Finally we move on to chapter five. I'm blown away with how many reviews I'm getting for this story. At this rate this chapter might just make this story surpass any other story I've ever done and with fewer chapters to boot. Considering that Melancholy isn't quite as well known on this site as DBZ or Evangelion, that's saying something. I quite glad you guys are enjoying my work. I hope you continue to enjoy it. It's the longest chapter yet!

Oh and a WHOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO goes out in celebration of Haruhi season 2 finally arriving! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chapter 5

They say that the average person will sleep between seven to nine hours a day if they had no alarm clock. It is during this time period that our body becomes busy restoring any damage it has suffered previously and restoring your nervous system's supply of much needed neurotransmitters. Adequate sleep also improves immune function, increases energy, and even slows aging ever so slightly. With all these benefits, it's a mystery as to why it is that some people insist on living their lives without a proper amount of sleep, let alone allowing others that luxury.

These are the thoughts that quickly raced through my head when I became painfully aware of the sensation of something bashing my head into my pillow. And judging from the suspected shape, size, texture and approximate density of that thing, I soon determined that it was a foot. It wasn't long before my suspicions were found correct.

"Dammit, Kyon! Get your ass up!"

Being woken up violently by my sister had pretty much been a morning ritual for me for many years, so I was kind of used to this. For some reason, I wasn't terribly surprised that Haruhi would happily continue this ritual in my sister's stead. Some things never change.

"Come on! You've been sleeping since you got here! Fifteen hours! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Wow, had I really been asleep that long? Then why do I still feel sleepy?

Haruhi moved her foot down to the small of my back and bashed it hard, which hurt pretty damn good I must say.

"OW! Alright I'm up!"

"About time! I swear it's like you go into a coma whenever you fall asleep!"

I reluctantly sat up and yawned loudly, following that up with a large stretch. I looked up at Haruhi, who was still wearing her yellow pajamas.

"I can't help that I'm a heavy sleeper."

"Well hurry up and get dressed so we can eat before we have to leave."

She turned to walk out but stopped at the door.

"By the way, did you finish your homework?"

Homework? Crap! I forgot all about it…what with all that happened all weekend.

"Of course you didn't…You're as useless as always. You can copy my homework while you're eating."

"You don't have to do that. I'm sure I can talk our teacher into giving me an extension, considering what had happened."

"Just get it done now and get it over with. Beside, I know you won't be able to do it on you own anyway, considering the fact that you didn't even try to pay attention in class all last week."

Well, she's right about that…I hate it when she's right…

"Hurry up!"

With that, she stormed out of my room and slammed the door. Luckily, Haruhi had the presence of mind yesterday to make sure that I'd remembered my school clothes when I came here. After about five minutes, I was dressed and ready to go. I walked downstairs to find that Haruhi had already beaten me to the kitchen.

"God you're slow! No wonder you're always late for Brigade meetings!"

"Whatever…"

Haruhi handed me her homework and set me to get to work copying it while she prepared breakfast. She grabs some instant food from a cupboard and quickly heated it up before serving it.

"If you weren't so slow we could have had a real breakfast. Don't blame me if it tastes like crap."

Hey, it's instant. As long as it doesn't kill me I could care less.

It was then that Haruhi's mother Naru-san walked in the kitchen, still in her pink colored pajamas, while rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Good morning…did you get enough sleep? You must have been real tired to sleep as long as you did."

I smiled politely before greeting her.

"Good morning Naru-san. I appreciate your concern. I'm quite fine, thank you."

"Well that's wonderful," she said with that warm, innocent smile. Her radiant energy soothed my soul. Perhaps living here won't be so bad after all.

In the corner of my eye, I could see Haruhi raising an eyebrow at me. She's probably thinks it's weird to see me so damn polite and formal. Hey, I can be those things if I wanted to.

It was then that Oruki-san walked into the kitchen as well, holding today's newspaper. He narrowed his eyes upon seeing me, and then he gave a cocky smile.

"Good morning, Haruhi-chan. Good morning, Kyon-kun."

"G…good morning," I said, bowing to him while still in my seat…Wait a minute! Did he just call me Kyon? Dammit, I told you my real name!

He then walked up to where I was sitting and eyed the homework I was doing.

"Doing your homework at the last minute?"

Oh great…I'm sure this is making me look good. Now I look like a huge procrastinator. Well, I technically am, but I didn't want him to know that. Luckily, Haruhi was quick to answer her father for me.

"He wasn't able to finish it because I all the stuff that happened to him over the weekend, so I'm helping him."

He then clearly sees that I was just copying her homework.

"I can see that…" He then begins to walk to his seat. "Keep up the good work…Kyon-kun…"

Well that statement wasn't sarcastic. And I love the fact that he's using my stupid nickname to mock me. He hates me…he really hates me…

"Oh! That reminds me," said Naru-san as she grabbed a piece of paper and began to write something down. "I need you two to stop at the store to grab some things on this list." She then handed Haruhi the list along with some money.

"Okay," said Haruhi as she finished her breakfast at record pace as usual. The morning was so damn normal. I still can't comprehend how those two could raise such a strange daughter.

After I finished breakfast and copying homework, Haruhi and I left for school. If there was anything to be thankful for, it was the fact that Haruhi lived considerably closer to the school than I used to and that the hill wasn't nearly as steep from the direction she went to school. That'll be nice for a change. After over a year of climbing that hill from the steep end, going Haruhi's path would feel like a breeze.

Still, I'm getting the feeling that I'm probably not going to be there for much longer, considering the fact that Haruhi's dad seems to dislike me so much. Apparently, my thoughts were fairly transparent, because Haruhi made a comment about it soon afterwards.

"Don't worry about my dad. He's a jerk to everyone except his family and students."

Students? What is he a teacher?

"Oh, I didn't tell you? My father earns a living teaching women's self defense courses."

Teaching women's self defense? Wait, that means he could probably seriously kick my ass if he wanted to right? That's just great...

Haruhi continued to explain that her father went into business teaching the courses right around the time that Japanese women began to leave the household and enter the business world, which made the timing perfect. He's done well enough that he only has to work a few hours a day during the weekdays to meet the family's financial needs, although competition with others has reduced the influx of new students by a bit, making it a little harder for them to make ends meet.

Haruhi rarely ever said anything about her life at home, so this all came as a bit of a surprise, but since I'm living with them now, I figured that maybe she felt it was okay for me to know what was going on.

It wasn't much longer after she began explaining things about her dad that I noticed a familiar face come in to view. To be honest, I wasn't terribly thrilled the meet him like this.

"Oh, hey Kyon! Why are you still here?"

It was Kunikida. Although between him and Taniguchi he was definitely the less annoying one, I still didn't want to see him during this time. This was mostly because…

"And why are you walking to school with Suzumiya-san?"

…of that…

"Kyon's staying at my place for now."

Thanks, Haruhi. Announce it to the world while you're at it. To be honest, I had hoped that no one would find out that I was living with you. Although it's nothing new to have rumors spread about the both of us, it's still annoying as hell.

"Oh calm down. It's not like it's a big deal. Who cares what people think?"

Obviously not you. You've made that abundantly clear to me ever since you made your infamous introduction speech at the beginning of our freshman year.

"So you're not moving up north? Why not?"

I decided that since the cat was out of the bag now, I might as well explain. I told him that living at Haruhi's house was a one month deal until I found my own place.

"Wow, that's cool. I sure wish I could live on my own."

So do I. I'm certain that living with Haruhi will get to me eventually.

The three of us continued to walk to school, making the usual small talk until we got there.

The rest of the first half of class was nothing too unusual, and it flew by fairly quickly. Haruhi left the classroom like she always did, leaving me with Taniguchi and Kunikida to eat lunch…oh crap…

I just realized that I didn't have a lunch to eat. Haruhi always ate in the school's cafeteria so she never brings one, and I forgot about it in my rush out the door.

"Don't worry, Kyon," said Taniguchi. "I'd be happy to share my lunch with you."

Since when have you ever been so generous?

"But only under one condition…"

Of course…

"You have to give that gift I gave you at the party back. Since you're not leaving after all."

Oh yeah, that thing. I was ordered by Haruhi to give all the gifts back anyway. To be honest, I really didn't want to look at it.

"So what happened anyway? Why are you still here?"

"Kyon's living with Haruhi now."

Thanks Kunikida. I totally wanted Taniguchi to know that. Now everyone will know…

Taniguchi gave a mischievous smile upon hearing this.

"So Kyon decided to skip the dating stage and went straight to living with her? Smart move. Dating is expensive and over-rated."

"We're not dating! I'm just using her guest room until I can find a place of my own."

"And her parents are okay with that?"

"As long as I'm out of there within a month."

"I wonder what her parents are like. They must be a bunch of freaks, too."

"They're surprisingly normal."

Kunikida then spoke up. "Really? I've heard some weird things from people in my neighborhood about them…especially her mother."

Wait? What did you hear? And how? Wait, that's right. Kunikida lives fairly close by to where Haruhi lives, right? That explains why we ran into him this morning. Never mind that. What are you saying about Haruhi's mom? Are you saying she's really a freak, too? Please tell me you're lying! I don't want the image of her sweet, innocent smile to be a lie!

"I don't remember exactly, but I heard she did some weird stuff around the neighborhood like performing strange rituals in front of everyone house. She said she was hoping a ghost or spirit was hiding in someone's house and wanted to have a normal conversation with one, I think."

"Sounds like Kyon has been around weirdoes for so long that he's forgotten what normal people are like," laughed Taniguchi.

That's not it, dammit. She wasn't like that at all when I met her. There must be a mistake. Maybe they confused her with Haruhi. That must be it.

The rest of lunch went by with nothing terribly note-worthy other than Taniguchi continuously teasing me about living with Haruhi. Damn he's annoying. When classes were over for the day, Haruhi and I made our way to the clubroom. After greeting everyone and receiving my daily dose of Asahina-san's tea, I sat down and played a round of checkers with Koizumi.

Haruhi immediately went to the computer and began to serf the web. From what I could tell from the corner of my eye, she appeared to be watching more videos online. She seemed to be watching something of particular interest. After a minute, a grin could be seen on her face as she continued to watch. Eventually, she jumped up in excitement.

"I think I might have found a real psychic!"

"Oh really," I said. "What makes you so sure?"

She clicked on something and stared at the screen intently while holding onto her chin in a position that made it look like she was deep in thought.

"I can't be sure, but this video I'm watching has this guy manipulating a compass with what he claims is the power of his own mind."

"That's quite interesting," said Koizumi. "Shall we take a look?"

Everyone, myself included, gathered around Haruhi as she replayed the video. We watched as the man she was talking about encouraged his audience to hold hands and focus their latent psychic powers to move the compass. While they held hands and chanted, the guy held his hand over the compass. Like magic, the compass began to move around randomly. To be honest, I wasn't terribly impressed by it.

"I'm not convinced. Looks like a trick to me."

"Maybe…" said Haruhi, who appeared deep in thought. "But I can't for the life of me figure out how he did it. If it's not psychic power than what could it be?"

After we finish watching the video, everyone went back to their seats and continued doing what they were doing before. It wasn't until about ten minutes later that we heard a growl of anger from Haruhi.

"Damn you, James Randi! I should have known you would ruin it for me!"

Oh, him again? Are you telling me you still have a grudge again him? What did he do now?

Haruhi leaned back in her seat in exasperation. "That psychic was a fraud after all…"

"Oh really? How'd he do it?"

Haruhi goes on to explain that James Randi released response video to the one we just saw showing how the trick was done. Apparently the psychic slipped a small magnet into his thumb while he distracted the audience by telling them to hold hands. If you didn't watch him carefully, it was easy to miss. When he put his hand over the compass, the magnet was what made the compass move about. In the end, James once again did what he does best. He revealed a fraud. I bet Nagato saw it from the start.

However, Haruhi was less than appreciative of his work.

"Damn it! I've had it! That's the last straw!"

Haruhi then stands on her chair while placing her hands on her hips.

"The JREF have struck a massive blow against the SOS Brigade while we were caught unprepared! We cannot let such an attack go unanswered!"

How was revealing a hoax a blow to the SOS Brigade? Are you really that upset over the fact that the man in the video wasn't a psychic? And what exactly are you cooking up in that twisted brain of yours right now? Please tell me you're not serious…

"I will be spending the next few weeks making a plan for a massive counter-attack against the JREF. I told you that we are at war! We can't let ourselves be beaten! We will charge at the enemy and take them down with maximum brutality! We will take no prisoners! We will leave no survivors! Any objections!"

"Yeah, I got one…"

"Then it's settled! We attack on my command!"

And of course you refuse to listen to me. What a surprise…I just hope she forgets about this declaration and moves onto something else to distract her. I could only foresee bad things happening from this.

The Brigade meeting ended shortly after Haruhi's declaration, so Haruhi and I began to walk towards the bus station where we were going to take a bus to the market to grab the things on the list Haruhi was given.

When we arrived at the market, Haruhi pulled out the list and began to read it off. The list contained the typical items such as rice, soy sauce, eggs and fish, but as we continued shopping I noticed some of the items that were on the list were somewhat unusual. We bought fruit not commonly found in Japan, like plantains, pomegranates and rhubarb (I think rhubarb is a vegetable technically, but whatever). We bought several types of beans and several different vegetables that were fairly rare and expensive in Japan. Eventually, I had to speak up to Haruhi about the food.

"Why are we buying all this different stuff?"

Haruhi then explained a little family tradition started by her mother. "My mother thought it was boring to eat Japanese food every night, so she decided that every night would have a food served from a different part of the world. Monday was Japanese, Tuesday was American, Wednesday was Hispanic, Thursday is Italian, Friday is African, Saturday is European and Sunday was Middle Eastern."

"I see…" I said, finding this behavior remarkably similar to when I first met Haruhi. Back then, she would come to school with a different hair style everyday, increasing the tie off points every day until it reset to zero on Monday. The ribbons she used in her hair were also colored coded based on the day. I couldn't help but wonder if Haruhi was influenced by her mother…oh no…

When we were finally finished with shopping, I was forced to carry everything myself all the way back to Haruhi's house, which sucked terribly since it was about 25 kilograms worth of food. This was made worse due to Haruhi's constant berating.

"Hurry up dammit! I want to get home! You're way too slow!"

"We'd be moving faster if you'd help me with these groceries."

"No excuses!"

This continued pretty much all the way until we finally made it back. My hands were throbbing from the plastic handles digging into my skin. After we entered the front door, I was greeted by Oruki-san himself. He had his arms crossed and had a stern look on his face.

"Haruhi told me yesterday while you were in dream land that you still had some stuff that you needed to grab at your old place. Is that true?"

"Yeah…" I said apprehensively.

"Let's go. We'll take the car and pick them up."

And like that, I was riding towards my old house with Haruhi's father. I had to admit that I was feeling very uncomfortable. I had thought about making small talk with him while we were on our way there, but I couldn't find the right questions to ask him. The look on his face spoke to me, saying "you better be grateful that I'm doing this." So as a result, we said nothing the entire way there, except for my occasional directions.

When we got there, I was in charge of loading all my stuff into the trunk on my own, while Oruki-san yelled at me to hurry up. Where have I heard that line before?

It took me about half an hour to get everything I had crammed into the car, including my bike which had to be tied to the roof. When that was finally over with we were on our way, saying good bye to my place for the last time. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, exhausted from both moving my stuff into the car and carrying the groceries earlier. I stayed this way for about five minutes, figuring that soon enough we'd be back at the Suzumiya residence, and I could relax in my room. Unfortunately when I opened my eyes, I began to notice that we weren't taking the route that we were supposed to take to get back. I began to become very nervous when I realized this.

"Um…where are we going?"

The fear began to ramp up dramatically when a saw a smile creep up onto his face.

"Don't worry. I figured we could stop somewhere to get some exercise before we go home."

Exercise? After what I just did? Are you crazy? And what do you mean by exercise? Where are we going? To be honest, this was probably the most scared I've been since I got stabbed by Ryoko Asakura when I attempted to undo the changes Nagato did to the world.

It wasn't long before we arrived at a local dojo. Dojo? Just what is he planning for me? It was at this point that I decided to back out.

"Look…uh…Suzumiya-san? No offense but I'm not really feeling all that well…"

Before I could say anything else, the door on my side opened up, and I was grabbed by the collar and dragged out of the car with what amounted to an impossible level of force. I tried to resist, but it was to no avail. Haruhi's father was insanely strong, and I could do little other than let him take me wherever he wanted to take me.

We eventually came into the changing room before he let go of me. It was then that I saw that he was carrying a gym bag. After he opened it up, I saw that he had two separate karate gis.

"I'm sure that this one should fit you okay," said Oruki-san as he held up one in front of me. He then that a mischievous grin was seen on his face. I face that I know I've seen before. "Okay! Time for you to get undressed!"

It was then that Oruki-san attacked me and began to forcefully remove my school clothes. I tried in vain to resist, but it was like wrestling with an ogre. Before I knew it, I was stripped of both my clothes and my dignity and forced to wear the uniform…I felt so violated…I now know how Asahina-san feels.

Minutes later, we were both standing in the middle of the dojo in our uniforms. Oruki-san stood before me with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed in my direction.

"As I said before, we came here for a little exercise, but more importantly, we're here to test you."

Test me? For what? To see how much crap I can take before I have a nervous breakdown?

"Relax. I just want to see the extent of your fighting capabilities."

Fighting capabilities? I doubt I'd perform any better than the average person. I'm definitely not at your level if that's what you wanted to know.

"I want you to throw a punch at me."

I paused momentarily to process his request. "Huh?"

"Look I'm sure you're pretty pissed that I stripped you and dressed you without permission, right?"

To say the least, yes.

"Then use that anger and let me have it! Hit me as hard as you can!"

What is he nuts? Okay, maybe he is. I'm really starting to believe that he's Haruhi's dad. There's no doubt about it. Okay, I get a free shot on him, right? Let's do this…

I reluctantly charge at him and swing at him with all my might…and that was all I could remember before I came to. I was on the floor with a severe pain in my chest. I could see Oruki-san standing above me looking unimpressed.

"I can't believe you fell for that. Were you even trying to avoid that hit?" He then held out his hand for me to grab. "We'll try that again."

Yeah, sure we will. I love getting pounded into bits. I got up on my own power, refusing his hand. Fool me twice, shame on me. When I got up, he was once again standing with his arms crossed.

"Go ahead. Try again!"

"No…"

"Try again or I'm kicking you out of my house!"

Are you serious? We both know what's going to happen. This is ridiculous. I know what you're trying to do. You're using me as a punching bag to let out your frustrations while also satisfying your alpha male ego.

"Did you say something?" asked Oruki-san in a tone that said "choose your next words carefully".

After telling him no, I swallowed hard as I got ready to strike. This time I was extra apprehensive, trying extra hard to find some kind of opening. I figured I'd try to throw him off by unleashing a kick…

I was on the floor again. My right cheek hurt really badly. Might have something to do with the fact that I landed directly on it when Oruki-san defended against my kick by grabbing my leg and performing some kind of flip that caused me to become airborne for at least a second. I slowly started to get up, but couldn't when a weight of Oruki-san's foot came onto my back. He then grabbed onto my arm.

"Next, I'll demonstrate some submission holds!"

Before I could object, I felt an incredibly painful force applied onto my arm in a direction it was never meant to go. Oh my god it hurts so bad! I remember screaming loudly in pain before he finally released me. I crawled away desperately up to the door. I tried to open it, but it was locked. I turned around to see Oruki holding a set of keys.

"Looking for these? You can't have them until we finish our lesson…or until you can grab them from me."

This is a nightmare! He's going to kill me! LET ME OUT OF HERE NOW!!!

"Next I'll demonstrate to you the wonderful world of pressure points!"

About an hour later, we were on our way home. My body was in all kinds of pain as I leaned my head against the window of the car. When I turned my head towards the driver's side, I could see that Oruki-san was quite pleased with himself.

"To tell you the truth, I put you through that because I wasn't sure if I could trust you around my daughter. But after going through that, I'm fully confidant that if you ever tried anything to her, she would kick your ass."

And here I thought I might make it to the end of the day with at least a shred of self-esteem. Thanks for taking care of that for me.

"I spent a great deal of time teaching her martial arts and putting her though physical training when she was junior high. She did a lot of acting out during that time, so I thought that if I gave her something to do to use up her energy that it might help correct her behavior. I was amazed with her talent, but she just didn't want to utilize it. To make matters worse, she still acted out despite my efforts."

He gave a deep sigh while rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I'm just glad that she's gotten a lot better when she got into high school."

Interesting to hear about how Haruhi's parents reacted to her behavior when she got into junior high. I guess this also explains why Haruhi is in such great physical shape.

A short while later, we finally arrived at the house. Unsympathetic to my pain, Oruki-san made me unload my belongings into the house on my own, being sure to yell at me for being slow. While I was doing this, I couldn't help but notice that there were pieces of paper stuck to the walls all over the house. I knew those weren't there when I left this place over an hour ago. They had statements like "Welcome" and "Come here" on them. It was unbelievably bizarre. On my third trip, I noticed that it was Haruhi's mother who was putting up the weird pieces of paper on the walls.

After placing the third box into my room, I approached her to ask what she was doing.

"Oh! I'm just trying out a little experiment."

"Experiment?"

"Uh huh! I got this idea earlier this morning. I thought to myself that paper wards were used to keep spirits away all the time back in the day. I had this thought that perhaps I could make wards that drew spirits to us rather than away from us."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Oh I'm such hoping that these will help make our home haunted."

"Wait…you want your house to become haunted?"

"That's right! Oh I hope we get a poltergeist. I think it would fun have to dodge objects being thrown at us!"

Uh…fun? No, ghosts are not fun. Ghosts are freaky. Ghosts are scary. Ghosts are unnatural. But most of all, GHOST ARE NOT FUN!

Obviously ignoring my objections, Naru-san began to bounce up and down excitedly.

"I sure hope this works! It can get so boring in here! I've always wanted to meet a ghost!"

It was at this point that I decided it was best to make my exit. "Well, I guess it's time for me to get back to work." I walked away as soon as possible to grab the next box.

During all this, both Haruhi and Oruki-san were carrying on with their own activities completely oblivious to what Naru was doing. Is this kind of thing so common that they don't even think it about it when it happens?

When I had finally finished moving my stuff in, I approached Haruhi for an explanation. She was sitting in the dining room doing her homework.

"Um…so…what's with your mother?"

Haruhi looked up at me strangely for a few seconds before figuring out what I was talking about.

"Oh, my mom has always had an obsession with ghosts and demons and what not. It's best to just let her ideas go their course. Nothing ever actually happens when she tries these kinds of things."

"As much of a relief it is to hear that, don't you worry she might do something out of control?"

Haruhi smiled and waved her hand away. "Nah, my mom couldn't hurt a fly. She just bored, that's all." Before I could say anymore, Haruhi pointed her pencil at my nose. "By the way, when do you plan on doing your homework? I'm not letting you loaf around so you can try can copy my homework in the morning."

"That was your idea."

"Doesn't matter. You made me look bad in front of my dad this morning because of that. I won't stand for it!"

If anyone looked bad this morning it was me. I told you I could have talked to my teacher and got an extension, but you wouldn't listen!

Haruhi pulled out the chair next to her. "No more excuses. Go grab your homework and get started. That's an order!"

After giving a deep sigh, I did as she commanded. I was already sore and exhausted after what had happened earlier today, so I knew doing my homework would be an arduous chore. Luckily, Haruhi was willing to give some pointers here and there on some of the problems she already did. With her help, I was finished much quicker than usual and was free to relax for the rest of the day.

Soon it was dinner time, so I ended up having my first meal with Haruhi's family. It was Monday so it was Japanese night. Thank god! I don't think I'm quite ready to try the concoctions that would be made later this week. I found that eating dinner with the Suzumiyas to be a quiet affair, as both Haruhi and Oruki-san were too busy shoveling food down their throats to say anything, and Naru-san was happily in dream land while eating her meal. That innocent smile of hers was a source of great comfort for me yesterday, but now I was finding it strangely creepy. On the plus side, she was quite the cook, and the meal was delicious.

When dinner was over, I was forced to help clean the table and wash the dishes with Haruhi, as task I loathed only because Haruhi continuously berated me on how slow I was. After that I finally was excused to go to my room and relax for the rest of the day.

I pulled out a manga book that was at the top of a box I opened and began to read it to stem off boredom. After about ten pages were read, I started to hear a voice from behind the wall in my room…no wait…it must be my imagination. I went back to reading and I heard it some more. It sounded like a girl's voice. Okay, no need to panic. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it. I'm positive that it's not ghosts of spirits. There's no way those paper wards haunted this place already…

I got up from the bed and slowly walked towards the wall. As I got closer, the sound of the voice became clearer. When I put my ear to the wall, it was then that I determined the true source of the voice. I exhaled in relief when I realized it wasn't a ghost. Instead, it was Haruhi. But who the heck was she talking to?

Haruhi's room was adjacent to mine, and apparently the wall that separates us wasn't very thick. I decided to knock on it to she how she'd react. I heard a light scream when I did. I couldn't help but laugh when I realized I startled her. I then could hear the door to her room open, followed by her heavy footsteps to my door. The door flew open, revealing Haruhi in a mood that was less than amused.

"What do you want?!"

"Who were you talking to?"

Haruhi's eyes widened before an obvious blush appeared on her face. "Sh…shut up! Idiot!" She then slammed my door and marched back to her room.

It was then that I laughed my ass off. I couldn't believe I caught Haruhi talking to herself. I remembered that she told be in the past that she had that habit, but I thought it came up as an excuse for her to ask me indirectly as to why I went out with Asahina-san the day before.

After enjoying that moment, I lied back down on the bed and continued reading. I was sure to note that the voices stopped. When I had finished reading, I dropped the book on the floor, shut off the light and went to bed.

To summarize today's events, I would say that my observations and assumptions of Haruhi's parents were grossly incorrect. They were not normal people. I've determined that Haruhi got her tomboyishness and bossiness from her father and her weirdness from her mother. It's no wonder as to why Haruhi is the freak she is. I honestly was not sure if I would be able to make it a full month with these people. I hoped I could find a place of my own soon.