Hello my lovelies! (Yeah, I did it differently this time.) What's up? (But only a little bit...) How have you all been? I'm so happy with the awesome response to this story so far! I hope that you guys continue to enjoy the work, and I really hope you review! I really don't think anyone reads these Author's Notes… but if you do, I'd like to thank you! I'd also like to thank my brother, who, after god knows how many weeks of this chapter sitting in my laptop, helped me finish editing just now.

On another note, I heard a little rumor that the all-powerful J Michael Tatum (the voice of our very own worship-worthy Kyoya Ootori in the English Dubs) is going to voice the Kyoya-like character Rei in the English Dub of 'Free!'! I'm so excited! He's my all-time favorite voice actor, and when I watched 'Free!' I sort of tricked my brain into thinking that I was hearing his voice speak the lines in english, because I tend to do that when I watch subs. Anyone else get to the point where they swear the people are talking in english and you don't even see the words on the screen anymore? No, just me? Anyway, moving on… Oh yeah, and Vic Mignogna is playing Rin. I couldn't see it, because I haven't seen him in anything other than 'Ouran' whereas I've been obsessively been watching everything I could find that had J Michael Tatum in it. I might have a problem… Maybe...

There was another point I was going to make somewhere… What was it? Erm… I'll, uh, have to get back to you on that. I'm sure I'll remember once everyone has finished reading this chapter. So, yeah, in this chapter you get to learn a incy bit about us! Although I'm debating making some changes to our characters to where they don't fit us exactly, for the sake of the story. Let me know. Oh yeah, I remember now! I have hinted at some of the shipping. (Which I've already listed in the description, but whatever.) Also, please don't hate me when I get to the Honey-senpai scene I have planned later in the story. But there's gotta be some sort of plot, yeah? Moving on for real this time! Oh yeah, and if I mention anything with a brand name, I'll put a disclaimer for it in the first chapter that I mention it.

Disclaimer : I do not own Dr. Pepper. (I don't even drink it…. :/ )

So, it turns out that non-students aren't actually allowed on campus. I guess that makes sense, logically, but it also meant that by being there we were in a bit of trouble.

So, to deal with this 'little problem', the host club sent all of their customers home early - something Kyoya wasn't too fond about. But assuming we were in the beginning of episode five, they probably would have had to close ahead of schedule anyway. I wonder how many days they didn't close early. (After the appearance of Haruhi, anyways.)

So, that's how we ended up being semi-interrogated by the Host Club.

"May I ask, exactly, what it is you're doing here?" Kyoya asked, sitting down on the couch in front of us.

Kyaa, he's so cute! NO, FOCUS MEL!

"Here in the music room, or here on private property?" I questioned, tilting my head to the side.

"Let's just start with the private property for now." He stated, narrowing his eyes a bit in displeasure.

"You see," I said, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand, "We don't really know."

Kyoya's face grew less pleasant and I hurried to explain the situation. "We just recently woke up here. One minute, everything is normal, and the next we woke up in the rose mase. I'm not even sure how we got to Japan in the first place."

Kyoya leaned back in his seat a bit as he looked skeptically at us. Brooke sat still to my left as she did since our initial entrance to the room.

"You mean to tell me that you two are foreigners who just happened to wake up on our property with absolutely no recollection of how you got here, and just so happen to speak fluent Japanese?"

I nodded. "Yes... Except for the Japanese part. I only understand three or four words of that excluding honorifics. Even then, I'm pretty sure at least half of those are insults I've learned from reading manga..."

Kyoya gave me an unamused look, as the rest of the hosts continued cleaning up around the room. "You're speaking Japanese now."

I looked at him bewilderedly, scoffing as I rolled my eyes. "Uh, no, I'm speaking English. I think I'd know my own language."

At this Hikaru and Kaoru stopped walking behind Kyoya's chair to stare at me strangely.

"What?" I asked.

Kyoya cleared his throat, bringing the center of attention back to his adorable self and allowing the twins to walk off. "Spoken languages aside, might I ask exactly whom the two of you are?"

"Oh!" Brooke exclaims, bringing herself back into the conversation, her eyes lighting up in clarity as she smiles in one of her signature moments. "I'm Brooklyn Taylor, but everyone calls me Brooke."

Upon her self-introduction, I try and look at Brooke objectively. She had long straight hair, that could - depending on the day - pass as either dirty-blonde or a really light brown. Her hazel eyes were mostly brown but also green, almost but not quite covered up by her bangs that sloped across her face from the part on one side. Relatively speaking, she was quite small for her age. Not overly short, but not average height either. In conjunction with her stature, she was also very slight. She was so short and weighed so little that I could - and was often demanded to - carry her on my back. Yet, she was only a little bit younger than me, and always seemed to have a Dr. Pepper not too far away.

She always wore grey or dark blue acid wash jeans, with studs on the back pockets. In addition, she also wore various t-shirts (often displaying characters of different animes) that stayed in the grey, black, and white area, with the occasional dark or light purple or pink. When only coming over to my house, she often wore flip flops, unless she was already out, in which case she'd wear black boots that reached the middle of her shin.

Yet, despite the rather dark clothing (okay, so her dominant grey was usually rather pale, but still), her rosy complexion and bright smile made her always look bright and radiant.

But right now the stick in her hair looked ridiculous.

I'm just going to see how long it takes for her to notice.

Turning away from Brooke, I introduced myself as well. "My name is Melody Smith, but my friends all call me Mel. We're sort of neighbors, back in the States."

Oh, I guess I should describe myself too, huh? Well, seeing as how I lack the ability to see myself without the assistance of a reflective surface, I'll just have to try my best from memory. I'm about average height for my age, I suppose, except the rest of my family is freakishly tall thus always making me feel short. I almost always wear my black three-inch wedges, which are leather and rounded at the toes. (My mom got tired of me wearing out all my plastic shoes and bought me some expensive ones, saying that they're supposed to last longer.)

My eyes are hazel, like Brooke's, dominantly staying between the 'brown' and 'green' ranges, only mine seem to look slightly lighter and more cloudy than hers. My hair is a dark-to-medium brown, depending on how much it wants to cooperate that day, and could probably pass for curly if it stopped tangling every five minutes. I have actually spent an hour brushing my hair one time, getting every single knot out, went to answer the doorbell, and then tried to brush my hair again to find at least twenty new knots. It was a seemingly lost battle. Either way, the nuisance of a determining feature reached the middle of my back; occasionally reaching the bottom of it when straightened (should it choose to obey) or wet.

My complexion was something rather strange. It was always too light for any type of makeup I could find, except for that one time I found that 'extra-light ivory', but then it was way too yellow. So, yeah, makeup = no-go, even if I had someone able to teach me.

My clothes didn't have an actual theme, per se. Most of my clothes were hand-me-downs or second hand, so I worked with what I got. Although all of my skirts and pants were below the knee, and I rarely wore shirts without sleeves. Most of the clothes I picked out myself were blue jeans and guy's tees, with the occasional purple or blue sweater or black skirt. Sometimes I wore pink too, but mostly it was just jeans and a blue v-neck like today. I always hated clothing shopping and tried to keep it to a minimum.

Done with my self-evaluation, I straightened my black-rim glasses. I was pretty near-sighted, and wore my glasses on a daily basis. Every now and then I would take them off to read, if the book was close enough to my face, or just not wear them if I planned on staying inside all day on a weekend.

"The States, you say?" Kyoya asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," I said, shaking my head slightly, "We don't usually call it that, though."