Chapter Two

Math test and the Fever


"Miko Yori," Xin's voice sounded through Sakura's class that day. Two weeks had passed without a single problem from Eriol and Syaoran. It was a surprising record in the school history. Or more precise their history. No one knew why. Not even those who were their best friends. Not even Sakura and Tomoyo had a clue. Life was so boring all of a sudden for the whole school. Everything seems a little too peaceful.

Sakura sighed as she looked back to the class. Xin was giving out their math results for their latest test. She knew she had done it badly. Math was never her subject. She looked over to Tomoyo. Tomoyo wasn't herself lately, Sakura noticed. Tomoyo was acting very strange and she wondered why. She sighed again. Her head was aching badly in the morning.

'Hope I didn't catch a flu or having fever. I can't afford to absent myself from school.' Sakura thought to herself.

"Sakura Kinomoto!" Xin shouted her name out loud and clearly. Sakura got to her feet and strolled over to the teacher's table. Xin handed over the paper to Sakura. Sakura stared at the mark. 40 out of 100. Nice shot Sakura, you just broke your own record. Sakura stood there, right at that spot and stared at the mark in disbelieve. She failed her math test for the first time of her life badly. (40 out of 100 is a very good mark if you ask me. I even scored about 32 out 100. Well that's for A-math.)

"Kinomoto," Xin started.

"Hai!" Sakura shouted out in a half-shocked tone.

"You are not performing for your math, as you can see it yourself," Xin told her, "So I was hoping to give you addition math tuition."

"Math tuition?" Sakura asked, blinking at Xin.

"I really do not wish to have a student to score badly in math in my class," Xin told her, "So I'm giving you tuition at 4 this evening. Is it okay with you?"

Just before Sakura could answer Xin, someone in the class had shouted a question.

"Why is Kinomoto the only one receiving math tuition?" the boy shouted.

Xin smiled and replied, "Unless you want to learn from the scratch about math with Kinomoto here."

'Scratch? Am I that poor?' Sakura thought as she heard some of her classmates giggling and some of them mumbling things about her.

"So are we set, Kinomoto?" Xin asked her once again.

"Hai..." Sakura replied. This was going to be a long day for her.

"Gomen, Tomoyo-chan, I can't walk with you home today," Sakura apologized.

"Not at all, Sakura-san," Tomoyo smiled mildly at her friend, "I hope you can really pick up the skills for math."

"I hope so," Sakura sighed.

"It will be just fine, Sakura-san," Tomoyo smiled, "You have always been and will always be."

"Arigato, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura smiled at her friend and held her friend's hand tightly in hers. Tomoyo had always been there for her and she was glad that she was always there for her.

"Ojo-sama, it's about time," Tomoyo's bodyguard came and told her.

"Ja... Mata ashita," Tomoyo waved goodbye to Sakura and ran off. Sakura just waved back at her as she looked at the car Tomoyo was in disappeared from her sight. (Is that how to spell 'See you tomorrow' in Japanese? I really am bad in Japanese.) She really hoped Tomoyo could stay a little while longer. She was feeling very lonely and sick

Sakura turned and walked back to the school compound. Taking her time, Sakura strolled up the stairs towards Xin's office. She knew which office belongs to which teacher. She was the rule-makers.

'Let's see. Third room from Mrs. Morris room.' Sakura thought as she walked down the doors towards Xin's. Her door was painted blue. Sakura raised her hand and was going to knock on the door when she heard voices from the room. Oh... She could recognize that voice no matter where she goes. That devil's voice. Sakura leaned closer to the door, gently and quickly, and listened.

"I can't believe this, Xin," The boy's voice sounded, "You are restricting me more than my mother did."

"Mind you, Syaoran," Xin shouted, "Your mother set the rules. As the heir of the Li family, and the Li cooperation, please uphold our pride."

"As if you have upheld them yourself," Syaoran told her in a harsh voice.

"Your manner, Syaoran," Xin snapped.

"Now you are talking," Syaoran shouted, "Manners. Is this how you talk to the future heir of the Li's?"

"Syaoran!" Xin's voice stopped all too sudden. Sakura felt her heart stopped. It was then she realized she had lean in a little too much.

"Kinomoto, I know you are there," Xin's voice sounded again, "Come in."

Sakura sighed, got herself straight, knocked on the door and walked in. Xin was sitting in her chair and Syaoran was standing beside her. His eyes were sending a chilly feeling to Sakura as she looked at Syaoran.

"We will talk later," Xin told him, "You can leave now, Syaoran."

Syaoran walked across towards the room and stopped beside Sakura. Sakura backed away from him.

"You will get it, Kinomoto," Syaoran told her and walked out of the room. Sakura blinked blankly at Syaoran as she watched him walked down the corridor.

"Never mind about it, Kinomoto," Xin told Sakura, "Come over. Let's get the lesson going."

"Ahm... Okay..." Sakura replied as she walked over to Xin and sat opposite her.

"This is a set of questions for you to do," Xin told her as she passed a piece of paper to Sakura. Sakura took the paper from Xin and stared at it. Gosh, she didn't know how to do a single question.

'Ahm... X 2, Y2X²X, find the area bounded by the equations and the axis ... What is this?' Sakura thought. She had never seen this question before.

"Additional mathematics if you are wondering," Xin replied.

"Additional mathematics?" Sakura asked in a very low tone, only to receive an unbelievable look from Xin.

"You have been doing it for about 14 months now, you mean to tell me you didn't know?" Xin asked.

"Now I know," Sakura laughed nervously. She didn't know. That's for sure.

"Kinomoto..."Xin sighed in discontentment, "This is one of the most basic questions for area under graph. You have to know."

"I'm sorry," Sakura apologized, causing Xin to sigh even more.

"Sorry wouldn't help you to improve," Xin told her, "Never mind. Let's do the simplest of them all. Differentiate y x²2."

"Ahm..." Sakura was once again speechless. That was the simplest question? No wonder Xin had wanted to give her extra math lesson. Sakura could understand why. Xin's sigh made her looked at the floor in embarrassment.

"Fine, I will give you what the rest of them learnt last year," Xin sighed, "y 3x10, 3x4y 10. What is the value of y and x?"

"Okay, this I know," Sakura replied immediately, "Substitute the y3x10 into 3x4y10."

"Don't have to tell me, Kinomoto-san," Xin slapping her forehead hard, "Just do it on the paper." Sakura blushed embarrassedly and started to do the question. As she was doing her head hurts even more. Clinching to her forehead, Sakura continued to do the questions that Xin gave her to practices.

'Just hang on a little more and I can go home to rest.' Sakura thought to herself. 'It's a good thing tomorrow is weekend. I can rest without problem. Yawn Now I'm feeling sleepy.'

"Are you alright, Kinomoto-san?" Xin's voice made Sakura sat up straight in her seat.

"Yes, I'm very fine," Sakura lied and started to laugh. 'Except that my head hurts?'

Just then Sakura felt a hand covering her forehead. She looked up to see Xin leaning over to touch her forehead.

"Hmm... Slight fever..." Xin whispered, "I will call the tuition off for today. You will need to rest."

"I'm really fine," Sakura reassured Xin.

"Nope you are not," Xin told her, "You can't concentrate when your head hurts. Are your parents at home?"

"Ahm... No..." Sakura replied, "My father is currently not at home. My Oni-chan is studying oversea. My mother passed away when I was very young."

"You are living alone now?" Xin asked.

"You can say that," Sakura replied.

"I can't let you be alone at home," Xin replied as she picked her mobile phone, (Normally I spell mobile phone as handphone. But for once I will try using this term.) "What's Daidouji's home number?"

"No," Sakura shouted, only to receive a weird look from Xin, "I don't wish to disturb Tomoyo. I will be fine." Sakura smiled as she stood up. It was almost as sudden as it seems, her leg went soft and she held the side of the table to support herself.

"Now can you say that you are fine?" Xin asked as she looked at Sakura with her arms crossed, "I will bring you back to my house then. It will be better to have someone looking after you."

"Aren't you going to see Li?" Sakura asked as she watched Xin gathered her things and Sakura's bag before walking towards her.

"I can talk to him anytime I want, Kinomoto-san," Xin smiled, "For now, I will have to drive you back to my house."

"Wouldn't I bother your family?" Sakura asked.

"You are worrying too much," Xin told her, "Beside they knew you as well."

Xin helped Sakura out of the school compound and to her car. Sakura could feel her face burned as some teachers were staring at her, especially the male teachers. In no time, Sakura and Xin were on their way back to the house. Sakura sat in the seat and hugged her bag tightly in her arms. She was feeling terrible now. Xin was on her phone and Sakura wondered who was 'Wei' Xin was talking to. But in no time, Sakura felt her eyelids growing heavier, and fell into her deep and soundly dream.


Chapter two cleared. Hahahaa.... In all case... I'm not sure if you people know about Additional Mathematics. I'm actually studying them. Hope it was not so difficult to understand the story so far. I thought I just have gasps, gasps and more gasps in between. It doesn't flow that well... Anyway, hope you like it.

Kawaii star tenshi, I'm really sorry if Eriol is a little OOC. But don't worry. He will be back to his original form. I hope...

Starfires, well, I must say. I'm trying to find out which part of Sakura's past is not revealed yet. Plus, I felt that the story is getting more confusing than I thought it will be. I will need time to reorganize the story. So do please be patient with me. Beside, I will be starting my major exam soon. I can't spend too much time on writing the story. But don't worry I will update it as soon as I'm done with my research. I wouldn't forget about my favourite story.

I'm stopping for now. See you in the next chapter then.

Signing off with luv,

Kit.