Chapter 2

Turning Over a New Leaf

Lettuce ran all the way home, and when she pushed open the door, she was completely winded. Her mother glanced up from where she was seated at the table and looked at her daughter through stylish glasses. "What are you doing home so early?" She asked in her melodious and calming voice.

Lettuce waited until she caught her breath before she answered her. "I was given an extended vacation from work." She answered. It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.

"Oh that's good." Her mother replied, going back to the book she was reading. "You deserve some time off. Your boss was working you so hard in the past couple of months that you used to come home and just go to bed, you were so tired. Now you can rest."

"I don't really want to talk about my boss right now." Lettuce said, a bitter edge slightly apparent in her voice. Her mother however, didn't pick up on it and Lettuce walked out of the kitchen and up to her room. Once there, she sat down and looked at her school books. Getting some homework done might get her minds off things, so she cracked her Advanced Math textbook and began reviewing formulas. At least I'm making good on what I told the others She thought, trying to figure out what 'x equaled when the y was half the area of two squares that were different sizes'.

When she finally finished the better part of her homework, she looked outside.

She noticed that the sun was beginning to dip lower in the sky. A glance at her clock told her it was 5:00 pm. Her friends, (if they were still were her friends, she didn't know) were just closing up the café and getting ready to go to their separate homes. She sighed heavily. Desperately, she wanted to be part of their group again, but it was too late-she had already made her decision when she had been betrayed. For now she was on her own. But she didn't have to stay at home moping about it.

Taking her green jacket off the back of her chair, she put it on along with a green pleated skirt. She glanced at the mirror and frowned. Something still wasn't right. She took off her glasses and put in the contacts she hated to wear. They made her eyes itch a bit but it was an improvement nonetheless. Something was still off though. On an impulse, she took her hair out of its usual braids and brushed it out. The result was long waves of green hair that reached down to her waist and framed her face very nicely. Now she was ready. She walked down the stairs and out the door, telling her mom and dad that she would be home before curfew.

As she walked down the street, she realized that she had no where to go. Just walking around the city at night seemed stupid, so she ducked into a bookstore and began exploring the aisles. In the back there was a section on nature. Deciding that it was at least something to do, she began reading the spines and was shocked to find that there was a few books about the Mew Mew's located in this section. She picked up one book whose author believed that the mews were super hybrids bred by the government as a super race to protect the earth. While reading through the summary she noticed that a young boy of about eight or nine years of age had joined her in the section.

He glanced at the book she held and said, "What a crackpot author. That guy doesn't know what he's talking about. The Mew Mew's are a bunch of aliens from Mars. They're here because they don't like the way people are running the planet, and they're gonna destroy it. So the government created these big animals to try and get rid of the mew mews, but they were always defeated. Now they're gonna use a giant laser beam to shoot them all!" He said, his eyes glowing mischievously.

"And how do you know all this?" Lettuce indulged the child.

"My daddy said so, and my daddy's always right." The boy confirmed smiling proudly.

I think you're daddy's the crackpot Lettuce thought and smiled inwardly. "Well good for your dad." Lettuce said, and patted the boy on the head. "Isn't all of this stuff a little advanced for you though?" She asked him.

"No!" The boy insisted. "I'm really interested in this stuff. Just like my cousin! He's really smart, and I want to be just like him."

"Oh really?" Lettuce asked again. "Well, I know for a fact that not everything you hear can be trusted." Lettuce told him, thinking of her confidence in Ichigo.

"Is that right?" A young man's voice questioned behind her. At once Lettuce whirled around to see Masaya Aoyama, Ichigo's previous love interest.

He must be single now, if Ichigo's going out with Ryou Lettuce said to herself as she looked him up and down. "What are you doing here Masaya?" She asked in a polite tone.

"I'm here with my cousin, Makiko." He said, nodding to the younger boy. "We've been here for an hour and now we have to go, don't we Makiko?" He indicated to his cousin.

"Awww, can't we stay a little longer?" The young boy whined.

"No." Masaya said gently but firmly. "We're already late for your appointment. Good bye Lettuce. By the way, your hair looks nice down. I

almost didn't recognize you." He said politely, and the two quickly left the store.