Resounding Ripples

Chapter Three: Untimely Met

by: Mel

E-mail: LightofFaeries@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: DON'T OWN CCS!!!!! (just borrowing the characters for this story) but the characters Jing Zhu and Ling Jen belong to moi! And Syaoran's sister's names belong to me too. So don't take 'um (hunches protectively over story).

Sakura lay on her new bed, staring up through her sky window. She could not fall asleep, something was nagging at the edge of her mind, something she needed to now. But every time she grabbed out for it, it would elude her. Sakura sighed as she continued to stare into the sky. A shooting star shot passed. Sakura smiled. She hoped that somewhere in Japan, her friends had seen that same shooting star. Feeling better, she rolled onto her side and closed her eyes, shoving the nagging feeling into the back of her mind. Soon, her breathing evened, she was asleep.

In the Morning…

"HOEEEEE!" A young girl cried as she ran down the stairs and into the dining room. "I overslept!!!" She began to wolf down the breakfast that was laid out before her.

"Geez, even in a new area, you're still the same kaijuu. Will you ever change?" Touya shook his head in mock sadness.

Sakura pinched him viciously, making him drop his chopsticks. Just then their father walked in, holding a plate of steaming food. Sakura immediately resumed eating.

"Ohayo gozaimasu," Fujitaka said cheerfully, using Japanese in the house.

Sakura managed to nod, concentrating all her energy on eating quickly.

After finishing, she grabbed her backpack and strapped on her roller-blades, shouting a quick good-bye before shooting out the door and down the street. 'Nii-chan is so lucky,' Sakura thought as she rapidly pumped her legs, 'Even though he couldn't bring his bike, his school still starts later than mine and he has plenty of time to walk.'

Sakura slumped in her chair, breathing hard. She had barely made it to class before the last bell.

"Ciao san hao," said a bright voice beside her.

Sakura turned to her right. "C-Ciao san hao," she replied, blushing slightly at her stumbling Chinese. It was Jing Zhu, a girl Sakura had met yesterday. Surprisingly, Jing Zhu spoke Japanese and Engligh fluently, having grown up in the U.S. and living for 3 years in Japan. It was really helpful to Sakura to have someone help her with her Chinese and Sakura was very grateful.

Jing Zhu was a happy and outgoing person with hair like raven's wing down to her waist. She said she usually wore them up in two braids. She knew almost everyone in the school, which was saying a lot for Chinese schools have a very large number of students. Sakura found that Jing Zhu never looked at one thing for too long, giving the impression—a very wrong impression—that she wasn't paying attention. Instead, her eyes flickered about, taking in everything. Jing Zhu also looked very delicate, with her skin paler than most and large, wide eyes. She was tall and very slender, making her look willowy and so adding to her delicate image. But Sakura remembered what Jing Zhu had done the day before that proved she was far from delicate.

Sakura had been chatting with her newfound friends when something caught her eye. Looking around she spotted a young girl, a first grader by the red tie around her neck, crying in the shade of a tree. Sakura immediately excused herself from the conversation and walked over to the girl.

She squatted down in front of the girl and put her hand on the girl's shoulder. The girl's head jerked up, staring at Sakura through tear-filled eyes.

"Ni hao, wo jiao Sakura. What's your name?" Sakura asked gently.

The young girl gulped a couple of times before answering, "L-Ling Jen-n."

"What's the matter Ling Jen?" Sakura asked, smiling encouraging.

"N-Nothing," Ling Jen stammered.

"Now come, you expect me to believe that? You must think that because my Chinese is bad that my sight is bad too?" That drew a shaky smile out of the girl. She shook her head.

Sakura tried again, "Will you tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help you."

Ling Jen hesitated, but then said, "Tao Shen was making fun of me again. He said that-he said that I'm a shame to my family. Everyone else in my family can defend themselves except for me." The girl's lower lip trembled slightly, but she kept talking. "He said-he said I'm so weak that I need people like my older cousin to protect me and-and if I tell on him to my cousin, he'll tell everyone what a weakling I am." The girl stopped, tears were threatening to fill her eyes again.

"You're not a weakling, don't believe people like him, they just make fun to people to make themselves feel better. Let's see if I can do something about him. Stay right here. I'll be right back," with that Sakura stood and walked back over to her group of friends. Ling Jen stared dumbly after her.

Sakura asked her friends who Tao Shen was. All of them agreed that he was a big bully that liked to pick on kids younger then him. Satisfied with that answer, Sakura told them about Ling Jen.

When she had finished Jing Zhu said, "That da huai dan, he's been picking on that girl ever since she entered first grade. I think he wants revenge for always being beaten by her cousin but he's never made her cry before. He's gone too far this time. I think I'll go knock some sense into him." Jing Zhu grinned wickedly.

The girls all decided they would go confront Tao Shen too. Sakura went back to Ling Jen and told her everything would be alright and if Tao Shen ever made fun of her again to come to her.

The confrontation went well. Though Tao Shen was very large, Sakura and Jing Zhu weren't fazed one bit. Jing Zhu coldly told him that if he dared tease another student, he would never get a girlfriend. Tao Shen had smirked and said yeah right. Jing Zhu flew at him and attacked him…

"Sakura, please answer this question."

Sakura shook herself mentally and sighed. She had better pay attention, class had begun.

After School…

Sakura's roller-blades thumped rhythmically against the sidewalk. It wasn't her turn to cook that day, but she knew she needed to be home soon. The sky was darkening at a rapid pace, the clouds were sagging and starting to turn black on the bottom. Sakura knew it wouldn't be too long before the clouds released their burden.

Just as Sakura thunked onto the porch, the heavens opened up. She quickly took off her roller-blades and went into the house.

A few minutes later, a very drenched Touya came into the house followed by Sakura's father carrying an umbrella.

"Sakura!" her father called.

"Hai?" Sakura replied, coming down the stairs.

"Get ready to go out. Our neighbor has invited us to dinner at her house tonight," Fujitaka said.

"Neighbor?" Sakura asked. "But, we don't have any neighbors, just a lot of trees surrounding our house."

Fujitaka shook his head, "The trees are all part of her property. She owns quite a large estate. Touya, you might want to get changed." Touya nodded. "And we'll go as soon as we're all ready."

A few minutes later found the Kinomoto family on their porch with their umbrellas opened. Sakura shared an umbrella with her father while Touya had his own. They walked for a good five minutes with just trees around them before they came in sight of the house. It was enormous with balconies and the like. Sakura thought that even 'mansion' wasn't an adequate enough word. They approached double doors that had to have been the main entrance.

The Kinomoto family closed their umbrellas as they were protected from the rain by the balcony that jutted out above the double doors. Fujitaka changed his umbrella to his left hand and raised his right hand to knock. Immediately, one door opened to reveal a girl in red and gold livery.

"If you would please follow me?" the servant said, indicating with her hand. "They are expecting you."

Sakura followed the servant in awe. The hallway's ceiling was filled with multicolored crystal rocks and the floor was made of high polished wood. There were wonderful decorations throughout the hall, beautifully painted vases on hand carved wood tables, golden ornate lamps, and hand-stitched tapestries. Sakura had never seen anyone's home to match. And they had servants! The lady must be very, very rich, Sakura thought. {AN: people, if you realize who's house this is, just to let you know, she's never been to this house before, though in the anime version she has. I'm making up what the house looks like, 'cause I've never seen the house before. And to the people who are really confused, well, you'll understand later.}

Finally, the servant led them through an arched doorway. Touya and Sakura found themselves attacked by four very enthusiastic teenagers.

"KE AI! or should I say KAWAII!!" one of them cried. The rest of the girls just squealed with delight.

Touya and Sakura found themselves pinched and prodded, squeezed and pulled until finally a fifth voice said calmly and commandingly, "Ting."

The girls immediately eased their attacks and parted so that Sakura and Touya could see the newcomer. It was a tall and elegant woman in full traditional Chinese dress. She wore a simple headdress that held her hair in a high ponytail, though her hair still reached her waist. Sakura thought that she was one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen.

The woman bowed and the Kinomoto family bowed back. "Please excuse my daughters' behavior, they have yet to learn how to control themselves." The lady said in flawless Japanese. She had a slightly low voice that was pleasant to listen to and serene and commanding at the same time. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Wang Yelang. These are my daughters." The lady indicated to the girls who had formerly been all over Touya and Sakura. "Li Tian Hai, my oldest, Li Wan Yun, Li Lang Hua, and Li Yue Xing. I also have a son, but he doesn't seem to be here at the moment."

Fujitaka nodded and began to introduce himself and his family, "I am Kinomoto Fujitaka. This is my son, Kinomoto Touya, and this is my daughter, Kinomoto Sakura…"

Just then someone ran into the room. He skidded to a halt in front Yelang and bowed. "Forgive me ma-ma for being late, I got carried away with my training and lost track of time."

Yelang just nodded before turning back toward Fujitaka.

Syaoran turned too, but much more slowly. His mother was always doing this, inviting people over for dinner without giving him any warning. Syaoran hated eating with guests, they always made him uncomfortable and guests that were girls were even worse. They would all fawn over him and ask him a million questions and giggle, some trying really hard to impress him though only succeeding to annoy him.

"This is my son, Li Xiaolang. Xiaolang, these are our new neighbors."

Syaoran lifted his head and came face to face with a pair of familiar emerald eyes and gasped, "Sakura?"

She smiled at him happily, "Ni hao Syaoran-kun! I can't believe you're my new neighbor!"

Syaoran's insides did a double flip-flop and he felt his old blush creeping up his cheeks. "Hi Sakura," he said as nonchalantly as he could, trying vainly to banish his blush. Wasn't he over her?

"GAH! It's the gaki!! What's he doing here?!" Touya cried, stepping in front of his sister protectively and he and Syaoran went into one of their famous glaring contests.

"'Nii-chan," Sakura sighed. She looked at Syaoran. He had grown a lot in the past few years, he was almost as tall as Touya and he had grown in magic too, it spilled from all around him.

"I happen to live here," retorted Syaoran at Touya's question.

"AHH! Tell me we're not eating with HIM!!"

Fujitaka was now thoroughly confused. "Of course we are. And is this how you treat your new neighbors Touya?"

Touya was saved from having to find an answer when a servant threw open a door and announced, "Dinner is served."

Yelang turned toward Fujitaka and bowed, not as deep as the greeting bow. "Shall we proceed?"

Fujitaka nodded and bowed back. They all filed into the enormous dining room.

Sakura had to keep herself from staring around and focused on the back of her brother. From the way his shoulders were stooped, Sakura figured that even he had to have been intimidated.

Sakura found herself sitting surrounded by Syaoran's sisters and across from Syaoran. When Syaoran looked at her, she smiled sweetly, not noticing Syaoran's deepening blush.

Author's Notes: Okay, I know I took forever to get this out, but I'm a very slow writer and I have a full time job. Guess what it is. SCHOOL! yeah, school is really a time killer. Anyway, I know this chapter wasn't all that great, and I feel as if I'm letting all the characters down (do you ever get the feeling that when you're writing a story, it's the characters that show you what to write? Uh, never mind I'm just weird ~_~` probably because I'm so tired.) I feel like maybe I should stop writing.

For the people who were waiting for the encounter between Sakura and Syaoran, well there it is. Pretty disappointing huh? I had thought of a million better encounters but I just couldn't seem to write them. I'm sorry, I'm just really low right now. I think I'll go crawl back into my shell. Please review, I'd like to read some before I decide whether to stop writing or not.

I don't know Syaoran's sisters' names so I made them up. In the translation section, you'll find their name meaning. Also, notice that Yelang said Wang as her last name, that's 'cause in China a wife doesn't take on her husband's last name.

Notice, S+S are still calling each other by their first names.

Translations:

'Ohayo gozaimasu': 'Good Morning' (Japanese)

'Ciao san hao': 'Good Morning' (Chinese)

Jing (Fa): A sort of wild orchid (Chinese)

Zhu: Bamboo, a symbol for elegance and being tall and straight (Chinese)

'Ni hao': 'Hello' (Chinese)

'Wo jiao…': 'I'm called/named…' (Chinese)

'da huai dan': Literal meaning: big bad egg, means bully, or bad buy. (Chinese)

'Hai': 'Yes' (Japanese)

'Ke ai': cute (Chinese)

'Kawaii': cute (Japanese)

'Ting': stop (Chinese)

Tian Hai: Sky Ocean (Chinese)

Wan Yun: Night Cloud (Chinese)

Lang Hua: Blue Flower (Chinese)

Yue Xing: Moon Star/Moon Heart (Chinese)

Thank yous to Bellerein21, secret, (no name), Yinga Fa, Fabi-chan, Jesus Freak, cHeErY, (no name), Eriol's bear, pinkuser, Fantasy, Bob, Jared, and (no name)!!! You guys really helped my get a move on and write this chapter. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!

September 15, 2002

~Mel~