Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura belongs to the wonderful CLAMP, not me.

Sensei, I Love You
Prologue
By Sakura aka Michelle

Kinomoto Sakura trudged up along the long path leading to her school gates, tired from her morning part-time job at the convenient store. Things were getting much more difficult for her, especially when she has to juggle between work and school. What about social life? Sakura did not have one and she did not find a need for it. She already had her hands full with making ends meet and she did not need any distraction. What she need now was a roof over her head and that meant that she has to work to pay for her rent. Her landlord had just warned her that morning that she would be evicted out from the small pitiful rented room if she did not pay by the end of this week, which was just a few days away. That was the reason why she had skipped school for several days just to work extra hours.

The number of students on the path increased as she neared the school gates. They had hurriedly rushed to the sides upon seeing her, as if they were afraid of her. Sakura was amused by the sight of students quaking at their knees whenever she was near. She never knew what brought about that fear in the student population and she could not be bothered about it, eager to get to her class and grab some precious minutes of sleep before lessons officially start for the day. She sighed inwardly as she reminded herself that she had to rush to work in one of the café in the neighbouring town. It would be a very long day.

It was a dream came true for Sakura! Her parents were finally bringing her to the long awaited family trip to the famous hot spring! She could not contain her excitement upon hearing the sudden news from her parents and was harping on it during breakfast.

"Oka-san! Otou-san!" Sakura called out in the middle of the breakfast, a worried frown on her face. "Are we really going to the hot spring? Not going to break our promise again? My junior high school graduation trip?"

Kinomoto Nadeshiko and Kinomoto Fujitaka turned to look at each other before bursting out into laughter. Sakura pouted cutely when her parents laughed at her and began protesting. "It has already been three months since I graduated from junior high school! Three months ago you said you were bringing me there but then it was cancelled because of bad weather. Two months ago you said you were bringing me there but cancelled it because Onii-chan was feeling a little sick. Last month, you also said that you were bringing me there but otou-san, you could not get away from work to bring me there! I have the right to query about this. At least I can be mentally prepared for it."

Kinomoto Touya, her annoying brother who seemed to take teasing her as part of his life, reached over to pinch her cheek painfully. Sakura screeched in response and gingerly tried to rub the sting out of her cheeks, glaring at her brother. "Don't be rude. Well, one can't help it being a monster of the house," he snickered and yelped in pain as Sakura stomped on his right foot beneath the table.

"Hah! Revenge!" Sakura shouted out in triumph and pumped her fists into the air energetically. Nadeshiko could not help but giggled at the scene her children were creating. As if knowing what she was thinking, her husband reached over to clasp her hand in his, squeezing it gently and giving her a warm smile that could melt her heart every time he did that.

"Geez how old are you again?" Touya asked sarcastically as he nursed his abused foot. "You act like five year old kid for a fifteen year old monster."

Seeing that Touya had already moved his feet away from the threat of another foot stomping exercise, Sakura retaliated by punching his biceps and had him wincing in pain and clutching his arm in an exaggerated display of pain. "I forgot you learnt karate and judo…" Touya muttered; the punch had actually hurt a little.

"Stop calling me a monster!"

"Only if you stop acting like one," Touya glared at his sister, who just stuck out her tongue at him in response.

"We'll leave after breakfast darlings," Nadeshiko chirped and clapped gleefully. It had been a long time since they had a family trip together. Fujitaka has been preoccupied with university lectures and Touya was busy with his university stuffs. The only time they could go on trip was when the kids were having summer vacation.

"It will be a few hours' journey to the hot spring," Fujitaka warned. "Prepare whatever you need for vacation and we will set of immediately after breakfast."

Sakura cheered before gulping down what remained of her breakfast before rushing up her room to pack her stuff while humming a tune absentmindedly. Touya had dropped by her room to tease her mercilessly, which resulted in him being kicked out of her room and thus earning him a sore butt, courtesy of Sakura.

Within an hour's time, they were cushioned in Fujitaka's car and were headed off to their vacation destination. Sakura had chatted incessantly about anything and everything under the sun with her family. Correction: with her parents. Touya only made her made with all the non-stop teasing and she had wisely ignored him while she continued her chatter, saving herself from any risk of bursting blood vessels.

That was the reason that it was a very lively atmosphere in the car. Sakura loved her family very much, having been raised under such a caring family who also loved her just as much. The banter continued within the car and perhaps it was because they were too engrossed in their conversation, none of them noticed the incoming car until it was too late.

Sakura screamed out a warning, which Fujitaka reacted instantly by swirling their car sharply to the right to avoid a head-on collision with the car, which had obviously been on the wrong lane of the road. It was a mistake, a very big mistake; a honking truck was heading towards their car at a very fast speed and unable to respond in time, a crash resulted.

Sakura heard screams of pain from her family as the windshield shattered upon impact and the whole car flipped sideways and somersaulted in the air before landing in a wasted heap of metal some distance away. Surprisingly, the road there was vacant without any car in sight so there was no second collision of any sorts. Their car was overturned and they were being squashed upside down, hanging on their seatbelt, the only thing that had somehow managed to remain in place and helping them to save their lives.

Somehow, Sakura had remained conscious throughout the whole ordeal and the tumbling about made her sick. Her head was hurting as if somebody had brought a hammer down her temple and she had some difficulties breathing properly as well. Her vision was hazy as she surveyed the interior of the car and noticed that it was too quiet. Touya was groaning as he slowly came round, cursing loudly at the onslaught of pain as he struggled with his bindings. He dropped down onto bottom of the car with a loud oomph!

"Onii-chan…" Sakura whimpered painfully and that caught Touya's attention as he became alerted to his surroundings. It was becoming painful for her to breathe. He quickly set to the tasks of helping his family members. Nadeshiko and Fujitaka had fainted from the impact, so he quickly helped Sakura with her seatbelt so that she could assist him with their parents.

Somebody was trying to open the door on Sakura's side as they frantically dug at their parents' seatbelt buckle in an effort to free them. Sakura ignored the loud banging on the door, figuring out that it was most probably the guilty truck driver who had come to help them. Her sole priority was to get her parents out but it was futile, the seatbelt remained stuck.

The door on her side was freed suddenly, allowing Sakura to scramble out. Hands reached in to pull her out from her confinement but she was aghast when they tried to bring her away from the car. Sakura screamed as she pushed the hands away, not hearing their voices. She only knew she had to get her family out.

She crawled her way back to her father's side and fumbled for the door, pulling it with all her might but it did not bulge. Tears of frustration welled up in her eyes as she saw her father's bleeding form in the car while Touya was fighting to help their mother. "Otou-san!" Sakura screamed. "Otou-san, wake up!"

The driver also attempted to help her and together, they tried to break through the door. The overpowering smell of petrol wafted through her nose and she looked around, alarmed, and found the source with a sense of dread and foreboding came through her. She hurried her attempts to save her father as she screamed for Touya to hurry up.

Then, she was torn away from the car forcefully. "NONONONONONONO!" Sakura screamed as she attacked the hands which were pulling her away from her family. Her eyes widened when she saw the pool of petrol a small distance away from their car catch fire and within a span of a few seconds, the whole car was engulfed in a sea of fire. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sakura wailed as tears flew freely down her cheeks as she continued to sob brokenly in the arms of some stranger.

Sakura came awake with a start as she broke out in cold sweat and she jerked herself upright in her seat. She was the only one left in the classroom; the rest of the students had already left home after the lessons had ended for the day. The clock above the blackboard read five and all the lights in the classroom were off. Covering her face tiredly with both her hands, Sakura sighed and then blinked at the wetness on her hands. Surprised, she could only stare as the droplets of tears rolled down her palm.

It has already been more than a year since the accident. Even though she had more or less come to terms with her loss, she still could not help that she still dreamt of it sometimes and reliving the nightmare again and again. She fisted her hands and held them over her eyes, willing the tears to stop as she tried to suck in mouthfuls of air to calm her ragged breathing.

I am all alone…

Memories of her family came flashing back in her mind, haunting her and reminding her of the painful reality whenever she was alone. That was part of the reason why she always kept herself busy; to keep her mind occupied so that it would not wander back to the past. She pressed her hands harder against her face as she hunched over her table and let a few sobs escaped her, knowing that there was no one around to catch her in her unguarded form.

Sakura stiffened when she heard the wooden door to her classroom slide open. There was a slight pause before she heard footsteps and it was coming towards her! Cursing herself mentally for her oversight, she quickly faced the windows and pretended to be looking outside since her seat was just next to the window at the back of the class. Sniffling for the last time, she hurriedly wiped the lingering tears away and put on an irritated mask again, which she often did to keep people away.

The person stopped at the table and Sakura continued her pretense of being occupied by whatever she was looking at outside the window but there was nothing interesting worth looking so she settled for pretending to enjoy the view of the trees and grasses while waiting for the person to go away.

When the person refused to talk, curiosity got the better of Sakura, who turned to find out who the intruder was and blinked in surprise at the man kneeling on one knee beside her seat. No, he was not proposing to her if that was what you were thinking. That was her homeroom teacher, her attractive and most sought after male and eligible teacher in Tomoeda High School. Many girls literally chased after him in school but Sakura was not one of them. She knew better than to get involved in such time wasting situations.

"What do you want?" Sakura scowled and tried ignore the rising sense of panic she was feeling at the moment, wondering if he saw what actually happened. Li Syaoran, homeroom teacher of class 2-1, wordlessly pulled the unresisting Sakura forward into his embrace while remaining in his current position, albeit a little awkwardly. Sakura, confused by his actions, took refuge in his arms for several moments, absorbing his warmth before roughly pushing him away and causing him to lose his balance. She glared at him as she towered over him. "What are you trying to do, pervert?" Sakura hissed angrily.

Not bothering to wait for any response, Sakura grabbed her bag and made a bee line for the exit. She has to rush to the next town for her café job and she would most likely be late if she lingered any longer. She gritted her teeth in exasperation and annoyance when she heard the same footsteps following her along the corridor.

"Sakura-chan! Where are you going?" her sensei chimed behind her, raising her level of anger towards another notch. "Why are you ignoring me?"

Sakura whirled back to confront him, only to find the said person right in front of her, so close that she almost bumped into his chest when she turned back. Being a head taller than her, Sakura was forced to look up at him as her eyes spit daggers while she fought the urge to blush like a crazy schoolgirl.

"I am just your student," Sakura retorted, punctuating each word with a hard poke to his chest. "Stop acting like I am your girlfriend or whatever and bug me like nobody's business. Stay away!"

Syaoran's eyes twinkled at the mention of the word 'girlfriend' and he was grinning away. "Good idea!" he agreed cheerfully and threw his arm around her shoulders and began propelling her towards the exit. "I shall bring my girlfriend out for dinner tonight."

Sakura gasped at his boldness and started resisting, shrugging the hands off her shoulders. When that did not work, she started pinching him to get his compliance. "Let go of me, your perverted teacher! This isn't funny! Let go of me!"

"I am not joking," Syaoran replied seriously and the change in his demeanor confused Sakura. She managed to dislodge his arm and put some distance between them. "I am very serious about this. Will you let me take care of you?"

"Wha-what?" Sakura fairly shouted in open-mouthed shock as she tried to process the strange words spewing out from her deranged teacher. "This is the craziest thing I have ever heard ever since you became my homeroom teacher. I am going to pretend that I did not hear all the things that you have said and stop coming within three metres of me, do you understand?" Sakura checked the time on her watch and was dismayed to find that she was definitely going to be late for work. Her boss would want to go for her head when she reached the cafe. "You are wasting my precious time," Sakura accused him and made a mad dash for the exit.

Initially, I wanted to finish writing the whole of the story before I post it up but I didn't want to wait to long since I don't know when I'll finish the whole story. So, I have it up early! This is just the initial draft of Sensei, I Love You. I'll continue to post the draft as what I've typed since I had to control my inner editor when I wrote this so that I don't have the tendency to go back and rewrite everything from scratch (which is what I was and still am sorely tempted to do). Just to let you know I'll go back to editing the whole story when my total draft is out. :) Hope you don't mind the messiness. And yes, you can complain about it in your review. *grins*

Thanks again for waiting patiently and for reading my new story! I hope you like it so far, even though it's only the Prologue.

In addition, I've also created another twitter account just for my writing. You can find me at MichelleWrite I'll probably just rant about my fics and stuff there.

Chapter 1 will be updated next weekend!