Hello, hello. First, I just wanna say. I AM SO SORRY. It's been...y'know, it's probably better if I count __ So sorry for the wait, but I've been having a pretty tough time, not to mention that my internet isn't exactly what you would call functional and I've been pretty busy…I know, I know, enough excuses already! Well, I won't keep you too long, and speaking of long, I've worked long and hard to bring you this chapter- I had to dig very deep to get this one back on track, so enjoy! (please)

(Dis)Claimer: nope, not mine

Be My Escape

Chapter 3

xxX POISON Xxx

Wednesday

Her constant, even footsteps created a rhythmic pattern and her labored breathing added to the beat. Her high ponytail swayed in the wind, swinging with each of her long strides and one lone bead of sweat blazed a trail down her face and onto her neck. The crunching of the gravel under her shoes slowed to a stop as she finished her last lap, walking to stretch her stiff leg muscles out and then plopping onto the soft grass of the football field at the center of the track. She did sitting toe touches and butterflies and then relaxed her legs, picking at her short navy blue gym shorts with two white stripes down each side.

'I will never understand why the girls' PE uniform needs to be so much smaller than the guys…' she thought, looking down at her fitted white t-shirt.

She glanced up at the balding gym coach, seeing him talking animatedly to two young girls in her class and it suddenly occurred to her that she would NOT like to know after all.

Her mind's attention was (thankfully) diverted from its current train of thought by her spotting Ayame behind the bleachers with Kouga….wait- Ayame and Kouga?!

Sango snickered silently to herself and got up, dusting her gym shorts off (carefully checking that the coach was turned away of course) and sneaking off towards where she saw Ayame and the Wolf(1).

'Hehe…Ayame, you dog…'

As she got closer and closer to the pair, she realized that they were indeed joined at the lips, and as she came even closer, the girl's resemblance to Ayame dwindled, until she finally was close enough to hear the two mumbling in each other's faces and could tell with ever-growing dread that this girl- although strikingly similar to Ayame- was not the same person.

Suddenly Sango was filled with anger, and she decided she'd heard enough lip smacking for one day.

"So," the sound of her voice startled the pair apart and they both looked as if they had been caught doing something reprehensible.

"Do you have a thing for red-heads, or were all the blondes taken?"

Kouga seemed taken aback by this remark, but bounced back quickly, retorting with an oh-so-clever "What's it to ya??"

Sango got up from her arm-crossed position leaning against the side of the bleachers and stood up straight, looking more serious.

"Well, aside from the fact that you broke my friend's heart just two days ago for my other friend, who, might I add is not even the girl I just caught you sucking face with,"

The girl sneered and folded her arms as well, trying to look intimidating, Sango guessed.

"It's NOTHING to me. But I swear, wolf boy, if I find that you've hurt any of my friends again, I'll take that State Champ football trophy and stick it where the sun don't shine!!"

"This is getting way to serious for me. I'm outta here." The girl turned on her heel and marched indignantly away.

"H-wait! Where ya goin?? Gah…see what ya did NOW?" Sango shrugged a single shoulder as if she'd done nothing and walked away with a bounce in her step. Kouga looked around unhappily seeing that both girls had just walked away from him, and he now had no one to make out with. He sighed in frustration and flipped out his cell phone.

After PE, Sango changed quickly, and a bit shakily, thinking of how she should break the news to one friend, and warn the other.

Luckily, (maybe) she literally ran into Kagome first, her once again sore nose being the proof. She looked up through her pain- teared eyes to see Kagome, walking with none other than Inuyasha.

'So confusing, these two…'

"Hey, uh, Kags…can I talk to you for a sec?" she motioned with her thumb behind her, still holding her nose.

"Uh, sure. Hey, I'll see you later Inuyasha." She said smiling sweetly.

Sango led her down the hallway and around the corner before she stopped. She knew of Inuyasha's half demon hearing range.

'Kagome probably doesn't' she thought with a sigh.

"So what's with that?" Sango said nodding her head in Inuyasha's general direction. A split second later (it took Kagome that long to figure what she meant) found Sango covering her ears so that they wouldn't bleed from her friends high-pitched squeals.

Somewhere down the hall, Inuyasha yelped out in pain as the sound hit his ears, drawing strange looks from passersby.

"What-" Sango never got to finish as Kagome started talking a mile a minute.

"Ohmigosh! Can you believe him?! Football player, TOTAL HOTTIE- did you SEE him??"

Sango thought it best not to tell her who he really was. Not yet at least. That was another adventure for another day.

"Yes, that's great and all but I have something to tell you..." Kagome sensed her friend's seriousness and sobered up immediately.

"Oh, what's the matter?" she asked, concern washing over her blue-grey eyes.

"Uh, it's not me- Kouga. I saw him today, and I thought he was with Ayame but it turned out it was some other chick and so I tore him a new one but now I dunno how I'm gonna tell Ayame and I have no idea what to do here!!" She let it out in (surprisingly) one breath.

Kagome took one full second of silence processing this new information before she started cursing the name of Kouga at the top of her lungs. She was about to go off to find him, but Sango grabbed her and held her, all the while trying to control her kicking and screaming friend.

Inuyasha's ears started hurting again and somewhere by the football field, One Kouga Wolfe had a sneeze attack.

"Sheesh," he said wiping his nose, "must be allergy season again." and with that, he walked off to eat his lunch.

Sango yawned and stretched, taking the time to crack her neck and all her fingers.

'Alrighty, now I can focus on my test!' She thought with a satisfied smirk. She whipped out her lucky number 2 pencil that was littered in the back with bite marks (reserved only for tests) and got right down to work.

She looked down at her paper and scoffed at the first question.

'Is he KIDDING? A two year old could answer this!' Yes, Sango was feeling very cocky on this day, for she had spent all of 3rd period studying for this very test.

'Who needs to know about history? History won't get me a high paying job in the medical field!'

Snickering to herself at her own genius, she set her pencil to the paper and started to move it in the shape of the letters that would answer the first question when some movement outside of the window caught her attention.

And she just HAD to claim the window seat.

'No, no Sango…focus…test…perfect...score…urgh, damnit!!'

She finally gave in and looked outside, seeing what the commotion was. She saw three male figures standing outside on the back lawn area, right across from one more lone figure. She recognized them as those jocks from lunch the other day and they were all crowding around the lone figure - Miroku.

"Ah, Crap!" she exclaimed rather loudly, standing up and slapping her desk in the process, having completely forgotten she was in the middle of a test. All heads in the room snapped to her direction, and the teacher raised his eyebrows expectantly, obviously waiting for an explanation.

She violently racked her brain for an excuse, coming up with only one-

"Uh...I mean, Oh NO! I- uh, I really gotta pee..?" the teacher nearly fell out of his chair at hearing this but managed to utter a "Go." While pointing to the door.

She thanked him and dashed out of the classroom, skidding around the corner into the hallway just as the door shut behind her.

'Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap' this was all her fault that he had gotten mixed up with them in the first place, and if she had just gotten some innocent new kid killed, she didn't know what she would do.

Plus she still had to thank him for the other day.

She dashed down and around the flight of stairs leading to the first floor, then rounded the last corner leading outside into the grassy lunch area. She saw the three jocks closing in dangerously around him and pumped her legs to go faster.

Well, even though she was somewhat of a runner, she didn't reach them before the thickest one threw a punch at his face, the force connecting and sending him flying back.

He caught himself before he started to topple over, and went back on the defensive. He deflected a right straight punch from the thick one with his left hand and swung his right hand to meet the jock's meaty neck in a chop, sending him stumbling forward to the ground. Seeing this, Sango stopped in her tracks a few yards away.

'Woah! Where the heck did that come from?!'

He watched the boy fall and then snapped his head up just in time to parry a punch from an extremely tall boy with his left arm, and then counter punch with his right arm. The tall boy was put off for a moment but quickly shook it off and went in for another attack, a left hook this time. Miroku leaned out of the tall boy's reach- no easy task with arms his length- then grabbed his left arm and used his momentum to throw him off balance, kneeing him hard in the stomach and letting him drop to the ground.

'He's fast…' Sango thought 'But I should stop this before he gets himself killed. Three-on-one is just plain unfair!!'

As the tallest boy met the grassy floor, the last, a short fat boy with a buzz-cut, was left with an astonished look at seeing his two large friends on the ground, groaning in pain. He stumbled backward then took off in the direction of the field, screaming in terror. After this display, Sango returned to her senses enough to run up to the young man.

"H…hey! Dude, are you alright?" She said, as he finally turned and acknowledged her presence with eyebrows raised. Apparently, he hadn't noticed her presence until now.

'Play it cool Miroku, girls love a guy to come to their rescue…'

"Oh- your face…" she stood on her tiptoes to inspect a bruise on his cheek. Apparently he wasn't that fast. 'Aw, man, it's my fault he got hurt…' She raised her hand to poke his wound like a child would a dead frog, but he caught her hand gently and began to smile.

"Ah, it's you. I don't believe we've formally met. My name is Miroku Houshi, and your name is…?" He said smoothly, flashing a million-dollar smile.

Sango's eyebrow twitched. How the heck does someone avoid a subject so casually?

"Uh, Look, I'm sorry. If I had any idea that they would come after you I wouldn't have let you get involved." He seemed taken aback by her worry, but he quickly recovered with another grin.

"There is no need for concern."

"Well, if you say so-" She reclaimed her hand and began to turn and walk away, but was stopped by:

"But…You can make it up to me if you would do me the honor of letting me take you out for drinks after school."

"Wha--"

She opened her mouth to protest, but, because she was so lucky today-

RRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG

Sango sighed miserably as she shut her locker door closed.

'I can't believe that guy!! Not only did I accidentally ditch class just to help him out, but then he had the nerve, the audacity, to leave his jacket on purpose so that I would have to see him again!!!' Her mind flashed back on his sudden departure and a request (felt more like a scam) to bring it to him at the local burger joint later. An incentive he'd said.

'That sneaky bastard! See if I ever do anyone another favor again!!' she seethed while clutching a thick navy zip-up hoodie in her fist.

She groaned and hit her forehead against the locker door, pulled out of her thoughts by Kagome's voice.

"Eh? What's the matter, I thought you liked cabbages??"

It suddenly occurred to Sango that she should pay more attention when people were talking to her.

"Er- yeah, totally!! I just, uh, I gotta go to the bathroom…?"

Hey, it worked the first time, right?

Kagome merely gave her friend a strange look and a disbelieving "uh-huh…"

"So what's really going on with you? You've been distracted since after fifth period. What happened?"

"Well, you know that guy you were bugging me about the other day?" Kagome squealed.

"You finally listened to me and talked to him??"

"No. He was being picked on by those jocks from before, so I went to make sure he didn't die, but then he beat the ever-loving crap out of them, and when I went to see if he was ok, heaskedmeouttodrinks and then the bell rang, ok well look at the time, I really should be going." She turned on her heel and tried to escape but she saw Miroku walking towards her and promptly turned again- right into Kagome, arms folded, eyebrow raised and foot tapping.

"E- Er…funny seeing you here?" she said to Miroku, who had just strolled up behind her.

"I'm so glad I found you! I was sitting in class last period and I realized I hadn't caught your name yet." He said with a kind smile, seemingly unfazed at all by the fact that he had asked her out without ever having met her properly.

"Yes, why don't you tell the nice boy your name?" Kagome said with a smile that looked to others like a friendly grin, but Sango knew better- oh, how she knew.

"…Sango." She said as he took her hand to shake it. "It's Sango Nakamura." She said with a lopsided smile. Her smile faltered however, when she remembered she hardly knew this guy, and they were supposed to be going out for drinks later.

"Sorry…" she mumbled dropping his hand.

She lightly shoved his jacket at him, then turned on her heel and walked briskly away.

"Huh? Sango?!" Kagome called after her, and she and Miroku looked on, confused.

5:00 PM found her standing in an overpass, her fingers weaving through the cool metal wires, and her mind playing and replaying the day's events.

"Jeez, what am I doing messing around with guys? I don't have time for this, I've gotta take care of Koha-" Suddenly she gasped remembering that her brother was home alone all this time with their stepfather and she took off in a full on sprint to get home.

'How could I be so careless??' she thought worriedly, and as buildings and people flew past her she had only one thought on her mind in the form of her younger sibling.

She flung the door open already halfway into a panic, and surveyed her surroundings frantically.

"…Kohaku? …Kohaku!" she closed the door behind her and walked quickly to the stairs-

"He's not here anymore." Said a groggy voice from the doorway by the stairs. She started at the rough sound of the voice but proceeded to ask regardless.

"…W-what do you mean? Where is he??" She demanded. He gave a chuckle, and inhaled slowly.

"Relax- I didn't do anything to him. He's at his friends house…But you however," He started towards her with slow deliberate steps, a snarl forming on his face with every inch he came closer.

"You're gonna pay for what you've done..."

o0OOO0o

She stared on through bleary eyes and watched her stepfather stumble back into his room and slam the door. Her limbs felt numb but she sniffed and wiped her eyes and nose, and then shot shakily to her feet before he had another chance to come after her. She grabbed her keys, though she didn't plan on driving and wasting gas when there was nowhere to go. At least this way he couldn't take her car for a joy ride. She picked up her backpack that she had dropped when she opened the door too quickly, and slipped outside and into the night.


Hey, folks, sorry to break it off here, but I figure once I get this into proper format, it's going to be even longer than I intended __ woops, oh, well, I'm sure you won't mind after such a long wait, right? :D anyways, thanks for reading, and reviewing and all that good stuff, cause it honestly does help me to get this story moving along when I hit a dry spell. Thanks again, see you in the next chapter!

Reference Section~ eh? There's only one this time. Here goes:

1. Wolf – Kouga's nickname, his last name is Wolfe, heh, yeah I know, so original right? :P anyway, if you'll notice, he has many wolf-like qualities, so Sango and a few friends have kindly nicknamed him that.

ja ne~