Me: Alright, let's get rolling.

Inuyasha: Would you just type already?

Me: Okay, geez! Cranky, much?

Inuyasha: Hurry up. This story ain't gonna write itself.

Me: Don't make me get Kagome to sit you.

Inuyasha: Keh! Like I'm afraid of her.

Kagome: Inuyasha!

Inuyasha: No, wait! Don't . . .

Kagome: SIT! (Inuyasha smacks into the ground)

Lol! I always wanted to do that. xD Okie doke, thanks to all who read my prologue and a big thanks to purduepup for the lovely review with a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY as well. And, without further delay . . .


Chapter 1

First Day

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, SLAM!

Slowly opening one eye, the blue-eyed, long-black-haired girl groaned as she spotted her fist smashed into her alarm clock on top of her night stand.

"Ugh. Mou! First day of school and I've already destroyed my alarm clock. Oka-san is gonna kill me."

Kagome grabbed her cell phone from the night stand to check the time as 5:00 am. She sat up from her bed and groaned once again at the cluttered state of her room. Her mom would undoubtedly be bugging her to clean it up when she would be back from school.

It wasn't dirty or covered with smelly clothes, but it had progressively become every claustrophobe's worst nightmare over the summer break. Posters of kendo celebrities, battling kendoka, step-by-step kendo attacks, her favorite manga and anime, and famous artists and artwork, as well as Kagome's own artwork covered the walls. Stacks of Kendo World magazines, notebooks, textbooks, binders, folders, and sketchbooks littered her desk. The bookcase had overflowed with random novels, manga, and DVDs which had been scattered across the room when Kagome could no longer find a spot to shove anything else onto the shelves. Plus, her dresser was covered with the back-to-school clothes her mother had bought for her.

The pile of frilly, bright-colored clothes made Kagome cringe. The hideous things would be returned to the store within the week, and then Kagome would have the money to get something more her style. Until then, last year's clothes would do just fine.

Kagome hopped out of bed in her old t-shirt and pajama bottoms and crossed the room to pick an outfit from her closet. She pulled out three articles of clothing and started changing.

She now wore a black, HP, graphic t-shirt that stated "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" with a long-sleeved, gray shirt underneath and a pair of grayscale, camouflage, Tripp pants. With that out of the way, she left for the bathroom down the hall.

Before reaching the bathroom, Kagome stopped at the door right before the bathroom and softly knocked. When there was no answer, she opened the door to a pig-sty of a room and leaped over the piles of junk to the lump on the bed. Kagome began poking the lump until it stirred to life and the head of Kagome's brother popped out from under the sheets.

"Kagome! What are you doing? It's way too early to be up", Souta complained groggily.

"Today's your first day of high school and unless you get up now, you are going to be late. It's a long walk, so don't expect me to be waiting for you. We're leaving at seven, so get ready."

"Are you still gonna make the lunches?"

"Of course. You'd probably starve if I didn't."

"Heh. What would I do without you, onee-chan?"

Kagome laughed and left the room as Souta crawled out of bed. She continued to the bathroom where she washed her face, brushed her teeth, and combed and straightened her hair.

After she had finished getting ready and had stuffed her messenger bag with her school supplies, it was six o'clock. As she left her room to head downstairs, she stopped at the sight of her dad in the picture on her dresser.

It was the last picture of them together before he had gotten sick. It was taken at their favorite training area after they had just finished their daily kendo practice and were taking a break. Seeing the huge smile on her dad's face, Kagome made a sad little smile back at the picture.

"It's been seven years, to-chan. I'm starting my third year of high school today. Wish me luck."


Souta had bustled downstairs around 6:30 just as Kagome was setting a plate of breakfast in his place at the table. She had already eaten and went back to packing their lunches.

At seven o'clock, the siblings pulled on their tennis shoes and stepped out into the courtyard.

Along with the dojo and family home, the property also housed a shrine. The shrine had belonged to Kagome's mother's family, the Fujiwara family, but now the shrine would pass down to Kagome and Souta as they got older.

Kagome and Souta hurried past the shrine and the dojo and down the large flight of steps to reach the street. Souta out of habit began walking in the direction of his old middle school.

"Hello! Earth to Souta?" Kagome called from the opposite direction.

"Huh?" was Souta's intelligent response as he turned around.

"You're going to high school now. Remember? We walk this way."

"Oh, right. Gomen."

After Souta caught up with her, Kagome regretted keeping him from going the wrong way or for even waking him up that morning, for that matter. Their entire walk consisted of him bombarding her with questions and pleading for tips on what high school would be like, not to mention his newly found obsession with the kendo team.

"Come on! Give me the inside info on the kendo team?"

"Why would I know anything about our school's loser team?"

"What do you mean 'loser team'? They won championships last year."

"Please. That had to have been a fluke. Our team had never even made it to the preliminaries up until last year."

"Or, they could have some new blood on the team. It's all about who they recruit, right? And, you said you don't pay attention to it, so you wouldn't know."

"I guess. Why do you want to know so much, anyways?"

"Because, I'm trying out for the team this afternoon! I've got all my equipment and everything. See?" Souta exclaimed as he turned his shoulders to sport his duffel bag stuffed with his kendo equipment.

"You know you're just going to be schlepping your entire first year for the upper classmen if you do get picked, right? Plus, only the best of the first years are kept on in their second year."

"So? I'm still going for it. So, cheer for me, okay?"

"How am I supposed to cheer for you, exactly?"

"Come to the try-outs with me."

"No way."

"Even if I begged?"

"No way."

Suddenly, Souta's voice was serious and concerned, "Is it because of oka-san or otou-san?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Why won't you set foot in a dojo?"

"Baka. I've been in . . ."

"Besides our dojo", Souta cut her off.

Kagome didn't answer.

"So, it's both of them? Because of what happened with otou-san and because oka-san doesn't approve of you being a kendoka?"

Kagome still didn't answer. Souta was going to push the issue further, but one glance to his sister's face made him hesitate. The look on her face was broken and crestfallen. He felt like kicking himself for doing that to his sister. He knew it was still a touchy subject for her.

"G-gomen nasai, Kagome. I didn't mean to upset you. Just do this for me, okay?", Souta pleaded.

Souta watched Kagome's face for about half a minute until Kagome finally answered with a short nod of her head.

"Thanks, Kagome", Souta sighed with relief.


The rest of their walk was silent until they reached Ryoo Senior High School. Upon entering the school, Kagome directed Souta where to go and they parted ways.

Only a handful of kids had already shown up since it was only 7:45. So, Kagome headed to her classroom in 3-A. The room was of course vacant except for Kagome's longstanding high school teacher, Myoga. He was a rather short man with a pencil mustache and beady, squinty eyes, and his hair seemed to have migrated from his head to his ears.

"Ohayoo, Kagome. How was your summer?" Myoga greeted as he looked up from the papers on his desk.

"Ohayoo gozaimasu, Myoga-sensei. My summer was alright. And yours?"

"I spent a good deal of my summer failing to defeat old Totosai at shogi and go. But, there is no doubt in my mind that I will break his strategy and be victorious!"

"You sound like two battling feudal lords", Kagome laughed.

"Naturally. So, this will be your third year as my student, eh? This must be an exciting year for you."

"More stressful, actually."

"Of course, there is always work to be done. And, I must continue my own work", Myoga explained as he continued his paperwork.

Kagome proceeded to the back window seat of the classroom. She sat down and pulled out her sketchpad to begin a new drawing she had been contemplating.

Soon, other students began milling in with the standard greeting to Myoga and the chattering among reunited friends. Once again, Kagome's two best friends were in separate classes, so she had no one to catch up with. Ignoring the steadily increasing roar of students, Kagome continued her drawing until she heard the bell ring and Myoga called for everyone to be seated.

As Kagome reached down to pull her notebook out of her bag, she heard Myoga chastising some kid for being late to class. Myoga gave him his first and only warning and told him to take a seat.

Honestly! You'd think a third year would be responsible enough to get to class on time for the first day at least, Kagome thought as she searched for her pen.

Once she found it, she sat back up to watch the tardy boy sit directly in front of her. She immediately recognized the boy as Inuyasha Hayashi. He was a hard sight to miss with his unnatural golden eyes and pearly, white hair long enough to reach down his back with long forelocks and bangs covering his forehead. He was relatively tall and in pretty good shape.

Kagome recalled that they had been in the same class since they were first years. Inuyasha also happened to be the most popular guy in school. Kagome had never personally talked to him or even had her existence acknowledged by him before, so she didn't really know what was so great about him. But, apparently, all the girls seemed to think he was pretty special.

Losing interest, Kagome reverted her attention to Myoga as he began his speech for the beginning of the year. However, Inuyasha had chosen to ignore the speech and took in his surroundings. As he adjusted to sit with his back to the window, he glanced over the front and the other side of the class until he became board and realized someone was sitting behind him, eagerly listening to the old man at the front of the class.

When he looked behind him, he saw an incredibly cute girl whom he didn't recognize. Her choice of clothing told him that she was nothing like the preppy girls that would fall all over themselves just to get his attention. None the less, she was still beautiful just in the more tom boy like way.

Inuyasha rattled his brain trying to think of who the girl might be. Yet, he couldn't remember ever having seen her at school. She was probably just a new kid and he missed her introduction because he was late.

Feeling the pair of eyes on her, Kagome glanced over to see Inuyasha blatantly staring straight at her with a little smirk. Once he realized he had her attention, he smiled and winked at her.

The absurd gesture almost made Kagome burst out in laughter, but instead she kept herself composed and gave him the confused look that basically said, "WTF? Are you crazy or something?" She then turned back to the front of the room to ignore him and continue listening to the teacher.

To say Inuyasha was shocked would have been an understatement. He couldn't believe she didn't get all giggly or embarrassed that he had even looked at her, no less winked. He had never been brushed off like that before. Now, she only interested him even more.


During their history, economics, and literature lessons, Inuyasha occasionally slipped a glance over his shoulder at Kagome every few minutes. He still couldn't fathom how she held no interest in him. In fact, she looked like she was deliberately ignoring him. His stares were so obvious and yet she acted as if she didn't notice.

At noon, the lunch bell dismissed the students to their meals. Most of the students just pulled out their bento boxes at their desks while a few grabbed their things and left, including Kagome.

Inuyasha watched as she exited the room and wondered who she would be eating lunch with if she was new. Putting it out of his mind, Inuyasha joined one of his friends at the front of the room.

"Hey, Inuyasha! Guess you're stuck in the back this year, huh?" called Inuyasha's best friend, Miroku Fukui. He was the same height as Inuyasha with black hair pulled back into a short dragon's tail at the nape of his neck and a pair of deep violet eyes.

"What are you going on about?" Inuyasha replied.

"Don't you remember? Where ever you sit on the first day is your permanent seat for the rest of the year. At least, that's how it's always been in old Myoga's class."

"Oh, right. Guess I forgot."

Hm. I can live with that. This will give me the chance to find out who that new girl is, Inuyasha thought as he scarffed down his lunch.


Kagome entered classroom 3-C where she spotted her best friends Sango and Hojo sitting together by an open window. The two became aware of her entrance to the room once she was a few feet away from them.

"Hey, Kagome! How was your summer?" Hojo brightly greeted her.

Akitoki Hojo was Kagome's best friend since they had met in Kindergarten. He had always been a very cheerful person and a health nut, but he was quite the klutz. He had short, sandy brown hair and hazel eyes, and was rather skinny.

"It was good. What about you guys?" Kagome asked as she sat down and began to eat her lunch.

"Same old, same old. My parents dragged me out into the sticks to visit family and Hojo got stuck helping with his family's store, again", Sango replied blandly.

Sango Akiyama and Kagome became friends when they met in middle school; she was Kagome's first real girl friend. Sango had always been on the aggressive side, and was very defensive and strongly opinionated. She had dark brown eyes and brown hair that reached the middle of her back which she kept up in a ponytail.

"Sorry we didn't get the chance to hang out over the summer with you, Kagome", Sango apologized.

"That's alright. I was stuck helping my mom around the house."

"Is she still trying to make you turn into a good little housewife?" Sango asked exasperatedly.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's not like your bad at house work or anything. You're actually a great cook. Why does she keep pressuring you about all this", Hojo reasoned.

"Because, she wants to make sure Kagome chooses to be a homemaker instead of getting an actual career" Sango supplied. "You and I both know that Kagome has got the brains for any job what with her having straight A's throughout her entire school career. Plus, if it weren't for her mom, she could have been on any of the sports teams, gotten scholarships and become a professional sports player. Not to mention, she would probably be known as a prodigy if she had been involved in the ken . . ."

"Will you guys stop it, already? I'm not perfect, you know", Kagome cut Sango off while blushing furiously.

"Oh, please. You're every parent's dream child", Sango teased.

"Let's just talk about something else", Kagome pleaded.

"Alright. What should we talk about?" Hojo complied.

"Well, you know Inuyasha? He sat in front of me this morning and when I caught him staring at me, he smiled and winked at me. And, he just kept staring back at me every now and then all throughout class. It was kind of creeping me out."

"That's weird", Hojo commented suspiciously.

"Maybe he has a crush on you", Sango laughed.

"I doubt that. Why would he suddenly be interested in me after two years of being in the same class?"

Sango was about to make a comment when the bell rang to return to class. Kagome packed up her things, said goodbye, and left for her classroom.


The second Kagome stepped into the classroom, she found Inuyasha once again staring right at her. His eyes never left her as she walked to her seat, sat down, and pulled out her notebook and pen. Even though the situation was highly uncomfortable, Kagome resolved to ignore him for the remainder of their lessons.

Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, as Inuyasha had decided to completely ignore Myoga straight through calculus and physics and never take his eyes off of her.

Is he always like is? If so, I don't know how he managed to even get accepted to this school, Kagome ranted exasperatedly to herself.

By the end of their last academic class, Kagome was counting the seconds until she could leave for her elective courses and escape Inuyasha's unrelenting stare. As soon as the bell rang, she bolted out the door knowing that she would be safe in her home economics class. No way Inuyasha would take that class? But, her self ease didn't last long.

After arriving in her home economics class early, she sat down to relax only to watched Inuyasha reluctantly and embarrassedly walk into the classroom shortly after.

Great. This is what I get for leaving my electives to my oka-san to choose, Inuyasha griped to himself as he strode into the class. But then, he caught sight of his mystery girl, Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

Inuyasha once again took the seat directly in front of hers and continued his one person staring contest throughout the class. Who was this girl and why was she desperately trying to ignore him? It was driving him nuts!

When it came time for the next and last elective course of the day, Kagome once again ran from the room, leaving a puzzled Inuyasha behind her.

Okay, Just relax, Kagome. All you have left is art class and the possibility of him being in that class, too, is astronomical, and impossible. I'll just take my time getting to my next class so I can calm down.

But, as soon as she got to art class, there was only one seat left and it was right beside Inuyasha.

N-no way! This guy is stalking me!

Even as she began to freak out in her head, Kagome quietly sat down in the vacant seat. She remained silent and spent the time either listening to the teacher or working on the free draw art assignments the teacher had given them. All the while, she could sense Inuyasha glancing back and forth between his easel and her.

At least, once this is over I can ditch him and go home. Wait, crap! I forgot about Souta's tryouts. FML!

The bell that sounded in the end of the school day rang and all the students bursted out into the hallways, eager to leave the school as soon as possible.

Maybe Souta will be one of the first ones to tryout and we can head on home, Kagome hopefully thought as she gathered her things together. As she reached for her sketchbook, she saw a hand grab it from her reach. The hand belonged to Inuyasha who began flipping through the sketchbook's various used pages.

"Wow! You're really good", Inuyasha complemented on her drawings as he handed Kagome's sketchbook back to her.

"Thank you", Kagome nervously replied as she stuffed the sketchbook in her bag and quickly ran out of the classroom despite Inuyasha's attempts to make her wait.

"Man, she must be shyer than I thought", Inuyasha observed to himself as he departed from the room.

But, I'll figure her out. I'll have the entire day tomorrow to get her to talk to me.


So . . . tired. Must . . . sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . . .

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