Chapter 19

Things were going well, until the week later. Mei started to come
home late again. She started to fall asleep on her homework, eat dozens of
powerbars, and cups of strong coffee. Every night, she would come home
exhausted, like she used all her energy. ¡§Mei, Mei!, MEI, MEI!¡¨ Syaoran,
Sakura, Yukito, Tomoyo, and Touya shouted (Touya and Syaoran agreed to
respect eachother, just for the sake of everybody).
¡§Huh?! Is it morning already?¡¨ Mei fell asleep in her lunch.
¡§What is up with you? This is the fifth time this week that you fell
asleep in your lunch!¡¨ Yukito cried.
¡§I¡¦m sorry. I¡¦m just tired.¡¨
¡§Come on, for the past few weeks you¡¦re acting like a zombie!¡¨ Touya
said.
¡§Syaoran, what¡¦s happening at you apartment?¡¨ Tomoyo asked.
¡§I dunno, she comes home late night and collapses on her bed.¡¨
Syaoran answered.
¡§Can you please tell us what¡¦s wrong?¡¨ Yukito asked.
¡§I¡¦m sorry everybody, for letting you worry about me. Just carry on
with your lives, I¡¦ll be better,¡¨ Mei apologized. Everybody sighed, nothing
can be done. Mei woud not tell them why she is very exhausted everyday.
Unfortunately, it got worse. Not only, did she come home late, now she had
bruises and cuts all over her body. ¡§Mei! Stop whatever you¡¦re doing!
Please! Look at you! You have cuts on your arms, and bruises on your
shoulders!¡¨ Yukito cried. He was holding her hands, and tears were falling
down his cheeks. He wrapped his arms around her waisted, and lifted her up
to his face. Then he kissed her affectionatly. When it ended, he whispered,
¡§Please Mei....I love you, and I don¡¦t want anything to hurt you.¡¨
¡§All right¡¨ and they kissed again. After that, Mei was back to normal.
There weren¡¦t anymore cuts, bruises, or coming home late nights. Her
injuries were healed completely. Monsters weren¡¦t attacking. It was two
weeks before summer vacation, and everybody¡¦s excited. ¡§Okay class, we
have an announcement!¡¨ Terada sensai said, ¡§It¡¦s almost summer. We all
know it¡¦s going to hot, so the teachers and I have decided to hold a
festival/competion at the Winter Wonderland that has just opened. We
decided to team up West Wing with Northwest for this celebration. The
students there and here are going to be waiters and waitresses just like last
year, and serve the adults cocoa and some delicacies. In the afternoon, there
will be a competition. Everybody will participate. We will group you into
sixes. Three from Northwest, and three from West Wing. While it¡¦s still
early, you can pick your teamates. Then you will be training in your physical
education class. When that is done, you shall compete eachother by
completing different tasks. The group with the most points will win a grand
prize. Each team mate will pick their prize of choice. At night we shall
announce the winners after the Winter Ball. Any questions?¡¨
¡§What kind of prizes?¡¨ Naoko asked.
¡§It¡¦s a secret¡¨
¡§What kind of tasks are there?¡¨ Rika asked.
¡§These are confidential. You may not know until the competition.¡¨ At
Northwest, Mei¡¦s class was having their surprise too. ¡§This winter festival
and competition¡¦s going to be fun!¡¨ Mei said.
¡§The question is, who¡¦s going to be in our team?¡¨ Yuktio asked.
¡§That¡¦s an easy question to answer. You, Mei, and me,¡¨ Touya said.
¡§No, the students at West Wing,¡¨ Yukito said.
¡§Sakura, Tomoyo, and Syaoran!¡¨ Mei shouted.
¡§HIM?¡¨
¡§For once, will you stop being such an overprotected brother? It¡¦s not
like he¡¦s gonna kill Sakura! He loves her. One day you¡¦re gonna have to let
her go. SO WILL YOU AT LEAST BE CIVILIZED FRIENDS?!¡¨ Mei
cried.
¡§She is right Touya. You need to let go of Sakura someday,¡¨ Yukiro
agreed. At lunch, Yukito, Touya, and Mei jumped over the fence to join
Tomoyo, Sakura, and Syaoran. ¡§Hi guys! Did you hear about the festitivities
that¡¦s going on?¡¨ Mei shouted.
¡§Yep! Hey, wait a minute. Why don¡¦t we all be a group! It¡¦ll be
perfect!¡¨ Sakura and Tomoyo said.
¡§One problem though,¡¨ Mei pointed at Touya and Syaoran.
¡§You¡¦re right, unless you guys start being friends, we¡¦ll never win the
competition!¡¨ Tomoyo sighed. That afternoon Syaoran went over to Sakura¡¦s
house. Touya answered the door. First, they started off with a Glaring
Contest. Then Touya grunted, ¡§What do you want? Sakura is at cheer
leading practice, and you know it.¡¨
¡§I came to see you¡¨
¡§Okay, how much did your sister pay you to do this?¡¨
¡§Fine, she made me do this.¡¨
¡§Knew it¡¨
¡§But then, I have to admit, we do need to get along.¡¨
¡§We might as well get this over with.¡¨ Syaoran stepped into the house.
Then both of them sat on the couch to talk. ¡§Okay, I know you love Sakura,
and so on and so forth. My question is, why do you hate me?¡¨ Touya asked.
¡§Hate is a strong word. I dislike you. You scowl everytime you see
me.¡¨
¡§You do too.¡¨
¡§Hey, you grunt, you frown, and you have Glaring Contests with me
everytime we meet. I especially disliked you when you kicked me out the
house.¡¨
¡§Did you have to be kissing Sakura when I went in the room?¡¨
¡§Did we actually knew you were going to come back early from your
part time job? There are times that I really disliked you, or just disliked
you,
but I don¡¦t hate you. A small part of me really wants to kick your butt, but
a
large part of me wants to be friends. We can put the past away, and start
fresh.¡¨
¡§Fine, I understand your attitude towards me. We can put the past
away, but I¡¦m still calling you brat.¡¨
¡§Eeerrrr <maybe it was the other way around. I really want to kick his
but, and I don¡¦t really want to be his friend.> fine, but why do you detest
me.
Is it just because of that one incident when we were in fourth grade?¡¨
¡§No, it was becuase you were going to take something that¡¦s very
valuable to me away.¡¨
¡§It¡¦s Sakura isn¡¦t it?¡¨
¡§Yeah¡¨
¡§Look, it¡¦s not like I¡¦m going to whisk her off to another country and
not let her see you again. Yes, it¡¦s tempting, but I would never do that
because I don¡¦t want Sakura to be sad. She can always visit you whenever
she wants.¡¨
¡§So truce?¡¨
¡§Three conditions¡¨
¡§What?¡¨
¡§1. You don¡¦t kick me out of the house unless Sakura agrees.¡¨
¡§Fine¡¨
¡§2. We don¡¦t do those glaring contests, we don¡¦t scowl eachother.¡¨
¡§Agreed¡¨
¡§3. You don¡¦t turn psycho and try to chop me into pieces with an ax
when Sakura stays over at my place for the night.¡¨
¡§WHAT?!¡¨
¡§That¡¦s the part of letting go of Sakura. You need to trust me.
Besides, Sakura is a tough girl. She could kick my butt anytime.¡¨
¡§All right, so what do you guys do there?¡¨
¡§Well, we do our homework. Actually, I usually finish my homework
quickly and help Sakura with her math. We laugh, read, have a snack, and
take walks in the park.¡¨
¡§So no big make out sessions?¡¨
¡§Actually, it¡¦s really none of your business to know what we ¡¥do¡¦
really.¡¨
¡§Maybe we should hang out sometime, or get to know eachother.¡¨
¡§Fine by me.¡¨ Now, upstairs in the very corner was Mei and Sakura
watching their brothers settle things out. ¡§I guess it¡¦s worth it to skip
cheer
leading practice to see this.¡¨
¡§This conversation is worth a million bucks. Good thing I recorded it.¡¨
Mei said.
¡§You are beginning to make me believe that not only are you
Syaoran¡¦s older sister, but you¡¦re also Tomoyo¡¦s older sister. I mean, you
record almost every single ordeal we¡¦ve had.¡¨
¡§Well you know me, I just enjoy recording all the cute scenes.¡¨