III - The Spark of Something Different

"So how's your relationship with Li-kun coming?" Daidouji Tomoyo asked, while walking with Sakura to their Literature class, her voice seeming slightly strained. She was clearly still appalled at having lost a debate concerning tastes. "It's been—what—four days?"

Sakura sighed. "Today's the fifth and I won't say he's not difficult," she replied, rolling her large, emerald-green eyes. "It may take a while but I'm not about to let Hayli and those other so-called friends go and make a fool of me."

Tomoyo tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "An assignment like this shouldn't be too difficult for a girl like you," she said, forcing more cheer into her voice. "You've probably done it a thousand times before…"

"No, actually, this is my first—I mean, in the context of it being a dare and all. I've always done things voluntarily. Still, I know it shouldn't be this difficult..." She looked perplexed.

"Is it that hard?"

"Well...it's been...let's say, wearisome....and..." Sakura paused. "Oh, what the hell, yes, Tomoyo, it's hard! Yesterday—three days since I started this whole charade—he told me eight times to buzz off! How do you like that? There's no improvement at all!"

"What'd you do to make him hate you so much, Sakura?"

"Please, Tomoyo, I can't even remember when we started this stupid dispute. As far as I know, he was and is just being downright unreasonable. Not to mention stubborn and rude and foolish and difficult…" She pouted at Tomoyo. "It's horrible, isn't it?"

Tomoyo shrugged. "It kills me."

Her companion laughed, and it was not a mean laugh either. It was one of those nice-to-hear, bell-like laughs that can only be heard coming from Sakura from time to time.

"Why are you laughing all of a sudden?" Tomoyo asked.

Sakura shrugged, the smile broad and real on her face. "Well, I don't know!" she said. "Because you made it sound like it's so petty! I don't know. This is all crazy, isn't it? No, I'm crazy!"

Tomoyo smiled. "Yeah, I guess you are," she said.

Sakura laughed again. They arrived at the door of the classroom and she pushed it open. "Thanks, Tomoyo. I didn't know I could actually like being called crazy, but I do…because at least you're not lying. I know you're not lying. Haha. I am kind of crazy, aren't I?"

Tomoyo motioned her hand to two empty seats.

"Yeah, you're honest, Tomoyo," Sakura continued. "You're real. You're not Hayli."

(CUT)

Syaoran nearly jumped as something slammed across him on his peaceful, isolated table. It sliced through his thoughts violently and jerked him out of his trance. Brutal. That's what it was.

He lifted his gaze, and then stopped as a familiar pair of bright green eyes met his. He groaned. "Not you again."

"Yes me again," Sakura retorted. "I'm not stopping until you and I get along." She pulled out the chair in front of him and sat down, giving him a brief, cocky smile before turning her attention to her shiny, deep red apple. It was the only thing on her tray besides a can of soda. She smiled at it and showed it to him, as if inviting him to take a bite, and when he did not, she shrugged. "Your call."

Minutes passed. Syaoran didn't talk. His chocolate-brown eyes unashamedly, blatantly monitored her every move, took in every inch of her. She didn't mind him. She just ate, dainty and dismissive—or at least, that's what she hoped she looked like. More minutes passed, and, against her will, Sakura eventually grew self-conscious. "Aren't you eating?" she asked.

"I'm done," he replied.

"Oh, okay," Sakura casually drew out—and stopped there. What else could she say?

Silence hung over them like a stifling, fat, fluffy cloud.

Suddenly, uncharacteristically, the chestnut-haired, chocolate-eyed young man broke it. "Look," he said, as softly and distinctly as usual, his scowl deepening as he watched her crunch out a dainty portion of her apple. "You've made my life miserable enough, aren't you happy yet?"

Sakura locked her eyes onto his. "Syaoran, I am not duping you, okay?" she said. "How many times have I said that already? You're too paranoid."

Syaoran was defiant. He pierced her emerald eyes with his ever-suspicious glare and did not pull away until what felt like a pretty long time later. "I've seen a lot of people lie, Sakura," he murmured, "but none has ever been as pathetic at it as you."

"I'm not lying, Syaoran—"

"I rest my case."

Sakura felt suddenly, frustratingly, really perplexed. "Syaoran, hell—what do I have to do—crap—you are so difficult! Why do you hate me so much?!"

Syaoran shifted his eyes. "Is that even a question to ask?" he returned, quietly.

"If I'm asking it, yes, it is a question to ask! I've tailed you for days now, with reasons I think even you would agree are noble, and here you are being nasty anyway, just like you've always been."

"You're accusing the wrong person, Kino," Syaoran responded. "My life would have been perfectly fine if you hadn't just butted in, unwarranted, and made it some sort of playground. I understand your all-the-rage crowd loves little games, but for your information, which you oh-so-privileged people probably—"

"Now, wait a minute—"

"—think you ought to know because you are, after all, the queens of your own universe and I suppose you feel you deserve to be familiar with bits of everything going on—"

"We are not like that!"

"—not everyone finds your sources of entertainment entertaining. In fact—"

"Hold it, now."

"—I happen to think you're all just downright childish."

"I—" Sakura stopped as his words sank in, and suddenly, Syaoran found himself looking at a girl who was struggling to hide the offense that she had just taken from him. The inner battle swam in her emerald eyes. "Syaoran-kun, this is no joke and you are no playground—"

"Of course not." His sarcasm was a whiplash. "Kino. If you're running for student body president, buying my vote has a better chance of gaining it—"

"Oh, stop it! Stop it!" Sakura blurted out. "For heaven's sake, does there always have to be a motive to be with you, Li Syaoran?!"

Syaoran stared at her, a bolt of mixed pain and anger flashing in his auburn eyes that disappeared as quickly as it had come. He refused to reply, and after a few seconds, refused to look at her—or anyone.

Sakura sighed, watching him.

Minutes of stifling silence passed before he suddenly stood up and broke it. "Excuse me," he murmured. "If you don't mind, I'd rather be alone."

"Hey, I'm…I'm sorry…"

"Likewise. Thank you. Enjoy the company of your giggly friends." With a half-sarcastic grin and a motion of his hand to Hayli's table, he left, brown eyes hidden beneath tousled brown bangs.

"Well, fine! Good riddance!" she shouted to his back, just to spite him for making her feel rotten.

Sakura watched him leave and washed down the last of her apple with a swig of soda.

"Is everything okay?" Tomoyo asked, approaching the table and taking Syaoran's vacated seat.

Sakura raised her emerald eyes, and Tomoyo could see clearly that something had happened in that heated conversation between her and the amber-eyed loner that had melted a bit of the ice in Sakura's gaze no matter how she tried to regain it.

"What happened?" Tomoyo once again piped up, this time with an edge in her voice that demanded an answer.

"ARGH! Oh, that paranoid freak is just so irritating!" Sakura finally grumbled in reply, still trying to recover her pride. "I am not a queen of my own universe! And who is he to tell me I make playgrounds out of little people's lives!?"

"Was that what he told you that made you so…upset?" Tomoyo asked, gently.

"No, it's sitting across him and wasting time with that jerk that's making me so upset!"

"Oh. Okay then—"

"It's not okay!"

Tomoyo sighed and angled her head so she could look gently at Sakura's lowered face. "I'm sorry for being so inquisitive, Sakura, but you look so different from the girl I walked to class with this morning."

The emerald eyes blazed. "I am not! I'm perfectly normal!"

"Sakura…"

"Oh, shut up! It's none of your business!" Sakura shouted angrily, flashing a death glare and speeding out of the cafeteria.

Tomoyo sighed and leaned back on her chair. "Great…"

(CUT)

Li Syaoran crossed the nearly empty stretch of meadow at the back of the school towards his favorite apple tree. Swiftly and effortlessly, with grace that made it look so easy, he grabbed hold of a branch and hoisted himself up onto it.

The branch was thick and sturdy and had enough space for a person to lie back and relax without bothering about balance so long as he or she kept himself or herself more or less close to the middle.

He raised one knee up to his chin and folded his other leg below it. The silence was reassuring, the wind was comforting, the cover-up that the leaf-coated branches offered was delightfully soothing, and all of these blended together consoled and made him feel secure. He leaned from his knee and allowed his back to relax against the sturdy trunk, crossing his arms and piercing his gaze to nothing in particular, preparing himself to detangle the mound of spaghetti his ideas and trains of thoughts had made of his brain.

"Kinomoto Sakura…" He heard his own voice rent the air with her name.

As far back as he could remember, she had always hated him, and he had always hated her. There were no instances when he thought their untested friendship could be restored.

On the first day they met, he had crashed into her in the halls and made her fall splat right in front of haughty Hayli, and in his haste, he had forgotten to voice out in apologizing. He didn't think it was all that bad for her though. She still got into Hayli's group after all.

The second time their paths crossed was in the lunch line, when she did not yet, but just about ready to, hate him—what with snooty Hayli as her school guide going 'oh, Sakura, he is such a careless little boy for running you over, ne?' as often as possible—he took the last chocolate frosted donut. Apparently, she had been having a craving for chocolate frosted donuts since morning. She hated him for beating her to the last one.

Oh, that was not the last straw.

There was a time he was rushing out of the classroom and Sakura was just about to enter so she sort of hit her forehead against the door and fell with a resounding thud on her behind. Syaoran bowed to show how sorry he was; only she was still picking up her books and didn't see. Another infamous scene was that instance when he was playing soccer during PE and accidentally kicked the ball right into her stomach. He chased after the ball and turned back to apologize but she had already stomped off to the bathroom with Hayli to wash off the dirt.

The last straw was in the cafeteria one particularly hot day.

Syaoran had dunked in a cube or two of ice in a cup full of cold soda in one hand and was walking to his table, taking the shortest route by way of passing by Hayli and Sakura's table. Unfortunately, some blockhead chose the spot behind Sakura's seat to drop a glob of mashed potato.

Syaoran's reflexes were perfect. He grabbed Sakura's seat's backrest for balance before his butt suffered impact. Then there was a yell, and he realized, to save his ass, he had just used the hand holding the cup of cold soda. The liquid splashed and soaked Sakura's expensive Calvin Klein blouse and trickled down her back like a colored waterfall. The fact that the ice cubes were right in there between her skin and shirt did not make things any warmer.

The onlookers went into an uproar.

He stared at her—stunned, as people would say.

"WHOA, [censorship]! Get these off me! Shit! Why won't you get out of my life, you filthy—oh, [censorship]!!! You—jerk—you—can't even—APOLOGIZE—damn it! What are you looking at!? Can you even talk!? You tongue-tied mute freak out to ruin me, you ruined by shirt! You did this on purpose—[censorship]!!!"

As time passed, the students gradually quieted, and then the lunchroom silenced and all eyes turned towards him as Hayli stood up to defend her new best friend with a spiteful glare in his direction that screamed 'I hate you'. They all waited for his reaction—watched him in his awkward, smoldering silence and potato-caked unbranded shoes and pant hems. It didn't help that he looked really stunned-stupid either.

Kaori, Ria, Haia, Chiharu, Naoko, and Hana stood up and out of their trance at Hayli's slight motion towards the doors. Then with last death glares, they stalked out of the lunchroom in one psychedelic bunch.

Sakura, since then, had made a point to humiliate him at least thrice a week—or every available moment that she could. Syaoran was a quick learner when it came to disputes though, and it didn't take long for his penitence and patience to thin out and go poof.

Once, she tripped him on purpose in the middle of math class while he was walking back to his seat from solving an equation on the board. She "accidentally" dumped her food tray on him one time (then giggled going back to her airhead friends thinking he wasn't looking anymore). At one point, she even walked up to him on a whim—Haia's, during a game of truth or dare—and slapped him clear across the face. He remembered gripping his notebook as hard as he could to detour his rage, and they slammed shoulder to shoulder when he moved past her, eyes resolutely indifferent.

Sakura and Syaoran never spoke to each other again—well, except to spite and humiliate each other—and the stifling, crackling tension between them never faltered since.

"So why is she being so sweet and sugary now?" he murmured, brown eyes clouded to show he was in deep thought.

Closing his eyes and leaning back, he sighed and accepted that for the first time in his life, his apple tree failed to make the traffic of his trains of thoughts even just a little bit better. Minutes passed and all he was able to accomplish was breathing uncountable sighs of exasperation.

Why. It thudded in his head, making a vein at his temple throb. Why. Why. Why.

With a last groan, he hopped off his tree with just as much grace and swiftness as when he came up, straightening his collar and smoothing the unbranded cotton of his shirt when he got down. He shook his auburn head and strode back towards the campus building.

(CUT)

TBC