Somehow I got on an Avril Lavigne them for a little bit here. Anyway, this chapter introduces Hayner as Shiro. And Demyx actually gets an idea!

Chapter 16 -- The Skater Boy

A week after the ball, Zexion came to Axel in the Break Room That Never Was and reported a horrible truth:

"Number VIII, we are completely broke."

The red-head's eyes widened in shocked. "NO WAY!!" Then he thought for a moment. "What about everything we made on the ball?"

"Your admission price failed to cover the costs of the tuxedoes, Demyx's sound system, and the refreshments."

"Well, what was the admission price?"

"Free, you idiot! Now the club is completely broke, and the Superior expects me to give a report on our profits by Monday!"

Axel sighed. "We'll just have to have a meeting to come up with another fundraiser, then."

An hour later, the club had gathered in the Twilight Town headquarters to discuss how they would make up their immense loss in profits.

Demyx was the first to raise his hand. "Doesn't Roxy-chan have a really big debt? We could just make him cash it in!"

Roxas tried to sneak away, but Axel caught him by the arm. "Yeah, Demmy-chan is right! Where's the munny you're supposed to give us for that debt?"

"You've been making me pay it off by working! I haven't actually earned any munny!" Roxas yelled.

"Oh, right..." Axel returned to the front of the room. "Zexion, make sure to double Roxy-chan's debt so that he has to pay us in cash."

"WHAT?!" Roxas put his head in his hands.

"Let's go to Twilight Town and make some munny!" The red-head shouted. Roxas gloomily followed the others to Twilight Town via black portal. Shortly after they arrived, a boy entered the building, looking around curiously.

"May I help you?" Roxas asked the boy, who appeared to be his age.

"Where's the King?" the boy asked. "I need to track him down!"

"You mean Axel? He's over there," Roxas explained, pointing to the red-head. He was afraid to see Axel's reaction at being called "King."

The boy excitedly ran over to Axel and pulled out a blue Struggle Whacker.

"You! King! I need you to work for me right now!" the boy shouted.

Axel turned around and stared in a bewildered fashion at the soft, blue whacker. "What is that?"

"It's my weapon! I'll hit you unless you let me into this club!"

"Okay, okay! Fine. But why do you want to be in a host club?"

The boy lowered his weapon. "My name is Hayner. I want to be in the host club because it's cool!"

Axel's eye lit up. "Zexy-kun! Did you hear that? This kid says that the host club is cool!"

Zexion ignored the comment and only stared at the blonde boy who called himself Hayner.

"Axel, we can't let him in. He's not..." Zexion whispered in Axel's ear. "He's not a Nobody."

"I don't want to get hit with a Struggle Whacker!" Axel protested. "We could just make him do menial labor for us like we did with Roxas!"

"Hm, I suppose..." Zexion turned to Hayner. "What type are you?"

"Excuse me? 'Type'?"

"Yes. You see, every member has to fit a certain stereotype of shojo manga. That's how we attract customers. For example, some girls are attracted to girly types, like Marluxia."

"I'M NOT GIRLY!" Marluxia protested from the opposite end of the room.

Zexion shook his head and continued. "Others are attracted to cute types, like Demyx, and still others go for cool types like me."

"Well, then my type is awesome type!" Hayner exclaimed with a grin.

"There is no such thing," Zexion replied. "The only thing that comes close to that is king, which Axel has already taken."

Axel smiled. "I think awesome king type sounds really cool. That's my new type now!"

Roxas spoke up. "We have cute, cool, king, girly, natural, and wild type so far. What does that leave?"

"SK8R BOI!" Axel shouted. "I knew it! We don't have a punk, skater boy type!"

"Axel, did you seriously just say 'SK8R BOI', like the Avril Lavigne song?" Roxas whispered.

"First thing that popped into my head. Then when we call him we can shout, 'HAYner HAYner YOU YOU GET OVER HERE!' right? Anyway, he seems like the skater boy type, doesn't he?"

Zexion scanned Hayner over. "Yes, I suppose that would work."

"Dude, I hate Avril Lavigne... Do I seriously have to be skater boy type?" Hayner whined.

"All right, everyone! Listen up!" Axel shouted. Demyx, Marluxia, and Xaldin came over to them. "We are now taking on a host club trainee named Hayner. He's going to be our skater boy type."

"Yay! We have a skater boy type! Does that mean he'll do drums for me?" Demyx asked eagerly.

"What does skater boy have to do with drums?"

"You, Haynum or whatever, go put on a tux. Marly will help you out." Zexion pointed to the dressing room. "First you'll be serving food and tea and stuff. Hurry up!"

"The name's Hayner! Fine..." Hayner trudged off to the dressing room behind Marluxia, who was humming "Keep Holding On."

Zexion sighed. "I'm not so sure about this. What if he finds out about our heart-stealing plan?"

"Well, we haven't done anything with it so far, so I don't think we have to worry about it," Axel replied.

"This is true. Just when are we going to start taking their hearts, anyway?"

"Uh... Like you said, we're low on funding! We need to build our funds back up before we do any extensive heart-stealing!" Zexion seemed satisfied with that answer.

A few minutes later, Hayner came tromping out with his tuxedo on, but his shirt was untucked and the bow tie still hung loose over his shoulders.

"PERFECT!" exclaimed Axel. "You even look sloppy like a skater boy!" He handed Hayner a tray of cookies. "Now go around and serve the ladies. Make sure you're polite, but at the same time talk like a skater boy."

"Is that even possible?" Roxas muttered.

Hayner slowly wandered off with the dessert tray. Roxas returned to his customers, who were anxiously watching the new host-in-training.

"Roxy-kun, who is that new guy?" one of them asked. "He looks kinda sloppy."

"He's training," Roxas explained. "He's supposed to be a skater boy type or something."

"Aw, he looks so cute in that tux, trying to act all proper!" the other one squealed.

Roxas sighed. What is with these girls, anyway?

The girl heard him sigh and quickly said, "Oh, I wasn't trying to make you jealous, Roxy-kun! You're ten times cuter than him!"

"Yeah! And you're much more polite!" the first one added.

About halfway through the day, Roxas went over to check on Hayner.

"How's it going?" he asked as the skater type scratched his head.

"This isn't helping me at all!" Hayner shouted. "I need to learn how to be a host, not a waiter!"

"Why do you want to be a host? It's really not all that exciting," Roxas explained. "You just sit and listen to girls squeal about how cute you are, and you just smile and nod at everything they say."

"Then why do you do it?"

"I really don't know..." Roxas answered.

Hayner suddenly straightened up and blushed. Roxas turned to see Olette walk in the door. She immediately went over to Roxas, since he was her preferred host, but she stopped when she saw Hayner.

"Hayner? What are you doing here?" she asked. Then she gasped. "Don't tell me... You're gay now?"

"NO!" Hayner rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I'm a host-in-training."

"Oh! You've decided to be a host? How cute!" Olette grinned. "Well, Roxy-kun is my preferred host, so you'll have to learn from him. He's so cute and sweet!" She pinched Roxas' cheek, while Roxas faked a smile.

I hate when girls do that...

"Anyway, I'm going to head back to my table now," Roxas declared. "Looks like I have more customers."

"Good luck, Hayner!" Olette exclaimed.

She bounded over to Roxas' table, following Roxas.

"So, Olette, you know Hayner?" Roxas asked after they had sat down.

"Yeah, I'm in his gang," Olette explained.

She's in a gang?! thought Roxas.

"He's a pretty funny kid. I never would have expected him to become a host. He's totally NOT polite at all!" she continued.

"Axel wants him to be our skater boy type."

"Seriously? That's hilarious!" Olette giggled.

At the end of the day, the club gathered to discuss events and check on Hayner's progress.

"Hay Hay You You, it seems that you did an okay job on your first day," said Axel as the blonde skater boy walked up. "Though you still have a lot to learn about politeness. You don't refuse a girl dessert if you think she's too fat to handle it."

"What? That girl was huge! I was trying to be concerned about her health!" Hayner protested.

"Anyway, tomorrow we'll keep you on serving duty," Axel continued.

"This is crazy!" Hayner stomped his foot. "I'm not learning anything about being a host by giving out cookies!"

"It's all part of the trade," Axel explained.

"Hayn-kun, what is it that you do want to learn?" Demyx asked.

"I want to learn how to be polite and charming like you guys are!" Hayner shouted.

"Is it because of Olette?" Roxas asked. Hayner blushed.

"Oh, so you like a girl? Now everything makes sense!" Axel began to announce, "It's time for our new missio--"

"Axel, we don't have the funds to hold another ball just so this skater boy can get with the girl he likes," Zexion muttered. "He'll have to do it on his own."

Axel put on his pouty-eyes expression. "Pleeeeaaaase? Don't be mean, Zexy-kun!"

"We can just help him talk to Olette," Roxas suggested. "That doesn't cost anything."

"Yay!" Axel hugged Roxas. "My daughter's so smart!"

"Daughter? What?"

"Never mind, Hayner." Roxas pushed Axel off. "It's good to be polite and all, but don't be fake. Just be like yourself. If she won't like you for who you are, then the relationship would never work out. In the host club we just make girls happy, but we're not planning on marrying any of them."

"Roxy-chan? When did you get all smart about relationships?" Demyx asked.

"I've been reading Marluxia's self-help books," Roxas explained.

"What self-help books? I don't have any of those!" Marluxia protested frantically.

"Yeah, that all sounds good and stuff, but I can't just go up to her and say, 'Hey, I like you! Let's be bf/gf!" Hayner muttered.

"I have a plan!" Demyx shouted.

"What, Demmy-chan has a plan? This is unusual!" Marluxia commented.

"Let's follow Hayn-kun to his gang place! Then we can whisper advice to him as he's talking to Olette!" suggested the Melodious Nocturne.

"That's a really stupid--"

"Demmy-chan! What a great idea! Okay, so tomorrow it's Operation: Invade the Usual Spot!" Axel declared.

"Fine... just don't let yourselves be seen," Hayner sighed.

"And I refuse to dress as a girl again!" Roxas protested.