Chapter 1:
Wow, was the only word that came to my mind as I passed through the tall, wide doors of Ouran Academy. I had been there before, when my dad and I were finishing the paperwork to enroll me in classes, but the school had been empty then. Now, with hundreds of students filling the beautiful halls, everything was twice as impressive. The fancy staircases, fit for a palace. The giant, glittering chandelier above me. The stunning paintings lining the walls and ceiling. After the initial sense of wonder had left me, the only natural thought that could follow was, How did I end up here?
Looking around at this magnificent school, and then looking at my reflection in the perfectly polished tile floor, made me feel even more out-of-place than I already was. But there I was, with my short, ragged brown hair, dorky glasses, old sweater, and baggy pants. And I wasn't the only one noticing the striking contrast I brought into this rich world. As I stood in the entryway, I felt their heads turning towards me, their eyes judging me. A small part of me wanted to turn around and go back out that golden doorway, but the sensible part of me remembered why I came to Ouran: I wanted to be a lawyer, just like my mother. And Ouran offered the best education I could get. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, silently asked my mother to wish me luck, and started walking.
As I made my way to my first class, I saw similar sights. More beautiful hallways, more paintings, more stairs. It amazed and angered me to think that all of these students had houses that looked like this. Damn rich people.
Maybe I should have given them more credit for being used to all this. It was only a few minutes before I was completely lost. Sighing, I leaned up against the wall (hoping I wasn't wrecking the artwork on it with my horrible fashion sense), opened my bag, and started searching for my map. I had almost found it when I heard a cheerful, high-pitched voice to my right.
"Do you need help?"
I turned toward the sound, then took a step back in surprise when I saw a six-foot-tall figure who did not even come remotely close to fitting the voice I just heard.
The tall boy spoke again. "Are you lost?"
I looked up at his face to realize that it was not this boy who was talking at all, but rather the small, blond boy on his shoulders. What the hell is an elementary school kid doing here, and why does he have a high school uniform?
"Uh, yeah, I'm looking for room 279."
"Oh! That's up those stairs over there, then go straight, and it's the third room on the left, right?" the short kid asked, and the tall boy grunted in agreement, his face expressionless.
"Ok, thanks," I said, amazed that an elementary school boy knew his was around the high school so well.
"You're welcome!" he said with a giggle. As I packed up my stuff and headed in the direction he pointed, the tall boy seemed to smile at me. But maybe it was just my imagination. Well, if they can fit in at this school, maybe my being here isn't so crazy.
Finally, I found my classroom. I took an empty seat in the back, next to two boys playing a game-boy. On a second look, I realized they were twins. Since I had nothing better to do in the five minutes before class started, I decided to entertain myself by trying to find as many differences between them as I could. After one or two minutes, the only one I had found was that they parted their hair on opposite sides.
Unfortunately, the twin who brushed his bangs to the left noticed me staring at them. He whispered something to his brother, and they looked at me, smirking. Great. I sunk lower in my chair as they stood up and approached my desk.
"What do you want?" they asked in perfect unison.
"Hey, I'm not going around sticking my nose into other people's business, so I'd appreciate it if you'd stay out of mine."
'Oh, really?' said the one on the right. 'Then why were you-' '-staring at us?' finished the one on the left.
"I...wanted to see what game you were playing," I lied, pointing at the game-boy.
"Hah. To think we would let a filthy commoner play our expensive games!"
"Fine! Then I don't want to play your stupid game!" I spat, standing up to face them.
"Well, you're real tough, aren't you?" 'You wanted to play a game?' 'We'll let you play our favorite one.' "It's called the 'Which One is Hikaru Game!'"
I stood, glaring at them as they explained the rules: "Figure out which one of us is Kaoru, and which one of us is Hikaru. You have to tell us you reason, and you can't just guess! And let us warn you, no one has ever won this game."
I rolled my eyes. This is the stupidest game I've ever heard! But, just to humor them, I played anyways. "The one on the left is Kaoru, and the one on the right is Hikaru," I stated, pointing to the boys respectively.
"Uh-oh, you got it wrong!" they practically sang.
"Yeah, sure. I bet I really did get it right and you're just messing with me."
The twins turned their eyes in towards each other for a moment, sending each other telepathic messages, then spoke again.
'Fine,' began Kaoru. 'But you still-'
'-have to give us a reason,' finished Hikaru.
"What reason? I just met you! Obviously I guessed."
"We told you, NO GUESSING. Too bad, you lose!"
"Fine. I never wanted to play your stupid game anyways," I muttered to myself as the three of us returned to our seats for class.
When the teacher reached my name in roll, I saw out of the corner of my eye the twins looking over at me, the smirks reappearing on their faces. I jerked my head over in their direction, prepared to give them a death stare, but they had already turned back to the front of the room, trying to seem innocent. This is going to be a long day. I did my best to stay focused on the algebra problems we were doing, but every few minutes I heard two voices whispering, "Haruhi," as their stone cold eyes drilled holes in my head.
Finally, the longest sixty minutes of my life were over, and I couldn't have been more anxious to get out of that classroom. As I began to stand up, I noticed that Hikaru and Kaoru had already gotten up and were headed toward my desk. I grabbed my bag and started heading for the door, but I heard them behind me, saying, "Wait up, Haruhi."
I rushed out of the room and down the hall, not paying much attention to where I was going. I probably should have. After I turned the first corner I found myself crashing straight into another student, spilling his books onto the floor and knocking his glasses off his face.