"Okay, class, we have a new student coming, though she's-"
The door flew open. "Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry!"
"-late," the teacher finished, laughing. "I'll let it slide, since it's your first day. Class, this is Sakura Kinomoto, from Japan."
The cute but flustered young girl bowed slightly, grinning. "Hello."
"Sakura, I believe there's an open seat by the other Japanese girl in our class. Tomoyo can help you if you have any language problems, alright?"
"Did you say Tomoyo?" She asked.
"Yes, Tomoyo Daidouji, Please raise your hand," the teacher said.
"No need," Sakura said with a grin. Her eyes quickly found another pair of eyes, violet-blue in color and sparkling with happiness. Sakura smiled and walked back to the seat right next to her childhood friend.
Homeroom began, but there were few announcements to make, so the teacher allowed the students to chat.
"I told you I'd come sometime!" Sakura said. "Hong Kong is great!"
"If by sometime you mean it took you two years to convince your family to let you move here, yes, that's true. Your Chinese is fluent now, isn't, Sakura?" Tomoyo said happily. "Here, meet my friend here, Meiling Li."
The girl sitting behind Tomoyo grinned. "It's nice to meet the unbelievably cute Sakura at last," Meiling said, grinning evilly. "Believe me, I've heard a lot."
Sakura blushed, a pretty pink settling on her face. "Tomoyo, tell me you didn't…"
"Oh, but she did," Meiling said quickly. "Really, it is nice to meet you. You're positively beautiful, not just cute! And from what I've seen of my friend's numerous videos, you're nice. I feel like I know you already, so, want to be friends?"
"Sure!" Sakura said, also smiling. "It's nice to meet you, too. But I'm not really that beautiful…" she said.
"Are you joking? All the guys had their eyes on you when you entered. Don't be surprised if half of them are love-struck already."
"Hoe… I've never had that problem before."
Meiling and Tomoyo laughed.
"So, Meiling, what was that about your cousin returning?" Tomoyo said, obviously wanting to finish up a previous conversation.
"Hmm? Oh, right. My cousin, Xiaolang Li, is coming back to Hong Kong from his 16 month trip to Japan. I guess he's learned enough about our neighboring country's culture and language that he's allowed to come back. Though, actually, it's been 18 months. He requested spending the summer over there, just because. He must like it there, or something. What a silly once-upon-a-time fiancée, huh? He should be here tomorrow."
"Once-upon-a-time fiancée?" Sakura asked.
"When I was little, I thought I loved him. We were actually betrothed, because of Clan duties and stuff, but I felt like I loved him anyway. I actually had the power to call it off if I wanted to, but he didn't. The thing was, after a little while in Japan he asked me to call it off. I'm glad I did, or I wouldn't have the wonderful boyfriend I do now."
"That's a very unique story. I wonder what caused him to call off the engagement." Sakura seemed honestly curious.
"He told me he just didn't want to marry me, because it would be a fake and loveless marriage on his part that would only make me upset in the end."
"He sounds very sweet and understanding, I can see why you thought you loved him. I don't suppose you love your boyfriend now?"
Meilin smiled dreamily. "Yeah, but I've only told him I really liked him so far, not love. I think love, at this point, would freak him out."
"That's smart. But I bet he loves you too, you know? Try telling him sometime. You may be shocked."
"And you would know this how?" Tomoyo asked. "Sakura was the farthest thing from a love expert, last I checked."
Sakura blushed, but kept smiling. "Last you checked was two years ago. I've become a little bit of a matchmaker recently. Chiharu and Yamazaki were my finest masterpiece – they had a major fight and broke up, but I had them back together in a couple of days, not just patched up but even happier with each other."
Meiling laughed. "Well, well, well. That sounds like a certain friend I know. It's a small world after all," she remarked, and she pointed to Tomoyo.
"You set Meiling up? Oh, Tomoyo, you're brilliant!" Sakura said, now laughing. Tomoyo nodded, amazed that Sakura had caught on so very quickly.
Tomoyo smiled. "Nobody regrets my intervention in their case. Meiling, you still haven't answered my biggest question yet."
"What?"
"Is he hot, Xiaolang?"
"Don't even try, Tomoyo," Meiling advised. "He's got a heart of stone, I swear. I was the only girl he ever let touch him, besides his sisters. And he only allowed me because I was his fiancée."
"Aw, I wanted to set up Sakura! And you still didn't answer my question."
Sakura was smiling with amusement. "Tomoyo, don't bother setting me up with anybody, I won't be interested."
"You heard her," Meiling said to Tomoyo. "But yes, he is crazy hot. Short and messy chocolate hair mixed with deep amber eyes and a cool personality makes up for one hot guy. All the girls wanted him, and he's complained to me before about it."
"He sounds perfect! It's not fair that a guy that good-looking can be so uninterested," Tomoyo said, pouting. "Don't you agree, Sakura?"
Sakura was daydreaming, her mind obviously far away from the conversation. "Sakura?" Tomoyo asked.
"Let me try." Meiling promptly poked Sakura, who jumped a little and glared at Meiling.
"What was that for?"
Meiling blinked in surprise, then said, "You were completely spacing off."
"Oh," Sakura said, smiling. "Sorry."
Meiling looked at Sakura strangely, feeling like she'd missed something important, but she shrugged it off.
"Never mind, it was a pointless question anyway," Tomoyo said. "But I am curious – how did you get so fluent in Chinese so quickly?"
"I worked extra hard at it for one, and for another, I made a friend who spoke it fluently and helped me out. I think my natural aptitude at languages helped, though."
Tomoyo nodded. "Good job, Sakura! I'm really proud of you." Sakura blushed from the praise.
The bell rang, signaling to the class that homeroom was over.
.o0o.
Tomoyo and Meiling were in most of Sakura's classes, making for a nice first day in the new school. A couple guys had dared to ask Sakura out during the day, but she politely turned both of them down. Meiling scolded her for being cold, but Sakura shrugged it off. At lunch, Sakura met Meiling's boyfriend, Jinhai, a popular and outgoing guy who was really kind. Sakura wholeheartedly approved of him, but kept giving Meiling glances that said, tell him! Sakura said nothing to Meiling directly, but to her it was clear that Jinhai was head over heels for Meiling.
The day was over quickly. Sakura showed Tomoyo her new house, down the street from Tomoyo's house, and they parted.
Sakura grinned before she fell asleep that night. If she had anything to say about it, her childhood friend and her new friend would be in for one heck of a surprise the next day.
.o0o.
Tomorrow came, and Sakura barely made it to class in time, making Tomoyo comment happily on her unchanged nature.
"Class, today, returning from Japan, we have your old classmate, Xiaolang Li! Give him a nice return, please."
Everybody in the class knew the extremely handsome boy who walked in at that. His eyes swept across the room, looking at all the people. Many of the girls were swooning, while the boys were either happy to see a friend or envious of the attention the popular boy got.
"You may sit next to your cousin, Xiaolang," the teacher said.
In response, he nodded and walked to the seat right behind Sakura. A few more announcements were made, but there was little to say again, and so they were allowed to chat.
"Xiaolang!" Meiling said, jumping on him with a fierce hug.
"Meiling, we're not engaged anymore," he said with a scowl.
"But we're friends, and family!" she complained, but she backed off anyway and sat in her seat.
"Doesn't mean I like it," he said coldly. Meiling shrugged.
"As you can tell, this is my cold and uncaring cousin, Xiaolang, my no-longer fiancée. Xiaolang, this is Tomoyo, my friend, and Sakura, a new student from Japan who came yesterday."
"You weren't kidding when you said he's hot, Meiling!" Tomoyo said happily. "Please, please, please let me set you up on a date?" she begged.
Xiaolang glared at the matchmaking obsessed girl and said, "No way."
"Aw, why not?" she said, not giving up.
"Because."
"That's not a reason," Meiling complained. "If you're not going to be with me, at least go out with somebody!"
"I'm not going on a date!"
"Come on, please? Give me one reason why you can't."
"Ugh, I didn't want to resort to this, but fine. I refuse, because I'm already taken. Happy?" he said, scowling harshly.
Meiling stared at him. "You have a girlfriend, Xiaolang Li? I don't believe it."
"Fine, I'll prove it to you in the halls where when I won't get caught," he said. "Though for some reason I bet you'll just believe it even less."
"Why's that?" Tomoyo said.
"You'll see," he said, smiling. Meiling gasped.
"He smiled!"
"I did? Oh. Sorry, it's become a bad habit of mine," he said, smiling still.
Sakura burst out laughing suddenly, after watching the short scene with a grin.
"What's so funny, Sakura?" Tomoyo demanded. All the focus was now on the laughing girl.
Sakura gasped out, "Meiling, it's the look on your face. Have you really never seen your cousin smile before? Though from his less than friendly personality since he walked in, I guess I see why."
Meiling glared at Sakura, who was still laughing. "I don't see what's so funny. I've only seen him smile maybe three or four times since he turned six."
Xiaolang glared at his cousin, who glared back in return.
The bell rang, and homeroom ended. The group of four left quickly. Outside, Sakura stood off to the side just a little while Meiling and Tomoyo confronted Xiaolang.
"Okay, prove it," Tomoyo said. "Show me a picture of your girlfriend."
"Can't I just kiss her?" Xiaolang scowled.
"Wait, she's here?" Meiling asked in surprise. "But you were in Japan? She's really here?"
"Sure, let me call her over. Ying Fa?" he said. He grinned, scaring the heck out of Meiling in the process.
Sakura stepped forward, threw her arms around him, and kissed him deeply. When the kiss (finally) ended, the whole hallway was staring at them.
"I think they might have noticed us. They're staring," Sakura commented, grinning. Xiaolang's arm was now around her waist, holding her somewhat protectively, and her head was resting happily on his shoulder.
"Well, let's go with, they've never seen me smile before, they've never seen me show an interest in girls before, and our kiss was passionate enough to scare them this early in the morning. Does that sound right, Ying Fa?"
"True enough," Sakura said.
"How-why-when did this happen?" Meiling stammered out, as the rest of the school slowly returned to their own problems, quickly beginning the gossip.
"How? I met her, since we went to the same school while I was in Japan, and slowly fell in love with her."
"Why? I finally gathered up the courage to tell him my feelings, and he felt the same way."
"When? It was a little before you received the call from Syaoran – oh, that's what he was called in Japan – asking to call off the engagement. He called it off right when he finally figured out he was in love with me. It took him long enough."
"Oh, like I had any experience with love beforehand," Xiaolang said, scowling. "I couldn't tell!"
"You were still completely oblivious."
"So were you. You knew your feelings, but no matter how often I blushed you just didn't get it."
Sakura gave him a death glare that he simply ignored. The whole argument was undeniably cute. Meiling frowned.
"Hey, wait – that's what I missed! Oh, that's hilarious!" Meiling said suddenly.
"What?" Tomoyo asked.
"Yesterday when Sakura glared at me I thought I'd seen her glare before. She's learned how to glare from my cousin! That's exactly how he glares!"
"Oh! How cute!" Tomoyo said, laughing now. She only laughed harder when both Sakura and Xiaolang glared at her identically. "It explains his sudden ability to smile, too, knowing how often Sakura smiles!"
"Why did we ever tell them?" Xiaolang muttered, irritated.
"I forgot," Sakura said. "Maybe out of honesty, or maybe so I could do this without confusing them," she said, kissing him on the cheek quickly. "Now, I'm going to go find my locker and grab my books, sound good?"
With that she ran away, grinning.
"Excuse me, but I already have my books, and there's no way I'm letting her out of my sight," Xiaolang said with a grin, scaring Meiling again. He turned and ran after her, yelling, "Wait up, my Ying Fa!"
Tomoyo shook her head. "Figures. Now I can't set either of them up on dates."
"Oh, well. At least you'll have more time to focus on your own love life."
"Excuse me?"
"Hmm? What are you talking about? I wasn't hinting anything about a certain blue-eyed mysterious guy with glasses in our class…" Meiling said, looking bewildered. Then she bolted before Tomoyo could protest.
"I have a feeling this will be a great year," Tomoyo mused, and she walked off towards her next class.
.o0o.
I dearly love the SxS stories at high school, where they meet and fall in love, but it's so fun to break away from cliché now and then. Review, please!