A/N: I love love love you guys.1100plus reviews is like crazy! Considering the fact that this story is crazy as well... So now I couldn't leave my baby like that, no matter how crazy it is. So here's the 17th, after almost half a year's wait. :hates herself: By the way, all those who thought the last chapter was the end- no way! SS have other issues to sort out :coughMeilingcough:

Yeah, and two more things:

1. Yes, I changed my pen-name- I got bored of the old one. So now I'm Ephemeral Dreamer

2. If you're, by any chance, curious to read the excuses for my long break please refer to my bio/profile/whatever you call it.

Chapter 17: A mixed bag of a day

"So you forgave Eriol?" I glanced at Tomoyo, who was now giving me one of her creepy 'looks'. I would have given my right arm to know exactly what was going on in her evil brain, and it was making me increasingly nervous.

"Of course I did. He managed to do, in one hour, what I couldn't for one month!" She sighed. "That really was a stroke of brilliance- setting you both up like that, alone in his house…are you sure you did nothing more than kiss?" She asked slyly.

I blushed hotly. "No! How can you even think that?" I replied, flustered. "I mean- we hardly know each other properly…"

"And that's why he called you for a date? Not because you're his girlfriend, as you keep insisting."

I nodded. "Yeah- he-umm-didn't ask me if I'd like to be his girlfriend or anything. And I don't think it's even a date. He just asked me if I'd be interested in hanging around with him after school, you know, to get to know each other better…"

Tomoyo sighed exasperatedly, and rolled her eyes. "Right. So what exactly would you call Syaoran then, if he's not your boyfriend now?"

"Umm- a good friend?" I offered meekly.

"Yeah- a good friend who kisses you and takes you out on dates."

"It's not a 'date'." I protested.

Tomoyo shook her head in indignation. "Oh Sakura, you'll never change, will you? You and Meiling are so different..." she suddenly looked at me, and smiled evilly. I gulped at that look. "What?" I asked nervously.

"Meiling..." she replied. "She was so smug when you two were not even talking to each other. I can't wait to see her reaction when she comes to know that you're finally together." She suddenly giggled, as though she found that very funny.

However, I didn't feel like giggling at all. I had totally forgotten about Meiling's 'challenge' and her declaration of war. She would definitely not take this well. I frowned.

"What?" Tomoyo asked me.

"You don't think Meiling would do something...extreme- do you?" I said, worried.

Tomoyo waved her hand dismissively. "She had to learn to accept defeat some day. It will crush her ego, but she'll have to live with it." She said firmly. "Anyway, tell me more- how was your first ever 'proper' kiss?"

"You know, they say it's unlucky to talk about your first kiss."

"Yeah, I know. I wish I had been there to capture that on tape..." she said almost regretfully.

I looked at her wistful expression and shook my head. "You know, I'd thought you and Eriol had staged that fight." I quickly said, trying to change the subject.

That broke her reverie, and she turned her face towards me, looking affronted. "How could you even think such a thing?"

"Well, it's not below both of you. You're quite sneaky."

"You're right." she smirked. "Nice idea, Sakura. I'll be sure to use it next time you and Syaoran have a 'misunderstanding'"

"You never give up, do you?"

I banged my head against my locker. Stupid, stupid Tomoyo. Sometimes it could be such a pain to have a sister like her, and so embarrassing. Now thanks to her the whole school thinks that Syaoran and I are dating. Aargh!

It happened something like this- this morning I had entered the class, apprehensive of Syaoran's reaction after the"actual kiss". I was wondering if things would be extremely awkward between the both of us again. But as it turned out- I was getting worried for nothing. When I caught Syaoran's eye, he smiled at me,which as usual made my heart skip a beat. I smiled back, and to my immense relief and pleasant surprise- I didn't blush! We didn't make any effort to talk to each other though. It was some sort of silent understanding between us, I suppose. Meiling was in our class, and we didn't know how she would take the fact that we were on talking terms again, or more than "on talking terms", as Tomoyo had put it.

Of course, as it turned out, I had been worried for all the wrong reasons. While we were still waiting for our teacher to come, my dear sweet, conniving, evil sister Tomoyo dragged me over to Syaoran's desk. When he spotted us she winked at him, and then asked, to my horror, in a voice loud enough for the entire class to hear, "So Syaoran, where are you planning to take Sakura on your first date?" The whole class fell silent and turned to our direction, and I wished the ground would open and swallow me.

Few minutes of silence later, one of the girls finally spoke up, "What do you mean? That Syaoran and Sakura are...?" "Dating? Yes." Tomoyo said. "Too bad for all you girls. Syaoran's finally off the market." Tomoyo said loudly, in a very self-satisfied tone. I felt the familiar sensation of warmth on my cheeks, and I knew that they were as red as they could be. If I weren't so shocked and horrified at Tomoyo's actions, I would have probably done her an injury, a very nasty injury.

The whole class' attention now seemed to alternate between Syaoran and me, as if waiting for either of us to confirm or deny this statement. I didn't dare look at Meiling. I could imagine the expression on her face, and I silently prayed that Tomoyo would give whatever was left of me, a decent burial.

My only consolation was that Syaoran's expression mirrored my thoughts, and his face was very very red. And I thanked my lucky stars that our teacher had entered the class soon after. But throughout the day, Syaoran and I had to endure the pointed glances of all our classmates. I knew that most of the glances were from girls, who were probably feeling very jealous. And I didn't like that a bit.

And even though I felt Meiling glare the most, I pointedly avoided meeting her eye.

I banged my head against the locker again. Stupid, stupid Tomoyo.

"I mean, what was she thinking announcing to the whole class like that?" I rambled. "Really, who does she think she is? First she comes up with all those stupid schemes of hers to set us up, and then she..."

"Ying Fa, give it a rest," Syaoran's voice interrupted my rant."We haven't come here to talk about your sister's obsession with match-making, have we?" I looked up to meet his gaze and turned away guiltily."Umm...sorry...I just got a bit carried away."

I stared at my almost-empty plate. "Well, I'm full." I said, pushing it away and glancing around the little restaurant. Syaoran nodded.

I turned my gaze sideways to look at Syaoran, as we walked home together. "Thanks for the lunch."

"Well, I enjoyed it. There's no need to thank me for it, you know." he said. "And that's a first actually. I've always hated eating out with a girl." He shuddered. "I've had very bad experiences." At my questioning glance he added, "Well, Eriol use to set up double dates and blind dates for me when we were in Hong Kong. Needless to say, each one was worse than the last. Some of the girls he use to set me up with were very bold, some trying to forcibly kiss me and even trying to grope me." I was strongly reminded of Meiling. "Finally Eriol gave up." He continued, with a lopsided smile.

I giggled. "Why does this sound so familiar to me?" He chuckled. "You know, you're lucky Eriol gave up after some time.Tomoyo still hasn't given up after all this time" I added with a sigh. "Really after today's incident she's crossed the limit."

Syaoran regarded me closely. "Well, she shouldn't have done that. But I don't think it was all that bad."

"Not all that bad? Of course it's bad- she made it seem like we're boyfriend-girlfriend!"

He raised an eyebrow. "So?"

"So? What do you mean "so"? We aren't actually boyfriend-girlfriend."

He stopped. "We aren't?"

"No, we aren't. We are just good friends, right?"

He looked at me and blinked. "Oh." He looked away. "Oh, okay. Right...good friends..." He resumed walking, with his hands in his pockets.

I stopped and watched him, suddenly feeling guilty for some reason. Did I say something wrong? I mentally kicked myself- I could be so tactless sometimes. Maybe Syaoran considered us to be more than "good friends". Does a kiss automatically translate as "now we're dating"? But he never asked me...

"Why are you standing there?" I shook myself out of my thoughts to find Syaoran observing me. He came closer. "Is something bothering you?" He asked softly.

"Xiao Lang!" Came a giggling voice. I saw Syaoran stare at something or someone behind me and wince. I turned around to find two of Syaoran's sisters- Fei-Mei and Fan-Ren staring at us as though Christmas had come early.

"Oh Xiao Lang!" cried Fan-Ren before launching herself on him. "Where were you during lunch? We thought someone had kidnapped our dear little brother." she said, pinching his cheeks, while he mumbled "get off".

"Looks like we needn't have been worried about you at all." Fei-Mei said looking at me in a way which reminded me of Tomoyo. I didn't like the look at all. "Your name's Sakura isn't it? Mr Kinomoto's daughter?" I gulped and nodded.

Fan-Ren released her brother. "So Xiao Lang. When was the last time you willingly went cavorting with a girl and treated her to lunch? Hmm...that would be...never!"

"So now what are you doing cavorting with Sakura and treating her to lunch?" Fei-Mei asked slyly.

Syaoran mumbled something incoherent.

"Sorry young brother, didn't get that."

"I said- I'm not 'cavorting' with her, and she's just a good friend." Syaoran said through gritted teeth.

Fei-Mei and Fan-Ren exchanged looks. "Ah..."good friend". Fei-Mei, when was the last time Xiao Lang had a female "good friend"?"

"Never!" Fei-mei said almost gleefully. I gulped.

Syaoran was now looking extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed. "Umm...I'll go now.See you later, Ying- I mean- Sakura." Saying that he practically ran. I felt a twinge of sympathy for him.

The sisters turned to me. "Oh Sakura, how did you do it?" Fei-Mei, said in a mock dramatic way, covering her face with one hand and facing away.

"Yes, how did you manage to steal our little brother's heart?" Fan-Ren said for added affect.

Face resembling a tomato, I responded. "Umm...I...er..."

The sisters exchanged glances again at my reaction and burst into giggles. "Oh Sakura, it seems you're just as bad as Xiao Lang when it comes to things like loooooove." Fei-Mei said in a sing-song voice and patted my head.

"Perfect!" Fan-Ren quipped.

For the second time in one day, the ground swallowing me seemed a very favourable option.

I sighed as I finally entered the shelter of my home. It had been a really long day, and I felt very tired. Of course lunch with Syaoran had been the best part of the day, hands down. It was the first time I had seen Syaoran talking so much, he's always so silent around everyone. "It's you. Something about you makes me open up about myself," he had said with a grin. I sighed. If only the rest of the world would leave us alone. I blushed, remembering the incident in class, and then the meeting with Syaoran's sisters.

I wasn't surprised to find that Tomoyo wasn't in. She had said that she was going to Eriol's place to do "home-work". Which is good for her. She gets a few more hours to live. I was planning to kill her as soon as we reached the house and were left alone...

I froze in my thoughts when I spotted Meiling sitting on the couch. She had slipped my mind altogether.

She stood up, and put on a fake smile. "Oh hello, Ying Fa. Congratulations on your boyfriend." She taunted, and making a face she stalked off towards her room, slamming the door as she went inside.

Leaving me with a strange sense of fore-boding.

A/N: I know. I know. Meiling's a bitch in this story. But what would the point of this story be if she's not a bitch? So yeah- there's more evil Meiling to come. And this story is coming to it's conclusion now. :sigh: And once it's over I'm going to make it up to Meiling by redeeming her in a big way in my other fic- Dreams of amber. I promise.

I'm making my own website now- yay! It's where I'm going to store all my fics and favourites. I'll announce it with the link when it's done.

Lastly- I'm still on the lookout for staff for my C2 archive- the more the merrier, you see. If you're interested please say so in your review, and I'll send the confirmation to your id.