Honestly I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm in the beginning of a very busy semester and this is ALL I can think about.

Also, I don't really get the whole sempai/senpai thing. I understand that it's a term of respect but I cannot master the when and how of its use. So I warn you, I will not use it. If I completely understood it I would but I think it's more annoying to use it incorrectly than to not use it at all. If this is nonnegotiable in your reading, I understand and that is why I am warning you.

Please be courteous and please review.

I don't own anything especially not Ouran. I wish.

"No one is useless in this world…who lightens the burden of it for anyone else." Charles Dickens, "Our Mutual Friend"

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back

Frost, The Road Not Taken

Chapter 1

Haruhi grimaced as her father's friend sobbed in her arms. The chairs in the hospital were uncomfortable and her butt had fallen asleep the hour before. She looked over the man to see his daughter with a somber look on her tan face. She didn't know the pair very well except that Misuzu was a really good friend of her father's and that his two children were supposed to visit during summer break.

She saw her father's long hair appear in front of her view. "Any word yet?" He wondered, gripping two coffees.

Haruhi shook her and Misuzu lifted his head off her shoulder at the sound of a voice.

Misuzu accepted the coffee and wiped the streaks of mascara off his cheeks. "I can't believe he fell down the stairs. When did my son get so clumsy?"

Ranka sat down in a plastic seat and addressed the blonde. "Did he ever mention anything abnormal?"

"No," Mei scoffed, her voice rough from disuse. "He never said anything, not that we talk much."

Haruhi adjusted her top that was now soaked from his tears. She was now cursing herself for wearing a white baseball shirt. "Has the school said anything?"

"The headmaster sent his sincere apologies." He took a sip of the coffee and made a face. "He called it an unfortunate accident which is the understatement of the year."

"This is bullshit!" Mei burst out, slamming her palm into the empty seat on her left. "I am going to march up to that snotty rich school and stick my-"

"Watch your language," Misuzu snapped before turning and seeing Haruhi's transparent shirt. "You should've stopped me."

Haruhi waved his concerns away but he wouldn't listen.

"Please run to my apartment," He dug his keys out of his pocket. "It's not more than five minutes away from here."

"I don't know where that is," Haruhi protested but eventually acquiesced when Mei offered to take her.

The walk to the apartment was quiet. Haruhi trailed after her, comfortable with the silence. It had been years since they had been together and now didn't seem like the appropriate time for pleasantries.

Mei had just unlocked the apartment door when her phone rang. "He's fine," Mei announced as she shut her hot pink phone before looking for a shirt.

When she was done changing, Haruhi was surprised to see that Mei's facial expression was the same. "Is everything okay?" Haruhi asked lightly in an attempt to be subtle.

"For now," Mei spat, staring angrily into the passing scenery. "When he's well he'll just be sent back to that place."

Haruhi assumed she meant the school he attended. "And that's a problem?"

Mei gave her a look that questioned her intelligence. "My brother didn't fall down the stairs. Kiyoshi was pushed."

Haruhi looked startled. "Why would you think that?"

"My brother's not the same since he started there. There's more to the story than clumsiness." Mei stated pointedly.

"How do you know?" Haruhi asked bluntly.

"This," Mei pulled out a small book from her purse with a crest that contained the letters O and R in it.

Haruhi grabbed it and flipped through it. "You're reading his journal?"

"Please," Mei scoffed. "It's a diary. While it does not explicitly say it, I think it's pretty obvious."

"Say that it is true," Haruhi was merely humoring her. "What would you do?"

"If I could, I would whoop some rich ass." Mei punched her own hand threateningly. "Unfortunately, I don't know who it is and it's not like I go to that school. I tried telling my mom and she won't listen."

Haruhi wondered why Mei was telling her this.

"I really don't know what to do." Mei confessed before stopping suddenly. She grabbed Haruhi roughly. "But you could pass for a boy and you're super smart."

Haruhi was sure the first part was not a compliment. "You can't possibly be insinuating what I think you are."

"You're not insulted, look at your outfit!" Mei gestured at the cargo shorts before continuing to walk. She wouldn't insult the shirt because it was hers. "Don't act stupid, it ruins the only thing going for you."

"There is no way that- I mean I have school and-"

Mei shoved the journal into Haruhi's hands. "Just read it before you make up your mind."

It's been a week since I started at Ouran.

It's weird not to see girls anywhere, not that I would ever talk to one. Not that any would talk to me.

Nobody talks to me here.

The work is harder than I am used to but it makes it exciting. When I actually have to work to get something, I know I made the right choice.

I feel invisible.

Haruhi tapped the pencil on her book and glanced hesitantly at the journal. The written words of a lonely boy still echoed in her head. Before she could think, she picked up the cordless phone.

"I've been waiting for your call," Mei told her with a laugh. "An intended lawyer for commoners couldn't let the rich get away with it."

Haruhi ignored her statement because she didn't think Mei knew the difference between an investigatory reporter and a lawyer. "How would this even happen? Even if I look like a boy, there's no way they couldn't see it on my identification."

"I can find you a fake id," Mei reassured her.

What kind of people does this girl know?

"Then when your time is up and you transfer out, people will just assume you go to the other Ouran school for girls. It's really simple but you should probably stay and finish the year."

"This seems like a bad idea and I really have no idea why I am agreeing to this." Haruhi confessed. "I don't even know you that well."

"Think of it like you're doing a favor for someone important that's not important to you."

That didn't convince her that she was doing the right thing.

"It's really rare that we have even one scholarship student at a time," The headmaster indulged, his face stern. "So for me even to consider you to accept you, it's really a compliment."

Haruhi didn't say thank you but just stared at him blankly. She was sitting in his office for the results of her tests. Haruhi had mixed feelings on how this meeting could turn out. If she got accepted, regardless of the implications, it would make her feel proud because the Ouran Academy for boys was prestigious. The sister school did not have that same credibility. If she got in, Haruhi would feel validated.

If she was not accepted, Haruhi could go on living as if the whole brief cross dressing episode had been a dream.

He smiled suddenly. "If I gave you stationary, would you write me letters of appreciation?"

Haruhi was entertaining the idea of telling him no and then Mei couldn't get upset if she wasn't even accepted. "Would I get admitted if I did?"

Yuzuru laughed heartily before turning somber. "The other scholarship student is really quiet. I try to pop in and visit him all the time, but I think it upsets him."

"I can imagine."

"It's not really what I pictured when I accepted him." He got a faraway look on his face. "I thought that he would look at me like Daddy-Long-Legs."

"Doesn't the fact that you keep popping up negate the fact that Mr. Smith is never seen?"

Instead of begin offended, Yuzuru brightened visibly. "You've read it? Speaking of absent, where is your father?"

He doesn't know I'm here. Rather than admitting the truth she told him, "He works all the time. I didn't want to bother him."

"Seems like you have a void that could possibly be filled with a rich benefactor," Yuzuru muttered to himself.

Haruhi didn't hear him. "I'm sorry?"

Yuzuru chuckled softly before waving the question away. "Your test scores are exceptional. I have to wonder though why you are doing this mid-term?"

Haruhi wanted to tell him the truth that she didn't tell even consider this because she wasn't a male. "I wasn't sure that I was up to Ouran standards but then I thought that maybe I wasn't the one who should decide."

Yuzuru nodded approvingly. "Usually the scholarship student would have to test number one in each class but since you both are in the 10th grade that would be impossible. What shall we do?"

Haruhi didn't answer because he didn't look like he was actually asking her.

"Maybe you guys could take the test together or you have to get the same exact score? How about who ever receives the lower score is expelled?" He rested his head on his joined hands and smiled brightly. "So are we agreed?"

Haruhi grimaced, that was not how she wanted to help Kiyoshi. "If I can only be accepted at the expense of the other student, I would like to respectfully withdraw."

His smiled widened to painful proportions."Congratulations! You passed the character test!"

Haruhi gave him a weird look. "I didn't know there was a character test."

"There's not," He stood with a flourish and held his arms out dramatically. "Welcome to Ouran!"