For some reason, when I edited the chapters (making the football to track and field change) it did not save or update the chapters with the new content. So here I am going back (with a new laptop that has none of the past chapters on it) and re-editing things. So if any of you were wondering why I might not have updated this story, well…this is your answer. Oh, and I am also going to place this little note in the beginning of each of my chapters. That way it will make things easier on you as the reader, and me as the author. happy reading!
I started this fan fic YEARS ago and I had recently stumbled across it. I used to have an old account which this first chapter was posted under. I re-read the chapter and read my whole 3 reviews on it and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so I have decided to give this another go. Let's just say, I edited almost, well close to everything, everything but the story line. Ha ha ha. I have always read fan fics and always wish I could write some (since I always have ideas to do so.) So without further ado. (p.s. I do not own Inuyasha but everyone else in my story I do) :]

A New Start
Chapter 1: Another new year, another new start

It was mid afternoon and the sky was clear and blue, minus having a few wispy clouds that seemed to lazily drift across the sky. August had just finished which meant that Natsumi O'Sullivan had just turned another year older. Now 16 she took a break as she sat outside and started to reflect on things that have happened. In one week would start her second year of living in her new neighborhood, and in a few weeks she would start her junior year in high school. Natsumi was still trying to get used to her neighborhood and all of the people whom inhabited the area. Not to mention she was still trying to get used to people at her school. She only had a few friends, only to name a couple there was Kagome Higurashi and Sango Hongo. The closest of the small few, was the sweet, caring, optimistic and fun loving Kagome. Then in second place was the sporty, down to earth Sango. Just like Kagome, Sango was also very caring and fun loving; she was also a great friend to have. Natsumi only wished that she was close to someone as Kagome was to Sango at her new school. But that happens when you move during high school life, especially after your whole group of friends turn their backs on you after so many years of being friends. She went back to mowing the lawn and raking up the cuttings in the front lawn as she started to think.
I sometimes wish I was still at my old school, even if people hated me. It was weird, within the last year almost all of my friends started to betray me. What did I do? Did I become a major stuck up bitch? Did I accidentally step on people's feelings? Ugh…I just really wish I knew what I did wrong! The only thing that really changed, other than a new school year was the three or four transfer students. Kouga, he was really cute, but once I became friends with Ayame I could not let myself fall for him. Then that weirdo Naraku…I could tell that he had some issues, but I just accepted him, just like everyone else. Heck, I was the one who introduced Kouga and those two to my group. Natsumi sighed solemnly at herself as she kept working, by now she was just about done, she only had to put things away now. I just miss my old friends…We were like a huge family…
Natsumi looked down her street as her thoughts faded away. There were only a few two story houses on their street, and Natsumi's and the neighbor's houses were the only two that were next to each other. In the upstairs part of her house there was only her bedroom, bathroom and a library/reading room that had a balcony attached to the back side of the house. Her bathroom was in the back part of the upper stairs and the reading room and her bedroom each took up half of the remaining room, except for where the stair case was. Her bedroom and bathroom windows faced their two story neighbor, where the reading room had the other side so the room would be flooded with sunlight all through the day. However she could not say anything about her neighbor's house and how their upstairs layout was. They had always kept those windows shut and curtains drawn, quite creepy if you asked her.

It was the beginning of September now, Natsumi still sitting on her front porch enjoying the warm mid afternoon weather while listening to her latest CD she bought and eating a popsicle. It had been a while since she kicked off her shoes after finishing up with some yard work and Natsumi had her legs over the edge and was swinging them back and forth. Humming along to the song that was playing behind her, she noticed some commotion going on in the house next door. She saw her neighbors start to pile out boxes and furniture out on the front lawn. "hmmm, I wonder if they are painting…" She thought but soon corrected herself when she saw the moving truck pull up. "Aww shucks, and I was just starting to get to know the Johnson's, their little daughter is so cute and not to mention very smart." After finishing up her popsicle she got up and slowly made way to the fence that was dividing the lawns apart. She watched for a while as both the young Mr. and Mrs. Johnson kept loading things up in the truck.

"Hey Larry," Natsumi called out to the young Mr. with a wave. He acknowledged her with a faint 'hey' and a smile. He walked over to the other side of the fence to talk to Natsumi. "I didn't know that you guys were planning on moving." Larry smiled sadly and looked back at his house. His eyes looking through one of the windows watching his wife pick up a few things and stuff them in boxes while talking to their daughter. He let out a happy yet sad sigh then turned his attention back towards Natsumi.
"Yeah," he reached up across his chest to scratch the top of his shoulder but lazily just kept it hanging there. "Julie's mother isn't doing too well so we decided that we should try moving a bit closer to her in case she needed any help. And we thought it would be better now than later so Emma could also spend some more time with her Grandmother." There was a little girl's squeal and laughter coming through front door of the house, as if it was on cue, and it put a smile on Larry's face.
"Oh well I'm sorry to hear that her mother isn't doing well. It must be tough for her." She paused for a moment; it was Natsumi's turn to look towards the house before continuing. "If there is anything that you need help with, you know where I am." She laughed nervously somehow becoming very awkward. That was definitely one thing that would never fail about Natsumi. She always managed to make things awkward, no matter how hard she tried. Larry smiled kindly at her and shook his head.
"I am afraid that we are just about done here. We already have the majority of all of our stuff at our new place; we just rented the truck today to load the final boxes and all of the larger pieces of furniture that we could not fit into our cars. But thanks, we really appreciate it."

The barefooted girl nodded and they exchanged brief goodbyes and well wishes before she turned around and headed back to the center of her yard where she finished putting away all of the tools and belongings before heading back into her house.

The remaining days of summer vacation went by like a tick of a clock and Natsumi awoke on the first day of school not too sure if she was excited for another year of school to start. She got up early and decided to do her morning stretches while listening to a mixed CD that she had put together of all of her favorite songs. And just like how it said mixed CD on the disk, it really was. The songs went from techno to metal with some indie, pop and rock in between. After her stretches she went and took a shower continuing her morning routines. After putting on a shirt and shorts with a pair all black convers, she shut all of her windows halfway because she thought that the air at night was getting a little bit too chilly for her, but she still wanted the fresh air to come in. She still wasn't quite ready for her windows to be closed fully. She hesitated for a little after as her thoughts unexpectedly caught her thinking of her past friends. Wow, just to think all of us had like a secret language with just our windows. Well, the few of us who had windows facing the street or in places that were easy to see. Natsumi smiled faintly as she remembered a particular time. Jonathan and her had been texting that night then all of a sudden in one of his responses he just says 'going out for a bit, may not text.' Bummed she started to replay that nights earlier events through her mind. She and her parents had gotten into a fight, Natsumi now realized it was literally over nothing and was really immature of her to act how she was acting and she felt guilty about it. She really had the mother of all teenage temper tantrums. All her parents were trying to tell her was her cousin from a different state and her husband were coming down. They were going to be bringing their kids too. Natsumi never really liked them and her parents had asked her to try to stay home so she could visit. That was when Natsumi started to act really immaturely. She sat down in her comfy chair she kept next to the window. She groaned and pulled her legs up into her chest and she rested her head on top of her knees. Her arm went over to her window to close it a little so it was halfway. Then out of the blue Jonathan popped up right outside her window asking her what was up. He nearly scared the living daylights out of her. He opened up her window and climbed in. He was always really caring, and was always concerned about me. "He always did make me feel important…" She said out loud to no one in particular. She then turned around and headed downstairs for breakfast.

After she had a quick breakfast with her mother, she got up and headed towards the door. But before she opened it she stood and looked herself over once more in the mirror. Her blond hair was straight and not frizzy and acting up, her day was already starting off well, that was good considering it was the first day back to school. She looked at herself in the eyes, today they were ice blue, "it must be because I am wearing white today" she thought to herself as she looked down at her white shirt making sure that one, her bra wasn't showing through and two to make sure she didn't spill anything on it. She then took another step closer to the mirror peering into it, lifting up her Ray-Ban glasses. Her mind wandered back in thought again when her attention got brought to her glasses.
They used to belong to Jonathan's older brother. Whenever she would go over to his house and visit she would always take them, it would not matter whether he was sleeping or awake. He would always tease her and say that if she keeps wearing his glasses she is going to end up needing glasses for herself. In return she would just roll her eyes and laugh. She could never look directly through the lenses without getting a headache, but none the less, they were always on her face. Then one day she was over at Jonathan's house but he wasn't in she hung out with his brother. She was pouting because she was going to have to get glasses soon. Phillip just laughed at her 'I told you so, you were going to need glasses because you kept stealing mine. You are just lucky that my prescription isn't that strong.' He smiled down at her and she just rolled her eyes again and continued to pout. 'That isn't very nice...' He chuckled back at her and shook his head. 'Well, hey, I'll tell you what. You can have my glasses, and just get new lenses put in.' Natsumi was shocked, 'what do you mean? Don't you need them for yourself?' Phillip smiled and leaned in closer with a wink causing Natsumi to blush slightly. Phillip was probably Natsumi's first crush, he was that older brother that everyone liked, but Phillip only tolerated Natsumi, and he was always able to get her to lose her cool at times like that, 'I won't anymore. I am getting the corrective laser surgery, so I won't need glasses anymore. Plus, I think you looked better in those than I ever did.' Natsumi blushed for a second. 'w-well, for the record, they never did look horrible on you.' She pushed up his glasses higher on her nose and looked up at him through the lenses, while sitting in her spot on his bed. He was sitting in his desk chair backwards, pulled up to his bed. Her eyes instantly crossed and she got dizzy for a second. Phillip placed a hand on her shoulder to help steady her. She had lowered his glasses again so she wouldn't look through the lenses again. He just chuckled at her. Natsumi blushed while she was reminiscing, she quickly shut off that train of thought and quickly finished checking her eyeliner.

She re-adjusted her glasses, sometimes she wished she didn't have to rely on glasses or contacts, some days they gave her the worst headaches, but now, without them she would almost be as blind as a bat, but her glasses always reminded her of happier times so she was fine with it. She stepped out the door and felt her cheeks, she could feel her cheeks warm to the touch. She shook her head and sighed "What am I doing? I forgot my stuff." She heaved a sigh and grabbed her backpack after petting her little shi-tzu fur ball puppy on the head. That little fuzz ball was probably the thing that she held the closest to her. That little doggie knew all sorts of her secrets and dreams that no one else seemed to really listen to now a days.
"Bye bye Chunky, I will be back after 3 or so. Mama has to head to school again." The small dog sat down and tilted her head to the side looking very forlorn and sad. Natsumi then headed out the front door and started walking to school.

School for Natsumi was a fun experience, well at times. She enjoyed all of her computer, science and art classes. It was odd because those were the only three classes that she really excelled at. That was where Kagome and Sango would help her sometimes. Kagome was crazy into history and most of the time she was studying medicine. Sango was also really into sports, she wasn't horrible at math as well, she also enjoyed other random studies. Natsumi always tried her best and tried to excel in all of her classes, but no matter what she never got above a 'B'. As she walked to school she wondered who she was going to have for homeroom and for her other classes. She hoped she could be a teacher's aid for her math teacher again this year. Despite it being one of her most hated and hardest classes, she enjoyed the fact that she was friends with the teacher. Last year she was a TA and since Natsumi always finished the tasks that the teacher asked her to finish early, so she always had extra time to study or finish her homework. Also when the teacher, Ms. Lemmings, had the class doing busy work, she would help the student with her studies so it was a lot like having a private tutor.

She arrived at school and went to find where she was supposed to go for homeroom. It was a teacher that she had never heard of before. "Last name Kaede" she thought to herself. She shrugged her shoulders and went to the room designated for the class and waited in a random seat near the back and waited for school to resume. During the period, she took a look at her schedule and she found out that she had this same teacher for math. Natsumi grumbled to herself a little, "there goes the extra study and tutoring for me." She continued to glance down and noticed that she was not a TA this year, instead it said manager. "What? Manager? Manager of what…" Her eyes followed the line and noticed that it said Varsity Track and Field on it. Her eyes went wide with astonishment. "WHAT? Varsity track manager? I don't ever remember signing up for this! How did this even happen? I don't even know anything about track and field…" The shocked girl heaved a sigh and shrugged thinking what has happened had happened. She will just wait the day out and see what it is all about, and hoping that it was some sort of mistake. If it wasn't, hopefully she didn't need to do anything but keep the times and role or something ridiculously simple.

During lunch she sent a text to Kagome wondering where she was, but before she got a reply she headed to the library. She hoped that the school's library had received any new books over the summer break. Echoes of students in the quad drifted into the library but it was quiet enough that students could still study. She came across a few students lying down on the floor catching a nap before lunch time was over. She couldn't help but let out a small laugh. There were definitely some days where she did that, especially the nights where she couldn't stop reading a book or couldn't stop watching an anime that was really holding her interest. She rounded a corner and almost stepped on another student snoozing on the ground who was taking up the whole walkway. She was in mid step when her phone went off. A clip from a favorite song of hers started to echo and play loudly. It startled the snoozer first with a jolt and then a yell, and that started a whole chain reaction. In response to him she became startled. She lost her balance and stumbled back into the bookshelf. Her ears deafened to all sound but to herself hitting the bookshelf and the books falling. Sliding down to the floor and a few books landing on her arms she held above her head and ending up landing in her lap and a couple on his legs.

"Ouch" she said quietly to herself her eyes still closed almost as if she was afraid that if she opened them, more books would fall. Something wiggled under her legs and then she heard some unhappy words and grumbles coming from the mysterious snoozer. She opened up one eye trying to see if they were awake or still snoozing. She noticed a giant fuzzy blob sitting up in front of her, she started to look for her glasses, and hopefully they just landed in her lap or on top of the books. She heard a few more angry words and she instantly started to apologize. There was just a 'Keh' and she felt herself being dragged up by a very fuzzy yet tan arm. She thanked the blob but started to bend down to try to find her glasses when that same arm stopped her by tapping her arm while holding out her glasses. "Oh thank you and umm I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you up. I was just trying to walk past." She slipped her glasses on and she was finally able to see the royally pissed off face that was in front of her. Except in order to do so, she had to look up to actually see it directly in his face. He had dark eyes and long black hair; he was a good two heads taller than she was. Normally, she could not stand guys with long hair, but for him it suited him. He didn't look bad with it, he almost reminded her of Kouga because he too had dark long hair. She could only guess that she came up to a little under her chin. His face was tan and his body was broad and she could tell that he wasn't scrawny. He definitely was not bad looking in her eyes. She started to get slightly flustered and her cheeks began to flush a shade of pink, she needed a distraction so she instantly bent down to start picking up the books. Only, she moved too quickly and she got a lot of blood rushing to her head causing her to hold one side of her head where a corner of a book had managed to get her. She hissed in pain under her breath but continued to pick up the books.
"Hey!" That same arm came towards her again but this time it grabbed her arm to lift her up and turn her to face him. "Are you alright? Do you think you need to go get checked out?" He peered closer to Natsumi making her blush even more. Even with her past experiences with guys, she still wasn't used to guys getting so close to her, physically and personally.
She managed to smile shyly and nodded, "Yeah, thanks." She held up a hand in protest, "I'm fine, and no...I don't need to get checked out." She smiled weakly to herself due to the awkward words.
"Are you sure you don't need your head checked? 'Cause I think you do, I mean, c'mon, what type of a person doesn't turn their phones on silent when in a library." The isle way sleeper just looked down at her. He crossed his arms and stood up straight with a smug grin on his face.
"I-I know I'm sorry, I completely forgot that it was even on with ringtone. I thought it was on sile—HEY!" She straightened up and took a half step back, putting her back now up against the shelf. She just now realized that he was starting to mock her. While still holding her head, her other arm at her side and her hand in a clenched fist. She breathed in trying to help calm herself down, but no dice. She jabbed a finger at him, poking him in the chest trying to ignore the tingle of excitement that was starting to radiate up her arm from the contact point. "What type of person just lies in the middle of a walk way and expects not to get stepped on?" she said in a loud whisper, still trying to respect the fact that they were in a library, all the while her blush started to fade slowly due to her frustration.
"Well what type of a person can't go around a road block when they see one?" He countered while taking a step forward after accepting her challenging words. He kept his grin on his face as she looked back at him with her mouth slightly agape. He could tell that she was getting flustered and he was starting to enjoy pushing her buttons, not to mention whenever someone attempts to make a challenge, you can be sure he will accept it and challenge right back.
Natsumi was starting to grow really frustrated with this oh so, annoying yet handsome jerk in front of her. Even the fact that she could feel that she was automatically attracted to him annoyed her. She shook her head and quickly turned so she could start to pick up a few of the books and place them back on the shelf "I don't need to stand here and take this-this type of harassment from a lazy Neanderthal!" she countered before storming off. She pushed past him, leaving his mouth agape staring after her watching her continue on to the section in the library further down near her favorite corner.

She finally made it to the section that was her goal the whole time. Along the way, she managed to find a new book. She sat down in one of the comfy chairs that was near a window by the back wall of the library. She sat down and got comfortable first. She put her backpack on the floor and put the book on the chair's arm rest while she finished getting settled. She remembered that Kagome had responded back, so she took out her phone, first turning it onto silent then continued to check her message. She learned that Kagome and Sango were still in line waiting for the cafeteria. A few texts back and forth later, they made plans to all meet at the front gates later on after school let out. Natsumi had a small smile on her face while humming a tune and started to read a book for the remainder of the lunch period. She heard the bell and she scrambled to gather her things and to take the book so she could check it out for the rest of the week. She didn't even realize that she had accidentally left her phone on the chair. Yet a certain someone who was never too far away noticed and walked over to where her phone was sitting and picked it up. With a smirk he thought out loud, "now this could be interesting."

Alright you guys, please tell me what you think! I actually had a lot of fun writing this first chapter. And hopefully it is as good as I think it is :]
Please read and review (also please remember that this is my first story) So if there is anything I can improve on please, please, please let me know :]]

*~foxfaceish

Edited: January 5 2012
Edited: October 10 2012
Final Edit: November 27, 2012