Disclaimer: Inu-Yasha isn't mine. If he were, you would be jealous, and you would bow before me and beg for ownership of such a creature, and every night you would pray to whatever lord you worship that I might be slaughtered in some freak accident, and magically, I would leave Inu-Yasha to you in my will, but that won't happen. Should I die, I will make like an Egyptian and have Inu-Yasha buried with me. Yes, Inu-Yasha is lucky he isn't mine.



Past and Present Intertwine



Chapter Five- A Glimpse of White



"This is getting old.." Kagome sighed inwardly as the next teacher introduced her to the entire class that kept staring. She was tugging at her skirt as if by doing this, people would become disinterested and look away. "I hate being the center of attention, and I hate people staring at me. Why won't the teacher just tell me where to sit already?" Unfortunately for the poor Kagome, at least twenty-one pairs of eyes were fixed on her and only her as she felt her face turn an interesting shade of crimson.

Finally, the teacher Mrs. Gensile stopped asking her general questions such as 'Where did you move from?' 'Did you like your last school?' 'Have you liked this school so far?' and 'What's your favorite subject?' and told her to site down at a desk in the front near the door.

"Yes, please do give me the worst seat in the whole classroom. I'll just stare at the wall all during the period," Kagome grumbled to herself.

Even though she had had a nice lunch period, she was suddenly exhausted and not herself. "Stupid hormonal driven moods," she moaned and presently slouched forward over the desk as she watched the way Mrs. Gensile's necks jostled against each other as she spoke.

Half way through the class while Mrs. Gensile was rummaging through her desk for pictures she could show on the overhead, Kagome felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning her eyes because she was too lazy to turn her entire head at the moment, she finally noticed that Sango was sitting beside her.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't notice you were by me," Kagome quickly explained. She hoped she hadn't seemed rude for not realizing.

Sango smiled and gave an understanding nod. "This period is the worst, I swear. Full stomach from lunch and wondering when the hell we'll get out of this place."

Kagome sniggered quietly as Mrs. Gensile walked past her and back to the front of the class.

Kagome wasn't sure when the class would be over, but one minute till noon, Sango was on the edge of her seat, eyes locked on the clock. Heaving her heavy backpack on, Kagome checked her schedule for her next class.

"Hey, Sango. Where is the Human Anatomy and Sports class?"

Her eyes never straying from the omniscient clock, Sango replied, "It's in the same hall as my next class, so I'll show you the way."

The bell finally rang and Kagome was prepared to brave the perilous halls once again. Keeping as close to Sango as she could, she pushed past student after student as they made their way across the hall, up the stairs, and down the corridor to a door covered with gift wrapping paper of hundreds of bears surrounded by hundreds of hearts.

"This is the science hall," Sango informed her, pointing her finger up the hall and down the hall. "My next teacher is a stickler for punctuality, so I have to go." Then she was gone before Kagome had opened her mouth to say 'thanks' or 'goodbye.'

Entering the room, Kagome noticed that it was a particularly full classroom, and surely not all the students were in the room yet since the bell wouldn't ring for another forty seconds. Lifting her eyes to the ceiling, she made her way to the teacher's desk. "Here we go again with the introduction," she groaned.

"Hi, um, Mr. Linquist. I'm the new student Kagome Higurashi. Can you tell me what this class has covered so far?" she said, feeling silly.

"The skeleton," Mr. Linquist replied. "Ack-chally, we've got a test over it today. It's pretty easy, so maybe you'll be wanting to study this paper of the skeleton here since it's got all it's parts labeled already." The man was tall even when sitting; the man was wide even when sitting. Lacking hair on his head, he didn't make up for it on his face. He didn't have a mustache or a beard, and his face was as smooth as a jellybean.

Deciding she would rather take the test now than make it up later, Kagome nodded and took the paper from Mr. Linquist. "Where should I sit?"

"Anywhere," he said, gesturing to the available chairs with a large grayish, pink hand.

After she took a seat by the window, she looked over the paper as the bell rang. Like he had said, it was easy since it only covered the bones she already knew like the scapula, the femur, and so on. She reviewed all of it so she would at least feel more confident about it.

Mr. Linquist gave the class of thirty-seven fifteen minutes to review the skeleton parts before the test, but Kagome used the time to doodle hearts and flowers and other happy things. When the review time was up, Mr. Linquist put a picture of the skeleton on the overhead and covered the answers that were on the side with some textbooks. The students were to write down the answers that corresponded with the numbers pointing to the various bones. Kagome quickly finished the test, turned it in, and resumed doodling hearts and flowers and other happy things as the slower students finished. Unfortunately, hearts and flowers and other happy things are only fun to doodle for so long, and Kagome soon closed her notebook and took to staring at the trees, trying to find different figures in the leaves. She thought she glimpsed something white on part of the roof of the second floor, but Mr. Linquist's words distracted her before she could identify what the white was.

~~~~~

Kagome: Three years old. Inu-Yasha: Four and a half years old.

"Naptime, Kaka," Mrs. Higurashi called from the laundry room where she was folding clothes.

Kagome, who was in her room looking at the pictures in her books, grimaced but sweetly called back, "Yes, Mommy. I'm gongo wight to seep by mysef today."

Mrs. Higurashi smiled and prided herself for raising such an independent child so able to take care of herself. She was already doing things like getting her cup of juice out of the refrigerator, putting her toys away, putting her shoes and shirt on, and now, bless her dear mother's soul, she was putting herself down for a nap.

"Yes!" Mrs. Higurashi cried, small tears glistening on the brims of her eyelids. "Be independent, dear daughter! Nap on your own! I'm so very proud of you!"

However, Kagome heard none of her mother's praises for she had crept down the stairs into the study and out the window into her mother's favorite patch of daisies. She leapt out of them, but the damage had been done. A majority of the daisies were crushed and wilted in a sickly manner.

Kagome considered her options. She could never speak a word about the flowers and simply wait until her mom found out before saying she didn't do it, she could admit to her mother that she had been trying to sneak out into the backyard to play and in doing so, squashed the flowers, or she could fix it. Seeing that the flowers seemed to be wilting in sorrow and some were packed into the mud, making them dirty, Kagome decided they only needed some cheering up, but how was she to cheer up a flower? Her mother had once said that flowers shouldn't be treated differently that people, and that they enjoyed a nice chat just like anyone else, so Kagome tried to cheer them up with some nice conversation. It didn't seem to work, so she thought again.

"When Grandpa was sick in the ospicial, we took him some flowersh, and he said he felt all betters because I gave him the flowersh," Kagome reflected. "Maybe if I give the flowersh some friends, they will be happy again!"

With this in mind, she giddily ran to the old lady's yard next door. The gate separating the two yards was made of black rods that were spaced fairly far apart, but just enough, in fact, for Kagome to walk through. She stepped over the low bar that lay parallel to the ground and slipped though the rods. Luckily, the old lady next-door was an avid gardener, and had nearly every kind of flower Kagome could even imagine growing in her backyard. Unsure of what kinds of flowers would make the depressed daisies happy and bright again, Kagome picked at least one of each, though she picked several daisies just in case daisies generally liked to socialize with one another best.

She quickly hurried back to her yard though she had a difficult time getting all the flowers through the gate. Along the way, she unknowingly dropped some flowers here and there, but she was too eager to heal her mother's daisies to notice.

When she had returned to the scene of the accident, she took each of the flowers she had picked and poked the stems into the soft dirt, so they would look nice and perky. Kagome believed she had done her job well since all the flowers looked bright and happy together, but her mother's daisies still looked gloomy. She decided that more flowers would make the daisies happy, and she headed to the old lady's garden once again.

She ran with her face turned to the sky, feeling as if she could make the world a better place despite even the deepest of sorrows, when she was suddenly looking up at the face of Inu-Yasha.

"Inash!" Kagome squeaked, surprised to see him looking down at her when she was looking up. They were more or less the same height.

"Quiet!" Inu-Yasha shushed her, his long white hair falling past his face and hanging inches above Kagome's.

Craning her neck back further to get a better look at him, Kagome turned around in a circle to keep her balance as she stared at him. "What're you doing all the way up tare?"

"Climbing trees."

She finally noticed that his head was sticking out from some leaves. "Then why are you in my yard, Inash?"

"My yard doesn't have any trees."

"Yes, it does. It has the one."

"Don't be silly, Kagome. That tree isn't good for anything like climbing," Inu-Yasha scoffed. In truth, the tree in Inu-Yasha's yard made a good climbing tree, but Inu-Yasha was unable to ascend its branches because he was too short, and he didn't want to admit it.

"Oh," Kagome said.

"What are you doing?" Inu-Yasha asked, trying to seem disinterested but looked stupid instead.

Kagome had been distracted by her friend's odd activity, but she remembered her daisy dilemma. "I'm making daisies happy," she told him sweetly.

Inu-Yasha's face was blank for a moment before he commented, "That's stupid. Flowers can't be happy."

"Flowersh have feewings just like anything else. My mommy saids that flowersh will grow if you take care of them and love them enough," Kagome defended.

Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes like he'd seen his mother do when his dad teased her with corny jokes. The blood was beginning to go to his head, and he didn't feel like arguing with Kagome under that circumstance. His face disappeared amongst the leaves as he crawled to the base of the tree and climbed down to Kagome.

"Will you help me, Inash?" Kagome asked, presenting him with a pleading expression.

"With what?"

"With making the daisies happy."

"Oh, um, okay," Inu-Yasha agreed, rubbing his forhead.

Poor Inu-Yasha became an accomplice.



~~~~~

Present:

Human Anatomy and Sports was now over, and Kagome quickly made her way to her last class of the day humanities. As soon as she walked in the door, she saw Inu-Yasha sitting on a desk near the window. She was surprised to see him there, but he didn't look at all surprised to see her.

"I saved you a seat," he said, nodding to the seat beside him.

"Thanks," Kagome told him with a smile, and instead, she sat down in the seat in front of him.

Inu-Yasha raised an eyebrow at the back of her head as she began pulling a notebook and pencil out of her backpack. "I said I saved you the seat beside me," he said.

"I know," she said, clicking her mechanical pencil for more lead.

"Then why are you sitting in front of me?" Inu-Yasha snapped, irritated that she wasn't looking at or paying much attention to him.

She turned around and rested her arm on his desk, looking up at him. "I like to sit near the window," she said.

Inu-Yasha rolled his eyes.

Kagome noticed this and continued, "Also, I want to always be in your direct line of site, so you'll be forced to think about me and maybe even fantasize a bit." She winked.

His jaw dropping in horror at her words, Inu-Yasha sputtered, "Fanta-? Wha- ? You? N-never!"

Kagome laughed at him and turned back around to see Sango sitting down in the seat beside her. They quickly began talking, as Inu-Yasha stewed.

Why was she making him stutter like a moron? An even better question was how? Normally, he would have come back with a witty retort and proceed to lick his lips for effect, but Kagome had caught him off guard. He had never expected her to say anything like that to him, and he couldn't figure out why it made his stomach turn like he was nauseous.

"Inu-Yasha, why didn't you tell me Kagome was in this class with us?" Sango asked after Kagome told her that Inu-Yasha had saved a seat for her.

"Why should I tell you anything?" Inu-Yasha grumped, turning his head to look out the window.

Sango's shook her head and waved a hand at Inu-Yasha, dismissing his words, which cauesd a giggle to escape Kagome's lips.

Humanities quickly became Kagome's favorite class. Not only were the assignments very hands on, the students could do them while talking to each other, so Kagome and Sango carried on with occasional sarcastic remarks volunteered from Inu-Yasha.



~~~~~

Past (same time):

Kagome and Inu-Yasha stuck the stems of the various flowers from the old lady's garden into the dirt, and eventually, there were so many that they couldn't even see the original daisies, so they believed that the flowers had cheered up and were standing tall amongst their peers. Unknown to them, the daisies had long ago been trapped beneath their so-called peers as the children continued to stack more atop and around them.

"That should do it," Kagome said, patting her hands together in an attempt to brush the dirt off.

"Finally," Inu-Yasha said, wiping his dirty hands on his pants.

"We have made a diffence to these flowersh today, Inash," Kagome told him proudly with a grin. "I am so happy."

"Yeah, okay. Do you want to play a game?"

"Okay."

"Inu-Yasha Panyani Tsujimoto, you haul you guilty butt back to this house NOW!" someone shouted. That someone just happened to be his mother.

"Inash is in trouble," Kagome observed, sticking her finger in her mouth.

Shoulders slumping, Inu-Yasha walked off without saying goodbye.

"Now who will I play a game with?" Kagome worried.

However, who to play a game with was the least of her troubles as her mother came out the backdoor to see what Mrs. Tsujimoto was yelling about. Before Mrs. Higurashi had even opened the door, she saw Kagome standing in the yard, dirt on her hands, dirt on her face, dirt on her legs, and dirt on her shoes, but worst of all, she saw that Kagome wasn't in bed like she said she would be.

Slowly, Mrs. Higurashi opened the back door, and slowly, she folded her arms across her chest. Kagome hunched her shoulders and felt her features tug into a guilty expression.

Mrs. Higurashi yelled a bit after Kagome confessed that she had lied to her about taking her nap. Then she yelled more when she found out that Kagome had squashed all her daisies. Finally, she really let loose when she received the call from the old lady next door who said that her flower beds had been savagely ripped apart and a trail of flowers was leading back to the Higurashi yard.

Kagome cried and sniffled and said she was sorry, and Mrs. Higurashi felt bad that she had yelled so much at her, so she gave Kagome a smaller punishment than she had originally intented. Kagome cried about her punishment, too, but Mrs. Higurashi held firm to no desserts for a week as well as apologizing to the old lady.

*****

A week later Inu-Yasha came to Kagome's yard where she was hopping up and down on one side of the teetor-totter.

"Where've you been?" Kagome asked, looking up, then down at him as she continued to jump.

"I got in trouble for leaving the house without permission and climbing trees when I was told not to, and my mom made me play in only my yard for a week," Inu-Yasha explained, glancing back at his butt and remembering the spanking he had received.

Kagome stopped jumping. "I got in trouble for lying and picking somon else's flowersh," she admitted.

Inu-Yasha turned pale. "Did- did you tell that I helped?" he asked.

Kagome shook her head. "Should I have?"

"No," Inu-Yasha replied breathing a sigh of relief. He would probably be spanked again if his parents found out he had picked some poor old lady's flowers without permission.

Inu-Yasha straddled the other end of the teetor-totter, and the two began hopping up and down.

~~~~

Present Day:

The entire humanities class was gathered before the door, and when the final bell rang, they burst into the hall. Kagome didn't notice where Inu-Yasha had gone or even when he had left Sango and her, but Sango made an offer to let Kagome share a locker with her instead of going to all the trouble of getting her own to which Kagome readily agreed. After showing her where the locker was and giving her the combination to the lock, Sango had to leave so she wouldn't miss her bus. Kagome practiced opening the lock a few times then unloaded the books she wouldn't need for homework or anything. Despite losing two textbooks and three binders, Kagome's backpack was still rather heavy, but she hefted it onto her back and started off down the stairs to the main entrance of the school, and she was very proud of herself for achieving such a thing as finding her way out of this seemingly massive school on her own.

Inu-Yasha was waiting for her on the steps outside.

"What are you still doing here?" Kagome asked, surprised. He just kept surprising her today, and she couldn't figure out why she kept allowing herself to be startled by him. Expect the unexpected with him if he's like this, right?

"Waiting for you," Inu-Yasha said, standing up and starting down the steps.

"Thanks," Kagome said, hopping down after him.

When they had both reached the bottom, Kagome caught up so she was walking beside him. Inu-Yasha noted this and asked, "Don't you want to walk in front of me, so I'll be forced to think and fantasize about you?" he joked, commending himself for thinking of something witty.

"If you want me to so much, I guess I can't refuse," Kagome said with a large grin. She stepped in front of him and continued her trek.

A mix of a pout and a smile contorting his face, Inu-Yasha followed her all the way home.





Author's Note: Did you catch the joke at the following her home part at the end? The dog followed her home? I thought it was cute. ^.^ Anyway, woo! It's been a while since I've updated either of my ongoing Inu- Yasha fanfics! ^.^'' I won't ask for forgiveness for my lack of updates because I'm not sorry for taking a break. However, I will provide all of you with my explanation. For the past month or so, I have been laboring on something that has meant more to me than any fanfic I have ever written, and I really do love my fanfics. ^.^'' I'll give out more information about this oh-so-special thing later on, but for now you can expect a new chapter every other week or so. Maybe even every week! O.o lol For those of you who read my other story Unfortunate Triangle, I will be updating that as soon as, but tomorrow is Buy a Christmas Tree and Gifts Day, and next week I have two portfolios due, so that fanfic might have to wait until next week. *sigh* Well, I want to tell all of you a funny story. Hm. Well, I had an interesting dream! Woo, this is good. Heh heh. You know how in some dreams, something has happened to you, but you weren't in that part of the dream, and you just know that it happened to you? Well, in my dream

I f*cked an Indian. I missed out on the bopbop bit, but I was in the Indian guy's house like the day after the donkey squabble scene, and he was lying on the floor with his foot up on the arm of the couch. I sat down on the couch and turned to look at him. I said, "Did we really?" and he smiled and said, "Yeaaah." Then I said 'okay' and nuzzled his foot! Lol That's the only part of the dream I can remember. It was so odd, and I had some fun telling it to my friends. We made jokes like what one would say during a stereotypical Indian corking, and I raised my hand and exclaimed, "HOW! HOW!" and one friend started up with rain dances and things. Woo, it was a hoot and a nanny. Hey! I'm using Word to type this up, and they have the word Hooverville in the dictionary part and it says it's a town ERECTED on the OUTSKIRTS of a city during the GREAT depression of the 1930s to HOUSE the poor and HOMELESS. Lol Just thought I'd put that there because it sounds silly. O.o Just thought I would capitalize certain words for effect. Lol Oh yeah! Also, I'm dropping the Gargoyles fanfic, and I am assuming Harry Potter fanfics. If anyone would like to read them, I'll let you know when I've posted them. ^.^ That's all. Thanks for reading! Tune in next week for something hopefully a bit more interesting! Happy late Thanksgiving!