"Tomorrow…" he said through a mouthful of chewed up sub, " Sakura is working with me"
Eriol nearly gagged on the food in his mouth. His eyes grew wide and he coughed a few times
"HUH?? But you NEVER work with ANYONE!!" he said confused. I admit, I was a bit
confused too, I also knew that Syaoran was a lone wolf type of guy…so what the heck does he
wanna work with me for?
Syaoran looked up at us with some lettuce hanging from his mouth and began to talk, I watched
as small bits of food sprayed from his mouth and frowned in disgust…you'd think a guy older
than all of us would have at least some manners.
"Yea, I usually work alone, and I bring back at least a full bag of food. But Sakura and Eriol
brought back at least enough food to last us a few days. So if we team up, maybe we can get
more food, more often." He said, swallowing his food. Eriol smiled and nodded.
"okay. Whatever works, this kid is good though, I think you'll be a good team. But what about
the rest of us?" he asked, looking around at Takashi and the recently demoted Takashi. He
scratched his chin quickly and flicked something into the air, which makes me wonder how clean
we really are. Watching him scratch himself made me rather itchy and soon we both looked like
a couple of dogs trying to get a flea. Which, again, makes me wonder…can people get fleas? I
know we don't have to worry about lice because lice like clean hair…and our hair was anything
but clean, but what about fleas?? Okay, no more talk of itchy bugs…STOP SCRATCHIN
YOURSELF SAKURA!! "Well, Eriol and Tomoyo, you two can work together, and Takashi,
you can work by yourself. You never get much anyways, no matter who you work with." He
said with a wicked grin on his face. I chortled lightly and then coughed, covering my mouth with
my grubby sleeve. When up close, it looked as if there could be an entire civilization living in the
dirt on my shirt… but its better than no clothes at all. Living on the streets kind of gives you a
new appreciation of things. Which I suppose can help you in the long run. Somehow…maybe…
okay, maybe not, but I think it clogs your conscious a bit, and feeling so sorry for yourself helps
in the begging and whining. At least for me it does. I fished through the rest of my food, picking
all the leafy greens off of them. I didn't like the taste. One would think that with so little to eat,
you'd take what you get, but for some reason lettuce makes me sick every time I eat it. Mom
said I was allergic to lettuce…which I didn't quite know what that meant when I was four and
couldn't say much but 'I gotta potty' and the ever famous ' more'. Syaoran looked at me with a
confused stare and shifted his eyes to the mayonnaise covered lettuce lying on my knee.
"Why aint you eatin that?" he said mid chew. I looked up at him, thinking of how to form my
response. "I…am…allergic…" I said, making sure I said it right. He smiled at the way I said
it…or maybe he was smiling cause I talk funny, who knows, the point is he smiled. Unusual for
him. And it seemed that when he smiled, it was always in my direction. "Well, that sucks. Here,
I'll eat it. I'm not picky." He said, walking over to me and swiping the lettuce off of my knee. I
nodded and continued my thorough inspection of foods. The next day, Syaoran woke me up a
little before everyone else. I muttered something in Japanese and attempted to roll over but was
welcomed by the unexpected surprise of Tomoyos foot. I jumped up and smacked my head into
Syaoran's chin, sending us both to the ground, hissing in pain. He rubbed his chin and laughed,
making me suddenly aware that I was cursing under my breath… of course in Japanese, so it
sounded like a two year old babbling randomly.
"Hey, I have a proposition for you." He said, crawling over a sleeping Takashi and sitting down
next to me. I looked at him blankly and tilted my head to the side. He grinned and nodded.
"Right. You don't speak much English. Okay, how bout this? I have an idea. A Deal kind of."
He said, looking at me with wondering eyes, hoping that I would understand something he said.
Well lets just make today full of surprises, cause I understood. Two points for me!
"A…Deal?" I asked, stifling a yawn. He nodded and turned to face me. "Okay, You help me
get a lot of food, like you did with Eriol, and I'll help you with your English. Deal?" He said,
staring at me again. I didn't like it when he stared at me. Mainly because it made me want to
stare back. I nodded and held out my hand, I had watched enough TV at the orphanage to
know that that's what people do when settling an agreement. "Deal." I said, shaking his hand.
He smiled. Again with the smiling! Why does he have to smile so much at me!
After getting everyone up and on their way, Syaoran and I plodded down the streets of New
York, making our way to Market Street, where there were about fifty street vendors and open
markets lined with assorted fruits. We stood in an alleyway that dumped right into the hustle and
bustle of the vending and buying. "Okay Sakura. Go work your magic." He said, patting my
back encouragingly. I nodded and made my left arm holding my blanket limp. I took off my right
shoe and tousled my hair roughly. I began to think of the night my mother died and the day I had
come to New York. My vision became blurry and I felt the tears start to fall down my cheeks. I
limped out onto the side walk and began walking past street vendors, acting pleasantly surprised
when I found a penny on the ground. I began my fake attempts to look for change and made
sure I tripped myself as I bent down to pick up a quarter conveniently next to a vendors cart.
Once I hit the ground I began to cry, making the guy look down at me sympathetically. I looked
up at him with pathetic eyes and rubbed at my knee where it had gotten scraped up a little and
had begun to bleed lightly.
"Are…Are you alright?" He asked, kneeling down next to me with a band-aid. I nodded tiredly
and sighed. "Momma sent me…for…to get some of bread…but I think I don't have money
enough to buy some. She…Momma, she tolded me to not to come home until I gots some
bread or some food." I said, making sure the guy realized that I sucked at speaking English. He
nodded with a fatherly expression and stood up. "And you say you don't have enough money
for food?" he asked, making sure he had it right. Alright, I'm getting somewhere! I nodded and
stood up, surprising myself when I winced at the sudden pain in my knee. "Well. How much do
you have?" He asked, watching as I held out my hand, showing three dimes a few pennies and
a dollar in quarters. "The rest some mean boy stole from me." I muttered looking down at my
shoeless foot. He sighed and wiped at his eyes. "Well then." He said pulling a white grocery bag
out and filling it with bread, some salami and a bottle of pop, " Just give me what you have and
tell your momma to pay the rest to Mr. Trinetti, okay?" He said exchanging my mere pocket
change for a full bag of food. I nodded and smiled. " Doumo Arigato!!" I squealed, turning
briskly and limping off to the alley where Syaoran was watching carefully. As soon I was hidden
from the vendors and massive amounts of people, I turned and handed Syaoran the bag. His
eyes widened and a large smile played across his lips as he shifted things around in the bag.
"Wow. Man, Eriol was RIGHT! Your amazing! How do you do it?" He asked, astonished. I
shrugged "Is not much. I'm glad your happy though" I mumbled, sliding my shoe back on my
foot and rubbing my knee where I fell. "Yea right. I get this much in one day, you got it in less
than ten minutes. That's pretty good Sakura. Where did you learn to act like that?" He asked as
we made our way back down the alley. "I Don't know. I guess I think of it like playing with
friends in Japan. We made stories a lot to play out." I said as I rolled my shoulder back and
forth, trying to ease the cramp that formed there due to keeping it in a dead like state for a few
minutes. The rest of the day went unusually well. Syaoran and I got a lot more food than
expected and since we did, we didn't have to go out the next day, which was very good,
because sometime during the night it had begun to rain and by morning it was an ongoing
torrential downpour. So we stayed inside and everyone taught me how to play cards with a
deck that Eriol randomly pulled out of nowhere. It turns out, that knowing how to play
Blackjack and Egyptian rat screw came in handy when one was unusually bored. Mostly though,
other than playing cards, people slept and Syaoran kept to his end of the deal, sitting with me in
the far corner of the hideout, teaching me pronunciations and whatnot. Night came quickly, so
did the rains end. By Twilight, the rain had completely stopped and there was steam leaking
from the ground everywhere. It was a pretty interesting sight to see.
The next few days werepretty much the same. And by the end of the week, we had enough food
in our little hideaway that we didn't have to do anything for a little while. Which was pretty
beneficial to us, seeing as sleep was a wonderful, WONDERFUL thing. Especially since during
one of his random walks outside, Syaoran found a couple of old mattresses ,he hauled them in
and stated that whoever got to it first got it for the night. It was a bit of a throw down but I
actually managed to get the ratty old thing a couple of nights. Granted they weren't in the best of
conditions, they were still a heck of a lot more comfortable than sleeping on wet rocks. My
English was progressing nicely and I didn't sound so unusually dumb when I spoke. Eriol and
Tomoyo working together managed to make out to be a good team and even Takashi was
pulling a little bit of the weight. So for as of right now, Things weren't so bad. Living in the
streets was manageable and in better company than that at the orphanage. Too Bad things
wouldn't stay like that forever.
Well, There's chapter two!!! Huzzah! Hope you liked it!! This was like three pages or
so. Anyways. Please review and tell me what you think!! I personally like this story a
lot. I think I did a pretty good job on this, but my opinion, though interesting, is
irrelevant. So, tell me what you think!! And as always;
Till Next Time!
Ja!
Chappy 3 up soon