Author's Note: Hi guys! So this is kinda like a different spin on the original Odaiba High School Host Club, so if you haven't read that fic first, I suggest you do! Now, I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to head with this series, but I'm thinking of going into more of a teen-drama sort of thing, maybe a bit Degrassi type, but still a bit lighthearted and more or less focused on friendship, but I do forsee more drama in this series as compared to the original Odaiba Host Club series. I loved writing Odaiba Host Club, and when I finally reached the final chapter, I was thinking maybe to write a mini-series of what happens the next year. We'll see how this goes, but thank you for taking the time to read shopping with me! Lots of love and candy,
-Lily
Reunion
I guess you could say things changed since this summer passed by. New bonds form, some break, while old ones start fading. Is it exactly what we wanted? No, but was there really any way to stop it? Sure, time might have worked well for certain people, but it hasn't been as kind to the rest of us...
"Hey," TK stepped into the elevator.
"Junior year, isn't it going to be so exciting?" Yolei stretched her arms up in the air.
"Speak for yourself. As of now, I'm going to be a lowly freshman," Cody said in his hoarse voice.
"Aww Cody! Don't talk like that! There's gonna be plenty of kids who are freshmen too! You're not gonna be alone!" Yolei said.
"Sure," TK shrugged.
"That's not reassuring," Cody said.
"High school's not that much different! Everyone's just bigger, that's all!" Yolei said.
"Oh God, I'm leaving before you keep digging yourself deeper. Cody, you'll be just fine," TK said and briskly walked away.
"BALL BALL BALL!"
"Whoops," TK caught the soccer ball that was flying in his direction.
"Hey Motomiya, tell your boyfriend to pass the ball back!" a guy heckled.
"I don't have a boyfriend!" Davis turned red.
"Hey, Davis. Here you go," TK tossed the ball and put his head down.
"Hey buddy. Thanks," Davis caught the ball.
*Buzzzzz*
"Attention: This is Principal Himekawa. Everyone has five minutes to get to homeroom. Five minutes to homeroom," a voice spoke over the intercom.
"Hmm, that's new. Outside speakers?" TK shrugged and walked inside the building.
"Welcome to Ouran Academy, where only those with excellent social standing and those from filthy rich families are lucky enough to spend their time here at the elite private school!" a bubbly girl with long auburn hair said in a shrill voice.
"Thank you. I hope Rika will have a good time here," Rika's mom shot her a look.
"Well, what do we have here? Oh, you're in Class 1-C? Hmm... I guess with a little studying and hard work, we could get you into Class B within your second year," the girl pouted.
"I'll pass," Rika flatly said.
"She's joking," Rika's mom nervously laughed.
"No, I'm not," Rika crossed her arms.
"Very well then...," the girl bit her lip. "Let me show you to your classroom. Isn't it nice?"
"Where are the bean bag chairs? The snack tables? The art supplies? Microscopes? All I see is tables and books..." Rika made a face.
"Excuse us, she used to go to a progressive school so she's not used to what a real school looks like," Rika's mom said.
"Oh...," the girl paused. "Well, here's your class! I hope you have a great time at Ouran Academy! And if you need anything, my name is Renge! I'll be in Class 4-A but I'll talk to everyone, even the D-Class students!"
"Bye Rika. Good luck," Rika's mom waved goodbye.
"Whatever," Rika grunted. She went to take her seat and saw a fancy envelope with her name on it. "What's this...oh, I should have known..."
"Hey Izzy, I stopped by Starbucks and I thought I might as well get you something too! I don't know how you like your sugar, or how many, so I took the all the sugars," a girl stood in front of his desk and placed a cup of coffee and a sugar caddy down.
"Thank you, Jenny, but you didn't have to do that. Greatly appreciated. How much was it?" Izzy pulled out his wallet.
"No, don't be silly! It's on me! Just enjoy it!" the girl winked and walked to her desk.
"Hey Izzy, I brought you a cupcake! I hope you like it!" another girl came by his table.
"It looks delicious. I'll save it for later. Thank you, Sadie," Izzy said.
"You're welcome," the girl beamed.
"Yo, I don't know you that well, so don't take this personally but...how are you getting these chicks to give you stuff for free? No offense, but you're no Ryan Reynolds and I don't remember you being on any varsity teams last year. Are you a new student or something?" the kid next to Izzy whispered to him.
"I was the president of the host club?" Izzy shrugged.
"Nah, that can't be it," the kid shook his head.
"I don't know what else then...besides having probably one of the most attractive girls in school cheat on you for some college dropout moonlighting as a lifeguard in the summers," Izzy said.
"Yeah...that could be it. So you're the guy," the kid nodded. "Sorry about that."
"It's okay. Trying to move on, that's all," Izzy yawned.
"Hi Izzy...I see you have a cupcake," Mimi crossed her arms.
"Hello Mimi. Good to see you too," Izzy sat up in his chair.
"I thought you didn't like sweets," Mimi frowned.
"Someone was kind enough to bring me a cupcake. I don't see what's wrong with someone being thoughtful," Izzy said.
"Alright, everyone! Into your seats! We're going to do roll call soon," the homeroom teacher said.
"Well, I'll see you around," Mimi curtly said.
"Likewise," Izzy took a bite of his cupcake and swallowed it.
"You dated her?" the guy gasped.
"Very, very briefly," Izzy said.
"Oh," the guy said.
"Heed of advice, not worth the time or energy, unless you're into humiliating yourself," Izzy said.
"Noted," the guy nodded.
"I wish Rika could go to school with us. How cool would that be? Then we could hang out together like the old times," Takato said.
"Well, for whatever reason, her mom decided to send her to a private school. And if you have the money, wouldn't you send your kids? Look at this textbook, it keeps telling me to turn to different pages and then has 'lol ur mom works at Chick-fil-A' on the corner. Is that supposed to be an insult or something? It doesn't matter, the school better not blame me for this, the book was vandalized when I got it," Henry shook his head.
"Great...mines has weiners on every page," Takato sighed.
"How can they just let these books keep passing through the system?" Henry sucked his teeth.
"Hi guys! How's it going?!"
"Gah!" Takato gasped.
"Jeri! Aren't you gonna get rid of that nasty puppet? No offense, but it was weird enough that you carried it around during middle school, but now in high school?" Henry made a face.
"My real mom is dead, okay?!" Jeri cried and ran out of the room.
"That's her excuse for everything, I swear! We had to kick her out of our family's restaurant because she was talking to her hand and it was starting to freak the customers out," one girl said.
"I heard she got banned from the city pool cause she peed on the slide and then cried and said her real mom is dead. Here's the kicker, her real mom lives in the other side of the city! She decided that her mother was dead to her once her mom ran away and decided she didn't wanna be Catholic anymore. Fucking weirdo," another guy said.
"Yeah, I remember my parents told me not to talk to her because they said she was possessed by demons," another girl said.
"Well, first action of our high school careers and it was accidentally start spreading rumors about Jeri. I don't know about you, but I think we might be the new gossip queens," Henry whistled.
"I think I wanna go back to middle school," Takato sunk down in his seat.
"Look at all of these familiar faces," Kouichi said.
"Yeah, dingus. Kinda what happens when you happened to be in the same homeroom with these guys last year too," Koji played with his phone.
"Hey, brother...check her out. Have you seen her before?" Kouichi subtly pointed at a girl with brown hair in a braid. She quickly glanced at them with her turquoise green eyes and then took an empty chair at the front of the classroom.
"No, I don't think so...but for some reason, I feel like I should know her," Koji frowned.
"I know. Same," Kouichi nodded.
"Hey, what are you guys looking at?" Zoe walked in front of them.
"Hey princess, you know who that girl is?" Koji asked.
"No. I think she's new. Never seen her before," Zoe squinted her eyes.
"Alright, good. Maybe we were just thinking too hard. We thought we've seen her somewhere before, but we don't go many places," Kouichi said.
"She might have been a transfer from that fancy private school you guys hang out with a lot. Speaking of, are we still meeting up after school today? I know we didn't really get to hang out much over the summer, but I'm hoping that at least this meeting will help-"
*buzz buzz buzz*
"Speak of the devil," Koji held up his phone.
"If you're still interested, we're meeting up in Science Room #3 after class today," Kouichi said.
"Be there or be square," Koji said.
"Thank you. I'll meet you there," Zoe winked.
"Alright class, settle down!" the homeroom teacher clapped her hands. "Before you head on your separate ways, I'm gonna take these last five minutes to tell you that this year is going to be different from the last year. With the new administration, there's been a couple of changes in policies and frankly I'm not a fan of all of them. I do like the whole switching the Pepsi brands out for Coke, but everything else... let's just say your new principal loves structure, organization, and she wants to cut down on things that aren't what she considers essential or necessary. If it was up to her, those vending machines would only have two choices, Coke or Sprite. That's how bland, boring, and strict she is. I just hope that the vice principal will balance her out, I'm not sure if he dresses like that on purpose or if he forgot to change out of his pajamas. He looks like a sleazy Miami med student in bunny slippers," the teacher ranted.
"I think I'm gonna like this teacher," Koji snorted.
"Of course you would. She's mean," Kouichi said.
"Well, good luck and whoever told I sold loosies is a liar. Now get out of here," the teacher pulled out a cigarette.
"I think I might be hot for teacher," Koji smirked.
"Let's go, buddy...," Kouichi sighed.
"Hey Kari! How's it going?" TK waved her over.
"Hey TK! It's been a while! How's Matt doing?" Kari asked.
"He's doing okay. He's down in Osaka now. I thought he was joking when he told the family that he was going to train for NASA's space program. But then he and Izzy went running every morning and stuff and Tai helped him with weight training, so I think it's safe to say that he's doing alright," TK said. "How's Tai? I miss him."
"He's doing good. He's keeping really busy between school and he got a job at a sporting goods store. He really should be saving up money, but he's spending his money on things at the store. I think when I get a job, I'll work someplace that I don't care about so I don't feel tempted to buy anything, you know?" Kari giggled.
"I get it," TK laughed.
"Hey Kari! I'm here!" Davis ran up to her.
"About time! Let's go grab a table! We'll see you later," Kari said.
"Alright. Catch you later," TK nodded.
"Yeah, see ya...," Davis said, avoiding eye contact.
"Well there," TK played with his phone while the homeroom teacher droned on about collecting stamps for tramps or something to that effect.
*I'M PICKLE RICK*
"I'm Pickle Rick!"
"Pickle Rick!"
"Get Schwifty!"
"Oh emm gee, let's go get some chicken nuggets with Szechuan sauce!"
"Nahhh... I'm hungry for apples!"
"Crap...," TK turned red.
"Look guys, I'm not asking you to shut your phones completely off when you get here, but can you put them on silence at least. Personally, I don't care if you're on your phone during my class, just pretend you're paying attention and don't be disruptive. Is that too much to ask? If so, I'm going to implement a cell phone basket and nobody's gonna want that. Keep the phone on silent, okay?" the teacher said.
"Oh my God, this is embarrassing...," TK turned off his ringtones. He checked his messages and then looked back at Davis and Kari. He looked at his phone again. It looked like a group message, so they should have received it. Maybe they just haven't checked their phones yet. Or maybe they just didn't care. TK took a deep breath and sighed. Sadly, he probably wouldn't find out until after school.