Er... hi. Sorry I'm late. Don't kill me!

Thanks to all the people who attempted to guess! You can continue guessing, as well as give me an opinion (listed below).

I got some guesses saying that Eriol did know who Ikumo Arisu is. I actually haven't decided yet. So for now, he is a 'wildcard character'. If you've already guessed, Eriol was not marked as correct if I replied to you. In your review, you can let me know whether or not you think Eriol should know.

And if you notice any spelling/grammar mistakes, let me know. My normal writing software has to be reinstalled. If this chapter seemed a little rushed to you, that's because I am (sadly) having problems of figuring out where to go with this story next.

Disclaimer: I don't own CCS. If I did, then the world would end. That is all.

Chapter 4 of 'My Life'
You've Got to be Kidding!

Naoko let out a small sigh as she flipped another page. My Life was interesting, but she wasn't really into it. Then again, she'd never really liked non-fiction in the first place. Her favorite genré had always been fantasy, and it still was.

"Naoko-san?" A voice asked quietly, pulling her out of the world of reading. She looked up to see familiar reddish-brown hair and gentle brown eyes.

"Rika-san?" She asked, startled. What was she doing here? She'd heard that Rika was out of town for the month on a buisness trip.

"Weren't you supposed to be out of town?" Rika, being a successful buisnesswoman, worked often, making it almost impossible to reach her at any given time.

"You look different without your glasses," Rika commented, changing the subject abruptly. Naoko smiled at Rika, who seemed to be staring past her.

"Contacts," she informed her. "Have you read this yet?" Naoko added, holding up the book she'd been reading. Rika shook her head, but Naoko noticed that she seemed to be looking around for something.

"It's rather interesting," Naoko continued, attempting to ignore the fact that Rika wasn't looking at her. "Her parents were murdered, did you know? And here, it says that her brother were blessed with powers that could 'save the world, or destroy it', which is apparantly why people tried to kidnap her, since they thought she had the powers." Naoko wasn't going to add the other detail, which was that her brother had also been murdered. That would just spoil the story for Rika.

Nodding absently, Rika turned her attention to the area behind Naoko, towards the doorway. A strange expression crossed over her face. Oh no... she thought silently, as she suddenly disappeared, leaving Naoko alone with her book.

"Hey! You!" Naoko let out a sigh, recognizing the voice. Not her again... she thought, turning to face the rude Channel 7 News Reporter.

"Who is she!" The reporter demanded. Naoko gave her an odd look.

"You."

"What? Really?" The reporter asked, turning to the cameraman for confirmation. He just shrugged. "Wait a minute - no I'm not! Who is she, really?" But Naoko had disappeared into a crowd of high school students that had conviniently passed by at that exact moment.

"Wouldn't you like to know..." Naoko murmured, a grin set on her face. She was never going to tell the reporter. Never.

Chiharu let out a groan of frustration. The story had been getting so good! And here was Eriol and Tomoyo, asking for a history lesson of sorts.

"You want to know about Test Day?" Chiharu asked, looking up at Eriol from her seat. Sakura and Syaoran nodded. Chiharu turned to look at them.

"Er... you two don't need to listen, you know. You already know the story."

"Demo, it's so much fun hearing you tell stories!" Sakura protested, and Syaoran, smirking, added, "besides, it makes you sound like Takeshi-san." Chiharu decided to ignore that comment and turned back to Eriol, smiling.

"Hm... our story begins on a hot summer morning. It was the middle of June, and the fan in the classroom had broken..."

(A/N: From this point until I say otherwise, italics are the events of the story and bold italics are any comments outside of the story - plus the narrator's narration. The rest is pretty much a no-brainer. And if you really feel like it, just skip over the bold italics if you don't feel like reading their conversations.)

"...tests were originally designed for writing skills only, and served no purpose until grading was invented years later, and - ack!" His final word in the sentence was punctuated with the yell of "Liar!" and a pair of feminine hands that grabbed his neck and began shaking the poor dark-haired boy back and forth. Onlookers felt bad for the boy, and they would've helped, except they found the exchange between the boy and the girl hilarious and besides, the boy was still grinning, his eyes closed, and his index finger pointing into the air, the same stance he'd been in before the girl with the two pigtails began shaking him.

"So what kind of story was he telling?" Eriol asked, seeing as it was his best friend being strangled in the story. Chiharu rolled her eyes.

"Some story he came up with about how tests were made," Tomoyo supplied, having been there.

"Was it good?"

"Yeah, but since Li-kun or Sakura-kun wasn't there, I didn't tape it!" Tomoyo complained, causing Sakura to giggle.

"Can I continue? Onegai?" Chiharu demanded.

"Ah, hai, continue, onegai shimasta," Sakura said, having calmed down.

"Eh... Chiharu-chan? Are you going to stop attacking Yamazaki-kun?" The girl in question turned to Rika, who was sitting at the desk right behind them, smiling. Before Chiharu could answer, however, the sliding door of Class 3-B was forcefully pulled open, and a girl in a navy blue skirt and a white blouse slid to a stop in front of the entryway, panting. Her emerald eyes scanned the room.

"Am I late?" She asked, hoping for confirmation that, yes, she wasn't late. A girl with dark hair and amethyst eyes shook her head.

"Iie, Sakura-chan. You're on time today," she told her, smiling. Sakura let out a sigh of relief. For once, she'd managed to arrive on time. Today was important, however, since it was finals, where they took the test that would mean getting into their ideal high school or some other school. She'd studied the entire week for the exam, and so had everyone else.

The teacher arrived not long after, holding a manilla folder with a stack of paper inside - the exam that would be issued to them. Sakura sat down at the desk next to Tomoyo, looking nervous.

"Pencils out!" Came the yell of the homeroom teacher. Some students paled. In their rush to get to school on time, they'd forgotten pencils. Seeing this, the teacher let out a sigh.

"If you've forgotten a pencil, please come to my desk and borrow one," she said, watching as several of the students stood up and headed towards her.

"Alright, now, I will hand out the exam. You have an hour and a half to finish it. If you finish by that time, you are asked to leave the room and go to the courtyard. You will be called back in when everyone is finished, or when the time is up." Chiharu bit her lip as the teacher began handing out exams. This was going to be hard. She had to get into Samete, one of the few technical schools in the area. Many people sent applications, but only five were accepted every year.

"Everyone have their exam? Alright, begin!"

------

Scribbling down the answer to the last problem, Rika checked to see if her name was on the paper.

"How do you know she did that?" Eriol asked. "I thought you were taking an exam."

"I just happened to be staring at the back of her head when she stood up! She was sitting right in front of me!" Chiharu snapped.

"Trying to cheat?"

"Every exam paper that's handed out is different. The questions are all in a different order, and all that. So if anyone were looking at the answers to the questions off someone else's sheet, they wouldn't make sense as answers to their own," Tomoyo explained.

"That's... very elaborate," was Eriol's reply.

She stood up and approached the front, handing the paper to the teacher. Then she left the classroom. The first to leave had been Naoko, who'd finished about five minutes before.

When the test was over, everyone returned to the classroom. The teacher stood up and said, "Your scores will be posted a week from now in the outside hall. Prepare your applications and bring them in on that day."

-----

"You're WHAT?" Chiharu shouted, eyes wide.

"Ehehe..." Was all Sakura could say in reply.

"Wow! There's actually someone I know that does magic!" Takeshi cried. "Three someones, actually!"

"Sakura spent all this time debating whether or not she should tell you, and she finally did!" Tomoyo said, smiling, her videocamera out. "See? They didn't freak out, except for maybe Chiharu, but that's it," she continued as she focused the camera on each person's individual reaction.

Rika had fallen silent and Naoko's face couldn't be seen. Takeshi was smiling, and Chiharu's face had shock written all over it.

"I-I have to go," Rika said abruptly, breaking away from the group. Naoko pulled away from the group not long after, her face expressionless.

(A/N: And here is where I say, "Otherwise!")

"We didn't think much of it at the time, until Rika was suddenly unable to contact the majority of us, and Naoko pretty much lost all contact," Chiharu finished, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"It was rather strange, back then," Sakura noted. "Rika-san was so uncharacteristically quiet, and Naoko-san should have been all excited... and yet..." Her voice trailed off.

"I wonder what's up with those two," Chiharu mumbled, as she returned to her book.

"Who knows..." Syaroan muttered, staring out the window.

Rika's eyes located Maki, the bookstore owner in the back. She seemed to be having trouble with a - what was that? It looked like a podium, except... it seemed to be in pieces.

"Need help?" Rika asked curiously, standing next to the podium.

"Would you?" Maki asked hopefully. "I'm so useless with putting these kinds of things together, and my in-laws sent this!" Laughing in embarrassment, she offered Rika the wrench.

"Uh... let's see... it looks like this goes here, according to the handbook, but where does this go?" Rika mused out loud, holding a thin triangle.

"I think it goes on the top, right on the side."

"Oh, I see now!" It took awhile, but they managed to put together a successful-looking podium.

"Very nice," a voice commented cheerfully from behind Rika. She turned to see Naoko, who looked a bit claustrophobic.

"It's rather crowded in the store now," Maki commented, staring out the doorway, seeing all the people.

"They're here to see Ikumo Arisu," Rika said.

"Are you two looking forward to meeting her? I am!" Maki said, smiling at them both.

"Of course!" Rika replied.

"She's my new favorite author!" Naoko responded, beaming. A person watching in the shadows smirked.

"This should be fun... I can't wait..."

Well, that's the end of Chapter 4! Feel free to guess again, if you wish (see ending note in chapter 2).

I'm probably going to start juggling fics soon, since ideas keep coming in and I have no way to let them out.