Disclaimer: If Inu-Yasha were mine, I don't think I would go to school. Okay, I might go a couple times just to laugh at some of the people that were ever mean or something to me, but after that I think I would just not go, and if I ever needed to be smart, well, then I would get a machine to tell me all the answers in my ear or something. For bonus coolness I'd make it in the shape of Myouga. Yeah! Anyway, this story is mine, but the characters are not. Kiki and a couple others are, but you can take them and flush them down a toilet for all I care. That, or feed them to that mighty ass huge bumblebee that stalks me after school. Actually, it's probably dead by now. It's been, what, six months since I saw the little demon last? Mm-hm, I would say he's pretty dead. He might even be done beecomposing. Haha! Beecomposing! Get it? .... My dad is rubbing off on me is all I can say.

Past and Present Intertwine

Chapter Eight- Dance Lesson and Verifications

"Kagome! Kagome, telephone!"

Her ears picking up the call of her name and the object she'd been longing to hear ring all morning, Kagome scrambled off the floor, through the doorway, down the hall and stairs, and into the living rooms where she then pounced onto the couch next to which was a small table where the phone and its neighboring lamp and a few home decorating and garden magazines took to setting and gathering dust. As she gasped for breath from excitement and her aforesaid scramble, she grabbed for the receiver and, in a shaking voice, greeted whoever was on the other end of the line with a simple and expectant 'hello.' She was thrilled to hear that the unknown who was the particular 'who' she had hoped and anticipated it was.

"Sango! Morning! I'm glad you called," she understated. She bit her lip while she listened to what her friend of nearly one week told her. "Right now if you want."

The phone cord was quickly becoming tangled about her nervous fingers as she listened anxiously to Sango's response. Luckily for Kagome it was the answer she wanted to hear.

"Excellent! You can have lunch over here, too, if you want. I'm sure we have something to eat." She laughed joyously. "Okay. See you in a few."

Kagome set the phone back on its receiver with a satisfied grin spread across her face. This was going to be so fun! Her new friend was coming over to teach her dance... stuff. Well, she was quite certain it would be something the two of them could have in common.

By the time Kagome was finished shoving the rest of her unpacked boxes against her bedroom walls in an effort to attain maximum dancing area (a simple matter of calculus, I'm sure *barf*), Sango had arrived and was ringing the doorbell. Kagome could hear the exchange of polite greetings between Sango and her mother, and then Mrs. Higurashi informed Sango of her daughter's whereabouts while Souta waved and said hello to their guest.

Sango was now climbing the stairs. "Kagome? Where are you?"

"The second room on the left," came the reply.

Sango knocked on the door uncertainly. "This one?"

"Yeah."

Sango opened the door to find Kagome looking surprised and amazed on the other side. "What are you doing?"

"I've been moving boxes. That one' -she indicated which one- 'was blocking the door, and I couldn't get it to move, but you just opened the door like nothing was there. You're really strong."

The grin on the face of the praised following this admiring statement held hints of embarrassment and pride, but Sango hurriedly moved on to the business at hand, closing the door behind her and sliding her backpack, which looked very full, off her shoulders. She pulled a CD from it and handed it to Kagome.

"This CD has most of the music we've been practicing with lately. We try to stay open-minded about the music we use, but generally we stick to 80s and early 90s because no one is really interested in finding new songs and making choreography for them. It's kind of risky anyway because you don't know if anyone will like it, but that's not important right now. Being on the dance team is a lot of work since it's a year-round thing, but we have tons of fun, and the exercise is good and all," Sango finished with a small wave of her hand.

"Cool, but, um..." Kagome mumbled. "I still haven't unpacked my radio, and I have no idea which box it's in."

"Oh, no worries. I brought my own." Sango pulled a radio out of her backpack, making it look considerably limp and empty.

"Ah, Sango... you are very strong." Kagome's eyes sparkled with admiration.

"Stop it already. You're making me blush," Sango laughed, pushing aside different boxes in search of an outlet. "Where can I plug the player in?"

Pondering this for a moment, Kagome replied slowly, "I think it's behind this one." She tapped a box along side the wall opposite from her bed.

"Yeah, I see it. Let's plug this puppy in." The puppy was then plugged, which I'm sure sounds extremely hentai to those of us with a perverted sense of humor, and Sango popped the CD in and moved to song number eight. "This isn't a recent song, but everyone at school likes it. Plus, the boys like the outfits we wear for it."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

The radio provided the answer to Kagome's query.

'I wanna girl with

Fast and thorough

I wanna girl who

Sharp as a tack

I wanna girl with

Eyes that burn like cigarettes'

Even though the song had been mixed up and was given a different beat in order to make it peppier to dance to, it was still distinct to Kagome's ears.

'I wanna girl with a short skirt

And a loooooong jacket'

"Oh, I know this song, and yeah, I'm sure the boys do like it."

They both laughed wickedly.

"So where do we start?"

"I'll show you our routine for this song. None of it's, you know, really difficult, but it is hard to memorize everything. Okay, this is how it goes. Don't laugh, please," Sango said with a small blush.

"Of course I won't laugh! Why would you think I would laugh?"

"This dance gets a bit... racy, kind of," she explained bluntly.

"Oh," Kagome said. "Well, I'll try not to laugh."

"Here goes then. Back up a little bit. I don't want to kick you or anything."

As Sango took position, Kagome restarted the song. As the former set off into the routine she knew so well, the latter watched with her stomach lolling about nervously. The dance was indeed racy, and she didn't know if she could do it, much less if she could do it in front of her peers.

"Sango can at least make it look cool. What would I like?" she wondered self-consciously.

By the time Sango and the song-o (haha, they sound the same) had finished, Kagome's poor head was filled and beginning to cramp with doubts. Being a member of her schools' dance teams since middle school and having helped several girls with their anxieties, Sango easily detected the worry of her friend.

"Listen, don't worry about how you look. All that really matters is how into the music and the dancing you are. If you really like something, it shows, and it's cool. But if you're just going along without any enthusiasm or heart, that's when you look stupid," she reasoned calmly.

"Wow, Sango!" said Kagome, instantly reassured. "Not only are you super strong, but you give excellent advice! Are you this good with boy problems?"

Sango, who had been trying to look modest, perked her ears at the query. "Kagome," she began slyly. "Are you having boy problems?"

"What?" Kagome peeped, a tinge of pink staining her cheeks. "No, not at the moment, but it's useful to know who I can go to if I need help."

"Oh," Sango said with a bit of disappointment. "Well, it's fine if you want to talk to me about something, but I don't know how helpful I can be about boy troubles. Miroku's the one who's really good at that."

"Miroku?!" Kagome gave her an incredulous look. "I know he's a guy, but I thought he was too, uh..."

"Perverted?" Sango supplied.

"Yeah. I thought he was too perverted for anything that has to do with feelings."

"Believe you me, I don't get it either," Sango sighed. Despite her annoyance, a smile tugged at the sides of her mouth.

"Let's see if I'm dance team material, huh?" Kagome asked, a determined smile set across her face.

"Okay," Sango said, springing up to stand beside Kagome, who was preparing by sweeping her hair away from her face. "For your sake I hope you are worthy to be a member, cuz honey, if you're not, you can bet you won't see me 'round here eva again." She snapped her fingers for further humorous effect.

Kagome's face fell and her lip quivered.

"Oh! Oh, it's okay," Sango comforted hastily, placing a pacifying hand on the other girl's shoulder. "I don't care if you're bad or not. We'll still be friends. I was only joking."

"Me, too," Kagome said wickedly, flashing a large smile.

"Oh," Sango said with relief.

After another fit of laughter, they finally started to work on the routine.

~~~~~

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

"Kaka and Inash are at the carnival!" Kagome squealed. "Kaka and Inash are gon' have fun! Kaka and Inash-"

"Are gonna split up if you don' quit yellin' in my ear!" Inu-Yasha interrupted waspishly.

"Kaka is sorry, Inash," she said. Because she was taking in the sights of the rides, stands, and games all around them, Kagome's apology had an offhanded tone and was, therefore, not good enough to diminish the agitation of our young hero.

"And let go of my hand!" he grumbled, wrenching his from hers.

"Okay, Inash. Oh, look! Car-mel apples!" she cried excitedly, running to her mother's side and tugging beseechingly at her skirt.

Growling, Inu-Yasha squatted down where he stood in frustration and in the aforementioned agitation. What was bothering this young tot? Well, just a week ago, Kagome had obeyed his every whim (well, most of them, anyway) and cried whenever he was mean to her. Now a week later she didn't cry when he yelled or anything. It was quite obvious to him that she didn't care about him anymore!

"Stupid Kagome," Inu-Yasha muttered viciously under his breath.

"Inash! Do you want car-mel apple?" the ignorant and insulted one called from three or four stands away, a considerable distance for an infant.

"No!" he shouted.

"He wants one, too, please," he heard her tell the caramel-apple-man.

Ugh! Now she wasn't listening to him at all! He was hungry, though... He ate the caramel apple without an excessive amount of fuss.

"Inash! Inash! Look! A game!" Kagome cried, pointing enthusiastically to the opposite row of stands.

Extremely angry, Inu-Yasha stomped after his stupid-excitedly- skipping-over-to-some-stupid-game-stand-used-to-be friend, who was stupid.

"Look! See? You hava take ona those balls, and then you gotta hit that monkey really, really, hard, and then you get a prize! Do you wanna play?"

"Sure," he snapped, an idea forming in his mind (hard to believe, I know). He shoved his hand into his pocket, took out some money, huffily counted the needed amount, which took him a bit because he isn't much for math in the first place, paid the game-stand-man, and then grabbed one of the large, yellow balls.

"Yay, Inash!"

Inu-Yasha glowered at her.

"See that?" he asked, jabbing his finger at the monkey.

"Yeah! Yeah!"

"That's you." He jabbed his finger at her. "Watch."

Then he hauled off and popped that sucker of a monkey square in his face on the first throw (more like an assault, really), making the siren on his little monkey hat start to wail. Inu-Yasha won a decently made teddy bear with a sweet blue bow tied around his neck.

"Wow, Inash! Good job! What a great bear!" Kagome congratulated.

"If it's so stupid great, then you can have it!" Inu-Yasha shouted, flinging it at her.

Having just seen what Inu-Yasha could do by throwing something at another something's face, Kagome made sure to catch the bear before it hit her and made her wail just like the monkey.

"Thank you, Inash!" Kagome cried, wrapping her arms around his neck in a grateful hug.

"Get off me!"

Kagome giggled. "But Kaka loves Inash!"

"'Inash' don't love 'Kaka'!"

Kagome's grip slackened, and when she had pulled back far enough to look at him, Inu-Yasha saw that she was crying. Not just little tears, either; the whole of the waterworks were going.

"Inash," she blubbered pitifully.

Inu-Yasha, who usually did not know what to say, put his hand on her head and tried to give her a comforting smile, but failing so miserably that his expression was more like someone was tickling his feet and pinching his bottom at the same time while he stood buck-naked in a grocery store.

"I'm sorry, Kagome."

Grasping the newly won bear tightly to her chest, Kagome did not respond.

"I don't hate you. I'm sorry."

Kagome turned up her tear-stained face to look him in the eye.

"Kaka loves Inash."

"That's mushy."

"But I do!"

It was rare for the young Kagome to speak in the first person, so this was Inu-Yasha's big hint. Not wanting her to cry anymore, and because Mrs. Higurashi and his own mom (both of whom had together brought the two children) were giving them funny looks as they so often did in such situations, Inu-Yasha decided it best to do what he knew he would have to do sooner or later.

"I love you, too," he mumbled, glaring in defeat at the ground.

"Yay!" Kagome squealed. "Now what should Kaka and Inash name their teddy child?"

"What?!"

~~~~~

Present:

"Damn it, Kagome!" Sango shouted angrily. "You fretted and worried that you would suck and that you wouldn't be any good. How stupid are you? Look at you!"

Kagome bowed her head in shame.

"You really aren't too bad, you know? For a beginner you're actually pretty good."

"Really?" Kagome popped her head back up, smiling brightly.

"Yeah. If I work with you after school for a couple weeks, you would be ready to practice with the dance team by September. If all goes well, which I'm sure it will, you'll be out on the football field with us during half time for the last few games." As Sango spoke, she seemed to be making plans and setting a schedule complete with dates already. "With you on the team, Kagome, we can do more stuff! We have an odd number of people right now, so we could never have everyone dance in pairs: someone would always be left out. This is so great!"

Kagome's head was spinning just by listening to Sango's hopes and ideas. "W-won't I need a uniform outfit thing?" she stammered uncertainly.

"Oh, don't worry about that. We had some other members that dropped out after we'd ordered theirs, so you'll have two or three different sizes to chose from."

"Why'd they drop out?"

Sango shrugged. "A couple claimed they had too much on their plates as it was, and another girl told Tamiya she didn't like me. Tamiya isn't very good at keeping things to herself, so that's how I found out. I don't know why she didn't like me, but I do know that I didn't do anything to her. Not that I know of anyway, you know? Anyway, I told the girl she had two options. One: get over it. Two: we could work something out. She ended up choosing option three: quit dance team."

Kagome, who had been listening with interest, didn't know what to say to this, so she tried for a sympathetic yet irritated, "It sounds like it was just her problem."

Sango shrugged again.

"Do you want to practice the routine a few more times before we break for lunch?" Sango asked.

"Sure."

Halfway through the song, at a very inopportune moment when both girls were swinging their butts around in a wide semi-circle with their backs to the door, the very same door opened and Inu-Yasha and Miroku looked in and beheld this sight of behind.

"Boo-tay!" Miroku exclaimed rapturously, extending both hands towards both bottoms as he sailed into the room.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" yelled Sango, slamming a fist on Miroku's head, knocking him off his groping course.

"We thought we might visit," Inu-Yasha said, giving Miroku's twitching form an irritated glance.

"How'd you get in?" Kagome asked, momentarily dumbfounded as to how two teenage boys could find their way into her sacred room.

"Uh... we went through the door."

"Wha- you mean he met my mom?!" Kagome cried, pointing at Miroku, who was now making himself comfortable on her bed.

"Hey!" he said indignantly. "She happened to think I was a perfect gentleman."

"Until she caught you looking at her boobs," Inu-Yasha muttered.

"I already explained that there was a glare: the sun was coming through the window right into my eyes, forcing me to look down," Miroku offered in self-defense.

"You were checking out my mom?!" Kagome shrieked.

"Now, now, Kagome," Miroku shushed, taking her hand in his and pulling her to sit in his lap. "There's no need to be jealous. Honestly, I wasn't, and if I were, it would only be to see what particular size and shape of woman it would take to give birth to a beauty such as yourself."

Kagome blushed. "Oh, you don't really mean that." Miroku smiled, and she giggled.

"Kagome!" Sango and Inu-Yasha shrieked in unison (yeah, he shrieked heh heh).

"Oh!" Kagome said, aware of her self again. "Miroku, cut it out." She stood up, leaving Miroku to deal with a lonely lap. "Sango and I were working on a dance routine, so if you two wouldn't mind-"

"We don't," Inu-Yasha said, plunking down upon the floor.

"No, we need to practice, so could you two come tomorrow maybe?"

"You said last night I could come over today," he said stubbornly.

"Yeah, but Sango and I really need to work, and I don't want you guys watching. It makes us uncomfortable."

"I'm fine if they stay," Sango said. "Practicing in front of others helps you not to be afraid of performing in front of the school, so it's all good as long as Miroku keeps his hands to himself."

"Give me a nudey magazine, and I just might do that," Miroku said.

"You are disgusting!" Sango cried, distinctly and undeniably repulsed.

"A man's got his needs," Miroku said, looking through a stack of magazines on Kagome's desk.

"What are looking for?! I don't have porn!" the owner of the desk and magazines shouted.

"Sango doesn't mind if we stay," Inu-Yasha said as Miroku moped and Sango muttered, "Man, my ass."

"I do, though," Kagome said. "I don't want you two laughing at me."

"We won't, Kagome!" Miroku assured. "If either of us laughs, we both promise to leave the room immediately and never say a word about it -whatever it might be- again."

Kagome thought about this as Miroku and Inu-Yasha nodded sweetly, although the latter looked more like he tasted mayonnaise than honey.

"Okay, but you both have to keep your promise," Kagome finally told them.

"Yeah, yeah. Hurry up with it then," Inu-Yasha said, rubbing his itching back against the edge of one of the boxes.

Ignoring this rude order, Kagome turned to Sango. "Can you teach me a different song now. Maybe one that isn't as... you know."

"Sure thing. I know just the song," Sango said.

The one Sango had in mind happened to be a variety of songs Kagome instantly recognized, although she couldn't place each song's title or its artist. However, the lyrics went a little something like this:

'One. Two. Three. Four.

Get your body on the floor.

Cuz you gotta get up to get down.

Gotta, gotta get up to get down.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Gotta, gotta get up to get down.

Get down, down, down, down.

We're gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine.

We're gonna party like it's nineteen ninety-nine.

We're gonna party cuz

We like to party

We like, we like to party

I love rock and roll

Ro-ro-roll. Ro-ro-rock. Ro-ro-ro-ro.

We like to party.'

Then it switched to 'The Hamster Dance.'

Kagome picked up the first half of the routine pretty quickly, but the move at the introduction of 'The Hamster Dance' was somehow, as she irritably put it, 'screwing her up.' Still unbelievably patient with her peer's problems, Sango was trying every bit of advice and strategy she could offer to help Kagome figure out how to do the difficult action. Lounging on the bed, Miroku had been intently watching both girls with the desperate hope he might see something, anything; it didn't matter what as long as it was part of the girls' bodies. Inu-Yasha was now very bored but was too stubborn to leave after he had insisted that he more or less had the right to stay.

"What are you doing?" Sango asked her as Kagome made the motions of the move in slow motion.

Kagome didn't mean to sound rude, but it came out that way due to her frustration. "What's it look like I'm doing?" she asked.

"It looks like you're having a seizure," Inu-Yasha said.

Kagome glared at her offender. "Oh, my God. That is the meanest thing you can say to someone when she's dancing."

"No, I've heard worse actually," Sango said.

"Someone actually made a rude comment on the way you dance?" Kagome asked in surprise.

"No, she's talking about what she says to me when I dance," Miroku explained.

"Only because you look like you're somehow staying in place while making a mad dash to the bathroom after you've been super constipated for a month," Sango snapped.

"Ouch," Kagome said.

Miroku shrugged. Apparently he was quite accustomed to Sango's behavior, but then again, she only acted in this manner towards him because she was accustomed to his behavior.

As Kagome and Sango repeatedly worked through the first half of the song in an attempt to work through 'The Hamster Dance' transition, Inu- Yasha gave a sulky sigh.

"This is freakin' stupid," he grumbled.

"Nothing against shorts, but I wouldn't mind it so much if they were wearing skirts," Miroku admitted, rolling over so he was now lying on his back with his head hanging off one side and his legs off the other. "What's with all the unpacked boxes? How long has Kagome been here?"

"I don't know."

"You don't suppose she has any particular undergarments in any of these things, do you? Toys, maybe...."

"Shut up," Inu-Yasha mumbled, scratching his foot.

"Well, I'm going to look."

"What? Leave her stuff alone," Inu-Yasha protested.

But, alas, the snoopy Miroku was already hunched over a box, poking through its contents in the manner of a playful and hungry cat dabbing into an occupied fish bowl.

"Fine. Get yourself slapped. It won't be my fault," Inu-Yasha huffed, turning his back on him and staring dully at the bare wall.

Behind him Miroku gave a little gasp and chuckled in amusement.

Forgetting that he had decided not to take part in the overstepping of Kagome's trust and personal boundaries, Inu-Yasha whirled around. "What? What is it?"

Miroku looked over his shoulder with an impish grin.

"It's a teddy bear!"

Inu-Yasha fell backwards.

"Put it back, and leave it alone," he said with an exasperated roll of his eyes.

"But, Inu-Yasha," Miroku murmured humorously. "This teddy wuvs you beary much!" He shoved it against the side of Inu-Yasha's face in a snuggling motion, and then he did something else with the teddy in Inu- Yasha's face that will not be described in this fanfic for it was very offensive as well as X-rated.

"You freaking jerk-off! Stop it!" Inu-Yasha shouted, pushing the bear and Miroku away from him with one vehement shove.

"But he wuvs you!" protested the insufferably silly Miroku. He held the bear out to Inu-Yasha making smooching noises with pursed lips.

"YAARRGGH!" Inu-Yasha snatched the bear from Miroku's prone-to- groping-girls hands and began smacking him with it.

"Oh! Oh!" Miroku moaned, voicing the part of the teddy bear. "Oh, Inu- Yasha! Teddy likes the S&M just as much as you do! A lot! Mm! Oh, yeah!"

"What the hell are you doing with Wee-wee?!" was Kagome's shrill cry of alarm when she noticed the beating of bear and Miroku.

Inu-Yasha and Miroku halted in mid-fight and turned their heads to look disbelievingly at Kagome. "W-wee-wee?" they uttered together. Then they burst into gales of laughter.

Seething with fury and humiliation, Kagome grabbed her teddy bear from Inu-Yasha's grip, which was loose due to the mirth shaking his entire body, and started shouting. "You promised you wouldn't laugh, you jerks! Get out of my room now!"

"We promised not to laugh at how you dance, not your lame bear," Inu- Yasha somehow managed to retort as the still laughing Miroku grasped his shoulder for support (that rhymes! :3).

"L-lame bear? You suck-a-nut, this is the 'lame' bear you gave me at a carnival!" Kagome cried. "If it's lame, it's only because you won it."

"I didn't win crap for you," Inu-Yasha denied.

Sango, who had been silently laughing, and Miroku, who had just recently finished audibly laughing, were now quiet as they watched the bickering friends with curiosity.

"Yes, you did."

"Why would I win anything for you?"

"Because you had a crush on me."

"WHAT?!"

Sango and Miroku were now sitting side-by-side on some boxes, watching intently. This was good stuff.

"I have never had a crush on you!"

"Yeah, you did. I'm not stupid, you know. It was obvious. You were always being mean to me and calling me stupid."

"Yeah, that sounds like love to me," Inu-Yasha said sarcastically.

"Well, when you say it out loud like that, it doesn't, but women are keen about this sort of thing. Sango, didn't he like me?"

"I, um, don't know," Sango answered truthfully. "I didn't know either of you then."

"I never liked you like that, Kagome," Inu-Yasha said obstinately.

"Oh," Kagome said with a look of surprise. "My mistake."

"You're not disappointed?!" Inu-Yasha shouted.

"Should I be?"

"N-no," he stammered. "You just seemed like you wanted me to like you or something."

"Heck no. That would be weird," Kagome said matter-of-factly. "Now. What were you two doing with my bear?" She glared accusingly at both boys.

"I didn't do anything. Miroku was bother-"

"Inu-Yasha was giving your sweet and innocent bear oral sex," Miroku supplied. Inu-Yasha would have kicked Miroku if the authoress of this story hadn't gotten to him first. The following scenes of violence have been omitted from this copy. Now, what happened after the beatings:

"You guys, just leave my stuff alone, okay? No more weird sexual acts with my inanimate objects," Kagome said.

"Yes, ma'am," Inu-Yasha and Miroku said as Sango held them both by the ears.

"What time is it?" Inu-Yasha asked. "I'm hungry."

"It's a little after two," Sango said, releasing both boys and glancing at her watch. "I'm hungry, too, now."

"Let's go check out what's in the fridge then," Kagome suggested. She turned off the CD player and the lights before leaving the room; the others followed her out.

They managed to scrounge up enough food to satisfy them all, and Kagome vowed that she would have to find a secret place to hide her family's favorite foods since the boys plowed through the remaining four Twinkies in the Twinkie box. After lunch they settled down in the family room to watch a movie. Little excitement took place during this period of time except for the instance when Sango felt a hand trailing down her back, giving cause for her to immediately turn around and smack Miroku, who claimed he had dropped a quarter and was trying to find it.

At 5:04 P.M. Sango had to leave, so Miroku, Inu-Yasha, and Kagome walked her home since it was -according to Sango- a little over a mile from Kagome's residence. After they said their farewells to Sango, Miroku suggested they walk over to the strip mall a few blocks away.

"What's there?" Kagome asked.

"Candy shop. Pizza place. Music store. Video rental. Some small clothes stores," Miroku listed.

"And a bike shop," Inu-Yasha said.

"Is that where you got your motorcycle?" Kagome questioned.

"No, my dad bought it for me while he was out of town visiting my cousin Sesshoumaru and my aunt."

"Oh! Cool. How's he doing?"

"Okay, I guess," Inu-Yasha said shortly.

"You guess?"

"Yeah. He doesn't talk to me very much. He got really moody a few years ago. My aunt tried to say it was, you know, puberty and hormones or whatever, but you don't see me being mean to my cousins."

"Only to your friends and their Wee-wees," Kagome said nastily.

While Miroku laughed his forehead off (he could lose some of it, since there seems to be so much of it as it is, although I suspect it might only look that way because his bangs are a bit on the short side), Inu- Yasha glowered at Kagome and tripped Miroku.

"Dude! You made me eat gravel!" Miroku shouted after Inu-Yasha, who continued walking.

"Yeah, and you made me eat bear crotch."

"Ugh! Stop it! That's disgusting," Kagome shouted, whimpering at the thought of her teddy's lost innocence.

"Hey, you're the one who brought up the 'Wee-wee' again," Inu-Yasha said. He and Miroku sniggered at the ambiguous statement.

"Yeah! One up for the guy with old man's hair!" Kagome said, punching up into the air in mock triumph.

"Old ma- what? Kagome, if I didn't know your mom, I swear-"

"Help! Sexual harassment!" Kagome screamed.

Inu-Yasha choked on whatever words were going to come out of his mouth next. "What are you doing?! Shut up!"

"Eeeek!" Kagome ran over to Miroku, grabbed his hand, and together they ran in the direction of the strip mall, which was now just up the street.

"If anyone is sexual harassmenting anyone, it's him!" Inu-Yasha shouted stupidly, dashing after them. How did that girl always manage herself onto that delicate nerve of his, just so she could twang it like a guitar string until it snapped? Worst of all she seemed to enjoy infuriating him. It was very annoying, but if were perceptive enough, he would realize that deep down he knew he was having fun anyway.

"I'm going to grab some candy," Miroku said, sticking his thumb over his shoulder in an inaccurate gesture of where the shop was.

"Okay. We'll be in the music store," Kagome said.

"I didn't say I wanted to go to the music store," Inu-Yasha said irritably.

"Yeah, but I could feel you wanted to," she said, clasping her hands together and fluttering her eyelashes comically.

"Just walk, you spaz."

Kagome wasn't sure whether he was referring to her dancing skills or lack thereof, so she let that one slide as they entered the music store. While Inu-Yasha wandered off to look at his preferred genre of music, Kagome mingled around the Techno and Pop areas in search of songs the dance team could use. Truthfully, she had never been very interested in music before; she would listen to the radio when she did house work and such, but she was trying to save enough money for college. However, this noble goal was often put to the side when it came to clothes she wanted to buy, the result being that her college money was pitifully small when compared to what she could have if she hadn't bought all those skirts, shorts, etc. She sighed as she remembered all this. Still, it never hurt to look....

As she replaced a CD she had been looking at, someone across from her in the other aisle caught her eye. It was her school's football team's captain. His hair was in a ponytail just as it had been the previous evening, and he was wearing a school t-shirt with the wolf mascot baring its fangs.

They made eye contact.

Kagome looked away sheepishly, but he was still looking at her.

"Ugh," Kagome fretted silently. "He probably thinks I was checking him out, and now he's probably thinking I'm not as pretty as the cheerleaders that adore him so much. I feel retarded."

"Hey," the boy said in an attempt to catch her attention.

Nervous and becoming annoyed, Kagome looked up to find an expression of recognition instead of the condescension she had expected. The boy was still staring at her, obviously trying to process her face.

"Don't you go to my school?"

Surprised to hear these words from him, Kagome gave a small, shaky nod before replying, "Yeah. You're Ryouga, right?"

He shook his head, causing his ponytail to sway.

"No, my name's Kouga."

"Oh, sorry. I got some false info then," Kagome said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" He gave her a quizzical look that would have told Kagome he misunderstood her even if he hadn't voiced his confusion.

"I asked a friend what your name was, and, um, she told me your name was Ryouga." It didn't occur to her until she had finished her sentence that it sounded like she was obsessed with him, a guy she had never talked to before.

"Oh. Okay," he said. He now looked more interested in her than he had a moment ago. "What's your name?"

"I'm Kagome," she said. "I'm new at school."

"I thought you looked different from the other girls I know," Kouga admitted.

Kagome didn't know how to respond to this, so she merely nodded, ducking her eyes back to the CD in her hand. "What the heck?" Kagome thought to herself. "Does he mean that or is he trying to sweet-talk me because he thinks I like him?"

"I like you," Kouga said abruptly.

"P-pardon?"

"I like you. You don't fling yourself at me, you're shy, and you don't try to stand out. I like you," Kouga explained simply.

"Oh," Kagome laughed in comprehension. "I thought you meant you like me like me, as in you're interested in dating me."

"Yeah, that's a better way to put it," he reasoned.

"Kagome, I'm ready to go," Inu-Yasha said as he walked over to her. He saw Kouga, noticed she was blushing a considerable amount even for her, and then frowned. "Hey," he greeted curtly.

"Yo," Kouga offered in return, eyeing Inu-Yasha with curious contempt, as he seemed to be struck with a notion.

"Miroku's waving at us from the window. Let's go," Inu-Yasha said, taking Kagome's arm.

"Uh, all right," Kagome said, following him.

"Later, Kagome!" Kouga called after her with a grin.

"Bye, Kouga." Kagome looked back over her shoulder and waved, trying to smile naturally but was having trouble because she was still in mega- blush mode.

"What are you doing talking to him?" Inu-Yasha grumped as they exited the music store.

"We recognized each other. I...." she mumbled. "I think he asked me out."

"He what?" Inu-Yasha shouted, ignoring Miroku, who was offering him a stick of gum.

Kagome looked up into his face and then down to the hand on her arm. Inu-Yasha removed it and clenched it at his side.

"I don't know why he'd want to go out with you when he can have any of the cheerleaders or dance team chics," he grumbled.

"But I'm a dance team 'chic' already... sort of," Kagome said thoughtfully without noting the rude part of the remark.

Inu-Yasha snatched the gum out of Miroku's hand with a grunt of thanks before he muttered huffily, "Yeah, whatever."

Author's Note:

07/30/03

I did it again. Sorry, my faithful readers. The last time I updated this fanfic was around Easter, and it feels like it's been only one month instead of three. Really, though, I'm sorry I don't update this more, but I've had so much going on. I will explain in a nutshell was has been keeping me from my writing work.

My lazy self.

The last trimester of school was difficult, and I had National Honors Society stuff to work on. Ten hours of service hours done in a month. Yay! (-.-) I nearly cried when I found all that out.

Visited family in Texas, and the week before that I was visiting family in Louiville, and before that family friends came to visit.

My birthday, bubbas! Hell yes! The big sixteen. :3

Driving test for permit. I took it last Tuesday, and a week later (yesterday) me mama and dada bought a car. It's a town car for the entire family because both my 'rents have big vans that eat gas like my brother eating ribs, only the van is a faster consumer. Anyway, the car isn't my car, but I figure that as long as I don't wreck it, it's as good as mine. Heh heh

Summer reading. The Scarlet Letter. Boy, that was a fun read. *rolls eyes* I got it done early because school starts on the fourth of August for me. Excuse me while I go sob.

My anime order came, and I had to finish a couple series.

I was working. Not a job job, mind you, but like plant and baby-sitting and stuff.

Orientation for school. Excuse me while I go sob again.

Anyway, those are pretty much all the reasons I have for not updating sooner. I'm truly sorry, but life has to come before the fanfics. Never thought I would admit that. Just don't spread it around. lol

By they way I am no longer a driving virgin since 07/28/03. I took my dad's behemoth of a Ford Explorer out for a little spin around the neighborhood. In all seriousness I nearly hit an old lately. I swear I couldn't see her.

Now, to talk about the new chapter!

I thought I wasn't going to fool anybody, but maybe you guys suspected and didn't say anything. It doesn't matter, so I'll give y'all the benefit of the doubt. Go back and read chapter seven if you wanna check out how obvious (in my opinion) 'Ryouga's' true identity was. He's captain of the football team (he's the leader of the pack), the mascot is a wolf, he's supa fast, and Kouga gets really pissed when the other team hurts one of his teammates (like in the anime whenever his friends are wounded or killed). Besides, Ryouga doesn't have long dark hair. ^.^ I hope I caught some of you by surprise with that. I was really excited. I thought it was an awesome idea, but I'm too modest to say so. Haha Actually, I'm not, as I'm sure you inferred.

I realize that this is going much too slow, so I promise to speed things up. I feel like I'm still at the beginning of this fanfic, which is good and bad. Good because it'll be long, but bad because it'll be long. I don't when the hell this thing will be over! Haha I hope I'm not scaring any of you away because if I'm going to do this, I'm gonna do it freaking well if not right. lol

Also, I would really appreciate reviews from everyone. ^.^ Nothing makes me happier about writing a fanfic than plenty of nice reviews. Reviewers of Inu-Yasha fanfics are the nicest people, and I'm not saying that to get a nice review if any at all. I really think it's true. Of all the fanfics I read and write, the nicest and most supportive reviewers are Inu-Yasha people. I got some real haters on my Lord of the Rings fanfic, boy howdy, so I know what a bad review is like. Lol

Please, if you do review, I would like it if you would kindly let me know what you thought of the jokes I made in this chapter. I personally think this chapter is excessive in perverted jokes (relative to the other chapters of this fanfic). If it was fine, and you weren't offended, please say so. If you thought the Inu-Yasha molesting the teddy bear was vile, please say so. If you didn't like the bear, screw you because my teddy looks like that, and his name really is Wee-wee. lol I received and named him when I was five, so I that's my only defense for that. I bought a pet rat when I was eight, and I named her B.J. Obviously and undoubtedly, I've always been pretty perverse. Heh heh

To cap off this really long author's note (I'm sure some of you hate that I make mine so long. Sorry.), I have a funny story to tell. It happened just today, actually.

I was walking my dog, and as he was taking a dump (can't be blunter than that, eh?), I tried not to watch him because what would the neighbors think, right? The parents of the child I baby-sit live on that street! Anyway, to distract my eyes and mind, I was reading the license plate on a granny car. It read:

'If you like freedom, thank a vet.'

I thought about that for a minute before I asked myself, "What does an animal doctor have to do with freedom?" Then my brain train chugga-chugged over to the comprehension station where I realized, "Ooohh. Vet for veteran, not veterinarian." Duh, me.

Then my dog pinched off the last bit and was ready to finish our stroll.

That's the end of that.

Again, please review. No one appreciates a review more than the author... unless it's really mean anyway. haha