It was a relatively quiet Monday morning. Outside the glass window the birds were conducting their sound checks. Leaves rustled in a faint winter breeze. The sun shone gently through the chilled atmosphere. An occasional car passed in the street below, swishing through the remaining ice and slush of the snows the weekend had held.
Inside the warm classroom, children milled about, talking quietly amongst themselves. A girl with large round glasses seemed to be at the center of a group of children. Every so often the children surrounding her would cower as the spectacled girl animatedly proceeded with her story. In the back of the room another group of children surrounded a boy with eyes squeezed shut. He, too, was talking vigorously, and the children gathered around him listened with just as much vigor. He was interrupted in his story as a girl with two twirled pigtails on the sides of her head grabbed him by the ear and hauled him away. In the front of the room two girls chatted quietly. One, with long violet hair, was whispering something in the ear of the other. This caused the other girl, the one with chocolate brown hair cut in a wavy bob around her face, to blush and look up towards the empty teacher's desk. The girl with the violet hair smiled knowingly, and patted the brown-haired girl's hand.
It was a relatively quiet Monday morning, yes. Until I appeared.
"HOE!" I cried, sprinting down the hallways, "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" Bursting into my classroom, I took a moment to pause and catch my breath.
"It's okay Sakura." Tomoyo called, smiling softly, "Mr. Terada isn't here yet."
"Thank goodness!" I panted, leaning down to place my hands on my knees.
"You don't have to worry about him getting mad at you;" Chiharu started solemnly but ended with a wide grin, "You're late so often he's permanently set class time back five minutes to give you time to join us!"
"You're mean, Chiharu," I giggled, "But I do have a good reason for being late this time. I was early for once-"
"Sakura! Just because Takashi tells lies doesn't mean you need too as well!" Naoko exclaimed, wandering over from her ghost story session.
"They aren't lies! Speaking of which, the first lie started when a little boy had forgotten to feed his parakeet-" This time Takashi was the one cut off as Chiharu leaned in and grabbed his ear between two of her fingers, pulling him away and depositing him in a corner before coming back to hear what I was trying to say. Takashi eventually wandered back over as well, rubbing his now-red ear.
"It's not a lie, Naoko; for once I was actually early, I swear!" I protested, doing a little crossing motion over my heart. When I was met with silence, I turned tearfully to Tomoyo. "Tomoyo, you believe me, don't you?"
"Sakura, it is highly unlikely that you would be early to class…" Tomoyo trailed off and looked at me apologetically. Why did no one believe me? If I had spent just one more night at Tomoyo's she would've walked in with me and I would've had reliable back-up for my story!
After the incident with The Temperature I had collapsed from exhaustion. When I had awoken, I had insisted upon going home to soothe my over-protective family. Reluctantly agreeing, Tomoyo had her chauffeur drive me home Friday evening. My family had, of course, questioned both Tomoyo and I, but we had rehearsed our answers in the car. We managed to convince them that all was well, and thus I was ready for school come Monday. I had, for once, managed to leave on time – early, even.
"Fine, you guys believe what you want. I was early!" I took a moment to pout before regaining my energetic cheerfulness and continuing with my story (I was eager to tell it), "Anyways, as I was skating to school- early, mind you- I met a girl who seemed lost. Of course, I had to stop and see if she needed help. She didn't seem to be from around here, as her manner of speaking and her clothing style were a bit different. As it turned out, she had transferred to Tomoeda and was going to our school! She had taken a wrong turn and was heading in the wrong direction so I turned her around and we set off to school together, chatting along the way. When we reached the building, I directed her to the main office, and then realized I had about a minute to get to class. I guess we were talking for longer than it seemed!" I ended my story, looking up hopefully. Would they still think my tale a lie?
"What was her name?" Rika's quiet voice reached my ears, and I paused for a moment.
"Name?" I was thinking out-loud, a bad habit of mine, "I never asked her for her name."
A loud chorus of "Sakura!" could be heard as I blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of my head with my hand.
"It's okay Sakura! We love that part of you just like we love all the others!" Tomoyo comforted, hugging me as I attempted to hide in her long hair. The rest of the class was laughing, and we didn't notice when Mr. Terada stepped into the room.
"Um, class? Could you please take your seats?" We jumped, startled, then quickly fled to our assigned spots with a flurry of apologies. Once everyone had taken their place, Mr. Terada began to talk.
"As I told you multiple times last week, today we have a new student joining us. She is from Hong Kong and I expect you to treat her with kindness and respect. Miss Li, will you introduce yourself?" As soon as the teacher stopped speaking, the new student glided into the classroom from where she had been waiting in the hallway.
"As the teacher already mention, my name is Li Mei-Lin. I was born in Hong Kong and I came here on-" The girl stumbled for a moment, a stricken look passing across her face, before regaining her composure and continuing on. "…Family business. In a week or two my cousin will be arriving as well, but I think I'm more than enough for you right now!" She gave a cheerful wink, and I could immediately tell I was going to like this girl.
Mei-Lin was pretty, there was no denying it. She had long, raven's feather hair twisted into two buns on either side of her head and tied with long red ribbons. Pale skin went well with her fiery red-amber eyes. Even though she had a slim build, I could see that she was sporty and muscular, like me. Her head was held aloft; she seemed like the type to be proud and maybe a tad haughty. There was a spark in her that suggested loyalty and perseverance. She was a go-getter, that was for sure. I could tell by the way she spoke she wasn't afraid of much. There's a lot you can discover about a person just by looking close enough.
"Thank you for your introduction, Miss Li. You can sit over there, behind Miss Daidouji. Miss Daidouji, raise your hand please." Mr. Terada asked, and Tomoyo delicately lifted her hand in response. Mei-Lin sauntered over to the seat behind Tomoyo and settled herself. She was stationed behind me at a diagonal, as I sat next to Tomoyo.
"Miss Daidouji sounds a bit too formal for my likes." I could hear her whispering to Tomoyo as I reached for my notebook, "Mind telling me your first name?"
"Tomoyo. But you can only call me that if I get to call you Mei-Lin!" Tomoyo smiled back at the new student, and I knew immediately that they would get along well. Mei-Lin smiled back, and was turning towards me when the teacher spoke up.
"I'm glad you're meeting your classmates, Miss Li, but could you do so after school? I have to start lessons now."
"Yes sir!" Mei-Lin cheered, before getting out her notebook. I noticed a quick flash of brown and green as a picture fell out from between the notebook's red and gold covers, but Mei-Lin quickly scooped the photo up, stuffing it into her jacket pocket and secretly looking around. A faint tinge of pink stained her ivory cheeks, and I got an inkling of who the picture might be of. Something about the person in the photo bothered me though, and I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I couldn't even tell if the picture was of a male or a female! No time was left for contemplation as Mr. Terada turned to the board and began to chalk away. Soon enough I was drowning in Math.
"Hoe, why does Mr. Terada always call on me to do the most difficult problems?" I complained during lunch, picking at the food before me. From my bag I heard quiet moans of pleasure. When no one was looking I had slipped Kero my chocolate-chip cookies.
"Sakura," Naoko told me gently, "He calls on you for the easiest questions." When I gave her a blank look, everyone around us laughed. Mei-Lin was included in the group, as we had asked her to sit with us for lunch break. As I had suspected, we got along well and were fast friends.
"Wow! I heard the rumors, but you really aren't good at math, are you?" Mei-Lin laughed loudly. Blushing, I hid my head behind my lunch container. We all soon found out that Mei-Lin didn't know the meaning of the word "delicacy."
Fairly quickly (or at least it seemed so) the day was over and we were off to our respectful houses. Saying our last goodbyes to Mei-Lin, I noticed a corner of something sticking out of her pocket.
"Mei-Lin, what's that?" I pointed to the white corner of the object, only to have it quickly disappear further into the reaches of her jacket. I knew it was the photo she had placed in her pocket earlier, but I wanted to check her reaction. Sure enough, she behaved just as I had suspected she would.
"N-Nothing! It must've just been notes from Math or something." Mei-Lin hurriedly changed the subject, but I still caught the faint tinge of pink crowning her cheeks. Like the good friends that I was, I followed her lead.
"Math! Ugh, don't remind me of Math. We have a test tomorrow that I haven't even studied for and- OH NO! WE HAVE A TEST TOMORROW!" I burst out, frantically searching my bag for my notes. I had forgotten all about the test until I had unintentionally reminded myself. The test must've just slipped from the front of my mind to the back, to emerge once Mei-Lin had pushed forward the subject of Math.
"Math notes, math notes, where are you little math notes?" Muttering under my breath, I stuck half my arm into my bag.
"Sakura, you keep your math notes in the outside pocket of your bag. Remember?" Tomoyo guided my hand out of the main pocket of my bag and into the smaller outer pocket. Of course (trust Tomoyo to always be right), I felt my hand clasp around my purple spiral Math notebook.
"Heh, whoops!" I smiled cheerily while everyone else laughed and sighed "That's Sakura for you!" Inside though, I was worried. I knew I could be a bit dense and clueless – everyone did – but since when was I forgetting important things like where I kept my notebook and when tests were happening? Shrugging it off on having to do with my hectic, Cardcaptor weekend, I clutched my math notebook to my chest as if it were my life-line, or more accurately, my memory-line. "Thanks, Tomoyo!"
"Hey Sakura, if you're so worried about passing the test then why don't you let me help you study? You can come over to my place and call your family from there; I'll even feed you. I was tutored in math and cooking by my genius cousin back in China." I noticed the slight emphasis Mei-Lin put on genius and the way her voice quavered a bit when she mentioned her cousin. Knowing Tomoyo, she probably picked up on these behaviors as well but was too polite to mention them. I decided to follow her example.
"That'd be great, Mei-Lin! Gosh, it's hard to grasp that I've only known you a day. It seems as if we've been friends for at least forever!" I hugged Mei-Lin around the neck. Surprised, she hugged me back awkwardly after a few seconds, and then regained some of her bravado.
"What are we standing around here for? Let's get you deriving equations!" Mei-Lin cheered and began dragging me off in what I hoped was the direction of her house. Waving to my friends as we raced down the road, I could barely make out Tomoyo's video camera and Chiharu's shouts of "Good luck!"
Over the river and through the woods, to Mei-Lin's house we go!
