A/N: What up, mah peeps? well here's the second chapter :D it's a bit more background stuff just to set the scene a bit more.
AN EXPLANATION: just in case anyone else was a bit confused, i'll explain the world: Germany in my story is Amestris, Winry calls it Amestris because that's how she says Germany in German. For example, we say Spanish, but the Spanish say Espanol. That sort of thing. Xing is Japan, though i'm pretty sure it's meant to reflect China. Xing is what Winry says when she means Japan.
On to the story :D
A Time For Change
Chapter 2: Making Plans
An alarm clock buzzed and whirled to life next to Winry's head. It was one of her repair jobs that had never quite worked out; the stupid thing often woke her up ten minutes too early, or it's alarm buzzed too softly for her to wake. She sighed and dragged herself out of bed. She smiled, though; she was in a much better mood than the night before. She stretched and was determined to make her second day at Ouran a good day.
She arrived in the yellow dress that matched her blonde hair and finally realised Ed's hatred for all uniforms. She hadn't worn it the day before because it had yet to arrive at the time, but now she was wishing it never did. She fidgeted with the bow, the cuffs and the collar, trying to make it more comfortable or tear a hole trying. She walked in and sat at her desk. She found that she was, again, glared at by all the girls in her class. She sighed and decided to try to find out what was making her so unpopular.
"THE HOST CLUB EMERGENCY MEETING WILL NOW COME TO ORDER!" Tamaki yelled.
Hunny sat at a table eating a pile of sweets, Mori was sitting next to him looking as he usually does, Kyoya sat at another table typing at his laptop, the Hitachiin brothers were reading magazines.
"Oi, guys!" Tamaki yelled again, frustrated at the lack of response.
"What?" the Hitachiins asked in stereo.
"What are we going to do about Haruhi?" Tamaki whined.
"What can we do?" Hunny asked, "I miss Haru chan too, but you already asked your dad, didn't you?"
Tamaki pondered asking again, but didn't think the results would be very favourable. He had asked his father, being chairman and all, whether Haruhi could get another Full Scholarship. His father had been adamant that unless Haruhi surpassed the new student, she couldn't have the scholarship; Yuzuru Suoh could not show favouritism.
"I did. He said Haruhi would have to do better than the new student"
"From my research, it shows that Haruhi didn't lose out by much; she was only about three points behind the new student"
Tamaki nodded, "And wasn't she sick at the time?"
"I think she had the flu," Kyoya replied.
"So what do you suggest?"
"We could help tutor Haruhi or we could entice the new student to leave," the word 'entice' from Kyoya had quite a lot of meanings. Kyoya himself missed Haruhi a bit, he told himself he wasn't moved either way, but he had to admit that she had grown on him.
"Yeah! Let's ruin the newbie's life!" Hikaru and Kaoru grinned mischievously and high fived; it sounded like fun.
"Who's the new toy?" Hikaru asked.
"Her name is Winry Rockbell," Tamaki said. Tamaki thought for a moment, then clicked his fingers "OKAY!" the Hitachiins snapped to attention, "Hikaru, Kaoru, go make this girl's life a misery! Kyouya find the smartest tutors in Japan!"
"What should I do Tama chan?" Hunny asked, hope glimmering in his eyes.
"Hunny senpai…you can eat the cakes…"
While Hunny grumbled to his bunny in a corner, Tamaki pondered whether this was the right thing to do. Normally, he wouldn't have been nearly this ruthless, but this was for Haruhi! Anything for his precious daughter!
Hikaru and Kaoru roamed the halls of Ouran for their target.
"Excuse me, lovely ladies, I'm looking for a 'Winry Rockbell',"
"No, Hikaru, are you leaving me?" Kaoru asked dramatically, clutching his brother's sleeve and tearing up.
"Never, Kaoru; nothing could drag you from my side," They continued their little drama production, ever the attention seeking devils they were.
The girls squealed and cooed, though this did nothing to help Winry's reputation amongst the girls.
"First she steals Haruhi, now she's trying to break up the Hitachiin brothers! That bitch has got to go," the girls agreed. One of them pointed out Winry, who was sitting on a bench, by herself, reading a book.
Hikaru and Kaoru grinned. They filled a bucket of water and made their way to the balcony overlooking the courtyard. Hikaru took a quick glance to make sure no one else was around, then threw the contents over the girl and they high fived. They watched the girl moan and shake the water out of her hair. Then they returned to the music room to report their success.
Winry arrived home damp. She had dried most of her clothing out in the girl's wash room, but she still smelt like stagnant pond water. She threw off her uniform and took a quick shower. By the time she was finished, Haruhi had returned from school and they began preparations for the apple pie.
"Wow, that's a lot of flour!" Haruhi commented when she opened Winry's pantry.
"Yeah, I'm planning to do a lot of cooking over the next few days,"
"Why?" Haruhi asked, preparing the dough for the pie.
"My friends, Ed, Al, Ling and Mei are coming from Germany. They'll be arriving a week from now,"
"Why do Ling, Mei and Germany sound so familiar?"
Winry smiled, "They're full names are Ling Yao and Mei Chang"
Haruhi gasped, "The prince and princess! They went to Germany to find some sort of medicine to cure the emperor! No one's ever seen any of the princes or princesses,"
"Yeah, Ed and Al sort of ran into them and they became good friends,"
"So how does Xing work, you know? The culture and stuff," Winry asked.
"Well, first of all we call Xing, Japan. Xing is the German exonym, isn't it?"
Winry nodded. She had grown to like Haruhi; she was very patient and intelligent. She didn't care about appearances and she was quite honest, sometimes brutally so. Haruhi filled her in on basic life in Japan, cultural differences and some of her favourite sites. By the time they were finished talking and baking, the afternoon had turned into evening.
"I'll see you soon," Haruhi said, taking her leave with an apple pie in hand.
"Sure, I'll come hang out tomorrow,"
Haruhi nodded and smiled.
Winry spent the rest of the week pretty pissed off. She had come to hate nearly everyone in Ouran, especially the "Host Club". Every single girl in Ouran sneered and looked down their prissy, pompous noses at her.
"That's the commoner,"
"She's quite ugly isn't she?"
"Very plain, yes,"
Winry walked to class, noticing a bunch of aristocratic girls standing in her way. The foremost one a girl she recognised as being the one who most commonly picked on her; Renge Houshakuji.
"You filthy commoner! Why do you even come to this school! Give the scholarship back to Haruhi kun!"
"If this 'Haruhi' wants it back, he'll have to prove he's smarter than I am!" Winry shot back. Haruhi is seems to be quite a common name. And it's apparently unisex, but I'm beginning to see that most Xingese names are. Winry mused to herself as Renge growled.
"You stupid bitch!" she yelled.
"If I'm stupid, I'd hate to see how dumb Haruhi is," Winry grinned, leaving Renge spluttering.
Winry had enough self confidence to not let these petty insults get to her. The physical abuse was starting to grate on her nerves, though. Every day she was tripped or pushed or shoved; she avoided going down busy staircases, and had at least three buckets of unknown slime and various ooze chucked on her daily. She had people constantly vandalising her desk, but, being Ouran High School for the Elite and Money Wasting, the desk was meticulously scrubbed clean each night by the hundreds of janitors the school hired, providing a clean slate for more graffiti the next day.
Her locker, too, didn't survive unscathed. There were multiple pseudo death threats and nasty notes shoved into her locker. She had decided to stop keeping anything of importance in there, after the second time someone flooded it with orange juice.
She had found out that all of this bullying stemmed from the "Host Club", a bunch of brats who had nothing better to do than satisfy their libido and ruin Winry's life. She came close to stomping over to their stupid base and bashing their heads in with her wrench a few times, but had refrained, deciding just to ride it out; Ed, Al and Ling would be here in a couple of days and then she could ignore the idiots around her and focus on having a great year with her best friends.
End of Chapter 2
So, i hope you guys are enjoying this, tell me if you think that there's something wrong or if you just want to send some happiness to me :D
Guess who's arriving in Xing next chapter? oooooh i'm so excited, so get pumped, people!
if there's anything you'd like to suggest for the next chapter, interactions you'd like to see or anything, drop me a line and i'll take it into consideration!
Til next time,
:D Laughing On The Inside :D