I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. This is my entry for Aoi Maboroshii-Chan's OC x Cannon contest.

Chapter 1

Lettuce looked across the room out the window, thinking about Shirogane, she really liked him, but he had started going out with Ichigo a few weeks ago. She sighed; things had changed so much since they defeated the aliens. The aliens had been gone for three years, Lettuce was seventeen, a senior, and she still hadn't even had a real first kiss. She figured the one with Ryou didn't count because he had been unconscious. She still didn't have any friends apart from the mews, and that had been okay t first, but it made school lonely after awhile.

"Midorikawa-san!" her teacher stood in front of her desk looking down at her.

"Oh sorry, Suzuki-sensei!" she apologized embarrassed that she was the only other one in the room; she bowed and got up to leave.

"Wait, Midorikawa-san," he stopped her.

"Huh?" she asked confused.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked her.

"Um, yeah, why do you ask?" she replied even more confused than before.

"You just seem kinda down all the time, the other teachers agree."

"Oh, well, I'm doing okay; things are just kinda hectic at work, and you know, looking for colleges is stressful as well."

"Um, if you need to talk, I'm here, and so are all of the teachers, well except Saito-sensei, but you known how she is."

Lettuce let out a little laugh, "Thanks for the concern. Please tell the others I'm fine."

"All right, I will, you may go," he said dubiously, and she left with a bow. Lettuce sighed, she didn't want people to worry about her, she went towards the front entrance to the school, bit bumped into someone, scattering their books everywhere.

"Gomen nasai! Gomen nasai!" she said with a bow, and looked up at the person she had run into. He had black hair that looked like an Australian singer's she liked to listen to, the singer's name was Dean Geyer. He looked a lot like that singer in fact.

"It's no big deal. My name is Ito Toshihiro, what's yours?"

"Midorikawa Lettuce, I'm sorry I ran into you," she said as she gathered her books.

"Don't worry about it, it was nice to meet you, Midorikawa-san," he said standing up, and handing her a notebook.

"Arigato, and gomen, again, for running into you," she said with a bow.

He laughed a little, "Don't worry about it. I'll see you around."

"Yeah," she smiled and went out to the door, and she made her way to work.

The sky was grey and the air smelled of snow, she pulled her coat closer as the wind blew, chilling her to the bone. She loved winter; there was something uniquely beautiful about it. She walked the secluded path she often took to get from school to work. She remembered many times when she would just stay on the path, going as slow as possible, soaking in the beauty of the scenery. Today, however, she had to rush, that incident with Ito-san slowed her up.

She looked up at the pink café, at one point it had been her safe haven, right now however, it was just something to add to her problems. There was nothing binding her there, she could quit at anytime, but in some ways she didn't feel like she could. It was hard to pick between the only friends she had and a certain peace of mind. Maybe she could just ask for some time off, that could solve the problem…

She walked in the café to find that she was the only one there, "Hello?" she called, she got no response, well, she would go change anyway, someone would show up eventually. She quickly changed and started putting chairs down. After half an hour of thinking and doing nothing at all she decided to go see if Shirogane knew what was happening. She knocked on the door, and heard no response, she thought about just going away but she decided maybe he hadn't heard her.

She opened the door and gasped at what she saw. She quickly closed the door and ran downstairs, tears welling up in her eyes she ran into the changing room and quickly changed then ran out of the café, she heard someone calling but she didn't care she couldn't get the image she had seen out of her head. She knew that Ichigo and Ryou had been dating, but she had no idea that they were sexually active.

She was upset but as snow started to fall she stopped, and a thought came to her, why be sad, or angry? She wasn't Ryou's girlfriend, or even ex-girlfriend, she had reason to be upset. She had never told Ryou, and this was a perfect opportunity to change. Yes, this would be a great opportunity.