Yay! This chapter is actually a nice length. A few hundred words longer than last chapter. You guys get to see Eriol again! Not a ton happening with S&S, but I didn't forget about them. This chapter is mainly to finally tie all of the characters together.
Sakura's POV
"So, how did Touya react when he found out about your dad?" Tomoyo asks as we walk side by side towards our dreadful high school.
"Oh, you know. He basically freaked out and almost broke our phone. Pretty much exactly what you would expect him to do."
First thing Saturday morning, I called up Tomoyo and pulled her out of the house to talk to her about everything that happened. She was totally freaking out at the time. I swear, I thought she was going to give herself a heart attack. Her hands were on her face and she was basically hyperventilating. Seriously, she gets more worked up about stuff that happens to me than stuff that happens to her. I don't think it's good for her.
"Well you certainly did have a crazy week."
"Tell me about it," I grumble.
Seriously, it was just one thing after another. Hell, all of October has been crazy. First I get stuck being tutored by the one, single most annoying person I know. Then I'm getting close to an old friend who I thought despised me. Oh, and there's the time when my dad went to prison, of course. I rekindled an- or maybe even more than one- old friendship. And did I mention that I've found myself falling for someone who I know I can't possibly have a relationship with? I hardly think that's fair. Why is life so cruel? I already fell for him once, and look how that turned out.
Stupid teenage hormones. Yeah, that's what I'm blaming this on. Am I in denial? That's debatable. But I do not need to deal with something like that right now. Screw my stupid stomach that bubbles excitedly whenever our eyes meet. I've got enough problems without any form of romance in my life. Besides, it's not like Syaoran has or will ever see me as anything more than an old friend. Yeah. Who needs him? Not me. Not at all.
"I'm just glad you told me about it." Tomoyo's face starts turning pink. "Actually, there's something I wanted to tell you about, Sakura."
"What? Really?" Panic seethes through me. "Is everything alright?"
"Huh?" Tomoyo looks at me in alarm. "Yes, of course. It's about something that happened on Friday while I was outside."
"Oh." I relax for a moment, only to start thinking about it and turn even more panicked than before. "Did somebody try to abduct you? Or even worse," I drop my voice, "assault you?"
"No! Of course not! I would've been freaking out if that had happen." Thank goodness. My poor, innocent Tomoyo doesn't deserve anything like that. But seriously, why is her face turning red again? "I kind of met someone," she tells me, shyly tugging at the ends of her uniform.
"You what?" I stare at her, too in awe to think of anything better to say. She was outside for ten minutes tops. Who could she have possibly met that would've left such a strong impression?
"Well, we didn't officially meet or anything, but he gave me his handkerchief."
My mind blanks.
What. The. Heck?
What's going on? A shy Tomoyo? This is a new sighting. Sure, I've seen her ogle over guys in a magazine before- heck, I've even joined in- but I've never seen her look so embarrassed because of a guy.
Tomoyo reaches into her bag and pulls out a navy blue handkerchief. "Oh, Sakura, you should've seen him." I recoil as she holds the tiny cloth to her chest and stares up dreamily at the clear azure sky. Something is definitely not right here. "He was handsome in a sophisticated kind of way, and his eyes, oh his eyes, they were the most mesmerizing shade of blue that you've ever seen." She abruptly looks down at me excitedly. "And he had an English accent that was to die for!"
There we go. That's more like Tomoyo. Getting super hyper when talking about boys. Whoosh. Thank goodness for that. Here I was starting to think maybe she did get abducted. By aliens. Whenever people I know start acting weird, that's the first place my mind goes. Maybe I watched too much TV when I was a kid.
"Um, so I take it you like this guy?"
She grabs my hands from my sides and pulls them between us. "Oh, Sakura, you have no idea. It was absolutely magical! I felt just like a princess."
"Well," I say, trying not to look too freaked out, "that's nice. Do you know his name?"
Suddenly she drops my hands and looks away. Her bangs cover her eyes but I can see her lips turn turn ever-so-slightly downwards. "No. He left before I could ask."
"Oh. That's too bad." Unsure what to do, I put a reassuring hand on her back. "Maybe you'll run into him again. I mean, for all you know he could be a transfer student who comes to our class midway through the year."
"That only happens in stories. Besides, who would come to Tomoeda from a foreign country midway through senior year?" She has a point. My idea is totally far fetched, and next to impossible.
"Don't give up so soon. You could still meet him. And if not, there are plenty of other fish in the sea."
Tomoyo laughs lightly at my antics. "Yeah, I guess. This one just seemed different. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about him just made me want to melt into his arms and never leave."
It's sad how much I can relate to that.
"Ah!" Her head suddenly perks up. "We're here!" Before I can even process what she's said, she's racing ahead of me towards the building. "We can finally check our scores!"
Crap. I almost forgot. My feet pound against the concrete as I race after her. "Hey, wait up!"
I don't reach her until we're both standing in front of the huge board in the main hall that lists our scores. "Kinomoto. Kinomoto. Kino- Found it!"
As I read the scores, Tomoyo comes up next to me sighing in relief. "Passed. What about you?" My eyes stay locked on the list of numbers. "Sakura?" I read, re-read, and then read them again a third time just to be sure. "Did you pass?" My lips part. "Are you alright?"
With a sharp intake of breath, I turn to her and say quickly, "I gotta go."
I've spun around and started sprinting down the hall before she even has time to react. When I finally reach our classroom, I throw the door open and pause to assess the room, but only for a second. The two people already in the room turn to me.
"Sakura?" The chocolate-haired boy steps away from the chalkboard. Without a moments hesitation, I run up to him and tackle him.
"I passed!" He stumbles back a few steps from the sudden force of my body being thrown against his, but grabs the back of the teachers desk before we can both go tumbling. "I passed! I passed!" I pull away, clutching his hands and waving them back and forth at our sides. "Syaoran, I passed all of them!"
"You did?"
My head bobs up and down at rapid speed. Soon, I find myself excitedly jumping up and down, tugging him with me.
"Yes! I did!" I stop long enough to give him another bear hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
"Oh my gosh!" I quickly pull away from him. "I totally forgot about Tomoyo! Gotta go. I'll see you later, Syaoran." Turning to leave, I stop just before I reach the door and turn around again.
Quickly scurrying back over to him, I grab his face, and give him a quick peck on the cheek. "I couldn't have done it with out you, Syaoran. I owe you."
With that I turn and race out of the room, back to where I left my best friend. Hopefully she isn't too mad at me for ditching her.
Syaoran's POV
Eyes still glued to the spot the emerald-eyed beauty disappeared, my fingers graze the spot on my cheek where Sakura's lips met my skin.
What just happened?
Tomoyo's POV
Lunch starts out fairly normal. Sakura sends me off to eat with Chiharu and the others saying she wants to go to the library and talk to her friend. The friend I've never met, but who I've heard about from other students. Now that I think about it, I should really ask Sakura to introduce us sometime.
When I enter 3-C and approach my friends in the back of the classroom, Chiharu looks at me and frowns. Then her eyes flick over to the door for a moment.
"Is something the matter?" I ask.
"Where's Sakura?"
"What do you mean? She's in the library as usual. Why do you ask?"
"She didn't come with you?"
"No, she never eats lunch with us." What's gotten into Chiharu all of a sudden? "What's going on, Chiharu?"
"I'll be back in a few minutes." With that, she stands up and marches out of the room with a determined look on her face.
"Where is she going?" Yamazaki asks from behind us. I turn around and raise my shoulders.
"No idea. She asked about Sakura and stormed off saying she'd be back in a few minutes."
"Huh. Weird." Yamazaki glances at Li and then both of them glance to the door before we all return to our lunches.
Sakura's POV
"Naoko!" My studious friend sitting at the wooden library table looks up.
"Sakura, you're here. It's been a while. I didn't see you last week." As I approach her, another figure comes into view.
"Yeah," I mumble as my eyes lock-in on the boy sitting beside her. "Have you already found me a replacement?" I ask jokingly. Naoko laughs and shakes her head.
"Not quite. This is Hiiragizawa Eriol; he just transferred into my class today. He asked where the library was, so I figured I'd invite him to sit here since he doesn't know anyone yet."
Just transferred in? Midway through senior year? The blue-haired boy rises to his feet. "Oh, well, it's nice to meet you, Hiiragizawa-kun. I'm Kinomoto Sakura." I hold out my hand and he shakes it. The action makes me feel like a business-woman attending a meeting. "You can just call me Sakura."
"Likewise. And, please, feel free to call me Eriol." Pause everything. Is that what I think it is? Could it be?
"I don't mean to sound too straightforward, but do you mind telling me where you transferred here from?" I ask as we sit down.
He smiles warmly. "Not at all; I just moved back to Japan from England."
"England?" I loudly blurt it out before I can control myself. Eriol simply chuckles as I clap my hand over my mouth. Sure, the accent is a dead giveaway, but still.
"I get that reaction a lot."
"Sorry, it's just a bit of a shock. I could tell it was something European from the accent, but England... That's... Wow. Do you mind me asking why you transferred to a small town in Tomoeda?"
"Actually, I was born here." Well, that would explain the fluent Japanese. "I came back to Tomoeda because of a family matter."
"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to sound nosy." To lighten the mood, I quickly find myself saying, "You know, I had- well, actually, have- a friend who moved here from Hong Kong, and when he first got here he spoke almost fluently, but still had an accent. It went away after a while, though."
It's almost too bad. Syaoran's accent was absolutely adorable. Every so often we would say a word he didn't know the meaning of, too. He would get this confused look on his face as if we were all speaking a foreign language... Which, in a sense, we were. Although, according to Syaoran, he'd been learning to speak Japanese since he started going to school. Something about his mom wanting to expand Li Corporations to Japan one day. Not sure, though. Syaoran never really talked much about the business, and I never really thought to ask. We were too young for any of it to really matter, anyways.
"Interesting. I wouldn't mind meeting this friend of yours one day."
I'm not sure how to reply when suddenly there's a commotion from behind us. By the time I've turned around, Chiharu's hand is already on my wrist, pulling me away from the table.
"Chiharu?"
"This is getting insane. You're coming with me and eating lunch with everyone."
"What? Wait. What about Naoko?" I dig my heels into the ground. Chiharu stops and assesses the two other people at the table.
"You two come along as well." With that, she spins around and proceeds to drag me out of the library.
Naoko leaps to her feet and runs after us with a worried look on her face. Eriol looks curious and follows along behind Naoko with an amused smile playing at his lips.
"So, I take it she's a friend of yours," Naoko inquires as we are all led down the halls by Chiharu.
"You could say that."
"Are occurrences like this common here?" Eriol asks as he follows behind with a smile on his face.
"I assure you, this doesn't usually happen," Naoko says over her shoulder.
Next thing I know, we're in front of classroom 3-C with Chiharu throwing the door open and very dramatically pushing me inside.
"I've brought back our newest lunch-mate." She glances back at where Naoko and Eriol stand just outside the door. "And picked up two others along the way, apparently." She grabs my shoulders and steers me to where Tomoyo and Rika are sitting. Tomoyo and I lock eyes for a moment, then her gaze shifts to the door and I can see her tense up.
"No way," she mumbles, eyes wide.
"What?" I follow her gaze. Naoko and Eriol both stand inside the classroom watching the events unfold. Naoko looks confused, but Eriol seems to be looking at something with this surprised yet amused expression.
Hold up.
I follow Eriol's gaze. Then Tomoyo's. Then Eriol's again. They both have that look of recognition. My mind drifts back to what Tomoyo said this morning. A sense of sophistication. Blue eyes. English accent. No way! Could it be that Eriol is the guy Tomoyo was telling me about this morning? Is that even possible?
"What are we doing here?" Naoko asks, walking up to us and not noticing the looks being exchanged between my best friend and the new transfer student.
"I-it's you!" Tomoyo stutters out.
Looking over at Tomoyo and then to Eriol, Naoko seems to pick up on the exchange. "Do you two know each other?" she asks.
"Not exactly."
Eriol's slight surprise gives way to an earnest smile. He begins to walk towards my best friend. "So we meet again." He stops a few paces away from where the others sit. "I pray you aren't as troubled as the last time we crossed paths."
"I-I'm fine," Tomoyo says, staring up at him with a light blush across her cheeks.
"Wonderful. Pardon me, I should introduce myself." I watch, grinning like an teenage girl watching a romance movie, as Eriol kneels down on one knee in front of Tomoyo and takes her hand. "Hiiragizawa Eriol, my lady." He kisses her hand lightly. Tomoyo's face becomes red as a tomato.
This is so freaking adorable. I only just met Eriol, and I already approve.
"May I ask your name, miss?"
Flustered and stumbling over her words, Tomoyo manages to get out the words, "D-Daidouji Tomoyo."
"A pleasure, Daidouji-san." Eriol gives her a charming smile.
"Y-you can call me Tomoyo," she says with her head down.
"In that case, you may call me Eriol." With that, he rises back to his feet.
For a moment, the only noises made are from the other students in the room, who have all been watching our interactions since Chiharu threw the door open and dragged me into the room. Which reminds me, they really need to mind their own business... Although, then again, we are kind of making a scene. Chiharu is slamming things and shouting, and Eriol is going around acting like we're in the Elizabethan era or something. Did I get thrown into a Shakespearian play without my knowledge?
"Um... Well," Chiharu says, breaking the tense atmosphere. "I brought Sakura here to have lunch with us." She pulls me to her side again. Somehow I get the feeling she wants me to help her out by saying something. But, hey, she is the one who dragged me here against my will, without even telling me why.
"What's this all about, anyways?"
"Didn't I already tell you?" She looks innocently at me. Um, no. No, you didn't.
"I think you may have overlooked that minor detail."
"Oops. Well, anyways, I brought you here to eat lunch with us."
"Why?"
She starts to look uncomfortable. "I just figured," she says looking down at her feet, "that since we're all getting along together again and what not... And Tomoyo is your friend, too, but she only eats with us."
"Oh. Well, I actually usually meet up with Naoko in the library during lunch." How do I turn her down politely? I want to eat with her and everyone, but Naoko and I are getting along great, and I don't want to ruin our friendship. Then again, I don't want to turn down Chiharu's offer, either. For her to offer for me to eat lunch with everyone is something I never would've expected. If I do turn her down, I highly doubt she'll offer again.
"If that's the case, then why doesn't she just eat with us, too?" Chiharu turns to the studious girl who has been standing off to the side watching the display. "Do you want to join us?"
Naoko hesitates, looking unsure. "I don't want to be a bother."
"Not a bother at all!" Chiharu quickly assures her. "The more the merrier, right?"
"Oh, then sure. I'm Yanagisawa Naoko, by the way. You can just call me Naoko."
"In that case, you can call me Chiharu." She looks to Eriol. "Mihara Chiharu. Welcome to Tomoeda High." Then to both of them, she says with a bright smile, "Nice to meet you two!"
"Don't forget about the rest of us," Yamazaki calls from our left in the back row. Next to him, Syaoran observes the events unfolding, but remains silent. Noticing my eyes on him, he meets my gaze. For a moment we just stay like that, staring at each other, but I finally break away when I hear Rika speak.
"Well, I'm Sasaki Rika." To Naoko, she says, "We've actually met before. You helped me out when I first transferred here a few years back."
Recognition lights up Naoko's face. "I remember. It's nice to see you again. I take it you settled in alright?" She looks around at the rest of the people sitting around.
"Yes, thank you."
Naoko directs her attention to Tomoyo. "You said your name was Tomoyo?"
"Yes. Sakura is my best friend. Thank you for taking care of her." She bows her head.
"Tomoyo..." Does she really have to say it like that. "I'm not a child, you know." She waves me off.
"It's my pleasure." Naoko glances over at me and smiles. "She's wonderful company."
"Speaking of company..." I nearly jump out of my skin as Yamazaki suddenly appears before us.
"Ugh. Please, not again. I thought you were finally over this," Chiharu grumbles from my other side.
"Did you know that back in medieval times, it was considered to be good company if one brought as many lit candles with them as possible when visiting another's home? And the more candles the guest brought, the more welcomed they were."
"No, Takashi," Chiharu mumbles irritably. "We had no idea." Why is she saying that so sarcastically?
"Actually..." We all turn to find Eriol with a bright smile on his face, as usual, and a mischievous gleam in his eyes. "It proved to be quite problematic." Wait... What? Is this for real?
Back when we were younger, I used to always be the one who fell for Yamazaki's very extravagant stories; which, as it turned out, were all lies. Here I thought maybe this was another one, but if Eriol knows about it, too, then...
"The custom resulted in many fires. In order to appear as important guests, many people would balance as many candles as they could. They would balance them all the way up their arms, on their shoulders, and the daring ones would even sometimes have one or more placed on the top of their head." At this point all of us are gawking at him. Yamazaki included. "Unfortunately, many attempts to appease their hosts were utterly unsuccessful considering how many times the candles were dropped, and, as a result, there were many damages to people's homes."
A grin has been slowly forming on Yamazaki's face. "Yes, so it was soon forbidden to bring more than one candle when visiting someone's home." With the explanation complete, the six of us not involved in the telling of the tale all stare at the two, completely taken aback.
Leaning closer to Chiharu, I whisper in her ear, "Was that a true story, or another lie?"
All she can do is shake her head, mouth hanging slack.
In our stunned silence, the dark-haired boy introduces himself. "Yamazaki Takashi." He holds his hand out to Eriol, who takes it. "I have a feeling we're going to get along just fine."
"As do I," Eriol says with that same mischievous glint in his eyes.
There's another long silence that follows, but I quickly snap out of it and glance over at Syaoran, who is still sitting in the back with his cheek resting in the palm of his hand as he watches from a distance. Oh, no. He doesn't get to sit back and just watch.
Sidestepping past the others, I walk up beside Syaoran, who gives me a funny look. "You just gonna sit there, or are you going to introduce yourself?" I ask while facing the others. Chiharu glances over to us and smiles, tugging Yamazaki's uniform. Syaoran shoots me a sharp look, and I shrug. Yamazaki, however, takes over for me.
"Hey, don't just sit there. Introduce yourself!" Chiharu beckons him over, as well.
Reluctantly, Syaoran stands up. I have to take a step back to make room. He gives me another look of discontent before putting on a charming smile and walking over to the newcomers. I simply giggle. He really doesn't enjoy talking to new people, does he?
"Li Syaoran," he says in a gentleman's voice.
Walking up behind him, I watch Naoko's face light up. "Aren't you the one who's always in the top two for our class?" Syaoran gives a slow nod. "I knew it! Yanagisawa Naoko." She holds out her hand. "It's nice to finally meet my competition."
"It is. I'm a bit surprised that we haven't be before, though. You're the class president, are you not?" Leaning around Syaoran as he takes her hand, I see that his smile has given way to a more serious business look.
Naoko nods, seeming proud of the title and recognition. "I am."
As he lets go, Syaoran looks down at me and frowns as if to ask what I'm doing. I ignore him, and lean my weight against one of the desks to get a better view of everyone.
"Naoko, I don't know if I already told you, but Syaoran's the one who's been tutoring me." Her eyebrows rise.
"You didn't." She looks between us, appearing amused. To Syaoran, she says, "I've heard quite a bit about you."
This spikes his interest. He looks at me with that annoying smirk of his. "Have you?" he asks it while looking at me, but it's meant for Naoko.
Laughing, she replies, "Yes, I have. You certainly do have a way of getting under her skin." This only seems to make his smirk wider.
"You can say that again," Tomoyo says, giggling. I shoot her a dirty look.
"Yes, well, she doesn't always take too kindly to having me around." His gaze drifts back to me. "Although, then there was this morning." Rather than smirking, he smiles. The way he lifts up his arm and taps his index finger to his cheek makes it seem like he's a little embarrassed about it himself.
Remembering the events of this morning, I roll my eyes, trying to play down the fact that my cheeks are probably bright pink. At the time, a kiss on the cheek seemed like a small token of my gratitude. Then again, I probably just made him uncomfortable. I'm such an idiot.
"Oh!" Thankfully, I remember what I said to Eriol at the beginning of lunch. Turning to the blue-haired transfer student, I say, "Eriol, Syaoran is actually also my Chinese friend."
Syaoran raises his eyebrow giving me another teasing look. "How often do you go around talking about me?"
Blushing, I quickly say, "I don't! We were talking about Eriol's accent and it reminded me of when you first came to Japan." He doesn't look especially convinced.
"You did have an accent for a while," Yamazaki comments, earning himself a glare. Tomoyo and Chiharu nod in agreement, though.
Shaking his head, Syaoran turns back to Eriol. "It goes away eventually," he assures him.
There's a sharp intake of breath from somewhere to my left. Looking over, I see Tomoyo with a disappointed look on her face. It nearly makes me burst out laughing. Rika and I exchange a knowing look. Tomoyo totally has a crush on Eriol.
"Okay, now that we're all done with boring introductions, lets get back to eating!" Everyone starts to shift. Although, with all eight of us, it doesn't go too smoothly.
Syaoran turns around and steps back as I step forward. We bump awkwardly into each other. I quickly step back and try to go around him, only to have him go the same way. Seriously? He starts to step again, the same time as me. Okay, this has honestly never happened to me. I glare up at him.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to get back to my lunch."
I grind my teeth. At my expression, Syaoran rolls his eyes. Taking me by the shoulders, he turns us a full one hundred eighty degrees and then drops his hands.
Before either of us can step back, Chiharu suddenly says, "Okay, this might not work." She earns everyone's attention. "There's way too many of us and not enough space," she whines, clutching a desk to keep from falling over as she leans away to make room for everyone. "Does anyone know anywhere we could go that's a little less jam packed?"
Tomoyo, Rika and I all look at each other. "Actually," Rika begins with a delighted smile. "There is this one spot."
"It's super spacious," Tomoyo chimes in.
"And nobody else is ever there," I add.
"Then lead the way."
Grinning, I spin around, only to smack my face into Syaoran's chest again. "That time was entirely your own fault," he comments.
Glaring and shaking my head, I point behind him. He smirks and turns around, walking down the isle. From behind us, I can hear a few of the others giggling. Ignoring them, I scurry into the hall.
I wait a moment for everyone to mill out of the room before leading the way down the hall with Tomoyo and Rika close behind. Looking at everyone standing together, I have to admit that there's a lot of us. Eight in total. Kind of insane. I went from having lunch with one to two people at the the most, to having so many people that we can't all properly fit inside of a classroom without running into each other and making a ton of noise.
When we finally reach the roof, everyone clusters around the door, looking out at the empty space.
"Wow. Who would've guessed," Chiharu mumbles.
Beside her, Naoko asks, "Why isn't anyone up here? It's so nice."
I shrug. "Not sure. A lot of people don't know how to even get here, and those who do just don't. Kind of strange, but I try not to question it. It's a great view, after all." And it is. Really, the view up here is probably the best I know about. It's been a while since I was last up here, too. I almost forgot how relaxing it is.
"Well, it's perfect," Chiharu says, walking up beside me. I return her smile. Looking around at the many faces, new and old, around me, I have to admit... It really is perfect.
So there you have it. Chapter 18. Next chapter will probably focus on school life again. Sakura's family is going to be back, but not right away.
Oh, and that thing that Yamazaki was saying was totally random. Not at all true, of course. It's weird, I know, but I'm not very good at coming up with that sort of thing.
Anyways, see you again next chapter. Bye!