Humans really were adaptable. It had been, what, two—three days since Kurama fell out of a poster on top of her? And Shawna felt . . . well, not great exactly, but not too much worse than usual. She'd been questioning her sanity quite a bit more than usual lately, but she was pretty sure that was normal.

And now that she thought about it, she should question her sanity again.

Am I insane?

It was hot that day.

Shawna had her black jacket around her waist when walking to school. Her bag had only one strap that was rested on her right shoulder, and the bag itself was on her left hip. Kurama wondered how that was comfortable.

"You know," Shawna said finally, getting uncomfortable with the silence. ". . ." Then she couldn't think of anything to say.

"Yes?" Kurama prompted.

"Never mind," murmured Shawna as she crossed the street, making sure there was no traffic as she wasn't at an intersection.

Kurama figured that she was probably sulking because he'd made her get up earlier than she was used to, thus she'd had time to kill. That meant she'd actually finished her homework at home, and not during the time between classes. This seemed new to her.

They entered the school and were greeted by a, "Hey Shawna!"

Shawna turned to look. "Hey, Rachel. Hey Hannah."

Rachel and Hannah walked quickly over, a smile on their faces. "Has JoAnn e-mailed you yet?" Rachel asked.

"About what?"

"We're having a slumber party at her house!" Rachel crowed, going over to a water fountain and splashing water up onto her face and neck, using the T-shirt she wasn't wearing yet to wipe off her face.

"No, I didn't go on the computer this morning."

"Why not?"

"Finishing homework."

Hannah looked at her, wide-eyed. "Are you done?" Shawna nodded. "Maybe I should do that." Rachel wandered off then while pulling on her T-shirt. She was probably hot from the bike ride. Hannah waved good-bye and left too after explaining that she, herself, wasn't invited to the party as she didn't really know JoAnn all that well.

A few hours later, at lunch, JoAnn asked her about the e-mail.

"I didn't go on the computer this morning."

"I sent it last night."

"Then I didn't get it."

Kurama was looking at the food with what might be considered vague longing to an outsider. He wanted to eat something.

"Oh. Well, it's on Friday. D'ya want to go?"

Shawna glanced at Kurama. Her friends thought she was just thinking if she had anything to do, when in reality an extremely good-looking, red-haired, Japanese man looked at her, raised his eyebrows, and said, "There shouldn't be a problem."

"Sure." Then she shrugged to show that it was no big deal.

"Just don't speak to me the whole night."

Shawna rolled her eyes. She didn't think that would be a problem, as she was still mad at him for not helping her on a test when he'd known all the answers. If he hadn't, he'd certainly seemed like he had. He kept giving her this smile when she put down answers she wasn't sure about or knew was wrong. It wasn't a mean smile, per-say, or particularly smug. She just hadn't liked it. I'm not listening. I'm not listening. Blah-dy-blah-dy—

"What's with the eye-roll?"

"What?" Shawna looked in surprise at JoAnn, who looked confused. She might have been feeling some hurt, too, but JoAnn never really showed those types of emotions. Shawna had honestly forgot her friends were there. "Oh, I was just thinking of something."

"What?"

Shawna opened her mouth, paused, and looked at Rachel, who was watching her. She'd been about to say the Kurama poster, since that was the first thing she'd thought of and it was half-true, anyways. But then Rachel would be hurt. Was it worth it. . . ?

She looked at Rachel again, and decided No. Not really.

"How my mom and dad are still keeping up their charade."

Shawna's friends nodded in understanding and murmured sympathetically, continuing to eat whatever was on their "plates." Kurama moved slightly to the left. He wasn't into the habit of shifting unnecessarily, but he wanted to see what the girl in front of him was concentrating on so fiercely.

Shawna noticed Robin jump, twitching her right arm slightly away from where Kurama was standing. "What is it?"

Robin shivered. "Someone just walked over my grave!"

Shawna stared for a moment in a kind-of fuzzy surprise before glaring at Kurama.

Kurama sighed and moved away from Robin, floating towards Shawna again. Shawna thought Kurama had done something, and he could see it in her eyes.

He wondered what she'd try to do to him before glancing down at Robin again to find her putting away her book, frowning.

When they got home, Shawna yelled at him and called him many things, some of them needing to be explained, which Shawna did with great joy.

Kurama had looked at her after her tirade. She was breathing heavily and grinning maliciously.

He used one word to describe her, and didn't bother to translate.

"Sharakusai."

Cheeky.

He ignored her ranting as she stuffed stir-fry into her mouth for her snack/lupper.

Lupper: lunch and supper

AN: It's 1:30 in the morning. I'm a little blurry, so this chapter may be crack-tastic.