AUTHOR'S NOTE: This takes place after the episode "Beware the Physical Exam."

Two weeks after the host club party, Haruhi, Bea, and Melody were gathered in the girl's apartment for their long anticipated sleep over. The girls had all been swept into their own whirlwinds of chaos for the past couple weeks and they were excited for the opportunity to catch up on the events in their lives.

Due to the fact her ankle had been officially diagnosed as sprained by the doctor Kyoya had brought the morning after the party, Melody had been staying home on medical leave and had taken this opportunity to get work done instead of lounge around all day. Now, not only was her neglected work caught up, but she had gotten some extra writing in so that she was ahead of schedule for her next two deadlines. Due to her injury currently preventing her from traveling, she had had to cancel an appearance at a local writer's convention.

While Melody had been busy with work, Bea had been training in Hokkaido. While she had been on her post-party date with Mori two weekends ago, she had received a call informing her that she had been accepted into a two week intensive training program in Hokkaido. Not only did she have to cut her date with Mori short, but she had to rush home to pack and immediately head to the airport. Melody was used to not hearing anything from Bea while she was training, but (according to Haruhi) the lack of contact had apparently caused a huge deflation in Mori's mood. Haruhi assured that it wasn't too drastic a change, but he definitely hadn't seemed as upbeat the last two weeks. Bea had already called him and made plans for the two of them to go on a date the next weekend.

Despite the intense and busy program Bea had gone through, Haruhi seemed to take the cake on busiest weeks. On top of joining a cram-school in the evenings, the host club apparently couldn't wait long to have their next event and had planned a sakura viewing picnic a week and a half after the party. Immediately following that, Haruhi had to go through the chaos that the host club referred to as "Operation: I swear Haruhi is really a boy!" at the physical exams. By the time Bea had joined her in class on Friday afternoon, Haruhi had almost cried in relief that she wasn't the only sane person at school now and had demanded that the girls have a sleepover that evening. She knew that Melody was planning on returning to classes the following Monday, but desperately needed a break from the craziness found in the host club.

Now all three girls were dressed up in their pajamas and had set up "camp" around the kotatsu, ready to tell their tales.

"So who's first?" Melody asked as she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.

"Personally, I'd like to hear what we missed at school," Bea turned to Haruhi. "How was the club while we were gone?"

"Translation:" Melody smirked, "How was Takashi while she was gone?"

"Mel!" Bea reprimanded with a blush.

"It's really fine!" Haruhi smiled. "I kinda figured that's what she meant."

Bea blushed a deeper red as Haruhi joined in the teasing.

"And he was fine," Haruhi assured her friend. "Hunny-senpai made sure Mori-senpai was never too lonely. Plus, it's not like he had much of a chance to be with the host club the way they are..."

"Sounds like an entertaining story!" Melody smiled. "It's official! Haruhi goes second! I want to hear Bea's story first!"

Bea sighed as she put her head down. "It really wasn't much," she explained. "It was pretty much a shorter version of the Stagiaire Trials in France."

"The what?" Haruhi asked confused.

"Oh, stagiaire is a pretty common term for a cook or chef working at a restaurant for free. The Stagiaire Trials are pretty much a way for restaurants and food companies to hire aspiring chefs to get practice in a real kitchen," Bea explained. "There's pretty much only one main requirement: in the week you spend with the company, you have to make a lasting change or impact. In some cases, it's a month-long program, and you visit four locations. In this case, it was just a 2 week program, so I only went to two locations. If I had failed, I would have been kicked out of the program I'm in and would have been blacklisted in the industry as a chef." Haruhi's head was spinning at all of the new information she had been given.

"But aren't most chefs incredibly stubborn? How would you be able to make a change in their kitchen?" Haruhi asked.

"It definitely wasn't easy," Bea agreed as she tried to hide a yawn. "Both places I worked at were well established restaurants too... It really wasn't easy."

"So what impact did you make in the restaurants?" Haruhi asked.

"Well, the second week was a lot harder than the first. The first restaurant I was assigned to recently had a bunch of urban development work done nearby. The owner was a third-generation owner of the place and didn't want to change the feel that made the restaurant what it was... However, due to the new train station nearby, they were no longer able to keep up with the influx of customers and had a lot of dropped orders. Using some of what Melody taught me, I helped them set up a system to change their restaurant's seating to by-reservation-only. It was a huge hit with the loyal customers who hated the rushed feeling before and wanted to relax as they ate."

"That's great!" Melody complimented. "Sounds like you did a good job there, but stop avoiding the real question... I know you worked at Shino's Japan... How'd that work go?"

At the mention of Chef Shinomiya's kitchen, Bea groaned and buried her face in her arms. "Well, since I finished at the first restaurant in half a week, I got to spend longer at Shino's Japan. Due to it being brand new, the first two days I had to work with construction and then they had me help in the kitchen for the pre-opening week. Shino's is already well established in France, so the staff already had a rythym and flow. It was really difficult to get accepted into their team. As sweet and kind as they were during non-business hours, they weren't exactly open to welcoming a new member to their team dynamic."

"That's not fair," Haruhi protested. "If they don't let you help, how are you supposed to—"

"That's the challenge," Melody cut her off. "And this wasn't Bea's first rodeo. She's done this before. I'm willing to bet that you worked yourself raw though," she turned to Bea. "What? I bet they let you sleep on a couch in the back room. Did you wake up super early to do all of the prep-work before they arrived so that you could ask them to teach you new things and help you learn where you made mistakes?"

"You're right," Bea agreed with a sigh. "As always, you're right. I had a lot of work laid out for me in just getting the team to accept me. If getting barely any sleep to get them to accept me was a way to accomplish that, then it was worth it. The real challenge was in the fact I also had to make a lasting impact on the restaurant. The only way I could do that at Shino's was to win the new recipe contest at the end of the week. Somehow, I miraculously won and one of my French desserts made the menu. If it hadn't, I would have failed."

"Wow... That's harsh," Haruhi's eyes widened. "Would you really have been blacklisted from being a chef if you hadn't passed?"

"Well, there's more than just two steps, but basically yes. If I had failed in this program, I would've been dropped from the association I'm training in. It's really prestigious and well-known around the world. Basically, no one wants to hire a patisserie chef that's been dropped by them."

"That's the battle of the talented," Melody lamented. "That's why we're so lucky that you're so gifted. I'm guessing you want to find a kitchen to practice in now, huh?" she asked her friend.

"Of course!" Bea agreed, a new spark lighting up in her eyes. "I can't let anything I've learned go to waste!"

"Good," Melody smiled as Bea excused herself to use the restroom. After she left, she felt Haruhi's eyes on her. "May I help you?"

"Does Beatrice seem...different to you?" Haruhi said uncertain.

"Yup!" Melody seemed unfazed. At Haruhi's expectant stare, Melody sighed and continued. "The Stagiaire Trials have a second goal. The obvious one is that the students have to leave an impact on the restaurant, but there's another ultimate goal behind that. If the chef goes through the Stagiaire Trials and doesn't learn anything new or grow at all as a chef, then the entire trial was pointless and they've failed. The Stagiaire Trials save both restaurants and chefs."

"So what changed for Beatrice?" Haruhi wondered.

"I'm guessing that her first experience taught her about satisfying all of the customers' needs and the second helped her grow in confidence. You know her well enough to know that she isn't exactly meek, but she isn't the biggest fan of conflict. She doesn't want anyone to be upset. I'm betting the chefs at Shino's steamrolled her at first. She probably had to grow a lot to be able to stand up to them. You should have seen her before the month-long program in France. You probably wouldn't even recognize her. In comparison, this is actually a pretty subtle change, but I'm betting her cooking will be that much more amazing. The downside to her doing the trials now is that she doesn't have access to a full kitchen to keep practicing what she's learned. The one in the club room is decent, but not really on the scale she needs. In France, she had access to the patisserie kitchens and she'd often work until late at night. But she's not attending a high-level cooking program here, she's attending Ouran Academy and interning under Chef Momoi."

"I guess that makes sense," Haruhi agreed. "So what is she going to do?"

"I wouldn't worry about her too much," Melody leaned back with a relaxed smile. "Most likely, she already has a plan of action. She's a big girl who can take care of herself."

"Can I come out now or are you two not done talking about me yet?" Bea called from her bedroom.

Both girls burst out into giggles as they called for their friend to rejoin them. After all, it was Haruhi's turn to tell them about her week.

Flashback

About a week and a half after the successful party, the Ouran host club was gathered on the grounds for a flower-viewing reception. While most of the hosts were dressed as waiters, Haruhi, Mori, and Honey were dressed in traditional kimonos for the more traditional tea making. The tables were decorated with many different tea sets. They had many English antique sets that were simply gorgeous. Most of the hosts stayed in the main area and hosted the English-style outdoor tea party. While she hadn't been stationed in that area, Haruhi could only assume what was going on based on her knowledge of the hosts. Tamaki was probably wooing his guests, his flowery words sweeping them off their feet. At one point, the twins would create some excuse to fall all over each other in their twincest shtick. The girls would probably get so excited, that it would be extremely easy for Kyoya to sweep in and sell them some host club merchandise. Actually, that's probably exactly what's going on.

However, Haruhi's main concern wasn't how the other hosts were serving tea, but about how they were going to serve tea. Haruhi, Mori, and Honey were off in their own area separated from the other guests. Their area was more secluded to exhibit a more calming atmosphere for the more Japanese style tea reception the host club was offering. They had quite a few options for the guests in terms of traditional Japanese tea snacks, but Haruhi was wondering what to do about the actual tea.

Should I say something to him? Haruhi wondered as she watched Honey focus on mixing the tea. The main problem was that he was mixing it so much that there wasn't much left in the cup to serve. Both girls sitting with the three 'boys' also had concerned looks on their faces as they watched Honey prepare their tea with a determined look on his face.

"Mitsukuni," Mori tried to get his cousin's attention. When he failed to respond, Mori leaned closer to Honey's ear and told him the truth. "You overdid it." Haruhi and their guests were shocked that Mori had said something as Honey realized that there really was only a few drops left in the bowl. As tears of disappointment appeared in Honey's eyes, the girls quickly tried to make him feel better as Mori brought out more ingredients.

"Honey, I'll take it! It looks so yummy!" the girl closer to Mitsukuni said as she eagerly took the cup and drank its contents.

"Really it's just the right amount for both of us," the other girl continued, despite not getting any tea. "Any more would just be too much! How did you know? You never cease to amaze me!"

Honey bought it and perked up immediately. "Really?" he asked eagerly as Haruhi let out a sigh of relief.

A little while later, Haruhi was taking a break between guests when Tamaki interrupted it. "Haruhi," Tamaki called out from behind her, a smile obvious in the sound of his voice. Haruhi turned towards her posing senpai as he continued, "How are you doing? Are you having a good time? The flower-viewing reception is going over quite well," he observed before glancing at her over his shoulder. "But even so, it's daunting to spend more time being admired than doing the admiring."

Haruhi sweat-dropped as she realized that Tamaki was fishing for compliments. She decided to humor him as she said, "Wow senpai, you're blooming in more ways than one."

"You noticed!" Tamaki got excited, before reverting back to his host-mode, "Yes, today my beauty is quite splendorous! I'm in full bloom! I bet you'll fall for me soon," he finished confidently with a wink.

I swear... Haruhi thought as her eye twitched. This guy must live his life completely unaware of the hardships of this world. Her reasonably good mood lowered a bit at his absurdity. Before she knew what was happening, both twins were hanging off of her asking about the three of them taking the same elective courses next term. Haruhi already had a pretty good idea which courses she'd be taking, but decided to indulge them for a bit before she was pulled away when Tamaki grabbed her shoulders with a frantic look on his face.

"Listen Haruhi," he told her urgently. "I want you to stop hanging out with those shady twins from now on!" Haruhi was too confused by his antics to reply as Hikaru and Kaoru piped up their protests.

"Who are you calling shady?" Hikaru scowled.

"Yeah," Kaoru continued. "Take a good look at yourself, Boss!"

Tamaki stumbled backwards, away from Haruhi as he had a sort of epiphany. "All right then! We can't go on hiding the fact that you're a girl from the school any longer!" he clenched his fist with a determined look on his face. "All Daddy wants is for you to go back to being the girl you used to be! For you to surround yourself with girlfriends and start leading a wholesome life!" he exclaimed as tears ran down his face.

"Who are you calling 'Daddy'?" Haruhi questioned. "And what do you think Beatrice and Melody are?" her questions went unanswered as Tamaki shook her and babbled incoherently for her to do as he wished now.

"You don't have to rush things," Hikaru reminded. "She's going to be found out soon enough."

"Physical exams are the day after tomorrow," Kaoru continued.

"Physical... Exams?" Haruhi questioned.

"That's right," Kyoya confirmed. "I forgot all about it."

"Then that means... They're going to figure it out," she said as she put a finger to her chin in thought. "They'll know I'm really a girl."

Haruhi heard one of her guests call for her as her words sent a shock through all of the male hosts. Ignoring the boys, she moved to take care of her next few customers before heading upstairs to change out of her borrowed kimono before heading home for the day.

The next day, she went through her daily routine as if nothing was off. After class, she had to stay behind to ask the teacher a few more questions and it took a bit longer than she had expected. Even though she hurried, she knew she was late for club time when she opened the door. "Hey guys, sorry I'm so late—" before she could even finish her apology, Tamaki had grabbed her shoulders and was speaking urgently to her, tears in his eyes.

"Don't worry Haruhi," he said, "We're determined to keep your secret. No one will find out that you're really a girl during tomorrow's physical exams! So please," he begged. "Promise you'll stay our beloved secret princess!"

"Sure," she replied, blinking in confusion at his random outburst. Didn't he say yesterday that he wanted me to come out as a girl? What caused that change?

Mere moments after she had given her consent, all of the hosts were gathered around the whiteboard Tamaki was drawing on. Across the top were the words "Operation: Conceal Haruhi's Gender." Right below that was a subtitle that said "A.K.A. Operation: I Swear Haruhi is a Boy!"

"Listen up squad members," Tamaki instructed them as if he were a drill sergeant. "At tomorrow's physical exams, position yourselves in Position A, and then wait for your orders!" At this point, the twins were saluting him, Mori looked bored, Kyoya was writing in his notebook, and Honey was clapping as if Tamaki were a genius. Haruhi stood off to the side trying to figure out just what she had missed while talking with the teacher.

Coming to a realization, she smacked her fist into her hand, "I've got it! You guys are worried cause if they find out I'm a girl, I can't be a host and therefore can't repay my debt!" Turning around, she started muttering to herself as she did the math in her head. "My balance is 5,333,332 yen... Hmmm... Well, guess I'll have to come up with another way to pay you back," she said with a laugh.

Tamaki turned on Haruhi dramatically, "Are you saying that you hate being a host? That you hate this club?" he demanded.

"To be honest, I'd have to say 'yes'," she replied thoughtfully, effectively sending Tamaki to sulk in a corner. "I mean you guys aren't bad. But if it gets out I'm a girl, there's nothing I can do, you know?"

The twins were discussing ways to try to convince her to work with them when Mori had a sudden thought. "Fancy tuna," he bribed her.

Everyone then proceeded to tease her until she agreed to go along with their plans in exchange for the promise of getting to try some ootoro.

The next day, Haruhi's morning was proceeding normally until the announcement came over the speaker system for the students to proceed to the clinic in their school building. As they walked together, Haruhi tried to question the twins about "Formation A" and how the physical exams here would be different from the physical exams everywhere else. The twins told her that it was the same as anywhere, but when Haruhi opened the door to the infirmary, she knew that was not the case. A long aisle stretched down the room and nurses and doctors were lined up on either side.

Completely dumbfounded by the extreme production Ouran turned it's physical exams into, Haruhi watched as the twins followed some nurses away before hearing her own name. As Haruhi was dragged down the aisle by her nurse, she caught sight of Honey and Mori dressed up in lab-suits. When Kyoya walked up, Haruhi thought she'd finally get some straight answers, but was disappointed when he compared this to a real espionage mission.

When Haruhi vocalized her confusion at how absurd all of the doctors were acting, Kyoya reminded her of how this was actually a formality due to the fact that most students had private doctors at home. These damn rich people, Haruhi thought as she followed her nurse, leaving Kyoya behind. By this point, Haruhi thought she couldn't take much more nonsense when she was proven wrong by the sight of the twins confidently strip their shirts off in front of a bunch of squealing girls.

What's wrong with the girls at this school?

While the twins distracted everyone with their twin-cest act, Honey and Mori had dragged Haruhi off and had shoved her into a changing stall. Haruhi lost her balance by tripping on the drapes and almost fell, when she felt arms embrace her from behind. Immediately, she broke the embrace in panic, but slid to the floor when she realized it was only Tamaki.

A moment later, Haruhi heard her nurse call for her to disrobe so her chest measurements could be taken. Despite her protest that he explain, Tamaki told her to stay hidden as he took care of it and repeatedly promised to protect her. For a brief moment, Haruhi deluded herself into thinking Tamaki actually had a plan, until he walked out in a wig and claimed to be her. Of course, everyone knew it was him immediately. She was so tired and annoyed by everything that had happened up until this point that when he apologized, she could only glare at him as her mood plummeted.

In the end, it turned out that Kyoya had set up a special clinic just for her with a doctor sworn to secrecy. All of the doctors just happened to work at one of the hospitals his family managed. At this point, Haruhi was so desperate to get away from the drama that she was more than happy to use the "Special Boy's Clinic." As she took off her outer shirt though, she turned around to find some random male doctor enter her changing room while acting like he was hiding. As soon as she made her presence known to him, he immediately grabbed her and begged her to stay quiet.

Before she could react, she heard her name being shouted as a flying Tamaki kicked the man into the wall. The entire host club had come to her rescue.

After their unnecessarily dramatic and menacing entrance, the man immediately begged for his safety as Haruhi wondered what was going on this time. As she wrapped Tamaki's shirt around herself, they all listened as the man (now known as Doctor Yabu) broke out his life story. He told the club—and Haruhi's very disinterested doctor—about his failing medical practice and how his wife and daughter left him. By the end of it, Tamaki was the only one who was completely won over by the sob story. It didn't take long for Kyoya to realize that Doctor Yabu had the wrong school. Tamaki requested for a map of the public schools in the area in a hope to help the doctor find his family before they sent him on his way.

By the time all had been said and done, Haruhi was able to complete her physical exam as a boy. No one outside of the host club knew her secret, the hosts were all happy, and Tamaki was still a pervert.

Bea and Melody just looked at each other before bursting out into laughter.

"Okay," Bea conceded between giggles. "Your week was worse than mine."

"No kidding," Melody agreed. "And if that all happened in just the past three days, I'm almost scared to know what happened the rest of the time we were gone."

"It wasn't that bad," Haruhi told them. "At least everyday is entertaining. I'm more concerned about how you've been the last two weeks, Melody."

"Oh my goodness! Me too!" Bea exclaimed. "I feel so bad, tha—"

"Stop!" Melody cut her off by slapping a hand over her best friend's mouth. "No! Bad!" she reprimanded as if she were training a puppy. Bea rolled her eyes as she pushed Melody's hand away.

"I'm worried about you Mel. I'm not a dog," she grumbled. "And I'm going to stop you before you protest because I have every right to be concerned! I mean... Look at your office!"

Melody glanced behind her into said room, before turning back to her friend confused. "What about it?"

"It's clean!"

Melody's eyebrows knit themselves together in confusion. "And that's a bad thing, because...?"

"No, it's not bad," Bea dismissed her friend, who was obviously not getting her despair. "It was just a huge disaster when I left and now it's tidy."

Melody and Haruhi looked at each other in confusion. Bea hated messes and both girls knew that the chaos in Melody's work space was normally a huge pet peeve for her.

"Oh for goodness sake! There's no way you should have been able to clean up and take that much trash out with your ankle the way it is!" Bea exclaimed.

"That's right!" Haruhi exclaimed, finally understanding. "I know that I've been too busy to come over and help, but—"

"Will you both stop!" Melody cut off their flustered chatter. "Both of you are fine! I know you had cram school after club time Haruhi. And Bea... If you tell me that you've been worried about me the entire time you've been gone... yeah..." she paused as she thought it over. Bea would worry about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, if you brought it to her attention. She just loved to take care of everyone so much that she worried in her sleep. "Never mind... You're you... Of course you worried... But really! I'm fine, okay? Someone else came over a lot and helped me out!"

"Who?!" Both Haruhi and Bea exclaimed.

"Ummm... Kyoya?" she answered nervously.

"What?!" To say both girls were shocked would be an understatement.

"What do you mean, 'Ummm... Kyoya?'" Bea asked in shock.

"I mean, he always left club right after the customers left, but I was always in such a rush to get to cram school that I never really thought to ask," Haruhi said thoughtfully. "Are you saying that he was coming here?"

"Maybe? Kinda..." Melody didn't quite know why she was nervous to tell the girls about Kyoya's visits. Well, that was a lie... She did know why, but was in denial about it.

Seeing their friend's timid response, Haruhi and Bea glanced at each other before launching their full-frontal attack. They wanted information and they wanted it now. Seeing the determination in their eyes, Melody knew that they wouldn't stop until they were satisfied with her response. This is going to take a while, she thought as she internally suited up, mentally preparing herself to tell them about the past two weeks. Sighing in defeat, she motioned for her friends to calm down as she decided to start from the beginning.

"Well... It all started the day after the party..."

Okay! That's it for this chapter! I have a feeling that Melody's two weeks are going to be at least this long so I'll just plan on making the next chapter super fluffy as I fill in the blanks!

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I did steal a few ideas for this chapter from the manga/anime "Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma." If you haven't watched/read it, I highly encourage you to do so! I know the first two episodes are border-line hentai, but once you get past those, it's actually a really cool show! Warning: the show does strip the characters a lot... Nothing ecchi is shown, but it sometimes doesn't leave much to the imagination... Nothing more than that though... It really sounds worse than it is.

I really hope you guys are enjoying the story. I can't tell you how thrilled we are at how many people are following Sweet Music! It's being favorited and followed by so many people, yet we still have no clue what you think. Please feel free to let us know! We'd love to hear your response in a review! Well, we'll see you next week (or earlier if you ask for it)! Bye!