I was pushed out of the classroom by the crowd of students storming the exit, happy to be free of Mr. Balding. I still haven't bothered to learn his name. As the crowd cleared out into the hallway, I dusted myself off and marched my way to that grand flight of stairs, determined to get my visit with those *Incubi- I mean boys, over with.
I reached the top, but as I took my last step, I tripped over the hem of my dress, and fell backwards, all the way down the staircase.
Or, I would have, if my hand hadn't been grabbed by a dark figure standing in front of me. I was pulled back into balance, and took the last step up the stairs.
The being seemed to radiate darkness. On closer inspection, I realized it was a male student, although he wasn't wearing the normal school uniform. He wore a long, hooded cloak, the hood drawn over his black hair, which fell directly into his eyes.
He spoke in a low, slightly unnerving voice. "Hello, I am Nekozawa, and this is Belzenef." He held up a puppet that seemed to vaguely resemble a cat.
"Uhm...hi. I'm Mizuki... Look, I should really be going. Nice meeting you!" I attempted to sidestep him but he grabbed my hand.
"Wait! I was wondering...would you like to join the Black Magic Club? The occult is very interesting, and we've just banned human sacrifice. Also, you get a free voodoo doll!"
Suddenly, a bright light was shone directly into Nekozawa's from just behind me, and he took off running, shrieking, "Murderers!"
"Well, someone's a bit late." Two voices chorused from behind me, and I whirled around. Hikaru and Kaoru strode up the steps, and Hikaru was tucking a small flashlight into his pocket. Their feet were in perfect sync, and they soon joined me at the top of the staircase.
"I'm a 'guest'," I said, using my fingers to put quotation marks around 'guest'. "You two are the late ones."
"Aren't you going to thank us for scaring off that creep, Nekozawa?" Hikaru asked, a small smirk on his face.
"Yeah, Mizuki. That's kind of rude. You should thank your saviors." Kaoru pointed out, smiling mischievously.
"You know what else is rude? STEALING a person's personal property!" I spoke in a tone laced with anger, pointing an accusing finger at them.
Hikaru chuckled. "We did it to get a rise out of you. Here, to make it up to you, we'll walk you to the Host Club." Before I could protest, they had each placed a hand on my shoulders, and started to push me down the hall.
I stood just outside the large double doors, resisting Hikaru and Kaoru's pull. "No! I've changed my mind! I don't wanna go in!"
On the journey to the door, I'd imagined every humiliating situation that could possibly happen to me during this excursion. I didn't know any of the girls that would be here (except for Momoko, of course). This is my third day back at Ouran, and I hadn't made a single friend. I had a small case of social anxiety, and at this point, Hell was looking pleasant compared to this room full of strangers.
'No! You can't make me go in there! Screw you guys!" I put all of my weight against their pull, but they still managed to tug me forward. "Let me go, you...you cretins!"
Kaoru laughed, and Hikaru snorted. "Cretins? That's the best you can do?" Kaoru said, letting go of my hand and chuckling. Hikaru did the same, doubling over with laughter.
"That...is...so...lame!" He said, gasping. "Kaoru, we've never been called cretins before!"
I took this opportunity to begin to back away slowly, hoping they wouldn't notice I was leaving.
"Nope! You're not going anywhere! " Hikaru said, clutching my hand; he was still breathing hard from the bout of laughter. I tried not to grimace; I really didn't want him touching me. Even though I had a majority of my classes with the twins, I still couldn't stand Hikaru. I know what happened was in the past, but I was one to hold a grudge.
Kaoru straightened up, his laughing fit over. "You promised Honey you'd eat cake with him, right? You can do that. I don't see why you are so terrified of the music room." Hikaru joined in. "Yeah, why don't you want to go into the music room? Scared of something?" He smirked.
"N-no." I blushed. I wasn't exactly proud of my secret shyness, after all.
Hikaru and Kaoru chorused in sing-song voices, "Mizuki is scared! Mizuki is scared!"
I glared at them. "No, I'm not." Before registering what I was doing, I yanked open the door, and marched through, not even noticing the petals and the light.
"Mizu-chan! You're here!" Honey skipped over to me, closely followed by Mori. "Ready to eat cake with Usa-chan, Takashi and I?"
I smiled. "Sure!" Following them to a table, I soaked in the room. There was a host at every table, excluding Kyoya, who was yet again writing in that little journal of his. Surrounding each of the hosts were many girls, all clad in yellow. I rolled my eyes as I watched a girl swoon at Tamaki as he used his "princely charm" to flatter her.
As we reached a table loaded with sweets, I noticed two girls staring at Mori and Honey, waiting expectantly.
We all chatted for a bit, and I leared that the two girls' names were Kimi and Yuri. Kimi had long, silky dark hair that fell down her back, and brown eyes, whereas Yuri wore her light brown hair in a high pony tail, out of her hazel eyes. They actually ended up being really nice people; perhaps I would make some friends today.
Suddenly, Tamaki gasped dramatically from his place on a couch. All eyes turned to him.
"What is this?" He turned to a boy standing just to the left of him. The boy wore baggy clothing, very much unlike Ouran's pristine uniforms. A pair of thick glasses sat on his nose, and he had choppy, brown hair.
"It's coffee, what else could it be?!"
"It's not our usual blend...is this already ground?"
"Yeah...it's instant."
"It's instant?!"
Hikaru jumped in. "Yeah, I've heard about this stuff! You just add water! It's commoners' coffee!"
A collective "Just add water?" echoed amongst the guests, including me. I hate to admit it, but I'd never heard of instant coffee.
Tamaki took this moment to bring the attention back to him. "So it's true that commoners don't have enough time to grind their own coffee beans? That's so tragic!"
The boy sounded exasperated. "Look, I'll just go back to the store and get you something else. Sorry for not getting you expensive coffee."
"No...I will drink this commoners' coffee!" A collective gasp rang through the music room as Tamaki stated this, but I just rolled my eyes. I mean, instant coffee can't be that different from normal coffee, right?
Every guest in the room had their eyes on the hosts as Hikaru and Kaoru prepared cups of hot water, then proceeded to make the coffee. A very pretty-but somehow cold-looking girl who was standing close to the hosts muttered something that I couldn't quite hear, but it seemed like the boy with baggy clothing from earlier had heard it, and he'd taken a bit off offence.
"I think my father might disown me if I drink this."
"What if I let you drink it from my mouth?"
"T-then I would drink it!"
I shook my head as yet another girl swooned at Tamaki's idiotic attempts at flirting. I searched for Momo, but she was busy chatting with a few of her friends. However, I caught sight of that odd boy from earlier, and decided I would get to know him.
I strode over to where he was standing and smiled awkwardly. (I'm not much of a people person...) Anyway, I cleared my throat and murmured a greeting. He looked up at me and smiled.
"Hi, I'm Haruhi Fujioka."
"I'm Mizuki Nishimora, pleased to meet you." He invited me to sit down, and we chatted for a bit. I learned that he attended Ouran as a scholarship student, which explained his lack of a uniform.
"I don't mean to sound blunt, but why are you here, in the Host Club?" I asked him. He smiled sheepishly.
"I accidentally broke a very expensive vase, and now I'm working as the "Host Club Dog" to pay off my debt."
"Oh, that's awful! Those no good brats probably pay for a whole new vase with their allowance money. You know, I could lend you some money to help-" He cut me off.
"No, no, I couldn't possibly accept that. Thank you though." He smiled, and opened his mouth to talk, but before he could he was whisked away by members of the Host Club.
"Well, there went one of the very few sane people in this room." I sighed, and glanced at the clock. "I might as well go home and finish up my homework." I stood, dusted off the horrible yellow monstrosity, and left, making sure I had my phone as I closed the door to Music Room 3.
*Incubi- I think this is the plural of Incubus, which in case you didn't know, is a type of extremely attractive male demon (the counterpart of a Succubus). :)
Hi! The reason I haven't updated this for so long is because I've been posting on Wattpad...(Sorry, I know I should of kept posting here but Wattpad is really cool) Anyway, I'll try to update every other week. Also, this story was originally based on the anime, and I included the coffee scene for that reason, but I will keep scenes from the anime to a minimum and let the story veer off the path of the anime. :)
~Sarah
