Tap... Tap... Tap...
The three different people walked towards each other. None of them knew it, but this meeting on the first day of school was to trigger an event that would affect them the rest of their lives.
Tap... Tap... Tap...
One boy excited for the year to start, the other wondering how it was going to end. The sole girl focused mainly on how she would get through it.
Tap... Tap... Tap...
The footsteps got more urgent as each of the people checked their watches and saw how close they were to being late. They picked up the pace, bowling down the halls almost at a run.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Crash.
The three all collapsed on the floor, having bumped into each other right in front of their classroom.
"Ouch..." The one girl rubbed the back of her head as she got up, scowling at the others. "Can't you idiots look where you're going?"
The blonde of the group jumped up immediately and took the girl's hand. "I apologize, my princess. Have I seen you here before? I don't remember seeing such a beautiful face before - you must be new! My name is Tamaki Suoh, and yours...?"
The girl snatched her hand out of the taller boy's grip. "Kuri Masachika. Nice to meet you again, Suoh. Who are you, Specs?" She directed her last question to the bespectacled dark-haired boy who was yet to speak.
"Kyouya Ootori. Pleased to meet you, Miss Masachika."
Tamaki looked at the girl with a puzzled expression on his face. "You've met me before? I don't remember..."
"It was when we were young. I ripped off your stupid little teddy bear's arm, remember?" Kuri tried to prod his brain back to those times.
"Oh!" Tamaki's face instantly lit up. "Kuri-chan!" He cried, leaping onto her.
"I think not," the girl muttered, grabbing him by the shoulder and bracing herself as they both slid a few feet. "No leaping on me, Suoh, ok? And no -chan,-rin, or anything of the sort, got it?"
"Okay, Kuri! So, what brings you to Ouran?" Tamaki immediately started to chatter as the three entered the classroom. Kyouya stared at the dark girl who was arm in arm with Tamaki. The blonde had never mentioned her for as long as Kyouya had known him - yet, in a few minutes, he, Kyouya Ootori, had be replaced. Kyouya would never admit to being jealous of the girl; rather, he was curious as to how close she was with Tamaki even though they hadn't met for years.
"One minute, Suoh," Kuri murmured, slipping away from him and to the teacher's desk. She leaned over and whispered something to which the teacher nodded quickly and pointed to something in her book.
"You'll still be placed in the same order alphabetically, though, see? That's alright?" The teacher asked, looking almost worried.
"That's fine, thank you," Kuri replied quietly, walking back to the two boys. "Well, Specs, looks like I'm stuck behind you for the rest of the year."
"Excuse me?" Kyouya wasn't used to anyone being so comfortable talking with him just a few moments after meeting him.
"My seat is behind yours," Kuri explained slowly, punctuating her words with a jabbing point towards the seats.
"I see." Kyouya responded, his mind whirling. He quickly took out his little notebook and started writing in it.
"Suoh," Kuri said quietly to the blonde, glancing at the tall dark boy, "who is that? I mean, I know he's Kyouya Ootori, son of -Shot-Yoshio-Ootori, but who is he?"
"He's a kid who appears calculating and closed to everyone, but people who know him see him as... passionate." Tamaki explained. Then he quickly added on, "he's the Cool Type."
"The Cool Type?" Kuri asked.
"Oh, I've come far in life since you last met me, Kuri! I've started a Host Club! Would you like to come?"
"A host club, Suoh? That not my definition of far in life..." Kuri muttered. "So what're you? The Idiot Type?"
Tamaki looked at her with tragic, tear-filled eyes. "You... You think I'm..."
"Kidding, Suoh, kidding." Kuri hit him on the arm. It was a friendly hit, obviously.
"I'm the Prince Type!"
"The Prince Type?" Kuri questioned, crossing her arms. After a few minutes, she nodded. "I approve."
"You should come, Kuri, you'd have fun meeting all my friends!"
"Who are your friends?"
"There's Takashi Morinozuka and Mitsukuni Haninozuka, but we just call them Hunny-Senpai and Mori-Senpai respectively... wait, not respectively..."
"Go on, Suoh," Kuri said with an exasperated smile.
"Mori-Senpai is the Wild Type, and Hunny-Senpai is the Loli-Shota type, and they're both in 3rd year. Then there's Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. They're twins and they're the Little Devil Type. They're in 1st year. Then there's Kyouya and there's me! You know what type we are. Oh! And Haruhi! I could never forget Haruhi! Haruhi's our Natural Type! She's- I mean he's in first year too!"
"Looks like I'll meet those twins, then. And the girl."
"She's a boy!" Tamaki protested, flustered.
"I get it, it's a secret, I can keep it." Kuri rolled her eyes. "See, I'm only in 2A for English and Math. Remember, I'm one year younger than you."
"Oh! I was wondering about that! You're as smart as I remembered then, Kuri, to be skipping grades for two subjects!" Tamaki smiled at her brightly.
In the opposite corner of the room, Keiko Matsuo held her two pencils like daggers, points sharpened to perfection. "Do you see that, Emi? It's disgusting. She's a new girl, and she's practically throwing herself on him."
Emi Murakami casually removed her bird-watching glasses and stuck them in her pocket. "I wouldn't particularly mind, Kei-chan. She doesn't actually love him. They look like their just friends."
"Of course you wouldn't care, Emi," Keiko snorted. "You don't mind as long as she remains within a 15-kilometer radius of your dearest Kyouya."
The two girls watched as Kuri took a seat behind the young Ootori in her assigned spot. Emi clenched her fist. "Someone to watch, Kei-chan," She said through gritted teeth.
"Definitely, Emi," Keiko answered.
The English teacher rapped on his desk, effectively quieting down the class. He then spread his arms. A theatre professional forced into a day job because of his incompetence, he brought drama to everything he said. "This year, we are going to learn about the bard of the English culture, the most famous poet ever to live, and the man who will live on forever more in our memories as, quite frankly, the best writer ever."
"Lewis Carrol?" Kuri whispered drolly, a cynical smile on her face.
Mr. English-Teacher didn't seem to hear her. "William Shakespeare." With a flamboyant gesture, he turned around and pointed to the class. "Each of you will be given a partner to work with." He turned his finger to a pile of books on his desk. "You will be given a Shakespeare book to explore." Finally, he wrote a date on the board. It was the last day of the first quarter of the school year. "This is the time that your paper on your chosen thesis, written with your partner, is due."
The class groaned as Kuri nudged Kyouya in the back. "Smooth, now Mr. English-Teacher doesn't have to teach us all term."
"Very true." Kyouya answered, hoping she would continue speaking. Speech, he found, was the easiest outlet to one's true character, and one could discover much in a simple conversation. Unfortunately for him, Kuri decided to shut up and lounge in her chair, waiting to hear who her partner was.
The teacher started to go down the list of people in the class alphabetically, using their last names to pair them off. "Akamura, Mayu and Ando, Daichi. The Taming of the Shrew." He continued down the list, pairing off Emi and Keiko and assigning them Macbeth on the way. Then he paused. After a deep breath, and a marshal of his thoughts, he said "Masachika, Kuri and Ootori, Kyouya. Hamlet."
"Fun..." Kuri nudged Kyouya for a second time. "I love Hamlet. Have you read it before?"
Kyouya turned back to her and raised one eyebrow. "No, in fact, I don't particularly find Shakespeare enjoying to read on my own time."
Kuri shook her head. "No one does, Specs. Even I don't. That's not how you're supposed to learn Shakespeare."
"Then how do you learn Shakespeare, Miss Masachika? You sound like an expert?"
"Easy," Kuri said innocently, holding one finger up, "You act it out! Shakespeare wrote plays, not books, so you have to proclaim them loudly to actually get them, rather than just sitting there reading."
"Interesting notion." Kyouya thought about this as he paged through his copy of Hamlet. The book had gratefully provided a Modern English translation of every page, but it was still English. To battle through the foreign language and the irregular form of speaking would be difficult for most, but language was the Ootori's strong point.
"Suoh, Tamaki and Suzuki, Marina. Romeo and Juliet." A hiss went throughout the class as all the fangirls glared at Marina, who fluttered her eyelashes at Tamaki.
"Tamaki's some heartthrob, eh?" Kuri hid her grin behind her hand.
"Indeed," Kyouya answered gravely, a hint of a smile dancing in his eyes.
Kuri laughed for the first time since Kyouya had seen her. It was a strange sort of laugh - for a minute, her whole face lit up, she looked brighter, happy, even, but only for a minute. The slight chuckle that escaped her lips was all and her blue eyes would become stormy and dark, her small mouth set in a grim line. Her short black hair would once again fall in front of her eyes to hide her expression from the world.
Kyouya inconspicuously (or so he thought) took her in for the first time. She was wearing a large boy's uniform, much too large to fit her properly. Her baggy jacket hid any features of any sort that she might have had, and her sleeves were rolled up to above her elbows. Though she was tall, her body was too thin to be admired. Her hands looked as fragile as glass and her cheekbones almost jutted out of her face.
"Gee, Ootori, I know I'm cute, but you don't hafta stare at me," Kuri teased, nudging her classmate for the third time that day.
"If it bothers you, Miss Masachika," Kyouya replied lightly, smiling his Host smile at her.