Rules of Popularity ...be careful who you fall in love with.

Chapter 3: The Popular Syaoran Li.

To the reviewers of chapter 3:

melon-heart: Oh I think we ALL know who Meiling's calling alright! Hehe!! Thanks for the review!!

SS43v3r: Thank you sooo much for a second review! I'm really happy you like the story so far!!

sweetlove73: Thanks for another review!! Is Meiling calling Syaoran-kun? This chapter has the answer!!

Ai-Yung: Thanks for the review!! I'm very glad you think it's original at the same time!! Don't worry; Syaoran shall make his appearance soon!

yams41: Sakura go down? Oh, I'm going to drag this girl all the way to hell and back!! Will she be perfect in the end? I'm not too sure if you mean as in like all nice and stuff and loved because she's so nice, because if that's what you're referring to, I'm going to have a twist to my ending.

To the reviewers of chapters 1-2: meangirls, Blah, Serenity's Blam. THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS!!!!

I hope Meiling Li rots in hell.

Didn't hear me? Why don't I break it down.

I. Hope. Meiling. Li. Rots. In. Hell.

Confession time: you know when I said I have a little crush on her cousin, Syaoran Li?

It was more of a big crush.

That's right, you heard me. A big crush. In fact, I think I had fallen in love. Scratch that—I did fall in love. And then the traitor left me—just after he asked me out the summer of grade 6! With no letters or anything, but still, why did I still have feelings for him? I thought I loved Matt now, the person who has the same name as that actor!—but it was different. It was more...fake with him.

If only Syaoran hadn't complicated this.

In fact, I'm staring at the back of his evil, head of drop dead beautiful messy chocolate brown hair loathing the fact he could just—poof!—come between me and Matt just like that. It wasn't fair—okay, so I know he's a good player, but it did not give him the right to be on the senior team!

And, what makes it that much worse?

Meiling is sitting behind me, staring at my beautifully styled hair—that took a hour to straighten—loving the fact, that I was loathing the fact, that Syaoran Li could piss me off and I couldn't do a damn thing about it. Life—seating plans, to be exact—can be so cruel sometimes.

Let's rewind the day back to yesterday, the day I learned what the word deja vu really meant.

"You called who?," Tomoyo demanded. She stood outside in the school yard behind behind a tree; far away from the rest of the school.

"I have the best plan ever-"

"Look, Meiling, we all know—except for Sakura, that is—that he liked Sakura a lot. Bringing him here would just upset him. Don't bring him here—don't even tell him anything! I want him to remember Sakura as the girl she was—not who she is now."

"Tomoyo! Quit being her cheerleader! She's in the wrong—there's no two ways around that. Now, how does Sakura attack? In a way she can't be found out by a teacher, but still everyone knows it's her. So, that got me thinking. How about we play Sakura at her own game? We'll use her techniques against her. Rumors, pranks, humiliation. Now, here's where it gets good. Not only will we be having like an all out war here—but, we're gonna bring her down for good. First step: break up her relationship with Matt."

Tomoyo sighed. "And how will you bring down the impossible? They've been together for a long time."

Meiling smirked. "Easy. I'll make something come between them."

"Like...?"

"Sakura hates me equals Sakura hates anyone who's friends with me. Right?"

"Yeah..."

Meiling's eyes turned playful. "Wait until you see what's—or, should I say—who's going to come between them."

"Hey, great show out there. You can really play," Matt said, slapping the other guy on his back. "Now...I don't usually do this for juniors—actually, my boy Eriol is the only other expection—but, do you wanna play for the senior team? Now, before you answer, the three teams in out school are the freshman & sophomore, junior and senior. If you played for the junior, you'd defiantly be quarterback. You play on our team, and you'd be just a mid-field, maybe offense or defense. But, it works out for next year if you stay—you just might find yourself captain and quarterback. So...what do you say?"

The boy shrugged. It wasn't up to him—it was up to Matt. "If you think I'm good enough..."

Matt grinned. "Welcome to the team, Syaoran."

"Who's going to come between them?"

"I was thinking, Syaoran?"

Tomoyo laughed. "Yes—I'm sure they'll except a relation to you into their little circle. Besides Syaoran's in China!"

Meiling looked down.

"Wait! In order for him to do that he has to...be...here...MEILING LI YOU DIDN'T!!"

"Yes, Tomoyo. I did. I brought him here, to Japan."

Tomoyo threw her hands up. "So he can witness you bringing down the girl he was head-over-heels for?!"

Meiling shook her head. "You're forgetting one thing. Syaoran can play a damn good game of football. In fact, he's in tryouts right now! In no time, he'll be on the senior team. That Eriol guy is. And then, he'll come between Sakura and Matt. Besides, maybe he'll get a scholarship! This school has good sports teams..."

Tomoyo blushed at Eriol's name, but quickly shook it off. "Yeah, but, still—Sakura will get Matt to put him on the junior team."

"I thought about that. Maybe—just maybe—if he's good enough, he won't take him off."

Tomoyo shrugged. Syaoran was already here; might as well give Meiling's plan a shot. "Okay, let's say he's on. Then what?"

"All I need him to do is be on the team! Don't you get it!! Sakura will want him off, Matt will want him on! See, it's simple. And besides, he is a listener. He picks everything up, so maybe he'll invoke some inspiration for further destruction!"

Tomoyo sighed. "He's never going to do it, Meiling. He likes her too much. When you tell Syaoran you want him to break up Sakura and Matt- "

"Oh—don't worry. He won't even know what he's doing. In fact, once they're broken up, I promise that I'll send him with a one-way ticket back to Hong Kong. I just need to get her back good for hurting you like that a few days ago."

Tomoyo raised her eyebrows. "And how, might I ask, are you going to work it out so he doesn't even know what he's doing?"

Meiling smirked. "We're not going to tell him. He's here to simply get noticed by scouts. Can he help it if he's that good?"

"You're the new player, huh?," a voice called out. Syaoran looked up from where he sat on the bench in the locker room. A blue-haired boy with azure colored eyes and glasses stood against a locker, a jacket identical to the one he was wearing in his arms.

"Yeah. Syaoran."

"Eriol."

Syaoran nodded. "The only other junior on the team, besides myself."

"Matt told you, eh? So, where you from? Tokyo High?"

"Hong Kong, actually."

Eriol's eyebrows criss crossed themselves in confusion. People just didn't just transfer from Hong Kong everyday. The two countries spoke completely different languages! But, this guy's Japanese was really good. Kind of like that Meiling girl who just came from China."You transferred here to play football?"

Syaoran finished tying up his shoe before looking up. "Yeah, I guess. My cousin told me that this school had a good team, better than my old school. Besides, a lot of my childhood friends are here as well."

Eriol slowly nodded. "Who's your cousin?"

"Meiling Li. Do you know her?"

Eriol smirked. "I think everyone does."

Syaoran stood up and began to put on his school blazer.

"Wear this instead." Eriol threw Syaoran the jacket. "You only have to wear the blazer to Day 1, Assembly Day. The other 5 Day's you can wear that."

Syaoran looked down at what Eriol threw at him. "What is it?"

"It's the team jacket. The Tomoada Tornadoes. Wear that jacket for the rest of the day. In fact, wear it everyday."

"What—why? It's kind of reminds me of that Jock look..."

Eriol, already turned around and out of the locker room, was laughing at the denseness of his new teammate.

Syaoran chased after Eriol, stopping him a few feet away from where they were once standing. "What did I say?"

Eriol looked Syaoran up and down. "Here's my advice: if you want to play football for the rest of of time here, I suggest you learn how to be one of us Jocks. And fast. I'll even tip you off with your first lesson: wear that jacket everyday," he said pointing at the jacket in Syaoran's arms.

"How fucked up is that...," Syaoran muttered under his breath.

Eriol's eyes widened a bit. This kid honestly didn't know anything. "Wear the damn jacket because, yes, this school is fucked up beyond belief."

Syaoran rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Alright, I'll wear it!" He sighed. Meiling never said anything about wearing this Jock jacket. It was so pointless! "I don't see why though; I mean, who's going to notice!"

Eriol nodded in the direction of a group of girls. "Them."

Syaoran looked behind him as the girls giggled. "Oh. Great. I'm going to wear this jacket so I can look good for some retarded girl."

Eriol smirked. Not only were those girls Sara Greenwell and Alex Bolton, two of the infamous Doll's, but they were really good looking—every single hot guy noticed when they were being looked at by girls. And were those girls ever checking himout. There was only one exception when a guy didn't notice."So, who is she?"

Syaoran put the jacket on, smoothing out the front."Who's who? Look, I need complete phrases..."

"A guy always knows when he's being checked out, especially when it's one of the Barbie Doll's!—except when they're head over heels for a girl. "So, who is she?"

Syaoran looked away. Was it that obvious he hadn't gotten over Sakura? Maybe his sisters were right when they said it was suspicious when he didn't date. "No one."

Eriol arched an eyebrow. "You're already over your head, aren't you?"

Syaoran didn't even bother asking how Eriol knew that. Syaoran knew that he never wrote Sakura; took off without saying bye and still didn't have the guts to say sorry. "I don't like her or anything—in fact I used to be best friends with her until I moved—I'm just here cause my cousin told me that she wanted me to play football because of scouts, like I, uh, said before..."

Eriol remained silent.

"I'm not sure if you know her.....uh....Sakura Kinomoto?"

Eriol's eyebrows simply went up. "I was wrong—you're not in over your head. You've already drown."

Lyndze walked out the door of the principals office. She sighed; Ms. Carter was beginning to wonder why Lyndze wanted a second part time job. If only she didn't need a signature from her! How could she explain to Ms. Carter that she needed another manicure just because she was part of the highest social group?

Lyndze would never burden her parents with buying her that; not when they just payed the bills every month. Lost in thought, she ran right into Meiling and a guy she had never seen before, as her papers flew all over the place.

Lyndze rolled her eyes as she began to pick them up. God, why did working as a waitress require so many papers? The guy bent over and passed some of them to the brunette as Meiling reached out to catch one, scanned in briefly as a smile began making it's way up her cheeks, and handed it back to the Doll. The Doll who was working her second part time job. Wasn't Lyndze supposed to be rich? This would come in handy.

Lyndze glanced at the Tomoeda High football jacket the guy beside her had on. She silently made room for the stuck up Meiling Li to pass through, but not before reading the name across the guy's sleeve. Syaoran Li.

Who was this guy? A brother? Maybe. He was on the senior football team. That would make him a senior, right? But who the hell transferred schools in their senior year? Must be a junior like Eriol was.

Eriol.

Lyndze smiled at his name and walked off happier than she was before.

Sakura walked up to Sara and Alex; well, technically only Alex as Sara was making out with a computer nerd so he'd do her assignments for her. Alex motioned to the desk to the right she'd saved for her; Japanese class was always so boring. Especially first period in the morning. Good thing Alex talked their teacher into letting them sit in the back.

"Hey, Sakura, hear about the new football player?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, is he hot?"

Alex nodded. "Very. And he's a junior. Rumor says he'll be captain next year."

Sakura raised her eyebrows approvingly. "Well, I am looking for a fling..."

Sara came back to her desk beside Sakura, fixing her smudged lip gloss. "Save some of him for me, Sakura. And guess what! I'm getting an A in Computer Aid Design this semester!"

Sakura twirled her pencil and willed lunch to come faster; she needed to meet this new player.

Syaoran walked down the hall, girls flashing him flirtatious smiles, guys wanting to punch him badly. He quickened his pace and concentrated on the floor. Where the hell was Room 145?

He flagged down the closest person. "Where is Room 145, Senior Calculus..."

The red head ran a hand down his chest. "I know a quiet, room for the two of us, much better than Room 145. I also know a subject much more interesting than Calculus I'm sure you'll enjoy a lot better..." Syaoran awkwardly smiled before turning around and crashing straight into the girl Meiling and him had seen earlier.

Syaoran bent down to pick up her books. "I'm, so, so sorry."

The girl flashed him a smile of perfect white teeth, as if whitened by Crest Whitestrips. "It's alright. Really."

Syaoran reached for the binder, but not before scanning her schedule. "You're in Senior Calculus? Room 145?"

The girl stood up to face Syaoran. "Yeah..."

Syaoran flashed her a smile. "I take Senior Calculus 12-1, too. And, well, I can't find the room..."

The girl smiled, also. "I'll show you. Oh," she transferred books over to the other hand, "I'm Lyndze Johnson."

"Syaoran Li," he smiled and shook her hand.

Lyndze walked beside him down the hallway. "You on the Senior Team?," she asked, pointing to his jacket.

Syaoran nodded. "Yeah, tried out this morning."

Lyndze rounded a corner, followed by Syaoran. "Sorry, this may sound odd, but are you a senior, right? Meiling Li's brother of something?"

"No, I'm a junior. Me and Meiling are only cousins...is this the room?"

Lyndze nodded.

"Thanks for helping me out," Syaoran said as Lyndze walked through the door.

"No problem," she said with an over the shoulder wave and took off for her seat at the far end of the classroom.

Syaoran walked into Senior Calculus, she saw many members of the football team already seated, talking. Like Eriol has said, they were all wearing their jackets. Speaking of Eriol...

There he was. Sitting beside a guy named Drake, looking over a sheet of paper.

"Eriol?," Syaoran called out.

Eriol looked up.

"You're a junior. What are you doing here?"

"I could say the same to you."

"I only take calculus because I'm good in math and ahead—did grade 11 over the summer, so I take higher the higher course. Doesn't explain you, though."

Eriol shrugged. "Wanna get out of this school as fast as possible. That's why I'm relying on a football scholarship this season."

"Why? Wouldn't it make more sense to take the courses over two years and get better marks?," Syaoran said, taking the seat next to him.

"My marks are mid 90's, even a couple 98's-99's-100's in the subjects I need to show for university entrance. So, to do the work over two years would just make my average, say, 2% higher. It's not worth it when you loath coming to school everyday."

Syaoran raised his eyebrows, turning his gaze towards the boy. "For someone who get those marks, you obviously don't loath coming to school."

"But I loath the people who make up my social circle." Eriol stated, as the teacher walked in, telling the class to quiet down. Syaoran shook his head. This was defiantly one weird class.

Sakura sat in the lunch room beside Lyndze. Sara was on the other side. She shaped her nails with her nail file as Lyndze was telling Sara why she failed the last math test. Alex who just entered the cafeteria, oblivious to her surroundings, continued to fight over her cell with a manager from Roxy.

"Look, Sara, I told you that if you would just add these two together first-"

"Lyndze, do my index fingernails look even?," Sakura interrupted comparing the two beside each other.

"Very even," Lyndze replied, not even looking, giving up on trying to help Sara with math.

Alex came up beside Sakura, sitting down, obviously mad as she turned off her cell phone."What the fuck? I mean, seriously, I am not going to model along side Hailey Smith—did you know that girl is half a size smaller than me? And they want to put her in the black and me in the white! I don't want to look fat! Wait until my agent hears about-"

"Aren't you already a double zero, Alex?," Lyndze asked looking up from her food. If she had to sit through one more of Alex's tantrums...

"Hailey's smaller!" Alex answered rolling her eyes. "And don't eat that! Do you want to get all fat?," Alex said, grabbing Lyndze's cookies and chocolate milk leaving her only with a orange.

Lyndze looked up in astonishment. "That was my lunch Alex!"

"No, that is," Alex said pointing towards the orange. "See? A juice and food all in one."

"Can I have my stuff back now?"

"No! Look, sweetie, you can eat five bags of chips all at once, or over the course of five days, but in the end you still ate five bags of chips. Model's motto."

Lyndze swallowed back an outburst as she picked up her orange. She needed to be popular more than she needed to save her family a few dollars...

...or was it the other way around?

Sakura stood up. "I need to go find Matt. Remind him it's our two year anniversary soon. And check out that hot new junior. Maybe he's just what I need," she said with a wink. Only one thing was bothering her...

Why has Meiling Li been smiling her way the whole day as if she knew something Sakura didn't?

"Thanks," a male voice said. "This will help a lot with planning around practice. In my old school, they never gave us schedules this far in advance."

Matt Damen grinned. "So, how does it feel to be the second most popular guy in Tomoeda High, Syaoran?"

Syaoran shrugged. "I'm not popular."

"Everyone's talking about you. Saying you got a thing for Lyndze Johnson."

Syaoran shook his head. "I don't."

Matt patted Syaoran's back. "It's alright. I know you and Eriol are friends, but don't worry. He dumped Lyndze way back. Almost a month ago! So don't be worried man! You're not stealing her or anything! Besides, Eriol graduates this year, anyway. So, it's not like you have to be worried about who becomes captain next year anyway—it'll be you."

Syaoran nodded. He learned that morning in Calculus when Matt raised his hand to ask why people put an "x" instead of the number that he should simply nod and smile. "Thanks, I, uh, I'll remember that."

Matt punched his shoulder once again and walked off to find their coach.

Sakrua rounded a corner and saw the back of a lone figure standing by a bleacher. Brown hair, 5'11 frame, football jacket. She giggled. Matt probably forgot it was lunch and was here for practice of something. Matt was always stupid like that. She tip toed up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. The startled guy turned around, making Sakura release her grip and take a few steps back.

It wasn't Matt's blue eyes that met Sakura's.

The new junior was no other than Syaoran Li.