Chapter 9: Summer of Goodbyes

OKAY, PPLZ, I JES REALIZED I DOUBLED THE THIRD AND SECOND CHAPTERS! I
CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, BUT JUST LETTING YOU KNOW I'M NOT TOTALLY
STUPID, OKAY? BYEBYEBYE, UNTIL THE NEXT CHAPTER!
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it's june already, everyone...

"I can't believe I didn't see it! I CANNOT believe I didn't know that Li
and Sakura were going out! Argh! I AM SO STUPID!" Scott was stomping
around his room. Even after 3 months, he was mad that he had made the
same mistake as he did at the Winter Wonderland dance. He was made about
the Spring Fling dance too. Same mistake there. Instead, he asked Madison
in the end of both dances, but still, he always asked so late. He liked
Sakura, he had asked her to the dance, and SHE REFUSED because of his own
mistake?! His mind was like a tornado, going through everything in his
path. "IT'S ALL LI'S FAULT! ARGH! SO STUPID OF ME! NO, SO STUPID OF LI!"
Finally he calmed down. "Oh, well. It was really my fault. I was the one
who didn't see that they were a couple. Twice. That's alright though.
Madison's a great girl too." Suddenly Scott's heart started beating real
fast. "Why do I feel like I really like Madison? Even when the one I
really like is Sakura Avalon?"

li's house...

Li was talking on the phone. "MOM! What are you talking about? I can't
go back!" "You're coming to visit us, Li! Meilin is too, and the airline
has a super savings deal! One full price ticket, and the second at half
price! This is totally perfect! And what do you mean, you can't come
visit your family! We really miss you, little wolf!" Li looked at the
phone furiously. Then he calmed down. "Mom, I can't." "Yes you can,
honey." "But, mom... I promised Sakura I'd stay and help her get the Clow
Cards back to Sakura Cards..." Li was positively whining now. "Little
wolf, why don't you just bring her here to Hong Kong?" "Mom, Sakura has
some club she's staying here for..." "So, you had the whole school year
to be with her! You WILL come visit us, understand?" Li sighed sadly.
Then he perked up. 'Hey, I've always wanted to see my family again! I'll
make the best of this situation' "Alright, mom. I won't complain no
more." "Remember, Li! You have to tell Meilin about this! You'll be
coming home the day after school lets out. Love you!" She hung up the
phone. Li walked over to the couch. "Gosh. Now we can't convert them."

last day of school...

"Students, please settle down!" All the students quieted and looked at
the teacher. "Today, we're taking a field trip to the park to have a
last-day-of-school picnic! Remember, I told you about this yesterday!"
The students who remembered their bag lunches cheered, and those who
forgot groaned. Sakura cheered. Her dad had cooked enough food for her
AND Madison. Mr. Kudomoshi shushed everyone, then said," Of course, I
already thought that a lot of you would forget your lunches, so I brought
a whole bunch of sandwiches for everyone! Sushi, sodas, chips, and
anything else that everyone likes." Now, everyone cheered. "Also, I
recommend the cheerleaders bring their uniforms and the soccer players
bring theirs. If you're on any team, you'll be practicing with them for
about three hours." Everyone cheered again. Madison turned to look at
Sakura. "Mr. Kudomoshi thinks of everything fun!"
Madison and Sakura walked to the park together. Sakura was retelling her
favorite time in the past. "It was so cool when my sealing wand turned
into that silver star. I wonder if it's going to stay that way or change
some more?"
Her sealing wand key was hung on a necklace around her neck. It was now
a silver star inside a golden circle connected to a key.
Madison laughed. "My favorite time in the past was when I videotaped you
capturing and converting those Clow Cards. I still have those videos!
Maybe we should watch them again." Sakura sighed. "Back then, things
were, well, kid-like. You know, having fun, adventures. But now
everything has turned serious. I wish we could, like, have a visit to the
past or something. Wouldn't that be totally cool?" "Yeah. Then I could
re-retape your adventures again!" "MADISON!"
They reached the park. It was the perfect park for everyone, at the foot
of the mountains. There was a hiking trail nearby. "Madison, you wanna go
hike on the trail? I hear it has the best view when you get to the top."
"Sure Sakura. Let's tell Mr. Kudomoshi first, though."

on the the trail ten minutes later...
Sakura and Madison had decided to travel on the never used trails. It
had grass growing on the trail, proving that it was hardly ever used.
"Wow, Madison, look at that!" "Whoa, you don't see that everyday!"
They had been in a trail with trees all around them, when suddenly the
trees stopped and there was a cliff. One side had a beautiful sparkling
beach, and the other side had a lake with romantic trees behind it.
"It looks like scenes in a play, except it's all real!" The girls slid
down towards the beach. 'This could be Li's and my secret spot, even
though Madison knows. It's so romantic and beautiful. It'd be great to
come during the summer.' Then they scrambled back up to the other side,
with the trees. 'Wow, I remember Scott told me he loved lakes and trees.
I could get him to come here with me during the summer.' Madison thought.
"We should be going back. I'm so hungry!" Sakura said, and they walked
back to the picnic grounds.
Li was there playing soccer with the 9th grade soccer part of the team.
Li, of course, was very fast and almost always shot a goal when
necessary. Bryan and Jarad were goalies. Tim and Zachary were defenders.
Li, of course, and Scott were the forwards. Each team had one of each
type of player. "Score!" Li had just slid-kicked a ball into the goal.
"Yeah! Great job!" His team congratulated him. Sakura walked over to the
girls. "Hey, you guys, let's do our cheers! It'd be good practice.
Meilin, we can think of a new cheer or something." While Meilin and
Sakura thought of a new routine, the other girls cheered the two teams
on. Finally, Meilin and Sakura came back and started whispering with the
cheerleading team.
When they were done, Sakura backed up. Meilin was at the front. The
other girls were in their positions. Sakura pressed the PLAY button on
the tape-player, and cheerleading music started. It was their "Never give
up til you're gone". Meilin and Sakura were the tossed, and the other
girls were the tossers. They started with Sakura running up to the
others, who lifted her off into a flip-toss-jump, then they started
singing along with the music.

"Never give up, til you're gone, flying away, with the wind...
It's something you should do, even if you feel like dropping
down down down!
Come on let's go, guy, we're flying along with you.
We'll cheer you on, until you're gone, with your goals, set sky-high!"

On the chorus, every 9th grade cheerleader took out their batons and
tossed them high up. Sakura jumped onto Meilin's hands and leapt for her
baton, doing her split - jump and flip in the air, then catching her
baton. By then, Meilin had caught her baton, along with the other girls,
and twirling them around.

"Come on LET'S GO!
We're cheering for you, until you're in the sky...
Oh yeah oh yeah come on let's go away!
Fly with all your goals!
Please, oh please,
Never give up, til you're gone,
never ever in eternity!"

For a final finish, Sakura jumped onto the pyramid her teammates had set
up. The soccer team cheered. So did the other students. Madison ran up to
Sakura. "That was totally great! You were awesome!" "Thanx, Madison! That
totally felt great"
Everyone ate their lunches, and Sakura was about to go with the team
again when Li stopped her. "What's wrong, Li?" Li was trying not to look
at Sakura's bare stomach, which wasn't covered by her uniform. "Um, yeah,
I need to talk to you."
"Well, if we're gonna talk, you don't need to not look at me. I know how
you feel about me in my uniform." Li's head snapped back up, blushing
like those really red apples. "Here, there's this really cool place in
this hiking trail. I'll show you." Sakura told Mr. Kudomoshi first, then
they walked to the beach near the hiking trail. When Li looked at it, he
whistled. "That's a cool place. It doesn't even fit in with the
mountains. A beach in the mountains, and a forest on the other side."
"Let's go to the beach, Li, it's really quite and the sand and everything
is really warm."
When they got to the bottom, Li took Sakura's hand in his hand. Sakura
looked at him in mild surprise. "Sakura, my parents are sending me back
to Hong Kong for the summer. For the whole summer vacation. I won't be
here tomorrow afternoon. I'll be at the airport. I'm leaving tomorrow
morning." Sakura looked at him, stunned. "What?" Li took her hand and
gave her back the Clow Cards Sakura had told him to keep "for the time
being". "These are yours, you should try to convert them back into Sakura
cards during the summer." Sakura started to cry. "But you promised you
would stay here and help me, Li." She sobbed out. She started to hug him,
and stopped. "You promised!" "But my mom pulled this thing last minute,
so she said I can't refuse, they already bought the ticket." Sakura
looked at him carefully. 'He is telling the truth'. "Okay." Li jumped
back. "Huh? Is that all? Okay? I'm leaving, and it's okay?" Sakura
nodded, wiping her tears. "Yeah. At least you have a mom to go to. If I
want to see her, I see pictures and in my dreams will I see her in
person."
Li hugged her carefully. "Well, I'll be back in school when it starts
again. I'll still be here. I'm not leaving forever." 'Yeah, but still...'
Sakura thought in doubt.

next morning at the airport...

"All people boarding flight to Hong Kong, please go to Gate 16"
Meilin was standing near their gate, with Li next to him. They were
about to go in, when...
"Li! Wait! Before you go!" Sakura ran up to him. "Yesterday, I made this
for you. Inside, it has my phone number and everything." She pushed a
little yellow plush star lined with gold cloth on the edges into his
arms. "If you unzip it, it opens up and you can put stuff in there."
"All people going to Hong Kong, this is your last call"
Sakura sniffled, and pushed Li to the gate. "You should go. You guys
don't want to miss your flight." Li took the star and kissed Sakura on
the lips. Then he hugged her. "Bye Sakura. I'll see you when I come
back." Meilin tugged his sleeve and then she hugged Sakura too. They
walked into the gate, and then as Sakura watched, into the airplane. When
the airplane left, Sakura stood looking in the direction it had gone,
watching the tiny dot until she could no longer see it. Then she walked
back to the parking lot to Julian's convertible, and they left the
airport.
'You shouldn't worry about him, Sakura. He'll be back in 3 months.'
Sakura said to herself in her mind.
Right.
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