Disclaimer: I do not own Kaleido Star, nor do I own any of its characters. Except the one's I've added in myself.

Chapter 2: Sora's Amazing New Acquaintance

Karai Ran was not the only new member to Kaleido Stage that day. A sixteen year old named Suzette had also come that day. Kalos didn't intend to announce her arrival until the next day, so she decided to use the current one to unpack her things in her dorm room. He had said that she could go and watch the others practice, but she decided that it wasn't the time to meet everyone else yet.

Suzette looked at her alarm clock that she had just set up on the table by her bed. It was five o' clock. Practice had ended. Suddenly, Suzette heard a noise. It sounded like a faint buzzing, or something of the sort. She looked to the source of the noise, to see a shimmering red light on the floor. The moment she saw the red she knew. It had to be an ant. Suzette hated ants. Perhaps the shimmer was just a trick of the light.

"DIE ANT!" She screamed, jumping on top of it and stomping like there was no tomorrow.

"GAAAH! STOP IT!" Came the agonizing call that made Suzette jump back and away from the 'ant'. She looked at it. Now the thing didn't look like an ant. There was still a red glow about it, but in no way did it resemble an ant. It stood, and Suzette noticed that it was actually a very small person. Or, it seemed to be anyway. The glow around it faded, and Suzette got even closer to it. When she got close enough, she hit it in the head. "HEY!"

"You can talk?" Suzette asked it. It was about three or four inches tall. Now it actually resembled a kind of toy, rather than an ant.

"Yes I can talk!," The small man said. He had long flowing green hair, and a mask over one of his eyes. He was dressed as an old court jester. He backed away from Suzette and tried to compose himself. "My name is Fool. I am the Spirit of the Stage. If you can see me as I am now, it means that you are chosen for the stage."

"Yeah….," Suzette said, backing away from Fool. I'm imagining this. Yeah…that's it. It's an ant, and I'm imagining it as a person. Heh. Yeah. She took off her shoe and began to hit Fool over the head with it over and over again. "DIE ANT! DIE!"

"STOP!" Fool cried out. "I AM NOT AN ANT! STOP IT!"

"It's not talking, it's not talking!" Suzette said to herself over and over as she continued hitting Fool with the shoe. "Not talking, definitely not talking! It's just an ant."

"STOP ALREADY!" Fool yelled, rolling to the side and jumping up before Suzette could hit him again. Then deciding it would be a good time to get off the floor, Fool flew up into the air, and got as far away from Suzette as he could before he said anything else. "Now listen, I'm not an ant, nor a figment of your imagination. I am the Spirit of the Stage. If you can see me as I am now, then that means you are chosen to perform on the stage."

"If you're a spirit then how come you can be hurt?" Suzette asked.

"Um…," He didn't exactly know. No one had ever asked him that question before, and he never stopped to ponder it before either. "I wish I had an explanation for that."

"You're weird," Suzette said, now heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Fool asked.

"To get out of here," Suzette answered. "As far as I know, I could be losing my mind at this very moment. To keep my sanity I think I'll go socialize with some other people."

"Have you met Sora Naegino yet?" Fool asked before Suzette could exit.

"Sora Naegino?!" Suzette knew of her. Well, mostly everyone in any circus troupe did now. She had become quite famous by performing the Legendary Great Maneuver and Angel's Maneuver perfectly. "N-no…I haven't met anyone here yet…"

"I suggest you speak to her," Fool said. "She would be in her room right now. I could take you there if you want." Suzette could have just run out of the room thinking she was insane as she was going to do initially, but decided not to. She was interested in meeting Sora.

"You can take me to her?" Fool nodded and flew out the door ahead of her. "You coming?"

"Yeah," Suzette said slowly as she exited the door and closed it behind her. "So, no one else can see you?"

"It depends." Fool answered. "If I'm on stage, anyone can see me. However, when I'm not onstage and you can see me it means you're meant to perform on stage."

"So, will I see you all the time then?"

"No," Fool said. "Sometimes I may be elsewhere. Like visiting Sora, or Rosetta. I would talk to Leon more, but I don't think he'd need my advice as much as they do."

"Leon? Leon Oswald can see you?"

"As I am now, yes he can. They can all see me when I perform with them. If they see me like this, offstage, then they are chosen by the stage to perform."

"Let me get this straight. You perform with all of them?"

"Sometimes," Fool answered.

"I see." Suzette said, thinking about that. Then she was silent as Fool led her around. When the reached Sora's room, he stopped in front of the door and turned to her.

"Here it is. Go ahead, knock." Suzette smiled nervously as Fool moved out of the way. She took one step towards the door and knocked. She heard the sound of running from inside, and then the door opened. A girl with pinkish hair and amber colored eyes answered. She was a bit taller than Suzette, but not by much.

"Hello."

"Hi…," Suzette said. "Uh…" Then she didn't know what to say. It really was Sora Naegino. In person! "Hi?"

"Hi!" Sora said once again. "Who are you?"

"M…my name is Suzette! Suzette Kamioshi. I'm new here. Just got here this morning."

"Oh," Sora said. "Wow, so you're going to be performing with us too?" She nodded. "Hey why don't you come inside? We can talk for a while."

"Alright," Suzette said. She walked inside and Sora closed the door behind them.

"Hey Sora," Suzette said as Sora led her to the table in her room to sit down at. "I think I may be losing my mind."

"Why do you say that?" Sora asked, taking a seat at the table.

"Because…I sorta followed a umm…spirit….or something. He led me to your room."

"Spirit? You saw a spirit?!," Sora asked excitedly.

" Yeah!," Suzette said, eyes going wide. " He's right behind you!" Sora turned to see Fool floating behind her.

" Oh, him?," She asked. " You can see him? That's great!"

" How so?," Suzette asked. " I mean, he's kinda weird."

" Yeah," Sora said. " I'd agree with you."

" Hey!," Fool said, feeling insulted. " I'm not weird."

" Yes you are!," Sora said. " Don't worry about him, Suzette. When I first saw him I thought I was losing it as well."

" When'd you see him?"

" As soon as I got to Kaleido Stage."

" Like me. Cool. So, does he do anything other than just you know, float there like that?"

" He tries to give advice sometimes. I don't really listen. Although if he follows you back to your room, tie him up and throw him somewhere before you take a shower." Suzette gave her an odd look and Sora laughed. " Just take my advice on that, alright?" Suzette glared at Fool and nodded, understanding what Sora meant.

A yawn came from the bedroom as Karai walked out of it. She made her way to the table and noticed the girl sitting there with Sora. She rubbed here eyes a moment, and then pulled out her Tarot Cards once again. She shuffled them, and then drew the first card. When she saw it she looked to Suzette. Her eyes widened a moment, and she smiled. " Hello!," She said cheerfully as she put her cards away. " Sora, who's that?"

" Oh, this is Suzette. She's new here too!"

" Hello Suzette," Karai said, walking over to shake her hand. When Suzette took the girl's hand she felt an unnatural coldness at her touch. Karai's hand was freezing. Karai released her hand, and then walked past both of them towards the sofa. They returned to their conversation, paying no more attention to her. Fool, however, was curious about Karai.

" Was this, by any chance the card you drew?," Fool asked. He was now floating right in front of Karai, holding a Tarot Card in his hand. Karai didn't even have to look at it to know what it was.

" Yeah," She answered sourly. " Wheel of Fortune. Looks like I got two enemies here then."

" Who might they be?," Fool asked.

" That's none of your concern!," Karai said, grabbing him and hurling him towards the two girls conversing at the table. " Go discuss it with them if you're so worried about it." Fool kept going once he was thrown and ended up hitting Sora in the back of the head before falling to the ground, dazed.

" Hey!," Sora shouted, turning. Karai sat on the sofa innocently as if she had done nothing wrong at all. Figuring that Karai could not have possibly been the one who hit her in the head, she looked around for a certain little spirit who seemed to love annoying her. " FOOL!"

" Sora?," He asked, sounding confused as he floated off the floor and up to where her head was. When he stopped she immediately punched him back down to the ground.

" I don't know what you're trying to do this time," Sora said, her tone warning. " But don't EVER touch the back of my head again!"

" Ayah," he mumbled without getting up this time.

" Well now," Karai said quietly to herself after seeing this. " This might be easier than I thought if I can get Sora to do my job for me." Then she looked at Suzette, who Sora had gone back to talking to after hitting Fool. " She, on the other hand, may just prove to be a problem."

That brings an end to Chapter 2. If you have any questions or comments on the story thus far, please feel free to let me know.