(Note: This is to correct the error that so many of you noticed. Yes. Kouga should have called Kagome Kikyo hangs head I'm sorry! I told you I was confused by Kagome's lies!!! Lol, thanks for warning me though or I would have completely missed it.)

An update! Woo hoo!!!! When I saw I broke 400 I just had to (that and I finally got some inspiration. That's been really hard to come by lately, sorry!) In any case I hope you like it!!!!

Rogue Pryde

He was still grinning. He hadn't stopped since their conversation that morning. She still wasn't speaking to him. In frustration, she turned up the music, almost as if she expected Ruthless' lyrics to drown out his maddening smirk.

No such luck.

Before it reached the chorus, Inuyasha reached over and shut off the radio. Part of her wanted to protest, but she still wasn't ready to acknowledge him. Stubbornly, she crossed her arms and stared straight ahead.

"So," His voice was friendly, almost jovial. "Have you been thinking about how you're going to seduce Kouga?" He looked at her from the corner of his eye, but she still refused to face him. He couldn't help but noticed the blush staining her cheeks.

"You don't have to use a word like that." She muttered, still keeping her attention on the road ahead.

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow, obviously enjoying himself. "What word would you use?"

"A phrase, actually." She snapped, finally breaking and turning to face him with a glare. "Fulfilling your own twisted fantasy because you're not man enough to act on your impulses."

The car swerved, but neither seemed to notice. "Fulfilling my what?" He asked hoarsely, after getting the vehicle straightened out. She couldn't answer him. She was laughing too hard.

"Well," She said, after catching her breath. "From your reaction, there must be some truth to it."

He glared at her venomously. "No." He stated, not bothering to expand his denial. "No." Before she could imply anything further he hastened to get the conversation back on the track he'd intended for it. Her humiliation, not his. "Since you obviously have no experience with guys-"

She cut him off. "What are you talking about?" He only looked at her meaningfully, but that was enough for her to justify stretching the truth in an effort to salvage her dignity. "I have had plenty of experience with guys." She told him, lying through her teeth. The honest side of her, the part that had screwed her over in the deceiving department, was already getting nervous. And if Inuyasha remembered what he himself had noted, her biting her lip was a dead give away.

He looked over at her, amused. "I mean guys who don't have to go through your father first, princess." If he really did believe her, it didn't seem to matter. He still considered her a raw beginner.

It infuriated her.

"I know." She declared hotly. She'd been lying a lot the past few days so what was one more? She ignored the rational part of her that didn't want her life to get more complicated then it already was and focused her attention on proving Inuyasha wrong. "I've had relationships with boys, boys" she continued "that were not approved of by my father."

"Oh really?" He raised his eyebrows and let his voice show his skepticism. He was looking at her again, instead of the road, but this time she was too caught up to worry about her life.

"Yes, really." She insisted stubbornly, meeting his gaze in defiance."

"Like who?" It was a challenge. One Kagome would give anything to meet. She blurted the first name from her old life that she could think of.

"Hojo!" Her eyes widened with shock as soon as her mind registered what her voice had done. Lying was bad. Why hadn't she learned her lesson yet?

"Who's he?" Inuyasha snorted. "The pool boy?"

"No." She corrected him miserably, slumping in her seat. "He's my tutor." The same tutor who'd been crushing on her for a year. She wasn't stupid, she knew he liked her as more then a pupil, but there was no way she'd ever return his feelings. He lectured her on history for goodness sakes! Her dad really wouldn't approve, so that part of her story wasn't a lie. "His only source of income is teaching, and to my father, that in itself is a failure. Nothing in that line of work is guaranteed."

He looked at her in amusement. "So the affair was an act of rebellion on your part?"

She winced at the word 'affair'. "Something like that." She muttered. "In any case," She hastened to continue, trying not to dwell on her make believe love life. "I have plenty of experience. Getting Kouga to fall for me won't be a problem." Not, She thought darkly, that I want him to in the first place.

"Good." Inuyasha smirked as they pulled into the school parking lot. "Because there he is. Go work your magic." Not for the first time since she'd met him, Kagome wished looks could kill. After resigning herself to the fact that her glare had little effect on him, she got out of the car and surveyed the parking lot for Kouga.

He was next to his bike, a Yamaha of some kind, and was surrounded by a group of tough looking guys. She whirled back to face Inuyasha. "I can't go up to him now." She hissed, pointing at the boys dramatically. "Not with all of them around."

"What's the matter?" He mocked, grinning up at her. "Scared?"

She stared at him. "Screw you." She said finally, not waiting to see if he'd reply. Turning sharply, she walked resolutely towards her target. He looked up as she approached, and returned her smile with one of his own. Okay now, what was the plan again?

Oh. Right. There was no plan.

"Hey Kouga!" She greeted him in what she hoped was a friendly and unassuming tone of voice. Of course, maybe she was supposed to try and sound assuming, but she really wasn't sure she could pull of any seductress techniques.

"Hey." He nodded in her direction. "Kikyo right?" Though she'd never told him her name, one of the students had supplied it for him after she'd left the day before.

"Yeah." She smiled up at him, making it as genuine as possible. "You remembered me this time!"

He chuckled. "Yeah well, you talked back this time." She wanted to laugh at the way he referred to their non-existent meeting. "What's up?"

"Nothing . . ." She trailed off, racking her brain for a reason, any reason, for her to have approached him. To her amazement, her mind supplied her with a plausible excuse. "I wanted to piss my brother off." They hated each other right? She had yet to figure out why.

He looked amused. "Why would talking to me piss him off?"

She stared at him. He hadn't figured out who her brother was yet. Well, he probably didn't even know her last name, so it's not that surprising. Still, everyone else in school seemed to know. Maybe no one wanted to be the one to mention it to him.

She lowered her eyes, in an effort to look embarrassed. Which, to be honest, wasn't very hard given her current situation. "My brother is Inuyasha." She told him, wondering if he'd blow her off right then and there, ruining Inuyasha's plan.

Now it was his turn to stare. "That pathetic loser is your brother?" He demanded. His friends, the one's Kagome had conveniently ignored, exchanged looks. Kouga looked angry for a minute, and then his face cleared. "No wonder you needed someone to tell you to stand up for yourself. A loser like him probably bullied you every chance he got."

The irony of the statement wasn't lost on her. In reality, he did do all in his power to push her around. For example, she was here, attempting to seduce Kouga. Something in her face must have signified agreement because he put an arm around her shoulder, scanning the front of the school until he spotted Inuyasha, staring in their direction.

"Don't worry." He told her, keeping eye contact with her 'brother'. "I'll protect you from that reject."

Instead of comforting her, as the words were probably intended to do, she felt a growing sense of dread. The statement rang too close to a promise, one she felt guilty about extracting from him. But she had seen Inuyasha watching them too, and she couldn't afford to make him mad. "Thank you." She said absently, more focused on leaning into his embrace then anything else.

He walked her to her first period class, his gang trailing behind them. She couldn't pay attention to the lecture, her mind was a mixture of swirling emotions and complicated lies. How was she going to keep up? But she had to. She'd give anything to live a normal life and she wasn't going to allow a few setbacks to ruin it for her.

Though a part of her couldn't help but wonder how 'normal' this life was turning out to be.

She was like that through most of her classes, in a daze, until lunch finally rolled around. After grabbing a tray, she surveyed the room for the girls she'd sat with yesterday, but before she could even spot them, much less move in their direction, someone approached her from behind.

"Looking for someone?" It was Kouga.

She shrugged. "Not really, just somewhere to sit." She hadn't meant it as a hint, but as soon as the words were out she wished she could take them back. To her, it sounded entirely too obvious.

If he was put off by her 'throwing herself at him' he didn't show it. He just shrugged nonchalantly as if both her statement and the following offer meant nothing to him. "You can sit with us if you want."

She tried to act as unaffected as he did, but she wasn't sure she was pulling it off. "Sure." She replied coolly. "If you're sure you don't mind?" There, she'd offered him an out. He didn't have to feel obligated to let her.

"Nah, and it'll piss off your brother even more." He grinned then, and she wondered if that was his motive more so than any concern for her. But he talked comfortably with her as they made their way towards his table, and then went out of his way to make her feel welcome with his group, and that dispelled any doubts she had.

Unfortunately it made the guilt worse.

Too release her stress, after lunch she paced in the bathroom until her nerves calmed. Of course, that made her late to class. Which resulted in her very first ever detention.

Oh joy.

"You've changed so much!" Sango was shaking her head as they both piled their books into their bags. "I'm serious, a week ago you would have sat by a boy, especially Kouga, during lunch." She then let her expression change to one of sympathy. "Much less get a detention."

"Yeah." Kagome groaned. "I'm still kind of mad at myself for that one." She was pleased Sango had made an effort to talk to her, even though the topic wasn't that great. But then, she figured that that kind of problem was a normal one, so its annoyance was lessened somewhat.

They parted ways at the door, and Kagome trudged solemnly down the hall, heading for the room number marked on her detention slip. After finding the door, she mentally tried to prepare herself for an hour of miserable boredom. She was not, however, prepared for what she found once she opened the door.

The make believe siblings stared at each other in open shock. "What are you doing here?" They blurted in unison, and then simultaneously made faces at the idea of saying the same thing at the same time with the other.

"I practically live here." Inuyasha said hotly. "What's your excuse?" He was annoyed, not only at having to be stuck with her, but also because it wasn't her reputation she was ruining. It was his sisters!

She made a face. "I was late to class." No one else had arrived yet, so Kagome had her pick of the seats. She sat on the same row as Inuyasha but on the opposite end. "What did you do? Get caught blackmailing anyone?" The irony in her voice was unmistakable.

"Nope." He grinned easily. "I never get caught."

"Yet you're here." She reminded him, folding her arms on her desk and lowering her head to rest on them.

"Okay, I rarely get caught." He amended. "The teacher didn't believe my excuse when Miroku and I were skipping."

"Why isn't Miroku here?" She didn't bother to lift her head and face him when she asked.

He shrugged. "We had different classes. His teacher must have believed him."

There was a pause, but then Kagome had to ask. "What was your excuse?" She did look at him that time, turning her head so she could see him without raising it.

His face reddened. "My dog ate my homework."

A beat. She actually did lift her head, laughing as she turned her whole body towards him. "Are you serious?"

"I got my excuses mixed up!" He defended. "It's not like teachers usually ask me why I missed! Today was a fluke!"

She made her self stop laughing but she couldn't keep the grin off her face. "You really are an idiot." She informed him.

He glared at her, but it held no venom. "I wouldn't be talking if I were you. Who was it that blamed Kouga for her sudden transformation?"

Her cheeks burned. "That's your fault! You're the one who suggested it was a guy earlier! Naturally my mind grabbed at that when I had to think of an excuse!"

"Sure. Blame me." He feigned being hurt.

"I will." She retorted. "Everything going wrong in my life right now is your fault."

"Do I look like I care?" His grin was disarming, but he definitely didn't look too concerned with her troubles.

"You don't look like you care about anything." She muttered, crossing her arms. "I just hope you start to while I'm around, so I can ruin it for you and laugh in your face."

He shook his head at her naiveté. "You'll never have as much power over me as I have over you." He informed her with confidence.

"Which is why I hate your friggin guts." She told him bluntly, clamping her mouth shut as the teacher walked in. He didn't reply, silence being a required part of detention, but his answering grin was more then enough of a response. In the next few minutes, the rest of the students trickled in, and the time passed miserably slow.

"You're wrong." Kagome informed him as they walked towards his car. "There's no way anyone who looks like me would ever have a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio." She wrinkled her nose. "That's just wrong."

It was funny how even a poster in a classroom could spurn an argument between the two. Inuyasha glared at her. "I'm telling you, she's crazy about him! Look at the top of her closet when we get home if you don't believe me. She's got posters of him stashed away in a box up there!"

"That's disgusting!" She insisted. "She can't be that weird."

"Oh, since you look like each other you're suddenly an expert on her?" His voice was sarcastic. Then he grinned wickedly. "You know, to make the act more believable, you might have to pretend you're obsessed with him too."

"Fat chance." She retorted. She would have said more, but a voice from behind interrupted her.

"Kikyo? How come you're still here?" Kouga was at the end of the hall, and her purposefully ignored Inuyasha as he jogged closer.

"You work fast." Inuyasha muttered, closing off as the other boy approached. Kagome was slightly disappointed; she'd been enjoying their argument. And what right did he have to get mad? She was only doing what he told her to.

"I told you. I'm an expert." She couldn't help but wonder how believable the statement was, since it was a bald faced lie, but the sight of Kouga heading towards them seemed to give credit to her words.

"And you're proud of that?" The question shocked her, especially coming from him. She turned, hoping to find an explanation in his face, but it was closed off. "I really didn't think you were that kind of girl." The implication of what he'd said hung in the air, frozen between them.

What? She was supposed to be triumphant, having fooled him successfully. But all she could do was stare at the ground miserably. She hadn't meant for it to come out like that, and taking back her words would be to admit she had lied about having experience. It was too humiliating, better he be disgusted with her.

Kouga reached them, and smiled at Kagome. "Would you rather get a ride home with me?" He asked her, sensing that they'd been arguing, but not realizing the reason. In his mind, separating her from Inuyasha after an argument was fulfilling the promise he'd made to her that morning.

She spared one last glance at Inuyasha. His face was unreadable. "Sure." She said, her voice softer then she'd intended. Kouga grinned and took her by the hand. He led her down the hall and out the school until they reached his bike. If he noticed how quiet she was on the ride to her house, he assumed it was because of her brother.

And that only made him more determined to keep them apart.

YAY! All done! Just in time too cuz I'm going to a sleepover! And I have to leave in like ten minutes. I'm glad I got to finish this up. Okay, some clarifications.

Inuyasha's not jealous yet. He was starting to enjoy talking to Kagome a little but what buggs him most was that he thinks that she's some kind of player slut girl. That probably annoys him, because up until that point he thought of her as a good girl who needed a little excitement in her life. Now he's kind of shocked, disappointed, and disgusted all in one.

Also, Kouga's not in love yet. He just hates Inuyasha, made a difference in a pretty girls life, the girl turns out to be his enemy's sister, and now he feels like he ought to be protecting the girl from her big bad brother. And by protecting, he's pissing Inuyasha off and getting between him and Kagome (kind of like in the series )

Let's see . . . any other things I need to clear up? Sango will have a bigger role and so will Miroku. There will also be more of Kikyo and her new life, and an interesting twist with Hojo later on. Goodness! I have so much in store for poor Kagome in this story! It's so fun to write! But I don't want to screw it up by rushing updates, thus the long wait.

For the record, I think I'm going to be working on this story mostly, because I'm really enjoying it. It requires a lot of thought though (Kagome's lies confuse even me and it's hard to keep up with them) so I'll most likely hold off on other fics until this one is done. That's not set in stone though, if I get inspiration, I will work on the others, but this one is my focus for now. I'm sorry if you're waiting for another one, but rest assured that I will finish all of them in time!!!

Rogue Pryde

P.S. You guys KNOW I love it when you review don't you? It lets me know whether all is write in my world of make believe or whether I completely suck and should look for a new hobby. That and, they're really fun to read. So humor me K? Thanks for reading!

P.P.S. If you're wondering why this chapter is posted again, read the above. Thanks for letting me know!!