Chapter 2: Kagome's Return
Krystal walked into her next class and bowed to her new literature teacher. "Takasawa-sensei? I'm Krystal Nitta. Where should I sit?" Mike was already seated, next to Kagome's empty desk, again.
"Um, let me see, there's an empty desk there, oops, wait that's Kagome's desk. She hasn't been to school in so long I nearly forgot she existed, poor thing. According to her grandfather, she has gout, chickenpox, rheumatism and the flu. That's the only vacancy, I'm afraid. Mike took my last free desk. Go ahead and sit there, I guess. I'll have a couple of the boys drag in one of Megumi-san's extra desks when Kagome recovers."
"Yes, Sensei." Krystal walked over and sat down, just as a longhaired girl wearing what seemed to be part of a broken marble on a string around her neck ran in and apologized to the teacher. "Shikkon Jewel" some back corner of her mind whispered. The girl turned towards the class and suddenly gave a strangled squeak.
Alarmed, Krystal stood up. "Does this desk mean that much to you?" She asked, puzzled. "I'm sorry, you can have it. I'm Krystal, today's my first day."
"N-no, it's not that. Don't trouble yourself. I'm Kagome. You just- remind me of someone, is all. She turned to Mike. "Um, I don't recognize you either."
"I'm Mike. I just transferred here last Monday. "
Just then Shigure and Tomoko, two of their classmates, dragged another desk into the room and plopped it down on the other side of Mike from Kagome's desk. Krystal sat down, and class returned to its normal state. Krystal opened her book to the designated page, and sighed. It was a short story that she'd only read about fifty times. Suddenly, with a quick flick of Mike's wrist, a note landed in the middle of her book.
"You read this story as often as I have?" it read.
She turned it over and scribbled a message on the back. "Dunno. How many times have you read it? What's with your arm and the green cloth and stuff?" She threw it back, but over shot. Kagome caught it, unfolded it, wrote something and threw it to Mike. When Krystal finally got it back, Kagome had added:
"Yeah, I was wondering that to. Some demon curse your family or something?"
Mike had responded, "It's a long story, and I'm not going to explain where the teacher might take it up and read it. You guys probably wouldn't believe me, any way. "
Krystal grinned, and wrote in response, "Try me. Is there some place we can meet after school?"
Kagome again intercepted the return toss, and wrote, "You'd be surprised. My parents won't mind me having a couple of people over, as long as my little brother doesn't get really annoying."
"Okay," Mike wrote, "Where do you live? And is there any chance your mysterious silver-haired lover will show up?"
"Silver haired lover?! You've got to be kidding! He's way too annoying. Especially as he doesn't exist, I may add." Kagome replied." Ummm… where'd you hear about him, anyway?"
"I don't remember, which is weird for me. Why do you care if the guy doesn't exist?"
"Aren't you too sick to have visitors?" Krystal added.
"Not exactly…" Kagome answered. She passed the note over, then drew two maps and passed one to each of them.
Mike took the original paper and added, "Speaking (on in this case writing,) of after school, my friend is bringing his PS2 and DDR on Fri. Want to come?"
"Sure, my dad won't miss me." Krystal dashed off in reply as the bell rang.