Chapter 3 of Luckiest Loser

I instinctively ducked under the counter just as the front door swung open and I heard the loud chatter of their voices. My palms got clammy and my heart pounded in my chest like a jackhammer. Why did they have to come here? Why? Why? WHY?

"It looks bigger on the inside!"

"The interior decorating is greatly lacking."

I flinched. Jerks.

"Look at all the different cakes they have Takashi! How many should I buy?"

"Don't get carried away, we only came here so Tamaki could apologize to Nodoka." I recognized Haruhi's annoyed voice instantly.

"Are you done cowering on the floor?" Arisa asked, poking me with her foot.

Her action startled me so that I jumped a little and banged my head against the counter with a loud thud. I then stood up shakily as I rubbed the part of head that was aching in pain. Things were just going from bad to worse now and there was nothing I could do to stop it. This was way out of my hands.

"I was not cowering!" I hissed quietly. "I just dropped something…"

"Right. What did you just happen to so conveniently drop?"

"My sanity…"

"What was that?" She arched one of her eyebrows at me curiously.

"Nothing…" It felt like someone had thrown a rock at my head, the collision with the hard counter was going to leave a huge bruise there. I was in desperate need of an ice pack to stop the throbbing.

"Here, you want to hold my bunny? Usa-chan will make your head feel better." A small blond boy said holding out his stuffed bunny for me.

I shook my head and sweatdropped. "No thanks, I'm a little too old for stuffed animals." It was a lie. I still slept every night with a stuffed red fox, which I had aptly named Kitsune (I had never been an imaginative child…), that my aunt and uncle had given me for my fourth birthday. I preferred to keep that a secret in fear that Arisa or Mamoru would use it against me somehow.

He looked crestfallen with my answer.

"It's not that I don't like rabbits or anything," I said quickly, "It's just that-"

"You like bunnies! Then you can hold him while we eat some cake!" He thrust the stuffed bunny into my arms then bounced over to the glass counter to examine the sweets with a finger pressed to his lips and his brown eyes glowing with excitement.

I stared down at the light pink bunny in my arms in confusion; its beady eyes stared right back at me innocently. Now what? What the hell was I going to do with a bunny named Usa-chan? It sure as hell wasn't going to solve my problems. A therapist or psychiatrist maybe, but a stuffed animal? Highly doubtful, but nonetheless I hugged it in my arms.

Arisa leaned with her elbows on the counter next to the register. "See anything you like?"

"It all looks so yummy, ne Takashi?"

The unusually tall male with short black hair nodded curtly in agreement.

"They have lots of chocolate cakes!"

"We even have ones with strawberries on them." Arisa winked at me evilly before continuing. "There's some with raspberries, blueberries, lemon filling, cheese cake…"

I glared at her from the corners of my eyes as the little blond fidgeted with excitement while his tall companion watched him with a stoic face.

"Are you alright?"

I snapped out of my contemplative daze at the sound of Haruhi's voice.

I blinked at her. "Yeah."

She was holding onto the sleeve of the tall blond who had caused the mishap earlier and was looking guiltily at me. He seemed like a two-year-old who had just been scolded by his mother after he had done something considerably bad. I began thinking he was a bit childish.

He suddenly grabbed my shoulders as a river of tears streamed from his eyes. "I'm sorry Haruhi's friend! I didn't mean to cause you such trouble! You must think I'm a terrible person! I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay," I said quietly, silently wishing he would stop making a spectacle out of himself. Does he always act like this in broad daylight? I couldn't imagine how Haruhi put up with him; he was so much like her father, Ranka-san, that the similarities were almost spooky. Actually, scratch that. It was terrifying to me to imagine another Ranka-san. One was already more than enough.

"Tamaki," a slim boy with glasses started with an strict voice, "I don't think she appreciates being shaken like a rag doll." He had his arms folded across his chest and was standing up straight; he gave off an air that unnerved me with how he presented himself.

The blond, Tamaki, let go of me and bowed regally to me while flashing me a sincerely apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry Princess." He clasped my hands. "Let me make it up to you."

I froze.

Did he just call me…Princess? And was this weirdo holding my hands? I was torn become embarrassment and red-hot hatred. I hated being the center of attention, I hated pet names, I hated it when strangers acted so familiar with me, and I hated holding hands with anyone especially with people I didn't know.

"Nodoka."

"Hmm, what Princess?" He batted his eyes a few times at me innocently.

"My name's Nodoka." I repeated slowly and coldly. "I don't like it when weird people give me nicknames."

"Weird?" He looked taken aback and horrified at the same time. "You think I'm weird?"

I gave him a blunt look as I bobbed my head up and down. Didn't he hear me?

He turned to Haruhi with an appalled expression. "Haruhi, did you hear what your friend just called me?"

"She's not the only one who thinks that." Haruhi answered without a hint of malice in her voice while looking off in another direction to avoid eye contact with Tamaki. "It's a valid point."

"MOTHER!" Tamaki spun around dramatically to face the boy with the glasses. "Haruhi's rebelling again!"

He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply. "I'm still in high school and somehow I already have children. Where has my youth gone?"

I carefully sidestepped away from the confusing chaos towards Arisa only to overhear her talking vividly with a pink blush across her cheeks.

"We also have pies and cookies." Arisa rattled on to the small blonde cheerfully.

Traitor!

How can she think of customers in a time like this?

The little blond boy got starry eyed as if all his wildest dreams were coming true. It all seemed too much for him to bear as he began pointing out to Arisa which sweets he wished to purchase. She rang up his orders while giggling like a girly idiot. I was simply stunned at the quantity of his purchase: three double layered chocolate mousse cakes, three cheesecakes, two dozen double chocolate chip cookies, one dozen ginger cookies, two cherry pies, and one dozen chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting topped with various colors of sprinkles and toppings. I watched in pure amazement as he then sat down casually and began devouring the sweets on after another while leaning close to the plates as he ate so his fork would have little distance to travel to his mouth.

"This is really good, ne Takashi?"

I nudged Haruhi. "Does he plan on eating all of that by himself?" I couldn't imagine how that much food would fit into someone's stomach. It wasn't humanly possible!

She nodded briskly in response and reiterated what I had said, "All by himself."

I stared on in complete awe as he finished one of the cakes and hastily began working on devouring the other. This guy must have five stomachs or be an alien of some sort. No one I knew could even finish one mousse cake by themselves and here this small boy was contentedly working through a second one. He must be an alien…or something.

"What about this one?" Two voices said in unison from behind me.

I twirled around quickly to see a pair of twins with light brown hair and devilish gold colored eyes hovering over the cake that had a mess of icing covering it…the one that I had accidentally ruined upon seeing them outside the bakery window. They both looked at it with amused expressions before exchanging smug grins with one another. The thought of wringing their necks crossed my mind as they continued to badger on about the cake.

"It looks like a total amateur job."

"You can't even read the writing on it and are those pathetic things on the edges supposed to be flowers or clumps of icing?"

"Horrible execution!"

"It's a botched job!"

I'll give you two something to complain about. Of course I didn't say that out loud. What was I, a scrawny short girl, going to do to two guys who were a good eight or nine inches taller than myself other than kicking them in the shins? My options of retaliation methods were limited.

One of the twins then promptly stuck one of his index fingers in it before slowing raising his sugary frosting covered finger to his lips. His eyes widened slightly as he sampled the sweetness off of his finger with a lick of his tongue. "It doesn't taste half bad…"

The other twin mimicked his brother's actions and an identical look of surprise crossed his handsome face as well.

I didn't know whether to feel complimented or insulted that they thought it would taste like crap. At least it was a step up from their harsh criticism a few minutes ago.

I was still glowering at them.

Soon the others, besides Haruhi, Arisa, the small blond (who was still indulging in the cakes he had just purchased), his tall handsome friend, and myself, were surrounding the poor defenseless cake with dessert forks in their hands."Are they always like this?" I asked, turning to face Haruhi.

"It's part of their project." She responded.

"Project?"

"Their project is in an effort to better understand how common people live however, they tend to just make a mess out of things and cause more trouble." She exhaled heavily.

I was still confused. "Common people?"

"They're rich bastards. Remember a few months ago in middle school when I told you I had been accepted at Ouran High School on a scholarship?"

"Yeah." How could I? Ouran was a school that was renowned all over the city for its students with excellent lineage and superb wealth. Most of the top ranked students in middle school had tried to get in, but only Haruhi was accepted. Not that I had tried for the Ouran scholarship or anything, it was far out of my reach unless they were willing to accept a student whose only ambition in life was to be a cook.

"These are my classmates from there. Through a series of unfortunate events I've had to join their club until a certain debt is repaid."

"Ah, no wonder they're so insensitive." I looked back over to the bickering bunch of 'rich bastards'. So these were her new classmates, huh? Clearly being wealthy didn't make up for a lack of manners. "That still doesn't justify the way they act though." I laughed nervously. "What club can you possibly be in with these guys?"

"The Host Club."

"Eh? They're hosts?" My mind reeled. What on earth was Haruhi doing in a club where men entertained women? I didn't dare ask her what the 'unfortunate series of events' that led her to being forced to join the club were. It could be something psychologically scarring for all I knew.

"Sorry for causing you trouble, I should have known from experience that they would start something like this."

"Looks like they're having fun though." I watched as the twins tried to force-feed Tamaki more cake before the realization dawned on me that they were making an absolute mess. "HEY! CUT THAT OUT! I'm not cleaning up after you guys!"

"Actually," Arisa said appearing by my side with a broad grin, "you do have to clean up after them. They are our customers after all."

"I refuse!" I made an 'X' with my arms across my chest. "No way!"

…

It's strange the way things turn out sometimes. One second you're making a firm and unwavering stance then the next thing you know you've got a mop in your hand and a bucket near your feet while cleaning up somebody else's mess. The world is indeed an unfair and cruel place, it's surprising that I haven't learned that by now.

Stupid rich kids. Stupid customers.

"Nodoka, right?" One of the twins leaned his elbow on my shoulder deviously.

I felt a burning murderous rage towards him as I leaned on the handle of the mop. "What do you want?"

"Can we have a tour of the bakery?"

It didn't take me a second to mull it over in my mind. "No." I dipped the mop back into the soapy bucket and began cleaning once more. Just leave already! I want this miserable day to end! I fought the urge to dump the soapy, cold water on his head.

"Why not?" The other whined while draping his arm around his brother's neck, their eyebrows furrowed over their mischievous eyes.

"Because," I said flatly, "all you guys have been doing is causing me problems all day." That was the understatement of the day.

"We promise to be good." They persisted in unison.

"Quit bothering her." Haruhi warned. "She doesn't have to if she doesn't want to."

Much to my dismay however, the other Host Club members seemed to become keen on the idea too.

"A tour on the inner workings of a common bakery could be quite interesting." The boy with the glasses on put his fist under his chin thoughtfully.

"I wanna see! I wanna see!" The little blond said jumping up and down while hugging Usa-chan. "Will there be snacks after the tour?"

"Ah, yes!" Tamaki, the only one I knew by name at this point, agreed energetically. "What a terrific idea!"

"No way."

"B-but why not?"

"Don't you have better things to do?" I huffed at him in an irritated voice as I tightened my grip on the mop handle. "Besides, it's almost time to close up. I don't have the time even if I wanted to."

"So, you're saying if you had the time you'd give us a tour?" The twins said with matching smirks.

"N-no! That's not what I meant to say-"

Arisa put her hand over my mouth to silence me as she smiled precariously at the twins. "Maybe if you come next weekend Nodoka will have more time to show you guys around seeing as how she doesn't do anything, but bake and mope around all day anyway. We'd be delighted to see you then."

What was she doing? What was she thinking?

I cursed her over and over again inside my head.

"We'll see you next Sunday then?" Arisa asked happily.

Haruhi ushered the lingering Tamaki out of the bakery after he confirmed that they would be back, leaving Arisa and myself alone for the first time in a couple of hours.

The mop clattered on the floor when I dropped it before walking over to a dark blue couch and flopping down on it. I buried my face in the cushions. I groaned as I grasped the cushion's fabric between my fingers. "Do you enjoy torturing me?"

Arisa chewed on her bottom lip before answering, "No, but I enjoy the company of good looking men."

Figures, typical Arisa. Although I had the sneaking suspicion she had some other ulterior motive for inviting them back next weekend. However, I had absolutely no desire to uncover what she had in mind. I didn't want to know nor did I need to know.

"Relax." She came over to the couch and lightly patted me on the back. "You'll be fine as long as you don't do anything else stupid infront of them like getting covered in strawberry fruitcake, dive under a counter, make a fussy scene…"

"Enough! I get it!" My cheeks were pink from being flustered. The weekends were usually a source of comfort for me because it was a short break from school, but I dreaded next Sunday with every fiber in my being.

XXXXXX

Musical Inspiration- PRIDE by High and Mighty Color

Dc-chan: THUS CONCLUDES NODOKA'S DAY OF MISERY (but there are more to come)! Sorry for the ellipsis abuse in this chapter. I promise it won't happen again. :B Is it just me or is hard to keep track of nine different characters in a chapter? Well, it is.

Moving on! My goal is to update this at least once a week, mostly on weekends (the reason I was late this week was because I had SATs on Saturday and they gave me a huge headache afterwards), but maybe more once I get into the swing of things. Thank you for the support so far! Now do me a HUGE favor and press that little button that says 'review' down there….

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Aha! There it is…now press it ! Okay, I'm gonna stop being a weirdo now. P:

Rock on!