Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura.

Sakura's POV:

"Alright, you little kids!" Satou sensei began as he placed a tray full of seemingly dead rats on the teacher's table, "Today, we're going to dissect the body of a rat! So wear your gloves and one person from each pair please come up to take one rat!"

Everyone cringed.

"Remember, take only one rat! I have just enough for each pair to go around, you know," Satou sensei reminded, which wasn't very necessary.

"Alright, you do the dissecting, and I'll write down the notes," I heard Chiharu say to Yamazaki behind, followed by Yamazaki groaning.

Turning to the front, I saw Tomoyo place an assuring hand on Rika's shoulder and saying encouragingly, "It's alright, Rika-chan! We can do this together!"

I then turned to the empty seat beside me and sighed.

Geez, he's always absent whenever it's dissection... Coward!

"Ah, Kinomoto, don't think that just because your partner's absent it means that I'm going to let you off!" Satou sensei hollered from where he sat. Holding up a half-dead rat and waving it at me, he continued, "Here, I've got a nice, fat rat for you! And wear your gloves! I'm sure you wouldn't want your hands to smell of rat's blood!"

I groaned as I put on my gloves hesitantly. I've always had a huge fear of rodents, and yet I'm going to dissect one up by myself right now...

I was about to stand up when someone stood in front of my table. I heard a cheerful voice ask, "Hello! Is it alright if we do this dissection together?"

I looked up to see a blue-haired guy smiling at me in a gentle manner.

"You see, my partner's absent too," he explained.

Eriol Hirigazawa. I've always seen him in biology class, but I've never talked to him before.

"Um... But if you don't want, it's alright," he added, his smile dimming.

"Oh, no! I-I don't mean that! Of course it's alright!" I hurriedly replied. "I-I really need a partner for this!"

Eriol's smile resumed its former radiance. "Well then, I'll go get the rat," he volunteered. I nodded happily.

"Wow, Sakura, what did you do?" Chiharu whispered from behind when Eriol had walked off.

"Eriol Hirigazawa... Not an easy target at all," Yamazaki remarked thoughtfully.

I stared back at them blankly. Huh?

Tomoyo and Rika quickly spun round to face me.

"Sakura-chan! I'm so happy for you!" Tomoyo gushed excitedly.

"He's never spoken to any of us before!" Rika exclaimed.

At the other end of the lab, Naoko abruptly stopped cutting through her rat and turned to look at me and gave a thumbs-up sign.

"I really don't know what you all are talking about," I said before turning to read through my practical worksheet.

"Ah, she's learnt how to play dumb!" Chiharu said in a cheeky tone.

"Don't tease her mute," Tomoyo interrupted. Then she bent over my table and whispered with a voice full of disappointment, "Sakura-chan, I thought we were best friends, and that there was no secrets between us..."

"Shhh! He's coming back!"

I dumped my worksheet at a side frustratedly and retorted, "I REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT ANY OF YOU ARE SAYING!!!"

"I think we have to make an incision along the abdomen," Tomoyo said to Rika. Rika shook her head, "No, no, I think we start from the upper torso!"

Behind, Chiharu and Yamazaki were quarrelling over who should examine the intestines...

"You do it! You're the guy!" "Well, I did the dissection, so you do the examination!"

Wha-?

"Are you ok, Sakura?" Eriol asked as he stopped in front of the table. I stared at the rat he was holding and shifted further from him.

"Y-Yeah, I'm ok," I replied shakily. "J-Just keep that away from me!"

Normal POV:

"Oh Shao Shao, you're so funny," a pink-haired girl giggled as Syaoran continued whispering into her ear. Just then, the door opened.

"Hmm... I'm sure I entered the male's toilet," Eriol said aloud as he closed the door behind him and looked at the girl. She giggled again.

Eriol turned to Syaoran. "So, you've been here all the time?" he asked.

"Yeah, so you've realised," Syaoran replied, taking another puff of his cigarette.

"You do know Aunt Yelan's keeping you under surveillance ever since she found out you've been failing your subjects," Eriol reminded as he went to wash his hands.

Syaoran gave a condescending laugh. "She's working with the wrong people; those useless teachers have accepted my bribe into giving a fabulous accout of my daily conduct at school. But let's not talk about this. How was dissection? Heard you guys were um... dissecting filthy rodents."

Eriol smiled. "Yes, but it was fun."

"Fun?" Syaoran repeated the word with disgust. "Yuck! How can that be fun?"

"Well, maybe if you'd not skip dissection class for just one day then you'd understand," Eriol replied smilingly. "You have a very interesting partner."

"Oh, you mean Kino... um... Kinosomething?"

"It's Sakura Kinomoto," Eriol corrected.

"Yeah, ok, whatever. What about her? I don't really talk to her when I attend lab lessons, you know," Syaoran asked.

"That's a pity," Eriol said. "If you're willing, we can switch partners?"

"What?"

"Well, I know you've been keeping an eye on my partner, and I really enjoy partnering up with yours, so why don't we switch?"

"Does my partner want to switch?" Syaoran asked after a long pause.

Eriol shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I should think so, because today, she was grumbling about how you're always abandoning her during every dissection lesson and leaving her to do everything herself."

"Damn, there's so many girls out there waiting to sit next to me and she actually complains about me?" Syaoran murmured.

"Well, since you both seem quite dissatisfied with each other, we can always change partner anytime," Eriol said before walking out.

Author's Note: By the way, thank you so very much for your reviews! They were a great encouragement to me and I will do my best for this story! :D