Young and immature Kinomoto Sakura walked hesitantly into the room. It was cold. She disliked it a lot. She didn't like needles or blood, or how it felt when she got a shot. Fujitaka gently pushed her toward the doctor.
"Having a good day, Sakura?" she asked, adjusting her spectacles.
"Kinomoto to you," the young girl spat.
"Sakura!" Fujitaka snapped. He was tapping his feet, his arms crossed, a stern look on his face.
"What?" she shot back. "She didn't have the right in the first place!"
He growled. "We've spoiled you, Sakura," he said calmly, not the sort of mean that you would've expected. The doctor was surprised at how Fujitaka controlled his anger, and compared to Sakura... Well...
"Who gives a damn?" Sakura said, looking away with her nose in the air. Her arms were crossed; Fujitaka's were by his sides now.
"Sakura, please," he begged, bending down to her height. "Your mother wants your fever to-"
"I know!" she interrupted, glaring at him. "She's pregnant! What, she thinks I'll give the germ to her and harm the baby?" Sakura knew it wasn't true, but everyone knows she doesn't like shots.
"Come on," Fujitaka insisted, pushing Sakura towards the chair.
"No!" she retorted, trying to run away.
"Stay, Sakura! Please! This is for your own health!"
"Stop it, kaijuu!" Touya yelled, helping his father.
"Shut up, Touya!" Sakura shot back, kicking her brother.
He mumbled something, but didn't back away. Sakura instantly grabbed the side of the door; she kind of lounged forward and took hold of it actually.
"Let me go!" Sakura cried, determined to win this battle. She screamed. Her voice echoed throughout the hospital.
"There's patients sleeping!" Fujitaka informed.
Seven-year-old Kinomoto Sakura was spoiled the first day she took her first breath. Nadeshiko did everything for her. Neither Fujitaka nor Touya saw how they were spoiling Sakura. As she grew up, she became more hot-tempered and self-centered. She was selfish and are often involved in fights. Since the fights weren't big enough, the school didn't inform her parents, so they never knew. That is, until a few weeks ago.
It was time for recess. Sakura was playing jump ropes with some girls. She got along much better with girls than guys. Then something hit her on the side. Sakura stopped and looked at the direction it seemed to come from.
A few boys were laughing. They were cheering someone in the middle of the crowd, who seemed pleased with his so-called accomplishment. He turned to Sakura and grinned, expecting her to smile back because he was able to hit her from a far distance.
Sakura snorted. She stooped down as her friends backed away. She picked up the pebble that hit her and threw it back at the boy. He instantly ducked. The pebble whooshed past his head.
He turned to Sakura, a bewildered look on his face. "Why'd you do that?" he demanded, stomping toward her.
Sakura nonchalantly crossed her arms and looked at him. "Geez. Guess what? You hit me first, so I hit you back, but as you can see, I didn't succeed."
He was only a few inches taller, Sakura noticed. The boy hovered over her, glaring hard.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" the kids chanted.
"No!" one of Sakura's friends said.
"You'll get in trouble, Sakura!" another added.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"No!"
"Even so, don't hurt him bad enough that your parents will find out."
"This is, like, the thousandth time she's in a fight! Do you expect they'll let this one go?!"
"Shut up!"
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Sakura growled. "I'll let you have a head start," she said, tempting him.
The boy only shot back, "Ladies first." He smirked, seeing Sakura get hotter. "I mean, what trouble can you cause? Might as well let you think you're winning and then beat you up. Oh, this'll be good!"
Sakura stuck up her nose and punched him hard on the jaw.
"Ooooh!" the crowd groaned; some even dared to laugh.
"Sakura!"
The guy backed down, rubbing his jaw. He tried to stop Sakura's next attack, but she was too small and too fast. Another impact; the crowd grew wilder.
"Gettin' beatin' by a girl, eh?" a boy's voice yelled. There was some laughs.
"Show him who's boss, Sakura!" a girl said.
"No! That's enough, Sakura!" one of Sakura's friends cried.
"Get on with it!"
"This is the best fight of the year!" a boy commented. "Losing to a girl-"
"You think I'm weak, don't you?" Sakura said, punching the boy who made the last comment.
"What? No-" he retorted before getting hit. He grabbed a hold of his stomach, falling onto his knees.
"Oooh!" the crowd said. They backed away.
"You want some more?!" Sakura yelled. She laughed when they scattered as she approached them.
"Kinomoto Sakura!" a deep voice yelled from outside the crowd.
Sakura looked bored. "I'm caught. So what?"
And that's why they are more strict now, thought not as much, towards Sakura. To be truthful, they couldn't imagine Sakura being so mean because she got almost everything she wanted.
"Get your shot - Now!" Fujitaka said. They got Sakura strapped for the shot. She yelled so loud, they got a mouthpiece to cover her mouth. Her body wasn't staying ver still. In fact, she wouldn't stay on the bed. Finally, some male nurses had to keep her still.
"Are you sure I have to do this? I mean, this is the first difficult situation I've ever encountered," the doctor said, uncertainly. She scratched her head. "This will be very bad. Couldn't we just brib her?" she suggested, looking at Fujitaka.
He shook his head. "She won't be lured so easily."
"We've spoiled her too much," Touya added. "She got the latest technologies at home, so nothing will work."
They sighed.
Hurry up and get it over with! Sakura's mind screamed, getting nervous as the doctor got the needle. She wiggled some more, making it harder to keep her still. The male nurses were careful not to injure her.
The needle came closer to her bare shoulder. Sakura's throat gave a kind of scream as she tried to move away. The male nurses kept her in place, though. Poor Sakura...
Sakura stomped towards her room. She slammed the door shut and buried her head under her pillow.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she kept saying, "stupid, stupid, stupid..."
She hit her bed a couple of times, really hard. No one bothered her. Was she glad! She didn't want pity from anyone!
"One, two, three, four," Sakura counted as the rope was twirling around her. She noticed some of the boys from the day she got caught. They were the boys that "worshipped" the one who threw a pebble at her and hit his target.
Sakura tripped. The boys laughed. Sakura's friends quickly helped her up. They glared at the guys. Sakura glared even harder.
"What the hell was that?!" she yelled, walking nonchalantly toward them.
"That was a retarded trip, Kinomoto," one commented, giving her a shove on the shoulder. The others instantly laughed along with him.
"You know who's retarded?" Sakura suddenly asked. "Guys beatin' up girls."
"What, you're calling yourself a weakling?" he continued, giving her another shove.
Sakura's friends knew from instinct to keep Sakura back. The emerald-eyed girl snorted and growled. But no matter what she did, she wasn't able to advance the bullies.
"Ahahah!" they were laughing, pointing a finger at her and holding their stomachs.
"Scared now, are ya?" a few said.
"Just ignore them," one of the girls told Sakura. "It's a waste of breath on people like them."
"What did you say?" the boy who seemed to take place of the "leader" demanded. The others stopped laughing.
"You're deaf or something? Because I said it's a waste of breath to talk to people like you," she continued, giving them a bored look.
Sakura smirked. "Good insult, don't you think?" she joked.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" the crowd chanted.
"It's even more of a waste to fight you," the girl continued, provoking them. She seemed to know what she was doing.
The girls suddenly let go of Sakura. Sakura gave a surprised look at her friends.
"Don't get involved," she told them.
"Let's teach these boys a lesson," the girl earlier suggested, looking at Sakura.
Sakura nodded, eager to kick some butt. Then she frowned. "No."
Everyone gasped.
"Sakura? Not wanting to fight?" one asked.
"Good one, Kinomoto! Now start hurting them!"
"I knew she wouldn't have the nerve to hit me!" the leader said, smirking.
"It's not that. At least I know who's wasting my time," Sakura shot back. She and her friends turned to walk away.
The boys growled. They rushed and attacked from behind. There were a lot of screams and shrieks. Kids scattered in all kinds of directions, going God knows where.
Sakura was rushed to the hospital. The boys had hit her head pretty badly. She was bleeding continuously. Fujitaka and Touya were told, from primary sources, that Sakura didn't start the fight. They were relieved that she knew what was right and wrong now, but at what cost?
The doctors were able to mend her bones back together. They happily told the Kinomoto family that Sakura's recovery will be fast. Except for the brain's. They informed them that Sakura might even die.
The news hit Nadeshiko pretty hard, though. Carrying a baby, she wasn't able to handle the pressure and fainted at the spot. For a few days, she wouldn't eat right. The nurses gave her shots for her health. At one point, she almost entered a coma. During that time, she was by Sakura's side every second. The nurses were never able to tell when she woke up and walked away. They often found her in a bad state in Sakura's room.
Even so, Sakura was never blamed for what happened. Sakura, on the other hand, would never be able to take it.
The day after Sakura finally woke up, Nadeshiko was giving birth to another child. It took well over ten hours. In those time, no one said anything. They just paced around the waiting room. Screams and shouts filled the air.
When at last the doctors came out, they rained questions on them. They remained silent, though.
In the end, one answered, "I'm sorry. Because of her health in the last few days, she didn't make it. Your child's neck, Kinomoto-san, had the umbilical cord wrapped around it. If we had cut her open, then she won't be able to bear it."
Another continued, "We tried unsuccessfully to turn the baby from the outside."
They had their heads down. In a single file, the doctors and nurses walked away. The last thing that came out of the labor room was a red body. No one said a word. Sakura cried endlessly. Touya tried to calm her down, so did Fujitaka, but to no avail.
At home, Sakura stayed in her room and looked out her window. She couldn't eat. She didn't even bathe. She couldn't stop crying. She just cried and cried. Memories of Nadehiko flooded into her mind. She couldn't stop them. She tried to think of something else. But because Nadeshiko bought all the things in her room for her, everything she looked at remined Sakura of Nadeshiko.
"I'm so sorry," she cried, choking on her tears. Her shirt was all wet, so were her bed covers. She made a screaming noise in her pillow and hit the bed, hard.
When at last everyone else was asleep, Sakura turned on her lamp and took out her diary. She wrote in purple letters, a diary entry. The diary was given when she was three by Nadeshiko for her birthday. At such a young age, Sakura wasn't able to read or write. So, for four years, it laid untouched.
She wrote what happened, how she felt, and the thoughts of starting a new, better live. She didn't want to suffer from the same pain, so Sakura was determined to believe everything everyone else said (except that it was her fault Nadeshiko passed away) and make their days worth it.
Sakura came to believe that Nadeshiko died when she was three years old and that her mother was never pregnant with a third child. No one even mentioned the third child, anyway, so she almost forgot about it. She never read her diary, only write in it when she needed to express her feelings and leave the pages untouched.
Syaoran sniffed and wiped away a tear. He found Sakura's diary while searching for a pencil. Sakura came out of the restroom; Syaoran quickly stuff the diary back inside the drawer. "Hi!" he said nervously. Big mistake! he thought, mentally slapping himself.
Sakura tilted her head, narrowing her eyes. "Hi," she replied uncertainly, suspiciously.
Syaoran suddenly gave her a hug. After reading the diary, he finally knew why she was so dense and nice and cheery and everything good.
"Are you sick, Syaoran?" Sakura asked, hugging him back.
"No, I just feel like hugging you," he replied, keeping her in his arms.
Sakura smiled, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thanks," she said. She remembered that this is the month and day that Nadeshiko passed away. It almost brought tears to her face. "Thanks."
L.P.B.:
That's my imagination of how Nadeshiko died and the reason behind Sakura's genki-ness. I know! I messed up in the part where Nadeshiko died when Sakura was three and not seven!!! Ahhhh! Oh, and Sakura and Syaoran were study-partners, that's why they're in the last scene together. And I find it cute when they're together, that's why they're in the last scene together! I just have to keep repeating that, don't I?
And this isn't a continuation of Cardcaptor Sakura. Because if it is, Syaoran wouldn't be here. But, you know, all I have to type is, "Syaoran came back to marry Sakura."
(sniffs) Thanks to Feather of Julia for editing this. I ask her too much, don't I? And I have to keep repeating "don't I," don't I? Lolz. That is such a horrible joke.
(sniffs) It isn't dramatic enough!!! Ahhhh! Hey, there goes almost the same thing as the first paragraph in this Author's Notes! Wow, what a long sentence. I talk too much. And if you read this Author's Notes fast, that's how fast I'm talking and how fast I'm typing.
Yay! This is a celebration for my one-year anniversary! But I have to post it now because my computer won't work.
Thanks so much for reading!
P.S.
This is my second one-shot. The first one was a total mess, so I deleted it. Thanks so much for reading! I love repeating words, don't I? Hihihi. I'm hyper now, aren't I? Totally. Oh, and some signs are not working. Sorry if you're having trouble reading this.