Chapter 10: The assignment

'Since you've made your first move, I'm now going to make mine. Tomorrow.'

Meiling's words from last evening echoed in my mind. When did I make my move, I wondered, when all along I had been trying to do something of the opposite. She on the other hand was about to make her, how much was it, 398th move in a span of two weeks.

"Oh well..." I sighed as I stuffed my homework into my bag. I wondered if I stood a chance against Meiling...But then Syaoran hardly noticed her. And he had even admitted that she scared him.

But Meiling was a pretty girl...and Syaoran was just another teenage guy...

Wasn't he?

As I walked towards my class with Tomoyo I noticed Meiling talking intently to Mrs.Amano. She had a smile on her face very much like the ones that she uses while flirting with guys. I frowned, wondering what she was up to. However Tomoyo didn't seem to find any thing unusual and walked on.

I entered the class to find Syaoran talking quite interestedly to Takeshi, who was no doubt filling him with his weird nonsensical stories. But I widened my eyes in surprise- that was the time I had seen Syaoran talking to anyone properly, other than Tomoyo or me. Feeling my eyes on him, he looked up and smiled. I smiled back, and for the first time I didn't blush.

He soon came over to us and said a small 'hi'. "Hey Syaoran, what's up? You seem to be in a good mood today." Tomoyo noticed.

"Yeah, sort of. I was just trying to be more-er-socializing..." he said running a hand through his hair and throwing a glance at me. I stared at him- was he actually taking that comment of mine seriously?

"I'm trying you know-" he continued, turning to me. "maybe it's time for you to come out of your...shell." He looked at me earnestly. Looking at the sincerity in his eyes I had a mad urge to hug him and give him a kiss...

The thought of kissing made my face burn and I looked away, mentally cursing myself, to find Tomoyo sitting with a self-satisfied smirk on her face, as though she'd just won a prize or something.

"I..." I opened my mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sight of Mrs.Amano entering the class followed by Meiling, who had a self-satisfied smirk, identical to Tomoyo's.

I shuddered at how similar my sisters could be sometimes...

"An assignment?"

Mrs.Amano eyed Chiharu through her round glasses. "That's right Miss Mihara. An assignment for extra credit. Since I see you've all managed to perform so miserably in the last test." At this she directed her gaze towards me and I felt my face getting hot. It was not my fault! Argh! I HATE math.

"You're all to work in pairs. Your partners have been chosen in alphabetical order." She continued, picking up a bunch of papers from her desk and distributing them. "The topic you have to work and the name of your assigned partner are given on this sheet."

Alphabetical order...that would mean my partner is...Meiling. I gulped at the thought of working with her.

I gazed at the sheet our math teacher handed me- 'Make a report on the theories, distributions and applications of Probability.' I rolled my eyes. I'll surely get an A on this one, I thought sarcastically. I would rather she had told me to write an essay in Greek.

But then my eyes stopped at my assigned partner- Kinomoto Tomoyo.

I blinked. That was not possible. In alphabetical order Meiling's name came before mine. So I should be paired with her and Tomoyo should be paired with...

"Excuse me, Mrs.Amano. I think there's been a mistake. My partner should be Tomoyo, but here it's written Kinomoto Meiling..." Everyone stared at Li Syaoran who was standing at his seat with a frown on his face.

She looked at him. "No Mr. Li there has been no mistake."

"But-"

"Are you trying to contradict me?"

"No, I-"

"Then please sit down before I change my mind to give you any marks at all." She said with finality. She met Meiling's gaze and I saw her lips curving upwards slightly- and that- that was definitely a wink!

It became quite obvious as to what they had been discussing before the class and I felt my loathing for my maths teacher increase tenfold. And I had a powerful urge to shake Meiling hard by the shoulders and wipe that stupid smirk off her face.

I made my way fast towards my locker, glad to leave a worked-up Tomoyo behind, as we had to go to different classes. I suddenly stopped dead on hearing a familiar voice.

"I know you don't like me very much and I don't blame you. I have been a bit of a bitch with you, actually." It was Meiling, talking to a frowning Syaoran, who was leaning against his locker.

"And I'm sorry about that. I was hoping that being paired together would help us to put away our differences and know each other better." I rolled my eyes. It was so obvious that this was a practised speech.

"I was being stupid all this time. You see, you're the only guy who's ever resisted me, so I just had to take up that challenge..." She added with one of her over-used charming smiles.

Syaoran managed a weak smile. "Well since we have to work together so..." he trailed of. "So where can we work? At your place?"

"Oh no. No way. I suggest yours. You have a big library don't you?"

"Yeah. Fine, I guess..." For some reason he seemed disappointed. "Well see you then." He said before walking away.

Meiling jumped and clapped. "Wow, this is great! This plan is working just great!" She twirled and spotted me and her face twisted into a triumphant smirk.

"So Sakura, met your match at last."

"He'll never fall for you." I said trying hard to suppress my hand from slapping her on the face.

"We'll see about that won't we?" she said, lazily admiring her nails. "Now that I get to spend so much time with him...alone."

"You know this was really low, even for you. Making your own teacher set you up with guys."

"Advantages of being the teacher's pet, you see." She tossed her hair back and chuckled. "Well now you can go looking for some other guy to drool over. Syaoran is soon going to be mine." She laughed and strode off.

I felt anger and frustration build inside me. Anger at my teacher and my sister for being such scheming---- Frustration at Syaoran for being so naïve and believing Meiling, even allowing her to come to his house. And most of all I felt anger towards myself for doing nothing about it.