Konnichiwa, minna-san! I edited it again! Don't be mad though, I think you all should like the changes. After all, CCS is supposed to be complex and mysterious. I believe in not giving away the entire story in the first chapter. Anyway, this is my first fanfic ever, so please be nice… Actually, be absolutely truthful on what you think. But I hope you'll think it's nice! ^_^

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't own CCS and will never own it. Good for me.

Have fun!

Somewhere, Over the Rainbow

by Zenin

"Oh, don't ring…don't ring…I can't be late today!"

Sixteen-year-old Sakura Kinomoto roller bladed swiftly around a corner, nearly losing her balance as she sped towards Tomoeda High.

"It's the last day of school; and I sleep in, burn Kero's pancakes, lose my assignment for math class…can anything get any worse?"

"Kaijuu!"

Sakura's nineteen-year-old brother, Touya, rode up on his bicycle.

"Oh, yes…they can get worse…" she muttered to herself.

"Talking to yourself again, Kaiju?" Her nineteen-year-old brother smirked knowingly.

"I'M NOT A KAIJUU, TOUYA!!!"

"Whatever, Kaijuu."

She rewarded him with a kick in the shin. He rubbed his leg painfully and muttered curses under his breath.

"You better watch your language, To-ya. What if Kaho heard you saying those things?"

They had reached the corner where Yukito always joined them for the ride to school. He got on his bike and joined them, as usual. He smiled at Sakura.

"To-ya's been giving you a hard time, ne?"

"He always gives me a hard time."

Yukito laughed. Sakura had once had a huge crush on him in the fourth grade, but when she had confessed, she realized that she only had sisterly-type love for her brother's best friend. Now her affections were aimed at a different boy, one with warm brown eyes and messy dark hair. I wish I had the nerve to tell him, but…I just don't think he thinks of me that way. We can only be rivals or friends. And Meilin is engaged to him… Why is life so unfair?

The high school loomed ahead of her as she waved goodbye to Touya and Yukito.

"See ya later!"

"Bye, Kaijuu!"

"I AM NOT A KAIJUU!"

When she reached the classroom, the teacher was getting ready to take role. The slender, emerald-eyed girl slid into her seat beside a black-haired, violet-eyed girl. The brown-haired, brown-eyed boy behind her leaned forward, whispering, "Slept in again?"

She blushed. "I…I, um…well, yes!"

He smiled knowingly. The teacher called the class to order and began. The day dragged slowly by, and at lunch, Tomoyo, Syaoran, Meilin, and Sakura sat beneath a large oak beside the school.

"I'm going to miss everyone during summer vacation," Sakura said with a sigh as she played with a flower.

"I'll be perfectly fine with my Syaoran by my side," Meilin said proudly, clinging to Syaoran's arm. "We're going to go to a camp for the summer."

Syaoran rolled his eyes and tugged his arm away disgustedly.

"That sounds like fun," Tomoyo said, an evil glint coming into her violet eyes. Tomoyo had been Sakura's friend since before anyone could remember. She loved designing clothes for Sakura and videotaping any "kawaii" moments that Sakura had. She also had an obsessive matchmaking streak, knowing how Sakura felt about Syaoran.

"Um, Sakura…I have to tell you something…" Tomoyo said, quietly taking Sakura aside. Syaoran and Meilin raised their eyebrows, then shrugged as Sakura was towed away by Tomoyo.

Once they were behind the corner of the school, Sakura turned and looked at Tomoyo curiously. "What?"

Tomoyo's violet eyes were dreamy. "Well…Eriol called yesterday. He wanted to know if I could spend summer vacation with him in England."

"And you said yes?"

"Hai."

"That's so kawaii! You're going to have so much fun, Tomoyo!"

"You aren't upset?" Tomoyo asked, relieved.

"No. Even though dad is taking Touya on an expedition for the summer, I'll be fine. I'm going to spend time studying with Kero to become a stronger and better Card Mistress."

Tomoyo groaned. "Ohhh! I'm not going to be here to make you costumes! And I won't be able to videotape you! What if you become stronger and no one's there to see kawaii Sakura becoming the most powerful magician in the world?"

"Tomoyo, it's okay."

Tomoyo ignored her. "And what if Li-san asks—" she stopped suddenly, a mysterious gleam in her eyes. "I know! I'll make you some costumes right away! Come with me to my house after school, okay? Don't worry I'll call your dad and arrange everything. You can sleep over."

Sakura sweat-dropped. "That'd be…great!"

Meilin began to drag Syaoran away. "HEY KINOMOTO! If you don't hurry, we'll be late for Gym!"

"Hoe!!!"

+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Since it was the last day of school, the final physical exam in P.E. was being given.

Rope climbing, the most hated event of the year.

Naoko, another one of Sakura's friends, especially hated it. She half-slid, half-fell to the floor, her glasses dangling off her nose and a dejected look on her face as she stood and walked over to Sakura.

"I just know I failed," Naoko muttered. "Why can't they have a…a reading exam or something instead of P.E.?"

Sakura smiled sweetly at her. "Don't worry, Naoko. At least you reached the three-quarters mark. That's a passing grade, ne?"

"Thanks, Sakura."

"No problem."

Terada-sensei looked up from his clipboard. "Next up, Sakura Kinomoto. Climb the rope. This counts as 30% of your final grade."

She glanced at the rope. Hoe, forty feet long! And it's new rope too, so it's going to be a bit slippery. Sakura squared her shoulders resolutely. I can do this! After all, I managed to capture and transform all the Cards. This should be easy. Suddenly, the rope began to glow a crimson color. Sakura gasped and stepped back, startled.

"Kinomoto! What's taking you so long? Climb the rope!"

Steadying herself, she reached out and grasped the rope. Jerking her hands back, she surveyed it once more. It's burning! I've got to keep climbing though. Dad wants me to have good grades. I can't let him down! Gritting her teeth, she grasped the rope tightly and began to climb. She had reached the top when, with a snap, the rope broke.

"HOE!!!"

"Sakura!" Syaoran broke through the crowd of people and managed to catch Sakura. Slumping to the floor, he cradled Sakura carefully.

"Sakura? Are you okay?"

She mumbled something, then cried out with pain as her slightly burned hands brushed against Syaoran's sweater. He immediately caught them and examined them. There's some burn blisters here. What happened? I noticed there was some weird magic here, but I came too late… It must have been the rope.

"Sakura?"

~Sakura~

I had managed to climb to the top, but when I started down, the rope broke. I thought about using my cards to save me, but when I reached for the Key, I realized that I had left it in my gym bag for safekeeping. Great. Just great, I thought as the thing my hand came in contact with was nothing more than a Pez candy dispenser. You take off the Key, but you have candy with you. Oh, yeah, this little Santa Claus candy dispenser is gonna be a BIG help… The candy dispenser ho-ho-hoed cheerily as everything went black.

When I woke up, I felt strangely warm and…

What in the world? OH MY GOSH! I'm in Syaoran Li's arms!!! OH…MY…GOSH!!! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!!!

Syaoran seemed to have felt my body tense, for he looked down and smiled slightly.

Oh, that smile! I blushed furiously. Suddenly, I noticed a light shade of red tingeing his cheeks. What the…Is he blushing? No…he can't be…

An annoying little voice in my head reminded me that we were in the middle of a crowd and everyone was looking at us. I sat up quickly, at the same time he did, and said,

"I'm all right!"

Terada-sensei looked doubtfully at me. The broken rope lay coiled on the floor, its end neatly sliced.

It looks like something cut it, I thought. I looked up to see the sensei staring at me with a raised eyebrow. A glance at my hand revealed the reason of his dubious look. The Santa Claus dispenser was still merrily ho-hoing, it's head ripped from the hinges and dangling by a piece of broken plastic. I shoved it into my pocket, blushing with embarrassment as I tried to muffle the sound.

"She's okay," Syaoran assured the sensei.

I glanced at Syaoran and blushed even more. He helped me to my feet, then disappeared into the crowd again. I quickly snapped back to reality as everyone began talking excitedly about the snapped rope.

"Did I pass?" I asked Terada-sensei.

He was examining the rope, which had returned to its normal color. "I have no idea why that rope snapped. It was new… Oh, Kinomoto. Yes, you passed. It wasn't your fault that the rope broke." He turned to the rest of the class. "Have a fun vacation. I expect you guys to be energetic during the summer. I don't want a bunch of potbellied students coming back in the fall. Anyway, enjoy yourselves! Class dismissed."

Everyone left, quickly forgetting about the misshap, thank goodness, and were now chattering about summer vacation. I sighed with relief; that is, until I saw Tomoyo. She met me at my locker, smiling sadistically and patting the evil contraption known as "the video camera".

"Tomoyo! You didn't!" I pleaded as I stuffed the candy dispenser into my locker.

"I did and it's all on tape. It's was SO KAWAII!!!" she shrieked joyously.

Silence. Everyone stopped talking and stared at us. I smiled nervously at them and said, "Um, uh, she's um, happy that she's going to go to England… heh heh."

They nodded their heads understandingly and returned to whatever they had been doing. Suddenly, Meilin pushed her way towards us.

"What did you think you were doing in gym, Kinomoto?!"

"I…um…I fell." Is there some law against falling that I don't know?

"You did that on purpose just so that my Syaoran would save you! I know what you're up to! You don't fool me, Kinomoto!" Meilin cried, her finger pointed at me accusingly.

Oh, yeah. I burned my hands and cut the rope just so that Syaoran Li would rescue me and hold me in his arms. My gosh, can Meilin get any worse? Whoops, I shouldn't have thought that….

She still was not finished. "I'm warning you! If you so much as even look in his direction, I'll—"

"Meilin…"

"Uh oh…" She immediately stopped and smiled sweetly at Syaoran, who had come up behind her while she had been yelling.

"What were you saying?" he asked in a low voice.

"I…I…I was just talking to Kinomoto," she said.

Tomoyo decided that it was a good time to get away. Grabbing my arm, she dragged me out of the school.

"Now it's time to MODEL!" she cried excitedly.

+=+=+=+=+=+=+

"Hey, Sakura. Try this one on!" Tomoyo said with a bright smile. In her arms was a casual burgundy dress.

"Okay."

She'd gotten better at designing over the years. Her talent had matured to the point of (drum roll please): I didn't have to wear any pink kitty costumes. For that, I was grateful. But it's still embarrassing to be video taped all the time.

I slipped into the dress and came out of the dressing room. Tomoyo became starry-eyed when she saw me.

"Ohhhhh, it's perfect!"

"Perfect for what?"

"How would you like to go to a summer camp?"

Okay, where did that come from? "A summer camp?"

"Yes," she said happily. "Staying at home alone doesn't seem like much fun to me, so I got you some brochures on a really nice camp. It's called, 'Camp Skittles'."

I tried to ignore the demonic gleam appearing in her all-too-innocent blue eyes. "Camp Skittles? What does it have?"

"Fencing, swimming, boating, contests, archery, martial arts lessons—"

"Sugoi! Martial arts lessons? I've been wanting to learn some self defense!"

"Really? Good, because I arranged for you to go there. You're already booked in cabin number…four."

"I am? But what'll Otou-san say? And what about Touya? I'll bet he'll blow off the expedition just so that he can have a summer job there and keep an eye on me."

"I told you, it's all ready. I called your dad and he agreed. So that takes care of that. Oh, and your dad said that he couldn't spare Touya on this one, so—"

*Dad couldn't spare Touya? This was sooo—* "SUGOI!!!"

"Your bags are all packed, and I added some of my creations. I just need to pack this and then you'll leave tomorrow morning at 9:00," Her amethyst eyes grew misty. "To think, I won't be there to film you…"

Suddenly the phone rang, interrupting Tomoyo's daydreams. She picked it up and smiled when she heard the voice on the other end.

"Moshi moshi, Tomoyo's residence. Eriol! Hai, something did happen…uh-huh…okay…here she is…"

She handed the phone to me, looking slightly worried.

"Hello?"

"Sakura, what happened at school?"

"Well, we were supposed to climb a rope as part of the gym final, and I noticed the rope was glowing red. I don't think anyone else noticed. When I touched it, it was really hot. Anyway, I climbed to the top and then it suddenly broke. And…I…was caught by S-someone."

"It was glowing red?"

"Hai."

"Be on your guard, Sakura. There may be new cards out there. I think I remember reading one of Clow's books that said something about rainbow cards. 'Expect the unexpected', okay?"

"Alright. Sayonara, Eriol."

I handed the phone back to Tomoyo and whispered, "I think I'll go to bed early. I'm very tired." She nodded understandingly and continued talking with Eriol.

+=+=+=+=+

I lay on the guest bed, completely confused. The glowing red rope in gym, the faint blush on Syaoran's face (Was it a blush??? I wish I knew…), Tomoyo's gleeful sparkle in her eyes, and Eriol's dire predictions of "rainbow cards" had sent my thoughts in a whirl. With a sigh, I stood, picked up my brush, and began untangling my light brown curls. I'd been growing my hair out and now it hung to the middle of my back. Otou-san said it looked just the way my mother's had when she was my age, except hers was a different color, of course.

I wonder if she can see me? I thought, and hot tears began to trickle down my cheek. Whenever I think of my mom, I just always seem to cry. I wish I could have known her.

"Mama, can you see me? Mama, can you hear me? Mama, can you find me in the night? Mama, are you near me? Mama, can you hear me? Mama, can you help me not be frightened?

Looking at the skies, I seem to see a million eyes; Which ones are yours? Where are you now that yesterday has waved goodbye And closed its doors? The night is so much darker, The wind is so much colder, The world I see is so much bigger…now that I'm alone.

Can you hear me praying? Anything I'm saying? Even though the night is filled with voices?

I remember every thing you taught me, Every book we ever read. Can all the words in all the books Help me to face what lies ahead? The trees are so much taller, And I feel so much smaller. The moon is twice as lonely and the stars are half as bright.

Mama, how I love you.

Mama, how I need you.

Mama, how I miss you kissing me goodnight."

~Normal POV~

I wish she were here. I'm so confused! She put away her brush and sat on the bed. Oh! I better pack the Sakura Cards or Kero will—

"Oh no! Kero! I left him at home alone, without any…(horrified gasp)… FOOD!"

Sakura jumped up and rummaged inside her suitcase for the Key. Flying should get me there faster…

"KONICHIWAAAAAA!!!!!!" Kero popped his head out of a pocket.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! KERO!?!? WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME?!?"

Kero peeled himself off of the wall that Sakura had defensively smacked him against. "It's a good thing that you're going to study martial arts. They teach control…"

"Oh…heh…gomen!" Sakura said, sweat-dropping.

Tomoyo burst through the door, cheerfully waving a pile of yellow fabric. "I've got the perfect costume!!! It's a masterpiece! Oh, konichiwa, Kero! Sakura, you've got to try this on NOW!"

Sakura sweat-dropped again and went into the dressing room to put on the "masterpiece". Tomoyo tapped a foot impatiently, then remembered something.

"Kero, something strange happened to Sakura-chan today in the gym. She was climbing a rope and when she reached the top, it snapped. Sakura said that it'd been glowing red when she was climbing, but faded back to its original color after it broke."

Kero looked serious. "Did you call Eriol?"

"Yes, we did…actually, no. He called us."

Kero was quiet for a time. Then he lifted his head, looked Tomoyo in the eye and asked quietly,

"…Do you have any pudding?"

"KERO!!"

"Well, if Eriol answered your questions, then there's not much I can do!"

"YOU STILL COULD'VE—Oh well. There's pudding in the first kitchen's fridge."

Sakura emerged from the dressing room, wearing a floor length dress of yellow silk. It was medieval style, with the skirt beginning just beneath the bodice. The long sleeves were made of a yellow, transparent material, and more transparent materiel covered the skirt, making it seem as if she were floating. The neckline was slightly scooped, revealing a small, silver star pendant hanging on a delicate chain.

"Whoa…" Kero's eyes grew big.

Tomoyo clapped her hands gleefully. "KAWAII!!!!! Sakura-chan! It's perfect on you! Oh, I gotta get this on film!"

Sakura smiled uncomfortably. "Remind me what this is for again?"

"Oh, well, Sakura, remember to 'expect the unexpected'…that's all…"

"Right."

~Tomoyo~

I was very worried about Sakura-chan. After all, she is my best friend. Although, I did feel a tiny bit happy about the prospect of making new costumes for her, now that there might be more cards to capture. I decided to call Eriol back after Sakura had gone to sleep.

"Eriol, will she be okay?"

There was a slight pause.

"She'll be fine…I think."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ugh…edited AGAIN. Hopefully this will be the last time. There, I've finished the first chapter of my first fanfic! So, what do you guys think? Is it good? Please, be kind and review to let me know of whatever you think will improve my writing, this fanfic, or any of the characters.

Did you see? I have italics now! ITALICS! Oh…I feel so fulfilled…