Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/1661060. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Underage Category: M/M Fandom: Bandom, Ouran_High_School_Host_Club_-_All_Media_Types, Panic!_at_the Disco, Fall_Out_Boy Relationship: Ryan_Ross/Brendon_Urie, Spencer_Smith/Jon_Walker Character: Ryan_Ross, Brendon_Urie, Spencer_Smith, Jon_Walker, Pete_Wentz, Patrick Stump, Mikey_Way, Gerard_Way, William_Beckett, Hayley_Williams Additional Tags: Alternate_Universe_-_Ouran_High_School_Host_Club, ohshc, Ouran_High School_Host_Club_-_Freeform, Crossover, Sexual_Content, Host_Clubs, Explicit_Language, Minor_Violence, I_changed_the_plot_a_little_so_that_it would_work_better, fever_era, A_Fever_You_Can't_Sweat_Out_(Album), Joncer -_Freeform, Ryden Series: Part 1 of Folie_a_Host Stats: Published: 2014-05-20 Completed: 2014-06-18 Chapters: 3/3 Words: 6909 ****** I'm Exactly Where You Like Me ****** by TellMeImPrettyOdd Summary Ryan thought he would get away with faking his tests to get into a school that could help him pursue his dreams of being a successful musician. But not without running into the host club at Armstrong Academy, and a seemingly unfortunate incident. But maybe it could change his life for the better, or at least not be so alone anymore. He's definitely not alone now. Notes This is a multi chapter fic, and I added a character for Gerard, because writing Mikey didn't feel right without Gerard. Also, Ryan's story is different than Haruhi's, it's during Fever era, so you know what they all look like. I'm pretending that Jon and Spencer are identical if they have sunglasses on. (Eye colour ) I'll cover everything else in the story! Enjoy! See the end of the work for more notes ***** Starting Today, You Are A Host ***** "Well, here it is," Ryan looked at the enormous school, just before he would walk through the front doors. "Armstrong Academy. You finally made it, Ryan." He smile to himself.  ===============================================================================   Ryan raised his hand the the door, but paused, considering if it was a good idea to call any attention to himself. He already wasn't dressed in uniform, but that was because he couldn't afford it. It was an abandoned music room, but when he opened the door, it definitely wasn't empty. Ryan stepped inside before he saw a host club. Weren't they only supposed to have these in Japan?  "Welcome." They all said in unison, that might sound inviting to some who was looking for a host club, but creepy to anyone who wasn't expecting that.  "This is a host club?!" Ryan backed up against the door immediately. Two boys who were identical-except for their eyes-raised their eyebrows and spoke at the same time. "Oh, wow, a crossdresser."  Ryan fumed at the accusation, "What!"  A short, yet very threatening man with black hair and enough eyeliner to put a raccoon to shame looked at the twins. "Jon, Spencer, I believe this lady is in the same class as you."  This time, Ryan stomped his foot, and spoke louder, "What." The three ignored him and the twins shrugged, "Yeah, but she's shy. She doesn't talk much at all, so we don't know anything about her." "I'm a guy! Not a female, and not a crossdresser!" Ryan finally got their attention and scowled at them, crossing his arms, "God, I like the way I dress!"  The other man smirked in a way that definitely worried Ryan, "Well, welcome to Armstrong Academy, Mr. Honour Student."  The one in the middle popped up from hearing this, he was dressed differently from everyone else, in a white blazer and black tie, while everyone else dressed in black suits with different coloured ties. "Wait, you must be Ryan Ross! You're the exceptional honour student we've heard about!" He sounded excited, and somewhat in awe.  Ryan had been rapidly trying to bust the doors of that room open so that he could get out and make a run for it. Anymore time with these people, who seemed to take interest in figuring out Ryan's story, and they'd figure out that he had faked all of his tests to get into this school. But he froze and turned around to look at the excited guy. "How do you know my name?" He asked, suspicious.  The guy took that as an invitation to walk towards Ryan, in the most anxiety inducing of ways. In a friendly way. Ryan backed away from the other boy as he spoke, "Everyone knows who you are. Getting into a school like Armstrong Academy isn't easy for anyone of the lower class!"  He probably wasn't trying to be offensive, but he definitely didn't notice that he'd said anything rude. Ryan continued to back away as the boy in the white blazer kept walking towards him. "So what kind of boys do you like, Ryan? Do you like the troublesome type, the strong and silent type, the cute, boyish type? The cool guy type?"  Ryan frantically shook his head and stuttered as he tried to answer, "I- I don't, uh," the boy backed him up against a podium with a beautiful vase on top, as he lifted a hand to Ryan's jaw and lightly tilted his head up so their eyes would meet.  "Or maybe, you're into men like me." The boy grinned, and would've looked handsome, if Ryan hadn't noticed that the podium was tipping backwards.  Ryan spun around and tried to catch the vase that was falling towards the ground, but it was too late. The most likely priceless vase had shattered into a million pieces.  The others started walking over to look at what was left of the vase. The short, threatening one crossed his arms. "Well, I hope you can pay that." He almost grinned at Ryan, almost. "And no offense, but you probably can't."  "Uh... how much was it?" Ryan slowly stuttered out the question, still trying to function in his complete state of shit.  The boy did smile this time, "Only 6 million dollars." He shrugged.  "That's more than my entire life is worth!" Ryan screamed, half in horror, half in disbelief.  "Well, if you can't afford it then you can always work off your debt." The guy began writing down something in his notebook, probably what Ryan would have to do and for how long.  Ryan tried to calm himself down, "Okay, how long will I have to work, and what will I be doing?"  "Well, you could always do odd jobs for us." The twins offered, "You can clean things, buy the stuff we need."  Ryan shrugged, he could be stuck with worse. They seemed fairly harmless. "Okay, how long do I have to work for you?"  "Probably for the next three years. You might be done by senior year, if you're lucky." Threatening guy answered, running his hand through his hair to look cool.  "Goddamn." Ryan cringed, "I mean I'll do it, but you guys are crazy." Why do they even have a 6 million dollar vase in the middle of an abandoned music room?  "Okay, it's official. From now on, you're the Host Club's errand boy!" The boy in the white blazer stood up and pointed at Ryan, trying to look dramatic.  ===============================================================================   The boy starting walking towards Ryan again, slightly worrying to Ryan because of what happened last time the boy decided to do that.  "I'm Brendon Urie, a sophomore at Armstrong Academy, and the president of the Host Club." He smiled at Ryan, hoping to impress him. Brendon really was handsome, now that Ryan got a better look at him. He had black hair that looked temptingly soft, big brown eyes that were probably too adorable for the girls at this school to resist, and gorgeous lips that even Ryan definitely found irresistible. As Ryan noticed before, Brendon was wearing a white blazer, instead of black, like the other hosts. Brendon also wore a black tie and white dress shirt under his blazer, contradicting the other host's outfits.  "We're the Smith Twins," The two introduced themselves at the same time, one wore a red tie, the other wore a light blue tie. The one in the red tie spoke next, "I'm Jon, and," "-I'm Spencer." The other finished as they simultaneously smirked. They both starting talking in unison again, "We're both freshman. As Pete said, we're in the same class as you. So you better get used to us!" They grinned in an obnoxious, but endearing way. They both looked practically identical, with dark brown hair, somewhat long for men, with bangs that went a little bit off to the side in opposite directions of each other's,  mischievous smiles to go with their personalities. They were pretty good looking, but in a way that made Ryan want to run before they caused trouble for him.  The threatening, short guy stepped forward and ran his hand through his hair again, calling attention to himself. "Pete Wentz, sophomore, and the vice president of this club. So you better stay on my good side." He smirked at Ryan. Ryan definitely had a feeling this guy's bad side was somewhere he wanted to stay far away from if he valued his life, and his hair, for that matter. Otherwise, Pete was very attractive. He had jet black hair, not quite as soft looking as Brendon's but definitely nice, and silky. Pete had dark brown eyes, and his eyeliner made them radiant. Pete had tanned skin with absolutely no flaws, and a charming smile. Pete wore a green tie around his neck, and carried his notebook, probably at all times.  An even shorter boy, that looked like he could easily be a little kid ran up to Ryan and hugged his legs. Ryan attempted to shake the boy off, not being one for kids, or overly enthusiastic people. The boy stumbled off, but looked disappointed. "I'm Patrick Stump. I'm a junior, and I like cake, and Donatello, and music, and playing drums, and Mikey Way, and Prince, and, and, and,"  "I'm sorry about him." An extremely tall guy walked up behind Patrick and picked the boy up easily. "He can get excited easily." The guy held out a hand to shake with his free hand while his expression remained neutral. "I'm Mikey Way, junior."  Patrick Stump was shorter than most middle schoolers Ryan had seen, and his personality matched a kid's. He was adorable, Patrick had strawberry blond hair, had eyes that were blue with a little yellow ring around the pupil so they look a little green. He had full lips, like Brendon, but in a more innocent way, if it could be described that way. He was a little chubby, but anyone would probably agree with Ryan that it added to Patrick's cuteness. He held a stuffed animal Ninja Turtle, and wore a dark blue tie.  Mikey Way was taller than most people Ryan had met, probably 6'2. He had a completely neutral expression on his face at all times that Ryan had seen him so far. Mikey wore glasses, framing his greyish hazel eyes. He had dark, dark brown hair, almost black, and high cheekbones to complete his look. His voice was a lot different from the tough guy stereotype, it didn't sound girly or anything, but more of... laid back. Mikey Way wore a dark purple tie. They both looked nice, even though Mikey Way could probably beat the shit out of Ryan. They seemed to be the least crazy people in this club.  Ryan shook Mikey's hand and forced himself to look Mikey in the eye. "So why do they call you Mikey Way and not just Mikey?" He asked as he pried his hand out of Mikey's tight grip.  "It sounds like Milkey Way, according to the others." He responded and set Patrick down.  Ryan rolled his shoulders back and relaxed a little, "Well, you guys aren't bad. You're all crazy, but not that bad." He nodded to himself as he crossed his arms. He could do this, he could keep all of them from finding out about how he got into this school.  ***** He Didn't Become A Host In The Last One But He Does In This One ***** Chapter Notes Sorry it took so long, I know I said it would be updated every Wednesday or Tuesday. This time, the next chapter will be out on time. See the end of the chapter for more notes Ryan started working for the Host Club right away, trying to get in as much time as possible so he could pay off his debt as soon as possible. He had already cleaned everything in their room, whether they used it or not, and gone on several trips to the supermarket, and it had only been a day!  He also almost felt self conscious of his clothes. The Host Club was so rich, and everything was expensive, and usually pretty. Ryan had been wearing a large, old hoodie, covering all of his head and most of his face, if it wasn't already hidden by his bangs. Otherwise, he was wearing a Blink-182 T-shirt underneath his hoodie, some skinny jeans that would probably be big on most of the girls in the room. And he had on some old black converse that he loved unconditionally.  "Brendon, what's your favourite song?" One of the girls who sat around Brendon squealed. The others bounced in anticipation to hear his answer.  Ryan rolled his eyes at them as he carried his tray of tea across the room. Brendon's answer better not be an absolutely horrible song, or any respect Ryan might've gained for him would be gone. Ryan was here because of music. He'd do absolutely anything for music, it was his life.  Brendon grinned to himself before he answered, eager to charm. "Any song that reminds me of you, my dear." He grinned even wider as the girls all blushed and held back squeals.  The girls scooted closer and held up a box. "I baked you a cake today, would you like to try it, Brendon?" She seemed nervous, but Brendon would wipe away of that feeling.  "Only if you'll feed it to me, darling." Brendon winked and tried not to laugh. Things like this got him excited and energetic. He felt like he could run around the entire school every time another girl squealed because of him. He just felt so wonderful when he made someone else happy, especially if they were happy just because of a smile and wink from him!  "Um, okay!" She turned bright red and giggled to herself. Brendon smiled to himself as the others girls fawned over him. Another girl sitting near him made a point to put her cup down loudly enough to draw his attention. "Brendon, can you speak with me now?"  For a second, he stopped smiling. He hated talking to Keltie. She very obviously had a problem with containing jealousy, and was very mean to the other girls if she felt they had spent too much time with Brendon. But within a split second, Brendon regained his composure and smiled as enchantingly as he could at the girl. "Of course, madam. What would you like to talk about?"   "Well, I've heard recently that the Host Club's keeping a little kitten without a pedigree." She smiled in her special, vicious way of smiling, she looked more sinister when she smiled rather than when she didn't.  Brendon laughed nervously, he had to watch what he said around Keltie, she was picky with practically everything involving him. "Well, I don't know if I'd call him that... " He looked over to see Ryan walking towards them with a tray of tea in his hands. "Speak of the devil! Ryan, we were just talking about you." He smiled happily at Ryan, who gave a mixed, but bored look back. Brendon could pick annoyance and exhaustion out of Ryan's expression, and knew that it was probably his own fault, but he couldn't seem that way around guests. "Thanks for doing the shopping, kitten. Did you get everything on our list?" He winked in a friendly manner towards Ryan.  'Kitten? What the hell is wrong with this guy? I wonder if he's ever been punched in the face.' Ryan thought to himself as Brendon took out the groceries from Ryan's shopping bag.  "What is this?" Brendon held a container of instant coffee in his hands, looking quizzically at it.  "It's exactly what it looks like, it's coffee." Dumbass. Ryan refrained from adding the last part.  "But I've never seen this brand before, and I can't even drink coffee." Brendon squinted at the writing and threw his arm around the back of the couch. "Is this the kind that's already ground?" He wasn't joking, that was the scary part.  "Can't? And what do you mean, of course it's ground. It's instant coffee." Ryan's eyebrows drew together, trying to figure out if Brendon was just really good at lying.  Two other girls sitting across from them cocked their heads to the side and, in unison, asked, "It's instant?"  "No, oh my god, I've heard of this!" Brendon stood up and held the coffee out like it was Simba from The Lion King. "You just add hot water to it!" More girls had crowded around the couch across from, talking amongst themselves, "I didn't know there was such a thing," "It's true, commoners are so poor, they don't have time to grind their own coffee beans!" All of the girls nodded with anticipation, even Pete and the twins had walked over.  "Commoners are pretty smart," Pete remarked. Spencer started, "100 grams for $ 3.00?-That's a lot less than we normally pay." Jon finished.  "God, excuse me for buying affordable coffee. I'll go buy something else." Ryan grew more annoyed at everyone's comments on him being poor.  "No, wait! I'm keeping it!" Brendon brought the container back towards his face, "I'm going to try it!" Even the other hosts were surprised to here this. Pete started to say something, but Brendon was louder, "I will drink this coffee!"  "Brendon, you're Mormon. That goes against your religion." Pete finally got to remind Brendon.  "My parents don't have to know!" Brendon turned to talk to his best friend, "Besides, I've wondered what it tastes like for long enough." He smiled. The others clapped for him as he gestured to Ryan, "Okay, Ryan, come make your commoner's coffee."  "I don't think I've ever felt more ridiculous in my life." Ryan muttered as he walked over, grabbing the coffee from Brendon's hands and going to the coffee maker. "These goddamn rich people."  "Oh, Brendon, you're taking this too far." Keltie put her cup down again, looking up at Brendon with one of her most sinister looks. "Your palet wouldn't be able to stomach that crap. You don't have to drink it just because he bought it." She tossed her hair over her shoulder to give herself an air of superiority.  "Bitch!" Ryan coughed into his hand.    =============================================================================== Ryan poured the coffee into four cups, one of which Brendon would be tasting the "Commoner's Coffee". As for the girls who had volunteered, it wasn't certain that any of them would try it. They all seemed afraid of it, like there was some horrible disease in the coffee. They mumbled to each other excuses why they shouldn't drink the coffee while Ryan rolled his eyes.  "I don't know if my father would be pleased if I drank this." One girl worried. Oh please, that bitch didn't know what it meant to have an angry father. Ryan thought to himself as he refrained from yelling at her.  "What if you drank it... " Brendon lifted the girl's chin up to look at him, it seemed to be his favourite way of talking to someone, and dipped her. "From my mouth?" He smiled in a charming way that would make any girl melt, and that's what they did.  ===============================================================================   "And the look on his face when he woke up!" Spencer laughed, "Especially after a dream like that!"  Jon feigned hurt, pretending as if he was about to cry. "Spencer... how could you tell them about that? You know how much it embarrasses me." He scrunched his shoulders in, to make himself look smaller and vulnerable.  Spencer also acted, it was too obvious, but the girls sitting across from the twins ate it all up. "I'm sorry, Jon... you just looked so adorable like that, I just had to tell them." Within the few seconds it took to say those words, Spencer had moved from his seat to Jon's, bringing his hand to lift up Jon's face, and his lips closer to Jon's. "Forgive me,"  "Spencer... " Jon seemed to be at a loss of words. The two stared into each other's eyes while the girls across from them broke out in squeals about "brotherly love" and other disturbing shit like that.  What was wrong with these people, they came from the same womb. Ryan wasn't homophobic, but he didn't support fucking incest. He turned away and continued to hand out coffee and tea, knowing that as soon as he paid off his debt, he could leave this place.    =============================================================================== Mikey Way walked through the doorway, holding Patrick up. Mikey put Patrick down as the latter rubbed his eyes under his glasses. Patrick looked over to the girls sitting and waiting for him. "I'm sorry, Mikey Way was busy practicing bass, and I waited for him outside. But I fell asleep, and I'm sorry."  He looked really regretful, but the girls just squealed and flailed, all squeaking out things along the lines of, "He's so cute!" "So adorable!"  "How is that guy older than everyone else?" Ryan wondered aloud as Patrick and Mikey Way joined the girls sitting around one the tables.  "'Trick might seem childish and sweet, but he really is a prodigy." Pete spoke next to Ryan. "And then Mikey Way, is his strong and mostly silent disposition." Pete talked about them as if he had created them as characters. It was a little creepy, but so was Pete. Ryan found it hard to believe that someone so much shorter than him could scare him so much.  "Ryan!" Patrick gave Ryan a warm and welcoming hug. It was probably impossible for Patrick to do anything that wasn't warm and welcoming. "Would you like to have cake with Me and Mikey Way?" He smiled brightly at Ryan, who avoided Patrick's gaze.  "Uh, no thanks, I'm not really one for cake... "  "Well would you like to hold Donatello?" Patrick held up the stuffed ninja turtle.  "Uh, I guess... I'm not really into ninja turtles." Ryan reluctantly took the ninja turtle.  Patrick pulled him onto the couch with them, "Ryan, have you ever been to Budapest? It's really pretty there!"  Ryan thought for a moment, deciding whether he should lie or not. Patrick might say something to the others, or Pete or Mikey might hear him. "No, I, uh. I think one of my neighbors is from Romania though."    =============================================================================== Ryan sat with Patrick for a few minutes before he got up to continue the work Pete kept giving him. He was more or less threatened by Pete and his family's police divsion.  Ryan was about to go back to make tea for the visitors and the Host Club, when he heard Brendon's voice and felt someone blowing on his neck. Ryan jumped forward, and might've overreacted, but you do that when physical contact for you is usually a punch or kick. "Please never do that again." He rubbed his neck and looked back at Brendon, smiling with his charms and ego in the background.  "Ryan, you know what you need?" He pointed at Ryan in his charming smile that he could've learned from the twins.  "Dare I ask," Ryan drawled.  "A make over; no girl, or guy is ever going to look at you if you keep dressing like you're homeless!" Brendon picked up Ryan scarf as if he'd found it in a dumpster.  "Hey, I like the way I dress!" Ryan shot daggers at Brendon. The gloves might have been a bit much, but it was Ryan's style, and he thought it made him look pretty good. "And besides, what's so important about getting anyone to look at me? Not everyone wants that."  "Ryan, it's the most important thing, you-" Brendon was interrupted by Ryan. He had it, this club had bossed him around all day, and insulted his appearance.  "And haven't you ever heard of what's on the inside? Looks aren't the only thing that matter, some people are liked for their personality. What's so great about this host club anyway!" Ryan had someone exploded, but everything he said was true. And the Host Club needed to hear it.   Brendon stopped for a moment, and looked at Ryan as if he could see right into his mind, much less through his bangs, and understand exactly what he meant. "I see what you mean." Brendon smiled at Ryan.  "You do?" Ryan asked more out of disbelief than curiosity, but he was barely given any time to ask.  Brendon spun around, placing his hand on his chest, staring off wistfully with one of his charming smiles. "Not everyone can be as completely amazing as me, with good inside and outside, I understand how it is." Ryan was about to interrupt about how that was the farthest possible interpretation anyone could make from the truth, but Brendon continued too quickly for Ryan to get a word in. "You commoners have to constantly be outshined by the rich, in places like this. But let me give you some tips that might help you to feel more accepted here! For instance, when you're setting your cup down, extend your pinky as you do so, it's easy as that!"  "There's a specific word I'm trying to think of that describes you... " Ryan drawled, "What was it?" He thought as Brendon rambled on about how he was helping Ryan act like he was rich.  "What would that be, Ryan? Handsome, princely, kind hearted, heroic or sweet?" Brendon waited for Ryan to choose one of the following, or something better.  "Annoying!" Ryan smiled as Brendon crumbled to the ground, probably never having been insulted before.  "Woah- " Jon started, "You completely broke him." Spencer finished. They lightly nudged Brendon's sides with their feet.  "Sorry, Brendon." Ryan glanced around to see if Brendon was even breathing. "But if it helps, I mean your whole speech. The part that I was listening to anyway, did catch my attention."  Brendon slowly got up, then spun around, striking a pose as he did so. "Really? Was it my point about beauty? My lessons on how to be eloquent? My kind heartedness of sharing this with you?"  "Oh, you've done it now alright." The twins both said, their shoulders slumping as they mentally prepared themselves for more excessive talking on Brendon's part.  "Call me your king! I'll teach you everything there is to know about being a gentleman!" He beamed as he got himself excited over teaching Ryan how to be eloquent.  "You can try and teach him all you want, Bren, " Jon began, "But he's never going to get very far with the girls or boys if he doesn't look the part." Spencer finished as he moved towards Ryan, reaching his hands towards Ryan's face.  Ryan shied away on impulse, as Spencer's hands moved to Ryan's hoodie and pulled it down. "Woah, Bren! You gotta come see him!"  Ryan narrowed his eyes through his bangs to see the brightness of the room and Brendon moving towards him. Something that hadn't ended very well the last time it happened. Brendon's mouth dropped and he immediately looked at the rest of the Host Club. "Jon, Spencer, I need a boy's uniform! Pete, my skin specialist! Mikey Way, call his parents and find out his allergies to products!"  "What about me, Brendon? I want to help!" Patrick smiled warmly up at Brendon.  "Patrick... you go have some cake." Brendon tried to make it look like it was an important task, but Patrick's shoulders slumped as he walked over to the table with Donatello.  "It's just you and me, Donatello."  ===============================================================================   "Here, put on this uniform!" The twins held up an Armstrong Academy uniform as they spoke in unison.  "Fine, hand it over." Ryan held out his hand as he unzipped his hoodie and let it fall to the ground. "Man, you two are crazy. In more than one way." Ryan muttered, more or less to himself.  "What do you mean?" They both asked. By that time, Ryan had gotten his shirt off and was working on his jeans. "You two act like you're a couple. I'm surprised neither of you have any sex related diseases, if you are actually dating."  Jon and Spencer both furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. "Well, I don't know how often commoners can afford condoms," Spencer began, "But when you're rick you always have enough money for things like that." Jon finished.  "The working class can afford condoms! And wait... is that why guys use condoms during gay sex?" Ryan didn't show any sign of joking. He really hadnm't known up until that point. He needed to learn about these things before he actually did anything.  ===============================================================================   "Come out, Ryan! You can't take that long to get dressed!" Pete smirked to himself while the others agreed with him.  The curtain opened and Ryan stepped out. "Are you sure I don't have to pay for this or anything?"  He looked almost completely different. His bangs were swept to the side so they couldn't hide his honey coloured eyes or cute nose. His skin looked as soft as velvet, and his lips looked twice as much and less thin. The uniform showed off his skinny body, in a cute if not pretty manner. His eyes were complimented by long eyelashes and curved cheekbones.  The hosts were all in awe, jaws dropping and eyes bulging out. Brendon was the first to comment, and he definitely wasn't subtle about it.  "You look so adorable, almost like a girl! I could almost kiss you!" Brendon gushed as the others commented.  "Ryan, you look wonderful!" "If we had known that's how he'd look, we would've given him a uniform yesterday!" Patrick and the twins both remarked while Pete crossed his arms, grinning again. "Who knows? Maybe he'll draw in some costumers."  "My thoughts exactly!" Brendon exclaimed, stepping forward. "Starting today, you're an official member of the Host Club!" He pointed at Ryan, feeling proud. "I will personally train you to be a top notch host! And if your services are requested one hundred times, we will completely forget about your six million debt!"  ===============================================================================             Chapter End Notes I'm Exactly Where You Like Me will update next on June 18th, 2014. ***** Bags In The Fountain ***** "So Ryan, what kind of lotion do you use to make your skin so soft?" One of the girls sitting across from Ryan asked, another commented, "Yes, it's so pretty!" "What do you do to make your hair so nice?" The third one asked.  I don't know if I can do this, Ryan thought as the girls stared at him expectantly. "Hm, uh, well, just... showering daily. Shampoo. The important stuff." He smiled what could possibly be the most awkward smile anyone had ever seen. Oh, wait! I've the perfect story! He smirked to himself.  ===============================================================================   Brendon peaked over the couch to see how Ryan was doing.  The girls were on the edge of their seats, hands over their hearts, some had tears in their eyes. "I see," One of them said sympathetically. "Your foster father passed away."  "Who does all the chores?" Another asked.  "I do all of them, it's really no trouble, especially cooking. My dad loved cooking, and it's fun trying out his old recipes, especially when they turn out good." Ryan gave them a tragically beautiful smile, and Brendon could see their hearts melting, maybe his own as well. "I've had a hard childhood, but my father and I have managed to make it okay."  "So... tomorrow? Would it be okay if we request to sit with you again?" A few of the girls stuttered out.  Ryan smiled, "Of course!" Brendon could see the devilish smirk behind that.  "Brendon, have you forgotten about me?" A very cold voice interrupted Brendon's thoughts.  "Of course not, I'm just checking to see how our newest host is doing." He smiled at her.  Keltie smirked as if Brendon was her pet, and she'd just trained him to do a new trick. "Well that's obvious, Brendon. You sure are paying him a lot of attention." She sounded pretty angry as her sentence ended.  "I have to, I'm training him to be a gentleman, like myself." He smiled again, hoping she couldn't how much he was not enjoying this. "Ryan, come over here." He smiled more genuinely as he snapped his fingers for effect.  Ryan rolled his eyes, but got up and walked over. "What is it, Brendon?"  "I'd like you to meet someone," Brendon shifted over so that Ryan could see Keltie better. "This is Keltie Colleen." She smiled to herself to give an air of superiority. It didn't work though, Ryan knew people like her, and that there nothing to her but her title. He smiled at her anyway, "It's a pleasure to meet you." He tried to give the nicest smile he could manage against those cold eyes.  Brendon was definitely dazzled by it; he got up and pulled Ryan into a tight hug. "That was so cute, you don't understand! I'm so proud of you, I don't know how you did that! But you're adorable, absolutely adorable!" He raved as he practically crushed Ryan's ribs.  "Brendon, let go! You're crushing my ribs!" Ryan struggled to get away or get comfortable in Brendon's too tight embrace. And Brendon couldn't here Ryan over the sound of his own squealing. "Mikey Way, help me!" Ryan shouted after he saw that Mikey Way and Patrick were sitting near them.  Mikey Way stepped over in an instant and picked Ryan up and out of Brendon's arms. He set Ryan down, "We can't let anything happen to our scholarship student, can we?" He smiled at Ryan.  "Scholarship... yes. You can't."Ryan abruptly remembered he hadn't just gotten into this school, "I mean Brendon, you nearly broke my ribs!" He laughed.  "My hugs aren't that tight!" Brendon defended himself in a way that might work for Patrick, but not him.  ===============================================================================   "Where's my stuff?" Ryan thought aloud after the club's hours were over. He left them on a chair outside of the changing room.  He turned and ran through the halls, looking for anywhere he might've left his backpack. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something outside the windows. He turned back around and walked toward the windows to see that someone had his stuff into the fountain in front of the school. He sighed and turned in the direction of the stairs. On his way, he passed that girl who requested Brendon often.  ===============================================================================   "Oh, it's you again." The girl said, Kellie, was it? Ryan didn't really care he'd passed her, but apparently she did. And she sounded less impressed than normal. He stopped running and she continued talking. "I bet you love having Brendon making you over and fawning over you. But you know it's useless, right? You're always going to be a second class citizen." She ended her statement as she laughed and ran away.  So it was her who threw his books into the fountain. She really was a bitch, but nothing Ryan couldn't handle. She really thought too much of herself if she thought Ryan had never dealt with anything tougher.  ===============================================================================   "God, where's my wallet? I need it for food... " Ryan searched in the water. He had already pulled almost everything out of the water except what he needed most, his wallet.  "Hey, commoner!" It was Brendon's voice behind Ryan. "You've got some nerve skipping out on the club like that." Ryan ignored him. "And why is your bag all wet?"  "It's no big deal, don't worry about it." Ryan answered as he continued to search through the fountain. He heard some splashing behind him and looked over to see Brendon with his shoes off and pants rolled up. "You don't have to, you'll get all wet."  "A little water never hurt anyone." Brendon starting looking with Ryan. He smiled, "Besides, people are always telling me I'm dripping with good looks... Is this what you're looking for?" He stood up, holding Ryan's wallet.  Brendon walked over to Ryan, "What's wrong, you're staring off into space. You're not falling for me, are you?" He grinned.  That snapped Ryan out of his trance. He took the wallet from Brendon's hands and stepped away. "In your dreams!"  "How did your bag get into the fountain anyway?" Brendon seemed like a good guy, like he might avenge Ryan. He also seemed like he might blame Ryan for somehow angering one of the Host Club's guests. Nonetheless, Ryan was not one for calling attention to himself, or making problems seem bigger than they are.  "Uh, I dropped it out the window... accidentally?"  ===============================================================================   "That must've been terrible, Ryan, really." Keltie feigned sympathy.  Ryan didn't know why she was here. She didn't like him, she made that very clear. And she obviously enjoyed Brendon's company more. "It wasn't that bad, I mean- "  "I can't imagine what I'd do if my bags just fell into the pond... " She smirked at Ryan, letting him know she was still superior, and was going to make him pay for not caring that much about the fountain incident. "And then you made Brendon look for your stuff with you, how astonishing. You do realize he's a blue blood and not a commoner, right? He's only paying attention to you because he's teaching you how to be a gentleman, don't think he cares about you just because he's doting on you."  She was such a bitch, thinking she was better than him just because of money, and using big words like astonishing, assuming that he didn't know what they meant. Ryan didn't know what astonishing meant, but he wasn't about to let Keltie know that. Anyone could figure out what it meant from what she said, and Ryan knew plenty of things that Keltie didn't. She was a bitch, a bitter, pretentious, jealous bitch. Jealous. That was it, she was jealous. It was all so obvious now! "Now I understand," She waited for Ryan to go on. "You're jealous of me."  She was in shock, but then came back to life, screaming and grabbing Ryan's tie to pull him forward. Several crashing sounds were and Ryan could tell she'd moved the table out of the way and onto the floor.  "No! Ryan leave me alone! Somebody help! He just attacked me!" She screamed and Ryan realized why she did that. He had been pulled forward to make it look like he was crawling above her. "Someone do something! Teach this commoner a lesson!" She continued screaming, waiting for Ryan to be beaten up and shunned. Ryan felt water being poured all over himself, but definitely all over Keltie as well. You'd think a rich school would have a different security method.  Ryan and Keltie both looked up to see that the twins had poured water on them. Keltie was more annoyed than anything. "Why did you do that?" Ryan saw Brendon walk over and lift Keltie to her feet. "Brendon, help! Ryan just assaulted me!"  Brendon looked extremely disgusted, for some reason, Ryan really didn't want Brendon to be mad at him. Probably because Brendon had done a nice thing for him. "I'm disappointed in you." He wasn't talking to Ryan though, he was talking to Keltie. "You threw his bags into the fountain."  She stopped acting scared in an instant to defend herself, "You don't know that! You can't prove anything!"  "You know, you're a beautiful girl... but you aren't classy enough to be our guest." He narrowed his eyes at Keltie. "If there's one thing I know, Ryan is not that kind of a man."  Keltie stepped away, dumbfounded that he had said that to her. "Why, Brendon? You idiot!" She cried as she fled the room.  Brendon turned to Ryan with a wide grin on his face. "Now I do have to punish you... your quota is now one thousand!" He smiled even wider. He offered a hand to Ryan and pulled him up. "Come on, rookie. I've got high expectations for you." He winked at Ryan, who pulled away.  "Well I'm going to go change now, so please excuse me."  ===============================================================================  Brendon decided to put Ryan's uniform in Ryan's backpack once it had dried off. Meanwhile Ryan was still getting changed, but Brendon figured it was okay. "Hey, Ryan! I'm just going to put your uniform with your stuff!" He yelled to Ryan as he unzipped the backpack.  "No, don't touch that!" Ryan shouted, running out of the changing room with only his jeans on.  It was too late, Brendon had seen what was in the backpack. He pulled out the sheets of paper, his hands slightly shaking, and his eyes wide. He couldn't form any thoughts, it was just cold. Really, really cold. Brendon turned to Ryan, a hand pointing to the papers in his other hand. "Ryan, what's this?"  Ryan snatched the papers out of Brendon's hands. "None of your goddamn business!" He spat.  "Ryan, we've all figured it out by this point. The boss is just taking it a lot harder than anyone else." Pete walked up behind Brendon, the others following and nodding their heads. "You faked your tests to get into Armstrong Academy." Brendon turned to look at Pete, as if he was ruining Brendon's childhood dreams. "The question is, why?"  Ryan sunk back into a ball on the floor. He felt like he was about to cry; this was all he had left. "You can't show those to the board of education. O don't care if you have connections to the police, or your own police, or whatever you want, you can't!" He yelled at Pete, glaring.  "Ryan, why do you want to be in Armstrong Academy?" Pete kept his face neutral, but firm. He asked the question despite his expression.  "Because it's the only way I'll ever achieve my dream. And I guess I'm just selfish like that." Ryan kept his arms around his knees to hold close and curl up into t he fetal position, like he did when he was little and his dad was angry. He didn't need to protect himself from that anymore, but he still curled up like that. Force of habit. "What's your dream?" This time, it was Brendon who asked. And he asked with curiosity and innocence, instead of making it seem like he could get in trouble for the answer. "I want to be a musician." Ryan answered, completely sure of his answer.   "Well we can't ruin someone's dream." Brendon seemed less phased by the discovery that Ryan faked his tests to get into the school. "Dreams are more important than whether or not you have enough money or grades to get into this school. We will keep your secret!" He declared.  "I can't thank you enough," Ryan choked out, he almost started crying, but he didn't do that. A hand was in front of his face and he looked up. Brendon was offering him a hand to stand up, and he took it.  End Notes Please let me know what you think so far, I'm open to constructive criticism. And I'll try to update weekly, on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, most likely. Have a wonderful day! Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!