoulder to see a boy about her age, walking toward her.

Syaoran was pretty tall, come to think of it, but he had quite a young face. He sported a muddy colored shag pile of hair that made many wonder how he could see at all through the veil of fluffy brownness. He wore his usual black sporty pants and had a fawn bag slung across him and over one shoulder. It's contents seemed to be cluttered with, instead of school books, more important articles such as a water bottle, pens, a lunchbox, and probably a wallet or phone.

He smiled when he caught up to her. He didn't smile much, but when he did, he had to noticeable dimples, and his mouth was actually rather lopsided, when looked at closely. Tomoyo could make out his dark eyes from under his forest that he called hair.

"Yeah… Well I had jet lag for a day or two I suppose… But I'm awake…" He started to fall sideways, jokingly.

Tomoyo laughed momentarily. Okay, so she'd admit it, he was pretty funny- not to mention good looking… If you're into the whole scruffy look. But no, she'd never really had any 'feelings' for him… As such.

"Oh! I totally forgot to ask how America was! You were in um… California…?"

Syaoran looked back at her, which was amazing that he could see at all under his hair. Tomoyo had long dark hair that contrasted with her porcelain skin, but in a very natural way, as apposed to a gothic kinda look. She was quite short compared to him, but her figure was rather full. Not to say she was fat in the least, but she was an all round good size, now that he thought about it… He preferred normal sized chicks to skinny ones, or um, fat ones… Not that he really cared anyway, and not that he should be looking at her body. And not that… Oh fuck Syaoran! Just say something before she wonders if you're staring at her boobs. THAT WAS NOT AN INVITATION! Talk!

"I uh… What?"

"You went to San Francisco, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah… San Franciso…" He mumbled, scratching his head and pretending to look away.

They started walking again in the direction of school, Syaoran rummaging through his bag.

"Well how was it!? I've always wanted to go to the states, I'd like to see the beaches there… Did you surf at all?"

"I… Yeah… Yeah lots of… Waves… Surfing… Bikinis…" It had taken him about a good 4 seconds to realize what he'd said, before the shock set upon him.

"I mean uh… Uh… Uh… Uh…"

Tomoyo was intrigued by his sudden loss of words and started laughing uncontrollably. Syaoran just looked at her pathetically.

"Trust you to be a pervert, Syaoran!"

The two of them continued their way to school, chatting about their summer vacation until they reached the school gate, about 15 minutes before the bell would go. Arriving to school early meant that they could catch up with their friends before roll call- this was a religious event that took place everyday before school. There they would crack jokes, talk about school work, or even make statues out of tables and chairs. They would meet in Meiling's roll call: room 312, which was a geography classroom.

Meiling was one of those people that just told it how it was. You couldn't expect much more than a straight answer from her. Many thought of her as a bit of a bitch, but if you took the time to get to know her like Tomoyo and Syaoran did, you'd find that she was actually pretty funny. Meiling was Syaoran's cousin, so they seemed to see a fair bit of each other and had a couple of inside jokes every now and then. Usually about family members- but they were always willing to share the laughs.

The two walked through the tall iron gates that had opened inwardly, to reveal a school building made of red brick, four stories high. There was a pathway that lead around to the right hand side of the school which would take them to the geography classrooms.

Tomoyo noticed that the sky had started to cloud over, looking up as a rain drop fell out of no where onto her forehead.

"Ah! It's starting to rain!" She cried, trying to shelter her hair with her arms.

Syaoran laughed at her. "Sheesh Tomoyo, you know I spend all morning doing my hair but you don't see me trying to cover up my handy work."

Tomoyo smirked as she lowered her arms defensively, giving a loud exhale out through her nose. "Oh you're such a rebel." She joked.

Syaoran raised an eyebrow- not that you could tell under his hair. What had she meant by that? Was she mocking him or was she flirting with him? Hahaha, flirting Syaoran? No, this is Tomoyo we're talking about here. Her idea of being 'bad' is not doing her homework. Ah shit. Homework…. "Tomoyo how much homework are we going to get this year?" he moaned.

"Probably heaps… Everyone's been saying how hard the last year of school is, but I dunno, I reckon it'll be a breeze. I mean… As long as you study, Syaoran."

He sighed. He'd never really been interested in school, but he considered taking SOME kind of action this year to make sure that he didn't completely fail every exam.

They climbed a flight of stairs into a hallway on the first floor, and found their way up another two flights before turning right into a large classroom.

"TOMOYO!!!!"

There was a screech from the other side of the room, and the next thing that she knew- Tomoyo was on her back, being suffocated into a hug by a thin girl with brown pig tails.

"Oh my god oh my god oh my god I missed you so much!!! How are you!? Did you have a good holiday! OH MY GOD! DID YOU KNOW THAT RIKA HAS A BOYFRIEND! Oh my god it's so good to see you! Oh! HI SYAORAN!"

If there was anything that Chiharu Mihara was known for, it was her outgoing personality… And her good looks. Chiharu was probably one of the prettiest girls at school. She had a slender figure and large eyes that complemented her hair that was fringed just between her eyes and perfectly manicured eyebrows.

Chiharu gave Syaoran the same treatment, nearly bowling him over as she had just done to Tomoyo, unfortunately she had not had her running start this time and Syaoran was a fair bit bigger than Tomoyo, so he remained standing upright.

Chiharu bounced up and down and clapped her hands. "Oh the weather forecast said that it's going to be raining all week! That means I get to wear my new spotty boots tomorrow! She spun around a few times, narrowly missing a trash bin in the corner of the room.

Tomoyo couldn't help but smile. Even on the drearier days of the year, Chiharu seemed to make it a little brighter. "My holidays were okay… Nothing really eventful…"

She noticed a movement over near the window, and she spun around to see Meiling and Eriol sitting on a desk, both had just acknowledged the presence of herself and Syaoran, after the short amount of screaming and hugging going on in the doorway.

"Hey!" Said Meiling, smiling brightly at Tomoyo, and also at Syaoran, who had managed to shake Chiharu off him, and she went of singing and hugging a pot plant, dancing about on the teacher's table.

They ignored her. Eriol seemed pleased to see Syaoran, and nodded at him, "How was California?"

"It was alright," he replied in monotone, but giving Eriol a surreptitious wink and the thumbs up. Eriol grinned at this.

Meiling yawned contently and sat up on the windowsill and Tomoyo joined her, before Chiharu came bouncing back over and wiggled herself between them. "We're getting a new student!" She announced, still hugging the pot plant. "Apparently she's from Okinawa! It's so exciting!"

Meiling opened up a little, "Yeah I heard that… I dunno about it though. The last person I met from down there was a bit dodgy." She then leaned forward a little, to address both the girls, "Anyway, how was your summer?"

Chiharu answered almost immediately, bouncing up and down in her seat, chattering away at light speed about her trip to her Grandmother's house in Hiroshima, and an incident involving an apricot pie and a squirrel.

Syaoran and Eriol sat on a desk facing the girls, but they kept quiet to themselves. They were used to listening, or, at least Syaoran would pretend to listen. Eriol usually would seem disinterested in anything that anyone had to say, and rarely ever talked in these conversations or asked questions, but when he did, it would bound to be extremely smart or funny.

Syaoran on the other hand seemed distracted by Chiharu's skirt. Yeah okay, so he was a pervert. Big deal, he was sure that half the other guys in his grade were too… Well… Maybe not half… At least… Well… Okay, okay, he tended not to think with anything above his shoulders. The truth was that although he did often have quite inappropriate thoughts, he would never touch a girl. Not to say that he was gay either, just respectful. He laughed at the though of being homosexual, which was convenient as everyone else laughed too and it seemed that Chiharu had gotten to the funny part of her story.

In all honesty, he didn't really find Chiharu that attractive. Maybe she was a bit to skinny, or her eyes were a bit too big. He felt a bit 'dumb', not being into the same kind of girls that other guys would be. In fact, many would jump at having a chance with a girl like Chiharu. Despite being over immature and excruciatingly hyper, she was actually really smart. She was the girl he would decide to leave to someone who really wanted her.

He eyed off Meiling. She was his cousin, but they'd had a pretty close relationship for a while. He didn't want to think about that. Meiling wasn't bad looking either. Her haircut gave him the creeps at times, but she had quite an athletic figure. She tended to dress a bit more conservatively, which contrasted significantly with Chiharu's black mini skirt, which he started to gaze at again… He wondered… What color underwear she might be wearing…?

"Syaoran…? Are you in there….?"

"Huh, what?"

Tomoyo sighed and laughed a little, "I just asked you what subjects you're taking this year."

"Oh… Right…" She shifted uncomfortably, and Eriol seemed to know exactly what he was thinking, because his blank expression turned to one of great interest. "I'm doing math, Japanese, PE, chemistry and physics."

"Oh that's cool! I guess you'll be in my PE class then if you're doing chemistry as well." Tomoyo said, and Chiharu nodded, "I'm doing PE too! I can't wait! I want to play football, tennis, basketball, badminton…."

Eriol didn't stop smiling suspiciously at Syaoran, which made him feel discomforted, and he avoided his friend's gaze; he focused on the faces of the girls.

Tomoyo wasn't your classic good looking girl. Sometime you'd look at her and think she was pretty, and sometimes you just think she was another plain Jane. She had a bit of an overbite, but her teeth were quite large and white, she had a surprisingly nice smile- at least from this angle. He cheeks were a rosy color- he wasn't sure if they were just like that, or she'd put on make up or any of those other crazy things that girls do.

He looked at her body again. It was slightly hunched over and pivoted to the side to keep in the conversation. She wasn't skinny like Chiharu… No… She reminded him of a pre-anorexic Hilary Duff, her stomach didn't bulge out, and her hips didn't hang over the sides of her pants, but she was round… No.. You're just looking at her breasts, Li. DAMMIT! He mentally hit himself. But she DID have a great set… No, don't think that, Syaoran, not here.

He'd thought about Tomoyo before. Well, kinda. Not like… In.. THAT way… Well maybe. He didn't know what she thought about him. And even if she did like him, it wouldn't matter, he didn't want to wreck their friendship or anything… But he'd had a feeling that if he hadn't tried to swallow these thoughts about her so suddenly, then maybe he would grow to have feelings for her.

But… Although she didn't admit to doing much over the summer, she seemed a bit more mature looking this year… In a good way of course… Yes… All grown up… And no… He wasn't looking at her chest this time…

"I've never seen a squirrel so big before! It took it RIGHT out of my HAND! I nearly fell over backwards!"

Tomoyo nodded at giggled at the idea of a squirrel stealing Chiharu's pie. Wondering if the squirrel really was as big as she said it was. It took her a second or two to realize that Syaoran was staring at her. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, but she pretended not to notice. His eyes didn't move. Did she have something on her face? No, Meiling would've said something by now at least. She tried hard to hear the rest of the story but her thoughts were fading into a realm of wonder and confusion. She resisted looking back at him. Oh god, what's wrong with her!? He's your best friend Tomoyo! Of course he can look at you! And you can look at him too, it doesn't mean anything, you're over-analyzing the situation!

"So then I was chasing it around and around! But darn it they're so fast and OH MY GOD! There was like, this apple tree, you see…."

Syaoran smiled, at ease. The good part was that because she doesn't like him, then he could never hurt her. He was afraid of doing that to anyone he cared about, right now, he didn't think that it were possible for him to maintain a romantic relationship, not with all these hormones going on. He seemed pleased with his life at the moment. So it wasn't perfect, but he was happy. Happy just being friends. Happy just being himself.

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Okay, so Chapter 1 was going to be longer… But… Meh, I think that was a good place to end it. Hopefully I'll have some time to write some more sometime soon… Actually I'm going to start on Chapter 2 right now… So… YAY! Review if you like. If you're going to criticize then at least try to make it constructive.

Example of non-constructive criticism (Baaaad): "Your story sucks."

Example of constructive criticism (this is the good one): "Your story sucks, it was way too short, make it longer and add some more character development!" (Or whatever you may find displeasing about it)

Mmkay. Hope you enjoyed!