Disclaimer: The characters of Card Captor Sakura are not mine. They belong
to CLAMP. I'm just using them for some fun. Please don't sue me!
Warnings: AU. No Clow Cards, no magic, different lifestyles and behaviors of characters. SxS, ExT, a fusion with a story I read years ago.
Feedbacks: PLEASE!! I want to hear from all the readers!!! In doing so, you'll be able to help me!! *winkwink* The more reviews, the better!
. .
FORBIDDEN LOVE
. .
Chapter Two: The Chinese Elm Tree
. .
Mr. Terada had his back to the class as he diagramed a sentence on the blackboard. The chalk made loud, clicking noises as his arm swept up and down in broad, energetic strokes. Tomoyo leaned across her desk and hissed to get Sakura's attention.
.
"What happened out in the parking lot?" she whispered, her eyes the size of Frisbees. "Chiharu told me you had some kind of accident!"
.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "You're never going to believe it. Compared to this, The Princess Bride was nothing." Mr. Terada's elbow suddenly stopped moving, and Sakura added hurriedly, "I'll fill you in after class."
.
Mr. Terada turned around and fixed Sakura with a long stare. He was tall and strict-looking, and sometimes brusque. But beneath all that, Sakura knew he was kindhearted. She couldn't forget how nice Mr. Terada had been to her the time she had accidentally copied down the wrong homework assignment. The teacher had let her do the paper all over again without marking her down a grade for being late.
.
"Sakura." His deep voice boomed over the classroom. "Can you tell us what the possessive and its object are in this sentence?"
.
Sakura stared at the blackboard, trying to focus her attention on the sentence written there. Mr. Terada always used famous quotes for his diagramming. This time, he'd picked a romantic quote by Thomas More.
.
~ But there's nothing half so sweet
as love's young dream. ~
.
She automatically thought of Syaoran and blushed. "Uh---is it 'love's dream'?"
.
"Very good, Sakura." A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of Mr. Terada's mouth. "I suppose that just goes to show that half a student's attention is better than none."
.
The class greeted this unexpected show of humor with a ripple of laughter. Tomoyo shot Sakura a sympathetic look.
.
When the bell rang, they rushed out into the corridor together, Sakura neatly sidestepping a wadded-up test paper buffeted about among the stampeding feet.
.
"That was really cool the way you answered that question in class," Tomoyo said. "I would've gotten it wrong, even if I had known the answer, with those laser-like eyes of his boring into me."
.
"Yeah, that's me---Serene Sakura." Sakura gave a dry laugh. "On second thought, better make that Klutzy Sakura. I'm sure that's how Syaoran thinks of me."
.
"SYAORAN?!" screamed Tomoyo. "You don't mean THE Syaoran? Li Syaoran? He's the one you ran into? Boy, talk about fate!"
.
"Bad luck, you mean," said Sakura, pouring out the whole story as they made their way toward the lockers. "What gets me is how nice he was about it. I mean there I was crying on his shoulder after I'd wrecked his car---and he was consoling me."
.
"Would you have felt better if it was all his fault?" Tomoyo asked.
.
"At least, I wouldn't feel so dumb."
.
"Look at it this way." Tomoyo gave up fiddling with her combination lock and started banging against the locker with the heel of her hand, hoping that that might loosen it up. She was always reversing the numbers on her combination lock. "At least, Syaoran knows who you are now. Isn't that better than not being noticed at all?"
.
"I'm not sure. A person could get noticed for a lot of things---for all the wrong reasons," she pointed out, "and then not be liked. Take Maryjane Watkins, for instance. She's well known by everyone who's been in PE with her---only she gained her reputation by making goals for the wrong side in soccer and hitting tennis balls over the backboard. Sometimes it's better not to be noticed."
.
"Just don't jump to any conclusions, ok?" warned Tomoyo, wrenching her locker open at last and causing a loud bang as the door swung against its neighbor.
.
"Actually," Sakura confessed, "I'm more worried about my father right now than Syaoran."
.
"Uh-oh, I forgot about him."
.
Sakura shoved a pile of books inside her locker and slammed it shut. "I just wish there was some way I could forget."
.
Tomoyo giggled. "I just thought of something---you know, about you having sort of a crush on Syaoran. Well, I guess this makes it official. Get it--- CRUSH?"
.
"Oh, Tomoyo, that's awful!" Sakura cried, giving her a slight punch in the arm, but at least Tomoyo had gotten her to laugh.
.
0 ~ 0 ~ 0
.
At noon they ate lunch in the cafeteria with their other friends, Chiharu, Rika and Naoko, who were as different from each other as morning, afternoon and night. While Chiharu was full of cheer, Rika was the outgoing one, and Naoko was forever struggling to overcome her shyness.
.
"I think I would have just rolled up into a little ball and died on the spot if it'd been me," commented Naoko as she peeled Saran Wrap from her sandwich.
.
"I can just see you---rolling across the parking lot with Syaoran in hot pursuit," Chiharu said, which made them all laugh.
.
"Wow!" Rika exclaimed. "Eddie Talbot's got a mouth the size of the Grand Canyon. The whole school must know by now."
.
"Oh, that's just great." Sakura could feel the milk she'd just drink begin to curdle in her stomach. "Just what I need---a reputation as a hot-rodder. As if I won't have enough problems when my dad finds out."
.
"Don't worry, Sakura," reassured Tomoyo, winking mischievously. "We'll stick up for you. If anyone calls you a hot-rodder, we'll tell them what a tortoise you really are."
.
"Thanks a lot," Sakura mumbled, her mouth full of sandwich.
.
"Hey, who wants to go to the noon movie?" asked Naoko. "They're showing the end of 'Friday The Thirteenth, Part Two'."
.
Chiharu made a face. "I'm not sure my stomach can handle it so soon after lunch."
.
Tomoyo smiled. "I'll go!"
.
"Sorry, guys, I can't," put in Rika. "My part of the choir got practice." She pouted at Tomoyo's direction. "You're lucky today is not your practice day."
.
Tomoyo and Rika were both with the a cappella choir, with Tomoyo singing soprano and Rika singing alto. Rika, like Tomoyo, had been pressuring Sakura to join ever since she had heard that Ms. Mizuki wanted to transfer her. She insisted it was no different from what she was already doing in chorus, but Sakura knew better. The chorus sang in front of an audience, just twice a year, and this didn't frighten her because she could think of herself as only being part of one large voice. The a cappella choir, however, was much smaller, there were many solos, and the group performed frequently.
.
It was easy for Rika and Tomoyo to say that the a cappella choir was no different from the chorus. With their talents and outgoing personalities, they were natural performers.
.
"Mr. Reed is looking for another soprano, by the way," Tomoyo said nonchalantly. "The soprano section has been short ever since Laura Fineman got mono."
.
Sakura laughed. "I get the hint. Maybe if I get mono, too, you'll stop bugging me."
.
Chiharu rolled her eyes. "We give up on you, Kinomoto. You're absolutely hopeless."
.
"You've got to think BIG!" chided Naoko.
.
"I agree, and I'm an expert," Tomoyo said, grinning. "Only problem is I've always thought too big." She placed her hands over her perfectly fine stomach for emphasis. "I've got to think a little smaller."
.
"Gee, Tomoyo, how small can you still get?" Rika moaned.
.
"I haven't noticed Eriol complaining," Sakura observed.
.
Tomoyo responded by blushing and snatching up her books and purse. "Come on, if you don't stop jabbering, we're going to be late."
.
0 ~ 0 ~ 0
.
The multi-use room, where noon movies were shown on Thursdays and Fridays, was a short distance downhill from the main school building. Sakura, Tomoyo and Naoko strolled along a path lined with decades-old acacia trees, whose branches, laden with yellow blossoms, formed a thick canopy overhead. It was a warm, humid day, drowsy with the scent of newly cut grass and the droning of bees. A lot of people were sprawled on the lawn, soaking up the sunshine, and several skateboarders zigzagged lazily along the concrete walkways.
.
Inside the auditorium it was cool and dark. They found seats on the bleachers after they had paid their quarters---just in time to watch a counselor get torn apart by the dead monster. A bloodcurdling scream ripped through the room, followed by several loud groans from the audience.
.
Sakura whispered, "This part always gets me. The first time I saw it, it took me a month to agree to go back to my summer camp. And when I finally did go back, I refused to go outside alone, after dark, all summer."
.
Naoko giggled. "And you think I got hang-ups."
.
"Speaking of hang-ups," Tomoyo whispered, "look who just walked in."
.
Sakura looked down and immediately spotted Syaoran, with a group of friends, sliding into an empty space to rows below. Her pulse quickened, and there was a funny, thick feeling in her chest. From then on Sakura had difficulty concentrating on the movie. Her eyes kept wandering to the back of Syaoran's head, and Tomoyo had to elbow Sakura in the ribs every time something suspenseful happened.
.
Nevertheless, the accident in the parking lot embarrassed Sakura so that she didn't want Syaoran to see her. Just before the ending credits, she made an escape from the movie, mumbling some feeble excuse to Tomoyo and Naoko. But as she began groping her way down the bleachers, the lights popped on, and Sakura was suddenly caught up in a surge of bodies. She lost her balance, pitching forward into a solid wall of muscle. A groan escaped her as she looked up into a familiar face.
.
Syaoran's amber eyes sparkled with amusement. "Must be in the stars for us to keep bumping into each other. Either that or somebody's put out a contract on me, and you're the hit woman."
.
Sakura smiled self-consciously. "Do I look like a hit woman?"
.
"Hmmm." He gave her a long, appraising look. "Too pretty. I'd give you a mustache and thick ankles. Then---maybe."
.
"Would another dent in you car convince you I mean business?" Sakura was astonished at herself for joking about something that wasn't the least bit funny. That was one of the crazy things about her---whenever she was nervous or something awful happened, she usually ended up cracking a joke, then hating herself for it afterward.
.
But Syaoran didn't seem to mind. "I'll pass if you don't mind," he said. "How about a Coke instead?"
.
"Sure. I've got a few minutes before my next class." Sakura felt as if she were walking on air as she and Syaoran went outside and across the patio to where there was a row of vending machines.
.
Cokes in hand, they settled on a bench under the lazy umbrella of a Chinese elm. "Your friends Tomoyo and Rika tell me you're interested in joining the choir," he remarked.
.
'So Syaoran has been talking to Tomoyo and Rika about me!' Sakura was so nervous she could hardly hold on to her Coke can. "Ms. Mizuki wants me to try out, but---"She shrugged. "I don't know. Except for the chorus, I haven't done much singing in front of an audience. The time I was a singing reindeer in my fourth-grade Christmas play I almost threw up."
.
Syaoran laughed. "I'll bet you were terrific anyway."
.
"My parents gave me a standing ovation."
.
"There you go. And if you're as terrific as Tomoyo says you are, I'm sure Mr. Reed will consider you a welcome addition to the choir."
.
At the mention of Mr. Reed, Sakura groaned. "I've heard he's pretty temperamental. Is it true he breaks his baton in half whenever he gets really mad?"
.
"Oh, don't worry about Reed. I think the reason he yells so much is that he likes the sound of his own voice. He used to be an opera singer, so it must be frustrating for him to spend all his time hanging around a bunch of amateurs like us."
.
"But you're not an amateur," Sakura blurted out without thinking. "You're--- special." As soon as she'd said it, she felt a familiar heat creep up into her cheeks. Had she revealed too much?
.
But Syaoran didn't take it that way. "Thanks. That's a nice way of putting it. Sometimes I feel like I just stand out. Do you ever feel like that? Like you don't really fit in anywhere?"
.
Too full of emotion to speak, Sakura simply nodded, running her fingers lightly over the scarred trunk of the Chinese elm. It was a living museum of Hanover High romances. Past and present. E.B. Loves J.L.---that was Elaine Bailey and Jimmy Lewis---they'd been going out together since their freshmen year and were always getting sent to the office for necking in the halls. Carved inside a lopsided heart were the names BEN AND LUCY. Sakura didn't know who they were, but she wondered if they were still together and if they still attend the school. Sakura imagined her own initials next to Syaoran's, then quickly brushed the thought aside, afraid Syaoran would read it in her face.
.
"We had a tree like this in our backyard before my mom and dad---before we moved," Syaoran mused. "It even had a tree house, and I could sit up there and see practically the whole neighborhood. I still miss that tree house sometimes---Isn't that dumb?"
.
"No, I don't think it's dumb," Sakura replied softly. "I never had a tree house, but there's this hollow down by the creek below our house where the trees grow over a kind of cave. I used to go there a lot just to be alone, or when something was bugging me and I really needed time to think it out."
.
"Did you talk to yourself? I did."
.
"I sang." Suddenly Sakura no longer felt shy---as if it weren't the great Li Syaoran she was talking to but simply an old comfortable friend. "I made up these crazy songs because I knew no one could hear me."
.
"How about singing one of those crazy songs for me sometime?"
.
"Never!" She laughed. "But I still go to my hiding place sometimes."
.
The warmth in Syaoran's smile seemed to reach out and encircle her like an embrace. "I'd like to see it sometime---if you wouldn't mind."
.
Sakura's throat went dry, the words sticking as she tried to speak. "I wouldn't mind," she managed in a soft, almost inaudible voice.
.
Syaoran's hand curled over Sakura's, his large, warm fingers encompassing hers easily. "You know something?" he said, his electric amber gaze finding their way directly into her heart. "I think you and I might have more in common than a couple of banged-up bumpers, Sakura Kinomoto."
. . .
Tbc. . .
. .
0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0
Wow!! *bows* I want to thank all those who reviewed the first chapter and encouraged me! Yay! Keep it up, it would be a BIG help!
.
So. . . Are you still interested? Should I continue?
.
Review, ne? That is all I ask of you.
.
Warnings: AU. No Clow Cards, no magic, different lifestyles and behaviors of characters. SxS, ExT, a fusion with a story I read years ago.
Feedbacks: PLEASE!! I want to hear from all the readers!!! In doing so, you'll be able to help me!! *winkwink* The more reviews, the better!
. .
FORBIDDEN LOVE
. .
Chapter Two: The Chinese Elm Tree
. .
Mr. Terada had his back to the class as he diagramed a sentence on the blackboard. The chalk made loud, clicking noises as his arm swept up and down in broad, energetic strokes. Tomoyo leaned across her desk and hissed to get Sakura's attention.
.
"What happened out in the parking lot?" she whispered, her eyes the size of Frisbees. "Chiharu told me you had some kind of accident!"
.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "You're never going to believe it. Compared to this, The Princess Bride was nothing." Mr. Terada's elbow suddenly stopped moving, and Sakura added hurriedly, "I'll fill you in after class."
.
Mr. Terada turned around and fixed Sakura with a long stare. He was tall and strict-looking, and sometimes brusque. But beneath all that, Sakura knew he was kindhearted. She couldn't forget how nice Mr. Terada had been to her the time she had accidentally copied down the wrong homework assignment. The teacher had let her do the paper all over again without marking her down a grade for being late.
.
"Sakura." His deep voice boomed over the classroom. "Can you tell us what the possessive and its object are in this sentence?"
.
Sakura stared at the blackboard, trying to focus her attention on the sentence written there. Mr. Terada always used famous quotes for his diagramming. This time, he'd picked a romantic quote by Thomas More.
.
~ But there's nothing half so sweet
as love's young dream. ~
.
She automatically thought of Syaoran and blushed. "Uh---is it 'love's dream'?"
.
"Very good, Sakura." A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of Mr. Terada's mouth. "I suppose that just goes to show that half a student's attention is better than none."
.
The class greeted this unexpected show of humor with a ripple of laughter. Tomoyo shot Sakura a sympathetic look.
.
When the bell rang, they rushed out into the corridor together, Sakura neatly sidestepping a wadded-up test paper buffeted about among the stampeding feet.
.
"That was really cool the way you answered that question in class," Tomoyo said. "I would've gotten it wrong, even if I had known the answer, with those laser-like eyes of his boring into me."
.
"Yeah, that's me---Serene Sakura." Sakura gave a dry laugh. "On second thought, better make that Klutzy Sakura. I'm sure that's how Syaoran thinks of me."
.
"SYAORAN?!" screamed Tomoyo. "You don't mean THE Syaoran? Li Syaoran? He's the one you ran into? Boy, talk about fate!"
.
"Bad luck, you mean," said Sakura, pouring out the whole story as they made their way toward the lockers. "What gets me is how nice he was about it. I mean there I was crying on his shoulder after I'd wrecked his car---and he was consoling me."
.
"Would you have felt better if it was all his fault?" Tomoyo asked.
.
"At least, I wouldn't feel so dumb."
.
"Look at it this way." Tomoyo gave up fiddling with her combination lock and started banging against the locker with the heel of her hand, hoping that that might loosen it up. She was always reversing the numbers on her combination lock. "At least, Syaoran knows who you are now. Isn't that better than not being noticed at all?"
.
"I'm not sure. A person could get noticed for a lot of things---for all the wrong reasons," she pointed out, "and then not be liked. Take Maryjane Watkins, for instance. She's well known by everyone who's been in PE with her---only she gained her reputation by making goals for the wrong side in soccer and hitting tennis balls over the backboard. Sometimes it's better not to be noticed."
.
"Just don't jump to any conclusions, ok?" warned Tomoyo, wrenching her locker open at last and causing a loud bang as the door swung against its neighbor.
.
"Actually," Sakura confessed, "I'm more worried about my father right now than Syaoran."
.
"Uh-oh, I forgot about him."
.
Sakura shoved a pile of books inside her locker and slammed it shut. "I just wish there was some way I could forget."
.
Tomoyo giggled. "I just thought of something---you know, about you having sort of a crush on Syaoran. Well, I guess this makes it official. Get it--- CRUSH?"
.
"Oh, Tomoyo, that's awful!" Sakura cried, giving her a slight punch in the arm, but at least Tomoyo had gotten her to laugh.
.
0 ~ 0 ~ 0
.
At noon they ate lunch in the cafeteria with their other friends, Chiharu, Rika and Naoko, who were as different from each other as morning, afternoon and night. While Chiharu was full of cheer, Rika was the outgoing one, and Naoko was forever struggling to overcome her shyness.
.
"I think I would have just rolled up into a little ball and died on the spot if it'd been me," commented Naoko as she peeled Saran Wrap from her sandwich.
.
"I can just see you---rolling across the parking lot with Syaoran in hot pursuit," Chiharu said, which made them all laugh.
.
"Wow!" Rika exclaimed. "Eddie Talbot's got a mouth the size of the Grand Canyon. The whole school must know by now."
.
"Oh, that's just great." Sakura could feel the milk she'd just drink begin to curdle in her stomach. "Just what I need---a reputation as a hot-rodder. As if I won't have enough problems when my dad finds out."
.
"Don't worry, Sakura," reassured Tomoyo, winking mischievously. "We'll stick up for you. If anyone calls you a hot-rodder, we'll tell them what a tortoise you really are."
.
"Thanks a lot," Sakura mumbled, her mouth full of sandwich.
.
"Hey, who wants to go to the noon movie?" asked Naoko. "They're showing the end of 'Friday The Thirteenth, Part Two'."
.
Chiharu made a face. "I'm not sure my stomach can handle it so soon after lunch."
.
Tomoyo smiled. "I'll go!"
.
"Sorry, guys, I can't," put in Rika. "My part of the choir got practice." She pouted at Tomoyo's direction. "You're lucky today is not your practice day."
.
Tomoyo and Rika were both with the a cappella choir, with Tomoyo singing soprano and Rika singing alto. Rika, like Tomoyo, had been pressuring Sakura to join ever since she had heard that Ms. Mizuki wanted to transfer her. She insisted it was no different from what she was already doing in chorus, but Sakura knew better. The chorus sang in front of an audience, just twice a year, and this didn't frighten her because she could think of herself as only being part of one large voice. The a cappella choir, however, was much smaller, there were many solos, and the group performed frequently.
.
It was easy for Rika and Tomoyo to say that the a cappella choir was no different from the chorus. With their talents and outgoing personalities, they were natural performers.
.
"Mr. Reed is looking for another soprano, by the way," Tomoyo said nonchalantly. "The soprano section has been short ever since Laura Fineman got mono."
.
Sakura laughed. "I get the hint. Maybe if I get mono, too, you'll stop bugging me."
.
Chiharu rolled her eyes. "We give up on you, Kinomoto. You're absolutely hopeless."
.
"You've got to think BIG!" chided Naoko.
.
"I agree, and I'm an expert," Tomoyo said, grinning. "Only problem is I've always thought too big." She placed her hands over her perfectly fine stomach for emphasis. "I've got to think a little smaller."
.
"Gee, Tomoyo, how small can you still get?" Rika moaned.
.
"I haven't noticed Eriol complaining," Sakura observed.
.
Tomoyo responded by blushing and snatching up her books and purse. "Come on, if you don't stop jabbering, we're going to be late."
.
0 ~ 0 ~ 0
.
The multi-use room, where noon movies were shown on Thursdays and Fridays, was a short distance downhill from the main school building. Sakura, Tomoyo and Naoko strolled along a path lined with decades-old acacia trees, whose branches, laden with yellow blossoms, formed a thick canopy overhead. It was a warm, humid day, drowsy with the scent of newly cut grass and the droning of bees. A lot of people were sprawled on the lawn, soaking up the sunshine, and several skateboarders zigzagged lazily along the concrete walkways.
.
Inside the auditorium it was cool and dark. They found seats on the bleachers after they had paid their quarters---just in time to watch a counselor get torn apart by the dead monster. A bloodcurdling scream ripped through the room, followed by several loud groans from the audience.
.
Sakura whispered, "This part always gets me. The first time I saw it, it took me a month to agree to go back to my summer camp. And when I finally did go back, I refused to go outside alone, after dark, all summer."
.
Naoko giggled. "And you think I got hang-ups."
.
"Speaking of hang-ups," Tomoyo whispered, "look who just walked in."
.
Sakura looked down and immediately spotted Syaoran, with a group of friends, sliding into an empty space to rows below. Her pulse quickened, and there was a funny, thick feeling in her chest. From then on Sakura had difficulty concentrating on the movie. Her eyes kept wandering to the back of Syaoran's head, and Tomoyo had to elbow Sakura in the ribs every time something suspenseful happened.
.
Nevertheless, the accident in the parking lot embarrassed Sakura so that she didn't want Syaoran to see her. Just before the ending credits, she made an escape from the movie, mumbling some feeble excuse to Tomoyo and Naoko. But as she began groping her way down the bleachers, the lights popped on, and Sakura was suddenly caught up in a surge of bodies. She lost her balance, pitching forward into a solid wall of muscle. A groan escaped her as she looked up into a familiar face.
.
Syaoran's amber eyes sparkled with amusement. "Must be in the stars for us to keep bumping into each other. Either that or somebody's put out a contract on me, and you're the hit woman."
.
Sakura smiled self-consciously. "Do I look like a hit woman?"
.
"Hmmm." He gave her a long, appraising look. "Too pretty. I'd give you a mustache and thick ankles. Then---maybe."
.
"Would another dent in you car convince you I mean business?" Sakura was astonished at herself for joking about something that wasn't the least bit funny. That was one of the crazy things about her---whenever she was nervous or something awful happened, she usually ended up cracking a joke, then hating herself for it afterward.
.
But Syaoran didn't seem to mind. "I'll pass if you don't mind," he said. "How about a Coke instead?"
.
"Sure. I've got a few minutes before my next class." Sakura felt as if she were walking on air as she and Syaoran went outside and across the patio to where there was a row of vending machines.
.
Cokes in hand, they settled on a bench under the lazy umbrella of a Chinese elm. "Your friends Tomoyo and Rika tell me you're interested in joining the choir," he remarked.
.
'So Syaoran has been talking to Tomoyo and Rika about me!' Sakura was so nervous she could hardly hold on to her Coke can. "Ms. Mizuki wants me to try out, but---"She shrugged. "I don't know. Except for the chorus, I haven't done much singing in front of an audience. The time I was a singing reindeer in my fourth-grade Christmas play I almost threw up."
.
Syaoran laughed. "I'll bet you were terrific anyway."
.
"My parents gave me a standing ovation."
.
"There you go. And if you're as terrific as Tomoyo says you are, I'm sure Mr. Reed will consider you a welcome addition to the choir."
.
At the mention of Mr. Reed, Sakura groaned. "I've heard he's pretty temperamental. Is it true he breaks his baton in half whenever he gets really mad?"
.
"Oh, don't worry about Reed. I think the reason he yells so much is that he likes the sound of his own voice. He used to be an opera singer, so it must be frustrating for him to spend all his time hanging around a bunch of amateurs like us."
.
"But you're not an amateur," Sakura blurted out without thinking. "You're--- special." As soon as she'd said it, she felt a familiar heat creep up into her cheeks. Had she revealed too much?
.
But Syaoran didn't take it that way. "Thanks. That's a nice way of putting it. Sometimes I feel like I just stand out. Do you ever feel like that? Like you don't really fit in anywhere?"
.
Too full of emotion to speak, Sakura simply nodded, running her fingers lightly over the scarred trunk of the Chinese elm. It was a living museum of Hanover High romances. Past and present. E.B. Loves J.L.---that was Elaine Bailey and Jimmy Lewis---they'd been going out together since their freshmen year and were always getting sent to the office for necking in the halls. Carved inside a lopsided heart were the names BEN AND LUCY. Sakura didn't know who they were, but she wondered if they were still together and if they still attend the school. Sakura imagined her own initials next to Syaoran's, then quickly brushed the thought aside, afraid Syaoran would read it in her face.
.
"We had a tree like this in our backyard before my mom and dad---before we moved," Syaoran mused. "It even had a tree house, and I could sit up there and see practically the whole neighborhood. I still miss that tree house sometimes---Isn't that dumb?"
.
"No, I don't think it's dumb," Sakura replied softly. "I never had a tree house, but there's this hollow down by the creek below our house where the trees grow over a kind of cave. I used to go there a lot just to be alone, or when something was bugging me and I really needed time to think it out."
.
"Did you talk to yourself? I did."
.
"I sang." Suddenly Sakura no longer felt shy---as if it weren't the great Li Syaoran she was talking to but simply an old comfortable friend. "I made up these crazy songs because I knew no one could hear me."
.
"How about singing one of those crazy songs for me sometime?"
.
"Never!" She laughed. "But I still go to my hiding place sometimes."
.
The warmth in Syaoran's smile seemed to reach out and encircle her like an embrace. "I'd like to see it sometime---if you wouldn't mind."
.
Sakura's throat went dry, the words sticking as she tried to speak. "I wouldn't mind," she managed in a soft, almost inaudible voice.
.
Syaoran's hand curled over Sakura's, his large, warm fingers encompassing hers easily. "You know something?" he said, his electric amber gaze finding their way directly into her heart. "I think you and I might have more in common than a couple of banged-up bumpers, Sakura Kinomoto."
. . .
Tbc. . .
. .
0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0
Wow!! *bows* I want to thank all those who reviewed the first chapter and encouraged me! Yay! Keep it up, it would be a BIG help!
.
So. . . Are you still interested? Should I continue?
.
Review, ne? That is all I ask of you.
.