AN: Shooting coming right up in this chapter! I hope that I didn't take too long to update this chapter! And I still have a whole chunk of holiday homework to do!
Disclaimer: Clamp owns it all.
To sapphirecrystal: I hope you don't mind me answering your question here. For me, I use Microsoft Word to type my fanfic and I save them as a Web Page by clicking save as… and then save as type: Web page. I bold and underline my font by using short-cuts.
The short-cuts are:
ctrl-b [for bold]
ctrl-u [for underline]
ctrl-i [for italics]
If I don't use the short-cuts, there are options at the top of Microsoft word to bold, underline and making the italics. I hope this helps you!
"Speech"
[Place/Time]
(Author's note/ my comments)
Chapter 7: Shooting
Sakura… Sakura rolled over to her side. She was hearing things. Sakura… She was hearing her name in soft whispers. Sakura! The whisper turned harsh. Sakura covered her ears with her pillow.
"Sakura! Get up this instant!" Meilin screamed and pulled the pillow and comforter off Sakura.
"Hey! No…" Sakura pleaded as she tried not to shiver from the sudden cold.
"Sakura, get up now," Meilin told her again, but in her normal voice.
"No," Sakura said stubbornly and rolled over to her other side.
"Fine, you asked for it," Meilin said and pulled open the curtains.
"Meilin!!!" Sakura opened her eyes and adjusted to the light. When her surroundings were clear, she turned and glared at Meilin.
"Now, you die," Sakura said in a low and dangerous voice.
"Yikes," Meilin yelped and ran out of the room.
Groaning, Sakura got out of her bed. Throwing the comforter and pillow back on the bed, she stretched a little before heading to take a shower.
"So, tell me again, how you got her to wake up?" Tomoyo asked for the hundredth time, taping Meilin.
Meilin sighed as she retold her recount. "I screamed for her to wake up and pulled away her comforter and her pillow. Still, she was stubborn, so I…" Meilin was interrupted when Sakura walked in the kitchen, nodding her head slightly to greet everyone.
"Don't you dare say another word, Li Meilin, or else you are going to wish you never met me," Sakura growled.
"Oh, I'm so scared," Meilin raised her hands in mock surrender. Then she turned back to Tomoyo, "As I was saying, she was stubborn so I pulled open the curtains and ta da! I present to you a wide wake Sakura!" Meilin stated proudly, pointing at Sakura.
Sakura growled. Her growl could match a lion's. "Li Meilin," she said before lashing out her first to punch her. Meilin expertly dodged the punch and stepped back, nearly losing her balance. She yelped and dodged again the second punch. And so this went on, Sakura punching and Meilin dodging. But both knew that there were just 'playing' for Sakura could do way better than that and Meilin could attack back.
This little fight went on. It partly served as entertainment for the rest of
the people in the kitchen. Sakura kept on repeating her punches until Meilin
was trapped between her and a wall.
"Hah, what are you going to do now?" Sakura said as she made sure Meilin did not escape.
Meilin started laughing. "Ok, ok! I'm sorry, Sakura. I promise not to do that ever again," Meilin said as she crossed her fingers behind her back.
"Don't think I didn't see that," Sakura said and pulled Meilin's hand revealing her crossed fingers.
"Oops," Meilin said and giggled. Sighing, Sakura released Meilin and walked back to her breakfast.
"Cool! And guess what, I got it all on tape!" Tomoyo stated and started giggling while Sakura just groaned.
"Had a good sleep, Sakura?" Yelan asked. She was part of the audience of the earlier performance and had kept silent throughout.
"Yea, fine I guess," Sakura answered, taking a sip of orange juice.
"That's good," Yelan said. "I heard about your shooting challenge with Syaoran."
"Huh?" Sakura looked confused for a moment and glanced at Syaoran. "Oh yea, uh huh…" Sakura said, suddenly remembering.
"Yay! Go Sakura! Remember, I'll be there supporting you!" Meilin cheered.
"Yes!" Tomoyo nodded, agreeing. "And I'll be there taping you!" Tomoyo giggled again as stars appeared in her eyes. Sakura shivered involuntarily. Tomoyo was seriously starting to freak her out.
"Kinomoto!" Syaoran raked his hair impatiently. Everyone who was going for the shooting had followed Sakura back to her house. She claimed that she needed to take something.
"So, the only one addressing her by her last name, eh?" Eriol said, nudging Syaoran with his elbow. At the same time, Sakura came running back to her car.
"Whatever," Syaoran muttered under his breath.
Sakura turned to Syaoran. "Aw… fine Li. I shall give you the honour of letting you call me Sakura." Sakura said, highlighting his name, Li.
"Fine," Syaoran said, not knowing how to respond. Then he mumbled something which nobody could hear but had a vague idea of what he was trying to say.
"What? I can't hear you," Sakura smirked.
"I said call me Syaoran," Syaoran said.
"What?" Sakura asked again, pretending to strain her ears.
"I said Call Me Syaoran, damn it," Syaoran shouted.
"Oh ok," Sakura smiled before hopping into her convertible. "So, where to?" Sakura asked.
"Just follow me," Syaoran said, getting into his car. The others also followed suit. The others being Meilin, Tomoyo and Eriol who were all taking the same car. Eriol and Tomoyo in the front and Meilin at the back.
"Yo, Syaoran buddy, why did you go so fast, I nearly couldn't catch up," Eriol commented, locking the car.
"Fast?" Syaoran asked him disbelievingly.
"You call that fast?" Sakura asked. Even Sakura wouldn't believe it.
"Hell, yea!" Eriol replied.
"Whatever," Sakura and Syaoran both muttered, rolling their eyes. Only Tomoyo and Meilin saw this and both started giggling.
"They shouldn't have come along," Sakura said, ignoring the two other girls.
"Totally," Syaoran said, making Tomoyo and Meilin giggle even more.
"What!" Sakura shouted at Tomoyo and Meilin, exasperated.
"Yea… just shut up!" Syaoran said.
Tomoyo and Meilin stopped giggling but had huge smiles plastered on their faces.
"Can we go now?" Eriol asked, trying to ease the tension.
"Sure," Syaoran replied curtly, leading the way.
They entered a slightly run-down building. Inside, there were halls of shooting booths. Syaoran led them to the end of the hallway, which was the most decorated and expensively furnished.
"These last few private booths are ours," Syaoran informed Sakura. "Pick any."
Sakura nodded and chose the last booth, with Syaoran taking the one beside hers.
"Meilin, get her a gun," Syaoran commanded.
"There's no need to, Meilin," Sakura said, taking out her own gun. Her gun was pretty long with cherry blossoms engraved on it. "I have mine," she told them.
"Oh ok…" Meilin sat back down.
"Cool!" Tomoyo squealed, whipping out her video camera to tape Sakura. Eriol just sat down next to his hyper girlfriend.
"So how do you want it?" Syaoran asked her, taking out his own gun.
"How about… By points?" Eriol suggested.
"Ok," Sakura looked at Syaoran for approval.
"Fine by me," Syaoran said.
Eriol then started off with a whole list of rules which was ignored by everyone. He ended his long speech with, "Each one of you will have ten bullets. The one, who manages to get bullseye for all ten shots, will be the winner."
Syaoran nodded, waiting for Sakura.
"Ok! Let's start!" Sakura said, slotting in bullets in her gun.
"I'll start," Syaoran said, standing in position.
He lifted his hand higher, aiming for the middle of the round board. He took the first shoot and unsurprisingly, he got the bullseye.
It was Sakura's turn. Taking aim like what Syaoran did, she released the trigger, getting the bullseye also.
And then it was reverted back to Syaoran's turn. And so it went on, with Syaoran then Sakura and Syaoran then Sakura for the remaining nine bullets each.
Seeing as he hit bullseye, Syaoran turned to smirk at Sakura who had her last bullet left. The whole thing was going to end in a tie if Sakura got the bullseye, which she had a high chance in getting, seeing their skills.
Getting into position, Sakura tried to concentrate. The last few shots had triggered memories of her brother teaching her how to use and handle guns. He was the one who gave her the gun she was using now. It was the last birthday present she had received from Touya before he died. Sakura was trying very hard not to think about her brother and concentrate on the game. Still, images of her brother kept on resurfacing in her mind.
Trying very hard to ignore whatever was on her mind, Sakura placed both hands on the gun and held it out steadily. Just as Sakura released the trigger, a tear formed and distorted her surroundings for that second. This second caused her hand to jerk slightly to the side, missing the bullseye by a few centimetres.
Still trying to recover from the pain she received just by thinking about her brother, Sakura looked at the round board. Seeing as she missed the bullseye, she turned around to walk out of her booth.
Tomoyo ran up to her. "Sakura, you did a great job! Even if you didn't win! I'm sure you will beat the daylights out of Syaoran the next time!"
Sakura smiled, happy to have such great friends like Tomoyo to encourage her. Just then, she caught Syaoran's eye, her smile turned into a smirk as she walked up to him.
"Great game, but…" Sakura smiled and she used Syaoran's tactic, "but as you can see, I wasn't doing my best and clearly, I could have beaten you."
Syaoran's emotionless face remained the same as he stared hard at Sakura. Sakura fought back the urge to gulp and run away from him, but she held her gaze.
"Syaoran! You won! Happy now? Now can we go for ice-cream?" Meilin whined.
Ignoring Meilin, Syaoran broke his stare from Sakura and headed out of the building. Meilin ran after him, calling the others.
"Sakura! Tomoyo! Eriol! Let's go and eat ice-cream!" Meilin shouted and sprinted the rest of the way to the exit.
Sighing, Sakura followed with Eriol and Tomoyo behind.
Meilin had managed to persuade everyone to go and have ice-cream with her. So the whole gang drove to an ice-cream parlour near by.
Everyone shouted their orders, expecting someone to offer to go and buy the ice-cream. Irritated by all the complaining, Sakura stood up.
"I'll go and buy," she said.
"Oh ok!" Meilin smiled and repeated her order to Sakura. Sakura sighed as she tried to remember everyone's orders.
"Thank you Sakura!" Tomoyo smiled brightly at her. Sakura returned her smile with a small tug at the corner of her lip.
She was about to jog to the counter when Syaoran stood up.
"I'll help you," he said.
Meilin who was excited and in the midst of listening to one of Tomoyo's stories couldn't be bothered. "Yea, yea… Just go!" Meilin snapped, returning her attention to Tomoyo.
Shrugging, Syaoran followed Sakura.
"Oh yea, what did you want?" Sakura asked when they reached the counter.
"Chocolate," Syaoran answered.
Sakura told the lady all the orders and stood by the side to wait.
"Sakura…" Syaoran said, he still had to get use to saying her first name since he only just started using it.
"Yea?" Sakura asked.
"Back at the shooting…" Syaoran started.
Sakura interrupted him, "No, don't ask me anything."
"You might think I didn't miss that tear unlike Eriol and the others who were busy watching the target than you," Syaoran said.
"Whatever," Sakura shrugged, like she didn't care. But inside, she was trying very hard to forget what happened.
"Hey, you won… stop rubbing it into me then I lost, ok?" Sakura joked.
"Stop, your brother taught you how to use a gun too, right?" Syaoran asked but he already knew the answer.
"Stop bringing up the past and my brother. Just stop it, will you?" Sakura said slightly louder than her normal voice. She turned back to the counter when the lady called her with the orders.
"Thanks," Sakura told the lady and balanced everything on the tray. She was about to carry it back when Syaoran took it from her.
"Let me," he offered. Sakura handed the whole tray to him and walked back to their table.
"What took you so long?" Meilin complained as she took her ice-cream from the tray.
Sakura and Syaoran ignored her comment and ate their ice-cream silently.
Only Tomoyo and Eriol noticed the silent twosome and shot concerned and curious glances at each other as Meilin babbled on and on about something.
Tomoyo tried to think of ways to enlighten Sakura's mood. An idea struck her mind.
"Hey guys, want to go to the club tonight?" Tomoyo asked, interrupting Meilin.
"Oh sure!" Meilin replied.
"Ok," Eriol said.
"Fine," Syaoran said. Only Sakura remained silent, she didn't even seem to have heard Tomoyo's suggestion.
"Hey Sakura…" Tomoyo said, gently shaking her.
"Huh? Oh sorry Tomoyo. What was it?" Sakura smiled to try to reassure her.
"You want to go clubbing tonight?" Tomoyo asked.
"Sure, why not?" Sakura said and finished the last scoop of her ice-cream.
"Yay! Then let's all go back and get ready!" Tomoyo cheered and stood up, heading towards the car.
Tomoyo was really hoping that it would help Sakura with her dampen spirits. She strongly wanted to know what was bothering Sakura too.
"I hope tonight can help Sakura," Tomoyo muttered to herself as she stood by the car and waited for the rest.
That's it for this chapter! I think this is my longest chapter so far! I'm leaving for a short visit outside the country for a few days to visit relatives. I hope to come back soon! And of course, update soon! Thank you!!