Don't Blink

The Swanson twins walked into the class on Monday in their school uniforms. Well Celeste did. Celeste walked in happy to fit in with the class, but it was Rain who caught the most attention. Rain came in with the dress, but she had shredded skirt and shredded puffs that were sleeves once upon a time.
“What are you wearing?” Kaoru asked as she walked in. Rain looked at him confused, which surprised him. She usually seemed angry and closed off. Today she looked him right in the eyes.
“A dress?” she answered smartly. Hikaru was at his side in an instant.
“THAT is not a dress.” Hikaru said taking a strand of her sleeve.
“We can’t let you walk around school like this Rain.” Kaoru said with a grin to his twin. Rain saw Hikaru return the grin that looked familiar to the one Karma wore when she thought of something fun to do.
“You must wear something more” Hikaru looked to his twin, “fashionable.” He finished returning the grin. The boys grabbed Rain’s arms dragging her away from the classroom.
Celeste watched as she let the twins drag her away. She watched confused, in which apparently was very readable on her face. Haruhi, who was sitting an empty desk away noticed.
“Are you alright Celeste?” he asked. She turned her eyes wide at the sudden voice. She smiled at him.
“Yeah, just thinking.” She said turning in her seat. “Rain just let Hikaru and Kaoru take her away…” she said looking back to the door. She heard Haruhi laugh.
“They may be mischievous, but I really don’t think they would do anything to harm her.” He said before looking up at her. “Maybe Rain knows that.” He shrugged. This made Celeste bust into a fit of giggles.
“Rain doesn’t get comfortable with people that fast.” She said looking back to the door.

~

Karma sat in French class focusing on the teacher. She tugged on the white collar of the dress. Tamaki watched as Karma fidgeted with her dress. She yanked the ribbon off and pulled the collar down, like on the shirts she wore her first week of school.
“Karma-sempai” Tamaki said getting her attention. She turned from the teacher to him. He grinned. “I just wanted to tell you, you look beautiful today.” He smiled. Karma looked taken aback.
“Oh,” she said looking around for a moment. “Thank you Tamaki.” She said turning back to the teacher who was handing out worksheets.
“Are you excited about your date with Mori-sempai?” he asked and Karma seemed to twitch. She looked at him to see his smiling face. “We are definitely working to impress today Karma-sempai.” He said laughing. Karma had forgotten all about her date at the club that day. She turned taking the worksheet from the teacher and immediately focused on it, ignoring Tamaki’s question.
Karma thought back to her first few classes. She tried to remember if Mori seemed excited about the date. She strained for a moment trying to remember anything about Mori. She remembered talking to Hunny that morning, but besides that she didn’t really talk to anyone else in class. She sighed heavily.
“Need help?” Tamaki asked eagerly. She turned to him slowly this time.
“Yeah, just lost.” She said sitting back and turning to Tamaki.

~

It was the end of the day, school had just let out and Karma was so nervous she felt like she was about to puke. She must have looked sick too because Hunny made a comment.

“Karma-kun, you’re so pale.” Hunny appeared at her desk. She nearly jumped out of her seat. She looked over to see him looking up at her with wide eyes.

“I’m fine” she said with her hand over her chest. She looked around to noticed Mori was no where to be found. “What happened to Mori-chan?” Karma asked noticing he was already gone from the class room.

“Oh, Takashi left to get ready. I think he’s excited to get a date with such a pretty girl.” Hunny smiled brightly. Karma felt her cheeks blush. She sure didn’t feel pretty today, she felt like an idiot. She looked down at her finished homework. She had managed to finish all her work for today. Once she actually realized she had something to do this afternoon she went into over drive of doing her work. She even spent her lunch doing work. “I told him I would walk you to the club room to make sure you don’t get lost.” Hunny chuckled.

“I’ve been doing pretty good by myself lately.” She muttered. “well if I know where I’m starting at.” She added with a laugh. She put her things away and slung her bags over her shoulder. Hunny took her hand and lead her down the hall talking about how he hoped there were good sweets today at the club.
When Karma approached the door she spotted her sisters in front of them, allowing Hunny to slip in without the girls seeing inside. Celeste was in here uniform, Rain was not. She wore her pants and a shirt, but she now has a yellow vest that resembled part of the shredded monstrosity she wore that morning. Karma stopped looking at her sister’s outfit.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Karma asked as a group of girls who must have also been waiting for their dates showed up.

“The twins ambushed me” Rain said simply turning back to the door. Karma cocked her brow and looked at Celeste. Celeste just shrugged. Karma examined her sisters for a moment, something off about the two.

“And you didn’t hit one of them?” Karma asked, but her question went ignored when one of the girls who arrived went up to the door.

“It’s time!” the girls whose face reminded Karma a bit of a fish said opening them both wide. Karma looked in and frozen at the sight. The curtains were drawn so the room was dark, but it gave off a starry night look. There was soft music in the back ground. Every table was filled with candles and roses. There was even a path of different colored rose petals leading to each table. Tamaki stood at the door to welcome the girls.

“Welcome princesses, your tables are ready.” He gave a charming smile. Karma smiled at his charm as he took the fish faced girl by the arm. She turned to look around and found Mori standing in a suit. She felt in that instant her face begin to burn. Mori stood in front of her with a small smile on his face. He held out his hand making her gave turn from his face to his out reached hand. She took his hand and he led her to his table. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt her heart racing as she took her seat. Karma noticed how nice he looked in his black suit. He moved his chair closer to her and she felt warmer, not sure if I was just the candles or not. He pulled a rose from the center piece and handed it to Karma. She gazed at it as he took his seat.

“Thanks Mori” she said quietly. Mori smiled, she wasn’t the quiet type. The only time Mori had seen her quiet was when she was working. He watched as she softly smiled at the rose. Her golden-green eyes looked back up at him and his heart skipped a beat. “It’s amazing what a little atmosphere can do.” She muttered looking away.

“Yeah” he muttered. Karma huffed. She wasn’t sure she could make it for a half-hour.

~

The twins both sat at a table, which was too small for the group of them. Hikaru and Kaoru sat together, Celeste and Rain sat on the opposite side. Kaoru watched as his twin talked with Celeste, carrying on a conversation with no problem. She laughed at his jokes not even noticing when he was trying to ask for her and Rain to spend some time with them outside of school. Kaoru took this time to focus on Rain. She had an attitude, but he found it amusing and it appealed to him. But that morning he got to see a softer side to her. He smiled just thinking about it. She was cutting up with the two of them, and that side of her he was curious to learn more about her. He turned to speak to her, but she looked rather angry.

“What’s wrong Rain?” he asked examining the look on her face.

“I hate feeling like a third wheel.” Rain muttered. Kaoru leaned closer to Rain. Her eyes went wide and she felt her cheeks change colors.

“You’re not a third wheel.” He said his golden brown eyes looking down at her. “You have me.” He gave a smile. Rain felt her stomach twist and she quickly looked to her twin.
She was smiling as Hikaru was telling a story. She always loved spending time with the twins, but she never thought of spending time with them without Rain. She felt Rain turn to her and she glanced her way.

“Having fun right Sissy?” she asked. Rain threw on a smile.

“Of course.” She said. With her answer Celeste returned to Hikaru, since Kaoru wasn’t really talking. Rain turned to look at Kaoru again. This time he started a conversation.

“So have you been able to see anything since you’ve been here?” Kaoru asked leaning towards Rain again. She cheeks burned again, but she didn’t turn away.

“Well we’ve been around town, but we haven’t seen anything special.” She said thinking about their lazy afternoons when their mom wasn’t home. Most of the time their mom left with their dad to work on the film he was working on. She would come home every other weekend to spend time with her and her sisters until the next Friday. Rain didn’t mind the lack of parental control. She just hated not knowing where to go during the day.

“How about we go check out some things this weekend?” Kaoru asked. Rain looked at him carefully. He most definitely seemed confident about his question. Rain just wondered if he meant with their twins or alone. She felt her stomach twist again and her heart seemed to swell with excitement or anxiety at the idea of spending some time with a guy without Celeste. She couldn’t even imagine going on a date.

“I’d love to get out of the house” Rain nearly sighed. Kaoru grinned, he turned to Hikaru. He turned back to Rain.

“I’ll call you before we come to pick you and Celeste up.” Kaoru said to Rain. She felt the anxiety leave and the swell in her chest deflate. She nodded feeling the twist in her stomach leave.

~

The Swanson trio was making their way out of the club room, bidding their goodbyes. Karma stepped between the twins, swinging her arms around their necks. They walked down to leave the huge building, it seems all of them in good moods.

“So I think this was an excellent way to start off the week.” Karma said with a smile. Celeste grinned at this. Karma must have enjoyed her date just like Rain and she thought she would. She tried to catch a glance at Rain, but she could only do so much with Karma’s arm around her neck. She then faced forward.
That’s when she saw the most interesting guy Celeste had ever seen. He stood in a cloak, his green hair peaking out of the hood. He stood with a puppet on his hand talking with another person in a cloak. If Karma wasn’t pulling her around by her neck she would have stopped. She tried to get a better look at him, but Karma seemed to be in a rush to go home.