Shibusen. Only the best of the best, or the richest of the rich can manage to get into this exclusive academy – the former having enough brains and skill, the latter having enough money to buy out the entire faculty and school staff.
This was her destination now. Her sandy blond pigtails swayed merrily as she happily bounced down the street to the academy. Large emerald eyes glinted proudly in the sunlight as she recalled the day she was accepted as a scholar into one of the best schools, that side of the globe.

Although her father could afford to indeed send her to this school with his current salary and position (being Shibusen's headmaster's right hand man after all), she had other plans. She wanted to prove that she could make it in there herself without his help.
She didn't want his help. Not after all he had done to her mother. No, Maka Albarn, daughter of Kami Albarn (No way was she going to give her father the pleasure of being called his daughter) could make it without the assistance of those disgusting, cheating, pathetic excuses of life forms; life forms known as men. Nuh-uh. She had the brains, charms, cuteness and skill that would be more than enough to get her into, and stay in, the school's top roster.
As she walked to the school her happy expression abruptly turned dark; her smile turning into a frown.

Him again.

She watched in contempt as he spotted her and he coolly kicked off the wall he was leaning and gave her an arrogant smirk as she got closer to where he was standing. She mentally ticked off all the weird and ridiculous things about this – this creature! First the hair that looked as if he was constantly underwater, and it was white, by the way. Talk about peroxide addiction. Then there was that annoying slouchy stance that just screamed slob! There were also those eyes, so red and piercing, as if he were trying to look at what kind of underwear you had beneath your clothes. Those teeth were jagged, serrated even, making him look even more predatory. Lastly was that "cool" aura he was emitting – it was just plain annoying. Pretending she didn't know he even existed, she huffed pass him as quickly as she could while trying to look like his presence didn't affect her at all.

He'd always been there since the first time he saw her. On her first day in Shibusen, after she was introduced to the class, her professor told her to sit beside him. She noticed he paid more attention to her than to the actual lesson in front of them. He didn't try to talk to her, but he did take note of everything she did and followed her everywhere she went while she was at school. She also noticed that he was pretty popular with the girls, which caused her to despise him even more as she immediately concluded that he probably had his way with any and all of them with how they practically threw themselves at his feet. In her mind he was just like her father – a selfish, cheating, advantage-taking male.

She did her best to avoid him as much as possible, but the persistent stalker has observed her so well that he already knew her habits, favorite hang-outs and even food and color preferences. He was always there, even if she didn't see him, and even if he didn't make his presence known. He was present in her school life even more than her own father – who actually worked in the academy!

Today was no different. In fact, now he even stalked her outside of school! It was infuriating, but Maka believed that the best way to deal with it was to pretend he did not exist. After all, he didn't really touch her, or talk to her or anything, anyway.

The sandy-blond, petite girl was walking home that afternoon and, as usual, the white-haired menace followed a few meters behind her. Maka grumbled to herself as she hugged her books to her chest. She was seething about him following her home again. She was thinking of ways she'd hurt him if he ever tried anything funny with her.

"Hello there, Maka." A woman's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Oh, hello, Nurse Medusa," Maka smiled to the woman who called her attention. It was Medusa Gorgon, one of the school nurses. Maka was familiar with her, as she was with all the school staff and faculty.

"Would you kindly drop by my doll shop, dear?" Medusa asked sweetly as she fondly stroked the young girl's hair. "I would very much like to make you a model for my next doll." The woman continued.

Medusa worked as a nurse at Shibusen, but also had a pocket business in making customized dolls and doll accessories. Her shop was pretty popular with girls of all ages and with doll collectors everywhere.

Maka didn't really take to playing with dolls, she preferred reading instead, so she never really visited said store at all. However, she was thrilled at being considered interesting enough for someone to model a doll after her, so she gleefully agreed to go with the blond-haired woman.

"It wouldn't take longer than a couple of hours, dear", Medusa cooed as she led Maka to her doll shop.

"No problem, Ma'am," Maka replied, "I'm sure Papa will never notice, as he'd be late again as he usually is, doing 'overtime' at Chupa-Cabra's," she added derisively.

At Maka's mention of her father, Spirit Albarn, the school nurse's eye twitched and for a split-second, a vengeful grimace crossed her face. Maka didn't notice this, but her male, red-eyed, white-haired stalker did. He continued to follow at a distance, observing what may happen. He secretly intended to step in to the rescue, should there be any trouble.

As the two females reached the quaint little Doll Shop, Maka's stalker sat across from it at a café. He was going to wait for Maka's little modeling session to end and see to it that she reached her home safely afterwards.

Medusa and Maka entered the shop. Through the store display window, the stalker watched them enter into a back room of the shop. He waited. An hour. Two hours. It was half into the third hour when he noticed that a new doll was placed on display in the window. It resembled Maka. The stalker paid for his coffee, and crossed the street to take a closer look at the doll. It seemed like an exact miniature replica of the girl. He was astounded at how every detail was captured. After a lot more of gawking at the toy, he remembered the actual girl this toy was modeled after and checked his watch. Oh my goodness! Has he been gawking at this doll for an entire hour already? He recalled he did not see the pig-tailed girl leave the shop yet. He quickly entered and saw nurse Medusa arranging the merchandise in the store.

"Oh, hello, Soul" she greeted the stalker, whom she recognized as one of the students. "How can I help you today?"

"Hi, Nurse Medusa" Soul replied. He noticed a suspicious glint in the eye of the woman. He felt a bit nervous. There have been rumors going around that Medusa was a witch and that it was unwise to cross her, as she had ways for revenge that involved strong magic. Soul spoke cautiously, "Uhm, is Maka still here?"

"She exited over an hour ago through the back door," Medusa calmly replied while smiling widely. "Don't worry, I just called Spirit a few minutes ago to make sure she got home safely."

Soul thought to himself 'This sounded rather off somehow.' Spirit wouldn't be home by this time, as Soul himself knew of the man's habits. He observed Spirit to get to know how Maka viewed him, as Soul found shortly a few days after meeting Maka that Spirit was her father. Getting his mind back on the current situation, he decided he wouldn't press on the matter any longer.

"I noticed you seem to be pretty fascinated by the doll that Maka modeled for," Medusa smiled at Soul, whose face remained emotionless, but tinted with a faint blush. "If you like I could sell her to you, at half of the original price!" She emphasized the discount strongly.

Soul was embarrassed. Was his attraction to the said girl so obvious? Perhaps Maka told nurse Medusa about him while she was modeling for her?

"Well, do you want her?" Medusa's insistent sales talk once again catching his attention. "I'll even throw in a free doll bed and extra set of clothes along with her!"

Why was Medusa so eager to sell him this doll? Did he look like some sick pervert who was hopelessly obsessed with something he couldn't get? Did he even look like the type who played with dolls? Him, of all people!

"I'll take her." Soul even surprised himself when he answered so quickly.

That night, he came home to his mansion, carrying a doll, with no less her own bed and another complete outfit. He did his best to conceal what he bought. This doll wasn't for Maka. This doll wasn't for any girl. No, this doll was HIS.

This was so uncool.