Thank you SO much for all your reviews! And for those of you who wanted a hot new guy? Here you go!

With Or Without You
Chapter Five: California

I stood, later that week, on Thursday, in the school courtyard with Tomoyo and Meilin, chattering about our latest "plot".

Yeah, I was so on the dark side.

I had gone to Tomoyo's on Tuesday with Eriol and Meilin, and we'd talked late into the night about Syaoran and his wife-to-be Ciria.

Well, she wouldn't be his wife-to-be if we had anything to do with it.

Anyway, we stayed up and talked about our plan, which was to get Syaoran to call off the engagement…someway or another.

We were still a bit hazy on how to do it.

All we could come up with?

Me.

Yeah, I had to do all the work.

Flashback
 "I still don't get it Meilin," I said, staring at the raven-haired girl who was sitting across from me on the couch. "Why don't you want Ciria to marry Syaoran?"

Meilin shrugged, stirring her marshmallows in her hot chocolate with a spoon, looking rather ashamed of herself. "I don't know."

"Liar." Eriol coughed.

Meilin glared at him. "Fine. It's just that…well, Ciria isn't a really nice person, Sakura. Believe me, I had to pretty much grow up with her."

"Why have I never met her? I must have stayed over at your house a billion times when I was in Hong Kong." I said.

"She was in England then, for school." Meilin shrugged. "She travels a lot that way. Anyway, she's not right for him, and the only reason she even agreed to the engagement is for the money in the business. I've seen Syaoran with you, Sakura, he's different, he's happier."

Awe! Glad I could change people like that.

"Besides," Meilin continued. "He cancelled his flight to Hong Kong, which got him in huge trouble, to be with you, and the whole two months all he could talk about was you…and when he found out about Ciria…well, let's just say he wasn't happy about it."

"Still," I frowned down at my own hot chocolate. "If he really loved me…he wouldn't have agreed."

Meilin sighed. "Syaoran's always felt responsible for his father's death. I don't understand why, but he just has. So when he was trusted with the business, he took it very seriously…then he gave it to uncle…and then uncle died, so now Syaoran is stuck with it again, and he doesn't want to let his dad down."

"I can understand that, I guess." I said softly.

It was nice to know that Syaoran cared so dearly about his father.

But still…I was hurt.

"Now, back to planning." Meilin grinned.
End Flashback

Well, all we'd come up with was for me to somehow seduce him into breaking everything off.

God, I felt like such a cheap whore.

But whatever, I would be a cheap whore for Syaoran any day.

Wait…no, that sounded wrong.

Whatever, you know what I mean!

"Hey Sakura!" another of my friends, Rika, grinned, rushing up to me. "Have you heard?"

"Sure I've heard." I smiled. "I hear a lot of things. Like bells, and whistles, and hoot owls-"

"You know that's not what I mean." she sighed. "There's a new guy, totally hot!"

And I care…why?

"That's nice to know there Rika, thanks." I smiled.

"Hey Rika!" someone shouted.

"See you guys later." she smiled, turning and disappearing into the crowd.

"Well, that was random." Eriol smirked. "Is that all you girls care about?"

"Sure." Meilin giggled.

Eriol rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I've got to go and meet Syaoran, okay?"

"Sure, but say anything and you die." I said.

"Why would I say anything?" Eriol winked, turning and walking away.

"Now that that's over," Meilin grinned. "How about we go and check out the new guy?"

"I have a boyfriend." Tomoyo pointed out.

"I'm working on it." I smirked.

"Hey, we could use this new guy!" Meilin grinned. "You can have any guy in the school Sakura, so why not make Syaoran jealous!"

"I don't think that would work."

"Maybe, maybe not." Meilin shrugged, grabbing my arm, pulling me towards the school. "But I think I'd know better than you."

Maybe…

XxXxX

Well, we didn't find the new guy.

But it sure as hell didn't take him long to find me.

Not that, you know, he was actually looking for me in the first place.

He was, actually, looking for his class.

It was just me who he happened to ask.

"Uh, can you help me?" he asked, looking somewhat nervous, a wrinkled schedule in one hand, a map of the school in the other.

"Sure. One thing though."

"What's that?"

I snatched the map from his hands, crumpled it up, and threw it in the trash.

"Hey!" he gaped at me. "I needed that!"

"No you didn't." I smiled, taking his schedule. "You see, the School Council likes to give new students fake maps as a joke, that was one of them. We don't have a Starbucks."

(AN-That part actually happened! I was walking through the school when the grade nines came, and this dude was using a fake map and he was totally lost! It was hilarious! So I threw it out for him!)

"Oh…" he said, his cheeks paling.

The girls in the school were right, this guy was hot.

He had shaggy blonde hair that fell into his brilliant blue eyes, ones that stared out in wonder past a tanned complexion. He had his school uniform top unbuttoned slightly, the sleeves rolled up past his elbows casually.

If a teacher saw him, hell would rise.

But I wasn't going to tell him that.

Yet.

"So I take it you're new." I said, scanning over his schedule.

"Is it that obvious?" he smirked.

"The schedule kind of gives it away." I smiled, handing him back the paper. "You have History next. I have that, you can just come with me."

"Really? That'd be great." he smiled.

"Sure, no problem." I said, pointing behind him. "That way."

So he turned around, and we began to walk through the crowds of teenagers, envious eyes following after us.

Or, rather, me.

The envious eyes, I mean. No, all the other ogling eyes were on him.

"By the way," I said, turning to him slightly. "I'm Sakura Kinomoto."

"Kent." he said. "Kent Anderson."

"Nice to meet you." I said. "Where are you from?"

"California." he sighed. "Just moved here last week."

"That far?" I gaped at him. "Whoa, that must be a huge shocker"

He nodded. "Yeah, but my parents thought we needed the change."

I would so hate my parents.

We walked into History then, Eriol was sitting at the back, where he and I always sat.

"Thanks for showing me the way." Kent smiled.

"No problem." I said with a quick nod, walking to the back of the class, plopping down beside Eriol.

"Who is that?" Eriol asked.

"Kent Anderson." I said. "A new student from California."

"California? Whoa!" Eriol grinned. "That would be a huge culture shock to come all the way out here."

"No doubt." I snickered, watching as Kent took a seat at the front of the class, looking rather nervous.

"Should we invite him back here with us?" Eriol chuckled.

"I think so." I grinned. "Hey Kent!"

He turned, looking as if I'd scared him with my words.

"Why don't' you come sit back here with us?" I asked.

He smiled and nodded, getting up from his seat, walking back where we were, taking a seat in front of Eriol.

"This is Eriol Hirazagwa." I said, tossing a thumb at Eriol. "Eriol, this is Kent."

Kent. What an adorable name!

"Nice to meet you, Kent." Eriol nodded briskly. Kent nodded. "You too. Hey Sakura, would you mind showing me to my next class?"

"Sure, what is it?" I asked.

"Math"

"Oh," Eriol said. "I have that next, I can show you."

"Really? Great." Kent smiled.

Just then someone walked into the class, someone who shouldn't have been there.

But hey, classes hadn't started yet, so Syaoran could go wherever he wanted.

"Hey Eriol, do you have my notes from yesterday?" he asked, panting slightly, as if he'd been running. "I have a spare now, I need them!"

As hot as Kent was, he was nothing compared to Syaoran. After all, Syaoran had the whole sexy rock star look going for him. He actually had his uniform just like Kent's.

Both of them would die if a teacher saw.

I was tempted to snitch on them, just to watch the fun…

"Sure thing," Eriol said, digging through his binder. "Hey Syaoran, this is Kent, he's new, from California. Kent, meet Syaoran. He's from China."

"And you're from England." Syaoran smirked.

"And I'm from here." I said.

What? I wanted in on this, too.

"Syaoran." Kent said, nodding at the brown-haired boy in front of him.

Syaoran smirked slightly. "Kent. Hope you didn't get one of the fake maps."

Kent's cheeks flushed.

Awe, he was so adorable! Like a puppy.

"Hey Sakura," Syaoran said suddenly, turning to me, causing me to drop out of cute-puppy world, into the real one.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"I still need to talk to you." he said. "You know..."

"Yeah." I said as Eriol gave me an evil smirk. "How about after school? I'm, uh, busy at lunch."

Syaoran nodded, looking somewhat nervous.

Awe, was he embarrassed to be around me, know what we've been through?

Good! Drown in embarrassment you ass!

Wait…calm yourself Sakura…you must be nice to the man you love.

"Here Xiao." Eriol said, handing Syaoran a handful of notes. "They're all yours."

"Thanks." Syaoran said, taking the notes from the blue-haired teen beside me. "See you guys later!"

Then he turned and walked from the room.

Not, of course, without tossing a look over his shoulder at Kent.

Was that a hint of, dare I say, jealousy in his eyes?

Oh ho-ho! Things were getting interesting.

Kent sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Is it always this cold here?"

Eriol I stared blankly at him.

That was rather random.

We laughed.

"What?" Kent asked, looking somewhat embarrassed. "What did I say?"

"Dude, it's winter still." I snickered. "It'll get warmer later."

Kent smiled. "Yeah, I guess so."

Just then, his leg brushed mine from under the desk, which seemed quite silly, considering that he wasn't that closer to begin with…but then again he was turned around in his chair…

"Sorry." he said, never taking his gaze from me.

"Uh, sure." I shrugged, flipping open my binder.

Yeah, I think not. I belonged to no one but Syaoran. Kent was cute, but not that cute.

Okay! Hope you liked it, sorry it was a bit shorter. Review!