Away From The Well

Chapter Three

by KikyouCommitsSuicide

Disclaimer: Santa was supposed to give me Inuyasha for Halloween, but then I remembered that he gave things on Christmas. So I forgave him when he didn't give me our favorite hanyou for Halloween. But not for Christmas? Unforgivable. And all I got was some nasty-tasting black stuff that got my face all sooty and gross. How unfair is that?!

I also got some marshmallows, but that was from my sister. And she just pulled them out of the bag and squished them in my hair. Grody. So I poured vanilla Coke into her hair and we ended up having to buy two more bottles of shampoo. And we were grounded. But it was worth it, ne?

Author's note: Yeah, my parents really did give me coals for Christmas once. But it was only to stall because two days later my computer came in the mail (I was so excited I started hyperventilating and my mom had to give me some of her asthma medicine. I'm a computer geek, what can I say?). Apparently a snowstorm had delayed it. Or so they say. Who can trust the corporate cogs these days? And the part about the marshmallows is completely untrue. But it is kinda fun to think about, ne? Marshmallows and Coke - mmmm...

I'm a sugar-holic (??), in case you didn't know. :p

------------

Kagome and Inuyasha walked into the airport hand-in-hand, but only so he wouldn't get lost. Indeed, when they walked through the sliding doors, his eyes became as round as was possible for an Oriental person (a/n: In manga, they never look Oriental! What's up with that? Do they like Western civilization THAT much??). He stayed close by her, though. The only time she had trouble keeping him on course was when he spotted a buffet with ramen. He started drooling, which was more than a little nasty, and the janitor gave them a very dirty look (a/n: No pun intended...) before moving to clean it up.

Elderly people looked at their hands and gave murmurs and grunts of disapproval at the public display of affection. Inuyasha had no idea what they were disapproving of, and instantly thought of his ears. He growled instinctively at them, and Kagome started dragging him faster. He didn't mind - anything to get away from these bakas.

After getting lost twice, they reached the terminal with only ten minutes to spare - the customs were really thorough these days, and Kagome had to put Tetsusaiga in her big luggage bag. She just hoped that Inuyasha wouldn't get mad at anything.

------------

"Oi, wench, what's this big metal thing?" Inuyasha asked, showing her his unbuckled belt. "It's weird-looking. What's it for, anyway?"

"It's your belt. You put the two pieces together like this," she said, buckling her own.

"Hai, but what's it for?" He asked, finally managing to fasten his seatbelt.

"In case the plane crashes or jolts, we want safety."

"...Oh." He had no idea what that meant, but apparently he was supposed to leave it on. But it hurt. Inuyasha growled inaudibly at it, and, receiving no response, loosened it as far as it would go. Hmph. That'd show it.

The flight attendants did their annoying little demonstration in Japanese and English, moving in exaggerated motions so that they looked like the models on TV. Inuyasha looked at Kagome questioningly, noticing that she understood the English version. "What're they saying?"

Kagome turned slowly to him. "Don't you know English?"

"English? What's that?"

Oh, no. Now that she thought about it, it wouldn't make sense for him to know English, but that didn't help. How was he going to learn? "It... it's like another set of words that mean the same thing but don't sound the same. Like... nani is 'what' in English."

"...Oh. Well, why'd someone talk like that, anyway? The old set is so much easier."

"Well, different people learn different sets of words. They're called languages. Don't youkai have a different language than humans?"

"Yeah. I guess it isn't different... but what's the point of learning English?"

Actually, he had a point, even though he didn't mean it that way. Maybe he could pose as an exchange student who came from a very secluded place in Japan and never learned English. And then, people wouldn't hear his questions and ask their own.

"Hmmm... maybe you don't have to. Hey! There's an American movie that I've wanted to see. It's called Texas Chainsaw Massacre (a/n: Nope, don't own this either. It's a real movie though - and REALLY scary/gross. Mostly gross). And it has Japanese subtitles. Wanna see it?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Hai, but... what're subtitles?"

-------------

When the movie finished, Kagome was weeping. "I can't believe all the main characters died. And the bad guy won. And it's a real, true story!"

Inuyasha looked alarmed. "But you were telling me the whole time that it wasn't real!"

"I know, but at the end, it said that it was based on a true story. And the police parts, with the bad picture, that was real."

Her traveling companion's eyes were wide. "Where is Texas?"

"In America."

"Isn't that where we're going?!"

"Not THAT part of America. Don't worry - he won't get us."

"Damn, that guy could probably use a blow from Tetsusaiga, too."

----------

When they got off the plane, Inuyasha was sick with hunger - those little plastic-tasting things they had served on the plane didn't look or taste like a meal, so he hadn't eaten it. Big mistake - the flight was about 20 hours, and they had yelled at him when .

So as soon as he spotted one of those stores that had things that looked very sugary and non-nutritious, Kagome advised him on what to get, and he got as much of it as he could - Juicyfruit gum, Peanut, Crunchy, and Regular M&Ms, Skittles, a Twix bar, Lifesavers, some pecans and two bottles of water to wash it all down. They went to the McDonalds, sat at a table, and ate some. It tasted like an angel had come down and blessed them with food from above. But since it was candy, it's true, isn't it?

Kagome wasn't very sure how they'd know how to get to the school itself, so they just stayed in the airport, occasionally walking around or reading magazines to the chagrin of the clerks.

There even was a mini-bookstore where Kagome bought Inuyasha a book in Japanese - it was called 'Learn English in Two Weeks or Less!'. She thought it might help him, and bought herself a book in English called The Princess Diaries (a/n: Kami, do I even have to say this? I don't own PD either!), which looked like it was full of slang, to brush up on her conversational English.

They were reading their respective books at yet another table when a short man came over to it. "Are you Miss Higurashi?" He asked.

"Well, who's asking?"

"I'm from the school you are going to now. It seems that you didn't get the message that we were supposed to have flown together - you got my ticket by accident. It's alright, we won't charge you for it, it's just that I have our ride." With that, he whipped out a cell phone and began dialing.

Inuyasha looked on with equal parts of confusion, apprehension, and amusement at the man's funny appearance - he was short and fat and his complexion made him look like he had never been outside in his life. He was wearing a tweed suit that looked to be about two sizes too small - the buttons looked about ready to pop right off if you poked him.

"Okay, the car has been waiting outside for a while, so we can just go outside. Do you have your baggage? Good. Now come on. ...Hey, who're you?" He asked Inuyasha when he got up to follow him, too.

"He's my... cousin. He doesn't speak any English, because he grew up in a very secluded part of Japan, and his parents died, so he was living with us. No one knew because he was only living with us for a few days before the accident..." She trailed off in tears, to make it seem more believable, then sniffed. "He has enough tuition to pay for it, and he can just go to the same classes as me - I take notes in Japanese anyway."

"All right... but you'll have to work with the teachers for tests for him..." the man said doubtfully. Then he brightened up. "Come on, chop chop! I don't think you've eaten very much in the last day or so, so I have food in the car. Let's go!"

And so they went just outside of JFK, where a silver Dodge Caravan waited. There was a TV and some anime DVDs. "I asked the students to borrow a few," he explained. "Oh, yes, I've never properly introduced myself. My name is David Ytskovskya. You can call me Mr. Y, since no one can properly pronounce my last name (a/n: I actually know a girl called Ana Ytskovskya. I can pronounce it, too! ...Just not spell it right :/). Oh yes, and there's a cooler between the two middle seats."

The movies were in English, so Inuyasha went back to reading his book and eating after a while. The pictures were pretty cool, but you could only get so much without the words.

------------

"All right! We're here! Welcome to Darrow (a/n: It's a real boarding school in New Lebanon, NY and it sounds cool! I don't know what it looks like, so I made it like my old private school. I LOVED that place - it's called the Master's School. :( I miss it so much...)!"

Kagome and Inuyasha both got out of the car (Inuyasha with some difficulty, as he sat in the far back and had to jump over the seat in front of him), to see their home for the next... well, undetermined while.

"Wow. It looks swank," Inuyasha commented.

'Swank' didn't really apply. It looked nice, but rather middle-class. There were several buildings made of dark, weathered wood, and there were stone pathways that crisscrossed across the grounds. Since it was New England, there was a constant green light and if you looked above, you wouldn't see any blue, but lime-green leaves that sunrays shot through. There might've been many more buildings, but the trees blocked them from sight.

"What did he say? Oh, never mind. This building," he said, pointing to the farthest one to the left, "is the Girls Dorm. And that one," pointing to the farthest building to the right, "is the Boys Dorm. The one in the middle, the large one with the high roof, is the Dining Hall. We go there for meals. Your classes will be in various other buildings. Emily! Emily Hemmings! Can you show these new students around? Thank you." And the man left, scurrying to another building. Kagome assumed that that was the office building.

"Hi. I'm Kagome and this is my cousin Inuyasha. We're from Japan." Best to keep it simple, unless her stories start contradicting each other. Man, she'd seen that dilemma occur not only in real life, but so many movies were made about that, it was scary.

"Oh, hi. I'm Emily. You can call me Em. Um... let me see your schedule." Kagome promptly handed the piece of paper that she had been given by Dav - uh, Mr. Y to her. "Oh good! You have almost every class with me, including the first and the last. Well, since there aren't many students here, I can set someone up to take you from one class to the next - but only people who have the same class with you."

Then they started walking somewhere and she started babbling about teachers and how strict/lenient they were, and which good teachers and bad teachers she had gotten. Kagome didn't really pay attention. But then Em leaned forward as if to impart a serious secret, and she listened for a little while.

"Oh! And here's a little piece of advice: don't go near Kati Shae. She's really violent - and you don't want to get on her bad side. The easiest way to do that is to just avoid her. But don't let her know you're avoiding her. 'Kay?"

Kagome nodded and went back to admiring the scenery as they passed it, and Inuyasha looked like his brain had gone on vacation at the moment.

"Okay! Here's your dorm, Kagome. I would show Inuyasha his, but girls aren't allowed in the Boys Dorm, and I don't want him just wandering around. The boys here are brutal. Technically, boys aren't allowed in the Girl's Dorm, either, but I think they'll make an exception this time. After all, it's not like we walk around in bras." Em's eyes went wide and she looked at Inuyasha apprehensively, who looked back at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Um... what're you looking at Inu for?" Oops, she'd called him Inu. Oh, he was going to kill her. Good thing the rosary was still on...

"Well... we... sometimes... ah..."

"You do walk around in your underwear?" Kagome laughed. "Don't worry, I'll keep him in my room while he's here. And he has no idea what you just said, because he only knows a few words of English. Am I sharing the room with anyone?"

"Um... me..." Clearly, she was still embarrassed. "Are you sure he didn't hear?"

"Even if he did understand, which would be amazing, since he only started learning English a few hours ago, he was raised in the sticks. I don't even think women wore bras where he grew up."

"Oh. Um... over here's your bed and there's the bureau, and the closet..."

------------

Inuyasha sat on one of the beds, his chin in his hand. Kami, this was boring. The other girl was showing Kagome around the room, and they had locked the door. And ever since the girl had been looking at him with something akin to fear (ah, he was feared even in the distant future, and far away), they had completely ignored him (or maybe he was just weird-looking. He'd told Kagome not to dye his hair...).

Kagome said something to the girl, and she left. "Come on, Inuyasha, help me unpack."

"Awww do I have to? Can't I just go outside and wait out there?"

"Um, the girls tend to walk around in their underwear because this is the Girls Dorm, and you're not supposed to be here at all. So... iie."

"Whatever. I'm just gonna be reading my book."

"Fine. You do that."

------------

Yay! Another chapter out of the way! And guess what? I have my whole outline here. There ain't much of a plot... I suppose... but it's some crap to read while you're bored!

Just so you know, I have to type this in secret from now on. My mom is furious at me for exceeding my two hour time limit. I mean seriously. What the heck? I only get an hour on the Internet and an hour to type a chapter. Hey. Even I'm not that gifted!

So if it ends up being weird, tell me. And preferably how to fix it, or a suggestion, or something. I'm not superhuman or anything.

------------

Recommendation:

"2004 Dorei Youkai Tokyo" by Midoriko-sama

This is a really great fanfiction - it isn't done yet, but it's l-o-n-g and good. And I'd suggest reading the intro by her, too, cause I was really confused when I just started reading it. I figured it out after a chapter or so, but it was only after I'd read the 20 chapters did I find there was an Intro. Kami, I have problems sometimes.

------------

Oh, and by the way, 'kami' means god or goddess, depending on the context. ;)

Ja ne!