After walking for around fifteen minutes, they reached the Kinomoto Residence. Sakura opened the door and they all went inside. They went to the living room and Sakura got them tea and cookies. Her father was the best cook around. His foods were filled with love. That was also one of the reasons why Syaoran, Eriol, and Tomoyo loved eating at Sakura's place. Not that they were love-deprived or anything, it was just that there was something special in the foods that Mr. Kinomoto made.
"How shall we start the project?" Sakura asked.
"A paragraph to pull the attention of the readers into reading," Eriol said.
"Meaning we should write something attention-grabbing," Syaoran said as he munched on a cookie.
"Like what?" Tomoyo asked.
"Write in big, bold letters You are stupid if you don't read this or Read this."
Tomoyo, uncharacteristically enough, rolled her eyes. She had gotten a bit of an attitude after hanging around Eriol and Syaoran. The change wasn't something that her mother didn't welcome though. Guts were needed to run a company. After all, how would a gutless boss intimidate her minions into doing whatever she wanted?
In Tomoyo's mother's eyes, the aggressive were the most successful. She was also the living proof of that.
"Very funny. Really, like what?" Tomoyo asked.
"Maybe a design of a front cover instead," Eriol said.
"We should draw something attention-grabbing..." Syaoran said. At that, Tomoyo and Eriol nodded their heads and commented that he'd already said that. He, on the other hand, glared at them and told them to shut up. The two merely smiled and nodded, annoying him even more, but for the sake of the project, he would hold his fist – besides, this wasn't his house and Sakura wouldn't appreciate it if he punched her best friend and her... friend, "really, most people these days are suckers for books with nice front covers."
Tomoyo sighed.
"Do you have to put life in a way like that?" she asked.
"Do you ask Eriol that question?" Syaoran asked. "Besides, aren't you like that, too?"
Tomoyo, with her right index finger, tapped her lower lip. Her eyes were looking at the ceiling in thought. Now, Syaoran was the one who'd rolled his eyes. There really was no need to think about it. Or was she trying to insult him. Most likely the latter, knowing how she was nowadays. It made him want the old Tomoyo. Sure that Tomoyo also had an evil self and was quite the devious one, but at least she hid it a bit unlike the present Tomoyo.
But well, he couldn't have everything in the world. Or more like, sometimes the world was completely against him. Syaoran internally sighed. Tomoyo had turned into a second Eriol. He was already quite the hot-tempered boy. He didn't need Tomoyo to add even more to his list of "people that irritate me so much that I want to kill them but I can't because they're close to Sakura and she would be sad if I did that."
"Good point." she said after a while, an innocent smile on her face.
Syaoran huffed. There also wasn't a need to insult his intelligence.
"So guys, how will we start?" Sakura asked, totally oblivious to the sort-of tension that was occurring between her friends.
Then again, she had never been the brightest light bulb and she was rather dense. That was Sakura for you.
"First by drawing an attention-grabbing book cover," Eriol said.
That was where the silence started. The four of them were lost in thought about what should be the cover of their books--
"Where's Kero?" Tomoyo suddenly asked.
"Kero's with Suppi and Nakuru," Sakura said. "Something about a sugar splurging or something... Nakuru seemed very excited about it. I wonder if they're having fun..."
Eriol was now worried about his furniture. He knew that those three were hanging out at his house. Hopefully they wouldn't break any breakable things or that they wouldn't destroy anything. Those things were antiques and were therefore expensive. If he was to ever go poor, which was a most unlikely thing but he liked to plan things, he would sell them. Then again, he could always make Nakuru get tons of part-time jobs and he could also donate "Suppi" as a window display to that Twin Bells store that Miss Maki owned. He, too, could get a part-time job or he could stay at Syaoran's place. Wei wouldn't mind.
Eriol nodded to himself. Yes, that would do.
Then the silence started once again. Their numerous ideas for a book cover whirling in their heads--
"Do you have, by any chance, a computer, Sakura?" Eriol suddenly asked, deftly breaking the silence.
"No," Sakura said.
Once again, there was silence. They were now choosing from those numerous ideas--
"Syaoran, why haven't you asked anything?" Sakura asked.
"Is that a house rule?" Syaoran asked.
He was already ticked-off because he still hadn't thought of anything, but just holding himself back from shouting at her because the one who'd asked him was the girl that he really, really liked and the Card Mistress and he sure didn't want to get into a fight with her brother because that would just be far too troublesome. There was that and his mother might hear of that and she would definitely ground him until the day he got married.
"No," she replied.
"Okay, that was my question," he said.
Silence claimed them once again. They were eliminating their numerous ideas to get to the one idea they would like out of all the others--
That was where Sakura had yawned, where Syaoran snapped the pencil he was holding into two in utter irritation at his inability to pick one damn idea, where Eriol started laughing like a maniac signifying them that he had gotten an idea, and where Tomoyo blinked.
"I feel so sleepy." Sakura said, then yawned at the end.
"Damn idea, damn inability to pick that one damned idea, damn assignment, damn school, damn boring atmosphere making me damned disabled in picking one damned idea..." Syaoran said and there were a lot more of those.
"I have gotten the perfect idea!" Eriol said while laughing maniacally, which could be considered as an amazing feat by the people around him if they weren't too caught up in their own worlds.
Tomoyo just simply blinked once again.
Sakura started to get even more sleepier, even her head was starting to bob up and down because of her being half-asleep and half-awake. Syaoran messed up his naturally messy hair even more in frustration. Eriol, being the man of action that he was and that this was a project, took out a clean sheet of paper and started drawing. Tomoyo stared out into space and blinked once more, then she smiled and took out her own clean sheet of paper and started drawing.
Silence was around the Kinomoto Residence once again, save for the dropping of the head constantly at the table because of the sleepiness of the person to where the head was attached to and belonged to, save for the constant frustrated ruffling of hair and the snapping of pencils in to two, save for the maniacal laughter, and save for the drawing of two pencils--
"YES! I HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN AN IDEA!" Syaoran shouted in joy.
Sakura was fully awake because of that shout, slightly jumping out of surprise, too. Syaoran got out his own clean sheet of paper and started drawing. Sakura blinked a couple of times before she got her own clean sheet of paper and started drawing herself. Like the many important and most likely life-changing things and events that happened in her life, her idea had come to her in a somewhat cryptic dream, but not so much because she would get hassled in decoding her dream.
By the time they were finished with their drawings it was probably dinnertime, meaning they had taken at least four hours or less to make their drawings.
"Stay for dinner," Sakura said.
She was a good house guest and had been raised up by a kind father. Of course, it was only natural that she said that. Of course, it was also natural for Tomoyo, Eriol, and Syaoran, being the insanely rich people that they were, to expect dinner being offered to them.
"Who's making dinner?" Tomoyo asked, daintily covering her mouth with her hand as she gracefully yawned.
Was there anything that wasn't sophisticated about her? She was the epitome of a proper lady... if one overlooked her obsession with her second cousin and her intense love of making clothes for and videoing her aforementioned second cousin. Some hobbies and habits were just hard to get out of. Then again, it wasn't as if she was making an effort to stop doing those things. She was perfectly fine with tailing Sakura around. Besides, it wasn't as if Sakura minded... much.
"Why not make cute little descendant make dinner," Eriol suggested.
"Oh, I wouldn't want to be a bother! And this is my house anyway," Sakura said.
Deep inside, she really did want to taste Syaoran's cooking. She didn't know that he could cook, seeing as he was rich and he had a butler and all.
"Syaoran can cook?!" Tomoyo exclaimed, also obviously sharing Sakura's unvoiced thoughts.
"Of course he can!" Eriol said proudly, as if he was referring to himself.
"One more thing to add to my project... all of my relatives can cook good," Syaoran muttered.
He was secretly worried that he would mess up and Sakura wouldn't like his cooking.
"Tomorrow is a Saturday, right?" Sakura asked.
Eriol, Syaoran, and Tomoyo nodded at the same time. It would've looked rather odd and a bit creepy for others, but Sakura wasn't the most normal of girls. She was already used to those kinds of things. It wasn't as if some card had managed to take control of their bodies or anything.
"And when are we going to Tomoyo's place?" she asked.
"Why not ten in the morning so that we can do a lot of things?" Tomoyo suggested.
"Ten in the morning it is then!"
"Who will cook dinner?"
"Before we rise into any more petty dinner arguments, I'll cook dinner," Syaoran said, already growing irritated, yet again, with the constant dinner questions.
He rose and went into the kitchen area. Tomoyo and Eriol smirked. That sure was one way to make Syaoran do what they wanted. Irritate him.
After thirty more minutes, he called them, and they went to the kitchen and all of them sat on the chairs and ate.
"Mmm!" Sakura said.
Syaoran inwardly blushed. Sakura had liked his cooking if that "mmm!" was anything to go by! Yes! Extra love points for him! He would show that Touya. Stupid overprotective older brother that could accept that his sister was growing up and would need to be in a relatively romantic relationship with someone someday.
"This tastes good, Syaoran," Tomoyo said.
It really did taste good. She didn't know that it would taste that good. For sure, she would always make him cook if the four of them, or with anybody else, went out and stayed at a friend's place up until dinner.
"So, tomorrow, at Tomoyo's, ten in the morning?" Syaoran asked.
"Yes," Eriol said.
They continued eating their dinner in a not-so-silent happy way.
To be continued...
It was quite... silly yet again. But please do review! I'd like to know if I did anything wrong... Thank you for taking the time to read this.