Girls giggled and gossiped over the sinks while Haruhi and I waited for them to file out so we could get ready. Sneaking her in turned out to be a piece of cake. Finally all the girls disappeared and I locked the door to the ladies room.

"They're gone," I whispered. She giggled herself, pulling out the dresses from the stall she hid in. We hurried to doll up, because we didn't what to be really late, just enough to make a fashionable entrance.

She wore a crimson full volume gown, the corset-like bodice is detailed in gold flower embroidering. My gown was the same style but black with silver vine-like embroidery. We both wore white masks and thin white gauze shawls. I parted her boyish cut to the left and fastened it back with one of my solid gold barrette... around her neck I clipped a string of pearls that belonged to her mother. She fixed my ringlets and placed my silver headband on top. I wore a deep blue sapphire necklace, a gift from Mori and his only hint.

"Wow, Emmai-Senpai, that really is a beautiful necklace."

I smiled into the mirror as I fingered the precious gift. "Mori gave it to me for my birthday last year. It matches his host rose and It's also my birthstone."

"Is that why he got it?"

"I don't know. I remember mentioning the necklace to him and Honey when I was telling them a story about my Mom dragging me around looking for jewelry. Mori must've filed it away because next thing I know it shows up on my desk for my birthday. He had the case engraved. I love wearing it on special occasions."

Haruhi looked at the mirror dreamily as if she were imagining my story. "It's your silent way of stating you're his."

I slowly nodded, "Something like that."

Silently we agreed it was time to make our appearance. Stashing our bags in the supply closet, we waltz out of the restroom and down the hall. Those we passed stared in awe and thankfully Haruhi basked in the attention instead of bulking at it as she usually did. She knew we had too much at stake to be giving ourselves away this early in the game. We reached the top of the courtyard staircase, the moon was full and high, twinkle lights helped brighten the party. The balcony to our left held the banquet food and the one to our right hosted a six piece orchestra.

The courtyard was covered in fancy 16th and 17th century looking gowns and suits. The orchestra started up and a spotlight hit us. We both stiffened at the attention. I mumbled, "Okay, wasn't expecting this. Do you think they know it's us?"

"There's no way," Haruhi whispered, "We took every precaution so even Kyoya wouldn't know."

The entire courtyard watched us, so arm in arm we descended the staircase to join the festivities. The Host Club stood around a Cherry tree in the center of the courtyard being admired by their costumer. Even masked they stick out like sore thumbs. Up until the spotlight hit us they looked bored, but now they watched with great interest. This was going to be fun. Once we hit the last step we were claimed by some charming underclassmen. The twins had approached but were too late. Besides Haruhi and I were planning to make a point of avoiding the Host Club and see how long they'd allow it to go on.

Dance after dance we were found in the arms of strange but familiar classmates. We perfected our fake accents and phony stories. No one was the wiser, and Haruhi and I had a blast!