purple snowflake ONE presents to you...
ROLLER SKATES
CHAPTER TWO
Hope you haven't given up on this story! (:
-When We Were Friends-
Daidouji Tomoyo gave Kinomoto Sakura a warm smile, enough to bring spring warmth into a typical winter morning. Sakura panted an "Ohayo!" before slumping into her seat, glad that she had arrived before their homeroom teacher, which was a rare thing. She removed the safety pads from around her wrists and shivered. Sakura wasn't one that could stand the cold. She hastily put the pads on again, rubbing her palms together to create frictional warmth. Both of them were now fifth-graders at Tomoeda Elementary School and nothing interesting had recently happened to them. But nothing lasts, not even plain old boredom.
Tomoyo giggled and practically hopped over to the other end of the classroom where the controls of the air-conditioner in summer and electrical heater in winter was, adjusting the control to a slightly higher notch. Sakura let out a huge sigh of relief as she removed her roller skates and stuffed them in her locker... Just in time. She saw the front door opening as her homeroom teacher faked a cough to get his class' attention.
She managed a small chuckle as her poor friend almost knocked headfirst into their "dear" little teacher. He coughed again, this time sounding much more genuine. As he walked in, he closed the door very gently, as if afraid to knock down something.
"Good morning, class."
"Goooooood morrrrrrrninnnnnnng seeeenseiii..." the class droned. He coughed again and nodded briefly, and, as if on cue, a boy walked in, slamming the door fiercely behind him.
It turned out to be the biggest surprise of Sakura's life. It was no ordinary boy, of course. Nothing was ever ordinary in Tomoeda, except for everything. He walked onto the small curb of a stage slowly and cautiously, though there was something different about his movement; slow, yet swift, as if a bullet would be shot through the air right at that precise moment.
Even the air seemed to stale and everyone's breath was frozen as the teacher scribbled down the boy's name on the chalk board. For a few seconds, only the scratching of chalk could be heard, and yet even it sounded distant and unreal. For Sakura, that was. Her glimmering emerald eyes fixed on the boy's hypnotizing amber ones. Yes, I have seen them before... a small voice said in a deep down part of her heart. Definitely... I have never been so sure...
"KINOMOTO-SAN!" a monotonous screech, though failing miserably to be qualified as one, woke Sakura up from her daydream. Everyone was staring at the boy and her now, like they were the opponents in a match, ready to strike any moment. She gulped and stared at the boy, hoping that would give her comfort.
Which was a totally wrong idea from the start, from the very beginning since their eyes first met (like about four years ago). Those eyes pierced through her mind, penetrating into the deepest, darkest areas of Sakura's heart, exploring her thoughts with ease...
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and swallowed hard, not at all realizing that a blush had covered her cheeks which were already tinged pink from the cold. "Um... Yes?"
"I need you to raise your hand and tell me where I would be sitting for the rest of the year," the boy replied, his pupils flashing dangerously. Shakily, Sakura raised her hand and tried to acknowledge the boy, and immediately knew that she wasn't aware of his name. Staring at the chalkboard, her already blank-from-total-shock mind whirled once more, transporting her to a time somewhere around four years ago...
Yes, now she was sure of it. As real as her being alive. The boy was Li Syaoran. The person she promised to be eternally grateful to besides Tomoyo, for helping her get that pair of roller skates she valued above anything else, because it was a pledge, a pledge of friendship and eternity. And the cherry blossom, too. She hadn't forgotten about that.
"Li... Li-kun?" she said timidly, afraid to hear her own voice echo, as Li swiftly walked down the aisle to the seat behind Sakura.
"Mmm?" he grunted, barely audible.
"Do you remember... four years ago?"
"When I first came to Japan? Yeah, sure I do."
"Do you remember a -"
"Stop chit-chatting, Kinomoto-san, Li-kun! Especially Kinomoto-san, since you already know that this is strictly forbidden in my class." their sensei glared at them. Sakura grimaced but Li just stayed where he was, without a trace of fear.
The lunch bell had rung minutes ago, and yet Sakura was still lingering in the classroom, unwilling to take a step outside. "It's unfair! Why does he have to choose us to help Li!" she shrieked, then stopped. Maybe it was a good idea, after all. She could tell Li all about their 'long-lost' friendship and maybe he wouldn't give her that stupid glare, as if he was telling her that she was stupid, anymore.
"Ohohohoho, Sakura-chan, you're just sooooooo kawaii when you shriek! I BET Li-kun will fall in love with you!" Tomoyo burst into fits of high-pitched giggles.
Sakura winced a little, relaxed and let Tomoyo pull her out of the class, her shoulder almost wrenched out of its socket. She winced in pain as Li gave her another of his famous girls-are-so-lame stare, and then strolled behind Tomoyo and Sakura, taking in his surroundings, like he always did.
Finally, Tomoyo led them to a quiet area of the field and sat down on the mat she laid as soon as they had arrived. She smiled and started chattering away, while Sakura, the usually noisy one, just stared at Li who practically stared right back.
"You have nice eyes, you know, Kinomoto. Green eyes are rare, and it happens to be my favourite colour too." he cut in just as Tomoyo was about to describe a tree nearby. She gave him a little nudge and muttered 'emerald'.
"Um, I mean emerald."
Sakura's heart fluttered for no reason at all as she began stuttering something. "Uhh, thanks - thanks for the compliment... Uh - I - I... Do you remember Tomoyo-chan? Uh... Gomen! I mean... Uh, uh, you know my surname's Kinomoto right? Uh..." she stopped to gasp for breath, as her companions stared at her with a weird expression. "Hoe..."
It was then that Chiharu, Naoko and Rika decided to stop by and chat. The girls chattered away happily, leaving Syaoran out of the conversation.
Tomoyo, being the observant girl she was, noted that Syaoran was left out, and so started gasping about a tiny flower she had found somewhere in the grass and turned everyone's attention to it. Except... Guess who.
That person apparently wasn't interested in stupid stuff like this. He walked around the school compound by himself, thinking about the surname, Kinomoto. It sounded so ironic on his lips, yet so familiar in his head, ringing, ringing. He shook his head violently, and groaned. Stupid, stupid, stupid! What was so great and wonderful about KINOMOTO! It's just a surname, for heaven's sake.
"Li-KUUUUUUUUUUUN!" an unfamiliar voice rang out from behind him. Two boys stood there, smiling, waiting for his response. The difference between the two was almost immediately recognizable; one had a 'I'm-the-class-clown' face, with jet black hair and a fringe that didn't reach his eyebrows, and an I'm-always-joking smile. The other...
He couldn't really tell what this boy was made of.
Mysteriously glimmering midnight navy eyes, with strange dark blue hair, topped with a charming smile... He would have to find out more about this boy soon. Hiiragizawa, wasn't he?
"Takashi? Hiiragizawa?" he asked, his brilliant amber eyes piercing right through the boys.
Both of them nodded, flashing smiles in Li's direction. He was just about to walk off in the other direction, too pissed off by all this kindness shown towards him, when another "Li-KUUUUN!" almost deafened him. Guess who were walking towards him.
The big gold wordings appeared in front of the group. Kids' First Choice, a name Daidouji Tomoyo and Kinomoto Sakura were all too familiar with, since Tomoyo's mother owned that company, and Sakura was her best friend. Well, to Yamazaki, Eriol, Naoko, Rika and Chiharu, it was a departmental store they loved, as their best friend's mother would always give them GREAT discounts up to... Well, FOC, of course.
But to Sakura and Tomoyo, the toy department of the store was a special place. The bud of their long-term friendship. The reason they brought Li here was to try and let him remember Sakura... and the cherry blossom. She desperately hoped that Li would tell her 'Oh, that! Yeah, I still have it, of course.'
But the present Li frowned and tried very hard to recall the store. "Uhhhhh, a green balloon? A cherry blossom? Kinomoto Sakura... Crying over 'wheel shoes'... WHEEL SHOES! WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY!"
Sakura grimaced and tried to explain how she thought those were normal shoes with wheels at first, but found it extremely difficult. Li grunted whenever Sakura paused for breath, and then, very suddenly, he coughed, very loudly.
"Kinomoto. I think. I. I - I. Threw. Threw. The flower away." He managed to choke out, with a bit of cough as cover up for his great deal of embarrassment.
Sakura's shoulders froze, then quickly drooped as Li, unable to hide his embarrassment anymore, ran away from the scene.
"Sakura-chan?"
"Hai, Tomoyo-chan?" Tomoyo thought Sakura's voice sounded extremely sore.
"Are... are you still angry with Li-kun?"
She thought she heard the soft ruffling of tissue paper. "Of course not, Tomoyo-chan! Why should I be angry with him? I mean, it's only a single cherry blossom. It doesn't matter. At least he remembers me." A silly laugh. "It's no big deal, seriously."
"Right, I'm glad to hear that, well, I've to go now, see you tomorrow, don't be too upset, kays? You'll always be my kawaii Sakura-chan."
"Hai!" Sakura seemed to cheer up much more considerably.
It doesn't matter… right? So why does it hurt so much? Is Li really so important to me I just had to cry over him?
"Ah!" Sakura stretched as the gentle breeze blew over her tired body and refreshed her mind. "A great start to a great day! I wonder if Tomoyo-chan and Li-kun have woken up already!"
For the next few months, Li sort of started hanging around them but most of the time he was alone, with a mysterious personality and an enigmatic aura surrounding him. Besides Sakura, Tomoyo, Yamazaki and Eriol, no one actually dared get near him more than they were supposed to. Sakura thought that was sad. Li-kun's so nice, she would say; why don't you like him? He helped me get a pair of roller skates before you know?
And then Li would walk away with his fingers raking through his chestnut brown hair, and Sakura would feel rather despised, and Tomoyo would comfort her, but she never stopped trying to befriend Li.
Tomoyo would stand by the perimeters watching the kawaii scene silently with a camcorder in hand. One afternoon she sensed Hiiragizawa-san's presence. "Hey, Hiiragizawa-kun, come to watch the show too?"
"No, Tomoyo-san." Eriol shook his head, his eyes focused on the long wavy tumbles down her back. Why must you be so beautiful in my eyes? I shouldn't be falling for you… This is just so wrong. "Don't let Sakura-san get too emotionally attached to him, please. He would just end up hurting her in the end."
"Right, okay, thank you," she muttered, one elegant lavender pupil still focused behind-the-camera. He doubted the fact she even heard him correctly. "Don't worry, I heard you."
He nodded in mock calm, but inside it was wild. She read him like a book! It was impossible. No one ever even found out what he was going to eat for lunch, let alone what he worried for. She was too clever, too observant, too logical. "It's only me who know you inside out," she replied to his thoughts without clicking the pause button on the camcorder. "And today's lunch is fried rice with orange juice. Yeah, I know I got your schedule right, I've memorized it. Don't worry I won't get it wrong." His diet schedule repeated its pattern five weeks later. It was amazing she even bothered to notice it.
She was more than truly remarkable.
"Uh, Tomoyo-san?" She glanced up briefly at her name. "Just one last thing before I leave."
"Speak your mind."
"Could you… call me Eriol instead? You know, I don't like formalities and stuff…" his words faded away and a confident smile slowly made its way back to his facial expressions again.
"Really?" She raised an elegant eyebrow, as if doubting something that had already gone so wrong. "Okay, then, see you tomorrow, Eriol-kun."
His name rolled off her tongue as if she'd been saying it since forever. He savored the taste over and over again in his mind of calculations and puzzles, in the one small corner where feelings barely existed at all. He was just in time to catch her dazzling, careless smile that spilled over him like the sunshine peeking in through half-drawn curtains.
He waved and left the threesome.
"Tomoyo-chan!" A lilting voice shrieked over the noise of the surrounding crowds that were melting away. "You want to go to the new theme park during the weekends?"
"Sure, anytime," she flashed a smile at her best friend.
"And you, Li-kun?" Sakura cocked her head to one side, waiting expectantly for an answer.
No one could refuse an obvious plead like that, and neither did Li. "Whatever." He muttered under his breath.
"Yay! Silence means consent, ne, ne Tomoyo-chan?" she squealed, her voice ever so pleasant, ever so delightful.
Tomoyo didn't make any comment. Knowing Sakura's bluntness, she left her on her own to figure out. "Then…" she trailed off dreamily after a while, "you'll come to my house for a fitting, won't you, Sakura-chan?" Her lavender eyes sparkled brilliantly with hearts and stars that rivaled a shop dedicated to Valentine's Day.
The theme park was filled with excited kids and exasperated adults. Amongst them three people stood out, because of the clothes they had on. One had a lime green one-piece dress with artificial cherry blossoms decking its hem. Obviously the colors were a mismatch, but all the creator cared about was making her stand out anyway. Her light and bouncy tresses were tied up in two cute ponytails. The other wore a simple lilac blouse and a beige skirt, with an elegant handbag to go along. Her long wavy hair tumbled down her back, swishing gracefully with her every movement.
Their grumpy companion, however, was really disgruntled with his set of clothes. "I…" he spoke through gritted teeth, "do not make appearances with a suit resembling sailor clothing and a tie! Sailors don't wear ties."
"But you look absolutely kawaii!" Tomoyo replied defensively, focusing her camcorder on Li's beet red face. "Let's get on that one," she pointed randomly at one of the many rides the theme park had to offer.
"Hoe…" Sakura breathed heavily. "Not THAT, Tomoyo-chan!" It was the huge roller coaster surrounding the outer hills of the park.
"Well it seems like you'll have to brave it, Sakura-san…" The mystical voice rang somewhere behind them, startling Li and Sakura. Tomoyo twirled around, and through the lens, she could see Hiiragizawa Eriol smiling beneath the sunlight. "with Li-kun, because I'll make sure it's an amazing experience for Tomoyo-san."
Her eyes widened ever so slightly behind the camera. No one had ever separated her from Sakura, no matter under what circumstances. But here he was, requesting her presence. Would she accept it? Should she take up the challenge?
But after all, I won't be the one for Sakura-chan. Sometimes I should just let go of her for a bit.
"Yeah, go on, Sakura-chan, Li-kun! We'll be waiting for you here." She spoke dangerously soft, as if Eriol had just taunted her into doing something very wrong.
Li turned briskly and started walking towards the magnificent queue that increased its length every five seconds, as if to say 'I'm not a coward unlike somebody'. Being the girl who never wanted to admit defeat, Sakura ran as fast as she could in her dress to catch up with Li, leaving Tomoyo and Eriol alone.
"Well, then," he said with a smirk, "we shall go have our bit of fun. But before that, I'll make sure they get their reward too." He walked off in the direction of the roller coaster, returning after about a minute. Then he and Tomoyo wandered about the park, before he stopped at the 3-Dimensional Theatre. "This… is what I would call amazing."
--
Sakura and Li lined up behind the last person in the queue. The last round had just ended and three quarters of the queue moved forward to get on. The people on the previous round had pale faces and some even looked like they were going to faint any moment. Li could feel Sakura shiver slightly behind him.
"Li-kun, I'm scared." She admitted.
"Well then don't get on."
"But! I can't be a coward, can I?" She shrieked hysterically. About ten heads were turned in their direction.
"Baka. No one told you to prove yourself." Neither spoke much after that, and when it was their turn to get on, Sakura shuffled her feet slowly. But Li gave her a rather violet push into the front seat and she stumbled forward.
"What was that for? I thought you said I shouldn't get – AHHHHH!" She was cut mid-sentence by the sudden movement of the train. The roller coaster swerved abruptly to its right, causing Li to move in Sakura's direction. Then it moved up a small hill, and whooshed downwards. All Li felt was a cooling breeze that calmed him. But Sakura was clutching tightly onto the safety bar before her, shutting her eyes tight, trying very hard not to scream.
Another hill, this time slightly higher. The winds gushed past their ears as Li raised his voice so he could be heard. "It would be better if you scream!"
He looked beside him. They now coursed at a rather slow pace through the slowly curving upwards hill which would eventually lead them to the highest point. At that exact point was a 360-degrees turn and they would be on their way back to the start. Nothing much to him. He'd tried far worse than this.
A sudden jerk to the left earned him an ear-piercing shriek from his noisy companion and extra weight on his right arm. "Geroff me!"
"But I'm scared!" She shouted above the whooshing wind and clutched his arm even tighter. "We're going up and not going down!"
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They were fast approaching the highest point now, and then it would be the 360; Sakura might even bite his arm in frenzy! Li closed his eyes irritably.
His world was all of a sudden turned upside down literally as the roller coaster took a 360 turn so now he felt as if he was dangling helplessly from a cobweb. The squeeze on his arm tightened, circulation leaving it. Then unexpectedly, nothing seemed to move.
Was it a hallucination? "Hoe?" Sakura's voice rang beside him loud and clear even though she didn't raise it. He opened his eyes; they were still upside down, but they were clearly not moving. Was the system faulty? "LI-KUN! HELP! WE'RE NOT MOVING! I'M FALLING!"
There it was; the brilliant scenery upside down. He felt a surge of panic course through him as the grip on him loosened. Sakura raised her hand to wipe away tears of fear and nervousness.
I must be calm at a time like this. Kinomoto and the rest are waiting to be rescued. Think, boy, think. Use that intelligent mind of yours and work out a solution.
Somehow, this accident didn't seem right. Somehow, he smelt the distant aroma of Hiiragizawa.
A/N: Well, well! If it isn't the LOOOOOOOOOOONG time gap between the updates! I threw this story totally off my mind and one day it popped into it and screamed to be continued. No promises that it would even have a third chapter, but DROP A REVIEW:D I know you're all really nice people out there. (:
