Hi, here's another chapter.

Arial265: Thanks for reviewing again, glad that you're enjoying the story!

Dragon Pearl1, inuyashakagomefan, & comicfancat: Thank you for your comments, hope you like the rest!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and its characters are the rightful property of their respective owners.  This piece is not for profitable purposes.

Chapter 4: The Party

Hojou leads Kagome and her friends into the home.

Kagome looks around and thinks, 'Wow, there are a lot of people here."

Without understanding why, she finds herself looking through the crowd for Inuyasha.

'Silly girl, there's no way he's here. You came to relax with friends!' Kagome thinks.

"How cool, you got a new stereo since your last party!"

Hojou shakes his head yes and says, "Yeah, my parents got it for me."

Looking reluctant, Hojou says, "I'm going to go greet some more people, I'll meet up with you later, ok?"

"All right, Hojou-kun," Kagome says.

"See you then!"

"Ok."

"Sure."

After pausing a moment, Hojou walks away to greet other guests, while Kagome and her friends mingle with classmates, soon being enveloped in the throng.

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Inuyasha looks around, confused and angry. 

"Most of these houses are this 'Western' style!" he shouts in frustration.

He lifts his face to the air, but cannot seem to pick up Kagome's scent.

"Damn this human form!" he shouts.

"Hey," a voice calls out.

He turns in the direction of the voice and sees two girls and one boy, all about Kagome's age.

"What?" Inuyasha says, expressing his annoyance at their disturbance of his search.

"Are you looking for Hojou's party?"

"Yeah."

"We're going there, too.  It's that house there."

Inuyasha looks in the direction that the girl pointed, and then back at her as he says, "Ok, thanks."

He starts running in that direction, leaving the three teenagers wondering why he was in such a hurry.

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"Everybody's here tonight!"

"It's our precious Saturday night, no one's going to miss this!"

"Yeah."

"You don't think this will put too much stress on your body, considering you just recovered, do you, Kagome-chan?"

Kagome smiles and says, "I'm full of energy tonight!"

"That's great!"
Kagome nods her head yes in response.

"Oh!  I love this song!"

"Me, too, it's awesome!"

"Yeah, it's the greatest!"

Embarrassed that she doesn't recognize it, Kagome thinks, 'It must have been released while I was in the Sengoku Jidai."

"Don't you like this song, Kagome-chan?"

Deciding that, even after the little she's heard, that she does, she nods her head yes and says, "It's great."

The four start to move to the music slightly, so Kagome says, "Let's dance."

Before her friends can respond, Hojou approaches and says, "Higurashi?"

The four girls turn to see Hojou smiling as he looks at Kagome.

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When Inuyasha arrives at the house, he notices that the door is slightly open and opens it further to walk through.  As he enters, his senses are flooded by bright lights and loud noise.

'This is a party?' he thinks.

He shrugs, remembering his original purpose for being here. 

'That damn Hobo, Hoko, whatever his name is!' he thinks.

As he begins to search, even with his pathetic human hearing and the blasting noise, he can still hear conversations, and he is surprised because more than one of them contains questions about him.

"Who is that boy?"

"Does that guy go to our school?"

"He couldn't be our age, maybe he's someone's older brother."

'Keh, who cares what these people think, I have to find her,' he decides as he pushes his way through.

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"Hojou-kun?" Kagome says.

He blushes slightly as he says, "Are – are you enjoying yourself, Higurashi?"

"Yeah, thanks for holding the party."

He places his hand on the back of his head and says, "I'm glad, I didn't know if you'd be here, I was worried you might fall ill again.  Of course, I would be upset that you were sick, not because you weren't at my party, well, I guess both, but definitely more because you were ill!"

Kagome's friends giggle while Kagome thinks, 'Sheesh.'

"Kagome-chan, like you said, let's dance!"

'Dance, with Hojou-kun, but - what am I thinking, it's not like I'd just be dancing with Hojou-kun, it's all of us together!' Kagome thinks.

"Sounds good to me."

"Sure."

Hojou looks at Kagome with a slightly nervous look and says, "Higurashi?"

"Sure."

"Great!" he answers.

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'Damn it, where is she?  Is she, no, she's never even mentioned that moron, it can't be!' Inuyasha thinks as he looks around at clusters of teens in different rooms of the house.

Because of his human form and the number of people, he soon realizes that he won't be able to find her on scent alone.

"Hey, cutie."

Knowing that it isn't Kagome's voice, he turns and sees a girl smiling at him.

"What?" he says.

"Are you here alone?"

"I'm looking for Kagome."

The girl frowns and says angrily, "She must be your girlfriend if you call her by her given name like that."

'Girlfriend, what's that?  Well, Kagome is my friend and a girl,' he thinks.

"Yeah, she is.  Do you know where she is?"

"She's over there, dancing with Hojou-kun," she says with a grin as she points.

Inuyasha turns and sees Kagome smiling broadly as she dances, and a boy next to her, also dancing, and smiling as he watches Kagome.

'Kagome,' Inuyasha thinks.