"Does this color look good?" Evelyn felt ashamed to ask as she held up some fabric and directed the questions at the twins.
Both honey colored eyes peered over in her direction and sighed.
"No." It was all together and rude.
"It's not dark enough, and not even anywhere close to the color schematics we chose." Hikaru replied.
"I'm so useless!" Evelyn cried out, frustrated.
"Then go see if Mori and Honey could use any help with the other stuff."
"Fine."
Evelyn dropped the fabric she held in her hands back into the box she had found and wandered away from the twins, who were busy working for once. She was amazed at how quickly the Host Club was able to conduct a full ball within the little time. She hummed happily to herself, and began creating ways to sincerely thank them when she wandered outside to face the mass of tents. Sighing to herself, she wandered throughout the mess.
It had been a week since she notified the army and still, no word. A familiar figure was instantly at Evelyn's side.
"Hello Mjomba."
"Hello Evelyn. Can we talk?"
"Sure. Go for it."
She heard him let out a soft sigh and knew that it was something worse than just a 'talk'.
"My office?" She asked.
"Yeah."
She ignored the curious glances she received from some of her coworkers as she led Mjomba to her office/room. She prayed that Haruhi was not in there, just in case they broke into an argument. That would cause some issues, not like she already had so many to deal with. When she made sure that the door was shut, she offered Mjomba a seat, but he ignored the gesture.
"You're mad." She stated as calm as she could while she sat down in her chair and watched the grown man carefully.
"Yes, I am mad."
"Why?"
His hands were balled up by his side as he took a deep breath in.
"I do not find you fit to run this conservation. You are letting absolute strangers take over matters that are so important."
"They offered their help. I took them up on it. Besides, they have experience doing these sorts of things."
"That's not the only thing I find wrong. The refugees."
"I checked in at the headquarters. We're still waiting on a rep to come out."
"They need to go."
Her eyes instantly narrowed as he continued on.
"They are calling you the "Joy of our people"."
"And that's bad how?"
"They're expecting too much from you. You cannot possibly save them all. Not only that, but our supplies are more demanding than ever. We've never gone through so much food."
She crossed her arms and gave him her best glare, which was nothing compared to Kyoya's.
"They're not leaving."
"They have to go."
"No."
Mjomba glared back at her and slammed his hands on her desk. She jumped from the loud noise and the action; never has he been so violent.
"You are not listening to me. They. Have. To. Go. Today. Now."
Evelyn, confused stood up to face the man.
"And you are not listening to me either. They are not going. They have nowhere to go, nowhere to call home. They came to me because they knew I would listen. We have to wait for the army to come and get them."
"The army has left them here. They will not come and collect these people."
"You don't know that."
"They need to go!"
She wanted to scoff, to roll her eyes and mock him. Instead, she took a step closer to him and met him eyelevel.
"They are not going. If you don't like the way I run this place, then get the hell outta here."
There was a soft knock on the door and the two instantly looked at it. Realizing that they were still in her office and trying to calm down, Evelyn took a step away.
"Come in."
Haruhi poked her head in and looked surprised.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you guys were meeting. I can come back later."
"No, it's fine. We were just finished." Mjomba spoke and rushed to the door. Haruhi was quick to get out of his way and watch Evelyn carefully.
The door slammed shut and caused Evelyn to flinch a little. Her nerves were shaken and she felt like she was going to be sick. She never fought with Mjomba, but this time something was wrong. She felt her legs grow like jelly and was quick to plop back down into her chair.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. What's on your mind?"
Haruhi watched her carefully, her frown still not leaving.
"Kyoya said that there's a letter for you waiting in the main office."
"Okay, let's go to it then!"
The entire Host Club sat around the cafeteria table, observing each other and absorbing the weird silence. Tamaki was twiddling his fingers around, Kyoya was captured by his iTouch, the twins were sighing to themselves and trying to think of different designs and color schemes, Honey was captivated with Usa-chan and Mori only watched, and finally Haruhi was lost in thought.
"You know," Kaoru decided to break the silence. "We've never been done so early before."
"Yeah," his twin agreed. "It feels like we're missing something."
"It's Eve-chan who we're missing." Honey spoke up happily. "She has been a little bit out of it today."
'Hmm… it must have been something to do with her fight with Mjomba.'
All eyes instantly went to Haruhi and suddenly she was on the spot.
"What did you say?" Tamaki asked.
"Oh, I didn't mean to say it out loud. I just was thinking."
"What happened?" Mori asked.
"Well, when I came to get her for the letter, I could hear them arguing. He was mad about something."
"How mad?" Honey asked.
"Mad enough to make her ignore the rest of us." Tamaki answered as he let out a long groan. "We need to do something Mommy."
"We will. She'll be coming here in a minute. We're having a class today in mannerisms."
"What do you mean?" Haruhi asked suspiciously.
"Evelyn has no lessons in table or party manners. We're going to teach her so she'll make a great impression on her sponsors."
"Hello everyone!" She greeted them with much more cheer than she had earlier.
"EVELYN!" Tamaki shot out of his chair and was instantly hugging the unprepared girl. "You seem so happy right now!"
She giggled as Tamaki swung her around in circles, holding the girl tightly in his embrace.
"What are you doing?"
Tamaki stopped and studied her closely and took a step back as he analyzed her.
"What cheered you up so much?"
The grin grew even more as she held up a letter in her hand.
"My parents are coming back soon. They'll be back in Africa tomorrow night."
"Will you be picking them up?" Haruhi asked.
"No, Mjomba is going to get them. He's heading into town right now and staying there for the night." Her smile faltered a little bit, but she quickly picked it back up.
"I'm just glad they're coming back, it also probably means good news."
"That's really good news Eve-chan!" Honey smiled at her happily before he hugged her around the knees.
"But now, we're going to need to work on a special project." The twins interrupted.
"Oh really? Well, I can help if you need me too, I just need to go back to the Lion's Den and check in over there really quick."
"I'm sure Mori and Honey can handle it. We need you right now."
Evelyn looked up at Kyoya whose glasses glinted a little bit maliciously.
"Oh. Is it something bad?"
The twins stood up and retrieved her from Tamaki's grasp. With hands around her shoulders, they guided her to the table and sat her down. Looking a little lost, Evelyn turned to Haruhi for help, who was only hauled to sit next to Evelyn. A twin took perch on either side of the girls as Tamaki sat down in front of them. An eyebrow was raised as Evelyn studied the setting.
"What's happening?"
"Etiquette lessons. In order to impress your sponsors, you must show the proper party manners." Tamaki explained. "Kyoya, where's our place settings?"
"Here they are."
There was a box full of old dishes that were chipped or slightly cracked. When Tamaki peered inside, his face darkened.
"We can't properly practice with these!" He exclaimed, disgusted.
"It's all we have until my shipment arrives."
Evelyn and Haruhi shared a relieved look. Surely they wouldn't practice with broken dishes.
"Okay, table setting is put to the side. Ladies, whenever you wish to you the restroom, you address it as the washroom."
"And then the guys will stand and let the ladies leave. I know table manners." Evelyn sighed. "Teach me something new Tamaki."
Tamaki stopped and frowned slightly but it was quickly replaced with a warm smile.
"Then I'm going to assume you know how to dance as well."
Evelyn shook her head.
"I do not. I'm not that graceful."
"Have you even tried?" Haruhi asked. "It's really not that hard."
"I'm taking it you had to learn too."
Haruhi nodded happily.
"Though, I am still confused as to why I was included on these lessons. I already had them when I joined the Host Club."
"Ah, that would make sense then." Evelyn nodded her head. "So, how do you work in the Host Club? Do you make the tea and crumpets?"
Haruhi shook her head, all the lessons were completely lost between the two girls as they chatted happily.
"Guys, we really need to be working on our dancing." Tamaki went completely unnoticed as the two continued their conversation.
Out of desperation, Tamaki turned to Kyoya.
"Mommy," he whined. "They're not listening to me!"
"So they're not that really interested then. Evelyn's got a lot on her mind and Haruhi is the nearest girl to talk to. Let them be."
"O-okay." He sounded dejected as he took a seat next to Kyoya. "Class dismissed."
"Oh! I really need to go the Lion's Den. I'll be back soon." Evelyn sat up quickly and snapped out of the conversation. "Haruhi, would you like to come with me?"
"Sure!" The burnette stood up with Evelyn and the two girls walked out, waving at the boys.
"Be good and work hard while we're gone!"
When they were sure that the girls were gone, Mori turned to Kyoya, who understood the unasked question.
"I looked up Mjomba, but nothing came up." He spoke to the tall boy quietly. "Although that doesn't mean my search is at an end."
A/N: Hello every silent reader. :P I know you're there because of the view counts I keep finding on my account. I must say I'm happy with the results, and I shall trudge through this without a lack of faith. But I don't know if it's bad or not because no one will tell me so I'm taking the silence as a good sign. Maybe it's just because you're all in shock or something. I'd like to pretend anyways. Maybe it was because I warned you it might be long. However, I'm still going to follow through with this story and I will be happy to make any corrections. I take good criticism and I need it too.
Oh and thank you: round and round we go for reviewing! It makes me happy. I'm sending you virtual cookies. The good kind anyways.
Love,
Jazzy