AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hey, guys! Really sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've finally come up with a 19th chapter and I hope you'll all enjoy it. Also, I've re-posted all of the other chapters, some of them heavily edited. Some of the chapters have been shortened, some passages deleted, some replaced, and some conversations and streams of thoughts even edited. Also, I changed all the * * *'s and (scene shift:)s into (CUT)s, because, really, that's what they are. Apologies if they look a little ridiculous.

Anyway, I decided to do the edits because my style has changed significantly since I first began to write this story. In Chapter XII (Lunch), for example, I added a little more oomph at the last part (rock on, sweetness). I also changed some strands of thought in Syaoran's head during the shopping/makeover chapters. Also, I changed the names of the additional in-crowd girls: Kia became Hana, Mica became Kaori, and Andrea became Haia. Ria stayed the same. It doesn't really make much of a difference for everyone who has already read the story, but for the new readers (at least, I hope there will be some), I want these girls to be more Japanese-y rather than just a patched-together squad of foreign faces.

I wouldn't demand it of you to read the edited chapters (though that would be cool), but I do recommend that you at least skim through the 18th chapter before reading the 19th. A lot of the emotions in the 19th take off from the 18th, and the developments might be a little shocking if you don't read back a bit. Haha. As always, please read and review. ^^

I - The High Life

Tomoyo Daidouji strode across the velvety stretch of Bermuda on her way back into her new school building. Her wavy tresses swayed behind her, rippling black and purple in the sunlight; her thick-lashed amethyst eyes were serene. Quite an eye-catcher, she nevertheless stepped her way to the building without affectations. She wore clothes that were up-to-date, and thus not in the least unusual by themselves, but she wore the trend with a flavor of her own that made all the difference.

A group of girls stood by the sidelines in their psychedelic ensembles, watching the students who passed by with narrow eyes prepared to criticize. They exuded the unlicensed confidence of people who were popular simply because they proclaimed themselves to be and a few people fell for it. With nothing else to do, and because their power was purely reliant on their appearance of power, they lounged about sorting people into classes and labels—high, middle and low.

Sakura Kinomoto's emerald eyes followed the new girl's graceful movements. She looked towards Nachika Hayli, leader of the popularity company, for her judgment. The girl nodded, mutely, her thick-lashed brown eyes trailing Tomoyo. Sakura smiled. She stood up and walked, that is, sashayed over to the girl, delicate hand reaching out to tap a shoulder and then offer a handshake, which the beautiful girl accepted with a gracious rather than grateful smile. A few more seconds and Sakura was guiding her to the group.

"Girls, this is Tomoyo Daidouji." She clapped a hand on Tomoyo's shoulder.

Tomoyo tossed her head and silky black curls to the side in an enthusiastic smile. "Hi."

"Welcome to existence," Hayli said, giving her a wry smile. "The name's Hayli. And this is Chiharu, Naoko, and, as you probably already know, Sakura. The others don't hang out with us in the mornings so you'll meet up with them during lunch period. Meanwhile…" She motioned with her head for Tomoyo to have a seat with them.

And, as the unwitting new recruit sat, so was she inducted.

(CUT)

"Hana, Ria, Kaori and Haia," Hayli told Tomoyo, pointing to a group of girls already seated around the table in what might have been varying degrees of prettiness had they not made themselves up into powdered, eyelined, and lip-tinted homogeny. "That's just about it. The boys, of course, don't hang with the girls. They trash the ramps most of their free time, but we find time to bond."

"Right. I'm Tomoyo."

The other four nodded their acknowledgements. "Yeah, we know."

"So are you sticking around?" Haia asked.

"Well, I'll be in the neighborhood for as long as I'm wanted in the neighborhood," Tomoyo replied.

"Well, great. Sit down."

Hayli, Tomoyo, Sakura, Chiharu and Naoko seated themselves around the table, each gearing up with their own fresh loads of gossip and basic facts on life to teach Tomoyo.

"Now, when it comes to The Sorting…" Hana said, looking at Tomoyo from beneath her lashes. The capitalization could be heard in her voice. "You have to know when people are in or when people are out. It's essential that you know how—"

"Check-up test!" Chiharu cheered.

"Well, why not?" Hayli drawled, enjoying her power as everyone turned to her and listened as if the idea had been hers. She leaned her elbows casually on the table. Her eyes flickered towards Tomoyo. "What do you think of him?" she asked, motioning to Yamazaki, a guy ranting away animatedly at the next table.

Tomoyo gave the guy a momentary glance and shrugged. "Well, cute. Perfect for you, I'd imagine." She looked pointedly at Chiharu, who flushed, eyes widening.

"We're going out," she admitted.

Hayli beamed. "Very nice, Tomoyo. Hmmm…"

"What about Eriol-kun?" Sakura asked, nodding towards a dark-haired boy clad in glasses, midnight eyes shining with a quiet brilliance and intelligent mirth.

Heat crept up Tomoyo's cheeks. This time, her glance was not so brief. "Oh, he's…he seems nice," she mumbled.

"He is nice," Sakura said.

Tomoyo snatched her gaze away.

"Who would have thought you'd be a natural?" Naoko murmured, approvingly.

Sakura didn't bother with compliments, although she, too, was rather impressed. "And how about Rika?" she prodded on.

Tomoyo followed her emerald gaze. "My guess would be…she isn't exactly...your type," she mused aloud. "She's…timid…"

"What class?" Sakura pressed.

"I don't believe it should matter, but I think you'd say...middle?"

"Middle of?"

"Your 'high class' and your 'low class'. What other middle is there?"

"Lots of other middles, Tomoyo—and you're wrong," Sakura said, pulling a celery stick out of a little plastic cellophane and munching on it. "She's in the middle of middle class and low class."

Tomoyo shrugged. "Whatever you say," she said, and she shook her head, a ghost of a grin on her face.

"So…what about…" Suddenly, Sakura's eyes narrowed in pure contempt, as she caught sight of a lone boy about to exit the cafeteria. "…Him?"

Tomoyo traced Sakura's line of vision to find a blank-faced chestnut-haired boy, messy locks flowing over his forehead and concealing dark eyes she couldn't quite decipher as black or brown. She hesitated. He was good enough to be the ultimate heartthrob, in her opinion, only the scowl wasn't much of an accessory.

"He's perfect for you," she said, finally.

There were sharp intakes of breath all around the table.

Hayli let loose a tense, unpleasant laugh. "You're very funny, Daidouji!" she exclaimed. "Really. Haha. Li Syaoran? Perfect for my best friend, Sakura Kinomoto!? Mercy, but he can't even talk!"

The amethyst-eyed girl scowled a little. "You guys must be bluffing," she said, motioning with a hand to indifferent Syaoran. "I can tell: he's calm, he's sure, he's aloof—he's cool."

"Yeah, freezing," Kaori mumbled to Chiharu, who giggled.

Hayli shook her hair and rolled her eyes, heaving a little groan. "Oh, not cool, definitely not cool…" she grumbled.

"Well, I say you people are blind," Tomoyo said, stubbornly.

Kaori's eyes widened. "Tomoyo." She loaded the name with reprimand.

Hana wrinkled her nose. "You didn't mean that," she said. For some reason, her voice lacked all the emotion that was on her face.

Haia looked towards Syaoran and sighed. "Fine, so he's a little cute," she muttered. A small, perverse grin crept up on her lips, which she shook off after a momentary thought, as she rolled her eyes and shuddered. "But he's so nerdy."

"Tell me about it," Ria chimed in.

Hayli faced Tomoyo with a smug look, challenging her to beat what the rest of the gang thought of him.

"You did not just call him nerdy," Tomoyo said, not in the least daunted, "because I can see a lot of things about him that tell otherwise."

The others merely rolled their eyes. "Oh, make me barf, Tomoyo," Naoko scoffed. "You don't know him. You're just a new girl, after all."

"Looks can be quite deceiving, you know," Chiharu informed her. "Yamazaki-kun said so."

"Oh, you guys lay off her," Sakura snapped, losing interest in the topic. "Let's all just leave that tongue-tied psycho alone. I think everyone would agree that shutting up will be good for all of us."

"But he is kind of cute, right, Sakura?" Tomoyo said. Her amethyst eyes flashed. She was adamant.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I hate the guy with every fiber of my being, but to shut you up—fine! He's cute! He's a to-die-for hunk. Happy?" She shook her head with a huff and sipped at her iced tea.

The rest of the girls stared, dumbfounded. "Fine!?" Hayli echoed, after some moments of stuck silence. They all apparently believed her. "You said fine!?!?" And, as if that was their cue, the rest of the gang broke into disgusted squeals. Sakura shook her head. What total airheads!

Tomoyo smiled. "Yes, she said fine," she reiterated, calmly. "And she said he's a to-die-for hunk to top that off. He deserves high class."

"Lower than low," Chiharu countered. "He's the meanest loser of all! Sakura hates him!"

"I didn't mean what I said, Tomoyo," Sakura grumbled, but Hayli burst before anyone could hear her.

"LOW!" the most popular girl emphasized, facing Tomoyo, apparently frustrated. "End of discussion, and don't you dare start again!" She pointed a manicured finger at her.

"Sakura?" Tomoyo, clearly aggravated, turned to face the quietly swearing honey-haired beauty beside her. She evidently expected Sakura to speak up and defend their side.

"Yeah, okay, just shut up!" Sakura burst out. "Look, I only said what I said to shut you all up, now quit talking about him! It's getting disgusting and you guys are humiliating the entire group—"

"Oooh, she's blushing!" Haia shrieked.

Sakura glared at her. "Shut your lying mouth, Haia! Spare us all!"

Syaoran had already left the room, ignorant of anything. Tomoyo bit her lip. The rest of the girls had huge, dopey grins on their faces, clearly having taken what Haia said to heart.

Then there was a moment of silence.

Hayli suddenly adopted a strange smile, so transparently wicked that Tomoyo almost imagined a sudden chill in the air. "Ne, Sakura…" she purred, honey-colored eyes adopting strange glints of guile.

Sakura looked at her, still simmering. "Yeah, what is it?"

"If you love him so much—"

"Shut up, Hayli."

"Oh dear!" the other girl exclaimed in a fake, breathy falsetto. She winked at the other girls so quickly Sakura couldn't trace it. They giggled. "And just now you spoke of him so affectionately—"

"I said lay off the topic."

"Oh, Sakura…" Hayli inched closer to Sakura and rested her head on her friend's shoulder. "You must have been hiding all these feelings from us for so long…"

"Hay, quit it. You know I hate the guy."

Tomoyo looked confused.

Hayli giggled. "Can you prove it then, Sakura…?" she whispered.

Sakura blinked, suddenly on guard. "What are you talking about?"

"You see, best friend, your words and actions don't match, so you have to make them match. Say…" She pretended to think. "Oh I know! Make him fall in love with you and then dump him—dump him like a boiled, hot potato." She giggled. "Yeah. I kind of miss seeing you bitch around and hook a cute guy or two."

A pair of emerald eyes widened.

"Why not?" Hayli hissed, her coated red lips curling into a smile. "Li Syaoran." She loved the way Sakura was flaring up. It was bound to be one wild ride to see somebody who's a somebody go after that dork.

"Get off me, Hayli!" Sakura shouted, shaking her friend's face off her shoulder. "I am not doing it!"

"Oh," Hayli twirled a strand of hair around her finger, slyly, batting her long lashes and feigning disappointment. "Then you do love him, don't you? You like him more than you like us. You do not want to risk hurting his feelings, because you actually think he has some. You don't want him to hate you. You're scared you'll break his heart. Aww…isn't that sweet?"

All the rest of the girls except for Tomoyo, kiss-asses that they were, echoed her. "Aww…"

Sakura burned. "He already hates me, Hayli, and you know what? I have no problem with that—because I hate him too! I'm not that low," she growled. "I deserve better."

"Like I said, why don't you prove it?" Hayli murmured, walking two fingers up Sakura's arm, slyly.

Sakura slammed both hands down on the table top and from her seat, glaring down at her so-called friend. "Fine! You think I can't do it? You wish. I'll make you eat what you spat out and add some spit of my own!" She leaned closer to Hayli's face and smugly hissed. "Oh, he'll be mine, make no mistake about that, Nachika. But I won't ever be his. Ever."

And she stalked off.

(CUT)

TBC