My first Alternative Universe fic! Sorry if it's very weird, feel free to write to me and vent your fury…

I want to apologize on beforehand for Shippou, who is insanely out of character. Actually, the only thing I kept was his name, and the colour of his hair. Think of it as an extraordinary coincidence that this strange boy, a fabricate of my weird imagination, is called Shippou too. Or something.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story… or wait a minute… I do. Some of them are purely of my own invention. But all the ones you recognize aren't owned by me… well, you know. And I won't put any more disclaimers in this story, it's boring to write it before every goddamn chapter. This is the big disclaimer, and it should last through the entire story.

If you won't risk anything…

It was the first day of school. Sango Gari stood before the gates of Sunset Highschool. She had just moved and was new in town, with no friends and no one to look to if things got too scary. But hey – if you won't risk anything you can't win anything, right?

Taking a deep breath, Sango walked in through the gates and up to the school. Well inside she found her way to the principal's office easily, following the huge neon-blue signs saying "OFFICEà", "COME THIS WAY" and "YOU CAN'T MISS IT". In a matter of minutes she stood before Mr Higurashi, principal of Sunset High.

"Ah… miss Gari, I take it? You are very welcome to this school. Did you have a hard time finding the office?"

"Well…no," said Sango, feeling a bit confused. "I just followed the blue signs… They showed the way very well, it's not as if they were hard to see…" The principal regarded her with an equally confused expression and then put a hand to his forehead and called out to his secretary,

"Miss Lime, send for Shippou, would you? And call my doctor and place an order for another two packets of headache pills."

"Roger," called the secretary and Mr Higurashi turned his attention back to Sango, looking at her in silence for a long while.

"Do you believe in Student Rights, miss Gari?" he asked suddenly, making her jump. "Were you a member of the Student Council at your last school? Are you fond of standing up for the majority of students, speaking with the voice of democracy to convince the teachers of what needs to be done?"

"No," said Sango blandly. She had always stood up for herself, but as for speaking for a whole school, all with different opinions…the idea had never seemed tempting.

"Good," snapped Mr Higurashi. "That is not needed here."

He turned away from her and walked over to the open window, leaning out and looking down into the school grounds.

"You will find, miss Gari, that at this school it is not the teachers who are in charge and rule over the students – it is rather the other way around. Legend has it that once in the school's glorious beginning a witch put a spell on the entire school, sentencing it to live in constant anarchy…"

Sango, who had started to feel a bit freaked out when the principal's eyes unfocused (somewhere around the word "legend"), cleared her throat loudly. Mr Higurashi twitched and turned back around, looking surprised to find her still there.

"Oh yes… you have to get someone to show you around and things like that, don't you? Well, just wait outside here and I'll see if I can find someone for you."

Sango sat down in a chair in the secretary's office, seriously considering to run home and apply for another school. This place seemed like a total nuthouse – the principal at least was a cracked case if she ever saw one.

'Well, he might have been exaggerating about the rest of the school… some kind of neurotic problem, of course. Agoraphobia or such. I'll stay for the rest of this first day and check it out. If it's as bad as Mr. Crackpot here says, there's no point going here.'

At that moment the door was kicked open and a boy who seemed to be in her own age or a little older stepped into the office. He was dressed in a pair of pants that might once have been part of a school uniform but now resembled nothing more than a piece of abstract art, and a singlet that had fared about as well as the pants – ripped, torn, splashed with paint in every colour of the rainbow. His red hair was done in dreadlocks and gathered together in a short, fat ponytail almost at the top of his head. He had paintbrushes sticking out of his front and back pockets and neon-blue paint on his nose.

"Yo, Princie-Pal!" he yelled, grinning and yanking the door to Mr Higurashi's office open. "You know we needed signs to point out the way to the office, it's a freaking maze!"

"Come in, why don't you, Shippou?" said the principal calmly. As Shippou stepped in and let the door close behind him, Sango thought she could hear Mr Higurashi say,

"It's just the colour. Did it have to be blue?"

She turned to stare at the secretary, who smiled sweetly.

"He's such a talented boy."

                                                        *************

A quarter of an hour later Sango was still sitting in the same chair, and starting to become a little annoyed. The secretary, seeing her unrest, smiled kindly and gave her a small wink.

"He is a bit absentminded, the old dear," she confided, and then yelled,

"Higurashi!"

Mr Higurashi stuck his head out of the door.

"Still here? Oh yes, I think there was a spot of trouble with finding someone to show you around. You'll just have to grab someone yourself in the corridor."

"But – " Sango began and was interrupted when the principal started to shoo her towards the door.

"Now, now, don't be nervous. He who won't risk anything can't win anything, remember that!" And with that he shut the door in her face.

"WHAAAAT?!!" She felt like screaming. What the hell was this place? And how dare he use her proverb?

She turned around and started marching down the corridor, weaving through the students with expertise. She had decided – this was not the school for her. She would go back out, she would hail a cab or something, she would go home and call her dad and then she –

"Ooof!" She had walked straight into someone, almost knocking them over. She felt her cheeks begin to flush and muttered an apology, intending to go on her way. However, her plans were ruined.

"But you're a new girl!" said an oh-so-cheery voice. The kind of voice that would have made you want to strangle the owner, if it hadn't been so painfully obvious that the owner in question was more innocent than anything put on this earth, with the possible exception of small fluffy bunnies.

Sango looked up and saw that the voice belonged to the boy she had run into. He had brown hair and eyes and a face that positively radiated honesty and naivety.

"How did you know I'm new?"

"You're in uniform," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm Hojo. You haven't gotten anyone to show you around yet, have you? It's no problem, I've got some spare time." Sango found herself being pulled along. Somehow it seemed impossible to break free of his well-meaning chatter and endless stream of information.

"…So this is where you'll have your locker, for a padlock you see Bunny in class 3FX7… Let's see that folder, yep, you're going to have English in here… and here is the CAFETERIA, haven for the needy. Come on, let's grab a soda." He dropped a couple of coins in a machine and handed her a can. Then he dragged her out into the grounds, still talking about anything under the sun.

"Yo, Hojo!" called a voice suddenly. "Bring the newbie over here!"

"Ah, great!" smiled Hojo, leading Sango over to a group of people sitting on a table. "These are some of my best friends, so you'll be in good hands. I have to go now but I'll see you tomorrow in P.E.!"

"How do you feel?" laughed the girl who had called out to them after Hojo left, looking at Sango. "Breathless, huh?"

Sango nodded numbly and the girl laughed again.

"Hojo does that to you. Heart of gold, but kind of scary sometimes. The best part is that he'll have memorized your entire timetable by now, and if you ever look lost he's going to pop up, saying "Oh, your class is on my way. I'll take you there." You'll get used to it after a while. My name's Kagome, by the way." She stuck out her hand and Sango shook it.

"I'm Sango," she said.

"Ahh… A beautiful name for a beautiful girl!" said the guy on Kagome's right, taking Sango's hand and shaking it as well, holding on to it a bit longer than necessary. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, and had several earrings and hair that was just long enough to fit in a ponytail. Also, he was gorgeous.

Sango could feel a blush coming on and was saved by Kagome, who seized a book and hit the boy in the head.

"Behave! She's new! Don't mind him, Sango, his mother didn't hug him often enough when he was a kid, thus he grew up to be like this."

"You are wrong, Kagome, my mother did hug me quite a lot. It was kisses I was lacking. Would you like to make up for it, Sango?" He grinned at her, and was once again hit by Kagome's book.

"His name's Miroku, by the way. And this is Inu-yasha." She jerked her thumb towards the white-haired boy on her left.

"Yo," said Inu-yasha, not lifting his eyes from the little boat he was carving from a piece of wood – with a knife the length of his own forearm.

"So how are you finding things at the school?" asked Kagome, apparently not noticing Sango's shocked stare. "How much did Gramps tell you?"

"Gramps?"

"My last name is Higurashi."

"Oh. Um, he said it was total anarchy here," said Sango hesitantly, drawing her eyes away from Inu-yasha. "So I'm thinking about leaving."

"Leaving?!" shouted Kagome and Miroku simultaneously. Inu-yasha didn't even look up. "Are you nuts?"

"Well, I want to learn and get into a good college," Sango answered, feeling a little flustered. God, she was sounding like some kind of goody-two-shoes… "I've always wanted to become a doctor, and if I can't learn stuff here I won't manage in college and that's why I don't think this school is for me. I need a proper school."

Both Kagome and Miroku relaxed visibly and started smiling.

"Oh, is that all you're worried about," said Miroku. "Then it's no prob."

"See, we still have normal classes," Kagome explained. "No point going to school otherwise, is there? And we have tests, and grades. Everyone knows they have to study, so everyone studies. But we can choose our methods of studying to suit ourselves. If we don't like a teacher then we tell them how we want them to teach, or fire the teacher and hire a new one. And we don't have any rules. Who needs rules? You can pretty much figure out on your own what you can and can't do, right?"

"You've heard of Student Democracy, haven't you?" asked Miroku. Sango nodded, of course she had. Only at her old school it didn't really work out – the students gave complaints and suggestions to the teachers alright, and so far all was good. The only trouble was that the teachers didn't listen.

"Well, at this school we cut out the teachers and do everything ourselves. It's not a bad system."

"So the education is still the same…?" Sango asked.

"That's right," grinned Kagome. "So how about it? Are you gonna try it?"

"Yeah, I think I will… for a while at least." She grinned as the others laughed, and Kagome slapped her on the back, saying,

"All right!"

…because if you won't risk anything, you can't win anything, either.