I'm back with another chapter!!!! : )) hurrah for me!!!!

Oh yes. The title issue. Some might have noticed but I'm just gonna say it anyway. The titles of the chapters are almost all names of songs, and have just that teensy bit of subtle relation to what the chapter is all about. So don't rack your brains out trying to connect them xD. Anyway! without further ado...........






7: Obliged

Syaoran Li noticed the excited chattering as he strolled through the hallway. Hmm. Wonder what that's all about...? Although slightly curious about what was going on, he chose to ignore it and continued on his way to the locker area.

Just as a bunch of giggling girls were making their way towards him ( and he, devising a plan to get as far away from them as humanly possible,).....

"Hey! Li!" Eriol waved at him maniacally.

Syaoran brightened a little as he spotted his cousin calling him over, glad to have a reason to walk away from the group of girls which was starting to get on his nerves.

"Have you heard about it?" Eriol questioned, not maintaining eye contact but instead fiddling with his combination lock on the locker.

"It?"

"Yeah, you know." Eriol tried pulling open the locker door but it wouldn't budge. (Don't we all have problems with stupid lockers which don't open?)

"I know...?"

"The inter-high scholl dance!" Eriol half exclaimed, half grunted as he managed to force his locker open.

"Uh... what about it."

Eriol turned to look at Syaoran. Sometimes, I wonder if he's just acting ignorant or if he is as stupid as he seems.

"What?"

"Nothing." Eriol replied, a smirk present on his face.

"It's not nothing" Syaoran challenged

"IS nothing"

"NOT nothing"

"There's no such thing as 'not nothing'"

"Is too. In my vocabulary."

"Well, not in mine"

"That's 'cause yours is limited"

"oh yeah?"

"yeah. The only thing in your head is the label 'stupid'"

"oh? To describe you I suppose"

"you flatter me."

"Tis' my job since no one else would"

"oh yeah?"

"yeah."

"oh yeah?"

"yeah"

...and it went on and on until the duo reached their classroom then called a truce. For the time being.

"you know, that reminded me of the good 'ole days." Eriol smiled reminiscently. "Back when you weren't all busy doing clan stuff-" he halted when he saw the darkened look on his cousin's face. Oops...

Syaoran froze in his spot when he heard what Eriol had said. "Look, its not my fault" he growled. Sure, he had escaped from his mother's clutches and clan responsibilities for the time being, but he was after all still the 'next clan leader' regardless of wherever he was.

Once again, his thoughts traveled to the heavy burdens of his high profile status of being the "new and upcoming Li-clan leader!" according to some crappy magazine. He hated being called Li-sama all the time. It made him sound... just like father. He hated being compared to his late father all the darn time. He hated acting all prissy at the company functions and mingling with what his mother called " the important people". He hated being kept training at home the whole day and not being able to go to a public school just like other, normal teenagers. Damn it all- He wanted a life.

Thank god I'm not at home right now. He thought as he mechanically opened the textbook and stared blankly down at it as the teacher started his lesson.

"so...." Tomoyo bounded towards her best friend. "Got a date for the inter-high?"

"that dance? Nah..." Sakura replied, absent-mindedly fiddling with a stand of stray hair. "How bout you, Tomo?" She grinned as she said the next part. "Asked Eli-kins to go with you yet?"

"Wha-at are you talking about?" Tomoyo tried to remain nonchalant but her flushed face gave her away.

Sakura's grin widened as she saw her friend's embarrassed reaction. "I said, -mmph!" Tomoyo had covered Sakura's mouth frantically with both hands as they walked past the classroom which Eriol was in. "shhh!"

"Oh, alright then." Sakura conceded. For now.

"Now, tell me about how things are between you and your loverboy!" Tomoyo changed the subject before Sakura pressed on about the subject. She could be awfully persistent if she wanted to.

"Hoe?" Sakura asked with a raised brow.

"Your loverboy! Li Syaoran!"

Sakura looked at Tomoyo for a second to see if she was only kidding or not. Seeing the more serious expression on her friend's face, she let out a noise which sounded like 'pfft' crossed with a delicate snort.

"I say, you make the stangest noises sometimes"

"Part of my charm" She grinned, not missing a beat. "Anyway, you fully know that we won't exactly be needing a date for the dance, do we, Tomo?"

"Right you are, Kura"

The two best friends linked arms and walked down the hallway, chatting animatedly just like they always had done.

Lunch break

Sakura sat on a branch of the huge cherryblossom tree, while Syaoran decided to join her and sat on another branch.

"Um.... Where are the rest of them?" Syaoran asked, peering down to the mat they all usually sat on, which currently only sat Tomoyo and Eriol.

"Stuck with Ms Conner"

"Oh"

"You're talking more nowadays"

"Hmm?"

"....... Nevermind"

"Uh, so...."

"So...?" she prodded

He avoided looking at her in the eye for some strange unknown reason, instead averting his gaze onto the football field in the distance. " You got asked to the dance?"

She looked up from fiddling with the bark on the branch she was resting on, surprised at what he had just said.

Sensing her surprised gaze, he felt heat rising up to his cheeks and couldn't help blurting out "not that I'm interested or anything! I'm just curious! I mean, obviously there'd be a lot of people asking you to the dance- NOT that I'm saying that you're beautiful or anything! I mean, you aren't ugly! But- I mean- I mean...'

Sakura giggled at the scrunched up look of determination and his flushed face. He's cute when he's flustered!

"Mmm.... Actually, I'm taken for the whole of the dance"

"Oh." Came his reply, and he continued gazing into the distance, an unreadable expression in his eyes and the flush still present on his cheeks.

There was a moment of silence until Sakura decided to speak up, whilst fighting a strong bout of giggles. "so, you think I'm beautiful huh?" she teased.

She got him.

He looked at her, astonishment mixed with extreme embarrassment as he blushed even redder than he already was.

Looking upwards at his childhood friend and cousin, Eriol smiled that oh-so-sinister smile of his. "so, they are getting along just fine..."

"Just fine..." was the reply he got from Tomoyo, an equally scheming look in her eyes, gazing up at her long-time best friend and her new found friend, who was muttering something under his breath with the reddest face ever.

"darn that kinomoto. Darn that kinomoto. Darn that kinomoto. Darn that kinomoto.."





another chapter up! (: MY EXAMS ARE OVER!!! –jumps up and down- FINALLY. Anyways, check out my profile on the "pending" section and voice out your views on those stories that ive been planning to write but unsure of whether it seems plausible enough. Ahh well- review please!