~4~

Through the Looking Glass

My laughter was drowned out by the wind as it roared past me. There was nothing on this Earth that I loved doing more than riding my motorcycle. It may seem strange, but he was my baby. It was probably the smallest model on the market that was still considered a "motorcycle", but I loved him all the same. My friends back home always used to laugh at how ridiculous I was about it. I would spend my free time tuning it up as best I could or adding a new coat of polish. I wasn't necessarily good with mechanics, but I learned how to at least do basic maintenance.

I was enjoying my last free day before I started at Ouran. Auntie had already had all the proper adjustments made to all of my school uniforms and all of my books had been delivered to the house. I was ready for whatever awaited me on Monday. Well, almost. I pulled off to the side of the road, gently riding my bike up onto the curb to park it next to a bike stand just outside this cute little corner café. I slid off my helmet, clipped it to the back of my bike, and walked into the café. I unzipped my heavy leather jacket grabbing my wallet from the zipper pocket on the inside. I bought a latte and a scone, not really paying attention as I sat alone at a one seat table on the little outside patio. I was amazingly nervous about starting at this new school. One of the things that really worried me was that the twins seemed to be very well known. People would probably have a bunch of preconceived notions about what kind of person I was, which led me to my current predicament. Normally, I would let my new persona form on its own when I entered a new environment. This time I had to be prepared. I was in a completely new world now. I didn't just have to worry about the language and the culture, but I also had to worry about my new accomplice. Ootori Kyoya. I had done a little research to find out all I could about him, and it was a good thing too. Kyoya was a master shadow king. Tamaki was the figure head, but Kyoya pretty much ran the host club, and therefore had tons of influence throughout the entire school, not to mention all of the power he held through his family. He was a dangerous person, but I had luckily avoided that bullet when I offered our deal. I was not feeling up to waging an all-out war against someone like him. Of course, that didn't mean we were going to completely trust one another. I had done my homework, and I was sure he was doing his. He would no doubt know the real reason my brother and I had come to Japan when we did, and why we had come on such short notice. I didn't have that kind of leverage on him, but I could probably use his father against him if push came to shove. I just hoped he would see the true value I had as an ally and would be happy leaving things that way.

I pulled my cell phone out of another inside pocket to check the time. It was only eight minutes after one in the afternoon. I didn't need to be back until dinner, so I relaxed back in my seat and turned back to my musings. I would have Kyoya watching my back for a little while at the very least, but that still left me with a very demanding audience. I wouldn't have time to make up some detailed persona once I got to school tomorrow morning, so I would need to prepare myself now. Despite the modifications, I would still be wearing a boy's uniform, so that killed any ideas of being a shy quiet person. I didn't enjoy that one as much, but it was good for avoiding lots of questions and conversations. No, I would have to be someone who could handle attention. I would need details that I could feed people that would satisfy their curiosity, but keep them from diving too deep.

I huffed as I took another bite of my scone. I didn't like having to plan stuff like this. I always just figured things out as I went along. What kind of person could I be in a place like this? What kind of mask could I wear? I needed to be someone who wasn't afraid to stand out, but who wasn't everyone's best friend. I needed to be someone who I could use as a contingency plan too. If Kyoya could control the masses, then I could too. I needed to be someone who wasn't necessarily a leader, but could lead if the situation arose. I needed to be someone like Kyoya, but minus the figure head to shadow. I needed to be someone who was tough, but wasn't afraid to admit that my Japanese was bad in order to avoid unwanted questions and conversations. I slowly put all those little pieces together and watched a new mask take shape. It was one I rarely used in America as the need never really arose. I would be the American bad girl. From what I had heard from the twins and seen for myself, the girls at Ouran were little princesses. A bad girl would be enough to dazzle them, but scare them enough to keep their distance. The guys I wouldn't have to worry about. I doubted many of them would be brave enough to try, but if any of them did start hitting on me I could just brush them off as "not my type", not that I actually had a type. I had never had a real boyfriend before. I had gotten plenty of offers, but I never accepted because I knew that it wasn't me they liked, it was my mask. Sure, everyone wears some kind of mask because everyone has something to hide, but I had never seen one as complete as mine. People always let a little of themselves slip through the cracks. My mind drifted through the host club boys, reassessing them and their masks.

Kyoya wore a mask seven layers thick. His was the closest I had ever seen to being as perfect as mine. The only imperfection was that his mask was a puppet master's mask, it hid details about his life and the quirks of his personality, but revealed his true nature. The biggest down fall of such a nature is that those details don't matter. They control and manipulate others through their details. They can easily fight back when someone else tries to manipulate them the same way. When someone like me comes in, then there's trouble. I know better than to use the little things in his life to sway him. The best way to fight someone like Kyoya is to cut the power he holds over them, or to turn his puppets against him altogether.

Tamaki seemed to be unaware of his own mask. He was hiding from some terrible pain. I couldn't tell what it was exactly, but I could only guess that it had something to do with his mother. He got a strange look of longing in his eyes when he had talked about her the other day. He hides that pain and tries to get rid of it by doting on all of his "princesses".

The twins were a bit obvious, if slightly confusing. They laughed and played and pranked to hide their sadness. Not even their own mother could tell them apart. People lumped them together as one person seeing no real difference between the two of them. Yet, they continue to rely on each other and keep everyone else at a distance. They want to be separate, but they aren't ready to leave each other's side. The only reason I hadn't stopped calling them Kahi was because it didn't cause the same reaction as when others did it. They seemed to know that I really saw them as individuals, even if I couldn't tell which was which yet.

Haruhi was a bit more difficult, but not impossible. There was the secret that he was hiding, which was the obvious piece of his mask, but his was very much like Tamaki's: he didn't realize it was there. There was some pain in his life and now his wears this mask. He tries to be more grown up and responsible, hiding away any piece of him that would enjoy goofing off just for the sake of goofing off.

Hunny was sincere in his love of cute things, I could tell, but his eyes held some secret shame. I had looked into the Haninozuka family a little and found that their reputation had no room for cute things. He most likely had some kind of conflict about the whole thing with his father as he is the first born, and was still dealing with the pain of it. Then there was the fact that he acted childish. Despite his general demeanor, I'm sure that he could handle any kind of situation in the most mature way. Though he probably didn't if Kyoya and Mori were around, simply because they could handle it.

Mori. Morinozuka Takashi. He was the tricky one. I could see his mask, but I couldn't find any seams or cracks. He wasn't a robot or a zombie, so he wasn't really as emotionless as he acted. Whatever it was about him, he was good at hiding it. I had been able to see his nature simply through his aura when he was near Hunny. He is a protector and he cares for his cousin, but I couldn't see anything else. I know why everyone else joined the host club. Tamaki found some way to sway each of their hearts and convince them to join, but Mori only joined because Hunny did. Everyone else just accepts that he is Hunny's shadow and that's all there is to it, but I know there has to be more. He had been on my mind almost constantly since I had met him the other day. I don't know what had happened, but the moment I locked eyes with him something just changed. He's stuck on my mind, and it doesn't look like he'll be leaving any time soon. I would just have to find a way to crack him. I would watch and wait and find some way to get a proper look at the real Morinozuka Takashi.

I jumped when my phone buzzed in my hand. I flipped it open without looking at the number, wondering who could possibly be calling. The only people who had my number where all back in America.

"Hello?"

"Alice! Ohmigosh! We miss you so much!"

"Ow. Hi, Mells."

"It is so good to hear your voice!"

"Melody, stop screaming into the phone, you're going to make her deaf." A third voice?

"Amber?"

"Yeah, it's me, Mells, Kyle, and Drew,"

"Hey, Alice!"

"Hey!"

"Hey, guys! How are you all?" It was so good to hear all their voices again. "Wait, isn't it like 2 A.M. there?"

"Yup. Melody insisted that we call you before you started school."

"I appreciate that, guys. It's been pretty crazy since I got here."

"Yeah, so tell us! How is it? What's your family like?"

"Well, the school is full of the richest, most spoiled kids in the country, so I got that to look forward to." Note the sarcasm. " My family's not as bad as I thought, though."

"So have you visited the school yet? What did you pick?" They all knew about my little skill. They all knew that I would put on a new mask for every new situation. They all knew that the person they called a friend was just another mask. It was the weakest mask, but a mask none the less. They knew me better than anyone else. Aside from my mom, at least. My mother was the only person in my life who has ever been able to see through me and all of my walls. No, the person they knew was something else. Drew often called me Puck because he said I reminded him of the fey man from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. That's what I was to them. I was some mystic faerie creature that simply played a role when I interacted with the humans in my twisted little game. I couldn't disagree with them too much. It often felt like I was playing a game when I put on my mask to play my part.

"Actually, I was having some trouble there. I've gone to visit the school, but the visit didn't quite go as planned. Plus, with my cousins at the same school, people are going to make assumptions about me. I think I may have it figured out though."

"Oh?"

"Come on, we want details!" Melody was an insatiable gossip.

"Yeah, like how rich are we talking?"

"These people are so high up the economic ladder that they literally know nothing about common people. In fact, they actually call them 'commoners'."

"What, seriously?"

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy."

"Wow."

"So what about the visit, how did that not go as planned?"

"Well the guy who gave me the tour is this total manipulator/shadow king kind of guy. He's the vice-president of the school's 'host club'."

"Host club?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, apparently a bunch of the super-rich, good looking guys from the A classes play host to the school's girls."

"Play host how?" Amber asked suspiciously.

"It's nothing inappropriate, they just hang out pretty much. The guys just put on a show of flirting with the girls and treating them like princesses. Apparently they dress up sometimes, too."

"Leave it to the Japanese to do something weird like that."

"Try the French. The President is half French and grew up there."

"Ah, so he's the crazy romantic type." Drew said knowingly.

"You have no idea."

"Ok, so you met this guy, then what?"

I sighed and dove into the tale, telling them about Kyoya and the rest of the host club. They were silent through most of it, though they asked the occasional questions.

"Good move on the shadow king. That could have gotten messy."

"Tell me about it. I just need to make sure I feed him enough good information to keep him on my good side. It shouldn't be too hard though. I did some research and it won't be hard to show that I can be a dangerous enemy." I could practically hear them shudder on the other line. They were unfortunate enough to witness someone who tried to black mail me. Kyle still has nightmares.

"So what's the problem? What's so hard about coming up with a mask for this?"

"There are just so many variables to account for this time. I need to get close enough to people that I can get info for Kyoya and be able to manipulate them if I need to, but I don't want to constantly be swarmed. Plus there's the whole ordeal with my uniform."

"What happened with your uniform?" Amber asked with slight fear.

"Jeez, Alice," groaned Kyle, "You haven't even had your first day and there's already an ordeal?"

"The girl's uniform is this hideous yellow monstrosity they call a dress. It's all poofy and crap!"

"So what are you going to do?"

"You know how my aunt is a fashion designer, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Well she bought me a bunch of boy's uniforms and altered them to fit me. And before you start, Amber, my uncle got permission from the headmaster first, so I'm not breaking any rules." We all giggled at Amber's expense. She wasn't a total prude, but she tended to be a stickler for rules.

"What did you decide on, then?"

"American bad girl."

"That's pretty clever. If these people are really as ditzy as you say then it'll be enough to scare them into keeping their distance, but dazzle them from afar."

"Yup. I'll bend the rules just enough to dazzle them, but not enough to actually get into trouble. I don't need to get kicked out just yet."

"See, I knew you'd handle this no problem!"

"Right, Drew, because I'm magic."

"Lie all you want, Alice. I know the truth."

"That I'm a magic faerie from an Elizabethan play?"

"No, that you're a magic faerie from Wonderland." I could hear the smirk in his voice. Of course he wouldn't let me escape the jokes. We laughed and talked for a while longer. They filled me in on what I was missing and talked about their plans for the next weekend. When we all finally hung up so they could get at least some sleep before school the next day, I decided I was done thinking. No more planning, no more moping. I walked back over to my baby, zipping my jacket as I went. I pulled my helmet on, started the engine, and took off down the street.