Thanks again for the reviews, they made me happy:D
Well, here's chapter 3. It's shorter than the rest and it won't make the plot go forward that much, but it's cute anyway. These words are either flashbacks or song parts. These words are thoughts. These words are normal narration.
School is starting tomorrow and I have a feeling it will take a long time for chapter 4 to come out... Gomenasai!
Chapter 3: Hoping
Syaoran was thinking.
And that was unusual for him, because most days he didn't take the time to stop and think hard like he was doing now. He was more of the type to sit in a corner with some friends trying to put off studying as long as he could.
But today, he was thinking, and he was thinking so hard that he was confused. Li Syaoran was not easily confused.
"Li-san!"
He looked up into the puzzled faces of the props crew. "So do we go with this design, or is it too simple?"
Damn it, you guys are the props people, you should know! I don't know anything about art! "Umm, it's fine. It's only coming out in one scene anyway."
"But it's the tower scene," a girl said. He didn't remember her name. That was happening a lot nowadays. "It's the most important scene in the musical!"
"It's okay," Syaoran said, his mind already on other things. "The audience will be watching the performers, they won't be paying attention to the decor." He poked his index finger into the sample pattern they had made for the tower furniture. "This is great. I need to finish up with the extras, so if you'll excuse me…"
He walked away from the props people, hands in his pockets. That was a lie. He didn't really need to talk to the extras, and he sure as hell didn't want to, since Ami was one of them. Ami… Syaoran's fists tightened, and he fought down the urge to kick something. What had possessed that girl to humiliate Sakura so badly? Everyone knew Kinomoto didn't like being stared at.
Still, you didn't have to go rushing in like Prince Charming, a nasty little voice in his head told him. Honestly, are you happy that the whole drama club is talking about you and her now because of yesterday?
I don't care, he thought resolutely, but he wasn't too sure.
"Syao-kun, there you are!"
He turned, surprised to see Meiling and Tomoyo standing in front of him. "Meiling… what are you doing here?"
Tomoyo raised an eyebrow, while Meiling simply smiled and cocked her head to the left. "We're just visiting, to see why you actually stick around here…" She trailed off, catching sight of one of the crepe paper roses the props people had made for Sleeping Beauty's bouquet. "Oooh, these are pretty!"
Meiling started playing with the roses and Syaoran ran over. "No, wait, those can get unraveled easily…" He stopped. It's like she's the one being me. Tomoyo snickered at him.
Sighing, he walked down the stairs to where the audience seats were, and sat with his hands behind his head. Tomoyo followed him. "So what's up, Syao-kun?"
"What's up?" He scowled at the ceiling. "Well, let's see, I have a group of extras who are too lazy to practice, a props crew who ask me about every single pattern they design, a head director who's twice as busy as I am so he doesn't have time to answer my questions, and a Sleeping Beauty who might not play the part after all."
"Eh? Kinomoto-san might not be Sleeping Beauty?" Meiling had come down the stairs to listen, one of the crepe paper roses tucked behind her ear. "What happened, Syao-kun?"
What happened? It was a long story, Syaoran thought.
He'd waited until she was finished crying before trying to talk to her. Now Sakura sat with her head tilted back, leaning against the wall for support. The pink princess dress lay crumpled around her.
"Ami lied and told me I had to wear this to practice," she said dully. Syaoran stared at the ground, anger rising, but Sakura didn't seem to care anymore.
"Maybe I shouldn't try," she said. "I'll probably get stage fright anyway."
Syaoran sighed. "Listen, I won't blame you if you decide to stop going to practice."
Sakura looked straight at him. "You won't?" The gratitude in her eyes was unmistakable.
"Someone pulled a dirty prank on her," Syaoran said to his friends, trying to act like he didn't care. Meiling looked at him confused, and Tomoyo said tentatively, "That's all?"
"What do you mean, 'that's all'?" he snapped. "It was bad. Really bad. Meiling, you know how Sakura hates being laughed at."
Meiling shrugged. "I dunno, I mean, if she really wanted to play the part, she wouldn't let a bunch of mean people stop her, would she?"
"That's just it." Syaoran remembered the Kinomoto Sakura he'd seen in the middle of the auditorium, for once the complete opposite of cool and composed. The look she'd given him when he came in had been full of pleading. "I don't even think she wants to play the part."
Meiling and Tomoyo looked at Syaoran, and then at each other, deciding that maybe this wasn't the best time to hang out. "Well… we'll see you later, Syao-kun," Tomoyo said as they stood. He didn't even watch them go.
"Why the hell do you want to pick on her?" Syaoran said, almost shouting at Ami in front of him. Sakura had gone home, taking the dress with her.
The girl shrugged infuriatingly in the same way he liked to do. "That Kinomoto is too full of herself," she said decisively. "Come on, it was just a prank. I've done it to four other kids before."
" 'That Kinomoto', as you so charmingly put it, has a phobia of being embarrassed," he hissed. "I don't know about you, but what I saw when she looked up at me was trauma. Intense trauma."
Ami's face twisted into a glare. "Whatever! What do you care, anyway! That girl has never been nice to anyone in the whole school; she sure doesn't deserve your special treatment!"
"She's the lead—"
"No, you know what, just because she's so great at singing doesn't mean you have to be her personal bodyguard!" Ami suddenly smirked. "You do know that the whole school is wondering why you're being so nice to her. She's pretty cute and all, but do you really want a girl like that?"
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "I'm being nice because I was the one who found her for the Sleeping Beauty part, and it's going to take a lot to keep her playing the part. You just made it harder. We'll be lucky if Kinomoto-san ever comes back."
"Li-kun, we have singers. Good singers. We don't need her!" She looked frustrated now, as if she was talking to a four-year-old kid who didn't want to listen. "So what if she doesn't come back?"
"It's not just the singing." Syaoran took a deep breath. "You don't understand."
"Oh, and you do, being the absolute expert on theatre all of a sudden? If the counselor hadn't told you to get into extracurriculars, you'd never be here as the 'assistant director'," Ami scoffed. Syaoran knew it was true.
"Just leave her alone, Ami," he said coldly, and walked away feeling sick of himself.
If Eriol caught him taking a break now he'd send Syaoran right back to work, so going back to talk to the performers was Syaoran's best choice. He didn't want to face Ami again after their argument yesterday, but it couldn't be helped.
Syaoran leaned forward to peer over a girl's shoulder at the paper she was holding. The lines for the evil fairy were highlighted in blue so that she wouldn't get confused with the rest of the script. "You guys practicing again?" he asked.
They turned to look at him. "Oh… yes…"
Something was different. He frowned, getting a little impatient of how everyone was acting up. "Listen, do you guys think I shouldn't have defended Sakura?"
The evil fairy actress stared at him dumbfounded, and then laughed. "No, of course not! Most of us weren't even there." She hesitated, and then continued. "We were just wondering… practice started 15 minutes ago and Kinomoto-san isn't here. There's only a little more than a week left—do you think we should start looking for a new Sleeping Beauty?"
Syaoran considered the question. They were right, of course. If Sakura didn't come today she'd have to cram to memorize all her lines in time for the dress rehearsal in a few days, plus she'd miss the practice they were all going to have right now. "Well, you guys can go on and read your lines together," he said. "If she doesn't come today we'll think of something."
Secretly he wanted to run all the way to her house and demand that she come back to practice, but the girl would probably just fry him with one of those potions she was always experimenting with. Come on, Sakura, he thought, glancing at the door. Don't let Ami get to you.
All the performers had practiced their songs at home, but there were still the non-singing parts to practice, since a lot of them were terrible at acting. Eriol came and sat down in a circle with all of them. "Okay, let's start," he said, nodding to the boy who was supposed to be narrator.
"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a king and queen ruled over their land. They were kind and virtuous, and the townspeople loved them dearly, but they were sad, for they had no child."
Syaoran sat down at the edge of the circle to listen, pretending that to not notice the props crew calling him over. He glanced at the door again. Sakura said she was practicing her songs at home, but did that mean her lines, too?
"Then one day the queen found that she was expecting a baby. The news rushed through their kingdom, heralds spreading their joy among the townspeople."
Eriol nodded to the extras. "This is where you start singing." The narrator continued.
Syaoran listened as the story went through its beginning: the king and queen invited twenty fairy godmothers for their baby girl, allowing them to give gifts. But they'd forgotten one evil fairy, and that offended her. On the princess's birthday, the evil fairy arrived to give her a curse—on her sixteenth birthday, the princess would prick her finger on a spindle and die.
"And this is where my song comes in, right?" the girl he'd talked to asked. Eriol nodded. They continued to the cottage scene.
Syaoran's eyes drifted to the auditorium door once again. It was almost time for the princess's part, and Sakura still wasn't there.
She's the only one who can really play the part, Syaoran thought, looking at the door and then around the auditorium. Sakura still wasn't there. It's not just the singing and her looks, it's just… the way she talks, she can be the princess.
"Briar-rose, would you pick some berries for us? There are some ripe ones near the house, and we can have them with tea," one of the 'fairy godmothers' said. She raised an eyebrow. "Do I really have to say 'have them with tea'? I don't think that was in the cartoon."
The scriptwriter sighed. "We're trying to make it different from the Disney cartoon! Now, who's next…? Oh yeah, the princess…" he trailed off as all of them realized that Sakura probably wasn't coming. The performers looked to Eriol, their question clear. Who'll be the princess?
"Erm… well…" Eriol was as reluctant to replace Sakura as Syaoran was. He looked up at the doorway and then called out, "Is Kinomoto-san here yet?"
"Nope!" someone called. Syaoran turned and saw it was Ami who'd spoken. She smirked up at him, hands on her hips as if to say, What are you going to do now?
Eriol looked at him and shrugged an apology. "We'll get someone else to play Sleeping Beauty, since Kinomoto doesn't seem to want to anymore. There was that one girl who auditioned… we can still reach her and ask her to memorize the parts at home." He nodded to the fairy godmother. "Go on. Just skip Aurora's parts for now."
The cast looked back at him blankly. "But the whole act has her, with the song and all, until the Prince comes."
Eriol thought for a moment. "Well… I'll read her parts for now, to fill in," he said awkwardly. "Let's see… 'Oh, I'd love to! I'll be back in a few hours.'" Some of the other performers snickered, and Eriol's cheeks turned red. "Go on!" he snapped at the narrator. They continued; the princess started talking with her animal friends.
"…oh, someday I'll meet him, I just know it." Eriol's face was blazing by now, but he went on. "Someday I'll meet a handsome prince." He looked up from his script. "Aurora should sing n—"
I wonder, I wonder
At that moment the auditorium doors opened to let in sunlight and the silhouette of a girl standing in the doorway.
I wonder if
my heart keeps singing
Will my song go winging
The girl kept singing softly as she made her way up to their circle and sat next to Syaoran, keeping her eyes down at the floor.
To someone,
who'll find me
And bring back a love song to me?
Sakura looked up and seemed to notice that everyone was listening. "Is that right?" she asked shyly, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.
Eriol grinned and Syaoran noticed he was doing the same. "The princess has arrived, ladies and gentlemen," Syaoran said, putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder. She looked up at him with a smile on her face.
"Syao-kun?"
"Yes?"
"You're touching me again."
He smiled down at her in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "Sure. If I were you, I wouldn't come within a mile of the auditorium ever again," he joked, trying to cheer her up.
Sakura stared thoughtfully into space. "Mmm," she said. It didn't really mean anything. After a while she stood, brushing off the dress and getting ready to go home.
"You know what?" He'd been surprised that she spoke again.
"What?"
"It wouldn't be nice to let that Ami girl win, would it?"
He grinned back at her. "No, it wouldn't."
It was a little confusing, but did you like it? PLEASE review. I need happiness to survive school, ugh.
