Ta-da, chapter three!

Disclaimer / I don't own CCS, blah blah blah.

Sakura flopped down on her bed. She sighed heavily and looked over at the computer screen. It was blank. She wondered absently if she had any new messages. Certainly none from Tomoyo, considering she was grounded from electronics. With another sigh, Sakura pushed up from her bed and headed slowly towards her computer, cursing her addiction to instant messaging and the internet.

When Sakura turned on her computer, a small box appeared telling her about a few new emails. It took a few seconds to clear through all the junk. Stupid advertisements… She hated all those emails telling she could win free stuff. It was all ridiculous. And those chain letters… Like, you'll die if you don't send this to ten people! God, what utter crap.

It was as Sakura was cleaning up her inbox she received a new email. She deleted the junk and refreshed her page. It was from an address she wasn't familiar with.

"Li… heir? Like, that Li kid from school? How did he get my email?" Her eyes narrowed. What could he want? Could it be that he was finally gonna tell her what he meant by asking to walk her home? Sakura opened the email eagerly, but was disappointed to see only a small line.

"Finally apologized? Poor girl…"

What? What in the hell was that supposed to mean? 'Finally apologized…' Was this guy spying on her? Of course! How else would he know? Unless he simply was passing by… But still! He could've let them know he was there. But somehow… That bastard didn't seem like the type. 'Poor girl.' So he was worried about Tomoyo? Nah, he was probably just fooling with her. Sakura frowned deeply and closed the email. Sighing, she swore she'd get him at school tomorrow.

Li entered the school grounds casually. He looked pretty cool from the view point of any fangirl. But to one particular girl, he looked like the devil in a boy's body. Li was about to enter the school itself when he was tackled and pushed up against a wall. His eyes widened as his back hit the wall painfully.

"What the hell?" he shouted, shaking his head so he could see properly again. That was unexpected. Who could've… He relaxed a little when he saw his attacker. "What is it you want, Kinomoto?" Li asked smoothly, acting as if she hadn't just thrown him into the wall.

Sakura was slightly less calm. In fact, she felt like biting the kid's head off. She wasn't sure what, but something about this kid made her tick. "You bastard!" She nearly screamed, attracting the attention of numerous people. "Why the hell are you spying on me? You creep!" Surprise filtered into Li's expression, despite the fact that he would obviously know what she was talking about. When Li gave no response, Sakura continued. "ANSWER ME!"

"Kinomoto." The voice was cold and hate-filled. Sakura turned her head. She was about to say something really nasty when a fist made contact with her cheek and she was sent to the ground. She growled before getting up quickly and looking at her attacker. She could hardly believe that THAT girl had hit her.

"We'd appreciate it if you would not bother Li. He doesn't need you constantly trying to pick a fight with him. Please exit his personal space immediately." It was the leader of his damn fan club. She was so prissy… Who knew someone like that could hit so hard? "Are you listening Kinomoto?" Sakura looked up from the ground at the girl. She had been thinking. "I asked you to exit Li's personal space."

Sakura sighed. She cracked her knuckles before smirking at the girl. "And if I don't?" She asked. The other girl seemed flustered suddenly. She obviously hadn't expected such a reaction.

"I… I will force you to leave!" she said, making herself sound as tough as possible.

Sakura narrowed her eyes. In a moment her fist had made contact with the girl's stomach and the girl was bending over, eyes widened in surprise. "I hate it when people act tougher than they are." The leader was quickly pulled away by her fellow club members. "Get outta my sight." Sakura said, glaring at the girls. "Unless any one of you wants some as well?" The girls backed off quickly and soon all of them were gone. "And you!" Sakura turned around to deal with Li, but he was gone. She cursed the stupid girls for letting him escape. Oh well, she knew that he sat behind her in class.

Li frowned as Kinomoto took her seat in front of him. The teacher wasn't here yet so… and she was turning around. There was a look of absolute malice on her face. "So," she said, quietly. It was extremely creepy. "What was with your email yesterday?" Li actually felt himself shiver. She was smiling really creepily. "Well?" Her voice was almost sweet. But it had such an edge to it that he knew it was anything but sweet.

"Umm…" he said, trying to buy himself time. But the teacher shouldn't be coming for another few minutes. He was on his own. Or so he thought.

"Sakura!" Kinomoto was actually pushed out of her seat by the force of her friend. Daidouji had actually attacked Kinomoto with a hug. Li believed the correct term was 'glomp.' He chuckled in disbelief as Daidouji stood up and smiled at Kinomoto.

"Sakura! So you're coming over tonight, right? To talk to my mother?" Tomoyo said, smiling brightly. Sakura sighed. Tomoyo had actually just glomped her. And she had been so close to getting an answer out of Li! "Tomoyo…" Sakura said, irritation in her voice. "Why do you have to attack me every time you see me?"

Tomoyo frowned. "But Sakura-chan!" she whined, looking extremely adorable as she puted to her best friend. "When I see you looking so cute, I can't help myself! You were so serious! What were you talking to Li-kun about? Were you confessing feelings towards him?

Sakura and said boy both looked at Tomoyo, then at each other, then back at Tomoyo. Light blushes blossomed on their faces before they both quickly began to object to Tomoyo's question.

"Tomoyo, it's not like that! As if I could have feelings for this annoying, selfish bastard!" Sakura nearly shouted, but she managed to keep her voice down..

"Daidouji! Kinomoto doesn't like me." He stopped momentarily, looking over at Sakura with an odd look on his face. "Does she?"

Sakura looked at Li, enraged. "Of course not! You stupid bastard, how could anyone with a brain like you? I'm not some stupid girl who just likes boys for looks!"

Li smirked. "So you're saying I'm good looking?"

Sakura stopped to look at him. Her mouth opened, as if she had something to say, but was too shocked and caught off guard to actually get it out. She stared at Li for a few moments before glaring. "That is not what I was saying at all you pompous bastard!" She looked about ready to yell at him some more to defend herself, but the door suddenly opened, and the teacher entered.

"Everyone get to your seats." Terada sensei said, looking over at the group in the back. Sakura growled and sat down in her seat. Li smirked. Tomoyo just smiled as she sat down. She looked over at the two, thoughts and ideas already formulating in her head.

"Now class… Shall we begin?"

It was lunch. Sakura sat underneath the tree that she and Tomoyo always sat beneath. She grit her teeth in anger, attempting to not say anything harsh to her friend. But Tomoyo wouldn't stop talking. And in every second sentence she mentioned that stupid bastard! Not even. All she could talk about was Li.

"So Sakura, how long have you liked him? Do you plan on asking him out? When will you confess?" Tomoyo asked all these questions and more in rapid succession. Sakura sighed heavily. This was getting really annoying.

"Tomoyo… I. Do. Not. Like. Him!" Sakura nearly screamed at her friend, before settling down to eat her lunch. Tomoyo just smiled brightly took a bite of her own lunch. After a moment to properly chew and swallow, she responded to her friend.

"You know, Sakura, denying it will prove nothing. You just have to come to terms with your feelings and everything will work out. You're so cute, how could Li resist? I mean, if I were a guy, I'd be all over you! You're just too cute!" There was a short squeal inserted there, as Tomoyo no doubt imagined something ridiculous.

Sakura blushed a little at her friend's words. "Tomoyo!" she whined, looking very annoyed. "Stop it! You're really starting to bug me! I mean, he's such a jerk! How could anyone with a brain like him? Girls that like him are just either trying to fit in or are obsessed with looks. Probably both, even." Sakura sighed. She looked away, determined not to talk about it anymore.

She didn't like him, right? True, he was like no other guy she had ever met, but he ticked her off like crazy. She couldn't remember that last time someone had managed to annoy her so much. Of course she had never allowed anyone else besides Tomoyo to tick her off so much, and she had never given a guy this much thought. Except Eriol, but that was because he had taken Tomoyo away from her, so the reasoning was sound.

Li frowned. There were masses of girls hovering around him. He had done everything he could think of. He had glared at them. They had swooned. He had asked them to leave. They had ignored him. And swooned. He had done all manner of rude and angry things, but they just swooned. He was getting so friggin' annoyed! Didn't they have anything better to do? Didn't they eat? God, they were just so annoying!

He sighed and looked down at his lunch. He had finally decided to sit down because trying to run proved ineffective. With another look around, Li dove into thought. He wondered about Kinomoto. Why was she so different from everyone else? She allowed her true personality to shine through, without regard to how it affected her social standing. She didn't seem to care what others thought of her. Li supposed as long as she had Daidouji, she'd be fine. This would explain her obvious distress when Daidouji had left without her after school that other day.

Li smiled. He was finally starting to make sense of Kinomoto's head. She was a difficult one to crack. But eventually, he'd have her figured out. He always figured people out. No matter how obscure and strange they were, he could always figure them out. Because that was what he did. He unraveled their minds and found out how they were just like everyone else. In his mind, everyone was the same in the end. And Kinomoto would prove to be no different.

Tomoyo was practically dragging Sakura towards her house. She had already called her house to say she would be staying at Tomoyo's for dinner and maybe overnight. Thank goodness for the weekends. They were Sakura's saviour.

Tomoyo nearly barged through the door when they reached her house. "Mom!" she shouted, smiling wildly. "Sakura's staying over! And we need to speak to you!" Tomoyo dragged Sakura through the house, in search of her mother. It was all Sakura could do to keep up so Tomoyo wouldn't end up ripping her arm right off. "Mom!"

At this time a servant appeared. The two paused in their search to ask him where Tomoyo's mother was, though his response was anything but what they had wanted to hear. "I'm sorry, Miss Daidouji, but your mother has gone on a business trip. She will not be back until Monday." The servant explained, before bowing and leaving the room.

Tomoyo looked distraught. "But that's not fair!" she whined, grabbing Sakura's arm and giving it a squeeze. Sakura flinched. She was stronger than she looked. "I wanted to talk to her!" Tomoyo could be very immature when other people weren't around. When it was just the two of them, she was known to become even more hyper than usual, as frightening as the idea was.

Sakura sighed. "We'll talk to her when she gets back, Tomoyo-chan!" She said, patting Tomoyo on the head. "For now, let's get something to eat! I'm starving." Tomoyo looked up brightly.

"Right!" She said, pulling Sakura once again by the arm towards the kitchen. The brunette smiled at the back of her friend's head, glad to have her old friend back. It seemed like maybe things were looking up. "We'll get you some food right away!"