It was a brisk, bright September morning as Kagome happily stepped onto campus the first day of her sophomore year in college. Students milled about, chatting with friends, swapping summer stories, or grabbing a quick bite before hurrying off to classes. Several freshmen appeared lost or nervous, even though most of them had been there for a week. Kagome just smiled. She remembered all too well her first day of actual classes last year, and how big the campus felt that first week.
As the wind stirred her bangs, Kagome took a deep breath.
There's just something about a college campus, she mused contentedly. Sure, like any other student, she looked forward to the freedom that summer unleashed, but she had always loved school and learning. She liked having things to do and being around so many of her peers.
Kagome quickly strode towards the Fine Arts part of campus. After working her ass off, she made the cut for the Dance Major, and couldn't wait to get started. After all, who wouldn't want to spend thirty-plus hours a week in a dance studio working gruelingly towards perfection?
"I can't believe you talked me into this, Miroku." Inuyasha Takahashi crossed his arms, thoroughly annoyed with his best friend.
"Aw, come on, man; think of all the exercise you'll be getting!" Miroku's mind was not on exercise, however, as he waved rather idiotically at a particularly lovely woman the two passed. Inuyasha just rolled his eyes, too irritated at knowing Miroku to bother catching him in his blatant lie.
As the pair entered the studio, both were surprised. A fairly proportional group of girls and guys stood around the bleachers, opposite the giant mirrors that spanned one entire wall, nearly to the ceiling, of the square room. A few students stretched at the bars along the walls perpendicular to the mirrors, which were obviously meant to be the front of the studio, and a few others were fixing their hair or makeup in the mirror.
Inuyasha had to admit; there was something about dancers that was almost like a drug.
"Still hate me?" Miroku jabbed at his friend, following the direction of his eyes. Inuyasha threw a vague punch in Miroku's direction, which he easily ducked, sniggering evilly.
Before Miroku could finish his teasing, or Inuyasha could resume his analysis of Concrete Angel, something ran into him. Hard.
Inuyasha stumbled to his knees from the force of the blow and Miroku was slammed against the wall as two very winded girls rushed around a corner and through the doorway Miroku and Inuyasha had occupied moments before.
"What the HELL-"
"Hey Kagome!" A girl across the room waved to one of the breathless women, now standing by the bleachers. "You were almost late! Shame, shame."
Kagome and the girl next to her giggled. "Hey, Rin! We were looking for you!"
The girl, Rin, laughed and sent a wink their way.
"OI! Wench! Watch you're going!"
Kagome turned, giving the two guys their first good look at her. Her obsidian black hair was wild and wind-strewn and fell in waves to the middle of her back. Flushed cheeks brought a very alive spark to her face, and her cerulean eyes shone like the deeper pools of the Caribbean Sea before an early summer hurricane. Her scruffy bangs framed her heart-shaped face, softening and smoothing. Her body was long and lean, obviously belonging to a dancer. She was truly magnificent.
Inuyasha wasn't sure why, but his heart skipped a beat.
Kagome, on the other hand, was not taking kindly t her new nickname. "Excuse me?" Miroku saw womanly wrath unfurling beneath her falsely polite smile.
"You heard me, bitch," Inuyasha said the only thing that came to his mind. In retrospect, it probably wasn't the most intelligent decision he ever made.
Miroku just sighed. And the numbskull wonders why he has so few friends.
Kagome had officially reached the status of a "woman scorned." And she was definitely rising to Inuyasha's challenge. She was just taking a more… feminine approach.
Fixing a too sweet smile on her face, she sauntered towards the two boys, adding a very sultry sway to her shapely hips. By now, every other person in the room was watching the scene unfold.
Kagome stopped squarely in front of the now upright Inuyasha. Miroku was certain she was going to simply haul off and smack him silly. What she did in actuality had him completely floored.
"Ya know, you're really cute!" she cooed in a sickeningly sweet voice. "What was your name?"
"Inu- Inuyasha," he mumbled, staring at her like she had just turned purple with green polka dots. Miroku could honestly say he had never seen ANYONE react this way to Inuyasha's temper. Both guys were so absorbed in their shock neither noticed Kagome's hands stealthily slithering towards the furry triangular ears perched atop Inuyasha's cascading waterfall of silver hair. She reached them uninhibited, grasping them gently between the thumb and forefinger of each hand. She slowly began to rub in slow, soft circles.
"Ooo, your ears are so soft," she murmured soothingly. Inuyasha, at this point, was so stunned by all of this girl's unexpected actions that he didn't know how to react and his youkai blood chose give into the warm gooey-ness in the pit of his stomach cause by the attention. He was pulled from this warmth when he felt Kagome give a little pinch and slight yank to the sensitive (and oh so cute!) ears. Inuyasha immediately pulled his ears from her grasp and plastered a defiant smug look on his face.
"Call me bitch again," she cooed again in that falsely sugary voice. "And I will personally remove your little ears. I don't care how cute they are."
By the time she stopped talking, Kagome had dropped all sweet pretenses and her true rage was etched into every angle of her face and made her eyes shine like sapphires on a white background.
Inuyasha just flashed his famous smirk at her, trying to ignore the way is heart sped up under her intense gaze. "Is that a threat, wench?"
"One thing you will learn very quickly about me, Inuyasha, is that I don't make threats. I make promises." She turned, putting quick distance between them. "And my name is Kagome, Pooch. Ka-Go-Me, got it?"
"Ahem."
All heads turned towards the new voice. The professor had entered the studio and likely seen most of the carnage. She was tall, athletically built, with a heavy air of no nonsense. At first, Inuyasha thought she could have been Kagome's doppelganger, but here were definite differences. Her long, straight ebony black hair was securely tied into a low ponytail, and her body was perfectly toned. To Inuyasha, her face reminded him of a song title he heard once: Concrete Angel. Her face was a light crème, and smooth and set as porcelin. Her eyes were chilling dark sepia: cold, withdrawn, and calculating. She had a superior air about her that drew attention in the subtlest of ways. She was not a woman to be reckoned with.
She surveyed them all even as they regarded her. Without another word, she strode purposefully towards the large mirrors. In ones and twos, students followed her. Inuyasha and Miroku joined the crowd. The students had silently gathered in a semi-circle around her, either on the floor or leaning against the bar. The two uncertain guys stuck to the wall, feeling as though they were outsiders who had stumbled on the initiation ceremony of some sort of secret society. Which, in a way, they had.
"Welcome to Ballroom Dance 310." She surveyed them again, like specimen under a microscope. "Who here is majoring in Dance this year?"
More than half the class raised their hands, including Kagome, the girl she came in with, and that other girl Rin.
"That's most of you. So I assume you know this course is required. Now for the rest of you," Inuyasha and Miroku exchanged a look as she looked at all the non-dance majors in turn. "This is not an easy A. I will work you into the ground. If you can't dedicate to this course the way you need to in order to not fail, I suggest you see your counselor immediately. I will not tolerate slack or lack of discipline in my studio. Your personal lives are for your time. In here, you are on my time. And believe me, if you are going to pass the final, you will need all the help and instruction I will give you." She paused for a moment to let her words sink in. Then she turned towards the mirror, gazing at her class's reflection. "Now, shall we begin?"