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Oh, let me tell you, was I a moron to agree with the others. 'Sure,' they told me, 'it's perfectly safe to drive with Miroku. He's a.. good.. driver. Sit in front, will you?' And me, as stupid as I can be sometimes, agreed. I know Miroku the best out of all of them, I reasoned, if I go with him, then I won't have to feel uncomfortable with sitting in a car full of people I don't know... I. Am. Such. An. Idiot. "REDLIGHTREDLIGHTREDLIGHT--..THAT! WAS! A! RED! LIGHT!.." So there I was, desperately clutching the armrests for my dear life, as Priest weaved his way through the traffic at break neck speeds. Sango just calmly had her eyes closed, and Kouga looked perfectly relaxed, while I, on the other hand, was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Damn Inuyasha had to take Kikyo and Eiji and didn't have any pity on the new guy! "SLOW DOOOOWN!" "Dude, Kagome, relax! I know what I'm doing!" "LIKE HELL YOU DOOOO--WATCH OUT!" "Oops.." "Where the HELL did you get your license?!" My head hurt. Chapter Two: Classes? I don't need no stinkin' classes! by Clara Inuyasha received the end of a VERY pissed off glare when I entered the ice cream shopp�. In response, he grinned devilishly, which only caused my vexed glare to become all the more dangerous. Calmly, I slid next to him on the booth, folded my still trembling hands on my lap, and closed my eyes. After taking a relaxing, meditative breath, I let out all my tensions. "IF YOU EVER MAKE ME RIDE IN THE CAR MIROKU IS DRIVING AGAIN, I WILL PERSONALLY KICK YOUR ASS!!" Inuyasha, the pompous asshole, had the audacity to laugh. "Hey!" Miroku protested. "I drive perfectly! It's all the other morons in the world that don't know how to drive!" I gave Miroku a very deadpan look at that comment, and he backed away nervously. Figuring that I'd get my revenge on Priest later, I returned my deadly glare to Inuyasha, who was still laughing. He had a very pretty laugh, but that's besides the point. "Oh, sure, try to get rid of the new gir�guy by sending him on the road with this maniac!" I grumbled, grabbing the menu. "I think I left my stomach back at school..." "You get used to it," Sango sighed, shaking her head. I favored her with a deadpan look too. She shrugged and slid next to Kikyo across from us, and Kouga sat beside me. Miroku was smart enough to sit as far away as possible from me, thus grabbing a chair and pulling it up to the end of the table. "Just for subjecting to me to the sheer and utter terror of having to sit in the car YOU drove, you're paying for my food," I informed him, giving him a look that promised much pain if he resisted. Miroku nodded meekly. Inuyasha grinned at me, and I noticed Kikyo and Sango giving me surprised looks. I'd have to ask them about that, later. "You have no money, do you?" the black haired boy asked. "Not a single cent." Inuyasha chuckled again, then shook his head. I threw him a dirty look and opened the menu. Briefly wondering why I was going to eat again right after I ate the stinky cafeteria food, I was struck with a brilliant idea. "You are going to pay for our food, Miroku," I stated, and he nodded quickly. I think, at the moment, he was terrified of me. "Good!" All smiles again, I waved for the waitress to come take my order. Miroku was staring at me with donning dread, while the others were grinning ever so slightly. "Hi, Miss, me and my friends would like two of everything on this menu." "TWO?!" the waitress and Miroku chorused. The other people at my table laughed, and Miroku slumped forward, eyes wide. "Kaa~aaagooomeee!" Miroku pleaded, voice pleading and piteous. "Come ON! I can't afford all that! Do you want me to be working here twenty-four-seven?!" "Well, through the hell you put me through, yes. Yes I would." He widened his eyes more and pouted, looking utterly ridiculous. "Come on, it's not like I actually put your life in danger! ...Well, not TOO much danger, that is.. but it's not like you actually got hurt!" I sighed and relented. As much as I hated to admit, he was right. "Okay, we'll only take as much as he�" I pointed to Miroku, "�can afford." Miroku blanched. "I.. uh.. only have.." "�Or I'll beat him up," Sango finished for me, grinning maliciously. "..enough money to buy half the contents on the menu.." The waitress gave us all weird looks, then shook her head and walked away, not even bothering to write down our order. I don't think she could have forgotten it if she wanted to, anyway. As the waitress walked away, Eiji returned to our table, looking slightly curious. He was holding a tray of fries and a milkshake. "Hey, guys?" I almost laughed. He sounded so confused... "Why is Priest all pale and stuff?" "Kagome conned him into buying half the menu," Kouga informed him, and Eiji looked remorsefully down at his tray. "Why couldn't you have done that earlier, huh Kagome?" He sighed, then put it in front of a person in some random table. "Here, I bought these for you." He gave them a charming smile, then scooted beside Sango. "There's only one problem," Kikyo said in her bored tone and held up a finger. "How are we going to eat all this food?" "Ever the voice of reason," Kouga snorted. I tossed Kikyo an indifferent look. "Who cares about how we're going to eat all this! Hell, we can just take home some of this stuff in doggy bags, if we want to. The important part is, Miroku's paying for it." "Speaking of which..." Eiji waved his hand in front of Miroku's face, snapped his fingers in front of his eyes, then shook his head. "Eh, he's in shock." Kouga examined the three page menu, then grinned at me. "Yeah, I think I would be too..." Miroku finally snapped out of it a few moments after the waitress returned with our food (it took her four trips). He stared at the monstrous amount of edibles in horror, then turned a very vengeful glare in my direction. In return, I gave him a heart-melting smile. "I am going to so kill you." I laughed easily. "Hey, I'll pay you back, okay? Well, at partially.." Miroku slumped glumly into himself, eyes still on the food. "You better." Sango gave me one of those looks she had been giving me frequently, and I started to get nervous again. There was something about her that made me feel uncomfortable, as if she knew or suspected something. I hid behind the food once again, grabbing a fork and shoveling some random piece of food into my mouth. It was surprisingly delicious. After swallowing the tasty morsel, I snuck a glance at my pissed off friend. He was staring at the food with a now determined expression on his face, then grabbed my fork. "Hey!" I watched in surprise as he shoved the piece of food that I was just about to put in my out in his own mouth. "I was just about to eat that!" He glared at me for a moment, then swallowed. "If I have to pay for this whole mess of food, I'm going to damn well enjoy it." Sango shook her head, glancing at Inuyasha and Eiji who were both currently attacking the food with very male-like vigor. Kouga was just sitting there, examining each particle of food with sparkling eyes. Kikyo, on the other hand, was eating gracefully. "You know," Sango said, glancing at me with sparkling eyes, "we're going to have the worst stomach aches later..." I just grinned in response. As it turns out, we ended up taking pity on Miroku. Therefore, Sango, Eiji, and Kouga helped pay for the eye-popping bill. I promised I'd pay them all back marginally, but surprisingly, they didn't ask Kikyo or Inuyasha to help pay. I had enough sense not to ask. I shifted from foot to foot as we walked back to the cars. Needless to say, I had refused to let the others even think about letting me in the same car as Miroku again. Miroku had taking this little practical joke I played on him with stride, but I didn't quite like the looks he was giving me while I lugged the doggy bags back to Inuyasha's car. They weren't, per se, dirty, but they did still have that vengeful glint in them that promised something unpleasant. However, since Miroku was a nice and forgiving guy, and since I had gained a new respect from the other's in the group, I replaced Kikyo in Inuyasha's car. Kikyo did not appreciate this. "What makes you think I want to stay in that car with this perverted maniac?! I mean, Kagome's the new guy, and I've known you all so much longer than he has... why does he get all the luxuries?" I ended up running across this argument several times throughout my entire stay at St. Bernard's. Privately, I think it was just an excuse for her to hate me. "Please, Kikyo," Inuyasha rolled his eyes, "that's part of the reason why we're sticking you in Miroku's car. You've been around long enough to be able to handle his crazy driving." "But I.." Kikyo was silenced by a dark look coming from Inuyasha's direction, and she slouched over slightly. "All right, all right, I'll go in his stinkin' car..." I shot a curious glance at Inuyasha, then shrugged and walked over to his vehicle. By some odd chance, I ended up getting the front seat before Eiji did. I realized something this day too. It wasn't quite new knowledge, but I never fully acknowledged how much it applied to me until I opened my big mouth. My problem was that I talked too much. And when I talked too much, it was guaranteed I would stick my foot in my mouth as far as it could go. I had the opportunity to practice this feature on the way back to school. "What's the story behind you and Kikyo?" I asked ever so innocently as I buckled my seatbelt. I guess the question surprised him, because he accidentally jerked the wheel and nearly swerved off the road. Eiji went sprawling across the back seat, bumping his head on the back of my chair. "Ow! Inuyasha, do that again and I'll.. I'll.. do something unpleasant to you!" "You should have put on your seatbelt then, dumbass. Watch the food," was Inuyasha's growling response. For a few moments, the only noise in the car was Eiji adjusting himself then clicking in his seatbelt. Then he sighed. "Why do you want to know? Are you interested in her?" WHAT?! WHATWHATWHAAAT?! Unable to voice my thoughts to him, I snorted instead. "What, her? The girl hates me. And even if she didn't, she's not my type." She's not a boy. Inuyasha sighed softly, then shrugged. "There wasn't really anything that happened between us. I've known her for forever, and we decided to try the date scene a couple months ago. That didn't exactly work out, so we went back to being just friends. That's all." He was lying to me. What did I expect, though? Him flat out telling me all his life problems as if I was an old friend when we�ve only known each other for less than a day? The silence in the car was far from comfortable the rest of the trip. * When we got back to the school, I immediately decided it was time to seek out my brother and have the long put off chat with him. After all, the reason why I was even going to this school was because of my baby brother, even if he was avoiding me for some odd reason... I found him after combing the grounds for nearly half an hour. What I saw shocked me. "Please, please don't, Takeno-sama, I need that money..." "Tsk, tsk, Souta... are we speaking back to our elders? You know what that means..." Souta was surrounded by a group of boys that seemed to be around his age or older. They all looked menacing, and one was holding a belt as if it were a weapon. After a moment of belated horror, I realized it was. The larger boy brought the belt down forcefully against my brother's back, and I opened my mouth in silent empathy when I heard him scream. Tears rose to my eyes when I heard the metal slap powerfully against his back. This hadn't been the first time the boys had hit him in that spot, according to the stain of blood on his shirt. Shocked to the point where all the blood had drained from my face, I rushed over to the group of kids. The surprise was quickly wearing down to homicidal urges, as I grabbed the kid who had smacked my brother on the back as hard as he could with his belt. Lifting him up so that he was eye level with me, I sneered in a way that even made my brother gasp in surprise. "What the hell do you think you're doing to my brother?!" I literally roared. The younger boy yelped in surprise, then started to tremble badly. Disgusted, horrified, and down right PISSED, I threw the quivering mess down against one of the other boys. The both collapsed to the ground, , then scrambled to their feet as quick as they could, running as if hell were at their heels. Which was actually the most accurate description, what with how I felt at the moment. The other boys took the cue and stumbled away too, either running for their lives or glancing back in surprise. I fell to my knees next to Souta, and gathered him up in my arms, anger draining away from my still tense form. He trembled against me, body lax. After a few moments of me gently rocking him as mother would have done, he started to cry, first lightly, then powerful sobs that wracked his bruised frame. When he finally started to calm down, I carefully picked him up. Blood stained my crisp shirt, but the only thing that horrified me about that was that it was my brother's. "Come on, Souta. Let's get you to the nurse." * When I finally got back to the dorm it was already past eleven and I had classes tomorrow. However, the knowledge that my brother was going to be okay and that he was going to be relocating to a different wing of the school until he healed was enough to make forget my fatigue a bit. Even though I was nearly falling over from exhaustion and post shock. When I finally entered the dorm room, though, the sight that greeted me completely threw me off whack from my already unbalanced day. My room was a mess. Blinking a few times, I picked my way around a pile of clothing, and looked around to find the source of the catastrophe. All I found was posters of many different types of bands littering my once immaculate walls, clothes strewn everywhere (including MY bed), and a teenage boy lying in the middle of his bed with a pair of headphones over his ears. I looked at him tiredly. Oh, this was good. Sitting carefully on my bed after tossing his clothes from it, I picked up the folder that Miroku had been carrying around when he was giving me the short tour. The very first thing on the small pile of papers was my classes. I sighed, and shuffled through a couple ads and various other papers I wouldn't need, then looked back at my classes. Most of my classes were advanced since my old school had been just as demanding and prestigious as this one. My only problem area was math. As it was, I would be taking Algebra 2, instead of Trigonometry or Calculus. I sighed and placed my papers to the side, resting my face on the palm of my hand and looking out the window. I wasn't entirely afraid for my classes, anyway. I mean, how would this get me into a good college, anyway? 'Young Miss Kagome Higurashi spent most of her life attending an all girl school until she reached Junior year, where she transferred to St. Bernard's School for Special Boys in order to protect her baby brother. As high-ranking as this school may be, it is, in fact, an all-boy school.' Yeah, that'd really get me into a good college. Closing my eyes, I drifted off into a half-doze while I ignored the now sleeping slob who I had presumed was Hojou. School wasn't the only problem that had presented itself in these past hours. Now I had to worry even more about my brother. I had always known that someone had been beating him, but I didn't know to what extent. And it made me wonder exactly why they were beating him. What happened? And.. Suddenly, I shot up to a sitting position, wide awake. I reached over and grabbed my folder, then thumbed through the papers frantically until I found my classes. I had P.E.! Groaning, I lay back down and grabbed my pillow, pulling it over my face in hopes of smothering myself. I am so very, very screwed, I am so very, very screwed... was my mantra as I fell into a more deep, yet highly troubled sleep. * When I woke up the next morning, it was too my insane roommate throwing gods know what at my sleeping form. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then glared dangerously at the light haired boy sitting on his own bed. "G'morning! I'm Hojou Hajemu. You must be Kagome," Hojou said, then grinned brightly. I groaned my affirmative answer. How on earth could anybody be so awake at this time of the day? "Sorry, but I didn't want you to sleep through your first classes. It gives a bad impression." I stared at him blankly for a moment, then swung myself out of bed, frantically. "Oh, no! Classes!" I grabbed my bag and quickly drug it to the bathroom, already starting to unbutton my shirt with one hand. "I still need to take a shower!" "Woah, woah, woah! Relax, Kagome." He waved his hands at my mad dash towards the bathroom. I didn't turn to him, since my shirt was already halfway unbuttoned, and my.. well, womanly attributes were halfway exposed. They were bound, of course, but they were pretty damn obvious. "We start classes at eight, and it's only seven. You have an hour to get ready." I threw a dry look at Hojou, carefully keeping my front away from his view. My ears were bright red. "Well, THANKS!" I stormed into the bathroom anyway, shutting the door and locking it behind me. Might as well get ready now, anyway... I sighed and pulled off my shirt the rest of the way, reaching over to the faucet to turn it on as hot as it could go. A nice, long, hot shower might chase away all my stresses. I hoped. "You're welcome!" he shouted back through the door, sounding pleased. I blinked several times. Was this guy for real? After I finished my relaxing shower and drying myself off completely, I pulled on the black uniform the school had provided me. It was a size too large for me, since boys my age generally weren't as small as me, but that was actually perfect. Baggy clothes meant I could hide my figure better. I walked out of the bathroom, towel drying my still damp hair, then stopped in mid step. There was Miroku, sitting on my bed and glaring daggers at Hojou. Hojou obliviously got ready, completely unaware of the evil glances Miroku kept shooting at him. "Oi, Kagome!" Miroku called, holding up my folder when he finally noticed I was there. His spiteful look was replaced by a more friendly one. "I came here to show you to your classes, just in case. Lady Kaede threatened me with a detention when I told her I forgot to show you which class was which and just showed you around the campus..." I blinked incomprehensibly for a few moments, draping my towel around my shoulders. Miroku grinned at me, then dropped the folder on his lap and pulled out my classes, then pulled out his classes from out of no where. "Hey, we have Algebra and Advanced art together... I think you have P.E. with Inuyasha and Eiji. Cool. Anyway, are you going to the festival tomorrow?" "What festival?" was my oh-so-intelligent answer. "Oi, did you even look at these ads?" Miroku opened my folder again, then pulled out a neon green paper. He handed it over to me. "'Beginning of the year festival'?" I read. "September second... collaborated festival between the two St. Bernard's School's..." I stopped reading for a moment, then glanced at Miroku. "Hey, we do all this stuff with the all girl's school.. why don't they just come together and become one coed school?" Miroku shrugged. "They've been talking about it, but most of the students have argued against it, surprisingly. I guess old habits die hard." He was glaring at something behind me, and I blinked and turned around, almost running into Hojou. "Ack..." Hojou plucked the paper out of my hand and looked over it quickly. "Oh, that's good. I was wondering when they would have this year's festival. Maybe I'll finally work up enough courage to ask Sango-san to join me, this year..." The temperature of the room dropped several degrees from Miroku's icy glare. Oh. That's why Miroku hated Hojou so much... I smirked lightly to myself. How cute. Still giving Hojou a look that could freeze fire, Miroku reached over and grabbed me by the wrist. With his other hand, he snatched the paper from the other boy's hand, then started to drag me out of the room. In which he dragged me towards what I had a feeling was my first class. "Of all the nerve," Miroku started of what promised to be a long rant. "How dare he even think about asking Sango to the school festival?! I ought to.. to.." He stopped, obviously trying to think of something horrendously bad to do to Hojou. But since he stopped walking while he was dragging me by the wrist, I ran into his back rather forcefully. The dummy didn't even notice, he was so engrossed with thinking up evil things to do to Hojou. What's worse, he didn't let go of my arm. And in his anger, his grip was getting tighter and tighter.. "Oi, Miroku..?" "..I'm going to hurt him, that's what I'm going to do!" At this proud proclamation, he continued stomping towards his destination, still gripping my wrist hard enough to most likely leave a bruise. I grit my teeth together. "What makes him think that Sango would want to go out with the likes of him?!" "..Miroku.." "She's way too good for him! I swear, the guy is such a moron! ..Hell, she's way too good for me.." "MIROKU PRIEST, STOP WALKING THIS INSTANT!" Shocked from his angry rant, he finally did stop, giving me a perplexed look. Taking a deep breath, I favored him with a dirty look. "As much as I'd love to hear your angry rant about your love-life with Sango, Miroku..." I carefully pried my wrist from his death-grip. "..I don't have my books." "Oh. Oops!" Muttering something about stupid love-sick school boys, I turned the tables, grabbing my guide by his wrist and stomping back to my dorm. By the time I finally got to my first class, I had no more time to spare. Slumping into one of the desks farthest from the board, I opened my AP US History book and stood it in front of my face, hiding behind it. Why? I'm not entirely sure. I just liked the thought of having this odd type of protection around me. Granted, this protection didn't last very long, especially when a certain boy with long black hair knocked it over. "My mistake," Inuyasha said with feigned innocence. "Sorry, didn't see that there!" He took the seat next to me, and I shot him a dirty glare over the large book, which was now resting on the bridge of my nose. He just grinned in response. "Lemme see your class list." Still not taking the book from my nose, I opened the folder with all my school junk in it, then handed him the small slip of paper that had all my classes on it. He looked it over. "Hey. We have P.E., Physics, Psyche, and this class together..." I glanced at him again, then grabbed my book and hid my face from him completely. Great. We had P.E. together. I sighed deeply and prayed that my book would swallow me whole. That means that.. that.. Well, if anything happened, then he would be the first to know just how much I was NOT a man. I could feel him giving my neck an odd look (since that was the closest thing to my face he could see), but I was saved from having to comment by the sharp ring of the late bell. I dropped my book just in time to see an old midget walk in. This guy was SHORT. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. He was shorter than Souta, and looked as if he barely made it past two feet tall. The minute man walked over to a desk that was taller than him, walked behind it, then pushed a stool (that was once again taller than him), in the front of the room. With one agile leap, he jumped on top of the stool and gave everyone a dry look. "My name is Professor Myouga. If anyone makes one comment about my height, bad OR good, it's an automatic detention." About twenty mouths shut at this. "I will be your teacher in AP US History. This is not an easy course, and it does indeed go by very quickly." He leapt off the stool gracefully, then bounced over to his desk and hopped on the chair. Standing on a stack of books that were conveniently placed on the cushion, he reached over and grabbed a stack of papers. The he did the most amusing thing I�d have seen in awhile. Passing out the papers was tedious as it is when you're normal height, but when you just reach the two-feet-tall line, it's nearly impossible. Granted, you don't have to worry about dodging desks, chairs, and people when you're midget-sized, since you can just go under them, but there's always the problem of getting the paper on the desk. I suppose since Professor Myouga had apparently been teaching for so long, he had devised a full proof way to solve this little problem. His way was to jump high enough, then toss the paper on the desk. I found myself hiding against my book again, this time to cover the giggles I knew I wouldn't be able to hold back. Inuyasha had a violent fake coughing attack, while the other students just flat out laughed. Professor Myouga ignored the laughter, however, which led me to once again believe he had been teaching here for a long time. He seemed to respond to the students chuckling at him as an everyday occurrence. I thought this over a couple times, then just shook my head. Professor Myouga once again returned to his stool, then waited patiently until we stopped laughing. After the class settled down, he favored each and every one of us with deadpan looks. "What I just handed out to you is basically an outline of this entire school year. Lose that, and, well, you're screwed. Included in that packet is how I grade, what you need for this class, and the dates for every test I will be giving. The reason why I have included all the tests and dates is so you kids won't use the excuse of me not telling you about the test to try and skip it. If you will open your packet to page eight..." About here is where I tuned him out. * My next class ended up being P.E., so I walked with Inuyasha to the gym. That was perfectly fine, however, since I knew that if I had attempted walking their on my own, I would have gotten lost faster than it would take me to get there. As we walked there, I dragged each foot against the ground, in hopes of prolonging the journey from class to class. It didn't take Inuyasha long to notice my slow pace. "Hey, what gives, Kagome?" He frowned in slight accusation at me. "I thought you liked sports? I mean, you did say you've been playing baseball since you could walk..." Ah. Miroku had been buttering Inuyasha up to get me on the team. I frowned back at him, running my fingers through my hair on instinct. "It's not that... it's just that I... well..." I frowned at the gym doors in front of me. Oh well, might as well get it over with. Getting a set look on my face, I walked determinedly through the door, shifting the small bundle of clothes in my arms. At least they offered sweats in this program. I had decidedly feminine legs for obvious reasons, and although I doubt that would have given away my horrid secret, I'd have rather gone without the crude teasing I knew I would be subjected to if I wore shorts. I was lucky when it came to that. Showering, on the other hand... The gym was a relatively large room, well, at least large enough to fit two full sized basketball courts, complete with several basketball hoops. Surprisingly, on the wall farthest to us was a long, neat row of targets. Inuyasha and I walked up to a group of the students who were already ready, then blinked at them. "Hey, Riiko, what's all these targets for?" A short boy with a shock of red hair blinked up at Inuyasha in surprise. "Uh.. uh.. I-Inuyasha-sempai, th-they're for ar-archery..." The poor kid sounded absolutely horrified, and I glanced back at Inuyasha. He was wearing a faintly annoyed expression on his face. "S-sorry, Inuyasha-sempai!" The kid bowed repeatedly, then hurried off to another group of kids. I could swear I heard him say "he talked to meee!". Inuyasha shrugged helplessly at my slightly bemused look. "Well, it is an all boy school..." For a moment, I didn't completely comprehend what he meant. Until, of course, I thought about it. Eyes wide, I nodded slowly. "Oh." That's all I could say. I mean, I had nothing against the gender preference of the boys that went here, since a good friend of mine was bisexual, but it did kind of... surprise me. Not his sexuality preference, but how Inuyasha was taking it. He seemed only slightly annoyed at the fact that Riiko had a crush on him. There was no disgusted looks, no sneers, no fury... just the same annoyance he got on his face when Kikyo made those lovey-faces at him. My opinion of him rose tentatively higher. Actually, it sky-rocketed. There was just something about an open-minded guy that I adored. I decided to open my big mouth, anyway. "Um, are you...?" "No." He offered me a dry look. "I just don't care what swings other people's boats, but I prefer girls, myself." He blinked at me. "What about you?" "Straight," was my curt answer. I wasn't about to go into a detailed answer like he had, since I did like boys, and I, at the moment, was a boy. I grinned crookedly at him. "That's cool, though." He didn't have enough time to answer me, as a female teacher had walked into the room. She glanced at all the students carefully, then reached Inuyasha and me and sighed. The teacher pointed over her shoulder at what I presumed was the dressing rooms. I looked down at my body. Oops. I was still wearing my uniform. When Inuyasha and I got to the locker room, I headed straight for one of the dressing stalls. Although I knew Inuyasha was giving me an odd look because of this, I didn't care. As long as he didn't ask any awkward questions. Sighing, I clicked the lock in place and changed quickly, then left the privacy of my stall. "Hey Inuyasha, are..." I choked on the rest of the sentence. There were some things about guys that I really liked. One was their personalities. Another was their smiles. But one of the main things I liked about guys were their backs. Backs were nice. Especially toned, just-muscular-enough backs like the one I was drooling over. Inuyasha had his front facing away from me and was currently pulling off his shirt, revealing his tantalizing back with lovely obviousness. I wouldn't mind running my fingers down that back, any day... Lord almighty, I squeaked. Turning bright red at my chain of thoughts, I quickly ducked back into the stall I had dressed in. Okay, girl, you've got to get a grip on yourself. You're a boy right now, remember? Keep your damn cool! I rubbed my cheeks until they returned to their natural color, then walked back out, looking slightly embarrassed. Luckily, Inuyasha hadn't seen me, and apparently hadn't heard my unfinished sentence or squeak. "U-uh, hey, are you done?" The black haired boy turned around, then grinned down at me and nodded. Unexpectedly, my heart skipped a beat. Oh, my. What I had here was a situation. * P.E. was fun. That's the only way I'll ever be willing to describe it. I had always been an athletic girl, so of course, my favorite period was P.E. It was probably going to be even more fun since I was now pretending to be a boy. Less limitations, more checking and pushing and shoving and fun! Not only that, but now the boys wouldn't treat me as if I were made of glass. We did archery that day. I have never done archery before, let alone even hold a bow and arrow. "Beginners, please raise your hands," Miss Okiku ordered. I, along with half the class, raised my hand. Inuyasha's hands remained firmly on his bow that the teacher had passed to each student earlier. "Right, there's quite a bit of you, this time. Please, move to the left away from the ones who have already been introduced to the bow and arrow. "Archery is not a simple sport, as you will soon grow to realize," Miss Okiku explained. "It requires lithe strength, a sharp eye, and sheer flexibility. You must be able to see the target from many feet away, while at the same time shoot it as fast as you can, in case it may be a moving target." Miss Okiku walked over to me and handed me two arrows. "These arrows are not sharp enough to puncture the skin, granted, but please do not shoot them at each other, or expect a Saturday detention. Kagome, will you please attempt to shoot the target?" ..Attempt to? I glanced at the teacher for a long moment, slightly confused. She smiled and nodded encouragingly, and I shrugged. Miss Okiku quickly showed me how to hold and position the arrow, then watched me expectantly. I pulled my arrow back and let it fly. TWOCK! Several people in the crowd murmured in surprise. The arrow had hit smack-dab in the center of the bulls-eye on my target. The teacher gasped, and I got nervous. They wouldn't think I was lying to them, would they? I gave Miss Okiku a weak smile. "Beginners luck?" "I-it must be, but I have to say, I've never seen a beginner with so much luck before. Please, shoot the other arrow." I glanced back at the target, pulled back the arrow, then once again let it fly. SCCRIIIK! TWOCK! This time, there were startled gasps of surprise. Nervously, I glanced at the teacher. She actually looked pale. I started to sweat slightly at the back of my neck and the palms of my hands. My eyes found their way back to my target. The arrow I had just let fly had split my first arrow in half, right down the center. "T-the arrows s-shouldn't be able to do that..." Miss Okiku stuttered. "Please, K-Kagome, shoot again. This time, aim for the circle outside of the bulls-eye, at the top." She handed me another arrow. I did what she said. TWOCK! It embedded itself directly above the other arrows. I was standing, at the least, sixty feet away from my target. Not to mention, it was the very first time I had ever even held a bow and arrow in my life. Doubtful they would believe that, though... I didn't get to explain that to Miss Okiku that day, though. As soon as my third arrow had hit it's mark, a droning lady's voice spoke over the intercom. "Kagome Higurashi, will you please come to the infirmary immediately? You are excused from the rest of your classes for the day. Once again, urgent, Kagome Higurashi to the infirmary..." Dropping the bow, I grinned sheepishly at the teacher, then shrugged at Inuyasha's doubly shocked glance. "Sorry, Miss Okiku, but I really haven't ever held a bow an arrow before. I don't know why this came to me so easily. Maybe it's just a talent?" I shrugged, then shot an easy grin at the still surprised Inuyasha. "Later, Inu." With that, I jogged back to the dressing rooms. Them calling me like so to the infirmary only meant one thing. There was something wrong with Souta. That thought alone made me terrified. ..::end chapter two::.. Up next, Kagome and the gang run to a new, rather interesting kind of problem at the festival. How will they handle it? But first, what's wrong with Souta? Why did they have to call Kagome so urgently out of her favorite class? And does Sango really have a crush on Kagome, or is it something else? Is today considered the end of the month? I know, I know, I said I would be putting it out much later, but I gave up on studying earlier today, and was able to finish this chapter. |