I was an absolutely down-to-earth boy. I had never believed in ghosts or mindreading or anything else of that kind.

And I had certainly never believed that the mere sight of a pair of radiant jadegreen eyes could punch all the airout of my lungs and make me feel as though I would drown.

None the less, it was excatly what her eyes did.

It was the first day of my first year in high-school. Excitement and anxiety mixed with the feeling of, for the firsttime in my life, seeing a stranger that I was ready to die for, without even exchanging a word with her. She had short lightbrown hair, which seemed golden when the bright sunshine from the windows hit it, with longer locks of hair at her ears. The locks carefully framed her face and gave her a serious look.

Nobody that beautiful should look that serious, I thought.

"Hey! Shaoran! Over here!"

I looked around to find the source of the screaming. Not surprisingly it was Kamui, a guy I went to school with lastyear. Kamui was loud, and sometimes obnoxious, but I appreciated being with someone different with myself.

Even if that someone was now standing on a chair and waving his arms wildly, ignoring the angry stares from the teachers.

"Man, you're as slow as ever!" Kamui grumbled. "Do you know how hard it is to save a seat for a friend, when all the girls are desperately trying to get near me?" I smiled vaguely. Often I couldn't figure out if Kamui was joking, or if he really had a selfesteem that was greater than the sun.

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but I had to help in the bakery this morning, and got out of the door late."

"Oh... So that's why you're wearing two different shoes."

I looked down. I was indeed wearing a brown and a black shoe. I frowned. Typical.

"Great. Now I'll be known as the colourblind freak for the rest of the year."

"No, you silly fool. I think people will be more focused on the fact that your pants are unzipped."

I looked down, and relieved I realized that Kamui had just been making fun.

"Not funny, Kamui."

"Don't blame me for trying to distract you from your fate of being known as the colourblind freak."

Kamui then shutted up (a rare event for him) and let the principal complete his speak without interruptions.(which I was extremely grateful for, since Kamui's interruptions could consist of anything from mooning to doing a dramatic monologue about the agony of being the most wonderul human on the planet.)

The principal's speak was ectremely boring (to the point where I almost wouldn't have minded if Kamui interrupted) but at least it gave me the time to look at the other students. And especially at a certain greeneyed student.

She was sitting calmly, without moving her head once, even though the pretty girl with the long black hair next to hair occasionally seemed to whisper in her ear.

When the principal finally finished speaking I was trembling with desire to talk to the greeneyed. Kamui jumped up from his seat.

"Listem, I'm sorry to leave you all alone, but I'm having math in the first lession and you have English. We'll catch up in the luchbreak, okay? Then you can tell me about all the pretty girls in your class, who are totally wanting me. Bye"

Before I could even think of a dashing answer, Kamui was halfway through the hall to catch up with a cute blonde girl.

I sighed and started making his way out in the hallway, mumbling excuses to all the people he bumped in to on the way. Including a girl with long blonde hair, the face full of piercings, and a bloodred mouth, who told me that I was a waste of air, if I couldn't even watch where I was going or wear matching shoes. Finally I got out and could start to look around for a map.

"Excuse me, are you lost?"

I turned around and was surprised to see the wonderful greeneyed girl's blackhaired friend stand there, with her head slightly tilted and her shiny grey eyes focused on me.

"Uhm... I'm trying to find the Englishclass for the first-years." The girl smiled. She was even more beautiful when you saw her up close, her skin resembling snow. Pure white, and with a slight, cold, glow.

"So am I. Do you want to walk with me there?"

I smiled back at her. "Of course. Actually I would be quite grateful for that.

"The pleasure is all mine. I'm Tomoyo, by the way. Tomoyo Daidouji."

"I'm Shaoran Ueda. My parents own the Ueda-bakery."

"Oh, I've been there with my friendss." Tomoyo said as we started walking through the crowd. "Your madeleinecakes are absolutely wonderful. Wait, I think, this is our Englishclass."

I followed her into a bright classroom, filled with people talking and gossiping, writing and drawing. Luckily the teacher hadn't arrived yet.

But the stunning girl from the morning was there, sitting patiently next to an extremely thin girl with short white hair. Next to her was the rude blonde girl with the piercings. And next to her was a girl who looked exactly like her. Just... Without the

piercings and tattoos and the gothic clothes.

"Hi again, Sakura. Is it okay if Shaoran sits with us?" Sakura - what a fitting name, I thought- slowly turned her gracious head and looked at Tomoyo, then nodded and turned her head back again. Tomoyo sat down next to her, right as the teacher came in and started talking about something so incredibly boring, that I started looking at Tomoyo to see what she was doing. It looked as if she was listening closely to the teacher and faithfully writing down his words.

But if you looked closely, you could see that Tomoyo constantly received small notes and quickly scribbled down answers and gave them back. Looking through the corner of my eye, I followed this fascinating phenomona for a few minutes, before I myself passed a small note to Tomoyo.

"What're the names of the girls next to Sakura?"

Tomoyo glanced quickly - so quickly that it nearly wasn't noticeable- at the paper and with impressive speed wrote down the names.

"Suu, Freya and Chii."

I tilted my chair backwards, and looked at the girls. Pretty, sure. But Sakura was more than pretty. There was something about her that... Glowed. Like she had something inside that shined all the way through her eyes and skin and hair, and made her as hypnotizing as a bonfire on a dark night.

Suddenly I became aware of the feeling of someone looking at me. I turned my head slightly and saw Tomoyo stare at me.