Face Down || Chapter One
"Shun-Shi? Mr. Shun-shi? Inuyasha, wake up this instant!"
The snoring, slightly drooling hanyou jolted awake just as the instructor's ruler came down on his fingers.
"Ow! What the fuck!" The boy grasped his offended appendages tightly, whipping away the little bit of drool that coated his desk quickly before anyone could see. The angular woman glared down as the ivory hair boy, Inuyasha Shun-Shi, while folding her arms across her chest and tapping her pointed boot impatiently.
"Nice of you to join us Shun-shi." She said smugly, "Please join the class on page four-hundred and sixty-three and read us the fifth paragraph."
Grumbling under his breath, Inuyasha flipped a couple pages forward and scanned the page, while the teacher walked back up to the front of the class, her heels clicking annoyingly on the linoleum floor. Inuyasha propped his head on his palm and obediently began to read monotonously to the class about the defects of the United States' Electoral College system;
"The electoral college system is plagued by three major defects, the winner of the popular vote is not guaranteed the presidency, electors are not required to vote in accord with the popular vote, and any election might have to be decided in the House of Representatives… Happy?"
"Good, thank you Mr. Shun-Shi." She pauses and smiled sweetly at her student. "Now, please make sure to stay after class so I can assign you a detention."
"For what!?"
"Why – for sleeping in class, you know the rules."
The hanyou shook slightly, his face red as he glared at the teacher, "What about Roushiku!" He shouted throwing his arm over to point at the also dozing youkia. "He's been sleeping in class since the first day! You've never given him a freaking detention!"
The female instructor stood from her desk, her face placid as she said smartly, "Roushiku is none of you concern," at the sound of his name again, the demon began to stir and looked around dumbly,
"Wha'd I do now?"
"Nothing." The teacher responded, her eyes never leaving Inuyasha's desk.
"Oh… Okay." At that, the never fully conscious demon laid his head back in his arms and drifted back into sleep.
Inuyasha stared at the woman as she stared back with just as much intensity. After a few awkward moment, the boy diverted his gaze and threw himself back in his seat and said grouchily,
"This is so fucked up…"
"That's another detention Inuyasha!"
"Fuck it is!" Roared the hanyou, pushing himself up from his seat and shoving his binder and book into his bag.
"You sit down Inuyasha!"
The boy ignored her and after roughly zipping his pack up, through it over his shoulder and started for the door.
"Inuyasha Shun-shi! If you don't sit down this instant I'll send you to the office!"
Inuyasha just snorted cockily. He would have strode right out the classroom door but his jacket snagged – or better was grabbed by a black-haired human.
"Dude, don't – you don't need another suspension."
"Le'go Miroku, I don't care."
The two gave each other meaningful looks, before the human sighed and let his friends jacket slide out of his fingers. "Whatever."
Inuyasha then proceeded to finish his walk to the classroom door and yanked it open loudly, he gave a brief glance back at the class, most of which were having trouble deciding which to watch; him or the furious teacher, before turning to look at his instructor which stood at the side of her desk, her damned ruler pointing at him shaking slight.
"Inuyasha…" She started, but the boy just grinning and flipped her the bird, getting an audible response from the occupants of the room and then walked out into the hallway, slamming the door behind him. A few seconds later he could hear the teacher roaring mutely at the class.
His cocky smile faded quickly and was replaced with a scowl; the adrenaline of the experience quickly wearing off.
"Stupid, fucking 'teach." He muttered to himself as he exited the building. He walked briskly to his beat up Honda Accord and jumped inside, starting the engine as the car whined in protest. As he backed out of his parking spot and started out of the lot, he noticed a girl he'd never seen before entering the school, but shrugged it off and pulled out on to the deserted street and hit the gas, his tires squealing as he took off down the rode.
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Kagome squeezed her eyes shut tightly as her deep mahogany hair whipped around her face, her ears protesting to the loud growl of the car that just roared past her. As the purr of the engine faded into the distance, the young woman opened her eyes carefully, brushing the miss-placed hairs back behind her shoulders and grumbling to herself quietly,
"How idiotic…"
Finishing her walk up the concrete stairs into the new school, she couldn't help but feel a swarm of butterflies invade her stomach, the thought of the speeder long gone. Taking a deep breath, she composed herself and shuffled around in her bag for the neatly folded piece of paper that gave blueprints to the school. She unfolded it quietly and let her finger point to where she was standing on the map, and then trailed it along the drawn corridors to the little rectangular box that said, 'front office' typed in it.
She set off in pursuit of the office, taking in the generally familiar surroundings; all schools looked the same. Mustard yellow full-sized lockers lined the off-white walls which had random rushed painted signs that said stupid little sayings like, "School Pride!" or "Lets go Mustangs!" It was just a different color palate then her old school…
She found the office without incident and the plump lady typing furiously on her out-dated computer greeted her without ever glancing up at her.
"Um. Hi, I'm new…" Kagome started awkwardly.
"Just a minute dear, let me finish this up." The lady smiled at her computer; Kagome assumed it was meant for her.
After a moment of silence, aside for the clicking of the keyboard, the lady swung around in her wheelie chair and smiled flakily up at Kagome, "Now sweet-heart! What can I do for you?"
"Ah, well – I never received a schedule in the mail."
"Oh! Well dear, what's your last name?"
"Higurashi."
The lady had rolled back over to her computer now, "How do you spell that?"
"H-i-g-u-r-a-s-h-i"
"Grade?"
"Uh, 12. Senior."
The woman ended the one-sided conversation and after a couple moments she pushed off her desk and rolled across the room to the printer and waited patiently for the ancient thing to spit out Kagome's schedule. It moaned loudly for a minute or so before spitting out two pieces of paper, which the fat lady quickly snatched and rolled back over to Kagome. Slapping the paper up onto the counter in front of Kagome, the lady hoisted herself out of her chair, which groaned lowly, and she let her pudgy little sausage fingers tail down the paper while she talked quickly,
"It looks like you have blocked Pre-calc. for first and second with Mr. Johnson; you'll like him – he's from the states, and then third you have painting, fourth P.E, then lunch. Um…" She scanned over the paper, losing her spot for a second. "Uh, then fifth you got Creative Writings with Mrs. Rushiki, English Language for seventh and lastly A.P. Biology with Mr. Hennis. Do you have a map?"
"Uh, yeah." Kagome said, pulling the piece of paper out of her pocket and handing it to the woman. She unfolded it hastily and then proceeded to show her how to get to her classes.
"We're just finishing up fifth hour, you can go introduce yourself to Mrs. Rushiki if you'd like."
"Okay. Ah – thank you."
The lady nodded and sat back down carefully, as if afraid the chair might break and then wheeled back to her computer.
Kagome grabbed the three papers and headed out the door towards her fifth hour class. It was upstairs on the second level, so she peered down at her map for a stairway. She couldn't help but sigh as she saw that this school only had one stairway for the entire place; that was sure to be like a giant traffic jam in between passing periods.
Walking silently up to her class room, she felt the familiar onslaught of butterflies assaulting her stomach as she reached the room that had big brass number on the door reading '362'.
"Well, just go." She told herself as she balked at the door.
It took a couple moments of convincing, but Kagome sucked in a big breath of stagnant school air and grabbed the handle and twisted quickly, swinging the door open smoothly and quietly, hoping to make as little attention to her as possible. But like any class; when you open a door in the middle of a period, every single head turns to look at you. And thanks to Kagome's unusual sense of self-awareness, she couldn't stop the rush of blood to her face, tinting her cheeks pink. Walking into the class, she kept her eyes on the teacher who too stared at Kagome from her desk; she looked like she was in a bad mood, her breath uneven and rapid. The short walk from the door across the front of the room felt like a stage with white-hot lights following her; she could feel the classes' eyes watching her. Finally after what felt like an eternity, she reached the teacher, who was now standing, and said quietly,
"Hi, I'm new…"
"Well, we assumed that dear." The teacher responded, slightly snappy.
"Um." Kagome didn't know how to answer.
"What's your name dear?"
Kagome peeked out towards the class, but quickly looked back at the teacher. "Higurashi, Kagome." She mumbled.
"Excuse me?" The woman prodded.
"Higurashi, Kagome." Said Kagome, slightly louder.
"Okay then, Ms. Higurashi, why don't you go sit by Ms. Uya since Mr. Shun-Shi decided to vacate it earlier today." She pointed to the empty seat in the back with her eyes, a haughty looking girl stared at Kagome, her fake platinum blond hair in big loopy curls. Kagome picked up on the malice in the teachers voice when she said the boy, Shun-Shi's, name but ignored it.
Without waiting for a response, the teacher sat back down at her desk and continued to read her book. Kagome turned and walked hastily to her assigned seat, making sure not to make eye contact with anyone as she went. She sat clumsily down at her wooden desk, and winced as it squeaked loudly. A couple people were still watching her, but most had gone back to reading their literature.
Kagome tucked her hair behind her ear self-consciously and pulled out her schedule and map from her pocket. She mindlessly read over it, memorizing the classes and where they were.
After five minutes of reading, and re-reading her schedule to the point were she had made up a little jig in her head to help her remember, the bell screeched loudly over the speakers, making her jump in her desk. The entire class burst into simultaneous chatter while packing up their things and heading out the door. Some peered back at Kagome, but only briefly. Nobody bothered to say hi.
She kept her head down as she shuffled out the room with the crowd of peers, her senses hyperaware.
Just as she had thought, the stairwell was like a death trap waiting for her. People were so crowded together you couldn't help but just pop your personal bubble and accept stranger nearly walking on top of you. Some obnoxious person a couple yards back was pushing people, making a domino effect of little shoves. Just what she needed was to get pushed down the stair on her first day. Though, that would just be a couple more bruises to add to her collection.
Finally out of the stairway, she hustled to her next class.
The English class was small and the professor was much nicer, Kagome thought she'd probably end up liking the short little man for the rest of this year. He looked liked he was the kind of guy that got picked on in high school.
She was assigned a seat next to a boy that she had her last class with, he was one of the ones that stared for a while. It made her uncomfortable…
"Work on your projects kids, they're due on Wednesday." Announced the teacher, "Oh, Kagome – you can just tag on with someone for the time being. We've been working on this project for a couple weeks now, you don't need to worry about it."
She nodded at the teacher, but at the same time silently cursed. Couldn't he have assigned her with someone to 'tag onto'? Now she actually had to go approach someone, not her strong suite. Peering around, most people were splitting up into twos and the occasional three some. Kagome stalled and pulled her notebook out of her backpack and shifted in her seat. Couldn't she just doodle or something by herself? Why'd she actually have to join a group, she really didn't even need to be in the class in the first place. She lived over in the states for seven years with her father before he passed away; English was more like her first language than Japanese.
"Hey, you want to work with us?"
Kagome jumped out of her thoughts and glanced up at the boy who was sitting next to her, he smiled nicely at her. A girl had made her way over to his desk and she was forcing a polite smile on her face but otherwise looked grumpy.
"Uh, yeah. Thanks." Kagome mumbled.
She scootched her desk to angle with the little groups pod and smiled weakly.
"So, you're new here huh?" Said the girl. She twiddled with her annoyingly long, pretty, fiery red hair that was pulled back into two high pigtails. It resembled liquid fire and complimented her deep green eyes. She was obviously youkia, this put Kagome unconsciously on edge but kept the nervous fear off her face.
"Yeah. I moved here a couple days ago."
"Where from?" Chimed in the boy, he watched her like she was something really interesting.
"Yokohama."
"Oh, cool."
"Well, I'm Miroku and that's Ayame" He said, nudging Ayame with his elbow, her body went rigid when he touched her.
"Miroku," She mumbled under her breath, "I told you – no freaking touching me."
He ignored her and smiled at Kagome, it was kind of annoying how happy he was.
"Yeah, um – I'm Kagome."
"We know." He said. It was kind of freaky sounding, almost stalker like, even though it made perfect sense that they knew who she was. After all, the teacher had made her introduce herself to the class.
It was awkward for Kagome the rest of the class period – Ayame pretty much ignored her and scribbled poorly formed English sentences in her notebook while Miroku continued to fire off random questions, some more personal than she would have preferred to have been asked on her first meeting.
"So, you have a boyfriend?" Miroku prodded.
"Had." Kagome stressed, she really didn't want to talk about this.
"Broke up because of the move?" He continued.
"Sure." She was getting snappy.
"Oh." Miroku either couldn't think of any more questions about that particular topic or picked up on her annoyance because he started in about whether she had any pets.
This trivia like questionnaire went on for pretty much the rest of the class period, occasional strings of silence when Miroku had to pause and think up some new questions. Finally the bell rang in the middle of one of Miroku's questions and Kagome darted for the door thankful for only one more class to endure.
A.P. Biology went quickly, the teacher lectured monotonously and she was aloud to sit silently in the back and take unnaturally efficient notes as most of the rest of the class went into a comatose like sleep. When the last bell finally rang, Kagome wasted no time scurrying away – she just wanted to get back home and take a long, hot bath and sooth her aching body.
As she made her way out of the school and into the parking lot, she noticed the car that she had seen when she was entering the building for the first time. It was parked a couple spots down from hers and it was on, the engine protesting. Miroku was climbing into the passengers' side and Kagome could here him lecturing who ever was driving.
She unlocked and climbed into her own truck, an elderly 1994 Ford Explorer, and quickly shut the door making a sort of barrier to officially end the school day. Fall back into her seat, she rubber her temples and sighed as the starting of car engines and yelling of obnoxious first through third years were muffled by her imprisoned like state. After a moment she rolled up her jacket sleeve and inspected her arm, it was still dotted with a multitude of muted colored bruises. The ugliest right below her elbow that had turned a nasty shade of greenish-purple while she was in school. She touched it gently and hissed under her breath, it still smarted pretty badly. She pulled up the sleeve to her other arm and sighed. This one wasn't as colorful as her other and had less in amount, but this one had a near perfect print of someone's hand, it was painted in deep purple blood that had pooled painfully below her pale skin. Shoving her sleeves down again roughly, she started her vehicle quickly and peered around to make sure she was 'okay' to back out.
Rounding the corner, she took subconscious notice to the absence of the beat up, yellow Honda that she had encountered twice that day and drove silently out of the parking lot and onto the busy street.
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"Geez Yash', you really didn't need to get another week out of school suspension. Especially this close to finals." Miroku lectured, leaning his head against the glass that vibrated softly as they drove down 86th Street. "Really, your brother's going to flip."
"Screw Sesshomaru." Mutter Inuyasha, gripping the steering wheel loosely, weaving in and out of traffic.
"You're lucky Mrs. Rushiki didn't try and get you expelled." Chimed a deep, but very feminine voice. "You've pissed her off enough to get all of use expelled three times over you twit."
"She won't expel me, she can't." Argued Inuyasha, confidence lacing his voice, he peered into his rear-glass mirror to stare at the woman who was slouched in the middle seat. Her strait seal-brown hair tied up in a high ponytail with a maroon ribbon that complimented her almost purple-like eyes.
"And why is that Inuyasha?" She sneered. Propping her elbows on her knees and leaning up into the front of the car between the front seats.
"Because Sango," Inuyasha mimicked, "Mr. Daisuke won't let her. The team wouldn't survive without me." Inuyasha straightened up cockily and gave a little smile as he swerved in front of a slow moving Cadillac.
"Oh my god." Sango moan and through herself back into her seat.
"You such an arrogant little bastard, you know that right?" Miroku prodded.
"No, I'm just confident. And tell me Miroku, would we even be near winning state without me?" Stated Inuyasha in a matter-of-fact way. Miroku just glared at the ivory haired hanyou, trying to make a decent argument but coming up with nothing. "Well?" Encouraged Inuyasha, his ego growing with every passing second.
"Just because you're okay at basketball doesn't mean Mrs. Rushiki won't try and kick you out." Sango said from the back. Inuyasha snorted loudly at the 'okay' comment.
"No, but Mr. Daisuke won't let her. He's been at this school for what, thirty years?"
"Thirty-three." Miroku mumbled.
"Whatever, he's been here forever and this is the closest he's gotten to a championship – he won't let some PMS'ing old bat take away his star player."
Sango just huffed annoyingly and glared out the window. Inuyasha, on the other hand, brimmed with glee after winning their short little argument. He needed to win everything; it was just his nature.
The trio sat in a comfortable silence, Inuyasha's fingers drumming mutely on the leather steering-wheel for a couple minutes until Miroku jumped up straight in his seat and grinned broadly at Inuyasha. Eyeing the human warily, Inuyasha shifted father away and said suspiciously, "What now?"
The black haired boy smiled idiotically before saying coolly, "You missed it 'Yash."
"Missed what?"
"Yeah monk, what?" Sango said, equal uncertainty lacing in her voice.
"Oh Sango, you know – she was in our Creative Writings period."
"Oh, yeah. You couldn't stop staring, like usual."
"Well, what do you expect?"
"I'd expect you to have some self control! Especially when your girl friend's right next to you!" Sango snapped, folding her arms angrily.
"Come on, Sango. You know I was just looking."
"More like fantasizing…"
"Eh," Miroku looked pleadingly back at the fuming girl. "Don't Sango, I have done nothing wrong!"
Sango just humf'd and stared out the window, sticking her tongue out at a guy in the next lane over that flipped Inuyasha the bird for cutting in front of him a few blocks back.
"You should be proud of me! I had seventh with her too and we were partners and didn't lay a finger on her!"
"Uh! You letch!" She shouted, throwing her hands up.
Inuyasha was becoming increasingly impatient as the two argued, his free foot tapping erratically on the floorboard. "You mind filling me in? Or am I just your guys chauffeur and couples counseling?"
"Oh shut up Inuyasha!" spat Sango.
"Don't take it out on me Sango, I'm not the idiot who's dating a perv."
"Hey!" Miroku shouted in defense. "Okay," Miroku started, getting back to the point of the topic, "'So, we got this new chick in school. She came in like, literally ten minutes you left."
"Okay." Inuyasha said, not impressed. It was just like Miroku to make a big deal out of some new girl. He peered over at his so-called-'friend' and couldn't help but grin and his stupidity. He was mouthing the words quite obviously, 'she's hot!' none-too secretly. And on cue, Sango screeched in the back,
"I'm not blind you idiot!"
Inuyasha couldn't suppress a roar of laughter when Miroku got Sango's foot shoved into his face with lethal accuracy. Then the please and babbles chorusing from the abused monk as Sango continued to aim her feet in the general direction of her boyfriend. "You're such an ungrateful letch! I should just drop you right now! You bastard!" Sango yelled furiously. Inuyasha joined in the torture of his friend and elbowed him in the side a couple times and mimicked Sango's bird like screeches. Which, then only earned him a pretty good heel into his side.
"You stay out of this Inuyasha!"
"You can't hog all the fun Sango!" Teased Inuyasha.
"You can beat him up only if he's your boyfriend – and right now, you can have him if you're dying to for him!"
Both Inuyasha and Miroku looked at each other for a moment, and then in unison gagged. But, a moment later all three burst into howls of laughter. Eventually they quieted to just light chuckles, but just as silence began to sneak in again, Miroku howled in pain as Sango landed another precisely placed kick to his temple.
"That was for being a pervert."
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The rest of the week for Kagome went similar to the first, only it was longer. She was almost three chapters ahead of her Pre-Calc class, so she often went into a comatose-like stupor or doodled aimlessly on what were suppose to be her notes. The teacher was one of those, stand with your back to the class the entire two periods and lecture. It was very boring.
Her third period was much better, or, it would have been if not for whom she had to sit by. Three wolf youkia decided that it would be grand fun to lay 'claim on her' on her first day there. The leader of their stupid little pack, Kouga, actually had the nerve to wrap his arm around her and announce to the class that she was off limits. If her face hadn't been completely saturated red with embarrassment, it would have been purple in anger. And then worst of all, the next day he grabbed her by the arm. On one of her most tender bruises. She couldn't suppress the whimper that moaned out of her mouth, earner her stares from the entire class.
Now there was this lovely little rumor now floating around that the 'new chick' had osteoporosis or some bone disorder like that. It was horrible.
The only thing that made that class period manageable now was Kagome had actually managed to pick up a friend who invited her to sit with her instead of the 'hormonal canines' as she liked to call them. She had creative writings with her as well, Sango Hiraikotsu. She was nice, a bit tempremental, but nice.
P.E. was terrible, as it always was for Kagome. End of story.
At lunch Sango had invited her to sit with her, which Kagome was very grateful for because unlike her old school, seniors weren't aloud off campus to get lunch. So she couldn't have snuck away and ate by herself at a MacDonald's or something of that nature. Kagome had the 'pleasure' of meeting Miroku again, and was honestly very surprised to find that Sango was dating him. He didn't seem like her type, and Kagome couldn't even fathom trying to be with that 'chatty-cathy' for more than just a couple minutes. He never shut up!
The boy, Inuyasha, had come up several times in their conversations at lunch. Obviously they were friends with him, but Kagome didn't learn, nor want to learn who he really was. All she knew was that he was suspended until Friday. Today.
"So, I wonder how Mrs. Rushiki is going to welcome 'Yash back?" commented Miroku, as he took a large bite out of his crisp apple.
Kagome looked up at Sango who was dully stirring her luke-warm tomato soup.
"I don't know, probably like she always treats him – like he's the spawn of the devil." Sango replied.
"I actually like Mrs. Rushiki. She seems nice." Kagome spoke quietly, still not fully comfortable with her new acquaintances. She pealed off the crust of her PB&J while she waited for a response.
"Oh, she really is. As long as you don't piss her off." Sango said.
"It's just if you do, she holds it against you big time." Quickly added Miroku, "My cell went off in class the first week of school and she's never let me off for it. The witch."
"Well, maybe you shouldn't do stupid stuff like that." Sango mumbled.
Miroku chose to ignore her and the three ate in a slightly awkward silence.
"So," Said Sango, filling the quiet.
"So…" Miroku echoed.
"Why isn't this Inuyasha guy here?" Kagome said suddenly. Both Sango and Miroku looked at her quizzically and Kagome couldn't help but feel her cheeks heat slight. "I mean, isn't today suppose to be his first day back? Shouldn't he be at lunch?"
"Oh, well yeah. He should. I think." Sango said.
"No, he has to eat lunch in the office for a week." Miroku said quickly. "Mrs. Rushiki is eating with him."
"Ha, that is worse than OSS (out of school suspension), at least then you don't have to be with any teach'es."
"Yeah, I had to eat lunch with Mr. Quinn last month -" The bell chimed loudly in the middle of Miroku's sentence and without pausing to let him finish, Sango had sprung up and was gathering her things to leave. Kagome looked at Miroku, but he too was already packing up, so Kagome stood up quickly and gather up her backpack and lunch tray.
The three of them dumped their trays and then walked off to their only class that all three shared, Creative Writings. As they got closer, something hit Kagome – mentally of course.
"I've been sitting in Inuyasha's seat, now where am I going to sit?" She said to no one really in particular. Miroku and Sango shrugged and walked into the halfway filled classroom. Kagome peered across the room onto her seat that she'd been sitting in for the past week, and frowned slightly. Even though she knew someone would be sitting in it, she couldn't help but want it back – it was like, the best seat in the class. Close to the door, but in the back so you didn't have to pay attention all the time.
But the frown was quickly whipped away as she took in the boy that was sitting in it, slouched over the desk his golden eyes peer curiously at her.
He was attractive to say the least, but there were lots of attractive guys here. Kagome, after getting over Miroku's annoyances, found even him to physically attractive. Even Kouga was attractive, but his jackassy-ness smothered any cuteness he might have earned. But this boy, assuming to be Inuyasha, was well, pretty. His hair was long and thick, almost twice as long as hers and hers tickled the small of her back. It was pearly white and looked like it would feel like silk if you had the chance to run you fingers through it. Perched on the top of his head were two triangular ears that had white fur coating them, the insides a rosy pink that she was sure was about the same color as her face right now.
Quickly looking away from the boy who was still examining her, Kagome walked over to Mrs. Rushiki's desk and cleared her throat softly,
"Uh, I don't have a seat any more Mrs. Rushiki."
"Oh, you're right dear. Um, let's see – where can we plant you." The elderly woman scanned the room and after a moment pointed to a desk three rows over where she originally was – right next to her favorite youkia. "You can sit in that empty seat by Kouga for now. We'll be getting a new seating arrangement in the next couple weeks anyhow."
Frowning deeply as she glared at the brimming youkia, Kagome forced a smile towards the professor and said politely, "Okay, thank you."
Kagome quickly walked back to her seat and sat down stiffly, she could feel Kouga's eyes prying over her trying to make contact, Kagome refused to meet his stare. After a minute of fruitless staring, Kouga finally gave up in the silent conformation and just vocalized obnoxiously,
"Hey hun, I swear we're suppose to be together. I mean, look at the odds – you an me sitting right next to each other." He scootched the front of the desk so it angled towards her and Kagome said softly,
"Don't call me hun, Kouga. I don't know you and you surely don't know me."
Slightly taken back, Kouga glared and Miroku who was snickering a couple seats away. But not seeming to fully absorb the cold message, he responded,
"But I want to get to know you hun."
"Don't call me that."
"Babe?" Kouga tried
"Not that either."
"Sexy?" Kouga said slyly, grinning cockily.
"No. My name is Kagome, Kouga. Call me Kagome." Her voice flaring slightly, cheeks starting to heat again as some people were staring now.
"Yeah Kouga, her name is Kagome. Or is that too big a word for you? Here, let me help, Ka-Go-Me. Now you try." Sango chimed from the seat in front of Kouga. Kagome smiled gratefully at Sango and the young woman gave her a little wink before turning back up to the front of the room as the Mrs. Rushiki walked from her desk to in front of the white-board.
"Okay kids, settle down." The woman said sternly, "Now, we're going to be starting on a group project for over the weekend. Yes, that means you'll have homework." The majority of the class groaned, Kagome was have fears of being partnered with Kouga and shivering slightly. "Now, it isn't hard. It's just a group research project. Nothing extravagant – you don't even have to do any sort of research, that will be pre-given to you. What you're to do is together write a correct and informative research paper. Simple, yes?" Mrs. Rushiki smiled fakily. "Now, because this is pretty much all out of school, I'll let you pick your partners. But!" She quickly added as already people started peering around the room looking for their favorite person, "I have to approve the partners before you leave and what you're going to be researching. Is that clear?" Only a couple people actually nodded, but most everyone had already picked a partner by making eye contact with one another. Kagome was making sure that her eyes didn't wander anywhere near Kouga.
"Okay, now make sure to see me before the end of class! You can use the rest of the period planning." At that the room was filled with scrapping chairs from people getting up and chatter.
"Hey Kagome!" Kouga called, but Kagome closed her eyes tightly before looking the opposite direction and searched desperately for Sango's eyes. Thankfully, she returned her stare and they both nodded for conformation that they'd work together.
"Kagome!" Kouga called again.
She turned to glance and Kouga and said tersely, "What?"
"We'll be partners, okay?"
"Sorry Kouga," Kagome said with fake sincerity, "I'm already partners with Sango."
"But-"
"Sorry!" Kagome called before hurrying over to Sango who had set up a little quad-pod of desks, one she was sitting in and two others filled by Miroku and Inuyasha. The fourth empty seat was set next to Inuyasha's so Kagome slid in between the hanyou and Sango. Sango and Miroku were arguing about something again, so that only left Kagome and Inuyasha sitting awkwardly next to each other. Kagome tucked some loose hairs back behind her ear and focused on the grain patterns in the desk.
"So, you're this new girl, huh?" Inuyasha said after a moment.
"Uh, yeah." Kagome said quietly.
"Well, ah." Inuyasha put his hand on the back of his neck swiftly, "I'm Inuyasha. You're?"
Kagome looked up at the boy and smiled slightly, "I'm Kagome."
"Huh. Well, uh. Yeah." Inuyasha filled, his voice sounding forced and uncomfortable. Kagome's wasn't much better.
"Yeah. Um…" She looked back down at her desk, it was much more interesting than their particular conversation.
The two didn't speak after that, waiting in silence for their partners to stop bickering. It didn't take long, Sango kicked Miroku in the shin and that was that. The girl, slightly red in the face whipped around to look and Kagome and smiled erratically.
"So! Well now, we should probably get together tonight, huh?"
"Uh, yeah, that works." Kagome responded, slightly afraid of the frantic like student. It was actually kind of funny how frazzled Sango was.
"You can come over to my house, Miroku and Inuyasha'll come over too. They don't know the first thing about how to write a damn paper so I'm sure they'll be pleading for our help."
"I'm not much better at writing actually." Confessed Kagome.
"That's okay, I swear Sango likes writing papers." Interrupted a smooth masculine voice. Kagome peered over at the Inuyasha, but quickly looked back at Sango when their eyes met.
"So what if I do? I'm getting into college for an English scholarship – that's more than I can say for you!" Snapped Sango.
"Inuyasha doesn't need a scholarship. 'Member, he's like, set for life." Reminded Miroku.
Kagome looked back at Inuyasha again briefly, was his parents rich or something? He didn't look like he'd be rich, nor really acted like it. Kagome would have deducted Kouga to be the rich boy who'd never been said no to before. Not this guy.
"Shut up Miroku." Hissed Inuyasha.
"So!" Popped Sango, trying to get Kagome's attention again. "You'll come over at like, 5ish?"
"Yeah, that'd be okay."
"I'll give you directions after school, kay?"
Kagome nodded and watched Sango jump out of her desk and go talk to Mrs. Rushiki about the partner arrangements.
"Okay, we're set to go."
"Yep. Okay." Kagome mumbled, maybe now she could see how Sango and Miroku were a couple. Both of them were slightly crazy.
"See you after school."
Right at that, the bell rang almost on cue and Kagome shuffled out of the room to her second to last class, thinking silently about tonight.
Authoresses Note: So, after not writing any sort of narrative in over four years, I've picked something up. Well, actually I've thought about this rather cliché plot line forever – but never bothered actually sitting down and writing any of it. I don't honestly know how this is going to go, I've never been the most reliable when it comes to my stories. I hope that I might be able to stay with this one since it's not very complicated. It's not really 'about' this song, but more like I really got the drive to write it while listening to one of my favorite songs, 'Face Down' by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.
I don't have a beta, so if you see and errors, please let me know!
Thanks!
ScotchMegafleet
**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any characters within the Inuyasha series or at lyrics sited within the narrative from the song, 'Face Down' by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, nor do I claim any monetary gain from this piece of fictional writing.