Dancing All Alone
Chapter 2
DISCLAIMER: Iiiiiiii do-oh oh-oohn't owwnnnn Card Caa-aptor Saaakuraaa, CLAMP doeees! (sorry, I'm not the singer, Tomoyo is -) ::everyone winces:: uwahaha, torture for u =))
"I'm laaaate!" Tomoyo rushed down the hallway of the recording studio. In one arm her sweater and handbag hung, the other with a rather full folder and a Starbucks coffee cup. She resembled her best friend Sakura, who must have rubbed the bad habit off on Tomoyo.
The hall was empty, and Tomoyo took the opportunity to pick up her pace, running full speed to recording room number 6. But then…just the door before she had reached the desired place…the door swung open. Tomoyo veered to her left, dodging the door. Whew, she thought, but only to find herself now charging at…she dug her shoes into the floor to halt herself. Only, the floor was tile.
BAM
Tomoyo skittered, trying to stop, but collided right into the figure. She flew back onto her behind, and dropped her belongings. The sight must have looked quite funny…
The figure she had slammed into was a young man, probably around her age. He had navy blue hair, but that's pretty much all she saw, not paying too much attention. The other thing she noticed about him was that his thin rimmed glasses hung off his ear at this point. He sat across from her on the floor, rubbing his forehead.
"Sorry!" Tomoyo squealed, now really late. She scrambled to pick up her things, and finally grabbed the last item: an empty coffee cup. Sure enough, the boy with glasses had a good amount of his white button-up shirt stained brown with coffee. "I'm really sorry!!!" she gasped again, but stood up and dashed away to the next recording room without another word.
Konichiwa Recording Studios
Recording Room #6
Appointment- Tomoyo: 9:00 am.—12:45pm.
Quiet Recording
The door read on a plaque. Tomoyo's name and time was slid in on little letters you could change around. It read 9:00, but when Tomoyo looked at her watch, it already showed 9:15. She wiped strands of hair out of her face, stood straight, and walked in.
Coffee spilled figure
Now getting up from the floor, Eriol raised an eyebrow at his stained shirt. Great. Now I get to wear this all day long. And if any star singers come in here to record, they'll see me in this mess… he put his glasses back in place, wandering down the hall. Imagine if Tomoyo saw me! He laughed at the idea. "I wonder who that girl was…" he pondered, rubbing his forehead again. "Sure can run," he joked. Now he had stopped in front of Room number 6. "Probably a newbie in the company. She went in here." And then he read the sign. Tomoyo: 9:00am—12:45pm. He darted to look through the glass pane so he could see into the recording room. Sure enough, it was 'the' Tomoyo in there, looking very flushed.
"Gahg!" Eriol's jaw dropped. "That was her…" he pointed half mindedly down the hall where the accident had occurred. She didn't even notice me at all, he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, with a clear view of Tomoyo. But then again, why would someone as famous as Tomoyo bother paying attention to the recording assistant/errand boy? He chuckled at the idea. "I should have known that already," he still watched Tomoyo.
Although he couldn't hear anything through the sound proof pane, from what it looked like, Tomoyo was mouthing "Gomen!" and "I can't believe I was late!" while the others working in the recording room told her it was fine. Tomoyo finally stopped bowing in apology, and stood in front of the voice microphone. Her head nodded, and she slipped a set of headphones over her ears. She swept her beautiful long silky hair out of her way, and began.
Tomoyo
"Okay," Tomoyo agreed with the recording person. She waited for the counts to begin, and start recording…
One…
…two, three…
I feel so embarrassed! Screamed Tomoyo's mind, thinking of spilling the coffee on the mysterious man. And he was… Tomoyo's cheeks flushed the slightest bit pink, …a little handsome…agh! Her conscience mentally dropped her head against a wall repeatedly. Too bad, now whoever it was will probably think I was rude…
Eriol
Eriol wandered away from watching Tomoyo after a minute, whistling half mindedly. At least the coffee stain had dried. The looked pitifully at it, Hah, i bet I could make a good twenty bucks off of selling this shirt with Tomoyo's morning coffee on this, if I could find one of her fans, he sweatdropped. Niiice… he shrugged, and kept walking. "Time for my lunch break anyway," he muttered. "I'll just drop by home and change," he planned, stepping outside the studio. Although the walk home was short, he still felt uncomfortable walking the six blocks home, trying to avoid the questioning eyes of others noticing his stained clothes. "Eghh…great day today, huh?" he quickened his pace. He wasn't the type to be unnerved so easy, but today was kind of embarrassing. When he finally did get back to his apartment, he closed the door behind him in relief. Unbuttoning his shirt, he threw it into the bag of laundry. He shrugged on another button shirt, and fixed his collar in the mirror of his room. "Hey Spinel," he grinned at his cat, who pattered over to him, meowing.
"Maaoo," Spinel coaxed.
Eriol nodded. He petted Spinel's shiny blackish-blue coat of fur. "Yeah, I guess you're hungry too," Then he went to his kitchen and opened his refrigerator. "How 'bout…roast beef sandwiches," he selected some fresh bread and slices of roast beef, which he prepared neatly. "Think I have too much?" he leaned back against the kitchen counter, looking to Spinel. "Maybe I just have too little people to share it with," he suggested, after which Spinel replied:
"Maoo."
About a month later, Tomoyo
"Oh my freakin' gosh, it's Tomoyo!!!"
"Whooooo!!!"
"I'm your BIGGEST FAN!"
"Will you marry me?!"
Cheers that were called rose to Tomoyo's ears as she was ushered to the lobby of the center she was performing in tonight. Time for autographs, she smiled a little. It was the release date of her new CD. It seemed amusing how people would have so much faith in her that they'd let her scribble in permanent marker on their CDs and such. It was always fun to meet her fans face to face, no matter how obsessive they might get. She sat down at a table, already prepared with a pile of CDs and posters for people to purchase on the side, while the side where she sat had a stack of pictures of herself to sign. It always made her laugh, seeing her face printed all over the place.
"Hi," she looked up to the first fan to reach the table. She was a girl probably in her early teens, with stars in her eyes. "What's your name?"
"C-Catherine," she stumbled at first. "I'm a big fan of your music, but I also heard that you," she beamed, "write stories too."
Tomoyo grinned, happy that others recognized her talents as well. "Yup, I do. Are you gonna be a writer?"
The girl nodded, "Uh-huh…um, could you sign this for me?" she held out a little home made looking book, labeled 'Quotes'. "You really inspire me, so…"
"Of course I'll sign it!" Tomoyo accepted the book and signed it carefully, writing Keep writing Catherine! I'll be waiting to read your work next time I go to the bookstore! –YOUR fan, Tomoyo
She handed it back, and the next person squeezed to the front. They were clad in a GO TOMOYO! shirt, matching hat, and carrying a sign reading Heading for triple platinum with the CD 'Photophrame' Tomoyo is the best!
Tomoyo sweatdropped a little…this was going to be a while.
Even later
After enduring a painstaking amount of adoring fans, Tomoyo retired to her condo. She examined her battle scars from the evening, this time not as bad as other experiences. She had only come back with a bit of a headache, hunger, and hands that ached like hell from looping together her name again and again.
"Mmmphhh…" she rubbed her head and popped in some aspirin. Then she changed into her lavender pajamas, and heated up some oh so delicious frozen pizza. She flopped down on her couch, curled up with her pizza, a coke, a blanket, and her laptop. I hope Koji is on…I haven't talked to him in a while…
Ring
Noooo! Who now?
Ring
Just let it go. That's what Sakura always tells me to do if I don't feel like picking up the phone. Tomoyo advised herself mentally. Oh, what if that's her! Tomoyo quickly reached for the phone, giving in to her polite interior. "Hello?"
"Hello Miss Tomoyo."
Tomoyo's expression of hope dropped and she slouch back onto the couch lazily. "Hmm?"
"This is your manager, Ms. Ng!"
Tomoyo prepared her voice into its 'Exciting' mode, used to faking those things. "Oh, yes it is. So what's up?"
"Well, I'm sorry to call you so late at night, but I couldn't get a minute in earlier tonight, we were so busy."
Tomoyo nodded. Yeah, and? Go on, just tell me why you called?! "Yeah, pretty amazing,"
"So as I was saying, about tomorrow's schedule, and the rest of this week…"
Holding in a groan, Tomoyo waited for Ms. Ng to go on. She was just waiting for the long hours of work ahead to be confirmed.
"Tomorrow you will be making an appearance on channel 5 news, the typical brief interview. That should take from about 8:00am to 8:30am by the time we get out of the studio. That's good, we'll be able to head to the other side of the city in time for a karaoke you'll do with the local Elementary school there, I think it starts at 9:00am, but we should try to get there at least ten minutes early. And then you have…" Ms. Ng droned on continuously. It must have gone on for a few minutes non stop, until Tomoyo intersected.
"Um, Ms. Ng, I'm not sure if I can remember that I just come in tomorrow and find out then?"
"Oh, sure, but I also took care to send you a copy of the schedule on the computer if you need."
"Why….thank you Ms. Ng," Tomoyo mumbled. "Well I'll see you tomorrow, good night."
"Yes, good night." The voice on the other end of the phone concluded finally, and Tomoyo hung up.
She didn't even try to remember what Ms. Ng had mentioned. Just turned on her laptop and went online. Didn't check her inbox at first, looked at her instant messenger.
technoglassesguy11
Read one of the names on her list. Tomoyo's face lit up, and her recently tired fingers flew across the keyboard.
-hiiii Koji!–
-Hey Yasuko!- -wassup ?-
-not much-Tomoyo paused and then typed again: -REALLY tired-
-lol, poor u. how come?-
-work. I just got home, and it's…-
-almost 1 in the morning!- technoglassesguy11 added. –I feel bad for u, that's pretty late work-
-yea, and I just found out it's gonna get even more busy-
-that sucks, u should take a break or somethin-
-I wish, maybe after work slows down a little-
-actually, I was wondering- 'Koji' stopped for a moment, and then said –do u like ur job?-
Tomoyo wrinkled her brows at the question at first, and typed in –of course!-
-o, that's good…just u seem to complain about it a lot =P-
-heh- Tomoyo sighed and thought about it. –well…that's true. I love what I do, but it gets so hectic sometimes-
-go on :)- -ur pretty fun to talk and listen to-
- I guess I just miss what my life was like b4 my job sometimes…- -hehe, well thanx. ur pretty cool yourself! -
-8-P –
-and wht's that supposed to be?-
-why, it's my super cool glasses, Technoglasses, hence the sn- Technoglassesguy11 joked. –don't worry, I don't look like that in real life- -i still have glasses though-
Tomoyo giggled, leaning towards her screen. Wouldn't it be fun to meet him one day? She couldn't help wondering. –lolz- -I wish I had more ppl around I could talk to like this with-
-u don't?-
-I do, but you could say I work abroad from my hometown- Finally working up the courage to check her mail box, Tomoyo scanned the e-mails for Sakura's e-mail address, hoping to get a word from her… -and at work I don't have much ppl I can really talk with- …she had no luck with finding any. –I haven't even talked to my best friend in a few days-
-that sucks, once again.- -i work abroad too, actually grew up in England till I was an early teen, then moved to Japan-
-oo, really?- Never get any time off for vacation, being an aspiring singer! Tomoyo pouted – always wanted to go to Europe, it sounds so beautiful-
-when you do go there one day (which I'm sure u will) I'll make sure to tell u all the places to visit-
- Thankies! u've really made me feel better- Tomoyo almost felt like hugging her computer, somehow now smiling truthfully. –well I'm gonna go now, kk?-
-swt dreams-
-u too, go to sleep soon, it's late- Finally, Tomoyo printed the schedule sent to her for the week, squinting her eyes shut so she wouldn't have to read it tonight. She logged off, and stretched with a yawn, then shook it off. She would just keep thinking of going to Europe, and talking to Sakura or Koji. That would be enough to keep her energized for now. Tomoyo skipped to her room, half doing part of the choreography she had learned the other day, energetically getting into the movements. She left the schedule on the side of her desk, carefree. On the bottom, it read: Eriol Hiiragizawa on a list of names of the people who would be escorting her to all the activities she was loaded with. Too bad she didn't see it. But then again, she wouldn't have cared, didn't know 'Koji' was really one of tomorrow's escorts. Reaching her bed, she flopped down, reaching to hug a bunny rabbit stuffed animal. I don't even think I can fall asleep anymore, I feel so much better after talking to Koji! But with that thought she still fell into a sound sleep, surely with sweet dreams, just as 'Koji' had advised.
Authoresses Note: Ehh…this chapter was…okaayy, I guess…I'm just looking forward to writing the coming chappies, this one didn't have much action, but…it's like fillin in a crack review now, hmm? ::thumbs up::