A/N: Ok, I've got bad news, bad news, good news, good news, bad news, and more bad news. I will tell them to you in that order. Bad news: I twisted my ankle and it hurts. A lot. (Just wanted to complain.) Bad news: I'm having writers block right now so this chapter is extremely short. Good news: I'll be publishing the next chapter in Spirited soon. Hopefully... Good news: I made a promise to someone *Hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge* that the next chapter in Ages will be over 3000 words! Bad news: I don't know when that chapter will be published. More bad news: My original goal of finishing Ages by summer might not happen. Gomen Kari-kun... Now to make you all go insane. Chapter 25!

Chapter 25

Sakura's POV

The next day at school Ayame and I had our noses buried in our textbooks. Because of the crazy evening I had last night with Sesshomaru and my parents, we had both forgotten to study for the test that we had to take in five minutes. I hated last minute cramming, but once Sesshomaru had left my house I had gone right to bed. All of a sudden, I heard the door open and everyone turned to see who was coming into the classroom. First thing I noticed were the crutches, then a familiar stepped in.

"Masaru!" Ayame dropped her textbook. She jumped up, ran over to Masaru, and almost tackled him to the ground as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Hey Ayame!" Masaru said as he put one of his arms around her. Everyone clapped for them and some people welcomed Masaru back. Everyone in the school had heard about Masaru's house burning down and many of our classmates were secretly worried about him. All the attention Masaru had been receiving the past few days had given Ayame a chance to tell everyone what he really was like and she took every opportunity she could. Some of the people who had been shunning him or bullying him since he transferred began seeing him in a new light. Ichiro was the only one who wasn't happy or positively affected by all of it. He had become more short tempered than usual and lashed out at others quickly. Rumors had been spreading around the school that he might have been the one to actually start the fire, but no one asked him or tried to confirm it. After the applause died down, our teacher went up to talk to him.

"We're glad to have you back Masaru." The teacher said. Masaru smiled and tried his best to bow to her. "Since you have been gone a few days, you don't have to take the test today if you don't feel ready." For one selfish second, I wondered if I could skip the test too because I didn't feel prepared.

"Thank you mam." Masaru began. "But actually, Ayame has been keeping me updated while I was in the hospital. I think that I'll be able to take the test today with everyone else."

"Alright then." The teacher said. Ayame walked with Masaru over to their seats and the classroom buzzed with small talk.

"Hey there Sakura." Masaru smiled at me while he sat down in his seat and put his crutches to the side.

"Great to have you back Masaru!" I replied. "How's your grandma?"

"She's in better condition than I am." Masaru said. "She's going to find us a hotel that we can stay at for a while until we get a new home."

"That's good." Ayame added.

"Yeah…" Masaru trailed off and seemed to be lost in thought.

"Something wrong Masaru?" Ayame asked.

"Not really…" Masaru said. "Hey Sakura. This is kind of sudden, but do you think you could take me to see Sesshomaru today?" I jumped.

"Wh-what?" I was caught by surprise. I looked over at Ayame, who gave me an I don't know! stare. Masaru still didn't know about our clubhouse, or that Sesshomaru was living there.

"Sorry. It's just that…" Masaru glanced around, leaned in really close, and whispered so that no one else could hear him. "I think I know how Sesshomaru was brought to our time."

A/N: MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Like I said before, I don't know when I'll be publishing chapter 26, (which WILL be over 3000 words!) but for every review I get, I will try to speed up the process. If you want it in a week, I want at least ten reviews! (And it doesn't count if you log out and post reviews as a guest!) If anything, rant on about how you hate me for leaving it like this for who knows how long.