"Your hair is so pretty, Kagome! You must let me do your hair one of these days. Trust me, after I am done with it, it will be absolutely beautiful." Ritsuki exclaimed, standing behind Kagome as she combed the girl's hair with her fingers. Kagome winced and Ritsuki promised to be a little more gentle. Unfortunately for Ritsuki, the cause was not because of a snag, a knot, or pulling too hard. No, Kagome had winced because the attention that the ever-so hyper Ritsuki was giving her was simply painful for her to bear.
The mind is a mysterious thing for someone to have. It cries with you, learns with, explores with you, and takes pain with you. As you teach it things it returns the favor by giving you some of your most important lessons...the ones that can only be learning by life. You do you best to shield it and yourself from the harsh truths of which you would much rather go on knowing. Unfortunately there are forces out there that want to destroy your mind, your best friend. They want this obstacle gone from you so that they can creep in and mess with everything you hold dear. A force that pushes against every lesson you have ever learned and right now an important lesson was being challenged.
Don't let them close, they will hurt you or don't care enough about you.
To this day, Kagome still was not sure if this lesson was meant for mental or physical purposes. All she knew that Ritsuki, who had never known her name before, was standing behind her and messing with the hair she herself had spent thirty minutes making it straight and a little less poofy. The eyes, she noticed dully, had not stopped looking at her, trailing her movements. Silently she could here the whispers.
'She has changed a lot…I wonder what happened over the break! I am curious to know.'
'Dude, look at Kagome. I wonder why I never noticed her before; she is totally hot!'
'I wonder why Kagome is sitting in the back. This is the first time I have seen her in my class before.'
Of course, the person whispering the last one didn't realize that Kagome has been in all her classes since elementary school, but had never taken the time to turn her head to face the back. Kagome placed her white knuckles under the desk as she closed her eyes in a failing attempt to shut out the whispers. What did happen to her over the break? As far as she knew there had not been anything new in her life. She had left Junior High and had entered High School more or less the same. Maybe a little bit heavier in the chest and a tad bit thinner, but otherwise she was the same Kagome Higurashi she had been when she last saw the majority of her peers. How was one supposed to react to this? It wasn't something that her mind had taught her in one of its joyful lessons.
"Sure, Ritsuki. You can do my hair whenever you see is fit to do it," Kagome told the girl, who was still behind her. More students had come into the room and, during their scan of the classroom, had lingered on her a second longer than normal. They put on a sort of confused, dawning look before giving her a smile secretly and going to chat with their friends. Kagome wasn't paying too much attention to who was coming into the room but rather who was already there. Two siblings, Sesshoumaru and InuYasha, kept glancing her way. The sneers on their faces made her squirm in her seat as the teacher entered the room and took his seat. A glare was all that was needed for the other students (including Ritsuki) to start the scramble for their top choice in seating. Only after everyone was situated snuggly in their seats paying false attention to the teacher, did the bell finally ring and the teacher rose from his desk, giving his new class a hard look.
"Welcome to your first year of High School. Although I can't say that I don't like teaching, I can't say that teaching a bunch of adolescent brats was my first choice for a job. I am a fair guy and will allow you keep your current seats. You will not be changing so I hope you chose wisely. Welcome, class, to Honors Social Studies. I am your teacher, Mr. Takanaki. To start off your high school career, I am going to give you a pop quiz. This will be graded and will be worth a lot of points. In other words the grade counts. Please note that my tests and quizzes are rather difficult and not many manage to pass them. So with this said and done, good luck and gods speed," the teacher, identified as Mr. Takanaki, introduced, passing out the pop quiz as he talked in a stern voice. It was clear to a retarded person that Mr. Takanaki did not like his job at all and would be sure to let the entire class know of it before the year was over.
Kagome could not help but glance at the clock as the final, crisp-white sheet slid onto her desk. They had forty-five minutes of class time left before homeroom ended and she would be on her way to Algebra II. Inwardly, she groaned as her eyes barely paid attention as they read the question pertaining to World War One and the Inner Alliances. Unfortunately for her, your homeroom class tended to follow you to your other classes. She didn't know what made it that way, just that it was another secret rule.
Out of the corner of her eye, she was unable to ignore the stares she was getting from the Youkai siblings and grimaced. Sesshoumaru and InuYasha Youkai were twin brothers who had trailed her through her school career. Always the ones to tease and start fights (usually with each other), it wasn't until middle school that the separate personalities started to surface for all the others to see. Sesshoumaru was the more serious of the twins, the one always at or near the top of the class. His long silver hair trailed thinly down his back and literally glowed in the moonlight. InuYasha, on the other hand was loud and obnoxious. His name was always at the very end of the list of class rankings. His white, almost silver hair had more volume than his brother (who was older by a few mere seconds) and his golden eyes held a certain sheen that was not seen in Sesshoumaru. These two twin boys had been a major crush of every girl they had encountered with; Kagome being no exception although she far from crushed on them anymore.
Sadly, she could not help but think that it was boys like them that had made Kagome unable to eat hotdogs ever again. Eyes scanning the paper on last time and mechanical pencil in hand, Kagome began her quiz.
"Heeeyyyy, Kagome," a voice spoke softly and sweetly—the voice that only appears when the individual speaking wants something. In their journey to meet said individual, her brown eyes widened as she recognized Sesshoumaru. The sneer still plastered on his face from three periods before, he gingerly drew a seat up to her desk. It was currently third period, the period of which the entire school had their thirty minute lunch break inside the classroom. That wonderful period, however, would have to wait for third period to actually be over. Last period had left her silently relieved that she had had her next classes with neither InuYasha nor Sesshoumaru, even Ritsuki for that matter. Unfortunately she had just about everybody else, but she didn't pay attention to them. In homeroom, Ritsuki paid her too much attention and the Youkai twins could not stop sneering at her—almost leering but in a hidden, cynical way.
"Is there something that I can help you with, Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked innocently. She was trying to make her voice have that slight hint of annoyance that usually cued someone the speaker wished to be left alone, but it didn't come out right. It sounded too kind hearted and innocent and the only thing it resulted was a widened smirk. The elder twin was claimed the desk right beside her as his permanent seat while she tried her best to ignore him. Taking one of his long hands, he trailed the outside of her face with the tips of his fingers. He got the effect he was looking for, his smirk widening as he watched her shiver heavily at his unexpected touch.
"Who said I wanted anything, Kagome? Who is it that says I want anything other than to sit right here, to be next to you?" Sesshoumaru asked of her, pulling a mock confused, almost hurt look. Kagome wanted to bang her head on the table at this remark. Most girls would have already melted into a puddle, especially if they did what Kagome was doing and looked at him directly into his golden, amber eyes. Totally sexy most might call him. Unfortunately for Sesshoumaru, Kagome did not dive in immediately when it came to theatrics. This meant that she was one of the few that would not melt into a puddle at his mere voice or a glance into his eyes. Was this not the first year he had known she existed? That meant that he was either up to something or wanted the only thing a hormonal teenage boy would want. Which ever one it was he was not going to get; at least, not from her anyway.
"No one ever said such a thing, Sesshoumaru. Then again isn't it always said that actions speak louder than words?" Kagome questioned, trying to force a smirk on her lips as she did so only to have it fail miserable. She needed to work on her facial expressions. Sesshoumaru quirked an eyebrow and gave her what seemed to be a genuine, confused look. He must have caught on that she wasn't a puddle at his feet yet, just waiting for him to splash into her. That she would keep her ground when it came to her morals. No, Sesshoumaru quickly cued into the fact that Kagome, however dazed at being thrust into this new world as she may be, was not easy and was, in fact, rather hard. For a minute his smile faltered before it was soon restored.
"And what about you, Kagome? You're always at the back of the classroom for some odd reason. And not just the back but as far back as you can go; a place where you cannot be seen by most members and perhaps even the teacher. You know what that yells at me, Kagome? It tells me that you are insecure about something. Did something happen? Are you hiding something that you don't want anyone to know? You have no need to worry; your secret is safe with me," Sesshoumaru spoke, in a seductive tone that made her almost lose her serious face.
Kagome stared at him in disbelief. How had he done that? Just read her right on like that with no effort at all? Did he know anything? Or was it that he was just teasing her? Questions such as this flowed through her head as she had trouble speaking to the expectant boy in front of her. More students were tuning into their conversation, some pretending not to and others turning around in their chairs.
"I don't know what you are talking about, Sesshoumaru. Perhaps it is you that is hiding something," Kagome countered, looking at him before switching her gaze to the teacher coming in. Sesshoumaru was forced to pay some amount of attention as the teacher, Mrs. Kanaki, began to talk to the class about the material that would be done in this class. Inwardly, Kagome smirked but she had failed not to see the curious look she had left in Sesshoumaru's eyes.
'Great, I'll never get peace now,' she groaned, once again resisting the urge to bang her head on the table.
"Hello class, we are going to have a wonderful time in English IV. I hope that you have come here with happy, strong minds and your hearts set on learning because this course will not be easy. No sir, it will not be and there is a high chance that most of you shall fail because of my super hard tests. I hope that in the time that we do spend with each other, though, that we will make great friends." Mrs. Kanaki told the class in a cheery voice. Kagome cringed. The voice was too cheery for the words that the teacher was speaking which made her wonder...
What kind of teachers did this school hire?