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

Chapter 4: English Class Daydreams

"All things and all people in life have to sink or swim on their own merits, not their reputation; just as a wise man can say a foolish thing, and fool can say something wise. Who spoke those words?," Kaho Mizuki, 39, looked around the classroom for any hands going up.

She had been a High School level English teacher for the past 15 years (before she had been a substitute for grade school)—and this was always the first thing she asked the class. Not that anyone knew who spoke it; no on ever did, but it had a deeper meaning that she wanted to get across to all those quitters, lower than potential students, air heads who think their better than everyone else and people who believe themselves to be more than they are.

Her eyes stopped on a girl with short brown hair, obviously not paying any attention, staring daggers, at the boy with brown hair in front of her as if she wanted to kill him. A girl with jet black hair with red streaks, behind the brunette, was staring at the brunette's head, smirking, as if she knew something nobody else did. And the boy looked like he hadn't gotten over some sort of shock. She quickly glanced at the seating plan she had created. Third row, last three in the back, desks 6, 7,8.

Syaoran Li, Sakura Kinomoto, Meiling Li.

She noted for future reference that something was happening between those three. But, now back on track. "Alright, class, if you don't know who said it, can anyone tell me what it means? How about ...Kinomoto Sakura?"

The day Syaoran Li became popular was yesterday, the day you have just relived. The day I wanted to personally pull the trigger on Meiling Li. The day I thought Matt was Syaoran.

So, here I am, still staring at the back of Syaoran's head, currently reliving the moment I found out the popular junior I wanted to have a fling with was no other but him!

God I want to erase that day. It keeps playing through my mind like a broken record...

"S-S-akura?," Syaoran spit out as he watched the girl take a few steps back. "Kinomoto, Sakura?"

Sakrua froze as he looked her up and down. She shook her head and raised an arm to push back her bangs that were falling on her forehead. This is NOT happening. Not now. WHY did he come back? The answer was all to clear.

Meiling Li. She was the reason he was back. But, why? What could she be doing with him?

Sakura's eyes landed on his jacket. His football jacket. His senior team football jacket that made him almost as popular as herself. Sakura's eyes widened as the realization that she had just come to.

Meiling Li just made Syaoran Li popular. And there wasn't damned thing she could do about it.

Syaoran took a step forward towards the girl. "Are you alright?"

Sakura glared at Syaoran. "No, I'm not alright! Do I look alright, Li?," she snapped.

Syaoran frowned. Sakura never talked to anyone like that. Could it be possible this wasn't Sakura? Maybe a girl who looked like her? But she knew his name! She could have maybe read it off his jacket...

Sakura rolled her eyes as he tried to figure out if it was her. Wasn't it obvious? How dense was the down right good looking Syaoran Li? Wait a second...good looking?! "God, Syaoran! Yes, I'm Sakura! You've known me since kindergarten!"

Syaoran's eyes widened. This was Sakura Kinomoto? The girl he had fallen in love with all those years ago? "How...how are you Sakura?"

Sakura slapped her forehead. "Kinomoto, Li. I'm feeling very terrible at the moment or could you not tell?!"

Syaoran looked down as the word Kinomoto ran through his head. She wanted to be called....Kinomoto. She called him...Li. He shook it off. "Of course I could tell something was wrong! I'm just...kind Did you not just jump on me earlier?"

Sakura shrugged. "Matt told me that he was waiting here and..." Wait! Sakura! You CANNOT just admit you made a mistake in front of him! He'll tell Meiling which equals YOUR downfall!! "...he told to go and welcome the new player to the team," she finished smoothly.

Syaoran's eyebrows knotted together. "By...jumping on me?"

Sakura shrugged nonchalantly again, thus dismissing her earlier actions. "Cheerleader."

Syaoran smiled. "Yeah. You were always the best in elementary school! I'm glad you continued on with it...Meiling didn't want to join up. You should talk her into it. She really likes doing flips and stuff...and was mortified when she didn't make the team in Hong Kong....," Syaoran babbled on nervously about Meiling and Hong Kong.

Sakura almost fell over. He thought they were...friends?! Meiling...didn't tell Syaoran...what she was like now? Best play it safe. Don't act like her friend but don't act like you are, Sakura. But...Matt would kick Syaoran off the team for her right? ...Right? "Oh. Really? Don't worry I'll...talk with her." Just not about getting her on the cheer leading team.

Syaroran smiled at her before looking over her shoulder at a fellow football player who was calling him over. He picked up his bag and leaned in towards her. "I was worried that you changed for the worse, Sakura. But, you haven't. I'm so glad I was wrong...."

Sakura looked down at the freshly cut grass of the football field. Oh, if only you knew Syaoran. Wait! What was she saying?! Sure, she changed...but not for the worse!! For the better! She was happier than she had been in years! She was POPULAR! Syaoran was the one who needed to grow up.

So, why did she suddenly feel so bad?

"....Kinomoto Sakura?"

Sakura snapped out of her trance. How dare anyone interrupt her flashbacks! "Huh?"

Kaho frowned. Add 'daydreamers' to the list of reasons why I always ask the meaning of this quote to my class. "What do you think the quote means?"

Sakura leaned back. She had been controlling teachers long enough to know that this red headed one was a rare type. Every other teacher she would either 'charm' with her fake sweetness, 'threaten' with Alex's important and rich Father, or 'bully' top the point in which they left within a week. This new teacher, oh, what was her name?—Kaho Mizuki—was defiantly different.

She couldn't be charmed—she could see threw fakes.

She couldn't be threatened—Alex wasn't in this class to back Sakura up on her false 'claims of unfairness'.

And she couldn't be bullied out of the school—she would tell the principal at the first signs of harassment.

There was only one way to control this type of teacher.

Sakura Kinomoto would use blackmail. She would have too get access to her file and dig through it until something came up so horrible that she could blackmail her into giving her a good mark.

How did she know that Ms. Mizuki would fall like this?

Every teacher who became strong enough to resist the first three methods had something to hide. Now the question was, what was Kaho Mizuki's secret?

So, now you know what happened on the first day of the last of my life...or was it the last of the first of my downfall? I can't even make sense of it anymore...but wait! IT gets better!! Wait until you see how that day concluded...

Sakrua ran up and down the halls of Tomoeda High. "Matt? MATT?," she continued down the hallways until she ran into a group of football players. "Have you seen Matt?"

Chen grinned, nuzzling her neck. "No, but, hey—if you wanna hook up again after some party, I won't tell him."

Sakura blew him a flirtatious kiss as she continued walking along the halls. Even though it was off task, Chen was awesome when it came to those matters. "I'll remember that."

She continued down until she saw him in the cafeteria. "Matt!"

Matt grinned when he saw the 'hot girl great in sexual matters' aka his girlfriend, Sakura Kinomoto, walking up to him. "Hey babe. What's up?"

Sakura boiled over with anger; the emotion that came after the guilt she had moments ago felt. "Syaoran Li....why is SYAORAN LI on the football team?," she hissed.

Matt shrugged. "I know he's a junior, but it's like Eriol-"

"NO, it's NOT like Eriol!"

"Why isn't like Eriol?"

"Take him off."

Matt's eyes widened. He didn't understand half the things people said or did, but he did understand the words Take him off. "He's awesome! We need him! You cannot be serious-"

Sakura's eyes watered. "Matt Damen! I am the most popular girl in the school! I need to portray that image! How would it look if Meiling Li's cousin was popular?!"

Matt rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, uh, who's Meiling Li?"

Sakura's mouth dropped.

"Miss Kinomoto? I asked you for an answer. What do you think the quote means?"

Sakura eyed a spare target card in her backpack beside her desk. She had never found a teacher worth targeting. Until now. "That you don't have a lesson plan, so you're asking us a quote on someone you found ten minutes ago on the Internet?"

The class burst into giggles. Kaho gritted her teeth. Add smartasses to the list of why I ask this question. She walked up to the sixteen year old girl and bent down so they were at eye level with each other. "See me when I'm done talking, Sakura."

"And then...and then he told me that the team needed Syaoran and they couldn't take him off! Oh, Alex, what am I going to do?!" Sakura and the Barbie's sat on a bleacher, facing a vacant football field. Sara was fixing Sakura's nail polish, Alex was fixing Sakura's hair while Lyndze sat on the bleacher below Alex's trying to concentrate on the 50 math questions she would have no time to do tonight.

Lyndze snorted. Damn. Figures Sakura would arrange for all four of them to have a spare together.

If only she would stop crying...

Alex smoothed down the top of Sakura's hair. "Honey, either Syaoran goes or Matt does."

Sakura whipped around to face Alex, making Sara spill the nail polish all over the bleacher. "You're...you're not serious...are you?"

Alex flicked back a strand of her blond hair. "I'm completely serious! Sakura, how would it look if Meiling got the better of you?"

"But, Alex, I can't just get rid of Matt! I mean, how would that look?"

Lyndze looked up from her math and turned around to face her group. She felt bad for Syaoran; he was so smart, nice, friendly! If she didn't have a crush on Eriol—wait, did she just say crush on Eriol?!—besides, Syaoran didn't seem like he was on the war path like Meiling was. "Maybe, Sakura, you could, well, maybe let Syaoran play Senior Football?"

Sakura arched a beautifully waxed eyebrow. "Now, why, Lyndze Johnson, would I do something like that?"

"Because it's not his fault that you and Meiling are fighting!"

Sakura narrowed her eyes. Was Lyndze challenging her? "Meiling will win if Syaoran plays."

"But...if you take Matt off the team, wouldn't Meiling win that way, too? You wouldn't be dating the most popular senior anymore!"

Sakura eased back. Good, Lyndze. For a minute there you scared me. I thought you were going to rebel on me. "You're right! And, on top of that, you gave me an idea!"

Lyndze weakly smiled back. She had just remembered why after her idea accidentally got the whole Daidoji thing started she vowed never again to speak up. I just hope I didn't make things worse for Syaoran...'

"Vincent Bugliosi was the one who spoke those words, class. Now, too see what you're capable of, write me a paragraph on a topic of your choice," she eyed Kinomoto who rose from her seat and walked up to the desk.

Kaho sighed and sat back down at her desk, waiting for Kinomoto to come see her. She ran a hand through her red hair; something about that girl made her just a bit nervous. Sakura approached the desk.

"Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Miss Kinomoto, I advise you to next time cut the sarcasm and answer the question. Or you'll find yourself in Ms. Carter's office, do I make myself clear?"

Sakura leaned forward. "And I'm warning you, Ms. Mitzuki—the last teacher who threatened to send me to Ms. Carter's office, found herself there signing a release contract."

The bell rang, startling the English Class.

Sakura walked back to her desk got her books together, slowly. Syaoran glanced behind him, pausing only for a moment to study the girl behind him. Something defiantly was up. He thought she hadn't changed yesterday, until he realized that she wasn't even friends with Tomoyo anymore.

"Meiling! Tomoyo! Rika, Chelsae, Nikki! Yamazacki!," Syaoran yelled as he slowed down to sit with his friends under the shade of an oak tree. He had just come back from the field.

Tomoyo smiled. "Syaoran! How's your day going so far?"

"Great. Uhh, doesn't Sakura sit here too?"

Rika's face fell a bit. Tomoyo forced a smile. "Why, I think she decided to sit with other people today. Cheerleaders, I think. You know, being on a team where they require you to be so closely connected to the teammates often results in making lots of close friends. And sometimes, when you make these close friends, you like to spend lunch hours with them. A lot."

Syaoran mentally slapped himself. "Oh, yeah, right."

"Have you seen Ms. Kinomoto today?," Meiling asked.

Syaoran nodded. "Yeah, we, uh, met a few minutes ago. Haven't you seen her at all...?"

"Syaoran."

Everyone turned around at the new voice. Tomoyo felt the heat rise in her cheeks. A confused look crossed Meiling's face. Rika, Chelsae, Nikki and Yamazacki simply stared.

Eriol Hirracazawa, Senior Football jock, was standing three feet away from the group of....losers.

"Hey, Eriol—" Syaoran started. Eriol simply began to walk off. Syaoran shrugged and waved a good bye as he chased off after his friend. Eriol stopped when they were out of range of Syaoran's 'friends'.

"Eriol! Why did you just walk off—"

Eriol cut Syaoran off. "Syaoran, why did you talk to them? Did you not hear me when I explained the pathetic popular people eat together every day?"

"They're my friends!"

Eriol pointed towards a table of jocks, cheerleaders, and Sakura. "I already told you—people make sacrifices when they're popular." Syaoran's eyes looked confused. Eriol turned back to face him. "And so will you."

Syaoran felt as if a dead weight had hit him. It was all too clear. People make sacrifices when they're popular...and so will you.

Eriol had made the sacrifice of hating school so he could play Senior football and be popular.

So then, just maybe...had Sakura had made the sacrifice of ditching her friends to be popular?

But, that wasn't what scared him most. Oh, no. The fact that now, he too, would have to make a 'sacrifice', scared the hell out of him.

"Something wrong, Syaoran?," Sakura's voice dripped with sweetness. All part of the plan Sakura, all part of the plan. Soon, you'll use Syaoran to ruin Meiling once and for all! Syaoran flashed her a small smile, one that Sakura found herself slightly blushing at.

Syaoran exhaled when he recognized her usual sweet tone. Syaoran, man, you can't seriously believe that Eriol means that Sakura's some pathetic popular person! She must be popular because because she's niice—maybe she's forced to sit at the table because she's a cheerleader too! Just forget yesterday..."No-no. It's..nothing," Syaoran walked off. Better walk off now before realizing he was right about being wrong—if that made any sense.

Meiling leaned forward besides Sakura's ear. "Watch your step Kinomoto. The entire student body is waiting to see if you're gonna to a thing about a certain junior," she said dragging out the last word. Meiling smirked when she realized Kinomoto's face was slightly flushed after talking to Syaoran.

"Don't fall in love, Sakura."