Host Club at Alice Academy

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice.

…

Mikan sighed with bliss as she rolled around in bed. In her sleepy state, she vaguely recalled the events of the day. She remembered entertaining her guests at the host club, how they boys all fawned over her. She giggled with pride at this. She remembered seeing the other hosts in their beautiful dresses, and she sighed in content. She remembered the yummy food served at the host club…she began to drool. And she remembered Natsume kissing her…She sat up in bed abruptly and felt her face go red. She shook her head violently, trying to forget about Natsume. Then she lay down,yawning, and closed her eyes. She felt herself being dragged into the world where dreams showed her dancing with all her friends and howalons…and Hotaru's piercing violet eyes..wait. Hotaru? Eyes?

Baka!

Mikan was suddenly dragged out of her peaceful slumber and somehow found herself flying through the air, her face just mere centimeters from the ceiling. She opened her mouth to let out a scream but it was muffled by the lovely sound of her face smashing against the ceiling. As she dropped back to Earth, Mikan wondered if she was half bird..having flown into the sky so many times.

Crash!

Mikan landed in a heap on the wooden floor, groaning loudly. She heard the sound of several footsteps coming boards her and craned her neck to see the other hosts surrounding her. Their faces were filled with worry. Well, three of the faces were. The other two looked at her as if they had never seen a bigger idiot in their life. Mikan felt herself being hoisted to her feet. A blurry hand was being waved in her face. As she tried to figure out why there was a blurry hand in front of her, she heard some voices.

"Um, is she alright?" voice number one said.

"Let's see…she kinda looks as if she got a hundred blasts of the Baka gun, an hour of teasing and burning from Natsume, and a few thousand kicks by Bear. I don't think she's okay." voice number two replied.

"Isn't she already awake? If she is then can we go get some breakfast? I am seriously starving after having been so rudely awakened by somebody." whined voice number three.

"We could try giving her another blast of my gun. Or we could pour a few buckets of water on her." voice number four suggested.

"Oh! Let's use the water!" voice number three said eagerly.

"Um…guys? I think she's awake." voice number five said.

Mikan, having listened to the earlier conversation, was reasonably annoyed and she opened her eyes, ready to shout at anything and everything. The first thing her eyes landed on was Hotaru's Baka gun. It gleamed brightly even though it was quite dark. Mikan squeaked in fear, and began shaking the nearest thing violently. That thing happened to be Sumire.

"Hey! Quit shaking me, stupid!" Sumire shouted.

A scuffle ensued, and before you could blink, Mikan and Sumire were pulling at each other's hair, and Misaki, Nonoko, and Anna were trying to pull them apart.

Hotaru stood by looking at her watch, it read, 6.00a.m.

Hotaru looked at the other girls, arguing and punching each other. She calmly said, "For those who like to keep their heads on their necks, I suggest you stand straight and listen to me."

In an instant, a line of five girls stood before her. She nodded in satisfaction.

"Now, I believe you are all wondering why I have woken you all up so early this morning." Hotaru spoke, as she eyed them.

The girls nodded mutely.

Hotaru continued, "Well, I decided that now we are all famous in school and are most likely to be chased by boys for awhile, I was going to hand out a some equipment to lessen the chance of us being chased. It comes in the form of a helmet."

Hotaru showed them her helmet. It looked like an egg. She slid it over her head, and the girls took note of how it covered the entire face and looked like a giant ball over her head. They frowned at the helmet.

"Inside the helmet, I have equipped an air-conditioner, a screen where you can see everything you would see without the helmet, and a communicator.

The air-conditioner is self-explanatory, but the screen has a few functions. It can show you a map of the school, and the little blue dots indicate fans of ours, that way, we will know when to run. And the communicator is for us to communicate. Obviously."

The girls nodded slowly. Sure, the helmet sounded useful, but did it have to look like your head was in a cocoon? Before they could even consider voicing out this issue, Hotaru was already shoving their helmets into their hands. The girls stared at the device they held. They all looked the same, except that each helmet was tinted a different color so they had some difference. Otherwise, they all looked like a bunch of eggs.

"Put on your helmets." Hotaru ordered.

The girls complied, and slid the helmets over their heads. Soon, everyone looked like some shiny coloured, egg mutant. There was an awkward silence.

The red headed mutant raised her hand, "Um..I can't tell whose who."

Hotaru slid on her own helmet. It was the original version, and was simply white. She looked around at her fellow creepy friends. She pointed at the one with the peach colored head, "That's Mikan."

She turned to the sky blue one, "Nonoko."

"Anna." she gestured to the bubblegum pink one.

Hotaru looked at the lime green one. "That's Sumire."

She turned back to the red one. "And Misaki."

The girls nodded and removed the helmets. It was quite embarassing. Sumire decided to save them all from this humiliating problem.

"Imai," she began, "These helmets are really great and all, but must it…um, make us look like egg-headed mutants? I mean, Sakura is the only one who is and looks like one anyway."

"Hey!"

Hotaru raised her hand before another squabble could start. "What's wrong with it? I wear these all the time. Besides, only idiots would look like idiots in these. Like Mikan."

"You have a point there." Sumire said thoughtfully.

"Grr…are you both saying that I'm an egg-headed idiot?" Mikan shouted angrily.

"Yes." the two girls replied.

Mikan pouted. She tucked her helmet under one arm and went to find a nice dark corner to sulk in. She found a good spot and sat down, playing with her helmet. Suddenly, there was a bright flash coming from where Mikan sat. She screamed and clawed at the light, which was shining in her face.

"Um, Mikan?" Anna called.

"Honestly Sakura. What on earth are you doing?" Sumire asked, approaching the screeching girl.

Hotaru stared at Mikan for awhile. A look of realization appeared on her face. She crossed the room swiftly and grabbed Mikan's helmet, making sure the light didn't shine in her face. She reached into the helmet and fumbled around inside for awhile. The lights went out instantly. Everyone looked at her, confused. Hotaru showed them the front of the helmet.

"I forgot to tell you. In the event that you are unable to escape from the fans, you can activate the headlights on your helmet. The light is extremely bright and powerful, and anyone who looks at it directly will be blinded temporarily."

Everyone looked at Mikan, who was writhing on the floor, clutching her head and complaining. They eyed their helmets warily.

Hotaru saw their reluctance to keep the helmets. "Consider that feature a…tool of defense."

The girls took in Hotaru's words. They nodded in understanding and put on the helmets.

…

The girls quickly left Mikan's room afterwards and decided to have an early breakfast. This way, they would probably not be hounded by fans. As they had hoped, the cafeteria was empty, save for a few teachers and nerds who had no interest in the girls.

They got their food and went to find a seat. As they walked around looking for a suitable place, Mikan spotted Natsume and Ruka sitting at a table in the corner, eating their breakfast. She squeaked softly and ducked behind Hotaru. Hotaru immediately spotted her source of discomfort and an idea popped into her head. She turned to the girls.

"Let's sit over there," she pointed at the table Natsume and Ruka were at. "I want to get more pictures of them to sell."

The girls stared at her as if she had grown an extra head. Except for Sumire. She eagerly nodded in approval and skipped towards the two boys. The others followed suit. Mikan was not as excited about this idea though. After a lot of dragging, Hotaru managed to pull Mikan to the table. The two boys eyed the girls questioningly. Hotaru cleared her throat.

"Ruka, would you mind if we joined you for breakfast?" she asked, her eyes cold and threatening.

Ruka shivered as a chill went up his spine. "Um…no, we don't mind. Right Natsume?"

Natsume stared at him. He turned to the girls and his eyes landed on Mikan, who seemed to be trying to make herself invisible. He turned back to his food and grunted.

Ruka nodded at the girls. Hotaru looked at Misaki and caught her gaze. They seemed to be conversing telepathically. Misaki furrowed her eyebrows and nodded. She placed her food in the middle of the table and sat there. Then she smiled at Nonoko and Anna and gestured for them to sit in front of her. They did, sitting side by side. Then, Hotaru quickly shoved Mikan between Misaki and Natsume. She then sat herself comfortably across from Mikan, between Anna and a nervous looking Ruka. A disappointed Sumire took her seat at the end of the table beside Misaki.

Hotaru looked around, satisfied. She nodded at Misaki in approval and began to eat. Everyone carried on with their breakfast, chatting amiably amongst themselves. Except for the four at on end of the table. An awkward silence hung in the air. Luca attempted to start a conversation, but Natsume was not a talker, Mikan just squirmed in her seat, and Hotaru did not like to do anything but eat during a meal. Eventually he gave up and just picked at his food.

Ten minutes later, Hotaru had finished her meal and was about to start on dessert when she noticed Mikan still squirming in her seat. She picked up her napkin and dabbed at her lips, thinking. She came up with a little plan just before she finished wiping her mouth. She picked up her glass and drank from it. Then she took out a bundle of pictures from her pocket and placed them on the table in front of her.

"Mikan." Hotaru called.

Mikan looked up, she looked at the pictures placed before her. She looked at Hotaru blankly.

Hotaru pushed the bundle towards her, explaining."These are the pictures that were taken at the host club. Since you are so free Mikan, help me arrange these pictures into two stacks. One stack should have the pictures that are good. The other should contain the ones that I should burn. Make sure you arrange them correctly. Or else."

Mikan stared at the bundle of pictures. There seemed to be at least a thousand pictures in it. She sighed heavily, pushing her untouched food aside. She began organizing the pictures into two piles. As she arranged them, she studied the pictures carefully. There were pictures of Hotaru collecting money from the guests, and shots of the hosts entertaining and damaging things. She made sure to put the latter in the unwanted pile. As she sorted out the pictures, three pairs of eyes watched her.

Hotaru was staring at her, waiting for the moment that she had planned for. Ruka, knowing fully well that Hotaru had something up her sleeve, watched for something to happen. Natsume simply watched her out of boredom and curiosity.

Mikan carried on, studiously working on her task, unaware of the eyes watching her. Her eyes were full of concentration and she was biting her lip. As she dropped a picture into the wanted pile, her eyes focused on the next one and she froze. Her eyes widened in shock and her jaw dropped. Hotaru smirked and waited. Three, two, one…

"Hotaru!" Mikan cried out, rising to her feet.

Everyone at the table stared at her. Hotaru waved a hand at the other four girls and they resumed their conversation. She raised an eyebrow.

"Is something wrong?" she asked calmly.

Mikan held up the picture that had offended her so much and waved it in Hotaru's face.

"Why the heck is there a picture of this Hotaru?" Mikan shouted, earning a smack on the head.

"You're going to wake up the entire academy, stupid. And I don't see what's wrong with the picture. It's just a photo of you and Natsume kissing." Hotaru replied, sipping her drink.

Natsume stiffened in his seat. He turned to look at the picture in Mikan's hand. From his angle, he could vaguely make out he and Mikan's bodies, and they were definitely kissing. He looked at Ruka, whose mouth was hanging open in shock. Natsume groaned inwardly. He would have to resolve this matter somehow. He did not want Ruka to feel jealous. He turned to Mikan, who was still shouting at Hotaru.

"Big deal. So it's a picture of this idiot forcing herself on me. Could we just chuck the picture into the unwanted pile so the moron stops screaming? My ears are going to bleed." He said, in a bored tone.

Mikan turned to Natsume, her face red with anger and shame. "You jerk! You're the one who kissed me. I did not force myself on you. I never did and I never will!"

Mikan stopped for a moment, calming herself. She sank back into her seat and continued, "But, I do agree that this goes into the unwanted pile. And that is exactly where it belongs."

She placed the picture in the unwanted pile and grinned in satisfaction. She suddenly felt hungry and quickly gobbled down her meal, which was now cold.

Natsume eyed her and said, "Pig."

Mikan coughed, choking on her food. She grabbed her glass and gulped down her milk. She shot a glare at Natsume.

"Jerk."

And the two of them continued this throughout the rest of breakfast, hitting one another with insults. Ruka watched on, unsure of what to do. Beside him, Hotaru wore a look of satisfaction on her face. Then, when Mikan wasn't looking, she reached out and picked up the first picture from the unwanted pile, and slipped it between the others in the wanted pile. You never know, it could become great blackmail material.

…

It's been so long since I updated this story. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting! . I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I may take awhile to update the others, but please be patient! And thanks to all those who have read and liked this story, i really appreciate it!^^

Make sure you tell me what you like or don't like about this story, suggestions are welcome.

And for those of you who don't know, Hotaru actually does have such a helmet. She wore it during the time she slept with Ruka and Yoichi, and just before Hayate smashed it in the Hana-Hime den.