"How dare you?!" Ms. Higurashi screamed at her seventeen-year-old daughter. Kagome shrunk away from her mother's wrath.
"Mom! I didn't!"
"The teachers don't lie!" She screamed louder. Kagome thought her mother's head might blow off.
"I didn't hit her, mom, she hit me! Do you think I gave myself this bruise?!"
"I don't know what to think anymore, Kagome." She turned away, covering her face with her hand. Kagome rolled her eyes.
"What's so bad about this, anyway? I'd been wanting to move to a different school for ages."
"I think you, Souta and I should move."
"What?! Why?" Kagome yelled, jumping out of her chair. "Moving?!"
"I had been thinking about it for a while, and I think maybe we could just move into your cousin's beach house."
"That's... That's in Hawaii..."
"Exactly. It's time you learn how to speak English."
"Mom... are you feeling ok?" Kagome put her hand on her mother's forehead.
She swatted it away feverishly. "Of course I'm fine. I'll call them now. Surely they have enough room for three more people."
Kagome blinked, her mouth hanging open, causing the bruise on her cheek throb. What she didn't know was that this was the beginning of a chain of events that would change her life forever.
A loud banging could be heard upstairs and Kagome sighed. Souta apparently just found out where they would be moving. As if on cue, a boy of about eleven years came crashing down the stairs. In his hand he held a small souvenir bat.
"HAWAII!" He shouted in her ear.
"Souta! Stop being so loud!" Kagome shouted back. Souta grinned evilly.
"I heard there are "hunks that just ask to be licked" in Hawaii."
"You heard that?! You little brat!" She jumped at him, catching him by the back of his shirt.
"See mom?! She is violent!"
"Kagome! Let your brother go!"
"Mom! He was listening to my phone conversation!"
"Well, you do talk rather loud." Ms. Higurashi said with a small sigh.
"You too?!" Kagome threw her arms in the air and stomped off.
"She's so strange." Souta said with a nod. His mother glanced at the bat in his left hand.
"She's not the only one."
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The next week passed slowly, and Kagome could feel the anticipation grow in the pit of her stomach. Soon the beaches, soon the palm trees and soon the exotic food that Tokyo had always lacked. What made her days go by even slower was the fact that she wasn't in school.
Her mother kept going on mad-packing rampages, stuffing Kagome's bears and raccoons into a shoebox, and then attempting to flush it down the toilet.
"The water would go to Hawaii eventually!" She tried to explain when Kagome found the john clogged with her bras.
"Mom, I know it's expensive to ship things, but it's pointless to try to get this stuff to Hawaii by flushing it." Souta said angrily, holding a soaked sock.
"Shhh! I'm stressed right now!" She replied. Her usually neat hair was messy, and her shirt was on backwards.
"I think she's cracked." Kagome said a little too loudly.
They would move that weekend, and with everything in boxes, the small house looked surprisingly large.
"Hey, mom, you selling the house?" Souta asked, as he dragged his suitcase across the floor.
"Of course not!" She replied sharply. "I plan on coming back here eventually. We're renting it out to a young man who's staying here in college."
Kagome suddenly wondered if she had removed all of her private things from her room. Reassuring herself, she hitched her bag higher on her shoulder. She had swept her room clean several times and hadn't found a stray item anywhere.
The drive to the airport was long and drawn-out. It was a total of two hours. When they finally got there, her mother parked the car, called the tow truck and told the company about thier situation. The car would be taken on the ship with all of their things.
Kagome sat in a boarding gate seat and sighed. Soon they would be leaving Japan. Soon they would be in America.
When they finally called their flight after an hour, Kagome and Souta boarded, their mother behind them. The plane was small and cramped, but thankfully the flight was slightly shorter than flying into New York.
Kagome settled into her seat and turned off her cell phone. She glanced out the window nervously. Souta and her mother were seated elsewhere on the plane. The seat next to her was empty, and she went to put her things down on it when someone cleared their throat. Kagome looked up.
The most gorgeous man she had ever seen besides Brad Pitt was eyeing her through dark shades.
At least... She thought he was looking at her.
"That's my seat." He said in a rough voice that shook her from her misty fantasies.
"What?" She asked stupidly, looking at her iPod and backpack in which he was pointing to. "Oh, sorry."
She quickly moved her things and set them under her seat. He smirked, and sat down smoothly, buckling his seatbelt.
"I'm Kagome." She said pleasantly, holding out her hand to him.
He eyed it suspiciously, then too his own gloved hand and shook hers. "Ayu."
She blinked. "That name isn't actually Japanese, is it?"
"I'm not Japanese, so it makes sense, right?" He said in a perfect accent.
"Your Japanese is flawless..."
"If you're curious, just ask. I'm Hawaiian. I was adopted by a Japanese couple."
For some reason, she didn't believe him fully.
"I'm going to Hawaii to live with some cousins. Why are you going?"
"I was visiting Japan. Now I'm going back home."
The lights on the ceiling flickered, and a woman's voice crackled in the speakers above their head. She spoke in English first, then in Japanese, explaining that they would be going on the runway shortly.
"This is going to be a long flight," Ayu said quietly, looking at her thoughtfully through his shades. "You here alone?"
Suddenly Kagome felt suppressed, trapped against a wall with a strange but gorgeous man staring at her. "N-no, my brother and mother are on this plane as well."
He looked slightly disappointed, but turned to face the chair in front of him instead of saying anything in reply.
A certain curiosity sparked in Kagome, and she leaned in to inspect him a little more closely.
"How old are you?" She asked him.
"Eighteen."
Kagome blanched.
"Are you fucking serious?!" She asked rather rudely. She covered her mouth. "I mean... You look so much older. I thought you were twenty or something."
He turned and flashed her a smile. "I get that all the time."
She felt herself blush, realizing how close in ages they were. "I'm seventeen."
She could tell his eyes widened behind his dark glasses.
"You wanna get together in Hawaii? I know some tight private beaches."
"Depends, where are you going?"
"Hawaii is an island, Sweetie." He said with a laugh as the plane jerked into motion. "I see people there that I know all the time."
"Oh... I guess that's understandable." She muttered, feeling stupid. The engines below them fired to life with a roar. The woman made another announcement.
May I have your attention, please stay in your seats while taking off.
She repeated the message a couple times in English and some language Kagome didn't understand.
"Yes, do stay in your seat, it would be quite dreadful if you flew through the windshield." Ayu joked cruelly. Kagome managed a weak smile as the plane began to lurch forward.
He seemed to notice her fear because he placed one of his gloved hands on her shoulder.
"Hey, Kag, it's gonna be ok."
"Thanks." She said, gripping the arm of the seat as the plane picked up speed. She felt her stomach squirm uncomfortably as the small plane took off and bumped a bit on the runway.
As they climbed higher, the cockpit began to tremble. Kagome found herself gripping Ayu's hand. Her fearful eyes met his shaded ones, and he gave her another smile.
"Like I said, it's gonna be ok." He said with a small smile, squeezing her hand in response to her touch.
She nodded quickly, and tried not to look out the window in fear that she may see a rapidly approaching ground.
Soon the plane leveled out, and Kagome let go of Ayu's hand. Now that they were flying smoothly, she felt stupid for feeling afraid.
"Is this your first time flying?" He asked her, rummaging in one of his bags.
"No, can you tell?"
"Painfully." He laughed. "I was scared the first time I flew too. But I was alone. You're lucky to have someone here with you."
Kagome wasn't sure if he meant her brother and mother or himself.
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When I started this, I had no idea what it was going to be about, so if you don't get the plot, it's ok: neither do I. --