Something I Ought To Have Explained Earlier: when text is written like this "hum hum" it's normal speech, but when it looks like this 'hum hum' it's only thought. You may have figured that out by yourself already, but I thought I'd mention it just to be sure. ;) Introducing Koga

A week passed and Sango installed herself completely. She spent the lunch hours with Kagome, Inu-yasha and Miroku, and every lesson where they were in the same class with the later two. She was happy over having found herself new friends so easily.

"But why doesn't Hojo eat with us, too?" she asked one day. "He said the first day that you were some of his best friends."

"For Hojo, "best friends" is a very wide expression," smiled Kagome. "Practically everyone is his best friend. He's as happy with the kiddos in their first year as with the people in their final. And everyone's happy to be with him, too. He's just a really likeable guy."

Sango's family sometimes asked her about her school, but she didn't elaborate much. She had a feeling her academic father wouldn't like the idea of a school where the students themselves decided about lessons and teachers. He had always pressured her to do well in school – not that she minded it, she liked studying. She wondered about her younger brother Sota though, who had never had the same natural talent for reading. He was going to some other school, an all boys' school where he had a friend since before, and he looked a bit gloomy every time their father brought the subject of studying up.

Lessons went well for Sango, and she could soon see that the pace was just as high as in her old school – even higher in some areas, actually. She was terribly behind in English, but had on the other hand read more maths than any in her class. Miroku took this as an excuse to sit beside her and copy her answers, while squeezing her knees at the same time. Needless to say, she hit him hard every time.

On the Tuesday of Sango's second week at Sunset High, she arrived out into the grounds for lunch to find Kagome talking to a long-haired boy she thought she recognized, Inu-yasha looking mighty annoyed about something and Miroku holding back silent laughter. She walked over to them, set her lunch down on the table and looked at Miroku, willing him to tell her what was going on.

"Ah, Sango!" said Kagome when she saw that the other girl had arrived. "Koga, this is Sango, whom I was telling you about the other day."

Koga let his eyes travel up and down Sango, snorted, and turned back to Kagome. Sango seethed, reaching out for something heavy.

"Koga, you're being terribly rude." There was no change in Kagome's voice, but her smile had become rather dangerous and there was a glint in her eyes that Sango definitely didn't like. Koga seemed to have noticed it too, and looked at Sango disdainfully.

"Hello."

"Hi," Sango growled, then sat down beside Miroku and ignored the other boy. She had just realized where she had seen him before – he was the guy who had hinted that she was too scared to fight Sesshoumaru during her first P.E. lesson.

"Bastard," she said under her breath. Miroku heard her and grinned.

"So Kagome, won't you go with me to the movies this Saturday?" Koga asked. Inu-yasha drew his knife out of its sheath and started inspecting the chinks in the blade casually. At this Miroku started laughing quietly, blocking his mouth with his hand.

"Er… no, I don't think I will," said Kagome, looking apologetic but firm. "We have tried that before and it didn't work out."

"I can't believe you chose him," said Koga, throwing Inu-yasha a disgusted look. The latter threw the knife into the table, making it stick in the wood an inch from Koga's hand. He smirked.

"Lucky, Koga?"

"Feh," Koga snorted and stood up. "I'll ask you again some other time, Kagome. Sooner or later I think you will understand that a weakling like him never will make you happy."

He left and Miroku stood up quickly, grabbing a hold around Sango's wrist.

"Shall we go and see about that History homework then, Sango? Don't worry, Kagome, Inu-yasha, you don't have to come with us."

"Mmf?" said Sango as Miroku dragged her away, her mouth full of sandwich. She swallowed and asked again, "What?"

"They have to be alone for a while, I think Inu-yasha's just about ready to kill someone and I'm not anxious for that someone to be me."

"What's with Koga?"

"He's really into Kagome…"

"Oh, really?? Could have fooled me."

"…and he and Inu-yasha have been fighting about it for a long while. Koga's too stupid to see that Kagome likes Inu-yasha, and Inu-yasha is too stupid to realize that Kagome isn't about to leave him for some second-rate punk. Oh, God…" Miroku started laughing again and sank down on the floor, leaning against the wall. "Those two… they crack me up alright. Have you ever seen so much testosterone in two guys? Jesus, they're pathetic."

Sango started grinning, too, as she recalled the look on both of their faces.

"They put on a great show, didn't they?"

"Oh yes," laughed Miroku, "The drama! Ooh, the knife in the table! They're fantastic! Some day I think I'm going to have to tell that boy what an absolute ass he makes of himself, but on the other hand – miss this show? Ah, they are just about the – "

"Ahem," said Inu-yasha, staring down at Miroku with an expression that was very hard to read. Miroku's grin vanished.

"Eh, hi, Inu-yasha… er… Oh lord, Sango, look at the time! We have to get to English! Bye, Inu-yasha, I'll see you in the next class!" He grabbed Sango's hand and sprinted off, leaving his friend fuming silently. They stopped after running down two corridors and turning three corners.

"Ooh, that was close," Miroku panted. "I don't want to know what he would have done to me if he had the chance…"

"You're as nuts as everyone else in this school," giggled Sango. "And did you notice that it's twenty minutes until the class starts?"

"I can think of ways to pass the time…"

"PERVERT!"

And so when they arrived in class twenty minutes later, Miroku's cheek was bright red and Sango was looking furious.

"But you practically asked for it!" grinned Miroku.

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

"Go where on Saturday?" asked Sango, securing the telephone between her ear and her shoulder and reaching for a piece of paper and a pen. "The beach? Yeah, sure. Mm-hm. Wait a minute… is Miroku coming?"

Kagome laughed at the other end of the line.

"Yeah, so don't wear a bikini, for your own good if you know what I mean."

"I know what you mean," said Sango darkly, then said her goodbyes and hung up. She stretched and sighed, looking at the picture taken one week earlier, at a party held by her friends to celebrate that she had been at the school for one month. In the picture Miroku had his arm around her waist and was looking down at her with a charming smile, and she was for some reason smiling back. (She had a feeling she slapped him after the picture was taken though.) It was cute, as if they were a couple in love. But the trouble was, they weren't.

He had once said that she didn't take kindly to flattering. Well, that wasn't really true. She could have taken it if it was someone else, and the real trouble for her lay in that it was him doing the flattering. Knowing that he didn't mean anything by it made her feel so angry… and sad.

'Damn it, damn it, damn it. Why did I have to fall in love with the one boy who flirts with everything feminine? Couldn't I have fallen in love with someone normal?'

Her eyes swept over the pictures on her wall again, coming to rest on a photo of a long-haired boy making a rude gesture towards the camera. She frowned.

'Well, at least I didn't fall in love with Koga. I should be grateful for that at least, I guess.'

She thought about everything she detested about him. The way he always snorted and thought he was so much better than everyone else, especially in P.E., the way he had his hair in that STUPID ponytail and always wore that STUPID bandana, the way he didn't give a damn about school, thinking that just because it was more free than "normal" schools that meant he didn't have to go at all, the way he kept hitting on Kagome even though he knew she and Inu-yasha were together, the way he always made those snide remarks, the way he always smirked, the way he…

She had spent half an hour in an entirely pointless discussion with him at that party, trying to convince him that his view of women was totally, utterly and completely wrong. She had never met such a fantastically sexist person before. And the worst thing was when he in the middle of the conversation suddenly turned around completely, saying,

"You know, during all the time we have been talking here, I don't believe you've really listened to a word I've said."

With a smirk. Argh.

He made her sick.

She couldn't understand why the rest of her friends stood his company at all. He was stuck-up, stupid, snotty… ooh, all the words starting with "s" seemed to fit him perfectly. Slutty, smug, sexist, smirking… smart-aleck… sonofabitch… she could go on forever. But why waste her time?

He played rugby. Jeez. How brainless can you get.

She stood up, starting to look through her wardrobe for something that was not… er… revealing. She discarded her favourite bikini – no way was she going to the beach with Miroku, dressed in that. Finally she found an old swimsuit from the time when she did competition swimming. That had only lasted a school term – she had enjoyed her martial arts training a lot more – but she had kept the old suit, luckily. As she dragged her backpack out from under the bed and started to stuff it with sun block, swimsuit and towel, she thought about how obnoxious Miroku always was.

'I mean, pawing at every girl within reaching distance like that. Couldn't he just choose one?'

'And that would be you, I suppose?' asked a sarcastic voice in the back of her head, making her blush.

'Is there anything wrong with that?!' she asked herself defensively.

'Oh no, nothing at all,' sniggered the voice.

'Oh, shut up.'

Suddenly as she went through the conversation with Kagome in her head again, Sango noticed something. She had been told to meet her friends at the far end of the beach, the one closest to the café.

"You'll find us easily. We'll put up a flag up to be sure – it's our usual sign. A rugby jersey on a pole, you can't miss it."

A rugby jersey. She only knew one person who wore rugby jerseys.

Oh no.