*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Meanwhile in Sakura's dressing room, Sakura and Tomoyo were having an enlightening discussion about Tomoyo's meeting with Eriol, earlier that afternoon.
"Tomoyo, how do you feel about Eriol's return?" asked Sakura casually.
"All right, I guess. Why?" asked Tomoyo suspiciously.
"Oh no reason, just curious," said Sakura quickly, " Where are Rika's costumes? They aren't here."
"I almost completely forgot to tell you," exclaimed Tomoyo, "Your costumes are missing, Rika and the others can't them anywhere, it's almost as if you used the Erase card to make the costumes disappear."
"HOE!!! Now what am I going to wear for the play? How can all of my costumes for the play be lost!!!" shrieked a panicking Sakura, "What are we going to do? What am I going to do?"
"Calm down Sakura," soothed Tomoyo, "I already have a solution ready to go."
"What is it?" asked Sakura anxiously
"Well, I didn't know if I would
have enough time to do your costumes for the play, seeing that I was in charge
of the Tomoeda Arts Festival and everything. So that's why I only volunteered
to do Syaoran's costumes and I trusted Rika enough to stick to base costume
sketches I did to make something that would look gorgeous on you. But then I
found out that the costumes she made for this play went missing, I had the
brainstorm to use the costumes I made for that film project me, you and Syaoran
have been working on, which we are going to be shooting next weekend.
"What are you saying, Tomoyo?"
"You are going to be wearing my costumes after all, a bit sooner than I wanted," sighed Tomoyo while sound not very disappointed at all, "But we all have to make our sacrifices to ensure the success of the play to the parents and the school."
"So where are the costumes?" asked Sakura curiously
"Right here," and with that Tomoyo stepped aside and revealed several costumes and took the first one off the rack, "This will be for the first scene," she said coming towards Sakura with the pastel pink gown, "You're going to look great and the best part is that you'll be able to wear your key with this because it is the perfect necklace. I also have matching slippers and everything."
Just then a black-blue blur zipped by, quickly followed by a golden one.
"Kero-chan!" said Sakura sternly, "I thought I told you to stay inside my purse. I can't afford to have you zipping around like this, because there are people around. If you don't stop now, I'll use the Move card and have it MOVE you BACK home."
The golden blur immediately stopped moving, and a little toy bear with wings flew towards Sakura, "But Spinel Sun started it," it complained.
"I don't care who started it, Kero-chan," scolded Sakura, " I promised to take you along only and ONLY if you would behave yourself. And so far you have managed to eat the box of chocolates Syaoran gave me, and now you're zipping around this place with no thought or consideration to the fact that you might be seen by Yamazaki, Chiharu, Naoko, or Rika; not to mention many other people, who aren't suppose to know that you aren't a stuffed toy. Now if you keep this up, I won't give you pudding for a week and I'll sell my videogame machine to Yamazaki. "
"You wouldn't," said the tiny bear in a panic.
"Kero-chan, this is your last warning."
"It's Spinel Sun's fault. He started it, he ate the last chocolate caramel."
"I told you to share the chocolate caramels with Spinel Sun."
"But he doesn't like sweets."
"It doesn't matter, you should have shared," said Sakura, "Now Tomoyo, do you know where we can put Kero-chan, where he will hopefully stay out of trouble, at least until the play is over."
"I know where I can put them and it will also keep those two out of trouble" said Tomoyo
"Where?" asked Sakura
"In that room above the stage, I'll be there because I have to see what's going on from above to make sure everything is going smoothly, and my mom just gave me the latest portable mini video game that is for multiple players, so if Kero and Suppi-chan behave, I might let them have a go at them."
"Thanks Tomoyo, you're such a good friend," said Sakura giving her best friend a hug, " Kero-chan, you go find Suppi-chan and apologize to him for being so selfish, and then go hide upstairs, where you watched Sleeping Beauty with Tomoyo back in gr. 4, and if Tomoyo lets you play her new video games, you are going to let Suppi-chan win, to make up for your bad behavior."
"Okay, but it still was Spinel Sun's fault. He started it," said Kero sullenly, clearly not happy about his punishment and left the room.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with Kero," said Sakura frowning, " I really don't know. Kero has to learn to share."
"I'm sure he will in due time."
"I know, but I don't want to talk about Kero or about the play right now," said Sakura suddenly, " Tomoyo, can't we talk about something else, please?"
"Like what?"
"Like how you feel about Eli?"
"Eli, he's a nice enough guy. I mean he's charming enough," said Tomoyo, hesitantly, "But well, he's not what I look for in someone, who I would consider datable."
"But you two have a lot in common," protested Sakura, "I mean you both have so much in common, like an interest in making films, you both love to read books, you like music, and he likes music. He's perfect for you."
"I don't know, Sakura. Things just aren't clicking that's all."
"But Tomoyo, give him some more time. I mean Syaoran and I didn't exactly click until much later."
"But the difference is that you were in grade 4 then, we're in grade 11 now, Sakura."
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Coming, " called Sakura getting up to get the door, "Can I help you?"
"I was told that I could find Tomoyo Daidouji here, are you her?" asked a man carrying a beautiful bouquet of white roses and baby breath.
"No I'm not, but hang on a second," said Sakura, "Tomoyo, could you come here, it's a delivery for you."
"For me?" asked Tomoyo in surprise
"Yeah"
"Okay, hang on."
"Are you Tomoyo Daidouji?"
"Yes, I am."
"These are for you." Said the man, handing Tomoyo the bouquet of flowers, "Please sign here."
"Oh, thank you," said Tomoyo as she received the bouquet
"Have a nice day, miss."
Sakura waited until the deliveryman was out of hearing range, before she asked Tomoyo, " So, who sent them to you? Is there a card?"
"Hang on, Sakura. Oh here's the card.
'I just want to congratulate
you for putting together to the best and the most successful Arts Festival.
It's from Eli," Tomoyo said quietly, "He's such a sweetie, but I'm just not interested in him the same way he is in me. I had hoped that he would get the message by now, but it looks like I have a date with him tonight to let him know that I'm not interested in him romantically."
"But Tomoyo, do think the flowers might be from Eriol, I mean his name also begins with the letter E," Sakura pointed out to her best friend.
"You kidding me, Eriol give me flowers," said Tomoyo laughing, "That's funny, he doesn't even know I exist as a person outside of the Card Captors circle. I mean he didn't even bother to write to me over the last 5 years and all of a sudden he's back and decides to send me a bouquet of flowers. Even though he's has magical powers, I doubt he could be that good. No, these flowers are from Eli."
"Okay, but seriously Tomoyo, how DO you feel about Eriol?"
"Nothing more than a classmate should, respect I guess for his magical powers, but other than that he is just another classmate to me. That's all," declared Tomoyo strongly, perhaps a little too strongly because there was a slight flicker of some unidentified emotion or understanding that was quick to disappear off of Sakura's face, that Tomoyo swore that she might have imagined it.
"You know if you think about it," said Sakura quietly, "Eli and Eriol are a lot like. I mean both are them are shining examples of the perfect gentleman, and they do share similar interests too."
"I think you're starting to get nervous that's why you're starting to talk nonsense. Come on it's way past your time to be getting ready to go on stage, we going to be starting soon."
"All right, consider the matter dropped for now. But Tomoyo, you're not going to get off this easily, as your best friend I will bring this particular topic of discussion again and I will do it soon," warned Sakura.
"Fine, Fine, you have to get ready… and Sakura, break a leg."
"Thanks Tomoyo," said Sakura with a smile, "I'll see you later to pick up Kero."
"Okay, see you later Sakura."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Meanwhile in the audience, Eriol and Nakuru were still trying to find good seats for the performance, when Eriol bumped in a tall young man with blue-black hair and dark-gray eyes, dressed in a black suit.
"I'm sorry," apologized Eriol to the strange young man, "It's just that it's so crowded."
"It's all right," said the young man, "I can understand why it is so difficult to move in such a crowd."
"True," agreed Eriol, "I'm Eriol Hiiragizawa. I'm here to watch a couple of friends of mine, who are performing in the play tonight."
"My name's Eli Moon," said Eli, "It's a pretty bad name, but I was named after my mother's uncle and his name is Eli, and unfortunately my family name is Moon. So who are your friends playing?"
"Oh, one of them is doing the lead female role, and the other is doing the lead male"
"You mean, you know Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li?"
"You know who they are?" asked Eriol in surprise
"Yeah, I'm currently dating Sakura's best friend," said Eli
A strange buzzing started to fill Eriol's ears, "Sakura's
best friend would be…" Please don't let it be Tomoyo, Please don't let it be
Tomoyo, Please don't let it be Tomoyo.
"Tomoyo Daidouji," stated Eli, completely unaware of the now silent and stoney-faced Eriol, who was seated next to him, "I'm hoping to ask her if we could start seeing each other on a more constant basis. Because I feel something for her that I believe is worth exploring further…"
Eli continued to talk completely unaware that he had lost his attentive audience. The news that Tomoyo was actually see someone left Eriol feeling like the time he had eaten something that didn't quite agree with his stomach, 'Tomoyo can't be seeing someone, she can't be. How am I going to get this guy out of the picture, I'm going to kill Syaoran for tricking me into believing that I had no competition for Tomoyo's affections. Now what am I going to do? How am I going to compete against someone like him, when she is still mad at me? I'm better than this guy sitting next to me. He's just a lovesick puppy, but I must admit he does know how to dress well. But what are clothes… wait that might be the deciding factor, because Tomoyo loves to design and makes clothes. What am I going to do? I'm not going to lose Tomoyo to this ELI MOON, not without a good fight anyways.
To Be Continued….
Up next, Tomoyo's date with Eli, and Eriol's first step in his war against Eli for his dear Tomoyo's affection, and Sakura and Syaoran have a minor tiff over … some flower advice Syaoran gave Eriol earlier.
Author's Blurb:
Hehe, I know I complained about
Eriol's new American name the last time, well I figured I have him as Eriol's
rival, and have Eriol beat Eli black and blue later. But seriously it's also the
kind of competition; I'm willing to bet that Eriol will thrive on. He'll have
to compete against someone who is EXACTLY like him in so many ways.
Post Script to the Reader:
I'm going to take a bit of a
break from Opaque, and switch gears for the rest of the week. But I promise I
will try to get the 4th chapter of Opaque up sometime next week. But
in the mean time, feel free to check out any of my other stories. If you like
one, then you might want to check out my other one called Strawberry Dreams (note
I might change the title later, but anyways.), which is also another CCS one,
with S&S and E&T.
^_^ Plenty of hugs and good
imaginings
- PhiloSoftBlu
