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"Ah, there it is," a soft voice murmured as a hand reached up to grab the small bottle. The brunette dipped the bottle and allowed a small amount of the salt to trickle into breakfast.

A groan came from the doorway and Tohru peeked over her shoulder before giggling. "Kyo-kun, you look tired."

"That's an understatement," he mumbled.

"But you're usually such a morning person. Half the time you wake up before me. What's wrong? Anything bothering you?"

"No," he mumbled, relieving her fears as he stifled a yawn.

"Then . . . why?"

"I decided to finish a project in English and had to stay up late to do it—really late."

"Oh! I'm happy you finished it and hope you get a good mark for it!" Tohru exclaimed as she dished up some breakfast for Kyo, Yuki, and herself, placing it on the table.

"Eh, looks good," Kyo said as he sat down and started to eat.

Tohru positively beamed at that. "Where's Yuki-kun?"

"Don't know," Kyo mumbled through his steaming food.

Tohru had barely had the time to sigh before Yuki himself walked in the kitchen.

"Yuki-kun!" Tohru exclaimed in surprise. "Are you hungry? I dished up your breakfast for you. It's on the table."

Yuki smiled at her. "Thanks, and I apologize to you for making you wait for me."

Tohru brushed off his apology. "Yuki-kun, please, unless you want to be late for school, I suggest you eat."

Yuki gave one last smile at Tohru, making her melt in her shoes, before going over and sitting as far away from Kyo as possible.

"Okay," Tohru murmured, taking her seat between the two. "So, Yuki-kun, how has school been going for you?"

Yuki finished swallowing before replying—once again with a smile directed at Tohru, "Fine. Why? Do you need any help?"

Concern filled his eyes and Tohru hurriedly relieved his fears. "No. I just wanted to make sure you were doing fine with school."

'But I could use a little help with Foreign Language.'

The next few minutes were filled with Tohru happily chattering while the two Sohma's listened and answered any questions she dished out.

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'Not so bad . . . big, probably bigger than my other school; but not bad.'

Kagome examined the large building in front of her. Other teenagers were laughing, running around, and talking to friends.

'Friends . . .' Kagome felt a small pang in her chest.

'I could make new friends, though . . . Look at the good side! No more . . . no more . . . no more . . . Hojo? Yes, no more Hojo-kun begging for dates.'

A small voice snorted inside her head, 'Admit it; you liked it when he did that.'

'Shut-up.'

She looked around for any one that seemed to be standing alone that she could talk to. She felt weird standing here alone. Unfortunately, though, everyone was in their own 'clique.'

'I'll have to call Eri and the gang when I get home to tell them how much I miss them.'

Deciding not to be late on her first day at a new school, Kagome started up the path to the entrance doors.

Stopping at the Main Office, she obtained her schedule from a secretary who was on the phone—and had given Kagome a mouthed, "Welcome to our school"—and stopped in the hall to examine it.

'English first? Great . . . hate English.'

She mentally grumbled the whole way to the classroom the schedule said her class would be in.

She had just grabbed the door handle to the classroom and was about to open it when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

Kagome whirled to face the person.

"Sorry, did I scare you? I'm the teacher of this class—Mrs. Yumata."

"Uh . . . hi."

"Hello. You don't look familiar, are you new?"

"Y—yes," she stuttered back.

"May I take your name?"

"Higurashi Kagome."

The elder woman smiled, "Class is about to begin, but we don't get many new students. This is a very special treat. Would you mind if I made a public introduction to the class?"

A light pink flustered her cheeks. "I guess not." She mumbled back.

"Great!" Mrs. Yumata grabbed on to her wrist and opened the door.

"Stand in front of the chalk board," The teacher whispered to her, then turned to the quieting teens.

"Good morning class. Today we have a treat. A new student." The teacher was practically humming with excitement. "May I introduce Kagome Higurashi-san."

Kagome's cheeks were dimming in redness as she thought of anything except all the people that were staring at her like she was a new species.

But someone coughed, another sneezed, and a paper fluttered to the floor.

'Rude-much.'

"You may sit in any seat of your choosing."

Kagome looked around the room and saw that only a few seats were untaken.

One by a girl, one by a boy who was writing on his discolored skin, and one who was scribbling on a piece of paper.

Mrs. Yumata seemed to get quickly impatient with Kagome's long hesitation, "Higurashi-sama, there are three seats—do you want me to pick one for you?"

"No," she murmured walking over to the desk that was next to a girl.

'Like there was a choice.'

"Now, everyone please open your books to page three . . ."

Kagome did as she was told, as did the rest of the class, before her mind zoned out on 'plot Akito'—only a few words from the teacher's lesson reaching her brain.

'He's coming over tonight to start his week at our house . . . that doesn't solve anything. . . .'

There was a small tap on her shoulder and Kagome turned her head to look at the person. It was the girl she was sitting by. She had dark hair and wore black nail-polish.

"Um, can I help you?" Kagome whispered silently.

"You have very pleasant waves. But there is something in them that seems. . . chaotic," the girl softly answered.

"Oh, uh . . ." she racked her brain for a decent answer.

'I don't sense waves! Bu—oh! I can sense auras.'

"Your aura seems perplexed."

'That was easy.'

The girl seemed slightly taken aback at first. "We seem to be alike in some way."

'Alike? Alike? Alike how?'

"Um . . . I don't think I understand—"

"Higurashi!" the teacher barked. "Please feel free to answer my question."

"Uh . . ." Kagome could feel her face burn under all the stares of her classmates.

"Just as I thought. Now class; what's the punishment for students who rudely interrupt their teachers?"

"After-school detention," the class answered in unison.

"That's right. But because Higurashi-san is new, I'll let her off the hook this once. This is your only warning."

"I understand," Kagome mumbled.

"Thank-you. Now, where was I . . .?"

The teacher started chattering on and on again about the lesson like nothing had happened. Maybe in her book nothing did, though.

Kagome sighed as little ideas popped in her head on how to find one of the 'skeletons' in the closet of Akito.

Though she had tiny bits of a million ideas, none of them fit together properly. A sharp pain pierced the back of her neck, where her skull connected to her backbone, and Kagome absent-mindedly rubbed it, knowing all too well that she was thinking way too hard.

'But I have to save Mom, she comes first. But how do I save her from him? How do I . . . help her?'

A small voice whispered in the back of her head, 'Find his motive.'

Motive! Hah! Yes, everyone has a motive! He had one too, she was sure of it. Now she just had to find it.

The smile that had adorned her face slowly fell off.

'Easier said than done! I don't know anything about him!'

Holding back a growl of frustration that she couldn't think of anything logical, she picked up her pen and began the assignment that the teacher had just given out.

Kagome must have pressed a little too hard, because, about twice, her pen tore through the page and scribbled on the one underneath.

'Nerves.'

With that, she loosened her death grip and calmly continued her work.

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'One more class; one more class and then I have lunch! Then, well, then, that's when the real fun with the plan begins.'

Kagome stopped for a second to readjust her books that were starting to slowly slide out of her grip. She had just straightened up when something—or preferably someone—crashed into her, causing her to stumble and drop all her books and papers—which didn't drop, but flew away instead.

Kagome groaned and dropped to her knees. "This is not my day."

"It hasn't exactly been mine, either," a peevish voice answered.

Startled, Kagome turned to see a boy. Most likely the boy who had run into her.

'I thought he would have run away.'

"Um, hi!" Kagome yelped, jumping to her feet, "I'm Higurashi Kagome," she held out her hand. "I'm new here and I'm sorry . . . if . . . I . . ." she trailed off as she realized he wasn't really listening.

"Excuse me?"

He snapped back to attention. "Yeah, okay."

"Um. . . by any chance, may I have your name?"

The bell then rang and they both jumped. "Damn! I'm not getting my hair dyed for 'skipping homeroom.' "

Kagome gave the boy a look. "Wha—?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I guess I better help you with the mess I made."

Without further conversation, he picked up her books and papers and handed them to her. Numbly, she reached out and accepted them. Though her hands worked, her brain at that moment had taken a little vacation and it took a few minutes for her to mumble a "thank-you."

"No problem, I guess I should say sorry. I'm just tired. Guess I don't pay much attention when I'm like this."

Kagome thought it was positively cute when his cheeks pinkened slightly.

And she felt disappointed when he turned to walk away.

"Kyo," he called over his shoulder, loud enough for her to hear. "My name is Kyo."

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Kagome's heart thudded and she could hear her pulse in her ears when she skidded to a halt outside the classroom door. Panting, she opened it to reveal the sounds of pens scratching on paper and a woman's voice. "But when you conjugate le verbe aller—oh, it seems we have a late comer."

The teacher had put down the piece of chalk she had been using to write with and gave Kagome a puzzled look. "I'm sorry, but you don't look—"

"I'm new here," Kagome bit in. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"Is there a particular reason as to why you were so?"

"I couldn't find the room."

The teacher's eyebrows rose. "Why didn't you ask for help? There are plenty of students that could have pointed you in the direction,"

"I . . . I . . .I dropped my books." Kagome hated the fact that her excuse sounded—as well as made her look—stupid.

The teacher shook her head and sighed. "Take a seat over there please; I suppose this once is okay, but if you're late again, you'll have to be punished."

Kagome did as she was told and walked back to the seat the teacher had pointed at.

Flopping in the chair, she stifled a sigh of exasperation.

'Some first day.'

Holding back the urge to bang her head against the desk table, Kagome picked up a pen and started to scribble down the notes that were being written on the blackboard.

Twenty minutes later, the teacher turned to the class. "I'm going to hand out a project. It's not too complicated, so don't worry. The pairings will be alphabetical. I'll just make every two people partners. Understood?"

"Yes," the class replied, sounding as if they were holding back groans of agitation—which they most likely were.

"Okay, now, Yuri? You're with Yoshiko. . . ."

Kagome leaned back in her chair.

'Project? Project on my first day? Aish! Could they be any ruder? My day is down the drain.'

"Kagome—I got your name correct, yes?—you're with Tohru."

'Tohru? I got paired with a boy?'

"Okay, class. Now that you have your partners, I want you to meet somewhere in the room with them so I can give you the rest of the instructions."

There were many screeching of chairs as the students stood and walked to the person they were partnered with before returning to an empty pair of desks.

Kagome looked around for a boy named Tohru. She had no idea what he looked like, but it would be obvious who he was when she could see him walking towards her.

There was a tap on her shoulder from behind and Kagome turned around.

"Hi!" a brunette cheerfully greeted.

"Uh . . ."

"I'm Tohru. Tohru Honda."

"Oh . . .?" Kagome must have looked pretty puzzled.

"And you're Kagome Higurashi?"

"Yeah."

"And we're partners . . . !"

"Oh . . .?" A slight pause followed before it clicked. "Oh! Yes, we are! Sorry, blonde moment!" Kagome bowed in apology.

Tohru giggled. "But you're not blonde."

Kagome shrugged. "Ah, who cares? I could die it; then it would be blonde."

Tohru smiled warmly as the teacher started talking again.

"Okay, class. Here are your instructions: You are to read this children's chapter book and translate it. Once that's done, I want you to write a review on how you liked or didn't like it while pretending to be a child reading this."

"What book is it?" someone called.

"You will find out when you receive it," the teacher answered. "And I would appreciate it dearly if you weren't so inconsiderate and were to raise your hand and wait to be called on like any other student would do."

"Sorry," the boy mumbled.

"Okay. Each pair will receive one book. You will have to have this project done in two weeks from today. Now, please, will one person from every pair get a book?"

"I'll get it," Kagome said as she stood up.

"No, no! Don't go through the trouble of that! I'll get it."

"I insist that I get it," Kagome replied.

The two girls looked at each other.

"You'll get it!" they both said at the same time.

"Okay, then, I'll get it!" They both turned, about to walk over when they looked at each other again.

"How about I hand it to you?" a peeved voice asked; "here," the teacher slammed the book down on the desk Kagome had been sitting at. "Enjoy your project." With that, the teacher whirled and marched back over to her podium to give out more instructions.

Kagome and Tohru snuck a quiet giggle in before the teacher could start talking again, "Okay, now, there is a 'divorce date' in four days. That means that if you and your partner can't seem to get along or one of you is doing all the work, then you come to me, I make sure you both have a separate copy of the book, and you work alone."

A silent murmur of 'divorce date' flooded the room.

"Now, are there any questions?"

She paused as she looked around. "None? That means that on the day this is due I will receive perfect 100's from everyone?"

She paused again. "Okay, then you're free for the last few minutes of class to converse on your project. And if I hear anything but that, the consequences will be severe."

"Don't mind her, she's just a little different," Tohru informed Kagome with a smile.

"I'm used to different," Kagome replied with a shrug.

"Well, this book, what's it called?"

" 'Falling In.' What the—? This is a children's chapter book? I don't think so! It has over three-hundred pages!"

Bewildered, Kagome excused herself from Tohru and walked over to where the teacher was sitting.

"Can I help you?" the teacher asked looking up from her own copy of the book.

"What age group did you say this is for?"

"Well, at first glance I thought it was children's, but now that I take a closer look, it turns out to be a young adults. Very fascinating read I might add."

"Are you going to give us a different book, then?"

"I don't see why I should."

Taking a deep breath to calm her ragged nerves, Kagome calmly said, "It will take more then two weeks to translate this."

The teacher flipped through the book before pausing, taking her time to answer. "So you're right. Class? I'll give you three weeks to translate the book."

'Three—? What in—?'

Grounding her teeth to hold back the insult that burned in her mouth, Kagome walked back over to Tohru as serenely as possible.

"We have three weeks now? Awesome!" Tohru exclaimed happily.

Kagome merely grumbled.

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The minutes came pain-stakingly slow for Kagome, but finally the bell rang and she jumped up, happy that class was over.

"So how are we going to do this?" Kagome questioned Tohru as they gathered their belongings and headed out the door to lunch.

"Huh, well, we could do it chapter-by-chapter. Each one is only about seven pages."

Kagome considered this. "Okay, and we can see how many chapters there are and see how long we should take on each one."

"Yeah," Tohru flipped the book open and checked the Table of Contents. "Um, I can't count that high in French."

"Let me see," Kagome kindly suggested, pulling the book from Tohru's grasp.

The first reaction from Kagome was a gasp, followed by a groan. "This book has forty-two chapters! Even if we did do one a day we wouldn't be able to finish it in time!"

"Maybe we could do a chapter every day at lunch and then another one all through the day during free periods," Tohru suggested.

Kagome considered that. "It might work, but we'd have to start now if we did it that way."

"Then let's go! We gotta hurry and finish lunch! We got work to do!"

Kagome couldn't help but giggle at her optimistic attitude. "Yes."

"And maybe you could meet some of my friends, to, while we're at it."

"As long as they don't distract us . . ."

"Oh, they won't. They're really good at not bothering me when I'm doing school work and helping me when I need it."

"If you're sure," Kagome replied uneasily.

"And I'm sure their dying to meet you."

"Dying, yeah."

"Ah, here we are, the cafeteria."

"Oh. . . It's. . .big."

"Yeah. Oh, look! My friends are over there!" Tohru grabbed onto Kagome's hand and led her over to a table that was almost crammed with people. Tohru seated Kagome down and then sat on her right. Kagome couldn't help but stare a little at the boy she was placed by that was wearing what seemed to be a girl's uniform.

"Tohru-kun!" the boy bubbled.

"Hello, Momiji-kun. This is my friend."

"What's her name?"

"Kagome Higurashi-sama."

Momiji gave Kagome a look over. "She's really pretty."

That got a blush from Kagome who muttered, "Thanks." She turned to look at the other people at the table. She couldn't help but think that the aura of three of the teens she was by seemed to take a shape of an animal, a cat, cow and a rat. Confused, she glanced at the boy—Momiji—she was sitting to, to try and see if he was the same. She nearly yelped in surprise when she felt what seemed to be a rabbit aura nuzzling against her from the boy. Confused, she allowed her gaze to wander back only to meet the stare of a dark purple pair of eyes.

"We meet again," the girl said in monotone.

"Yes, I see we do."

'I'll have to think about that later.'

"You already met Saki Hanajima-san?" Tohru beamed.

"Yes, in English," Kagome smoothly replied.

"You're waves seemed to have grown a bit . . .confused."

Kagome smiled before replying. "As I said earlier, your aura still seems a bit perplexed."

That earned a stare from everyone. Hanajima, however, seemed pleased. "Yes, we are much alike."

Kagome shrugged, "If you say so, but I don't think . . ." she deliberately cut herself of and thought the rest of that sentence.

'I don't think you run from demons everyday, are looking for the last few shards of a broken, ancient jewel, and is hunting down an evil force to try and destroy it.'

"Don't think what?" Momiji questioned.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Try us. We have our weird secrets, too."

Kagome turned to face the owner of the voice—a white headed boy. Strangely, though, he had a bit of a black tint to it near the base of his neck. Maybe he died it?

"Yes, but no matter what I tell you, I won't be able to tell you and have you believe me Mr. . . .?" her sentence drifted off and Tohru gasped.

"I didn't introduce everyone! My apologies, Higurashi-san. This is Momiji Sohma-kun, Saki Hanajima-san, Arisa Uo-san, Hatsuharu Sohma-kun, Yuki Sohma-kun, and Kyo Sohma-kun." She gestured to each one as she said their name.

Two things stuck out to Kagome, 1) the name 'Sohma' sounded incredibly familiar for some reason, and 2) Kyo, the boy who knocked into her, was sitting there.

Kyo, hearing his name, looked up to meet the eyes of Kagome. There was a pause before they both flew up out of their seat saying in unison, "You!"

This, of course, gathered the attention of the other Sohma's, Tohru, Hanajima, and Uo.

"What? Oh, you've met already?" Tohru asked excitedly.

"You . . . could say that," Kagome replied, her gaze not braking Kyo's. "Did you get in trouble because of me?"

Kyo shook his head as he slowly sat. "No, that bitch wouldn't do anything."

Kagome looked relieved as she sat, too.

"I guess I should be asking you that question, huh?" Kyo muttered, not daring to look Kagome in the eye.

"I didn't . . . well, I'm new and the teacher said they'd let me off the hook this once."

". . .Good . . ."

Tohru was absolutely confused by now. "What?" she asked, looking from Kyo to Kagome in question.

"Oh, well, we had a little run-in in the hall and I dropped my books. Kyo-kun was so nice as to help me retrieve them."

Tohru clapped her hands in excitement. "Really? That's great Kyo-kun."

Kyo merely muttered darkly.

"Well, Kagome-san, if we're going to finish this project, we'd better start it."

"Yeah . . . hey, Tohru?"

"Uh-huh?"

"When I walked in this morning, it sounded as if the teacher was conjugating verbs. And yet, we're translating a book—a lo-o-ong book—why is that?"

"Oh, um, well, uh, a—a—question was asked on the different ways of conjugating verbs."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, well, this thing won't translate itself," Kagome muttered.

"Yeah, we better start, we only got three weeks."

Kagome took that time to mumble under her breath about evil teachers and French books as she reached for her binder and pen that was lying on the ground.

"So we have the title—'Falling In.' "

Tohru nodded. "Yeah."

"Do you think we should do the Table of Contents?"

Tohru thought about that. "I think we should wait until the end and see if we have time to do that."

"Good idea. Okay, so 'Chapter One: The wind and rain . . . pounded against the . . . window creating a rhythm.' " Kagome began, taking a long time to check everything over, just to make sure she didn't mix up a verb.

"Wow, sounds like a good book," Tohru observed as she slowly read the first paragraph.

Kagome grunted in reply as she kept writing. This was impossible!

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Okay, people. I got some reviews asking about who Kagome was going to be paired up with. My answer? . . .Very good question. I've been wondering that myself. At first my mind screamed 'Inu/Kag,' but now I sorta want a Kyo/Kag. So, I want you to tell me what pairing you want through a review poll. I think I'll close the poll by chapter five. You'll be able to vote once per chapter – which means you can vote twice in the same review for chapters one and two.

And the book (the French one?)? It doesn't exist. –roll eyes– I made it up for this story, so don't flame me for it, okay? Speaking of flames, I'm surprised I didn't get any for pairing up Akito and Kag's mom. And to relieve your fears (or start them up), there's a reason he's dating her, it's not affection. And I need to put a disclaimer. I kinda forgot last chapter. . . so here it is:

Disclaimer: I'm poor, okay? I don't have money, so I can't buy or own that adorable hanyou, Inuyasha, or those kawaii Zodiac animals. . . or rather those hunks Yuki and Kyo. Maybe I could rent them, though?