The next installment in this story. . . Read, and I hope you will enjoy. . Happy new year by the way. So much is coming in 2009. My new year resolution is to study more.

Chapter 4

A knight, a fairy and a princess

Luscious red petals fluttered in the air. One landed on Riko's nose. She shook her head and blinked. The petals disappeared along with the sparkles and Riko wondered whether she had seen them in the first place. A tall blonde man with flawless complexion kneeled in front of them.

"No way. Could you two be…" he started. His eyes were large, enhancing his purple iris. "Are you ninjas?"

"What a stupid question," Riko said.

A mini person with blonde hair and big chocolate orbs jumped up to them. "Are you really ninjas? Amazing!" he cried when the girls had never admitted to being ninjas. "Can you show us a move? I wanna see, I wanna see!"

"OK," Akira cried enthusiastically.

"What are you going to do?" asked Riko.

The otaku leapt into the air and somersaulted deftly with one hand on the little boy's head. "Actually, I'm not a ninja," she smiled as her feet touched the ground.

"Again! Again!" the little boy clapped.

"I have to look for my friend," Akira said apologetically.

"Who is it? I can help! Then we can all eat cake together!"

"Cake?" Akira repeated. The little boy nodded and smiled.

Meanwhile in another part of the school, Yaya stood blindfolded in front of a large pile of jars and various other foods. "Now, Yaya-chan, try this," Chef Hayate opened the lid of a jam jar.

The blindfolded girl sniffed it twice. "Peach marmalade," she said confidently.

"Are you sure it's marmalade and not jam?"

"Absolutely certain." She nodded vigorously.

The chef clapped. "Bravo!"

Yaya pushed down the black cloth so that her blue orbs peeked out. "Hayate-sama, how did I do?"

"Brilliant! You guessed it all correct, full marks!" The man motioned to the many foods behind him which Yaya had successfully identified. "You may just have a talent."

Yaya smiled. "No, I'm just good at eating."

"Well when you want to learn, tell me." He wheeled a trolley laden with the largest cake Yaya had ever set eyes upon.

She gasped.

"I made it especially for Haninozuke-san. Take this to him."

Much strength was needed to push the trolley. Yaya found herself huffing and puffing by the time she reached the destined room. She pushed the cake laden trolley with great effort and made a big noise as she entered the Third Music Room.

"Delivery for Hanikosuke-san!" she cried, oblivious to the fact that she had mispronounced the name.

She was tackled to the ground immediately by a dark-haired, violet-eyed, beast-turned girl. "Where were you?"

Yaya laughed and scratched her head which did not feel itchy. "I smelt this wonderful smell. Hayate-sama is an amazing chef!"

"Who?"

"We were worried." Akira heaved Riko away from Yaya. "Come, let's go back."

Yaya shook her head. "Have you forgotten, Kira-chan? This is Japan," she whispered into her friend's ear. "Hayate-sama told me all about this school. It's called Ouran High School."

Akira's eyes grew wide. "Ouran… did you say?"

Yaya nodded forcefully. "Yes. It's a super-rich school. Everyone here are from rich families. They live in mansions and come to school by cars which are driven by chauffeurs."

"Ouran…" Akira murmured softly.

"It's a weird name, isn't it? At first, I thought Hayate-sama meant orange. Oh, did you know, Kira-chan? Orange oil is- Kira-chan, are you listening?"

"Kira-chan?" she waved her hands in front of Akira's face several times and even slapped her cheeks lightly. "I remember now, I'm supposed to give this cake to Hanisuke-san. No, it was Haninokuze-san. Wait, what was it again…"

"Just call me Hani," the mini person beamed.

"Hani… as in Honey? Cute!"

Riko prodded Yaya with a golden yellow umbrella she had snatched from Akira. As Yaya groaned in agony, and Honey knelt besides her fretting, wondering if cake would revive her, which of course did, Riko gave Akira a poke and asked where she got such a bright umbrella from.

"It was that girl Kageno-san. I never got a chance to return it," Akira replied. She handed the umbrella to the nearest person, Tamaki, and bowed while asking that he return it to the person. Having considered her business done, Akira turned for the doors, but it was blocked.

"We're not letting you go!" A pair of twins appeared and stood in the way of the doors. Their eyes were gleaming brightly with mischief.

"No problem, we'll go the way we came," Akira said as she turned on her heel. She grabbed Yaya along the way, who was sneaking a bite of the cake. "Come on, Yaya."

Yaya struggled desperately as Akira raised her knee, ready to jump through the window. "No, I'm scared!"

Luckily for her, someone, two people actually, held onto Akira. "We're not letting you go!" the twins repeated.

Riko pushed them aside in a motion and glowered, sending them cowering in a corner.

"So scary!" they squeaked.

"Who is the scary one?" cried Riko. "If anyone's scary here, it's you guys!" She flung an arm and pointed accusingly all around the room. "The little kid over there who is eating that huge cake all by himself, the quiet man who looks far too calm, that person over there who seems to be stuck to the laptop, and you two … make me dizzy." She turned to Tamaki who returned her stare expectantly. "Just looking at you creep me out."

His face contorted in surprise and … despair? He retreated to the same corner as the twins, but they ran away from him the moment mushrooms started sprouting from the carpet.

Akira gave Riko a meaningful glance. "I think you should apologise to him."

Riko turned her head loftily. She refused to admit fault. Much less her own. Akira tutted, so she spared the gloomy blonde a fleeting look. By that time, the corner was already crowded with mushrooms. Tamaki rolled a ball to and fro.

She sighed. Hesitantly, she strode towards him. "It's not your fault that you creep me out." She tried apologising. "It's probably just me."

To Riko's surprise, it took little to console him. In a matter of seconds, the blonde was revived and the once dejected corner of mushrooms had disappeared.

"Now, let's go," she said, turning around. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She considered throwing Tamaki over the air and onto the floor, but decided against it. No need to scare them.

He spun her around, then cupped her chin in his hand. "Little prince, no, a knight rather … little knight, what is your type?"

Riko resisted the urge to push the man into the opposite wall and beyond. She pushed him nonetheless, but no walls broke. "Don't touch me. I said I'm leaving."

"Come now, don't be shy. We don't just treat princesses here, we serve knights too." Tamaki stepped towards her, reducing the gap she had just made earlier. "I know what your type is. You like the calm and cool."

"Akira, we're leaving." Riko turned on her heel swiftly.

"I'm wrong? The wild type then," Tamaki tried. But Riko had stomped far away from him. He turned to the next guest, Yaya.

"Little princess, what is your type?" he asked, brushing cream from the girl's cheek.

Yaya's face grew warmer. She stepped back. "I don't understand."

"Is it the Loli-shota type? I'm sure the Little Devil type will be refreshing to you."

"Kira-chan, help," squeaked the girl.

Akira smiled and pulled Yaya with ease. "He doesn't mean any harm," Akira assured. She faced Tamaki, "right?"

"Of course not. It's in my nature to treat the guests, that's all," Tamaki answered smoothly. "So how about it, little fairy? Want to try the Prince type?"

Akira's smile never faded, if possible grew brighter, as she replied, "No, thanks. We're leaving now." She looked at Riko, her eyes full of mirth.

"What are you so happy about?" Riko questioned, narrowing her eyes into violet slits.

"I'm not happy or anything." Though her voice couldn't contain her joy. She shook excitedly. "I'll tell you. But not here."

Riko's eyebrow twitched, but it nearly jumped off her brow the next moment. Yaya stumbled after the Prince flashed her a dazzling smile. A large green vase stopped her fall. It teetered on its stand painfully slowly. Then, before anyone could do anything about it … CRASH!

Yaya had her eyes shut tightly. "That sounded expensive."

Riko willed her heart to maintain a calm beat. She was calm and cool. No need to fret over shattered pottery. That's what the voice in her head told her, but the voice outside her head said otherwise.

"Ouch. Good luck paying for that."

"Shut up!" cried Riko.

"We didn't say anything," Tamaki said cautiously. For some reason, he felt one needed extra caution when dealing with Riko. The twins did not feel the same.

They ganged up on her, one on each side, and crooned into her ears, "Ahh.. We thought we could have reaped up to 8 million yen with that antique."

The figure flashed into her head and spiralled out of control. "8 million yen!"

Yaya counted her fingers numerously, before collapsing onto the floor.

"Hey, is she alright?" Tamaki asked.

Akira waved her hands as if she was swatting a nearby mosquito. "She's fine."

Kyouya stepped forwards. "What should we do about this, Tamaki?" His fingers trailed the sharp edge of a splintered shard carefully.

The Prince descended himself on a royal chair. He crossed his legs and looked to the girls with a glint in his eyes.

"Amazing transformation. His character did a total 180 degrees. By the way, this guy is Suoh Tamaki. He's one year your senior," the voice explained.

How would you know that? Riko refrained herself from asking. She did not need to look more like an idiot. This voice was not in her head, but she seemed to be the only one who could hear it. Strange.

"Are you familiar with the phrase, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'?" he questioned.

Riko gulped. Akira tried to suppress her joy. Yaya drooled at the cake.