Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha or any of the characters. They all belong to Rumiko Takahashi.
Author's Note: Yup...New story. It seems like I'm just publishing more new stories instead of updating my original stories -_-' Sorry about that. Anyways, let me vaguely describe this story for you! I got inspiration from both my mom and this book I read called Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors (really good book; you should check it out). How the heck did my mother inspire me, you ask? Well, she believes in superstitions. Not ALL of them, but just a few. Such as spilling salt. I don't believe in superstitions, but all my friends believe in them, and they send me all these stupid forward texts, saying "If you don't send this to 15 people, your hamster will explode" or some other stupid thing like that. Now, before I start rambling on and on, here's my newest creation. Hope you like it! ^-^
Superstition
Inuyasha's POV
Superstitions are annoying. They only brainwash the victims who hear it or read it, and it eventually becomes a popular chain of forwarded emails and text messages. You know what I'm talking about: "If you don't forward this to ten friends, your love life will be bad." Ooh. Talk about stupid.
I've never believed in superstitions. I broke a mirror when I was two, and nothing disastrous occurred afterwards. I've walked under a ladder once and I got fifty bucks from my dad. I pulled out a white hair—and I have white hair—and ten strands didn't grow back in its place.
Seriously, to those of you who believe in superstitions, relax. They're dumb, stupid, and irrational. I don't believe in them, and you shouldn't either.
Chapter One
Normal POV
Being a junior in high school felt kind of awkward to Inuyasha. As a junior, you were so close to being a ruler of the school (a senior), but you're still a grade lower until the seniors graduate. He'd rather be a senior that had the privilege to beat up any freshman that crosses his path…Okay, he'll admit, most of the seniors aren't like that. They're too busy with preparations, graduation requirements and their futures to focus on bullying underclassmen.
"Welcome back, students of Shikon High School. I hope you enjoyed your summer break. Now we can start another wonderful school year. Let's start the announcements off with sports tryouts…"
Inuyasha leaned his head against a hand. He'd never particularly liked listening to the morning announcements; nothing ever applied to him. Shikon High only offered team sports, such as the swim team, basketball team, soccer team, etcetera. None of those athletics sparked his interest. The only reason he came to school was, aside from the truth that his mother forced him to, the fact that his crush of four years attended Shikon High, too.
Her name was Kikyou Tama. She had those long raven locks that flowed behind her as she quietly walked down the hallways while reading a novel in her hand. Her deep brown eyes didn't even need to glance up from the off-white pages of her book; it was like she had a radar installed inside her that detected all traces of human movement around her. She dodged the rampaging crowds of high school students effortlessly. Once or twice had Inuyasha witnessed her bumping into the back of a jock. Even though it was the athlete's fault they'd collided, Kikyou nonetheless apologized and resumed skirting around people. Evidently, she was an introverted girl that was quiet and shy. She never talked to her classmates during lunchtime, her only companion being the book she was currently reading.
Inuyasha's many vain attempts to get Kikyou to be his girlfriend were…epic failures. One after another. All of them. Most of them were an instant loss of courage as soon as Kikyou looked up at him after he'd called her name. The others…
--FLASHBACK--
"Kikyou!" shouted a panting Inuyasha. He had been running after her one day after school, after he'd finally gathered enough courage to confess.
"Huh?" Kikyou turned around, her long black hair falling gracefully over a shoulder. She clutched her novel close to her chest as she awaited his explanation.
After seconds of struggling to catch his breath, Inuyasha lifted his head and met Kikyou's perplexed gaze. "Kikyou, I—"
"LOOK OUT!!"
-- END FLASHBACK--
Promptly, after the scream, a horde of giraffes ran over Inuyasha. It was random, yes, but painfully humiliating for Inuyasha. Luckily, he had some demon blood in him, and he was able to recover more rapidly than an average human. At school, he was regularly teased by his friends about the incident. They all burst into fits of laughter whenever giraffes were mentioned, whether it was in biology class or in casual discussions. Either way, Inuyasha's ego was bruised big time because: one, he lost one of those rare chances whenever he had courage to speak to Kikyou, and two, he was run over by a bunch of giraffes. What could be more embarrassing than that?
This year, though, he was going to do it. One way or another…he was going to ask Kikyou Tama out. If only he had the guts…
--
First period: Social Studies.
Teacher: Mr. Myouga.
Interest Rating On A Scale 1-10: 2.
Thirteen minutes into this class, and Inuyasha was already bored out of his mind. So bored he'd rather Riverdance for the school's annual talent show than listen to Myouga's lecture on…something. Whatever he was blabbering on and on about, Inuyasha wasn't registering it.
He wished he was in Kikyou's class. She was in Class 4, while he was stuck in Class 1. The juniors, since Shikon High didn't have that many students and had a very limited amount of classrooms, were split into four classes that learned all their lessons together as a class. That meant that the only time he could see Kikyou during school was throughout lunchtime.
Inuyasha miserably slumped forward in his seat, laying his head on his folded arms upon the desktop. He took a quick peek at Mr. Myouga—he didn't seem to be paying attention to whether or not his pupils were conscious. So, Inuyasha decided to nap for the rest of this hourly period.
--
"Mr. Takahashi? Mr. Takahashi?"
SNOOOOOOOOOORE.
Mr. Myouga sighed. He turned to the girl sitting next to the sleeping schoolboy. "Could you please wake him up?"
--
"Inuyasha, I love you." Kikyou gazed up at him with starry brown eyes that sparkled like a polished diamond. She slowly closed them as she lifted her body up on her tiptoes and puckered her lips slightly. Her lips were getting closer and closer to his. "Inuyasha…"
"Kikyou…"
"Inuyasha…"
"…Yasha? Inuyasha? Inuyasha, wake up!" His shoulder was shaken a little, rousing him from his brief slumber.
He stirred. Blinking open his gold eyes, Inuyasha glanced around to glare at the guilty party who had the nerve to awaken him. Sitting directly to his right with her hand on his shoulder was a girl with long black hair.
Oh no…!
Inuyasha's head jerked up abruptly. He avoided all eye contact with Kikyou. He had no idea how in the world she ended up sitting next to him, but—AH! She saw him sleeping during class! What if he was snoring? Or worse…what if he was drooling?!
"Thank you for finally regaining consciousness, Mr. Takahashi," Mr. Myouga said with a hint of scorn in his tone. He then proceeded with his educational rubbish.
Meanwhile, Inuyasha's red face was burning uncomfortably. He had just made a fool of himself. In front of Kikyou! Oh, god, what could she be thinking right now…? "Wow, Inuyasha's such an idiot. No way will I ever go out with a dumb ass like that!" Inuyasha clapped his hands to the sides of his skull and fisted the silver hair beneath his fingers stressfully.
I'm doomed! Kikyou thinks I'm—AUGH, how could I be so stupid and careless?! God, I'm such an idiot! Inuyasha paused for a moment. The realization dawned that Kikyou wasn't in his class. Wait…isn't Kikyou in Class 4? Then how did she…?
He peeked up at the raven-haired girl seated next to him.
She wasn't Kikyou.
But…they looked a lot like each other. With a few exceptions, of course. The girl had wavy black hair that was slightly shorter than Kikyou's straight beautiful locks. This Kikyou look-alike had large doe eyes, whereas Kikyou had narrower eyes with a deeper shade of brown. Kikyou's skin was also much more paler than the girl's. Still, if you looked briefly at the two, you'd think they were identical twins. But once you examined their physical features and personality, they were complete opposites.
The girl cradling her head in a hand, trying her best not to fall asleep. From the amount of quick sketches drafted on a page in her spiral notebook, she must've been doodling mindlessly until the teacher told her to wake Inuyasha up. She was now just staring robotically through half-lidded eyes at the back of the person seated in front of her.
Inuyasha turned his head back to face the front. Boy, was he relieved that Kikyou didn't see him sleeping!
--
Fourth Period: Lunchtime.
Teacher: None.
Interest Rating On A Scale Of 1-10: 10.
Why was it a ten? Because Kikyou was sitting across the grassy courtyard under a shady tree, reading a book while slowly eating her lunch. And Inuyasha had a perfect view of her from his spot near a tree thirty feet away from her. Kikyou didn't have any friends, so she was sitting alone. As much as Inuyasha wanted to go sit beside her and eat with her, there was no way he'd be able to muster up enough courage to even speak to her. So, for now, he settled with just looking at her from afar.
Someone behind him suddenly cleared their throat. Inuyasha looked up from his position on the grass and discovered that the person who had cleared their throat was Kikyou's look-alike. Why was she…?
"Um…" She timidly shuffled her feet and hunched her shoulders slightly. Her grip on her lunchbox tightened until her knuckles changed into a color as white as paper. "May I sit with you?"
Inuyasha never actually sat with a girl at lunch, but he felt sorry for the girl. She must've been a new student if she didn't have somebody to sit with. "Sure," he responded casually.
She gave him a relieved smile and sat down a fair distance away from him. After all, they were just classmates eating lunch together for the day. Then, she opened her lunchbox and began to eat.
Long moments of silence passed between the pair except for the sounds of utensils scraping the bottom of a container or the uncapping of a thermos. Both students felt somewhat awkward since they didn't know each other. Secretly, though, neither had ever eaten lunch with a person of the opposite sex.
Inuyasha glimpsed up at the girl sitting a few feet to his right. She was mindlessly stirring her spoon inside a cup of chocolate pudding. She had pulled her legs up a bit while pressing her back against the smooth bark of the tree trunk. The rest of her finished lunch was carefully put back into her lunchbox. He glanced back up at her face. She was still focused on swirling her chocolate dessert.
"I'm Inuyasha," he blurted out.
The girl started, nearly spilling her pudding all over her uniform. She looked at him with apprehensive eyes momentarily, then smiled gently. "I'm Kagome."
He was stunned. He thought that she'd think he was a freak and walk away. Instead, she smiled and introduced herself as well. She must be new to the school and eager to make some friends.
"Are you new here? To Shikon High, I mean?" he asked, attempting to make the conversation less awkward.
She nodded. "Yeah, I moved here from Japan a few weeks ago."
A foreign exchange student? How interesting. "I've always wanted to go to Japan," Inuyasha said.
Kagome's smile grew even wider. And, before Inuyasha knew it, he made his first female friend.
--
What was great about making friends with a person in your class at Shikon High was that they were in every one of your classes--in homeroom, in math, in social studies, in science, and in English. What more could you want?
Maybe for Kikyou to be in this class, too, Inuyasha thought to himself. It had been over a week since he had befriended Kagome. They had become the best of friends instantly. They talked about everything—Well, not exactly everything. The one subject the friends hadn't touched on yet was the topic of love. Kagome didn't know of Inuyasha's current infatuation, and Inuyasha wasn't sure if Kagome even had a crush (since she was new and didn't know anybody else except him). And Inuyasha was grateful that the two hadn't talked about love. Still, it would be nice to tell somebody about his immeasurable love for the silent, raven-haired beauty in Class 4...
"Your assignment for tonight is to finish problems one through thirty-seven on page twelve," said the teacher in his loud voice. With that, he began packing up his suitcase and the students followed suit by shoving their books into their satchels.
From beside Inuyasha, Kagome stood up and stretched. "I didn't understand the lesson at all," she said.
"Me neither."
"Well, duh! You were asleep the entire time!"
Inuyasha flushed a bit. "Well, it's not my fault all the teachers here have a monotone voice that drones on and on!"
Kagome snorted and just shook her head. They both shoved their books and stuff into their book bags in silence.
Inuyasha took out his cell phone and gazed at his wallpaper. It'd been a week since he took the picture...
--FLASHBACK--
~One Week Ago~
"Hey, did you hear about that new rumor going around?"
"No. What is it about?"
"Eri told me that if you take a picture of the person you like and set it as your wallpaper, and nobody else finds it for three weeks, then your crush will ask you out."
"Really? I totally want to try it!"
Inuyasha had never been the type to believe in superstitions, but he was almost desperate. He had been crushing on Kikyou for over four years. He wanted to be her boyfriend. He'd rather kiss her and hug her every day than just stare at her from afar. He wanted to tell her that he loved her instead of stuttering bashfully. He was tired of waiting.
Inuyasha glanced over at the two girls that had just talked about the little fantasy. They were two teenagers from his grade—Yuka and Ayumi. They were giggling and gossiping like the little schoolgirls they were.
Then, he peeled his eyes away from them and stared back down at the frothy steamed milk of his latte. He was at Kaede's Café. This was where Kikyou worked part-time. She was currently working as a waitress right now, wearing her lovely uniform. It was a simple black knee-length dress with long sleeves and a flared A-line skirt. Basically, the uniform was like a much more appropriate version of a French Maid dress. Still, Kikyou looked like an angel wearing an apron over that uniform, her ebony hair up in a neat bun.
He came to this café three times a week to eat and see Kikyou, but mostly see Kikyou. She hadn't served him or brought his food once. Not once! One day, he was hoping she'd be the waitress to serve him delicious food…
At the moment, Kikyou was standing behind the counter, waiting for her customer's order to arrive. She was chatting with the female cashier and laughing.
Inuyasha's hand fidgeted. Without thinking, he pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of Kikyou while she was smiling. Inuyasha felt super guilty, but he was glad that he could look at Kikyou's smiling face whenever he wanted to.
--END FLASHBACK--
To this day, Inuyasha still felt guilty and very foolish for doing what he did that fateful Friday afternoon. Still, he couldn't bring himself to delete the picture. Perhaps, deep down, he wanted to see for himself whether or not the charm worked.
"Wow, Inuyasha! Is that your girlfriend?" Kagome asked, resting her chin on his shoulder.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Inuyasha dropped his phone and toppled over.
"Jeez, what's the matter with you?" She smirked lightheartedly. "You're not doing drugs, are you?"
"N-NO!!" Inuyasha retorted from his spot on the floor. "You scared the crap out of me! Don't ever do that again!"
She waved a hand. "Fine. Fine." She looked at him, the smile fading off her face and replaced with an expression of curiosity. "So, answer my question: Is she your girlfriend?"
Inuyasha flushed. A lot. "Well…not exactly."
"So you have a crush on her?"
He remained silent.
"AWWWW!! THAT'S SO CUTE!!!" Kagome knelt down beside Inuyasha and stroked his mane of silver hair. "How cute! Dog Boy has a crush on someone!!"
"Shut up!" Inuyasha yelled. He pushed himself up off the floor and rose. Wiping the dust off his uniform, he said, "You know, Kagome, you really shouldn't be so nosy!"
"I wasn't being nosy," Kagome said, standing up as well. "You were holding the phone and staring at it. I asked you what it was, but you didn't say anything. So, I looked."
"…THAT'S STILL BEING NOSY!!"
"Whatever." Kagome slung her book bag over her shoulders. "By the way," she said, tipping her head over her shoulder. "I know that girl. I work at Kaede's Café with her." She inhaled deeply, then turned to face him. By this time, the classroom was deserted except for the two friends. "If you want Kikyou to be your girlfriend, pay me a visit at Kaede's Café at five-thirty."
With that said, Kagome left.