A CHANCE ENCOUNTER
Author's Note: A reviewer noticed that one of the characters I had named wasn't part of CLAMP. To be honest, that name was a jumped-into-my-head though and being the bad manga/anime fan I am, I for some reason thought Naruto was part of CLAMP. Stupid, right? So I changed Sasuke's name, thank you!
To another reviewer who speaks French fluently: That also was a really stupid mistake. Thank you for catching my egregious error and I updated it according to what I deciphered in your message :)
Note: Cardcaptor Sakura is © CLAMP
CHAPTER 4
"Hell no!"
"Baby, don't yell, you'll draw unnecessary attention to yourself."
Sakura was humiliated. Utterly and completely embarrassed. She had never been asked anything like this before. And felt the piercing eyes of all the female students of classroom two burn into her back through the wall she was leaning against, right outside classroom two. Oh shit this is serious… Sakura walked across directly across the school hall to look outside the large, glass pane window. Down below. Down to the playground of the elementary school branch of Tomoeda. Look at those kids play… I wish I was still a kid… so… carefree. We didn't have to worry about stuff like this…
"Well?" Oh yeah… I forgot about him. Slowly turning around, Sakura lifted her head and those startlingly green eyes looked sheepishly into those of Li Syaoran's. And she froze. As if she could not move, as if time had stopped in its tracks. As if she were a small rodent, caught in the deathful gaze of a cobra ready to strike.
"Well? Are we agreed or not… Sa-chan?" And time started up again. Sakura drew a shuddered inward breath and looked down again. What would she be risking, if she said no? What kind of things was this person possible of doing, this person who… stalker stalker stalker stalker stalker stalker stalker stalker stalker stalker… Shimizu-sensei will know. All the others will know. I'll be looked down upon. But if I say yes…
"Fine. But I'm not going to do anything else."
"Don't worry Sa-chan. I'm not like that."
"Sakura. It's Kinomoto Sakura. わかる?"
"Sure..." Suddenly, Sakura turned and glared at him. And the eyes of Kinomoto Sakura were not dancing, but became fiery and threatening. Eyes of wrath and fury and burning ice.
"You have made it perfectly, consummately clear. I will not ask you to do anything else."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Damn, what's up with this girl? Is she scared of me? Is she playing hard to get? She's acting as if I'm some sort of psycho that might jump rape her. She owes me. I saved her neck.
"Thank you, Li-san." Sakura let out a small sigh and for the first time that morning, gave a small, but electrifying smile to Syaoran, then walked back slowly into the classroom, making her way towards Tomoyo and her other friends. And Syaoran did a double-take. What an adorable smile the young woman had. He felt his face redden up. Li Syaoran, Li Syaoran blushed at the sight of a girl smiling at him. Not even a real smile, not even a cheeky, heartwarming smile. A smile signifying the resolution of a conflict, of an accomplishment. Blushed. Blushed. Blushed. What an unmanly thing, an unfamiliar thing, an un-Li-like thing.
"She's cute, isn't she?" Syaoran, leaning against the edge of the doorway, looked over to his right and Hiiragizawa Eriol stood with a quiet smile, his hand still holding open the door to the boy's restroom. The door closed again and moments later the two young men stood opposite each other, silent, in the doorway of classroom two, arms crossed, legs crossed, the eyes of half a dozen female students upon them, urging the two to look at them, give them a smile. Gazing at Sakura's group of friends.
"I've been chasing her for a while now… I don't know whether she's ignoring me or whether she isn't aware I exist." Eriol grinned slightly at Syaoran, but the Hong Kong native kept a serious face.
"Who? Kinomoto?"
"No, her companion. The maiden with magnificent, silky royal violet locks. Eyes like mysterious, pure, crystal clear pools of water. Lips as voluptuous and rich as the blood that pulses through her veins. A voice so angelic that even the goddesses in heaven fly down to earth to listen to her song in raging envy. Don't you dare take her. She's mine." Syaoran took his eyes off Sakura and looked at Eriol, whose face was dreamlike, wistful, but full of hope and optimism. Whose eyes were far away, reaching out to Tomoyo, urging her to look his way, softly, gently. Wow. This guy…
"You sound like you're in love with her."
"I am obsessed. She is my muse."
"For what?"
"Everything. Inspiration. Life itself. If she didn't exist I would be locked up in a sepulcher, damned for eternity, because this wondrous maiden was not given life. Given life for me to sing hourly praises of her being."
"You sound like a stalker."
"I'm not! I exist so I can make her beautiful eyes and her glorious face look in my direction..." Yeah… obsessed….
"Doesn't look like she's noticing you now." Eriol snapped out of his trancelike state and turned to look at Syaoran, smiling.
"Sakura is her world. Sakura, her designs, and her other friends. I am merely a speck of dust floating over the gold that appears on the ground following every step she takes."
"Right… Ohayou gozaimasu, sensei." A fairly young female teacher with long, curly jet-black hair smiled at Syaoran, lowering his head slightly in a polite bow, as she approached.
"Am I right in guessing that you are the new transfer student, Li Syaoran?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"I see. Well, class is starting soon. You should get your things together." As Oruha-sensei walked past the boys and entered the classroom, a girl with flowing blue hair, previously sitting three seats to Syaoran's right side, approached the two men.
"Hi, Li-san! My name is Ryuuzaki Umi and my friends were wondering if you'd like to come and eat lunch with us today."
"Ehhhh… I'm sorry, but might I ask who your friends are?" Syaoran shifted his gaze to Eriol, trying to urge him with his eyes to say something to deflect the marine-haired girl's offer without being rude or mean.
"Oh! It's just me, Fuu, and Hikaru."
"I see." Again, Syaoran sent a mental message to Eriol. Help me, please. Get me out of this situation… and Eriol finally seemed to notice and catch on to Syaoran's pleading stare.
"Ah, sorry Umi. Syaoran and I were actually talking about where we wanted to eat for lunch… yeah… I already asked him… sorry." Syaoran sighed inwardly, then jumped back to attention when Umi's face lightened up again.
"Oh! I know this great place! Next to the junior high fields! It's really nice and shady there!"
"Oh… um…"
"Students? Would you please join your classmates? Class has started already." Both Syaoran and Eriol let out a large sigh of relief as they left the doorway and made their way back to their seats, with Umi whispering flirtatiously, "I'll just ask you another time…" Um… no.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Oh, I'm starving!" Sakura, Tomoyo, and all of their friends quickly left their classrooms and ran all the way outside to the area where they normally ate lunch together, as they did in elementary school. Nearly ripping the fabric that was wrapped around her lunch, Sakura quickly undid the knot in the top of her lunch and opened the cloth, staring hungrily at her lunch. Uuugh… tummy… hungry... eat… sushi… Sakura took out one succulent piece of hamachi nigiri sushi and had almost placed into her mouth when Yanagisawa Naoko pointed something out colossal.
"Um… Sakura-chan. Shouldn't you dip that in wasabi? Because… the… raw… you know…"
"There should be wasabi under the fish." Again, Sakura put the raw fish and rice near her mouth when Rika interrupted.
"But… nigiri sushi doesn't always have wasabi already put on it…" Annoyed by her friends and the deterrence of what she thought would be a delicious, flavorful lunch, Sakura separated the fish from the molded rice and discovered that indeed, there was no wasabi sandwiched between the hamachi and the sushi rice. First, that goddamned request from the mafia member and now no wasabi on my sushi. What did I do to deserve this...?
"Maybe… the cafeteria will have some wasabi?"
"Maybe my day just keeps getting worse and worse…" As Sakura slowly got up and started sulking toward the school cafeteria, she heard a gasp, a shuffle, and Chiharu bounced up beside her.
"Eh? Why aren't you eating lunch, Chiharu?"
"Oh, I have something that I need to do…"
"Such as?"
"It's a secret, Sakura-chan!" Winking at Sakura and at the same time pressing one finger over her lips, Mihara Chiharu ran ahead of Sakura with her half-eaten lunch not to the cafeteria, but to another part of the school, leaving Sakura thoroughly confused.
What…'s going on…