Wow... I'm writing this thing up pretty quickly. Must be the reviews. They give me so much confdence! oThanks! Truth be told, I'm already working on chapter 5! o.O And I only started writing a few days ago... Wow - the wonders of the weekend!
Disclamer: I DON'T OWN CCS! Please don't sue me...Previously on Queen of Clubs:
Then Tomoyo grabbed Sakura and Naoko by the hands and dragged them off after Meilin.
"Come on! Enough of this sappiness! It's time to get the ball rolling and get you guys started on your first week's initiation task!"
Chapter 3 – The Inductees Step Up
Syaoran went into the lounge and loudly shut the door behind him. The smirk that adorned his face only moments ago still hasn't left his lips. To him, initiation time used to be the dullest part of the year. This year, however, he could feel that it was going to be different.
Never has an inductee dared to do something as stupid as throw something at The King. Syaoran chuckled. 'I can't believe that she would actually throw her purse at me!' thought Syaoran with slight amazement. He should have been angry, yes, but somehow he just couldn't bring himself to do it. The girl's reaction to finding out his title was absolutely hilarious! 'She definitely made the wrong move… But at least she provided me with some entertainment,' he thought. Yet his title was not something he would allow to be offended. She did nearly make a fool out of him, and that could not go by unpunished.
Syaoran's smirk widened even farther as he thought of ways that he could pay back the feisty inductee. His planning, however, was interrupted by the doors of the lounge quickly opening. Two young men walked inside the lounge and found Syaoran standing in the middle of the room, deep in thought.
"It's 9 o'clock - time for the announcement of the first week's task, Syaoran." said the young man with short, black hair that looked almost as if it was midnight blue. His indigo eyes sparkled with mirth as he looked at his friend through the glasses that he was wearing. "How's your head, by the way?" He tried to make the question sound innocent, yet the implication of it was not lost by Syaoran.
"Don't tell me you've seen the little incident as well, Eriol… God, the last thing I need is you pestering me about it." Syaoran threw his friend an icy glare and quickly made his way towards a mini bar that was located in the far right corner of the room.
"With all the racket that you and that young lady were making, I doubt there is ONE person in the entire building that hasn't seen or at least heard about the 'incident', as you call it." Eriol smiled at Syaoran as he was pouring himself a drink.
"That girl is definitely something, isn't she?" said the second man. His maroon-colored eyes were staring off into nowhere, as he spoke. He seemed to be imagining the girl, rather than simply talking about her. "A beauty…" he whispered.
Syaoran and Eriol both threw him an odd look. "What was that, Sirota?" asked Eriol.
"Oh!" Sirota shook his head, as he was brought out of his trance by Eriol's question, "I was just thinking about that girl. She's truly something, no?"
Syaoran's eyes also flickered with dislike. Something about the tone in Sirota's voice made him uneasy. He watched him closely, as Sirota's eyes once more became glazed and stared off into space. Syaoran furrowed his eyebrows as he took a long drink out of his glass.
Eriol watched Syaoran's face change with loathing and smiled. 'I see Sirota isn't the only one who thinks of this young lady as something special…'
Wanting to find out more on the subject, Eriol decided to go along with what Sirota was saying. "Yes, she really IS something. Don't you think so, Syaoran?"
Syaoran simply shrugged his shoulders, "She's tolerable, I suppose…" Syaoran did not like where this conversation was going. He sat his glass down and declared, "Didn't you say it was time for the announcement?"
Eriol chuckled at Syaoran's attempt on changing the subject. The fact that he was uncomfortable talking about the girl made it clear to Eriol that Syaoran did indeed think of this young lady more than just 'tolerable'. 'Perhaps she can actually make him warm up a bit...'
The three men were then startled by the doors opening with a loud bang. They looked towards it and found Meilin standing in the doorway. One look at her face made Syaoran groan in dejection. "You can stop gloating now, Meilin…" he sighed out.
"Aww. That hurts, Syao…" Meilin said, with mock hurt, "I just came to check on you. Are you feeling alright?" she came to his side and patted him on the head. Syaoran pushed her hand away and gave her his infamous death glare. Meilin only laughed in response.
"No need to get hostile, Syao! And get that scowl off your face – the inductees are ready for the announcement."
"Alright, let them in" said Syaoran, as he straightened out his suit. Eriol and Sirota made themselves comfortable in two chairs that stood by the bar, as Meilin opened the door and let in the new inductees along with the rest of the society.
In a few moments the entire lounge was filled with people. Everyone was chatting happily and excitedly, creating a loud buzzing in the entire room. Syaoran stared at the crowd as it rushed through the door. Then his eyes caught sight of an all-to-familiar face.
Sakura was still being dragged by Tomoyo. Numerous times she tried to protest being handled like a child, but Tomoyo would hear nothing of it. Eventually, Sakura gave in and simply took comfort in the fact that her friend Naoko was dealing with the same fate.
As Sakura entered the lounge, she was once again shocked at how gorgeously the room was decorated. The walls of the room were painted in a nice shade of gold with stunning paintings hanging on every side of the room. The furnishing included a big red velvet couch with two matching chairs, a beautifully carved coffee table, a few large bookshelves, and a mini bar with chairs around it. The left side of the room also had a giant fireplace, with a few small sculptures on its mantle.
The entire room screamed elegance. Sakura started to feel out of place, yet her admiration of the room ended as she felt someone's gaze upon her. Her eyes traveled back to the mini bar, where she found not only one gaze, but FOUR gazes staring at her. She gulped, 'W-why are they staring at me?'
Eriol, Sirota, Meilin, and Syaoran watched Sakura being dragged in by Tomoyo. Eriol and Meilin smirked. Sirota stared at Sakura without blinking even once - as if she were to disappear any moment! Syaoran, on the other hand kept glancing from Sirota, to Sakura, and then back to Sirota.
Eriol chuckled once again at Syaoran's reaction. Sirota was obviously taken with this young girl, and it seemed as if Syaoran did not like that one bit.
When Syaoran's eyes made their way towards Sakura once more, he found that she was looking at him as well. Her deep emerald eyes looked at him with slight fear. Though his mind kept screaming, 'What are you doing! Stop staring at her!' he couldn't make his eyes move.
Though he told his friends that Sakura was merely 'tolerable', he knew very well that the girl he was currently looking at was nothing short of gorgeous. Her short, amber-brown hair perfectly contoured her face, her green eyes shone like the brightest emeralds he ever beheld, and her rosy-pink lips were practically driving him insane.
He allowed himself to look her up and down. Though she was only wearing jeans and a light pink tank top, he could tell that she had a great body. He slightly blushed when he realized just where his thoughts were about to take him.
He cleared his throat and shook his head to clear his mind. Yet when he turned his attention back to Sirota, he found him staring at Sakura with much the same eyes as he was just seconds ago. 'No… The look HE's giving her is different… It's lustful' thought Syaoran with aversion.
Syaoran frowned, but decided that at the moment there wasn't much he could do about it. 'This isn't the time to be thinking about silly little girls! Besides, as The King, I have no business worrying about nobodies like her' he told himself and moved towards the crowd.
"SILENCE!" his deep voice boomed over the crowd, making everyone afraid to even breathe.
His lips curled into a sly smile. "Good. My name is Syaoran Li and I am The King of Clubs. I'm not one for long introductions, so I'm going to cut the crap and get right to it. It is time for the inductees as well as for the returning members to receive their first assignments." As Syaoran mentioned the inductees, his eyes momentarily shifted to Sakura, but he kept himself in check and moved his gaze away.
"Will the inductees please step forward."
Sakura felt herself being pushed forward. She threw a quick glare at Tomoyo, who only waved from behind her camera, and continued walking towards the middle of the room.
Sakura noticed that out of the entire crowd, only a few people turned out to be inductees. Besides Naoko and herself, she noticed that two more girls were being initiated into the society. Sakura also saw that four guys were stepping forward. 'That makes a total of 8 inductees! Wow! Small group…'
As she was looking over her fellow inductees, she noticed that one of the girls was glaring at her. Sakura gulped 'What's her problem?'
"For the first week, the inductees will have to fulfill a task given to them by the highest ranking female of our society. This happens to be Meilin Li – The Page." Meilin waved, hearing her name being announced and strolled over to Syaoran's side.
"That's right. And don't worry guys – my tasks are never that hard." Meilin gave them all a wink, but a series of 'Yeah right's' could be heard coming from every returning member in the hall.
"First of all, I would like all the new inductees to tell us their name and the rank that they are starting with," spoke Meilin as she took a seat in one of the plush chairs by the couch.
"My name is Takahiro Mimoko and I'm a One." said the first boy, who although he was rather short, seemed to have a lot of guts.
"My name is Tori Sutsime" smiled a second boy, dressed in a bright-orange suit that hurt Sakura's eyes, "and I, too, am a One."
"I'm Loda Kimo. One," the third boy was frank - obviously not one for talking. He simply folded his muscular arms over his huge chest and remained still as a statue.
"Seiriu Tomoshi, here!" gleamed the last boy, with a huge smile on his face "And like my buddies here, I'm starting out as a One."
Now it was the ladies' turn to introduce them selves. The two girls that Sakura was not familiar with cleared their throats to indicate that they wanted to go first, and Sakura was more than willing to let them.
The first girl smiled, showing off her pearly-white teeth and said "I'm Hitomi Akido, a One just like my friend here," she pointed to the girl standing next to her.
Her friend, a girl with long blond hair and blue eyes, happened to be the one that was throwing Sakura death glares. "I'm Mina Yamaguchi, and like my friend said, I'm a One."
Sakura nudged Naoko to speak before her, and Naoko complied.
"I'm Naoko and I'm a One, as well…"
Now Sakura knew that it was her turn. She found that everyone was staring at her and thought it to be most uncomfortable.
"My name is Sakura Kinomoto, and I'm a Two." Low whispers began to circle the room. Sakura figured that it wasn't a regular thing for someone to start out with a rank higher than a One. The looks that everyone was throwing her were mostly that of intrigue. 'Hoee…' Sakura mentally sighed.
"GREAT!" beamed Meilin, "Welcome to The Clubs! And now for your assignments…"
Preview of Chapter 4:
"Aww, come now Li. Let the poor girl be…" slowly said a man, coming out from behind Syaoran. "My name is Sirota Tsu" he took Sakura's hand in his own and gave it a light kiss, "The Clubs' Royal Ambassador to China. And I would be more that willing to assist you in anything."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tsu" frankly said Sakura. "Oh, please – call me Sirota," said the man in the same slow voice. His maroon eyes were watching her every move, and Sakura quickly started feeling self-conscious. 'What's with this guy?'