[Sade POV]
Among the flood of people rushing to their next classes, I couldn't see Kaoru and Hikaru at all. They were going to make me late. The whole "we don't like you charade" was fine, but I still needed to get to class.
At least Kyouya had built up the decency to just get it over with. Two of passing period's five minutes had already passed. I was getting anxious. The school was much bigger than I'd have liked, so we'd probably be running to make it on time.
It kind of annoyed me that I couldn't find them because it seemed the only non-brunette people in the high school were them, Tamaki, and that small kid. No one else. Their location should have been painfully obvious.
"Boss is really losing it if he thinks that we'll get along with her," said the loathing voice of one of the twins.
"She's touchy. I'm not sure we'll even be able to go near her without having her blow up in our faces," said the other, amused. That one's voice was nasally and raspier. He, like his brother, still remained invisible to me.
Temperamental, eh? I suppose that there was no way to avoid that. After all, the first impression I gave them was (reasonably) angry.
Smack in the middle of the crowd was the giant boy from earlier, walking with the tinier one beside him. Those two were fine with me, for the most part. Baby-face had added a little bit of fuel to the fire, but it didn't seem like he had meant to offend me. I had only addressed him earlier because he was part of the hiearchy schtick. Stoic guy hadn't said anything, period.
I craned my neck to look behind them. Low and behold, I found my rather talkative escorts. They took sight of me, exchanged pained expressions with one another, then shrouded themselves with the rest of the crowd. My features scrunched, irritated by their pettiness.
"Look, Takashi," said the tiny boy, waving at me. I waved back. "It's Sade-chan!"
I pushed up my glasses, confused. The "-chan" honorific was something only people who were older than me used to refer to me with. I was pretty sure this guy was younger than me.
He took the tall fellow's hand and proceeded to drag himself my way.
"Heeeyy Sa-chan!" he sang, tugging at the sleeve of my grey blazer. He stared up at me with big brown eyes and rocked back and forth on his heels. A fraction of my heart melted. My seven year old sister, Alicia, was probably taller than him.
"Hi there," I replied, reciprocating the enthusiasm.
Takashi and I established eye contact and nodded at one another in greeting.
"We're going to English class with Ms. Takaoji," he said.
"Oh. Well, have fun," I responded, taking a small step away to hint that I had places to go.
His eyes got a little wider. He put a finger up to his mouth as if remembering something important.
"Oh! I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry I got you mad this morning. Will this make it up to you?"
He turned and dug a hand into his school bag, eliciting what sounded like the crinkling of multiple food wrappers. He pulled out a small brown box the size of my palm and held out it out to me with a giant smile.
"Aw! Of course, of course. This is more than enough!" I reached out and gently took it from him. It read "Gourmet Chocolate" in gold ink and had cellophane in the middle so that I could see two adorable little truffles. "This is so sweet! These chocolates look absolutely divine, but are you sure you want to give these to me?"
"Yeah! Long as you're not allergic to almonds, you can take it!"
Mini flowers danced above his head. This guy was giving me diabetes with that sweet personality of his.
"Thank you so much!" I said, taking the box and tucking it into my own bag. "What are your names?"
"Honey-senpai," said the twin with the cast, magically appearing at my side. "He's a third year."
Fortunately for me, instead of screaming bloody murder like I normally would, I merely stiffened unnoticeably. I'd always been such an easy scare. That wasn't the only startling information though. I never would have expected that boy, out of all people, to be a third year.
"And he's Mori-senpai," said the other twin, sweeping a hand in Takashi's direction. "Also a third year."
"Yup!" Honey nodded, satisfied with their introductions, "We gotta go to class now, Sa-chan. See ya later!"
"Yeah. See you! Thanks again, senpai!" I said, waving to him as he left with Mori-senpai. Well, that left two out of the seven cleared of whatever qualms I held. It'd be peachy if we could all just be friends, but alas, this world encourages the coddling of my own pride and whatever dignity I may own to ensure I receive the respect I'm entitled to.
The casted twin came in closer, perching his elbow on my shoulder like an armrest.
"We scared you real bad, huh?"
I lied like a dog. "Pfft. Not quite."
"Oh. Pity. Guess we'll have to try harder next time. You ready for Theatre class?"
"Yeah. I've been ready for the past three minutes," came my dry response. I didn't exactly remember when we had become friendly enough to come in physical contact like this.
"My, my! Someone's touchy this morning," commented the uninjured one.
"Mildly, considering my escorts move at turtle speed," I retorted.
"Well then. Has something upset you m'lady?" said the one leaning on me.
I pushed up my glasses. "Nothing really relevant to this moment, good sir. Do you have anything to say to me?"
Like an apology, perhaps.
The uninjured one looked up at the ceiling for answers. "Hmm. . . not really, besides asking that you try to not to bite our heads off. Do you have any experience acting?" he inquired, mirroring his brother's position leaning against me.
Hm. Making small talk. I guess that was one way to go about diffusing the tension. (Though another box of sweets would've been welcomed as well.)
"I'll try," I replied airily, "and to answer that second thing: no, not really. Unless you'd count a less than a semester of it in middle school."
They spoke in unison.
"Are you any good at it?"
I pushed up my glasses.
"I'd like to think so. However, the quality of anything is subjective to the viewer and their own experiences. I'm no professional, at any rate."
"We'll just have to wait and see," they said cheekily, relieving me of their weight and taking a step ahead. "Follow us!"
And I did just that, strolling at an easy pace in between them.
They were so in sync. The otaku in me laughed at how weak in the knees some character from the anime, Soul Eater, would be at the sight of them. The character's name was Death the Kid; a wacky protagonist with an odd fetish for symmetry, a practice which these ginger devils had down to a science.
While I found their antics amusing, I wondered if they had anything in store for me, like a childish prank of sorts, or perhaps something to annoy me in general.
Ha. They weren't the only ones with siblings. Being the oldest child out of four isn't exactly for someone with low tolerance levels, so I knew I wouldn't crack easily, if that was what they were going for.
"Hey, Hikaru, Kaoru," I asked as we passed up the Chairman's office, "which one of you is which?"
They smirked.
"Aren't you the lucky today?" commented the casted one, wagging an eyebrow.
"Yes, really, Kaoru," said the apparent Hikaru. He addressed me next. "See, Sade, since Kaoru is the one who got into the accident-"
"-you'll be able to tell us apart perfectly for just one day," finished Kaoru.
"Why? Are you getting the cast removed tomorrow?"
"No, that won't be for a while. I-turn here-broke it just yesterday, so Hikaru's going to get a cast too."
I followed their lead. "Again, why would you do that? Are you two really that set on being indistinguishable?"
They exchanged looks. "Well, yeah. It's more fun like that anyways. A game, really."
"How wonderful," I teased. "I can hardly contain my excitement. Can you tell?"
"Certainly," crowed Kaoru in the same manner. Hikaru snickered.
"Hikaru. Kaoru." said a familiar voice. Haruhi.
Kaoru was the one who turned around first.
"Hey, Haruhi. What's up?"
I mcfricking knew that they were going to dupe me, somehow. This wasn't a complete confirmation, but it was enough to rouse my suspicions.
Pulling the old switcheroo was so cliche. They could have done much better. I rolled my eyes in mock disappointment. And to think, after having the golden opportunity to master the art of deception as a pair of identical twins, they'd blow their cover just like that. Even I would have known to have each twin respond to the name that wasn't his.
"Not much," he said, speeding to catch up with us and joining Kaoru's side. "Just wanted to know if you did what Tamaki-senpai said to do."
"Oh. That thing?" Hikaru commented, nodding to his brother. "We forgot. We'll take care of it right now."
Haruhi sped up and stopped at the open door ahead of us. Looking straight at Hikaru, he said, "Thanks Kaoru. See you guys later." And then went to his class.
Bingo.
Both twins nearly stopped mid-stride but quickly regained their composure.
"About that thing that good ol' Haruhi was saying," they declared clapping me on the back and ushering me forward in an attempt to drive my mind away from their blunder. "He was reminding us to apologize. So-"
"We're sorry," said Hikaru, who was actually Kaoru.
"For earlier," said Kaoru, who was actually Hikaru.
"No problem," I said, chuckling. "I accept your apology. Hikaru-" I looked at Kaoru "-and Kaoru." I looked at Hikaru.
Both scrutinized me with suspicious squints. I could see the wheels turning in their heads. They opened the door, stepping aside for me to enter.
"Ah, the Hitachiins!" said a male teacher. "Just in time, and with our newest student I see. Come in, come in!" He skimmed over my figure and beckoned me over. "I am Mr. Tatum. Welcome to class. Please introduce yourself!"
I repeated my long-winded introduction from English class.
"We look forward to having you as well," smiled . Your seat is over there."
He pointed to a spot behind the twins. Woop-dee-doo.
For the rest of class I watched students improvise a few scenes, and some scripted ones too. The twins whispered frequently and glanced at me occasionally. By now it was probably safe to assume that whoever was my guide to any class would be the one sitting near me.
Mentally, I shrugged. The twins were pleasant enough, and our little conversation earlier was amusing. They seemed like fun people to get to know, so I wouldn't really mind sitting by them for Spanish and Chemistry either.
Theatre went by faster than English. The twins and I were through the door and out for the next class much faster than before. Out loud, I continued to refer to them using the names that they had given me, but in my mind, I called them by the right ones. We shared light conversation about our interests in each passing period, with me trying to take mental note of their individual habits. Before I knew it, Chemistry was over and we were on our way to lunch.
"Yeah. Then he turned over the curse doll and found out that said 'loser'!" Hikaru said, laughing to the point of tearing up. Kaoru and I joined in. They were on a roll, telling me a whole bunch of stories about their adventures in the Host Club while leading me to their lunch table.
"Wait, wait so you're telling me that just to visit Haruhi's house, you staged a whole fight?!" I exclaimed, pulling out my lunch box and taking a seat.
"That's correct," Kaoru added, sitting down next to Hikaru and setting his tray on the table. "And we ended up going too. Haruhi's dad is a really interesting guy. Though, he doesn't really get along well with Tamaki-senpai."
"You could say the reason they butt heads so often is they're too much alike!" Hikaru said.
Again, Haruhi popped up out of no where. "What're you saying about my dad?" he asked, deadpanning.
"Hey! It's the infamous Haruhi," I said, swallowing a bit of my omelette and waving at him. He sat next to me, setting down his own bento.
"Oh hey Sade," he said, casually passing two rice balls to the twins in exchange for their small tuna-filled hors d'oeuvres. It was an obvious show of his closeness to them. I smiled. Small things like seeing friends do favors for one another warmed my stone-cold heart. Haruhi addressed the twins next. "Don't tell me that you two've been talking with Dad behind my back too."
"Too?" I teased, nudging him with my elbow. "Do you mean to tell me that someone around here has conspired against you with your father before?"
"Oh yeah, someone does," Hikaru answered, taking in a mouthful of rice ball.
"The Shadow King!" Kaoru said in an ominous sing-song voice, waving his hands in my face.
"And this mysterious figure would be identified as?" I asked pointedly.
All three of them looked at each other, knowingly.
"Oh come on, guys! I'm not in on this little telepathic connection that you have going on, so it'd be nice if you just spilled it."
"Kyouya-senpai," they said in unison.
"Ha! I wasn't guessing him, but I kind of got that-" I paused, racking my brain for a fitting term. "-vibe from him. I mean, I know that's probably not the only aspect of him and his personality, and by no means am I trying to offend you. He is your friend after all."
"Not at all," replied Kaoru dismissively, "Kyouya-senpai does leave certain-"
He shivered. Hikaru finished his thought. "Impressions."
"Yeah, that's what I'm getting at."
I was tempted to say more. More about how he could probably verbally pick people apart and break them, given enough information, but that'd be a few steps too far. There were certain boundaries one shouldn't cross.
"You should probably be careful, Sade," Haruhi began, facing me. "He might find out more about you too."
"Me?" I scoffed. "There's not much to say about me. I'm just your average girl. Normal house, normal life, normal family. Besides, if he were to contact my parents he'd be in for one hell of a ride."
"Why?" asked Hikaru.
"Why else? My parents would flip sh-" I halted, nearly swearing out loud. Clearing my throat I continued. "My parents would flip tables man. My mom would be like 'Excuse me, who is this?' and my dad-"
I paused, picturing the livid brown eyes of a huge man with an island tan and slowly greying buzzcut.
"God man, he wouldn't even give him time of day. A few words like, 'Hi this is Kyouya and I'd like to know about your daughter' or something like that, and my dad would be on him faster than you can blink. He'd give 'im a full on spit shower through the phone, then track him down and tear him to bits."
Hikaru and Kaoru grimaced. "Is your dad really that scary?"
"Yeah! You'd have to break every limb in his body to keep from. . .uh. . .sorry," I said, realizing how intimidating I had built him up to be. I pushed up my glasses. "I think I gave you the wrong impression of him. See, my dad is someone who has built up a lot of patience in all his years, so it takes a lot to make him truly angry. One of the easiest ways to set him off is bringing up the topic of boys versus my sisters and me. He takes those very seriously, if they try to make a 'move on one of us.' He's more laid back with my younger brother."
"Oh. That might be a bit of a problem," Kaoru said.
"Reason being?" I asked.
"Well, boss wanted to invite you to the Host Club later, to make things up to you. I guess you'll have to say no instead."
My thoughts wandered to my parents, and how prickly they might become in response to me visiting a host club.
Eh. I could handle it. If I worded things right.
"No, no. I'll find a way. You guys seem like nice people, so I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, it'll be a one time gig. I should probably say hi to Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai later anyways."
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V
Hey guys! From here on out, things will be moving a bit faster. Not too fast though. I mean fast as in we're not going to proceed in a class-by-class type manner. (Somebody please tell me that they're not the only ones crying over their own first chapters because lord-knows-that-we-all-just-want-to-get-to-the-damned-juicy-bits-first)
Story fun fact(s):
•the song above is a song Sade listens to in the morning, depending on how she feels
•her three siblings are in this order: Corinne [Ko-rin] (sister 12 y/o), Keano [Kay-ah-no] (brother 10 y/o), and Alicia [Uh-lee-shuh] (sister 7 y/o)
Like every other chapter, I ask that you don't hold back anything. Please tell me (constructively) what you like and/or disliked with reasons why so I know how I could make my writing better and how I could keep writing in a way that would please you. Your thoughts absolutely make my day!
Remember to comment, vote, and/or add to your libraries if you enjoyed!
Peace out mah lovelies!
~Nua