Disclaimer: I do not own this story.

Major Crush

Chapter 12

Sesshomaru was out of school Monday and Tuesday. The Evil Twins were out too. I was very thankful I didn't have to deal with them without Sesshomaru there to run interference for me. And I was glad they'd missed their hot date at the Rent 2 Own.

But I was jealous of their germs. I wondered what Sesshomaru had done with the twins to give them strep, and when. Then I remembered that it had been going around school for weeks. And when Miroku came down with it on Wednesday, I felt much better.

Except that Sesshomaru was still acting like the whole band thing hadn't happened. He was nice to me like he was supposed to be. He even flirted with me a little during practice, and seemed hurt when I didn't flirt back.

I lived for him to flirt with me, and I wanted to badly to flirt back. I lived for him to touch me there and there when we practiced the dip.

But I felt used. He still hadn't broken up with the twins. What did he think I was, some trashy hand-slut? I felt like he'd taken advantage of me for a good time and then dumped me. But he hadn't taken advantage of me. He'd hardly done anything. And I couldn't decide whether that made it better or worse. Which made me even madder.

Everyone was back at school on Friday, in time for homecoming. Sure enough, Sango was a candidate for Miss Homecoming/Miss Victory. So was Yura.

I couldn't believe it. People hated the twins. Or maybe they just hated Kagura. But I asked around, I found out that one or both of them had a one-woman or two-woman public relations campaign of their own. They got some credit because they dated Sesshomaru, who was high profile. Plus, lots of boys apparently thought the mean attitude was a turn-on.

The announcement came at the end of my English class, just before lunch on Friday. Sango got the most votes. She was Miss Homecoming. Yura was next. She was Miss Victory.

At the bell I rushed out of the room and down to the lunchroom, where I always met Sango. She waved and grinned at me from way down the hall. Then, as I watched, one of the twins stopped her, said something to her, and flounced away.

Sango didn't react. She started walking again as if nothing had happened. And then, when I reached her, I saw that her eyes were hard.

"What did she say to you?" I breathed.

Sango shook her head. "I hate this town, I hate this town, I hate this town."

"Oh, God, Sango. What did she say to you?"

Sango licked her perfect lipstick. She said woodenly, " 'Yura isn't going to be Miss Victory. A white girl doesn't have to take an Asian's leavings.'"

I went cold in the crowded, muggy hallway. All I could think of to say was, "Ick!" Then, "She's Miss Icktory."

Sango didn't laugh. She still looked stunned.

I pushed her into the lunchroom and through the line. I even loaded her salad plate for her, avoiding the beets. At one of the tables Sesshomaru laughed with Miroku, Koga, and the other trombones. I shoved Sango along in front of me and sat her down there.

This was partly chance. There happened to be a couple of empty seats at the end of their table, probably because everyone was afraid of the trombones poking fun at them. But I also wanted Sesshomaru to know what his twins had done. I told the whole table what had happened.

"She said that?" Sesshomaru asked incredulously.

Miroku reached across the table and whacked Sesshomaru on the arm. "You're dating a racist."

"You don't know that." Sesshomaru turned to Sango. "Which one of the twins said it?"

She shrugged.

"Why does it matter which one said it?" I asked him. "What will that tell you? You don't even know which one you're dating."

"I do know which one I'm dating," he said triumphantly. "I figured that out this morning in homeroom. I know I'm dating the one who isn't on the homecoming court. I'm dating Kagura."

The trombones clapped for him.

He turned to Sango again. "What exactly did she say?"

I had been worried about Sango, but now I felt better. She came back to life and got angry. Her voice louder with every word she repeated, "Yura isn't going to be Miss Victory. A white girl doesn't have to take an Asian's Leavings!"

"Abjure," I said under my breathe to Sesshomaru.

He didn't look at me, but I knew form the way his jaw tightened that he'd heard me.

"If she said Yura, then she must have been Kagura," Miroku pointed out. "Sesshomaru, you have to break up with…" His voice trailed off.

My heart beat faster at the thought that Sesshomaru was going to break up with her. He was finally going to break up with her! He was as good as mine!

Then I saw that Sesshomaru had borrowed Mr. Yasha's brain-melting stare and was giving it to Miroku.

"It wasn't necessarily Kagura," Koga joined in hopefully. "It might have been Yura. She could have referred to herself in the third person like small children do. Like Elmo on Sesame Street."

"Right. Let's think about this scientifically," said Miroku. He instructed Koga to get out his notebook and draw a grid. Then he asked Sango, "What was she wearing?"

Sango closed her eyes. "Jeans and one of those new school spirit T-shirts."

"They both are," Sesshomaru muttered. The furious look in his eyes had faded. But he was avoiding everyones's gaze, examining the water-stained ceiling.

"How about something else that distinguishes them from each other?" Miroku prompted Sango. "Earrings, or shoes?"

"I didn't notice," Sango said, putting her hand to her forehead. "I was kind of pre-occupied with this girl questioning my right to breather her air."

Miroku moved closer to her. "This is important. We may be able to track her if we can figure out that, say, Yura carries a pink bag and Kagura carries a red one."

"They both wear bad blue eyeliner," I offered, "but I think it's Kagura who sometimes experiments with green." I was making this up.

"That's good," Miroku said, pointing at me. "Koga, write that down. Sango, did her eyeliner jump out at you?"

I asked, "How could it not?"

"Now you're being captious," Sesshomaru said to me.

"Don't you dare excoriate me," I said. "You're the one with the nefarious girlfriend."

The other trombones at the end of the table talked low together, looking up often at Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru's eyes focused on me like he wanted to say something else to me. Then his glance slid off me to Bankotsu. "What, Bankotsu? Bring it on."

"You're the leader of the band, Sesshomaru," Bankotsu said. "Not just the half of the band that have other nationalities."

"Don't tell me what to do," Sesshomaru said.

"Sesshomaru, you have to break up with her," said Miroku. "Serious."

"Back off," Sesshomaru told Miroku. He turned to me. "You're loving this, aren't you?"

"No. I'm not loving what she did to Sango. Where is your girlfriend anyway? Why don't you go comfort her in this time of great sorrow for her and/or her sister?"

"Good idea." He got up, towering over the table, and walked across the lunchroom. He stopped at the table where both twins in their matching school spirit T-shirts sat with some of their friends.

Aww, man! I hadn't expected him to take my suggestion. But I should have known he'd want to discuss the situation with the twins like responsible adults.

I turned to Sango to see if she was feeling better. But she was watching Sesshomaru. So as he bent to talk to the twins with his arms crossed on his chest.

"When he comes back," Miroku said quietly, "I'd advise you ladies to cool it a little. We know Sesshomaru isn't a racist. He'll do the right thing. He just doesn't want to break up with her on hearsay. But he's under a lot of pressure right now. If you push him too hard, he's liable to snap." He snapped his fingers.

I insisted, "I am not going to tiptoe around Sesshomaru Taisho just because he wants to hang on to long hair, big boobs, and her sister."

Sesshomaru walked back toward us, arms crossed, and didn't uncross them until he pulled out his chair and sat down. He hardly glanced at me as he announced to the table in general, "She said she would never make a comment like that."

"Which one?" I asked.

Koga and Bankotsu and the other trombones snorted with laughter. Miroku gave them a warning look.

Sesshomaru glared at me. "Both of them."

"Well, one of them is lying," I said. "Or Sango is lying. Who do you believe?"

He looked over at the twins' table, where the twins and all their friends were watchingour table. Then he turned to Sango, as if he were really pondering the question: Sango versus Evil Twins. "Everyone is attacking me when I did do anything," he said, again to the table instead of me. "It's not fair."

"How do you think Sango feels?" I asked.

Sango raised her carefully shaped eyebrows at him.

He reached across the table, covered her hand with his hand, and squeezed. "I know," he said. "But you're acting like I did something awful, when I didn't. I'm sorry but I wouldn't do something like that, and neither would Yura."

"You're dating Kagura!" called the table.

His jaw was set. "I said back off."

Miroku sat up straight and clapped his hands. "Sesshomaru says back off. I trust him to investigate and to do the right thing."

"You didn't' trust him a few minutes ago when you had Koga charting the twins' wardrobes," I said. "You're going to let Sesshomaru get away with this just because you're afraid he's going to blow?"

"Back. Off," Sesshomaru told me.

"Me! Why don't you tell the twin to back off Sango? What do you see in the racist, anyway? Why don't you break up with her?"

"Kagome," Sango said in warning.

"Sesshomaru shouted at me, "Don't tell me what to do!"

"Sesshomaru," said Miroku, looking over our shoulders.

It occurred to me that Miroku and Sango might see a twin behind us. But I didn't care anymore. I screamed at Sesshomaru, "You're not supposed to yell at girls!"

I felt someone close at my shoulder. I whirled around to tell Yura/Kagura exactly what I thought of her/them.

It was Mr. Yasha.

I braced for him to let us have it. But he glanced over to Ms. Rin at the teacher table. Then he said quietly, "I thought we agreed you kids would play nice."

Sesshomaru shouted at Mr. Yasha, "Take a number!"

I slapped a hand over Sesshomaru's mouth.

The lunchroom had fallen so silent that I cold hear air hissing in the ceiling duct-work and pots clanking way back in the kitchen. Sesshomaru's chest rose and fell quickly under my arm, and I could feel his heart thumping.

Mr. Yasha spoke slowly through his teeth. "I am busy with my colleagues. Go wait for mw outside my office. I'll be down there when I wrap this up. And while you're walking, enjoy your last five minutes as drum majors."