Loose Change

Changing Circumstances

Disclaimer: I am not the creator of Ouran High School Host Club, contrary to the passages written in my sparkle unicorn dream journal.

~o~

It was an average day at Ouran High. The gardens were in full bloom, the sky was blue, and rich kids complained that it took too long to walk down the gorgeous marble hallways.

The only middle class student in a sea of upper class snobs carried her lunch through the glittering, high ceiling cafeteria, while a live string quartet played soothing violin music from a rose petal strewn corner of the room. Delicious smells wafted from behind the order counter, and Haruhi Fujioka breathed in deeply, wondering which rare delicacies were the source.

At least the smell was free. Haruhi enjoyed it for a moment, then pushed the thought aside. She had a perfectly good lunch, and it had cost her less than five hundred yen to make. It was about a tenth of the price of even the lowest marked food item on the schools menu.

"But please, Madame, you must accept these. I assure you, they are more than sufficient for this order."

Haruhi looked up, noticing a student dressed in Ouran blue leaning over the counter urgently. The girl, a brunette worker in white, was smiling politely, her hands clasped in front of her.

"I'm sorry sir, but we can't accept this currency," she apologized sincerely, her smile bright. "Is there any way you could convert it to yen first?"

"I tried, but the ATM wouldn't accept them either for some reason!" the student despaired. His brown hair was parted evenly down the middle, and hung just to his chin. He wore glasses that looked as though they had come from an old magazine, made with gleaming, and finely worked brown metal. "Please, isn't there anything you can do?"

"I'm sorry, sir..."

The boy noticed Haruhi, and turned to her despairingly, mistaking her for the boy she was dressed like. "Good sir, can you lend me some change? I'm afraid I'm in a spot of trouble...it appears the school doesn't accept post continental American made coins. They're only from the last century or so, and in mint condition! It is quite inexcusable!"

Another normal occurrence at Ouran Academy. A filthy rich teenager who didn't understand how the normal world worked. "If it's only change I guess I can help," Haruhi shrugged, pulling her beat up wallet from her school uniform. "How much do you need?"

"A ten thousand yen note should do," the student said gratefully, as though this were the most basic request in the world. "I'll pay you back in full, I assure you."

"Ten thousand yen?" Haruhi sputtered, completely taken off guard. "I don't have anywhere close to that much on me! You call that change?"

"What am I going to do?" he despaired, clutching his hand to his heart. "I haven't eaten since last night, and I'm positively craving Kobe beef! Am I to starve in this heinous cafeteria, a victim of cruel fate?"

Haruhi thought that maybe being a drama queen was contagious in this school. Then again, maybe rich kids really did think they would starve after half a day without caviar. "Well I don't know about Kobe beef," she admitted, unwrapping her lunch from its brightly patterned handkerchief. "I have an extra sandwich though. Here, you can have it. Maybe bring normal money to school from now on."

Haruhi placed the plain sandwich in his hands unceremoniously. "My name is Haruhi Fujioka."

The students hazel eyes went wide behind the frames of his glasses as he stared at the sandwich, as though it were made of solid gold. "Haruhi Fujioka. Never have I witnessed such generosity! Thank you, a thousand times, thank you! I have been saved from the brink of starvation! I must repay you!"