Last Time…

Rose looked over and saw Kero was asleep. So turning out the light, she too went to sleep. While she was sleeping, Rose had a dream. In it was her, Kero, and someone flying in the sky, silhouetted in front of the full moon. It was too dark to see anything specific. Rose was about to fly to the shadow when she woke up.

This Time…

Rose looked at the clock and saw it was 5:30. Swearing quietly to herself, she got up, went downstairs and made pancakes, then started to clean the house. Something she didn't do yesterday, what with finding a talking stuffed animal and chasing cards. At 7:00, she finished with the living room and den and was about ready to go for her morning jog when she felt the presence of another card.

'Damn, this better not make me late for school. Thankfully Kero's awake now.'

Grabbing her camouflage jacket, Rose rushed out of the house with Kero trailing after.

"This is the jump card, Rose. Catching it will be tricky because it's fast and is able to jump very high."

Rose thought about this and decided to confuse it. She cased the card into the park, which had a mirror maze. Rose was planning on chasing Jump into the maze, causing it to become lost, and incase it saw Rose, the mirrors would just confuse it more. Then, Rose would use the Windy card to capture it. Having a plan laid out, Rose told Kero to wait outside of the maze.

Kero waited as told, and heard the commotion from inside the maze. He had no idea what Rose was doing, however, there wasn't really much he could do. About ten minutes later, he saw Rose coming out, looking very satisfied with herself.

"Did you catch the card?"

"See for yourself, Kero."

Kero looked and saw that she really did catch the card, but also noticed she hadn't signed it yet, like she did the others. That thought was pushed aside as he realized where she caught the card at.

"Rose, how did you not get lost in that mirror maze?"

"I've been going through that maze since I could walk. I could walk it in my sleep. Besides, in the off chance that I would get lost, a long time ago, I put stickers at the top, pointing the way."

On the way back, Kero reflected what he knew about the new card captor. She was most definitely different from Sakura; more independent, sure of herself, more reserved, and she had a completely different sense of fashion. Thinking of Sakura brought his wondering mind back to earlier that morning.

That Morining

Kero woke up and looked at the clock. It read 7:00.

'Sakura's supposed to get up at 7:00. Better get her up before she's late.' Kero thought o himself.

When he got up, he noticed that Sakura wasn't in her bed. Mildly surprised that she was already up, he didn't register that this room was completely different from Sakura's. It was done in silver and blue, and decorated with paintings of different figures centered around the moon. Kero floated down the stairs, thinking that maybe Sakura had already made breakfast since she was up. When he reached the kitchen, his stomach did a dance after smelling the pancakes. Seeing the girl who was in the kitchen moving about, Kero was about to call out Sakura's name when the girl stood up. Kero had to bite back a yell before recent evens came flooding back to memory.

End Flashback

"Kero? What's on your mind?" Rose asked, seeing he was somewhere else.

"Nothing. Just thinking about Sa--um…"

She smiled because Rose knew Kero was thinking about Sakura; he only didn't say so because he thought it might make her uncomfortable.

"Kero, it's okay that you're thinking of Sakura. Think of her as often as you like. A person only really dies when she's forgotten, so as long as you think of her, and remember her, Sakura will live forever. Now, let's get home, I've got to get ready for school."

"Hey, Rose, who are you talking too?" Came a snide voice from the left.

"Not you Mark, leave me in peace. I have to get ready for school."

"So I heard. Who were you telling it to, your stuffed animal? Now you see, this is the reason people don't talk to you. You're crazy, or at least that's what people think. I mean, always cutting yourself, trying to commit suicide, hearing voices, and now talking to yourself. That will not help your image any."

"You would know wouldn't you Mark, you were the one who started all those rumors."

"That's right, Rose. And I can make them all go away, you know the price."

Mark leered at Rose. It wasn't that he was bad looking, because he was incredibly handsome; the most handsome guy in the school. He had sandy blonde hair and crystal clear blue eyes; the epitome of every stereotype jock ever made. But he was mean and hateful, and thought that just because he was rich and popular, he could have anything he wanted. And for some odd reason he wanted Rose. Because in his opinion, although she was weird, she was beautiful and smart, and just the perfect addition to his menagerie of flings.

"Forget it Mark. My answer is still the same, emphasized by a lot. Good bye."

Then Rose grabbed Kero, who during the confrontation stayed on her shoulder, and put gently put him in her pocket. She then proceeded to run home. When she got there, Rose was on the verge of tears. When Kero came out of her pocket, he saw her eyes were shining with tears threatening to spill over.

"Rose..?"

She ignored him and ran upstairs and slammed a door. He went up and saw she was in the silver and blue moon room. Knowing there was nothing he could do at the moment, he went into the room with the video games. This one, now that he was wide awake and saw ti better, was decorated in orange and gold, and had paintings of figures centered on the sun. These were also done by "SRT" He turned around when he heard the door open. Rose came out and Kero almost went back into the sun room at the sight of her. She had black eye shadow, blood red lipstick, a black shirt, and baggy jeans. Her shoes were multi-colored and she had her camouflage jacket on. What a difference from Sakura.

"Bye Kero, you can do what you like, just stay up stairs while Grams is home. See ya when I get back."

With that, she was off. Kero was surprised, he always used to go to school with Sakura. He had to keep reminding himself that this was not Sakura.

"Hey Grams, I'm home."

"come into the kitchen. I'd like a word with you."

'Uh-oh. I'm in trouble.' Rose thought to herself.

"I hear you got into a fight again. You know, they can kick you out for fighting. The only reason they don't is because of your grades. Why, why do you get into so much trouble?"

"It's not like I go out and look for fights, Grams. They find me. I don't start them, but I do finish them. Look Grams, I'm really sorry, but the kids at school seem to like to start fights with me. They really don't like me."

Rose's grandmother just sighed and then went to her room, leaving Rose in the kitchen sporting a bruised rib.

She started going up stairs and stopped in front of the mirror, again assessing herself; her hidden black eye and her newly cracked lip.

"Mirrors never lie, isn't that right?" She whispered to herself as she wiped as a non-existent tear. Rose finished her trek upstairs to do her homework.

It's been four months since Rose found the Sakura cars and she's captured all of them but two. She's still got the Fight card and the Earth card left. Everyone was caught quickly and neatly and with almost no effort.

The Snow card she melted, the Freeze card she used Loop. The Time card she used Illusion, and Twin card she used Mirror. She used Snow to capture the Sleep card. That idea, she said, came from reading the Wizard of Oz. Each on was unique and she didn't seem to need any help from Kero at all.

"What's wrong Kero? You seem troubled."

"Just thinking about your captures and…well…how different they are from Sakura's. And that you don't seem to need my help."

Rose smiled at Kero and picked him up and then started to walk down stairs into the kitchen.

"Kero, my captures aren't any better or worse than Sakura's were. I know this because of your talking about her captures. You helped more than you could ever know because you gave me ideas, and the opportunity to modify. Besides, I can't take all the credit for the captures. The cards deserve most of it. All I did was come up with a plan. They did what I asked. Remember Kero, card capturing is a team effort. I couldn't do it by myself. And as for comparing Sakura and myself, that's like comparing apples to oranges. We're really not alike."

While he was listening, Kero found Rose had made chocolate pudding for him. And Kero thought to himself, 'No Rose, you are more alike than you think.'

Thanks for all the reviews. I know this seems slow right now, but I promise that the romance will get here. I am still developing the character, but Sakura and Yue will get together in my story. I promise.

I would like to give a sort of forewarning, or small mention. In my next chapter I will be introducing an OC character. It is not a Mary-Sue. I know my name is Jennifer and this one's name is Jennifer but it is NOT me.

When I started writing this story, a friend of mine, named Jennifer, (yes it got really confusing when someone called our names), she was in a car accident. She was driving home one night and a drunk driver hit her. She was put in the hospital with severe head trauma, and was not expected to survive much longer. So I wrote her into a couple of my stories as a sort of all-powerful person. I felt so impotent, not being able to help her, so this was my way of doing that, of making things better. I created a scenario where she was super-human and something like a drunk driver could never hurt her.

I wrote this a little before I posted it, about two years to be exact. By the time I had posted this, Jennifer had died. She got out of the hospital, but she was severely brain damaged and was as helpless as a baby. She didn't want to live like that, but did for a short period of time to please her family. But it became too much for her. She over-dosed on her pills. So now my stories that she is in is a way for her to stay alive and whole.

The moral of this story, DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE. PLEASE.

I promise to be more up beat from now on.

Thank you and Please Review.

Jemi.