"Hey! You ready for your first day at a rich school? You just got your third album out!" - Akira

"You know I'm only doing this because of that promise." - Toru

"Awwww don't be such a downer! Tell me about it later! And about the cute guys there! Bwahahaha!" - Akira

"You pedophile. You're way too old." - Toru

"Ahhh you're so mean! I'm young at heart!" - Akira

I sighed as I set down my phone, and ignored the next few spam messages that Akira, my best friend and manager, sent me.

Yes, my manager. More on that later.

I looked critically over the school uniform I was wearing-a frilly dress with white stockings, and black shoes. Ew. Who could wear this?

Apparently the rich brats that go to Ouran Academy.

Wasn't it funny how I didn't want to go to Ouran Academy, there was no one to stop me, and yet I was still going? For goodness sake, I even had a job that if I worked hard at, I could earn enough money to last me a lifetime!

...but there was that promise. I couldn't go back on it now!

Sucking in my breath, I chanted, 'Promise, promise' over and over again in my head as I made my way downstairs. The sounds of running water greeted my ears, and became louder as I neared the kitchen. Then I saw the usual glossy black hair and kind smile I'd gotten used to over the years ever since that...incident.

My caretaker, Misaki. Basically my mom. Even though we weren't related by blood. But still totally cared for me like a mother. "Ok, I'm leaving now! Bye!"

Misaki turned her head and smiled tiredly at me, scrubbing the dishes in the sink. "Take care. Don't forget your bag! You definitely don't want to forget that."

"I should be the one who is telling you to take care. You're the one with the dark circles under your eyes!" I exclaimed before grabbing my stuff and shutting the door.

Then, I turned and made my way down the street. To a fancy rich school. With fancy rich people clothes on.

But, of course, there really was nothing fancy or rich about me.

Within minutes, it came into view. The new school I would be attending. It was huge. Like, gigantic. Like, if you took the Empire State Building and multiplied it by 5. Not that I've ever been to the Empire State Building in person. But you get the idea.

The bells started ringing, and I hurried into the building. I would be late if I didn't pick up the pace. Imagine, being late on my first day here! And I transferred right in the middle of the school year too...

Soon enough, after tons of stairs and long hallways, I ended up at a classroom. My classroom. I checked it with the class name listed on my paper. Yup. There was no doubt about it.

With that, I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door.

And do you know what the first thing I saw was?

Eyes.

Tons and tons of eyes.

Watching me.

I nearly died right then and there.

I cleared my throat. "Uh...hello. I'm Toru. Toru Tanaka."

The teacher looked down at his piles of papers. "Ah. Miss Toru. We were waiting for you." Then, to the class, he said, "Class, this is Toru, the

transfer student here. Toru, this is..." He rattled off a bunch of names that I couldn't even process. I was too busy trying to remember my

own name.

The teacher finished his speech and pointed to an empty desk in front of a mischievous looking boy. "Please sit in that seat in front of Hikaru."

The boy smirked.

Great. Just what I needed. A troublemaker sitting behind me. As I walked from the doorway to the seat, I noticed that he had a twin, whose name I think started with a K. And between the two was a brown-haired girl with chocolate brown eyes who was dressed like a male. 'I guess rich people do whatever they want. If I cross-dressed, Misaki and Akira would flip out on me. Not that cross-dressing is a bad thing, though.'

I seated myself and took out my books. The teacher opened his mouth.

And so the lesson began.

During lunch, I sat in the classroom and absentmindedly wrote some poetry while eating rice balls. The poetry might provide some kind of inspiration for a song later.

I heard some shuffling beside me. 'Someone must have forgotten their things,' I thought to myself. 'Well, I'll keep on doing what I'm doing.'

Then, I heard a feminine voice. "Hi."

I looked up, and saw the cross-dresser sitting down next to me and pulling out her lunch. "Oh, hi."

She smiled at me. "I'm Haruhi, in case you didn't remember in class. I hope you'll settle in nicely here at Ouran Academy."

I smiled back. "Thanks. Everyone seems nice here. Except..." Oops, I already started speaking my damn mind. I really had to keep that habit in check.

Haruhi looked confused. "Except who?"

I felt my cheeks reddening. "Except the twins that sit on either side of you. They...seem too mischievous for my taste."

To my surprise, Haruhi smiled. "They are. They're quite the troublemakers. As well as the others..." She drifted off.

Just as I was about to question who exactly "the others" were, I heard the twins' voices in the hallways, calling at the same time, "Haruhi! Haruhi! Where did you go this time?" And...was that a kid calling, "Haru-chan"? And then there was a male voice saying, "Haruhi! My daughter! Come see daddy!"

There was an awkward silence between us. "Uh...I think your friends are looking for you. See you another time!" I smiled, quickly packed up my things, and stepped through the doorway. But just as I did, I saw light blue. And more light blue. I looked up, and saw a guy with black hair and handsome-ish features staring down at me. "Er...excuse me. I need to go." I stepped to the side, and ran off to who knows where. I passed by a blond guy, a shorter blond-haired guy standing particularly close to the person I ran into, the twins from class, and a black-haired person scribbling in a binder and pushing his glasses up his nose. 'Those must be the others.'

"Haruhi seems nice enough, but she sure has some strange friends!" I laughed quietly to myself while running as fast as I could away.

Maybe it was just me, but I swore I heard Haruhi yell, "Let go of me senpai! And you just chased away a girl that could've been my friend!" And the kid voice saying, "Sorry, Haru-chan!"

Man, rich people really are strange.

The bell rang.

Yes! The last period was done! I packed my bag at supersonic speed. Now I could test out the songs I had been thinking of on the piano! Not only that, but there was a deserted music room on the third floor I overheard the girls in class giggling about! Surely it would still have a piano!

I sprinted out of the classroom, clinging onto my bag, and raced up the stairs. I tripped over the long, fluffy dress I had been stuffed into. Oh, damn it. These shoes and dress were not made for running. Luckily, I had an extra change of clothes that I still kept in with me at all times. You know, just in case. If I ever got spotted.

Five minutes later, I stepped out of the bathroom, now in a hoodie and skinny jeans, with sneakers-my kind of clothes. Then, I raced up to the third floor.

On my way there, I heard tons of people whispering about a new album and how great it was. I smiled. It was nice that I had some supporting fans here.

Then in front of me was a grand door, covered with ornate details of every sort. The sign above said that it was the music room. I dug my sheet music out from my bag, as well as some of the poetry I had been writing during lunch. Then, clutching the papers to my chest, I slowly opened the door.

What I didn't see was a dusty old place, with maybe a couch or two and an out-of-tune piano.

I saw a glowing white, and rose petals swirling towards me. And there was a chorus of voices saying, "Welcome!"

Rich people are really, really strange.

When the white faded, I saw the people that were searching for Haruhi earlier. Said girl was standing among them.

And, they were dressed in surfer outfits, with surfboards and all. However, Haruhi was in her uniform. What the hell?

The blond guy in the center spoke. "Ah, so you're the new transfer student here, correct? We're at your service, madam. I am Tamaki Suoh." Before I could even respond, I looked down and saw him kissing my fingertips.

And for the second time today, my tongue took over my mouth. "Ugh. Do you always kiss random girls on a whim? Are you a pervert?"

Then, the next thing I knew, Tamaki was in a corner, sulking. You could almost see gloomy clouds hovering about him while he muttered "Pervert" to himself over and over.

The other blond kid skipped up to me. What was a little kid doing in here? "Hey, Toru-chan! I'm Honey! Want to hold Usa-chan? Isn't she cute?" He held up a stuffed animal in my face.

Well, now that I was at it, there was no stopping me now. I looked critically from Honey, then to the pink bunny he was holding, and back to Honey. "How old are you, even? How do you know my name? And no, I would not like to hold your pink bunny, thank you very much."

Honey then made a face that would have made any girl collapse and blubber gibberish. His eyes teared up, and his smile turned into a frown. He then turned and ran to the person I had bumped into earlier. "Moriiiiiiiiii!"

All I could do was stare blankly the scene. This little kid was friends with that...that...menacing looking guy who looked like he could beat up anyone he wanted at any time he wanted?

I think you know what I'm about to say.

Rich people are reallllllllllllly strange.

After that little Honey-and-Mori incident (I'm so proud of myself; I remembered their names! But then again, it would be kind of hard to forget), the nerdy-looking guy said slyly, "About your name. We keep track of every person in this school, so naturally we know about your past, your name, and where you live. Ah, yes. And my own name is Kyoya Otori, of the Otori Group."

"Wow. That's really creepy. You stalk everyone?" Welp. My filter clearly flew out the window.

He shoved his glasses up his nose, and continued to write in his notebook. "You may call it creepy, but for us it's just keeping tabs on everyone."

This time I managed to keep my mouth shut before I said anything else stupid.

"Say, Toru-chan, what are the papers for?" Honey jumped down from Mori's arms, getting over his crying.

"Oh, these?" I looked down. I had forgotten I was still holding my poetry. "They're my...private things. That you don't need to see."

Honey pouted. "But I want to see them!"

His big, wide eyes were met with my cold ones. "No."

"Uwaaa Mori! Toru-chan's being mean to me!" Honey crawled back into Mori's arms.

The two twins in the back looked at each other, and shrugged. I guess this was normal in here. Haruhi looked like she would rather be anywhere but there. I felt the same. "Er...it looks like I have something to do. Bye!" I slipped out of the door and slammed it on the chaos inside. And I still didn't get to try out the songs on the piano. And I still didn't know all of their names.

But it wasn't like I was going to talk to them ever again. Maybe to Haruhi, but definitely not anyone else in that group.

"Did she leave?" Tamaki looked up from his sulking.

"Yes." Kyoya walked over to his laptop.

"So, Kyoya-senpai, what information do you have about her?" Haruhi asked.

"That's what I'm searching up right n-oh, that's strange." He frowned.

"What? What?" The twins peered over his shoulder. "Huh," they said in unison.

Everyone crowded around the laptop, and saw that there was almost no information at all about Toru, except for a picture of her, her birthday, gender, and full name. Her background wasn't anywhere.

Suddenly, Tamaki raised his fist. "Well, that settles it!" He brought it down on the table, making it shake. "We have to get enough information about Toru to fill up this whole profile! And, at the end of the week, if we don't have enough information, we'll drag her in here ourselves, and get the information out of her!" He smiled triumphantly.

Just as Kyoya was going to say that that wasn't necessary, he had his own methods to find information, Tamaki pointed his index finger into the air and exclaimed excitedly, "Mission Know the New Girl is now in action!"

Kyoya closed his mouth and smiled. He would go along with Tamaki's crazy antics this time.

"So, we'll first infiltrate her house! Then, we'll take a look at all her possessions!"

"Isn't that illegal?"

"And how are we exactly going to break in?"

"Simple! Just grab the key when she takes it out and go off running!"

"But who will do the job? It's needs to be someone fit, just in case she's a good runner."

All the heads turned to Mori and Honey.

"Well, we can't do Mori; he's too tall."

"...so it'll be Honey."

"Okay, I'll do it. But I'm taking Usa-chan with me!"