A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! Happy 4th of July, I hope you enjoy the longish chapter I have provided.
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Famous Last Words
Chapter 4: Friendly Competition
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Kikyou straightened up, holding the disgustingly dripping rag away from her as she dropped it in a large steel trash can and grabbed the mop beside it. She mopped up the mess that had been today's lunch and put the mop back in a sanitary bucket.
She heard a chuckle from behind her and she turned around with a glare. No one laughs at people on vomit patrol.
"Oh. Sorry," the man said. "It's never fun to get stuck with vomit patrol, I know," he said, running a hand through his brown hair. "I don't think we've met," he added hastily.
"I'm Kikyou," she said. "Kaede's granddaughter, I'm volunteering here," she explained.
"Ah, well, I'm the doctor on staff. My name's Suikotsu," he said, smiling at her.
"Kaede's talked about you before," she said. Though I have to say I thought he'd be older. He looks like he's barely 25.
"Has she?" he replied awkwardly.
She nodded and looked around. "Have you seen the little boy that made this mess?" she asked him.
"Oh yes, he came to me shortly after the mess was conceived and told me he had made it. After I made sure it was nothing contagious I came out here to make sure it had been cleaned up."
"Suikotsu!" a voice called from the door. "Is your shift almost over?"
Suikotsu looked up. "Not quite Jakotsu, a few more minutes."
Jakotsu? Kikyou thought, looking towards the door. Loitering outside were the unmistakable shapes of Jakotsu, Bankotsu and Renkotsu. So he knows them?
"Tell them they can come inside and sit in the lobby if they would prefer not to stand out there in the heat," she told him quietly.
"Kikyou!" someone said, coming out of another room. The door clicked behind her. "Do you need a ride home or anything?" Tsubaki asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, yes, thank you," she said.
She looked over at Suikotsu, offered him a small smile and a wave. "it was nice meeting you Mr. Suikotsu," she said, walking towards the door with Tsubaki.
He waved back, but she had already turned around, as the two girls walked out of the doors, his friends spilled in.
"Talking to girls, finally, Suikotsu?" Jakotsu inquired, smiling.
Suikotsu blushed. "What are you talking about?"
"You were talking to Kikyou!"
"That hardly matters."
"And why would my dear friend say something like that?" Jakotsu asked, looking around.
"Just because I talk to someone doesn't imply anything," Suikotsu said patiently. "Okay, let's get out of here."
"Have a good night Suikotsu," an elderly woman called from another room.
"Have a good night, Kaede," he replied as he walked out into the night.
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Renkotsu banged on the door. "Jakotsu?"
"What?!" Jakotsu shrieked through the door.
"Hurry up! If we're late because of you…"
"I've only been in here…" he paused. "What time is it?"
"8:20."
"I've only been in here half an hour!" he defended. "It's not like it takes that long for you to get ready! You don't have this horrible tangly mane of hair to deal with!"
"And I don't have to put on makeup, but that's beside the point."
"Renkotsu, you are the grumpiest bastard I've ever met," Jakotsu said as he stomped out of the bathroom, his hair falling out of its loop, he stopped in front of a large mirror on the opposite wall and tried to fix it.
Renkotsu slipped in the unoccupied bathroom that he (ever so reluctantly) shared with Jakotsu.
Ten minutes later the three of them had piled into Renkotsu's car and were heading towards school. Renkotsu decided a detour was in order, and pulled into a Starbucks drive through to get himself some coffee.
"You two want anything?" he asked Bankotsu and Jakotsu.
"Mou…can I have an Iced Caramel Macchiato?" Jakotsu asked, pulling a few bills out of his pocket.
"Bankotsu?"
"Can I have a cookie?"
"…Fine."
Renkotsu placed the order and once they were given their drinks, they were back on their way to school.
"And you complain about me making us late because I take time to work on my appearance," Jakotsu laughed, sipping his drink.
"We aren't late, we have a whole ten minutes before the bell rings," Bankotsu pointed out.
"You guys can walk from now on then," Renkotsu said, getting out of the car. "Then I'd have time to do as I please."
"We'll take the coffee," Jakotsu said dismissively. "Speaking of which, how much coffee do you drink in a day now? You should really cut back."
"Not that it's any of your concern what I drink…"
Jakotsu crossed his arms. "That's just mean."
In the distance, the bell sounded and the three of them headed towards the dull brick building. They broke off, heading to their separate classes.
Renkotsu walked into his classroom, hiding his coffee behind his back so his teacher wouldn't make him throw it away. He sat down in the back of the class, in the desk in the far corner against the wall.
"Renkotsu, you know how I feel about your annoying habit of turning a blind eye to my more minor rules. But as it is only the second day, I'll excuse you. Tomorrow, it will be detention," the woman said from her desk.
"Sure, Mrs. Taiyoukai," he said as the rest of the class seemed to flood in at the same time. He looked around and saw a white haired boy, followed by a blacked haired girl he was halfway sure was called Kagome come in right as the tardy bell rang.
The white haired boy was studying Mrs. Taiyoukai very oddly, like she seemed familiar.
"Put your papers on my desk," she told the class, not even bothering to look up. The class shuffled around and got up in small clusters, putting a few papers on the desk. Renkotsu did not get up, Mukotsu had already given her his papers.
She finally stood up when the last paper hit her desk. "So? Everyone's here I see," she said, studying the class. "Everyone knows the second day of school is when it really begins. Okay, canned greeting, Mrs. Taiyoukai, blah blah, Senior Level English, you got the memo right? So do you have your booklists? This is tricky, we study European literature Senior Level English and I will not be providing you with the books we will be reading, most of your parents should have a copy buried somewhere anyway," she told them carelessly. "If not, buy your own, this school is too cheap to provide the English department anything relatively useful."
Some people in the class laughed a little, but she stopped them with a cold stare.
Renkotsu looked at the members of his class. He knew a few of them, he had been going to the same high school with them since freshman year. The white haired kid in the front was new, Jakotsu had talked about him.
With a twinge of irritation, he looked to his left to see that the four girls that had made a scene about their lunch table the day before had basically surrounded him, taking all of the seats nearest him.
They better decide to move…he thought, staring down at his booklist, but not reading it.
The teacher was talking again, about whatever annoyingly thick novel they were going to be forced to read first.
"Look what Hiten got me, isn't it pretty?" Kaguya said smugly, pushing something sideways towards Tsubaki.
"It'd be more useful if you pawned it," Tsubaki replied brusquely.
"Why do you say that?" Kaguya asked resentfully.
"Because money is more useful than pretty little trinkets," Tsubaki hissed.
"Hey, girls in the back, stop talking," Mrs. Taiyoukai said from up front.
Tsubaki and Kaguya rolled their eyes and turned towards the front.
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"Our English teacher is my brother's mom," Inuyasha told Kagome miserably as they walked down the hall.
"You mean she's your mom?"
"No, she's my half brother's mom!" he said, rolling his eyes.
"Why is that bad?"
"She'll tell Sesshoumaru everything I do wrong. And Sesshoumaru will tell my mom…"
Kagome nodded. "Ah, well I have to get to class, see you in a bit, Inuyasha."
He grimaced and turned down a side hall that led to the gym. He slid in and saw Sango sitting on the bleachers alone, so he walked over to her. "Hey Sango."
"Oh, hello Inuyasha."
"Are you seriously the only girl in this class?" he asked her, looking around.
"There are a few others."
He nodded, looking around. He turned away as he saw Jakotsu enter the gym, he walked up to the gym teacher and looked at him imploringly. "Are you going to let me back in the guy's locker room this year?"
"If you promise to behave yourself, if I hear one thing about you scaring any of the other guys this year, you'll be in detention. So behave yourself, okay Jakotsu?"
Jakotsu sighed and nodded.
"You don't need to be making comments to those guys anyone," Bankotsu told him, looking angry.
"If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were jealous, Bankotsu," Jakotsu teased.
Bankotsu's retort was drowned out by a long whistle.
"Okay kids, go change," he yelled.
Sango slid off her space in the bleachers. "See you in a second Inuyasha," she said, trudging off towards the girls locker room.
Inuyasha walked into the guys locker room, determined to avoid Jakotsu's advances.
Unfortunately, in avoiding Jakotsu, he met Kouga.
"Hey doggy breath!" Kouga snapped, glaring at Inuyasha.
"What do you want Kouga?" Inuyasha spat back, pulling off his T-shirt in exchange for a ragged old gym shirt.
"Whatever we do today, I bet I'll pound you into the ground!"
"Keh! Don't get your hopes up wolfman!"
"Boys!" their teacher called. "I hope you aren't fighting," he said.
"No, sir," Kouga replied, smiling.
"Good."
Inuyasha finished changing in a hurry, rushing out of the room. There was no one else in the gym yet, he was the first one that had finished changing. A few minutes later, most of the guys had finished.
"Girls take way too long to change," Jakotsu muttered.
"Well…they've got more bits and pieces," Hiten replied, raising an eyebrow.
"I don't want to hear about anyone girl's bits and pieces, thanks, Hiten," Jakotsu replied. "Now, what about your bits and pieces?"
Hiten blanched.
"Jakotsu!" Bankotsu snapped, looking irritated. "Stop it."
Jakotsu smirked, feeling victorious. Finally all of the girls had stepped out of their locker room and were heading over to where the rest of the class and the teacher were waiting.
"We're outside on the field today," the teacher told them. "I'll divide you into teams, and we'll play a friendly game of football."
'Friendly' had not been the correct word to describe their football game.
Inuyasha had been placed on a team with Sango, Bankotsu, a pale boy that Hiten explained was his little brother, that bald guy whose name Inuyasha couldn't remember, Kouga's girlfriend, a tall girl with long gray hair and one of Kouga's friends with a Mohawk.
Inuyasha took the first play as a wonderful chance to tackle Kouga, who had caught the football, straight into the dirt.
"I said this was tag football!" the teacher called, sounding exasperated.
"Keh! Tag is for girls!" Inuyasha cried back.
He had a harder time throughout the game catching Kouga, he was very fast. Jakotsu took no time to sneak up behind Inuyasha when Inuyasha had caught the football. "You can tackle me if you'd like," he said in his ear.
In his panic, Inuyasha threw the football down and ran away.
"Don't be such a sissy, dog breath!" Kouga taunted.
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