So since this is my first story, I was completely not expecting anyone to actually read the boring stuff I wrote in the first chapter. But according to this thing some people have seen it, and a person or two even favourited/followed it O_o I don't know what that means to other people, but to me I was thrilled, so I decided to write another. Updates will probably not happen this quickly again, but hey... if I manage to catch anyone's attention with it I'll try.
I think I need the same disclaimer spheal so: I don't own any of the characters nor the original CCS story. The original storyline was inspired by Autumdragon.
GLHF, please drop me a comment if you're patient/dedicated enough to actually read to the end. Even a word would do so I can thank you for actually reading this mess.
"..kura… Sakura… HEY YOU LITTLE MONSTER HURRY UP AND WAKE UP ALREADY!" Someone shouted from right beside her, causing Sakura to wake with a start and fall off the other side of the bed. And she had been having such a good dream too about butterflies and rainbows and unicorns—wait, that wasn't right. About hot guys and six-packs and cars and—what the hell was she talking about? You know what, forget it. The popular kid 'stupid mentality' was finally getting to her.
"Oof. Ouch…" She complained, rubbing her back. Her emerald eyes glared annoyed at her older brother, Toya, who stood with a half-eaten piece of toast in his hand, smirking down at her from the other side of her bed. "Toya! If you were going to wake me, you could have asked nicely or something!"
"Hmph, it would be noon before you finally woke up if I ever tried the 'nice' approach. As it is, you're already going to be late for school. And I'm off to mine, so see you." And with that, he turned to leave. "By the way, I ate out the toast, so good luck finding food before your mad-dash to class."
Sakura finally looked at her clock and groaned. 8:00. Meaning that she'd have to leave NOW to even make it to school before the bell at 8:30. Toya, that jerk. He probably left her to sleep until the very last moment, knowing that she'd be late if she didn't frantically scramble to get to class. Pulling on the same t-shirt and jeans that she'd wore the previous day, and scrambling to the bathroom, Sakura was dressed and ready to bolt in under 10 minutes.
Arriving to class with only minutes to spare, Sakura blazed down the hallway and past some stragglers who were sauntering to class like they had all the time in the world, not caring as she bumped two or three of them who didn't bother to avoid her as she went by.
"Normally one would apologize to someone after walking into someone, you know?" A voice came from behind her from someone Sakura has just brushed past.
"Yeah, but normally one would only apologize if one was actually sorry, you know?" Sakura shot back. She stopped and turned in mild surprise. No one ever stopped to comment on her behaviour, especially when it looked like she was on a warpath. Cold emerald eyes turned to meet bemused amber eyes, and Sakura realized that she was facing the same boy whose conversation she had overheard in the café the day before.
"Someone's snappy early in the morning." Sakura frowned. She didn't have time to argue with this guy, she was already going to be—ding dong ding dong… dong ding ding dong—great, she was late.
"Well maybe I wouldn't be as snappy if I didn't have to stop and explain myself instead of making it to class on time." She wondered why this guy was still here rooted to the spot anyways. Didn't he have class to go to too?
The boy opened his mouth, doubtlessly to shoot back some smart-aleck response, but was cut off as someone ran smack into him from behind, causing him to lurch forward and regain his balance.
"Syao-kun, what are you doing here? We're already late." A girl with long brown hair and deep brown eyes cooed, wrapping her arms around the boy. Sakura frowned at the girl for a moment before it finally clicked. The two in front of her were the top of the top of the school's social hierarchy.
"Sorry Lily, I was on my way, I just stopped because…" The boy who Sakura finally recognized was the Li Syaoran, the number one school heartthrob, rumoured to have come from the prestigious Li family in Hong Kong replied to the girl, motioning to Sakura who was still standing in front of them.
Sakura felt the girl turn to her and cast a suspicious cursory glance. "Geez honey, you can't go talking with other girls when you have me!" The girl who had held the title of the school's #1 idol, Suzuki Yuri, whined as she turned her attention back to her boyfriend, planting a kiss on his cheek. Being of mixed Japanese-French heritage and of good standing, Lily (her nickname from the English translation of her name) was probably the only girl jealously deemed by other girls to be the perfect match for their idolized prince. Sakura usually rolled her eyes and walked away at the mention of either of them. She didn't want to deal with such flashy, gossip-starting creatures.
"It's not like I had any interest in talking to him. Go somewhere else if you're going to go make out." Sakura said in annoyance, turning to find a vending machine. Now that she was already late for class, might as well get something to eat first.
"You! I didn't even finish talki-" Syaoran started but cut himself off because she had already rounded the corner and left.
"Detention Kinomoto, 30 minutes." Were the first words out of her math teacher's mouth as she walked in to their classroom 15 minutes late. This was why she couldn't be late for class on Tuesday mornings, she'd have to deal with her uptight math teacher who strictly believed that she had the right to make her student waste twice as much of their time as she "was made to waste without them in the classroom". It's not like Sakura's absence in the class for all of 15 minutes even made a difference. The class hadn't even started learning yet, because they had simply finished reviewing their homework. Her teacher was being unreasonable and she knew it.
Sakura scowled as she took her seat behind Tomoyo, only grunting in response to her friend's whispered greeting. She still hadn't completely forgiven the girl for ditching yesterday.
"And fix your expression! Don't scowl at me like it's my fault you're late " Her teacher called, evidently still out to get her. Sakura wanted to call back 'only if you fix your face first', but she knew that it would get her nothing other than an extended detention or another trip to the principal's office, and god knows that nobody wanted another one of those. Sakura could be a good student when she wanted to, she could get on people's good sides if she needed, it was just too much of a hassle and not worth her effort. It was just too bad that whenever she was in a bad mood people decided to punish her for it.
After passing through an uneventful second period and lunchtime, Sakura was pulling books out of her locker when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find herself face to face with Lily, along with two of her groupies.
"Kinomoto," the girl acknowledged impassively.
"Lily." Sakura replied with a bored look.
"That's Suzuki to you," Lily replied with a frown, "who are you to call me by my name?"
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Whatever Lily, what do you want with me?"
Lily looked like she was about to continue with the name-addressing issue, but changed her mind. "What were you doing talking with Syaoran this morning?"
Sakura snorted. "Just having a friendly conversation, what's it to you?" Was this girl seriously insecure enough to think that catching her boyfriend talking with some other girl once would mean he was cheating on her? Sakura didn't even care to find out. But it looked like describing her chat with Syaoran as a "friendly conversation" rubbed Lily the wrong way.
"Excuse me?" She asked in a suspicious tone.
"You're excused. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get going." Sakura bit back, closing her bag and motioning for the girls to step aside to let her through. The three girls remained impassive. This was not Sakura's day.
"Look, I don't know what you were doing with Syaoran this morning, but just remember who he is, who I am, and how I can make your high school life very difficult." Lily threatened. Sakura almost laughed out loud, was this girl trying to threaten her for having a single conversation with her boyfriend? Overprotective much? This made Sakura consider getting 'caught' talking with Syaoran again… except that would mean that she'd have to talk with that smart aleck again, which definitely wasn't worth the effort.
"Oh I'm so scared of you and your empty threats. Why don't you go tell them to someone else who actually gives a f*ck? (Note: Sakura swore here, I don't promote swearing, so I will be censoring, as I feel appropriate) I can and will talk to whoever I want to. Unfortunately, you people aren't on my list, so please stop talking to me now." And with that, she brushed past one of the stunned groupie girls and walked out.
Serving detention in the library after school, Sakura's patience was quickly running thin. How thick headed and egotistical could her math teacher possibly be to think that she deserved a page-long essay of apology in compensation for walking in 15 minutes late to the class? She cast a glance around the empty library, noticing that even the librarian, her supposed supervisor for this detention, seemed to have had something better to do and left.
Sakura thought to herself about how easy it would be to just leave her essay as it was—empty—and leave. However that wouldn't get the completed page onto her teacher's desk by 4pm. She sighed, drilling a dark hole in the desk with her pencil before the fragile piece of lead finally snapped under the pressure.
She found her gaze sliding to the row of empty computers. It would be much easier and faster if she could type her essay… she could even make the font bigger… that was it! Sakura sat up suddenly as she realized her solution to fill the page faster. Her math teacher had instructed Sakura to go to the library to write up her reflection essay, she'd never specified that it had to be handwritten.
Not wanting to be disturbed by anyone who might potentially be passing by, Sakura moved down the line of computers to the one on the very end, completely covered behind by a bookshelf of thick encyclopaedias. You know, books that thick could really kill someone if wielded properly. Who even used encyclopaedias these days anyways? Sakura shook her head, moving on from the thought as she seated herself at the computer, pulling up a blank text document.
'I'm sorry I walked into class late. Things happened and even though I ran all the way from my house to the school, I couldn't make it in time. If only I had a teleporter or could fly, this would not be a problem. But sadly, living in the 20th century we don't, so I can't.'
Sakura paused, wondering what she should write to follow up next. Three lines weren't going to be enough to fill the page unless she super magnified it.
'It's bad to be late for appointments, but things happen and people are late all the time. My father says in Italy people are regularly late and it doesn't bother anyone. If I were Italian I wouldn't even have to write this letter because it wouldn't bother my teacher.'
Sakura wondered if that last sentence would have offended her teacher, but she was too lazy to care.
'Anyways, being the Japanese person that I am, I was late and I apologize for my lateness.'
Sakura glanced at the word count at the bottom of the document, which read 117 words. her teacher hadn't given her a specified word limit, so it shouldn't matter, right? But there was so much free space left on the word document... Oh well, in reality I write much bigger than the font is on this word document, so it should be okay to make the font reasonably larger to accommodate for that, right? Sakura thought to herself as she changed to 24-point font. The page still wasn't completely full. Our English teacher DOES always tell us to double-space, right? Gotta stay consistent with my formatting! She double-spaced the formatting. Now it's too long… I guess I can make my text a little bit smaller so it'll stay within one page… She adjusted the font to 22-point. Perfect!
Looking at her completed essay in satisfaction, Sakura glanced up at the clock. 3:45. She had 15 minutes left before her teacher would come collect Sakura and her completed essay from the library. What was she supposed to do until then? Sakura thought for a moment, unwilling to go back and add or change her completed essay, which she felt to be a masterpiece. Instead, she found herself opening up a new blank document. Since she finally had the time, maybe she would just use the time to vent. Recalling all of the horrible things that had happened to her over the past few days, she certainly wondered if she would feel better just letting it all out harmlessly instead of actually hurting anyone. With that thought in mind, she decided to start writing.
I hate my life. 16 years old with no family, no friends, and no future to look forward to. Well, sure there's my stupid older brother, but what kind of family is he? He doesn't even cook for me, he makes me do it half the time! Isn't it his job to take care of me and make sure I'm fed and living in a clean environment while our dad is away? Well, I guess my dad's not dead either, but being away for work on the other side of the world, he's as good as it in terms of helping support me and listen to my problems when I have them. Then again, my whole life is filled with problems, and it doesn't help that my one and only friend is being taken away from me by her boyfriend.
I mean h-e-l-l-o, she's my best friend, and we've been friends since kindergarten! I'm happy for her and all, but just because he's there, doesn't mean she has to spend all of her free time with her and leave me in the dust. What kind of friend does that? Yesterday she suddenly cancelled on me because she had plans with him. For the third time! Really, does she think that just apologizing to me and saying she'll make it up to me later fixes the whole thing? It just makes things harder for me because I can't keep acting mean to her, otherwise she won't be friend with me anymore. But what does that leave me with? I wonder if she even realized this no-choice-but-to-act-like-I-don't-mind option to deal with.
And then there's the popular kids to talk about! F*ck, I could rant about them for hours. Just because they may be pretty or good looking or whatever, why should they be special? Who died and made them in charge of the school? Those b*tches strutting around school, acting like they're the sh*t and threatening that no one can mess with them or they'll ruin their lives. Who do they think they are? I'm not afraid of them. I swear this whole thing about who's cool and who's not was all just a ploy by those idiots who needed people to respect them because they couldn't get respect for anything other than their looks. I mean, do any of those popular kids even have a brain in their head? Lily certainly doesn't, thinking she's all that with her English name which is exclusively for people she deems worthy. She's not half-English for god's sake, she's half-French! Plus she was born and raised in Japan anyways and doesn't even speak a word of French, so why does the French bit even remotely equate to her being cool? She—
"Kinomoto?" Sakura looked up as she saw her math teacher walking into the room. It was a miracle the lady hadn't forgotten she existed. She looked up at the clock. 4:10. Okay, so the lady had forgotten she existed for 10 minutes or so. Whatever. Sakura would let it slide. This time.
"Here ma'am. I finished my essay on the computer, should I print it now?" Sakura asked politely, not wanting to be kept any longer than she'd already been kept.
"Yes, yes. Print your essay to the library's first printer and then you're free to leave. I'll collect it from there." Her teacher responded curtly.
"Yes ma'am" Sakura replied, clicking the print button on her essay before closing the window. She paused for a moment when she came to her rant document. It would seem like a waste to stop here, when she had only just gotten started… Sakura decided to save the file so that she could finish it later. No one even used the library computers because they didn't have Internet connection anyways, so what did it matter if there was an extra document? She clicked the save button and titled the document "reasons why my life sucks" before closing the program.
Not wanting to wait for her math professor to retrieve the document and possibly scold her for it, Sakura gathered her backpack and bolted out the door as quickly as she could manage, halfway out the door when her math teacher's exasperated call reached her ears. Sakura was already dreading their next class together.
Things you should know about me/my style of writing (#1):
I don't advocate swearing or sexual innuendoes (such a pity the foundation of much English humour tends to rely on such low-class humour), so I try to keep it minimal. Doesn't mean they won't be there though. As such, I'm choosing to censor swearing, even though the characters don't.