A/N: Another early update! Here's chapter six-because I couldn't not make a Mean Girls reference. Enjoy!

5 A.O. (After Orihime)

Monday

7:58 a.m.

"Hurry, Orihime! You're going to make us late!" Tatsuki shouted from where she was waiting by the entrance, impatiently jogging in place.

"I'm coming!" she called back, and quickly waved goodbye to Love, who was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

The girls made it to their seats just as the bell rang and their teacher shut the door on the students unfortunate enough to be tardy.

"Thanks for waiting, Tatsuki," Orihime whispered to her friend sitting next to her.

"I only waited because I got there about a second before you did," the spiky-haired girl admitted, smirking back. "I'm not risking our teacher's wrath on your ability to be on time."

Orihime and Tatsuki had not been best friends since the moment they met. In fact, as Orihime entered her new classroom on her first day and laid eyes on the girl she recognized from the soccer field, she felt a surge of anxiety.

Tatsuki Arisawa was tough, and she meant business. She was a member of almost every sports club the school offered, and she excelled at all of them. She was the girl who would knock you down on her way to the soccer goal, whether you were on her team or not. She was the girl who would single-handedly take down all the boys in karate and ask who was next.

Tatsuki was sharp edges where Orihime was soft curves. Orihime was polite and sensitive by nature and didn't know what to make of this brusque, tomboyish schoolgirl. Many of the other students looked at Tatsuki with some degree of fearful respect, and Orihime was one of them. The two couldn't have been more different.

Likewise, Tatsuki looked at the new girl with disinterest. She had the girl pegged as soon as she bowed and shyly introduced herself to the class.

Instead, Orihime gravitated to some of the other girls in her class, ones who were more similar in temperament to her. It was with these girls that Orihime ate lunch with and shared crayons with during arts and crafts.

One day when Orihime sat down next to them at lunch, though, she could sense a tension in the group. She tried to make pleasant conversation, not knowing what else to do. One of the girls spoke suddenly, cutting her off.

"Why is your hair so orange?"

Orihime had stared at her, unsure of how to answer.

"I mean, it's such a weird color. Did you dye it?"

"Erm… no. It's always been this color."

"I think you're lying," the girl contradicted rudely. "And if you want to sit with us anymore, you have to dye it black. Or cut it. There's no room for someone with hair like yours in this group."

The girl's name was Miki and she had long, silky black hair that her mother braided for her every morning. If their group had a leader, it would have been her.

Orihime gaped at her, her eyes starting to well up with tears. She loved her hair. Mashiro and Lisa would take turns each morning brushing it, running their fingers through the soft, orange strands. Orihime had let it grow long, and it reached almost to her waist. Now Orihime found herself forced into the terrible situation of choosing between her new friends and her beloved hair. She looked for help from the other girls and found none.

"Well? We're waiting?!" Miki looked at Orihime impatiently. She leaned forward and tugged harshly on one of Orihime's locks. "Are you going to get rid of this or are you going to find new friends?!"

"Oww, that hurts!"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Miki let go of Orihime's hair, startled. Tatsuki was standing behind Orihime, arms crossed, looking ready to fight.

"This doesn't concern someone like you, Arisawa," Miki sneered. "This is a conversation between actual girls."

"It doesn't look like much of a conversation to me," Tatsuki replied coolly. "It just looks to me like you're ganging up on the new girl."

"People have to fit in!" Miki shouted heatedly. She was standing in front of Tatsuki now, who felt a twinge of satisfaction that she was still half an inch taller. "Not that you would know anything about that. Freak."

"Who do you want me to fit in with, you? A bunch of sissies who feel like they have the right to tell everyone what to do? Don't kid yourself!"

She had uttered these last words as she leaned forward and pushed Miki to the ground, who immediately began to cry.

"You don't have the right to tell anyone who to be! No one has to listen to you!"

Orihime wondered if there was history there, if Tatsuki had once been friends with the girls and been cast aside and ostracized, just as Orihime was about to be. Just as she began to wonder if she was being saved and should feel grateful, Tatsuki had turned on her as well.

"And you! Don't just sit there and let them walk all over you! Stand up for yourself!" Orihime stared at her, dumbstruck.

Tatsuki was taken to the principal's office for fighting, and Orihime finished her lunch alone. When she came back during crafts after a stern talking-to looking not the least bit contrite, Orihime walked up to her.

"I can stand up for myself. I choose to not be friends with those girls anymore and to not cut my hair. Now are you going to sit next to me and share crayons or not?"

Tatsuki had simply raised her eyebrows and stared for a moment, then nodded as a slow grin crept across her face.

The inner turmoil Orihime had felt since Miki's ultimatum vanished with that smile. For a brief moment, those girls had made Orihime question what was most important to her, because she knew they were asking her to sacrifice more than just her hair.

That wouldn't happen again, Orihime had resolved, glancing at her new friend sitting beside her. With Tatsuki next to her, she could take on the world.

3:00 p.m.

After the bell rang, Orihime and Tatsuki walked out together. It was one of the rare times Tatsuki did not have to stay after school for soccer practice, karate practice, or any other sport that Orihime had lost track of.

"You know, you never told me who that person is that always waits for you. Is he your dad?"

Orihime followed Tatsuki's gaze to where Kensei was waiting near the entrance, his arms crossed.

"Err, more like an older brother."

"He looks so serious," Tatsuki remarked, trying and failing to imitate the vizard's serious, unsmiling face. She gave up and grinned at her friend.

"That's just how he is," Orihime explained, smiling back. "My other… brothers and sisters make up for it."

"Oh right. Like the guy that was with you this morning."

"Uh huh."

Tatsuki did not press more than that. She had been Orihime's best friend for almost two years and had never formally met her siblings, never been invited over for a birthday party or sleepover. Orihime was very guarded about her family and Tatsuki wasn't a snoop. If Orihime wanted to tell her something, she would tell her.

The only thing Tatsuki knew about Orihime was that she had several brothers and sisters—she had seen them take turns dropping her off on mornings that they got to school at the same time. However, the extreme diversity in their physical appearances made her suspect that they weren't actually related. Tatsuki knew that Orihime took her last name from the white-haired man who was waiting for her at the entrance.

Orihime watched as Tatsuki took off sprinting to her home just around the corner, shouting a goodbye over her shoulder. She had nothing to tell Tatsuki about her family or where she came from, and silently willed her friend to understand.

For some inexplicable reason, she was afraid to ask.