Author's Note: Nobody noticed Sakura's sick because everyone was tired, so they thought she was just tired too. And when you're tired, you tend not to notice things.
)Musei Kage( - Lolz, all I can tell you is that what I wrote last chapter has absolutely NOTHING to do the movie… :P Yet you'll find the ending of this STORY rather familiar… I really liked the ending in the movie, it was cute.
)Cobalt-eyed Angel( - Or UNLESS, someone stole the camera and decided to take a picture for him…. ;) Well, no, then who was the person naked then?? :P Read and find out!
)Carmela-chan( - I love the way you said that… 'Who could the mystery girl be??' DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN!!! (Evil laugher)
)Qleo-chan( - I love Egypt too… but it's too hot and sandy there…
)Shadow Nightress( - I only said I CAN be reported… but who says I follow rules? ;)
)confused dolphin( - Like I said… who says I follow rules? ;) Oh, and do you know how difficult this is? There's Toria Lera here, then there's Lera Khan from High School Life, and I keep typing Lera instead of Toria… ugh!! And now I'm writing more in High School life and of Lera Khan more than Toria Lera!! I'm getting confused… xP And happy belated birthday… :P School's going to start… good luck with you know who… and the other one…
And a BIG THANKS for EVERYONE else who reviewed!!! :)
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LAST PART OF THE CHAP
She kept looking, one after another. Until she reached one picture. It was a picture of a naked girl bathing. The picture showed the back of her, though mostly covered by her long hair, and her hips were in below the water, she was definitely naked. The picture was taken at dark, hard to tell what coloured hair she had.
Sakura's eye widened. Oh dear lord… she thought to herself. She had been so dizzy and out of focus she doesn't remember anything she did. Oh no… a horrible thought ran through her head. Don't tell me they took advantage of me while I didn't know! Sakura opened her mouth. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
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Chapter Ten
Cough, Cough, then Achoo
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I dedicate this chapter to Confused Dolphin.
Though her birthday was 1-2 weeks ago.
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Syaoran and Takashi rushed in hearing the dreadful screaming. "What's going on? Huh? Who scream? What the hell? Who died? Everybody ok? What's happening?" Takashi asked in a hurry.
Rika and Toria stirred, then sat up with horrible eyes. "WILL YA SHUT UP OVER THERE? STOP SCREAMING AND YOU PEOPLE STOP TALKING! OUT I SAY, OUT, ALL OF YOU!"
Syaoran and Takashi winced, as they dragged Sakura and the camera in her hands outside.
The poor girl was still frozen dead, in pure shock. Syaoran grabbed the camera from her hand and looked at the picture, then he showed to Takashi as the two men shrugged with a confused look on their face. "What's wrong with this?" Syaoran asked.
Sakura turned her head slowly towards them like a zombie, especially when her eyes were red from keeping them open too long, and her face was a hecking lot of shades darker 'cause of this poor-excuse-for a tan. "You're asking me what's wrong?"
Syaoran took a step back and replied carefully. "Well, uh, um… yeah… What's wrong with this picture?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! PERVERTS! BASTARDS! DIRTY-MINDED!"
Syaoran and Takashi covered their ears. "SHUT UP!! CALM DOWN WOMAN, talk, ca-a-a-almly."
Sakura blew hot air out of her nose. "You're asking me to calm down? Are you kidding me? Listen here, you knew how sick I was yesterday, you knew I would remember nothing because of this stupid damn whatever disease I've got that's making me dizzy and erasing my memory 'cause I can't remember anything that happened yesterday, but that doesn't mean you can take advantage of me while I'm taking a shower!"
Syaoran blinked. Takashi blinked. Then they both looked back at the picture and bursts out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Sakura demanded.
"T-Tell me, S-Sakura, did, did you even take a shower y-yesterday?" Syaoran asked between laughter.
"That's the problem! I don't remember anything! But I must've, otherwise where did you get this picture?"
Syaoran smirked at her. "We're not that desperate to see you naked."
Sakura turned red. "What do you mean?" She asked.
"Look at it closely," Takashi held out the camera to the crazy girl in front of him. "Take a closer look. The lady in this picture has blonde hair, not brown."
"My hair, is not just plainly brown." Sakura defended, but accepted the camera. She looked at it. Now they're under the sunlight, the picture was less dim, and indeed, the girl did have bright blonde hair… She blushed hard and handed the camera back to Takashi while looking down at the ground. "Then… then… then why were you taking advantage of Alexia?"
Syaoran was amused. "Nobody takes showers here, silly, it's not the 5th century, we're way past that! Man, you've either got the wildest imagination or you've just been watching movie too often lately."
"S-So, so what is that then?"
"It's a picture… I thought it'd be good to take something like this because it's not often you find a pond in middle of a sandblasting desert, never mind how clear the water is in this one. You have to admit, with the dim lighting and all, this picture does look quite sexy."
Sakura held her head. "Oh my God, I've just embarrassed myself haven't I?"
Takashi nodded matter-of-factly. Sakura glared at him. "You can't really blame me, I don't feel good, I can't even speak clearly never mind thinking…"
"You were talking just fine when you were yelling at us." Takashi stated.
"LEAVE ME ALONEEEEE!!!!"
"SHUT UP!"
The excitement was gone, the anger melted, and she had just wasted too much energy arguing with them, suddenly, her world seemed to be blacking out. "Syaoran…"
"Yeah?"
A blank look filled her and her eyes lost their light. "Help…" And she fainted, yet again, right there, on the spot.
Syaoran blinked, then turned to Takashi. "You think she's faking just to get away from this awkward situation?"
Takashi shrugged. "Let's see." He bent down to tickle her, only to notice how hot she felt. The minute his finger touched her skin, he jumped back and blinked. "Shit. Li man, you better come, and I think she really is sick! Man, the girl feels like she just came back from hell."
Syaoran put the camera around his neck and quickly bent down to touch her forehead. Yikes. "Takashi, come to think about it, she has been fainting and collapsing a lot lately…"
Takashi nodded. "I'll get the ice. We have a couple of packs in the van."
"Hurry. And, thanks."
"No problem."
Sakura felt someone shaking her. She knew someone was, her mind was only half asleep because the person has done a good job trying to wake her up. Yet she felt so bad, she decided that perhaps if she just faked sleeping on, the shaking would just go away. But no such luck. It was shaking, and some more shaking. Sakura stirred and sat up slowly, in the grumpiest mood possible.
"Thank God, I thought you died."
She turned her head towards the voice, zombie-like, the person gulped as some cold sweat ran down the person's back. "Um… sorry for er, waking you up, um I didn't want to disturb you but-"
"DO YOU HAVE NO MANNER OR SHAME WHATSOEVER? DON'T YOU KNOW THAT I'M SLEEPING? WHY YOU SONOFABITCH HOW DARE YOU I SAY, HOW DARE YOU WAKE ME?"
"Calm, woman, calm, I understand the horrible mood you are in right now, but seriously, I was just worried about you…"
Sakura opened her eyes a bit more and scratched her hair out of her face. "Oh, it's you…" Then, she turned her back on him and slumped on the bed again.
"Sakura…"
"What…"
"Do you have any idea where you are?"
"Earth."
"Um… where on earth?"
"The surface."
"Do you know what time it is?"
"Sleep Time."
"Do you even know how long you've been sleeping?"
"Hours."
"Do you know who I am?"
"A person."
"Your answers are not really helping."
"Good."
"Sakura…"
"Shut up and leave me alone...." She whined.
The person was amused. He stood up and walked a bit further away, turning his back on her. "Just for the record, you've been asleep for three days straight."
Takashi sat with everybody else inside the same, cramped tent. Everyone was in such a worried mood and had so much sympathy for one and another that the usual most annoying, most cheerful, most bitchy, and most talkative became perfect people who were understanding and didn't say a word too much.
"I hope our tent doesn't collapse…" Lera whispered.
A large brush of sand smashed against their tents and everyone shuddered.
At one point on the tent, the material seemed to have thinned, and the area was behind Rika. She shrieked and clutched onto Alexia. And for once, Alexia just patted her.
Damn the Desert.
Seriously. What kind of a crapping place is this?
They've been here for an hour already, and this isn't getting any better. Three hour ago, it was just light sand swirling, and in fear or getting their camera and lighting lens scratched, they carried everything inside the van and just sat and talked.
Then, it got a bit worse, and one by one, they came inside the same tent, after all, the more and merrier, no one knew they'd be stuck in here for so long.
And now, and blasting sandstorm outside is getting worse by the minute, it made them wonder whether their whole van has been blown away or not. Luckily, they had added extra nail to stable the tent.
"You know, the sandstorm may seem bad to us because we never experienced it, but really, I heard it's not that bad compared to the usual sandstorms here…" Yukito stated.
"Are you kidding me? This is not so bad?" Nakuru asked in disbelief.
"Of course it is, I mean, our tent is still here isn't it? When it gets bad, and I mean really bad, sometimes it's so strong you won't be able to walk, and cars and pieces of building will be thrown everywhere. And once it's done, the whole city can be covered in sand!"
Chiharu shook her head in disgust. "That's not considered bad. Ours is considered bad. That is considered horrible!"
Alexia nodded in agreement. "Totally agree."
"Let me sing for you!" Toria suddenly suggested.
"Toria…" Rike began.
"Please, please…" Takashi continued.
"STOP SINGING!" Naoko finished.
Toria pouted. "Why not?" She whined. "There's nothing else to do! My lovely singing voice is the only thing-"
Chiharu rolled her eyes. "Give it a rest, will ya?"
"But my voice is so beautiful and-"
Alexia groaned. "Please, it's not helping!"
"But we need something to get our minds off of the damn weather outside!" Another blast of wind mixed with sand slammed by on the side of the tent, as a tiny hole appeared behind Rika.
The poor girl screamed and jumped right to the other side of the tent.
Sand began piling in as the hole became slowly and steadily larger. More and more dust poured in and Rika closed her eyes and prayed.
Tomoyo breathed in a breath of fresh, salty air and sighed contently. This is Cuba, Sol Cayo Guillermo. One of the greatest hotels. It's too bad they couldn't go to the Mélia one instead, but it was just crowded with people, and they preferred space rather than the fancy-dancy. (Everything I typed is absolutely true… because that's where I went for my vacation and it was absolutely BEST!)
"Let's go swimming!" She grabbed her boyfriend's hand as they ran into the water.
They swam happily, but Cuba was not a place of home, and the weather there was as unstable as an untested science experiment. Soon, the sky darkened as a large fluff of cloud floated over it. The winds blew heavily, and Tomoyo shivered.
"I think we should go back…" Eriol suggested as he too, quivered.
"Yeah, let's go." Tomoyo replied. The waves began to rise higher and higher, more and more powerful. Eriol swam ahead of her as she followed.
They were in the deep end, and it was incredibly hard to swim in such conditions. Tomoyo swam against the stubborn waves, she exchanged breaths from time to time, but one bad move and everything mess up.
Tomoyo rose her head from under the water to take a breath, unfortunately, a slap of water was coming at that precise moment, and she inhaled a lungful of salty liquid.
She coughed and felt as if she was about to drown and die. The water was not only salty, it was salty to the point of unbelievable! It was as if ever drop of water in this damn ocean is filled with a whole bucket of extra-salty salt. To make it worse, it was also bitter, and when it entered her lungs, the fluid seemed to have dried out leaving the sand particles in a solid shape inside at the start of her throat to purposely choke her.
She coughed, loud and hard, but the cough came out hoarse and scary. Another wave of water hit her head and soaked her. She was aware when an arm began dragging her towards shore. "Help…" She choked weakly. (The same thing happened to me, and it was NOT funny…)
They made it to shore safely and Tomoyo lay against the beach chair and coughed as hard as she could to get all the salt out, or at least enough of it to be able to breathe properly without hurting again. "Talk about a bad day…" She muttered with a weak smile.
"Yeah, definitely horrible." Just as Eriol said those words, the sun was suddenly shining again while the wind died down and he groaned. "The weather hates us." Tomoyo laughed lightly at that.
The cell phone she brought with her suddenly rang. She picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hello Ms. Daidouji."
"Hello. Who is this?"
"Mrs. Skinner."
"ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS?" Sakura cried, booting straight up.
Syaoran shrugged and sat on her deathly white sheets. "Well I certainly am not making a joke."
The girl groaned out loud. "Oh boy, and here I am, thinking I've only been asleep for less than an hour…" She touched her head. "It still hurts though." She complained.
"The doctors said it'll get better soon… but not now."
Sakura nodded. "Why are you we here? Scratch that, it was a stupid question. I meant to say, let's go back now, everybody else must be worried."
Syaoran shrugged. "Love to, but…" He pointed outside.
She looked, and almost slept for another 3 more days straight. "HOLY! What the heck is going on out there?"
He shrugged again. "What does it look like?"
"Bunnies dancing in the rain." Sakura replied sarcastically. "Are you saying this really is a dang sandstorm? I have never seen one in my life!"
Yet again, another shrug. "Neither have I. Just rest while you can, we'll get back the damn thing is over. Feel lucky we're at least inside a stable brick-made building. The others are probably inside a tent, or a stupid van."
Rika cried out as another cut appeared on their thin tent. "We're going to die!" Feeling the sand stinging her back like million of needles poking into her skin, there appeared to be no hope left.
Just then, everything seemed to stop, it was almost as if time stopped. The sand fell down to the ground like feathers, and everything was calm. Finally, after the silence elapsed for enough time, Alexia spoke up. "What happened?"
Lera crawled out the tent in a hurry. "Must've stopped." She replied. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not staying in this broken-poor-excuse-for-a-piece-of-cloth tent a millisecond longer and I'm getting my ass in the van before God decides to restart the blasting desert style tornado again."
There was a while when everyone just looked at each other, as if not sure what had happened as real, but soon, each of them began climbing out after one and another.
"Mrs. Skinner? I'm sorry, I have never heard of you, and I don't know you, but your last name does remind me of someone… ah, yes, are you related to a someone name Alexia?"
"I do not know anyone name Alexia. If I did, I've probably forgotten, after all, I know many people. Ms. Daidouji, you work in a fashion company as the designer, do you not?"
"Yes, I do."
"Your reputations are quite well-known, and I'd like you to personally make me an outfit fit the best for a maid-of-honour. I'm willing to pay you how much ever you'd like. I would like it delivered to me, 3 days maximum."
Tomoyo frowned. "You speak as if money means everything in the world."
"Does it not?"
"No, it does not." Tomoyo answered firmly. "You do realize I am on vacation right now and had almost died about a second ago and all you can think is this? Do you have no respect for others?"
The lady appeared to be aggravated. "Listen here, I really don't care, call up your company and tell them of my needs, I often order from there and they'll know a certain Lynnet Skinner. Take off some time from your vacation will you dear? Design something up, because I want only you, for I love your style more than any others. Be a darling."
"No! Who do you think you are? You are incredibly rude and have absolutely no respect for others! You can't command anyone to do as you wish! The world isn't your slave!"
"I'm willing to pay you double. Or triple if you like."
"I, don't, care! And never call again, because I swear to never work for you!" And she hung up. In extremely anger, Tomoyo broke the phone and threw it into the ocean with all her strength.
As the sandstorm died away, Sakura got off her bed and yawned happily, stretching as if she hadn't moved since the stone age. She felt much better now, not perfectly fine, but good enough to function. "I think I won't need to sleep for a couple of months now…"
Syaoran laughed. "I have to agree with you on that one!"
They made their way to the others. The walk there wasn't too long, but the ground was rather dusty and the air felt as if it had been in a dryer and spun round and round but stopped before the timer went off.
"Sakura!" Lera called.
Sakura smiled and waved, running towards her friend at the same time. "Been a while!" She joked, then stuck out her tongue.
"Yeah I know, three days!" Lera laughed. "How do you feel hon? Better now?"
"Duh! After three days of sleep, I must be immune to healthiness to not feel better!"
Then everything was normal again. Their equipment had not been damaged at all. They had exaggerated maybe just a little. After all, first experience always feels more intense that it actually is.
Their car phone rang. "Hello?" Takashi answered. "Sakura! Phone for you!"
Sakura accepted the phone. "Sakura here, who is it?"
"Hi sweetie, it's me, Tomoyo."
Sakura smiled at her friend's voice. The day seemed much brighter ever since she woke up from being Sleeping Beauty. The sun appears to have grown larger in the past three days, and the sunshine was more warming than it had ever felt to her, and suddenly, earth seemed homey. "Tomoyo! It great to hear you! How's everything going?"
Her friend sighed on the other end. "I don't know, getting angry after almost choking to death wasn't part of the plan, that's for sure. I don't feel well."
"You poor dear…" Sakura spoke with sympathy. She knew exactly what Tomoyo is going through, for she had just experienced it days ago and still kind of is right now.
"It doesn't matter, don't worry about me. I called to ask you a question. Do you know if Alexia has any relatives?"
Sakura frowned at the question. When did Tomoyo start getting interested in Alexia? "I don't know… if she does she never spoke about them."
"Can you ask her?"
She hesitated. "Um… sure…" She turned toward the blonde girl. "Alexia…"
"Yes?"
She was surprised when her enemy's voice didn't sound the least bit hateful. "Do you think I can ask you a question?" Sakura asked politely.
"You already are." Alexia replied with a smile.
Truly, the earth is rather homey; everyone is becoming friendly. "Do you have any relatives?"
Alexia frowned. "I have no sister or brother… I have no aunt or uncle either…"
Sakura turned back to the phone. "She says she have none…"
"Then can you ask if she knows a certain Lynnet Skinner?"
Sakura turned back to the lady at her back. "Do you know someone name Lynnet Skinner?"
Alexia blinked, visibly startled. "Why? Did she mention me?" There was hope hinted in her voice, and Sakura wondered at that.
She turned back to the phone. "Did she mention Alexia, Tomoyo?"
"No… But they had the same last name so I was just wondering…"
"Have you asked her whether she knew Alexia?"
"Yes, but she said she didn't know anyone with that name."
Sakura peered carefully at Alexia. Hope was written all over her face, and she felt a twinge of sadness. This Lynnet, she has to know Alexia to receive such a rare reaction from the woman. "Alexia…" Sakura began slowly. "This, this Lynnet Skinner… Tomoyo mentioned you to her, mind you Tomoyo was only asking since you two have the same last name, and… and…"
"And?" Alexia blinked and her eyes were larger than usual, her attention fully on Sakura.
"And…" Sakura looked down. She had a feeling her reply was going to hurt Alexia, and not just a little. "She said she didn't know anyone name Alexia."
Alexia closed her eyes, and her body trembled. Sakura doubted Alexia knew she was shaking so badly.
And she was right. Alexia felt numb. Her eyes stings. Her heart beating rapidly, but not from anticipation and the ray of hope this time, instead, from sadness and feeling foolish that she actually thought that it would come true.
"Alexia?"
When her eyes opened again, her faced seemed worn out, and her overall appearance was a deep weariness. "She doesn't remember me…" Was her response. But the mutter was more to herself than to Sakura.
TELL me in your REVIEW if you want me to EMAIL you when the next chap is up, and don't forget to leave your email address if you DO!! :)
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Author's Note: It was my Birthday on August 28th and I was so happy. :) Now, I'm officially fourteen! :D
As you have all noticed this chapter I dunno… not very much all about Sakura… that's because I'm trying out a different style of writing. Before it was the Christopher Pike style where you stick to one character, so everything you read about that character has to be experiencing. Not I'm trying out more of a Caroline B. Cooney style… she writes different parts of completely different characters with nothing to do with one and another and somehow, in the end they're all brought together.
And yes, this chapter's whole point was mostly about Alexia.
3471 words. What can I say; school's starting, too depressed to write.