Once home, Kagome didn't even bother to greet her family. She went immediately to the bathroom and showered. The quick dunk in the river hadn't done much for her hair. Cleaning it thoroughly without scraping the thin scab covering the bump proved very difficult. By the time she was steeping out of the shower, there was practically no hot water left in the tank. But she looked, and felt, much better, cleaner, prettier.

Gently patting her hair dry, she walked into the kitchen. Her mother was already busy making supper.

"Hello!" her mother said brightly. "That report I assume? Sit down. Dinner'll be ready soon—No, no. I'll get the plates."

Grateful for her mother, Kagome sat obediently down at the table and waited patiently. She was terribly hungry. She had only eaten a few snacks on Kilala's back during the ride to the village and had rushed to well and home. She had quite a bit to consider...but she still had that report.

After several minutes Sota and her grandfather filed into the dining room and settled down to eat.

The food was, as always, wonderful. Soon though Kagome was beginning to feel terribly tired. She had, after all, barely slept the previous night. There were the silvery shadows dancing to the side of her vision that indicated exhaustion. Her mother quickly saw her daughter's fatigue and directed conversation away from Kagome. She was just beginning to nod off when her mother abruptly stopped the family chatter and said, "Oh, Kagome, before I forget, a boy phoned saying he had one of your books."

"Huh?" Kagome responded unintelligently. "Oh. Really? Did he say who he was?" She finished yawning.

"Yes...a Matthew fellow I believe. He left his phone number. Here, I'll write it down," she said as she printed it out in her small, clear hand. "Anyone you know?" she added as she handed the scrap of paper to Kagome.

"No. Don't think so," Kagome told her mother. Standing up a gathering some of the dishes she said, "I'm too tired to phone whoever he is now." After another yawn, she added, "Mind if I skip dishes? I promise I'll make up for it tomorrow."

"Certainly," her mother answered and gathered up the dishes. "You really look like you need a rest in a real bed."

All the more grateful Kagome wandered upstairs and passed out on the bed for what seemed like two seconds before her brother was heard knocking on her door for breakfast. Kagome still felt considerably sleepy, though a bit more rested. The bump on the back of her head didn't hurt quite so much and the silvery shadows had disappeared. She didn't feel like braving another day at school, but pretending she was sick would use up valuable and endangered excuses.

School was as bad as she had predicted. Her math teacher sent home with her a note to be signed by her mother informing her that she was being held back a class. Her friends pestered her about her boyfriend, who, they were in perfect accord, she should dump (never once wondering how Kagome found the time to develop such a complicated relationship if she was so sick all the time). When school was finally over, Kagome rushed home down the quickest route, though curiosity nagged that she take the alternative route where she saw that mysterious boy. Her book report however simply couldn't wait.

Bounding up the stairs and wheezing unattractively, she came into her room and looked on the desk for the book she needed to read, summarise and analyse by the morrow. Pens, paper, even a dictionary, were all there, but the book wasn't. In a half-panicked frenzy she tore her immaculate room apart. But after ten minutes of destruction and an hour of cleaning later, nothing had been found.

She fell face first onto her bed. This was so unfair. The double-life wasn't suiting Kagome very well at this time. Here, her poor book had disappeared seemingly out of thin air.

After ten or so minutes of wallowing in self pity, Kagome noticed a scratchy and crumpled up piece of paper by her neck. Upon closer inspection the scrap turned out to be the number of the Matthew, who had phone because...he had something of hers! Feeling both happy for another shot at passing this class, at least, and foolish for not having realised that two and two were connected sooner, Kagome scurried downstairs to phone her saviour.

She stopped muttering to herself when a woman's voice answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello," Kagome began, putting on her sweetest voice. She didn't want this Matthew fellow busy and unable to get her the book. "This is Kagome. I believe your son has something of mine. He phoned a while ago, but my I wasn't there so her left his number...so is he...er...there?" she finished lamely.

"Son?" the lady said, slightly surprised. "Oh! You mean Matthew, my nephew. Just a quite call then? Yes, yes...I'll call him right now." Through the connection the aunt's voice could be heard yelling.

Several seconds later, a bored and hurried voice sounded on the phone.

"Hi?"

Kagome gasped. Though it was mechanised in a way that his had never been, the voice was that of Inu Yasha. It had to be that boy who had saved that day in the park. The one that both Kaede and Kikyo had made incomprehensible allusions towards.

"Uh? Anyone there?" the dark-haired boy on the other end of the line said irritably. "Look I really—"

"Er...yes," Kagome began, clearly flustered. Exhaustion and other matters had made it very easy to ignore problems she connected with the feudal era. "My mom told me you had a book of mine...You wouldn't happen to have it still?"

"Oh...Kagome is it?" he asked. Before she could answer he continued briskly in an disturbingly Inu Yasha-like manner, "It must have fallen out of your bag on the street that day. I didn't think you were gonna get it...Its been awhile since I first phone," he finished in an offhand way.

"I was sick." Polite and proper conversation was the last thing she wanted.

"Uh...okay," Mathew said, seemingly somewhat put out by Kagome's awkwardness. He hastened on, "Do you need it soon? I'll give it to you tomorrow on the way home from school. We could meet at the street you nearly got flattened."

"Sorry. I need it tonight. Now more like it."

"Well, I'm busy tonight," he replied stonily.

"That's okay, I guess. I'll get my mom to drive me to your house. What's your address?" Kagome was cursing herself inwardly. Dangerous copy or whatever, her immediate priority was getting the book and passing her class, whether or not it brought to where he lived.

"No one's going to be there. If you had phone sooner maybe you wouldn't be in this problem."

Kagome was taken aback for a heartbeat by this completely Inu Yasha outlook. Anger and reproach had resounded clearly through the telephone. If this was an impostor, he had done his homework well.

"Well," she began, subconsciously pitching her voice the same way as when she argued with Inu Yasha, "why don't you simply leave it in front of your door or something. No one's going to steal my book. And if they do," she added, "it would make an adequate excuse for not completing my homework." Though she would have to stay another day and the real Inu Yasha wouldn't be at all happy about that.

"Look, I'm really busy. I shouldn't even by wasting my time on the phone now," he finished stubbornly and weakly—extremely weakly. An enchanted necklace around Inu Yasha's neck had generally stopped any argument so pointless getting this far.

"I'll be there in ten minutes," Kagome replied, equally as stubborn. "If you're there, you can give it to me in person, if not, I'll find by the door. Now what is your address?" she demanded.

Begrudgingly, he muttered where he lived and hung up the phone without so much as a farewell.

Angry and tired, Kagome stomped into the kitchen and informed her mother that she was to drive Kagome to get her book. Though she was puzzled about her daughter's abnormal anger, the mother didn't question and did as beckoned. Kagome was obviously under a lot of stress these days.

Matthew had apparently been busy as he had said. There was no light shining through the door and the book hung on a bag on the door knob, as instructed. Kagome fetched it and quickly went back to her mother.

When home, she scurried up the stairs and started working. She hadn't even finished reading it, and wasn't, until reasonably late in the night. Eating dinner in the conventional way had been entirely out of the picture. Then she set about with the actual work. Because of the speed read, and hour at which she commenced writing, she completed what was perhaps a C project. Not quite up to her usual standard, but it would have to do. She was finally allowed to fall asleep at roughly two in the morning.

Despite her weariness, knowing that the report was done made school far easier than the previous day. She was even happy enough to partake in the gossiping, though her information was sadly out of date. And the polluted air caused convincing and real coughs, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind that she had been sick.

She walked home the alternative route again. The other one was getting sadly mundane. While she was happily envisaging seeing her friends again the next day, after a long night's sleep, when at she saw Matthew standing on the other side of the selfsame street they had first met.

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