Chapter 4: The Waterfall and the Beach
*Sakura* looked through the clouds up where Clow Reed lived,
and where
Yue sometimes went, and saw the future Sakura being taken away
from
Madison's house through a window. Matt and another girl had thrown
in
magic sleep powder just before Sakura had been able to wake Madison,
and
everyone had fallen asleep, which made it easy for Matt and the
girl in
pink to capture and kidnap Sakura. *Sakura* turned around and
shouted for
Yue. "YUE!" *Sakura* yelled. He appeared. "What
is it, Sakura?" "Let me
help the future Sakura escape her kidnappers!"*Sakura* pleaded.
Yue
thought for a moment, then said. "Alright, but after they
leave." "No! It
has to be at the right time. Let me choose." "No, after
they leave. It is
safer for you to use your powers when the Evil Magician and Cherry,
his
accomplice, leave." "Oh alright. But I'll go down there
right now." Yue
grabbed *Sakura*'s arm. "Not yet, little one. WAIT."
*Sakura* grumbled,
but she obeyed Yue.
The real Sakura was about to release the White Dove's powers,
but Matt
stopped her by placing two fingers on her lips, quieting her.
"No magic
this time, Sakura." And then Matt touched his lips to hers,
draining
Sakura of all her energy, even though Sakura tried her hardest
to resist
him. Soon she lost all of her energy and she fainted, but the
White
Dove's powers stayed inside her. "Darn It!" Cherry
yelled, frustrated.
"Little Sister, we'll come back later to drain her of more
energy. In
fact, we can use her as our energy source. That magic sleep powder
worked, didn't it? Our Evil Sleep Card makes wonderful potions.
Too bad
it can't just fly in there like the regular sleep card."
Matt said,
smiling evilly. The two left, and *Sakura* appeared. She gently
shook
Sakura. "Sakura!" she whispered frantically. No answer.
*Sakura* felt
Sakura's forehead. 'She's out cold.' *Sakura* thought worriedly.
*Sakura*
put her left hand on her White Dove symbol and her other hand
on the
future Sakura's symbol. *Sakura* stopped and cut the ropes that
bound
Sakura, and took her to a secluded spot behind the waterfall,
using the
Water card to make a shield so that Sakura wouldn't get wet.
*Sakura*
looked lovingly at the little girl. "I miss being me sometimes."
she said
quietly aloud. Soon Sakura woke up. She looked at the older girl.
"Forever Card? What are you doing here?" *Sakura* smiled
joyously, glad
that the younger girl was okay and awake. "I cut your ropes
and brought
you behind this waterfall. But you have to get to school, and
if we get
moving, you can still get there before class starts."
Sakura had a downcast look. "But I don't even know where
I am! How am I
supposed to get there?" *Sakura* laughed. "Eat this
food, quick quick. I
know how." *Sakura* touched her necklace three times, and
the Fly, Dash,
and Vanish cards appeared in her hand. Then she took out her
wand. "Fly!
Dash! Vanish cards! Release and dispel!" The three cards
disappeared and
Fly appeared as wings on *Sakura*'s back, dash went into *Sakura*,
and
Vanish went into the future Sakura. Sakura suddenly appeared
ghostlike as
she finished off the last of her donut. "That was good!
Hey, I look like
a ghost now!" *Sakura* smiled. "No one will be able
to see you." "What
about you?" "I'm already invisible. They couldn't see
me if they wanted
to. Now come on. Call Fly out. " Sakura called Fly out too.
"Fly Card!
Release and dispel! Fly!" At *Sakura*'s command, fly appeared
as wings on
Sakura's back. "Whoa! Aren't the wings supposed to be on
my wand?" "Well,
I told it to go on your back, but we still have to move! Hold
onto my
hand and don't let go!" *Sakura* held onto Sakura's hand
and she shot
into the air in the direction of the school. Sakura held onto
the older
girl's hand tightly. "Look at the ground! People look like
ants from up
here!" Sakura cried. "Yeah. I know the feeling."
Soon they were in the
school yard, but *Sakura* called back the Dash card and flew
them in a
tree. "Why in a tree?" Sakura asked. "If you suddenly
appeared from
nowhere, someone who saw you would be really surprised."
"Oh yeah."
The future Sakura called back fly, and the past Sakura called
back the
two of her cards. Then she called on jump. "Why did you
call jump?"
Sakura whispered. "As I recall, I was not that great at
climbing trees,
which means you aren't either. I'm still not great at climbing
trees, so
if I jump down, I'll still break my leg. I'll help you down from
behind."
Sakura snapped her fingers twice, and suddenly Sakura had on
her school
uniform and the past Sakura was holding Sakura's other clothes,
neat and
folded. "I'll take these and put it on your bed." So
Sakura climbed down,
with *Sakura*'s help. "If you ever need my help, Sakura,
just tap your
necklace twice and say 'Forever'" Then the Forever Card
flew away. 'Thank
you.' the future sakura thought. Then she retrieved her bookbag
from the
bush where *Sakura* said it would be and ran into the school
and then
slowed down and walked into the classroom.
Syaoran was standing by the window when he felt something.
Meilin was
next to him and noticed his expression. "A Clow Card?"
she asked him
quietly. "Feels like it..." he said, in deep thought.
Minutes later, he
was still thinking, until Madison cried, "Sakura!"
Syaoran turned around
quickly. Madison and Meilin were talking with Sakura as she came
to the
back of the classroom, and then all of their friends and Syaoran
and his
friends crowded around her and they whispered in excitement.
"Where were
you?" "We couldn't find you." "I thought
you were kidnapped." and so
on... so on..., until Sakura said "I'll tell you guys later,
but right
now, everyone will get suspicious. Anyway..." Sakura had
a mischevious
look in her eyes. "According to several resources last night,
I noticed
that some of you wanted to go to the beach party. But the guy
has to ask
the girl first. Corey & Madison, Chang & Rita, Rei &
Chelsea, and Fil &
Nikki. Now please ask!" Then Sakura, Meilin, Syaoran, Lily,
Bryan, Fula,
Terry, Rosa, and Josh walked slowly away from the other group
of people
where the girls were blushing and the guys asked the girls to
the beach
party. Sakura let out a small cry of happiness. "Now we
can have pairs of
people. Except for you guys, I mean." Bryan smiled. "I
would gladly take
Meilin to the party as a friend." "Ooh, does big brother
have a crush?"
Terry said in a playful voice. Josh spoke up. "I'll take
Terry along and
watch her." "And I'll take Rosa and Lily so they won't
be lonely." Josh
said. "Perfect!" Sakura said, and they all sat down
when Mr. Terada came
in.
during gym class...
Mr. Terada held his head for the tenth time. "Do any
of you know how to
fly a LITTLE of the horse??" he asked all the kids. About
twenty kids
were on the 'finish' side, including all of Syaoran's friends,
Syaoran,
and Meilin. The only ones left were Lily and Sakura. Syaoran
had
accidentally (for once) been distracted by Shawna, who had said
"You
rule, Li-kun!" really loudly right before he got onto the
horse and
Syaoran tripped over it and fell flat on his face. Meilin, who
was
usually very good at gymnastics, was disturbed when Shawna, who
didn't
like Meilin that much, had said (quite loudly) "I bet Meilin's
never
going to make it off the horse. She's sooo bad at gymnastics."
It usually
wouldn't get to Meilin, but after the incident when Sakura disappeared,
she was really tired. Shawna, however, had gone first and she
had made
it. Maybe Shawna had flown only a little and then landed on her
bottom,
but that was good enough for Mr. Terada. "I hope you two
make it off the
horse. I'm really at the end of my rope." he said, rubbing
his forehead.
"Lily, you go first." he said, sighing. Lily ran towards
the horse, and
leapt onto it, but when she landed, she had too much weight towards
the
back, and she fell down. Everyone groaned. "Nice try, Lily.
At least you
flew off nicely." Lily pouted and stood next to Syaoran.
"Sakura, I know you can do this one. If you like, you can
do just the
flying one, and then do a second one after that, adding a flip."
Sakura
groaned a little, but inside, she wanted to prove to Syaoran
that she
tried hard at everything. 'Okay, remember, Sakura. One step,
two step,
jump, push, fly!' Sakura thought to herself. She ran nimbly to
the horse,
jumped jumped the perfect distance away, sailed throught the
air, and
landed. "Nice job, Sakura! Now class, did you see how she
bent her knees
yada-yada-yada, etc..." Mr. Terada said, going on and on
about the form
of body. Most of the girls cheered. "Okay, ready for your
second one,
Sakura?" "Yeah." Sakura did the same thing, except
this time she added a
flip. Sakura sailed throught the air and landed just a bit too
forward,
but she went up on her tiptoes and then she landed perfect. "Great
job,
Sakura. Okay, class, you can go now." 'Show-off Sakura.'
Lily thought.
'I'll teach her a lesson.'
Everyone picked up their backpacks and trickled out, one by one.
"Sakura?" the chearleading coach said. "We're
having practice today. You
have your beach party clothes, right?" "Uhhh...."
"I'll get them for you,
Sakura." Madison said. "Thanks, Madison. I'll meet
you at the beach,
alright?" "Okay. See you!" Sakura practiced with
the team in their
uniform, and then she waited for Madison at the beach. Some people
were
already there, but there was pretty much no one there. Sakura
sat on a
bench and did some of her homework while waiting for Madison.
"Hey
Sakura!"
Sakura looked up, startled. "Oh, hey Lily!" she called
out to the short
girl. "Don't 'hey' me!" Lily said hotly. Lily was in
a very tight tank
top that stopped three inches above her waist, and it was obvious
that
she had her bikini on, because Sakura could see the extra pink
strings on
Lily's shoulders. Her shorts were low slung and Sakura could
see the band
of the bikini bottom. Lily's hair was done up in a bun and her
long bangs
hung down next to her face. There was a lily flower to the right
side of
the bun in her hair. The only thing that didn't fit with the
outfit were
the soccer cleats. "Nice outfit." "Shut up!"
Lily shouted back at Sakura.
Sakura pulled slightly back, her eyes wide in surprise at Lily's
outburst. "I know what you're trying to do, Sakura. Well,
stop flirting
with Syaoran! Syaoran likes me! You act all innocent all the
time, trying
to get him to notic you. Well, I know you're not! Stop chasing
Syaoran
around! Syaoran is mine!" Then Lily kicked Sakura on the
shin. It
wouldn't have hurt so much, except that Lily had on cleats. The
cleats
made three deep, painful gashes across sakura's right shin. Sakura
only
winced at pain, still in surprise from Lily's outburst. "That
should
teach you a lesson! Now stop showing off and stay away from Syaoran!"
Lily said angrily. Then she stalked off.
Sakura saw that the gashes had some dirt in them. 'Darn it! Lily
must
have played soccer just now or something.' Sakura took out a
bottle of
water from her backpack and set it down on her book. Then she
took off
her shoes and socks, placing the socks carefully in the shoes.
Sakura
cleaned out her wounds. 'It hurts. Ow. If I don't want this to
happen
again-' Sakura thought, '-then I'll have to stay away from Syaoran.
Not
tonight. Tonight is our night together.' A tear trickled down
her cheek.
Then she saw Madison and put her books away, placing her shoes
carefully
in a bag. Sakura wiped away her tear, then stood up and waved
to Madison,
smiling.
Madison looked out at the ocean. 'I wonder what made those
scratches on
Sakura's leg.' Sakura didn't say anything about the scratches,
and when
Madison saw them Sakura had refused to talk about it. Madison
sighed.
"You can't fool me, Sakura. I know you were crying about
something. I
hope she's okay." Madison said quietly outloud to herself.
Sakura cringed. Her leg had just hit something, and it hurt
really bad.
She put on her tank top and Meilin's miniskirt, and folded the
swimsuit
and put it inside Madison's beach bag. 'If these scratches hurt
this
much, then I can't go swimming.' Sakura put on her sandals and
left the
changing rooms. The sandals were kind of like platform shoes,
except they
were sandals with no strap and covered her whole foot, except
for a star
in the middle and the toes. Sakura saw everyone: Meilin, Madison,
Chelsea, Rita, Nikki, Lily, Fil, Rosa, Terry, Josh, Rei, Bryan,
Chang,
Fula, and Corey. She waved and ran all the way across the beach,
trying
not to limp as she went.
When Madison told the others about Sakura's scratches, everyone
wanted
to help her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*
"Sakura can't just sit here all night!" Rosa cried
unhappily. "She
wouldn't tell you how the scratches got on her leg?" Meilin
asked
Madison, suspicious. "Nope." "We still have to
help her!" Corey said.
"Hey, let's do shifts!" Terry said, jumping all over
everybody, first on
Syaoran's head, then on Meilin's shoulders, and then on Rei's
back. "What
do you mean?" Fil asked her. "I mean, when there's
the first song, then
for example, Rita and Chelsea can help Sakura, then for the next
song,
Bryan and Corey, and for the next song, so on and on and on!"
Terry cried
in excitement. "Great idea!" Chelsea said. "Bryan
and I will go first."
Corey volunteered. Everyone made their shifts, and then they
saw Sakura
coming. "Hey Sakura!" everyone said. 'Gosh, why does
everyone like
Sakura?' Lily wondered, very mad.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~*
Sakura was dancing with Bryan and Corey. Sakura held onto
Bryan's right
shoulder and Corey's left shoulder, so Sakura stayed off of her
right
leg. All night it went that way, Sakura and whoever helping her
laughing
and giggling until the last song (around eight, i guess) that
was a
supposed to be a slow and romantic one. Lots of kids had gone
to the
beach party that night, and there were many many refreshments
and food.
The barbecue smell drifted across the beach, and when anyone
was hungry
they went for some chicken. It had been kind of loud, but when
the slow
song almost came, everyone quieted down and picked partners.
Madison and
Meilin were supposed to help Sakura, but Sakura refused. "It's
your night
too, you guys! Don't let me keep you. Madison, go dance with
Corey! And
Meilin, you can dance with whoever you want." Meilin danced
with Lily,
much to Lily's disappointment, Rosa danced with Terry, and Bryan
and Josh
sat it out. Sakura sat down on the blanket that she, Madison,
and Meilin
were sharing after everyone had mingled into the crowd. The song
still
hadn't started yet because there was something wrong with the
CD player.
Sakura sighed. 'Tonight was supposed to be fun! I didn't even
get to
dance with Syaoran because of these stupid scratches. And I can't
believe
it still hurts!' Sakura thought ruefully. Although her leg didn't
hurt as
much, whenever she walked on it, Sakura's right leg hurt. It
was a dull,
constant pain now. A silent tear trickled down her cheek. "Do
you want to
dance?" someone asked Sakura. She looked up, hastily wiping
away her
single tear, and stared into a pair of amber eyes. "Sure,
Syaoran."
Sakura got up, and Syaoran led her near the water.
"I'm sorry I can't dance too good because of my leg."
Sakura mumbled
unhappily. "I really wanted to dance with you the whole
night, even
thought it was fun trying to dance with all my friends."
Sakura blushed
when she realized what she said. "That's alright. Dancing
with you only
once is fine." Syaoran said gently. Suddenly, the song started.
Sakura
sighed and breathed in the ocean smell. "I like this song."
Sakura said
to herself, closing her eyes, realizing that she was really tired
and her
leg had a constant pain. "I like this song, too. Here. Lean
closer to me
so your leg doesn't hurt that much." Syaoran said, pulling
Sakura closer
to him. Sakura resisted a little at first, but she finally put
her arms
around Syaoran's neck and hugged him closer to her. She put her
head to
his chest and felt his heart beating. Sakura's own heart was
beating
miles per minute. 'After all, this will probably be the last
night I'll
get to see him. After what I say to him, he'll probably hate
me forever.'
The two swayed back and forth, until the song stopped. "Here,
Sakura,
come with me."
Syaoran slow-danced with Sakura. He could feel all the curves
in her
body, but he couldn't stop thinking about how she had gotten
hurt. 'I
know the scratches are from soccer cleats. I wonder who made
them? Of
course I'm not going to ask her. I don't want to ruin this moment.'
When
the song ended, Syaoran led Sakura to a secluded spot on the
beach, where
you could see the stars perfectly. Syaoran already told Meilin
about his
plan and she promised that she would watch Lily to make sure
she didn't
mess things up between Syaoran and Sakura. Syaoran sat her down
next to
the water, careful to stay clear of the waves, and then he sat
down next
to her. "Tomorrow, let's go to the secret beach, and I'll
help you change
the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards." Sakura nodded, then shivered.
"It's
cold out here." she said. Syaoran put his arm around her
waist, and
Sakura curled her legs up next to her. Then Sakura looked up.
"Oh, look,
I see Venus! And that's probably Saturn." Sakura's emerald
eyes sparkled.
"That one! The star is so bright! What is it called?"
"That's the North
Star. It is always the brightest star in the sky, and it never
moves."
Sakura and Syaoran didn't move for awhile, until he knew it was
time to
go. "Here Sakura, go back to the others. I'll be there soon."
"Are you
sure, Syaoran?" "Yeah, go ahead!" Sakura left,
her mind on other things.
Sakura's leg didn't hurt as much now that she didn't think about
it.
Syaoran waited until she was out of sight, and then took out
a small
charm. It was in the shape of a star in a circle. There was a
small
groove where Syaoran could speak into it and no one except for
the
forever card could hear it. "Thank you." he whispered
into it, and
beautiful music played out from it. "Thank you, Sakura-chan,
for making
this a night to remember for me." The forever card heard
the words
spoken, and she smiled. She whispered into her charm. "Anything,
Li-kun."
Syaoran heard this, smiled, and walked back to the others. |