Chapter 3: Bullies

The next morning was uneventful. I woke up from a nightmare, got dressed in my uniform, brushed out my hair quickly, and clipped it back, then I grabbed my bookbag and shuffled off to school.

I sat through my classes, mindlessly thinking over last night's nightmare. It was about Harvey, my mother's ex-boyfriend, the head of a "host club", and the reason why I wasn't particularly fond of Haruhi being a part of the host club here at Ouran.

In my nightmare, Harvey was in charge of the Ouran Host Club and was upset with Haruhi for not getting enough clients. He was yelling at her and was about to hit her when I stepped in. The next thing I knew, my mother showed up and was also yelling at me for being selfish. The two of them were berating me with hateful words and Harvey raised his fist to punch me.

That's when I woke up.

The nightmare wasn't far off from how Harvey and my mother were in real life. Sadly, my mother believes that he's probably the father of the triplets, but he refused to even talk to her when he found out she was pregnant. I was thankful he decided not in involve himself any further with us, but my mother took it kinda hard. We moved back to Japan to get a "fresh start" shortly thereafter.

Harvey was a drunken bastard who would mistreat my mother and me, but I wouldn't let him anywhere near Hero or Kotomi. He wouldn't do anything when he was sober, but when he drank it was an entirely different story. He liked to put out cigarettes on the back of my neck and shoulders, push me into walls, and throw his empty beer bottles at me. However, it never went further than that so you can calm down so chill out and stop shouting angry comments at the author!

"That's why this story could probably be rated M, but never mind that and get back to your sad backstory," said a girl's voice.

"Ahh! Who's there," I asked, looking around. Suddenly, the classroom had gone all gray, and everyone froze in place, but there was no one talking.

"The author, you were just talking about me. Now continue with the sad backstory." the voice commanded.

"Whoa! Just broke the fourth wall, how did that happen?"

"SAD BACKSTORY, or I'll turn you into a dog for the rest of this chapter!" the voice yelled.

"Okay, okay, geez... Well, I lost my train of thought now, so why don't we just go back to my thought process."

"Fine with me." The voice said as I heard the sound of typing.

The scene started up, and the teacher was writing on the chalkboard again.

As I sat in class, I thought over the abuse from years ago and how hard I worked to keep my family safe.

"Okay! That's just creepy." I said to the voice, everything stopped again.

"What now?" it groaned, "I did just as you asked!"

"Well, you just suddenly begin typing, and I just start narrating again! It's a bit creepy, don't you think? Like this whole time you've been writing this, and I've never once noticed that typing sound before." I heard a sigh.

"Can we please just get back to the story, we're probably upsetting the readers." The author said in a monotone.

"Oh... sorry. Um... could we just skip over this part for now and go straight to lunch? I think that they understand the sad background by now."

"Whatever, but - and I hate doing this once you've become self-aware - but I'm going to have to make you forget that this conversation ever took place; you won't ever know I exist."

"Aww! come on, that's not fair!" I whined as I heard the typing continue. "No, don't!"

Wiping Memories...

Memories Deleted...

Continuing Story...

When the lunch bell rang, I quickly gathered up my things before anyone could invite me to eat lunch with them. Mostly because the girls were staring at me more than yesterday, and it was beginning to freak me out.

I walked outside and found the same tree I had sat under yesterday. I took a quick glance around to make sure that Tamaki wasn't anywhere nearby; I would have to make a run for it if he was.

There wasn't a soul in sight, so I took a seat on the grass and began eating my lunch; it was curry today.

I hadn't been there too long when I saw two people walking toward me, and to my surprise, it was Haninozuka and Morinozuka. Haninozuka waved at me, and I waved back; then, he bounced up to my side and sat down.

"Hello, Sohma-chan!" he greeted me.

"Hello," I replied with a soft smile.

I was pretty sure this smile was closer to my real smile because I kind of had a thing for little kids. Mostly because they remind me of my siblings, the triplets, to be exact. They all have blonde hair, so when I see cute little kids with blonde hair, I think of them. I guess that's why I've been kinder than usual to this unnaturally short eighteen-year-old. Is it weird to like him because I miss them?

"Is it okay if Taka-chan and I sit with you?" Honey asked as Mori stood next to him. I believe those were the nicknames the girls had called them yesterday.

"It's fine with me," I said, returning to my lunch. Mori took a seat on the other side of Honey. I tried to think up a conversation starter, but nothing came to mind.

I glanced at their lunches, Mori's was a typical bento lunch, only it had gigantic portions, and Honey's had a large slice of cake in it.

'Cake, can you say conversation starter?'

"Ne, Haninozuka-senpai," I said, Honey, looked up from his lunch with a smile, and Mori looked at me curiously.

"Just Honey is fine!" He said, and I grinned.

"Honey then. You really like cake, don't you?" I asked, and he nodded his head. "I spent a year with my aunt in New York; she owns a small pastry shop there. She taught me how to make all sorts of sweets. Cakes included, I could make you a special cake that she taught me how to make if you'd like?"

"What kind of cake is it?" he asked, tilting his head.

"Vanilla, strawberry, with cream cheese icing," I said, and his eyes lit up, and he appeared to be drooling; I giggled.

"I'll take that as a yes?" I questioned, and he nodded his head vigorously. I glanced at Mori, but his expressions were always so flat I could never tell what he was thinking. His eyes were on me and seemed to be saying something, but I didn't know what.

I blushed and said, "I'll bring it to the host club tomorrow, okay?" Honey nodded again. He was very wiggly and excited.

We sat together eating and talking, mostly Honey asked me about different desserts I could make. I enjoyed talking to him about sweets; it was relatively easy. Mori sat there listening to us the entire time, adding in an "En" or "Ah" when Honey would address him. He had an intense voice and deep voice; the first time he spoke, it startled me and made me blush.

When I finished my lunch, I packed up my things and stood to leave.

"I guess I'll see you later, Honey, Mori," I said, starting to walk away. Mori nodded in reply, and Honey waved to me as I walked off.

I walked towards my class, and about a third of the way there, I heard someone call out to me.

"Sohma-san." I heard a deep voice call behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Mori running to catch me. I turned around and walked in his direction. He rushed up to me and stopped about a yard away, breathing deeply.

"Yes?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Here," he said, and he held out his hand. There was something inside it, but it wasn't visible, hidden in his large hand.

I blinked and put out my hand to receive whatever it was, and he dropped it into my palm. I looked at the object and blushed.

It was my cell phone.

"Thank you," I said, my blush growing as I slipped it into my pocket. I'm usually not a forgetful person, so this is embarrassing. I turned to leave when he spoke again.

"Sohma," he said, and I stopped. I looked up at him; he was indeed very tall. It was intimidating and almost scary.

He didn't say anything at first, so I softened my expression.

"What is it?" He stared down at me, and suddenly I felt tiny.

"Mitsukuni likes you a lot," he said. "Don't let him down." This was a bit surprising to me, I mean I knew the guy liked cake but was one conversation on that subject enough to get him to like me?

"He does?" I asked, shocked; Mori nodded.

"Well..." I said, unsure of how to answer. "I guess I like him too." Mori was surprised, and I saw his expression change to slight shock.

"I like him because he reminds me of my younger siblings, even though he's older than me, but it's probably just because I miss them." I stared out the window wistfully. "I'm not allowed to see them right now, and kind of, miss hearing their voices. Honey reminds me of them a lot." A sadder tone in my voice than I had intended.

The statement was entirely true, it had been a long time since I had last seen or talked with any of them, and I was getting lonelier by the second, but why did I just tell him that? I'm not the type to just open up and talk about my feelings, so why would I just say that?

I looked back up to Mori, who stood staring at me, and, for some reason, I thought his eyes looked at me pitifully. I blushed and fake-smiled at him.

"We'd better get going, or we'll both be late to class," I said, turning to leave. "Thanks again! I'll see you later, Mori!" I dashed down the hall, leaving him standing there.

I arrived at class and took my seat. I looked around the room, and the eyes of my female classmates became more stare-y every second.

By the end of class, it had grown so uncomfortable that I was in a cold sweat. I sat on the edge of my seat, ready to run for my life when the bell rang. Misawa was one among the many pairs of watching eyes.

'What's with these rich girls? They're like a pack of hyenas about to attack!' I thought to myself, watching the clock on the wall tick closer and closer.

The bell rang, and I gathered my things quickly and rushed to escape but got caught at the door by Misawa, whose seat was just that much closer. 'Damnit...'

"Can we talk for a second?" Misawa asked.

'This isn't looking good.' I thought warily, as I nodded my head nervously.

"Follow me." She said, and we walked out of the classroom and down the halls.

We ended up in a part of the gardens that I had never been in before. There was a large man-made pond with a fountain in the middle, and there were bushes all around.

She walked up to the edge of the pond and stopped, then she turned around to face me.

"Sohma," Misawa said with a dark look on her face. "What was with yesterday?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I meant, what was with you being all flirty with Haruhi?" She asked accusingly. "I thought you said that you were only old friends, and yet you seemed closer than that. More like... lovers." Just then two girls I didn't know, walked up behind me. I had been surrounded.

"We are just friends," I said while nervously looking over my shoulder at our two new friends. This didn't look good.

"I even told you that I liked him when you were asking about Tamaki, so why have you taken an interest in him?" She said in the same accusing tone.

"Really, Misawa, we're just friends. I don't have any romantic feelings for Haruhi whatsoever." I said as convincingly as I could. She looked like she almost believed me, but then she shook her head, and her face was serious again.

"No, you're lying," she said firmly, "You were just asking about Tamaki to throw me off so that I wouldn't know who you were really after!" She was almost yelling at the end of that sentence.

"Look, if you don't believe me, then there has to be something I can do to convince you that I don't have feelings for him," I said.

"You can stop seeing him, never talk to Haruhi again," she commanded.

"That's going to be difficult since I'm bringing Honey a cake tomorrow," I mumbled, and her expression became livid.

She stepped forward; I stood taller so she would know that I wouldn't back down if this came to a fight. I was almost four inches taller than her, so she doubted herself for a split-second, then no more. She put her face close to mine, the anger burning in her eyes.

Then suddenly and entirely unexpectedly, she reached up quickly and snatched my glasses off my face.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, trying to get them back, but everything was all blurry now.

She nodded to the girls behind me. They grabbed both my arms and practically threw me into the pond. I landed face-first into the water then I turn onto my back. I was thoroughly soaked through now, and my hair was ruined.

I looked up just in time to see one of the girls toss my bag into the pond with a splash. Then Misawa threw something to the ground and stomped on it with her foot; I heard something crack.

'No! She could not have just done what I think she did,' I thought as she and the other girls ran off laughing at me.

I managed to drag my cold and wet self out of the pond and onto dry land. I looked around on my hands and knees until I found the shattered pieces of what had been my glasses, but now they were utterly useless.

I felt a few tears threaten to come out, but I blinked them away. 'Crying isn't going to help right now, that's what they want me to do. I have to be stronger than that.'

I stood and walked around the pond until I spotted the blur of my bag. It was reachable from the side of the pond, so I kneeled over and grabbed it. Bag in hand, I walked back to where my glasses lay broken and sat there.

'I don't know what to do: I'm practically blind, I don't know where the showers are from here, and I'm dripping wet so I can't just go wandering around the school. I feel so weak and stupid. If anyone asks, "What happened?" I'd probably just lie, or I wouldn't tell them, there would be no point.'

The hopelessness of the situation was bringing the tears back to full strength. I sat there sniffling, a tear or two escaping my attempts to keep them at bay. 'I guess I'm kind of glad I'm all wet now, if anyone saw me they wouldn't be able to tell tears from pond water, right? Ha...'

I sat there long enough that my hair had even started to dry at the tips.

Then I heard a familiar voice call my name.

Oh no! Who could it be? Bet you all thought that Misawa was going to be her friend. :P

Sorry, I broke the fourth wall, but I really wanted to...lol!

I think that now would be a good time to mention that this story is right after the Anime, and I know that it clashes with the Manga. I've read it, and it's excellent!

~Thank you for reading! Please review, thanks!

~MiraCarpathia