Disclaimer: I do not own Card captor Sakura or any of its characters and places. It's all Clamps'. I just own the story I made up.

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It All Began With A Dream

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Chapter Eighteen: The hard life of a student

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The first period was English: a language Syaoran had never experienced.

Seeing everyone around him comfortable with what the teacher was saying, he began to panic slightly, sweat drops slowly rolling down his shirt, and he fumbled numbly the pages of the book Li had lent him. He had studied them countless number of times, trying to recognise a sign he could use to understand the rest, but he knew his search was useless since it wasn't Japanese. The printed characters weren't in an alphabet he had never seen.

He swallowed hard and looked again around him, seeking the help of someone, but everybody was silently concentrating on their reading.

He spotted the teacher, coming in is direction, and he quickly hid his nose in his book, to make her believe he was reading. The lady stayed by him for a moment and coked an eyebrow when she saw him read from right to left and turn the left page, but she paid no heed to her suspicions and continued to patrol between the desks.

Syaoran swallowed again, almost choking on his own saliva and earning a quizzical look from Kinomoto, who had turned when she heard him moan in agony, and saw him make weird faces.

He tried desperately to make her understand he could not understand a single letter from her book, but the teacher caught him and called his name loudly, making all the other students raise their head to look at him.

"Well, Mr. Shaolan, it seems you've finished reading already. Could you stand up and read the three first pages aloud for us?" she said, a strange spark glowing in her eyes.

Syaoran's heart skipped a beat and the boy closed his eyes, hoping with all his might that it was only a nightmare and that when he'd open his eyes, everything would be back to normal, in his world, with his friends, and no other him or horrid school.

Sadly, nothing had changed when he opened an eye to give the room a circular look. The students were still staring at him with the same blank expression. The teacher was still expecting him to stand up and read the three pages she had ordered him to. Kinomoto was still looking at him with a sorry look. Li was still bent on his paper, probably too embarrassed by his pretended 'cousin' to even look at him. As for Hiiragizawa and Daidouji, they were whispering to each other.

Ever so slowly, Syaoran stood up, heat creeping to his face making him as if he had caught fire. A sweat drop came rolling down his collar, giving him the creeps and he forced himself not to shiver.

He was now all up. He looked down to his book and then back to the teacher, and again to his book. Maybe he would be able to read it after doing that. But no, it was still the same odds letters with rounds and straights and angles and he had no idea what they meant.

He stared insanely at the closed door, wishing to run away from this place and that heavy atmosphere and the old hag, and be free.

"We're waiting" hissed the teacher, folding her eyes behind her square-glasses.

'It's now or never' thought the standing amber-eyed boy helplessly, and he inhaled deeply, decided to confront the shame of not knowing how to read.

But not a sound managed to pass his dry lips, since Li had stood up and interrupted him. He stared at his counterpart with wide eyes, wondering what he was going to do.

"I'm sorry Mrs.Nakishawa, but my cousin here is quite shy, and I would be glad if you wouldn't bother or interrogate him during his first day in our class. Thank you." Li said slowly, detaching every word to make sure she understood the meaning under his words that if she didn't obey him, she'd have some problems with his family, and he sat back on his chair, giving her a challenging glare, which she returned with a poisonous gleam.

Luckily for Syaoran, she told him to sit down and ordered the class to continue with their reading. The amber-eyed boys exchanged a glance, Syaoran thanking him from the tip of his lips and Li smiling in return somehow shyly.

The end of the lesson passed smoothly for the amber-eyed boy, since the lady was letting him be.

When the bell rang, announcing the short fifteen-minutes break until the next period, and right after the teacher left the room, Syaoran found himself surrounded by the entire class, shooting questions at him, like arrows, too fast for him to even understand them all. Yet again, Li came to his help and shooed his comrades away to give his poor counter-part some air to breath.

"One at the time please…" he said, giving everyone around a glare.

But no one listened to him, and they all began to speak at the same time.

"Where are you from?" asked a glassed girl with short dark hair.

"Why do you look so much like Li?" said a tall brown headed boy.

"Are you really his cousin?"

"Do you like chocolate?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Where do you live?"

"Are you a good student?"

"How many languages can you speak?"

Syaoran felt his head starting to spin lightly.

"Ummm…" was the only word he managed to get out of his mouth.

Why were people in this world so curious? Most of all, he couldn't answer at least half of the questions. For example, what would he say he was from? HE simply couldn't say he came from a different dimension. Or could he? Maybe it wasn't especially weird to come from different dimensions in this world. After all, Li, Hiiragizawa and the others didn't seem surprised at all when they discovered his provenance. Well, maybe a little, but not as much as him when he found out he was not in his own world anymore.

"He's from Hong Kong." said Li, getting Syaoran out of his thoughts. "Haven't you heard the teacher Yanagizawa-san? And yes he's really my cousin, that's why we look so much alike, Yamazaki-kun."

"Hey Syaoran-kun" began Yamazaki.

"Yes?" answered the two amber-eyed boys at the same time, earning the curious looks of their classmates.

"Ah, sorry, our name is almost the same so I thought you were calling me…" gulped Syaoran, expecting them to believe him and scratching the back of his head uneasily. "So, to answer your questions, I speak two languages, Chinese and Japanese, I'm not sure whether I'm a good student or not, only time will tell, yes, I like chocolate, and no, I don't have a girlfriend. Well, I have some female friends but I'm not going out with any…"

He had tried to change subject, and it worked wonderfully. Thus, the last comment made half of the girls around him shriek excitedly, and the started to whisper and giggle to each other.

They continued to ask him some more questions, which he tried to answer fairly, but without giving any hints, not to make them suspicious about his real world. Li had told him to not talk about things he didn't know, like 'cars' or 'heir-plain'.

Eventually, they all went back to their seat, as soon as the first bell rang. It was now time for the second lesson of the day, and then there would be the 'lunch break', as Kinomoto had told him.

Surprisingly, the end of the mathematic lesson cam very quickly. Every student, save for our five pals, rushed to the door, anxious to exit the heavy atmosphere after two hours of resolving problems with leaking bathtubs. Syaoran gathered the scattered sheets of paper he had used, and walked to where his friends were, so they could go and eat.

"Hey Syaoran—I mean, Shaolan-san—How come you're so good in maths?" Asked Kinomoto, who was walking beside him.

But Syaoran himself didn't even know he was excellent at resolving mathematical problems, or knew any kind of theorem, for he couldn't remember if he had already gone to school in his world. But when he found the paper with all the problems written on it, it had seemed like a light went on in the back of his mind, and he realised he understood how to do them.

He had even impressed the teacher when he had been asked to the blackboard to answer something.

Li, at this time had almost risen in his seat to save him from the embarrassment of the unknown, but got cut short by his counter-part that had already stood up and went to the front of the class. The entire class' breath had been caught in their throat when he exposed his brilliant theory, and the amber-eyed boy felt awkwardly proud of himself, especially when Kinomoto and Daidouji sent him an impressed glance.

The five of them sat under the cherry blossom tree, where they had had their reunion that same morning, but before they could take their bento, or any other type of food, out, they got disturbed by a bunch of giggling girls in short skirts and belly-button-uncovering shirts that came toward them.

"Heeeeeeey Syao-kun" said one of the girl in a trailing tone, as she sat beside Li, pushing Kinomoto out of the way, and cuddled to him. "Present me to you little cousin theeeeeeere. Pleeeeeeeeease."

At this, both Syaoran and Li became very flushed. Li tried to push the girl away, eyeing Kinomoto whose face was turned away, maybe from embarrassment, but mostly from anger and jealousy.

Two other giggling girls sat near Syaoran and tried to hug him, but he avoided them the best he could.

For the next ten minutes, the entire gang tried to get rid of those girls. One of them had even tried to flirt with Hiiragizawa, but had been violently pushed away by a frustrated Daidouji.

They all sighed heavily when they saw their back turned to them, though they still sent them seductive glances over the shoulder, winking at the boys and sending them flying kisses.

Syaoran sweat dropped. In his world, those kind of girls were called—

"Were those girls prostitutes?" He whispered to Li, who had begun to eat his rice.

The boy started to choke on a grain and had to drink one or two glasses full of water to calm down.

"In a way yes, they are" he answered before cracking up again.

"Actually," added Hiiragizawa who was also laughing, but less than Li, "Those girls call themselves the 'elite'. Of what, I don't know—"

"Of the sluts probably" interrupted Daidouji, smiling like crazy, causing an laughing uproar from the two boys "They have been harassing Li-kun since the beginning of the school year. Maybe it's because he's so cute"

She winked at Kinomoto who let a small 'hoe' escape her lips and blushed along with Li.

"Nevertheless," continued the raven-haired girl "they seem to have set their claws on poor Sya—Shaolan-kun—now. Beware…"

And with that, she returned to her bento, the others following her example, leaving Syaoran bewildered.

Soon enough, the bell rang and they went back to class. The afternoon passed smoothly, as no other incident occurred. Syaoran found himself somehow already used to the school life.

When it was finally time to go home, the little gang decided to go over at Kinomoto's to have dinner. She had told them that her dad was okay with that and had agreed to prepare the meal. Her brother, Touya ('Do Sakura have a brother in our world too?' had wondered Syaoran), was sleeping over to his friend, a certain Yukito, so they wouldn't meet him.

Since it was already the middle of April, it was getting quite hot, and when small party passed by a colourful shop whose name: Ice Cream Parlour, was hung by bright pink strings, they naturally entered it to buy something refreshing. Syaoran found this a good idea, although he had no clue on what an Ice Cream was.

They all sat down at a table and a perky waitress with a white ribbon in her hair came to take their order. Kinomoto told her "Strawberry", Daidouji: "Vanilla", Hiiragizawa: "Pistachio", and Li said "Chocolate".

Then the perky girl turned to him with a questioning look.

Not knowing what to do or say, he felt a rush of panic rushing though his veins. What were they talking about? Vanilla…Strawberry… Were those code words or what? And what on earth was an ice cream!

The waitress started to get impatient and sent him a piercing look full of boredom.

"Huh…huh…" the amber-eyed boy looked around, seeking help from his friends, but they were chatting, indifferent to his misery. "Chocolate!" he finally said, saying the first thing he had in mind that was edible.

The lady nodded and wrote something on the little notepad she had, before turning round to tell the orders to a man behind a bar.

A few minutes later, she came back with five bowls and dealt them, one to each of the five. Kinomoto got a pink one, Daidouji a white-yellowish, Hiiragizawa a green, and the two amber-eyed boys got a brown.

Syaoran threw a disgusted look to the brown and wet thingy at the bottom of his dish. It badly reminded him of something you don't want to think of, especially when you're eating…

The others didn't seem disturbed by such a futile detail, and after saying 'Itadakimasu' they happily dug in.

Syaoran sent a side glance to his counter-part that looked to be quite enjoying his so-called 'Ice Cream'. The boy bent down and carefully sniffed the brown ball. It smelled like chocolate. How weird. He picked up his spoon and nudged the thing. It was soft, and there was some of it that stayed on the spoon. He licked it and found out it tasted really good and creamy. Furthermore, it was refreshing, and that felt so good that he took a mouthful of it and swallowed.

Uh oh… That was the wrong thing to do.

Immediately, Syaoran regretted his action for he felt a huge rush of icy feeling creep up by his nose and between his eyes to finally reach his brain and cause him terrible pain. It was as if he had plunged his head into a bucket full of snow, and then in the lighted hearth of a fireplace.

His hand dropped the spoon and shot to his head in a 'clap'. He started to pant. He wanted that pain to leave him. He had never experienced something so dreadful! It was so painful it made him want to roll on the floor. He had shut his eyes tight, in a desperate but vain try to ease the hurting, so he couldn't see his friends getting worried to see him in such a state. They were calling out his name, asking if he was alright, but it seemed that he had locked himself up in a world of pain and anguish.

Eventually, he calmed down a bit, after drinking in two gulps the glass of water the waitress had hurriedly brought him a while ago. The entire adventure left him with a throbbing headache and a fear of eating too much ice cream at a time.

"Don't worry," had said Hiiragizawa patting his back "It's just a brain-freeze. Something you get when you eat or drink something cold too fast. Am I right if I say it was your first time eating Ice Cream? I'm surprised you didn't even ask us what it was."

"Really Syaoran-san" added Kinomoto trying to look severe, but failing miserably "If you want to know something, just ask. You're gonna get killed one day if you don't, there no shame to have if you don't know something."

The chestnut-haired boy sent a meaningful look to his double, remembering the scowl he had had that morning about not asking silly questions like what an 'heir-plain' was.

(A.N: Hello everyone! I hope you had a merry christmas and a happy new year. Sorry you had to wait for so long for that update, but I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about when I'll say I had a major writer block. I think (and hope) that it's over now, so I'll try to write more often. So you know, we'll see Eriol again in the next chappie... (yay) Do you think it's fun the way Syaoran discovers the things we know so well in our time, and that he has never heard of in his world? I want to put the T.V next time.

I think that's all I needed to say... Fearing I'll repeat myself, If you have any ideas or suggestions you would like to see in this story, please tell me!

Best wishes, so, 'till next time, this has been Suohfei)