OOC: This is a short story I wrote for fun, in between writing chapters of my longer ones. I hope it's not too boring!

One-shot: Their Thoughts

Sakura sat in the second-to-last row near the window in class, like she did every year. Tomoyo had told her once that it was because she was a Card Captor, and that made her super-lucky, like the time she had won the lottery trip to China. Sakura didn't know if that was it, but she did like having a seat by the window, where the teacher might not notice if she fell asleep. However, she was sure to be woken up by the boy sitting behind her, with a pencil jab to her side. And the boy sitting behind her was none other than Li Syaoran...

She sighed to herself. Tomoyo noticed, and scribbled a quick note on the edge of her notebook: What's wrong​?

Sakura pondered the question. Nothing was wrong, as far as she could tell. But still... She blushed, trying to think of what to say.

I don't know what Syaoran-kun wants for his birthday, she wrote back, careful to keep the notebook at an angle so that Syaoran wouldn't see it. Sakura only had a middle-school allowance, so she didn't have much to spend. What could she get him? A new book? A video game? She wasn't even sure if Syaoran would like those things.

I think Li-kun will be happy with whatever you get him, Tomoyo wrote back. Sakura nodded, but felt a little disappointed. Tomoyo always said the same thing. She knew it was true, but she wanted to get Syaoran something that he'd really appreciate...

"Kinomoto-san, please read the next page."

Sakura nearly jumped out of her seat. She looked down at Tomoyo's notebook. Tomoyo had quickly scribbled, p. 31.

She began to read.

----

Syaoran sat behind Sakura, annoyed that she'd been called on to read. After all, he couldn't look at her hair any longer.

Since elementary school, when he'd first met her, it had grown a little, just enough to cover her neck and shoulders. He knew Daidouji-san had been insisting that she be allowed to cut it, but Sakura must have had some special reason for keeping it long since it had not been cut yet. Syaoran loved looking at Sakura's hair. He supposed that the more there was of it, the better.

But why would she keep it long? He could only think of a few reasons. The first was that she wanted to look like her mother, who'd had long, wavy black hair. But Sakura had straight brown hair, so even she would realize that it was impossible. Syaoran had seen a picture of Sakura's mother before, and thought that Sakura was infinitely more beautiful. Not that he would ever tell her that.

He watched when she sat back down. She obviously hadn't slept much the night before, for whatever reason. Although she had been writing notes to Daidouji, they had stopped. Now her head nodded, and she seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep.

After a while, he reassessed her condition; her head was propped up on one hand, and she was no longer taking notes in her notebook. She was soundly asleep.

He listened carefully. Was Sakura snoring, or was that the sound of the air conditioner? Syaoran smiled at the thought of Sakura's face when he told her that he'd heard her snore.

Soon, the bell rang. Sakura jerked out of her chair, sitting up straight. Daidouji laughed; Sakura blushed.

"Nice going, Kinomoto-san," Syaoran said. He was already packing his notebooks away into his bag. "The teacher didn't catch you this time." She had a red mark on the side of her face where she had been propping her head up with her hand.

"Syaoran-kun," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "I've told you already, to call me Sakura. Come on, say it: Sa-ku-ra."

He rolled his eyes. "Kinomoto-san, Sakura's such a dumb name. I like Kinomoto a lot better." In truth, he thought that Sakura was a beautiful name. It fit her perfectly, down to the shade of pink her cheeks went when she blushed.

She pouted, glaring at him in annoyance. Sakura was beautiful even when she was annoyed. "Syaoran-kun," she said, emphasizing his name. "Don't you think you have a weirder name? And that it's rude to call me by my family name when I call you Syaoran-kun?"

Daidouji laughed. "Neither of you are fooling anyone," she said. Somehow, while neither of them had been looking, she had pulled out a video camera. "Li-kun, everyone knows how much you adooooooore Sakura-chan."

Both of them blushed bright red. Syaoran tried to glare at Daidouji, but couldn't meet her eyes. Daidouji was smart. He ran his hand through his hair and picked up his backpack, slinging it onto his back. "You don't have cheerleading practice today, right? Let's go home, Sakura."

Sakura took his hand shyly, though they'd been going out for months. Then they walked out of the room together, Daidouji following closely with the video camera.

Still, as they left, Syaoran couldn't help but offer one last jibe. He leaned over and whispered into Sakura's ear, "By the way, Sakura, who on earth told you that I like long hair?"

She blushed bright red, to the roots of her beautiful, medium-length brown hair.