Clip-clip-clip.

She watched her hair fall and collect into bundles on the floor. The hairdresser had a pretty messy job but that was none of her concern. She was just here for a change of hairstyle. She was sick of being the pushover doormat that everyone took advantage of.

She was going to revert back to the old Momo. The one nobody, even Toshiro, knew about. Her real name wasn`t even Momo. It was actually Maihime. Leave it to her mother to come up with the worst most embarrassing name ever. What kind of ignorant parent named their child, dance or ocean princess?

And why the hell did her father, who was a high ranking shinigami in the soul society, go to the world of the living, fall in love with a human then, marry her? And not any normal, sane woman. Out of the three billion women in the world of the living he picked the most obnoxious abusive one.

He didn`t stop at that. He even went and betrayed her by getting killed by a lowly hollow on her freaking third birthday(nice birthday present by the way), leaving her with her "mother" to take care of her. From that day onwards she forgot the meaning of love.

Her monster of a mother beat her for every single mistake she made. She called it discipline but that`s what it was thought of back in those times. This was her life until she turned thirteen and her mother was getting her ready to get married. At freaking thirteen years of age! That was the norm back then but she had had enough.

She packed her stuff at night and crawled out the window to "freedom". That was she expected but instead she escaped into a world of harsh reality. A world of starvation, disease, fighting and stealing. That was England back then. A world where friendship didn`t exist. Or so she had thought.

Before she met him. What was his name again…? Oh yeah Tom. He was the only friend she-

"Here you go sweetie" boomed a voice dragging her back to reality "done and finished. Just like you wanted it." She surveyed her look in the mirror. This hairdresser was pretty good. The new look was just like she had wanted it. She liked the way it framed her face and the pointy edges of her hair made her look tougher, maybe even beautiful.

"How much will that be" she asked searching around in her pocket for loose change. "twenty pounds" replied the energetic hairdresser before adding " don't worry. With that hairstyle you`ll be picking up boys in no time!"

She handed her the money before muttering a "thank you" and leaving the store. Even with the new look it was going to take a while for her to leave the doormat Momo behind. But that`s what this break was for. Following her fatal injury in the regai war, the soutaichou had recommended a two-month holiday in the world of the living.

She was going to use this holiday to loosen up a little- okay maybe a lot-and to figure out a way to break out of her shell as the improved version of Maihime. First she was going to have to pick a new name. Maybe something English…..

It was Monday morning and Mai was on her way to school. That was the name she had settled for, Mai. English people named their children that too so it wouldn`t stand out too much. It took her a while to think of a surname but in the end she stuck with Ash. Kisuke handled all the paperwork and enrolling her in school as a favour so she was really grateful.

Although it was meant to be a holiday she thought going to school might give her something to do and it was also a brilliant chance to learn more about life in England now. She hadn`t visited England for more than a century, she couldn`t wait to see all the change.

She reached the school and spotted the mob of students entering through the main entrance. She took a deep breath and joined them in. She noticed immediately that her skirt was shorter than the other girl`s skirts. She didn`t know that the skirts here were meant to be longer than the skirts they wore in Japan.

As if she wasn`t already feeling out of place she also realized that she was the only one who wasn`t talking with someone. She turned left and continued looking for the principal`s office ignoring the looks thrown her way. Fifteen minutes later and she still hadn`t found the principal`s office. Seriously this was turning out to be more effort than it was worth.

Finally she decided to ask someone who was passing through the corridor and they lead her back to the entrance but this time they turned right into a dead end and there on the right hand side was a sign saying principal`s office. She thanked the student who helped her before entering the room.

Ten minutes later she stepped out of the principal`s office with her timetable, a map of the school and a bunch of useless papers she didn`t understand in her hand. She scanned her timetable. "So first thing Monday morning..." she muttered to herself "found it. English in room 102"

After ten minutes of staring at the map she still hadn`t figured out how to read it so she just crumpled it up and threw it into a nearby bin. Well all the rooms on her current floor were labelled G something and this was the ground floor, so the 1 something rooms were probably on first floor she deduced.

She sprinted down the corridor to the stairs and took them four at a time. She ran to class thanking her thinking skills and shinigami training all the way there. She arrived at her destination just a few seconds later. It didn`t really matter that she was late. She was new here after all so the teacher will probably go easy on her.

The moment she set foot in the classroom twenty-seven pairs of eyes, including the teacher`s turned towards her. "Well, Ms Ash I thought you would never make it" remarked the teacher then putting on a softer tone "I hope you`re not finding it hard to get around the school"

"No Ms. I just found the map hard to read. I thought it was for a higher level group of students so I threw it away." She said shrugging her shoulders. The whole class burst into fits of laughter and the teacher`s smile widened. At least she knew that that she was on this teachers good side.

"Well you better introduce yourself to the class" she said. Taking her advice Mai stood at the top of the class and introduced herself. "Go take a seat there next to Alex" she ordered pointing at an empty seat next to a blonde-haired kid, "And I`ll talk to the principal about making a map especially for second years" she joked before returning her attention to the lesson at hand.

Walking down to her seat she dropped her school bag under her desk then plopped herself down onto her chair. She took the chance while the teacher was focused answering a student's question and turned her attention to the boy, Alex, sitting next to her.

She was sure she hadn`t seen hair that blonde before and she had to admit he was pretty handsome. He was also fit and judging by the muscles on his arm and the way he moved he probably did some form of martial arts.

But there was still that nagging feeling that she had seen him before. But where? She shrugged the feeling of before gently nudging him with her shoulder. He turned towards her and she mouthed the words "What`s your name?"

"My name is Alex Rider…."