Candy Coated Chocolates

The Beginning

Froggeh12

A/N: Here is the updated version of a story I wrote about three years ago, called "No Such Thing as Coincidence"... this time around it actually has a plot! This story doesn't start out extremely exciting, but that's because I'm just starting to explain things. There will be a lot of humor later on. Please please please review, (constructive) criticism is much appreciated!

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Have you ever wondered about our solar system, and how much it relates to life on Earth? Think about it. There are so many stars out there - ones much, much bigger than the sun. However, only one gets its proper recognition as an amazing creation, because at first glance it seems bigger. I think that's a lot how the world works… at least, that's how it was in my school.

My school, Watanabe Academy, was the movie-stereotypical high school, other than the fact that it was tiny beyond reason. Being cocky and manipulative would get you so far - but in order to be part of the most popular crowd, you had to be something more… you had to be a demon as well. Humans that were like them were the biggest suck-ups you'd ever meet.

Humans that didn't want any part of it, including me, were automatically looked at as rebellious and attention-grabbing; the popular kids thought we were against the demon versus human issue to draw more attention to ourselves. That in itself is pretty ironic. They would do absolutely anything to be adored.

It all started not too long after ninth grade had ended at my school, Grant Eldridge Middle. My mother and grandfather announced at dinner that we were to move, because of "bigger and better" opportunities for the four of us. It wasn't fair, especially to my younger brother Souta, who had one year left before graduating elementary school with the friends he'd had since preschool. Normally, I'd never dream of yelling at Mama or Grandpa - but moving hours and hours away? Souta wasn't the only one who had best friends he'd known since preschool!

"You…can't be serious," I had said.

"Now, Kagome… it's for the best, and -" Mama started calmly.

"No! What about my school?" I snapped. "What about my friends? Especially Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi…am I supposed to just move on and make new friends at whatever school your heart desires!"

"You've just finished middle school. You don't even know what your high school is like, don't you start about missing your school," Mom said stiffly, obviously stressed.

"Oh, Kagome, you'll make new friends." Grandpa recited the old 'you'll make new friends and keep the old' routine. "And you'll keep in touch with your old friends, of course! You own a phone and a computer, don't you? With technology these days, you could keep in touch with your friends even if you moved to Britain! At least this is within Japan."

"It's Grant High. It's going to be the same as Grant Middle, the only difference being it's for older kids," I replied with a forced calm, ignoring Grandpa. I didn't want to accept the fact that the only relationship I'd have with my best friends would be pen pals in just a few short months.

Souta sat watching us, looking too horror-struck to talk - that, and he had probably decided that I was doing enough arguing for the both of us.

"Kagome Higurashi, this decision is final. Things are simply better there. Can't you understand that?" Mama said in the same tense tone I was using. Her voice was slowly rising.

"You're unbelievably selfish. We're not rich so you want to move where everything is cheaper?" I narrowed my eyes.

"You're the one who's being selfish. Don't you think this is hard on me, too? This is where your father and grandmother are buried. I am doing this for your benefit, Kagome, and your brother's. We are not moving because things are cheaper, you know that we have a fair amount of excess money, but because moving to a small town would do us some good. I hear that there is a very nice private school where you are allowed to wear your own clothes, and we will have a much bigger house. Grandpa will like it more because it is far away from the noise and the crowd of the city. Go to your room, and stay there for the rest of the night. I don't want to deal with your little attitude. And no dinner," she added, as I started to pick up my plate.

I slammed my plate down irritably and ran to my room, locking the door. I didn't mind the aching pains of hunger; I was too busy instant messaging my friends all night, telling them all about my plots to get Mama and Grandpa to reconsider…usually just to get an "Oh, Kagome…" in response. I was so annoyed that I blew up; furiously typing that they needed to take it seriously if they ever wanted to talk to me again.

Finally, Ayumi, the most sensible friend, called up and said softly, "Kagome… Listen to me. Running away, going on a hunger strike… I know you think it's serious, but it really is just a joke when you think about it. It's not going to work. We'll visit whenever we can, ok? It sucks, but your mom and grandpa really want what's best for you and Souta."

I sobbed something into the phone. Ayumi seemed to understand it, because she replied, "Of course it won't be the same. But that doesn't mean our friendship will change! You're my best friend, and moving won't change that."

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I didn't accept what Ayumi said until after we had actually moved. Eri, Yuka, Ayumi, Rin, and Ayame called almost every day, to check in on me and talk about what we'd do the next time I visited them, or they came to visit me.

Eventually I actually started looking forward to school starting. I was going to make so many friends, and it'd be just like before. In no time I was bubbly and happy again. Our new house was nice, after all - it was three stories high with plenty of space, trees, and a river in our backyard, which Souta and I spent most of our summer in, splashing each other and doing handstands in the water. Mama would sit on a rock reading her book of the week, occasionally glancing up at us and smiling lightly. Once Grandpa was surprised us all and ran out cackling madly and screeching "CANNONBALL!" to do a 360 flip into the water instead and land on his back.

Soon enough, maybe too soon, I was starting school. And the thought was scary - it'd be ok though, right? Well, if it was going to be so damn ok then why was I so nervous?

I was really lucky to find Sango, Kikyou, and Shippo on the very first day. Watanabe Academy was a private grade 7-12 school, and the three of them had gone to grades 7-9 together. I, on the other hand, had spent my middle school years at Grant Eldridge Middle. Grant Middle had been a fairly decent sized school, and boy was I in for a surprise when the first day of school finally came.

Mom insisted on dropping Souta and I off, and since Watanbe Academy started before Summer Elementary, I was first to go. I took one look at the school and groaned.

"Kagome, dear, hurry, you'd best not be late on your first day…"

"Oh, Mama, look at it!" I exclaimed in horror

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Kagome," Mom sighed, giving me a kiss on the forehead.

I smiled reluctantly. "Alright, I'll try. I'll see you guys this afternoon, 'k?" I grabbed my rolling backpack by the handle and shoved it out the door. I turned to the car, waving as my mom and brother as they pulled away.

"Bye sis!" I heard Souta exclaim, and then they were gone.

I turned around with a feeling of foreboding and began the crooked, messy white concrete path. On either side of me were brown cracked old trees with awful broken limbs and scattered pieces of what looked suspiciously like old picnic benches all over the weed-infested yellow and brown grass. I grimaced as I stared up at the school again.

Watanabe Academy was a very small school. It was a white two-story outdoor building, with chipped paint all around the edges revealing a dull shade of grey… that, or the building had once been grey and that was all that was left. The room numbers were hanging on by one hinge, if not completely gone. The water fountains were way beyond use; the grey push-down bar was broken off. The signs of the bathrooms were broken off, so the first time I had to go I waited for someone to either go in or come out, too embarrassed to go look myself. The "cafeteria" was nothing more than a food stand with two rusty picnic benches in a weedy, grassy area to the right of the school.

The names of probably everyone who had gone there within the past 10 years were carved into the wood railings, along with the names of every couple that had ever existed. The best had to be "Miroku Loves Aya Kaia Itsuyo Mayu" … and the list continued.

"Kagome, don't let that spoil it for you," I told myself. "Don't judge a book by its cover, right? Not as schools are going to look quite as wonderful as Grant…with its grass being green and having an actual cafeteria and…alright, this school might suck, but I'm sure the people will be fine."

I was, of course, 5 minutes late with all of my staring and frowning on the way to room number 12 - math class. Well, might as well face the wrath of this new teacher…hopefully he wasn't a weirdo. Math teachers were usually weirdos. I took a deep breath and turned the rusty handle on the door and entered the room. The lighting was dim and the desks were all mismatched, almost like each desk was a leftover from another school. The green chalkboard looked like someone had run their fingers down it various times - someone with eerily sharp fingernails. There was no adult to be seen - apparently the teacher was late as well.

I spotted three kids sitting in the front, while the rest of the desks were completely filled, save for a few seats in the back - but the girls in the back didn't look particularly friendly. They saw me walk in and threw their backpacks on the two seats next to them and a hat in between the two seats. I shrugged; no big loss. I decided the front row looked like the best option.

"Hi!" I said, sliding into the seat next to the pale girl. This seat was a completely connected blue desk that had no real legs; the metal just rounded at the bottom. "I'm Kagome!" I pushed the handle of my blue roll-y backpack back into place and put it next to my desk.

"Hi Kagome, I'm Kikyou," the girl replied in a quiet monotone voice. She gave me the once-over and smirked slightly. "Welcome to the bottom of the food chain."

At the time, I had no idea how she could tell that just by looking at me. I was normal looking, with fairly trendy but still normal clothes. "Huh…?"

"I'm Shippo!" exclaimed a short squirrel-y looking boy before I could dwell on the comment even more. He was sitting on the other side of Kikyou. "And this is Sango!"

He pointed to the girl on the opposite side of him. She was about my shade, which was much tanner than the other two, with long dark brown hair and kind brown eyes. She waved at me, giving a small smile.

"Hi!" I called to the other two. I started small talk with Kikyou.

"So, what kind of music do you like?"

"Rap and heavy metal," she replied breezily.

"Oh…er…"

"Alright, class, shut up," a man said suddenly, walking into the room. He had long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and glasses. "My name is Kouga Wolfe." He wrote "Mr. Wolfe, Algebra 1" with a piece of chalk on the chalkboard.

He turned around to face the class. "Most of you have had me for middle school."

Was the school really that small? I twirled a thick lock of hair around my finger; I just so happened to have the most obvious nervous habit in the world.

He smirked ever-so-slightly. "But I see we have a few new students. Why don't you just go ahead and introduce yourselves? Let's start with the young lady in the front."

I stood up nervously, realizing that I was the only new girl, at least in this class. "Well…I'm Kagome Higurashi… I used to go to Grant Eldridge Middle back in Tokyo, but we ended up moving and coming here…and I'm looking forward to a great school year!"

Mr. Wolfe grinned at me and winked. "Well, Kagome, I'm sure you'll have a pretty nice year here, especially with me as your math teacher."

I smiled back weakly, extremely weirded out, and stared down at my desk as soon as he turned away. Great. My math teacher was not only a weirdo, he was a pedophile.

The door opened suddenly and four people walked in. The first I noticed automatically; he looked almost as if his had gone very grey very early, but upon closer inspection he had apparently dyed his silver. He also had amber-brown eyes and pointy dog ears at the top of his head, even weirder. The two others both were shorter than the silver-haired. One had a short ponytail, and the other had shoulder-length hair that was in serious need of a brush. All three of them had on baggy looking outfits.

"Ah, look at the Doggie and his gang. Hello demon sir, I'm so glad you could make it!" Mr. Wolfe said in a sarcastic tone that had just a pinch of spite.

"Wolfe, I'll kick your ass again," said the one with the dog-ears easily.

"Inuyasha!" a very short girl squealed from the back. She, too, had silvery hair and amber eyes.

"Naraku!" another girl exclaimed. She had black hair pulled into a bun and dark red eyes, hopefully colored contacts.

The guy with long black hair immediately sat next to the girl with creepy red eyes, while Dog-Ears sat next to the short girl with silver hair. The third guy sat in between the two, where the girls had thrown the hat.

"Hey…Kikyou…are you with us?" Shippo asked quietly, waving a hand in front of her face. Said girl was glaring daggers at Inuyasha, shaking her head slowly.

Well…it…could've been worse… we could've had an actual lesson on the first day.