The mall, surprisingly, was rather crowded. A Thursday night was usually less noisy in Feldspar; the teens waited until Friday to party. However, since the end of school was approaching, every one was fairly rowdy and there were kids from all the nearby schools loitering around the indoor mall.

The FHS students looked suspiciously at the rich, snobby kids from Waters Private Academy in nearby Gilmour. Sesshomaru had often told Kerri he should have gone to school there, but his father always loved Inu Yasha more and wouldn't spend the money on him. Also hanging around were the more shabby kids from Gilmour High, all of them tagging enviously along behind the more prominent WPA students.

There were kids from Deeper, another town about a mile away. The Deeper Samurais were the bitter, long-time rivals of the Feldspar Miners. There was friction between both schools, which intensified due to the glee of the upcoming end of school.

Sojiro had long been a target of the Deeper kids. He was on the tennis team and one of FHS' star players. Tennis had been the pride of Deeper until Sojiro came along and joined the Feldspar team. Every one in Deeper knew who he was. Every one in Deeper hated him.

Unfortunately, in the last big match of the year, Sojiro had messed up. The Deeper kids would never let him live it down and reminded him of his humiliating defeat every chance they got. He fairly flipped out, due to the emotional strain it put on him, and this only served as more fuel for their taunting.

"Look, there's Psycho." One of them called to his friends, "Psycho's here." He mimicked swinging a tennis racket, much to Sojiro's chagrin.

"You should ignore them; that you should." Kenshin said mildly. He was one for trying to keep peace among his friends.

"He's such a weakling, can't even hit a ball right." The tormenting continued, "Can't do anything right."

Maybe it was something about the use of the word "weakling" or maybe it was just the fact that Sojiro had been agitated all evening after watching Crystal fawn over men who already had girlfriends, but something came unhinged in the troubled teen's mind. He started screaming and fell to his knees, banging his head on the wall of Old Navy.

His friends looked appalled. Except for Kenshin, Kaoru and Kerri. They had all seen this behavior before. When things conflicted with each other in Sojiro's mind -such as the way the Deeper tennis player's comment had been in direct opposition to Kenshin's ideal that the weak could do great things- he went haywire.

"Sojiro!" Kaoru exclaimed in dismay, "He was doing so well recently…"

"You do not want to do this, Sojiro." Kenshin bent over his friend, "You'll hurt yourself."

Kerri, however, sat down on the floor next to him. "Sojiro? Sojiro, get up. It doesn't matter what people like that say. They're scum, just like every one in this God-forsaken town. You're not weak. You're stronger than I'll ever be."

His head banged against the wall once more, slowly this time, and he remained there, forehead against the concrete. Tears streamed down his face and he clenched and unclenched his fist.

"What the hell is his problem?" A voice asked in disbelief.

Kerri looked up. Inu Yasha and his three close companions were gawking at the unhappy boy and she quickly understood they had seen the whole head-banging episode. Frowning, she glared at them all.

Sango looked slightly sympathetic -she too had a crappy childhood and still had many issues- and it appeared she almost wanted to do something to help, but she hung back instead. Inu Yasha's expression was a disgusted one, as if he couldn't believe some one would do something so queer in public. Miroku was no longer paying any attention; he had turned to Misao and was trying to flatter her into a date after Aoshi went away. Kagome, however, went right over to Kaoru and asked her what was going on.

"Sojiro gets weird sometimes when things make him feel threatened or mixed up." The track star explained, shrugging. Her long ponytail bobbed with her every movement and her hands fluttered wildly as she spoke. "He's been like that forever. His family was so mean to him and Shishio confused him with a lot of shit a few years ago."

"Shut up! Don't talk about him like that! He's right here! You can't talk about him like he's not here. He might have gone slightly insane for the moment, but he's not some sort of mental case. He can still hear everything." Kerri glared at both preppy girls, "You don't understand. You don't get it!"

"Kerri, calm down before-" Kenshin began, but she cut him off.

"I will not calm down! I don't know what I'm even doing here; all this pretending, the falsity…" She paced in small circles, momentarily forgetting about Sojiro and focusing only on her own unhappiness. Then she stomped off towards the Walden Books.

"She's as crazy as he is…" Inu Yasha muttered.

"Shut up, Idiot." Sojiro looked contemptuously at the underclassman. Then he too stormed away.

Kerri paced around in Walden's debating over what she wanted to do. Call her parents to go home? No; that was out of question. But she wouldn't go back with the Kenshin gang either. They didn't want her. There was no question about that.

"Well, well, Kerri. Out and about and avoiding Inu Yasha, are we?"

She looked over her shoulder to see the pale face of Naraku. He was peering at her curiously, as if unsure whether or not to approach her. His dark eyes held an amused look and a small smile played across his lips. Snarling, she turned back away from him. The junior with the scraggly hair and devious smile was bad news.

Every one suspected the misfit boy was plotting something, but no one was ever sure what. He was the type who would show up at school with a bomb and no one would be surprised. Revenge was his only driving force and he lived to make others miserable. Long-time enemy of Inu Yasha, he had tried to gain the support of both Sesshomaru and the sophomore's former girlfriend, Kikyo. Sesshomaru never bought it, but Kikyo sometimes joined forces with the demonic boy to toy with her ex's heart. Kerri wondered if the two had a thing going on with each other; they suited one another nicely.

"Get lost, Naraku." She grumbled, "I'm trying to think."

"I saw the look on his face when your unbalanced friend flipped out. That was very inconsiderate of him, don't you think?" He pushed his face closer to hers as if daring her to ignore him.

"Shut up."

"Poor little Sojiro, what with his crappy home life and all. He can't be blamed for his insanity. Too many bad things happened to him. I heard he tried to kill his whole family when he was ten. Makoto didn't help matters with all his 'strong people survive' mumbo-jumbo. It's not his fault he's crazy. Inu Yasha shouldn't judge him for it."

"Shut up!"

"Doesn't that make you want to hurt him for his insensitivity? Shouldn't he be punished? Sojiro can't help the things he does. You know that. It isn't his fault and Inu Yasha just made it worse. He deserves to be punished for it."

"Oh, shut your mouth already!" Sesshomaru had come strolling down the aisle, a slightly annoyed look on his face. "You're such a bastard, Naraku, preying on other people's insecurities and weaknesses." He grabbed Kerri by the wrist and dragged her out of the store.

"He didn't get to you, did he?" The blond growled.

"No. He didn't." Kerri jerked her arm free of his grasp.

"Good. Nobody's allowed to torment my brother but me. He proved to be most unsympathetic yet again."

"What are you doing here anyway?" She asked suspiciously.

He rolled his golden eyes. "Dad made me come along to 'baby-sit' Inu Yasha. Plus the kid can't drive yet and I'm forced into being his personal chauffer most of the time."

"Bah."

"You appear to be having a bad night. Why are you here?"

She studied Sesshomaru for a moment, taking in his feminine features, his aristocratic expression. She understood at that moment why so many girls chased after him; he was very attractive. But his eyes…they were a total turn-off. Cold and calculating, his eyes held no emotion other than disdain.

"I'm here because I'm a moron. Tokio called me after school and begged me to hang out with her friends and I stupidly agreed. The whole night has been one long disaster and the only person who truly wanted me here just lost it. Sojiro's going to be off-kilter for a while. No point in try to interact with him the rest of the night." She sighed.

"Coming with them was pretty stupid on your part." He agreed.

She glared at him. And he talked about Inu Yasha being insensitive…

"But I do feel sorry for Sojiro. What his family did to him, that's pretty rotten. He's eighteen. Why didn't he move out of that hellhole?"

"You don't understand." She brushed her hair from her eyes, "They might seem like crap, but they're all he's got."

"He's got you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, come now. The two of you are always together, always with one another. Don't tell me you don't have some sort of relationship going on."

"He's my only friend. Of course we do stuff together. But I do not have a 'thing' with Sojiro!"

Sesshomaru regarded her evenly. She was beginning to fidget and that was a sure sign she would blow a fuse eventually. While she wouldn't go quite as crazy as Sojiro had, she tended to get rather violent towards others when upset. Her voice was rising and falling, becoming shriller as she spoke.

"Kerri, you should-"

"Stop! I've had more than enough of you for one evening. I'm going to go as crazy as he is if I don't get away from you." She turned and stormed away from him.

Kerri wound up in the Starbucks for while. She didn't like coffee, but she could get a decent cup of tea, better than anything she could get at McDonald's. She needed to relax and she knew it. Drinking tea was the best way she could think of. Warm chai, a dash of cream, two sugars, a hint of lemon…She sat watching kids wander through the mall while she sipped it and munched on a chocolate chip cookie.

"Was he okay?"

Looking up, her gaze met Sango's. She never understood why the younger girl hung around with Inu Yasha and his friends. Dark-haired, dark-eyed and rather distant, Sango was nearly as bleak and dismal as Kerri herself. No one knew what happened to her mother, but every one was well aware of the fact that she'd witnessed her little brother's kidnapping as a child and never got completely over it. Kohaku had been returned to her and their father after some time, but he hadn't been the same since. The girl preferred to be by herself, but some people speculated she tagged along with Inu Yasha and co. because she had a thing for the perverted Miroku.

"Huh?" Kerri blinked. She had been lost in the Styrofoam cup of tea, forgetting nearly everything around her.

"Sojiro. Was he okay?"

"Yeah. It was just one of his turns. He has bad days sometimes." Kerri shrugged, "He'll be fine in an hour or two."

"An hour or two?" She blinked her gray eyes, "What exactly is wrong with him?"

"What's wrong with any of us? Nothing is 'wrong' with Sojiro. He's been both physically and emotionally abused, but he has no mental problems. It's not like he isn't all there. People don't understand him. If we go by your logic, you're pretty messed up too."

"I know." She let out a breath, "Psychological trauma is the worst kind. That's what my shrink says…I'm always thinking 'Maybe if had been smarter or stronger or older I could have prevented the whole thing. Maybe I could have kept Kohaku safe and he would still be the same.' It was my fault. Dad tells me that all the time. I'm his big sister; I should have watched him more carefully."

"That's terrible! You were only a kid yourself."

"Dad needs to blame some one. He chose me."

"That bites."

"How about you? By my standards, you'd be messed up."

Another shrug from Kerri. "It's a typical story of self pity. My parents are well-to do and not big on the emotional support. I'm an only child, treated like an adult since I was old enough to talk, starved for attention. No one remembers when I missed school for a month in my sophomore year because they don't care enough about me, but I had tried to commit suicide and was in a mental hospital."

Sango looked at her morosely. "I remember that." She said softly, "I was a freshman then, but I was at the same hospital, being treated for severe depression."

The two girls stared at one another for a moment, then Kerri spoke again. "Sojiro, he should go there. But his father won't pay for it. My mom and dad were told that my suicide attempt was a cry for attention. The therapist said I was starved for attention. They didn't listen. They go on like nothing happened. I have this scar, see?" She held up her left wrist, "They pretend it's not there. It's like that whole damn month never happened. As long as things appear perfect, they are perfect."

"Perfect is just a word that ignorant people made up. Nothing could ever be 'perfect.' I hate that word."

"I agree." She paused, "Why aren't we friends, Sango?"

"Don't know. You're older than me; we never had any classes together."

"That doesn't stop you from hanging out with Miroku."

Sango's face turned bright red. Kerri ignored it and continued.

"Inu Yasha and Kagome are younger than you. You hang around with them too. Age has nothing to do with it." There was another pregnant pause, "Are you afraid of me?"

Nothing but stunned silence from Sango.

"I understand if you are. I'm pretty depressing and creepy. People are frightened by me. I'm used to it. You spend all this time waiting for something, but you get tired of the waiting. When you get too tired, you do something about it. You lock yourself away. People get even more frightened by that."

"I'm not afraid of you." The younger girl smiled a queer half-smile, "I don't see anything wrong about the fact that you're different from most people. It makes you more intriguing."

Kerri smiled slightly. "I don't care what any one else thinks, you know? I'd rather be me and friendless than somebody else and loved for it." She stood up, "I'm leaving. See you around."

"Hey, wait, give me your number. We can do something over break."

"Get it from Kaoru." She wandered out of the Star Bucks, leaving Sango sitting there and feeling more confused about her.