Chapter Nine: The Bully and the Blonde
Honestly, there were two things that completely cemented Saelind's friendship with Ami Kikiroshi.
The first was the incident with Genji, and the second was the Attack of the Manager—the latter of which occurred the next day.
Haruhi had been kept back from school due to a serious fever, so the Host Club had gone to visit her the moment classes had ended. In truth, the black-haired girl had been left to fend for herself for once, even in class. Which was a blessing, since she really couldn't stand the obnoxiousness of the Host Club: however, instead of being left to enjoy the bliss of being alone, Ami had hesitantly tapped the table she'd sat at during lunch and practically melted into a puddle after asking if she could sit there with her.
Against her better judgement, and mostly out of pity since Ami seemed to be a nervous wreck, Saelind had agreed with a curt nod.
Which had, surprisingly, led to a series of conversations about food.
After a while, she forgot where she was and actually got immersed in the conversations, which was so rare of an occurrence that even Saelind herself was kind of surprised by it. The two of them were sitting together in the Ouran cafeteria, eating their lunch while they discussed the basics of making certain dishes, when Saelind saw a clipboard-wielding girl with dyed blonde hair bearing down on them. Saelind's face instantly pulled into a scowl because she knew for a fact that the girl—Renge Houshakuji—was coming to talk to her.
Something she absolutely hated doing, anyway.
However, after a moment, she realized that the blonde girl's gaze was fixated on Ami, as well, and her expression darkened even further.
She didn't need to be a psychic to know that trouble was about to rain down on them.
Because she was from an extremely high-standing family, Renge had acquired a great deal of power—and because she was powerful, she had acquired even more popularity. It was the old chicken-and-egg conundrum adapted to the high school pecking order. As the manager of the Host Club's Decoration Committee and who the hell knew what else, Renge was in charge of executing the décor for the Club's random themes. The choosing part she did herself, but the execution was usually delegated to others—by force, if necessary.
Renge arrived at their table and stood there expectantly, clicking her ballpoint pen to indicate her orders were forthcoming.
"Okay, Miss Bookworm," she stated haughtily, looking at her papers, "I'm going to need some help with the club prep for next Tuesday's pool opening party. As you know, the theme is world gems. I need construction paper and colored foil cutouts of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and an assortment of star and moon shapes for the sky. About a hundred and fifty of each would be about enough. The materials are all in Sensei Kakavarashi's art room, so if you could, like, go ahead and stay after school today in order to get that done, that would be fabulous."
Saelind sarcastically rolled her eye upon hearing the instructions.
Renge always issued her orders the same way: she'd 'like you to go ahead and do this,' as if it were something you'd seriously been considering doing all day long anyway—and the little addendum, 'that would be fabulous,' was equally meaningless. Ami, however, huddled in on herself, and Saelind was horrified when she realized that the girl was literally going to give in.
Just as Ami was opening her mouth, the pale girl snapped her schoolbook shut and interrupted her with a sharp glare.
"Sorry, but she can't," Saelind stated in a neutral tone, glancing up at the blonde with a cold teal eye. "I apologize for the inconvenience."
Renge stared at her, temporarily at a loss for words: truthfully, she looked thoroughly confused, which was both amusing and pathetic.
"Um, excuse me?" she inquired after a moment. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that Ami can't help you out today. We're working on a Biology project together in the library after school," Saelind stoically retorted, flicking her eye to the left and watching as the stunned brunette started blinking owlishly behind her glasses. Renge let out a small laugh of amusement before glancing around to see if anyone else was witnessing this perfect moment of comedy.
"Well, that's great, but my beloved Kyouya really does need his gems and stars and moons," the blonde girl tittered, giving her a superior expression. "You're the boy who just joined the Host Club, aren't you? Well, maybe you didn't realize this yet, but I'm your Manager: I'm afraid Miss Bookworm is going to need to go ahead and help me out today."
Saelind bit back the urge to fire back a retort about where she should consider sticking her gems, moons, and stars.
"She can't," the girl stated firmly, teal eye flashing fiercely despite her calm demeanor. "She's coming to the library with me, so you'll just need to 'go ahead' and ask somebody else. Oh, and for the record? Her name is Ami—not 'Miss Bookworm'. I'd bet seven hundred dollars out of my own pocket that, as the self-proclaimed manager of the Host Club, you wouldn't like to be called 'Miss Ditzy' all the time, would you?"
"You can't talk to me like that!" the girl shrieked, mouth falling open and face turning red. "My father works for the Ootori group!"
"Oh, but I can, since my rank in nobility outstrips yours," Saelind stated simply, carefully adjusting her bangs to make sure her scars were hidden before getting to her feet. "Now, if you're done, please try showing a little bit of respect towards other people by acknowledging the fact that they have names."
With that, she looked at Ami, who seemed to be both awed and impressed by her rebellious attitude. Renge, however, was so completely unaccustomed to hearing anyone say the word 'no' that she simply stood where she was with her mouth hanging open.
"What's wrong with you?!" the Host Club's manager demanded. "Are you really turning this down? Where is your school spirit?! Don't you care about the Host Club?!"
"Forgive me for reciprocating the feelings this school has towards me, but that's simply how it's going to remain," Saelind cryptically retorted, giving Renge a nonchalant stare that held no feeling whatsoever. "Just in case blondes like you really are as stupid as they seem, I'll put it in dumb-people speak: I don't give a damn about this school, or its festivities, because the 'spirit' hanging around here is vile enough to make me want to vomit. Have a nice day."
"You're a jerk!" Renge hissed, looking to be on the verge of tears. "You can't do this!"
"Sorry, but I just did," Saelind snorted, standing up and hefting her bag before glancing at the brunette with a raised eyebrow. "Now... where was I? Oh, right: as I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted, if you really want to be able to prepare a proper European dish and make it taste authentic, you'll need to gather all of the ingredients beforehand on top of proper cookware. Shall we discuss this on our way to class?"
Ami's face practically lit up from the inside out at the question: she grinned up at her and nodded frantically before grabbing her own book bag and following her out of the cafeteria, leaving Renge standing alone by the empty lunch table. As they walked through the double doors leading to the hallway, Saelind allowed herself a secret smirk.
She didn't want to admit it, but even though she was definitely gonna be in trouble, doing that had felt pretty damn good.
"So, we're working on the Biology project together?" Ami asked hopefully, bouncing down the hallway beside her with light, dancing footsteps. "Really?"
"If you want to. It's not like we don't need to get it done anyway," Saelind snorted, raising a disinterested eyebrow as she watched the brunette twirl around yet again in delight. "I don't have to help the Host Club today, so if you want, we can start right after the last bell. Plus, you needed some third-party intervention with that irritating airhead: I didn't need to be a genius to see that you were going to give in."
"Well, thanks for the assist," Ami sighed, shaking her head, "but I'm not sure that refusing her was such a good idea."
Saelind instantly turned and peered up at her with a skeptical teal eye.
"Oh?" the pale girl drawled, folding her arms and tilting her head to the side; her hair slid away and revealed the scars on her chin, making Ami avert her eyes for a small moment. "In other words, you were just aching inside to spend hours cutting out all the shapes in the Lucky Charms cereal for some Asian Barbie who doesn't normally give you the time of day, to decorate a pool party that I'm betting you have no intention of attending? There's something wrong with that picture."
"Er, well, when you put it that way…" Ami giggled, smiling a little before a frown slowly wrinkled her small nose, "but seriously, Saelind, it's not smart to make girls like Renge angry. Her father works for the Ootori company! That's not a joke!"
"Oh? Well, I'm the daughter of a Grand Duchess," Saelind deadpanned, watching with a lazy eye as Ami blinked. "That's not a joke, either."
"Still..." Ami sighed, biting her lip. "It's not smart."
"You can't be serious," Saelind deadpanned, regarding her with a disbelieving half-lidded stare. "You can't possibly stand there with a straight face and tell me that the threats from Renge and her Daddy's little minions are worth anything to you."
"Of course not," Ami replied indignantly, raising an eyebrow before she pushed her glasses up her nose. "I'm not scared of that."
"Okay, so what's the big deal?" the smaller girl inquired, trying to find the reason behind her feelings. "Renge will give us the cold shoulder, so what?"
Ami shook her head, but she still looked unconvinced: Saelind could tell that she was extremely uncomfortable, so... against her will, she hesitantly lifted her hand and almost fearfully stretched it out to her. Just before her fingers brushed against the other girl's arm, she drew her fingers back ever so slightly... but then she put her violently trembling hand on Ami's arm in an act of reassurance.
She instantly jumped and looked at Saelind in surprise.
"I thought you hated physical contact," she murmured, blinking when Saelind gave her arm an awkward pat and hastily withdrew her hand. "Didn't you?"
"Yeah, I do, but come on! Snap out of it already," the shorter girl sighed, hiding the arm she'd used to touch Ami behind her back. "There's really nothing to worry about: this is only one part of your life, and all of the things you think are important right now will seem meaningless when our real lives begin. In short, this is High School, not a presidential election: forget all about the wrath of Renge and go call your family. Tell them that we're staying after school to start a Bio project together."
Something inside the girl's eyes warmed up after Saelind said this, but the girl literally almost jumped out of her skin when the brunette threw her arms around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Before she could think, Saelind hissed at her like a snake and tried to pull back... but by that point, she'd already let go.
When she straightened her ugly yellow princess uniform, she seemed to have found her resolve.
"Okay, Saelind," Ami murmured, nodding with a smile as they began walking down the hall again. "Thank you."
However, the girl found out what Ami had been worried about later that day.
She was standing alone at her locker just before the final bell, thinking about what sorts of dishes Ami might be able to make with little difficulty as she gathered her books together. The brunette had called her step-mother earlier and she'd been given permission to stay after school. Oh, and she'd also asked Ami to 'bring her new friend home to say hello' after they were finished. Saelind didn't know how to feel about that request, but it didn't make her insides comfortable at all.
In fact, she was inclined to say she didn't like the idea of meeting her family at all: she wanted to snarl just from the thought of it.
Just as she was worrying about this, a boy seemed to come out of nowhere, like an asteroid suddenly hurtling into the atmosphere and bursting into flames: Koizu Masaki—a tennis player who liked to harass people smaller than him. The athlete didn't say a word when Saelind closed her locker, only stood there with his muscular arms folded across his chest. The tiny girl took a generous amount of time closing the lock and spinning the dial, but when she couldn't think of anything else to do, she simply turned and looked up with an expectant expression.
Masaki was gazing at her with a sneer on his face, but his small brown eyes were full of venom.
Honestly, he wasn't the handsomest of Asian boys out there, but he'd spent such an enormous amount of time and money enhancing everything he had that people couldn't help admiring how he looked. In other words, Masaki might have been plain in another reality, but in this one he carried himself like the Prince of Persia. Saelind, however, wasn't going to try and initiate a conversation in the face of his open hostility; nor was she going to walk away like a coward. She was going to stand her ground—and that's what she did.
The girl merely stood there and stared right back at the tennis player, waiting to hear what he wanted to say.
However, when Masaki extended his hand and shoved her into the locker as hard as he could, Saelind hissed and bared her fangs.
The jock looked so startled by her reaction that he actually jumped away for a moment.
"If you value the movement in your fingers," Saelind stated coldly, growling deep in the back of her throat like a wild dog, "I would recommend keeping your hands off me. I will nothesitate to bite your stupid ass, so remember that in the future."
"Well, well, well, look who's acting tough," he stated with a smirk. "So, Monster Man, I hear you're too busy and self-important to help Renge with the Host Club's Decoration Committee. My father also works for the Ootori company: don't think you can keep it all quiet anymore."
"Keep what all quiet?" Saelind asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. "The fact that you enjoy harassing people who are smaller than you?"
"Oh, I think you know exactly what I mean," Masaki said nastily, a slow grin spreading across his face. "I'm talking about your situation."
Saelind stood impassively and waited for him to continue, checking her watch and tapping her foot impatiently.
"Um, hello?" she finally snorted, looking up at him with a quirked eyebrow. "I've got a life to live, and you're cutting it short by boring me."
"I've recently heard a few things about you," he chuckled nastily. "According to what I heard, your family is fucked up. You and your twin sister used to switch roles when things got stressful, didn't you? But then, a fire burned your ugly face off! Honestly, those scars are a blessing, since they masked just how nasty you looked. I also heard that there was a casualty in that fire... some random baby sitter who had Down Syndrome and couldn't even talk without slurring. Some parents you must have had: your mother is one of the richest people in the world, and yet, she chose a retard as a baby sitter."
Saelind could feel her expression changing as he spoke, but she somehow managed to keep her temper in check despite what he'd said.
However, the moment he brought Her into it, Saelind's expression rapidly flashed from neutral-tempered to enraged within the span of a second. By the time he finished speaking, the girl's lips were drawn into a snarl, she was growling even more fiercely, and her black hair was standing on end. There were so many things she could have said to those insults: she could have laughed and told the loser to go knock himself out. She could have told him to go buy a brain, since his didn't seem to be working. She could have stared through him and walked right on by as though nothing had happened. But instead, she found herself paralyzed with enraged hatred, clutching her backpack and burning holes into Masaki's face with her eye.
The boy's sneer was so snide and ugly that, in that moment, he almost set off her temper.
That's when she started praying he was finished.
"If you're smart," Saelind finally stated in an extremely low tone, "you'll walk away right now. If you're not smart... you should call an ambulance, because you're gonna need one by the time I'm done with you."
Just as Masaki froze, Saelind heard footsteps, peals of laughter, the familiar voices of the Ouran girls.
Lucky little bastard, she thought silently, letting her shoulders slump a little. I can't do anything now.
The group slowed down as they neared Saelind and Masaki, but the girl never took her one-eyed glare off Misaki's face. Apparently, Renge was with the group that had arrived, but she had decided to hang back: in fact, she looked kind of uncomfortable, and she didn't seem all that eager to join in. Masaki finally backed away since Saelind cracked her knuckles and rolled her neck.
The group of students looked back and forth, worried about whether or not something was unfolding.
"Hey, Renge, need any help with the decorations?" Masaki called, voice echoing up and down the tiled corridor. "I'll volunteer!"
However, the Asian girl merely turned her nose up and started walking away with a fair amount of graceful haughtiness.
"No, thank you!" she snootily called. "Only the members of the Host Club and those associated with it have the right to help out!"
Saelind glared after her when the students passed by: Masaki hesitated for a moment, then rubbed his hair and trotted after them.
"Freak," he called over his shoulder. "You're nothing but talk."
"Just remember what I said about touching me," Saelind called back fiercely. "I wasn't kidding: I WILL bite you next time."
The boy twitched and his feet stumbled, but then he hurried onward. Once he was gone, Saelind whirled around and punched her locker so hard that she accidentally rent a hole in the metal. When she started bleeding, she looked at her split knuckles and sighed before she headed down to the infirmary.
If he ever says anything about Alexandria again, she silently growled, shaking her head as the anger welled up, I might just end up killing him.
And that, sadly, wasn't even a threat.
It was an unwanted promise.