h Where You Are – Part 02 h

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Sakura sighed.  Her turn was coming up, and she felt that she wasn't ready.  Her heart pounded in her chest, and she didn't have a clue how Tomoyo could actually stand up to this.  "Tomoyo-san, how could you make me do this?" she questioned herself.  Tomoyo came down from centre stage to meet up with Sakura.  "And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Daidouji Tomoyo, singing 'Everything You Do'!"  The announcer said, hushing the audience momentarily.  The silence left, and the crowd emerged into a mad applause.  "Thank you, Tomoyo-san.  Next, after a short 15 minute intermission, we'll have Kinomoto Sakura sing "I Turn To You"!" The crowd applauded again, out of respect, and left for the snack bar to fill up on chips, hot dogs, and other vending machine goodies.

            Sakura ran up to Tomoyo and gave her a big hug.  "Tomoyo-san, you did great!  I wish I was as good as you."  Tomoyo hugged back, saying "But you are, Sakura-chan!"  "Tomoyo-san…" Sakura scolded.  "What did I tell you about the –chan thing?  We're too old to be calling each other –chan!"  Tomoyo ignored this response, saying "All practiced up?"  Sakura sweatdropped.  For all the time that she spent panicking, she forgot to practice!  "Uhhhh….. hoe….." she replied, bowing her head in embarrassment.  "Ohohohoho!  Don't worry, Sakura-chan. You'll do fine, even without practice!"  She sat down, smoothing  out the wrinkles in her blue dress.  Her hands clutched the dress, fists burying themselves in the material.  Anyone could easily tell she was nervous.  "Tomoyo-san?" she asked quietly.  The buzzer rang, signifying the end of intermission.  "Yes, Sakura?"  "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to inform you of our next contestant, Kinomoto Sakura!"  Sakura had her head hung down.  She suddenly flung it up and held her fists in front of her face in exuberance.  "I'm going to do my best!" she proclaimed, before marching out on stage.  "Go get 'em, Sakura-chan." Tomoyo cheered.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            "….. And the top four contestants of this year's singing competetion are….. Oyasi Hajimatte, Kyoku Oui, Li Syaoran, and Mellanie Deriss!"  A man then emerged onto the stage.  He held a plain mic in his hands.  He raised it to his face and said "Ladies and gentlemen.  Out of the four contestants, Oyasi Hajimatte, Kyoku Oui, Li Syaoran, and Mellanie Deriss, we would like you to vote on who would is the best singer.  On your control panels that you'll find on the back of the seat in front of you, please press 1,2,3, or 4.  1 being Oyasi-kun and 4 being Mellanie-san."  He stepped away, waiting for the voting to be finished.  Clicks were heard through out the audience, but then they died down.  "Please wait while the results are being tallied."  The man walked off stage to get the results.

            Syaoran held his head in his hands.  All of these loud speakers, which he was so lucky to be sitting beside, gave him a headache.  He barely even signified that he was in the top four.  A pounding ringing sensation travelled quickly through his head, causing pain wherever it went.  The fact that the distance in which the man, who was now back on the stage, held the mic from his face made it squeak worse than a bad clarinet player was no help to his developing headache.  "And now," he said into the mic, causing another minor squeak in which Syaoran flinched to.  "I am proud to announce the winner of this year's contest,………."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Sakura took a deep, unnoticeable breath in front of the mic.  The intro music began, and she closed her eyes, feeling the music flow through her.  'Four bars to go,' she thought, counting the beats until she had to sing.  "3," she breathed.  "2…..1…" 

When I'm lost

In the rain

In your eyes I know

I'll find the light

To light my way

When I'm scared

Losing ground

When my world is going crazy

You just turn it all around

And when I'm down, you're there

Pushing me to the top

You're always there giving me

All you've got

For a shield

From the storm

For a friend

For a love to keep me safe and warm

I turn to you

For the strength

To be strong

For the will to carry on

For everything you do

For everything that's true

I turn to you………

            She opened her eyes to find the audience speechless, mesmerized by her singing.  She smiled wistfully.  'I really did have nothing to worry about,' she thought.  She continued singing, thinking about how much this song held in common with the relationship she had with Syaoran Li.  'I wonder what he's doing right now?' she thought.  The instrumental break ended, so she focused on her singing once more.

For the arms to be my shelter through all the rain

For truth that'll never change

For someone to lean on

For the one I can rely on for anything

For the one I can run to…….

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            "Li Syaoran!" the judge finished, clapping his hands in hope that others will follow his lead.  Although no one needed the boost, for the whole audience was already caught in a mad applause.  Syaoran pushed back his headache and got up on stage, smiling at his accomplishment.  When he stood next to the man, he gave him a pamphlet stating the regulations of the song in Beijing.  He glanced at it briefly before he was asked if he would like to thank anyone for his accomplishment.  "Yeah," he began. "My sisters for pushing me into this contest…" he trailed off, hearing four young women giggle in the front row.  "And," he took a deep breath.  "Sakura Kinomoto, even though she isn't here to hear it."  He saw his mother smile wistfully.  He got down off stage and walked to his family.  "What are you smiling about?" he questioned his mother.  "I know." She stated, not making any sense to Syaoran.  "Yes, you should know that you're smiling but what for?" he asked again.  "I know, about your feelings for the cherry blossom."  Syaoran's cheeks flushed.  "W-what feelings?"  His mother smiled again, but left it at that, saying "Come on Syaoran, let's get home."  And with that, the family left, Syaoran's sisters smiling and giggling about something.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Sakura had just finished her part.  The music was now fading.  She held the mic in her hands, a little harder than what she was supposed to.  'Gosh, I hate silence!'  The audience was completely in shock.  Then, they erupted into a mad applause, some even standing in their seats.  Sakura smiled, a big, goofy smile, and bowed.  She walked off of the stage politely.  "And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Kinomoto Sakura singing I Turn To You!  Up next we have Kurui Jenae!"  The crowd applauded again, although not as much as what they did Sakura. 

            When she finally got off of the stage and behind the curtain, she was clobbered by Tomoyo.  "Sakura-chan!  That was soooo great!!"  Sakura sweatdropped.  "Uhh… c'mon, let's go.  All that singing's made me hungry!"  And with that, the two left for a snack, awaiting the announcing of the winner.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            "The winner of the contest will be flown to Beijing, where they will perform a duet with the winner of the contest in Tokyo.  The winner has to be the opposite sex as that of the other winner, for the yet to be determined song will be a…. love song?!?"  Syaoran read the pamphlet out loud to his mom and sisters.  Her turned to the girls.  "Do you *enjoy* humiliating me?"  "You betcha!" Fanren exclaimed.  Syaoran sighed and continued to read the pamphlet, the other occupants of the room listening intently.  'This is *not* going to be fun…'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

            Sakura munched on a sandwich in the cafeteria.  "And now, we're going to announce the top four contestants!"  The loudspeaker rang out loud.  Sakura spit out the part of the sandwich she was eating.  "What?!?!?"  She grabbed Tomoyo by the arm and ran as fast as she could to her spot in the audience, shouting "HOEEE!!!" all the way there.  They, being Sakura and Tomoyo, got to the auditorium as quickly, just catching the last three.  "…Daidouji Tomoyo, Ohans Merissa, and Kinomoto Sakura!"  Sakura jumped up and down in joy, saying "We won, Tomoyo-san, we won!!"  She gave her long time friend a huge hug, squishing the living daylights out of her.  "I know…. Sakura-chan, but… could you let go of me?!?!" Tomoyo huffed.  Sakura sweatdropped.  "Uhh… sure!"

            Time went by and the votes were tallied.  The man in black stood up on stage, ready to announce the winner.  "And the winner is…"  He opened up the white envelope that he held in his hand.  He unfolded the paper in it and read it out loud into the mic.  "Daidouji Tomoyo!"

Heh… I bet you were expecting Sakura to win, weren't you?!?!  Well, nice little Tomoyo will give up her place for her dear Sakura-chan once she does a little snooping and finds out who the other person is!  The next cgapter should be out sometime next weekend, after my speech is due!  Bye, and don't forget to review!!!


~Nadeshiko~