New at school

Rana: This is my new story, New at school, as you can see. Lately, I've been taking a break from the rest of my stories*fatally avoids an arrow from editor. I don't own O.H.S.H.C.

Chapter 1: From the looking glass to the chess board

In the large, and fancy halls of the pink and prestigious Ouran academy, I was walking around in what the people who occupied that school, and their parents would call 'commoner's clothes,' which were jeans, a black jacket and my green beanie, which was pressing my brown bangs into my face messily along with holding my itchy hair within, and it was annoying the heck out of me.

Fully knowing this I walked on, while reading 'Alice's adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carrol' at the same time, which was somewhat difficult with sun glasses on.

I had been waiting for my mother to come back from signing all of the agreements and such.

Knowing my mother, it would take a long, long time and I didn't like to wait. Walking off to nowhere seemed to be a hobby of mine, and I did it well, as did my mother who told me to explore our future surroundings.

Humming a nameless song that was at the back of my mind I looked up from her book to the thing I had just bumped into, my short hair swaying a little, loose of the beanie, and tickling the back of my neck.

"A door?" I asked myself, before straining my eyes to look up even higher. "Music room #3?" I read. "This must be a rich school to have three music rooms. How interesting." I said to herself in monotone, though I couldn't help that I was slightly interested.

Grinning, I turned the gold-ish handle and peeked inside with one eye. Inside was a chair, but nothing else. The room wasn't lit, so it was slightly hard to see anything at all. My guess was that it was abandoned, even though it looked as though it had been cleaned, recently.

"Maybe not as interesting as I thought." I sighed in mild disappointment, my hands in my pockets.

Looking around in disdain, I opted sit on the chair, and continuing to read my book. When I did this, I noticed how comfy the red chair was. Also, it wasn't a red chair but a gold-brown colored chair with a red cushion and back support.

Being a reader who when reading disconnects from the rest of the world, I did not hear the large school bell ring, and of course I couldn't hear the sound of people on the outside of the door.

What I did hear, however, was the turn and click of the handle.

Panicking slightly, I ran into another door, not too far away. The inside was full of white curtains that looked like they belonged in a dressing room and roses in pretty vases on pedestals.

"Curtains? Why would there be curtains in a band room... Maybe this room really is interesting!" Wanting to know what was happening outside the door, I put my book down on a small pillar, next to the vase and most likely expensive roses, and peeked out of the pink-white door.

Looking out I saw a number of admittedly attractive high school boys, no doubt every girl's dream, all chatting and laughing happily and settling themselves around one chair where a tall, blond haired boy with violet-blue eyes sat, staring at the door, as though waiting for something.

Or someone.

Suddenly, a boy stepped in wearing what looked like an old, faded public school uniform, consisting of a faded purple sweater, a white shirt underneath, and black pants, or sweats.

I couldn't tell which, but recognized them as commoner's clothing. Strangely, when the boy stepped in a ton of rose petals seemed to have gently flown at him. Now that I looked around again, the room seemed to have been lit. The walls, and everything were also pink.

"I think I might develop a phobia of pink soon," I said to myself, nonetheless slightly amazed.

Suddenly the tall blond one began to speak.

"Those with the wherewithal-first, in social standing, and second, in money-spend their time here, at the private Ouran academy. As such, Ouran Host Club is where handsome boys with too much time on their hands entertain and charm girls, who also have too much time on their hands. It is the school's own personal, elegant playground for the super rich."

Bored, I picked up my book which I have read thousands of times and walked to a small chair which was nearly as comfortable as the blond one was now sitting and began reading again, not very much liking the previously said motto said by said blond one. It seemed to make rich people seem like snobs.

Noticing something new, I went to the front few pages of my book-which I had mostly ignored-where I found and read a poem to myself.

"All in the golden afternoon

Full leisurely we glide

For both our oars, with little skill

By little arms are plied

While our little arms make vain pretense-"

Outside of the door there was a large crash, and I scurried out of my little chair, peeking out of the little crack in the door way, making sure not to be seen.

What I saw was the boy who came in, slung over another mini pillar wearing the expression of someone who ran over a puppy, his hand still reaching down.

Under his hand were broken, wondrous green-blue looking shards of what may have been a vase or something.

Raising an eyebrow, I watched curiously as the boy leaned over weird pedestal like thing-y, looking down at the ruins of whatever it was that once was portrayed over that pedestal.

"Ah! Too bad, the shards looked really pretty." I said, quietly in fear that someone would hear me.

At that moment, the tall ginger haired twins stood up. They heard me!

Looking in my direction. Covering my mouth with my hand, I backed away from the door, though the tall people only walked towards the door which I stood behind.

Closer. Closer, until they stopped. They then turned, and headed for the scene of the broken shards.

"Thank god." I sighed in relief, a hand over my fluttering chest. I had a feeling that it would be bad if anyone saw me spying. I continued to watch through her little crack in the doorway, leaning onto the door, for some reason amused by the people outside.

"Ah~" whined one of the twins, both of which were leaning over the boy and looked at the blue remains of whatever it had been. "The Renaissance vase that was to be featured in the school auction."

Despite his whining tone, his monotone voice made it seem as though he didn't really care.

"Now you've done it." said the other, sounding just as monotone as his brother. "We were going to start the bidding at 8 million yen for that!"

The tussled up boy seemed to twitch for a moment, then seemed to realize the depth of the situation.

"8 MILLION YEN?" shouted the boy. His head sunk down and his hand flew upwards and his fingers started moving, as though he were calculating something. "How many thousand yen is that? How many thousands are in 8 million?"

He slowly came back up from the pillar and looked at the twins.

"Um, can I pay you back?" he asked nervously, a slight stutter in his voice. I tried to understand the gravity of the situation from a commoner's point of view, but found it somewhat difficult, never having been a commoner myself. 8 million yen...is it really a lot?

The twins shrugged, their baby blue blazers crumpling with the movement.

"Could you even?" said the twins, while the girl behind the door-me-found the comment somewhat offending, though was somehow reminded of Alice, who I always found sort of rude, also. "You can't even afford the designated uniform."

The boy twitched, his back jumping to face the pillar so fast that I was reminded of someone who did not want their back to be exposed to the enemy, for example-and I don't know why this came to mind-a Bengal tiger.

"What is that grubby outfit, anyway?" Taking this opportunity to look at my own clothing, I realized that my outfit-loose blue jeans and a loose black t-shirt-was not all that different from that of the commoner boy's. It wasn't as 'grubby' but...

"What will it be, Tamaki?" I twitched and looked up, shocked at the new voice. It was a rather cool looking boy with somewhat clean cut black hair and dark, mysterious eyes behind glasses.

"Have you ever heard the saying Fujioka-ku-"

"AHH!" shouted the person who was no longer behind the door-me-having accidentally put all of my weight on said object and fell out onto my hands. "Ouch, that hurt."

It didn't really hurt, but I had always liked to say that when I fell. Somewhat embarrassed, I used my short, boyishly cut brown hair as a shield for my eyes, despite them being behind sun glasses, and hid, hoping-despite knowing how stupid-that the people around hadn't seen me and they would all go away and this would all be a huge dream.

"Ah," said one of the twins, the monotone voice remaining.

"It looks like we have a stow away, captain." said the other, a slight hint of amusement in their tone.

"Hn~" said the voice that I had interrupted, he sounded slightly amused. There were a couple of footsteps. I looked up from behind the shroud that was my bangs and saw a small boy holding a pink bunny who looked like an elementary school kid. His blond hair was tilted slightly, as was his head and his caramel brown eyes were staring at me curiously. I thought he was the younger brother of the taller blond boy with blue eyes.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, a slight worried frown on his childish face. He probably was an elementary school kid, I judged by his voice and height.

I grunted, saying that I was and stared at his outstretched hand for a moment before looking at his smiling face. Deciding that he was probably the most trustworthy person I had ever seen, I took his hand and stood up, with little to no difficulty. He was surprisingly strong for someone his age.

He waited until I stood up and straightened my clothes before saying,

"Hey, what's your name?" I blinked in surprise before clearing my throat, which hadn't been used the entire day to another human being, mother having been handling my business and not giving time a chance to speak.

"Ishiguro Suzuki." I said, rubbing my eyes with my right pointer finger and yawning.

I looked down at the small boy who was still smiling at me brightly.

"It's nice to meet you, Suki-chan!"

'Suki-chan?' I wondered, before my gaze turned curious. I stared at him in silence for a couple of moments, before getting over the shock and deciding exactly what to say.

"How...did you know what my family calls me?" I asked, looking down at him with one eyebrow raised. I then realized that there were still other people looking at me.

I looked around and saw that the taller blond haired was grinning at me in amusement-which was quite annoying enough without the twins also grinning somewhat evilly-the cool looking boy with black hair and glasses was simply staring at me-the glare in his glasses was somewhat frightening-and that the extremely tall and stoic looking one had disappeared at one point.

I looked back and the elementary kid in front of me and exclaimed, ("Bah!") taken a back. The stoic looking one had somehow evaporated behind him.

Getting out of my protective stance, I tried to get back my original cool composure. I did it too quick though, I'm pretty sure it looked lame.

"You." said the tall blond one in the chair, motioning for someone to stand next to the messy brown haired commoner. I hoped to god it wasn't me, but knew I had to ask anyway.

"Me?" He nodded, with a small sound that was something like a breathy grunt. I rolled my eyes before joining the commoner in his spot, not too close to make him uncomfortable, because I knew that I had a tendency to do that to some people, for some reason.

"Now as I was saying," he said, crossing his thin looking legs in one swift motion, and I thought I could sense some sort of impatience in his voice; not wanting to be interrupted again. "Have you ever heard the saying, Fujioka-kun and Ishiguro-kun?"

He suddenly pointed at us and I wondered if this 'saying' would be as scary and sadistic as he looked at the moment. I sent Fujioka-kun a quick glance, trying to see if he knew what was up but he was still a nervous wreck, and seemed to be frozen in place. He was probably thinking the same as me, though.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do!" I snorted, then hid it as a cough. What the hell did that have to do with the current situation! I nearly said this, but tried to hold it in at the moment.

He seemed to be referring to Fujioka-kun. "And you," he said, pointing to me. "Ease dropping is very rude, and you dropped the roses inside of our club's changing room. It is not nice to break other's things." I looked back at the room that I had recently been in, and there was spilled water and silky red rose petals on the floor, and most likely a dropped pretty, clear vase with roses still in it on the other side. "If you have no money, then pay it with your bodies."

I gulped, the comment scaring something deep inside me that I ignored. It just sounded like a very wrong comment...

"Starting today," he said, something about him darkening. "you are the Host Club's dogs!"

My eye lid, eye brow, upper lip and just about everything on me that could twitch, did.

"D-d-d-dog?" I exclaimed, after my joint prisoner had fainted. "Wait a minute! This is a host club?" Shortly after he fainted, it had apparently become my job to drag him to a couch and wait for him to wake up. It didn't take very long for Fujioka-kun to eventually stir awake and ask me what had happened.

"You fainted," I said drowsily, stretching my arms behind my back. He then sat up straight, very hastily.

"How did I get to this couch?" he asked after looking around his surroundings. I sighed.

"The host club people said that 'as fellow partners in crime, it was my duty to carry you back here' or something like that." He looked at me and a beautiful smile spread across his fair skinned face.

"Thank you." he said, and I turned away, feeling my face heat up somewhat. I tried to hold back a smile, knowing that I was all awesome and humble at the moment.

"Eh," I said, trying to sound as though I didn't care. "It's no prob. You weren't that heavy anywa-"

"Oi, dogs!" said the twins. "It's time to fetch!"