CHAPTER EIGHT: Dinner Date… Sort Of

In her hurry, Kagome bumped into someone and found herself being tugged backwards by the arm.

"Oh! Kagome! There you are," Hojo said.

"Uh… hi, Hojo," she muttered. "I'm kind of in a hurry—"

"Oh, this won't take but a minute. Would you like to go to the movies or something with me tomorrow? There's a really good one playing, and—"

"I'm sorry, Hojo, but I have to babysit all day Saturday, and I really have to get going…" She had spotted Inuyasha who, from across the band room, was giving her dirty looks.

"Sunday then?" Hojo asked, ever persistent and blocking her way.

"Umm… I'll have to think about it," Kagome said, darting to his left and racing towards the band room door.

"Let me know, ok?" Hojo called.

--

"That guy's a few candlesticks short of a candelabra, if you know what I mean," Inuyasha muttered as they got into the car.

"You're so mean!" Kagome exclaimed. "That, or blunt. Or both."

"And you're one to talk!"

"Only to you," Kagome said in a fake sweet voice, angering him. She buckled her seatbelt. "Now buckle up, Inuyasha."

"Aw, shut up already." Inuyasha put his key into the ignition and turned the car on. It sputtered some, then died. "Come on, dammit!" he yelled, hitting his palm against the steering wheel. He tried again, and this time the car died before turning over. "WORK!" he yelled at the car, and tried the key again. It didn't even make a noise this time, just sat dead silent. Inuyasha slammed his fist onto the horn, making it blare loudly for a split second. "Fucking car!"

"Calm down," Kagome said quietly. "Be patient. It's just hot."

Inuyasha stared daggers at her for a while, then gritted his teeth and slowly turned the key in the ignition again. The car started without fault.

"You see? If you'll just be patient—"

It died.

"HAH!" Inuyasha yelled into her face.

Kagome sighed. "Well, so much for driving."

"Sessho-maru said it was acting up…" Inuyasha muttered to himself. "So why didn't the bastard get it fixed?"

Kagome just sighed. "I'll walk then."

"Well, I'm coming; I have to fuckin' eat supper too," Inuyasha snapped before Kagome protested.

"Fine then," she replied coolly.

--

"Look out, you idiot!" Inuyasha yelled, grabbing Kagome's arm. A motorcycle that had been driving dangerously close to the curb whizzed by.

"…Thanks," she muttered, though it was difficult to tell if she was being serious or sarcastic.

"I thought this Wendy's was supposed to be nearby. I'm still not seein' it," Inuyasha said after some time.

"It is. It just seems really far when you walk instead of driving," Kagome replied. They turned a corner and could see the sign. "See? What did I tell you?"

"That it seems really far when you walk," Inuyasha replied.

"Hey! That's not what you're supposed to say—you're supposed to prove my point!" Kagome whined jokingly.

Inuyasha shrugged. "You're not always going to be right."

"I know," Kagome said, studying him and trying to discern what had brought this comment on. "And neither are you."

"So… are we gonna eat inside or go back to the band room?" Inuyasha asked.

"Well, food isn't allowed in the band room," Kagome said thoughtfully. "And while there's nothing wrong with eating outside, it is really hot. And if we take it back to the band room, all our friends and people we barely know will suddenly become our best friends in the hopes that they can have some food."

"In other words, we're eating in," Inuyasha said boredly.

"It's air conditioned," Kagome replied with a shrug.

--

When Kagome sat down to eat her food, she selected a two-person table. But not one that was too off by itself, since she didn't want anyone to think they were together. Well, they were together, but not together together. Not going out together.

Inuyasha came out of the line with his tray of food, looked around the restaurant after pausing to get ketchup, and sat down at a table by himself on the other side of the restaurant.

Kagome sighed angrily, collected all her things, and approached him. "Why are you sitting way over here? I saw you notice me—"

"Is it a crime to eat alone?" Inuyasha snapped.

"No, but we came here together and, quite frankly, I don't want to walk back through that part of town alone!"

"What does that have to do with us eating together?"

"Well, I don't want you to leave me!"

"I didn't say I would! I'd wait for you!"

"Well, I'm sitting here and you aren't allowed to get up and move," Kagome said with finality and sat down.

Inuyasha got up and headed for the table Kagome had been sitting at, calling, "Oh really?"

Kagome got up to follow, but she saw him sit down with a smug, annoying look that for some strange reason almost reduced her to tears. The look said, Ha, I got away from you. I don't want you around. Leave me alone, bitch.

And I'll bet that's exactly what he's thinking, too, she thought angrily to herself, sitting back down and leaving him alone.

"Aw, Kagome, I'm just messin' with you," Inuyasha said, sitting down again. Kagome refused to look at him for the rest of the meal, which took some effort.

"Knock it off already," Inuyasha said after a while.

Kagome didn't look up, just stared down, unblinking, at her straw.

"I said stop!"

Kagome looked out the window at the traffic. She saw a few band members leaving the drive through line and looked away.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm in a bad mood today—you already knew that. I'm in a bad mood always—you knew that, too. So please cut it out!"

"Well, since you ask so nicely…" Kagome said under her breath. Finally she looked up at him with a sigh. "I guess I'm sorry too," she muttered.

"Let's go back to the band room," Inuyasha suggested.

"Yeah."

--

"We have an away game next week, right?" Inuyasha asked.

"Yeah," Kagome replied. "It's a long trip, too—we're playing Concordia—so we'll leave early."

"How early? How do those things usually work?" Inuyasha asked. He explained, "My old school didn't have enough money to send the band to away games."

Kagome tripped over an ant bed, then paused to brush any ants off of her shoes. When she had caught up to Inuyasha she said, "Oh. I always forget that this is your first year here. Well, next Friday we'll probably get out of school at about 1:00, and someone's English teacher will be mad and an Algebra teacher will threaten to not let band members make the test up. Another teacher will assign lots of homework, and usually one or two people will be late or forget or vanish and we'll leave late because the directors were trying to hunt them down. A bus won't show up until the last minute. Usually," she said with a chuckle, "we're scheduled to leave at 1:15 and aren't on the road until 2:00. We're notorious for leaving late—you could almost call it a tradition.

"We'll get to Concordia at around 4:30 and spend until 5:30 in a mall eating dinner. A bunch of guys—usually trumpets—will buy really strange things or cheap toys or giant pairs of sunglasses. We'll have to be on the bus in uniform by 5:30, which won't happen because a chaperone or a group of kids is always late and they just stand around waiting instead of sending someone after them.

"We'll get to the game, have a short inspection, and either march in or trudge in, depending on how hot it is and how big the stadium is and how accessible our seats are, and messily arrange ourselves. We'll march halftime and might get the third quarter off if we're winning, but I bet we won't. Then we'll be threatened in many ways if we don't load the larger instruments and drums onto the trailer, but most people will ignore the threat and some freshmen, some dads, or some girls will end up having to do it. Everyone'll change out of uniforms and fall asleep on the way home, and chaperones will regularly police the aisles of the buses with flashlights, looking for PDA, until they get too tired and fall asleep, too.

"When we get home they'll expect some unfortunate souls whose mothers are late picking them up to unload no matter what hour of the night it is, and everyone has to return their uniform. If you're lucky you go home, plop into bed, and fall asleep." Kagome thought a moment and added, "Oh, wait, Sessho-maru will have to stay, won't he? I'm sorry. You'll probably be stuck unloading with him."

"Sounds like everything has a regular rhythm in this band," Inuyasha commented with a sigh.

"Like us," Kagome joked.

"Us?"

"Y'know… the drumline? It was a joke. Of course we have a regular rhythm because, y'know, we're the drumline. –Okay, so it was a bad joke, but…"

"Yeah, the drumline, right…"

"Well, what did you think I was referring to?" Kagome asked, giving him a critical look. Inuyasha could not meet her eyes. "Hmmm."

They walked in silence for a while until Kagome mused aloud, "Oh, yeah. Did you want me to braid your hair tonight?"

"Braid it? No way!" Inuyasha snapped.

"But it'll fit into your hat more easily—"

"I refuse to wear my hair… braided just for that damn torture device," Inuyasha said with distaste.

Kagome laughed. "It'll be easier, though, and less stressful. And as soon as halftime is over you can take it down. If you want to be in trouble with the directors, though, I guess you can just hope someone else'll help you somehow—"

"Okay, okay! Braid my damn hair! Whatever!" Inuyasha snapped.

"It'll take a while," Kagome warned him, "so I'll have to start right when we get back to the band room and after we're in uniform."

"In uniform?! We have half an hour until inspection!"

"Maybe so, but you have a lot of hair…"

Inuyasha sighed really really loudly so that it was almost a scream. "OKAY! FINE! HAVE YOUR DAMN WAY THEN!"

Kagome sighed, too, though a bit more daintily. "Please stop swearing," she said quietly. Inuyasha didn't reply, but they left the topic alone.

"What the…?" Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

Kagome looked up. "Hm?" She did notice, however, that Inuyasha's exclamation had not included the usual h-word he used and wondered if it had been an accident or he really was making an effort.

A car drove up. It was the Okomes' car. And inside was Sessho-maru. "Inuyasha," he said, rolling the window down.

"How'd you get the stupid car to run?" Inuyasha asked incredulously.

Sessho-maru shrugged. "It took a while," he muttered. "Anyway. I just got a call from the daycare. Rin has a 104 fever and can't stop coughing. I have to go home and take care of her. Can you get a ride home?"

"Yeah. I'll figure something out," Inuyasha replied, his look softened. "Tell Rin I hope she's well soon."

"'Kay. Seeya," Sessho-maru called, rolling the window up and driving off.

Kagome smiled a little at Inuyasha.

"What?!" he demanded.

"Nothing," Kagome said, shaking her head.