Note: Well, I was working on the 3rd chap of Everlasting Falls, but I had temporary writer's block for it, so I thought it might help if I tried to update my other fics. I just want to say thanks for reviewing you guys! I didn't think my fic was that good! Anyway, hope you all like this chapter!

Of Disguises and Bathrooms

Hilary's Room, Mariah's POV

"Mariah no offense, but how are we going disguise ourselves? I mean, there is the big issue of our hair. Mines not that big of a worry, but yours is long and pink." Hilary said to me, putting emphasis on long and pink.

I shook my head and 'tsk, tsk'd at her. Poor Hilary, never knowing the full advantages of being sneaky and planning things out carefully.

"Relax Hil, FYI, I've already figured that part out. All I have to do is cut and dye it. We might also have to cut yours too, but not too much." I said these words, while ignoring the pain in my chest when I mentioned the cutting and dying of my hair.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly what you call girly. I play a lot of sports and PE is my best subject, but my hair is the only girlish feature that I like. I mean, we've just been through so much together! There was this time when my parents wanted to take me to the barbershop and cut my hair, but of course I refused. I can't imagine my life without my hair, it's just so-so-so.....there for me! It's like a table. You can always be sure that it's there, and it gives you comfort, and-

"Mariah!"

I zoned back in and heard Hil call me. I faced her with a sheepish expression and said "Yeah Hil?"

She rolled her eyes and asked "Okay, so we figured out what to do with the hair. But........what about our parents?"

I shrugged and answered "Oh you know, ask them if you can attend a boarding school. Just leave out the All Boys' part. I can almost guarantee you it will work." I flashed a smile at her, showing my perfect pearly whites.

She raised an eyebrow and said in a tone "Almost?"

I shrugged. Hey, you can never be sure when I comes to parents.

Especially Hil's folks, now those are a pair of lunatics.............

Hilary's Room, Hilary's POV

Okay, I can do this, I can do this, I can do-

"Hilary come down for dinner!" I heard my mom say.

I sighed and shouted back "I'll be down soon!"

Oh, how am I going to do this?! My parents after all, are not exactly what you call sane!

First take my mom, Caroline Tatibana. A perfectionist, a psychologist, and a psycho.

I'm not joking about the last one.

Then, there's my dad, Jeff Tatibana. Emotional, matchmaker (do you know how many boys he's tried to make me date?!), and a lunatic.

Yep, my parents are a bunch of weirdoes.

I still love them, of course.

Kitchen Table

"Mom?" I asked cautiously.

My mom had just finished talking with dad about one of her patients who had fallen in love with Hamlet and had recently begun dressing like a medieval woman while kissing Shakespeare's book.

I figured that this would be a good time to ask her.

"Yes Hilary?" She asked.

I inwardly groaned, she never called me Hil, it was always Hilary. She believed that real names were better than nicknames, and that nicknames gave off that someone was a controversial, tarnish person with no sense of dignity since they used the shorter version of their names.

Well, something along those lines at least.

"I was wondering if I could go to boarding school." I crossed my fingers for luck after I asked The Question.

Mom seemed to be thinking for a moment and was about to say something, when dad cut her off with a question of his own.

"Are there any boys out there?" He asked wiggling his eyebrows faster than a normal human (A world record most definitely!) suggestively.

I sighed and smiled at the question "Plenty of them."

He leaned back into his chair and said satisfied "Very well, I give you my permission to attend this boarding school. Stay as long as you need to. Just bring back a boyfriend when you come back." He finished off with a wink.

"I also think you should go to this boarding school, it might give you a good education. What is this school anyway?" Mom asked.

My mind froze momentarily. I gulped and answered as calmly as I could "It's called Bakuten's Boarding School. Mariah's going there too. It has all sorts of good stuff. Clubs, track teams, art room, library, swimming pool, and rather good dorms. The cost isn't that expensive really. Certainly affordable."

Okay, I wasn't necessarily lying, since everything I mentioned was true (Mariah told me some other stuff about it). I just didn't mention it was an All Boys' School.

Hey, what they knew couldn't hurt them!

"Hmm, sounds good. Alright, you can go. I'll give you the money for the pane trip for both you and Mariah. Write to us whenever you can." Mom said in unison.

"Yes, and don't forget, you need to date some boys while you're there!" Dad added.

I rolled my eyes.

Mariah's Kitchen Table, Mariah's POV

"So Mariah, Caroline just called me saying something about a boarding school and a plane ride. Do you know anything about it?" My mom, Grace Takana asked curiously.

I frowned mentally, a plane ride? Oh well, think about that later.

"Um, well, that's what I was about to ask you about that. You see, I was wondering if I could go to this great boarding school. It's called Bakuten's Boarding School." I said as innocently as I could.

My mom raised an eyebrow and replied "Why would you want to go to a boarding school? And how good is it?"

"It's affordable. And has a lot of good stuff. Mom, I really just want to go there! It would be good for me to have different experiences. Plus, you said so yourself that I need to get out there and do something!" I exclaimed, while hoping the Tooth Fairy would grant be some of her powers so I could convince my mom to let me go.

She blinked.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

Then opened her mouth and said "Okay then, it sounds very nice. Write to me as often as you can. I'll tell Caroline that you agreed to go on the plane ride with Hilary. Your father will know about this boarding school thing when he returns from America." She finished talking and reached for a piece of chicken.

I, on the other hand, just sat still on my chair with a huge grin that took up half my face.

Yes!

My mother is so cool!

Hilary's Room

"You ready?" Hil asked.

I gulped and fingered my pink locks for what would be the last time.

"Yes."

It was disguise day. We were going to go on the plane to Bakuten tomorrow (unsupervised of course) and had to work on our disguises down to perfection so they really looked like boys.

First, we worked on our clothes.

We had gone to the mall for two hours and bought s many guy clothes as we could (while trying to ignore the weird stares we were getting from people).

Then, we worked on our chest.

Hilary and I covered our chest with vests so people wouldn't, um, notice........certain assets.

And now........we were working on our hair.

Hilary's was easier to work with. All I had to do was cut it just a teensy bit shorter and it was good to go.

Now, we were working on the hard part.

My hair.

I silently prayed as Hilary reached for scissors.

I sucked in some breath as she cut the first lock.

My beautiful hair was getting cut off.

I will survive, I will survive, I don't know I'll stay alive, I will survive.........

Hilary's POV

I put down the scissors and examined my work.

Mariah looked really different with short hair. I had cut it to her chin so she really did look like a boy.

Of course, there was still the color that would cause a problem.

But luckily, I had already thought of that and was sure it would work.

I just needed to ask Mariah about it.

"Okay, I'm finished." I removed the blindfold I put over her and let her see.

She gasped and examined herself. At last she smiled and said "I like. You did a good job."

I smiled and asked "Well that's good. Now, Mar. Do you think I could dye your hair?"

She blinked and asked in a surprised voice "What?! Why?"

I fidgeted a bit "Well, your hair's pink. And pink's not really a boy color. So I was thinking, if could we change it to something like......red?" I shrugged.

Mariah looked like she was thinking about it, and then slowly responded "I guess that would be a good idea. But as long as it's not permanent then......sure!"

I grinned and said "Don't worry; it'll only be long lasting temporary dye. One of my mom's patients had hair issues and used to dye her hair with that special dye. She gave me some of it. Of course I haven't tried it out. But I know it'll work." I gave her a thumbs up to show my reassurance.

She bit her lip looking a bit uncertain but came up with an answer "Sure I guess. Just make sure it comes out all right."

"Don't' worry, nothing will happen." I said.

I hope.

Third Person's POV

Hilary and Mariah stared in the mirror.

Hilary had just finished dying Mariah's hair and they looked at the mirror to see what it looked like.

Mariah certainly looked really different. Really, really different.

Hilary cleared her throat and said in a proud voice "I personally think I did a very good job. With the hair you look like a real boy."

Mariah grinned and exclaimed "Great! Now I get to do your hair!" She added a very devious smile for affect.

Hilary gulped and asked "Is that a teddy bear screaming?"

Mariah's very good with evil smiles; Hilary lost her stuffed giraffe once.

Never got to making it a funeral though.

Tokyo Airport, Mariah's POV

Hil and I walked with our suitcases to our gate.

I grabbed Hilary's hand as soon as we sat down on some chairs and hissed "Hilary, tell me why we arrived at the gate at 8:30 when our plane clearly arrives at 9:00!?"

She yawned and stretched "Because Mariah, we haven't gotten into our disguises yet. And we need to make sure we look 'boyish' enough."

I raised an eyebrow. We had been getting a lot of weird looks from people.

I wasn't sure whether it was because they thought it was because we looked like girls with short hair or because we looked like boys with girl clothes.

The first one sounded slightly less creepy.

"Okay.............and exactly how do we 'prove' that we're boys?" I asked a teensy bit shrilly.

Hilary smirked and pointed to the men's restroom then fixed me with a weird look.

I was stumped.

"Would you care to fill me in? Why exactly are you pointing at the men's restroom and looking at me with that loo.........." I was about to finish my question when it hit me.

I knew exactly why Hilary was looking at me like that and pointing at me like that.

I crossed my arms and glared at her.

"There is no way you're going to convince me to go into the men's restroom."

Front of Men's Restroom Door

"I cannot believe you're convincing me to do this!" I hissed as we both looked at the door.

Hilary smiled innocently and said "Hey, a little blackmail can go a long, long way."

I rolled my eyes and asked "How'd you get that photo anyway? I don't remember putting on a tutu!" I put my hands on hips.

Hil just shrugged and answered "What can I say? Kenny's really good at computer genetics."

And with further a do, the backstabbing traitor pushed me into the bathroom.

I stared. There were these toilet things on the wall. I saw a man walk up to one of them. I just stayed near the sinks but still watched him out the corner of my eye; I wondered what he was going to do.

The guy opened his zipper and....................

Oh god.

I am mentally scarred for life.

Relax Mariah, try breathing exercises, those will calm you down. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale, exha-

"Hey dude? What's your problem? You look like you just saw a ghost! You okay dude?" The guy asked, he seemed finished with whatever you call what he was doing.

I jerked my head towards him. I tried to keep my eyes on his face than on his zipper. I nodded and turned to get out.

Hilary is so dead.

Airplane, Hilary's POV

"Stop laughing!" Mariah exclaimed at me.

But I didn't pay any attention. By the time I had stopped my giggle fest, the whole airplane was staring at me.

My faced turned a bit red and I scratched my head. I chose to ignore them and turned back to Mariah "You really saw the guy pee?!"

Mariah rolled her eyes and replied "Yes I did. Now, can we drop the subject please?!"

"Okay, okay, don't need to go all defensive with me." I said. "The guy did think you were a guy right?"

Mariah nodded. She was about to say something else when the pilot's voice spoke.

"Ladies and gentleman, please make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened. We will arrive in Bakuten shortly."

We had smiles on our faces. I turned to Mar and we both exclaimed in unison.

"Woohoo! We're off to Bakuten!"

Third Person, Front of Bakuten

Hilary and Mariah stared in awe.

Mariah turned to Hilary and said "Well, you ready?"

Hilary gulped but stared determinedly at the building.

"I'm ready."

They clasped each other's hands and pushed the front of the door.

Chapter One Ends......TBC

Note: Well, how was it? And Tai-writer, Hilary and Mar don't know the Bladebreakers or the White Tigers. I forgot to mention this was an AU. Anyway, please tell me what you guys thought of this. I gave Mariah a bit of an innocence air in this chapter. You can see it in the bathroom incident. I just love torturing my favorite characters.

Thanks for reading, now just press that purple button at the bottom and review!