[ 11 ] the lady manager

"Antoinette, will you stop playing those video games?" Her father asked the teenaged girl sitting in front of her television. In her hands was a video game controller, and she clicked one of the buttons on it, making the character on the screen talk. It was her favorite video game named Cross Academy, where there was a group of boys, and a story line which the player would create as the game went along by choosing one option or another. "I want to tell you about my trip to Australia." Her father continued, but she still paid no attention to him.

"Mhm." She nodded mindlessly.

Antoine Courtois took his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it. The business man scrolled through his pictures until he found one that he was looking for. Pushing it in front of Antoinette's face, he proceeded to tell her about his trip. "My business partner in Australia hosted me in his home, and he has three sons. One of them is your age." He informed her.

This seemed to catch her attention. She paused her video game, placed the controller by her side, and focused her bright blue eyes on the picture in front of her. The teenaged girl gasped at the sight of one boy in the picture. "Dad," She decided in that moment, "I'm going to marry the boy in this picture!"

Her father was speechless, taken by surprise. 

And Antoinette shot up from her chair. In the next few minutes, she rushed around her room, packing her things to leave for Australia. 

-

It was a normal day at Empire Academy. The host club was spending time with their hosts in the club room. They were all taken by surprise when the front double doors that led out to the hallway shot open, revealing a young woman they had never seen before. She had dirty blonde colored hair and bright blue eyes. She was wearing the school uniform, but she didn't look familiar to any of them.

Luke was the one to approach her first. He assumed she was a new guest, and didn't even suspect she was new to the country as well. 

"Hey," He got a bit too close to her and spoke into her ear seductively. "Welcome to the host club."

Antoinette immediately shoved him away. "Don't touch me! I'm not here for you. I'm here for my fiance." And she looked right at the boy she had decided she was going to marry,

Everyone in the room followed her eyes in shock.

She was looking at Calum.

"Calum, you're getting married?" Luke gasped.

"That's right." The French girl nodded her head, her accent was clear as she spoke. Calum said nothing, making them believe her words were true. "My little Calum and I are engaged."

That afternoon, when everyone left the club room, the hosts were gathered at the table where they had a daily short meeting to discuss the events of the day. Antoinette was joining them and she was sat next to Calum, who still had said nothing to confirm or deny that he was dating Antoinette Courtois.

"So, how did you two meet?" Ashton wondered, with a cheerful smile on his face.

"And why didn't you tell us you were getting married?" Luke asked, less enthusiastic about the whole situation. He felt upset that Calum, his best friend, would keep something like this to himself.

With a shake of his head, the raven haired boy informed his friends calmly, "I'm not engaged."

This took everyone by surprise once more.

Now they were all looking to Antoinette. "I may have lied about that. He just looks like a character in one of my video games." She admitted with a cheeky smile. "But when my dad showed me Calum's picture, I knew I was in love with him. Our families are doing business together."

"And I thought it would be interesting to see your reactions, so I played along." Calum shrugged.

"You need to go home." Michael pointed for the exit.

Antoinette's mouth fell open in surprise that he would talk to her like that when all the hosts seemed more than gentlemanly when there were other guests around. Equally surprised at what Michael said, Luke gasped, "How can you talk to a girl like that, Michael? Forgive him, Antoinette." He smiled at her.

The French girl glared at him and said, "You all need an attitude make over. I don't believe that you" she pointed at Luke, "could be the prince type. That should be Calum's position in the club. And I don't believe any of you." She continued. "Everyone has a dark side, and you can't just be sweet and gentlemanly. If you have a dark side, the girls will fawn over you even more."

Her words seemed to capture Luke's attention. "You think so?"

She nodded, "Yes. Just let me manage you all and I'll make you more popular than you already are."

"You're hired!" Luke grinned.

-

"Remember Luke," She coached him from behind the movie camera. There was a machine pouring water on him, making it look like rain, and he was leaning against the trunk of a tree. "You're the lonely prince. Everyone admires you, but deep down you're very lonely."

They filmed some scenes with him standing under the rain for a film Antoinette was planning to sell to the guests, so that they could discover the boys' secret dark sides. 

When they finished with Luke, they filmed Louis and Harry's scenes next. They were supposed to be self-centered because it was hard for them to make friends. Those were filmed in a music room because Harry was very musically talented, as was Louis. Kennedy only watched while they filmed the other scenes, until hers came up. She was the last one.

She was filming with Niall and Ashton. 

In the short film, Ashton was supposed to be Kennedy's bully and Niall was supposed to be Ashton's best friend. 

They had chased her into the woods near the school, in the rain, until she tripped and backed up, getting cornered against the trunk of a tree. Ashton stood over her menacingly. "I told you not to mess with me, Lynn."

Kennedy looked up at him, pretending to be afraid.

Just when he was supposed to pretend to beat her up, he cried out, "Cut! I can't do it!"

"You won't be beating him up for real." Antoinette said through her megaphone. She did not know that Kennedy Lynn was a girl. "Its just for the movie."

Ashton dropped to his knees and pulled Kennedy into his arms. "I can't hurt Kennedy." He cried out, his face nuzzled into her short hair. 

"Ugh." Antoinette groaned. "I'm going to go find some real bullies then."

And she walked off, leaving them there.

Kennedy got back on her feet and shook the dirt off her uniform, but with all the fake rain, she only smeared it on herself more. She then followed behind the lady manager, hoping that she wouldn't be causing more trouble for people.

Kennedy found her talking to two boys who looked like delinquents. Kennedy was too far to be able to hear what they were saying, but by the looks on their faces, they didn't seem to like what she said to them. The girl with short hair rushed to Antoinette's aid, standing in front of her protectively. "Hey, leave her alone!" She warned them. But they were much taller than her and were not intimidated by Kennedy Lynn.

"Or what?" One of them challenged, shoving Kenney, who fell back into a bunch of camera equipment. 

Luke saw Kennedy being pushed and ran to her side. "Are you okay, Kennedy?" He asked her, concerned.

She nodded slowly.

That was when Luke straightened himself up and walked over to the two boys who looked at him in fear. They knew exactly who he was. "We're sorry, Hemmings." One of them said nervously. "We didn't know he was your friend." And before the blonde haired boy could say anything, they ran away. Luke's blue eyes shot Antoinette a glare before he returned to Kennedy to help her up.

Clapping her hands together delightedly, Antoinette asked the camera crew, "Did you get that?"

They shot her a thumbs up.

Their mouths fell open with Calum grabbed a rock off the ground and smashed the camera lense with it. 

"What the hell?" The camera man said.

"Antoinette, you're annoying. Can you go back to France now?" Calum wondered.

Her eyes immediately watered. "But-"

"But nothing." The raven haired boy shook his head. "You're causing trouble. I don't want trouble at my club."

"Why are you being so mean?" The girl cried, looking down to the ground. "You were so nice before."

"Because that guy from your video game wasn't Calum." Kennedy pointed out. "You need to stop assuming things about people because of the way they look. If you give people a chance and get to know them, I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised." A smile formed on her lips. Kennedy had learned that when she joined the host club. They were all nice guys.

"Oh Kennedy," Antoinette gushed, "Lets go on a date together then!"

She went to link arms with the first year student and dragged her away from the rest of the boys. 

"Wait!" Luke called, horrified.

"I thought you said you wanted her to have a girlfriend?" Louis grinned.

"I said she needed a female friend, not a girlfriend!" He clarified, and ran after the two girls. The rest of the club boys followed after him.

It seemed they had survived the Lady Manager.

-

here is an update for you all. i hope you like the update. i wanted to update sooner, but i was too tired to finish it the other day.

i love you.

-clary xx