The rest of the day passed by quickly. If anyone tried to speak to me directly, Kyoya or Tamaki would stop them and say that I was going to be at the club after classes let out. Other than that, everything was pretty uneventful.
"Lori~! Are you excited!?" Tamaki asked happily as we made our way to the music room. I gave him a polite smile.
"Yes." I told him, halfheartedly. As we neared the third music room, we could hear people talking, like… a lot of people talking. I began to feel nervous, the way I always felt before a big performance, as we got closer. Once we rounded the last corner before the music room, we found what seemed to be half the school standing there waiting for us.
"Look! There she is!" One yelled. Everyone began screaming and crowding around us. I froze in complete shock, unsure of what to do. Before we had a chance to act, someone lifted me high into the air and began running through the crowds of people, someone managing to get me inside the music room and away from the fans.
"Wow~ Lori-chan! You certainly are popular!" I looked down to see Honey standing beside his tall friend Mori who had grabbed me from the crowd. The tall boy set me down. I bowed and thanked him gratefully.
"Geeze. Why are there so many people today?" Haruhi asked, pushing her way through the door with Tamaki and Kyoya.
"I think I might be the source of the problem." I said, scratching the back of my head nervously.
"This might be more of an issue than I originally thought." Kyoya sighed, taking down notes in his black booklet.
"I can leave if you want. I'm a pretty fast runner so I bet I could lead the crowd away and allow you all to continue on with your club activities." I suggested with a smile.
"I don't think the King will let that happen." The twins said in unison, both leaning on my shoulders. I was confused until I looked over at Tamaki who was gushing with excitement over all of the new customers. I sighed, realizing there was no way I was going to get out of this.
"I guess it can't be helped." I sighed, "Kyoya?"
"Hmm?"
"Is there a guitar in this music room that I could borrow?" I asked him.
"I would assume so, why?"
"If you want to have a civilized afternoon then there is a good chance we'll have to tire them out a bit first. I figure I can play a song to let them behave like fans then we can get on with the afternoon?" I suggested trying to think of a way to calm the students down.
"That sounds like a good plan. Hikaru, Kaoru, will you please go find a guitar for Lori?"
"Sure!" The twins replied before taking off running to the back of the clubroom.
"If not a guitar then some speakers I could hook up to my phone would work too!" I called after them.
"Okay!" They yelled back.
"Lori! Isn't this exciting!? There are so many people here to see all of us!" Tamaki said clapping his hands together.
"I suppose so." I half smiled.
"Hmm? Is something wrong little bird?" He asked. I forced a larger smile and shook my head no, trying to be as excited as he was about all the people. I don't know if I would ever be able to be as excited as him but it made me happy to see him like this.
"It's going to be fun!" I said, mostly trying to convince myself of what I was saying.
"Star-chaaaan!" The twins said, returning from their search.
"Were you successful?" I asked.
"We found these speakers you left yesterday." One twin said.
"Will they work?" The other asked. I took them and smiled.
"These are perfect! Thank you both so much!" I replied before pulling out my phone and flipping through audio tracks of my music.
"Excuse me? Lori?" I heard Haruhi say from behind me.
"Yes?" I replied with a smile.
"I was going to make some tea, would you like some before you perform?" She asked me.
"No, thank you so much though! Oh! Haruhi! What song do you want to hear? I'm having trouble deciding." I told her.
"Oh… um… what about Blank Space? That's one of my favorites." She replied after a moment of thought.
"Perfect!" I said smiling at her and finding the track.
"Lori~! Are you ready? Kyoya wants to open the club for the day!" Honey asked me, grabbing my hands.
"Mhm! I'm ready!" I told him before he smiled and ran off to tell the other host. The hosts tried to have the other students – both girls and boys – file in neatly, but after the first few people entered it became more of a congested mess. Before anyone had the chance to get to me, I leapt up on to a table and hit the play button on my phone.
Nice to meet you, where you been?
I could show you incredible things
Magic, madness, heaven, sin
Saw you there and I thought
Oh my God, look at that face
You look like my next mistake
Love's a game, wanna play?
I spun around on my heel on the table and held my hand out to the crowd of students that had grown quiet in order to hear.
New money, suit and tie
I can read you like a magazine
Ain't it funny, rumors fly
And I know you heard about me
So hey, let's be friends
I'm dying to see how this one ends
Grab your passport and my hand
I can make the bad guys good for a weekend
I winked at one of the boys in the audience.
So it's gonna be forever
Or it's gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it's over
If the high was worth the pain
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
'Cause you know I love the players
And you love the game
'Cause we're young and we're reckless
We'll take this way too far
It'll leave you breathless
Or with a nasty scar
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
But I've got a blank space, baby
And I'll write your name
Cherry lips, crystal skies
I could show you incredible things
Stolen kisses, pretty lies
You're the King, baby, I'm your Queen
Find out what you want
Be that girl for a month
Wait, the worst is yet to come, oh no
Screaming, crying, perfect storms
I can make all the tables turn
Rose garden filled with thorns
Keep you second guessing like
"Oh my God, who is she?"
I get drunk on jealousy
But you'll come back each time you leave
'Cause, darling, I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream
So it's gonna be forever
Or it's gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it's over
If the high was worth the pain
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
'Cause you know I love the players
And you love the game
'Cause we're young and we're reckless
We'll take this way too far
It'll leave you breathless
Or with a nasty scar
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
But I've got a blank space, baby
And I'll write your name
Boys only want love if it's torture
Don't say I didn't say, I didn't warn ya
Boys only want love if it's torture
Don't say I didn't say, I didn't warn ya
So it's gonna be forever
Or it's gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it's over
If the high was worth the pain
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
'Cause you know I love the players
And you love the game
'Cause we're young and we're reckless
We'll take this way too far
It'll leave you breathless
Or with a nasty scar
Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane
But I've got a blank space, baby
And I'll write your name
I curtseyed on the table as the students clapped and cheered.
"Thank you all so much for coming this afternoon. And thank you to the amazing Host Club for allowing me to perform. I am still very new to this school and unaware of how this club operates, but I will allow them to take over from here, so please listen to and respect them." I said with one of my stage smiles. Tamaki suddenly emerged from the crowd and extended a hand to me to help me off the table. I graciously took it before hopping down.
"Can we please have another round of applause for this lovely star performing especially for us?" Tamaki smiled before everyone clapped once more, "You were wonderful." He added in a whisper to me.
"Lori, we have a table set up for you so customers can come sit and talk with you over tea." Kyoya said, leading me away from the crowd, once far enough away for anyone to hear he added, "That was a brilliant way to calm the crowd."
"Thank you! I've had a little bit of experience with situations like this." I smiled.
My table was set up with several trays of sweets and cups of tea in front of every empty chair. Everything looked so beautiful and pristine; it seemed almost a shame to ruin the display.
"I'll send over several customers at a time, they'll stay for about fifteen minutes, then another group will come." Kyoya explained, pulling out a chair for me.
"Okay! Is there anything I should or shouldn't do?" I asked.
"I guess the best advice I could give is to be charming and keep the conversation going." He said.
"So… basically, flirt but remain unavailable?" I giggled. He shrugged but nodded before excusing himself to return to the guests. After a minute, four boys approached my table, all smiling but puffing out their chests as if trying to come across as manly.
"May we sit down?" One boy asked. I nodded, smiling up at all of them.
"Would you all like some cakes?" I offered, "Forgive me but I have never done anything like this before." I tried to act coy but sweet.
"Don't worry about it! We're all so fortunate to be sitting here with you." A different boy replied.
"I'm really the fortunate one. I have never gotten the opportunity to spend a lot of time at a real high school so I'm so excited to be able to meet so many amazing people. Please, tell me about your selves." I smiled brightly at them before taking a sip of my tea.
"I'm on Ouran's baseball team!"
"I'm the lead role in this term's play."
"I'm president of Ouran's chess club."
"I play for the soccer team!"
"Oh wow. You all seem very active! I was never that good at sports or chess but I love to watch and I love the theater!" I exclaimed, sounding much more interested that I actually was. I took Kyoya's advice and kept the conversation going but I didn't take a lot of interest in anything that they were saying. A lot of people tried to brag about themselves – especially the men – and several tried to flirt with me. Overall it wasn't a bad way to spend an afternoon.
