Cherry: Well, here's chapter one. I hope you like this story; I got the basic idea from an excerpt from Portrait of a Young Artist that I read in AP English. lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. I tried my best on it so... yeah. R&R please!

Chapter 1: Boarding School?

My mother always told me I would go to boarding school one day, but I never really believed her. Maybe I should have, because the letter came in the mail that day. The letter that told me I would be starting that spring. In all truth, half of me wanted to go, but the other half didn't. One; I wanted to get away from my sisters. Sure I loved them dearly, but they could really get on my nerves. And two; I didn't want to leave the comforts of my room, or my home for that matter

"It will be good for you to go," my mother's voice said again in my head.

One month, one month was all I had left here in my own neighborhood, in my own house, in my own room. I laughed. My mother would lecture me if she found out that I was complaining. The elders never liked complaining, they would rather have you be a mindless drone that followed their every order.

I was sitting on my bed staring at the walls when my cousin came in, my very annoying cousin.

"Don't sit there and pout all day. Let's go do something! Please?" she whined.

"Fine," I replied.

She came over and dragged me by my arm out of the room and down to the courtyard.

"We only have a month left with each other," she said sadly.

Personally, I thanked God that I was finally getting away from her, so I added that to my pros and cons list for boarding school. I did this about everything; forming a list I mean. It usually kept me out of trouble…usually.

The month passed by very quickly and before I knew it, I was leaving for school. It was still in my home country, Hong Kong, China, but it was about half a day away from my home in the suburbs, 3 by plane. My mother did not want to deal with all of the cars so she sent my by plane. It was boring, so incredibly boring! Usually three-hour flights weren't as boring. I laughed. But then again, I wasn't usually the only person on the plane. After about twenty minutes in the air I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't. I blamed the turbulence. I didn't have anything to do because my mother insisted that I pack everything into the suitcases, that way I wouldn't leave anything on the plane when I got off.

I eventually found something to do by counting the number of raindrops that had dried on the window of the plane. 4,296, yep… that turned out more boring than just sitting there waiting. But I had to finish counting, I couldn't get half way through something and then quit, it was part of my character.

An hour and a half passed by, thought it felt like an eternity. I got up and started roaming the plane; there was absolutely nothing to do on this plane! It was frustrating. So I sat back down and stared at the back of the seat in front of me.

Why exactly did I sit in the same seat when there was no one else on board? I guess you could call it one of my other quirks. I had trouble being spontaneous. I always thought things through, always. Strange isn't it, a sixteen-year old thinking everything out? Well, you could hardly classify me as a normal sixteen-year old. Mother always invested so much money into my educations, basically the sort of thing every rich mother did for their children. Most people say that it's a way to show how much a mother loves their child; but I say that she only did it to have an excuse to stay away from me.

See; my father died when I was three, and everyone says that I look so much like him. I think it's hard for my mother to look at me. Depressing, isn't it? Anyway, I have resolved myself to believe that she doesn't exist and that whenever she does talk to me, I see her as an aunt…or something; anyway, enough about my boring past.

I looked out the window again and the mountain ranges were finally coming into view; only about twenty more minutes I guess. This whole boarding school thing really sucked. She really was trying to get rid of me, my mother that is.

The little seatbelt buckle above my head blinked on and a little bell ran. Apparently we were closer than I guess. So I buckled my seatbelt and waited for the plane to finish its landing.

I was suddenly anxious for the landing; the thought of a new place kind of sent chills down my spine.

Even though my mother tried to keep her distance from me, she always kept me inside. It shocked me when she told me that I was going alone, shocked and yet surprisingly happy.

The letters from the school told me that the school was almost year round, give or take a few weeks for break. My sisters would not be able to bug me, and my cousin, oh my cousin, she would not be around to hang all over me.

I laughed out loud and fidgeted in my seat.

The plane finally came to a stop on the runway behind the school. I had to do a double take: this school had an airport? The door opened and I hurried out into the sunshine. It was bright and the air was fresh, due to the trees no doubt. I looked around and the entire school was one large building; wait, large wasn't the right word, enormous; that's the word. I jumped in excitement as I saw the soccer field at the northern part of the school. Soccer, the everlasting love of my life; no one could take it away from me. Not only was it my passion, but also no one ever beat me at it.

I headed towards the building with a renewed spirit; another pro to my list; SOCCER, in all capitals of course. That's when I heard her voice. It was calling to me from the gate of the airport. It was her, my cousin. I looked towards the gate and there she was; black hair, ruby eyes, clutchy personality. I cursed loudly and the pilot looked at me strangely.

The flight attendant let her through the terminal gate and she charged at me with open arms. I turned to get back on the plane but the pilot had already closed to doors. I cursed again, but my voice was cut off by her arms around my neck.

I pulled on her hands, trying to pry her off of me.

"Guess what!" she almost screamed in my ear.

"What?" I gasped, still trying to pry her off my neck.

"My mother said I could go here too!" she cried happily and jumped off me.

I rubbed my neck tenderly. That girl had a grip. I swear that I probably would have passed out if she had held on any longer. There goes one thing from my pros list and onto the cons list. Now it was dead even, two-to-two. I sighed loudly and she turned to look at me.

"You don't want me here, do you?" she asked, he eyes clouding up with each word.

"Meling, that's not what I meant," I said. Though somewhere, deep in my thought I was saying, "You're right! Bull's eye, dead on! I don't want you here so go away!"

I couldn't say it thought. It wasn't that I was afraid that I'd hurt her feelings…I was more afraid of what she would have done to me.

Meling, sixteen-years old: annoying, clingy, extremely strong…did I mention my fiancé? I felt like throwing up everything that word came out in conversation. Our parents arranged the marriage, though neither of us really wanted it. Don't get me wrong through, I love my cousin despite what I say about her, but I don't love her the way people do when they get married. I'll be straight with you; the through of marrying my cousin was sickening. Who marries their cousins!

Anyway, it was getting late and I still had to check into my dorm, so we headed towards the gate entrance and we slowly made our way to the school. Up close, the school seemed even bigger. It was a bit unnerving to stand there and look at it. I probably looked like an idiot, just standing there, craning my neck to look up at the walls.

"Syaoran?" Meling asked and tapped my shoulder.

I heard her loud and clear, but I didn't respond…that is, until she punched my arm.

Now, most people would have assumed that I could have dodged the blow easily…if I was paying attention that is. See…there's this thing that I have with my cousin, I guess you could call it a problem, but it's mostly me. I tune her out…and then I get punched.

Anyway, we headed up the rest of the stairs to the door and walked through. It smelled like a rental car. I choked slightly; I hated the smell of rental cars…though I've never really been in one before.

We walked up to the check in desk and there was no one there.

"Hello?" I called out.

"Just a moment," a voice replied from behind a door.

We stood around for what seemed like ages. But eventually an old frumpy lady walked out.

"Ah, Mr. Li, we were wondering when you would arrive," the lady said. "And you Miss Li, welcome."

Meling and I both bowed. How did this woman know us?

"Orientation as already passed, but I'm sure you can find you way around. It's quite simple."

The lady continued to ramble and it was all I could do to pay attention.

"Girl's dorms are in the east block and boy's dorms are in the west block. Math, science, history, and English are in the south block, and art, physical education, and study hall are in the north block.

Blah, blah, blah…how much wind did this old lady have!

"Your bags have already been taken to your rooms. You have two roommates and each has their own room. Within your…well, you can see for yourself. Head up that staircase and there will e a sign that says "dorms," follow the signs and it will bring you to two staircases. Girls take the left and boys take the right. They will lead you to the dorms. Miss Li, you have room 267 and Mr. Li, your room is 443. Dinner this evening is on the fourth floor in the Crescent Moon dining room, you are expected to dress nicely. There you will meet your classmates and your teachers."

"Not to interrupt or anything ma'am," I interjected. "But what time is dinner?"

"Oh my, I skipped over that didn't I?" she replied. "Dinner is at 6:20."

I nodded

"Here are your schedules and your keys. You may go now. Oh, and if you get lost, just yell and someone will come find you.

And with that the lady disappeared through the door again.

"Well then," Meling said softly.

We looked down at our keys and then to each other.

"I guess we should go," I said.

"Yeah," Meling replied.

We picked up our keys and headed towards the huge staircase the lady had pointed out. After about five minutes, we finally reached the "dorms" sign. So we followed the directional signs and finally came to the two staircases.

"We made it," Meling said and bent over with her hands on her knees.

I leaned against the wall and took a deep breath.

"This is where we split up. Hope you make it to the top," I said in one breath.

"Did you both climb the stairs?" a voice asked from around the corner.

The voice emerged and appeared to belong to a girl with long raven black hair and amethyst eyes.

"Yeah," Meling replied and stood up.

The girl laughed.

"Mrs. Sayuri didn't tell you about the elevator, did she?" the girl added.

I groaned and slid down the wall to the floor.

"Don't pay attention to him. No, the lady at the counter didn't tell us about an elevator," Meling replied.

"Ah, you missed orientation. Anyway, my name is Tomoyo, Tomoyo Daidouji," the black haired girl said and extended her hand to Meling.

Meling took her hand with a smile. "I'm Meling Li, and that is my cousin, Syaoran Li."

"Meling…you're one of my room mates!" Tomoyo cried happily.

Meling stared at the girl dumbfounded.

"It's very nice to meet you. I was wondering when you were going to show up. There is one other girl in our dorm, but she doesn't speak very much."

Meling nodded her head and followed the girl called Tomoyo up the stairs.

I watched their backs until they disappeared and slowly stood up.

"I guess I should go too…" I said to myself and climbed up the stairs.

This flight of stairs was much shorter than the last and it flattened out to a long hall. Boys my age were dashing in and out of rooms and tackling others. Why couldn't you hear all this noise downstairs? Or at the foot of the stairs for that matter? I shrugged and headed down the hall.

"443…where is it?" I asked myself quietly.

Suddenly an arm appeared around my shoulder, no, two arms, a pale one and a tan one.

"You're looking for room 443, right?" a boy with blue hair and azure colored eyes asked.

"Yes," I replied. Who were these people?

"That's our room. You must be Li. Right?" the other boy asked.

He had black hair, what color his eyes were, I didn't know, because they were closed.

"Yes, I am," I replied again.

"I'm Eriol Hiirigizawa," the blue haired one said.

"And I'm Takashi Yamazaki," the black haired one finished.

"Syaoran, Syaoran Li," I introduced myself.

"Well, Syaoran. I believe that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Takashi said.