Summary: AU-She was kind and too forgiving. Everyone picked on her, beat her. She never seemed to hear them, but it was a heavy burden. What happens when she meets Syaoran, a seemingly ordinary bully? Will she forget the past, and move on? S/S
AN: Typing during vacation because I'm bored…I'm glad I finally got the last chapter posted! It was so hard posting it! Sorry it took so long, I had to email this from my dad's lap top…even though it was done before July 6th…eek...Alright...I admit it...I was procrastinating and fawning over how cool Full Metal Alchemist is...and then I started doing a lot of bit torrent stuff so I could watch all the episodes with ENGLISH subs, cuz the dvds I bought in China were chinese subs! Who would've thunk! Anyways, I'm so sorry!
"talking"
'thinking'
written/typed
flashback
Crystal Dropplets
By Dream4luv
Chapter 6-Athletics and Volunteer Work
Sakura woke up early, her eyes felt so sore after crying so much the day before. She put on her uniform and went downstairs. It was strange, but, today…she felt as if someone was home. She knew there wasn't.
"I'm probably just tired," she muttered to herself as she pulled on her backpack. She grabbed a slice of bread from the refrigerator and slipped silently out the door.
The walk to school was quiet. It was early, no cars were on the street yet. Was it her turn for cleaning duties…? With…?
It was surprising seeing the classroom when she got there. She had been so deep in thought. It seemed as though she was walking mechanically, and her legs just carried her there without even thinking.
She glanced about the classroom, then walked to her desk, taking off her backpack.
"You are slow!" a voice came from the chalkboard.
"Oh…Li-kun! I-I didn't see you…g-good morning."
He looked at her for a moment more, and then grunted. "Go grab the stuff from the supply room already! I'm not gonna do this by myself!"
"O-oh, yeah." And the girl rushed off to the supplies room.
Sakura came back quickly with a sponge and some Windex, and started spraying all the classroom windows and wiping them down. "You sure are early," Sakura started nervously.
"Whatever. Look, why don't you just stop trying to make small talk with me. It's not like we're friends or anything." Syaoran said, glaring at her.
Sakura stopped and looked away. She didn't know what to say.
Soon, students were filing into the classroom, taking their seats and chatting with their friends. Only Sakura was sitting by herself. She was gazing out the window and listening to all the things that her classmates had to say.
The teacher strolled in silently and set all her materials onto her desk. Then she clapped twice to get attention, "Please take your seats. Social time is over."
All the students stopped talking and looked at the teacher.
"Now, I hope you all have come up with schedules for your volunteer work. I wouldn't want anyone to fail your first project. Anyways, today, this class is scheduled for a Physical Education class. The session will be two hours long since it is only once a week. Now, let's begin our math lesson."
The PE teacher stood before the class and blew his whistle. "Today, we are going to do some running and sports. It will not affect your grade as long as you try your hardest. First, I want everyone to take a lap around the track, I will be timing you. Go!"
A flurry of students rushed forward. And it was the same order around. Nerds and slackers were at the back…walking, normal people in the middle…semi-jogging but stopping every few seconds, jocks basically in front…messing around but still running nonetheless, but the soccer players were always first…jogging really fast. And then there was Eriol and Syaoran in front, racing each other, and Sakura was behind them. It was an even pace she was running, she could go faster, but…
Syaoran stared behind him, that girl…she was behind him and Eriol…? But, surely a loser like that couldn't be so athletic…? They were running really fast, and she was behind them, barely even tired!
He shrugged it off, and concentrated on his race with Eriol. He could see the finish now!
Sakura breathed evenly, and then she saw the finish line, she stopped, and dropped back behind the slowest people to re-tie her shoelaces, even though the bows on them were already perfect. As everyone passed her, she jogged slowly to the finish.
"Good job, Kinomoto, I'm glad you tried your best." The teacher said as he clicked the timer as she finished.
Syaoran narrowed his eyes and then he turned to Eriol, "Wasn't she right behind us? Why did she finish last, the finish line was just a couple of feet away."
Eriol took a drink from the water fountain, "She never wins, she always finishes after everyone else. It's been that way since well…since I can remember. She's always behind the fastest runners, and then when the finish is near, she drops behind, and everyone else finishes before her."
"Oh…"
"Ok, to take a rest, I'll give you fifteen minutes of free basketball time. I am going to assign the groups so everyone can get to know each other. Um…let's see, first, let's have Eriol, Syaoran, Sakura, Meiling, and…Tomoyo. Then, let's have…"
Sakura sighed. It was a group of Tomoyo's friends.
"How about some one on one?" Eriol said. "Kinomoto, you can go against Meiling-chan. Even though we all know who's gonna win."
Meiling grinned. The ball was bounced to Sakura. Sakura went around Meiling and got really close to the basket, and then she stopped and bounced the ball until Meiling caught up, and then Meiling had the ball and she shot it into the basket.
"Ha! I knew I would win!"
"Congratulations." Sakura said, a smile forcing its way on her face and she said with genuine sincerity, "You really are good at sports."
"Hmm, of course I am. Better than you'll ever be! A loser like you could never possibly beat me!"
After school, Sakura waited at the fence of the school. She recalled Syaoran telling her to wait for him so they could get to the volunteer hospital.
She heard footsteps behind her.
"Have you been waiting long?"
"Um…n-"
"Well, whatever, I was busy. Let's go."
"Ok…"
The trip was silent, but in the middle of their walk, Syaoran stopped, "Why did you let them beat you?"
Sakura stopped as well, "Let…who…"
"You were running and playing basketball, but right up to the point where you were going to win or finish, you stopped, and they beat you."
Sakura looked down at the cement, but started walking slowly. Syaoran started walking too, "I don't think they like me very much. I think…maybe they'd hate me even more if I beat them in something they thought they could beat me in. Losing is just losing, and winning is winning, I don't think there's much difference between the two. If you think you won, you won. If you think you lost, you lost. It only matters to you, but no one else really cares. So…whether you won or lost is really just what your mind thinks."
Syaoran was quiet, thinking her words over, "Whatever you like to think." He said finally, not fully comprehending what her she meant.
They finally reached the hospital. Syaoran went to the front desk. "We're doing the volunteer project for our school."
The lady looked up from a stack of papers, and pointed to some papers on a clipboard, "Sign in over there. Then, report to the nurse at the station down the hall, she'll give you and your partner the instructions."
Syaoran signed in and told Sakura to follow him to the nurse down the hall.
They found the nurse at the station, "Oh, you two must be here for volunteer work. First, I need you two to put on these uniforms, so we know you're workers, not patients running from shots." The nurse laughed and winked at them.
While the two teens were putting on their uniforms, the nurse smiled at them and asked, "Won't you two tell me your names?"
"Li Syaoran."
"Um…Kinomoto Sakura."
The nurse laughed again, "You know, you two's names go very well with each other…Li Syaoran and Kinomoto Sakura…May I call you two by your first names."
Syaoran frowned at the nurse while Sakura blushed shyly and nodded.
"Ok, well, here's your assignments for now. Sakura-chan, I need you to go to the children's library on this floor and help clean up. There was a little party in there today."
"H-hai!" and the girl rushed off.
"And Li-kun…I need you to…help take out the trash on the thirteenth floor. Afterwards, I need you to go help the nurse in room 511."
"Ok."
The boy walked around a bit, looking for the elevator. The work wasn't hard, but the nurse had assigned him to take out trash on the mental floor. All the people were crazy and they kept asking him incoherent questions.
By the time he had gotten to the fifth floor, he was quite disgruntled. "511…" he muttered to himself. I think I'm going crazy…Oh, here it is."
He knocked on the door and heard a faint "Come in." from inside. He pushed the door open slowly.
The nurse sat beside a patient, holding onto his hand. "Shhh, he's asleep now."
"I heard you needed help." Syaoran said plainly, getting to the point.
"Yes, I have duties on this floor, so I would like to ask you if you would be this patient's personal helper?"
"I-I really don't know what to do…"
"Oh, don't worry, being a volunteer, you don't have to administer any drugs or medications. You just have to help him around and feed him, clean his sheets and simple tasks like that."
"I guess I could…"
"Thank you. All you have to do is wait for him to wake up, then you can bring his dinner up to him, or…whenever you're leaving, just buzz me." She pointed to a little red button. Then she walked out the door, shutting it quietly after her.
Ten minutes passed, and Syaoran sat in the chair with nothing to do. The man was bald but he didn't look too old. He walked over to the door and read a sheet of paper.
Patient #: F46L509K
Date of Check-in: 5/23/02
Illness: Cancer
Specifications: Leukemia
Medication: Chemotherapy
Syaoran recalled that in a book he had read, when a patient underwent chemotherapy, the side-effects included hair loss or something like that…it had been a book his mom had forced him to read so…the information didn't retain very well. And what was with the stupid patient number? Hospitals always made stuff so confusing, there must be a pattern to the numbers…but he was NOT seeing it. And the random spacing of numbers and letters really didn't help, what was up with the random—
Suddenly, he heard the sheets shift, and he saw the man sit up, and reach for his glasses. Syaoran hurried over and handed them to him.
The man looked at him, confused. "Oh…who are you? Are you lost?"
"No, I'm Li Syaoran, your new volunteer helper. I'll be helping you around and stuff. That's what the nurse said, at least."
"Well, it's nice to meet you Li-san." The man said, smiling kindly. "I have a daughter about your age."
"O-oh?" Ok…so he had a daughter, not like Syaoran actually cared, "Um, sir, what should I call you?"
"You can call me Fuji. That's what the nurse calls me, anyways."
"Fuji? As in immortality?"
"I guess." The man's face grew thoughtful. "Hm, I wish my daughter would come by more often. My son always comes, but my daughter doesn't like hospitals very much."
'Ok…so the guy is obsessive about his daughter…'
"Is that so…?"
'Just smile and nod, and pretend you're totally into what he's saying…'
"Someone very close to her died when she was younger in a hospital room, I think that frightened her a little. She doesn't want to see me here."
"If you don't mind me saying," Syaoran said, even though he knew what he was about to say was kind of rude, "but she doesn't seem to care that much about you if she isn't even willing to overcome her fear of hospitals to visit her own father."
The man smiled, "I know she cares about me. She's just not ready to see me. Last time she came, I looked really sick because I had just gone to my chemo session. It really shook her up a bit. But I know she cares because my daughter is just that type of person."
"Is she…?" She sounded like a very considerate person. What would it be like to meet her? Syaoran wondered, and then he remembered, "I have to bring up your dinner!"
Syaoran brought up the food, and he fed it to Fuji-san.
"I'm so embarrassed that I have a teenager feeding me food."
"It's ok…it's what I'm here for."
After dinner, Syaoran told him that he had to go home. He went downstairs thinking about Fuji-san's daughter.
'She must be very popular.'
He pictured her as a girl probably with long blond hair and clear blue eyes…and well, whatever a model looked like. All the guys probably drooled after her. 'Every parent always thinks their own kid is so great, but in reality, they're probably sluts, or bastards, or whatevers…So this chick must be a real bitch.'
He saw the nurse at the station, "Where's Kinomoto, our hours are over for today."
"She's in the children's ward right now."
"And where is that…?"
"Take a right turn, walk straight down the hall until you come to a glass door, and that would be it."
Syaoran ambled slowly down the hall. He could hear Sakura's voice as he got closer to the children's ward.
"…To make up to the King for her leaving, she gave him a pill that would grant him immortality, eternal life, and Kaguya Hime returned to her palace on the moon. After the departure of Kaguya Hime, the King was very sad, and he cried out, 'What good is the drought of immortality, if I can never be reunited with my beloved Kaguya Hime?' He traveled to the top of a volcanic mountain and threw the pill into the fiery pits of the volcano." Sakura closed the storybook.
The little girls started chattering about how romantic and sad it was while the little boys said how lame it was and how if they were the King, they definitely would have taken the immortality pill.
"Sakura-san, is that how Mt. Fuji came to be?" a little girl asked.
"Yeah, because the very mountain that the pill of immortality was burned on was Mt. Fuji. Or that is what the legend tells." Sakura smiled at the girl, and then she seemed to notice Syaoran, "Oh, Li-kun. Is it time to go, already…?"
"Ah…yeah." Syaoran looked at Sakura strangely. It was really weird, but when Sakura had been talking to that little girl, something was…different, something that he couldn't exactly explain. It was like she had…changed. He shook his head, that couldn't be possible!
They walked out the hospital together, the sky was beginning to darken. "You can walk home from here can't you, Kinomoto?"
"Yeah."
"Good, than I don't have to hang out with you more than I have to." He said, as he walked away from her.
He heard her footsteps leave, and he looked back at her.
'Fuji-san…'
'Everlasting life…'
Syaoran laughed to himself at the irony, a man with cancer couldn't possibly live up to even the lifespan of the average man, right?
AN: Ok…very odd (but longer than usual) chapter…It sounds like a pretty pointless chapter…or does it? Ok, now I'm probably just confusing you…Please review! Please please please?