Legal updating! I'm ungrounded but I'll probably be grounded again when my report card comes. This is about a month after the last chapter... for plot purposes...

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Chapter 24

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I hated the Hitachiins. I picked a piece of lint off of my prison uniform. Today's theme was police. And I was their prisoner.

I laughed and coughed at the same time. One of the nastier side effects of smoking.

Smoking had changed many aspects of my life. I had to have a pack with me wherever I went or else I got jittery. I was slightly more irritable now. The squealing of the girls during club gave me a blinding migraine.

At that moment I was about to murder Kyouya. I hadn't had a cigarette all day and his calculating nature was giving me a headache. On second thought, just about everything gave me a headache, at least until I got my much needed cigarette at the end of the day.

"What's so funny Kobayashi-san?" Kyouya asked in his most polite voice.

"Just how ridiculous this uniform is." I said.

And it was ridiculous, horizontal black and white stripes. The fabric was itchy and it made me sweat, despite the air-conditioning. My headache grew worse. I needed a cigarette. Bad.

It's all right Hitomi, you can do this.

I walked over to Hunny and the girls he was hosting. I smiled at him. He dropped his cup on the floor.

"Oops" he said innocently. I could feel the blood pulsing rapidly through the vein on my forehead. I knew that he hadn't done it on purpose but I was still angry. I set the tray on one of the random convenient tables and made my way to the bathroom.

They can fend for themselves for a bit...

I walked into the girl's restroom. My shoes squeaked and the sound reverberated off of the cold walls.

You'd think with the tuition you have to pay the bathrooms would be nicer.

I opened the bathroom window and locked myself in the stall farthest from the door. I sat down and pulled a cigarette out of my pocket. I lit it up and inhaled. A feeling of comfort spread through me. I smiled and blew a smoke ring.

I feel much better...

My headache started to ease up.

"Hitomi-san?"

I froze at a very familiar voice. I gulped.

"Haruhi?" I whispered.

A pause.

"Are you smoking?"

I sighed and opened the stall. Haruhi stood there, a surprised look on his face.

"Yeah..." I said lamely. Haruhi frowned.

"Why?" she asked. I frowned. Why did I smoke? I'd never thought about it before.

"I guess... because I was bored..." I said. Haruhi looked at me skeptically and coughed.

"Put that thing out, it stinks." He said.

I extinguished it on my shoe and stuffed the butt in my pocket.

"Sorry..."

"You shouldn't smoke Hitomi-san, it's really unhealthy."

"I know, but now that I've started..." I shrugged.

"But more importantly, why are you in the girl's restroom?" I asked.

"Uh... well you see..." Haruhi said.

And then, for the third time in my life, a realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

Haruhi wasn't a boy, she was a girl.

"Oh God I'm an idiot..."

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