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"Leave me alone, Meilin!" Li demanded. He was getting pretty tired of this.

"Come on, Li," Meilin whinned, "tell me what's wrong. I can make things all better," she said as she smoothed her hands up his chest, but Li stopped her before she could get any further.

"I don't need you to make me feel better. Ever. I talked to someone last night. I'm good now," he explained. He left out the part about kissing Sakura. He wasn't going to tell anyone about that little incident. No way! No one was going to find out about that. He liked his privacy and he didn't think it was anyone's business, but his own and Sakura's. Meilin looked confused and he knew what she was going to ask.

"Sakura! Madison!" Li heard. He was a bit startled and he turned to Rita. She was waving at...Sakura. Madison too. Madison! Damn. Li realized that Madison had to know about the night before. Not only was she Sakura's best friend, but she had been there last night. He knew she knew. But, why should he care if she knew or not? It was just a damn kiss! No big deal. He shrugged it off and watched the girls. He noticed Sakura staring at him. He looked at her and she blushed. Madison had said something to her and obviously he couldn't hear what she had said. Li watched as Madison pulled Sakura as she ran toward Rita, Nikki, Chelsea, Meilin, Zachary and him. Li thought Sakura looked a little disappointed, but in what? In the kiss? Maybe she wasn't convinced after all. No, she was convinced. The look on her face afterward proved it. She was a believer. He had to admit, though, it was a pretty good kiss.

"Rita!" Madison shouted. "Hey! How are you," she asked, giving her a hug as Sakura greeted Nikki and then hugged her. This took a while. The girls hugged one another and greeted each other throwing in little conversations in after greeting each other.

"Girls talk way too much," Li scoffed.

"Yup," Zachary agreed, as he laughed.

All the girls but Meilin, did the greet-hug-conversation thing. She wasn't all into that, but Li thought, maybe it was only because she wasn't close to any of them. She had only greeted them and then it was done. Easy and simple. She then wrapped her arms around Li's own arm and tugged on it. He turned to her a little annoyed and looked into her face. Her eyes pleaded with him. She wanted to know what had been bothering him and Li knew. He shook his head and pulled away from her.

"Hi, Zachary," Sakura said.

"Hey, Sakura. How's it hangin' ?" He asked, giving her a bright smile.

"Pretty good," she replied. Then she turned to Li. "Um, hey, Li," she stuttered. She was flushed and Li didn't know exactly why.

"Hey," Li said simply. There was then an awkward silence between them even though they were hundreds of people laughing and screaming and the friends around them were even talking. Li soon began to feel uncomfortable and then almost as if she sensed it, Meilin spoke up:

"Hey! Lets go on a ride together. It'll be cool and fun. Choose any ride. It won't matter," she said as Li silently thanked her. The awkward feeling was gone and he was grateful.

Meilin, you're a life saver, Li thought, sighing self-consciously.

Then Meilin suggested, "Hey! Why not that one!"

"The LOVE Boat?!" Everyone asked. She smiled and nodded.

"It'll give us a chance to get to know each other better," she said as she took Li's hand in her's.

"You'll never give up, will you?" Zachary said, smiling. Then everyone but Meilin and Li burst out in laughter.

"Don't you mean it'll give you a chance to get to know Li better?" Rita corrected. Meilin scowled and Li pulled away from her again.

"It sounds like a dumb idea," he said.

"It could be relaxing and very calm. Unlike the other rides. Maybe even soothing," Sakura suggested. Everyone turned to her. She blushed slightly.

"Yeah, maybe," Nikki agreed.

"Why not," Chelsea added. She shrugged and took Zachary's hand in hers. "But only if I can go with Zachary," she said.

"Fine by me," Zachary agreed, grinning. No one else said anything.

Before Li could say even one word, Meilin grabbed onto his arm and shouted, "Li's with me!" And she pulled him toward the ride as Zachary and Chelsea walked after them with the others trailing behind.

Li could hear Rita joking around with the other girls.

"Let's go my love," she joked. Nikki, who she was talking to jokingly took her hand. She turned to Sakura.

"Looks like you two love birds are cruisin' together."

"Come on," Rita said, "lets ride." The girls laughed and followed Meilin and Li.

Li really wanted to go on the ride with someone other than Meilin. She was cool, but going on a ride like this with her wasn't his idea of fun. She'd probably try to grope him or something. Hey, you never know. Actually, come to think of it, he didn't want to go on the ride at all. Meilin wanted to go on the ride with him.

They waited on the semi-long line. Meilin held onto his arm the whole time. Li only rolled his eyes and looked away. For a while he watched Sakura as she talked to Madison, Nikki, Rita, and Chelsea. She looked happy, but he knew she was feeling more down than she actually put on. He felt it. It was weird and he couldn't really explain it, but it was almost as if he was sharing one soul with her and he felt exactly what she did and for some reason he felt like comforting her. He didn't know why, but he had a strong feeling.

When she looked up and caught him staring, she blushed as he turned away from her. She really likes to blush doesn't she? Li asked himself. He shook off the feeling from before and then looked up and noticed Tori with a friend of his own, Julian Star. Li had remembered him from last year when he first met Tori. Julian had been their. Tori then noticed Li and waved. Li waved back and he watched as Tori and Julian approached.

"Hey, Li," Tori greeted.

"Hey," Li replied.

"You remember Julian, right?" Tori asked. Julian smiled and extended his arm.

"Hello, Li," Julian said.

"Hey, Julian," Li greeted as he shook his hand. "Yeah, I remember you from last summer," Li added.

"So, Li," Tori said. Li turned to Tori who had a huge devilish smile on his face. "Is she the lucky girl?"

"Huh?" Li turned to Meilin who was still hanging onto his arm. She brightened up.

"Yeah, that's me. I'm Meilin, Li's girlfriend," she said as she extended her arm and shook Tori's hand.

"I'm Tori," he replied. " Sakura's big brother and this is Julian, a friend of mine," he added.

"Hello, Meilin," Julian greeted. Li was just stunned, but before he could say anything, Madison cut in:

"Oh, please, Meilin. Don't make me laugh," Madison said. Li turned. He saw a mock smile on her face. "You only wish you were Li's girlfriend. You have as much-a-chance with Li as our pal Zach here," she added.

"What?!" both Li and Zachary shouted.

The others laughed, but Madison continued, "Well, okay Zachary doesn't have a chance with Li. Bad example. Sorry, you have a way better chance than Zachary ever will," she corrected apologetically.

"Better!" Li and Zachary shouted agreeingly. Madison smiled sheepishly.

"The point is," she said, quickly recovering from her embarrassment, "you don't have as much of a chance as you want."

Li glanced at Meilin. She was furious. He was afraid she was going to do something stupid, but he was wrong. Kinda.

"So, what if I'm not Li's girlfriend! A girl can always dream!" she shouted, letting go of Li's arm and storming away.

"So," Li said, suddenly wanting to change the subject. He was blushing ever so slightly. "How are you guys?"

"We're just fine," Julian said, "but what about you?" Li knew he was referring to Meilin. He sighed.

"Don't worry about Meilin. She does things like this a lot, but she always comes back ready to annoy me again. I really don't get her. She's almost always talking about 'someday marrying me'," he said, mimicking her. "Why would anyone talk about marriage at such an early time in their life. There's a lot more to do than that. I'm really not interested either," Li explained. Julian and Tori looked at each other and Julian nodded to Tori knowingly. Tori turned to Li.

"She's got it bad," he said.

"Got what?" Li asked now confused and a bit concerned. What was going on? Why did it seem like everyone got it, but him?

"A crush on you," Zachary shouted. He laughed and soon everyone but Li joined him.

"What?"

"You heard me. Meilin's go the hots for you." Li rolled his eyes and soon both Tori and Julian said their goodbye's after teasing Li a little, of course. Meilin couldn't possibly have anything for Li. Sometimes he didn't even treat her with much respect. Which he knew was just wrong and not right, but he couldn't help it! Meilin was so damn annoying. Following him and never really giving him a moments peace while she was around. And since they began High School things had gotten worse. Sometimes she'd try to actually, touch him...places. She claimed it had been an accident, but her smile lied. Still, though, she had nothing for him. Li was sure of it. Almost, anyway.

**************************************

Sakura watched Li as he talked to her brother and Julian and she felt a little bad for him. Tori kept teasing him about Meilin. Even Julian said something every once-in-a-while. Poor guy, she thought. Shortly after Tori and Julian left, Meilin was back. She held Li's hand and it was almost like he felt sorry for her because he smiled slightly and held her hand in return. Meilin took it as an apology, but Sakura knew better. Li had only felt sorry for her and had taken her hand without even noticing. The smile was his apology not the-taking-of-her-hand.

She knew Li didn't want to upset Meilin. It was a time for friends and a day for fun, he didn't want anything to ruin it and Sakura knew. She knew. Li glanced at her and half-smiled, when he noticed her staring. Something had flashed in his eyes. It wasn't anything bad, but not quit good either. And then she knew he knew. He knew Sakura knew about his reasoning for holding Meilin's hand. He didn't say anything. She didn't say anything. Then he turned away, his smile fading. He sighed and Sakura wanted to comfort him. More than anything she wanted to hold him and comfort him at that moment. She didn't know how, but she knew how he felt. It was almost as if they were one and she felt his pain and suffering.

"Sakura? Sakura!" Madison yelled.

"Huh?" Sakura said, waking up from her trance.

"You okay?" Madison asked, a bit concerned. Sakura nodded. "Okay, 'cause you were looking at Li like you never saw him before." Sakura sheepishly smiled.

Soon they were at the beginning of the line and Rita and Nikki were up next. They winked at Madison and laughed as Madison shook her head slowly. Sakura frowned. They wanted Madison to get Li to go on the "romantic" boat ride with Li. They knew about last night now. Chelsea too. Thank god, Zachary had been with Li while they talked. Li would've never forgiven her. She knew he wouldn't want anyone to know about it. Then it was Chelsea and Zachary's turn. Chelsea had done the same as Nikki and Rita. She winked at Madison and Madison nodded her head slowly and gave her a thumbs up. Chelsea giggled.

"What's so funny?" Zachary asked. Sakura stood up straight. She was suddenly aware of her pounding heartbeat and she was becoming nervous. She noticed Chelsea had glanced at her and smiled. Sakura relaxed. She wasn't going to say a word.

"Oh, nothing," Chelsea replied and she lead him into the boat with her.

"Let's do this," Madison said. It was Li and Meilin's turn now.

"No, let's not." But it was too late. Madison pulled Meilin back and since Meilin held onto Li's arm Li was yanked back with her, until Meilin let go of his hand. Then Madison pushed Sakura forward.

"Next," the man called.

"Their together. Their next," Madison answered. Sakura saw her with the video camera in her hand.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Meilin shouted. The man lead Li and Sakura to the boat.

"But, I, uh-," Li began.

"Oh, don't be shy," the man said. Sakura watched as Li sighed and then shrugged.

"Ladies first," Li said, helping Sakura in. He climbed in after her. The boat began to sail and they were off. Sakura could hear Meilin shouting after them. She sounded pretty pissed. Sakura shook her head. She glanced at Li who was sitting all the way on the other side of the huge heart shaped boat. He looked miserable. She reached out to touch his hand, but quickly stopped herself.

They were silent and then she felt it. It felt like there was a clow card close by. Could Li be right? Could there really be another card out there. She didn't mention it to Li because she thought since neither of them spoke and there was some tension between them, she thought that maybe it was that. Hopefully. She shook the feeling off and thought about something else. Instead she thought about Li and she knew Li didn't want to be here with her right now. It upset her, but she knew it was the truth. She sighed and rested her elbow on the edge of the boat and then rested her chin on her palm. This really sucked. The day wasn't turning out to good and Sakura wasn't enjoying herself. Why was she feeling so stuck on Li? Ever since last night when she first saw him. He had come to talk to Tori and when she opened the door, he looked incredible! It was almost as if he was a different Li. For some reason she didn't realize how good looking he was until she opened the door last night and saw him smile shyly in the moonlight.

She knew she didn't have a crush on him, though. But how else was she able to explain this. No, she didn't like him. He was Li and she was Sakura. Li hated her and she...didn't hate him. Ah! It didn't make sense, anyway! Sakura plus Li equals together, couple, idle, boyfriend/girlfriend! No, it just didn't make sense! Or did it? Madison and Chelsea thought it did. And Nikki and Rita did too. So, then what was the problem? If she liked him then why was she fighting it? Why? Was it because she was afraid of getting hurt? No, she didn't think so. Or maybe it did have a little bit to do with it, but a small part of the reason. So, then what was the big part? She made a small whining noise. This was just too much, now she had just confused herself even more than she already was.

Now she began to think that maybe she didn't have everything under control like she thought she did. Before she knew or thought she didn't like Li and decided that she wouldn't stop thinking about him because of the kiss. But now she thought that maybe she did like Li and she was possibly obsessing over him. Maybe not obsessing, but thinking a lot about him. Come on, Sakura! she thought. This is Li! Li Showron we're talking about here!

She felt so torn!