I took a final breath and opened the door. Once again, rose petals - this time white - gently drifted out. What's with that?

After a long deliberation, I had decided to start looking for friends in the Host Club. Haruhi would be my best bet, she seemed the only person in this school with any common sense.

Not to mention that I wanted to find out why she dressed like a guy.

But still, if that didn't work out, so many people came to the club that I was bound to find at least one friend - or not, which I still expected to happen

Inside, as there had been yesterday, several girls cooed at the Hosts as they did their thing. Tamaki had three couches full of girls at his table, Kyoya had half as many, Honey and Mori about five, the twins were missing - not good - and Haruhi had just two people at her table.

I walked over slowly, and as I did, eyes turned to me. By the time I reached Haruhi the whole room had gone silent. "Can I sit here?" I asked, gesturing to the empty space on Haruhi's couch.

"Oh - of course!" Haruhi replied after a moment, "Sorry about everyone, we didn't expect you back here after what happened yesterday."

Conversations gradually started up again, and I had a feeling some of them were now about me.

"Eh." I shrugged and sat down, then retrieved my sketchbook and special pencils.

"Oh, I just love your dress! It's so - original!" One of the girls said.

"Yep." I replied, not looking up.

"And that scarf, and your gloves! I've never seen anything like that before!"

I was wearing a black Goth Lolita dress, a thin red scarf, and elbow length red gloves. "So? It's just clothing."

They squealed in unison, and one of them said: "You're just so independent! I admire that, it's like you don't need anyone."

"It's how I had to live." (A/N: that's a little hint to her past)Things were getting a tad too close for comfort. I opened my book to a clean page and started drawing. One of the girls had her hair up like bunny ears, and it gave me an image that I wanted to try out.

"I heard you're on scholarship here, like Haruhi." One continued. "What did you get into Ouran for?"

"Drawing, painting, sculpting, et cetera. I didn't exactly need the scholarship money to get into this school, but whatever. Now, could you please leave me alone? It's not my job to entertain you."

They seemed surprised, but soon enough resumed conversation with Haruhi. I flicked my pencil about the paper, drawing a sort of bunny girl, frolicking in the flowers. HEY! Don't judge, I can do what I like.

"Now what's this, Hikaru?" A voice announced behind me.

"I don't know, Kaoru. Let's get a closer look."

Abruptly, a hand snatched my sketchbook away. I glared up at the evil twins, ready to kill one of them. Kaoru held my notebook while Hikaru looked over his shoulder at my drawing.

You don't just steal someone's personal property!

"Give. It. Back. Kaoru." I spoke slowly, "Or I will kick your balls into your throat."

You could practically see the fire in my eyes.

"All right! I was just kidding!" Both of the twins were now cowering behind Haruhi - how the hell did they get there?

"It - it was good! It looked just like her!" they pointed to bunny-girl.

Now quite a few people had started listening to our conversation, and I wanted to laugh, they were so easily entertained.

"That was kind of the point. If you wanted to see, you should have asked first. It's really ignorant to take things without permission. But since you seemed to like it so much, take it." I ripped the drawing out of my book. "Have fun with that."

And with that, I walked out of the room. Stupid hosts! I have half a mind to throw a dye bomb into the club room.

If things kept going this way, I was going to have a crap month. Well, at least I lasted longer today...Those twins, though! They're so annoying. Well - Kaoru not somuch. It seemed like he was just following his brother's lead.

The hallway was empty of students. All of them were either at respective activities or home. My heels clinked against the floor, echoing all around.

Footsteps echoed behind me. I turned to see Haruhi - she must have followed me. "What do you want?"

"To apologize for them. Hikaru and Kaoru tease people a lot, but they don't really mean it."

I snorted. "Yeah, that's sotrue."

"It is. But I also wanted to ask you something. You get so angry at the guys, but you came back, even after yesterday."

"Your point being?"

"If you want to be our friend, you'll have to get thicker skin. The guys are like that all the time, to everyone. But they don't mean any harm.

Maybe they didn't. "They're still annoying as hell." Haruhi started laughing after I said that.

"I know - at first, I hated them all. But they kind of grow on you."

"Why did you join, then?"

"I, umm...broke an 8,000,000 yen vase."

It was my turn to laugh. "That's really bad luck! Is that why you dress like a boy?"

"EH?"

"I know you're a girl, but I won't tell anyone if you don't pry into my life like that Kyoya tried to."

Haruhi seemed to be deep in thought. It took a moment before she responded. "Why don't you come back to the club after the guests leave? It should be about another hour."

"Why would I do that?"

"So you can meet them the right way. It won't work if you just threaten and yell at them."

Hmm. Well, it couldn't be toobad. I could at least get a laugh.

"All right...I'll go."