Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura.

My parents didn't question me about why I wasn't even speaking on the phone. Nobody even bothered to notice me as I sat on the floor next to the phone for two entire hours every day. I don't know if they just accepted it as normal, or didn't care. Either way, this continued and deleted any interaction I had with Naoko outside of school. Our friendship that had lasted since childhood was dying.

"Hey Sakura, did you know that Naoko was bad mouthing you?" Tomoyo said, a smug expression on her face. I blinked.

"What? She wouldn't do that…"

"Yeah she said you ate boogers and your hair was ugly. She also said you looked anorexic and disgusting" Tomoyo said. I frowned.

"Naoko is my best friend, she wouldn't say that" I defended.

"Well she did"

"Just shut up Tomoyo, I know Naoko wouldn't say that!" I burst out. Tomoyo's eyebrows rose in surprise at my defense, and I looked down afraid of what she would say.

"Fine. Whatever," Tomoyo grumbled. We continued walking around the playground in silence.

I defended Naoko to the best I could. Standing up to Tomoyo was one of the bravest things I had ever done. She scared me, and she knew it.

Tomoyo didn't say much about Naoko after the incident. After a week, things started to become rocky between the three of us. Tomoyo would say the meanest things about Naoko, mostly about her weight. Naoko was a bit chubby, and Tomoyo couldn't stand fat people. Naoko didn't say anything about Tomoyo, besides that Tomoyo was mean.

"Sakura, how could you say that about me?" Naoko shouted to me. I looked up at her from the swing set.

"What?" I asked. I looked at Tomoyo who was staring at the ground.

"You… You said I was fat and ugly! Best friends don't call each other that, Sakura" Naoko said, almost in tears.

"I never said that!" I said truthfully. Naoko looked at Tomoyo.

"Tomoyo said you did!" Tomoyo looked away from me.

Maybe I did say it? No I wouldn't ever say that… maybe I accidentally said it when I was mad. I'm sure I didn't say it…but if Tomoyo heard me say it then I must have. But I'm positive I didn't…

"I never said that" I repeated, only this time a bit less unsure.

"Don't lie to me Sakura. Tomoyo has been telling me all of the things you've been saying behind my back. We're not friends anymore, I'm sick of this." Naoko glared at me, then walked away.

A look of complete disbelief was on my face. My best friend had just left me. Just like that. I stared at the ground in silence. We had been best friends for years, and we rarely fought. I was so caught up in my thoughts, I forgot who had caused us to break up.

"Sakura, the bell rang" Tomoyo said to me. I looked up at her, void of emotion, and began walking towards the school.

It was awkward in class with Naoko sitting beside me. I tried to pass her notes, but she refused to look at them. I had lost my best friend. Later that week, the teacher assigned us a new seating arrangement because some of the students were talking too much. Naoko was moved away from me, and Tomoyo had replaced her spot beside me.

"Hey Sakura," Tomoyo began as I put my backpack on to go home. "Want to walk me home?"

"Home? You live 10 minutes away from the school though… It's completely out of my way." I said.

"Plleeaaaasseee?" Tomoyo begged. I sighed, and gave in. The walk to her house was boring and in the complete opposite direction of my own house. When we got to her neighbors house, she turned and smiled at me.

"Oh yeah, just to let you know, Naoko and I are best friends now. I hope you don't mind…" Tomoyo said. My mouth dropped open. I was too sad to be angry with her. Besides, what right did I have to keep them apart just because Naoko and I weren't friends?

"I-I… don't care. I don't control you." I grumbled. Tomoyo smiled at me, then ran inside to her house. I began my long walk all the way back to my house, and in total I was half an hour late. This began another torture treatment from Tomoyo. It was the start of a year of walking her home everyday in almost pure silence.

It was a while before I realized I was trapped. I couldn't leave Tomoyo even if I wanted to. I would much rather be friends with her than be all alone every recess. That seemed like a nightmare for me. Naoko and Tomoyo's friendship grew, then after as little as two weeks it was gone. Tomoyo said, "She was boring," and that was that. My only tie to ever befriending Naoko was gone. And I never talked to my old best friend again.
I had a friend. A great friend. Her name was Rika and I met her when I was three years old. My mother had placed me in dance, and there I met a girl who was one year older than me, and was one of the most caring girls I had ever known. She was chubby, like Naoko, but that didn't really matter. Rika and I were close, but it was hard since she lived 20 minutes driving distance away from me, and also went to a different school. That year she was pulled out of my dance class and put into a higher one since she was one year older than I and about one hundred times better at dancing. I tried to tell her about what Tomoyo had done to Naoko and I, but Rika had no advice for me.

Rika wasn't a complete secret to Tomoyo. She knew of her, but I didn't say much to Tomoyo. She was extremely jealous and bad-mouthed Rika too, even though they never met before. One time, as I was leaving to go to the movies with Rika, Tomoyo called. The horrible thing about Tomoyo was that you couldn't ignore her calls. She let the phone ring until it couldn't ring anymore. Then, she would call back, and let it ring some more. You would have to go through 15 minutes of constant ringing before she finally gave up, and that was too annoying for anyone in my house to handle.

"Hello?"

"Hi"

The silence began, but I ended it in under a minute.

"Uhm, I have to go Tomoyo…" I began nervously.

"Why?" She asked in her harsh, unforgiving tone.

This was where her hatred for Rika really began. I could have lied. I should have lied. But I didn't.

"I'm going to a movie with Rika." I answered. The phone was silent for a bit, then without warning, Tomoyo hung up. I stared at the phone, shrugged, and went to the movies with Rika.

Tomoyo couldn't stop saying horrible things about Rika. I tried defending her, but that only directed the insults to me. So I sat there and let her tell me what she thought about Rika, even though they had never seen each other before. I never realized how controlling Tomoyo really was until she demanded that I stop being friends with Rika.

"Why do you want to be friends with her anyway?" Tomoyo asked, a frown on her face.

"I-I don't know…" I said. I don't know, maybe because she's nice and I like her?

"Well if you don't know you should stop being friends with her." Tomoyo said. I looked up at her, shocked.

"What? I'm not going to stop being friends with her!"

"If you don't stop being friends with her, I'll stop being friends with you. What's better, a friend at school or a friend at some other school that you barely even see?"

I looked at my shoes. I hated it when she threatened our friendship if I wouldn't do something she asked. I sighed.

"Fine, I'll stop being friends with her" I lied. Tomoyo smiled.

"Good"

This brought on the secret friendship between Rika and I. Every time I played with Rika, I told my mom to tell Tomoyo I was going to visit my grandma if she called. Everything was done in secret. We rarely went out in public together because I started having nightmares of Tomoyo finding us together. I told Rika that I had to keep her a secret, and she understood.