I don't wanna be like Cinderella
Sittin' in a dark ol' dusty cellar
Waitin' for somebody
To come and set me free
I don't wanna be someone waiting
For a handsome prince to come
And save me all I will survive
Unless somebody's on my side
Don't wanna be, no, no, no, no
Oh yes, I'd rather rescue myself
~The Cheetah Girls; Cinderella
~LTME~
~Chapter 2: Tell Me Who and Why
As Haku entered the building, Chihiro struggled to keep up with his brisk walking. After about five minutes of running to keep up with him, she all but lost her temper.
"Haku! That's enough. What on earth is wrong with you?" Chihiro asked.
Haku spun on his heals as he turned to face her.
"Chihiro, how do you know that woman?" He asked, referring to Sakura, or more widely known as Demon.
"Know her…"Chihiro trailed off.
~FLASHBACK~
Ten Years Ago – about a month after the end of the movie when she returned with her parents to the Human World.
"Chihiro, look! Today is your first day of school! Aren't you excited?" Chihiro's mother asked as she walked into her room.
"… No I don't want to go." Chihiro complained.
Chihiro's mother was unable to think of anything to say, so she left the room.
~An hour later-At school~
"Alright class, settle down now. We have a new student here today." the teacher called out and then motioned with her hand for Chihiro to step forward. She did.
"Now why don't you tell us a little about yourself?" the teacher asked kindly.
Chihiro gulped softly but spoke nonetheless.
"Hello, my name is Chihiro Ogino. I just moved here about a month ago. It is very nice to meet all of you." she said and then looked at the teacher, silently asking to be seated.
"Well thank you, Chihiro. You may go take a seat in the back by Sakura," she said and then turned to speak with Sakura directly. "Sakura, please raise your hand." the teacher asked but the girl refused to move even the slightest.
"Sakura, please." the teacher said in a stern, but slightly pleading voice.
The girl named Sakura slowly raised her hand and Chihiro reluctantly started to move towards the empty seat by Sakura. So far, this was one of the top worse days of Chihiro's life. The first had to be leaving everybody when she moved about a month ago. The second had to be when she had to leave Haku and return to the Human World. This probably made the third worst day ever. As she passed by the rows of her classmates, some of them began to snicker and chuckle under their breath. However, Chihiro soon learned that they weren't speaking of her, but of the girl she would have to sit next to.
As Chihiro took her seat, she turned to face the girl known as Sakura.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you." Chihiro said in a friendly voice.
"Ha! Yeah right. If you don't want to be picked on here at this school, then I would strongly suggest that you don't speak, or even look, at me while you're here." the girl said and then turned to face the teacher who had just started her lesson.
~END~
Chihiro!" she heard Haku shout.
"Tell the boy to stop where he is or he can and will get hurt." Sakura warned with a hard voice.
"Haku, freeze where you are." Chihiro called out. *What's going on?* she asked as an afterthought in her mind. *First I was talking with Haku, and then I have a memory of how I first met Sakura, and now this? What the heck is going on?*
"No, Chihiro come here!" Haku said franticly.
"Haku, calm down. I am fine." Chihiro soothed.
"Give my m-… human back to me!" Haku roared.
"Just give it up! You know you have no hope challenging me." Sakura said.
"Demon… Give. Her. To. Me." Haku said slowly, his anger steadily increasing.
"Make me… little b-"
"NO! I am not that. You gave up that title when you chose him over me." Haku hissed between his now razor sharp dragon teeth.
Sakura looked taken aback but refused to give in to Haku's wishes.
"What's going on?" Chihiro asked.
"… Later little one. All will be explained to you over time." Sakura whispered gently to Chihiro.
Sakura flicked her finger and suddenly Chihiro was teleported into Haku's awaiting arms, which wrapped protectively around her stomach gently.
"I believe I am tired now…" Sakura said and then walked off.
The moment Sakura turned the corner, Haku took Chihiro by the shoulders and shook her gently. Well, at least to a dragon. To a human, the force of Haku's said shaking was making Chihiro's head shake back and fourth, up and down.
"What?" Chihiro asked, exasperated.
"What do you think you were doing? I told you to stay away from here. But no, the moment she appears you run to her side. What's wrong with you?" Haku hissed.
Chihiro was taken aback.
"H-Haku… I don't know what you're talking about. I was just standing in this hallway and then you had asked me how I knew Sakura. I had a momentary flashback and come back to reality just to hear you complain and yell at me. Dang it! How do I get back into that place where everything is flowers and rainbows?" Chihiro mumbled the last part to herself.
Haku would have been amused, but he was still slightly angry at Chihiro for deliberately disobeying him and also a bit confused. *She didn't remember walking over and greeting Sakura?* he asked himself. *Something's going on here… and I don't like it when I don't know what it is. I mean, come on! Im supposed to know everything!*
*Everything you say? Wow that's a first, Haku. The last time you knew anything was after you stuck your big, fat dragon head up the chimney… and then got stuck. And it took us about an hour to figure out how to get you out. So yeah, sureeee you know everything. …How did I get stuck with an idiot for a-*
"Enough!" Haku roared out loud, scaring the life out of poor Chihiro who was trying to get his attention.
"Well, if you don't want my attention on you, you should have just said so in the first place. No need to yell and make me all deaf like that, Haku." Chihiro said and then walked away.
"Wait… Chihiro!" Haku called out. Chihiro paused, making Haku think that she heard him call out to her, but he was mistaken. A few short moments afterwards, she started hitting her ear with her hand… hard.
"Um Chi, what are you doing?" Haku asked, but got no reply.
"Um, hello? I'm talking here. Can't you even listen to what I have to say?" Haku asked, but again got no reply.
Chihiro was still busy banging her ear with her hand.
Haku finally gave up and just walked to where Chihiro was standing and spoke when he was right in front of her.
"Look Chihiro. I'm sorry. I was talking with someone else through telepathy, but-"
"WHAT?" Chihiro practically screamed. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
"Chihiro, why are you s-"
"SPEAK UP, I SERIOUSLY CAN'T HEAR YOU!" she screamed even louder.
"CHIHIRO, WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?" Haku finally yelled.
"WHAT? SPEAK UP DRAGON! STOP WHISPERIN', IT AIN'T FUNNY NOW!"
"WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? I AM TRYING TO APOLOGIZE TO YOU!"
"HAKU, STOP PLAYING GAMES WITH ME. I- "
"What is all the commotion about? I could hear you guys all the way down in the boiler room… and you guys are on the twentieth floor." Sakura said. "You do realize that there are some people who are trying to sleep and you guys are making it very difficult for them to do so."
"WHAT?" they both screamed at the same time.
Sakura sighed.
"I said that y-" Sakura started, but was interrupted.
"SPEAK UP WE-" Haku started to ask, well more like yell at the top of his lungs, which were shrinking in size because of him yelling so loudly.
Sakura snapped her fingers… and a small pop could be heard. *Magic was the key to all things.* Sakura smirked to herself, but she was not entirely accurate in saying that, she soon came to find out.
"CAN'T HEAR YOU…AND WHY ARE WE YELLING?" Chihiro finished Haku's sentence unintentionally and then shook her head.
"What." Haku started.
"The." Sakura added in, laughing as she said it.
"Heck?" Chihiro concluded the question.
Sakura went into a full out laugh after Chihiro had said that word.
"We are already acting like one big happy family," Sakura said, smiling, "Why, we are even finishing each other's sentences." She said giggling slightly.
Haku snarled quite loudly, making Chihiro jump in the process.
"We will never be family, you and I." he hissed.
The look of the deepest pain a person could ever have took hold in Sakura's eyes.
"Oh…" was all Sakura could say before she turned and swiftly, but gracefully started walking towards the stairs.
"That was completely unnecessary Haku." Chihiro said and ran after Sakura.
"No! Stay away from her, Chihiro! If you get close to her, she'll only betray you." Haku hissed, and felt a deep, dark sensation inside his chest. A dark sensation of satisfaction to see Sakura obviously flinch and then hurry away, calling out for her companion in the process.
"Wait! Sakura, wait!" Chihiro called out as she ran after her.
Haku cursed and ran after Chihiro. Haku flew down the flight of stairs that he saw Chihiro took, but he was unable to locate where she had gone.
Haku growled but decided to just stand still and smell her out, because of the anger her was feeling; his dragon senses were stronger and closer than ever.
Haku found her in the boiler room a few minutes later, speaking with her.
Haku growled under his breath, but stepped into the room… only to be hit in the back, hard; Hard enough to bring him to the floor, being pinned down by something exceedingly heavy. He soon found out what it was for it spoke to him in a low, but deep voice.
"You… you… there isn't even a name for people like you that I can say out loud! You low-life, scum! How dare you say that to Sakura. She has been through more than you will ever know you stupid river dragon. You're so stuck in your own personal life, that you can't see the pain that she has had with her. You-"
"Calm yourself my friend. It its alright. He has every right to be angry with me." Sakura said gently to the one who was still on Haku's back holding him down.
"Come onnnnn! I can't believe that you are letting him get away with treating you like that! After everything that you had to go through; with the sacrifice that you had to make for-"
"Midnight, calm yourself. We shall be departing soon enough. We shall not bother Haku or his bathhouse again." Sakura said and then turned her attention to Chihiro.
"Here little one," Sakura said, dumping a few gold coins into Chihiro's hand, "Please give that to Yubaba and give her my thanks for her hospitality."
Sakura stood up, for she had been sitting down on the ledge that let out into the area where the soot-balls normally worked.
"Midnight, come. It is time we leave." Sakura commanded and then turned towards Kamajii, who had been silently watching everything.
Midnight pressed down harder onto Haku's back before getting off.
Haku let out an 'oof' to show his pain, but other than that remained quiet as he got up. He glanced at Chihiro and noticed that she had a few tears running down her face and wouldn't even spare him a glance.
"Please… don't leave me again…" Chihiro whispered to Sakura.
Sakura turned around and smiled gently.
"Just call, and I will be at your side at a moments notice, little one." Sakura said.
"But… but… you promised!" Chihiro said, trying to think of anything to make Sakura stay.
"You promised to give me an explanation of what was going on. Now's as a great a time as any." Chihiro pleaded.
Sakura let out a sigh.
"This time, and this time only…" Sakura said slowly, "I will have to break my promise to you, little one. If you wish to know so badly, then ask your dragon."
"But I want you to be the one to tell me! You were there for me last time, so why not now?" Chihiro asked.
~FLASHBACK~
~At School; Lunch~
"Hey new girl! You wanna come over here and eat with us?" a boy called out.
"My name is Chihiro, and no thanks."
At the declining, everyone in the room gasped at her.
"Oh come on! Don't be such a spoiled sport about it. Just come and eat lunch with us." The boy tried again.
"No, really. But thank you for the offer." Chihiro said as she turned her back to him while sitting in her seat.
"Did you just hear that? Kane just got put off by the new girl…"
"I can't believe that she said no…"
"Hey! New girl! Chihi… somethin'. I don't take no for an answer. When I want something, I get it!" Kane said.
"Just because your name means 'money', doesn't always mean you get what you want." Chihiro said… "And it's Chihiro! Chi-hi-ro!"
"Well like it or not, Chi-hi-ro, you are going to sit with me." Kane said and walked over to Chihiro's desk, grabbed her arm with one hand and her shoulder in the other. Pulling her up none too gently, and she noticed that none of the students in the room would even look her in the eye now. They knew never to mess with Kane. Everyone in the room, apart from Chihiro, knew that Kane's father was the owner of the school and many of the famous stores around Japan.
"Please, none of you are going to help me?" Chihiro pleaded, but no one said a word. They just went back to what they were doing… and then there was the voice of one person who spoke up.
"What a spoiled brat you're being."
Everyone turned to see that the speaker was none other than Sakura.
"What you would know freak?" Kane sneered and all the students' ether sneered as well or, smartly, stayed out of it.
"Let the new girl go Kane. She hasn't done anything to deserve the your treatment." Sakura said softly.
"Oh yeah? Like who's gonna make me? No one's even brave enough to tell me what to do. Even the teacher's are scared stiff of me." Kane said with a smirk on his face.
Chihiro whimpered slightly for Kane had gotten a hold of some of her hair that had fallen onto her shoulders and was pulling on it roughly.
"I will say it once again. Leave the girl alone." Sakura warned.
"Heh, make me!" he hissed and then slapped Chihiro's butt harshly making a big noise that traveled all throughout the room, much to Chihiro's embarrassment.
What happened next was really more of a blur. One moment Chihiro was in Kane's arms, embarrassed and scared, and then the next, she was half way across the room by Sakura, who hadn't appeared that she had moved in the slightest. Where as Kane had been somehow pushed back so hard, that his head hit a desk with a sickening noise and then slumped down on the floor, unconscious.
Chihiro turned a nervous eye towards Sakura, but she had already taken a seat and was looking down at a piece of paper with drawings on them. The drawings looked familiar to Chihiro somehow but she couldn't quite place it for she only got a glance at it before the teacher walked in and saw the mess.
"Oh my! What has happened here? Kane… on my goodness what's wrong with him?" the teacher panicked.
"Don't worry so. The boy just fell and hit his head against the desk. No big deal. He ain't dead or nothin'." Sakura said and then stared back at the paper.
"W-Wh…What…did you do you… you…"
"She didn't do anything ma'am." Chihiro bravely spoke out. "All she did was tell Kane to leave me alone. The rest was his own fault."
"O-oh. So I see. Thank you Chihiro for saying so." The teacher said quickly and then hurried out of the room to get more teachers and a doctor.
"W-why…?" Chihiro heard someone whisper.
"Why did you do that? You didn't have you, you know?" the voice was Sakura.
Chihiro moved in her chair so she could directly look at Sakura when she answered.
"Because I want to be your friend." Was Chihiro's answer.
"F-friend? Why would you want to me friends with me? I'm no one special." Sakura said.
"Well, to me you are."
Sakura's mouth opened slightly but no words came out.
Sakura finally managed to say something, but it sounded more like her breathing than words. "Thank you…"
Ever since that day, Chihiro became best friends with Sakura. And while Chihiro was friendly and nice, everyone shunned her for Kane returned to school the next day and none of the students wanted to get on his bad side by talking with her in front of him.
Sakura thought it was stupid that everyone treated Chihiro differently because of Kane, but she never said any of this to anyone except Chihiro when they were alone.
Chihiro never seemed to mind though. However, she was curious about one thing…
"Hey Sakura, can I see the drawing you have on your paper that you keep starting at?" Chihiro asked one day while they were at Chihiro's house hanging out. Chihiro's parents had stepped out of the house for the day, so the girls had the house to themselves.
Sakura nodded and handed it to Chihiro who finally realized what, or who, the picture looked like.
"Haku…" Chihiro breathed out, but somehow Sakura heard her.
"W-what? How did you know that? I never told you that name!" Sakura said, snatching back the paper hastily.
"P-please don't think I'm crazy, but I've met him. He and I are friends." Chihiro said, and then covered her mouth. She had never told anyone of her adventures when she came back.
"Prove it." Sakura said with her hands over her chest.
"He lives in a place called Spirit World. I went there once and…" and throughout the whole night, Chihiro was up telling the story of her wonderful, if not frightening, adventures in Spirit World and the bathhouse.
After Chihiro was finished telling her five or six-hour story, Sakura sat back and was in deep thoughts when an idea suddenly popped back into her head.
"Hey, do you think we can go their now?" she asked excitedly.
"I'm not quite sure. I've never really tired to. I suppose we could try again once school lets out." Chihiro said thoughtfully.
"Alright!" Sakura said, thrusting her fist into the air.
~END~
Sakura opened the door that led out of the boiler room and outside. Thunder and lightning started and Sakura let out a small squeal of fright and clung to her horse's mane for protection.
"Don't leave. Please not again." Chihiro whispered. "At least stay the night and I can see you out first thing tomorrow."
Sakura sighed but nodded.
"Fine, but I shall stay down here with Kamajii for the night. You may take my room if you wish. And please don't forget the money I gave you for Yubaba."
Chihiro nodded and then froze.
"Sakura. I have been living here at this bathhouse for the past five years and not once have I seen you here. How do you know Yubaba?" Chihiro asked, more suspicious than ever.
Sakura sighed and ran a hand through her long, dark brownish, black hair that fell to her waist.
"That… is a story for another time, I think…" Sakura whispered.
"Very well, but you will tell me it, will you not?"
"Yes little one. I shall tell you it someday. And probably soon, but I think that you should go now. Your dragon is-"
"Who cares about him right now?" Chihiro snapped. "I haven't seen or heard from you in years and you decide to worry about some dragon who-"
"Yes, I am happy when I see you happy. And you are happy when you are with him."
"Well… I am happy to see you once again. It's been too long."
"Yeah… it really has…" Sakura agreed.
Haku left after speaking briefly with Chihiro. Sakura and Midnight, her trustworthy steed, lay down to sleep. Sakura and Chihiro, who was spending the night, were using the horse's soft stomach as a pillow. As they were drifting off into their peaceful slumber, Sakura remembered one small thing.
"Ch…Chihiro…You still awake?" Sakura whispered.
"Hmmm…" was the reply she got.
"You remember when you and Haku were screaming at each other?"
"Y-yeah…?"
"I think that Haku had momentarily deafened you, so you were unable to hear how loud you guys got. And while you were screaming at Haku, I think you made him slightly deaf as well." Sakura said smiling slightly.
"Oh… well that does make sense now that I think of it. Haku did roar really loudly… in my… ear…" Chihiro said and then was soon in a different land… the land of dreams.
"Humph…" Sakura snorted in an animalistic like way. "Good night little one." She whispered and soon joined Chihiro in the blissful sleep.
NEXT TIME
~Chapter 3: Everywhere
"I… have done some … thinking. I would like to apologize for my behavior yesterday. It was wrong of me to say the things I did. I would also like it if you stayed here. You seem to make Chihiro really happy when you are around her." Haku said.
"Thank you, Haku. I know you don't forgive me for everything yet, but I hope that sometime in the near future, you will." Sakura said and then smiled a tentative smile.
"A-are you going to tell her about… us?" Haku asked tentatively.
"Not unless you want me too." Sakura said.
After Sakura spoke, she saw Chihiro stretch and then sit up. Sakura laughed at the expression on Chihiro's face but her laughter stopped abruptly when she saw Chihiro's facial expressions.
"C-Chihiro… what's wrong?" Sakura asked.
"Are… are you leaving now?" Chihiro asked in a gentle but upset voice.
Sakura immediately brightened up.
"No, Haku's not making me leave!" Sakura said as she ran to hug her best friend.
"Oh… that's great!" Chihiro smiled and hugged Sakura back, but the happiness did not reach Chihiro's eyes. This small detail did not escape Sakura's notice, but she let it slide for the time being.