Again, apologies everywhere for the long updates. Here's chapter 4. It's not exactly the most exciting chapter, but I had to get a few things set up. The end of the chapter, though, shows stuff is about to happen and get ugly!
Tamaki withdrew his hand from Kyouya's shoulder, placing it against his own forehead in confusion.
"What do you mean she doesn't exist? Ouran goes through extensive background checks before allowing new students to enroll," his face scrunched as he tried to process what Kyouya has said.
Kyouya placed his computer in his bag before standing up and moving to grab a glass of water. He downed it in one gulp, but instead of placing it gently back down as he finished, he slammed it down against the table leaving a spider web crack up the side. His hands curled into fists at his sides, his mouth set in a line, eyes closed, breathing deeply through his nose. "Why? Velia Vita has managed to become the biggest…" he trailed off, eyes flicking up to Tamaki briefly, "…second biggest nuisance in my life in less than one day."
"Kyouya, man, seriously. Could you please explain what you mean by 'she doesn't exist'?" Hikaru groaned.
Kyouya trudged back to his vacated chair and crossed one of his legs over the other, then began. "I was assigned Miss Velia Vita as a partner for a project this morning. We were instructed to write a short biography about our partner, based off a questionnaire provided us during lecture. Miss Vita and I did not make it through the entire list, so we decided to email each other our finished responses. I, in the mean time, decided to do a little digging of my own into her background in order to gain a leg up on her, and maybe answer some of the questions myself. However, her application is spotty and her references either don't check out or don't exist! I managed to get clearance to the Italian censuses for the past few years as well and searched for a Velia Vita." He paused momentarily to catch his breath.
"She was there, but the censuses had been cleverly doctored. I could see through it though, so I dug more and found the original documents." Another pause. "Velia Vita never existed in the census until a year ago."
"12.52…not bad Velia," the coach looked at her watch as I walked over from the finish line. I placed my hands behind my head and locked my fingers together, trying to calm my racing heart. Despite my daily runs, running in my spikes again was a strange feeling and it would take some time getting used to it again. Nevertheless, it felt amazing to get back on an actual track rather than running on dirt paths and asphalt.
"Thanks…Does that mean I can be on the relay team?" I asked curiously, an almost pleading tone in my voice.
She laughed and smiled. "We might have some A and B team rearranging to do."
"Yes!" I punched the air excitedly. Suddenly I was grabbed from behind and pulled into a tight hug.
"That was awesome Velia!" it was Shun. I should have expected that.
I removed her arms from around my neck and sent a smile her way. "Thanks. It's great getting to be part of a team again." I looked around as the other sprinters continued on with their workouts. Some of them smiled and waved as they rested and got water.
"All right Velia, Shun, time for intervals!" the coach said over to us.
"Right, ready to lose?" Shun winked at me.
"I wouldn't dare lose to the likes of you," I stuck my tongue out in retaliation, then took off to the starting line.
"Hey wait for me!" Shun whined.
"Never!"
"How is something like that even possible?" Kaoru questioned.
Kyouya leaned forward, resting one of his elbows on his thigh, his chin captured between two of his fingers. "Normally this would not be any kind of alarming occurrence. Moving countries means new people might show up in the census occasionally, but origin of residence would be different. In Velia's case, her origin of residence is Vicenza, Italy. She should have been registered in the census since birth. Yet, she does not appear until a year ago in the unaltered documents. Her age at this time is listed as 14. The 14 years of censuses prior have all been altered to include her. In addition, another Miss Beatrice Vita, aged 39, has also been added as Velia's mother. The 39 years of censuses prior have all been altered to include her."
Hunny looked baffled. "But Kyouya, why would fake people be added to the census?"
"Someone, in this case some ones, wanted to disappear. I've started looking into death certificates and obituaries for mothers and daughters of around their ages. I'm trying to see if I can find any pair of females that could possible have become Velia and Beatrice Vita." Kyouya clenched his fists. "What is perplexing me is these two got the level of clearance needed to alter government documents."
Tamaki started pacing back and forth. "Has Velia said anything to you that might make you suspicious of why she is here in Japan?"
Kyouya thought back to their conversation during class over the questionnaire. "Why did you move to Japan then?" "That's not a question from the list. Please, let's move on."
"She's definitely hiding something, I just do not know what, or why. But believe you me, I will get to the bottom of this."
"Great first practice today everybody," the coach said as we all finished running our cool down laps. "I know the season doesn't officially start for a few more months, but this year we will be better than ever! Keep up the good work and we will win the championships again!"
We all cheered for the beginning of a great new year as we dispersed to grab our bags. I sat down and pulled my running shoes off, stowing them in my athletic bag with my spikes, and changed into a pair of sandals. Pulling my water bottle from my bag, I took a long swig as I waited for Shun to finish packing.
"So, Velia! A few of the other girls and I were going to go hit the showers, change, and then," she paused to squeal, "go visit the hosts! Do you want to come along?"
I scoffed and threw my head back, letting out a laugh. "Do I really look like the type to fawn over hosts?"
Shun frowned and put her hands on her hips. "No, you don't, but it is customary for all new girls to go to the host club at least once." She crossed her arms and nodded her head once defiantly.
I raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? I highly doubt that is an official school rule."
"Fine it's not! But come ooooonnnn Velia! Don't you want to at least see what it's like? Just once?" Shun began to beg.
"I think just meeting two of them in class was enough for me," I replied. I grabbed my bag and hauled it over my shoulder, starting to walk towards the locker rooms, when I heard Shun pipe up again.
"If you go you can make fun of them when they aren't looking?"
I stopped in my tracks. She does have a point. Seeing them in their…natural environment…might provide me with more fodder with which to tease them. Still I wasn't completely sold. Lucky for me, Shun wasn't finished.
"I know you walked to school, and you must be tired after today's practice. If you come to the host club and wait with me, I can give you a ride home?"
I looked down at my tired legs, my knees beginning to bear a dull ache. I sighed, giving in. "Fine! But promise me we won't stay for too long?"
"EEP!" Shun cried, flying at me and wrapping her arms around my neck. She pulled me in, pushing her cheek flush up against mine. "You won't regret it!"
"I'm already beginning to," I grimaced.
"Welcome ladies to the host club! For those of you who are new, I am the host club president, the princely Tamaki Suoh!" Tamaki pranced around in front of the crowd of girls gathered at the entrance to Music Room #3. Walking down the line, he continued to introduce the rest of the hosts.
"This is the vice-president, the all-cool Kyouya Ootori!" Kyouya briefly looked up from his notebook to give the girls a furtive smile. Some of the girls swooned and cried.
"Next we have the tall, dark, wild, and mysterious Mori." Mori grunted once, then uttered a quick "Hi." More giggles and cries were heard.
"Always by Mori's side, the adorable, boy-lolita Hunny!" Hunny giggled from his perch on Mori's shoulders before addressing the crowd with his signature question of, "Would you girls like some cake?"
Screams of "He's so cute!" and "I could just eat him up!" followed.
Tamaki sighed as he pulled the next host in line, Haruhi, into a hug. "Oh my little Haruhi, you're so cute aren't you, aren't you?"
"Tamaki-senpai," Haruhi whispered angrily as she pushed him away.
"Oh right," he cleared his throat. "Ladies, this is Haruhi Fujioka. She will be your," he paused to wink at Haruhi (to which she rolled her eyes), "natural type."
Tamaki turned to where the last hosts should have been standing, but the space the twins had once occupied was empty. "Devil twins! Where are you?"
"Over here boss!" Hikaru yelled from amidst the crowd of girls. Tamaki clenched his fists and growled.
"We're just getting a head start, what's so wrong with that?" Kaoru whined, slinging his arm around two girls next to him. They each giggled and blushed.
Tamaki continued to bark at the twins, who continued to ignore him. Eventually he gave up, composed himself, and addressed the entire group of girls again. "Now, my lovely ladies, please enter. It's your turns."
He bowed to the crowd and the girls surged forward, attacking their favorite hosts, whom they had had to spend an entire break without. The hosts jumped right back into their duties diligently. All except for Kyouya, whose efforts were more lackluster than usual; but that might have been due to one foreign exchange student who just would not leave his mind.
"Eeee! We're here!" Shun shrieked as we approached Music Room #3. Saya, Tsubasa, and twins Mayumi and Miyabi, four other girls from the track team, all joined in with Shun's excitement. I just sighed and whispered to myself, "Why am I doing this again?"
"Oh stop whining," Tsubasa roughly pushed my shoulder. I stumbled and fought to keep upright as Tsubasa was a pole-vaulter and had a good amount of upper body strength.
"Yeah, Velia! You've got to like at least one of the hosts!" Saya chimed in, her green eyes wide. "Didn't I see you earlier talking to Kyouya Ootori in class?"
Shun fought to hide back giggles as I snarled. "I don't know if I would consider that 'talking'. He more stood there while I shouted abuse at him."
"Well, do whatever you want," Mayumi flicked her long strawberry blonde braid over her shoulder.
"As long as you don't go for Hikaru and Kaoru," Miyabi mirrored her sister's hair flick.
Together they finished, "The twins are our territory."
"Please, as if I would go for any of them. I'm only here to get valuable blackmail against them all," I grinned evilly. "Especially that ass-hat Kyouya."
"Enough!" Shun stomped her foot. "Can we please just go in now?"
"Fine," I sighed, spreading my arms out. "Lead the way."
Shun pulled the doors to Music Room #3 open and we stepped inside. Immediately the five girls sprinted (ironically) off in different directions. Across the room I could see Kyouya eyeing me suspiciously. What's his problem? I thought. I was tempted to shoot him the middle finger, but I didn't want to get in that much trouble my very first day. I found a seat near the door and placed my bag down next to it, then plopped down unceremoniously (and may I mention also very un-ladylike) on the cushion. I removed my iPod from a pocket in my backpack and popped the earbuds into my ears, turning my music all the way up.
We're in trouble so we move on the double
We move on the double, we move, yeah
We're in trouble so we move on the double
We move on the double, we move, yeah
The opening lines of Double Trouble by Jack & White started playing and I began to bob my head to the beat.
Get away, get away, get away, get away…
The irony of the song's lyrics in relation to my life at the moment was one of the reasons I loved the song so much. I continued jamming out in my own personal bubble, pretending not to notice or feel Kyouya's burning gaze from across the music room. Whatever his problem was, it wasn't going to get me down. Ever.
(A warehouse somewhere in Italy)
"Sir, someone in…Japan has just looked for obituaries of a mother and daughter, ages 39 and 14, in Vincenza, Italy."
A large man, puffing from a cigar, grinned evilly then exhaled and laughed.
"Finally, our first lead."
Hmm, who could these mysterious people be?