Viridian Carn: Vidya here! Pfft! (I just love that. So cute!) Got bored a couple of days - actually, years - ago, and decided to finally write a story with an ending. It's a little rough, I think, but please bear with me. This story's to crazy to be true, and trust me, I know a lot about crazies - for example, me.
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Card Captor Sakura, but I don't, so what. I on those crazy twins/servants - I mean, household help - in the story, though.
Chapter One
"Are you sure about your hair, Miss Sakura?" a twenty-year old maid asked as she braided the amber brown locks of the young Sakura Kinomoto, the successor to the wealthy Kinomoto clan who was sitting in front of a vanity table inlaid with marble furnishings. "It's a shame to hide it from your friends at school,"
The seventeen-year old heiress merely smiled. She put on a pair of silver-rimmed glasses, even though she didn't need them, "I don't think I do have friends there, Beatrice," a faint smiled appeared on her lips, "I'm afraid that they think I'm a nerd,"
"What people think may not always be what you really are," Beatrice said while she finished braiding Sakura's hair with a piece of black silk string. She looked at the clock, which now showed that it was already seven in the morning. "Now, miss, my brother is waiting for you outside." She paused, "I really don't understand why you don't want anybody to see you get to school."
"Beatrice, when people think that the only reason why you're in a school like Tomoeda High is because you're on a scholarship, I think it's better not to arrive in a Mercedes driven by a butler," Sakura said. She took hold of the blue bag that was on the table and slipped the strap over her shoulder. "Besides, the last time I asked Mother on the phone if I can take the bus to school, she told me it would stain the family's reputation. That's why everyone but Tomoyo thinks that my name is Sakura Daidouji. I'm lucky she's my cousin,"
"If only your parents could see you now," she said, admiring the way Sakura's brown hair shone in the faintest light like halcyon feathers, even though it had been tied in a way that restrained it, following her gentle movements that created small waves on the blue loose-fitting, knee-length skirt that she had paired with a plain white blouse. From afar, the illusion she wanted to create was complete – she looked like a typical bookworm coming to school.
A sad smile appeared on her lips, "They're still dealing with the family business in France, Beatrice. The only way they'd see is if I send them a picture, and who knows when that will happen," she joked, though her voice wavered. Sakura smiled one last time before leaving the room.
"That gives me an idea," Beatrice grinned, and approached Sakura's walk-in closet, which was full of beautiful, fashionable clothes her mother had sent from Paris, clothes she never used. The maid sighed, feeling that they were going to be wasted if Sakura didn't use them.
Well, now's not the time to force Sakura into these clothes, she thought, coming nearer to a far corner of the room-like closet, and found what she was looking for – a small cabinet Sakura had let her use to keep some of her things. Beatrice fumbled inside it until her hand caught a narrow canvas strap. She tugged at it until she had taken out a small box from the cabinet.
"I guess you're parents will be seeing you real soon, Miss Sakura," she said, talking into the empty room. She took out a phone from her dress pocket and called her twin brother, "Hello? Peter, I need your help,"
Sakura sighed as Peter Usher, one of the many servants in the manor, drove the black Mercedes out of Raven's Valley and through the still-empty streets of Tomoeda. Even though it was already seven o'clock, the town residents still considered it too early to be out, mostly because the day before had been a Tuesday, one of the most hectic days people there ever had.
Just as they were about to drive past an intersection, Peter's cell phone rang, distracting Peter for a fraction of a second. Luckily, it took only a few seconds for him to regain his concentration. He struggled for a while to put on an earpiece attached to the phone, and put it in his ear.
"Good morning," he said, after turning on the loudspeaker. Sakura knew he didn't need to tell the caller who he was. The only people allowed to have a number of someone from their household were the Kinomotos themselves, or someone else from inside the estate.
"Hello? Peter, I need your help," a voice rang through the car. Almost immediately, Peter turned off the loudspeaker, earning a curious look from Sakura.
"I'll do it," he spoke into the receiver a few moments later. "Give me a few minutes to get there,"
"You can drop me off here, Peter." Sakura told the driver, who nodded at her, though still confused. They were just a couple of feet from the gates of Tomoeda High, and she had more than enough time until her best friend and cousin, Daidouji Daidouji, arrived. She stepped off the black Mercedes, and smiled, "Thank you, Peter,"
She watched the car disappeared as Peter drove it around the block. Sighing, Sakura walked toward her homeroom, which wasn't long since it was on the ground floor of the main building.
As expected, the room was empty, so she took a hardbound copy of the original Hans Christian Andersen version of Little Mermaid. She looked out of the classroom window. "It's quiet today,"
Holding the book, she went outside, toward her favorite spot in the entire High, a patch of grass near the school gates. Nobody ever bothered her there, because whenever they did, they increased their chances to be late for class.
Suddenly, the sound of a rubber on gravel filled the air, and sitting up, she saw a black car coming nearer, but it didn't belong to the Kinomotos. She took a deep breath and continued reading. "It's the first time someone came this early,"
It's only seven in the morning. School doesn't start in another hour. So tell me, what am I doing here?
Syaoran Li took a bite of his sandwich, trying to tune out his mother's voice as their driver led their car to the gates of Tomoeda High. He sighed. Yelan Li had just arrived from a vacation in China and the first thing on her list when she came home seemed to be to bore her son to death, or at least, that's what Syaoran thought.
His mother raised her eyebrow and seeing that his son would never listen, she snapped her fingers right in front of Syaoran, who snapped back into reality almost immediately. "Syaoran, dear, you're almost eighteen and I need to make sure the business is secure by the time you need to take over. So –" she trailed off, waiting for her son's reaction.
Syaoran sighed, and leaned onto his seat. Just a few more seconds, he told himself as they neared the school gate. Surprisingly, he saw a black-haired girl walking into the school, sitting on the grass near the gate. I thought I would be the first to get here. Isn't that Sakura? "So?" he asked his mother, trying hard to sound curious.
Yelan motioned for him to step out of the car. "So I think I should arrange for a marriage interview sometime soon. It would be much easier, don't you think?" she showed Syaoran a photo of a green-eyed girl smiling at the camera, her long, brown hair, flowing behind her in reckless abandon. Before Syaoran could say anything, however, Yelan put the photo back in her bag.
Gaping at his mother, Syaoran almost choked on his sandwich. "But…but," he searched his mind for an excuse, and his gaze fell on the girl, sitting innocently as she read a book. He lowered his voice, hoping that his mother thought he was hiding something from the girl, "Mom, I'm sorry, but could you keep this marriage interview stuff down? My girlfriend is over there," he pointed toward the girl, who still looked absorbed in her book. "She might hear you,"
What in the world is happening? Sakura asked herself. One minute, she was alone; reading her book, the next minute, a strange-looking woman had her poised for an interview. She looked over the woman's shoulder, and saw Syaoran Li, the school's heartthrob – not to mention her worst enemy - pleading her silently to play along.
"So, you're my son's girlfriend," the woman told her. Sakura had to try hard to keep herself from gaping at her. "I'm Yelan Li, Syaoran's mother. I'm afraid he never mentioned you before,"
This woman looks familiar, Sakura thought. "I'm sorry for keeping it a secret, ma'am," she stood up and bowed, the way her mother had told her to do when meeting someone important, which this woman obviously was. The Li family was nearly as prominent as the Kinomotos when it came to business, though not as secretive.
Yelan smiled at her, "What a nice girl," she said, "Well, I'm honored that Syaoran finally had some courage to tell me his secrets. He's lucky to have you, dear. What was your name again?"
"Sakura Daidouji," It was a lie she had told many times, mostly because if she told anyone outside her family and the Kinomoto household, giving her privacy was going to be the last thing on people's minds.
"Well, Miss Daidouji, my condolences," For a moment, Sakura thought she heard wrong, but when she saw Syaoran himself gape at his mother, she started to doubt her thoughts. "I admire you. For one thing, you managed to rein in a would-be playboy. I think it would be better if my husband knows about this, though he'll never believe unless he sees you." She thought for a moment, and took out an invitation from inside the car, "I would be delighted if you could come to charity medieval ball we've arranged for this weekend, with Syaoran, of course."
"Of course, that would be wonderful," Sakura tried hard to keep from laughing while she put the invitation in her pocket. It was priceless to see Tomoeda's most sought-after high-school heartthrob be labeled as a "playboy" by his own mother. The best she could manage, however, was a half-smile. She watched as Yelan smiled at her and proceeded toward her car. It didn't take long before she had driven away.
"You're in trouble, Li," Sakura asked, unsure, since "playboy" didn't exactly fit him. "What exactly was that about?"
Yelan looked at the girl, who seemed to be busy talking with Syaoran. She turned the car on and drove away, rummaging in the bag next to her for something. Finally, she took out at phone and dialed a number while she directed the car toward the Li estate.
"Good morning, this is the Li Detective Agency," a high-pitched voice answered from the other end of the line.
"Fuutie, I need you to do something," Yelan said, her own voice demanding.
"Mom?" the twenty-year old girl asked, doubtful, "Is that you? What do you need…from a detective agency? Is Syaoran alright or did somebody finally have the guts to kidnap him?"
"It's a shame. I was really hoping for a kidnapping. It would've been great publicity," Yelan told her daughter, amused. "I need you to find out everything about a girl named Sakura Daidouji,"
Syaoran stared at her. Where has Sakura been? She's not sure if she wants to help me, the school heartthrob. She's lucky; she has the chance to pretend to be my girlfriend.I mean, no one can hate me for long.
"Sorry about that," he said, though he didn't sound even a little bit apologetic, seeing that he was more annoyed than sorry. He scoffed, unable to contain himself. "But I guess meeting me is enough for you to forget about it,"
Wait, she's hated me for years.
Sakura rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I guess you're just like all those other spoiled rich brats," she said, "Everyone else thinks you're the perfect Prince Charming,"
"Actually I am. Whoever told you Prince Charming wasn't perfect must not have met me," Syaoran told her arrogantly, seeing that there wasn't any use trying to act nice when this girl already thought of him as conceited and obnoxious. "You're lucky, actually. You get to pretend to be my girlfriend. Maybe I could even help your little family and give them a few gifts. You know, so you won't need that scholarship. I bet they're just dying to hear that,"
I don't know what those girls see in him. He's horrible, she thought, narrowing her eyes. "Alright, that's it," Sakura snapped. Almost immediately, she lost sight of all her etiquette lessons from her mother, and her tae kwon do sessions gained full access to her thoughts.
She tried to kick Syaoran in the knees so he would fall, but he caught her leg. He hit her just below her neck and pushed her down. Her glasses lay discarded next to her. Syaoran kneeled on the ground above her, keeping her arms down.
"Do you really think that's enough to bring me down?" Syaoran smirked, "Well, you don't know who you're dealing with,"
"Oh…my…gosh," they heard someone say, which provided enough distraction for Sakura to push Syaoran away, but it seemed that who spoke surprised her even more. It was Daidouji, looking accusingly at her as if she had just caught them doing something wrong.
"Tomoyo, I can explain," Sakura said, trying to keep her from leaving with the wrong idea.
Her cousin, however, had other plans, "Sakura, you don't need to explain." She said. For a moment, Sakura relaxed, but not after Daidouji finished her sentence, "You should've just told me you were dating Syaoran Li,"
"What?" Sakura and Syaoran gaped at her.
Peter smirked, sitting on the branches of a tree just outside the Tomoeda High campus. He laughed quietly, watching the scene below while he clutched a small, Polaroid camera. A picture came out of the camera. Peter took a deep breath before putting it inside his bag, which hung on a branch above him.
"I guess Miss Sakura can finally warm up to people," he sighed, "Even though that can basically mean her temper can lose control…" He picked up his phone, "Miss seems to be recovering from Alistair, Beatrice; you won't believe what I got,"
He heard his twin laugh at the other end, "Peter, I neverbelieve anything you get." He heard her say, "I swear they're from another world,"
"That's why I'm your brother, Bea," he said, smiling, "I live to surprise you, and you do the opposite,"
"Yeah," Beatrice answered, lowering her voice, "Are you saying that I'm here to bore you?"
Peter rolled his eyes, "You know, sis', you have such a wonderful sense of reason,"
"Don't you dare use sarcasm on me, Peter Hendrick Usher," she said, emphatically.
"Did I ever tell you have a great impersonation of mom when she's angry?"
"Peter!"
Vidya:okay, so that's it, for the first chapter anyway. The sequel's based on your review - well if I get any, but I'm still hoping. Please R