It started in a dream. Sakura's
standing on the roof of one of the business buildings. Kero is floating
next to her. She is wearing the pick outfit with the billowing cape behind
her and the wand in her hand. She is staring across at another building;
the wind was blowing her hair and the cape all over the place. Cherry blossom
petals are floating down, all over the city, all around her and Kero. 'The
radio tower...' she says to herself, 'The figure in shadows...'
The flower petals turn into Clow Cards. 'The Clow Cards...' She
caught one of the falling Clow Cards in her hand as she cradled the wand
between her arm and body. 'Ah... It disappeared.' she thought as
the card vanished from her hand. She looks up and notices, 'All the
Clow Cards have disappeared.' She continued looking at the building
across from her, the radio tower. She looks at it and sees the silhouette
of a female; long hair and a coat, blowing in the wind, just like Sakura's
cape. 'Ah... What do you want? I know I know you. If only I could see
you.' she thought, as she stepped onto the ledge of the building she
was on. The two pairs of wings appeared on her shoes. 'What are you
trying to tell me? And who...' Sakura opened her eyes. "Who are you?"
she finished allowed, not noticing where she still was. "Who do you think
I am?"
Sakura's head jerked up with
a surprised, "Huh?" She was looking straight into Miss Macenzie's smiling
face. The kids around her were giggling. "Miss Macenzie," Sakura said,
standing up, "You're here!" Miss Macenzie straightened her back, placing
her hands above her knees. "Yes," she said, "but you weren't." Sakura gave
a short bow, "Sorry." Miss Macenzie stood straight up from where she was
in front of Sakura's desk. "Welcome back to Math class, Sakura." The bell
rings as soon as she says that. She looks around. She looked back at Sakura,
and smiled, turning around and going back to her desk. "Class dismissed."
The other children began packing up their things as Sakura sat back down
with a disgruntled, "Ooh." Madison and Li look at her. Sakura is still
looking at Miss Macenzie in the front of the room. "And don't forget--"
Miss Macenzie says, "Drill Team tryouts are tomorrow." Sakura blinks and
remembers the woman from her dream, while still looking a Miss Macenzie,
and gasps.
Sakura and Madison are walking
home from school. "But I cant talk to Kero about it." Sakura is saying,
"Not yet. I have to understand this first." "But Miss Macenzie, Sakura?"
Madison asks. "I know." Sakura replies. "And the Clow Cards disappearing."
Madison adds, "That's never happened before, has it?" Sakura looks over
at Madison and keeps on walking, "You see," she says, "I think it means
I've almost collected all the Cards." "Really?" "I think the dream might
be some kind of a test," she continued, "And if it is, I want to pass it
all by myself." She holds up her fist triumphantly. Madison stops and turns
to Sakura, covering her fist with both hands and bringing it back down.
"Shouldn't you just talk to Kero?" she suggested. "Hmm... No way." Sakura
replies, turning back around and rushing off ahead. "But Sakura..." Madison
called after her as she stopped in front of a house with a wreath on the
door. "On my own." Sakura states as Madison runs up to her. "That's cool."
Madison comments, talking about the wreath. Sakura nodded. "But if you
won't talk to Kero, what about Li?" Madison suggests again. "Li is Clow
Reed's relative, so I wanna prove myself to both of them." Sakura explained.
"You should talk to Nikki. She's been reading an interesting book on dreams."
Sakura shook her head. "Mm-mm. No way. I can't. Forget it." Madison smiled.
"Hmm. You'll figure it out, Sakura, I know you will."
It's the next day, at the Drill
Team tryouts. A bell chimes in the distance. The class is sitting together
outside, in their gym uniforms, with gloves on, since it was winter. "Good
try." Mr. Terrada was saying, "So, who's next?" A boy steps up to the bar.
He flips up, and over, but doesn't land properly. "Ow." he says. "Oh."
Sakura gasps. The boy got up and walked back to his seat. "So, anybody
going to the Winter Carnival?" Chelsea asks from behind Sakura. Rita shook
her head, "We're going on vacation." "Yeah," Chelsea said, "We're not gonna
be around here, either. Too bad. I always love the carnival." Zachary took
his turn at the flip. He jumped up and made a perfect flip. Everyone cheered
him on, and congratulated him. "If Zachary becomes Drill Team captain,"
Chelsea states, "We'll never hear the end of it." Zachary turned around
and held one hand behind his head, and the other in the air, smiling at
everyone.
Sakura was drawing a small
spiral in the ground, when Madison said, "You're back at the dream, aren't
you?" "I just had a horrible thought." Sakura whispered. "What is it, Sakura?"
"I'm worried about what's going to happen to Kero when I've captured all
the Clow Cards." "Kero?" Madison drawled out slowly. "Yeah." Sakura said
sadly. "You mean, that he'll change?" Madison asked. "Mm-hmm." Sakura answered.
Li was next. He gripped the bar and executed three full flips, then performed
a somersault off, landing on his feet. Everyone gave him a wonderful cheer.
Meilin stood up and clapped louder than the rest, "I knew you could do
it, Li. Whoo! Fantastic." Madison pounded her fist into her open palm.
"Hmm... I know someone who might be able to help." she said. "Yeah?" Sakura
asked, looking at Madison skeptically.
Meilin was washing her hands
at an outside faucet after the tryouts had finished. "My Li." she giggled,
"Captain of the Drill Team. Oh, I love it." She turned off the faucet and
had begun drying off her hands with a cloth just as Sakura and Madison
came rushing up to her. "Meilin." Sakura called. "What?" Meilin answered
in a way that sounded much like a snap. "Hi. Do you..." Sakura started.
Meilin backed away. "Hey. What are you up to, Sakura?" she asked. "I need
some advice." Sakura told her. They had changed back into their school
uniforms and were now to the back of the school, on one of the benches.
Madison was standing over Sakura from behind the bench, and Meilin was
in front of both of them. "And you've been around Li and the Clow Cards
a long time," Sakura was saying, "So I thought you might have some ideas."
"Why don't you ask Kero?" Meilin asked, her arms crossed. "I was kind of
hoping you could help me." Hmm." Meilin squeaked, smiling. "I need to figure
this out on my own." Sakura said. Meilin turned her back to Sakura. "Hmm...
Well, it could be that... or maybe it's the... again... I know! Ha-ha!"
She giggled and turned back around to face Sakura, "Ask Li Showron." "Thanks."
Sakura groaned, holding her head down.
It's night now, and Sakura
is in her room, with Kero floating nearby. "Sakura, what is your problem?"
Kero asked. Sakura stood up from her bed and moved away from it a couple
steps. She turned back around and came back to it, sitting down. She looked
down at the cell phone Madison had gave her, which was on the bed. "Pick
up the phone. Put down the phone. Pick up the phone. Put down the phone."
Kero pointed out. Sakura groaned and picked up the phone off of the bed,
holding it in her hands. "Look, if you wanna ask Li to the Carnival, just
ask him." Kero told her. "It's not that easy." Sakura retorted, looking
at the phone in her hands. "Come on, what are you talking about?" Kero
floated over to Sakura, next to the phone. "It's very easy, Sakura. All
you gotta do is push a button!" Kero hit the button on Sakura's phone,
and smiled widely when it started ringing. Sakura gasped and sweatdropped.
"Um... I, uh..." she mumbled, putting the phone to her ear, a blush making
it way across the bridge of her nose. The person on the other end picked
up.
"Huh? Kero!" she exclaimed,
"Sorry. What I meant to say is this is Sakura." She babbled on, "Li, I
was talking to Meilin and she told me that you and her are going to the
Winter Carnival. I've got to talk to you about something." Her current
position, which was her on the bed, changed a various amount of times as
she continued, "Wait. Is this Li?" She covered the mouth piece of the phone,
and whispered to Kero, who was floating, on his back, with his hands behind
his head, and his left leg crossed over the right, "You hit the wrong button.
It's not Li. It's Julian." As Sakura turned back to the phone conversation
and started rapidly apologizing, in the back, Kero was speaking to himself.
"I myself would love to go to the Winter Carnival, but, of course, nobody
thought to ask me." He rolled over and onto his side. "Ah, besides, I cannot
stand that Li kid."
It's now the day of the Winter
Carnival. Sakura ended up asking Julian to come with her. She rushed ahead
of him., then stopped, gaping at the site ahead of her. "Wow. Look at this,
Julian." she said. Julian came up beside her, his green suit going well
with her red jacket and top, and her red shorts, which were not too short.
"Yeah, it's great." he aid, "Now you needed to talk?" "Hey, Madison. Wait
up." Kero said, as he and Madison trailed after Sakura and Julian, both
wearing sunglasses, Madison's pair a lighter shade, so she could see through
them to the lens in her video camera. She was wearing a yellow suit with
a yellow cap and jacket. Her hair was pulled to the side in two pigtails,
with yellow bows at the end of them. "Hurry." Madison said, taking the
camera from her eye, "I missed a couple of Card captures lately. And if
one's gonna show up today, Kero, I'm gonna get it on tape."
Kero fixed his shades. "Ah, don't worry about it, kid. You're with me."
he said confidently. Madison turned to face him.
She smiled, and said, "Yeah,
but you've missed a couple yourself." Kero face vaulted in the air. "D-ohh!"
Kero groaned. Madison giggled, neither one of the noticing the wreath,
that was on the pole beside them, slowly catching on fire. Madison turned
back around. "Hey, look." she said, pointing towards Sakura and Julian,
"They're heading towards the main midway. Come on. We can't lose sight
of them." Madison headed in the direction of Sakura and Julian. "Ahem."
Kero said, straightening back up and fixing his shades again, "Just leave
it to me. I don't miss a thing. As Kero was saying that, and as he slowly
floated after Madison, the whole wreath just lit ablaze, and he didn't
notice. Somewhere else, another wreath, on a pole, had caught on fire also,
and was now extinguishing itself out. It sat there on the pole, all charred
black, and still smoking.
Sakura and Julian were standing
next to one of the bigger rides that were there. "To tell you the truth,
Julian, this problem-- oh look!" Sakura waved over Meilin and Li, who had
just arrived. "Oh." Meilin breathed. "Oh. Hi." Li said. "Hi." Julian answered
back. They walked over. "I heard you got Drill Team Captain, Li." Sakura
said, "Congratulations." "I can't believe you called Julian by mistake."
Meilin whispered, "And now we have to hang out with him." They started
heading out towards the main grounds, Li, who was walking like a colonel
with a bad case of arthritis, and Julian were in the front, while Meilin
and Sakura took up the rear. "And now you want me to hook you two up, so
you can have a private chat about the Clow Cards?" Meilin asked, "Am I
right?" Sakura nodded slowly, "Hm... Yeah." "Hah!" Meilin giggled, "I knew
it." "You've gotta help me." Sakura pleaded, "It's important." "You'll
owe me." Meilin taunted. Sakura nodded, then turned her attention to Li,
and smiled. "Li's really into the Drill Team thing with that new walk of
his." she pointed out. Both girls giggled at that.
*enter song*
The four of them went on many
of the Carnival's rides together. The first one they went on, the girls
were in the second set of seats, while the boys were in the front.
THe girls enjoyed their ride, but the boys didn't seem to do the same.
THey went on a "teacup" ride next. Sakura and Meilin sat on the left side
of the small door to exit and enter, and Julian and Li sat on the right.
The one after that was a roller coaster ride. This time, Sakura sat with
Li. The two of them were in the front of the whole ride, followed by Meilin
and Julian, who were still enjoying themselves. Sakura looked a little
sick, and Li looked a little scared. Next they went on a little train ride.
Meilin was first in the cart they were on, then Li, then Sakura, who was
laughing with Julian, who was last. They stopped after that ride. They
walked past a small cafe and stopped.
"Meilin, are you hungry?" Sakura
asked as she passed behind Li. "Not really." she started, "Ow!" she added
when Sakura pinched her when she passed behind her, "I mean, yes." "Me
too." Sakura added. "Shall we try this place?" Julian suggested. "Uh, ok.
Great." Meilin said. "Let's sit outside." Sakura said. Meilin nodded and
the two ran off happily, leaving Julian and Li to catch up. Their waiter
came up and set glasses filled with water down on the table, on little
napkins. "So, this is an unexpected surprise." said a familiar male voice.
"What?" Sakura said, looking up from her menu. "Huh?" both Julian and Meilin
said, looking up from their menus also. "Tori?" Sakura asked with surprise,
"Um, oh, hey. Another new job."
After they'd ordered, Tori
brought them their food and Julian dug right in. Meilin, Sakura, and Li
watched on, with sweatdrops. "I think Julian and Meilin will love to see
the kitchen." Sakura told Tori, as he set down another plate. "Really?
Could've fooled me, squirt." Tori said, "Looks to me like Julian is in
lunch mode." Everything from Julian's plate that touched his fork, was
put into his mouth, and gulped down, piece after piece. "Yeah, well, when
he's done, of course." Sakura added. Li looked at her and blinked. "Whatever."
Tori stated. Sakura smiled and Li blinked two more times, then his face
softened, as if he understood.