I ran for the elevator. I was about twenty feet from it and the doors were starting to slide closed. I could see a figure standing on the other side, so I called out.
"Wait! Hold the elevator!" I yelled. The person looked up at me, then threw an arm between the doors just before they meet. They stopped and, for a moment, nothing happened, then they slid back open. Relieved, I slowed to a walk as I closed the distance to the elevator. I slipped inside as the doors started to close again. Now that I wasn't rushing, I glanced at the person I was sharing the elevator with. He was taller than me, with blonde hair and dark eyes. He was wearing a white suit with a light blue vest and a tie to match. I looked away again; barely two seconds had passed. Hardly five seconds later, he was offering his hand to me. I looked at his hand for a moment, then up at him. I was a little surprised to see that his eyes were dark purple, with a hint of blue. I took his hand with a shy smile.
"Tamaki Suou," he said as he shook my hand. I was again surprised, this time by how straight forward he was.
"Uh, Jacklyn Wolfe," I said. He dropped my hand and spoke again.
"I haven't seen you around here before," he said.
"Yeah, I'm new here. I'm not even a student. I'm just looking around, deciding if I want to go here." I realized that I was starting to ramble, so I shut myself up.
"Is there anything I can do to help you out?" he asked. I considered asking him if he could show me around. I'd just got here and I was already getting lost. I was lucky that I'd even found the elevators. This man, Tamaki, was really cute and I knew that as soon as one of either one of us stepped out of the elevator, the chance of us meeting again were slim. Knowing that, I still couldn't bring myself to ask him for that. Instead, I held up the map that I was holding. A school like this was big enough to need a map. I had folded the map in half, not using it. Maybe that's why I was lost. Regardless, if I ended up going to this school, I didn't want to rely on a map to get around, so I didn't want to start now
"Do you think you can show me how to get to the auditorium?" I asked. He glanced at the paper, then took it out of my hand.
"Sure!" he said. He unfolded it and quickly scanned it. He stood next to me so he could show me the map. He pointed at one part of the map. "This is the elevators, the elevator we're in," he said. His finger slid across the paper, following a path, then came to a stop. "If you follow this path, you'll get to the auditorium," he finished. I memorized the path he showed me. He pushed a button on the panel; I could only guess that it was the level that the auditorium was on.
"Thank you," I said, relief in my voice. I was glad that I wasn't going to spend the next half hour trying to find the correct place. I looked up at him. "This school is pretty nice. I may end up going here," I said. His smile made my breath catch in my throat.
"I certainly hope so. I think you will like it here," he said. Before I could reply, there was a ding and the doors slid open again. "Think you'll be able to find it without a problem?" he asked, making sure I wouldn't get lost. I nodded.
"Yes, thank you for the help," I said.
"No problem. See you around," he said. He smiled again, then stepped out of the elevator. As the doors glide closed once more, I saw him give a half wave of goodbye. I raised my hand to return the gesture, but the doors were already closed. I sighed and leaned against the wall. This school was starting to look really good. I hadn't been lying when I said I was considering this school. The school was rather amazing. To be able to go here would be incredible. There was another ding and the doors opened again. A few people stood on the other side of the doors, so I quickly stepped out and headed down the hall. I passed double doors. They were mostly glass, so I could see inside. I could tell that it was a library, a rather large library. I knew that I needed to go to the auditorium, but I could never resist a library. I opened the door and stepped in, looking around. I was amazed by the size of the library. I headed through the room, scanning the shelves. I heard the sound of talking and subconsciously stepped closer, vaguely wondering who it was. I found a group of people sitting in front of a screen. It looked like they were watching a presentation of some sort. I heard another voice behind me.
Turning slightly, I saw two boys with red hair. They were twins, identical. They were even wearing the same outfits. White dress shirts with a blue suit over it. They had black pants on and black dress shoes. Their ties were black and purple. I was starting to get a sense of Deja Vu. First Tamaki, now these twins. I swear I'd seen them all before. That wasn't possible though. The only set of twins I knew were blonde, and they attended the last school I went to, before I moved. So why did I feel like I already knew these twins? They walked past me without even looking at me and went to join the others watching the presentation. I thought of a way that I might be able to get them out of there. I wanted to know why I felt like I knew them, and the bored expression they were wearing told me they didn't even want to be there.
I cleared my throat, starting to cough. I put a hand on my neck and started to back up, away from the group and around a shelf. Before I stepped out of view of the group, I noticed a few people glance over at me, but the twins actually got up. I continued to cough out of view until they approached me.
"Are you alright?" one of them asked. I motioned like I was drinking from a glass. They quickly lead me out of the library and down the hall to the nearest water fountain. I took a few long gulps of water, surprised by how thirsty I actually was, then straightened and wiped my mouth. I turned to look at them.
"Thank you," I said. I attempted a smile. I wasn't sure why I was feeling nervous suddenly. I was alone with a set of twins that for some reason I felt like I knew. I wasn't nervous when I was in the elevator with Tamaki, so why was I nervous now? I wasn't even sure what to say. I opened my mouth, as if to speak, then came up blank and closed my mouth again.
"So what was that about?" they asked at the same time. "And we don't mean why were you choking," one said. "We're talking about that little show you put on," the other finished. I was surprised. Had they been able to tell I was faking?
"I don't think I get what you mean," I said. I thought I'd been pretty convincing. How had they been able to see through it?
"Trying to play stupid I see. We know you weren't really choking. What were you trying to pull?" one of them asked. I winced slightly. Caught. What could I say? I feel like I know you two already, and I wanted to get you alone so I could figure out why. Yea, that sounded sane. Might as well just say that I wanted to get them alone so I could kill them. The end result would be the same.
"Well, truth is, I kinda wanted to talk to you two without anyone else around," I said. I kicked myself internally. Really smooth. They didn't look surprised.
"We kinda figured. Why?" they asked. I was silent for a few moments, trying to figure out how to make it sound at least partially sane.
"Um, you two kinda looked like someone I knew a while ago. I couldn't be sure though," I said. A lame excuse, but maybe it would work.
"And what was wrong with asking that in the library?" they asked. I winced. Plan A fail. I didn't have a plan B, so I just gave in.
"Alright, fine. That wasn't really true. For some reason I feel like I've met you two before. Call me crazy if you want, but I even know your names. Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. And I know that Kaoru tends to be the more calm of you two." I closed my eyes and hung my head, realizing how insane I must have seemed, how insane I felt. There was a silence; I didn't want to even look at them right now. I felt like an idiot. I sighed. "Sorry for taking up your time with insane talk. I have to be at the auditorium. It's probably best that I just go now," I said. I turned on my heel before opening my eyes. Without even looking back at them, I started to walk away. I scolded myself for being so stupid. Way to make a fool of yourself, I thought. After a few moments, I heard footsteps, but I didn't stop.
"Wait!" they called. Great, now they were following me. That's all I needed, another chance to make a fool of myself. I didn't stop walking and within seconds they caught up to me. They stood on either side of me.
"Look, I'm sorry, alright? I shouldn't have said anything. I know I sound insane to you now," I said.
"Do you recognize her Kaoru?" one twin said, obviously Hikaru.
"No, I don't. You?" Kaoru replied. Hikaru shook his head.
"Can't say I do," he said. I started to listen to the differences in the tone of their voices, hoping that I'd be able to tell them apart that way.
"So how would she know about us?" they said at the same time. I might have found that annoying, but for some reason, I was used to it. Probably for the same reason I knew what I did about them.
"I already told you that I didn't know why. It feels like I've known you two for a few months now. I don't know how to explain that, since it's obvious that we've never met," I said. "If that's the only reason you followed me, then save your time and go back to the library," I said.
"Are you kidding? We didn't want to be there in the first place. You gave us a reason to leave," one of them said. Hikaru? I guessed. Well, I was right when I guessed that they wanted to get out of there.
"So you're just going to follow me to the auditorium?" I asked. They were behind me, but I could almost feel them shrug.
"Better than that presentation," they said.
"Maybe not. I'm going to the auditorium because I'm a potential student. They told me to go to the auditorium when I'm done looking around. My guess is they're going to try and convince me to attend this school with some video or something. You two are already students, so you'll be bored if you come with me." Why was I trying to convince them to leave? It would be good to have some of the students with me in case I get lost. They'd prevent me getting lost in the first place.
"Well, if you want us to leave..." one said. I tried not to flinch. I didn't really want them to leave, but now that I'd said that, how would I get them to stay?
"It's up to you. I'm not going to tell you what to do," I said. Best I could do. I wasn't going to ask them to stay, but I wasn't going tell them to go either.
"What do you say Kaoru? Should we stick around the girl that seems to know us?" Hikaru asked.
"Might give us a chance to find out how she knows us," Kaoru replied. I sighed. This wasn't going to be good.
"We'll stick around," they said.
I stood just inside the auditorium door, eyes wide in awe. The auditorium was huge! Was everything in this school large? The auditorium looked like a movie theatre, only larger and with a lot more seats. The stage was where the screen would twins walked past me and down the aisle.
"Are you going to stand there staring the whole time or go down to the stage? It looks like there's someone waiting for you there," Hikaru said. In the time that it took us to get to the auditorium, I'd been carefully listening to their voices. I was close to telling them apart now. There was a slight difference in their voices. From what I could tell. Hikaru's voice was slightly deeper than Kaoru's. It was a subtle difference. You had to be listening for it to even hear it.
His words snapped me out of my trance and I looked down at them. I started to follow them down the aisle towards the stage. There was indeed someone standing on the stage.
"You're Jacklyn?" he asked. As I got closer, I could see the person clearer. Ahead of me, I heard the twins muttering something. The only thing I could distinguish from it was my name. I nodded at the man on the stage.
"Yea, that's me. Who're you?" I asked.
"You can call me Dean," he said. Dean, simple enough name. "What are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be in the library?" he asked the twins. They sat down a few rows from the stage.
"She was choking. We couldn't just leave her like that. We came with her to make sure she'd be alright," they said. Dean seemed to accept that and he turned his attention to me again. I couldn't help but wonder, did Dean just not want to deal with it, so he was letting it slide, or did he really believe that lie? Were the twins better liars than I realized? I saw through the lie because I already knew the truth, but was the lie convincing?
"Okay Dean, what have you got for me?" I asked, pushing my curiosity to the side for now. I already knew what was coming, and I didn't feel like wasting time with pleasantries. He was going to try and convince me to attend this school. If he succeeded, there would be time for pleasantries later on. Dean smiled.
"Well, I can show you a long and boring video about why you should join our school, or I can just answer any questions you have and call it a day," he said. I was taken aback by his bluntness. Was he even staff? Would staff act that way?
"Dean, you shouldn't treat a potential student that way," one of the twins said. I guessed it was Hikaru.
"I'd like to see you do a better job," Dean countered.
"Are you offering to let me do it?" the twin said.
"As if you could," Dean said.
"I'll take that as a yes," he said. He got up and walked over to where I stood. I wasn't surprised to see that the other twin was coming with him. They walked behind me, then stopped and turned back to me. One twin on each side, they each rested an arm on my shoulders. I wasn't bothered by their closeness. I wasn't claustrophobic, unless it came to really small spaces. Being around a lot of people wasn't a bit deal, being stuffed into anything smaller than an elevator was.
"This school has better academics than any other school in the area," one of the twins said.
"Not to mention it's a private school, so only a select few are admitted at times like this," the other said.
"And besides, you've seen our library. We've got two more of those. The inventory's different for each of them," they said. I didn't say anything. Why were they pointing out the library? How would they know that I liked reading? They didn't even know my name until Dean had said it. I was tempted to ask them how they knew, but I had a feeling they wouldn't tell me the truth.
Truth be told, I was already seriously considering joining this school. First Tamaki, now the twins. If the majority of the students were like these three, I would most likely join. They were nice, willing to help, not judgemental like most people. High school was the worst with judgements. If this school was the exception, the chance that I'd join was high. There was the seed of doubt in my mind though. How could this school be an exception? Was it really possible that the students here were different? If so, how? What made this school special? I didn't think it was likely. Something told me that it was just these three students, the twins and Tamaki, were the exception to the normal standard of students. The twins didn't move away from me, but I was hardly aware of their presence. The only problem I saw with this school was the grandness of it. It was probably filled with snobby people, students and teachers. I already had a poor sense of direction, so I'd be getting lost here a lot. Well, until I memorized the paths I needed to take anyway. I did the same thing in the last school I went to, stuck to the paths I knew, the fastest way to each class, or the library, or cafeteria. Not that I went to the cafeteria much. I spent most of my time in library, so the fact that this school had three of them was bliss. I shook my head slightly, as if trying to clear it. I turned my head to look at one twin, then the other.
"You two really know how to appeal to a person, don't you?" I said. They grinned, understanding.
"So you'll join?" one asked. I nodded. They both looked up at Dean.
"You have such little faith in us Dean," they said. Dean had moved to sit on the edge of the stage, watching us. He didn't look that happy. I wondered why that was. The twins stepped back, dropping their arms.
"How much of the school have you seen?" the twins asked.
"Not much, really. Just the cafeteria, and the math section of the school," I replied. Math was my best subject in school, so naturally, I wanted to check that area out.
"Would you like a tour of it?" Hikaru asked. It was getting easier for me to tell them apart the more they talked. It would still take me a while to be able to identify them without hesitation, but I would take what I could get. I thought of Tamaki's offer in the elevator. I had wanted to ask him for the same thing the twins were willingly offering me, but I hadn't. Would I pass up this opportunity? Could I? I smiled.
"That would be great," I said. I immediately kicked myself internally for agreeing. I would get used to this school with enough time. But at the same time, I couldn't deny that I wanted to stick with the twins for a bit. I thought about Tamaki again. With the size of this school, it wasn't likely that I'd ever see him again, but maybe the twins would at least know of him. They walked past me and led the way out of the auditorium. I waved goodbye to Dean and turned to follow them.
"What's the deal with Dean? He didn't really seem like staff to me," I said. I probably should have just let it be, but I was curious.
"That's because he's not," Kaoru said. I wasn't quite sure if I was surprised to find this out.
"He's the class president. Ours, to be exact," Hikaru said. This time I was surprised.
"Your class? You're freshmen?" I asked. They nodded. I was quiet for a few moments. I figured that was a good thing, since I'd most likely be in at least one of their classes. Or so I hoped.
"You know our name, so what's yours?" Hikaru asked.
"Jacklyn Wolfe," I answered.