Summary: Red can mean love, but that's not all it represents... as young Kagome soon learns--love is never a fairy tale, and red splatters the sky.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

Underlined text: More stuff I don't own.

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Sky Red

Chapter One

Welcome to Sakashi

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When people think of the sky, they'll connect it with sky blue. Sky blue—a special blue, a light, hazy blue that'll put anyone into a daydream if they stare long enough.

But for me… well, when I think of the sky, I think about sky red.

Why? Sure, it's a little absurd, maybe a little detached, too—even stupid and foolish to some extent. But hear me out. The sky can be red, right? Of course, it's only red twice a day: sunrise, and sunset.

In my opinion, these two times were the most beautiful times of the day. Everything was serene, and I always managed to forget my hate. Though I have to admit, I liked preferred sunrise over sunset. To me, sunrise meant a fresh start. It was a new page in the book of my life.

And the last reason I loved sunrise so much? That is…

… to me, sunrise was him.

Anyway, my story begins with how I first met him…

--

A young, preteen raven-haired girl swallowed as she awkwardly adjusted the straps of her backpack on her shoulders. She had blue-grey eyes, and wore baggy dark navy pants with all sorts of straps and zippers hanging, and a long white tee with a black, looseshort sleeved shirt over it. She tugged at the many bracelets and black chokers she wore and wondered what having a locker would be like.

For the girl, known as Kagome, it was her first day in grade seven at Sakashi Middle and High School. It was a private school; two exams had to be taken, you had to be interviewed, and the tuition was crazy. Kagome had expected such a prestigious school to have had uniforms, but there was no such thing there. Thank goodness too, since she had never really favoured skirts that much.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the large front doors and stepped into the building.

As soon as she stepped in, she found herself in the main hallway. She looked up at the ceiling, where there was a large chandelier hanging and great oak doors leading to the auditorium. She gaped at the display of shelves upon shelves of golden trophies, medals, plaques, and all sorts of awards. The hallway branched out to the right and left. Down her left were a row of lockers, at the end of the hall, and a gym. To the right were many offices and a gym as well.

Pulling a slip of paper out of her pocket, she scanned it for her locker number: 1094. Kagome started walking down towards the lockers, where other students were too. A few people stared as she passed by them.

'They've never seen a punk before…?' She thought absently. She scanned all the lockers, but couldn't find her number. As she started to panic, she noticed the hallway branched out again, where a row of lockers were on either side. She found locker 1094 and gave a sigh of relief. With some trouble, she managed to twirl her lock open and opened her locker. It was completely empty and looked extremely bland in Kagome's opinion. She looked at her watch. It was 8:05, which gave her thirty-five minutes until class started.

Smiling, she unzipped her backpack and pulled out several pictures, tape, and all sorts of little knick-knacks. She taped a picture of the Lostprophets at the top, and then followed pictures of some of her favourite bands—Billy Talent, Nirvana, Goo Goo Dolls, Evanescence, System of a Down… until she ran out of room. Kagome then added the final touch with several photos of her and her best friends from her old school: Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi. She locked in a few locker shelves and stacked her textbooks. Once she was done, it was almost 8:30. She wiped her brow and admired her handiwork.

Suddenly, she heard a voice behind her and jumped in surprise.

"Nice locker."

Kagome whipped around and saw a girl with dark brown hair in a high ponytail and chocolate brown eyes. She had magenta eye shadow on and wore a pair of faded jeans with a green and blackplaid short skirt over it, and a pink tank top. Over her tank top, she wore a loose off-white fishnet shirt. On her left wrist she wore a green wristband that faded into white, and on her right hand was a lime green fingerless fishnet glove.

"Uhh… thanks."

"I'm Sango by the way," the girl spoke, holding out her hand. "My locker is right across from yours." She motioned her head towards an open locker behind her which was too, decorated… though it was a bit tacky with all that lime green and hot pink in Kagome's opinion, it held a type of special originality that she admired.

"I'm Kagome." She took Sango's hand and shook it.

"So… what class are you?" Sango asked.

Kagome pulled out a different slip and answered, "I'm in class B. You?"

"Oh, good—I'm in B too," Sango replied, smiling. She checked her watch, which happened to be a stopwatch keychain hanging from the top of her jeans rather than one you'd wear around your wrist. Kagome grinned at this. Sango was definitely one-of-a-kind.

"Blegh. It's 8:37. We might as well head to class." Sango went back to her locker and picked up her bag, and closing her locker afterwards. Kagome placed her books in her bag and locked her locker too. Sango pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper that was her schedule and read it.

"Well, we're in homeroom 313 first… where's that?"

Shrugging, Kagome said, "Probably on the third floor… uhh, I think."

"Makes sense."

The two hunted down the nearest stairwell, which luckily wasn't far from their lockers. They climbed up to the third floor, and by then, they were panting and out of breath. Kagome groaned and clutched her already-sore legs. She hadn't moved around much in the summer, and the sudden sprint up three long flights of stairs exhausted her. Sango wasn't much better off.

They opened the door and stepped into the hallway of the third floor. Lockers lined the hallways too, but the only difference was that these lockers were painted. The long row of lockers depicted abstract scenes set in the sky and clouds. Other lockers had pictures of fire, cosmology, animals, and some things the girls didn't even get. They passed hordes of students from older grades and held their breaths when they passed a group of boys who reeked of BO.

They laughed at the things other people did (such as stuff each other in lockers, sitting on people who were already sitting on the benches that also lined the hallway, etc…) and by the time they actually reached their homeroom, they were already feeling high and energetic. They pulled the door open and were greeted by a computer lab. Long tables were set up in rows, four computers at each table. Two columns of tables ran down the room, with an isle in the middle.

"Sweetness!" Kagome exclaimed and the two girls rushed to claim two free computers at the back of the room. Excitedly, they turned on the screens… to be greeted by the log in screen. They looked at each other, and it was obvious they were thinking the same thing: Umm?

Sango frowned and leaned back in her chair. Damn. That's right—they weren't signed up on the school system yet. They would be getting their accounts today. She suddenly wished they could have been sent their account names and passwords over summer.

Kagome had dug through her bag and pulled out her MD player. It was navy with silver buttons. Sliding on her electric blue Sony headphones, she turned on the MD player (mini disc player—the actual disc itself looks like a mini floppy, but it's function is more like a CD… only that they're used for music). From beside her, Sango could hear Smells Like Teen Spirit playing, loud and clear. A few students looked up at the sudden loud buzzing resembling crashing drums. Their eyes led to Kagome, who had a dazed look on her face, head bobbing and eyes half-lidded. Sango saw a girl in white platform tennis shoes, jean skirt and white halter top with her semi-short hair in a ponytail who was eyeing Kagome with disdain. In turn, Sango glared daggers at the girl, who thankfully didn't notice or else she might have died on the spot.

Soon, more students began to file in, some looking completely and utterly lost or freaked out, others looking a bit apprehensive, and some looked at ease. Most students just shuffled in looking blank, which was actually quite humorous.

All the while, Kagome had been listening to music on her MD player. She was listening to Self Esteem by Offspring when Sango nudged her in the ribs. Kagome stopped the music and took off her headphones. She gave her new friend a questioning look.

"Yeah?"

Sango motioned her head towards two boys that had just come in and were coming down the isle. One of them had shocking silver hair and golden-yellow eyes, which Kagome felt herself being drawn into. You could tell he was a punk—the baggy pants, huge tee (which read "The doctors say I'm Special"), chains hanging down the side and stud bracelets gave it away quite nicely. He wore a black hat too; which was kind of odd since Kagome was sure there was a 'hats-off' policy at the school. The other boy had black hair tied into a small tail and dark blue, almost black eyes. He was decked out in dark grey jeans, a forest green wife-beater tank, and had a piercing in both ears.

Kagome and Sango watched as the two boys walked right down to the end of the isle…

… and sat down beside them.

Welcome to Sakashi.

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Well? How was it?

Please review and tell me what you thought about it. Constructive criticism is welcome.

Hiyotsu