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Six. Everyone Has a Story
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Junior year was stressful. Sakura was still putting together her list—the list of colleges she was planning on applying to, divided into three sections of "reach," "just right," and "safety" schools—and she felt terribly under prepared. It seemed like everyone else at school already had their lists ready since elementary school.
Although her father never said anything, she knew that he had always harbored the silent hope of Sakura attending Harvard. Her older brother, Touya, had just graduated from Harvard the year before summa cum laude in economics and history. He was currently at a prestigious internship at the United Nations headquarters in New York City; he had already been accepted into Yale Law, which he will be attending next fall. Sakura has always been very proud of her brother. But she has always known that she was not like him. Harvard was absolutely out of the question for her.
Tomoyo didn't talk about college but everyone knows she would be accepted into Princeton. Tomoyo was smart and driven enough to go to any school she wanted. But Princeton was a certainty since it had been her mother's alma mater; the Daidouji family had been one of the university's most generous benefactors.
KT had always wanted to attend Yale. But given her parents' ties with Harvard Medical, KT would most likely be pressured to go to Harvard anyways. Alex has been considering schools on the West Coast and Emma would most likely end up going to university in the UK.
Sakura stared at her list. Nine schools so far and none of them were places she truly saw herself. Suddenly angry, she exited out of the Word document. She stared at the empty pink background of her Mac Book and wondered why she was always the one who couldn't figure it out.
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"What do you think about Boston College?" Sakura's father asked over dinner, seemingly out of the blue.
Sakura frowned over her barely touched lasagna. "I don't know," she replied, because well, she really didn't.
Fujitaka tried again, "Amherst College? That's not too far away. It's a great place to go especially if you are unsure of what you want to study."
"I—Dad, I'm working on it," she replied and poked at her lasagna. Sakura had gained two pounds over the last three days and decided that it was time for a diet. She couldn't afford to gain more weight.
"Is there something wrong with the lasagna, honey?"
She shook her head. "No, it's delicious. I'm just not very hungry."
"Are you feeling all right?" Fujitaka asked, concerned.
"Yeah, Dad, I'm fine. I'm just tired I guess. This year has been really stressful so far."
He nodded slowly. "I know, it's a tough time of the year. You do know you can talk to me anytime, right? I'm always here for you."
Sakura studied her father's face; he looked genuinely worried. Suddenly she felt the room shift a little. Sakura had always been very good about concealing things from her family—not that she wanted to, in particular, but because things were just easier if her father didn't know about all the details. She didn't really know how to talk to her dad. They were very close when she was younger. But as she got older, she found herself with less and less to say to him. There are just things that she couldn't talk about with her dad. As the years passed, she found that she was holding back so much from him that she ended up holding back everything.
"Dad, I'm fine," she said and forced herself to smile. "Thanks though."
Fujitaka nodded. "And if you have questions about college, anything at all, just let me know," he added. "I can put you in contact with my colleagues at the university too, if you have questions about undergraduate work in other departments."
Sakura poked at her lasagna again. A heavy guilt settled in her stomach. "Yeah, Dad," she said uncommittedly. "Yeah, that would be great."
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The first snow of the year fell the Monday before Thanksgiving.
It started during second period and continued through the day. By the time Sakura finally got out of cheerleading practice late that afternoon, there was at least a foot of snow on the ground.
Emma, her only close friend on the squad, had already gotten a ride back home with her boyfriend, Max Barnet. Or least, Sakura thought he was her boyfriend. Emma usually had a different boy every couple of weeks; it was hard to keep track. In retrospect, Sakura should have gotten a ride with them when Emma offered.
Instead, Sakura volunteered to stay later to clean up after practice; it was their last practice before the big Thanksgiving game. Sakura stuffed her uniform into her gym bag and braced for the worst when she finally headed out to the student parking lot. It was five and almost completely dark outside. The snow was still coming down. The storm must have caught everyone by surprise because no one had been prepared to do road maintenance. Sakura took one look at her silver Pathfinder buried in the snow and knew there was no way she could possibly get it out.
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"Hi Dad, it's me. I'm like kind of stuck at the high school because my car's been completely buried in the snow. Can you come pick me up on your way back from the university? Thanks, bye," Sakura flipped her cell phone shut and looked outside angrily. The snow as coming down hard.
She settled down on the steps in the darkened lobby, sat her gym bag beside her. Maybe Tomoyo or KT has time to pick her up.
"Um hey."
Sakura spun around. "Syaoran?"
He looked nervous and ran a hand through his ridiculously messy auburn hair. "Snowed in?" he asked.
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, my car's like buried."
"Me too," he replied and sat down beside her on the lobby steps. He turned to look at her, "Do you want a ride? Someone's coming to pick me up in a bit."
She looked down at her hands. "Yeah, that'd be great! I'm having trouble reaching my dad," then turning toward him, "Thank you."
"No problem. So where do you live?"
"On Linden, near Sheppard's Lake," she replied. Her house was a beautiful white two story in the Colonial revival style.
Syaoran's eyes widened. "That's insane! I live around there too. My house must be only a couple of houses down from your house. You know, the weird looking blue one."
"I know that house! The Queen Anne? I always wondered who lived there," she laughed. "I've passed by it my entire life and always wanted to know more about it. I mean, it's such a strange house, but really beautiful."
"It's been in the family for generations," he explained. "Apparently my great-grandfather built it when he was doing business here, back when Boston was a major port. The story goes that he fell in love with the governor's daughter and built the house for her."
"Did they ever live there together?" she wanted to know.
Syaoran flushed. "Nah," he chuckled. "Apparently things didn't really work out. He had to go back to London for his business. When he came back, she was already married to someone else. But he decided to keep the house around in memory of their love. They say that he use to stay at the house whenever he came around Boston because he still loved her; she was always the one who got away. In his will, he stipulated that the house always be under the care of the family. So I guess we are stuck with it."
"That's a wonderful," Sakura exclaimed. A warm weight settled in her chest like back when she was a little girl and someone had just read her a fairy tale. "I knew a house like that had to have a story!" She clasped her hands together excitedly.
Something about her words stopped him. He squinted, studied her face. "Yeah? You think so?"
Sakura nodded. "Everyone has a story," she replied.
"Hm," he considered it and turned towards the doors that overlooked the pick-up area. The snow was still coming down hard; everything had been washed white. "Does it usually snow this much in November?"
"No, thankfully."
"Freak storm?"
"Something like that."
"Wei's here," Syaoran pointed as a black town car pulled in slowly in front of the entrance. "Come on, we'll take you home."
Wei turned out to be a stern looking man who introduced himself as Master Li Syaoran's caretaker and tutor. He was impeccably groomed and stepped out from the driver's seat into the raging storm to open the back doors for them to get in.
Sakura felt a little strange being waited on. "Um, thanks," she muttered.
"It's no problem," Wei replied graciously. "Miss—?"
"This is Sakura Kinomoto," Syaoran supplied, turning and beaming at her.
"Yes, of course," Wei nodded as he climbed back into the driver seat. "Where to, Miss Kinomoto?"
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"Hi Dad, it's me. You must be stuck on the roads. But I got a ride from a friend. Don't worry about me, I'm already home. See you later."
Shutting off her phone, Sakura looked out the lobby window into the driveway as the black town car slowly made its way down the street. She watched the car disappeared into the trees and falling snow and wanted, more than anything, to know Syaoran Li's story.
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Author's Notes: Okay so I admit that a snow storm is a bit of an ill contrived plot device to get two of our protagonists to spend some quality time together. But I'll have you know that a few years ago I did get stuck at school during a snow storm and ended up having to talk to someone for an hour.
I hope to continue work on this story whenever I have free time, which is actually about once in a blue moon. I'm spending a semester studying abroad in Budapest, Hungary coming up in January. So things are a little crazy around here.
Please review before you leave!