Chapter Six

Confrontation

That was it. Lettuce was done with her little out of character experience. She was just so exhausted having a certain persona all the time and she reverted to her usually quite, sad self. She slogged through the days- the only joy she got now was from the good grades she got. At least I'm doing something right She'd think to herself. Everyday she'd get home from school and lock herself in her room to do homework-periodically emerging to get something to eat or go for a walk. Almost without meaning to, her walks always lead her to the park where Café Mew Mew was located. It was these times that she would stare at the establishment until tears filled her eyes before she scolded herself silently and found another way home.

After a few days of these tormenting experiences, Lettuce was in her room reading after school when there was a knock on her door.

"Lettuce, one of your friends is here." Her little brother informed her.

Sighing sadly, Lettuce marked her place in the book, and got up to go downstairs. She expected it was one of the girls from school who wanted to bully her into doing their assignments again. Quietly she ventured down the stairs and tried to distinguish the voices in the living room, where she assumed her guest and her parents were talking. She picked out her mother and her father's voices easily, but could not place the third tone. It seemed familiar, but she could not picture the owner.

She entered the living room, and stopped in shock when she saw who it was. She was about to make a dash back upstairs, but her mother had already spotted her and foiled any plans she had of avoiding the guest.

"Oh Lettuce, there you are. You're friend Ichigo wanted to talk to you." Her mother said.

Lettuce slowly turned around and tried to plaster a polite smile on her face, but didn't quite succeed. Instead, she started to tear up and blush a bright shade of crimson.

Noticing Lettuce's reaction towards her, Ichigo turned politely to the Midorikawa's and said politely, " I have a quick question about a math problem. I won 't be too long."

"Stay as long as you like." Lettuce's father said. "Our Lettuce is quite the little scholar." He continued, beaming at his daughter.

"Let's go upstairs Lettuce." Ichigo said, getting up from her seat and grabbing the girl by the arm before she could protest.

When the two were in Lettuce's room and the door was locked, Ichigo turned and looked at her friend who had taken a seat on the lime comforter that covered her bed. The look of embarressment had left Lettuce's face, but the pained expression remained. Slowly, Ichigo moved towards the comforter and sat next to her.

"What do you want Ichigo?" Lettuce asked calmly, not allowing her feelings to seep into her tone. If she had to talk to the pink-haired girl she would, but she wouldn't grant her the satisfaction of hearing how badly she'd been hurt.

"I want to talk to you about what's going on." Ichigo replied carefully, measuring the emotions displayed on Lettuce's face.

"You lied to my parents." Lettuce said, still trying to keep all emotion from her voice.

"And you lied to us." Ichigo replied, her eyes looking down at her shoes, and her hands clasped in front of her.

"What do you mean?" Lettuce asked, trying to catch the girl's eye and see how much she actually knew. Ichigo just shook her head and then raised it to meet her friend's gaze.

"You've been done with all the extra work you've been given. I came over her to try and talk to you into coming back to work, and your parents explained that they were wondering why you hadn't returned since you were done with your school work."

"They…they don't understand." Lettuce said slowly.

"What don't they understand? Why haven't you really come back to work Lettuce?" Ichigo asked insistently.

Lettuce said nothing for a few seconds-she just stared at the girl sitting across from her. Should she tell her what she had done? Did she deserve an explanation after all the pain she caused? Lettuce took a deep breath and opened her mouth