Housekeeping!

Hello again... Okay, before you repeatedly beat me over the head with poison ivy or something, let me just say I'm really sorry that it took me so long to update. I won't bore you with the details, but let me just say I leave my house at 9 am and don't get home until 11:30pm.... So I only have weekends to write atm.... but I am going to try and post once. I have 10 days of from work starting next week, so hopefully, I can get ahead a bit... Anyway, thanks for keeping track of my story, hope you enjoy!

Luvs, da mandolin!

They were getting closer. Closer to her house. Sakura, to put it bluntly, was completely and utterly.... Fucked. She glanced at Syaoran. They were alone, racing through downtown in his forest green coupe. Syaoran was the one who broke the silence. He handed her a plain white card with a number scrawled on the back. "Here is my cell phone number. Call me later this afternoon, and we'll figure out what to do about your car. Now, where am I taking you?"

Sakura sighed. This was going to be tricky. Thoughts rushed through her head. Lies, excuses... None of them would work. She could go to her best friend Tomoyo's house, but she lived in a mansion too. That could get hard to explain. Where could she go? Apparently she was silent for too long, because Syaoran shot a sidelong glance at her. "Well?" he asked expectantly.

"You can just drop me off here, I'm close enough to my house that I can walk." Was her response. Syaoran merely looked at her doubtfully.

"We're in the middle of downtown. There are no houses anywhere near here. Don't give me that crap about you living near here. If you don't want me knowing where you live, just say so."

"I don't want you knowing where I live."

Syaoran was shocked. But he recovered fast. "Oh, I get it; you live in a whore house? Don't worry, I don't frequent those, I won't show up there asking for you."

"I'm not a fucking whore, so just shut the hell up. Even if I was, you couldn't pay me enough to let you anywhere near me."

"Hold the wheel for a sec."

"W-what?"

"Just hold it." Sakura reached over and held the wheel steady. Syaoran turned toward her and abruptly wrapped his arms around her neck and kissed her. That's right. Kissed her. In the middle of driving through downtown. He had the nerve to kiss her? Sakura was about to break away and punch him, but she didn't. She eased back grinning.

"So you found me out, did you?" she asked, giggling. Syaoran looked at her with a confused look in his eyes. He had been joking around... "Stop the car."

Syaoran looked at her, still shocked. He stopped the car. Why, he did not know. She leaned towards him, across the seat. She put her mouth right next to his ear. Her voice was low and seductive. "You are a bastard, and I hope you and your pretty little car get hit by a bus. You know, the big tourist buses, with the bathrooms in back? Full of old people?" she giggled and leaned back. She opened her door, and in one quick movement, she was out of the car and slinking down the sidewalk, leaving a bewildered Syaoran staring after her.

"Who the hell is she?" Syaoran asked him self, absently rubbing his ear where her mouth had been only seconds before. He shrugged as he watched her turn a corner, disappearing from his sight.

What Syaoran and Sakura didn't know was that there was another pair of eyes that saw the scene. A short, scrawny man with slicked back hair bumbled into his car and grabbed his cell phone. What luck was this? He had been out cruising for hookers when he saw a car randomly stop and heard voices drifting through the car's open windows. Dave was going to be pleased about this. Maybe he'd even let him race for once. He speed dialed Dave's cell number, and in moments had repeated everything that he had just witnessed. He grinned as he hung up. If he had to follow her to become one of Dave's gang, he would. He eased his car back out into the street, trying to follow her as indiscreetly as possible.

Sakura hurried down the streets. She didn't want to call Charles again, so she was just going to have to hoof it back home. She slipped off her slightly high heeled flip flops, grabbed them in her hand, and jogged home. It was times like this that she thanked her father for telling her that she was fat. She ran ten miles every morning, to keep those pounds of baby fat off, and it kept her in shape for times like this. The sun was rapidly climbing into the sky, and she guessed that it was about 10 o'clock. Thankfully, everybody on her street lived far away from the road. They wouldn't see a barefoot girl stumble up to the Kinomoto mansion at 10 in the morning. She slipped through her mansion's gates and lightly padded up to her front door. Her housekeeper, Adell, pulled the doors open and shooed her inside.

"Sakura, where have you been? Charles dropped you off hours ago, we were worried sick!"

"I'm sorry, Adell, I got caught up. Is my father awake yet?" Adell didn't have time to answer Sakura because just then her father's booming voice rang out from the stairs.

"Where the hell have you been?" her father asked, his eyes glinting with anger.

"Oh! Good morning father! I just ran out to drop my car off at the shop, remember I told you it needed an oil change?"

But Fujitaka was no longer listening to his only daughter. He had turned around and was watching Sakura's best friend Tomoyo sleepily stumble down the stairs in one of Fujitaka's enormous business shirts.

"Girl! Get your little skank ass out of my clothes! If you need something to wear, go to Sakura's room and help yourself." He said. His eyes followed her, pinpointed on her behind, as she headed up the stairs toward Sakura's room. Of course she knew where it was, she and Sakura had had slumber parties there since they were toddlers.

Sakura was also staring as Tomoyo climbed the stairs. Now she knew why that purse had looked so familiar. Tomoyo had been excitedly chatting about it a couple of days before when she had just bought it. Sakura held in tears. Her best friend had just slept with her father. Her lifelong friend, who was only a month older than her, had just had sex with her dad. But she didn't have time to think about it, because her father turned back to her.

"I'm busy right now. I want you out of here this instant. Since you don't have your car, why don't you go out running? You're looking a bit overweight. No one wants to elect a politician that has a fat daughter. And for god's sake, do something about your clothes and make-up; you look like a crack whore. We have another press meeting scheduled at 4 o'clock and I expect you to be there, dressed and smiling. Now go."

"Yes father." Sakura said. Obediently, she walked up the stairs to go to her room. She needed to change. As she got to her door, Tomoyo was just walking out. She was wearing Sakura's favorite pink sundress. It looked gorgeous on her, and she said so. She completely ignored the fact that Tomoyo had just slept with her father, and had just helped herself to her clothing. Her father was right; she probably was putting on a few pounds. She would start running 20 miles. Maybe then she would look as good in the pink sundress as Tomoyo did. Maybe then her father would pay more attention toward her.

Sakura hurriedly pulled off her shirt, replacing it with an athletic shirt that was also pink, with black piping around the tank top sleeves and neck line. She unzipped her jeans, preparing to replace them with her black running shorts, but as she pulled them down, the white card with Syaoran's number on it fell out of her pocket and fluttered to the floor. She put on her black shorts and picked up the number. She set it on her dresser and finished getting ready. She was exhausted. She hadn't slept in forever, and she had just run God knows how many miles. And now she was about to run some more. She shoved it out of her head. She grabbed her Discman, put in her Korn CD, and jogged out of the house. Maybe if she ran fast enough and far enough, she could outrun her problems. It didn't seem likely, but she was willing to give it a try. She ran off down the street, wrapped up in the screamed lyrics coming out of her headphones and the burning sensation that was already building up in her muscles. Of course she wouldn't notice a rat-like man with slicked back hair following her in a car.

Whoosh... Another chapter... And Sakura got dissed! Everyone thinks she's a skank, her daddy calls her fat... and her best friend slept with her dad... Ouchy... Anyway, looking back, I realize 2 things... 1) that it was borning, and 2) That it wasn't very long.. Anyway, I shal console you with the fac tthat next chapter will be better or... I'll... I don't know... mabe get hit by that bus that Sakura was talking about? heehee... Anyway, I hope you like, and the story should be getting a little bit more exciting in the next chapter or so... Thanks for reviewing, and please keep it up!