A/N: Ok, I know that I said that I was going to publish once a week, but then I was like "AW WHATEVER! WHO CARES? HECK TO WEEKLY UPDATES!" So you guys are going to get the chapters the minute I finish writing them. You can cheer now. Just know that I'm NEVER EVER going to publish on a Sunday!
Chapter 4
Sakura's POV
I was woken up the next morning by the sound of whimpering and paws on my legs. I shivered from the cold as I cracked one eye then the other open and looked down to see the dog staring at me with his shining blue eyes. His tail was wagging and he had something in his mouth. He dropped whatever it was in my lap and sat down in front of me. I moved my arms stiffly as I picked it up and examined it. I was still half asleep and my tired and groggy mind was incapable of identifying what it was just by looking at it. Then I realized what it was.
"This is your collar boy." I told him. "Did you find this and bring it back so I can finally put it on you?" He continued wagging his tail up and down and thumping it on the floor. I leaned over to him and just as he saw me trying to put the collar on him he scampered off into the kitchen. "Dang it." I mumbled. "Still don't wanna wear it huh?"
I looked over at the stranger and saw that he was still sleeping. I supposed that was a good thing for now. I put my bare feet on the floor and stood up, my muscles aching in protest from sleeping in an awkward position all night. I walked over to him, flinching when the floorboards creaked under my feet, and felt his forehead. I smiled and mentally breathed a sigh of relief. His fever had gone down significantly. His blanket had almost completely fallen off of him so I pulled it up on him again.
I checked my watch and saw it was fifteen minutes until Ayame would be here so we could walk to the bus stop together. I slipped into the kitchen to rummage through our snack supply for something to eat for breakfast. I froze at the door with my mouth hanging open when I saw the sight before me. That, that, dog had had ripped open the last box of my favorite cereal that I kept here and spilled it all over the floor. I watched in horror as he licked up the last few pieces left on the floor.
"Nooooo…" I croaked and ran towards the chewed up box, picked it up, and searched inside to see if any cereal had survived that I could eat. There wasn't even a little bit of dust left. I moaned and hung my head in sorrow. I looked over at the dog again. "That was an entire family size box of cereal you idiot. Why didn't you save anything for me to eat?"
He was panting with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. He looked like he had a smirk on his face that said, "I'm so happy that I was able to drive you crazy so early in the morning and make you miserable for the rest of the day as I ate the last of your favorite snack. Got anything else for me?" I know I seem like I'm overreacting, but my parents hated it when I bought "junk food cereal" as they called it. I couldn't have it at home and I rarely ever bought it even though I could just hide it and eat it here at the clubhouse. I hadn't even opened it yet and now it was all gone. Lost in the belly of a little puppy who could have fit in the box himself.
"Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now." I stood up and went over to the cabinets. After grabbing a pop-tart I looked back at the dog, crouched down with the pop-tart in my hand, and waved it towards him. "Come here boy." I coaxed. He trotted towards me, expecting to get treat, but once he was in reach I grabbed him and stuck the collar on him before he could resist. "Gotcha! There we go. It's on now." I let him go and stood up eating my pop-tart. He immediately tried to get the collar off, but no matter how hard he tried to fight the thing around his neck, he just couldn't shake it off.
"Fell for it didn't you?" I said. "Like I would give you my pop-tart after you ate all of my cereal." I walked out and continued to get ready as quietly as I could so as not to wake up the stranger. I couldn't hide what happened yesterday from Ayame. She can tell if something has happened out of the ordinary and pry it out of me whether I want to talk about it or not. I would have to tell her about what happened when she got here. Oh joy…
Ayame's POV
I ran through the forest as fast as I could. I couldn't wait to see my dog today. I had spent all night thinking about him, what we should call him, and if I should buy him any certain kind of toys. As I burst into the clearing I saw Sakura sitting on the front porch waiting with the dog in her lap and I called out to her.
"Morning Sakura! How are you?" She looked up smiled and waved at me, but she didn't say anything. Something had happened, I already knew it. The dog saw me as I came up and jumped on me wagging his tail. "Hey there Buddy!" I stroked his soft head as he sniffed me over. "Do you like your collar?"
"There's a demon in this house." Sakura said, I looked up at her.
"What?"
"It's this little dog right here. He ate my entire box of Fruity Pepples that I bought the other day!" She said pointing an accusing finger at the puppy and I burst out laughing.
"Dang girl! Tough luck! You shouldn't have put them in such an easy to access place!" I said and I looked at her again. She was smiling at my comment, but I could still see that something was bothering her. "Ok Sakura, spill. What happened?" I crossed my arms and looked her in the eye. She suddenly became very fidgety and began pulling at her hair.
"Well, ummmmm… It's, kind of hard to explain…" She stood up. "I think you should see for yourself first."
"Ok..." I followed her into the clubhouse. Just before we walked into the main room she stopped, audibly gulped, and took a deep breath. It had to be something big for her to be so hesitant. We walked in and when I saw him, my jaw dropped. There was this total stranger sleeping on the couch. "WHAT THE HE-" before I could finish my sentence, Sakura's hand covered my mouth and she shushed me.
"Don't wake him up!" she whispered harshly. I continued to stare at him in wide-eyed shock. He was hands down the strangest looking person I've ever seen. He had really long silver-white hair and a crescent moon on his forehead. His cheeks had markings on them that looked like scars and his ears were elf-like.
I pushed Sakura's hand off my mouth and whispered. "Who is he?" Sakura looked at him.
"I'm not sure." she admitted. Before I could ask her what the heck possessed her to bring a total stranger here she cut me off. "I know it was stupid, but I didn't have much of a choice. I couldn't have taken him to my house, it was too far for me to carry him the whole way by myself. I couldn't have called 911 because there's no cell phone reception way out here and I couldn't just leave him." I took a minute to digest everything that Sakura had just shown and said to me. She made some valid points and what had happened had happened. There wasn't anything I could do to change that so I just sighed.
"Whatever." I said. "Let's just pray that he's not some criminal or pervert when he wakes up. On that note, we have to go to school."
Sakura gave a nervous laugh. "I'm pretty sure that he's not a pervert. But you're right, let's get to school." We walked to the door and Sakura turned around one last time to look at him. Worry was drawn all over her face.
"Come on Sakura." I groaned. "I know you're worried about him, but I'm sure he'll be fine. You on the other hand won't be fine if your parents find out that you skipped school today. He'll probably just sleep the whole day anyways in his condition. But if you don't think that he will you can always give him some sleeping medicine or something." When I said the word medicine, Sakura's face went pale first, then went bright red.
"N-no no! You're right! He'll be fine! Let's go before we miss the bus." She walked briskly out the door, keeping her head down and I could see her face still growing redder. I wondered what had happened, but I decided I would ask about that later and caught up with her.
A/N: New character coming soon! TWO new characters actually! Review if you want a preview of them! (hey, that rhymed!) I'll PM any of you who want a sneak peek so those who don't want spoilers won't have any! ;D
