Photo Day
~ By mlugia
"Why do I have to wear this anyways?" Syaoran grumbled, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He was wearing a white dress shirt with a striped green tie that he could swear was made just to choke him. He adjusted it a little, but it didn't help. He turned to Wei, who was smiling at him, seemingly amused with his torture.
"Please remind me why I am wearing this today?" He asked, annoyed that he has to wear so awkward a costume to school that particular morning. 'Well, at least I can wear my brown pants like I normally do,' He thought with a sigh.
"Master Syaoran, it is at the will of your mother that you wear a nicer outfit to school today. Your mother is very eager to see your school photograph this year, and if you wear a scruffy outfit like you did last year, your mother will not be very pleased," Wei replied in a sagely tone.
Syaoran sighed. He remembered what happened last year during picture day. He had forgotten about the shoot, and wore his regular clothing to school. Worse yet, he played soccer with the guys during recess, and had gotten himself so dirty that his uniform was covered in dirt and mud stains. His mother had a fit, and sent a five-page letter of reprimanding to be read out by Wei, and it made Syaoran completely miserable for a week and a half.
"Fine, fine... But are you sure I have to wear this? I mean, ANYTHING is better than this, Wei," Syaoran complained again.
"Well, Master Syaoran, there is always your ceremonial outfit..."
Syaoran flinched at the thought. If he wore his ceremonial outfit to school, he was sure half the students would fall over with laughter, while the other half refuse to talk to him at all due to their unwillingness to talk to "losers". And he had no idea which half of the school the popular Sakura would be in, but he wouldn't want it either way.
"Syaoran!" He pictured Sakura say in surprise. "You look so... so..." was all she could muster before toppling over laughing while clutching to her stomach.
"I-I guess this outfit is fine..." Syaoran sighed in defeat. This was going to be a long day, especially since a certain Black-haired sorcerer and a violet-haired videographer had anything to say about it...
The walk to school had Syaoran pondering what Sakura would say when she saw him like this, not that she hasn't seen him in worse. The image of his ceremonial costume that he wore when they fought Clow cards hovered in his mind. It was certainly a mystery to him why neither Sakura nor Tomoyo had laughed at him for dressing in such a silly costume. Upon entering the school gates, he saw many other students who had dressed up for the occasion, and he breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed as if he was not the only one who was forced to dress up. Still, he could have sworn he saw some odd looks from some students, and the ground seemed to interest him the most as he walked into the lobby of the school, where the lockers are.
"Wow, Eriol! You look really cool!" Sakura's voice rang, and Syaoran's heart stopped.
~~~~~~
"Ohayo, Tomoyo!" Sakura greeted her friend as she skated towards her.
"Ohayo, Sakura!" Tomoyo replied cheerfully, her video camera was already in her hands, ready to tape Sakura at any moment. "Now that you're here, let's start the filming of 'Sakura's School Picture day!'" She squealed with delight.
Sakura sweatdropped at the thought. "Tomoyo, you know, it's not really necessary to film me every single waking moment of my life..."
"I know, Sakura," Tomoyo replied, lowering her camera. "...Which is why I've worked out a perfect 8 hours a day schedule to film you!" She finished, stars forming in her eyes. Sakura sighed. Tomoyo was strange like that, and although Sakura has never truly understood the motivation behind her friend's actions, she lets Tomoyo do her filming because it makes her friend happy, or so it seemed.
It was at this moment that Sakura turned and saw a familiar face approach the group. It was Eriol, wearing a white dress shirt with a red striped bowtie. He greeted the girls with a cheerful smile. "Ohayo, dear ladies!"
"Ohayo, Eriol!" Sakura replied. "Wow, Eriol! You look really cool!" She complimented.
Eriol grinned, having seen Syaoran walking through the door at just the precise moment. "Why thank you, Sakura. It is always nice to receive a compliment from someone such as you," He replied courteously. "Oh my, good morning, my cute descendant!" He added, pretending to have just seen Syaoran. Sakura and Tomoyo whirled around, and found a very red Syaoran standing there.
"Hiiragizawa... May I PLEASE talk to you for a minute outside?" He said through clenched teeth, and walked outside. Eriol excused himself and followed suit, an evil grin on his face.
"Hiiragizawa! What the hell do you think you're doing in there?" Syaoran yelled, and upon realizing the people in the courtyard were all looking at him, toned himself down a level.
"I have absolutely no idea of what you're talking about, my cute descendant," Eriol replied, the grin still on his face. They stared at each other for a while, but eventually Syaoran gave up, the original anger having disappeared.
"Damn you, Hiiragizawa... You know, sometimes I just want to wipe that smile off your face," Syaoran grumbled.
"I know," Eriol winked. "That's why I love teasing you."
The two returned to the lobby, where the two girls were waiting for them. "Come on, we're going to be late for class!" Tomoyo hurried them along.
"My my, what's with the rush, Miss Tomoyo?" Eriol began, and the two entered into another one of their flirting sessions. Disgusted, Syaoran looked the other way, right into the face of Sakura.
"Wow, Syaoran, you really dressed up today!" Sakura observed.
"Yeah, but it's not my decision," Syaoran mumbled.
"Well, you look really spiffy! So neat and tidy," Sakura carried on. "You know, you can probably attract as many ladies as Eriol if you keep dressing like that."
'Attract... ladies?' Syaoran thought to himself. 'There's only one person...'
Syaoran coughed. "Mimic Hiiragizawa? That jerk? I'd rather go swallow some arsenic, thank you very much," Syaoran retorted, as Sakura burst into giggles. They reached their class, and upon entering, found that they were still early.
"Geez, it's like you really hate him or something, Syaoran. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you guys remind me of two people I saw in a movie fighting over the same actress."
Syaoran coughed again. He couldn't take this much more. Time to change the subject. "Um, right... So, were you looking forward to today? You certainly seemed like it last week. 'Smooth save, Syaoran!'
"Of course!" Sakura replied energetically. "Picture day is one of the best days of the school year! But it seems like you don't like it much, Syaoran."
"Well, I haven't really found a reason to, and I found plenty of reasons to hate it, beginning with my mother making me wear something like this to school," Syaoran gestured to his clothing.
"Well, cheer up, I'm sure you'd find something to like about Picture day!" Sakura consoled. It was at this moment the teacher walked in, and class began.
~~~~~~
"Ok everyone, I want you to line up in alphabetical order please!" The photographer commanded, as the class started shuffling in the auditorium. Syaoran rolled his eyes. He missed math class for THIS? He could be doing all kinds of quadratic equations right now, and here he is, shuffling around in the auditorium with everyone, as if they were a bunch of tadpoles in a cup.
"Oh come now, Syaoran, it won't be so bad," Sakura said, spotting the disgruntled look on Syaoran's face.
"Yeah right," Syaoran muttered under his breath.
The picture taking soon began, and it was over within half an hour. "FINALLY!" Yelled the boy in front of Syaoran, as he tore off his bowtie and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt. "I am finally free!" He yelled as he ran out of the auditorium. Syaoran gulped.
He had to sit on the chair on an angle, for whatever reason he doesn't understand, and tilted his head towards the camera.
"Ok, now smile," Said the photographer. Syaoran didn't move, the stony expression still on his face. The photographer, who was paid by the photo, not by the hour, snapped a shot anyways. "Next!" he called.
Syaoran breathed a sigh of relief. It was over, it was finally over. It was then Sakura walked up to him and said, "Hey, aren't you excited when we get the photos next week?"
And the tension began once more.
~~~~~~
Syaoran walked into school, and was greeted by an energetic Sakura. "Hey Syaoran, aren't you excited that we're getting our photos back today?" She asked. It took Syaoran a minute to process what she said, and another minute to figure out how many bad things can happen on this day because of that, and nodded dumbly.
Class itself was hell for Syaoran, who spent the whole day worrying about what his mother would say when she saw his photo. "The only time you smile is when you're taking a photo, Syaoran Li," she had preached, and yet he had smiled in almost every event BUT the photo shoot. He was so dead.
Right before class ended, the teacher brought out from his desk the stack of photo packages, and started handing them out.
"Li, Syaoran," he called, and Syaoran went up to get his photo. It looked just like he thought, the stony expression that he was supposed to present to anyone who was not in his family. He looked up, and stared right into the face of Sakura.
"N-Nani?!" He gasped, toppling backwards and almost falling out of his chair. Sakura giggled.
"Syaoran, you're so silly. Do you want to trade pictures?" She asked.
"Huh?"
"You know, I'll give you one of these photos and you give me one of yours," She explained.
"O-Oh... Sure," He said, praying that he had not shown overexcitement at the prospect of getting one of Sakura's pictures. Sakura slowly cut out one of her pictures, and handed it to Syaoran. Syaoran then took the scissors and did the same, and handed the picture to Sakura.
"Thanks, Syaoran! Wow! You look great in this photo, but you have that serious look as you always do. You really should smile more, Syaoran! Oh, there's Rika and Naoko!" She said, and then got up towards Rika and Naoko to trade for more photos. Meanwhile, Syaoran held Sakura's picture in his hand, and was staring at it intently: her auburn curls, her carefree smile, it seemed like a dream come true for Syaoran, well, sort of. A real dream come true would be her admitting her love for him, but it's not like that'd happen in this universe.
"Wow..." He breathed. Maybe school photo days aren't so bad after all. Perhaps he should smile more too, Sakura certainly thought so.
"Indeed, marveling at the picture your mother would get, my cute descendant?" Eriol's voice came from behind him.
Oh. Crap.
Fin
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Well? What do you think? Reviews would be nice, but flames won't :)
~m.