Tomoyo groans, looking down at the small paper cup with an array of "supplements" piled inside of it that her favorite maid holds in her outstretched hands for Tomoyo to take. The most important pill has been cut in half, a sure sign that yet another thing in her life is being changed without her consent. The maid peers down into Tomoyo's eyes with a pitying look, one that the teenager resents, but accepts. They both say nothing.
Tomoyo sighs and throws back the pills with a gulp.
Anna's chatter always seems to take the edge off of the ominous length of the school day that never ceases to drain Tomoyo of all her energy and motivation. Anna continues to speak aimlessly, just as she knows Tomoyo appreciates on day as tiring as this one. Tomoyo zeros in on Anna's voice, ignoring, or at least attempting to ignore, the other annoyingly and obnoxiously loud students as they make their way to either their chauffeurs to travel to their homes, or to an after school activity. Taking in the busy world around her would only antagonize Tomoyo, because then she would have to take in all of it and memorize every little detail, and she would obsess over it. It is better this way. It is now that Tomoyo realizes that she has been so focused on Anna's voice that her tunnel vision had left out where, in fact, they are walking to. This little aspect of her current location startles Tomoyo, and she starts to panic, as where they are headed is not part of their usual routine. Tomoyo can longer control, and therefore move, her feet due to this startling realization. She wouldn't attempt to move if she could. Tomoyo blinks a few times, and she feels as though her thick eyeliner and many coats of mascara weigh down her eyelids more than she can bear, but for only a brief few seconds.
Anna stops walking as soon as Tomoyo does, huffing at her friend. As she expected, Tomoyo is too perceptive, yet not as Anna got this far, to be oblivious to the situation at hand. Anna looks back at the shorter girl, taking in the stony expression, the stoic mask, that she wears. Anna sees the nervousness, the screaming caution, beneath it though, and she sighs.
"I'm tired of enabling you and doing the same thing everyday. I want to do something new, and you need to expand your horizons, so it works." The girls states firmly, her almost black eyes narrowed behind her thick and square blue frames of her glasses. She does not allow any room for objection, which Tomoyo detests. "We're gonna do something stupidly teenage-girl-ish, and it will be completely tacky and cheesy and fun. Deal with it."
Tomoyo's eyes say nothing as to what she is thinking, as always, but her lips betray her with a slight, barely noticeable tremble. Anna sighs once more and grabs Tomoyo's wrist as she leads the quiet girl forward to the unknown destination. It takes Tomoyo a moment to realize that she is supposed to be moving, and stumbles due to it. Her heart leaps into her throat frantically; Tomoyo fears for her life for the second until she regains her footing. Although she knows this small incident is not nearly as serious as a life of death situation, she cannot help it.
Tomoyo smirks, her only emotional allowance even though it is still part of the feigned mask. She has to train her mouth to be obedient again, as proven by its recent betrayal. Her eyes glaze over as the two girls walk up the stairs and down a few hallways. Tomoyo spends the next few minutes obsessing over today's slip-ups.
"We're here." Anna's voice announces, ringing out and interrupting Tomoyo's inner monologue of self-berating. Anna drops Tomoyo's wrist, moving to open the door of the famously notorious third music room.
Tomoyo reads the sign above said door to said room; her breathing falters for a mere second as she realizes what sort of dreadful activity Anna has planned for this terrible, horrible, abominable afternoon. Tomoyo's face remains unchanged from its expressionless position, but she takes a step backwards, and then another one, shaking her head in disbelief and turning around.
"Oh no you don't! Socialization is necessary!" Anna shouts, but not angrily in the least, grabbing onto Tomoyo's yellow-clad arm. She refuses to let Tomoyo lock herself away yet again.
Tomoyo feels the urge to cry as Anna opens the door successfully this time. She clutches onto Anna's arm, her only physically visible show of emotion for any onlookers to see at this moment in time, if there were any. Bright light and rose petals brush across both of their faces, and Tomoyo's tears slip over, although not even one full drop from either eye. The girl immediately dabs her eyes with her fingers, mentally punishing herself for almost ruining the extremely expensive cake of cosmetics on her face. Tomoyo couldn't have ruined her makeup anyways; she only has her makeup artist use waterproof.
The room before the two girls is extremely busy with giggling and fawning females, along with the obnoxiously and over-dramatically flirty boys who host the activities. The noise is perpetually never-ending, therefore terrifying.
"I didn't know who to request for you, so I let Ootori decide when I scheduled for both of us to attend. You're going to spend some time with the twins, Hitachiin is their name I think, and I'm going to sit with Fujioka." Anna speaks cautiously, ready for her friend's death glare to be directed at her right about now. Tomoyo, indeed, glares at her friend, never comfortable with the thought of being around other people without Anna as her anchor to sanity. "Hey, hey, hey! Don't give me that look. Although I guess I deserve it. But anyways, we can't be attached at the hip forever, so you're gonna have to learn to function as a human being at some point. I know you won't like it, but your first lesson in human interaction is today. Go. Talk to people. Engage in teenager stuff. Gooooooooo."
Just a few minutes later, Tomoyo is gripping the teacup in her hands in order to stop her shaking from being too visible as she sits at the twins' table. Her eyes flicker over to Anna at Fujioka's table, but she is unable to catch her friend's eye. Anna's fire-truck red hair sways as she laughs at something the small boy said, and Tomoyo feels a flicker of envy. Anna is becoming friends with someone else; she's replacing Tomoyo; she's been planning to abandon Tomoyo with this stunt; everything makes sense now. Tomoyo's eyes begin to burn, and she closes them for a brief second.
"Who's your hair stylist, I simply adore your hairstyle." One of the other two girls at the table asks. Tomoyo assumes the question is for one or both of the boys in which they have requested to talk to. The two girls have been doing quite a fair job of keeping the conversation flowing without Tomoyo's participation, which she considers herself grateful for. Tomoyo is too absorbed in her own anxiety to notice the twins' glances in her direction, the boys all but voicing their annoyance that they didn't have the girl all wrapped up in their antics.
One of the twins waves a hand in front of Tomoyo's face.
"Are you a mute of something?" he asks bluntly, forcing Tomoyo to realize that the question about hair was directed at her. Her grip falters in her nervousness, and the full teacup she was previously holding falls onto the yellow skirts of her lap. Her dress is most definitely stained. Tomoyo immediately berates herself internally. The twins smirk as their act ensues.
"Oh Hikaru, now look what you've done! You've upset her!" Kaoru exclaims with feigned worry, "Now the Princess will never want to see us again." He sniffles, Hikaru moving to tilt his brother's chin up.
"I'll fix it, my sweet Kaoru, I promise. I always keep my promises don't I?" Hikaru coos.
They continue carrying on their so-called brotherly-love act as Tomoyo's tunnel vision returns with full force. Tomoyo wishes that she had been able to take the full pill this morning, not just half. She wouldn't be nearly this bad if it weren't for that.
The twins proceed to make the scene even more dramatic with their signature homo-erotic and incestuous claims of love for each other. The current situation has now drawn the attention of the entirety of the club and its guests. Tomoyo internally fights to keep her stoic expression steady as she stands up to excuse herself, hoping that everyone in the room is paying too much attention to the redheads in order to notice her escape from this horrible 'elegant playground for the super rich and beautiful.'
"Princess!" Kaoru cries out, looking to Tomoyo with tears in his eyes that perfects the rest of his falsely pleading expression. "You're not going to leave us-"
"Are you? How are we supposed to make everything-" Hikaru continues with the same pleading expression.
"B-Better?" Kaoru finishes. Girls all around the room squeal, but at the same time deliver accusing looks in Tomoyo's direction for daring to upset their precious twins.
Tomoyo blushes deeply at the amount of attention she is being given, thankful that her full coverage foundation will not show even the slightest hint of it. She is not thankful for the twins though. They need to go away. The anxious girl is rooted to her spot.
"Please stay." They both whimper at the same time, acting as if they are the nervous ones, not Tomoyo. It is obvious to her now that they only see her rather stoic demeanor, not her nervousness, for that she is relieved. However, it is also obvious to her that they are trying to break past her shell, for they can tell that her stoniness is about as real as their act, which only makes her much more cautious and nervous. Actors tend to know when others are acting.
The twins get closer to Tomoyo, too close for comfort, as they further their show; they both cup opposite sides of her face with opposite hands, their faces getting rather close to Tomoyo's. Tomoyo tries not to shake so much, as she knows the Hitachiin brothers will be able to tell, and they might make a stunt out of that as well. She does not know how to approach the concept of dealing with someone getting so close, let alone touching her, let two people doing so. Without her consent. Without her knowing either person involved. Also ruining her contouring, which her artist spent a lot of time doing this morning.
"We promise it won't happen again." They whisper to Tomoyo in an eerie fashion. Tomoyo trembles, and she assumes that the twins believe that it's because she is attracted to them; they're so arrogant, and she sees their smirks. Tomoyo takes two steps backwards in order to commence her escape of the utter terror that is the Ouran High School Host Club. However, she feels a hand on her shoulder, and looks up to see a rather tall blonde smiling down at her with creepy, practically violet, eyes. Are those contacts?
"Are you alright, Princess? I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the dreaded doppelgangers' incredibly rude behavior." Suoh begins with such a soothing voice that Tomoyo cannot decide if it is better or worse than dealing with the twins. He too, begins to cup her face, almost frowning when he feels her trembling as it increases. "Please, allow me to reserve your spot for your next visit, I'll make sure you'll have a wonderful time with me, of course, your handsome prince!"
Tomoyo panics inwardly, her eyes flickering over the faces of every girl and host watching with either love struck admiration or faint interest, but all were watching her and Suoh. His hand is still on her face, and Tomoyo does not know how to deal with it.
"Thank you very much, Tamaki, but we really need to get going or we're going to be late to a family function." Anna loudly proclaims, saving the day as she usually does for Tomoyo. Anna removes the terrified girl from the self-proclaimed prince, and wraps her arm around Tomoyo's shoulders as she leads her friend out of music room number three. "You did well, so don't beat yourself up about this, okay? Its only your first time here, it'll get better, I promise."
Ootori Kyoya scribbles furiously into his signature black notebook about his observations of the day. The clubs newest customers are of particular interest, he will admit to himself; Yamamoto Tomoyo did rake in more profits than usual today by causing another impromptu brotherly-love act, and Sato Anna aided by supplying Yamamoto. He secretly applauds Tamaki's tactic to get the girl and her friend to return to the club. Maybe the two girls could prove to be even more profitable.
"That girl wears way too much makeup." Hikaru complains, wiping his hand off on a napkin.
"Yeah, I have her bronzer all over my hand." Kaoru adds in, wiping his hand off as well.
Tamaki, yet another victim of the bronzer, wipes his hand off too.
"She didn't say one word her entire time here." He remarks. "As the Host Club, we have to make Yamamoto Tomoyo laugh on her next visit, as it is our mission to make every girl here at Ouran happy!"