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The next day, Katie went to pick up Amy. Then, the two of them went to Nathan's house. Following that, their next stop was at Brian's house, then Madison's, and finally, Sakura's house. They did this every morning and did it backward in the afternoons. The six of them were happily walking to school- partly because Madison was healthy again and partly because they had a field trip that day.
"I can't wait to go to the beach," Brian said. "My brother's been there already and he said that it was really cool."
"I want to try surfing," Amy said. "If they'll allow us, though."
"This going to be so cool," Katie said. "Today's Wednesday and we'll come back from the field trip on the next Wednesday! One whole week of fun!"
"And we're going to have our field trip in an island!" Madison added.
They talked about the trip until they got to the school and spotted Li.
"Who's that?" Madison asked.
"He's a new kid," Sakura answered.
"What's he like?" Madison asked.
"You'll see..." Brian said.
They got to their class five minutes before the bell rang. Madison was also in the same class.
(There were 25 students in their class. Their desks were arranged five by five. Sakura sat in the right side of the last row in the back. Madison sat right in front of her, while Brian sat in front of Madison. Amy sat on the left side of Sakura. Nathan sat in front of Amy and Katie sat in front of Nathan. Li sat three desks to the left of Amy.)
Mrs. Allison entered the room a minute after the bell rang. The students were talking amongst themselves.
"Ok, guys, settle down," She said. "Please take your seats and take your math books out and your homework for math that I assigned yesterday while I take roll...Avalon..."
"Here"
"...Anson.."
"Here"
"...Bronson.."
She went on with the roll and finally finished in a few minutes.
"Ok," She said as she finished. "I think everyone's here for the field trip. And, yes, you can surf board."
There was a burst of yes's as Mrs. Allison said that.
Half of the day passed and as they finished lunch, they returned to their classrooms to get ready for the field trip.
"Ok, ok," She said to settle down the very excited students. Mostly everyone wanted to try surfboarding. "There will be sign-ups at the beach to rent the surfboards. I think there's enough for everyone in our grade, since it's only us. It's free just in case you were wondering... Ok, well, gather up your things for the field trip and line up in a single file line. Were taking bathroom breaks before we leave because it'll be a two-hour drive. So please go ahead and go to the bathrooms if you need to. There will not be any stops once we start driving down to the beach."
There was a loud shuffle of feet hurrying down the halls and into the bathrooms. Within ten minutes, the whole class had returned and they were outside waiting in line quietly for the bus to come.
"Ok, I think it's coming here," Mrs. Allison noticed. "Everybody get up if you're sitting down and get your things ready to be packed up."
The students had given the things that they didn't need in the bus to Mrs. Allison to put in the luggage compartment in the bus. The students started to file into the bus one by one looking for their friends to sit with. There was a great "whoa" from the students. They hadn't seen such a magnificent bus like this before because the only bus they mostly see are the ratty old worn-out busses the school normally had. The school rented these busses for the field trip. There were two busses, enough to fit in the whole fourth grade.
The busses were those kinds of busses that looked like the busses that went around the country dropping off people at bus stops--except that these were better. There was air-conditioning right above the seats and you could adjust them however you liked it to be. There were also TV's at the top of the ceilings, too. You could watch only local channels, though. ("Sorry, no cable," The bus driver had said.) And the seats were big and comfy.
"These are like the busses that are used by millionaires when they're bringing their relatives with them to a vacation," Sakura told to Madison, who was sitting with her.
" I know," Brian said
There were only two to a seat. Madison sat with Sakura in the very back in the right side. Across them were Amy and Nathan. Brian was right in front of Nathan, who had the window seat. Brian had two seats to himself, which Sakura thought was unfair. Li sat across from Brian. He, too, had a window seat. Right next to him was a boy named Paul Simington. Paul was a funny kid. More of a class clown than a smart person. He always received straight A's, but you would have never guessed that he always did because of the way he acted. At least 5 times a day, he made the whole class laugh out loud by his jokes. Paul and Li weren't exactly friends, but they always ended up with each other in mostly everything. Sakura noticed that.
Li was just staring outside the window ignoring all of the noises that the rest of the fourth graders were making.
' He seems not to have any friends,' Sakura thought as she took a glance at Li. ' But he's got to have at least one. Why won't he want to be our friends? We've tried to be friendly many times, but he still won't want to... Today, I'll try to make friends with him. He seems so lonely...He's the only one in the whole bus not talking and being happy about this. Is he just homesick? He could be...After all; he left Hong Kong and came to our school full of many strangers. Nobody to talk to, nobody to be happy with... It feels so sad. Maybe he misses his old friends from Hong Kong. He probably thinks that if he made any friends here and had to leave again, he'd be sad once more. But we can still be in touch with him all the time. We could write letters to him about what we're doing here and the same for him. I'll think of something during this field trip. The time will come when Li will find out that life in miserable without friends.'
Madison noticed that Sakura was staring at Li.
"Hey, Sakura, what is Li like anyway?" Madison whispered. "He doesn't seem bad at all. He just seems very quiet."
"You'll see Madison," Sakura repeated what Brian had said earlier this morning.
"All I see right now is a very quiet person that's just wondering about things that are in his mind," Madison told Sakura. "It just looks like he wants to be alone..."
The bus finally stopped with a halt in front of a harbor and the two teachers in the bus got up and gave the students directions on what to do when they got off the bus.
"Girls will go to with me!" Mrs. Allison yelled over the talking students. "Just follow me when we get off the bus!"
"Boys will follow me!" Another fourth grade teacher named Mr. Thomas yelled.
The students started pouring out of the bus following the teacher they had to go with. The boys went with Mr. Thomas and the girls went with Mrs. Allison.
"Bye you four," Brian said to Sakura, Katie, Amy, and Madison as they were separated into boys and girls.
"Bye, stay safe," Katie said.
"Good-bye," Sakura said. "See you later."
"Peace out," Nathan said.
"See ya," Amy said.
"Meet you later, ok?" Madison said.
The boys were led into a boat and went toward the island. The girls were doing the same thing. Madison, Sakura, Katie, and Amy frequently glanced at Brian and Nathan. The six of them kept on smiling at each other. They were certainly enjoying their one-week vacation already.
They finally came to the island and the boys were led to their cabins. There were four beds in each cabin. All the boys chose which cabin they would like to stay in. Brian and Nathan chose a cabin with Paul and Li.
"Hey guys," Paul greeted as Nathan and Brian entered the cabin to see if there was room for two in there. "Two empty beds over there."
"Cool, thanks," Brian said. "Hi Li."
"Hey..." Li answered very soft that Brian hardly heard.
Nathan looked at Brian with a curious look, but Brian just shrugged. He was confused, too.
The girls were also led to cabins to choose where to stay in for the trip. Madison, Sakura, Katie, and Amy found a cabin for themselves.
"Yes!" Sakura said. "We have our own cabin to ourselves!"
"I know!" Amy joined Sakura in her shouts of joy.
Then they heard Mr. Thomas's voice coming from the intercom that was on the wall of every cabin.
"Everyone, please come outside around 2 o' clock, 15 minutes from now, to the north shore."
The four girls were unpacking their things and putting them in their own drawers beside their beds. Brian, Nathan, Li, and Paul had already finished because the girls always had more things with them than the boys-- like their lotions and make-up, etc. The four of them were just talking about how great this trip is. Well, actually, Li wasn't really talking. He just nodded every once in a while. Li still had that face he had in the bus when Sakura was staring at him. Homesick, sad...
Brian looked at his watch- 1:53.
"Guys, let's go to the north shore now," Brian suggested. "It's only 1:53, but it might take a few minutes to find it. Who even knows where north is?"
Sure enough, it took 5 minutes before the four boys found the north shore. Brian and Nathan spotted the four girls and went to sit with them.
"Hi!" Sakura said.
"Hey," Nathan said back.
Mr. Thomas and Mrs. Allison came out of the teacher's cabin and came to the north shore soon. They started to just talk about what the rules were, where the boundaries were, and so forth. They finished soon and let the students return to their cabins until dinner came or the students could stay around the north shore and have fun or just enjoy the field trip.
Sakura, Madison, Katie, Amy, Brian, and Nathan chose to stay at the north shore. They wanted to be with each other a lot because they were that close of friends.
"I'm just going to get my sweater, you guys," Sakura said as she stood up brushing sand off her clothes. "It's getting a little cold. Want me to get yours Madison, Katie, Amy?"
"Sure, thanks," Amy thanked.
"Yeah, thanks Sakura," Madison answered.
"Ok, sure," Katie said.
Nathan got up, too. "I'm going to get mine, too. Want me to get yours, Brian?"
"Yeah, thanks man," Brian answered.
Sakura and Nathan walked together towards the cabins. Sakura was saying it was too cold while they were walking.
"It's so cold!" Sakura complained.
Nathan took Sakura and put him arm around her. "That better?"
"Yeah, a little," Sakura answered and smiled. "Thanks."
Nathan smiled.
"Anything to make you quiet, Sakura. Anything to make you quiet," Nathan said.
"Nathan, you be quiet, too," Sakura said laughing. Nathan laughed too.
"Nathan, let's go to the girls' cabins first, ok?" Sakura urged. "It's still a little chilly."
"All right," Nathan said.
They walked to the girls' cabins and opened the door to Madison, Katie, Amy, and Sakura's cabin. Sakura took her sweater and searched for the other three sweaters. In a few minutes, Sakura had found the sweaters and they headed for the boys' cabins and went to Nathan's cabin. He took his sweater and Brian's. The two of them headed back to the north shore.
"What took you?" Amy asked as Sakura and Nathan returned.
"It was cold and we didn't go fast, sorry," Nathan apologized. "We could hardly feel our legs."
"It's ok you guys," Brian said.
Madison looked at her watch that read 6:03. "One hour until dinner you guys."
"Oh, can't it be now?" Amy complained. "I'm hungry now."
"I know what you mean," Brian agreed.
Madison looked behind her as she heard some footsteps on the soft, brown sand. It was Li. He was walking towards the water on the shore. Seeing Li reminded Madison of something.
"Hey, you guys, when I asked you this morning about Li, you told me to wait and see," Madison said. "All I've seen is nothing."
"Exactly," Katie said.
Madison had a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean?"
"He's always like this," Brian answered. "Well, as far as we know. He's only been here for one day and it's his second day here. Yesterday he acted as if he wanted nothing to do with us. Every time we tried to be friends with him, he just says something and leaves us like he never even talked to us. I bet he thinks he's better than us."
"Brian, shut up," Amy said. "He's just probably just homesick or something's happened to him that's making him sad or he might just be worried about something. Don't think he thinks he's better than we are just because he ignores us. That's stooping down to the lowest level of being nice! Actually, that isn't even being nice at all!"
"Ok, Ok," Brian apologized. "I'm sorry, Amy. That was very wrong and I should've thought before I spoke. Will you accept my apology?"
"Ok," Amy said. "And I'm sorry for yelling at you like that. I just don't like people judging other people without even knowing them good enough to make remarks about them."
"It's ok," Brian said. "It was my fault anyway."
"I hate to break this nice little scene, but why do you guys always try to become friends with him?" Madison asked. "Maybe ignoring you guys is his way of telling you that he doesn't want your friendship or something..."
"Well...." Sakura said uncertainly.
'I don't know whether or not to tell Madison about us being Cardcaptors and Kero mentioning Li. I think I should tell her. After all she's my best friend and it will be wrong not telling her this and always making up lies to cover up things that she can't be with us because it deals with magic. She's very trustworthy.' Sakura thought this in her head very cautiously. She then turned to look at Li sitting on the shore, staring at the sky. 'Why does Li always avoid us? Is Brian right? Does he think he's better than we to be hanging out with us? Is he the right person Kero told us about? But yesterday at recess, I saw him concentrating very hard on something. I could sense something from him. He's got to be the right one!'
"Uh, Sakura?" Madison said. "Are you okay?"
Sakura snapped out of her thoughts. "Oh! I'm sorry!"
"Well? Why do you guys always want to be friends with him?" Madison repeated.
"Um, hold on," Sakura said. "I have to talk to Amy, Katie, Brian, and Nathan for a moment."
Sakura got up and motioned the four to come with her. They stopped walking about ten feet away from Madison.
"Yeah, what?" Nathan asked.
"Well, I was thinking of telling Madison about what happened to us," Sakura answered. "I know she'll keep it a secret. She's very trustworthy! I can't stand making up lies to her whenever we need to do something that has to do with the Clow Cards, Kero, or anything with magic involved."
"Yeah I guess you're right, Sakura," Brian agreed.
"Great!" Sakura exclaimed. "How about you guys? Are you going to let me?"
The other three agreed with Brian, which made Sakura smile. The five of them returned to Madison.
"Madison," Sakura said immediately before Madison could even breathe. "We'll tell you all about it tonight in the cabin. Ok?"
"Sure," Madison approved. "I can wait for at least an hour or two."
Sakura looked at her watch. 6:45. "Fifteen minutes until it's dinner time! I'm starving! Let's go to the cafeteria right now so we can be the first ones to be in line!"
The six of them headed toward the cafeteria with empty stomachs needing food and heads filled with thoughts of food. They sat at a table because they didn't want to stand for 15 minutes, waiting for the time to pass until 7 o' clock came. Ten minutes passed and some kids were starting to come to the cafeteria as well as the 4 fourth grade teachers including Mrs. Allison and Mr. Thomas. Sakura told them to line up so they were the first ones in line.
"I wish the food here isn't like what they serve in most camps," Nathan said. "That kind of food is nasty."
They came to the counter where you take your plates and move down the counter where you pick your food. To Nathan's surprise, the food wasn't at all nasty. It was actually scrumptious.
"Wow!" The six of them said as they saw the food and smelled the wonderful aroma coming from them.
"Be careful what you wish for, Nathan," Sakura said.
"I know," Nathan said still gazing at the delicious cuisine.
They took three different helpings of what they thought was the best meal they wanted. All of the students ate happily amongst themselves with the teachers at their own table. They were talking with each other, too.
"I bet they're planning how to make you fail the next test, Brian," Paul said as he asked if he could join them.
All of them laughed except Brian. "Whatever, Paul."
"Hey, take it easy," Paul said as he sat down next to Nathan. "It was only a joke and you know how I am."
"Yeah, I guess," Brian said. "Sorry."
"It's ok."
Sakura looked to her side as she saw Li looking for a seat not taken already. There was only one seat left in the entire cafeteria. The empty seat was right next to Sakura at the end of the table they were sitting in.
"Over here, Li," Sakura said. "It's the only empty one."
Li had no choice but to sit him right next to the people who have been trying to befriend him all day yesterday. He hesitated for a moment, but he then moved to the empty seat and sat down. Nathan had a serious look on his face as soon as Li sat down.
'If he does anything to us and especially Sakura...'
Amy saw the look on Nathan's face. 'Do I smell jealousy?'
***
It was 8:00 p.m. and the students were all in their cabins. One hour had passed since they ate their dinner. Amy still had Nathan's weird expression that was on his face stuck in her mind.
'What was that all about? Li never did anything to Nathan that we know of...'
"What's up?" Madison asked as she saw Amy's look on her face. "It looks like something's troubling you."
"Oh," Amy snapped back. "Sorry. I-um--was just thinking of--something..."
"Are you sure you're ok?" Madison assured.
"Well...I don't know," Amy answered. "I'll tell you tomorrow, ok?"
"Sure," Madison said and smiled. "Come on, you told me that you were going to tell me about something after dinner and it is after dinner."
"Oh yeah," Katie remembered. She took the Heart of Clow that she received from Kero.
"What's that?" Madison asked.
"It's a broach, but there's something you need to know about it," Katie answered. She looked at Amy and Sakura. Sakura took her Key of Clow and Amy took her Heart of Clow.
"You have one too, Amy," Madison said. "And Sakura, you have a different thing."
"Uh, yeah," Sakura answered.
"Well, let's see," Katie said. "Sakura, I think you should tell her."
"Ok, sure," Sakura said. "Well, Madison. It happened last Friday. I was with Amy, Katie, Nathan, and Bryan. We were in my basement just looking for old stuff that was forgotten there. We saw a book. It was the most bizarre book you'd even seen. It had a weird looking monster with big wings spread out. I picked it up. It was as if it was calling me. I opened the book and there were only cards in it. I took the one on top, well, actually it was the bottom because the cards were piled up upside down. So I took the last one and I read it. 'The Windy' is what it said. I read it out loud and suddenly there was a flash of light. A small looking creature named Kero came out of the book a few moments later. You'll meet him later. Then, he explained all about Clow Cards and all about these weird things that I already forgot. I'll get Kero to tell us again. It's too complicated. Well, anyway, he made us Cardcaptors."
"You lost me a while back," Madison said.
"I'm sorry, Madison," Sakura said. "There's just a lot of things in my head and I forgot most of the things Kero had told me. That's all I remember and it's probably not enough to explain it to you."
"It's ok Sakura," Madison said. "If I was a, uh, what did you say? Cardcaptor? Well, I would get confused too. We'll just get, uh, Kero for the information."
"Ok," Sakura said smiling.
Katie looked at her watch. 8:32. "Lights out in about 30 minutes."
"Ok," They all agreed.
"Well, what do you guys want to do for the last 30 minutes of the night?" Sakura asked.
"I don't know," Katie said.
"Same here," Amy said.
"Well if you guys don't have any ideas of what to do," Madison said, "I have a few questions."
"Ask away," Katie said.
"Ok," Madison said. "Well, since Sakura didn't answer why you guys keep on trying to be friends with Li, why are you? Sakura you don't have to answer it. You can just rest yourself."
Sakura laughed.
"Well," Katie said, "Kero said something about a kid named Li Showron being a Cardcaptor, too."
"What?"
"Oh, yeah. A Cardcaptor is a person whose job is to capture the Clow Cards."
"Oh ok. Go on."
"Well, when Li came to our class, we thought that he was the one that Kero was talking about. So, we have to see if Li is the person Kero was talking about."
"Did you ask Kero yet?"
"No. Sakura, can you ask Kero that when we come back?"
"Sure."
Madison checked her watch- 8:56.
"Almost lights out," Madison said. "We should get to sleep now or the boys would have to stay with us to wake us whenever we dose off."
Everyone except Sakura laughed.
"What boys?" Sakura asked.
"Nathan and Brian," Madison said.
"Oh, yeah," Sakura said as if she had just waken up from a long sleep. "I'm sorry. It's just---nothing."
They all brushed their teeth, washed their faces, and changed into their nightwear. They all went to sleep momentarily.
~~~
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