Wow. I ask for 5 reviews/favorites/follows, and I get 8 follows, 5 favorites, and 3 reviews. Most of that within the first night of this story being published. You didn't even give me time to start on the next chapter! You guys are awesome!
Love you all! ;-*
Hope the chapter is alright. I had kind of a rough few days, so if it sucks tell me and I'll rewrite it.
Chapter I
Kea sighed as she lay back on the massive bed. The maids had long since left after they had finished unpacking her belongings.
"Who on earth needs this big of a room?" the brunette muttered to herself. Sighing, she rolled off the king-sized bed, walking over to the twenty foot tall window. Yuzuru Suou had given her a corner dorm room, far away from the other students. Kea didn't mind for two reasons.
One was the fact that she actually liked the distance between her and the rich brats. The second was the view: unobstructed views of the gardens of Ouran Academy, as well as the main school hall. Ouran actually had several halls, but only one was used for academic purposes. All the others housed different clubs, such as the karate club, the swimming pools, and one was purely ballrooms connected to ballrooms. Kea shook her head.
"At least I have a few days to get acclimated before everyone else arrives." She turned around, surveying the massive suite. A king sized canopy bed, a walk-in closet that could easily hold the bed with room to spare on every side, a bathroom with a full-sized shower and a miniature spa as a tub… it was overwhelming, especially for a California country girl.
Upon arriving in Japan two days ago, Yuzuru himself showed her around Ouran's campus. Thankfully, only the gardeners were around. Kea didn't feel like explaining to anyone what she was doing with the chairman of the school. In any case, by the time she had gotten to the dorms, her feet were killing her.
Yuzuru had finally consented to her not wearing a standard uniform after the fitters came in, took one look at her, and promptly began complaining that the yellow of the dress would never look good with Kea's skin tone. She hadn't said it out loud, but Kea completely agreed. Not to mention she hated wearing dresses outside occasions that called for them. Which left the boys uniform: black dress pants, a white collared shirt, and a lavender-blue blazer.
The fitters tweaked it so it would look more feminine, and, to appease Yuzuru, had thrown in a few pairs of black wedge high heels. Kea looked down at her feet, where the black heels were covering her pale toes. She had been walking around in her room, breaking them in. Surprisingly, they were actually very comfortable.
'I guess rich people don't spare any expense when it comes to shoes either.' She sighed, tossing her waist-length hair over her shoulder. She had let it down once the maids left, and it was a relief to not have all that hair being tied to the top of her head anymore. "Well…" She stuck her fists on her hips, cocking one. "Might as well see where those maids threw my stuff."
影女王
Kea supported her head with one hand, staring with a blank gaze at the teacher. He wasn't saying anything of importance. Or rather, anything that she didn't already know. She mentally sighed, closing her eyes.
'And here I was thinking that AP Economics would be harder than the course Mom had me take or Dad's coaching. Guess I was wrong.' It had been a week since the start of the new school year for Ouran Academy. Kea had kept to herself, not socializing with any of the other students. Part of it was her natural shyness over being in a new place. However, it was mostly due to the fact that she really didn't want anything to do with the rich of Ouran.
Since walking through the doors on the first day, she had received glares, scoffs of disdain, and purely bewildered looks. Kea had carried on, not sparing them a glance as she walked to her classes. Her stride was filled with self-confidence and dignity. She didn't care that she looked, or dressed, differently from everyone else. She was here to learn, to better herself and her future, not to get picked up by some rich snob who couldn't see past his compact mirror.
Opening her eyes, Kea saw something interesting. A young girl, around the age of fifteen, was sitting in the corner across from Kea. Her brown hair was chopped so short she looked like a boy. Her glasses covered her eyes, which, from her body language, were most likely trained intently on the teacher. Her clothes were far from standard: a white collared shirt under a brown sweater and jeans.
'I wonder… I bet she is.' Kea smiled to herself. 'I think I'm going have to step out of my comfort zone here. But… at least I'll have a chance of having a friend.'
*/*\*/*\*
Haruhi sighed to herself as she walked down the halls.
'How are things in heaven Mom?' She looked out the window as a flock of birds flew by. 'I can't believe it's been ten years already.'
"Hey! Wait up!" Haruhi turned around, confused. A girl was running towards her.
Her chocolate-brown hair was done up in an elaborate braided bun, pinned to the top of her head. To Haruhi's surprise, she wasn't wearing the uniform of a female student. Instead, she wore black dress pants, a white T-shirt, and a lavender-blue vest over that with the crest of Ouran on her right breast. Her dark blue eyes shone behind her gold-rimmed glasses as she stopped in front of Haruhi.
"Hi. Are you Haruhi Fujioka?" Haruhi nodded, earning a smile from the girl. She stuck her hand out. "I'm Kea." Haruhi blinked, recovering her manners. She shook with her.
"The American transfer student?" Kea nodded.
"You betcha." Haruhi nodded.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm Haruhi. It's nice to meet you, Kea-san." Kea laughed, hiding her lips behind her hand.
"Please. There's no need for honorifics. We're all equals here." Haruhi blinked.
"I wouldn't say that." Kea shrugged, shifting her book bag on her shoulder. "So… where were you headed?"
"Looking for you, actually. I saw you in the economics class, and knew right away you weren't like everyone else." Kea smirked. "I lost you in the crowd, but, I figured that if you were anything like me, you would be looking for somewhere quiet to study." Haruhi smiled.
"Yeah… that was the plan at least. I mean, this place has four libraries. You would think one would be quiet." Kea laughed, walking alongside Haruhi. She hadn't even noticed they were moving.
"I know right? I'm beginning to think rich kids only come to school to socialize, not to learn anything." They came to the end of the hall. Kea looked up, tilting her head. "An abandoned music room?" Haruhi shrugged, reaching for the handle.
"Better than nothing." As she turned the handle, rose petals flew out.
"Welcome," several voices chorused. Haruhi and Kea blinked in shock at the sight before them. Turns out, the room wasn't abandoned. Instead… it was being used by the infamous Ouran Academy Host Club.
*/*\*/*\*
Kyoya blinked in surprise as two figures stepped into the room. One was obviously a girl, and American. The other's gender… that was hard to tell, even for him. What he did know, was that both were freshmen, and both were honor students. Lucky for him, there were two other freshmen that he knew quite well.
"Hikaru, Kaoru, I believe these two are in your class, aren't they?" The twins nodded.
"Yeah but they're shy. They're always hanging out and talking together in a corner of the room away from everyone else. They don't act very sociably so we don't know much about them." The duo spoke in unison, even shrugging at the same time, in the same way. Kyoya closed his eyes, smiling. A lightbulb turned on in his head.
'So both of the honor students are girls, huh? Interesting.' "Well that wasn't very polite." He opened his eyes again, looking at the girls. "Welcome to the Ouran Host Club… Mademoiselles Honor Students." Tamaki leapt up from his chair.
"What?! You're Haruhi Fujioka and Kea?" Kyoya noticed the longer haired brunette froze, while the shorter one stopped trying to open the door.
"How do you know our names?" the American demanded.
"Why you're infamous. It's not every day a commoner, let alone one from America, gains entrance into our academy." She narrowed her eyes at him at that. He couldn't resist adding insult to injury, though. "You both must have an audacious nerve to work hard enough to fight your way into this school, Miss Kea and Mr. Fujioka." Kea visibly bristled at being called an 'audacious commoner'. Before she could say anything, Haruhi spoke up.
"Well, uh… thank you. I guess."
"You're welcome!" Tamaki slapped a hand around Haruhi's shoulders. "You are a hero to other poor people, Fujioka. You've shown the world that even a poor person can excel at an elite private academy!" As Tamaki showed off, Kyoya allowed himself to look over Kea. She was standing off to the side, watching with a rather irritable look on her face as Tamaki chased around Haruhi. Her dark blue eyes sparked from behind her glasses with irritation and anger, the latter emotion no doubt caused by Kyoya's comment.
'She's very interesting indeed.' He smirked to himself, gripping his chin with two fingers. 'I'd say about… five foot nine, though those shoes probably add at least an inch. Which makes her about five eight. Creamy skin… she gets out in the sun enough to be healthy but not tan. Odd... I had thought all American girls like being tan.' His smirk grew.
'She definitely has her own sense of individuality. Come to think of it, I've never seen anyone attend Ouran with that uniform. I wonder if she had it specially made. I'll have to look into that.
'Chocolate brown hair with faint red highlights… her father's recessive. Which means her mother must have the brown hair. However, her attitude is awfully independent. Perhaps she takes after her mother in appearance and father in demeanor.' Kyoya fully smiled now, creeping out the twins. 'She will be most worth looking into, especially considering there is hardly any information on her in the school database.' Tamaki's voice brought him out of his thoughts.
"We welcome you, poor man, to our world, of beauty!" A rather large tick mark appeared on Kea's temple. Grabbing Haruhi's hand, she began to stalk out of the room, albeit gracefully.
"Thank you, but we were just looking for a quiet place to study. So, if you'll excuse us!" She turned on her heel (Kyoya noticed she was wearing black wedges instead of brown pumps), making her way towards the door. Haruhi didn't fight her, instead keeping pace. They didn't get very far, however. A smaller arm wrapped around one of theirs, tugging both back.
"Come back here, Haru-tan and Kea-chan! You two must be like superheroes or something! That's so cool!" Haruhi spoke first. Kea was still staring at the shortest member of the Host Club like she was in shock.
"I'm not a hero. I'm an honor student." She gasped as his words caught up with her. "And who are you calling Haru-chan!?" He stumbled back under her yell. Kea shook out of her stare, chuckling softly at Haruhi's reaction.
"I never would have imagined the famous scholar… would be so openly gay." Kea and Haruhi froze, staring at Tamaki like he was some sort of alien.
"Openly what?" They chorused. Kyoya fought the urge to snicker.
'These two girls could pass as sisters!'
"So tell me what kind of guys you're into. Do you like the Strong, Silent Type? The Boy Lolita? How 'bout the Mischievous Type? Or the Cool Type?"
Kyoya was sure Kea turned three shades of pale before a light green hue appeared on her cheeks. Haruhi was just plain pale. She started stumbling back… straight for a vase. Kyoya's eyes widened slightly.
'This'll be interesting.'
"Or maybe…" Tamaki reached out, stroking Haruhi's jaw. Kea went from green to red. "You're into a guy like me. What do you say?" What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.
Kea reached out to remove Tamaki's hand from Haruhi's chin. Haruhi leapt back, thus separating herself from Tamaki. Haruhi's elbow hit the vase, knocking it off the podium. Haruhi reached out, grasping for the handle…
In vain.
The vase shattered on the floor. Haruhi stared in horror at the remains. Kea was balanced on her toes, in shock over what just happened. She straightened, brushing off her clothes and fixing her glasses. The twins appeared over Haruhi's shoulders.
"Ah. We were going to feature that Renaissance vase in an upcoming school auction!" Hikaru complained.
"Oh now you've done it commoner! The bidding on that vase supposed to start at 8 million yen!" Kaoru lamented.
"What!? 8 million yen!?" Haruhi's head dropped as her hand came up, trying to count off how many thousand yen were in 8 million. "I'm gonna have to pay you back."
"With what money? You can't even afford a school uniform. What's with that grubby outfit you've got on anyway?" Kyoya stepped over, taking up a piece of the broken pottery.
"Well, what do you think we should do, Tamaki?" The blonde sat down, crossing his legs.
"There's a famous saying you may have heard, Fujioka. When in Rome you should do as the Romans do." Kyoya peeked over at Kea. She had a surprisingly impassive expression.
'What are you thinking, Miss Kea?'
"Since you have no money you can pay with your body." Kea stiffened at that. "That means starting today… you are the Host Club's dog." Kyoya lifted an eyebrow when her body language relaxed slightly.
'Surely she didn't think that he meant that. I wonder if that's an American thing.'
"Excuse me." Everyone looked over at Kea. "Um, yeah hi. Don't you think you're being a little unfair?" Tamaki blinked.
"How so?" Kea crossed her arms, cocking her hips.
"Well… it is kind of your fault the vase broke in the first place." His eyes widened.
"How!?"
"You were encroaching on Haruhi's personal space." Kea's eyes hardened. "It's only natural for someone to make room between them and someone whom is making them uncomfortable as quickly as possible. It just so happened that that vase was there in the way."
"So how is that Tama-chan's fault?"
"It's not his fault for the placement of the vase. It's his fault for making Haruhi uncomfortable, thus making the need for personal space mandatory. As such, it is his fault that space was created violently." Tamaki's eyes widened.
"I… never thought of that." His head dropped. "You are right. I was being too forward with Fujioka."
"It's… alright Kea." Everyone turned to see Haruhi getting up from the floor where she had fainted. "I don't mind." Kea's face took on an almost motherly concern.
"Are you sure? I don't want you to be suckered into anything by these boys." Haruhi shook her head.
"No, I'll be fine." Kea narrowed her eyes. Haruhi smiled gently at her. "Seriously."
"No. I'm not comfortable leaving you here. Especially considering what I just witnessed," Her gaze swept to Tamaki, who felt a chill down his spine. "I'd say these boys need to learn the concept of personal space. As such…" She took a deep breath. "I shall stay with you until your debt is paid, or they have learned to respect you."
"You don't need to-" Kea clamped a hand over Haruhi's mouth.
"My mind is made up, and there is nothing you can do to change it. Don't even try." She removed her hand, smirking at everyone's dumbfounded expressions. "It's an American commoner thing, something you rich punks wouldn't know anything about." Her eyes flicked to Kyoya at the word 'commoner' and the twins at 'rich punks'. Kyoya smirked.
'I do believe the Host Club just got a whole lot more interesting.'