` & Blue Music & `
by Hyon-Bae
Disclaimer ; I claim no ownership over Ouran. Only over my character (Aoi Umiori). And half ownership over Kazuo Umiori (her father) and Rei Umiori (her mother) due to relation with Ayanokoji.
`Chapter 1` The Swap
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I heard my mother slam the phone back on the receiver, causing me to get up off the couch and head into the kitchen to find out why.
"That was your father," she sighed.
"Yeah? What'd he want?" The divorce between my parents was a quiet one. My sister wanted to stay with my father after the whole fuss about child custody and I wanted to stay with my mother. Needless to say, in dealing with my father, my mother and I had a zero-tolerance relationship with him; we stay out of his life, he stays out of ours.
"Ayanokoji wants to live here. She doesn't like the school."
I knew my mother wasn't exactly fond of Ayanokoji, but she was still her mother. I didn't understand my mother's anger over the phone call, so there had to be a catch.
"He wants a temporary trade. If he pulls her out now, he said it will harm his reputation." The spite in her tone wasn't hard to notice.
My eyebrows furrowed. "What? So I have to be her until the end of the year? What about my school? Did he ever think about my life?"
"No, he said you could be yourself. He just needed one of his daughters attending. Your year's almost over. Plus if you don't go through with this, he said he'd bring up another custody battle in court. Can you do this just for a year or two? For me?"
Great. The whole, "for me?" deal. She's my mother, and she's done a lot for me; she also had to put up with my father for fourteen years.
"Would me going there really be the best thing to do?" I asked, an irritated sigh leaving my mouth.
"For the moment ... yes."
I looked away from my mother's half pleading look, to quickly gather my thoughts. I really didn't have much to leave behind here, so, how bad could it be?
"Alright," I said returning to her, "I'll do it."
... ... ...
I've never flown first class before. Nor had I been picked up in a limo. Honestly, not such bad experiences. And sadly, it isn't shocking that my dad was paying for all of this just to keep a flawless reputation. It made me think of why he and my mother split up. I can completely understand why. They would argue every night on the most ridiculous things. And sometimes he'd be more violent than necessary. What really ticked my mother off was that he was only violent with me and her. Never had he raised a hand at Ayanokoji, she was the prize daughter of the family.
When I got to my father's house, he wasn't there. One of the maids let me in, said that everything I needed for school would be in my room.
When I entered my old room, nothing had changed out of the four years I'd been gone. It still had all of my stuffed animals neatly arranged in front of the elaborate pillows, some old family photos here and there, and the big picture I painted of what could only be determined as a rainbow with a mermaid under it tacked to the ceiling. However, in the closet was the most dorky yellow dress. Attached to the hanger was a small note: Ouran Uniform.
I scoffed. There was no way in hell anyone would get me in that piece of dying dandelions. It's an over-expensive prep school right? I'll just say I couldn't afford it. My father's never home, so there's no way for him to object.
Unpacking took me about half an hour. Mostly because I was looking around my old room at all of my things.
The maid came in to tell me dinner was ready, and that my father wouldn't be home until late.
As I ate alone, I wondered about my mom and how Ayanokoji as settling in. The maid, whose name was Suzumi, told me that my father wanted to take me to school the next day, that he wanted to personally give me a tour.
I'll admit, that surprised me. Him taking a whole day away from work to tour me around a giant school? Made me curious about how the day would play out. I mean he was the one who severed all emotional ties between the family. Was he now trying to fix it?