Author's Note: This is my first fanfic so please read/review. I would appreciate it. Thanks and enjoy!
"Hello," the girl says brightly. "You must be the new exchange student, Haruhi?" The name rolls awkwardly off her tongue.
"Yeah that's me." I reply.
"Excellent," she says, still sounding as though talking to me is the most exciting experience ever. "We are so excited that you choose our school to study at. Choose, I think to myself, I could only wish. But of course I am grateful for the opportunity. And grateful, I guess, for the presence of my friends, though we all go to different schools to 'foster our cultural independence' (translation the chairman didn't want Tamaki and I to go to school together). And yeah this is an amazing opportunity. But there was very little choice involved.
"Haruhi? Haruhi?"
"Hmm," I say jumping.
"I said my name is Christina and asked what your first class is."
"Oh sorry. I have um," I check my schedule, "Advanced Placement English Language and Composition."
"Awesome. It's down the hall and to your right. Classroom 101. Ask someone else for help to find your next class. I have something to do." She turns and walks away in the opposite direction.
"Wait I need you to help me find my...locker," my voice trails off. I have five minutes left until class starts and no idea where I can drop my books. Though it looks like a lot of people just carry their stuff around with them. I sigh, shouldering my bag and head down the hall towards classroom 101. Some help she was. The guidance office at the school, guidance office itself being a bit of a foreign concept, had assigned this girl to be my guide for the day and though she acted incredibly cheerful I honestly think she couldn't have cared less about me. But maybe she was just antisocial? Or filled with the desire to make out with her boyfriend, I note sourly as I see her and some tall American football player getting it on near a water fountain. Ouran may have been weird but at least we kept the PDA to a minimum. Well except for the host club. But that doesn't really count. Desperate to avoid the PDA I walk into classroom 101 which is filled students sitting at, and on, desks, laughing and talking. I duck my head and hide in the back of the classroom.
"Hey, Flatley, how was you summer?" one of the students shouts. A woman sitting behind the desk who I could only assume was the teacher said "It was nice," she responds without batting an eye that she has been addressed without an honorific. I blink, appalled at the lack of formality between the teacher and the student.
"Crazy Americans," I mutter to myself. I hear someone snicker beside me.
"What?" I ask defensively.
"Nothing," the girl says. "I just find it funny that you haven't even been here 5 minutes and you're already criticizing the country. At least I'm assuming you're new since I've never seen you before. Did your parents move to America for work?"
I blink amazed at the flow of words. It takes me a minute to follow the English and another to think of a response.
"No I'm an exchange student. From Japan," I add in case she couldn't tell. Because some people really can't.
"Oh that's cool! Was it hard leaving all of your friends behind?" At this I laugh. And laugh. And laugh. I just can't help it.
"What?" The girl looks at me suspiciously.
Wiping tears from my eyes I say, "Well I would miss them if they hadn't followed me to America."
"They followed you to America? Isn't that kind of creepy?"
"You don't know my friends. That barely scratches the surface of their weirdness. Speaking of them, I hope they're doing okay. Especially Hikaru. He'll have the hardest time being by himself," I mutter to myself.
Hikaru
Is doing fine. Right? I'm just fine, I tell myself. Really it isn't so bad. I mean the school's pretty nice.
"Oh! Look at the design of this room Karou! It's almost like-" the remainder of the sentence dies on my lips as I realize that I was talking to myself. Because Karou's not here.
"What did you just say?" A girl asks me opening the door to the office where I wait for the idiot, sorry person, who's supposed to show me around. I give her my best you are not worth my time glare and look away.
"Okay well if you're not going to answer that at least tell me this. Are you the new kid Hikaru Hitachiin? Because if you are I'm supposed to escort you."
"If you're going to escort me you could at least try pronouncing my name correctly. A child could pronounce that name. If your not careful you could end up with wrong kid, someone named Hickarow Hitachin." I say, attempting to mock her accent. "Isn't that right Ka-" Damn I did it again.
"Jesus. If you're going to be rude then I might as well not waste my time here with you. Go ahead and get lost for all I care," the girl's voice snaps me back to the present.
"Fine," I say haughtily. "I don't need anyone anyway." Don't you Hikaru? I can hear Haruhi's voice already. Before we even left today she lectured me, pointing out that I would be going to school all by myself without even Karou so I should consider what comes out of my mouth before I say it and also consider that I might want friends and that I had to learn sometime how to make them on my own. And the first person who had tried to be nice to me I had immediately insulted and thrown out. Damn it. I look up to see the girl striding down the hallway back ramrod straight. I've clearly hurt her feelings. I chase after her not caring how it looks, catch up to her and grab her arm.
"Wait," I say.
"What the hell do you want, you bastard," she hisses. Ouch. I probably deserved that though. I take a deep breath and channel my inner Tamaki, though he is irritating, he can certainly win over the ladies. I can too but only with Karou.
"My sincerest apologies," I say with as much sincerity as I can muster. "I-" How to explain my terrible behavior? I didn't realize what I was saying was in English? No. I secretly have a crush on you? No where did that even come from? I finally decide on something close to the truth.
"I'm nervous about starting at a new school. I kind of suck at making friends with people."
"I wonder why?" The girl mutters before jerking her hand out of my grasp. "Look you might be sorry but that was really rude and your 'sincerest apologies' aren't going to cut it." Damn this girl is good. She saw right through me.
"Okay. If my apology won't work then how can I make it up to you?"
"Well," she says, a small smile creeping up her face. "There is one thing..."
Haruhi
Ah well I'm sure he's fine. On second thought, maybe I'd better send him a text. Just to remind him to be nice.
"Is this Hikaru person your boyfriend?" The girl asks, interrupting my musing.
"Hmm? Oh no he's just a friend."
"Do you have a boyfriend?" This girl seems way into my personal life. She's almost nosier than Kyoya. Actually no one can beat Kyoya.
"Well do you?"
"Yes I have a boyfriend," I sigh.
"Did he come to America with you too?"
"Yes."
"Aww that's so romantic!" The girl squeals.
"You could say that. I just find it kind of annoying."
"Annoying? Why?"
"Because-" Thankfully I was saved from explaining due to the bell. A voice from the ceiling announced "Good morning students. Please rise and say the Pledge of Allegiance." Please rise and do what? I stand as all around me students recite a code of some sort. The girl next to me (it occurs to me that I still don't know her name) laughs at my obvious confusion. When we are done promising our allegiance to America everyone sits back down.
"I guess it would make sense that you wouldn't know the pledge, considering you're Japanese," the girl says with a smirk. I don't respond because the teacher has started talking and I want to pay attention.
"All right class. I want you all to turn in your Geeks essays. If you wrote them on paper I will collect them now, otherwise turn them in on Google classroom." She then walks around the classroom collecting everyone's essays about something called Geeks? When she gets to me I look down and say quietly, "I never received the summer assignment."
"Ah you must be the new kid, the Japanese exchange student, Haruhi Fujioka? Well of course you didn't receive the summer assignment, you just got here. Don't worry about it, I will give you the books and you can do the assignment when you have time."
She then hands me two books, one entitled The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth and the other called Freakonomics. I pick them up and study them. They seem interesting enough, though nothing like something we might read in Japan.
"All right now in Freakonomics the author often compares two opposites next to each other to show contrast. Can anyone tell me what this is an example of?" The class is dead silent. No one raises their hand or comments or anything. I can see one girl in a corner playing some game on her computer, another has a document open that has far to many words to be notes for this class. Even Maria is zoned playing a Google game on her chrome book. I don't know the answer because I haven't read the novel, or else I would've raised my hand long before now. Eventually the teacher just gives up and says "It's juxtaposition. Didn't you learn about that last year?"
"No," Maria mutters, but too quiet for the teacher to hear. The remainder of the class is exactly the same, the teacher trying to get responses out of us but no one actually answering. I resolve to read the books, tonight, so that I can at least answer some of the questions. The class drags on for eternity until finally the bell rings.
"What class do you have next?" asks Maria.
"Advanced placement chemistry."
"What on earth possessed you to take that?"
"I enjoy chemistry."
"Well you won't after that class. Let me see your schedule." She grabs the paper out of my hands.
"Ok cool, we have lunch together. All right see you then!" And then she rushes off.
"Wait could you possibly tell me...how to get to Chemistry?" But of course she is long gone by then.
"Crazy Americans," I mutter to myself, rolling my eyes to the sky.
Hikaru
"Remind me again why I am carrying your books around as well as mine," I grunt as I once again hoist a bag filled with my books, and Maria's, over my shoulder.
"Because you were incredibly rude to me. Have you forgotten already?"
"No," I mutter. "But I was hoping you had."
"Hah. As if. You're lucky I'm still showing you around the school."
"Yes so lucky. Besides you have all of your classes with me which means I could've just followed you."
"But instead you agreed to carry my bag so I guess the joke's on you."
"I could just leave it here."
"I wouldn't wait for you. In fact, I'd go the long way just to ditch you."
"You're almost more evil than I am."
"Thanks, I think."
"It's a compliment, coming from me. Ask any of my friends."
"Like Karou?" I blink, momentarily taken aback.
"How-how did you know about Karou?"
"He's the one you kept talking to earlier. Even though he wasn't there. Right? You kept making comments and then stopping yourself after you said his name. I assume you two are really close. Did you leave him behind in Japan?"
"Uh," I feel really awkward. "Well no...he's here, in America with me."
"But not going to this school? Why not?"
"It's probably Haruhi's fault, or more accurately Milord's, but basically when we all came to America the condition was that we had to start at different schools. Except for Hani and Mori I guess but they're in college and so they're not controlled by the chairman."
"When you say we all..."
"Me, Karou, Haruhi, Milord, Kyoya, Hani and Mori. They're my, well I guess, yeah, they're my family. I mean, they're not all related to me by blood but they're my family all the same." I smile at the realization. Not that I didn't know it before, I guess I just needed to remind myself of it again. And then I realize that I've just told this stranger more about me and my friends than I've ever told anyone before. Which is weird because she's a stranger. And I don't like talking to strangers.
"But Karou is different right? I mean he's the one you wanted to talk to the most. Also Milord?"
"Yeah Karou is different. He's my twin brother. And I've never been separated from him before. And it's only been a year since I even started talking to other people besides him. And I'm really worried about him right now because it's his first time being alone too. And we've been working on growing up but it's hard to break old habits. And I was the one who had to grow up faster because I'm older and some days I'm fine but some days I'm not. And today I'm not fine. And I really should stop taking because I've just told you more about myself than anyone even Karou and I can't believe I just said all that out loud." And then I dropped her books, turned and ran. Very fast. I can't believe what I just said.
"Hikaru wait!" But I just keep running. I run out of the school and down the street heedless of where I am going.
"Watch it idiot," someone shouts. I finally slow down, breathing hard. I have no idea where I am anymore. I'm in a foreign country, in a foreign city, on my own. God damn it, I think to myself. I'm so stupid. So so stupid. I don't even know where I am, I took the subway to get to school but I can't see a station now. And I left my bag, with my phone at school. I'm such an idiot. Such an idiot.