Haruhi Suzumiya

Quiet

Let me make this clear: I really didn't want to go first. I'm not a showman, and I don't like having the spotlight on me.

So sitting in front of everyone, the lantern glowing gently, casting our long shadows down the hall of the abandoned school building, I felt nervous, and it didn't help that the story I was about to tell wasn't my own.

I thought about the manga I had lifted my story from and how I had planned to begin. I had rehearsed my story in my head all week as I attempted to memorize all the important details, but none of that information was coming to me now that I needed it.

I took a long sigh, looked at the faces surrounding the lantern, and just started talking.

I did a terrible job. My tone was flat, and I didn't really try to build any suspense. I just told the story, what happened, who it happened to, what happened next. It's a shame too, because the story is actually really good.

The story was about a group of high school students who play a game with rabbits and a wolf. One person is the wolf, and the others are rabbits. It's an innocent game in which the wolf is supposed to whittle down the rabbits while the rabbits all try to figure out who is the wolf in disguise. But someone takes the game too far, and after locking everyone in an abandoned warehouse, real murders start happening.

The original story had suspense and psychological twists that were sadly missing from my rendition.

That didn't seem to matter though. The story still interested the others enough that they didn't fall asleep, and Asahina-san even pulled her blanket up around her shoulders so she could hide her face during the scary parts.

When I finished my tale, Haruhi stared in silence for a long time. I could see her preparing to pass judgment, and even though Koizumi obviously wanted to speak, he held his tongue until Haruhi had made her final declaration. But whatever Koizumi planned to say didn't really concern me. My mind was completely focused on whether or not Haruhi would recognize the story.

"Not bad," she said finally.

I did it! I pulled off borrowing someone else's story without Haruhi knowing.

"Great," Koizumi said, once the conversation was open to anyone. "Very thought-provoking."

"Scary," Asahina-san whimpered, seemingly unable to say anything else.

I looked to Nagato-san, wondering if she might have criticism for me, but she just nodded.

With that over, the rest of the night could play out however. I assumed the worst was over for me.

"Mikuru, you tell your story next," Haruhi said, taking out a bag of snacks as she spoke. I could already tell by her attitude that Haruhi planned to tell her story last.

So we all got out the snacks we were ordered to bring, and after building up a little courage, Asahina-san began her story:

"Once there was a group of teenagers, and they went to explore a graveyard. But the graveyard was haunted by a lot of mean and scary ghosts. And there was a leader ghost named Ganho, and he was the scariest of the ghosts."

At this point Asahina-san stopped, raised her hands in the air, and did a mock growl that was obviously the scariest thing she could muster. I have no clue why her ghosts were growling, and the whole scene only ended up being adorable, the kind of thing toddlers do and grown-ups all smile at and say, "aww."

Don't worry Asahina-san, it will be over soon. Just keep trying.

"But the teenagers made the mistake of going near Ganho's grave, and he got angry and chased them. They ran and ran, but there was a fence, and the teenagers were trapped. 'Ahh!' they all shouted. 'I'm going to eat you!' Ganho shouted back."