"What have you discovered, Kish?" a voice asked

"Nothing we didn't already know. Earthlings have several stages of education, 'college' being the highest. I have successfully entered myself in to observe them like you requested, but I still don't see what the point of all of this is."

"Don't talk back to Deep Blue!" a new voice spoke up, angry. "Just do as you're told."

"Che. Fine. My lord, Deep Blue, I will continue to mingle with the earthlings, as well as Ichigo, who is one of the 'Mew Mew' group. Already we have spoken, and soon we will become friends. I will have the inside information soon."

"Good. Don't disappoint me, Kish. You're my best officer."

"Of course."

TMM: College Years V

By: Satashi

"Wakey wakey!" Ryou shook me, waking me up from my pleasant dreams of eating the world's largest doughnut. "Ichigo, time to get ready for work."

"I'm sleepy," I complained, rolling over and pulling a pillow close to me. "Just five more minutes."

"You said that ten minuets ago now get up. We open in thirty minuets and we need to be ready. Come on." To my surprise, the covers were pulled off of me and I was lifted out of bed and set on my feet.

"You didn't have to go that far," I yawned and got my footing with a little help of my tail. I'm up, I'm up. I'll be ready in just a moment." I rubbed my eyes and stretched out. "Already time to work, I'm a little nervous."

"Just smile and be polite. Ask me if you need any help." He handed me a white box. "Here, I had this made for you."

"For me?" I opened it up and gasped lightly. "Oh wow, it's so cute!" The outfit was strawberry red, complete with white trim. Mew Bar and Grill was written on the front of the shirt, which I could tell would be a tight fit. The blue jeans with it flared out at the bottom and had little red studs going down the side of them. The very bottom was laced with the studs as well. One thing I noticed was the belt loops at the top of the jeans. Each of them was snap-on at the bottom and was a little larger than normal.

"I told you it was specially made. Try it on." He walked past me and out his room, closing the door behind himself.

Shrugging, I stripped down and laid my things on his bed. Pulling the shirt on first, I adjusted it and moved around a little to get it in place fully. It was tight, but at the same time easy to move in. Unfortunately it also showed a little of my stomach when I held my arms up. Snagging the pants, I noticed another snap on the back of them. I thought it was rather cute design, and put those too on. Finally reclaiming my shoes, I opened the door to let Ryou back in.

"How do they fit?"

"Perfectly." I spun around for him and giggled. "Thanks a lot."

"I felt like it."

I smiled. "Sure you did. But what about my tail and ears?"

"Turn around."

"Eh? What for?" I turned and looked over my shoulder at him. When his hands trailed along the base of my tail, I gasped and pulled away a little. "Pervert!"

"It's not like that, idiot. Stand still." He moved forward again, and I watched him again as he took my tail and snapped a clip just above it, so my tail looked as if it came out of the jeans instead of hanging on top of them. I then realized what was going on as he moved my tail around my waist and snapped each belt look over it to keep it in place. "There."

"Oh wow!" I spun around and jumped a little, extremely pleased that it didn't come unwrapped. "It looks just like a belt!" Not helping myself, I gave him a hug and bounced excitedly. "This is great! I was so worried about it!"

"Let go," He pulled away a little and blushed, making me laugh.

"You're act all tough, but deep down you're really a sweet guy."

"Not really." He grabbed a hair band from his desk and put it on my head, pressing down my cat ears. "Just don't do anything to knock this off, or your ears will pop up.

"Right." I nodded and then looked at his mirror and shook my head to see how much force it would take to knock it away. Finally ready now, I turned back to him and smiled. "So are we ready to go now?"

"Yeah, come one." He put his arms behind his head and walked out of his room with me following.

"Welcome!" I called out to the people walking in the door. "Please, have a seat!" I motioned to two empty places at the bar. So far we were doing a little better than we thought we would. The bar was large, able to seat at least thirty five people. Twenty four of said seats were now currently occupied by people either eating dinner, drinking, or both. "What can get for you?"

"Just a scotch on the rocks for me."

"And some nice Sex on the Beach for me."

I blushed darkly. Was this guy hitting on me?

"It's a cocktail," Ryou whispered in my ear. "Vodka, Peach schnapps, Orange juice, Cranberry juice. The measurement charts are under the blenders."

Nodding, I smiled at the people who ordered. "Just a moment then!" I waved to them lightly, making them smile. The blender, well, one of four, were in the middle of the bar. I opened the small refrigerator under them and took out the ingredients and checked the drink chart on the inside of them. Nodding to myself, I began to mix the drink before grabbing some scotch and pouring it in a small glass with some ice. By then the drink was done so I reached to pick up the blender, but found a hand stopping me.

"No blending, just serve."

"Right." I nodded at Ryou and put on a smile, bringing the drinks to the two college students. "Here you go."

"Why not pour yourself a shot on us?" One of them asked, grinning and taking a shot glass that was set upside down on the bar and slid it to me.

"Me? I, um,"

"Aw go ahead. Always treat a cute bartender to a drink, it's only polite."

Swallowing, I put on a smile and nodded. "Thanks!" I grabbed a random dark liquid bottle and pulled the cork, filling the glass halfway full. "Cheers then!"

"Cheers!" The guys tapped their glasses to mine and I downed the drink coughing. This only made the guys laugh, but I smiled at them anyway.

I felt the drink almost instantly. Taking the bottle I walked over to Ryou, who was currently rooting through the freezer to get some ice. "Ryou, what did I just drink?" I showed him the bottle, getting a whistle.

"That's hardcore stuff there. One seventy proof. Four more of those and you'll hit the floor."

"Great," I muttered and put the bottle back and went to sever some people who just finished their drinks. These were eating a meal, though, so I easily made small conversation with them as I re-filled their tea.

The shot I took made me loosen up a little bit at least, and I no longer felt as scared as I did when I first started. In fact, as the time went on, I actually started to have some fun. I copied Ryou a little bit as he talked with the customers and I learned several different things as the night continued. Ryou seemed to be popular, as many girls who came in flirted with him after seeing who he was. When I thought about it, Ryou was probably not too much older than me. He might be a senior or at least a junior here at college. I would have to ask him about that later.

"I'm not doing that," A familiar voice came as two people walked in. "Mark, you're an idiot."

"No I'm not." Mark, the boy I met a while ago in the bookstore, disagreed with his room mate. "I'm a genius." The two sat down at the bar. "You know what you need?"

"A new best friend?"

"Too right you are! Let me introduce you." Mark called out over to me now. "Hey cutie, two Samuel Adams in a bottle!"

"Coming right up!" I replied, blushing and getting the bottles from a section under the bar that kept them all cold. "Here you are." I popped the tops for them and slid them over.

"Hey, I've met you!" Mark realized, pointing. "In the book store. You were...Hey, are you Ichigo by any chance?"

"I am."

"Wow, you're a cute one!" He was about to say something else, but Masaya elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow..."

"How are you, Momomiya-san?" Masaya asked me.

"Good, how about you?" I looked down a little bit. Masaya hasn't contacted me since I've sent him the text message a few days ago.

"I'm all right I guess. Good day at college? Find all of your classes okay?"

"Um, yeah. I got them just fine. Rayearth-san helped me and-"

"Mark." Mark cut in with a grin. "I'm from England originally; I don't do this last name first stuff. Just call me Mark."

"Okay. Mark, then, helped me with my books. I used the same thing to find my classes."

"That's good."

"Um..."

"Ichigo, I need you over here!" Ryou suddenly called, making me bow to them and run off to see what he needed. "What is it?"

"Take this to Keiichiro," He handed me a receipt for a meal order. "Put it on the turn table in there and hurry back."

"Right!" I nodded at him and trotted to the door leading to the kitchen. Turning around a corner, I walked into it, amazed as Keiichiro kept everything going by himself. "Oh wow, you're doing awesome in here!"

"Thank you." Keiichiro replied, looking up. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh!" I held up the slip. "New order. Um..." I looked around.

"right there." He pointed with his knife to a silver thing hanging from a cabinet. "Clip it on, spin to so the new ticket faces me and say "Order up"

"I ran over to it, did as he requested, and spun it. "Order up!"

"Thank you. And here is an 'Order in' as well. That means it's ready to go out and serve. Look on the ticket; it's marked on there where it goes. Serve from your left to your right from the first person to the last. If you're not sure about if you wrote it down right or not, simply say 'Who got the, whatever, and serve it to whoever says something or nods. It's not hard."

"Right!" I took the tray and started to carry it out.

"One hand. Hold it up flat on your palm so you can maneuver better. Don't worry, you won't drop it."

I shivered a little and did as I was asked, praying I didn't tip the tray over and spill it all over someone. As I made my way back to the bar, I looked at the slip and went to where two people were waiting. Smiling to them I gave them their meals and asked if there was anything else I could do for them. After this, I walked back to the bar and over to Mark, who was singling to me. "Yes? What can I get you?"

"I need a Margarita, and Masaya would like you to give him screaming multiple orgasms."

"Mark!"

I blushed darkly as Mark laughed. "Hey man, not my fault you're still a virgin."

"Hey!"

"It's his favorite drink," Mark told me, ignoring his friend. "He's just too shy to ask for it by name, so he gets me to."

"C-Coming right up."

"Hope so!"

Mark was elbowed in the ribs once again, making him wince. "Hey man, I was only teasing," He whispered to Masaya, rubbing his side.

"Ryou, what's a 'Screaming Multiple Orgasm?'"

"A lot of fun."

I blushed for the third time that night. "Idiot!"

Ryou laughed happily, smiling like I've never seen him do before. "Simple. Orange liqueur, Bailey's Irish cream, Galliano, Milk, Strawberries. Add them in that order over ice. Check the charts for measurements." He patted my head as I walked by him and over to the freezer area and picked out the ingredients. Making their drinks, I carried them over to the boys and handed them over.

"Here you are," I smiled. "One girly drink and one orgasm."

"Hey!"

Masaya broke out laughing and had to put his head down on the counter a moment to collect himself, body still shaking.

I ran lightly to the kitchen and leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. "I can't believe he's here." I muttered out. It had only seen the boy three times and already I was getting a crush on him.

"Who?" Keiichiro asked me as he cooked.

"Aoyama-kun," I told him, looking down. "A very nice boy, but I haven't talked to him lately. I think he's avoiding me. He even promised me a date."

"May be he is just too busy...Here, tell you what." Keiichiro wiped his hands and opened a drawer. "Here. Two tickets to get into the Red Date animal show. It's in the museum close by. Already sold out, so I'm pretty sure he hasn't been. It'll do you good to go as well, so you can see what all you are protecting."

"Oh thank you!" I took them from Keiichiro and smiled up at him happily. "You sure this is okay?"

"Of course! Now go out there and ask him before he leaves."

"Right!" I ran back out into the restaurant, just in time to see Mark toss down some money and wave to Ryou, who nodded at him. The two room mates walked to the door and went through it just as I passed my partner. "Shirogane, I'm going outside for a bit, I'll be right back, I swear!"

"If you must." He agreed and I ran past him and out the door. Looking around, I spotted the two walking towards the parking lot.

"I still don't see what you are so upset about," Mark spoke, putting his hands in his pockets. "She's cute, a red-head, and obviously interested in you. You saw the way she blushed."

"Yeah, just like every other girl stalking me. How do I know she isn't just after the kendo captain? I don't want to go through what I had with the last dates I've had."

"Her name is in your phone man! When's the last time you had a girl in your phone? High school?"

"She came to my match, and watched it."

"And didn't bother you about it! She just texted you and that was it! Just go for it! She's not like the other girls I bet! She's interested in you, not your status!"

"I don't know."

"Um..."

Both guys turned around and looked at me. I swallowed and tried to look at Masaya, but couldn't quite bring myself to. "I... don't want to be a bother...I, um...Just..." I bowed quickly. "I'm sorry I annoyed you, I won't bother you anymore!" I turned and ran off, dropping the tickets in the process.

"Hey, wait! Momomiya-san!"

I didn't stop. 'He thinks I'm annoying.' I thought to myself, closing my eyes tight. 'You're so stupid, Ichigo! A boy like him wouldn't be interested in you!' I opened the door to the restaurant and closed it behind me, wiping my eyes.

"Ouch," Mark spoke from outside. "Busted clean in the act. I bet she's crying."

"You're not helping, Mark."

The sandy blond looked down and picked up the tickets dropped earlier. After reading them, he let out a whistle. "You blew it big time, buddy. Look at this." He showed his friend the tickets. "Passes to the Red Date animal show that you couldn't get tickets for. They sold out almost a month ago; I bet she called in some massive favors to get these."

"Oh man..." Masaya took them and read them over. "No girl around here would want to go to that, let alone ask a boy out to go with them..."

"Looks like your perfect girl just ran away." Mark sighed. "You, my friend, got to pull some serious moves to get that one back after this."

"You said it."

"Tell you what. I'll loan you my car again. You can get some flowers, go to her apartment and apologize. Then show her that you kept the tickets and say how much you really wanted to go see it."

"Right now I just feel like going home and sleeping."

"Sounds good. You need to wake up early; these things are for Wednesday so you don't have much time."

Closing the door behind me, I wiped my eyes and walked back to the bar, putting on a fake smile and addressing the new people sitting down. "What can I get for you?"

"A shot of whisky, strongest you have."

"Coming right up." I pulled a shot glass over and flipped it up, grabbing the bottle of whisky from on top the bar. "Here you go." I filled it up and slid it to him.

"Why not pour yourself one as well, cutie? Maybe a daiquiri to sip on while you work?"

"Actually, this would work wonders right now." I mused, pouring myself a shot and drinking it, making several guys cheer around me. Coughing, I covered my mouth and sniffed since my nose was suddenly running.

Several jokes with the guys around the bar and serving over twenty shots later with some people having a contest, I was offered another drink from them, which I took. Two more later and I found myself suddenly feeling very warm and strange inside. I barely managed to put the glass back on the bar top before I started to fall back and into Ryou's arms. "Oops." He looked at me, and I grinned stupidly up to him. "Yup, one too many free drinks." He hefted me up and put me over his shoulder so I was looking at the ground. From this angle I realized that Ryou had a pretty cute butt on him. "This girl's out for the night, so no more cute bartender for you guys!" He called out, getting a few whoops and 'aww'ing sounds. "Free beer on the house!" He called out, sliding a twelve pack on top of the bar. "Keep yourselves entertained until I get back!"

"Hear hear!" they called out.

Suddenly the ground started to move and I realized somehow that I was being carried up the stairs and to Ryou's bedroom. "Here you go." He laid me down on his bed and took my head band off, letting my cat ears up. Ruffling my hair, he smiled down at me. "Remind me to teach you not to do that again. Stay here, we close soon. I'll be back."

When the lights were cut out and Ryou left, I laid on the bed for a while before realizing that I was rather uncomfortable. Sitting up I laughed as my body couldn't quite seem to sit still. A few moments later I was stable enough to pull up my shirt, which got caught in my hair. It took almost half a minute to get it completely off. Shaking my head to fix my hair, I immediately wished I didn't do that as the world started to spin around me.

It took a while but I finally rid myself of my cloths and now stood in my underwear. I somehow realized through the haze in my mind that I needed to cover myself up a little bit so I raided Ryou's closet for a good shirt I could use to get comfortable in. Finding one, I slid it on and was pleased to find it going a little past my knees. Now content with what I was wearing, I let my bra unclasp and I wiggled it off and tossed it over with my messy pile of cloths randomly strewn on his floor. Now that I was ready for bed, I let my eyes roll back in my head and passed out, stone drunk.

The light invading my eyes woke me up sometime later. At first I thought that it was already morning, but when Ryou's body blocked most of the light, I realized that it was just the light from the hallway that had awoken me from my sleep and not the sun. "You look positively happy," He spoke to me, grinning. "What have we learned from this?"

"Not so loud," I moaned, rolling over and shielding my eyes. "Turn off the light, it hurts."

"A hangover already? Or are you just super weak to alcohol? Ichigo, what's five time seven?"

"I don't know, leave me alone."

"Yup, you're still drunk. Come on, get up. I'm taking you home."

"I don't wanna go home," My words were slurring lightly. "I wanna sleep."

"Not in my bed your not. Come on," He pulled the covers back and lifted me up in his arms. "You little thief, that's like the third pair of cloths you've stolen from me."

I let my head fall against his chest and I laughed lightly, making my head hurt. "You can have mine."

"I'll pass. Let's go." He shifted me and I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck. He smelt of different types of drinks all mixed into one. I assumed that it was from working and his normal scent would have to be much, much more pleasant than this one.

I dozed off lightly and when I awoke I was being placed in a car. After the door closed I once again drifted off until I was taken out of the car again and carried up some stairs. "You said your apartment was on the top floor, right?"

"Three oh seven," I cooed at him, nuzzling his neck. For some reason I felt like I wanted to make out with him. "Wanna stay at my place tonight baby?"

"No thanks." He answered easily as he shifted me so he could put one hand in his pocket and pull out my keys. He must have tried three or four of them before he found the one that fit the lock on my door. Giggling, I allowed him to carry me to my bed room and lay me down. "Sleep well, Ichigo. Good thing you don't have classes tomorrow. I put my cell number in your phone." He sat my cell phone on the table next to my bed. "If you need anything, call me okay? Don't leave your room until morning. Understand?"

I nodded dumbly up at him. "Sure you dun wanna stay wif me?" My words were getting worse and I laughed at him for no reason.

"Good girl." He patted my head. "Sleep."

Suddenly swallowing, my stomach turned. "I suddenly don't feel very good..."

Ryou sighed heavily as I swallowed again. "Great. I knew I should have let Keiichiro take you on, little cat girl." He helped me out of bed and half dragged – half helped me to the bathroom, where I collapsed next to the toilet. "Remind me to buy you some hair bands..." he made a face and swept my hair into a ponytail and held it as I got sick. "You really owe me for this..."

I never knew waking up could be so painful. At first it was a dull throbbing pain at my eyelids, where the sun was coming in through my windows that have yet to have curtains on them. It wasn't until I sat up and opened my eyes that I truly knew to definition of the words 'hung over'. The world titled to the side and a migraine came all at once. Groaning, I held my head and stumbled to my bathroom, where I tore open the heachache medicine I got from my mom when I moved out. Not even bothering with water, I swallowed two of them and sank down by the cabinet. "Good lord, why did I drink that stuff?"

Marking this off as one of the dumber things I would do in college, I was reminded of the time in high school where my idiotic friends got me smoking. Although that particular nasty habit lasted the good part of six months, I didn't think I would be drinking shots again any time soon.

With a groan, I managed to pick myself up and walk weakly to my kitchen and open my refrigerator. I still haven't been shopping yet for all my house hold survival items just yet, but I at least had enough sense to buy frozen things and some drinks. After rooting around for a moment, I took out some things for a sandwich and a Mountain Dew.

After I had some food in me, I felt incredibly better. My headache was slowly fading and I no longer felt like crawling in bed every time I looked at a light source. Now fed and content, I walked back to my room and realized for the first time what I was wearing. I blinked and pondered how exactly I ended up in one of Ryou's shirts, but I didn't really feel like wondering on it. Taking it off, I tossed it into my dirty cloths hamper and rooted around in my closet for something to wear today.

There was a sudden knocking at my door, making me wince in pain and hold my head. "Ah, not so loud," I complained, quickly pulling on a random tee and some khaki pants. When the knocking came again, I called out that I was coming and held my head again. I figured it was Ryou coming to check up on me since I kind of passed out on him last night, so I didn't bother with socks or anything else.

I opened the door just in time to realize that I didn't have my hat on. Quickly, I grabbed up a spare cap I kept next to the door and shoved it on my head, barley making it on before the door was open all the way. My tail hung behind me lazily, too weak to move around as it normally did. I stood with my legs together, trying to hide it. Who was at the door surprised me greatly.

"Good Afternoon," Masaya spoke a little awkwardly. "Um, I'm not bothering you am I?" He scratched the back of his head. I looked down a little, remembering now why I had downed whisky at the bar. "Here, there are for you." I saw him reach from behind him and hold out something. Blinking, I realized that it was a bouquet of flowers.

"Aw, they're so pretty!" I smelled of them and smiled. "But, what for? I thought I annoyed you..."

"It's not like that at all," He motioned with his hands, which I thought was kind of cute. "You see, I've had some really bad experiences with dating girls and I just kind of got into a mindset that they were all the same... but I realized a little too late that you was different... so I want to say I'm sorry."

"Oh." I felt better now, but still a little hurt. "Okay. Apology accepted." I looked back down at the flowers. At least he was a cute gentleman.

"And if you want, I promised you I'd show you around." He held up the tickets that I had dropped last night. "And, um, these are yours too."

"Thank you." I reached for them and hesitated at the last moment, leaving my fingertips touching them. I blushed a little and looked down. "Actually... I was going to ask you to come with me. But I guess something like this wouldn't interest you would it?"

"You kidding?" I looked up, amazed. "I've been trying to get tickets to go in that museum the moment I heard about it!"

Okay, so he was a cute- dork – gentleman. "You want to go?"

"I'd love to."

I smiled. "Well then, it's tomorrow right? Where should we meet?"

"Actually, I live on the other side of the complex." He pointed to the side. "About a six minuet walk that way or so. Can I just pick you up?"

"That would be lovely. Oh, do you want to come in? I'm sorry; I'm a little out of it today."

"I can't stay; actually, my friends are waiting on me. I had to bribe them to give me enough time to stop by and apologize. We're going shopping; have to re-stock a lot of things since there is a huge sale going on for all new college students."

"I haven't even bought anything yet..."

"You want to come?" He suddenly thought better of it. "But then you'd have to meet Darren and Mark when they are together..."

I laughed. "Is that a bad thing?"

"You have no idea. But you're welcome to come. You need some help to get the right things. We all have a year experience already, Darren has two."

"Sure then! Can I have a few min to get ready?"

"Absolutely. We'll come back in about fifteen minutes?"

"That would be great, nyan" I clamped my hand over my mouth. Did I just...meow?

Masaya grinned. "Okay then. Back soon." He waved lightly and turned, running lightly to the stairs and sliding down the rail.

Closing the door, I leaned against it and sighed audibly. "At least he didn't notice my tail..."

"Woohoo!" Mark screamed out loudly as he crouched down in the shopping card with his arms out as if he was surfing. Darren, Masaya's other room mate, was currently pushing the buggy before hopping on himself to go along with the ride. "Ah! Car! Port side!"

"Port side!" Darren echoed, hopping back on the pavement while running and steering away from the oncoming vehicle.

"You weren't kidding, were you...?" I asked, blushing darkly and looking away as if I didn't know them. I had my cap on again to cover my ears, and my tail was wrapped around my waist. I mentally told myself to get some more pants tailored like my work outfit for my tail.

"Nope. I wasn't kidding." Masaya seemed to be used to this, and was walking as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. "Although we were all banned from K B Toys for the 'Pikachu Incident'. That was a good one."

"I don't want to know."

Masaya had some interesting room mates to say the least. Mark, who I already kind of knew, was more of a goof ball than I thought at first. He was currently wearing a black long sleeved shirt with baggy blue jeans and a backwards baseball cap. His right shoe always seemed to be untied, although he stopped every now and then to solve this problem. From the ride to the store with him, I already knew that no moment would be dull with him around.

Darren on the other hand was the type of person who didn't just goof off, but planned to act silly. It was obvious that he was smart, and he was in his third year of college. But he had this air about him that made me think that he would think up a crazy idea and not hesitate to do it. He and Mark made a good team.

Masaya seemed to be the one of the group who had the one thing the other two lacked: Common sense. He was mature, but I could tell that he also knew how to have a good time. Living with those two for a full year would do it to anyone. Mark was the only one who had a car out of the group. Masaya rode a bike and Darren preferred to skate board. I gathered this much from all the jokes passed back and forth in the trip.

"Come on guys!" Darren called, waving to us from the door to the store.

"Yeah, yeah!" Masaya shouted back, picking up his pace a little bit.

When we reached the buggies, Masaya put his hand on my shoulder and leaned a little close to my ear. "How much you want to buy today, Momomiya-san? You'll fill up two buggies and cost almost over a hundred and fifty dollars if you want to get everything all at once."

"I'll get the necessities until I get a paycheck," I whispered back to him. "Can't push too much at once."

"Good idea." He retreated from me and put his hands in his pockets, walking next to me and behind his other two friends.

"I'm going to hit up the electronics!"

"No you're not; we're here for supplies, not entertainment."

"Just get what we need," Masaya called to them. "Our scholarship money doesn't come in for another few weeks so we'll be tight for a while."

"But I need a forty-two inch plasma flat screen TV man!"

"And we also need to eat for the rest of the month." Darren countered. "Come on Mark, let's go for the supplies." He turned to us. "Masaya, bud, you show Momomiya-chan what all to get. We'll meet up later to see if anything else needs to be gotten." He held up a list and tore it in half, giving the bottom section to Mark. "Let's boogie man."

I looked over at Masaya and smiled. "So I get an escort around the big bad dangerous Super center?"

"Hey, it's more dangerous than you think." We started to walk side by side. "You'll be amazed at everything you want to buy that you don't need to. It's like text books for college. If you can't go cheap, you probably don't need them at all."

"I see... I think." We turned down the first isle and started to walk. "Ah, got to have paper towels!" I reached for the brand my mother always got, but Masaya's hand took mine in mid reach.

"Nuh-uh. That brand cost six bucks."

"So?" I looked over at him confused. "Is that bad?"

He pointed to another off-brand. "This one here is only four dollars and it has two more rolls in it."

"But isn't it weaker than this one? It's way cheaper."

"Doesn't mean it isn't better." He winked at me. "You ever test them out? This kind actually works a lot better than that, and it cost less and you get more for your money. I know it's only about two dollars, but when you think about it, you're going to be buying almost fifty different things. Even if you only save one dollar on some of them, that's still a good chunk of a paycheck you save."

"I see!" I nodded and grabbed the kind he recommended. "What else like that can I do?"

"Paper plates are a definite no-no. Of course they seem cheaper, but think how many you'll use. I recommend getting...well, do you plan on partying a lot at your place or not?"

"I'll probably go to clubs or other parties. I don't plan well. Plus I'm not popular."

"Then get some really nice glass or china plates and such. It's expensive, yeah, but you'll have a lot better standard-of-living feel to your house. It's more comfortable, and you won't feel as down when things go wrong. Say you fail an exam, have a cold, haven't been home in a while, and you come home to an apartment with paper plates, throw away cups, a bean bag, and trash all over the place. How would you feel?"

"Pretty slimy."

"And if you had the same day to a nice apartment with posters on the wall, some good chairs, you have nice clean plates to eat off of, and an actual container that won't break and spill your drink if you squeeze it to hard. A nice hot meal will make you feel a lot better than nuking some frozen dinner on a paper plate, you know?"

"Wow. You want to move in with me?"

He laughed and shook his head. "Love to, but I sleep in only my boxers and have a bad habit of raiding the fridge at two in the morning. We'd have some issues to deal with."

I giggled at him and we started to walk again. For some reason I wasn't really nervous around him as much anymore. Maybe it was his goofy friends, or how he seemed to know a lot about things I had questions about, but I honestly felt like we became real friends that day.

And I liked that.

A/N: Well, I was planning on writing another 3,000 words before I ended this chapter, but I haven't updated in a while so I decided to cut it off before I was completely finished with my idea I had for this one. The other Mew Mews should start coming in now that I have a more basis of what's going on. I hope you like Mark and Darren, they play a lot of roles in the story. Mainly for comedy. Also it helps to have extra characters for when the other 4 mew mews haven't shown up yet. Anyway, I'm rambling again.

Quick poll in reviews: Do you want me to update every other day or so with 3,000 words or would you rather wait 4-6 days and have about 6,000-8,000 words all at once? Or how about just posting a chapter when it's done, which may be anywhere from 3,000 words to 10,000 words. My old Harry Potter fanfics had 12 chapters of 10,000 words each so I know I can do it. so, I'll leave it up to you

Teaser: none this time, sorry ;