Chapter 8: Someone just shoot me now

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Kagome was currently sitting at her desk, scribbling furiously in her notebook. It was her "To Do List," and by golly, she was determined to get this one finished no matter what it took!

1) Kill Hojo.

2) Kill my friends.

3) Kill Inuyasha. Make him sit roughly 500 times before that.

4) Kill whoever invented colds.

After considering it for a while, she ripped it all up, crumpled the remains into a ball, tossed it into the wastebasket and collapsed onto her bed.

Why did it have to turn out like this? Why did every other thing that happened to her have to be catastrophic? Why was she even born? Why Why WHY?

She rolled over onto her stomach and mumbled into her pillow, "Someone, please, please… Just shoot me now and end it!"


The next day, at school, Kagome's fears were realized. Whispers followed her through the halls like Inuyasha after ramen. Hojo's usual group of chums were seen minus one member…

The Outcast.

That's what he might as well be called now. Girls who were usually flocking all around him, peering through bushes, setting up hidden cameras around the cafeteria and dreamily writing "Mrs. Hojo" all over their notebooks now avoided him like a Typhoid Mary. One girl who had actually tried to make her dream of becoming his girlfriend come true had been reported to have punched him in the nose and then run off in tears. As for Kagome herself, she was getting a mixture of sympathy and suspicion; it was so awful that she had to be the victim of his new-found lecherous ways; or she had deliberately framed him to tarnish his perfect name and now had the nerve to go about flaunting it and acting like nothing happened to her.

They were so wrong. Although she did her best to remain calm on the outside, internally she screamed whenever a very depressed Hojo came into view, and tried to avoid all paths that might lead to him. It was kind of hard since Yuka, Eri and Arimi were always huddled around her, sharing the latest gossip about him and how this was the biggest scandal around the school in ages.

Kagome thought she had done a fairly good job of dodging Hojo, until just before school let out.

She'd been rushing down the hall, for once letting her composure slip and in a full panic since she would most certainly be late for her next class… that she also happened to be failing, thanks to a certain hanyou and shattered crystal. As she rounded a corner, she abruptly ran into someone.

"Ouch!" She staggered back, holding her nose, which she was certain had broken. When the pain of collision subsided to a dull throb, she looked up…

And internally screamed again, feeling herself go about twenty shades of red at once.

Hojo. Why now, why ever!

He cleared his throat, apparently feeling as awkward as she. He had the determined but harried look of someone seeking to get something unpleasant over and done with.

"Kagome… I, er, know about your boyfriend…"

Scream, scream, scream. INUYASHA, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU WHEN I GET BACK, JUST YOU WAIT!

"I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry about… the other day, and I know I should have been more considerate of the situation. I wish that I could make it up to you somehow…" He stood there, wearing a hint of that hopeful puppy look that was so familiar to Kagome.

She told him, but not with words. Yes, it was waaay too late. Time to get out, move on.

He sighed and turned around to walk off. Half-way down the hall he turned and called back;

"I really liked you, Kagome… If you would just give me a chance, I could be a whole lot better to you then that possessive biker you're hanging out with."

As Kagome debated whether or not to run down the hall and let loose with her vocal cords in his face, he had disappeared.

Kagome slumped the rest of the way to class and sat down in an empty seat as the teacher turned in the middle of pointing something out on the blackboard.

"Miss Higurashi, you are late again. This means extra work, and if I have to mark you tardy one more time, you must stay after and study."

The only good thing going for her today, Kagome moped, was that no one had heard Hojo blab out the "truth" about Inuyasha.

Then:

Wait a minute… Biker!


"AH-CHOO!"

"Whoa Sango, what's the matter?" Shippo lifted his head from her lap with a concerned expression on his face.

"It's nothing…. Ahh-ah-CHOO!"

Miroku's concentration broke with this second, more violent sneeze. "Sango, I do believe you might be coming down with something."

She waved her hand dismissively, staring out into the rain. "I'm telling you, there's nothing wrong with me!"

Kirara mrreowed in protest as she was rocketed off Sango's shoulder with the third sneeze.

"Don't try to hide it Sango. You're sick. That soaking you got must have done it," Shippo insisted, peering up at her face.

Sango sniffled. "Agh, you might be right… I'm not feeling that spry all of a sudden."

Her arm buckled abruptly and Hiraikotsu slid dangerously to the side, bonking Miroku on the head. He caught it with one hand and rubbed his head with the other- or tried to. The weight of the boomerang forced him to hold it up with both hands and merely wince at the receding yet pounding pain in his skull.

"M…maybe I should hold it, Sango. You must be tired," he volunteered hastily.

She relented and left Miroku to bear up the burden that she carried around with ease every day.

So… heavy… must hold up... he thought to himself despairingly, gritting his teeth. For Sango… for Sango…

Shippo sat up all the way and contemplated the well with a pout on his face. "Inuyasha's been there a long time… shouldn't he be back now?"

"Maybe they're… WA-CHOO!… In the middle of fighting," Sango sniffily volunteered.

"I think he would've been back now if they'd fought." The kitsune child glared at the well's wooden sides as if Inuyasha would bound over them any moment. "He's such an IDIOT!"

The two adults looked down in surprise at this sudden outburst. "Shippo?"

"Why can't he just tell her? What's the worst she'll do, say no, I hate you? 'Cause she won't, you know. She loves Inuyasha too… isn't it obvious?" He cried angrily, stamping his fox-foot in annoyance.

Miroku sighed. "It's not that easy, I'm afraid, Shippo. Remember, Inuyasha still harbors feelings for Kikyo… and maybe even possibly she for him. Kagome looks too much like her, which can be daunting, especially for Inuyasha. And she is aware of that, too."

"But…"

The monk smiled. "You'll understand when you're older."

Shippo pouted and looked down at the ground. "Well then, I want to be older right now!"

Sango shook her head. "No, I think you should stay young for as long as you can, Shippo. Children can be surprisingly more perceptive then adults… As you've so aptly demonstrated right now."

"Huh?"

"Aren't Inuyasha and Kagome adults… well, supposedly?"

Shippo laughed.

Suddenly, a familiar red-garbed figure sprang from the depths of the well and ran full-speed into the forest.

"Inuyasha!"

Sango put a hand on the kitsune's head. "Not now, Shippo… he looks kind of angry."

Shippo caught a glimpse of the hanyou's face. "Aah! Scaaaryyy…."

The rain ceased its relentless pounding.


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