Welcome to the S.O.S. Brigade website! We search for the existence of aliens, espers, time travellers and other freaky phenomena. The world is filled with mysteries and we are here to solve it!

Avery Shimizu loved the paranormal. She spent a great deal of her spare time reading up on alien encounters, learning the procedures of ghost hunting and researching the theory behind time travel. So when she came across the website for the S.O.S. Brigade one night, she was definitely intrigued.

She was surprised to find that it was a club actually based at her school, North High. Her mother had been pestering her lately to join in with some extracurricular activities. Avery knew she was right. She was such a wallflower at school – she really needed to make friends and get involved a bit more.

The S.O.S. Brigade. A club that actively searched for supernatural goings-on. She couldn't have asked for a more perfect club.

After perusing the site a bit more, she found that the club was hosted in the old literary clubroom. She knew where that was. And now she knew what she was going to be doing after school tomorrow. She closed her laptop, feeling positive and uncharacteristically decisive.

XXX

This was it – the old literary club. Avery hesitated outside the door before finally rapping her knuckles firmly on the wooden frame. If she didn't do this now, then she was going to continue to be just as shy and unsociable later on in life.

Inside the clubroom, the S.O.S. Brigade members, except for Yuki, exchanged confused glances. Everybody there was accounted for. Who on earth could be knocking? Even Haruhi looked briefly confused, though of course, her vigorous attitude quickly replaced that.

"Kyon, get the door!" she ordered.

"Why do I have to do it?" protested Kyon. Haruhi always made him do everything – from shopping for supplies to paying everyone's lunch bill.

"Because I'm the club leader and I said so!" barked Haruhi.

It was a stupid point, but Kyon knew that arguing with Haruhi was always going to be futile. With a sigh, he reluctantly got to his feet and made for the door. When he opened it, he found a petite girl with long, strawberry blonde hair reaching almost to her knees.

"Are you lost?" asked Kyon. It was the only reasonable explanation he could think of for why some strange girl would be knocking on the door of their clubroom.

"Erm, I was looking for the S.O.S. Brigade," said Avery hesitantly. She was then met by stares, making her question if she really had come to the right room after all.

Unsurprisingly, it was Haruhi who broke the silence. "And what exactly do you want with the S.O.S. Brigade?" she asked, half suspicious and half curious. Even she was confused by the surprise visitor.

"Well... I was kinda hoping I could join," replied Avery awkwardly.

If she thought they'd been staring at her before, it was nothing compared to now. You could have heard a pin drop. Avery felt uncomfortable. Was it really that weird that somebody new wanted to join their club? Were they discriminating against her in some way? This was why she'd always avoided making the first step towards friendships with new people.

Haruhi got up from her chair and stalked over towards the door. Avery had to fight the urge to take a wary step back – she wasn't sure what it was, but this girl came across as very intimidating. "You really wanna join the S.O.S. Brigade?"

"Erm, yeah... If that's okay?" said Avery, still feeling awkward. Maybe they weren't going to let her join.

What she didn't expect was for the girl to explode into a tornado of excitement. "That's more than okay. That's perfect!" She grabbed Avery's arm and dragged her forcibly into the room.

"Hey, wait..." protested Avery, but Haruhi didn't even seem to hear her.

"Normally, we interview people first and we make them take a test," Haruhi jabbered. "But in this case, we'll make an exception and let you join free of charge!"

"What are you talking about? You don't interview anybody; you just kidnap strangers and force them to join," Kyon pointed out. "And we definitely don't charge anybody – that doesn't even make sense!"

Haruhi ignored him, like always. She was practically dragging Avery round in circles, trying to decide where to get her to sit. "Here, you can sit next to Mikuru! Kyon, you'll have to go and get another chair if you want to sit down."

Kyon sighed again. Of course, Haruhi would give away his chair and not her own.

"Oh, it's okay, I don't want to take your seat or anything," Avery apologised quickly, as she was forcibly plonked into the empty seat next to a younger girl with long hair. She felt quite dizzy after being pulled all the way around the room. What kind of club was this?

"It's okay, don't worry," said Kyon with a casual wave of his hand. He was just going to blame Haruhi anyway. "I'll go get another chair."

"You could sound a bit more enthusiastic about it!" Haruhi shouted after his retreating back. "We have a new club member! You should be excited!"

She then started to jabber introductions, which Avery couldn't keep up with at all. She spoke so fast. All she was able to distinguish from her spiel was that she was the club leader – no surprise there – and that her name was Haruhi Suzumiya. The boy she'd called Kyon soon returned, carrying an extra chair, just as Haruhi was convincing Avery to move her seat closer to the girl sat beside her.

"See? You could almost be Mikuru's older sister!" she exclaimed happily.

"How did you work that one out?" asked Kyon, raising an eyebrow. He couldn't see any similarities between the two, besides the fact that they were both girls and both had long, light-coloured hair. The basis of Haruhi's declaration seemed quite thin.

"Duh, because their hair's nearly the same colour!" said Haruhi, like the reason was obvious.

"Well, if you go by that logic, then that would mean that we look like we're related too," said Kyon sarcastically.

"Now you're just being stupid. We don't look anything alike!"

As they continued their debate over Haruhi's poorly made point, Avery looked desperately towards the other club members for some sign of normality. The girl named Mikuru was busy watching Haruhi nervously – she seemed fearful of the attention being turned on her again. The girl sat across from them had her nose in a book and didn't seem to have even realised that there was a new person in the room.

The boy sat next to the girl with the book was also watching the debate like Mikuru was, but with a cheerful look on his face. He looked familiar – Avery must have seen him around school. When he noticed Avery looking at him, he gave her a friendly smile. "Believe it or not, this is actually pretty ordinary for us."

Avery wasn't sure if his words were comforting or not, but at least it seemed like Haruhi was the only crazy one here. She smiled back, trying to seem at ease. "Well, I guess I chose an interesting club to join at least."

"You're in class nine, right?"

"Err, yeah," said Avery, surprised.

"Me too." The boy smiled again and held out his hand across the desk. "I'm Itsuki Koizumi."

That was why she recognised him. The realisation made Avery feel a little ashamed. She really was a hermit – she kept to herself so much that she couldn't even place her own classmates. Well, this was what she was here to change. She wasn't going to be a wallflower for the rest of her life.

As if proving that thought to herself, she took Itsuki's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Avery Shimizu."

The exchange seemed to recapture Haruhi's attention, because she was suddenly right in front of Avery's face. "Avery? That's so pretty!"

"Oh. Thanks," said Avery, remembering to smile. She wasn't really used to compliments. She was much more used to being ignored.

Haruhi was still inspecting her closely. "Hmm... I do still think you look like you could be Mikuru's sister. But you don't have big boobs like she does, so maybe that wouldn't work after all."

"Erm, what?" Avery stared at her in surprise, feeling a light blush colour her cheeks. What did her figure have to do with anything?

"Just look at her! She's totally cute and she has amazing boobs!" exclaimed Haruhi, pulling Mikuru's arms up to keep her from hiding her chest. Mikuru protested and tried to squirm out of her grip. "That's why she's our mascot. But don't worry, we'll find a use for you too!"

"A use?" repeated Avery nervously.

"Yeah! Yuki's the bookworm and Koizumi's the mysterious exchange student," explained Haruhi enthusiastically, indicating the two students that were sat opposite Avery. "And Kyon's just the dogsbody."

"Well, at least you realise you always make me do all the grunt work," Kyon grumbled, which Haruhi ignored.

"But I'm sure we can think of an exciting role for you," she promised Avery.

"Oh, you don't have to..." started Avery, but Haruhi just continued to ramble on, unaware that Avery had even said anything. She'd only wanted to try and become a bit more sociable. She'd thought this had seemed like the perfect club for her, but what on earth had she actually gotten herself into?

Eventually, Haruhi seemed to pull herself together. "So what made you want to join the S.O.S. Brigade? Did you hear about how awesome we were?"

Kyon coughed loudly, in a poor attempt to conceal the words, "Yeah right."

Avery tried not to let that put her off. "Well, I saw the website for it and it said about aliens and espers and time travellers... And, erm, I dunno. I just thought that sounded kinda cool," she finished lamely.

What she really wanted was to be as enthusiastic as Haruhi and gush over how fascinating she found anything to do with the paranormal. But with everyone's eyes on her, she couldn't pluck up that much courage. Hopefully, in time, she could show more of that enthusiasm.

Luckily, Haruhi didn't seem to find her answer lame at all. Instead, she beamed at her. "That's fantastic! Well, you've definitely come to the right place; I'm sure you'll fit in here! Right, guys?"

She turned to the others, who took it as their cue to respond. "That's right," agreed Itsuki cheerfully – the smile had never left his face.

Haruhi then looked to Yuki. "Right, Yuki?"

The quiet girl didn't even look up from her book. "Right," she responded monotonously.

"Mikuru?" Haruhi prompted. The younger girl jumped when she heard her name. "Isn't that right?"

"Err, yes. I mean, right," she stammered in a soft voice.

"I told you!" Haruhi beamed again, her attention back to Avery. "Congratulations, you're now an official member of the S.O.S. Brigade!"

Avery noticed that Haruhi hadn't asked Kyon for his agreement, like she had with the others. She gave him a questioning look and he simply shrugged. "Welcome to the asylum."