Mizu: Okay, apparently after a long and bloody battle, (wish I had been there for that) my friend Yume and Mika are now okay....

Mika: Yes, Yes! We are OKAY!!!! ::laughs insanely as eye twitches::

Mizu: Yeah... of course you are... Anyway, now I have to send my muse to a shrink, and those stupid morons say I'm perfectly normal.

Mika: They're coming to take me away, hehe hoho haha!!!!!!!

"Speaking"

-Thinking-

/POV change/

Scene Change

Kagome tiptoed quietly down the stairs with her shoes in hand. Walking into the kitchen, she heaved a sigh of relief. She sat down at the table, just as her mom laid down a bowl of cereal and some toast in front of her.

"Eat up, honey! You've missed a lot of school, and you're going to have to keep you're energy up." Midori said cheerfully, turning back to the dishes.

Kagome groaned. Hurridly swallowing down her cereal, she grabbed the toast, snatched up her bookbag, slipped on her shoes and jogged out the door. She hadn't been to school in a while. Kagome checked to make sure her ears were lying flat beneath her hair, and arranged her hair carefully overtop. Now, hopefully she could last the whole day at school without worrying about the boys at home.

Walking into the building, her friends flagged her down, filling her arms with the missed assignments. Sighing heavily, she wondered why she went through with this, after all, she could just live in the Fuedal Era. She was already smarter than the people there. That's probably what's going to happen, Kagome told herself, After all, Inuyasha can't learn everything there is to know about my time so suddenly.

Reaching her locker, Kagome dumped everything in there, grabbed her books for class, and raced off, not wanting to be late to class her first day back.

"Ms. Higurashi. Ms. Higurashi? MS. HIGURASHI!!" Kagome jumped, and guiltily looked up at the teacher. "Now that I have you attention, young lady, would be so kind as to answer the question?"

Mentally thinking back, Kagome found she couldn't think of what was asked. "Um, could I hear it again?" she asked sheepishly.

"Kagome, you're never going to get into college with you acting like this. The question was: What is the density of this unknown when it's volume is 2 mL and it's mass is 4.67 grams? And what is the unknown?" Her science teacher queried, a slightly smug air about him.

Kagome seethed. It was bad enough he randomly throws this at her, but to be snotty about it? Oh no, this would not do. Thank God Miroku had understood this stuff and helped her out with it. Miroku was probably smarter than this dolt! Looking to her paper, she scrawled out the problem, and glanced at her worksheet. She smiled sweetly, "It's density should be about .4282, to round it off, and the unknown is ethanol." She inwardly smirked, since the whole figuring took less than 15 seconds.

The man looked startled, and huffed as he muttered "Correct." Striding up to the head of the class he resumed his lecture, glaring at them all.

Kagome stretched back, mentally chiding herself for drifting off like that. The boys were fine, she assured herself. Thank God the morning was almost over. She had struggled through the new material, and couldn't wait for lunch to start.

----DING----

She shot up as the bell rang, grabbed her stuff and was out of there like lightining. Left in the dust was her scowling teacher, and flustered friends.

"Freedom, sweet freedom!" Kagome exclaimed, dancing outside with her lunch. She halted and considered her possibilites.

1) She could sit with her friends, who would nag her to death about the incident at the mall

2) She could sit at a table by herself, where Hojo would track her down, or her friends migrate to.

3) She could sit underneath the tree a good distance away from the cafeteria, and enjoy blissful solitude.

Deciding on option three, she skipped off, wanting to settle in before others came for her. She leaned back against the tree, exhausted. Suddenly, a shadow came across her closed lids. She frowned, and opened her eyes to a pair of amber orbs staring back at her. Startled, she jumped back, then frowned at him.

"Inuyasha! What are you doing here?" She hissed admonishingly. Frantically, Kagome looked for any on-lookers, thankfully, there were none. Then, she grinned, affection for her hanyou showling clearly in her eyes.

"When I woke up, your mom said that you were here, at the school thing you complained about so much in the Fuedal Era. I wanted to find out what was to bad about it." He replied, dropping down from his perch on the branch to sit beside her. Sighing, Kagome nuzzled her face into his chest.

"Where's Shippou?" she murmured. Inuyasha laughed, "I left him with your mom. She's drafted him to clean house..."

Chuckling, Kagome thankfully closed her eyes. "Mmmm, I'm so tired of this. If it wasn't for my mom, we could be enjoying ourselves right now. Maybe even find some Shikon Shards..." she trailed off, then pushed herself up. "Oh well, I'm going to eat my lunch, and since you can't stay here, you have to leave as soon as I head to class. Understand, Inuyasha? My world's different from your's, hanyous and youkai aren't really common here. Nor are priestesses for that matter." Kagome warned him, biting into her sandwich with enjoyment now. Now that Inuyasha was here, she felt better. How was she going to pull off being away from him so much for the remainder of her high school career? Unless...

Inuyasha was slightly disturbed. His mate held the most unangelic smirk on her features, and a gleam in her eyes as she watched him. He was almost afraid to ask, but curiosity won over. What was that saying Kagome had used to say? 'Curiosity killed the cat?' Well, at least he wasn't a cat.

"What? What's that look for?" he asked, unable to keep it in.

Kagome only laughed at bit, then took pity on the clueless hanyou. "How would you like to discover what goes on at my school. I'm sure you've been wondering about it from the Fuedal Era?" she sidetracked. Inuyasha gave a trademark grin, "Sure. Now I can see why you complain so much. I'm sure its just stupid stuff." he stated.

Kagome shook her head, offering him part of sandwich. He took it and began munching quietly along with his beloved, eyes scanning the students scurrying about. Socializing, laughing, flirting, and studying. Doing all manner of things common in her time. Blinking, he nudged Kagome, "Weren't those the girls we saw at the 'mawl' thing? I think they're looking for you..." warning her, he laughed a bit.

"What?!" Kagome yelped, looking up. Sure enough, Eri, Amy, and Umi were drifting from table to table. Probably doing double duty gathering gossip and looking for her. The trio started heading towards her, eyes on each other, so luckily, Inuyasha wasn't seen yet.

"Go!" she hissed. Shoving Inuyasha, sandwich still in his mouth, he scowled and hopped up on a secluded branch. Sighing, Kagome greeted her friends. "Hey guys, what're you up to?" she nervously twitched her sleeves. Eri grinned, "Oh, just looking for you. What are you doing all the way over here anyways?"

"Nothing, really." she honestly replied, "Just sit-" The rest of her sentence we'll never know, for as soon as that word passed Kagome's lips, her eyes widened and a hand clapped over her mouth. Above her, Inuyasha scowled, winced and braced himself for the inevitable. Seconds later, down came the silver-haired hanyou, on top of Kagome. Rather...odd position to say the least. Kagome's faced resembled a cherry while Inuyasha was muttering curses, muffled by his face buried in her hair that had fanned out.

Gaping, the girls helped the demons to their feet, goggled at Inuyasha, and then simaultaneously asked, "What is he doing here? Does he go here now?"

Kagome grimaced, then proceeded to bang her head into the tree. Thankfully, the bell rang. Kagome darted forward, pecked Inuyasha on the cheek, whispered for him to go home...NOW, and practically ran to class. Amy, Eri, and Umi were left blinking in the dust the two had stirred getting away.

Grumbling, Kagome sat in her next class. Great, now her mind would wander for the rest of the day. They really should be getting back to the Fuedal Era. Miroku and Sango must be worried sick.

"Higurashi-san?" Her History teacher, Kiyoko-sensei, looking up from her desk papers. "It seems your cousins, a Miroku and Sango are in town. Your mother wants you home. Something about a stolen jewel. I'm rather sorry to hear about your theft. I suppose the police will want a suspects list, in case you could think of anyone who would do something like that. I'll just give you the homework and you can be on your way." Kiyoko-sensei smiled, passing her some papers. Kagome grinned at her teacher. She was one of the few she really admired. Then again, her teacher cut her some slack, seeing as this was one of the few classes she was earning an 'A' in. Go figure.

Closing the door behind her, she walked down the hallway, unable to keep from giggling. Perfect! That excuse sounded innocently ordinary, funny how that was the absolute truth. Except for the cousin part.

---

Inuyasha smirked, leaning against the building of her school. As soon as he had returned to Kagome's, he found Sango and Miroku there. Their possession of the shards had somehow opened the way for them to go through. That didn't bode well. If holding the shards was all one needed to pass through to Kagome's peaceful time, then there would be a huge problem on their hands. He scanned his surroundings, taking them in with a snort. This place was begging to be defeated, he thought.

Impatiently, he pushed those thoughts back. The important thing was their friends were here, able enjoy this break of sorts from shard hunting. Kagome hurtled out of the doors, her school bag slung over her shoulder. The blue bag was bulging at it's seams, much smaller than the yellow one reserved for the Fuedal Era. Free of the confines of school, her eyes sparkled, her brilliant smile causing one to reply on Inuyasha's face.

"What took you so long, wench? I've been standing here forever!" he mock-growled. His face blanched, however, as Kagome's eyes narrowed and she frowned. "Inuyasha, what have I told you countless times before? My name is Kagome, not wench, miko, and girl. Since I have a name, and we are mates, I expect you to use it." she ranted, walking off towards her family's home. Pausing a moment, her tone light, she added. "I suppose you'll have to sit it out."

The pavement suddenly learned a myrad of colorful words, courtesy of a hanyou over 500 years old. Wow, so shocking. Sailors hair would curl at that language! Kagome merely smiled, and began trotting off. He soon caught up with her, glaring at her hair all the way.

---

"I'm home!" Kagome called, dropping the burden of a bag beside the door. Rushing into the living room, she saw Sango and Miroku, seated on her couch. They looked a bit intimidated by their surroundings, but the girls's squeal at seeing each other again defeaned the poor males in the room, who merely shook their heads.

"Sango! You look great!! Oh, I've missed you guys!" Kagome cried, giving her friend a huge hug. Sango cheerfully returned it, replying with sentiments of the same. Miroku coughed, and laughingly, Kagome allowed him a hug, as his hands were watched closely by Sango and Inuyasha. He smiled, pointing out the obvious, "Kagome-sama, you've been gone for longer lengths of time than this. Why the nostalgia all of a sudden?" he wondered.

Kagome brushed it off, taking a seat in the armchair on Inuyasha's lap. Grinning, he wound his arms protectively around her waist, not minding the knowing smiles of the other couple. "Miroku, I've told you, drop the '-sama'. We're all close here, we don't need the respectful distance. And I suppose that without any of you here, it's not so bad, since I'm not as strongly reminded of everyone. But having Inuyasha and Shippou here spoiled me. I missed you guys, it just wasn't the same." she honestly replied, beaming at her friends.

"Thanks, Kagome. That's truly touching." Sango said, teasingly. Kagome stuck out her tongue in response. Slowly, she smiled again, her eyes lighting up with the mischief from earlier. Only Inuyasha recognized it though, so he was the only one wary.

"Okaasan!" Kagome called, as her mother appeared in the doorway, "Don't we have a friend in the certification department who owes us a favor?" At her mother's puzzled affirmation, she laughed maniacally, disturbing the others...

Mizu: Okay, I'm going to leave it off there... I'm infected with convention-hyperness. That inspired me to finish this chapter. ::Turns as Mika stumbles in, cackling evilly::

Mika: I'm baack!

Mizu: What the hell? I paid for you to be treated for at least six months... Damn lawyers.

Mika: I'm a perfect specimen of a normal muse, or so they say. So, BEAT THAT, YOU STUPID SYSTEM!!

Mizu: Alright, as you can see, my muse is a bit deranged. Take pity on me and review!

Mizu and Mika: Arigatou for sticking with us this long! XD