A/N: Okay, here is the second installment. This isn't going to be a long fic, maybe seven chapters at the most. I'll get them out as quick as I can. Sorry it took so long, and for the hang-up on A Fighter's Story. Here's the thing. My computer got a worm virus and all of my files were destroyed when my brother tried to clean out my system. Now I have to re-write them ALL!!! I'm going so slow, I know, but it's been a really bad couple of weeks. Forgive me… Enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the song that I used for a title.

All I Want For Christmas is You

Chapter 2: Ketchup?

Kagome dreaded school. She loathed it. She cursed it. She wished unpleasant things upon it. In the end her mother made her go. So she brushed her teeth and her hair and put on proper preppy clothes that her mother had picked out--jeans and a sweater vest. Then her father drove her to the school, then got her registered for classes. He kissed Kagome's cheek and departed to do the same for Souta at the middle school. Thus leaving Kagome out to dry in a new place, all alone.

"Wonderful," the dour teen said to herself, standing outside of the main office, waiting for her student escort. She sighed, leaning against the wall, shivering a little. God, why was it always so cold in New Jersey? Girls like her just weren't meant for the cold climates.

"Hi!" said a cheery voice from beside her. Kagome turned and found herself looking at a girl around her age with sparkling brown eyes and short black hair that was held up in a single tail. She smiled sweetly and extended her hand. "I'm Rin, you're student escort."

"'Lo," Kagome said with a smile, shaking the offered hand. "I'm Kagome."

"It's nice to meet you," Rin said happily. "Well, let's get this tour started, ne?"

"Sure, why not?" Kagome said with a grin and a bow. Rin giggled and went first. She seemed to fall into a certain mode when giving the tour. A more commanding appearance despite her small stature and sweet appearance. Kagome liked Rin from the start.

The high school was larger than her old one had been. There were two floors, the top one devoted to all History classes and their elective courses, like psychology. The bottom floor was broken up into several hallways dedicated to different subjects. The main hall was for English classes and such electives. On the right side of the hall were the Art Wing, the Science Wing, and the Mathematics Wing. The left side of the main hall was for Foreign Language, Electives like band and cooking, along with the gym and cafeteria.

Kagome was amazed that anyone could memorize such a huge place like Rin could, but Rin had been in the school two more years than Kagome, so it was only expected. Kagome hefted her nearly-empty backpack higher on to her shoulder. It was light, considering there were no books in it. She's get the rest of the stuff she needed for class, along with her books, when she got to the classes. By the time the tour ended, it was already second period and Rin offered to take Kagome to the class.

"Well, I hope you enjoy going to our school," Rin said with a smile.

"I hope so too. I just wish that I could've gone to first period. I had band."

"I have band first period too," Rin said, her brown eyes sparkling. "It's a great class, if you love music that is. If you don't like it that much I guess the class could be a drag. But I love music so the class is the greatest for me."

"Do you always babble?" Kagome asked, then blushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude."

Rin giggled again. It was a child-like sound but it suited her perfectly. "It's ok. I talk a lot, even about nothing at all. I just hate when it's quiet, you know."

"Yeah, I understand," Kagome agreed.

"Well, have a good day Kagome."

"Thanks Rin." They shared a smile, then parted ways.

After Rin left her, Kagome's day was decidedly horrible. It was excruciatingly slow, every passing second like a year. She was given book after book, and a list of work to make sure she caught up with all the other students. Kagome had always been a brilliant student, so the work wasn't what bothered her. What bothered her was the continued stares and whispers from the other students that had her bristling. It was too much like home for comfort. Even though these people could have had no idea what happened that night at the end of summer, they looked at her as if they all knew exactly what had happened in that car. It sent a shiver to her soul.

When lunch came around, she sat alone at a table, pulling the earphones of her cd player over her head and drowning herself in the music of pulsating rock. She tried to ignore the stares and laughs and whispers. Then again, Kagome was a practiced high schooler. She knew the stations and kept her eye on the table that alerted her as to who was more important than others. She also kept her eyes on those who would obviously cause trouble. The table across from her housed the future criminally insane, so she pretty comfortable in their presence. Kagome had always been on the best of terms with the 'out-cast' crowd.

When a bottle came flying at her head, Kagome reached up and caught it, setting it down next to her and going back to reading the comic book she slipped into her bag with the notebook in hopes her mother wouldn't catch her. That earned her a few more stares, but these were stares of appraisal by the table in across from hers. The ones who through the bottle to begin with. No one talked to her, she didn't talk to anyone else. It was a mutual issue of ignorance about the projectile. That had been her test, and as far as Kagome could tell, she had passed. It was just at that moment when someone hopped into a seat at the table in front of her.

Kagome looked up at the sitter. It was a girl, probably a junior as well, with long dark hair held out of her face, dressed all in black complete with black lipstick and eyeliner. She was a goth, but for some reason, it looked good on her. Her skin was a tawny color and her eyes were an exotic mixture of lavender and gray. She smiled.

"Hey, got any ketchup?" she asked.

Kagome blinked, then took off her headphones. "I beg your pardon?" The girl blushed lightly, the color accenting the darkness of her look and making her seem all the more pretty.

"I wanted to know if you had any ketchup." Kagome smiled and shook her head.

"Sorry, ketchup doesn't go with peanut butter for me." The girl nodded, still smiling.

"I also wanted to apologize for the bottle. My friends can be a little over-zealous," she explained, turning to look at the rowdy table. They were all hooting and hollering and laughing hysterically at the antics of one particular boy. Kagome didn't get too good a look at him. His back was to her and he had a black knit hat over his head.

"It's cool," Kagome brushed it off. "I've seen and experienced worse at my old school."

"Really? Where you from?"

"Florida," Kagome said as the bell rang. She tucked the headphones and comic book back into her bag. "It's been nice talking to you."

"You too," the girl said with another friendly smile. "See you around." With that she turned and ran back over to the other table, leaping on the back of one onlooker, and swatting at the head of the joker. Kagome didn't watch long.

When the last period was over, Kagome hung back until all of the other students were gone. Her mother was going to pick her up, but Kagome knew how her mother was. When she said 3 o'clock, she really meant 4. It never bothered Kagome really. She had no desire to go running home, except that she wanted to play her guitar a little before starting the mountain of work she had to do.

After a few minutes, the buses were full and pulling out. A few of the teachers lingered, but most of them were also on their way out. Kagome took the opportunity to wander towards the music classroom in the Elective Wing. There was still a teacher in the doorway, an elderly woman who was humming a song under her breath as she zipped up the front of her coat and walked toward the exit. Kagome hid out in a stairwell until the coast was clear, then she snuck into the music room.

It was a stadium setup in the room, a small chalkboard and music stand in the center of the room, a six stairs in a spiral that led to the floor with the door. There was enough room on each stair for a student, a chair, and a music stand. The closer to the top, the more students could sit. The music room in her old high school was dwarfed by this room. Kagome walked around a moment or two before going to the set up instruments and looking them over.

There, in the back of the other instruments, was an acoustic guitar. Kagome's heart pounded at the sight. It was a beautiful thing indeed. It was a polished wood model with a design of vines and a flower burned into the wood. When her fingers wrapped around the neck of the guitar, she felt at home, as strange as it may sound. No matter where she was, or what she did, as long as a guitar was in her hands, Kagome Higurashi was just fine.

Kagome sat on one of the chairs and placed the guitar on her knee. She began to strum with her fingers first. Then she reached under the collar of her shirt and lifted off the chair that was hidden beneath it. On the chain hung three guitar picks; one neon green with a Christmas Tree in the middle; the second was black with the yellow image of a cat's profile; the third was deep blue with a gray shark in the center. She unhooked the shark pick and then tugged the chain around her neck again. With the pick in her fingers, Kagome strummed until it began to sound like the rhythm of a song she had written a year earlier for Eri, a tribute to an old friend of theirs. There was no one around to hear her, so Kagome sang.

"She was kind of strange,

He was kind of not,

No matter what they did,

No one thought they had a shot,"

Rin and Sango walked down the hallway from Sango's locker. She had to grab her things so that after practice they could just split and go home. It was tradition that the two of them stay after school three times a week to get extra practice since neither of them could take their instruments home with them every day.

"You are kidding me, right?" Rin asked, two seconds away from falling over from laughing. "He quoted Fight Club at Ms. Nona?"

"I swear to all things holy, Inuyasha stood up at his desk, all sweet and innocent, looked her straight in the eye," Sango demonstrated for Rin just how much audacity their friend had by acting out what happened as if she were the boy in question and Rin was the teacher. "Then, he said right to her face, 'I feel like a Mongolian rape victim still bound in duct tape.'"

Both girls laughed hysterically, hanging on to each other for support. "Oh God," Rin cried at last. "One day he's going to piss off the wrong person."

"I am totally going to be there when he gets what's coming to him," Sango laughed, coughing into her hand, but careful not to smug her black lipstick. "So you gave the new girl the tour this morning, right?"

"Yeah, she's really nice," Rin said, wiping an imaginary tear from her eye as she giggled.

"I talked to her at lunch. The Twerp Squad chucked a bottle at her head."

"What she do?" Rin asked in concern.

Sango grinned. "Caught it and put it down without even looking up from her issue of Spiderman."

"Wow, I bet Inuyasha was pissed. I know how much he likes the right to initiate the 'newbies.'"

"I think he was too busy making fun of Miroku to care much, but he said he was going to try again tomorrow."

"He better hurry," Rin warned. "We get Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving."

Sango was about to reply when she heard a foreign sound coming from the music room. "You hear that?" she asked her companion.

"Sounds like someone singing," Rin said, looking up.

"And it sounds like someone playing Inuyasha's guitar."

"Crushes in junior high,

Love that was left behind,

Too young to take a chance,

Never had the opportunity to rewind,"

"That is not Inuyasha," Sango whispered.

"That is too good to be Inuyasha," Rin said, her voice just as quiet.

"Better yet, that's a girl!" Sango said with a jovial smile. "I wonder who it is?"

"Well," Rin said like it was stating the obvious. "Let's go see!" The two teenagers raced down the hallway, skidding to a stop at the open door to the music room, trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the musician.

"Where is her love struck Romeo?

Juliet has abandoned her balcony,

What happened to this classic love story?

Romeo watches her pass,

Juliet wishes he'd ask,

What happened to this classic love story?"

Sango and Rin's eyes both widened when they say the source of the song. Kagome by this time had gotten to involved in her song to notice the two girls who were watching from the doorway. She hopped up, standing on the chair. Her hands moved deftly over the cords, hitting just the right notes to do her song and voice justice. She rocked her body back and forth, not so that she'd disrupt the song, but just enough to feel the internal rhythm. Her head moved as well, black hair falling into her face, but left untouched.

"He left his poems for a football,

She left the ballet slippers for army boots,

Pep rallies and cheerleaders were his world,

She pledged to always remember her roots.

He forgot what it was to really smile,

It was habit to speak her mind,

He followed all the crowds to never be alone,

She liked to take her chances and she what she could find.

"Where is her love struck Romeo?

Juliet has abandoned her balcony,

What happened to this classic love story?

Romeo watches her pass,

Juliet wishes he'd ask,

What happened to this classic love story?

"They say that opposites attract,

And this is surely true,

When true love can be truly found,

The concept is fairly new.

And as for Juliet and her Romeo,

I guess the truth is we'll never know.

"Where is her love struck Romeo?

Juliet has abandoned her balcony,

What happened to this classic love story?

Romeo watches her pass,

Juliet wishes he'd ask,

What happened to this classic love story?"

Kagome ended on a high note, panting slightly but none the less pleased. What surprised her was the round of applause that came from the doorway. Rin, the girl who gave her the tour that morning, and the Ketchup-girl had been listening? Kagome blushed fiercely and held the guitar in front of her as if it could protect her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was here," Kagome said quickly.

"That was wonderful!" Rin praised. "Where did you hear that?"

"I wrote it," Kagome said weakly, the blood rushing to her face. "Last year. It was kinda flat, I know, but it was for my friend."

"It was great!" the other girl insisted. "You have a lot of talent." Kagome hung her head, a curtain of black shielding her face.

"Thanks," was the oh-so-intelligent reply.

"It's Kagome, isn't it?" the goth girl asked.

"Yeah," Kagome confirmed. "And you're the Ketchup girl." She laughed and extended her hand.

"Yeah, that's right. But my friends call me Sango." Kagome shook the offered hand and smiled.

"It's a pleasure."

"Back at ya." After a silent moment, Kagome put the guitar back where she found it and them clipped her pick back on to the chain around her neck. When she turned around, both girls were still there, whispering under their breath to each other. "I have to be going," Kagome said with a cough. "My mom is picking me up."

"Hold on a sec," both girls chorus, giving chase. "We have a proposition for you."

"A proposition?" Kagome asked, a little unsure of herself.

"We have a band," Sango explained. "Me and Rin here. Actually, it's not much of a band."

"There is only the two of us," Rin clarified. "We've got a few friends who play, but they're all guys who only play what they like and never let us play our stuff. Sango and I branched out, trying to form our own band, but we're lacking an important element."

"In other words, we need someone who can sing and play," Sango finished. "I can sing a little, but I'm not good for hitting those high notes that you can." Kagome blushed and smiled.

"It's a gift." The other two laughed.

"I play drums," Rin said with pride. "Been playing since I was thirteen. My father got them for me as a birthday present to drive my mother crazy."

"Drums take skill," Kagome replied with admiration. "I'd love to hear you play." Rin went pink and smiled.

"I can play the keyboard," Sango said, to take the focus off the shier of the two. "I dabble a little with the bass as well, but not good enough to play in the band. I've been taking piano since I was five."

"Now that's talent." Kagome was in awe. Two other music lovers with a band of their own--asking her to join! It was like a dream come true.

"How long have you been playing?" Rin asked Kagome.

"Since I was ten. It's my passion." They all smiled. They had the same love of song. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"I think you're right," Sango agreed.

"Definitely," Rin smiled.

Rin and Sango explained to Kagome about how they stayed after school three times a week to practice for the band, with the blessing of their instructor, Kaede. When her mother finally came to pick her up, Kagome had exchanged numbers with Sango and Rin, promising to call them that night to plan tomorrow. And so, The Shikon Jewels were three.

A/N: Here's the end of chapter two. I have to write fast to finish this before Christmas. Your reviews will help me go faster, so please review! (I have no shame in asking for reviews…) Please?!