"My mom and dad think you're a girl." Kerri slumped into the leather seat of Kamatari's purple Beetle.

"And?"

"They think you're a girl!! What's not to understand about that?" What if, she wondered, what if I wind up liking him? I think I do already…I don't want my parents to think I'm a lesbian. This whole thing had potential to turn into a big mess.

"I'm comfortable with who I am." He shrugged, popping a disc into the CD player.

Random drifted out from the speakers.

I hear your voice callin',
I go running back to you.
Just like an angel that's fallen,
I had died for you.
Oh where, oh where did I go wrong?

"I like this song. I hope they play it at the concert."

"Oh, you like Random?" Kerri was surprised by this. He didn't seem the type to like a rock band like Random. She could picture him listening to pop.

"I love Random." He smiled, "They're really good."

"Yeah." He was surprisingly easy to talk to. She hadn't felt so at ease near another person in a long time. Even Sojiro made her nervous sometimes. She never knew what would set him off. Kamatari had no strange quirks that she could see other than his homosexual tendencies. She had never thought she would be so comfortable with a gay person.

They trounced around the mall together, Kamatari picking out things he thought would look good on Kerri and forcing her to try them on. Most of them were bright and cheery, stuff she could never picture herself wearing.

"I feel like such a prep!" She laughed after parading out of a fitting room in one particular outfit, "This is so not my style."

"You look so cute!"

"How come you're not trying anything on?" Kerri giggled as she looked at herself in a mirror. She was wearing khakis and a white button down shirt with a sugar pink sweater over it. "This might look better in black." She commented.

"No more black!" He chided her, "Although the pants might look good in gray. Gray and pink look all right together. And I'm not trying anything on because I have a lot of clothes already." He picked up a floppy bucket hat from a shelf and plopped it on her head.

"Kamatari!" She laughed, pushing the hat up off her eyes, "You're going to make me look so preppy!"

"You could be so cute if you put a little more thought into your wardrobe. You'd be chasing the guys away."

"I'm not cute…Not like you." She disappeared back into the dressing room, "You'll always be a prettier girl than me and you aren't even a girl."

"Give yourself a little credit, Sweetie. You're really pretty. You're just so depressing all the time. That's why we're perking up the wardrobe a little."

"I love you, Kamatari. You're such a good friend." She reappeared back in her normal clothes, a bluish-black tank and jeans.

"You love me?" The cross-dresser blinked.

She blushed. "Well, you know what I mean. I feel like I've known you for a long time."

"I know what you mean." A very adorable smile crossed his face, "You're easy to get along with. I don't know why every one avoids you."

She felt her heart melt at his expression. He was so cute. And he was nice to her too. She thought she would have been more repulsed by the idea of a gay man, but he was so charming and polite. Suddenly, she wanted to hold his hand. "Can…Can I…" She hesitated, "…Never mind."

"Oh? What is it, Sweetie?"

"Nothing." She picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder, "Come on, I'm hungry."

"Well, let's go get something to eat then."

"Hey, Kerri, over here!" Kagome caught sight of the dark, angst-ridden girl as soon as she and Kamatari wandered into Friendly's. It surprised her to see Kerri out and about again, much less with that other girl. She'd seen the other girl around school, but didn't know they were friends.

Kerri looked around when she heard her name. Kagome, Inu Yasha, Miroku and Sango were in a corner booth together and Kagome was waving at her. "C'mon, Kamatari." She dragged the boy over to their table.

"Hello, Kerri." Sango said to her, "Who's your friend?"

"This is Kamatari." Kerri rolled her eyes. She hated all the formality that came with introductions, "That's Sango, Kagome, Inu Yasha and Miroku."

The cross-dresser waved a cheerful hello to all of them, then grinned when his gaze came to rest on Miroku. "Got a girlfriend yet?" He asked teasingly.

"Not exactly…" The other boy's face turned slightly red and he glanced furtively at Sango, "How about you?"

"Miroku…" Sango looked perplexed, "Why would she want a girlfriend?" She blinked her dark eyes.

"Kamatari is a guy, Sango." Miroku sighed.

"A guy? Seriously?" She looked at the upperclassman, studying his pretty face. Then a thought crossed her mind and her face turned very red. She looked sharply at Miroku. "You didn't! …Did you??"

"Well, um…"

"You sicko!" She whacked him over the head.

"I didn't know, okay?" He defended himself.

Kamatari giggled. "Yeah, he asked me out. Back in tenth grade. There weren't very many people then who knew I'm a guy. But he's not really my type and, anyway, I was infatuated with Shishio back then."

Inu Yasha and Sango looked horrified. Kagome's face palled slightly and Miroku sank down in his seat.

Kerri laughed. She was amused by all of this. Kamatari's attitude towards everything was so blithe. He didn't care what other people thought of him, whether they liked him or not and if they pointed or stared, that was fine with him. He looked good as a girl and that was all that mattered to him. She wanted to be like that, unconcerned about what the rest of the world thought of her.

"So, what are you two doing here?" Kagome recovered enough to ask.

"We're just hanging out." Kerri said nonchalantly, "He says I should get colorful clothes for when I go away, so we're shopping."

"You want to eat with us? We just ordered."

Kerri looked at Kamatari. He shrugged. She turned back to the cheerleader. "I guess so. Scoot over."

"I will not eat with that here!" Inu Yasha grumbled, folding his arms across his chest. He wouldn't look at Kamatari, much less move over to make room for the two seniors in the booth.

"Inu Yasha!" Kagome frowned menacingly, "What is your problem??"

"He's a sicko…A queer…I don't wanna eat with him."

Kerri's eyebrow twitched. "What are you…Shut up, you moron! He never did anything to you."

"It's okay, Sweetie." Kamatari patted her on the shoulder, then looked down at the boy, "You have nothing to worry about. I don't go after puppies like you. You're definitely not my type."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Inu Yasha jumped up from his seat, his fist clenched.

"Will you sit down and quit causing a scene?" Kagome buried her face in her hands, "Move over and let them in. You don't have to sit by him. God, I never knew you were a homophobe. I knew you had a lot of quirks but…Just sit down."

"No way!"

"You're so stubborn!"

"Bite me."

"Look, we don't have to sit here." Kamatari's voice put an end to their argument, "If you're that opposed to it, we can go somewhere else. Kerri looks like she's about to blow a fuse, so it would be good for us not to stay.

"No, you can sit here. Inu Yasha is outnumbered any way, so stay." She dragged him over in the seat, "Kerri, you'd better sit next to him. The last thing we need is him picking a fight with Kamatari."

Inu Yasha's dark eyes narrowed and he sat in stony silence, glaring across the table. Kerri plopped down cautiously next to him and Kamatari pushed her over to sit next to her, a cheerful smile on his face.

The cross-dressing boy soon struck up a conversation with Kagome and Sango about clothes while Kerri watched, amazed. She was intrigued by the fact that they didn't seem to care that here was a guy prattling on like a girl. Even Miroku looked a little bit miffed by the behavior of his female companions and he sat there blinking.

Finally, he turned his attention to Kerri. "Are you going to the prom?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "Uh-uh. Sojiro and I were going to go together, but he has college orientation next weekend and can't go. He'll be in Fairbrook. Besides, that's not my sort of thing." She paused for a moment, "Are you going?"

"Of course. And I'm taking Sango."

"Really?" Her eyebrows went up.

"Oh, yeah." Sango joined the conversation, "But I warned him. Any funny business and he's dead."

Kerri snickered. Miroku would be all over Sango. She wouldn't be safe on prom night. Either that, or Miroku would be murdered by her.

"Are you going, Kamatari?" Miroku asked pointedly. He was a little curious about whether or not the homosexual boy would go and what he would wear if he did -Dress? Or tux?

He shook his head, his hair bouncing around his face. "Nope. No date. And I had a pretty new dress too."

"Kerri has no date." Kagome said slowly.

"Don't remind me, you little-" Kerri began, her mood swinging to a new low, but Kagome continued quickly, cutting her off.

"I didn't mean to insult you. If you'd let me finish, you'd understand."

"Go on…"

"Kamatari also has no date. Why don't you go together?"

Go together? Kerri blinked. She looked at Kamatari. He looked rather pensive, as if mulling over this new idea. Then he smiled. "I'd like that."

More blinking. Kerri's mind was racing. How could she possibly go with Kamatari? What would people say? More than ever, they would get the wrong idea of her. Half the senior class still believed Kamatari was a girl…they would be seen as…Did it really matter any more? Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. She did want to go, but not alone. Did she want to go with the school's only homosexual? What to do?

"All right. I'll go with you." She surprised even herself by saying it. She wasn't sure what exactly she wanted to prove by doing this. Her emotions and feelings at that point weren't clear. Katsuhiro, Kamatari, Sojiro…Whom did she truly want to be with? Who could she trust?

Who would be least likely to stab her in the back?