Months flew by as usual. The routine never changed, Syaoran and I would go out every day and pilfer, pillage
and otherwise plunder our way through the streets, taking whatever we could fit our grubby lil fingers around
and make off with as fast as we could. Same as the others, though they weren't nearly as proficient. My English
is nearly perfect now, although I still have some troubles saying some things. Which is somewhat embarrassing,
though Syaoran and Eriol both insist that its adorable, not annoying, which only makes me more embarrassed.
Today though, Today was different. Today when we were all out pillaging the streets like good little orphans,
Takashi picked up a friend. Yup. Syaoran and I came back to find that everyone was going gaga over this new
chick, who miraculously…looked like me. But that wasn't the scary part…okay it was moderately creepy, but the
scary thing was… I knew her. Yea, from the orphanage. What she was doing here, in our hideout, was beyond
me. But what was even scarier was the reaction Syaoran had to her. No screaming fits of rage, no cold
shouldering. Nope, he smiled and went over to talk to her. All nice and buddy buddy like
"Takashi, who's this?" he grinned sitting across from her and glancing in her direction.
"Ah, this, is Risa. I found her scurrying about the spillway when I was out scavenging. She's pretty good at it
too. Look!" Takashi said, waving his arms over a pile of food about half the size of ours. Syaoran's eyes widened
and he smiled.
"Well. That's impressive. Uh…you got a place to stay?" he asked, hoping that she didn't. She smiled and shook
her head.
"nope. 'Fraid I don't." she said sheepishly. Syaoran grinned and nodded
"Kay. Now you do. Welcome." he said happily. I glowered at Risa but quickly suppressed it. Only because she
had turned to see who else was here. And her eyes got all wide and she smiled and put on a big 'oh im so happy
to see you!' act.
"Oh…my…gosh. Sakura! HOW ARE YOU?!" she said loudly, thinking I couldn't speak a lick of English yet.
Well, I'll show her.
" Eh, alright, actually, pretty good, and you?" I said perfectly, making her eyes go wide.
"Wow. Your learned to talk! that's good!" She said, sounding like she was talking to a three year old. This is
why I hated this chick, She talked to everyone like she was the queen of the whole darn world and that everyone
was below her. That she was unusually smart and witty and that everyone loved her. Yea right. She's a she devil
if you ask me. A evil, evil thing. But something puzzled me more than her being all nice and acting like a
downtrodden dork. What the hell was she doing here. On the streets?
"you two know each other?" Syaoran asked, with a surprised expression.
"Yea…" I muttered " from the orphanage, she was there too. But what gets me is… what the heck are you doin
here, Risa, you never struck me as someone who would succumb to street life. Your more of a 'let me get adopted
to a rich family, God' kinda girl" I said, only stumbling over a couple of words. I was known to stutter sometimes.
"Oh…well if you must know" She said like it was some huge secret. "I came to look for you. You were right to
get out of that hellhole while you could. And I thought maybe living on the streets like you would get me to find
you and learn how to do this thang right." she said nodding her head. I raised an eyebrow and grinned.
"You…want to be like me?" I asked, trying to hold in a scream of laughter that was building in side of me. But I
couldn't. It came out like an explosion. After I was done laughing my butt off, I wiped my eye and sighed.
"Whooo. You have know idea what you got yourself into. You think this is easy?" I asked, saying 'yourself'
more like 'yuuselsh'. dang my inability to speak right. The girl nodded blankly and I just laughed again.
"It looks easy. Right?" she said, sitting down next to me.
"There was a reason I never liked you…" I mumbled under my breath.
"huh?"
"Oh… nothing. Risa, your kidding yourself if you think this was easy. I would have died if Syaoran hadn't
rescued my sorry butt from a vendor and some crazed pigeons. Every day we wake up in some uncomfortable
position. We get up, square off and head out to look for food. Which is no picnic. We have to steal it all because
we have no money. You have to do all this low and degrading stuff just to hope to get a slice of bread and if you
cant, you have to steal it and risk the police coming after you. Food is always limited, I think That we've been
wearing the same clothes for about two weeks now, on and off. The baths we take are in the water hole a few
minutes away from here and its really just a giant puddle from all the rain, and we only do that to get the dirt out
of our hair and off our skin. Eriol hasn't brushed his teeth in a while and Im running out of toothpaste…which I
was smart enough to take from the orphanage. If your lucky you may get a mattress, which has springs poking
out and all of the food you get, no matter how much, gets either divided or shared among everyone else, and
then the scraps go to Suppi. This is not easy. So if you want to do this get that silly delusion out of your head."
I rambled, making her gasp and nod when appropriate. Syaoran and the rest of 'um nodded in agreement and
mumbled 'yup' and whatnot.
"Okay. But who's Suppi? Is there someone else I haven't met?" she asked, confused. I shook my head and
turned around, picking the small, sleeping black cat up from the mattress behind me. I had found a better blue
ribbon a while back and replaced the old one. I cradled the kitten like a baby and scratched his chin.
"This is Spinel. We call him Suppi though. And he needs to eat too." I said, holding the cat out and then putting
him down when I was finished, watching him crawl into my lap and go to sleep, purring contently.
"Aw. He's cute." she smiled, reaching down and petting him on the head. He tried to bite her, which I thought
was funny.
"hey…" she muttered, pulling her hand back quickly.
"Do you understand now? This is no cakewalk" Eriol said, shuffling over to sit next to Tomoyo and Syaoran
hopped over the little bit of creek that ran under the tunnel and sat down next to me.
"oh. So does that mean I have to go back, cause I really don't want to. I made quite the dramatic exit." she said,
nodding her head somberly.
"No it just means you gotta know what your getting in to." Takashi said, turning to face her.
"I do! Can I please stay?" she begged, which was waaayyy below Risa. Something was up.
"Yea. Sure why not. But you need to pull your own weight. You'll team up with Takashi okay?" Syaoran said,
taking up his leader like responsibilities.
"Oh. But I was hoping I could go with you…" she said, cutely, batting her eyes and smiling at Syaoran. I stifled
a laugh at how stupid she looked and smiled when Syaoran shook his head.
"Nope. Not gonna happen. I work with Sakura. And I don't care if you have a little bit of Skill with pilfering,
nobody can steal or weasel her way into getting food like this girl can." he said proudly, nudging my arm lightly.
I smiled and stared blankly at Risa's dumbstruck face.
"Oh. Well what about Eriol then?" she hoped, smiling at him. But frowning when he shook his head.
"Nope. I work with Tomoyo. Sorry chicky, your stuck with Takashi." he smiled, hugging Tomoyo quickly. Which
made Tomoyo blush a crimson color. I smiled at the fact that she was going to have to work with the laziest thing
ever and sighed contently.
"Okay. Can we get the ranking done and eat, I'm really hungry." Eriol grumbled, all of us hearing his stomach
growl.
"ranking??" Risa asked.
"Yup. We have ranks here. Syaoran's first, Im second, due to my skills. Eriols third, Tomoyo's fourth and
Takahi's last in fifth." I said proudly. Gloating a bit.
"Yea, The lower you are in the rankings, the less privileges you get. Your sixth since we don't know how you
work. So that means… you sleep over on the other side of the creek with the rocks, you get whatever anyone
else doesn't eat, including Suppi. No ifs ands or buts. The better and harder you work, the higher the chance
that you might move up in the rankings. Got it?" Syaoran said, beginning to dig through the bags and divide
things up.
"That's not fair!" she said angrily. Syaoran looked up and glowered.
"If you don't like it, leave." he said, handing me some bread that was cut in two and some assorted meats and
cheese. I made a sandwich as he handed everyone else some and then smiled as he gave Suppi some fish he tore
apart. Risa sighed as she watched the rest of us eat. I smiled inwardly and remembered how I felt watching the
rest of them eat without caring for the other and sighed. Something in my gut told me to help her, but my head
was screaming No you dolt! You had to suffer the same thing! Don't help her! But of course, my gut overtook
my brain. Damn. I sighed and stood up, scraping off the bits of my sandwich that I ate and put it back in the
napkin it was wrapped in. I hopped over the crick and sunk down to meet her eyes. I hate doing the right thing,
especially when it meant giving her food.
"Here. Im not hungry anymore." I muttered somberly, turning around quickly and heading back to my seat.
Syaoran looked at me confused, as did everyone else and I shrugged.
" I know what it feels like to be starving while everyone around me eats. Doesn't mean she has to." I said,
scooting over to the mattress that Suppi was on and laying down. I stroked the snoozing cat absentmindedly. I
was still hungry and my stomach agreed wholeheartedly. Though I don't think a day goes by that I'm not a little
hungry. A bunch of thoughts prevented me from sleeping. Since there was another mouth to feed, we would
have to get more food, or at least try to. Either way, somebody was going to get hungry, and I have a feeling it
will be me.
Kay! that's chapter four! Sorry its been so long since an update! I've been busy! Anyways, hoped you liked
this one! Review if you feel inclined to do so. I got a review saying that this reminded said reviewer of the
movie "The Thief Lord". I've never seen it. So I don't know, but if it does…I'm sorry, I didn't intend for it to!
But its okay if you thought it did, cause if you liked the movie than you obviously like this! Huzzah. Anyways,
I suppose that's it for now,
so until next time!
Ja!
Kirralle