Once again, I have utterly neglected my story-updating duties... This time, for more than a year... But just to assure you that I haven't died/fallen off the face of the planet, here's an update for you.

The doors of the school burst open as the students rushed out of the stone-hewn halls, the last remnants of the bell ringing around them. The buses were neatly lined up outside the school, doors open, waiting to accept the eager students.

There was one group of friends, though, who sat outside, in the shade of course, discussing the weird conversation that they had had during their lunch hour.

"What was up with that girl?" Yomi asked. She had her head laying down on Tomo's lap.

"I kind of like her," Osaka replied. She had her legs crossed underneath her, looking around to see Chiyo-chan when she exited the building. Chiyo had to stay behind in math class to ask the teacher a few questions.

"Why?" Tomo replied. "She's really weird."

"So am I," Osaka said. "And yet you put up with me."

"Well you're Osaka. That's different. You're cool-weird. She's just weird-weird."

Osaka looked at Tomo askew. "How can you say that? We just met her today..."

Tomo had to admit, Osaka had a point.

"Regardless, she still said some pretty weird stuff. What on earth possessed her to talk like that...? All that talk about aliens and time-travelers and stuff..."

Chiyo-chan exited the building, stuffing one last paper into her satchel. She looked over at Osaka, who waved her over to where they were sitting. Once Chiyo got over there, she sat down next to Osaka and rested her head on Osaka's shoulder.

"It's been a long day..." Chiyo lamented. "And I ran into Haruhi-san in there..."

This perked up their attentions. "What did she say?" Yomi asked.

"Oh she just asked if we had made a decision on whether or not we were going to join the club."

"What did you tell her?" Tomo asked.

"That we needed a bit more time to think about it. She seemed to understand. She said she didn't expect us to understand it all, right away."

"She expects us to understand it, at all...?"

Just then, they heard a shout from the other side of the quad: "Hey, guys!"

Haruhi came into view, almost sprinting towards them. "Hey, I'm glad you all are still here!"

"Why?" Osaka asked.

"I wanted to see if you all had decided to join the club."

They all looked at Chiyo-chan, but she gave the most imperceptible of shrugs. She had just as much idea of what was going on, as the rest of them did.

"Not yet," Tomo answered. "It's a bit much to take in."

Haruhi laughed. "That's just what I told Chihuahua here."

Tomo had to stifle a laugh; she remembered when she called Chiyo that, and was surprised that Haruhi had come up with the same nickname, completely separate from Tomo.

Chiyo was about to speak up, when Osaka said, "When is the club meeting?"

Haruhi looked a bit nonplussed. "I... haven't thought of that yet. Is there any place to meet...?"

Osaka thought for a moment, then replied, "There's that room at the end of Science Wing B that no one ever uses. That's been used by a few clubs over the years. We could meet there..."

Haruhi was about to respond, when she caught what Osaka had said.

"You just said 'we' could meet. Does that mean you're joining the club?"

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, what's the worst that could happen from it?"

"Well, the world could end. I mean, it's happened before. Luckily, Kyon-kun was able to right it before it became permanent-"

"Who?"

Haruhi remembered she was in a new place. "Oh, Kyon. He's my boyfriend back home. He's in the S.O.S. Club back there, too."

This was a major revelation to them. They couldn't see Haruhi having a boyfriend at all, but they just let it slide.

"So Ayumu is joining, good. Anyone else?"

"If Osaka is joining, I am too," Chiyo-chan responded.

Haruhi pointed at Chiyo and Osaka. "Are you two like, dating or something?"

Both of them blushed at this; aside from the rest of their core group, they'd never admitted it to anyone else before.

"Yeah, we are," Osaka replied after a moment.

"It's okay, I really don't care about that sort of thing. If you two are meant to be with each other, who cares about something as trivial as gender?

"Anyways, so we've got Ayumu and Chiyo definitely joining, and everyone else as a a maybe? That's fine, I can just get back with you later."

Tomo turned to Yomi. "What about you?"

Yomi shrugged. "I'm not sure y- Hey, she's gone!"

Sure enough, Haruhi had completely disappeared from sight.

"How did she do that? It's not like she's Batman or anything..."

"You never know," Osaka replied, "she might be."

Just then, Chiyo's parents pulled up and blared their horn. The four of them, along with Sakaki (who had joined them wordlessly sometime during the conversation), got into their van; they were all going to spend the weekend at Chiyo's summer home. They were looking forward to a weekend of fun and excitement.

They would definitely get it, alright. Just not in the way they would expect.

Yeah so that's it for now. Hope you all come back for chapter five!