Mesmerized
By Cherry Blossom01
Chapter 3: Bad Luck
A/N: I am so so so so so so sorry that I haven't been able to update. I know that I shouldn't be using the disk crashing as a mistake so I'm not. But just to let you know…I'm BACK! And ill be writing at least 2 new chapters NOT INCLUDING THIS ONE in the couple of weeks ahead! Again GOMEN NASAI!
Oh and I changed this chapter I had lost it the first time n I redid it but now I found the very first one that had gotten ruined on the disk so I combined the two together! Don't worry, if you've already read this than u don't need to read it again
Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura characters BUT Roxanne (Roxy) Ms. Bitchem and any other characters that do not appear in the anime or manga ARE mines. ALLLLLLLLL mine!
Tomoyo opened her eyes to the sound of Sakura's pitched voice and the annoying beeping of alarm clock.
"Tomoyo get up!" Sakura threw the fluffy white pillow at Tomoyo's head. Tomoyo sleepily opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling.
"You know that you're going to be late AGAIN!"
But Tomoyo didn't seem to hear Sakura's call. Instead she appeared to be in another world. Well actually she was trying to remember the dream that she had just awaken from. It was the same as the nights before. Green lush grass, butterflies, flowers, perfect. And there was also...him. That man. The one who had appeared before. Except now Tomoyo could actually start to see his face. And what she saw was his eyes. His deep, calm, nurturing blue eyes. They were so enchanting, so intoxicating. They had seemed so...familiar… like she had seen those eyes before. But she couldn't recall where.
"Tomoyo!" Sakura shouted breaking Tomoyo out of her trance. "You didn't hear a word that I just said!"
Tomoyo stared at Sakura with a dazed look on her face. "What?" she asked puzzled.
Sakura angrily picked up the digital clock and shoved it in Tomoyo's face. Tomoyo looked at the glowing neon red lights. 8:05? It can't be 8:05 that's impossible cause that would mean that I'm… "I'm late!"
Sakura lowered the clock to her side. "Exactly" she replied rather smugly.
Tomoyo sprang out of bed and rushed into the bathroom, grabbed her toothbrush and squeezed the green mint flavored toothpaste on top of it. Tomoyo brushed her teeth furiously and called to Sakura. If she didn't hurry then she would be late for work yet AGAIN. But this time it wouldn't be a scolding from her boss that was on the line, it would be her job. The only way for Tomoyo to actually make it somewhere in the fashion business. By that time Sakura had arrived and stood waiting impatiently at the doorframe for Tomoyo to tell her what she called her for.
"Tomoyo" she called irritably breaking Tomoyo from her train of dark thoughts.
"Oh yea Sakura" Tomoyo replied muffly. "Woou ew my if ew tuk oke my suit frem…" she spit out the toothpaste from her mouth… "From the closet for me?"
Sakura returned her request with a smile and was gone and back again in an eye-blink. "This one?"
Tomoyo looked up from the task of washing her face. "Yea that's it. Just put it on the bed for me."
Tomoyo emerged from the bathroom and began stripping down revealing baby blue underwear and a white pushup bra. She slipped into the stripped gray suit that Sakura laid out for her and hurriedly began to fuss with her untidy hair. Sakura walked over to her and took the comb from her hands.
"Let me handle that" Sakura took the fine toothed comb and combed away the knots in Tomoyo's long, silky, indigo mane. She expertly tied her hair in a bun, which she kept in place with two chopsticks that she found under a pile of clothes in an old Chinese food container.
'There" she sighed looking at her work when she was threw.
Tomoyo moved in front of the full-length mirror to inspect herself. Seeing that everything was in place she thanked for Sakura, threw on her long black coat, scarf, hat and gloves and stepped into her high healed boots. Calling out a last thank you and good bye to her friend, Tomoyo left the apartment and ran down the four flights of steps. She glanced down at her watch before opening the door to the icy chills waiting to greet her outside.
"8:16" she said aloud to herself. Still got some time.
Tomoyo stood at the corner of her block with her hand raised in front of her and exasperated look on her smooth face. "Taxi!" she called wearily. A cab drove by, ignoring her; splashing cold water left from the snowfall the day before onto her suit pants. "Thanks a lot pal!" Tomoyo yelled to the driver and then said something exceedingly vulgar which didn't seem much like her at all. Tomoyo looked down at her now ruined suit and sighed. There was nothing she could do about it now. She looked down the block. There was another taxi coming. Might as well give it a try she decided. Tomoyo took a deep breath and puffed away the loose strand of indigo hair that had fallen over her right almond shape eye.
She stepped off the curb and threw her hand into the air. "Taxi!" The driver of the car to have no intention of stopping for Tomoyo and was an inch away from driving her over! He skidded to a stop a few yards away.
"Hey who do you think you are!" Tomoyo called out, her face bubbling with anger. She stomped towards the vehicle. "You nearly ran me over!"
"Hey sexy mommy you wanna' ride or not?" a voice called from inside.
Tomoyo now in front of the left car window began to redden in anger. "Why you little!" she bent over to stick her head in the window and was surprised to the cabby laughing his head off. Tomoyo's face began to clear up and a smile soon replaced it.
"Oscar!" She called out. "You scared me half to death!"
The cabby wiped tears from his eyes and replied back to Tomoyo in-between chuckles "You? Hahahaha! I think I was the one who should have been scared hahahaha with you storming over here like a big ol dinosaur!"
"I did not look like a dinosaur!"
"Hahahaha yea you did. So listen, you comin in or not?"
Tomoyo rolled her eyes and opened the back door slamming it after she got in. Oscar looked up at the rear-view mirror and when seeing a still pouting Tomoyo, began to have a fit of laughs.
-xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo-
"So you see that's what happened." Tomoyo sat back in the old taxicab. She had just finished telling Oscar about the day before; her mysterious encounter with the hansom navy eyed man and the always-upsetting talks with her boss Ms. Bitcehm.
"So let me get this straight." Oscar said while swerving in and out between cars on Broadway. "First you bump literally into this really hot guy right?"
Tomoyo nodded her head. "Right"
"And you're tellin' me that you like em?
"Well…" Tomoyo began to fidget with her hands. It was one of her bad habits when she was nervous. "I don't exactly 'like' him. Its just that I ummm I don't its just that I…"
"Wanna see him again?" Oscar finished.
"Exactly." Tomoyo looked at Oscar. He had been the very first cab driver that she had when coming to New York City. The very first and her very favorite. Even if she had only known him for a few months, he meant a lot to her. He was around his mid forties, with short brown hair, a big bald spot in the middle of his head and dark, almost black eyes. He was shorter than Tomoyo, who was a slim 5'7, and was fairly rounded in the middle. For some strange reason Oscar always knew how Tomoyo felt without her even saying anything. But most of all he was like a father to Tomoyo who had grown up without the love and care of one in the struggling household with only her and her mother. He gave her help and advice and relieved her stress of working early mornings and trying to get an education at late nights. You see, Oscar was more than a cab driver to her. He was her friend.
"Ok so that's the first the first thing. And the second thing is that sum big shot Lucy."
"Luciel" Tomoyo corrected.
"Yea, Lucy, that's what I said. Anyway, some snobby rich lady is supposed to be coming to your floor today to make sure that all her workers are doing their jobs?"
"It's not just any snobbish rich lady. It's the snobbish rich lady. She's the one that controls everything! You know the big cheese, the big kawhona, whatever you Americans call it."
Oscar burst into a great hearty laugh. "Ok, Ok I get it, this Lucile person is important with a capital I. And if yah don't get there on time today."
"I'm out of a job," she said grimly.
"Your out of a job" he repeated. "Well my friend its looks like you gotta problem here." Oscar stuck his head out the left window and Tomoyo followed in pursuit. Out side was an enormous traffic jam for around 3 blocks down.
Tomoyo gaped at the scene of cars on the street then stuck her head back into the cab. A look of bewilderment plastered on her face. "There's no way" she whispered. "There's no way that I'll be able to get there on time now."
Oscar looked in the rearview mirror grin on his lips. "There is one way" he turned around in his seat and looked down at Tomoyo's shoes.
Tomoyo's eyes widened. "Oh no! Definitely not!"
Tomoyo slammed the cab door and thanked Oscar again for the free trip. "No problem Tommy" he said using his nickname for her. "You just go and show em what you're made of."
Tomoyo ran in and out between the cars in the traffic jam. Right now it was faster to run on the road than on the busy crowded streets of Manhattan. She glimpsed at her watch. 8:40. If she hurried she could just barley make it. Tomoyo ran block after block, her once neat bun had now come undone and blew in the arctic wind behind her. At first she had thought she was crazy when Oscar suggested that she ran instead of waiting for the traffic to seize up. But now she saw that perhaps it was a good idea after all. If she had stayed in the cab, it probably would take her at least thirty minutes till she would have gotten to work. Tomoyo ran faster and harder just a few blocks more….
Without warning Tomoyo slipped on one of the pot-hole and fell falling to her face. Tomoyo lay in the middle of the street on the cold hard ground until she realized that she was surrounded by the honking of cars and shouts form drivers.
"Get outta the road lady:"
"Whada ya tryin ta get killed?"
"Damn foreigners!"
Tomoyo looked around wearily from her spot on the ground. It appeared as though the traffic had let up. She slowly lifted herself off the ground (she knew she would have to get up unless she wanted to end up road kill by one of these lunatic American drivers) and winced at the pain that penetrated through her body. Ok...she thought to herself. I can do this. Taking a deep breath she took one step forward and…limped? Tomoyo took another step and limped again.
"What the…" Tomoyo looked down at her boot only to find that the right foots heel was gone. "awww my shooooe!" she wailed. The sounds of more shouts from drivers brought her back to reality and she quickly scanned the ground looking for the lost content. She found it and placed it in her bag. There was no way that she was going to get rid of a shoe just because a little broken heel. Tomoyo limped to the sidewalk but right before she steeped onto the curve, she felt a jab in her knee. She looked down then pushed her jacket flab away. Her knee was bleeding and her pants were torn and ruined..
"Oh great. Could things possible get any worse!" Tomoyo started to walk slowly to get used to the idea of walking with one heel and a bloody knee. Her gait began to increase and she walked to the fastest she could walk (it wasn't that much since it was after all Manhattan). She stopped at a stop light. It was 8:51. Tomoyo look ahead of her and could see the tall ten-floor white building, Lucile, and sighed with relief. If she rushed she could make it. The light turned green. Go. Tomoyo pushed her way past people making sure to say "excuse me" and "sorry" on her way. She walked to curb of the street where there was no crowd for her to walk threw and less chances of getting hit by a car.
"Just two more blocks to go."
Tomoyo jogged, half limped her way to the white building and prayed that she would make it there on time. She ran inside the building like a speeding bullet. An elevator was about to close. "Hold that elevator hold that elevator!" Tomoyo was a mere 3 feet away when the elevator closed in her face. Tomoyo stood in front of the elevator with her mouth hanging open and her eyes the size of full moons. This was unbelievable! There was no way that she could be able to make it there on time! Unless…Tomoyo tilted her head to the ceiling and watched the big clock that hung at the main lobby then to a door to her right that said stairs. It was 8:56 but she could make it she kept telling herself. She was after the best girl on the girls track team in her high school in Japan.
Tomoyo pushed open the door to the stairs and took them two at a time. After the third floor her legs began to feel heavy and limp. "I have to do it. I have to." She pushed herself to the floor. As soon as she opened the door Tomoyo collapsed on the floor.
Roxy ran to her side. "Oh my god Tomoyo are you alright? Your exhausted."
A dark shadow loomed over the two. They looked up to find a smiling Ms. Bitchem and a rather old woman who looked like she had to much plastic surgery and way too much make up on.
"I made it" Tomoyo said between gasps of air.
Ms. Bitchem did nothing but smile even wider which made the mole on her nose look even larger. "Well Mizz. Daidogi congratulations you're…fired."
Tomoyo just stared at her boss as if she had just spoken another language. "I'm fi-fi-fired?"
"You heard me Daidogi. Now pack your things and leave." With that Ms. Bitchem turned on her heel and walked away.
"I'm fired?" Tomoyo repeated to herself. No. No it couldn't be. She struggled to sit up. "No! No I can't be fired! I'm here! I'm here and on time."
Bitchem stopped. "Really Mizz Daidogi. Look over at the clock."
Tomoyo turned to her left to look at the clock that hung at the back of the office floor. It read 9:05.
Tomoyo turned back to face Bitchem. "But, but the clock on the lobby…"
"Is five minutes slow. You've been working here for months Daidogi. You should know that by now."
Tomoyo looked down at her watch and then back at the clock. She was right Bitchem was right. It was 9:05 and Tomoyo was late. She was fired. Tomoyo stood up and walked towards Ms Bitchem, grabbing her arm before she and the woman could enter her office.
"Please Ms. Bitchem please I'll never be late again. I promise. I need this job." Tears were threatening to pour down Tomoyo's face.
Bitchem looked from Tomoyo's hand on her arm and back to Tomoyo's face. "I suggest that you remove my hand from my arm Mizz. Daidogi before I have to call security."
Tomoyo removed her hand, took one last look at Roxanne and ran towards the elevator. She didn't stop when she heard Roxanne voice calling after her.
Tomoyo sat in the café across from Tomoyo's job correction—her old job. She stared at the now hard croissant and cold hot chocolate that sat in front of her. Her eyes were red and blotchy from crying. Suddenly someone walked over to her.
"A pretty girl like you shouldn't be sitting alone" a warm voice said.