It was a beautiful day outside, an almost perfect day for the start of the new term. Although the sun was still quite low, and lessons would be starting soon, most students were outside enjoying the sun. He would be too, but he had a lot of work to review before his first class. Their professor had given them a lot of work to complete during the holidays. Of course, Ootori Kyoya had completed it almost straight away, which had enabled him to concentrate on the family business and it had given him time for social activities. Usually, such things didn't interest him, but Suoh Tamaki was his best friend, and Kyoya had felt obliged to attend the events that 'the King' of the Host Club had arranged. It would have been rude to not attend, and though he'd never admit it, Kyoya enjoyed them. Since Haruhi had joined their little group, Kyoya had been introduced to a whole new concept in his way of thinking. He enjoyed spending time with Haruhi, but he wouldn't take their relationship any further then friendship. After all, she was with Tamaki, and he wouldn't betray his best friend like that.

Closing his laptop, Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose and glanced at the clock. Lessons would be starting in two minutes, and there was still no sign of Tamaki. The blonde haired boy had agreed to meet him here, so that the two could walk to class together. "Baka." Kyoya clenched his jaw and rubbed his forehead. Tamaki could be a real idiot sometimes, he'd probably forgotten, either that or he was outside, taking advantage of the good weather by seeking out women and complimenting them. Sighing, Kyoya put his laptop in his bag and exited the Music Room. There was no point in waiting around; he wasn't going to be late just because of Tamaki. He had a reputation to uphold, he was an Ootori after all, he was the top of his class in all subjects. To allow himself to be late was unacceptable; it would ruin everything he'd worked for, and he was already in his father's bad books after the events of last year. Though his father had eased up about Kyoya being apart of the Host Club, he still didn't agree with it. And if Kyoya's record got even the smallest of imperfections on it, then it would make his chances of inheriting the company even more unlikely.

"Hey! Kyoya!" Turning around, Kyoya watched as a blonde haired boy ran towards him. It seemed his previous calculation were wrong, Tamaki hadn't forgotten, though it was still annoying that he'd been late. But Kyoya was certain that Tamaki wouldn't let him be late. Even though Tamaki was an idiot at times, he wasn't stupid enough to cross paths with Ootori Kyoya. Tamaki knew Kyoya well enough not to do anything to ruin his grades. "Come on Kyoya-san, we're going to be late if we don't hurry."

Today was Beni's first day at Ouran's High School, she'd moved to Japan over from England after her mother had fallen ill, and had been awaiting the new term to begin in order to join at a more suitable time. She had been offered a place straight away, she was intelligent enough to be a part of the school, and she came from a rich family; just like everyone else who attended did. Joining when she did was easier and better for her, and at least she wouldn't have to miss out on a loads of work that would have been needed for the end of year's exams. It was like suddenly joining a band for a concert without ever once playing an instrument; it was pointless and somewhat dangerous.

Standing outside of Class A, Beni nervously reached for the door handle. She could already hear an excited buzz of chatter and laughter inside. She hated big crowds like this; she wasn't good at interacting with others, not at first anyway. She didn't really want to be here, she wanted to be back in England with her friends. But she had no other choice; she couldn't stay in England, no matter how much she'd wanted to. Her mother was ill and her father had wanted them in Japan, she couldn't refuse her father, it wouldn't be sensible.

It had been almost two years when her father had first asked her and her mother to come to Japan, but her mother had been looking after her grandfather, and now that he was gone, there was nothing stopping them. But now her mother was ill, and Beni held some resentment towards her father, he shouldn't have rushed her mother, she'd been stressed enough without him adding anymore. She'd caught Malaria and what doctor's thought was a mild case of meningitis. It was unusual for this to happen, but on their way here, they'd been forced to stop in a tropical country due to a fault in the plane. Obviously she'd caught it there, and because she'd not taken injections, her mother had caught the dreadful virus. Luckily Beni had received the necessary injections when she'd gone on holiday with her friends a month before. Though it was illogical, she blamed her father, he shouldn't have rushed them to move out here, and now she was in a coma…. she would never forgive him if she died.

Taking a deep breath, Beni opened the door and entered the classroom, eyes scanned the room as she looked at who occupied it, and she could spot a few people she knew, well, that she knew of. Her father had shown her certain people that had powerful families, and she'd been taught to memorise facts about them. Looking over, she spotted Suoh Tamaki and Ootori Kyoya, whose family ran a hospital and a secret police form. Her mother was at his family's hospital, and it felt rather strange to be in the same class as him. It felt like she couldn't escape the whitened walls of the hospital. She'd hated being there, seeing her mother lying there, unable to respond to her cries of desperation. And now she was in the same class as an Ootori. It seemed fate was a cruel thing.

Standing nervously at the head of the class, she looked at the ground, not wishing to stare at anyone. It would be best for her to remain in the background, just like she'd done back in England. That way she'd avoid trouble and avoid unneeded confrontation. "Are you Nanyoshi Beni?" Looking up, Beni saw an older man, probably the professor. Nodding silently, she watched as he smiled and turned to the rest of the class. "Everyone, settle down" Beni's ears went red as she watched the excited chatter die down, and everyone looked towards the professor.... and her. "This is our new exchange student from England: Nanyoshi Beni, she will be in our class from now on, make sure you make her feel welcome."

Beni wished the ground would swallow her up; she hated this. Why did he have to upstage her? Wouldn't it be kinder and easier to just let Beni sit at a desk and not say anything? Why was it that professors felt the need to introduce new students? It was as if they tried to make them even more nervous. Looking up, Beni tilted her head to the side and smiled warmly. "Pleased to meet you." If she had to do this, she'd at least make it look like she was comfortable and happy. A few people smiled in response, and there was a chorus of welcomes from the class.

Beni shifted nervously in her place; she truly hated everyone staring at her. There was no need for it, sure, she was something new and exciting, but surely they were civil and polite enough to know it was rude to stare. Honestly, Japan was supposed to be the most respectful and polite country, so why on earth was that being put aside? She didn't look that strange did she? She was a human being just like them... maybe it was the fact that her hair clashed with the uniform that was making everyone stare, that was much more understandable.

Continuing to smile, she began to look for an empty seat, preferably at the back. She preferred that, at least until she got to know people more. If she was away from the limelight, then she had less chance of being teased or hurt. She didn't want to repeat the same mistakes as England, she was in a new country, and she wanted to start afresh. And that meant sitting at the back of the classroom, and keeping her intellect to herself.

As the professor told her to sit, Beni nodded politely and went over to sit in the empty seat, passing a raven-haired boy with glasses as she did so. She knew him to be Ootori Kyoya; she'd already seen him when she walked in. As she passed him, her eyes quickly darted to his desk, watching as he wrote things down. He appeared to be very analytical, which she had assumed when she heard of him. He was rather silent, and appeared to be trying to appear cool. Typical. It seemed all guys tried to act like this these days, and the cooler a guy was, the more chance he'd get with women. It was somewhat pathetic, and Beni swore to not fall for that trick, she was much too smart for that. But despite this common view, there was something... different about Kyoya. He was a bit of a mystery for her, and she would enjoy analysing him further as the lesson continued.

Taking her seat, she put her bag underneath her table and got her books out and put them to one side, making sure that they aligned neatly with the table and made sure they were in a straight line. She could be a bit too picky about stuff like this, but really, a neater desk was a much easier desk to learn on. It was common sense, if your desk was scattered with junk, it would only distract you and act as a barrier against learning, and Beni wouldn't allow herself to fall behind.

As Beni had walked past him, Kyoya had taken a very short and quick glance at the new student within the class. Just from that one glance he'd been able to take in all of her features, it was something Kyoya was good at, to see a person once and take in as much information as possible. Usually he could tell a person's character from one look, it was how he worked out if it was worth interacting with someone. Opening his notebook, he began to jot down key facts about the new student. Nanyoshi Beni had pale skin, paler then the majority of the students here, however, the light tone of her skin complimented her light blonde hair, which fell past her shoulders. What was interesting about Nanyoshi's hair; was that there were darker tones mixed with the blonde colour. Kyoya made a note that this was most likely due to highlights. As he finished his notes, he turned to a new page and began copying out the notes that were on the board. But after a short time, he felt a note fall onto his desk. Looking over at Tamaki, he watched as the boy grinned and waved. Clearly Tamaki wasn't being conspicuous at all. Sighing, he opened the note and read its contents.

Kyoya, do you have any idea who the new girl is? The one sitting a few seats behind you… what was her name again? Forcing back any indication of his annoyance, Kyoya looked over at Tamaki. Was he really asking him something like this? Sure, Kyoya made it his business to know about everyone else, but surely Tamaki didn't think that he instantly knew people? Resting his chin on his hand, he continued to read the idiots note. She looks unhappy doesn't she? Why do you think she moved here? Did something happen in England? What does her family do? Do you think she'll come to the Host Club, or is it too soon to tell? I thought it'd be nice to have someone new; we're getting a lot of regular customers, which I guess isn't good for business. What do you think? Tamaki. Glancing at Tamaki from the corner of his eye, he saw that the boy was still grinning; he was probably expecting an answer straight away. Turning over yet another page he began to write a quick and short answer.

Tamaki, I know as little as you, I don't know why she's here or if anything happened to make her come here. But I'm sure I can find out if you're that curious. Her name is Nanyoshi Beni, as far as I'm aware, her father runs a company involving games, films and music. I hear he also deals with Insurance, so I guess she has a powerful family. As for coming to the Host Club, that's all up to her. Now before you consider writing back to me, please think about what will happen if you do. I don't want your unneeded questions to disturb me. We'll talk later. Kyoya. Passing the note to Tamaki, Kyoya continued to copy the notes on the board. They were doing algebra today, so it wasn't too tricky, but he still needed to concentrate.

Beni listened attentively to the teacher as he began talking about algebra. Sighing, Beni blew her hair out of her face and copied the notes on the board. She'd already done this... twice to be more precise. Back in England, she's studied algebra numerous amounts of times, one time she'd done it twice in one year. Apparently the teachers there believed that the students were unable to retain information, so they repeated a lot of subject topics every year. Of course, it would gradually get harder, but Beni really didn't see the need for it. Surely it would be better to learn something once and move onto things that would be more useful. If you learned the same thing over and over again, you'd never get round to learning other things. It was common sense really, there were so many things that her school hadn't taught her in her maths classes, something she'd picked up from reading books.

Resting her head in the palm of her left hand, Beni started to work out the sums that they had been given. It didn't take her too long; the questions were rather easy, at least for her they were. Looking around, she could see people scribbling away. She was unsure whether or not they found it easy, but most of them seemed quite relaxed. Beni wasn't too surprised, after all, this was the top class, so the students were probably as intelligent as her, maybe even more so. Looking down at her notebook, another sigh escaped her lips as she placed her pencil down and closed her book. She'd open it again when she needed to, but the teacher had given them twenty minutes to complete the questions, and after five minutes, she was already done. She tried not to make it too obvious that she'd finished, after all, back in England she had been ridiculed for such a thing, and she didn't want it to happen again.

Looking out the window, she couldn't help but smile at the clear blue sky that had seemed to grace her on her first day at Ouran. To see such a clear sky was rather uncommon for Beni, but not unusual. England was usually cloudy, either that or rainy. But it did have its summer days, and they were spectacular sights. When England had a summer, you knew it. The skies would be crystal clear and the sun would beat down on you. It would be nice to have weather like that all the time. Beni enjoyed the sun, she preferred it to the rain. The only time she really enjoyed the rain was when there was a thunderstorm. They were just so exciting. Occasionally though, when she sat in her room, listening to the rain would calm her down. Though rain was cold and wet, it was rather peaceful and it had a calming and soothing sound to its rhythm.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw paper being passed from one of her classmates to the other. Turning her head, she looked at the two young gentlemen, curious to know what was going on. Were they seeking help from one another, or were they trying to find a quieter method of communication? Dropping her hand, she observed them carefully. The blonde: Suoh Tamaki seemed rather excited, where as Ootori Kyoya didn't seemed impressed by what was going on. What relationship did the two have? Tamaki made it seem like the two were close, but from what she was reading from Kyoya's body language, the feelings weren't reciprocated. She could of course be wrong, because moments later, Kyoya returned the note. Rubbing her forehead, she tensed her jaw and looked down at her desk. She shouldn't be judging these two, she knew nothing about them.

"Nanyoshi, please can you share your calculations and your answer for question five." Looking up with a rather surprised look on her face, Beni quickly opened her book and looked at her answer. She hadn't expected to be picked out like this, nor had she realised that the teacher had been addressing the class. She was about to read the answer out when she saw the teacher gesture for her to come up. It seemed that he wanted her to write it down on the board. Biting her lip, she memorised her calculations and quickly went to the top of the class. Looking at the previous sums she sighed with relief. Other students had obviously been up, the handwriting was different in certain places. Not daring to look at the class, she quickly wrote down the answer to the question and how she'd reached the conclusion. "Thank you Nanyoshi, you can take your seat now. Well done." Nodding, Beni quickly went back to her seat. She could feel her cheeks had gone red from embarrassment. This was not how she had pictured her first day here. As she walked back to her seat, Kyoya watched her with inquisitive eyes, she'd gotten the sum perfect, he hadn't expected her to be that intelligent, nor that humble. She'd said nothing when the professor had accepted the answer; in fact she'd shown very little reaction to it. Just who was Nanyoshi Beni?