Chapter 2
When I awaken I am laying in the infirmary. There is nobody around, I am completely alone. As I sit up, my head begins to throb; I must have hit my head when I fell. It's a normal occurrence. It happens a lot more than I would like to admit. I wonder who brought me here; nobody seemed to want to help me when Sensei was bullying me to answer his questions.
"Oh, you're awake. I was getting kind of worried about you. You have been asleep for a long time. Long enough that I thought you might be hungry when you woke up. Unfortunately I only had enough for some tea," a voice says lightly.
I look up to see a guy standing in the doorway, two cans of tea in his hand. He has brown hair and eyes and...I scan him again. Blue blazer and black pants are the signs of a male student at Ouran however; the face and voice are that of a girl. I speak before I can think or worry about the fact that there is stranger having conversation with me.
"Why are you in the guy's uniform?" my voice comes out scratchy from lack of use.
Her face appears worried for a second but then she smiles.
"A few things happened and I ended up like this. Not everyone has realized, don't tell them please. By the way my name is Fujioka, Fujioka Haruhi, just call me Haruhi though, everyone does."
"Asou…Asou Hikari," I say softly.
"That's better. It's nice to meet you Hikari. So what exactly was that back there? You seemed really freaked out and Sensei wasn't being very nice to you. He is normally pretty cool. Not to mention Hikaru seemed pretty mad."
The nervousness returns and I stare at her, trying to make my mouth work good enough just to answer her simple questions. It's hard but after a few awkward seconds I manage to say a few words.
"Anxiety disorder, my father..."
She nods and her expression softens.
"Don't worry about anything; I'll be your friend. I will wait until you can talk to me normally and not be afraid. How does that sound? Now let's get back to class. It actually turns out that we have all of our classes together except for English. So I'll be with you during classroom time."
Haruhi smiles and holds out her hand. It asks a silent question. Will I accept her friendship? Do I even have the power to accept it? After a brief internal argument, my hand reaches for hers tentatively. They connect and she pulls me up. As soon as I'm standing she lets go.
"Come on Hikari, let's get to Calculus!" she says grinning.
I return the smile feebly and nod. I have just made my first friend. Not only is she my first friend at Ouran, but Haruhi is the first friend I have ever had in my life. I follow behind her and a small smile appears on my lips. Maybe I can give this place a chance to heal my wounds. Maybe.