Hey there! I'm so happy about the amount of reviews I've got! We've nearly hit 40, meaning on average I get 3-4 reviews per chapter! I'm so happy!
Anyway, here you go!
"Is this it?" I asked, doubt clearly in the tone of my voice as I joined the Host Club and crouched on the abnormally green grass inside the school's courtyard, peaking at the building from behind a conveniently placed hedge.
Somehow, I imagined the Lobelia Girl's Academy's building to be a little more top notch with their security. I mean, they had a security camera on the front gate and the fences were lined with spikes at the top, but overall the defense was relatively easy for us to get through. The Host Club and I managed to get by without any problems, so I was having my doubts that the so called 'Academy for fine, rich young ladies' was actually the building we were sneaking around on.
I'll admit this though; the building did look the part.
If I had to sum it up in one word, it would probably be palace. It was made up of around three separate, large buildings, all crafted in the same detailed, Victorian design and painted white with a tinge of blue. The three buildings looked splendid as they stood alone, but together they really looked like the works of royalty. The center building was by far the largest, with an extra turret added at the front for good measure, using the two other buildings to draw the eye line onto the center building, forcing the onlooker to do nothing but marvel at the structure and design of the school.
The fancy fountain in the center of the courtyard didn't exactly agree with my doubts either.
"No need to be concerned, Miss Farnest" Kyoya commented, still writing in KIRA "The Host Club were escorted here last time to rescue Haruhi by her father. This is in fact the same location that we were crouching when we entered the school gates last ti-"
He didn't finish his sentence as I grabbed KIRA right from his grasp, closed it and tucked it under my arm. The book had begun to irritate me, and in my almost hysterical mood I forgot to restrain myself like every other time before.
"Did she just..." One of the twins, who I suspected was probably Hikaru, as he normally was the one who started the sentences said.
"Steal Kyoya's notebook?" The other twin, probably Karou completed.
I saw an expression of terrible, melodramatic horror on Tamaki's face, as he raised the back of his left palm to his forehead and promptly fainted before Haruhi, who was crouched next to him.
"Erm...Kate?" Haruhi said "You probably don't know this but touching The Sh-" She stopped herself mid-sentence, as if she was about to say her secret nickname or something "Kyoya's notebook is kind of a taboo"
"Nmm" Mori confirmed; nodding his head once as Hunny poked Tamaki's cheek curiously as he lay unconscious on the ground.
"Does this mean I'm on the guy's 'hit list' now?" I asked jokingly, though the expressions of 'you hit the nail on the head there' from the rest of the Host Club told me more than I needed to know.
Being the stubborn girl that I am though, plus my irritation towards the blooming book in the first place caused me to ignore those looks and continue as planned. I crawled along the ground towards a nearby window and cautiously peeked in.
"She must really want to see Alex-chan again" Hunny whispered to Mori beside him, looking cautiously over at Kyoya behind me, who I am positive must have been plotting a million different ways to make my life a living hell whilst drilling a hole in the back of my head with what I imagined as laser beam eyeballs.
To anybody else, it probably looked like the guy didn't care as he kicked the unconscious Tamaki and picked him up, though the Host Club knew he wanted me dead, and my 'spider sense' like feeling of somebody watching me told me more than I wanted to know about his raging temper fuming out onto me.
However, I quickly forgot everything around me as I peered into that window. I saw not only the three Lobelia students that kidnapped my poor friend, but also an abundance of girls, each wearing the now familiar white and red outfit of the Lobelia Girl's Academy uniform, squealing in delight at the object of attention in the center of a circle they had created.. The thing that caught my eye though, was what the sea of young women were circled around; it was none other than Alex, her blonde hair up in a high ponytail hairstyle, wearing the Lobelia uniform, and performing a dance routine.
Judging by the twirls and kicks she was showing off to the crowd, with quick timing and seemingly endless amounts of energy used to pull off her moves, I guessed that she was performing one of the quite new routines we choreographed. Every now and then, we would go round to one another's houses and create routines matching a certain piece of music on my iPod. One of the criteria for the dance scholarship in Lobelia was that you should create a routine to a new piece of music, so we treated our sleepovers as a chance to practice. It was tough to do, but judging by her movements and confident attitude, it looked like it had paid off.
At some point, I had let go of KIRA which had been kept under my arm. I vaguely remember hearing it hit the ground beside me as I watched Alex dance. She looked...really happy. I mean, when she's on a football field she looks exited and content enough, but it seems like she's depressed in comparison to her on a dance floor. She looked so full of excitement, joy and wondrous passion that you literally can't take your eyes off her, even for a second in fear of missing a moment.
Should we really take her away from the happiness she's got right now? It would be the same to taking a wild bird and caging it, only to set by the window, to look out at what it once had. Happiness and joy.
"Wow" The twins said, sneaking up behind me and leaning on either one of my shoulders "She's pretty good!"
"But" One of the twins remarked, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.
"We've seen better." The other finished, in a tone of voice so 'matter of fact'-ly that I didn't even bother arguing. After all, knowing them they probably had seen the best of the best, being as rich as they are. Rich people, for some reason, like seeing performers in fancy theatres.
"Interesting" Kyoya said; somehow managing to collect the fallen notebook and holding KIRA once again in his grasp. He was writing something down in it, but he wasn't observing Alex as she was dancing.
He was looking at me.
Yesterday, 11:53PM
"Right!" Tamaki proclaimed after regaining conciseness and jumping up, sneaking up to the window and peeking inside, with Hunny following suit.
Haruhi and Mori however, stayed back. Haruhi looked like she wanted to take a look, though seemed to have decided against it. Mori however, looked like he had made his decision since he was born, and remained stubbornly away from the window.
"Don't you want to see Alex?" I asked them, turning away from my best friend's routine to look at the two.
"I think it's rude to be spying on people..." Haruhi explained, glaring at the easily exited Tamaki, before adding at the end in a scolding tone, "Senpai!"
This caught the purple eyed guy's attention, as he spun around and looked at the short-haired brunette with the upmost innocence.
"What is it, my darling Haruhi?" He asked, in a voice that reminded me of an overbearing father talking to his 'precious child'.
She didn't say anything, but somehow her look seemed to have reminded him of his purpose in Lobelia in the first place, as he jumped up and exclaimed "I remember! We have to save her! Let's go!"
The rest of the Host Club seemed reluctant to move away from the window, but appeared to obey their leader's orders, as they got up from their spot by the window and began walking towards the school's huge double doors, only to be halted by Mori crossing their path.
He didn't say a word, but instead indicated towards me, nodding.
I guessed that was the signal for me to give out a plan or something, but in truth I had nothing running through my head. I didn't even want to rescue her any more. She looked unharmed, and even better, she looked happy, something that wanted her to have. Unbridled joy.
"I don't think we should stop them" I said, looking back at the window behind me "The Zuka Club doesn't seem to be doing anything bad to her, so she's safe for now."
"But Kate-chan-" Hunny began, looking at me worriedly before I cut him off.
"Sorry to have troubled you guys...and girl" I said, looking down at the ground. "I'll wait here until she comes home, go on ahead"
I looked up and smiled, giving them what I hoped was a sign that they didn't need to worry "I'll be fine. See you tomorrow, Ok Haruhi? I think after this Alex will want to get into Lobelia more than ever!"
"Sure" Haruhi replied, tugging Tamaki's sleeve and walking off, dragging the melodramatic blonde with her "I'm free after school tomorrow all afternoon, so I'm prepared to drag both of you into Geography revision!"
My stomach twisted at the mention of Geography, and how terribly it went last time. Instantly I regretted even suggesting studying tomorrow.
The twins soon followed Haruhi and Tamaki's example and walked back home. Kyoya however refused to walk back, and had to call a taxi to get him home. He wrote a little more in KIRA by the sidewalk, completely ignoring me as I texted beside him to one of my friends from England, before the taxi arrived and he left. Within about half an hour of arriving in Lobelia with the entire Host Club, only Mori, Hunny and I were left.
"Aren't you two going to go home?" I asked them as they sat next to me on the sidewalk "It's going to get dark soon"
"Mori and I want to see Alex-chan when she comes out of Lobelia too!" Hunny replied, pouting childishly. "You think you can have her all to yourself, that's so mean!"
He leaned in closer to my ear, then cupped his hands and whispered into it "I think Takeshi thinks so too!"
I laughed at his comment, guessing that Hunny was actually much more observant than he put out and had guessed the relationship between Alex and Mori as I had. It was clear to anybody that knew Alex for more than 5 minutes that she liked Mori, but the comment implying Mori's feelings surprised me a little.
"Can I ask the two of you something?" I said, looking at both Hunny and Mori, genuinely curious "How old are you guys?"
"Takashi and I are both 17 years old!" Hunny exclaimed, pointing to Mori, who right about now looked twice the size of the small blonde, and then pointed to me "How old are you, Kate-chan?"
"I'm 16..." I replied, before looking at the pair of boys with curiosity. I heard Hunny call 'Mori' the name 'Takashi' before, though nobody else did.
"Why do you call Mori by a different name?" I asked Hunny, my curiosity overflowing at this point.
"But Kate-chan, Takashi is Mori's name!" Hunny replied, the glint in his eyes both looking mischievous and honest at the same time...if that was possible anyway.
"Mn" Mori confirmed, nodding assertively. I really didn't exactly see what Alex saw in this guy, I swear he did nothing but make brief noises! Geez, a Disney prince had more lines than this!
"Then why are you the only one to call him Takashi?" I asked, my question directed towards Hunny, though my gaze still on Mori sitting on the sidewalk.
"Not many people call him Takashi, only family members really" Hunny explained "And that's ok, because I'm his cousin!"
Whoa...what?
"You two are...cousins?" I exclaimed, looking at and forth at one another, trying to detect even a simple resemblance. I didn't really know my cousins that well, but we all either shared the same eye color, hair color or attitude depending on what side of the family we came from. These two...looked nothing alike.
"Yep!" Hunny replied, jolly as ever in contrast to my dumbstruck expression.
"Don't worry, it's normally quite difficult for people to get their heads round the idea" Mori commented, throwing me off my horse even more so.
He said another sentence! I swear that's only happened, like...one before!
However, our conversation was briefly cut short when a sea of squealing young ladies, all donned in the Lobelia Girl's Academy uniform poured out of the school's doors, heading towards the gate.
The sea of girls quickly parted as the ladies left the school gates, not even giving half a thought to the two boys and me sitting outside on the sidewalk. Soon enough, the crowd dispersed into only one, blonde and blue eyed girl standing before us, wearing the Lobelia Girl's uniform, and looking down at Mori, Hunny and me with a startled expression on her face.
It was none other, than Alex.
Eva Sirico: I have to say, Tamaki is by far the easiest to write, and the most fun. If all else fails: make him do something over the top! Well, I do try to kill my readers through laughter! It's all about the small jokes in life I guess...
Thecrazyblondchick4: I'm so happy you like the story! I don't think I'm that great of a writer, I just do it because it's fun to keep myself busy! ...I wouldn't say that I'm too good at pairing development...I don't know how to make Kyoya fall in love and NOT be OOC...maybe if I threw a pile of money in his face, he would write it for me...
Escape to Ouran : Gah! FINALLY somebody who has the 'ball' magnet power! I always have netballs hitting my face! You should make time to do archery! . . ! (Arigato, Sensei, for the super-special signature!)
OwlsAreFancy: You and your comment completely made my day. I'm so overjoyed that you think so highly of this story! May I say, as a compulsive fangirl I HATE OOC-ness, so the fact you think I've got their characters right is fantastic! I know the feelings of the Mary-sues on this site. Let me tell you, many hours have been spent thinking and laboring on how to make my OCs NOT Mary-sue-ish, and even then I'm still on my toes (please tell me if they're crossing that VERY fine border) Oh, and yes. My English accent is awesome, and I'm proud to say that I speak in the typical posh-ness too :)
tokiluv: I hope I've updated soon enough!
Special thanks to my beautiful and fantastically creative BETA reader my_forgotten_rose!
so there you have it! I was so happy when I saw those reviews, that I had to start writing, even on my dad's laptop in the areas of no internet whilst on holiday!
'You say classy, PLANET EARTH!' -Ron Burgundy