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* "Kagome! KAGOME! Wake up!" I shot into a sitting position, as usual. "Wha...? Huh...? Hojou?" "Sorry, Kagome, I just didn't want you to be late for your first period!" "OH SHIT!" Automatically, I jumped out of my bed. As Murphy's Law would have it, my feet got tangled in my sheets, and I went sprawling face first into the ground. Not even pausing to rub my poor, offended nose, I leapt at top speeds toward my closet, tripping over this and that. "Oi! Kagome! Don't worry, we have two hours before our classes start..." I stopped in mid-step. "Hojou?" "Yeah?" "I am going to KILL YOU!" And so started another week at St. Bernard's School for Special Boys. Chapter Seven: Workin' like a dog, sleepin' like a log by Clara As luck would have it, Miroku wandered in before I could strangle the living daylights out of the oblivious teenager, although him cheering me on did nothing to subdue me. Eventually, I gave up on trying to murder Hojou and crawled back into my bed (due to the fact that for some reason, my head was spinning), ignoring Miroku who was still laughing at the foot of the doorway. I told him to go to many different places, trailing off at some island in the Pacific Ocean to fall back asleep. My second wake up call was to Inuyasha pounding on my door, warning me that I was going to be late to our first class if I didn't get my ass out of bed. When I didn't answer him, my guess is that he got curious and decided to see just what was going on with me, or perhaps to see if I was even still there. "Hey, Kagome, what's wrong with you?" "Leeme alone," I ordered, pulling the pillow over my head. And what a crazy head it was turning out to be, what with all the spinning it was doing! Hell, the entire room was spinning, and my eyes were closed. Go figure. "Dude, what's wrong with you?" Inuyasha asked. His voice came to my ears in an altered state, and all at once my head started pounding. I'm not talking about one of those headaches that make you wince and maybe rub your temples, I'm talking about one of those headaches where the blood rushes to your ears and you get this sharp ringing sound reverbrating in your head and little annoying red blobs that dance behind your eyelids. Inuyasha's voice, however nice it was, was not doing anything to ease this headache, mind you. My use of vocal chords died away at that moment, so I just grunted at him in response. "No, serious Kagome, you sound like shit." "Gee, man, you know just how to comfort a guy," I managed hoarsely. Great, now there was one of those battering rams in my throat. "I try. Do you got a fever?" I shook my head no. Actually, it didn't exactly matter what I did, since my pillow was covering my face. Well, maybe it did kind of matter. My head moved faster than my brain, and I ended up with this terrible headrush. "Dunno," I answered shortly. "Huh," Inuyasha eloquently said. "I'll tell the nurse about it during lunch or something, kay?" I nodded, but that didn't matter either. It wasn't exactly what you would call the smartest thing to do anyway. "My guess is that you're not going to your classes, either?" "Gunna get killed?" "Nah. You'll just have a lot of make-up stuff to do. I'll tell your teachers, kay? Well, whatever teachers that I have a class in that you have, if that made any sense..." "Don't go out of your way or nothing, man," I grumbled, pushing the pillow farther against my face, perhaps in hopes of suffocating myself. My throat really, really hurt. "That's gratitude for ya! You might wanna call Pop while you're dying. She'll want a good reason as to why you're not there for your first day of work." I groaned. Oh, great. I forgot about that. "Yeah, yeah. Get outta here." I wasn't able to see when he left, though, since after I managed to squeeze those few words past my constricted throat, Mr. Sandman dropped a twenty pound bag of sleepy sand on my head and knocked me out. * I actually didn't dream. Or maybe I did, but the point is, I couldn't remember them. I couldn't remember much, actually, since I borderline dying. Okay, so I wasn't, but for a moment imagine. I had one of those sicknesses where your ears were stuffy, your nose was stuffy, your throat was stuffy� hell, everything was stuffy. After I woke up, I had to breathe through my mouth. Unfortunately, my throat felt like it was fire, so breathing became an almost impossible task. I don't even want to talk about the cough I got. "Hmmm�" I managed thoughtfully after a few moments of silently suffering. I had a devious, devious plan for revenge. Smugly, I stood up, only to sit back down heavily once again. Gotta love those head rushes. After a few moments of ordering my head to go back to normality, I stood up again, despite my awful faint feeling. After I managed to get to my feet, I stumbled carefully towards Hojou's bed, then sat down heavily on it. Well, that part was done. What next? I grinned evilly. Oh yeah. Reaching over to the head of his bed carefully, I grabbed his pillow and lifted it to my mouth. Then coughed. An awful coughs, mind you� the one where the phlegm bubbles in your throat and you sound like a dying cow. It was a thorough cough, too. One of those germ spreading coughs that makes people hold their breath until you're done coughing, in fear that they might inhale some of your disease. All over Hojou's pillow. Smugly, I crawled back out of his bed and back to the floor. I didn't bother with walking again, due to the fact that since I was crawling so close to the ground, I had a shorter length to fall. I made it back to my bed, hauled myself on the nice covers, then fell back asleep like that. Oh yeah, I'm a bright one. I was sick, it was cold, and I didn't put the blankets over me. What a way to prolong recovery! * I woke up again later to several faces peering over me curiously, a couple of them wearing those disease masks that surgeons wear. About here was where I was at the peak of my disease�delusional, hearing things, imagining things, having problems making the connections in my head� So I automatically thought that I was going into surgery. Bear with me here. "How's he doing?" asked Doctor Inuyasha. He wasn't wearing a surgeon's mask. I wondered why, after all, you're not supposed to breathe on people's organs. That's just not healthy. "He looks pretty shitty," Doctor Miroku admonished. I looked blearily at him, then groaned out a protest. Put away that scalpel! I don't want to be cut up! Nurse Eiji reached over and felt my forehead. His hands were freezing. So very damn cold. And where were his gloves? "Man, the guy's got a bad fever." I coughed at him in annoyance. No shit, Sherlock. "Lucky bastard. That means he doesn't have to go to classes." Nurse Kouga decided to make his appearance, here. I coughed at him, too, hoping to spread my 'luck'. He held his breath. "Sucks for him. Maybe someone should go to Pop Jordan's to let her know he's not coming today. I don't think he'll be doing much for the next couple of hours�" Thank you, Nurse Eiji, for your insightful way of stating the obvious. "Next couple of days, even." Well, now, since the lot of you are doing a great job of letting me know what I already know, how 'bout if you get the hell outta here and let me sleep? "Wonder if he'll be going to the beginning of the year dance," Kouga pondered out loud. "Better yet, wonder if his sister would like to go..." With you? Fat chance. I pulled my pillow over my face. The four stooges didn't notice it. "With you? Fat chance, buddy." Thank you, Inuyasha, for reading my thoughts. "Oh, yeah, you were hoping that she would go with you!" "Will you guys get the hell outta here?" I finally managed, after I realized that I was awake, not in an ER or surgery room or something, and after I remembered that I actually did have vocal chords. Four people jumped in surprised unison, then looked down at me guiltily. "Sorry, Kag, didn't know you were awake, there�" "I wouldn't be awake if it weren't for you guys, talking about my sister and stuff�" "Speaking of which, do you think she would want to go with me, 'Gome?" Kouga asked, completely ignoring my request for privacy. Miroku even sat on Hojou's bed. Good boy, now pick up that pillow and suffocate yourself with it. Or at least get my disease. "No, she hates you. Go away." "D� does she really?" Kouga almost sounded crestfallen. "No, you dumbass. She's only known you for like, one night. Not long enough to form a strong enough opinion of you. Can you guys please go away now?" My head was doing some interesting things to me. I was almost positive that it was doing somersaults on my neck. "You get really pissy when you're sick, doncha Kagome?" Miroku quipped. I pushed my pillow from my face slightly, glaring at him with all I was worth for ignoring my peace request. He winced slightly. "And man, do you look like shit!" "Screw you." I growled, pulling my pillow back over my head. He snorted. "Sorry, man, but I don't swing that way." I pulled the pillow off my face again, about to ask him if that meant he liked boys, when I remembered that I, myself, was currently a boy. Frowning, I replaced the pillow over my head, not deigning him with an answer. A few moments after I did this, I fell back asleep, to the boys� insistent rambling. * Not to further bore you about my interesting flu experience, I'll fast forward to when I finally became well enough to actually start functioning again. I got a total of three days off, and most of those three days I spent in bed or playing cards with the boys. I learned some interesting card games, mind you. Have you ever heard of the card game called Asshole? No joke, that's actually what it's called. But since I can't remember the game, I can't tell you how it's played. My deepest apologies. So, anyway, I became fully coherent during the third day of my sickness, but I was still felt like my head was weighed down by snot and spit, and I still had those sneezes that made people check the back of their necks and coughs that made people turn their heads. As I walked to the door to the outside after I had finished my last class, Miroku chattered aimlessly about what I missed in our classes and how long I had to make it up. He also asked me what I thought of the scary school nurse who was checking on me while I was sick. "School nurse?" I asked, drawing up a blank. Miroku blinked at me. "Don't tell me you don't remember her, Kagome! She was there the entire time you were sick!" I paled considerably. Oh no. Oh nononono. That meant� that� "Hey!" Miroku called in surprise as I darted off. "Where are you going?! You have work in a couple minutes!" "Pop'll understand!" I called back, careening down the halls. "I got some important stuff I need to do!" One of the things you might realize about me is that I don't think. At all. Of course, I didn't think about asking Miroku just what the nurse's name was, but to me, at the moment, that didn't matter. I had to make sure that this crazy nurse didn't know about my� well, secret. I quickly pushed open the sick room's door, eyes darting back and forth, trying to locate Miss nurse-lady. "Kagome!" A frighteningly familiar voice said. "It's good to see you up again. You had a nasty case of the flu, you know� I was afraid your fever would reach the point where we would had to take you to the hospital. It was already 103.5�" I turned around slowly. Sitting at one of the desks was a minimally attractive young lady, with a high long ponytail that was tied at the side of her head and poofy bangs� you know, like the retro-80's style. I was half surprised her shirt wasn't tied to the side with a scrunchie and she wasn't wearing spandex pants. On her desk, much like on Lady Kaede's desk, was a nameplate that said "Miss. Kodachi Kuno IV." I looked back up at her, hesitantly, wondering why on earth I recognized her name. There was� something about her face, too� "Hey, weren't you on the news awhile back? Something about a boy with several fianc�e's chasing after him and ultimately blowing up a bridge?" The woman shifted slightly, looking faintly uncomfortable. Her smile tightened around the corners. "Well, yes." She changed the subject quickly. "Is there something you wanted to ask me?" Radiant smile. "Uh, did you� uh� take my heart beat or something?" "Well, no, but I did give you a frontal lobotomy!" My hand flew up to my forehead, and I stared at her with horrified eyes. "You did what?!" "Ohohoho! Dear, I was just kidding. But you must relax, I did nothing but give you your medicine and take your temperature. Would you have preferred me to track your heartbeat?" I paled, still in shock of her little 'joke'. "N-no, that's quite all right! Thanks!" Without further delay, I high-tailed it out of there. There hairs on the back of my neck were still standing on end. "Ta ta!" Her eerie voice wafted after me as I rushed as far away as I could from the sick room. And to think, that was the lady who was taking care of Souta when he had been� hurt. * After that� interesting experience with Miss Kodachi Kuno IV, I headed back to my room. What I needed to relax was a nice, long shower. Hell knows I needed it, too. I wasn't exactly able to shower when I was sick, since I couldn't even walk around, anyway. Not only that, I had an interesting week. I sighed and walked in, stripping down to nothing and turning my water as hot as it could go. Unfortunately, as I started to heat up the shower, I kind of sort of forgot to lock my door. I didn't think it mattered, though, since Hojou was out with his friends somewhere. Yes, the jackass had friends. But let me tell you. I. Am. The. Biggest. Moron. In. The. World. So there I was, dancing around in my shower with nothing but my birthday suit on. Did I mention that my shower was glass? Let me tell you how this could be bad on several levels. If you're just picking up from here, well, I'm a girl dressed as a boy in order to protect my baby brother from certain demise. So, not being able to be clothed and shower at the same time, I was revealed for the entire world to see. The entire world came in the form of one certain, very well known boy. "Kagome!" Was the only warning I got before my door burst open. "Hey! Why did you leave so sudden� sudden�" I froze. Miroku froze. We� well, stared at each other. Then I screamed and Miroku yelped, quickly zipping out of the room and slamming it shut behind him. I could hear him thump against the door in surprise, indicating he was leaning against it. Another reason it could be bad would be if a close friend of yours walked in on you when you were showering, as I just so intricately illustrated above. Turning many shades of white, and getting the uneasy feeling that I was about to pass out right in the middle of the shower, I shakily pulled myself out of the shower, grabbing my towel and wrapping it around my body. Hesitantly, I walked over to the door, chewing on my bottom lip until it was raw. "Miroku�? Are you still there?" There was silence, and for a moment I was afraid that he had left to spread the news about this new discovery. After a moment, though, I heard someone shifting around. "Yeah. Kagome, you have got a lot of explaining to do." One other bad reason would be when this friend demands an explanation, after finding this out. It's also bad when this friend, someone who's usually light hearted and laughing sounds� emotionless. Paling more, if possible, I racked my brains for any possible excuses. I couldn't find any. "Y-yeah. Uh, lock the door, will ya?" There was another brief moment of silence, then a shuffling of someone walking. There was the telltale click of my door being locked, but I didn't leave the bathroom until I was assured that the door was locked. "Okay, Kagome." With a shaky hand, I pushed my bathroom door open. "Don't even think about telling me that you're coming to visit your damn 'brother' or something, and that you just decided to take a shower because you were feeling dirty. I won't believe it." I felt like crying. Miroku sounded so� so angry with me. Dropping my eyes to the ground, I edged to my bed, carefully avoiding Miroku. I could feel his gaze following me, though. I sat down heavily on my bed, still pale and shaky, and still feeling like I was going to cry. My system was in a shock right now, trust you me, and this isn't exactly the best thing when you're sick. So, after a small, but violent coughing attack, I finally got the guts to look my, well, guy best friend in the eye. Surprisingly, he didn't look as angry as he had before. I think my coughing fit raised some paternal instincts in him, because he looked a bit less tense and a lot more worried. "Well, that just proves to me further that you really are Kagome, and not Kekki. Or is it the other way around?" He sat down across from me on Hojou's bed, looking at me analytically. When he saw that I was shivering, and that I was still soaked from the shower, he sighed. "Go get something on that's more than a towel before you explain this situation to me, but hurry." I nodded meekly, shooting to my feet and rushing back into the bathroom. I lingered in the bathroom longer than needed, brushing my hair at least four times. I didn't want to face Miroku and his accusing glare. Especially since I was forced to wear my 'male' clothing again, since I had no 'female' clothing. After a few moments of an internal battle, I exited the bathroom. Miroku looked at me expectantly, hands placed on either sides of his legs as a kind of� support, almost. I winced at him, then sat back down on my bed. "I really am Kagome Higurashi," I started after a few moments. Miroku's expression remained blank, but he leaned over a little further to hear me better. I was, after all, talking in a rather soft voice. "I'm attending this school because my brother� my real brother, Souta, was being beaten almost every day at his school. Grandpa decided that I would be his 'protector', almost, by attending the same school as him, in other words, St. Bernard's School for Special Boys." I stopped. There wasn't much more I could tell him. After a few moments of thoughtful silence, Miroku spoke again. "Why the hell didn't you tell us, then? I mean, we would have obviously accepted you." He paused thoughtfully and looked out the window. Well, from what he could see out the window. My shades were drawn. Of course, I remembered to draw my shades, but I didn't lock my door. "And why didn't you just go to the girl's school?" "I didn't know the girl's school existed!" I bit out, a little vehemently. His attention was automatically drawn back to my face. "Look, there's just a couple reasons why I didn't tell you guys. Oh, here, let me just give you one through one million." I was getting angry, and I didn't have a right to be. I wasn't actually really angry, just� scared. I didn't want Miroku to hate me. "One, you guys would have treated me like a girl if you knew. If we were playing sports, you would walk around me as if I were glass instead of tackle me. You wouldn't treat me the same. That'd look good, wouldn't it? People would reeeeally think I was some macho boy or something." I got up and started pacing. I knew I was rambling, but I couldn't help it. I was at the epitome of nervousness. "Two, I didn't know if I could trust you guys. Sure, now you're all my best friends, but won't that be even worse? I suddenly flat out tell you guys that I'm a chick, and bam! You all feel betrayed and pissed, and hate me. Cause and effect." "Kagome�" I was on a roll, now. All this weight of guilt and fear was finally being slightly lifted from my shoulder. "Three, I reallyreallyREALLY want to be on the baseball team. Not just some stupid softball team or something, and if Inuyasha or any of you guys knew, then my chance on being on the team would automatically be gone. Like it or not, sexism STILL is a key here." I stopped again, trying to think of more reasons. "Four� four� well, I was just scared, alright?" There was that uncomfortable silence again� you know, the kind of silence you usually get during first dates, when you can't think of anything to talk about, so you both just� sit there awkwardly. I moved back to the bed, sitting back down on it. That little speech of mine really took a lot of energy out of me. "I mean, what if one of you guys decided that this needed to be taken to the teachers? Where would I be then? And then what would happen to my brother? Oh yeah, that'd be great for his rep. He needed his cross-dressing sister to protect him. I'd probably be permanently labeled as 'uber-dyke', then kicked out of the school." I glared at his stoic face half-heartedly. "And I am straight, thankyouverymuch." Miroku was observing me thoughtfully, and once again I dropped my eyes to the floor. If anyone, the last person I wanted to hate me was Miroku. Well, Miroku and Inuyasha. "Kagome�" Miroku started again, then heaved a great sigh. "Look, Kagome, I'm not mad, alright? I was just a bit surprised. Give me some credit, okay?" He ran his fingers through his hair, standing up. "I mean, it isn't every day you walk into one of your best friend's bathroom and find out that he is really a she." I nodded slowly. "Does anyone else know, or is it just me?" "Only you, Sango and Souta know," I mumbled, hunching over myself. Miroku blinked. "That explains a lot." A pause. "How does Sango know?" "Well, it's kind of an� interesting story," I said nervously. "Remember after the festival, when Sango needed to talk to me? Well, I was a dumbass and jumped to conclusions, not bothering to listen to what she had to ask. I thought she had a crush on me, or something. The male me, that is. So I blurted out that I was really a girl, showed her proof� get that perverted look off your face, I just showed her some cleavage, and that was that." "What did she really call you for?" "Well, uh, she thought I was gay." Miroku snorted, and I glared at him. "Hey, give me some credit here. I've never done this before, right?" Miroku walked to my side, and sat on my bed beside me. I think, now that he actually paid attention, he realized just how much smaller I was compared to him. "Hey," I asked, after a few moments. "You don't hate me, do you?" "Nah. You have a good enough reason for me not to. Sorry for getting all offended, I was just surprised." I nodded. "Sorry for not telling you, Priest, but yeah." I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. "You're not going to tell Inuyasha, are you?" "Although I think I should, I'll leave that up to you. Why are you so against telling Inuyasha?" Because he'll hate me. "Because I want to be on the team." "All right. One more question." I turned my head to look at him fully. "Yeah?" "Will you go to that dance with me?" I elbowed him in the stomach. * "This has to be the weirdest couple days of my life," I informed Pop when I got to the shopp�. She grinned at me. "Hoi, Kagome, when you get as old as me, you'll get a lot of those days." She wiped the counter down with her rag. "How are you feeling? I heard you had a nasty case of the flu. Oh, you're apron is in the back, okay?" That was Pop for ya� random as they get. "I'm doing good," I assured her. "Just got a stuffed nose. But I'm not contagious anymore." I walked over to the door that would take me to the back and pushed my way in. There it was, a the tacky bright red apron with little pink swirlies on it. I groaned. Oh, what a way to be a manly man! I sighed and grabbed the apron, pulling it over my head then tying it securely around my back. My first day of work. Oh, this should be fun. .:end chapter 7:. A/N: Unfortunately, these chapters are progressively getting shorter and shorter. My apologies. To issue a small token of advice.. BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU DRIVE! I got in my first accident, and let me tell you, that was one of the scariest incidents in my life. I'm okay though, the guy's okay, and there's only minimal damage to each cars. I think I'm a nervous wreck right now, though... One last thing. There will be NO Miroku/Kagome romance in this. NONE. N-O-N-E. I just like the thought of them being good friends in this story. |