Chapter 1
Kagome sat rigid, her eyes fixed intently on the powder white chalk scrawled across the coal black chalkboard. I know this. This is easy. Minutes after those thoughts had crossed her mind, another part of her squelched them. Who am I kidding? I'm going to fail! The only thing stopping her from throwing herself to the ground and wailing hysterically was the person in the front of the room.
Mr. Kyodai.
He was a short, pudgy man in his 60's with sharp, beady eyes and a handlebar mustache. Large, round spectacles with a purple frame rested on his crooked nose and what was left of his hair was slicked back with oil to hide his baldness. Whenever they saw him, he was always wearing a gray or black suit, and a tie to accompany it. Today he was wearing a black suit and a purple tie with "study hard!" scribbled all over it in yellow. Poor Kagome cringed whenever she saw it.
Despite the constant pranks that a handful of bold students were steadily pulling, Mr. Kyodai liked to think he was omnipotent and that his students venerated him. He was tough and rarely, if ever, mitigated any penalties for being late or not having homework. He took even the mildest transgressions seriously and none could alleviate his raging temper. Mr. Kyodai was a man of emotions. Emotions that he didn't attempt to control.
Even now, his face was beet red as he lectured, and beads of sweat ran down his chunky forehead. "Do you understand, class?" he roared. A couple students in the front row had to duck their head to avoid the spit flying out of his mouth.
"Yes, Mr. Kyodai," came the mechanically synchronized answer.
"I need an umbrella," one of the more devious students muttered, too quietly for the teacher to hear, but loudly enough so that the students around him snickered and concurred by patting him silently on the back. Kagome, who happened to sit right behind him, couldn't help giggling, too.
"Now, I will now select a few students to explain," Mr. Kyodai barked.
Translation: Now is the time I pick on you worthless students individually.
A chubby finger pointed at Hojo, who sat 3 chairs in front of Kagome and to the right. Front row seat. Lucky guy. "What was I just talking about, Mr. Taisetsu?" The teachers always addressed the students by their last names. "I do hope you were listening."
Hojo sat calmly, with his hands folded neatly in front of him and a small, knowing smile dancing on his face. "I was," he replied coolly, and then went on to explaining the lesson. As he spoke, heads turned to watch and people began (dare I say it?) taking notes. Kagome watched in delight as Mr. Kyodai's face grew redder and redder.
"That's enough, Mr. Taisetsu," interrupted Mr. Kyodai, his complexion now a deep crimson. "I can see that you've done well in taking your notes. Next I'll choose…"
Kagome swallowed hard. Please don't pick me. She looked down at her messy, indecipherable notes and suppressed a moan.
Kami, don't pick me.
The teacher's thumping footsteps got louder and louder until suddenly they began to retreat to the far corner of the room. Kagome exhaled slowly, relief flooding through her as she finally looked up to see the next victim was one of her three best friends, Eri.
"Miss Saku." Mr. Kyodai smiled sinisterly. "Please explain the third paragraph on page 25. I believe we discussed that last week."
After glancing down at said portion of the book, Eri answered shakily, her eyes occasionally darting towards Mr. Kyodai's still tomato-red face before returning to her lap. After she had finished, Kagome sent her friend a small smile that said, "Congratulations! You've survived Mr. Kyodai…for now, anyways."
Then, as the teacher stormed his way to the front of the room – he was disappointed neither of them had failed to answer - and went back to lecturing, Kagome sat up straighter and leaned forwards, attempting to understand the lesson.
What the hell is he talking about?
A small groan escaped her as she slumped back in her seat. I'll never get this. What's the point in trying? If I only did more than just a cursory reading of the chapter in Inuyasha's era…
Her finger traced a small bow carved into her rickety, wooden desk and she involuntarily smiled.
How exciting it would be to be back in the wilderness, adrenaline pumping through her veins as she prepared herself for a demon's attack. How entertaining it would be to be back with her group of friends, Shippo propped on her shoulder like a puppy and Sango and Miroku crowded around her to see what she had brought from her own era. How nice it would be to be under the stars with Inuyasha again, a roaring fire burning beside them as she leaned against his shoulder.
Kagome woke from her reverie, her head snapping up in surprise. What was that last thought all about? She shrugged it off, not wanting to dwell on the hanyou any longer. He was so confusing anyways, caring one second and jealous, or perhaps it was angry, in another. His constant mood swings never ceased to unravel her.
Sighing, Kagome propped her head on her hand and gazed up at the ceiling. A long, deep crack slithered its way from Hojo's desk all the way to Eri's in the far corner, turned and then stopped right as it reached Kagome's.
"Ms. Higurashi," a voice boomed by her ear.
Kagome shrieked, nearly toppling out of her three legged chair, and looked up in surprise at Mr. Kyodai's disapproving eyes.
"Ms. Higurashi," her callous teacher drawled. "The alacrity of your response is…astounding."
Most of the students glanced at her in sympathy, knowing all too well about her constant absence in the class, but some giggled, enjoying Mr. Kyodai's cruel tactics of getting under his students' skins.
Kagome flushed a pretty red, but met Mr. Kyodai's gaze challengingly. She was tired, cranky, and frustrated and a sarcastic censure from her teacher was definitely not something she had anticipated.
"If I knew what - what was it? Alacisy? – meant, I might be able to give you a proper response," Kagome replied in a lackluster voice.
Her demeanor was composed, but her heart was beating rapidly and she was sure her cheeks were flaming.
Mr. Kyodai eyed her in disbelief, the corners of his eyes crinkling in confusion. Perhaps it was because she was such an obedient child when she was in class or maybe it was because nobody else dared to retort like she did, but for whatever reason, he was baffled and, being the emotional man that he was, didn't bother hiding it.
After what seemed like an inner debate with himself, he came to a decision to let the grouchy girl alone. "Alacrity," Mr. Kyodai corrected, a sour bite to his voice. "Learn your vocabulary, Ms. Higurashi," he paused. "Although I think it's safe to assume you don't pay attention in English either."
Too tired to complain, Kagome kept quiet as the other students snickered, still slightly flustered and embarrassed from her rude parting from her thoughts about the crack on the ceiling. Mr. Kyodai sniffed, as daintily as he could, before twirling clumsily on his heel and heading back to the front of the room to continue his dreary - but definitely not monotonous given the inflection in his voice - lecture.
Kagome sighed tiredly and let her head knock against the top of her desk as she collapsed. Yuka, who sat next to her and was another of her other three best friends, gave her a small poke.
"Kagome! You were great!" she cheered ardently. The only proof that Kagome even heard her was a low, muffled groan.
xXx
The rest of the day went by slowly and Kagome had to fight the urge to climb up on Mrs. Tsuki's desk and turn the unmoving hands of the seemingly broken clock until she was satisfied with the time. Mrs. Tsuki was her seventh period English teacher, a young, prim woman with a proud posture and hawk-like gray eyes.
Kagome herself was familiar with the language, but not all that good at it. Still, it was a vacation in comparison to Math. Who needed equations anyways?
Don't answer that.
For the millionth time, Kagome observed the objects in the classroom only to find that her conclusion was the same. Everything, from the flickering lights hanging on the ceiling to the dull chunks of leftover chalk, needed desperately to be superseded, but despite the school's better intentions for the students' education, it wasn't going to happen.
The bell finally rang, and it took Kagome a few minutes for it to register in her mind. She was free! Finally, finally free!
There was a flurry of movement and a sharp scratching of the tiled floor as students pulled their chairs back and began packing like mad. From all the excited chattering and whoops of relief that the day was over, one distinct voice managed to reach her from where she was standing.
"Kagome!" Hojo swaggered up to her, the usually confident expression on his face gone and replaced with a worried one.
Kagome glanced up from her backpack, the book she was currently shoving into it freezing in her hand. "Hojo? What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to check up on you. I have 7th period science with Hiragana; it's just next door." He explained, his expression wavering into a smile and then returning to an anxious frown. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," Kagome answered, her appreciation for his concern coming through in her smile. She continued placing her folders and textbooks into her backpack before shutting it securely closed and slinging it onto her shoulder. "Why do you ask?"
"You seemed a little…" He trailed off, searching for the right words. "…Out of it during class."
"Oh. Um…you see…" Kagome began clarifying in a diffident manner. "I've been sick and – "
"I've noticed." Hojo interrupted before smiling apologetically. "You don't understand the lesson?" After receiving a confirming nod from Kagome (and a depressed sigh), he continued thoughtfully. "It's comprehensible…"
"Do you think you could help me?" Kagome blurted before turning red and hurriedly saying, "I mean, I don't want to waste your time, or delay you from your homework. I mean I heard Mrs. Hiragana was a pretty hard teacher. Gave lots of homework or something like. I don't want to drag down your grades or anything by asking you to waste all your time helping me. Kami knows you wouldn't forgive me. Or your parents for that matter. And besides, you must have better things to do with your time. Perhaps you need to use it to keep in shape or to get those perfect scores your always getting. I mean, I doubt you've ever missed a day of class in your life! No, really. I – "
"Kagome…it's ok." Hojo assured her, but she continued, oblivious to everything but the words she was stumbling over. "Kagome!" Hojo yelled over her voice and she immediately stopped talking, her mouth still open in an O. "It's ok, Kagome."
She blinked, her eyes slightly unfocused and a red stain still painted on her cheeks. "I'm sorry. I was babbling, wasn't I?"
"Don't worry about it," Hojo smiled warmly at her. "You should get some rest; you look a little pale. Oh! I nearly forgot." He reached into his bag, brought out a small box, and handed it to her. "Tea is very, very healthy for you. You know how they say drink lots of water when you're sick? I find tea is much better." He beamed at her.
Kagome smiled slightly. Leave it up to Hojo to exaggerate my sickness. "Thanks so much Hojo. I guess I should go home now. Wouldn't want In –" She stopped, horrified, and quickly corrected herself. "My mom. Wouldn't want my mom to get worried." She spun around hastily and took a few steps before he reached out and snagged her arm.
"Wait, Kagome."
"Hm?" She turned back towards him but averted her eyes from his unblinking blue orbs and chose instead to stare intently at the "suddenly interesting" ground.
"I'd be happy to help you with your schoolwork." He said.
If Kagome didn't remember it was Hojo talking to her at the last minute, she'd probably have thrown herself at him. "Thank you so much!" she squealed.
Hojo grinned boyishly at her. "No problem. How about Sunday, 3:00, at my house?"
Sunday. That was three days away. Could she get Inuyasha to agree to three more days? "Do you think we could do it on Saturday?"
Hojo shook his head forlornly. "Nope. I'm, um, I'm going somewhere then."
"Um…Sunday should be ok," Kagome reassured him. He seemed nervous about something, but she chose to ignore that.
"Perfect! See ya then!" After flashing her one last smile and giving her a small wave, he disappeared through the classroom doors.
Kagome looked around to see the classroom was empty and weaved her way through the rickety desks. The minute she made it out the door, three girls, who looked somewhat homogenous despite their hairstyles, attacked her.
"Ahh! Eri, Yuka, Yuri! Get offa' me!" she cried. Her three best friends were on top of her, limbs tangled together and intimidating faces shoved right next to her own startled one.
"We will not move!" Came the practiced, synchronized answer.
Kagome rolled her eyes at them in aggravation and Eri grinned. "That is, Kagome, we will not move until you tell us what just happened with you and Hojo-kun."
"Oh. Hojo?" She sighed, "You guys are insufferable."
"Thanks," they chorused.
"He's helping me with schoolwork. Now, get your noses out of my life and go home!" Kagome growled. After much grumbling and twisting, her friends managed to untangle themselves from her and shuffle (rather reluctantly and disappointedly from the lack of details) home. Kagome waited until they left before sprinting in the other direction, worry flooding through her as she thought of Inuyasha's reaction to her lateness.
By the time Kagome finally reached the shrine's familiar steps, she knew her mother might have a question or two, too. "Mom!" she called, arriving at the front door and letting herself in. "I'm home!"
Mrs. Higurashi was almost a mirror image of her daughter only with shorter and wavier hair and, of course, a few wrinkles here and there, too. "Kagome," Her mother scolded. "What took you so long?"
"I'm sorry, Mom," she immediately apologized. "Was there something you needed me to do?"
"No, not really. But oh, poor Inuyasha has been waiting all this time! I offered him some tea and asked him to come into the house to wait. That old well house is so smelly, anyways."
"You did what?" Kagome squeaked.
"I offered him some tea and – "
"Mom," Kagome cut her off. "I heard you the first time."
"Oh," Mrs. Higurashi said dumbly, bewildered as to why her daughter would ask if she had already heard. "Why don't you just go meet him?" she suggested.
"You don't want to know why I was late?"
"Oh, yes, why were you late?"
"I didn't understand a lot of the schoolwork," Kagome answered, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at her forgetful mother. "So I asked one of my classmates for help."
"Oh, honey, that's wonderful! You should've asked Hojo. The dear boy has been coming around every two days to ask how you've been. It's so sweet," Mrs. Higurashi sighed dreamily and Kagome mentally hit herself. "And so romantic. Reminds me of my younger days when your father – " She stopped suddenly, an expression on her face that told Kagome she was angry with herself. "I shouldn't talk about your father."
"It's ok, Mom," Kagome said swiftly and hastened towards her room, "I should go meet Inuyasha now…"
"Alright, dear." Mrs. Higurashi gave her daughter an encouraging smile before heading towards the kitchen.
"Oh, and Mom?"
"Yes, honey?"
"I did ask Hojo."
xXx
"Kagome!" came the familiarly impatient voice. "What took you so long?"
Turns out he had already finished his tea and was waiting for her once again by the well…with a pack of ramen. Kagome sighed, realizing almost immediately that he was in one of his more pugnacious moods.
"You know…my whole life isn't just about finding jewel shards," she informed him.
"Yeah, it is."
And with just those few words, Cranky Kagome was back. She fixed him with an icy glare and let the infamous word slip out of her mouth. "SIT! SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT, SIT!"
Did I mention more than once?
Inuyasha lay inert on the ground, his face pressed against the dirt floor and contorted in something close to pain, but leaning more towards annoyance. Slowly, as the spell wore off, he stood up after 9 sits and glowered at the Miko. "What's this, Kagome? Only 9? Maybe you should make it 10." He snarled.
"You know what, Inuyasha? Great idea…"
He barely had time to react before he was sent crashing to the ground again. This time he didn't bother to move. "Why the hell did you do that?" He groaned, his irate voice muffled by the dust.
"You told me to," came the casual reply.
Inuyasha sat up and shook himself free of the dirt and soil clinging to his silky silver hair. "Get your pack, wench," he paused to stand up, his haori swishing comfortably, as Kagome winced at the way he referred to her. "We're leaving."
"Um, Inuyasha…there's something I need to – "
"I know where you're going with this, Kagome, and the answer's no, now move!" He growled.
"Please, Inuyasha!" Kagome pleaded. "If you don't give me three more days, I'll – "
"Die? You'll die?" Inuyasha suggested, a look of mock worry on his face.
"Close, but no cigar."
"What's a…sig-are?"
"No time for that," Kagome said dismissively. "I need three more days. You can't deny me that."
"Of course I can," the hanyou retorted. "All I have to do is grab that abnormally large yellow backpack you have," he stopped to gesture towards the direction of her room. "And drag you back to the well."
"You realize I'll be screaming," Kagome remarked.
"I'll gag you and throw you in," he amended. When did he learn what gag was?
"I'll sneak away when you go to sleep."
"I don't sleep," he pointed out.
"I'll run."
"I'm faster," Inuyasha smirked.
"I'll kick and flail my arms and legs."
"I'll tie you up."
"I'll S-I-T you to death," Kagome retorted, kindly spelling it out so that the rosary wouldn't actually take effect.
"Bring it, wench."
They stood, a curious looking pair, with their eyes locked in heated glares and mouths clamped shut in thin, livid lines. Kagome had her hands clenched firmly at her sides, while Inuyasha chose to cross his arms casually across his chest. Anyone walking by would think sparks would fly from the animosity between the two.
"This is childish," Kagome finally said, breaking the deadly silence.
"Exactly what makes it fun," Inuyasha grinned, shrugging his left shoulder.
"Good point," she agreed.
"Now get moving," he ordered, turning and expecting her to follow.
"I didn't pack yet."
He frowned and faced her again, puzzled. "You always pack ahead of time."
"And that's not going to change," Kagome assured him.
"Huh?"
"I'll start packing in two days," she explained. "I'll be ready for you on the third day."
"You'll be ready in fifteen minutes," Inuyasha corrected, his amber eyes flashing dangerously. "Or never."
"Is that a threat?" She put her hand on her waist, a devious glint in her own chocolate orbs.
"Do you want it to be?"
"Come on, Inuyasha," Kagome groveled, her tough demeanor melting away. "I really need this and I don't want to start quarreling with you again."
He grumbled, annoyed that the fight was over so soon. He hated it when she got all sweet on him. Mostly because she'd always win. "Please?"
"Feh."
"Yay! Thank you so much!" She threw her arms around him in a quick hug, and twirled around to go to her room.
"Hey!" Inuyasha whined. "I didn't even say yes!"
"Feh equals yes. It's called Inu-nese."
"Enlighten me," he frowned, his golden eyes narrowing into slits.
"Inu-nese is the language you speak."
"Oh? What is 'no' in Inu-nese?"
"That's a secret!" With one last teasing poke in the ribs, she made her way out of the well house.
"Stupid wench!" Inuyasha called after her, a cute scowl on his face.
"You only say that because I win!"