Author's Note:

I apologise for not updating for a little while. I have been coming across some difficulties in life.

Anyways, this chapter should cover the first day of school for my OC, Nakahara Ayame. The way I write this follows the anime version of the Bleach universe. So, if it will help you picture certain things in this chapter, this chapter follows a part of episode 4. Some dialogue will be familiar, but I will do my best to not put them word-for-word because I don't want to get into trouble.

This fanfiction is rated M because it may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

Bleach © Tite Kubo
All of the inserted, non-canon characters are © me

"Ayame-chan, don't forget your lunch!"

"Oh!" Ayame was on her way out of the house before her grandmother stopped her. There was something she felt she was missing. The homemade bento was wrapped up in a red, white, and yellow flower-print fabric. She took it from the elderly woman, and then gave her a hug. "Thank you, sobo-san!" After slipping into her black Mary Janes, she ran out to the sidewalk. Her grandmother followed her to the gate entrance. "I'm off." She spoke in a cheerful, soft voice, and bowed. Her black shoulder bag slipped a little, brushing some of the pleats of her grey skirt. It would take her a little while to get used to a uniform. The first years of her time in school was rather casual, but then again she rarely went to school after she turned ten. Grandfather and grandmother Nakahara could not afford to send her to school after some time had passed since she started living with them. No matter what, however, she did her best to get good grades when she was in school. While not in school, Ayame was taught how to do several different things by her grandparents. She knew how to cook, sew, clean an entire house in one day, do the laundry, take care of a garden, and other domestic chores. Her grandfather did take the time to teach her how to defend herself should she ever be threatened or harmed. The elderly couple did everything they could to raise her well.

Ayame, walking away from the house, turned to wave good-bye with a big grin.

Grandmother Nakahara smiled and waved back. "Have a good day!"

"I will!"

She could not think of anything that could ruin her day. Her dark brown hair was held back and up by a clip, except for a small portion she had tied at the end with a yellow band. It swayed comfortably to the left of her face. The morning sun warmed her up as it peaked over the tops of buildings. Light from the star made her hair shine a dark red in some spots. Ayame's face became blank the further she got from her house. Not that she was not happy. It actually hurt to smile too much. The dark purple of her irises glistened when she turned a corner and the sunlight swarmed to her face. She avoided looking at the light source by turning her head down. Her attention went straight for the red bow with a gold clip holding onto the neck of her white shirt. The red of the bow gave colour to the grey uniform of Karakura High School. Four strips of red placed smartly on the shirt tied in the red of the bow with the rest of the uniform. Despite wearing a white button-up long-sleeved shirt underneath, Ayame did not feel hot beneath the sun. Her white knee-high socks lit up in the light. They were not bright enough to blind her, but it did irritate her eyes to look at them. A shadow snaked toward her down the sidewalk and blocked out the light shining on her socks.

Looking up, she saw a tree. Ayame got a little nervous. The tree marked that she was close to the school. Anxiety that she had been able to manage started to break from the mental box she had put around it. Her grandfather had sat down and talked with her about how to act in high school, what to expect from others there, and what to do for her first day. At the time, it all seemed very easy. She was full of a positive, hyper anxiety then; making her lunch last night after dinner was how she expressed this. Now, it was a pessimistic anxiety. She thought, What will people think of me? Will I make any friends? Where do I sit for lunch? And with whom?

Ayame left one hand on the strap of her bag, and brought the other one to hold onto a charm hanging by a silver chain around her neck. The Pisan cross, pure silver and able to fit in a square inch, was given to her from her grandparents. She remembered they gave it to her three years after her family died. It is special, they had said. Ever since receiving it, she had worn it. Back then, however, it was meant to be worn as a bracelet; she was given permission to put it on a new chain and wear it as a necklace. Ayame remembered, faintly, that it belonged to one of her parents. She sighed and closed her eyes in defeat to a mood swing of depression. Then, she hit something cold and hard with her forehead. The force pushed her back a step, but instead of falling backward she forced herself to dropped to her knees.

"Itai!" she moaned as she rubbed her forehead with both hands.

"Uhm, are you okay?" a high, feminine voice asked from above.

"Ano..." Ayame looked up. The girl standing to the side of the metal pole tilted her head to the side. She had burnt orange hair with two blue snowflake clips and brown irises. Her hair colour interested Ayame. The girl repeated her question in different words. "Ano..." Ayame's pain subsided the longer she stared at the girl's hair. "H-h-hai!" She stood up, and then dusted herself off.

"You've got a red mark on your forehead now," the girl pointed out.

Realising she had been staring, she blinked and shook her head before reacting. "Ah, uhm," Ayame paused to pick up her bag and put it properly over her head so the strap rested on her left shoulder and the bag itself sat against her right hip, "it's okay." She put a hand to the red spot as if to try to cover it up. It felt like the orange-haired girl was staring at her. Sure enough when Ayame glanced over to her left, the orange-haired girl was following her toward the school and looking at her curiously.

"You go to Karakura High?"

"I do," she answered, "I transferred, and this's my first day."

"Hontou?" The orange-haired girl grinned. Everything about her seemed to be happy-go-lucky. "I'm Inoue Orihime!"

"Nn... I'm Nakahara Ayame."

"If you're in the same class with me, don't hesitate to sit with me at lunch, okay?" Her smile was pretty much glued on.

Ayame nodded and grinned. "Okay."

"Ohayou gozaimasu! My name is Nakahara Ayame. Douzo yoroshiku." She bowed to the class sitting in front of her. After introducing herself, the teacher gave her a seat to sit in. Before she got into her seat, the first lesson of the day started. Ayame placed her bag on the ground next to her desk before sitting down. Once she got in her seat, she pulled out the current lesson's book, a notebook, and a pen. She buried herself deep enough into the lesson to forget about the worries of being new.

Lunch time came around, and she put away her things. With the free time during lunch, a couple of students approached her and introduced themselves. She did not know that it was that easy to meet new people. Ayame looked around once she was alone. She stood up from her chair and grabbed her bento. She watched Inoue - the only one she knew by name at this point in time - leave the classroom with one of the girls she was introduced to when lunch started. Ayame forgot to ask the orange-haired girl if she could join them for lunch. Watching Inoue leave, she felt forgotten despite it being her own fault for forgetting to ask. After Inoue left, a second orange-haired kid walked in. He looked tough; someone Ayame did not feel like befriending. As soon as he came in, he left with a girl whose hairstyle made her head look like a rounded diamond. Ayame decided to brave a walk around the school before eating her lunch. She followed the orange-haired kid and his companion to the roof. Something inside of Ayame tugged at her, and she felt a little rebellious going to the roof. After she reached the roof, she walked to the opposite side of the roof. She could watch the others as they talked on the other side. Soon enough, a third student came up. She heard the orange-haired kid call this one Mizuiro. Ayame did her best to not look up from her food, but she did steal a glance every once in a while. The girl looked like she was having a hard time with her juice cup. Ayame inhaled, and then set her lunch aside. She decided to try to talk a little longer with her classmates - to make friends. And what better time than during lunch?

"Ano... I can help you with that," she said once she was close enough to the group of three.

"Oh, thank you!" the girl exclaimed.

Ayame took the juice box from her and prepared it for drinking. She took the straw out of its plastic wrapping.

Mizuiro smiled and said, "You must be Nakahara, right?"

"Hai," Ayame said, and then poked the straw through a small hole at the top of the box. "Here you go!"

"Thank you so much!"

"Sorry I haven't introduced myself yet." Ayame smiled.

"Oh, that's right, I haven't either, to you two," the black-haired kid said. "I'm Kojima Mizuiro, age 15, and I really like -"

"Picking up girls," interrupted the kid with orange hair.

"Huh?" Mizuiro jumped back a little, seemingly shocked the other would say that. "Ighigo, that's mean!"

Ichigo continued talking, and Ayame smiled. "He may look like a dork, but he's a big flirt."

"Cut it out, Ichigo! Don't go around ruining my reputation."

"Like I said, Rukia," Ichigo directed to the girl Ayame had helped, "don't fall for his act."

Before anything else was said, a cloud of dust appeared, then disappeared, and in its place stood a kid with brown hair. "What is this? The two beautiful new transfer students are here with you guys?" When he practically lunged forward, Ayame stepped away a bit. She blushed, but already found this one annoying. "What are you doing here? How did this happen?"

"Well," Mizuiro answered, "Ichigo brought Rukia here. Ayame just came up by herself."

In a flash, there was a weird exchange Ayame witnessed between this new guy and Ichigo. After giving him the thumbs up, this kid stepped back and saluted the girls. "Greetings! I'm Asano Keigo!" Ayame stopped blushing, and noticed he was crying. "Hello lovely ladies, and welcome to this garden of manliness."

Rukia looked a little unsure about how to react, but managed a hello. Ayame echoed the reply with an equal amount of uncertainty.

Suddenly, Keigo threew his hands up in the air and jumped from left to right, exclaiming an cheering on about having a party on the roof. Ichigo tried to psych him out by asking him how there could be a party with only noodles and juice, but Keigo just told him to shut up and that all that counted was the spirit of a party. Keigo offered his services to Rukia should she ever need them. Ayame allowed herself to be amused by Keigo's energetic nature. She was smiling and giggling behind her hand while the others pretty much shouted to each other. Then, a tall figure caught her attention. She was the first to notice him. Keigo was in the middle of talking when he backed up into the tall, broad-shouldered student. Ayame tried not to stare for too long in awe of this guy's size.

Ichigo greeted him, "Hey, Chad."

Everyone learned why he was bandaged. He stringed together a story about a steel beam falling on his head, a motorcycle collision, and carrying the injured motorcyclist to the hospital. Ayame noticed a bird cage he carried. Inside was perched a white parakeet with red cheeks. She stared at the bird as its cage was placed on the ground. Suddenly, it spoke in a childish voice: "Konnichiwa, I am Shibata Yuuichi. Onii-chan namae wa?"

Ayame was completely and utterly shocked by this. Sure it was common for some birds to learn to say one or two words, but this one introduced itself as if it were human. She noticed that she was not the only one shocked by this. Rukia and Ichigo had the same look of surprise on their faces. Mizuiro and Keigo, on the other hand, appeared okay with it. Ayame quickly excused herself, picked up her lunch, and rushed back to the classroom. She held her Pisan cross in one hand as she ran down the hall. Her shoulder crashed into somebody, making her stop momentarily. "Ah! Sumimasen!" Ayame looked at who she bumped into.

Staring down at hercoldly was Ishida Uryuu. She recognised him from her class. He did not introduce himself, but she learned of his name from a girl in class. That girl had given her a quick face-and-name-match style of introductions without actually meeting the person. She was pointed to the back of Ishida's head. Ayame recognised his hairstyle, and she instantly remembered his name. "Sumimasen," she repeated and put both hands below her waist to bow in apology. Her Pisan cross reflected the afternoon sunlight breaking in through the open windows. Before Ayame made a bigger fool of herself, she turned around and walked away. Walking away was safer than running. Besides, she had the feeling that Ishida was staring at her as she walked away. A chill crawled up her spine. The feeling did not over-shadow the feeling she had after meeting the talking parakeet.

A/N:

My apologies for making this so long! I just wanted to make up for the days I did not update. ^_^;;

So, I know I said this would be of both my characters, but that turned out too long. I had to split them into separate chapters. They WILL, at one point SOON, be in one chapter together. I just hate writing chapters with singular points of views. So, I will find a way to have both of them in one chapter SOON.

Next chapter will only be Nakahara Ayaka.