Chapter 3a:
And They're In
Sakura leaned closer, still closer to the limpid window, her nose almost converging with the cool, hard glass. Her hands were placed against it, on either side of her head, precariously supporting her weight. She was smiling, a display of vivacious teeth; as if she were happy that nature could be so beautiful, all on its on, with no help from mankind.
She wore a casual, yellow cotton spaghetti-strap shirt, and a khaki skort, stretching ponderously over her--
'Don't look. Don't look, Li. There is nothing to see in that direction. Talk to someone. Anyone. For the luvvagod, Li, Don't look!'
Li sat in the same booth as Takashi, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, Meiling, Tomoyo, a couple of guy-friends, and, of course, Sakura. He was desperately trying to avoid gawking at Sakura, more specifically, her posterior. He was about to start talking to Takashi, to distract himself, when suddenly Sakura exclaimed,
"Look!" She was pointing at the window; her head whipped toward the other occupants of their booth. She gestured ecstatically at the countryside. Her friends began crowding around the window, looking out for what she saw.
"See, it's right there! Don't you see it?"
And then, all the girls looking out, balancing precariously on their knees, craning their necks, saw "it".
"It" was a doe and deer, jumping gaily in the meadow, seeming to dance with one another, never quite touching.
"Oh wow… it's so beautiful…" A collective sigh.
"The girl is so graceful… see the way she points her hoof before landing?" Said Sakura, looking wistfully thoughtful. Li glanced, a streak of milk chocolate brown darting across his vision, enticing his gaze. As he watched, the doe leapt up, high into the air, arching her legs, pointing her cloven hoof, then landing with perfect ease, turning to face a patch of wild rhododendrons.
"It's so… right, so… beautiful…" Said Li, gazing peacefully at the dancing deer. Sakura turned her head slightly, discreetly settling her glance on Li. He looked at her in that moment. She smiled, a slight, clandestine smile, and turned back to watch the eloquent display.
As the train sped on, the meadow grew farther and farther away. When it had finally died from their sight, they all rotated toward the center of the pleasantly decorated booth, settling back into their tantalizingly warm, inviting cushions.
Sakura sat on the far side of the booth from Li. She crossed her legs, leaning her head back to rest. Li was moving into a similar position across from her, slouching out of his usual straight-as-an-arrow posture and relaxing his head, his eyes closed. Sakura closed her eyes, resolving to rest during the long trip out to the cabins. After a few moments she slowly opened one eye. As she watched him, Li indolently opened his eye. Their half-gazes met. Sakura smiled a little; Li did the same, a rare thing even in highschool. This widened Sakura's smile as she closed her eyes. Li's eye closed torpidly. He thought of the trip ahead.
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Meiling looked at Syaoran and Sakura. She smiled and sighed, a dreamy, happy sigh, feignedly forlorn.
Tomoyo looked at the smiling Meiling, smiling herself. "What is it?"
Meiling cocked her head to the side, smiling yet wider.
"At the rate their flirting, they wont need our help anyway… sigh." She smiled, glad that she and Tomoyo were friends, glad that she would be splitting a cabin with the soon-to-be-couple.
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As the train docked, the kids filed out, one-by-one, like excitement covered candies on a conveyor belt, ready for the spirited mountain air to fill them with its… calm… serenity, Li thought. He was among them, along with Takashi, loaded down with Tomoyo's, Meiling's, Chiharu's, and their own baggage.
Needless to say, these ladies packed QUITE a few… eh… "toiletries", so Li and Takashi had their work cut out for them. In fact, nearly all the girls in their class had made their partners carry their "essentials" for them. All, that is, except Sakura. She was standing almost still, her sun glassed eyes taking in her surroundings. With everyone around her hustling and bustling, with her standing so motionlessly, clutching her two bags in front of her, she seemed almost frozen, like a vision of beauty, standing in a field of turmoil…
'Oh… Go-- I'm thinking like a thespian… Stop. Stop, Li, stop.' Li couldn't stop stealing glances at Sakura, even with the huge pile of baggage that was his impediment.
Suddenly Sakura turned, as if she'd felt Li's unguarded stare. It appeared as if she was searching for him. Her brow furrowed, her eyes narrowing slightly. She couldn't see him. And no wonder, with all his excess baggage! She breathed a deep, sighing breath, and turned back around, awaiting further instruction from the sensei.
"Okay, guys, this is what shall happen. We'll get in our groups, bags and all, and we'll march/hike/walk to the cabin area. Then we'll choose our cabins. The cabins already have chaperones, furnishing, etc, so you just go in there, *politely* greet your chaperone, and then *politely* set your things in your room. Simple enough for everyone?"
The class nodded vigorously in comprehension.
"Good; After we have found our houses, we shall unpack. In the morning, we shall meet in the town square, where I shall supply further instruction; is that clear?"
The class vehemently, impatiently nodded again.
"Good. Now, in an orderly fashion, we shall go cabin questing. BREAK!"
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"Ahh!"
"Stop, stoppit, please!"
"Move! Hey, you! Shove off!"
"Oh… oh god… please… kami-sama, help!"
So much for Mr. Terada's admonitions, huh? There were students everywhere, like bees on a honeycomb, writhing about, trying desperately to get the best lodging, the biggest cabin, the richest, prettiest, etc. They were stepping all over one another in their attempts at primeval colonization.
'How in the HELL did _I_ get stuck carrying the bags?' Meiling, stacked with her own and Tomoyo's baggage, was skulking. She remembered.
Flash
"Well, since they're going to be looking for our house together, I think I should record them," Tomoyo had said.
'Tomoyo and her damned camera' thought Meiling.
"AND it's a lot harder to tape properly if I'm loaded down with all my bags, so if you could blah blah blah, blah blah, please? Blah blah, blahblahblah THANKYOU!"
She didn't remember saying anything.
Flash
The next thing you know, ol' Meiling's the carrier. And now, as she stepped over, ducked under, and ran into people, she wondered how they had EVER expected her to keep up.
"Look, there!" Sakura exclaimed, pointing and waving her arms skittishly, vying for Li's attention; they were scoping cabins, hoping to find the coolest, most spacious (Li didn't want Meiling to be close enough to embarrass him), and all around best one.
Li looked in the direction Sakura implied, unable to see anything. He got up off the tree stump he had been occupying, momentarily admiring the flowers at its base, and made his way toward the peppy girl jumping around on the dirt path ahead of him.
"Look, Li!" Sakura pointed again.
"What? What're you talking about?" Li couldn't see a thing ahead, aside from a barely visible path and tall, imposing green trees.
"No, not there! Here." Sakura leaned forward, stabbing at the air above the dense trees with her finger. Li leaned closer to her, trying to see from her point of view. Their faces were a few, very few, inches apart. Sakura glanced over and pinked slightly, but kept her finger out stretched and pointing.
Then he could see it; it was a cabin, not brown our terra colored or whitewashed like most of the cabins, but ivory colored-- or coated, it looked, from their distance. It wasn't built square like the other cabins either; it had a circular-rectangle shape to it, its roundness making it appear more spacious than the other cabins. And it had a beautiful view, over the huge lake and mountains on the one side, the underlying trees that they currently viewed, and the cabin village beyond.
"Wow… it's…" Li was too shocked at its mere existence to respond intelligibly; to find such a palatial cabin in among these was… astounding.
"Beautiful," Sakura finished. Suddenly, she stepped away from Li, a mischievous tint to her lustrous eyes.
"You know, since it took us so long to find this…"
"Then no one will know about it until we're moved in…" The same glint was in Li's eyes. He grinned evilly.
"Shall we?" Inquired Sakura.
"Indeed. Let us round up the troops." Li replied. Sakura giggled and they raced off to find Tomoyo and Meiling.
"MEILING! Meiling, hurry up, Meiling!"
They had found Tomoyo in the nearby bushes, hurriedly packing something away. Sakura was too excited to inquire closely about what it was, so she snatched Tomoyo's hand and hurried her off to find Meiling.
Once they'd found her, they all agreed for Sakura to be the navigator; of course she couldn't go ahead alone, so they selected Li to accompany her. Tomoyo once more "required both hands," so Meiling got stuck with everyone's bags.
As she toiled up the uneven, virtually invisible path, she wondered why she was doing this.
'I never relinquished my claim to be Li's fiancée. He's still legally mine. So why am I trying to hook him up with some other chick, even if she is my close friend?' Meiling was wondering this, ignoring the calling of the others far above her. 'Because…' 'Because what?' Meiling asked herself 'Because you love…' him… Yosho… Meiling stopped her mental complaining and with renewed energy made her way toward the beautiful structure at the end of the path.
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When she finally made it to the summit of the mountainous stretch of land above the forest line, she found the others waiting for her, all sprawled lazily upon tree trunks or grassier patches of earth. They looked up at her noisy entrance.
Sakura smiled at her. "Meiling, do you need some help?" She seemed sincere. 'But Tomoyo-chan told me not to do anything that would prevent Sakura and Li from talking or "bumping together" and stuff… but still, these bags are heavy…' Meiling was torn between her own burden and the relief of sharing it, and her friends' expedition to get Syaoran a girl friend. But Tomoyo, as if she had read her friend's mind, jumped in and quickly said
"I'll help."
She gave Meiling a stern glance that said 'letting Sakura help would have gotten your butt kicked.'
"Thank you, Tomoyo-chan." Meiling's vapid reply hung heavy in the air as they continued.
They were still trekking along the path up to the house. They were around 100 yards away.
"It must have been hard for you, Tomoyo, to give up video taping just to help me," said Meiling, sincerely thankful for Tomoyo's help. Her earlier sarcasm had been relinquished; sharing the load with Tomoyo lightened her spirits as much as it had her hands.
"It's okay; it was wrong of me to ask you to carry all those bags any way. Friends?"
"Of course!" They smiled at each other and turned back to the path in unison.
"Besides, they haven't done anything really worth black mail-- err… worth showing later on the way up; they probably wont do anything now."
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Sakura and Li were walking toward the house, a few paces between them, neither wanting to get too close to the other, both wanting _so_ badly to.
'She's so beautiful…' Li was sneaking sidelong glances at Sakura, as he had been during the entire excursion thus far. He was stricken with how gorgeous the forest and mountain lighting made her seem. 'The way the light reflects off her hair, the way her body lifts when she raises an arm to push back those tawny tresses… oh, I've GOT to stop thinking like this.' Li resolved to stop looking at her for the rest of the short, short walk.
'Wow… the way the light outlines Li makes him look so… manly…' Sakura blushed. The sun was shining from slightly above Li's head; it outlined his broad shoulders, his well toned chest, his strong (but not TOO muscular) arms… 'Hoe… I will not look at him; I will not think of him; I will not look at him…' Sakura resolved, coldly.
They had taken the few steps left to the ornately carved door, when Sakura and Li both, simultaneously, broke their resolve; they were caught gazing at each other at the same time.
The door opened and they were still staring.
"Uh… Am I interrupting anything?" asked a woman; not old, but no longer young; not beautiful, though she must have been when she was younger; and seemingly good-natured.
"Uh… no." They both said, blushing. The woman laughed a tinkering laugh.
"Are those your friends?" She gestured toward Tomoyo and Meiling, trundling up the path behind them.
"Yes. We… uh… we saw your cabin (mansion!) from the path, and we wondered if you were part of the field trip…"
"Oh you mean the one where kids come and live with you for a week? Yes, I sure am. I've always wondered why no one ever comes up here… Maybe the house is haunted?" Teased the woman, as she led them to their rooms. Sakura stopped short.
"HOEEE! You have ghosts!?!?" The others sweat dropped as the woman led on. Sakura hung back slightly as they approached their rooms; she was still hung up on the ghost issue. Her teeth chattered as they approached the first room.
"Syaoran," Meiling whispered. "Sakura seems really frightened. You should talk to her, maybe cheer her up."
Syaoran crimsoned slightly, but mastered his emotions, his face a mask. "No, I think she'll be okay." He looked at Meiling, his nose slightly in the air, like he used to do when they were younger; the Stop-talking-right-now-cuz-what-you're-saying-is-stupid-and-I'm-too-smart-to-reply look.
Meiling looked away, keeping her eyes firmly glued to the door ahead.
"Now this room will be for…" The woman's face became a ghastly mix of emotions; Sakura yelped and ran behind Tomoyo.
"Gh-Gh-Gh--- GHoooooost!" She cried.
The woman blinked, seeming to snap back to reality with the maneuver. She put her hand up to her mouth, her eyes crinkled. When Sakura took sight of the woman, she ran behind Meiling, exclaiming,
"It's got her! Oh no, oh, oh! It's got her!" She was pointing fearfully at the woman.
The woman began making strange sounds, clasping her other hand over her mouth. Li looked from Sakura to the woman, a knowing smile briefly replacing his permanent scowl. He nonchalantly walked to the nearby light switch, flicking it upward in one graceful movement.
The woman was doubled over now while Sakura was trembling in fright behind Meiling. Li tried hard not to laugh, for that was what the woman was doing, which apparently Sakura thought was demonic possession. When the others realized what was going on, they too began laughing. Sakura slowly backed away from them all, stuttering,
"You… You're all…"
"We're all laughing at you, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo teased.
"Well then why did your face look like that, Miss?"
"Because I don't know any of you and we skipped introductions!"
Sakura looked positively baffled. Then she smiled and laughed aloud. She walked back over to the group and then lightly intoned,
"I am Kinomoto Sakura, this is Li Syaoran, Li Meiling, and Daidouji Tomoyo." She had pointed at each in turn.
"And I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I think we'll have a lot of fun together. Why don't you two," she indicated Meiling and Li, "stay here, and you two stay in the room on the other side of the stairs?"
"Well, uh… you see…" Li began stammering.
"Meiling's not Li's partner… I am," stated Sakura, reddening slightly.
"So, then, are you two boyfriend and girlfriend?" She asked, teasing them.
"NO!" they exclaimed in unison.
The woman laughed again, that tinkering, lovely laughter, and said, "Well, follow me then." And led them across a staircase and to another room.
"I'm really sorry about the state of things in here… no one's visited here in quite a while… I hope you won't find the area too… stifling."
Ha. The room was anything but stifling; there were pictures on every wall, varying from beautiful De Vinci's, Vince Van Gou's, to pictures you can tell were cut directly from magazines;
And it all looked so stylish! All the pictures were hanging on a wall, decorated in vibrant, patterned granite, lending sophisticated fun to the entire place. The bureau at the far end of the room was a rich, deep mahogany, a beautiful silver mirror hanging curiously above, shocking color into the room with its stark contrast. Sakura and Li both smiled subconsciously, awed. Then they noticed the rest of the furniture; there were pillows, large-but-not-huge pillows, puffy, comfortable, classy pillows, leaning at eye catching angles all around the room, reinforcing the air of comfortable-friendly-classiness that radiated through this nook of the domicile; there was a love seat, which, upon seeing, Sakura and Li both promptly blushed and redirected their gazes.
The seat was not decorated ornately; it was a pinkish-white, which contrasted and complimented the lovely walls nicely; it looked inviting, enticing… enchanting, the youngsters both thought. 'Now where did that come from,' thought Sakura, blinking and shaking her head to clear it.
"I hope you find it to your liking; not cramped, is it?" The chaperone, Malaya, as they later found out, looked slightly worried; there was a barely visible layer of dust on the top of the bureau. Sakura turned to her, beaming.
"Oh, it's _beautiful_!" She exclaimed.
Malaya smiled, trying to conceal the rosiness in her cheeks from being complimented, and failing miserably. Syaoran ducked his head slightly, covering his smile at the effect Sakura had on people. Truly, no one could resist her genkiness.
"Well, you two put away your things, the closet (which had small but graceful pinkish-white butterflies painted spastically across the bottom) is right over there; it should be spacious, and I don't think there's anything in the bureau over there," she pointed, "to hinder you placing stuff in there… just… make yourselves comfy. I'll be going now; my house is your home. I'll let you start unpacking now." And with that she swept out of the room.
Sakura first placed her radio on the bureau; she hated to work in silence. She quickly and efficiently hung all of her clothes that required hangers, taking care to keep a space so she could see each without moving them; and then there were her personals; she would wait till Li left to do those. She reddened slightly.
"Uh… Li?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, I've, uh… got some stuff in my bag that I don't think--" Sakura was blushing furiously with the effort it took to speak of the subject. Li took pity on her, hiding a smile.
"Is any of my business." Li stated, blushing at his thoughts of what they might be, how she looked in them, how she looked ou--
"Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it… I'm going to go help Meiling and Tomoyo unpack to pass the time… you lemme know when you're done, kay?" She flashed a thankful smile, which in turn made Li giddy. He mastered his emotions quickly, confused, and feigned coughing, turning red with embarrassment. He turned around, facing the other way from Sakura, trying to get her to leave him to his thoughts and his work; that was a mistake.
She hurried from the door to where he was, bending to look into the eyes of his hunched form, concern playing across her ethereal features. Her eyes, the beautiful, vibrant orbs of sea-soaked light that she claimed as eyes, caught him completely off guard.
He stopped coughing, his eyes locked with her own, lost within their endless, bottomless depths; he stopped hunching, coming closer to his full height, looking down at her gorgeous, gorgeous eyes, trying to tear himself away from her gaze; unable to.
His face was getting closer to hers, his nose, his mouth, nearer, nearer still; and she wasn't moving away; his hand was reaching to hers, the other would soon fall eloquently on the small of her back--
"OH!" And in burst Malaya, huffing and puffing, flustered; Li and Sakura quickly spun away from one another, as if they were doing something wrong.
Malaya took no heed. "I forgot to tell you; there're extra towels in the closet right beside your room, the bathroom's on the other side of the closet, and dinner is on at 7:30." She smiled warmly. It was 4:47 at the moment. Malaya left the two teens in a friendly silence, which quickly became a charged, stifling nothing… Sakura couldn't take it any longer; she looked up at Li, who had turned back to her. She accidentally caught his eye and momentarily forgot her task.
"I… I… I…"
Li looked back at her apprehensively, not knowing what he should do.
Sakura finally remembered what it was that she'd been doing.
"I… I… I gotta go… help… yeah, bye!" She bolted from the room like a doe from a hunter, too timid to stay in the heated air of her and Li's room. When she reached Tomoyo's door, she stopped short.
"And then they'll fall completely in love…" both girls inside sighed.
Sakura realized she was being rude; she politely knocked on the slightly ajar door, waiting to be permitted inside.
"Sakura-chan, come in."
"Hey, Tomoyo, how did you know it was me?" Sakura was genuinely curious.
Tomoyo simply smiled; "I always know when it's you." Sakura smiled in return, thinking about how she would one day surprise Tomoyo by knowing when it was her on the other side of the door. She remembered then why she was there.
"Since Li and I are sharing a room and we both have… things… to unpack, he's going to unpack his right now, and I'm going to later… Is it cool with you guys if I help you out till he's done?" Sakura had reddened slightly as she mentioned why she was there, so Tomoyo replied,
"Meiling and I would like to confer momentarily… I'm sure you won't mind waiting?" Sakura nodded her head enthusiastically.
"When she was mentioning Syaoran, did she--"
"Mhmm," said Tomoyo.
"Does that mean she--"
"Yes."
"So if we keep her here--"
"Exactly." Tomoyo smiled a wicked little smile; she and Meiling were going to tease Sakura about Li and try and make her figure out that she liked him.
"Alright, Sakura," Tomoyo said as she turned around, looking serious.
"Yeah?"
"We have decided…" Tomoyo closed her eyes and took a breath, letting Sakura's suspense build;
"Yes."
"Yay!"
"BUT!" Sakura looked doubtful once more, her hand on her mouth.
"But what?"
"But you must promise to leave Meiling and me to talk during dinner." It sounded innocent enough, which was why Sakura agreed immediately; the truth was, she would have to sit directly beside or across from Li Syaoran. For the entire meal. On the inside Tomoyo was laughing an evil, devilish laugh, while on the outside she smiled warmly. Everything was going according to plan. 'It may turn out to be a pretty interesting night,' she thought. 'I wonder what they'll do when they realize… hehehe, fun fun fun!' She continued to unpack her things.
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Suspense chapter! I never thought I'd catch myself writing one of these! But you know you love suspense, so don't you DARE flame ^.^ What do you think of this chapter? Things may seem a little slow right now, but they'll start to pick up during dinner… It's going to take a little longer to get out the chapters after dinner; intricate plot, yes yes, enjoyable! Well, I hope you liked this, say if you did or didn't!
Ja!
~!Ada!~
Disclaimer:
I don't own $#!@ ! Don't sue me! please?
PS If you sue, you'll have to pay more for the lawyer than you can possibly get out of a poor inner city kid with a computer! =oP
REVIEW!
And They're In
Sakura leaned closer, still closer to the limpid window, her nose almost converging with the cool, hard glass. Her hands were placed against it, on either side of her head, precariously supporting her weight. She was smiling, a display of vivacious teeth; as if she were happy that nature could be so beautiful, all on its on, with no help from mankind.
She wore a casual, yellow cotton spaghetti-strap shirt, and a khaki skort, stretching ponderously over her--
'Don't look. Don't look, Li. There is nothing to see in that direction. Talk to someone. Anyone. For the luvvagod, Li, Don't look!'
Li sat in the same booth as Takashi, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, Meiling, Tomoyo, a couple of guy-friends, and, of course, Sakura. He was desperately trying to avoid gawking at Sakura, more specifically, her posterior. He was about to start talking to Takashi, to distract himself, when suddenly Sakura exclaimed,
"Look!" She was pointing at the window; her head whipped toward the other occupants of their booth. She gestured ecstatically at the countryside. Her friends began crowding around the window, looking out for what she saw.
"See, it's right there! Don't you see it?"
And then, all the girls looking out, balancing precariously on their knees, craning their necks, saw "it".
"It" was a doe and deer, jumping gaily in the meadow, seeming to dance with one another, never quite touching.
"Oh wow… it's so beautiful…" A collective sigh.
"The girl is so graceful… see the way she points her hoof before landing?" Said Sakura, looking wistfully thoughtful. Li glanced, a streak of milk chocolate brown darting across his vision, enticing his gaze. As he watched, the doe leapt up, high into the air, arching her legs, pointing her cloven hoof, then landing with perfect ease, turning to face a patch of wild rhododendrons.
"It's so… right, so… beautiful…" Said Li, gazing peacefully at the dancing deer. Sakura turned her head slightly, discreetly settling her glance on Li. He looked at her in that moment. She smiled, a slight, clandestine smile, and turned back to watch the eloquent display.
As the train sped on, the meadow grew farther and farther away. When it had finally died from their sight, they all rotated toward the center of the pleasantly decorated booth, settling back into their tantalizingly warm, inviting cushions.
Sakura sat on the far side of the booth from Li. She crossed her legs, leaning her head back to rest. Li was moving into a similar position across from her, slouching out of his usual straight-as-an-arrow posture and relaxing his head, his eyes closed. Sakura closed her eyes, resolving to rest during the long trip out to the cabins. After a few moments she slowly opened one eye. As she watched him, Li indolently opened his eye. Their half-gazes met. Sakura smiled a little; Li did the same, a rare thing even in highschool. This widened Sakura's smile as she closed her eyes. Li's eye closed torpidly. He thought of the trip ahead.
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Meiling looked at Syaoran and Sakura. She smiled and sighed, a dreamy, happy sigh, feignedly forlorn.
Tomoyo looked at the smiling Meiling, smiling herself. "What is it?"
Meiling cocked her head to the side, smiling yet wider.
"At the rate their flirting, they wont need our help anyway… sigh." She smiled, glad that she and Tomoyo were friends, glad that she would be splitting a cabin with the soon-to-be-couple.
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As the train docked, the kids filed out, one-by-one, like excitement covered candies on a conveyor belt, ready for the spirited mountain air to fill them with its… calm… serenity, Li thought. He was among them, along with Takashi, loaded down with Tomoyo's, Meiling's, Chiharu's, and their own baggage.
Needless to say, these ladies packed QUITE a few… eh… "toiletries", so Li and Takashi had their work cut out for them. In fact, nearly all the girls in their class had made their partners carry their "essentials" for them. All, that is, except Sakura. She was standing almost still, her sun glassed eyes taking in her surroundings. With everyone around her hustling and bustling, with her standing so motionlessly, clutching her two bags in front of her, she seemed almost frozen, like a vision of beauty, standing in a field of turmoil…
'Oh… Go-- I'm thinking like a thespian… Stop. Stop, Li, stop.' Li couldn't stop stealing glances at Sakura, even with the huge pile of baggage that was his impediment.
Suddenly Sakura turned, as if she'd felt Li's unguarded stare. It appeared as if she was searching for him. Her brow furrowed, her eyes narrowing slightly. She couldn't see him. And no wonder, with all his excess baggage! She breathed a deep, sighing breath, and turned back around, awaiting further instruction from the sensei.
"Okay, guys, this is what shall happen. We'll get in our groups, bags and all, and we'll march/hike/walk to the cabin area. Then we'll choose our cabins. The cabins already have chaperones, furnishing, etc, so you just go in there, *politely* greet your chaperone, and then *politely* set your things in your room. Simple enough for everyone?"
The class nodded vigorously in comprehension.
"Good; After we have found our houses, we shall unpack. In the morning, we shall meet in the town square, where I shall supply further instruction; is that clear?"
The class vehemently, impatiently nodded again.
"Good. Now, in an orderly fashion, we shall go cabin questing. BREAK!"
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"Ahh!"
"Stop, stoppit, please!"
"Move! Hey, you! Shove off!"
"Oh… oh god… please… kami-sama, help!"
So much for Mr. Terada's admonitions, huh? There were students everywhere, like bees on a honeycomb, writhing about, trying desperately to get the best lodging, the biggest cabin, the richest, prettiest, etc. They were stepping all over one another in their attempts at primeval colonization.
'How in the HELL did _I_ get stuck carrying the bags?' Meiling, stacked with her own and Tomoyo's baggage, was skulking. She remembered.
Flash
"Well, since they're going to be looking for our house together, I think I should record them," Tomoyo had said.
'Tomoyo and her damned camera' thought Meiling.
"AND it's a lot harder to tape properly if I'm loaded down with all my bags, so if you could blah blah blah, blah blah, please? Blah blah, blahblahblah THANKYOU!"
She didn't remember saying anything.
Flash
The next thing you know, ol' Meiling's the carrier. And now, as she stepped over, ducked under, and ran into people, she wondered how they had EVER expected her to keep up.
"Look, there!" Sakura exclaimed, pointing and waving her arms skittishly, vying for Li's attention; they were scoping cabins, hoping to find the coolest, most spacious (Li didn't want Meiling to be close enough to embarrass him), and all around best one.
Li looked in the direction Sakura implied, unable to see anything. He got up off the tree stump he had been occupying, momentarily admiring the flowers at its base, and made his way toward the peppy girl jumping around on the dirt path ahead of him.
"Look, Li!" Sakura pointed again.
"What? What're you talking about?" Li couldn't see a thing ahead, aside from a barely visible path and tall, imposing green trees.
"No, not there! Here." Sakura leaned forward, stabbing at the air above the dense trees with her finger. Li leaned closer to her, trying to see from her point of view. Their faces were a few, very few, inches apart. Sakura glanced over and pinked slightly, but kept her finger out stretched and pointing.
Then he could see it; it was a cabin, not brown our terra colored or whitewashed like most of the cabins, but ivory colored-- or coated, it looked, from their distance. It wasn't built square like the other cabins either; it had a circular-rectangle shape to it, its roundness making it appear more spacious than the other cabins. And it had a beautiful view, over the huge lake and mountains on the one side, the underlying trees that they currently viewed, and the cabin village beyond.
"Wow… it's…" Li was too shocked at its mere existence to respond intelligibly; to find such a palatial cabin in among these was… astounding.
"Beautiful," Sakura finished. Suddenly, she stepped away from Li, a mischievous tint to her lustrous eyes.
"You know, since it took us so long to find this…"
"Then no one will know about it until we're moved in…" The same glint was in Li's eyes. He grinned evilly.
"Shall we?" Inquired Sakura.
"Indeed. Let us round up the troops." Li replied. Sakura giggled and they raced off to find Tomoyo and Meiling.
"MEILING! Meiling, hurry up, Meiling!"
They had found Tomoyo in the nearby bushes, hurriedly packing something away. Sakura was too excited to inquire closely about what it was, so she snatched Tomoyo's hand and hurried her off to find Meiling.
Once they'd found her, they all agreed for Sakura to be the navigator; of course she couldn't go ahead alone, so they selected Li to accompany her. Tomoyo once more "required both hands," so Meiling got stuck with everyone's bags.
As she toiled up the uneven, virtually invisible path, she wondered why she was doing this.
'I never relinquished my claim to be Li's fiancée. He's still legally mine. So why am I trying to hook him up with some other chick, even if she is my close friend?' Meiling was wondering this, ignoring the calling of the others far above her. 'Because…' 'Because what?' Meiling asked herself 'Because you love…' him… Yosho… Meiling stopped her mental complaining and with renewed energy made her way toward the beautiful structure at the end of the path.
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When she finally made it to the summit of the mountainous stretch of land above the forest line, she found the others waiting for her, all sprawled lazily upon tree trunks or grassier patches of earth. They looked up at her noisy entrance.
Sakura smiled at her. "Meiling, do you need some help?" She seemed sincere. 'But Tomoyo-chan told me not to do anything that would prevent Sakura and Li from talking or "bumping together" and stuff… but still, these bags are heavy…' Meiling was torn between her own burden and the relief of sharing it, and her friends' expedition to get Syaoran a girl friend. But Tomoyo, as if she had read her friend's mind, jumped in and quickly said
"I'll help."
She gave Meiling a stern glance that said 'letting Sakura help would have gotten your butt kicked.'
"Thank you, Tomoyo-chan." Meiling's vapid reply hung heavy in the air as they continued.
They were still trekking along the path up to the house. They were around 100 yards away.
"It must have been hard for you, Tomoyo, to give up video taping just to help me," said Meiling, sincerely thankful for Tomoyo's help. Her earlier sarcasm had been relinquished; sharing the load with Tomoyo lightened her spirits as much as it had her hands.
"It's okay; it was wrong of me to ask you to carry all those bags any way. Friends?"
"Of course!" They smiled at each other and turned back to the path in unison.
"Besides, they haven't done anything really worth black mail-- err… worth showing later on the way up; they probably wont do anything now."
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Sakura and Li were walking toward the house, a few paces between them, neither wanting to get too close to the other, both wanting _so_ badly to.
'She's so beautiful…' Li was sneaking sidelong glances at Sakura, as he had been during the entire excursion thus far. He was stricken with how gorgeous the forest and mountain lighting made her seem. 'The way the light reflects off her hair, the way her body lifts when she raises an arm to push back those tawny tresses… oh, I've GOT to stop thinking like this.' Li resolved to stop looking at her for the rest of the short, short walk.
'Wow… the way the light outlines Li makes him look so… manly…' Sakura blushed. The sun was shining from slightly above Li's head; it outlined his broad shoulders, his well toned chest, his strong (but not TOO muscular) arms… 'Hoe… I will not look at him; I will not think of him; I will not look at him…' Sakura resolved, coldly.
They had taken the few steps left to the ornately carved door, when Sakura and Li both, simultaneously, broke their resolve; they were caught gazing at each other at the same time.
The door opened and they were still staring.
"Uh… Am I interrupting anything?" asked a woman; not old, but no longer young; not beautiful, though she must have been when she was younger; and seemingly good-natured.
"Uh… no." They both said, blushing. The woman laughed a tinkering laugh.
"Are those your friends?" She gestured toward Tomoyo and Meiling, trundling up the path behind them.
"Yes. We… uh… we saw your cabin (mansion!) from the path, and we wondered if you were part of the field trip…"
"Oh you mean the one where kids come and live with you for a week? Yes, I sure am. I've always wondered why no one ever comes up here… Maybe the house is haunted?" Teased the woman, as she led them to their rooms. Sakura stopped short.
"HOEEE! You have ghosts!?!?" The others sweat dropped as the woman led on. Sakura hung back slightly as they approached their rooms; she was still hung up on the ghost issue. Her teeth chattered as they approached the first room.
"Syaoran," Meiling whispered. "Sakura seems really frightened. You should talk to her, maybe cheer her up."
Syaoran crimsoned slightly, but mastered his emotions, his face a mask. "No, I think she'll be okay." He looked at Meiling, his nose slightly in the air, like he used to do when they were younger; the Stop-talking-right-now-cuz-what-you're-saying-is-stupid-and-I'm-too-smart-to-reply look.
Meiling looked away, keeping her eyes firmly glued to the door ahead.
"Now this room will be for…" The woman's face became a ghastly mix of emotions; Sakura yelped and ran behind Tomoyo.
"Gh-Gh-Gh--- GHoooooost!" She cried.
The woman blinked, seeming to snap back to reality with the maneuver. She put her hand up to her mouth, her eyes crinkled. When Sakura took sight of the woman, she ran behind Meiling, exclaiming,
"It's got her! Oh no, oh, oh! It's got her!" She was pointing fearfully at the woman.
The woman began making strange sounds, clasping her other hand over her mouth. Li looked from Sakura to the woman, a knowing smile briefly replacing his permanent scowl. He nonchalantly walked to the nearby light switch, flicking it upward in one graceful movement.
The woman was doubled over now while Sakura was trembling in fright behind Meiling. Li tried hard not to laugh, for that was what the woman was doing, which apparently Sakura thought was demonic possession. When the others realized what was going on, they too began laughing. Sakura slowly backed away from them all, stuttering,
"You… You're all…"
"We're all laughing at you, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo teased.
"Well then why did your face look like that, Miss?"
"Because I don't know any of you and we skipped introductions!"
Sakura looked positively baffled. Then she smiled and laughed aloud. She walked back over to the group and then lightly intoned,
"I am Kinomoto Sakura, this is Li Syaoran, Li Meiling, and Daidouji Tomoyo." She had pointed at each in turn.
"And I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I think we'll have a lot of fun together. Why don't you two," she indicated Meiling and Li, "stay here, and you two stay in the room on the other side of the stairs?"
"Well, uh… you see…" Li began stammering.
"Meiling's not Li's partner… I am," stated Sakura, reddening slightly.
"So, then, are you two boyfriend and girlfriend?" She asked, teasing them.
"NO!" they exclaimed in unison.
The woman laughed again, that tinkering, lovely laughter, and said, "Well, follow me then." And led them across a staircase and to another room.
"I'm really sorry about the state of things in here… no one's visited here in quite a while… I hope you won't find the area too… stifling."
Ha. The room was anything but stifling; there were pictures on every wall, varying from beautiful De Vinci's, Vince Van Gou's, to pictures you can tell were cut directly from magazines;
And it all looked so stylish! All the pictures were hanging on a wall, decorated in vibrant, patterned granite, lending sophisticated fun to the entire place. The bureau at the far end of the room was a rich, deep mahogany, a beautiful silver mirror hanging curiously above, shocking color into the room with its stark contrast. Sakura and Li both smiled subconsciously, awed. Then they noticed the rest of the furniture; there were pillows, large-but-not-huge pillows, puffy, comfortable, classy pillows, leaning at eye catching angles all around the room, reinforcing the air of comfortable-friendly-classiness that radiated through this nook of the domicile; there was a love seat, which, upon seeing, Sakura and Li both promptly blushed and redirected their gazes.
The seat was not decorated ornately; it was a pinkish-white, which contrasted and complimented the lovely walls nicely; it looked inviting, enticing… enchanting, the youngsters both thought. 'Now where did that come from,' thought Sakura, blinking and shaking her head to clear it.
"I hope you find it to your liking; not cramped, is it?" The chaperone, Malaya, as they later found out, looked slightly worried; there was a barely visible layer of dust on the top of the bureau. Sakura turned to her, beaming.
"Oh, it's _beautiful_!" She exclaimed.
Malaya smiled, trying to conceal the rosiness in her cheeks from being complimented, and failing miserably. Syaoran ducked his head slightly, covering his smile at the effect Sakura had on people. Truly, no one could resist her genkiness.
"Well, you two put away your things, the closet (which had small but graceful pinkish-white butterflies painted spastically across the bottom) is right over there; it should be spacious, and I don't think there's anything in the bureau over there," she pointed, "to hinder you placing stuff in there… just… make yourselves comfy. I'll be going now; my house is your home. I'll let you start unpacking now." And with that she swept out of the room.
Sakura first placed her radio on the bureau; she hated to work in silence. She quickly and efficiently hung all of her clothes that required hangers, taking care to keep a space so she could see each without moving them; and then there were her personals; she would wait till Li left to do those. She reddened slightly.
"Uh… Li?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, I've, uh… got some stuff in my bag that I don't think--" Sakura was blushing furiously with the effort it took to speak of the subject. Li took pity on her, hiding a smile.
"Is any of my business." Li stated, blushing at his thoughts of what they might be, how she looked in them, how she looked ou--
"Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly it… I'm going to go help Meiling and Tomoyo unpack to pass the time… you lemme know when you're done, kay?" She flashed a thankful smile, which in turn made Li giddy. He mastered his emotions quickly, confused, and feigned coughing, turning red with embarrassment. He turned around, facing the other way from Sakura, trying to get her to leave him to his thoughts and his work; that was a mistake.
She hurried from the door to where he was, bending to look into the eyes of his hunched form, concern playing across her ethereal features. Her eyes, the beautiful, vibrant orbs of sea-soaked light that she claimed as eyes, caught him completely off guard.
He stopped coughing, his eyes locked with her own, lost within their endless, bottomless depths; he stopped hunching, coming closer to his full height, looking down at her gorgeous, gorgeous eyes, trying to tear himself away from her gaze; unable to.
His face was getting closer to hers, his nose, his mouth, nearer, nearer still; and she wasn't moving away; his hand was reaching to hers, the other would soon fall eloquently on the small of her back--
"OH!" And in burst Malaya, huffing and puffing, flustered; Li and Sakura quickly spun away from one another, as if they were doing something wrong.
Malaya took no heed. "I forgot to tell you; there're extra towels in the closet right beside your room, the bathroom's on the other side of the closet, and dinner is on at 7:30." She smiled warmly. It was 4:47 at the moment. Malaya left the two teens in a friendly silence, which quickly became a charged, stifling nothing… Sakura couldn't take it any longer; she looked up at Li, who had turned back to her. She accidentally caught his eye and momentarily forgot her task.
"I… I… I…"
Li looked back at her apprehensively, not knowing what he should do.
Sakura finally remembered what it was that she'd been doing.
"I… I… I gotta go… help… yeah, bye!" She bolted from the room like a doe from a hunter, too timid to stay in the heated air of her and Li's room. When she reached Tomoyo's door, she stopped short.
"And then they'll fall completely in love…" both girls inside sighed.
Sakura realized she was being rude; she politely knocked on the slightly ajar door, waiting to be permitted inside.
"Sakura-chan, come in."
"Hey, Tomoyo, how did you know it was me?" Sakura was genuinely curious.
Tomoyo simply smiled; "I always know when it's you." Sakura smiled in return, thinking about how she would one day surprise Tomoyo by knowing when it was her on the other side of the door. She remembered then why she was there.
"Since Li and I are sharing a room and we both have… things… to unpack, he's going to unpack his right now, and I'm going to later… Is it cool with you guys if I help you out till he's done?" Sakura had reddened slightly as she mentioned why she was there, so Tomoyo replied,
"Meiling and I would like to confer momentarily… I'm sure you won't mind waiting?" Sakura nodded her head enthusiastically.
"When she was mentioning Syaoran, did she--"
"Mhmm," said Tomoyo.
"Does that mean she--"
"Yes."
"So if we keep her here--"
"Exactly." Tomoyo smiled a wicked little smile; she and Meiling were going to tease Sakura about Li and try and make her figure out that she liked him.
"Alright, Sakura," Tomoyo said as she turned around, looking serious.
"Yeah?"
"We have decided…" Tomoyo closed her eyes and took a breath, letting Sakura's suspense build;
"Yes."
"Yay!"
"BUT!" Sakura looked doubtful once more, her hand on her mouth.
"But what?"
"But you must promise to leave Meiling and me to talk during dinner." It sounded innocent enough, which was why Sakura agreed immediately; the truth was, she would have to sit directly beside or across from Li Syaoran. For the entire meal. On the inside Tomoyo was laughing an evil, devilish laugh, while on the outside she smiled warmly. Everything was going according to plan. 'It may turn out to be a pretty interesting night,' she thought. 'I wonder what they'll do when they realize… hehehe, fun fun fun!' She continued to unpack her things.
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Suspense chapter! I never thought I'd catch myself writing one of these! But you know you love suspense, so don't you DARE flame ^.^ What do you think of this chapter? Things may seem a little slow right now, but they'll start to pick up during dinner… It's going to take a little longer to get out the chapters after dinner; intricate plot, yes yes, enjoyable! Well, I hope you liked this, say if you did or didn't!
Ja!
~!Ada!~
Disclaimer:
I don't own $#!@ ! Don't sue me! please?
PS If you sue, you'll have to pay more for the lawyer than you can possibly get out of a poor inner city kid with a computer! =oP
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