Ninja Star
Tell Me Something I Don't Know
"Explain? Explain what?" Hikaru looked at Kyoya with angry confusion.
"Explain to me why you would befriend a poor girl you met on the street. You don't stop and make friends with every stranger, so what would keep you from ignoring her?" Kyoya asked, his notebook at the ready.
Star stepped away from Hikaru to confront Kyoya. She opened her mouth to speak but Hikaru pulled her back and cut her off, "You don't have to tell them anything," he assured her.
"She has to tell us every thing or I call my family's private police force." To back up his statement, Kyoya pulled his cell phone from his pocket. "Now you will tell me why she is here. Paying a poor girl through school is a very expensive act of kindness that is uncharacteristic of you, Hikaru. Especially if she was doing nothing for you in return." His foot was tapping impatiently now.
Star looked at Hikaru nervously and he returned the expression. Finally he said, "It's not something you'd ever understand, but I'm sick of having everything handed to me on a silver platter. I've been rich for sixteen years, it's boring!"
The hosts just stared at him. Haruhi looked a little irked, which would be understandable. She was a commoner.
"I've been training him to fight!" Star blurted. She didn't want to go to prison. If there was anything the hosts wanted to know that would make them go away, she was ready to tell them.
"Training him to fight what?" Honey asked. Being the master martial artist he was this fact seemed to intrigue him.
"T-to fight on the streets," Star replied. Her bottom lip was trembling again. This was the most she had cried since she was a small child. Or, at least, the most she'd admit to.
"Oh of course! Have you also taught him to steal money like a dirty street rat?" Kyoya yelled at Star accusingly. She looked down. The feeling she held now wasn't one of sadness or shame, but rage. Kyoya thought of her as nothing more than a dirty commoner. She wouldn't stand there and let him insult her anymore.
"'You think I'm a bad person?" Star sized Kyoya up. She kept pressing in towards him.
"Saying, as what you do for fun is illegal and cruel, yes. Yes I do." He answered with a smug look on his face.
"If I had all the money in the world like you do, I wouldn't have to steal. And don't ever call me cruel. There are people on the streets who wouldn't hesitate to slit your throat and take you for all you're worth. I still have morals. 'You think I enjoy stealing from people? Like I don't know what I do is illegal? Either I take money, or I die. My daddy can't pay me through school like yours can. My family doesn't have maids and cooks like yours does to wait on us hand and foot. I live alone and I have to make do.
"Hikaru came to my district one night. I saw him on the street, stole his wallet, and got caught. He asked me to train him to do what I do and I said yes. It's just to make up for him not calling the cops on my ass. It's a stupid, horrible wish to be poor, but I had nothing else to offer. So I hope you're happy. I hope you're all happy. Happy to know that any hopes I had of fitting in or making friends, something I've never had the privilege of doing, have completely gone down the drain. At least you know you'll never have to deal with me again." And she shoved past Kyoya, bumping his shoulder on her way out. Hikaru called her name but she ignored him. Kaoru tried to stop her, grabbing her arm, but she shook him off. Tamaki, Haruhi, and Honey stepped quickly out of her way, fearful that she might become violent. The fire in her eyes suggested the likelihood of that. Mori stood in the way of the trapdoor, not faltering. Star flipped her bangs out of her face and glared up at him defiantly. They stared at each other, the tension rising, until Star suddenly lunged to the side, around Mori and hopped down the trapdoor, ignoring the stairs.
She landed with a thud on her feet in the club room closet. From there she took off running. On her way through the halls to the front door, she heard the bell ring, signifying the start of the day. Masses of kids poured into the halls and engulfed Star in an ocean of teens. Everywhere she looked there were people staring at her and whispering to their friends with their hands shielding their mouths. Not that Star would have been able to hear their words anyway. The noise of chatter in the hall was deafening. She spotted a door on the far side. It had a little window in it from which she could see the courtyard. Star made a mad dash toward it.
Once out in the open she took in a huge breath of air. She realized she was hyperventilating. "Are you alright?" Star heard someone ask. It was a boy, a foot or two taller than her. His hair was a dusty brown color and his eyes were violet blue. He cocked his head to the side.
She held out her arm to keep him at a distance. She closed her eyes and took a breath in through her nose, trying to calm her rattling lungs. When she had composed herself once more, she looked up at the boy who remained standing there. She nodded, "fine, thank you."
"You're new here aren't you? It must be pretty overwhelming. The bell already rang so we should be getting you to class."
"Oh I just want to go ho–"
"What class are you in?" The boy didn't let her finish. He held out his hand as if he expected Star to give him something. She stared at him blankly.
"Your schedule?" He chuckled at her, "You really must be shaken up."
"I've never been to a school like this." Star felt she needed to admit that. She slipped her left shoe off and pulled a folded up square of paper from it. After replacing her shoe to her foot she saw the boy's confused look. "'So I don't lose it," she explained.
"Ah, I see," the boy unfolded the paper and stared at it for a moment. He nodded to himself. "Room four-o-two. English class it seems."
"English? The language? I have to learn that?" Star's jaw dropped.
"Everyone does. It looks like you're also signed up for conversational French next semester."
Star groaned loudly. "What building am I going to?"
"It's no use telling you, I'll just walk you there. We're already late, anyway. This way we'll both miss a little more class time." The boy smiled. Star got the feeling he wasn't a very serious student. She let him lead her to a building near the back of campus, across from the elementary school buildings. It amazed Star that all the elementary, middle, and high school buildings would be clustered on one huge plot of land.
They arrived at room four-o-two when the teacher was just getting started with her lecture. The slide on the projector was titled Phonics, a word Star wasn't familiar with. The boy talked to the teacher for a few minutes. She was a young woman with dark hair, almost black, and big brown eyes. She was obviously American, maybe a student teacher or just out of college? Star thought.
The boy smiled at the teacher, and then turned to leave class. On his way out he patted Star on the shoulder, "Good luck, new girl!"
In her mind, she had made a new friend. He was the first stranger to be so nice to her. Star was sad to see him go. She thought briefly to the Host Club. How they all seemed so nice, but turned on her the moment the truth came out. She made sure that she smiled at him as he passed. When she looked forward, the teacher was approaching with a happy expression. She had her hair up in a tight bun. She had square glasses with black rims that twinkled in the light from the windows.
"Got a bit lost, did we?" She said with a chuckle. The woman had such an elegant, appropriate beauty that Star wasn't shocked to find herself feeling jealous. Nonetheless, she had no doubts that she would get along well with her new teacher.
Star nodded. I've never been to school, it's too overwhelming, I don't want to be here, I want to go home, Star wanted to say. Instead, she plastered on a smile and followed the teacher to her desk.
"That's just fine. We're just happy you made it, right class." The teacher looked at her class with a smile. Star turned to them. She saw many kids she recognized from the halls. Some rolled their eyes, some stared at Star with the look she had become accustomed too since she'd arrived at Ouran, bewilderment mixed with distaste. One girl had fallen asleep at her desk, her head on her arms like a pillow. Among these characters were Hikaru, Kaoru, and Haruhi.
Kaoru looked relived to see her. Hikaru seemed ready to jump out of his seat and grab her. Star briefly envisioned him latching a leash around her wrist like a puppy that kept running out of the yard. She stifled a grin.
A seat behind them sat Haruhi. Though she looked directly at Star, she seemed lost in thought. As if she was contemplating something. Star chose to ignore her. "You can take the empty desk by the window." The teacher said and pointed to a beige desk that matched all the others. It was in the direct sunlight shining in through the window. Star walked to the back, blatantly ignoring the heated stares of the twins, trying to get her attention, boring holes into her back. "We're just about ready to start a new chapter so we'll be copying notes this class. Just grab a notebook or some paper and jump right in! I'm Miss Wilson by the way. I don't think I caught your name?"
"Star Hitachiin," She replied.
The teacher clasped her hands together, "Oh, well we seem to have the whole Hitachiin family in this class then." Miss Wilson grinned and turned to her laptop. She lectured and put notes on the board about phonics and the English language. Star struggled to keep up. Her handwriting was atrocious due to her rarely ever having to write. Things were spelled wrong, there was a severe lack of punctuation, and it looked like a child's work. I tried my hardest, Star consoled to herself.
The bell rang. Star sat at her desk, gathering her supplies, when she saw the twins whispering to Haruhi. All three of them frequently looked back at Star. She huffed and rolled her eyes. She slipped her left shoe off again and reached in for her schedule. Her eyes widened in panic as she searched the floor around her desk, her bag and even her other shoe in search of the vital piece of paper. Relief flooded over her when she remembered that the boy she met still had it, but that faded into more panic when she realized that she had no idea where to find him. Someone tapped on her shoulder. Star almost swung around and backhanded them out habit.
He threw his hands over his face in defense, "Whoa, I just came to return your paper!"
"Hah, sorry, I'm a little jumpy. It's not very nice to sneak up on people," Star grinned like a cat. The boy looked at her with what could only have been confusion or uncomfortableness. He gave her the schedule back. "Thanks," Star saw Hikaru and Kaoru walk over to them.
"Thank you for helping our cousin but we can take it from here," the twins said. A nice way of shooing him off. The boy nodded. He waved to star before walking off. "Who was that?" Kaoru asked her. She wanted to answer but couldn't due to the fact that she didn't know his name.
"I don't know, but he's officially the nicest person to go to this school." Star shuffled her foot over the floor. She bent and picked up a pen someone had dropped, placing it in her bag. Hikaru looked at her, hurt. She pretended like she didn't notice and let them lead her to her next class.
The day went on without anymore drama. At least– until club period.
The twins led Star to the club room once again. "No! No, I'm not going back in! They're just gonna yell at me some more! I don't want to! Help!" She made a huge commotion against going back inside. Enough of a commotion, in fact, to draw the Host Club outside.
"Hikaru, Kaoru, what is she doing back here?" Kyoya asked with serious irritation in his voice. The new girl was turning out to be more trouble for him then he bargained for initially.
"She was just leaving." Star hissed and tugged hard against Hikaru and Kouru's hold on her. They had her arms twisted around so she couldn't bend them enough to push away.
"Is that Star? Good, bring her in." Haruhi was walking toward one of the couches. She sat down and looked at her friends expectantly, waiting for them to carry out their parts of the plan.
Mori picked Star up and slung her over one shoulder. She screamed in exasperation and kicked uselessly. This was not a situation she had been confronted with before. He set her down on the couch across from Haruhi and held her in place by her shoulders. Hikaru came and sat next to her, once again taking hold of one of her arms. She glared daggers at him. "Just a safety precaution," he admitted.
"Trust at its finest I see," Star snorted and flipped her bangs out of her face. She looked at Haruhi hard, "Well? You caught me. What do you want with me?"
"I just want to talk to you," Haruhi said. She smoothed out the creases on her pants.
"Well can you call off the dogs please? I'm not going to spontaneously assault you or anything. If we're going to talk, I'd like it if I weren't being held prisoner."
"Fine." Haruhi looked at Mori who released Star. Hikaru grudgingly let go of her arm. Everyone held their breath, waiting for her to make a run for it. After a few moments, and she didn't move, they all relaxed but didn't let their guard down, just in case.
Haruhi continued, "I wanted to talk to you so I could ask you what exactly was going through your head when you pulled me into that alley."
"Like I said before, I only wanted your wallet. I thought you were a boy, you didn't look like you'd be too hard to intimidate, and I didn't know that you were part if their group. If it's any consolation, I've never regretted targeting anyone more than I regret targeting you."
"Well, thanks? But if you only wanted my wallet, why would you pull a knife?"
"I do it for intimidation only. I've never done any stabbing or serious slicing with that knife, occasionally I let it slip but I swear I didn't do it on purpose! I didn't expect you to fight back! I was really off my game that day..." Star hung her head.
Haruhi looked at her thoughtfully. "But think," Star continued, "you and I aren't very different." That earned a scoff from Kyoya. She glared but kept on, "We're both some degree of poor. We're both being paid through school. When you go to the markets, don't you know exactly how much everything costs? Don't you pick the ten yen ramen instead of the twelve yen ramen because that's two more packs per box. Don't you do the math in your head, trying to figure out how much food you can buy per week and ways you can make it last? Aren't people surprised when they find out you're not actually stupid just because you don't have the best education? You and I know that better than anyone in this whole damn school. I'm just trying to make you understand that I do what I do because it's all I can."
There was silence, then Haruhi said, "I understand. And I forgive you." The hosts gasped.
"Haruhi, you do not have to forgive her, she's a criminal." Kyoya insisted.
Tamaki put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "It's her choice. Besides, we have to let the customers in."
"If it's all the same, I'd like to go sit on the roof again. I like it up there and I don't want to get in the way." Star didn't wait for permission, she just walked into the closet and disappeared up the stairs again.
Clubs were over. The final bell had rung. Hikaru mounted the stairs to retrieve Star from the roof. Kyoya beckoned the remaining Hosts into a huddle.
"What's up, Senpai?" Kaoru asked.
"I don't trust her," Kyoya said, "someone who's been stealing their entire life doesn't have morals and surely doesn't belong in our school."
"What are you saying?" Kaoru asked, trying not to sound as hurt as he was. The street-girl had really grown on him since they met. And Hikaru cared for her deeply, so he did too.
"That we need to find evidence that we can use to get her out of school. I can't find any record of her in the system, which isn't a surprise. We'll have to get it ourselves."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Haruhi asked.
"We're going to follow her home."
AN: (I had to write this chapter on an iPad as opposed to my laptop like I usually do. That is part of the reason why this chapter took so long and why there may be some errors in this chapter. I'm not very good with these iPad things...) I realize that this chapter has taken me what feels like three weeks to post and I can't apologize more. I absolutely detest taking so long to post chapters, so thank you for putting up with this. Thank you to those of you that posted reviews on Chapter 8 that I never got back to. I hope it was worth the wait! ~Yuki-mu