Chapter 1
The first thing Sakura said when she woke up was, " Life sucks."
Indeed, at the moment, life does suck for Sakura Kinomoto.
She is poor, living on the floor, on top of the almost non-existent bathhouse, that is located in the outskirts of Tomoeda, the poor part that is.
This little community is much worse than the poor part of Tomoeda.
Only nineteen years old, she has nobody, both her parents died. Her brother, left to another city to find a better job, to get a higher income, to feed his wife and son.
Sakura, desperate to live, worked various jobs. Right now, she worked part time cooking in a Chinese restaurant, cleaning the toilets at this pub every night, and also worked at the bathhouse, which would soon be closing, she predicted, as nobody really goes there.
She had so little, wore worn out clothes, had only five plates and three mugs. Her daily meal a day was only a bowl of rice and water every single day, for breakfast and lunch. She skipped dinner, only living on water.
Sakura rubbed her tired eyes. She was so tired from last night, from cleaning toilets at the pub. Every five minutes, she cleans the toilet, some drunk pukes everywhere, and she had to clean it again. It's worse in the men, yes, she had to the both toilets. Piss, shit and vomit everywhere, she had always vomited the first time she worked, but now she was completely immune of all these wastes surrounding her.
Last night, however, the first thing happened to Sakura, and she was lucky to escape. It was quite late, around midnight, by this time only men would come to the pub with hookers. One guy had just gone in the porcelain bowl, when he left, it was a mess on the floor.
Can't these fucking drunks aim right? She fumed.
She took her only company with her, the mop, and started cleaning the mess.
The door to the toilet swung open, and Sakura jumped, she wasn't supposed to be here. She was supposed to be hiding in the cupboard, and only clean when nobody was there.
In came a large man, who was obviously drunk, limping from right to left. Sakura just froze. He didn't see her at first, then went to the porcelain bowl, and did his thing, fortunately there was no mess Sakura had to clean up after, at least for that time. Then he saw her. Sakura began to feel afraid, she could see his eyes darting to the parts only women have.
Then he went at her.
Sakura was pushed to the wall, her mouth covered by his large bulgy hairy hand. The other hand, wasting no time, was touching parts that were not in the least bit comfortable. She tried to scream. His breath was on her chest, even from there, she could smell the heavy liquor this man consumed earlier.
" Let go off me." She screeched. Struggling to get out of his reach, which was really difficult.
The man, spoke something not understandable, and groaned and kept at her.
" Get your filthy hands off me!" She yelled louder, this time she returned her words with her knees in his crotch.
The man gaped and tried to find support on another wall.
" Asshole." She said, disgustedly, grabbed her mop and left the pub without anybody knowing.
She'll be in for it tomorrow, when the manager finds out she left.
Sakura held her hand to her head, remembering last night. Fucking assholes, always thinking of sex, with or without being drunk.
" Life sucks." She yelled to no one in particular.
Of course, nobody was there to hear, she was alone.
She looked at her many times repaired alarm clock, it was 5:00 am.
She had to get started.
Sakura Kinomoto discovered that she was actually really good at drawing animes since she was eight. She was still in school then, and only drawed when she was bored. When her parents died, she thought life was bad, but now, years later, life got from bad to worse.
And she thought the only thing that could save her from all this.
To become a successful artist. And draw and publish those drawings into comics.
Sakura smiled at the worn out poster she found in the garbage of Chronicles of Wings. Chronicles of Wings is a wonderful story, the drawings were absolutely beautiful, drawn with obvious care, and the plot was so heart stopping. She loved the story so much.
She was lucky when she arrived looking for the cheapest apartment here, two years ago. The bathhouse owners were really nice and had a child of their own, twelve-year-old Maiko. Maiko was twelve then and Sakura was seventeen. At that time Chronicles of Wings just came out and were really hot, everybody wanted to buy them. How Sakura would stare enviously at kids buying them at the stores. And when she moved to the floor above the bathhouse, Maiko was always reading them. She must have noticed Sakura staring with jealousy as Maiko reads it, because she lets Sakura borrow it.
Two long years had passed, and Chronicles of Wings were the only place Sakura could find sanctuary and leading a better life, in having hopes and dreams of love, family, and happiness. Whenever she would break down, she remembered the story and it made her optimistic, smile no matter what, and have high hopes and believe it would get better. Because she didn't do anything wrong. Unfortunately, the series had been completed, but there were rumours of a sequel to the story coming out soon.
But she truly admired the creator of Chronicles of Wings, how she gushed over his creative illustrations, and even his language was good, the plot was exciting. And she wants to become just like him.
" All right, up you get Sakura, don't give up, keep drawing, who cares if the editor turns them down, maybe one day one of them will accept you." She said.
She looked at the time, 5:15 am.
Oh no, she has only two hours to create drawings, and perfect them, and edit them. She also had to reread her story, to make sure everything is okay.
She smiled at her parents photograph, her only belonging of her parents.
" Don't worry Mum, Dad, someday all my work will be paid off." Sakura said.
It was only 5:30 am, the whole town is sleeping, except for one person scratching and drawing away with her pencil…
A:N: REVIEW! PLEASE!
