The next day found Sakura furiously scribbling out the last few answers of the English practice packet in the short period between classes as the teachers exchanged between their Classic Japanese Lit teacher and the English teacher. She bustled into the room excitedly, pirouetted and settled behind the podium, setting down yet another stack of papers.
"And how is everyone?" She chirped, extremely cheerful for unknown reasons, but continued before anyone could give their response. "Well, I'm going to ruin your good moods! Again!" The class sighed and slumped, staring blankly at their overenthusiastic teacher. "I hope everyone finished their packets because you're going to need them today, Miss Kinomoto."
Sakura straightened, not able to control the soft squeak that escaped her throat at being caught just a few letters from finishing the last question. "Y-yes, Spencer-sensei."
The teacher stared at her for a moment, then, like a changing breeze she grinned again. "Anyway, this is how we're going to work this. All of those sentences you've been translating are clues, like a scavenger hunt. Most of the things can be answered by just looking carefully around the school, I'm sure a few of them you all can get right off the tops of your heads, but there are a few things that require... a bit more finesse, a little bit of looking around town. Now, you don't need to answer what all of the hints are alluding to, as long as you've got the packet completed, it counts for the full grade, however, if you can get all of the answers, I'll double it. It'll be like doing a whole other, more fun assignment for an easy grade. This could come in handy for some people who are... a bit more forgetful," and her bright blue eyes landed on several people in the classroom, gaze lingering on them until they squirmed. "With their homework. For others, it's a great way to pad your grade early in the year. You probably won't get any more shots like this, so I suggest you take the opportunity as it's presented. For now, everyone hand in their packets so I can look them over them the first half of this period, I'll hand out a worksheet for you all while I do that. For the second half, back to the lesson."
One by one, the students handed their papers in, Sakura making sure to jot down the little remaining on her packet as quickly as possible before handing it up and sighing in relief that the teacher wasn't paying attention to her little moment. She waited for the other paper to be handed out by staring out the window, watching as one of the physical education classes ran laps around the track, and it was then she was aware someone was watching her. Backing up slightly, she let her eyes slide sideways, only to be met by a slightly transparent version of a now familiar pair of brown eyes looking right back at her from the vague reflection of the window.
Immediately her face heated up and she turned back quickly to the front, waiting in the agonizing moments it took for the next sheet of paper to arrive on her desk, knowing he was still looking right at her, and she wondered why he had such an interest in her. The rational part of her mind spoke up, in a small, tired voice, telling her that he was probably only watching her because she was giving him something to watch with her strange, erratic actions - things she only did around him. She accepted the idea, if only to keep at bay the other ideas trying to gain her attention - especially the nagging little thought that maybe he did it because he might like her... on some level or another.
Though she tried to chase it away, that particular thought brought another blush to her face. Someone laughed: Tomoyo, again. It didn't help the heat in her cheeks fade at all.
Class ended without any other large events, and Tomoyo was one of the first people up as the bell rang for lunch, first grabbing her partner from the day before - Yamazaki of all people - before striding excitedly over to her best friend's desk.
"Sakura-chan, Yamazaki-kun and I were going to head out after school and attempt to solve some of those questions... and Spencer-sensei never said we couldn't work together... not that she would be able to tell really, but do you want to come with us?" The dark haired girl asked, and Sakura turned, nodding with a wide smile.
"Of course! It's perfect since I don't have practice today," She answered enthusiastically, and noticed, just a second too late that Tomoyo had turned to Syaoran.
"How about you, Li-kun? Want to help us as well? It could also be a good chance to explore the city and get to know it better," Tomoyo finished with a warm smile. Syaoran, halfway standing from his desk paused, eyebrows inching up. He looked from the dark-haired girl to the brunette, watching as she looked away quickly, trying to avoid eye contact, and something in his dark eyes sparkled, twitching the corner of his mouth up just the tiniest bit.
"Sure. Where are we meeting?" He asked, and almost seemed satisfied when Sakura squirmed a little bit, her face coloring.
Tomoyo's eyes glimmered happily, and she managed to wrangle a grin down into a wide smile. "Just in front of the school, by the tree inside the gate."
Syaoran nodded, gathered his things, and stepped out.
Sakura watched him go, eyes lingering just a moment longer than necessary on his retreating form, and on the empty space left as he shut the door behind him.
Tomoyo giggled again, and it snapped the auburn haired girl out of her daze. She blushed furiously and pretended to be extremely interested in fishing her lunch out of her backpack, trying to ignore her best friend.
Then suddenly, a thought crossed her mind, and she looked up to find Tomoyo, still smiling, distractedly pulling her own lunch out. I wonder what she's planning...
-
After school couldn't come fast enough for Sakura, the anxious feeling in her stomach that had started when she finally realized the gravity of her situation continued on and on for hours longer than it should have, only increasing as the end of the day drew near.
It didn't help she knew the reason for her tension was sitting right behind her, and he was probably noticing all of it.
The final bell rang, and Sakura all but ran out of the room, knowing everyone was watching her go, but she really needed a moment to get away from the young man who sat behind her, to clear her thoughts and prepare herself for spending the rest of the afternoon with him. She fled into the nearest girl's bathroom, running the cold tap until the water was so cold it hurt to touch, and cupped both hands together under it, gathering a good handful before letting it splash across her face. The sudden chill was a welcome change from all the warm blushes that had crept across her cheeks during the course of the day, and it scattered her thoughts like seeds in a breeze.
Wake up, wake up. You can't be getting a crush on a guy you met yesterday. He's cute, yes. Okay, you can admit that, but you can't afford this right now, Sakura. You can't. You can't do this... besides, Touya would kill him and...
But her traitorous thoughts returned to the scenario earlier where he'd looked at her, the corner of his mouth twitching into what she could only assume was an amused smirk, and though she knew it was at her expense for acting so flustered... she couldn't help but think if she'd been standing when he'd done that, she wouldn't have been afterwards.
A low, frustrated groan escaped her throat and she bent back down. Not enough cold water yet.
-
"I wonder what's taking her so long," Yamazaki mused, his hands clasped behind his back as he watched the doorways to the school. "She was the first one out of the classroom, you'd think she'd be the first one out here."
"Maybe she had something else to do?" Syaoran suggested, folding his arms across his chest.
Tomoyo looked thoughtful, then smiled. "I think she's trying to avoid someone."
"Well the school must be mostly empty by now. You'd think whoever it was she wanted away from had left by now," Yamazaki continued. He unfolded his hands and held a single finger up. "I hope she doesn't stay in there until she's the last one. That would be terrible, you know what they say, it's terrible luck to be the last one to leave a school. Some people even disappear and are never heard from again, but no one ever notices it until many years later."
Syaoran blinked and his eyes widened a fraction. "Wha- really? Ah... I'm going to go see if I can find out what's... taking so long."
Tomoyo giggled behind her hand as he turned on the ball of his foot and walked quickly - a bit too quickly - back for the school. "You couldn't resist, could you?"
Yamazaki just smiled and rocked back and forth on his heels.
-
Okay, so her face was pink from the cold and her fingers were starting to get pruney, it was time to stop with the water.
She dried herself off and walked quickly out into the hallway, fully expecting it to be empty since she knew she'd taken a long time in the bathroom, and was feeling bad for making everyone wait so long.
Everyone, including the reason she'd been in the bathroom in the first place.
She walked quickly through the hallways, rounding corners haphazardly, now in a rush to get downstairs and get this over with. She rounded the railing to the second flight of stairs, and ran right into something soft yet firm, and warm, something that rebounded with her weight colliding into it... and something that, all at the same time, smelled so wonderfully spicy and... like autumn.
She recoiled, stumbling, and probably would have fallen if not for a strong, warm hand lashing out and grabbing her wrist, steadying her. She looked up, fully ready to apologize to the person she'd just run into, but the words died on her tongue as her eyes landed on Syaoran's. He looked mildly surprised to see she was the one he'd run into. Surprised and...
Relieved?
She didn't get the chance to ponder on it further as she realized, not only had she just been in seriously close contact with him, he was still holding her wrist.
A long "Hooooooeee!" escaped her throat as she snatched her hand from his now loosened grasp and jumped backward, trying to put some comfortable distance between them and fight off another blush all at once. His eyebrows drew together slightly at her reaction, his lips tugging into a frown.
"They're... waiting by the front gate, still," he finally said after a long, awkward pause, and Sakura nodded once, roughly, walking past him, trying to hide the redness in her face with her bangs. Syaoran fell into step neatly behind her, eyes watching the back of her head carefully.
-
"The next one has to be..." Sakura frowned, pulling her bottom lip into her mouth and chewing it thoughtfully. "... I don't know." She sighed, grabbing her hair as she turned back to the rest of her group. It was breezy outside, though most of the wind wasn't so bad, some of the gusts threatened repeatedly to rip the papers she held from her grasp. "Any ideas?"
She didn't notice the hand reaching over her shoulder until something that wasn't the wind gave a firm tug to the papers, taking them. She turned around quickly, frowning when she saw Syaoran looking them over thoughtfully.
"It looks like... it's referring to a place kids would go. Even though the words are dark in meaning. Maybe some place with candy?" He said.
Tomoyo shook her head. "No, I don't think candy would have 'unseeing eyes'..."
He frowned, and then one eyebrow darted up. "How about plush toys?"
Tomoyo brightened, and exchanged a look with Sakura. The two girls simultaneously came to one conclusion. "Twin Bells!"
Sakura turned around, momentarily forgetting her crush, and smiled brightly at Syaoran. "Thanks! I probably would've never thought of it like that... since that was sort of a morbid clue."
Syaoran shook his head, and handed the packet back to her, but as soon as her fingers touched the paper, another gust of wind decided to blow through the area, and the paper cut into her skin. Sakura jerked her hand back out of instinct, and the paper went flying away on the breeze.
Both she and Syaoran started at the same time, but as soon as she noticed not only was the paper heading for the street,he was faster than she was.
The gust of wind died down, and the paper landed perfectly in the middle of the closest traffic lane. Syaoran didn't waste any time running right for it.
"Li-kun!" Sakura called after him, and her eyes darted to the traffic light. Alright, so it was red, he could grab it and run back quickly and no harm done. He took a couple more steps and leapt, clearing the hood of a car in one graceful motion.
It was then the observer's eyes were caught by sudden motion in the background, and they found that the light had turned green, and with Syaoran jumping the car's hood he was standing behind, the drivers probably didn't even see him coming. He landed, ducking low behind the car he'd cleared.
A pop like a gun going off sounded, and the first car, also the one in the lane Syaoran had jumped into, jerked suddenly, its tires squealing as it careened off course and into the lane next to it, sideswiping the car in that lane and causing its back end to spin around in an impressive circle, hitting two more cars in the lanes of oncoming traffic before finally coming to a stop.
Time froze for that one instant, as no movement could be seen, from either the cars or from the space Syaoran had previously occupied, and the three teenagers stood, faces pallid with horror as they realized... he'd probably been hit.
Sakura was the first into action, her knees unlocking as she took off in a rapid sprint toward the car Syaoran had disappeared behind, Yamazaki and Tomoyo close behind her. Her mind raced through images of what she might find, preparing herself for the worst, but when she arrived, there was no splatter of blood and thicker things coating the road, no prone, limp body lying on the pavement, eyes glassy and unfocused.
In fact, all that was there were a set of nasty, black skid marks, some shards of broken glass and plastic, and a bit of radiator fluid.
"Wha..." She asked, breathless, her mind still reeling. What had happened? Was he caught between the cars? Where was...
A hand on her shoulder nearly made her jump out of her skin, and she turned around swiftly to find Syaoran standing there, looking a bit confused, holding the packet in one hand.
"It got a little dirty, so it's hard to read the last few questions."
He nearly gets himself killed and that was what he had to say?
She couldn't help herself, her mind couldn't handle the shock anymore. She began laughing, laughing until she felt the moisture of tears slipping down her cheeks. Laughing until her knees gave out and she felt a strong arm wrap around her middle, catching her before she could hit the sidewalk, pulling her into the scent of unidentifiable spices, of autumn, of something else male that didn't help the weakness in her knees at all. Nor did the strange, tingling feeling that crawled across her skin, a feeling that, somehow, she knew wasn't entirely a physical sensation.
The poor teenage boy looked between the girl he was supporting and the two others, but found Tomoyo clutching a hand to her chest and smiling in relief, while Yamazaki scratched the side of his head and chuckled softly.
And when it was all over, she backed away from him, a little unsteady, but refused his help again, looking at him with her watery eyes, and a wide, kind smile. "Please don't do that again, Li-kun."
He blinked, and for once it was his cheeks that colored ever so slightly, and he nodded curtly, uncomfortably.
Sakura turned back to the cars, and stiffened again. "Uh oh." She looked at Tomoyo. "Tomoyo-chan, call the police." She took a step forward, but was stopped when a hand grabbed her elbow. She turned back to find Syaoran shaking his head.
"There's nothing you can do," he said, and motioned to the accident. "Look, all of the people are out of their cars, so they must all be fundamentally alright. There's nothing any of us can do right now."
Sakura frowned, and looked back to the accident. The drivers of the cars all seemed to be chatting animatedly as they exchanged their information, but though the conversation was mostly audible, not once did she hear anything about someone darting out into the middle of the road as being the cause. In fact, it sounded like they were talking about a popped tire as being the culprit. Her frown deepened, and she turned back to Syaoran, who was carefully looking the packet over, trying to discern the few clues they had left, and pointing things out to Yamazaki while Tomoyo finished up her conversation with emergency services.
-
A/N: Ahahaha. I think I have a direction. Ready go!