It turned out that in this house, everyone at extreme diet food, so the only real meals I could eat would be the food served at school. They ate only super low-calorie (American, yuck!) meals, which I was not accustomed to. Things like plain oatmeal, raw fruits and vegetables, wheat sandwiches filled with chopped vegetables, wheat crackers that tasted like bark, raw lettuce and tomato with a vinegar-blend dressing, and plain chicken with fat-free cheese. They drank water and fat-free milk, and that was it. They kept traditional, expensive Japanese foods for when people came over or when Kikyo had men visit her, but I wasn't allowed to eat it.
Kikyo and I were the same slim, but curvy size, though I was accustomed to eating three good sized, traditional Japanese meals a day. I could tell that I was already losing weight in three days between the exercise from cleaning, walking to school, and eating tiny meals of the awful, tasteless foods.
I was sorely tempted to steal an instant noodle package that evening after I got my homework done, but I knew that they would notice it gone. Aunt Ami was obsessed with not spending money that wouldn't make them look rich, and keeping me at a healthy 115 pounds wasn't going to do the trick.
I had eaten a salad and a couple nasty bark crackers earlier with Aunt Ami, but I was still hungry. It was as if their starvation methods were catching up to me already… nine months and twenty-five days left.
I sat in my room looking over an English verb chart while I could hear my stomach grumbling… Kikyo hadn't asked for her change back from the condoms… I had vowed not to spend any of the two-hundred dollars that I had stashed in my room before mother's death, but now I had a bit of extra money.
I went downstairs and told my aunt that we were almost out of dish sponges (which was true) so she gave me less money than I would need and sent me to the corner store.
………..
I actually had enough extra money for a plastic carton of hot, plain noodles (with the flavor it was more expensive) and a pack of three cheap sponges, as long as my Aunt Ami didn't look at the brand of them.
I ate the noodles on the way home, and put the trash in a neighbor's recycling bin before making it home. It was dark, but I had to walk slow enough to eat before reaching the house.
………..
The next day when I was walking to school, Inuyasha had his driver follow me to school again. I ignored them the best that I could, but as usual he jumped out of the car and assaulted me.
"Kagome, come 'ere!"
I turned around and walked back a few paces to where they were standing. Sesshomaru looked pissed, but Inuyasha seemed extremely happy.
"My mother told me that Sesshomaru has been kicked off of his high horse! Hah!"
He put his hand up for a high-five, which I did weakly while Sesshomaru was glaring at his brother. "Good job, keep it up."
Inuyasha jogged to catch up with one of his friends, and I was left standing awkwardly before Sesshomaru.
"Shall we?" His expression had turned somewhat pleasant again, for someone who was so stoic.
I said, "Sure, lets go."
We walked in silence into our classroom, though the teacher wasn't inside and we still had a good ten minutes before class started.
We both put our things down by our seats, and I sat down at mine. I started to pull out the materials that I would need, but Sesshomaru got up and sat in the desk in front of me.
He turned to be facing me, and said, "Kikyo and her mother aren't treating you correctly, are they?"
I knew that Inuyasha would say something… "No, they are not. It doesn't help that everyone knows, you know?"
"I would do anything to help you, Kagome. Just say what."
I brushed away a few tears, and said, "You barely even know me, why would you do that? Besides, I 'kicked you off of your high horse.'"
He sat for a few moments, thinking. "I know that you are a really good person in a horrible situation. I would like to help, if you will allow me."
"I don't know of anything that can be done. I can't get into foster care because I am too old, and I can't touch any of my mother's money for ten months. My brother is being well taken care of, thankfully. One of my best friend's parents wanted to adopt me, but the law is very restrictive. My mother's will, which she wrote when all of my grandparents were alive, says that we will go to live with family in the event that something happens to her."
"I see… What if you got a lawyer, and went to court?"
"It wouldn't work fast enough that way. A social worker would be sent in, and it would be months, even a year in some cases, until it would be arranged for me to be sent to live with someone of my choice. Besides, Aunt Ami would just pay off the judge anyways."
He sat in thought for a few more minutes, and said, "I will figure something out for you, my father's-"
Our teacher walked in at that moment, and he couldn't keep talking. "Thanks for the help, Sesshomaru. I appreciate it. I don't know how I would have found my way around if you hadn't helped me."
He got up, walked to his chair, and sat down. "You are welcome."
He pulled out his things too, and we began the lesson as our fellow students began filing in.
…
I found a girl at lunch that I had known from Kindergarten, just before she started going to school here. She was quiet, and didn't eat anything. I almost told her that washing her face with salicylic acid would tremendously help her face, but I could hear my mother's wise words ringing in my head. I kept a conversation flowing, until she asked about my mother's death.
I told her the basic details, and she simply nodded. We didn't talk after that.
…
I didn't get the chance to talk to Sesshomaru much in class, because we had so much work to do. I liked the system that they had going here, it was much better from my previous school. The teacher would teach a thirty to forty minute lesson, then give us the rest of the time to work on our class work, and whatever we did not finish became homework. I made sure that I got all of the class work finished in each class, so that all I would have to do is look over my notes and study in the evenings.
I made sure to finish all of Aunt Ami's chores in the mornings, and then do Kikyo's bidding in the evenings. It seemed that she took extremely easy classes that gave out little homework, so I didn't have much to do for her in terms of schoolwork.
I kept her room to perfection, which proved to be easy. She made the same messes every day, and it became routine to keep it up.
……
After my fourth day of school, I went with Souta to our Aunt Higurashi's house to help him with some homework he didn't quite understand. We did his homework in less than twenty minutes, and I think that he simply wanted to spend some time with me.
We sat down and talked over snacks that our aunt provided, and I chatted with her some. She had been going through my mother's old things, and was having the house appraised. I was surprised at the amount, and especially surprised that Souta and I were each going to receive 45% percent of the selling price.
"It was in her will for you kids, and I don't need the money. I make enough from my retirement through the school I worked at, and social security."
"So… Aunt Ami will never get any of my mother's money?" I was delighted at this fact, I could have practically screamed in joy.
"None that I am aware of, unless you give it to her of course. Souta's either. The rest ten percent goes to the upkeep of the housing bills for the next week and of course the realtor's charge of 5% of the sale of the house. Your mother had just paid off your house, so there won't be any mortgage payments to pay off. Your insurance paid for all of her's and your medical bills, so you will be 100% debt free."
"And does this money go away until I complete college?"
"That was not specified in the will, so no. You will receive this money as soon as you turn eighteen. I advise you to stay living with your Aunt Ami until you get a stable job, Kagome. You would be surprised how quickly money vanishes when you are not careful."
I nodded, and said, "Thank you, and I agree with you Aunt Higurashi. You are always so generous with your wisdom, and always willing to help us in our times of need."
Souta and I bowed to the floor in front of her, and she said, "You are most welcome. You better run along back to Ami's house."
"I will," I hugged her and kissed her on the cheek, and then I left.
I walked briskly back to our home, and went straight to Kikyo's room. I was only about an hour late from school, and I had Aunt Ami's permission.
I found a short note from Kikyo:
clean up everything like always
bleach bathroom and vanity
re-organize clothes drawers
throw away shoe boxes in closet
wash sheets with bleach and softener
I had found something interesting while living here; Kikyo wet the bed. Or maybe Inuyasha and Kikyo were back together and he wet the bed… But I was pretty sure that he wasn't putting up an act at school, and she was the bed wetter. I had had problems with off and on until my freshman year of high school, but I could have never imagined that the perfect girl who was Kikyo actually had such a vulnerable flaw. What did she do when men came to her bed? Stay up all night? Maybe that was why she was always so cranky.
I proceeded to start on the list, which wound up taking longer than I imagined. I had a Chemistry test the next day alongside a Literature quiz, but I knew that I would make hundreds on both as long as I studied tonight.
When I was doing the bathroom, I stepped on the scale. I had already lost three pounds in one week. I was depressed from my mother's death and also from being with Aunt Ami and Kikyo, which was probably another factor.
I finished just as Aunt Ami was calling for dinner, which was going to be plain white chicken and cheese. My aunt came into the kitchen drenched in sweat; she was trying to be as thin and young as Kikyo, but it was not physically possible for someone her age (and who has birthed a baby) to be my and Kikyo's size.
Kikyo made another remark to her mother about Ami's dwindling size, and she was obviously motivated and pleased again.
"I hope that you keep going with this, Mother. You are really starting to look good."
"You think so?"
It reminded me of one of my old classmates; she was gorgeous, had an addictive personality, but was very manipulative. She befriended people who she knew admired her, and would do anything to keep her happy. When the admiration started to wear off, she dumped them and found a new person to manipulate. She would go from person to person, but made sure that after every dumping that all of her peers were on her side, and not the dumped person's.
Kikyo did this with her mother, but she couldn't actually 'dump' Ami, so Kikyo did her best to keep her mother going with the charade.
We finished dinner with the two of them chatting idly about Inuyasha (Aunt Ami didn't know that they had broken up), and I left to go and study.
I was hungry afterwards, but I was somewhat getting used to these foods. They were tasteless, but my heart burn (which runs on the Higurashi side of the family) had gone away completely.
I stayed up until 10:30 studying for my classes, and then went to bed. I then realized ironically that I had the best grades that I had ever had in my life (all perfect scores in every subject) right now, though I now had more priorities that came first.
I looked out the window of my shabby little room, and looked at the stars for a bit before sleeping. I had found that this helped me, it made me think of my mom.
…………
