Woo hoo! Finally an update! I'm sorry! For some reason this chapter took for freaking ever! But it's done! So we can all be happy now!

First things first.

Avoid Inuyasha.

"Hojo," She said, her voice somehow calm in spite of the fact that she could feel her heart beating in her throat. "What's my name?" He looked at her in confusion and she continued. "And I don't mean Kagome." He was still lost. "Here, I'm Kikyo." Dawning comprehension. Finally. She sighed. "Inuyasha knows, in any case, but don't let it happen again." She pressed a hand to her forehead, suddenly tired.

Inuyasha was still looking back and forth between them. "Well?" He said finally, reminding her, as if she really could have forgotten his question.

"Well what?" She snapped irritably. "Let's just go." She grabbed his arm and started to pull him towards the doorway, but he wouldn't budge. Stubbornly, he looked at Hojo, an unreadable expression on his face, one she would have given almost anything to erase.

He pulled his arm out of her grip. "Well is this the Hojo who you've had experie-" He was cut off abruptly by her hand over his mouth. She was none too gentle about it either. She positioned herself between him and the teacher, pushing him backwards towards the door with one hand and covering his mouth with the other.

"Experiments!" She said brightly. "Yup! Hojo here has done a lot of experiments with me for school. Science experiments, and um . . . other, kind of experienc- experiments!" She was breathing hard. Hojo was looking at her with a lost expression.

"We never . . ." He started, eyebrows wrinkled in concentration.

"Sorry Hojo! Inuyasha's late, we gotta run!" She gave Inuyasha the final shove, waving energetically to her former tutor before she slammed the door shut.

"Did any experiments." He finished, more than a little confused. "We never even covered science."

Once in the hall, Kagome let loose the breath she'd been holding. Her body sagged, and she let the hands that had been pushing Inuyasha fall loosely at her side. "Let's go." She said, after a minute, ignoring Inuyasha's stare. "You need to meet Miroku."

He kept staring at her. "What was that?" He demanded, finally, throwing his arms out for emphasis.

"What was what?" She asked, starting to walk down the hall towards a door leading to the parking lot. He followed her, still giving her the same penetrating stare.

"That weird act you pulled just now." He raised his eyebrows. "Did you and that teacher not part on good terms?"

Ugh. The idea. "None of your business!" She snapped. "I don't want to talk to you about him. Ever. At all." Nope. She wasn't acting suspicious at all, was she? Nope, not a bit.

He gave her another weird look, but didn't say anything else. They'd made it to the parking lot. Once he'd found his car, he hopped in, unlocking the door for her. "I have to come back here after I drop you off at home. Miroku's waiting for me at the library." She just shrugged, her thoughts clearly elsewhere.

He pulled out of space and started to leave the parking lot, but slowed down when he saw another person get in their car and start after him. Both cars turned onto the main road. The car seemed to be heading in the same direction as he was, and on an impulse, Inuyasha pulled into a pizza place, leaving it again a second later. Sure enough, the other car did the same. It wasn't until they were at a stoplight that Inuyasha was able to recognize its driver.

"Kagome?" He asked, not caring if he interrupted her from her reverie. "Is there a reason your ex boyfriend is following us?"

She whirled in her seat, ignoring the whiplash the action caused her. Catching sight of their 'stalker' she groaned aloud. "This is not happening." She moaned, as if trying to convince herself. "This has got to be some kind of a nightmare."

Inuyasha just looked at her.

Then he looked at Hojo, who was looking anywhere but at their car in order to appear inconspicuous.

She followed his gaze, misery evident on her face.

He looked back at her again.

Her mind frantically tried to think of an excuse, any excuse that would allow her to save face. "He can't get over me!" She blurted. "He's never been able to accept the fact that I dumped him." She'd agonize over what she was saying later. "Do you think you can lose him?" Inuyasha looked ready to protest. "Or do you really want him knowing where we live?"

That decided it. "You're more trouble then you're worth." He muttered, stepping on the gas as the light turned green. "What were you thinking when you dated a loser like him?"

"Apparently I wasn't." She moaned, refusing to think about how much her latest lie was going to cost her. Why couldn't she ever learn from her mistakes? But that would make her life too easy, and heaven forbid anything she attempted turned out to be easy.

And all she'd wanted was a normal life.

Sango hated homework enough without losing her study partner. What kind of excuse was "My brother needs to talk to me"? Why would something like that take up a whole afternoon? But whatever the real reason was, Sango had been thoroughly ditched by Kikyo. She'd probably forgive her though. Her friend had been acting weird all day, and if missing their afternoon study session would bring her back to normal, then so be it.

"So," A familiar voice came from behind her, one she was surprised to hear, especially at the library, after school hours. "You got ditched too, huh?"

"I did not get ditched." She corrected Miroku, turning towards him with an angry scowl. "My friend just had to . . ." Had to what? It's not like the excuse was real. "Something came up."

He snorted. "I didn't get ditched either then. Inuyasha just forgot about me."

"Maybe it runs in there family." She looked at him until she realized her probably didn't understand what she meant by that. "I was waiting for Kikyo."

"Oh?" He looked surprised. "You guys are friends now?" She nodded. "I never would have seen that one coming."

She slapped his arm, just in case he'd meant it as an insult to Kikyo. "Don't be mean." She admonished. "She's changed a lot. She's a lot more fun to be around now. Apparently, it's all thanks to Kouga."

Miroku made a face. "How could anything good come from association with him?"

She smacked him again. "You're biased. You're only saying that because Inuyasha hates him. He's really nice to Kikyo." She actually hadn't seen them together much, but the whole school was talking about how they ate lunch together, and how he actually greeted her, which was more then any of the other girls got.

"Stop hitting me!" He ordered, rubbing his arm. "You're so violent! It's my birthday, remember?" She didn't look apologetic. He hadn't really expected her too. But as he looked at her in mock reproach, inspiration struck him. "It really sucks." He sighed. "No one should have to be alone on their birthday." He looked at her hopefully.

It took a while for her to guess his meaning. "Oh no." She took a step back, waving her arms in front of her. "I have homework." She gestured towards the stack of books piled on the table next to her.

"You'd choose homework over me?" He feigned being hurt.

She didn't even hesitate. "Obviously." He continued to watch her, making her feel uncomfortable "Get one of your little groupies to go with you!" She did not want to get roped into hanging out with him. Seeing him at school was bad enough. Either his presence irritated her to no end, or she found herself thinking thoughts she'd rather die then contemplate.

He gave her a patronizing look. "Do you really think that one of them would be at school after it was over?" He had a point, and she knew it. And she hated him for it. He waited, the picture of patience, though inside he was a mess. He couldn't believe how much he wanted her to say yes. He was actually holding his breath.

She glared at him, almost as if she hoped the venom in it would scare him off. "Fine."

Miroku exulted.

"Lost him!" Inuyasha finally stopped looking behind him, slowing the car down to the speed limit. Beside him, Kagome let out a sigh of relief. She too stopped craning her neck around her seat and settled back comfortably.

"Thank goodness." Then she laughed. "That was kind of fun though! I felt like we were in a high speed chase." And she had. She'd been tempted to throw her head out the window when they were racing down the street, but resisted in case it attracted any extra unwanted attention from the authorities.

Inuyasha was shaking his head at her, trying to come across as the mature adult, but he was hiding a smile. "Don't get too used to it. As lax as my parents can be, they'd kill me if I got a ticket." He allowed his smile to show. "This one time, Miroku was waiting for me to-" He stopped short, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

"What's wrong?" She asked. Things had been going so well. They'd actually been having a normal conversation. And Hojo, and all threats of Hojo, were gone, at least for the moment.

"I think I just ditched Miroku on his birthday." He grimaced. She would have apologized, she really would have, but then he turned to glare at her. "And it's your fault. Why do weird things happen whenever you're around? You're a disaster waiting to happen."

"Oh and you're a walk in the park?" She snapped, crossing her arms. "Half of what I have to go through is your fault! Who was it that suggested a guy was responsible for my suddenly personality transplant? Who had to force me to . . . to se . . . seduce Kouga." She stumbled over the word, obviously still embarrassed by it. "My life would be just great if you weren't in it."

He grinned, surprising her. "Yeah, but if it weren't for me, you still wouldn't be able to say the word 'seduce'."

She pressed her hand against her forehead, palm flat, and groaned. "What a wonderfully profound impact you've had on me, Inuyasha." She told him dryly. "I'm sure you're proud of yourself."

He ignored her. She hated it when he did that. He wasn't even being rude about it, he just didn't bother to respond to her. She watched without really paying attention as he pulled a cell phone out of his back pocket. "Who are you calling?" She asked, more to make him talk back than anything else.

"Miroku." He replied shortly. "The friend you made me ditch."

'Well sor-ry' she mouthed, leaning against the car door so she could face him while he made the call. He gave her a look that clearly meant he'd read her lips. She just shrugged, not really caring if it bothered him or not.

"Hey, Miroku, look-" Inuyasha started, but then stopped. He listened for a while, and then hung up, shaking his head. "He's with a girl and apparently he'll kill me if I try to meet up with him now."

"So I guess you're off the hook for ditching him." She took her seat belt off so she could sit more comfortably against the door, ignoring the look he gave her. "Does this mean you have absolutely nothing to do today?"

"Why?" He eyed her warily. "Are you going to suggest something I really don't want to do?"

"Who, me?" She widened her eyes innocently. He snorted and she made a face. "Nothing so bad, I just figured, if you're not doing anything . . ." She trailed off. What she wanted to ask him was so completely and utterly stupid she felt like a moron for suggesting it. But she just wanted to so bad!

"Out with it." He gave her a pointed look. "Or my answer will definitely be a no." She squirmed uncomfortably under his stare, slightly worried that he kept one eye on her while driving.

"Um . . . well," She hated asking him for things. He was always so impatient! As if she didn't feel awkward enough already, having to stoop to getting an okay from him. "Do you want to order pizza or something? For dinner?" She blurted the words out as fast as she could, so she couldn't stop herself before she'd finished. She bit her lip, not wanting to look up at him.

He stared at her. "That's what you wanted to ask?" When she still hadn't lifted her head up, he let out a sound that might have been similar to a laugh. "Pizza? You really are sheltered, Higurashi." He was probably calling her by her last name because it annoyed her. And it reminded her just where she came from. How aggravating.

"Can we or not?" She snapped, jerking her head up to glare at him. "Don't make fun of me. It's not like it's my fault pizza isn't acceptable for 'high society ladies'." She made her voice high and mocking. "And I've just," She shrugged, almost not caring if he made fun of her. She could at least be honest about one thing in her life. "I've always wondered what it tasted like."

"You're such a drama queen." He shook his head. "Of course we can order pizza." Her whole face lit up but he pretended not to notice. "I actually kind of miss it. I only get it when I'm out with the guys. Kikyo's much more into expensive food then I am."

Kagome made a face. "She must be loving my life right now." All of a sudden she sat up, literally bolting until her head nearly hit the roof of the car. "Crap!"

Inuyasha looked at her, his expression somewhere between wary and amused. "What now?"

"She's probably having a great time." Kagome's voice was sarcastic. "They must just love her." She groaned. "When I get back I'm going to have my work cut out for me, trying to get everyone to remember how much I hate it there."

Somehow, she'd talked him into renting a few movies too. He'd been wary at first, and went as far as to forbid her to enter the romance section. There was no way he'd watch a chic flick. To his surprise, she hadn't even glanced at it. Right away she'd run to the section most girls labeled as 'Guy movies'.

They started the first movie while they'd waited for the pizza. It was funny to watch her. She was so excited she could hardly sit still, and even while they were watching the movie, she kept poking her head above the couch to see out the window, so she could beat the delivery man to the door.

And they'd talked to. Inuyasha had never talked much with girls. He hardly even talked to his sister. And even with Kagome, it was hardly talking, usually they just argued. But even when they were yelling at each other, he had the strangest feeling that they were actually listening to each others sides. It was like the only way they could communicate effectively was if they were insulting each other at the same time.

It was all very confusing.

But as they watched the move (and Kagome munched hungrily on her eighth slice of pizza) he realized he was enjoying himself. Everything that was old and mundane to him was new and exciting for her, and her enthusiasm was contagious.

He almost felt bad she'd have to leave it all.

But not really.

Another large pizza, a few liters of Dr. Pepper, and four movies later, Kagome clicked the off button on the remote and twisted on the couch so she could face him. To his credit, he wasn't asleep yet, and the last movie was one he'd already seen. Still, he didn't look to happy either. "So?" She asked him, willing to stop with the movies for the time being. "What now?"

"Now?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "Bed. There's school tomorrow, or have you forgotten."

She pouted. "Don't be such a parent. I thought you were a bad boy, Inuyasha. Let's go somewhere." Her eyes lit up. "What about Miasma! I should know what it looks like since I supposedly met Kouga there."

"You're insane." He informed her. "I doubt you've ever had less then nine hours of sleep in your life. It's after midnight. There's already no way you're going to be able to get up at six. If we stay up any later, you'll be completely screwed. Besides," He grinned wickedly. "It's important that you're awake enough to keep Kouga interested."

"So I can seduce him." She stressed the horrible word. "I really hate you. As if my life isn't complicated enough."

His eyes widened, but he stayed slumped against the arm of the couch. "Speaking of complicated, what's the deal with you and Hojo? I mean, the whole story, not just 'he can't get over me'." He waited to see her reaction.

She jumped up, literally. "Wow! You're right Inuyasha! I'm gonna be dead tomorrow! I'd better go to sleep now or I'll regret it!" She was off the couch and heading for the staircase in record time. "Sweet dreams!" She called over her shoulder, giving him a little wave before she disappeared around the corner.

Inuyasha just shook his head. Amateur. Did she really think that just because she wouldn't answer him, he wouldn't find out? All he had to do was ask Hojo about it. If the guy was obsessed enough to follow her, he probably wasn't embarrassed about how he felt for her. And if Inuyasha offered his services in getting her back, the new teacher would be sure to give him the whole story.

For her part, Kagome was just glad to have made it to her room without him following her. She wasn't ready to deal with Hojo questions, or Hojo at all. She was digging herself deeper and deeper and she couldn't help but think it was only a matter of time before he carefully constructed world came crashing down around her. And it would probably be Inuyasha's fault. Because there was no way she was the one to blame for the Hojo problem. He drove her to it.

But she'd had fun, watching movies and eating junk, and in the end, that was what really mattered. So she stopped worrying about the future and went to bed. And she stopped worrying about Inuyasha. She stopped thinking about him altogether.

Still, for some reason, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

DONE! FINALLY! Goodness, I needed to FINISH this chapter, cuz I have plans for the rest of this story. This was kind of a nothing chapter, but it had some important key points. Now we know how far Hojo is willing to go as her 'bodyguard'. We also see that Miroku is getting in some quality time with Sango (the aftermath of that will come later). And if you ask me, Inuyasha and Kagome do bond a little in this one. I mean, they had a high speed car chase, a few sentences where they weren't arguing, and they spent the entire night watching movies and eating pizza. That's an AWESOME way to spend the night if you ask me. They don't realize it now, but later they'll start to want to spend more time together.

But there will be the usual problems. Hojo for one. The teacher who can't get over her (lol! That's just a mess right there). Kouga, and her horrible attempts to seduce him. I meant to have more of that in this chapter but then I didn't want to get into the next day. Miroku, and his terribly misguided plan to see more of Sango. Sango and her insecurities combined with her and Kagome bonding, and the reason for her reputation at school. I also want more Inuyasha and Miroku things because they haven't gotten in trouble recently. Principal Kaede's gonna start missing them soon. Let's see . . . have I forgotten anyone else? Oh yeah! And there will also be more with Kikyo and how well she suits Kagome's life. There will be drama coming up in a few chapters probably after at least one or two more. Also, a visit to Miasma and a phone call with Kikyo, but I'm not sure when those will come up.

Sorry if it's a while before I update again. I'm gonna be going to school Monday through Saturday (that's 6 FRICKIN DAYS A WEEK) and working the closing shifts at work on possibly Monday's and Saturdays, for sure Tuesday's, Thursday's, and Friday's. I think I have Wenseday off, I'm not sure. And Sunday's I have church in the morning and again at night. Plus, that's like the only day I can squeeze in a social life. (Well, maybe Saturday nights too) So I'm REALLY swamped. But I'll do my best to keep writing!!!!

I luv you guys so much too! Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter!

-Rogue Pryde.