Okay, no time. Hey, hi, hello. Sorry about not updating quick enough. Get over it.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not Inuyasha or Electra or Antigone.
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Chapter 7-Eggplant
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I worried the hem of my jacket by twisting it up in my fingers, I was so anxious I could hardly think straight. The cab driver tapped his fingers rhythmically to the music pounding from the radio, and it made my thoughts chaotic. Eventually I leaned over to him from the backseat.
"Excuse me," I said politely.
He was a nice elderly man, the type of kindly grandpa folk that you just adore. Well, not that morning. The driver smiled at me over his shoulder to hint that he was paying attention.
The corners of my mouth twisted up vaguely as I glanced at the heavy traffic we were stuck in. "Could you stop that please?"
"Pardon?"
I indicated his drumming fingers, "The tapping?"
He looked slightly confused for a moment and then shifted his weight. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know it was bothering you."
I sniffed. Shortly after that he began humming to the music and I just slumped back in my seat with my arms folded in frustration after giving a dramatic sigh. My eyes wandered out the window to the congestion of crowded vehicles. Why oh why did there have to be a Celtic Festival on Saturday...
Leaning forward again, I interrupted the man once more, "Excuse me?"
He was still grinning innocently when he turned back, eager to please no matter his passenger's mood; charming. "Yes?"
"Could you please tell me the time?"
He nodded, "Certainly," and moved to the left to get a view of the small digital clock near the steering wheel. "Well, it looks to be about..."
About? About what? About too late?
"2:52."
About too late.
"Oh shit," was my appropriate response. I snatched my purse from beside me, withdrew my wallet, and grabbed a fistful of cash that included at least thirty dollars, "Here," I shoved it all in the driver's face, "keep the change, don't spend it all in one place." And then before either of us could say another word, I was out the door.
I scooted in between the cars in a mad dash for the sidewalk. Ignoring the honking horns, I mindlessly muttered, "excuse me" as I brushed past. When I finally hit the walkway I made a hairpin turn, skidding on my heels, and then began to run.
My heart thudded in my ears, I wouldn't be tearing down the streets of New York in white high heels for anything else, though I couldn't put my finger on why the audition was so particularly special.
Suddenly my ankle crumpled and I was set flying towards the ground with a strangled, unfeminine cry of distress. I hit the pavement in a crash and ended up tumbling a bit to my right until my skull was inches from ramming into the side of a building. The sky swirled above me as I tried to catch my breath. For a long moment I wondered what I was doing, and saw that the people above me walking past were giving me very strange looks.
Slowly I dragged myself up, groaning and moaning in agony, and inspected myself. Except for being a bit dirtier, with a scraped knee, I noticed nothing serious. It wasn't the wisest move, but I certainly couldn't keep them on any longer, so I carefully unfastened my shoes and buckled them into my belt. Then I began the painful process of lifting myself up.
Although I was aching, all went well, until I applied pressure to the foot that had given way. With a yelp of pain, I gingerly shook it about as I danced on my uninjured foot limply. Biting in my lip I looked down and saw that it was swelling considerably, going from red to something worse.
"Oh hell," I whispered. But there was nothing for it, I knew I was losing precious time, so I bit the bullet and broke into a run again with my shoes flopping uselessly at my hip. My only consolation was that the traffic beside me, which was stretching in miles now, was still unyielding.
It was stupid, and hurt like hell, but I ran, and I ran, and eventually the terrible burning hurt in my foot subsided a bit to a thundering numbness. By the time I hit the street that the theater was on I was fairly certain that my bad foot was pulsating with its own heartbeat.
Thankfully, the Amour wasn't even half a block from the turn I had just made to get onto the street, so I was able to drag myself to it without collapsing.
After shoving the doors open with a pronounced victory laugh, I hobbled into the lobby realizing at the same moment that I had no idea where to go from there. A girl was leaning against a wall to the right next to a small door, so I grinned, slipped my shoes back on (at which point I realized that my foot was still attached to my body because once again it was worse than squeezing lemon juice over an open paper cut) and made my way towards her.
She was dressed casually in overalls and a white tank top. Even though her back was to me and I could tell that she seemed totally absorbed in a book she was holding; I could see that she had an olive complexion, and I could see that she wore her short brown hair in pig tails. Strangely familiar.
"Excuse me," I asked, gripping her shoulder lightly, "Can you please tell me where the auditions are today?"
She didn't respond quickly, but after about fifteen seconds she mumbled, "hold on..." and then fifteen more seconds later she turned a page and closed the book. Then she turned around with a sudden wind of perkiness. "How may I-"
Her words were cut short when the girl's eyes rested on me.
I reeled, small world... My voice came out dazed when I tentatively asked, "Yukari?"
Yukari grinned wonderfully and put her hands on her hips "The one and only. Is that really you Kagome? You look great, how are you?"
I smiled sheepishly, knowing that she was speaking about my outfit. "I'm okay, just ran halfway here and made an ass of myself in the middle of the street... How are you?"
She nodded, probably not quite comprehending my bit about the slip, "Fine...Fine. I um, I work here, at the...theater." She indicated the theater in question with a thumb over her shoulder.
"Really? Well that explains a lot."
"Yeah, an actor actually," she blushed with pride, "been one for nearly a year now."
I flexed my purpling toes in inspection for broken bones. "Wow, that's impressive."
"Yeah..." She scratched her head bashfully, "So ahh, you said you were here for...What were you here for again?"
Reality hit me hard and my brain rammed into a state of panic simultaneously. "Auditions," I snapped.
"Really?! That's excellent Kagome!" She slapped my shoulder affectionately. "Boy, it'd be great if you were acting here! We could have so much fun I-"
"No, you don't understand," I interrupted harshly, "I need to get to them NOW, I'm LATE."
Yukari blinked, "Well...okay then, right through this door," she thumbed towards the door she had been guarding when I walked in.
"Great," I muttered, and I turned for it, she caught my arm as my hand was poised on the doorknob.
"Wait, they're seeing someone right now."
"What?"
"They've got somebody auditioning, we can't walk in on it." I huffed in frustration and she hesitated, "But I'll go poke my head in and tell them we've got one more, okay?"
"Thank you," I slumped against the wall while Yukari opened the door a crack. A young woman's voice performing lines wafted to my ear. She had an amazing voice, clear as a bell and supremely gorgeous. I was reminded of the voice actress in the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. Another movie that Inuyasha and I worshiped in our spare time.
"...You've earned my hatred, and that of our dear brother too, by rights," the feminine voice said. I had no idea what she was quoting, but it was excellent, delivered wonderfully, and it made me shrivel. "...I will suffer nothing worse than death in a good cause..."
Then there was Yukari speaking, warning whoever was judging the young woman that I would be entering soon. She retreated from the door after she got an answer from someone and returned to me.
"What was she reading from," I whispered.
Yukari smiled, "Her? Antigone. Great, wasn't she?"
"Yeah..." I sighed, "Superb."
Yukari shifted around uneasily, "Oh but I'm sure she'll be no competition for you Kagome," and she elbowed me in the ribs playfully.
I slithered out of her reach and changed the subject. "I thought you worked at the coffee place Yukari."
"Part time," she explained, "Can't get everything from an acting job you know," and winked.
"Oh." More lines came to me through the wall at a particularly dramatic scene. "...With life still strong in me, I'm going on my last journey..."
Yukari asked me a question, but I gave a halfhearted response and she backed off, realizing my extreme discomfort.
"...Unmarried, never having heard my wedding song, death takes me to the dark riverbanks to be his bride..."
There was such a strong burst of applause from the next room that Yukari jumped a bit in surprise. After a bout of enthusiastic whistling and more applause there was a brief exchange of dialogue and then the door opened as a beautiful girl walked past us, leaving me with my mouth agape and Yukari smiling and waving ignorantly as she bid the girl farewell.
"She's sweet, isn't she?" Yukari said dreamily as if she were talking about her own child, and then she clapped her hands and pinned her gaze on me. "Well, your turn!"
I swallowed and shrank a few more inches, "Great."
Her arm went around my shoulders briefly, shaking me with light-hearted affection. "You'll do great," she said, but the statement seemed far off, and I thought I heard it echo around inside my head before I was able to understand that she was wishing me luck. My toes went first, and I tumbled a bit in the one foot walk that was required to get to the door.
"Am I going to feint?" I asked dimly.
"No, no, no, of course not..." She was already opening the door with her other hand.
The light from the next room was starting to shine onto us, my eye twitched when I realized my doom and the most I could managed to get out of my throat was, "Wait a minute."
But it was too late, Yukari had managed to slide her hand from my shoulder to my back and with a gentle push she scooted me in. Having lost control of my body I obeyed mindlessly. My eyes were still alive though, and they were busy swerving around with the intensity of a cornered animal.
There was a gentle click, the door closing behind me. I swallowed dryly and ended up making petit coughs, I was stalling; and making an ass of myself at the same time. I like to think of myself as a multitasker. Meanwhile four judges-three male, one female were watching me affectionately from behind a plain wooden desk that was chipping a bit. There were no windows, the room itself was very small. It was just me, the desk, the judges, and the carpet on the floor.
Then came the straw that broke the camel's back; ironically, that was sort of a good thing. Hojo beamed at me enthusiastically, wearing the same dopey school boy grin I remembered from our last meeting. All my systems crashed when I saw his face, my mouth opened wordlessly for a second. Everything was torn down in an instant, I realized that there was absolutely nothing more that could make the situation more uncomfortable than it already was. Therefore, at the end of the line, confronted by all my obstacles at once, a small voice in my head announced the conclusion of everything. And the conclusion was: fuck it.
And that's just what I did.
My vocal chords kicked in suddenly. I even managed to wave like I was actually happy to be there. "Hi, I'm Kagome Higurashi."
Hojo stared at me with utter, pleased fascination. He had been waiting for me to show up, no use denying it. That was awfully sweet of him, but stupidly predictable. It was like something out of the Baby-Sitters Club. If he would just change his name to Jake Lionheart, then I would have something to worry about.
Meanwhile, a male judge was bringing a paper to his face that had been resting on top of a small stack since I had entered. "Yes," he answered, then he ran through a list of the information I had given the woman on the phone, who I suddenly realized had been Yukari. I nodded slowly to him, still wrapped up in my revelation. He continued, "Wonderful, let's get it over with then."
Hojo was the youngest one there by looks; the rest of the group seemed to be anywhere from 23-32. The oldest one being the man who had just spoken to me.
The female, second youngest, 23 at a guess, addressed me. "Have you had any experience before, Kagome?"
I shrugged, "No, not really." The woman was real pretty, a classic beauty; black hair to her waist, shockingly pale, flawless skin, dark eyes, red lips, the works. She reminded me a little of my mother in terms of physical appearance, but my mother, though she tended to forget about me, was still happy-go-lucky. This woman was more or less cold as ice in my opinion. Like she really had something to bitch about but kept her mouth shut because she felt it was below her to actually speak to people.
The last one not to have spoken brought me back to earth, "What made you consider acting Kagome? Or, acting at this theater, perhaps?"
Any typical girl would have blushed. Yeah well, I didn't blush. I put every known shade of red to shame and flat out insulted Woody Allen for the award of most stuttering in a what should have been at most a three word sentence, that's what I did. What came out of my mouth was something to the effect of, "I, w-well, um, and, yes, I, a-ahhh..." Then repeated in that order several times.
Finally, on the verge of using the word, "shucks" and after pointedly avoiding eye contact with Hojo, I managed to announce that Sango's sister Kirara had inspired me. She had been an actress for a good long time and was well on her way to making a good, really recognizable name for herself. And the statement wasn't entirely a lie, I had always admired Kirara's guts, and the profession was appealing...It just wasn't the main reason I all of a sudden wanted to start acting.
The most agreeable judge, second oldest guy nodded pleasantly and said that was very nice. Somehow I felt like they were all looking down at me, except Hojo and especially the black-haired woman. One corner of my mouth turned up, "Thanks," I said coldly.
There was an awkward silence for a moment that I knew they were expecting me to break. Their eyes were trained on me critically, but I was still angry with my treatment. So instead, I had the nerve to fold my arms and cock my head, "Well?" I asked, "Are we going to get this started or what?" The woman's eyes flashed darkly for a second while Hojo and the second oldest guy chuckled softly. The other one pulled out a packet from the stack of papers in front of him and suddenly tossed it in my direction.
"You're up."
I fumbled with the packet and then secured it in my arms frantically, "I'm what?" My sudden bitchy cool was gone, out the window like my stomach and my confidence.
He nodded towards me, suddenly looking disturbingly amused. "Read to us."
Read? Did I even know how to read? I became visibly confused and just stared at the booklet in shock. The moment of truth had come far too soon. "From this?" I pointed at the packet. He smiled.
Hojo spoke apprehensively from the corner, "He means that you should read some lines from the script, Kagome."
"Oh, so that's what this is. From what scene?"
"It doesn't matter," the woman snapped suddenly, "Just open it up and read."
My eyebrows went up immediately, "Yes ma'am."
There was a gentle roll of laughter from the judges in which the woman did not participate. She simply continued to give me a half-bored, half-belittling stare. After puttering around a bit and sort of playing with the pages like I was actually doing something, I took a deep breath, opened the book, and looked down.
I didn't even know what the thing was, I didn't even know the names of the judges! My eyes went down onto the page, I wasn't ready, shouldn't they have done something more than this? What were they thinking? Was this really what actors were? Free form and sketchy and unorganized? The lower lip of my mouth opened very gently, just as I as I was about to speak the woman interrupted me suddenly and I jumped a few inches up into the air.
"Page number please."
"P-Pardon me?" Somehow there had to be something I was missing. I was probably extremely lucky to have survived this far because obviously I was going through the process with absolutely none of the required knowledge.
"Page number!" She looked like she wanted to break my skull over the desk. My eyes searched frantically all over the page, questing for the number. Number number number number.
"Number 56."
"Thank you," she hissed. They all reached over from the original stack of papers and passed individual packets around to each other. I was awkwardly confused, more so than I could remember being before in the past few months. Was this a joke?
After some silent deliberation amongst the group, the oldest man spoke up and calmly asked Hojo to "take this one." Take this one? What one? Me? Take what now? In what manner would the taking be accomplished? The sudden realization of how much I didn't know up against the fact that I was actually doing an audition went straight to my head, and the adrenaline nearly made me swoon on the spot.
I looked at Hojo pathetically only to find that he was looking back at me with utter faith and confidence. "Ready Kagome?" What should have sounded like, "I'm sorry, could you please explain to me what we're doing again," actually came out as a dazed nod that took two seconds to be registered by my brain.
His bright eyes slipped down to the packet, "Alright Kagome, you've chosen to read from Electra," and he paused to say, "Very nice." I would have said, "Gee, thanks," had I not been too petrified to open my mouth. "I think that in this scene I'll play the leader, and you can read as Electra, alright?"
"Um, a-alright."
"Okay, I'll start." He straightened himself and cleared his throat before beginning with a clear, ringing voice that I had never heard or imagined him using, "Tell me, is Aegisthos near? Or has he left the house?"
Looking down I realized in the moment of ultimate panic that I needed to talk. My mind chose this moment to go completely blank except for a single purpose that remained fixed and immovable. Read. Read your lines stupid...Don't think about reading, DO IT! The words were right in front of me, all I had to was say them and be done with it. Say them...Just. Say them. But other things were invading my brain too fast for me to keep track of things, and very soon my perfectly understood task was floating somewhere in space above my head, but not in it. For example, what the hell was an Aegisthos?
Fortunately, my eyes swerved up and locked with someone's at just the right time. No, not Hojo's, I wasn't the dippy moron who drew strength from a boy's eyes, I was the dippy moron that understood the meaning of the words: I'll prove you wrong. The deep brown orbs became narrowed and fierce as the unknown woman regarded me with absolute disapproval. The look she was giving me made me quiver with rage. How dare she...She didn't think I could do it, did she? She didn't think I was "good enough?" Yeah well...You've got another thing coming bitch, so just shut the fuck up and watch.
"He has left, of course. How should I be out, if he were near?" Oh yeah...How do you like that?
"If he is away, then, I may speak further with you?"
Hojo was pretty good, I couldn't help but be impressed for a moment. But with my intent I was on the warpath to not only show him up but wave it in Bitchy McBitcherson's ridiculously perfect face. And that's what I did.
"Yes, you may speak."
"Let me enquire about your brother...Is he coming? Delaying? I must know."
"He says he is coming but...does not come."
"A man with a great works likes to delay."
"When I saved him, I did not delay."
"Take courage. He is the man to help those he loves."
"I trust him...or I should not still be alive."
I could feel it, I could feel the splendid deliverance. The timing was right, my voice was right, everything was in sync with everything else.
...TAKE THAT!
Coincidentally, at the moment that my supreme victory was dawning on me, the eldest judge lifted a hand and said, "Thank you, that's enough."
I wriggled in my shoes with glee, this was very good, I could feel it. And I could see it on the woman's face because she looked mighty pissed and nothing else at that moment could have made me feel so satisfied.
Hojo was the first one to speak, "That was very good Kagome." There was something beyond tender feelings mixed into that statement, and I think that it was real admiration.
"I agree," the second oldest male seemed a little dazed, "That was...excellent."
The woman looked too murderous to speak, and so she just sat there with her jaw set and her arms folded. I grinned and concealed my urge to gloat as neatly as I could. "Thank you very much."
"Well now that we have gotten that part out of the way, I think we owe you an introduction," the oldest judge said.
I blinked, "What?"
"Well we don't usually do it this way, but we were so tired after all the auditions and you were late, so we decided we would let your read first and then if we didn't like you we just wouldn't give you the time of day and simply send you packing so we could get out of here," the second oldest said pleasantly for such an unfeeling speech.
Blinked again, nothing else to do.
"And well, you were very good Kagome," Hojo commented kindly.
"Ahh...Thanks." These people were insane.
"Now then, that's Hojo, you've met I think; I'm Myouga Kanzaki," the second oldest judge pointed to himself, "That's Adrian Grey," he pointed to the eldest judge, "and that, is Kikyo Nomiyaki."
Kikyo? Stupid pretty name...I hated it. Mentally I ticked off yet another candidate for the title of my future first daughter.
Mr. Grey spoke again with his deep, serious voice, "Kagome you have very impressive talent, I must admit that I am rather in awe."
Oh wow, it was too perfect, Kikyo looked excellently ticked. I prayed silently for the compliments to keep coming.
"Yes," Myouga said, "You were certainly very well prepared for this, you're quite a natural Miss Higurashi. We'll certainly be considering you as one of the best we've seen all day."
Wait, what? Was that it? Was it over already?
Hojo nodded, "You can count on that."
"Thank you for your time Miss Higurashi, we'll be contacting you very shortly when we come to a decision," Mr. Grey told me formally.
"Wait a minute," I interrupted, "That was it?"
Hojo hesitated, "Yeah, we don't really need much to judge a possible actor."
"But...but what about information? Don't I need to know anything about this theater...what I'd be doing, all that?"
Mr. Grey stepped in, "You'll be getting all of that when we reach you with our choice, don't worry."
"Assuming," Kikyo muttered coldly, "You get the chance to perform at this theater."
I smiled sarcastically at her with my head tilted at a falsely cheery angle, "Well thanks."
"No problem," she hissed.
"Well thank you again for your time Miss Kagome," Mr. Kanzaki, Myouga, got up to shake my hand.
"Yeah..." I started moving towards the door, still a little dazed, "H-Have a good...um...afternoon...."
Hojo waved at me fondly as I slipped out, and I waved back with a sort of helpless smile on my face.
Once out the door, Yukari immediately slapped me on the back, "Well what do ya know," she chirped brightly, "You survived, didn't you?"
"I guess..." I whispered softly.
Yukari peered at me deeply, "What's wrong?"
"Oh nothing, I just expected...I don't know...a little more."
She laughed shrilly, "What do you mean? What exactly were you expecting?"
I shrugged absently, "I don't know, I thought they might give me a lecture or have me answer some questions or fill out a form or something."
"Oh yeah, we're just not that formal here at Amour!" She laughed again. Yukari laughed a lot. I sort of chuckled dryly.
All of a sudden, I toppled to the side and crashed into the wall clumsily. A stabbing pain screamed from my wounded ankle and I cried out a bit as I slowly slid down to the floor.
"Whoa," Yukari knelt down beside me, "Better watch those high heels, you could-HOLY SHIT!"
I blanched knowing that she had noticed my foot. It had to resemble an eggplant by now.
"What the hell happened to your foot Kagome?!"
Yeah, I knew it.
"I um...tripped on the way over. It isn't that bad, is it?"
The door opened beside us unexpectedly and Hojo's orange-red head poked out. "Are you okay out here Yukar-Hey! Kagome, your foot! Are you alright?"
"It's okay," I tried to stand, "It's nothing, really, I just fell on the way here, I'll just take a taxi and administer some first aid when I get home, it's no big deal."
Unfortunately I found standing to be a rather difficult feat, and soon tumbled again only to have Yukari swing her arm around my shoulders for support just in time. "You can't even walk!"
"Don't trouble yourself, I'll be fine, honestly."
Myouga soon appeared beside Hojo, "What's the trouble?"
"Kagome sprained her ankle."
"I did not! Honestly, it's not that bad!"
"It looks like an eggplant."
"It does NOT! Well...maybe a plum. But not an eggplant..."
"Face it Kagome," she hoisted me up so that I was standing on one leg, "Your foot looks like an eggplant, and we can't let that go."
"Right," Hojo suddenly put an arm around my shoulders as well, and I couldn't help the blush that arose on my cheeks, "We'll help you get to a med center, I don't think there's one very far from here..."
"Please," I begged, "Don't go to all this trouble for me! I'm telling you, it's not as bad as you think! I hardly feel it."
"So those are tears of what, joy?" Yukari gave me a skeptical look.
"I'm not crying," I countered.
"You look like you're about to."
"Besides," Hojo said next to my ear, "It's no trouble at all."
"And we can't have a very likely future actress walk off with an injury like that," Myouga winked at me.
I realized that I couldn't win the fight, and found myself smiling weakly at all of them, "Thank you so much, this is really very considerate you."
"You're welcome," Yukari replied.
"Now then," Hojo turned to Mr. Kanzaki, "Will you please tell them that I'll be back in a little while? Just let me take care of Miss Higurashi and I'll be back in no time."
Myouga nodded, "But don't bother if you get held up past six, we'll all be gone by then."
"Right, thanks Myouga."
"Yeah, hold the fort while we're away," Yukari laughed again.
"This is really great of you guys," I muttered quietly.
"Don't mention it, let's get moving."
Carefully we tried leaning forward, and immediately I fumbled and almost dragged the three of us down to the ground. We all giggled a little and tried again on the count of three. That time I fell into Hojo and we both tumbled into the wall. After apologizing with embarrassment, Yukari stooped and carefully removed my towering shoes.
"There, is that better?" She asked.
"A little..."
Hojo's unfaltering enthusiasm for everything showed through again, "Terrific, let's give it another go."
The "go" managed to land Yukari on her knees, and we came to acknowledge the fact that we had a problem.
"Okay...there has to be another solution to this," she mumbled as she swept the dust off of her overalls.
After a pause, Hojo spoke up, "I think I've got an idea. Kagome, pardon me."
"What? I-Oh, hey there!"
Before I'd had time to question him, Hojo had swept me off my feet into a bridal style hold; with a hand under my knees and another supporting my back. "I'd feel better about your safety if you held onto my neck," he said softly, "That is, if you don't mind."
"No of course not, I only hope that I'm not breaking your back or anything," I sputtered.
Yukari snickered, "You guys make quite the couple. I can see I'm not needed here."
Panic seeped into my veins instantly, if Yukari left, I somehow knew that I would find a way to embarrass myself. I was already blushing madly.
"But I think I'll come along anyway, just incase superman runs out of ammo."
My relief came out in a sigh. And I think Hojo noticed it because he seemed to glow a little and immediately waves of guilt started to pour over me.
"Come on," he said in a voice seemingly higher than usual, "Let's get this show on the road ladies, before Kagome feints from the pain."
"I WILL NOT! WHAT PART OF 'NOT SO BAD' DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
***
The medical center was strangely clean for anything of the title in New York. If you weren't going to your own doctor for treatment you usual wound up in a decaying hellhole. But this place...It was fascinatingly spotless. There were of course an assortment of interesting characters in the lobby, no use trying to avoid that, but other than that, it was very orderly. The rooms were even more impressive because the magazines were from the present year. It may have been the pain killers they had fed me that had made my observations so bright and sunny.
I bounced on the paper-covered couch they had set me up on. "Did you notice how clean this place is?"
Yukari looked up from her magazine, which she was reading propped up in the corner. "Huh?"
"Look, no cracks in the walls or discolored ceiling tiles or...anything!"
She giggled and resumed reading, "Don't trouble your ankle Kagome."
"Ankle," I laughed, "What ankle? I can't even feel it anymore!"
"Good."
"She's right," Hojo said, "It is pretty clean in here for New York."
"You see what I mean?" I pointed to him, "Hojo believes me."
"I never said I didn't believe you, Kagome," Yukari started to snicker.
A lengthy silence settled over us, and after a short time I started to hum absent-mindedly. My eyes brushed over the room childishly. I was tempted to swing my legs. My state of mind was totally out of order, and I had no qualms with it.
Suddenly, I cried out.
"Kagome?" Hojo asked nervously, "Are you alright?" Yukari looked up from her magazine again.
"I have to call Inuyasha," I told him blankly.
"Inuyasha?" He didn't remember him from a week ago when he had come with me with Rin and Shippou.
"Her best friend," Yukari put in, "Right?"
I nodded, "He'll get really pissed if he doesn't find out where I am soon." I felt around uselessly in all of my pockets, to no avail. I didn't have my cell phone with me, "Do either of you happen to have a phone? I left mine at my apartment."
Yukari searched all of her pockets, and Hojo searched his. In a few seconds she shrugged in dismay. "Sorry."
"It's okay, thanks."
"Maybe they'll let us use their phone here, I don't see why they wouldn't."
"Wait a minute," We both turned to Hojo, who was removing his small portable phone from the front pocket on his shirt. "Here, hold on...let me...turn it on."
He pressed a lot of buttons...too many buttons too just turn it on. It was a suspicious action that I didn't think much of; on the other hand, maybe it was just a very complicated cell phone. After a bit more button punching, he handed me his phone with a scarlet face. I almost asked him if he was alright, but I knew better than to embarrass him so.
Looking down, I saw that his little screen read, "I LUV MOM." There were several extra spaces between the words "LUV" and "MOM." I ignored them, but my heart beat sped up a little when the possibilities arose in the uncontrollable part of my head.
"That's so sweet Hojo..." I told him lovingly.
"What?" Yukari asked us.
"He has 'I love mom' written on the top of his screen."
"Awww, Hojo you prince..."
Hojo blushed even more, "Um...you have to push the green button to start dialing, then push 'send.'"
I nodded and followed his instructions to the best of my abilities with my drug-clouded brain. Soon it began to ring on the other line, and I waited patiently for Inuyasha to answer the phone, praying silently that he hadn't gone out...because I couldn't remember Sango's number. Or Miroku's for that matter.
To my relief, the phone was answered after only three rings. "What."
"You're awfully polite," I quipped sarcastically, "You know you really should brush up on your people skills."
"What the hell do you want? Or did you just call to lecture me?"
"Hey! What did I do?"
"You kicked me in the stomach," He told me bitterly.
"Oh yeah...Whoops."
"Yeah. Whoops is right. What do you want," It came out sounding more like a statement than a question.
I started to twiddle my thumbs and looked down at my lap glumly, "I um...kind of sprained my ankle, or ahhh, twisted it, or something, we don't exactly know yet."
"You what?! How the hell did you do that?! Hey, where are you calling from anyway?!"
I laughed a little empty laugh, and smiled for the peculiar situation. "Well, it's a long story...I took a cab first, but then we got caught in traffic because of a festival downtown...So I jumped out and tried running to the theater."
"Wait. Stop. Let me guess, you were still wearing your heels, weren't you?"
"Yeah..."
"You moron."
"Shut up. Anyway, I fell over."
"Where are you?" He pressed.
"I'm at a med center not very far from the theater," Yukari shouted the address for me, "Did you hear that?"
"Yes, who was that?" He asked.
"My friend Yukari."
"Coffee house girl?"
"Yeah, small world...she works at the theater as an actress."
"Wait," He interrupted, "So you actually GOT to the theater?"
I nodded even though he couldn't see me, "That's right, I ran on my bad ankle anyway, and I even did my audition."
"Idiot! ....How was it?"
"Good, I'll give you the details later, I don't want to waste minutes on Hojo's phone," Hojo waved his hands in distress, indicating that I was free to use his phone for as long as I wanted. I beamed at him.
"Hojo?!" Inuyasha screeched desperately, "Wait, Kagome, Hojo? He's there?"
"Come pick me up in a taxi okay?"
"Kagome! Answer me dammit! Hojo is there?!"
I smiled fiendishly, "See you soon Inuyasha."
"WAIT!"
"Bye." I flipped the phone shut, which disconnected me sufficiently, and handed it back to Hojo, "Thank you so much."
Hojo blushed a little bit, "You're welcome, but really, you could have used it as much as you liked." The blush deepened considerably, "I-I'm sure Inuyasha would have been happy to hear about what a great job you did, Kagome."
"You're sweet."
He smiled.
"I'd tell you guys to get a room," Yukari said dryly, "But it seems you already have one, I was just unfortunate enough to be landed in it with you."
I threw the limp headrest-pillow on my couch at her, she giggled insanely. Hojo was too red to speak, apparently.
A nurse came in at that moment wielding a small basket that had a needle in it, among other things, and I stiffened instantly. The doctor came in after him, smiling kindly.
"Well then, I hear you landed badly on your ankle," He said in a pleasant voice.
I nodded, "You could say that."
"My..." He looked down at my foot, "It looks just like an eggplant, doesn't it?"
***
At this moment, I have NO TIME to do review responses, reccomendations, etc. Sorry! Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not Inuyasha or Electra or Antigone.
***
Chapter 7-Eggplant
***
I worried the hem of my jacket by twisting it up in my fingers, I was so anxious I could hardly think straight. The cab driver tapped his fingers rhythmically to the music pounding from the radio, and it made my thoughts chaotic. Eventually I leaned over to him from the backseat.
"Excuse me," I said politely.
He was a nice elderly man, the type of kindly grandpa folk that you just adore. Well, not that morning. The driver smiled at me over his shoulder to hint that he was paying attention.
The corners of my mouth twisted up vaguely as I glanced at the heavy traffic we were stuck in. "Could you stop that please?"
"Pardon?"
I indicated his drumming fingers, "The tapping?"
He looked slightly confused for a moment and then shifted his weight. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know it was bothering you."
I sniffed. Shortly after that he began humming to the music and I just slumped back in my seat with my arms folded in frustration after giving a dramatic sigh. My eyes wandered out the window to the congestion of crowded vehicles. Why oh why did there have to be a Celtic Festival on Saturday...
Leaning forward again, I interrupted the man once more, "Excuse me?"
He was still grinning innocently when he turned back, eager to please no matter his passenger's mood; charming. "Yes?"
"Could you please tell me the time?"
He nodded, "Certainly," and moved to the left to get a view of the small digital clock near the steering wheel. "Well, it looks to be about..."
About? About what? About too late?
"2:52."
About too late.
"Oh shit," was my appropriate response. I snatched my purse from beside me, withdrew my wallet, and grabbed a fistful of cash that included at least thirty dollars, "Here," I shoved it all in the driver's face, "keep the change, don't spend it all in one place." And then before either of us could say another word, I was out the door.
I scooted in between the cars in a mad dash for the sidewalk. Ignoring the honking horns, I mindlessly muttered, "excuse me" as I brushed past. When I finally hit the walkway I made a hairpin turn, skidding on my heels, and then began to run.
My heart thudded in my ears, I wouldn't be tearing down the streets of New York in white high heels for anything else, though I couldn't put my finger on why the audition was so particularly special.
Suddenly my ankle crumpled and I was set flying towards the ground with a strangled, unfeminine cry of distress. I hit the pavement in a crash and ended up tumbling a bit to my right until my skull was inches from ramming into the side of a building. The sky swirled above me as I tried to catch my breath. For a long moment I wondered what I was doing, and saw that the people above me walking past were giving me very strange looks.
Slowly I dragged myself up, groaning and moaning in agony, and inspected myself. Except for being a bit dirtier, with a scraped knee, I noticed nothing serious. It wasn't the wisest move, but I certainly couldn't keep them on any longer, so I carefully unfastened my shoes and buckled them into my belt. Then I began the painful process of lifting myself up.
Although I was aching, all went well, until I applied pressure to the foot that had given way. With a yelp of pain, I gingerly shook it about as I danced on my uninjured foot limply. Biting in my lip I looked down and saw that it was swelling considerably, going from red to something worse.
"Oh hell," I whispered. But there was nothing for it, I knew I was losing precious time, so I bit the bullet and broke into a run again with my shoes flopping uselessly at my hip. My only consolation was that the traffic beside me, which was stretching in miles now, was still unyielding.
It was stupid, and hurt like hell, but I ran, and I ran, and eventually the terrible burning hurt in my foot subsided a bit to a thundering numbness. By the time I hit the street that the theater was on I was fairly certain that my bad foot was pulsating with its own heartbeat.
Thankfully, the Amour wasn't even half a block from the turn I had just made to get onto the street, so I was able to drag myself to it without collapsing.
After shoving the doors open with a pronounced victory laugh, I hobbled into the lobby realizing at the same moment that I had no idea where to go from there. A girl was leaning against a wall to the right next to a small door, so I grinned, slipped my shoes back on (at which point I realized that my foot was still attached to my body because once again it was worse than squeezing lemon juice over an open paper cut) and made my way towards her.
She was dressed casually in overalls and a white tank top. Even though her back was to me and I could tell that she seemed totally absorbed in a book she was holding; I could see that she had an olive complexion, and I could see that she wore her short brown hair in pig tails. Strangely familiar.
"Excuse me," I asked, gripping her shoulder lightly, "Can you please tell me where the auditions are today?"
She didn't respond quickly, but after about fifteen seconds she mumbled, "hold on..." and then fifteen more seconds later she turned a page and closed the book. Then she turned around with a sudden wind of perkiness. "How may I-"
Her words were cut short when the girl's eyes rested on me.
I reeled, small world... My voice came out dazed when I tentatively asked, "Yukari?"
Yukari grinned wonderfully and put her hands on her hips "The one and only. Is that really you Kagome? You look great, how are you?"
I smiled sheepishly, knowing that she was speaking about my outfit. "I'm okay, just ran halfway here and made an ass of myself in the middle of the street... How are you?"
She nodded, probably not quite comprehending my bit about the slip, "Fine...Fine. I um, I work here, at the...theater." She indicated the theater in question with a thumb over her shoulder.
"Really? Well that explains a lot."
"Yeah, an actor actually," she blushed with pride, "been one for nearly a year now."
I flexed my purpling toes in inspection for broken bones. "Wow, that's impressive."
"Yeah..." She scratched her head bashfully, "So ahh, you said you were here for...What were you here for again?"
Reality hit me hard and my brain rammed into a state of panic simultaneously. "Auditions," I snapped.
"Really?! That's excellent Kagome!" She slapped my shoulder affectionately. "Boy, it'd be great if you were acting here! We could have so much fun I-"
"No, you don't understand," I interrupted harshly, "I need to get to them NOW, I'm LATE."
Yukari blinked, "Well...okay then, right through this door," she thumbed towards the door she had been guarding when I walked in.
"Great," I muttered, and I turned for it, she caught my arm as my hand was poised on the doorknob.
"Wait, they're seeing someone right now."
"What?"
"They've got somebody auditioning, we can't walk in on it." I huffed in frustration and she hesitated, "But I'll go poke my head in and tell them we've got one more, okay?"
"Thank you," I slumped against the wall while Yukari opened the door a crack. A young woman's voice performing lines wafted to my ear. She had an amazing voice, clear as a bell and supremely gorgeous. I was reminded of the voice actress in the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. Another movie that Inuyasha and I worshiped in our spare time.
"...You've earned my hatred, and that of our dear brother too, by rights," the feminine voice said. I had no idea what she was quoting, but it was excellent, delivered wonderfully, and it made me shrivel. "...I will suffer nothing worse than death in a good cause..."
Then there was Yukari speaking, warning whoever was judging the young woman that I would be entering soon. She retreated from the door after she got an answer from someone and returned to me.
"What was she reading from," I whispered.
Yukari smiled, "Her? Antigone. Great, wasn't she?"
"Yeah..." I sighed, "Superb."
Yukari shifted around uneasily, "Oh but I'm sure she'll be no competition for you Kagome," and she elbowed me in the ribs playfully.
I slithered out of her reach and changed the subject. "I thought you worked at the coffee place Yukari."
"Part time," she explained, "Can't get everything from an acting job you know," and winked.
"Oh." More lines came to me through the wall at a particularly dramatic scene. "...With life still strong in me, I'm going on my last journey..."
Yukari asked me a question, but I gave a halfhearted response and she backed off, realizing my extreme discomfort.
"...Unmarried, never having heard my wedding song, death takes me to the dark riverbanks to be his bride..."
There was such a strong burst of applause from the next room that Yukari jumped a bit in surprise. After a bout of enthusiastic whistling and more applause there was a brief exchange of dialogue and then the door opened as a beautiful girl walked past us, leaving me with my mouth agape and Yukari smiling and waving ignorantly as she bid the girl farewell.
"She's sweet, isn't she?" Yukari said dreamily as if she were talking about her own child, and then she clapped her hands and pinned her gaze on me. "Well, your turn!"
I swallowed and shrank a few more inches, "Great."
Her arm went around my shoulders briefly, shaking me with light-hearted affection. "You'll do great," she said, but the statement seemed far off, and I thought I heard it echo around inside my head before I was able to understand that she was wishing me luck. My toes went first, and I tumbled a bit in the one foot walk that was required to get to the door.
"Am I going to feint?" I asked dimly.
"No, no, no, of course not..." She was already opening the door with her other hand.
The light from the next room was starting to shine onto us, my eye twitched when I realized my doom and the most I could managed to get out of my throat was, "Wait a minute."
But it was too late, Yukari had managed to slide her hand from my shoulder to my back and with a gentle push she scooted me in. Having lost control of my body I obeyed mindlessly. My eyes were still alive though, and they were busy swerving around with the intensity of a cornered animal.
There was a gentle click, the door closing behind me. I swallowed dryly and ended up making petit coughs, I was stalling; and making an ass of myself at the same time. I like to think of myself as a multitasker. Meanwhile four judges-three male, one female were watching me affectionately from behind a plain wooden desk that was chipping a bit. There were no windows, the room itself was very small. It was just me, the desk, the judges, and the carpet on the floor.
Then came the straw that broke the camel's back; ironically, that was sort of a good thing. Hojo beamed at me enthusiastically, wearing the same dopey school boy grin I remembered from our last meeting. All my systems crashed when I saw his face, my mouth opened wordlessly for a second. Everything was torn down in an instant, I realized that there was absolutely nothing more that could make the situation more uncomfortable than it already was. Therefore, at the end of the line, confronted by all my obstacles at once, a small voice in my head announced the conclusion of everything. And the conclusion was: fuck it.
And that's just what I did.
My vocal chords kicked in suddenly. I even managed to wave like I was actually happy to be there. "Hi, I'm Kagome Higurashi."
Hojo stared at me with utter, pleased fascination. He had been waiting for me to show up, no use denying it. That was awfully sweet of him, but stupidly predictable. It was like something out of the Baby-Sitters Club. If he would just change his name to Jake Lionheart, then I would have something to worry about.
Meanwhile, a male judge was bringing a paper to his face that had been resting on top of a small stack since I had entered. "Yes," he answered, then he ran through a list of the information I had given the woman on the phone, who I suddenly realized had been Yukari. I nodded slowly to him, still wrapped up in my revelation. He continued, "Wonderful, let's get it over with then."
Hojo was the youngest one there by looks; the rest of the group seemed to be anywhere from 23-32. The oldest one being the man who had just spoken to me.
The female, second youngest, 23 at a guess, addressed me. "Have you had any experience before, Kagome?"
I shrugged, "No, not really." The woman was real pretty, a classic beauty; black hair to her waist, shockingly pale, flawless skin, dark eyes, red lips, the works. She reminded me a little of my mother in terms of physical appearance, but my mother, though she tended to forget about me, was still happy-go-lucky. This woman was more or less cold as ice in my opinion. Like she really had something to bitch about but kept her mouth shut because she felt it was below her to actually speak to people.
The last one not to have spoken brought me back to earth, "What made you consider acting Kagome? Or, acting at this theater, perhaps?"
Any typical girl would have blushed. Yeah well, I didn't blush. I put every known shade of red to shame and flat out insulted Woody Allen for the award of most stuttering in a what should have been at most a three word sentence, that's what I did. What came out of my mouth was something to the effect of, "I, w-well, um, and, yes, I, a-ahhh..." Then repeated in that order several times.
Finally, on the verge of using the word, "shucks" and after pointedly avoiding eye contact with Hojo, I managed to announce that Sango's sister Kirara had inspired me. She had been an actress for a good long time and was well on her way to making a good, really recognizable name for herself. And the statement wasn't entirely a lie, I had always admired Kirara's guts, and the profession was appealing...It just wasn't the main reason I all of a sudden wanted to start acting.
The most agreeable judge, second oldest guy nodded pleasantly and said that was very nice. Somehow I felt like they were all looking down at me, except Hojo and especially the black-haired woman. One corner of my mouth turned up, "Thanks," I said coldly.
There was an awkward silence for a moment that I knew they were expecting me to break. Their eyes were trained on me critically, but I was still angry with my treatment. So instead, I had the nerve to fold my arms and cock my head, "Well?" I asked, "Are we going to get this started or what?" The woman's eyes flashed darkly for a second while Hojo and the second oldest guy chuckled softly. The other one pulled out a packet from the stack of papers in front of him and suddenly tossed it in my direction.
"You're up."
I fumbled with the packet and then secured it in my arms frantically, "I'm what?" My sudden bitchy cool was gone, out the window like my stomach and my confidence.
He nodded towards me, suddenly looking disturbingly amused. "Read to us."
Read? Did I even know how to read? I became visibly confused and just stared at the booklet in shock. The moment of truth had come far too soon. "From this?" I pointed at the packet. He smiled.
Hojo spoke apprehensively from the corner, "He means that you should read some lines from the script, Kagome."
"Oh, so that's what this is. From what scene?"
"It doesn't matter," the woman snapped suddenly, "Just open it up and read."
My eyebrows went up immediately, "Yes ma'am."
There was a gentle roll of laughter from the judges in which the woman did not participate. She simply continued to give me a half-bored, half-belittling stare. After puttering around a bit and sort of playing with the pages like I was actually doing something, I took a deep breath, opened the book, and looked down.
I didn't even know what the thing was, I didn't even know the names of the judges! My eyes went down onto the page, I wasn't ready, shouldn't they have done something more than this? What were they thinking? Was this really what actors were? Free form and sketchy and unorganized? The lower lip of my mouth opened very gently, just as I as I was about to speak the woman interrupted me suddenly and I jumped a few inches up into the air.
"Page number please."
"P-Pardon me?" Somehow there had to be something I was missing. I was probably extremely lucky to have survived this far because obviously I was going through the process with absolutely none of the required knowledge.
"Page number!" She looked like she wanted to break my skull over the desk. My eyes searched frantically all over the page, questing for the number. Number number number number.
"Number 56."
"Thank you," she hissed. They all reached over from the original stack of papers and passed individual packets around to each other. I was awkwardly confused, more so than I could remember being before in the past few months. Was this a joke?
After some silent deliberation amongst the group, the oldest man spoke up and calmly asked Hojo to "take this one." Take this one? What one? Me? Take what now? In what manner would the taking be accomplished? The sudden realization of how much I didn't know up against the fact that I was actually doing an audition went straight to my head, and the adrenaline nearly made me swoon on the spot.
I looked at Hojo pathetically only to find that he was looking back at me with utter faith and confidence. "Ready Kagome?" What should have sounded like, "I'm sorry, could you please explain to me what we're doing again," actually came out as a dazed nod that took two seconds to be registered by my brain.
His bright eyes slipped down to the packet, "Alright Kagome, you've chosen to read from Electra," and he paused to say, "Very nice." I would have said, "Gee, thanks," had I not been too petrified to open my mouth. "I think that in this scene I'll play the leader, and you can read as Electra, alright?"
"Um, a-alright."
"Okay, I'll start." He straightened himself and cleared his throat before beginning with a clear, ringing voice that I had never heard or imagined him using, "Tell me, is Aegisthos near? Or has he left the house?"
Looking down I realized in the moment of ultimate panic that I needed to talk. My mind chose this moment to go completely blank except for a single purpose that remained fixed and immovable. Read. Read your lines stupid...Don't think about reading, DO IT! The words were right in front of me, all I had to was say them and be done with it. Say them...Just. Say them. But other things were invading my brain too fast for me to keep track of things, and very soon my perfectly understood task was floating somewhere in space above my head, but not in it. For example, what the hell was an Aegisthos?
Fortunately, my eyes swerved up and locked with someone's at just the right time. No, not Hojo's, I wasn't the dippy moron who drew strength from a boy's eyes, I was the dippy moron that understood the meaning of the words: I'll prove you wrong. The deep brown orbs became narrowed and fierce as the unknown woman regarded me with absolute disapproval. The look she was giving me made me quiver with rage. How dare she...She didn't think I could do it, did she? She didn't think I was "good enough?" Yeah well...You've got another thing coming bitch, so just shut the fuck up and watch.
"He has left, of course. How should I be out, if he were near?" Oh yeah...How do you like that?
"If he is away, then, I may speak further with you?"
Hojo was pretty good, I couldn't help but be impressed for a moment. But with my intent I was on the warpath to not only show him up but wave it in Bitchy McBitcherson's ridiculously perfect face. And that's what I did.
"Yes, you may speak."
"Let me enquire about your brother...Is he coming? Delaying? I must know."
"He says he is coming but...does not come."
"A man with a great works likes to delay."
"When I saved him, I did not delay."
"Take courage. He is the man to help those he loves."
"I trust him...or I should not still be alive."
I could feel it, I could feel the splendid deliverance. The timing was right, my voice was right, everything was in sync with everything else.
...TAKE THAT!
Coincidentally, at the moment that my supreme victory was dawning on me, the eldest judge lifted a hand and said, "Thank you, that's enough."
I wriggled in my shoes with glee, this was very good, I could feel it. And I could see it on the woman's face because she looked mighty pissed and nothing else at that moment could have made me feel so satisfied.
Hojo was the first one to speak, "That was very good Kagome." There was something beyond tender feelings mixed into that statement, and I think that it was real admiration.
"I agree," the second oldest male seemed a little dazed, "That was...excellent."
The woman looked too murderous to speak, and so she just sat there with her jaw set and her arms folded. I grinned and concealed my urge to gloat as neatly as I could. "Thank you very much."
"Well now that we have gotten that part out of the way, I think we owe you an introduction," the oldest judge said.
I blinked, "What?"
"Well we don't usually do it this way, but we were so tired after all the auditions and you were late, so we decided we would let your read first and then if we didn't like you we just wouldn't give you the time of day and simply send you packing so we could get out of here," the second oldest said pleasantly for such an unfeeling speech.
Blinked again, nothing else to do.
"And well, you were very good Kagome," Hojo commented kindly.
"Ahh...Thanks." These people were insane.
"Now then, that's Hojo, you've met I think; I'm Myouga Kanzaki," the second oldest judge pointed to himself, "That's Adrian Grey," he pointed to the eldest judge, "and that, is Kikyo Nomiyaki."
Kikyo? Stupid pretty name...I hated it. Mentally I ticked off yet another candidate for the title of my future first daughter.
Mr. Grey spoke again with his deep, serious voice, "Kagome you have very impressive talent, I must admit that I am rather in awe."
Oh wow, it was too perfect, Kikyo looked excellently ticked. I prayed silently for the compliments to keep coming.
"Yes," Myouga said, "You were certainly very well prepared for this, you're quite a natural Miss Higurashi. We'll certainly be considering you as one of the best we've seen all day."
Wait, what? Was that it? Was it over already?
Hojo nodded, "You can count on that."
"Thank you for your time Miss Higurashi, we'll be contacting you very shortly when we come to a decision," Mr. Grey told me formally.
"Wait a minute," I interrupted, "That was it?"
Hojo hesitated, "Yeah, we don't really need much to judge a possible actor."
"But...but what about information? Don't I need to know anything about this theater...what I'd be doing, all that?"
Mr. Grey stepped in, "You'll be getting all of that when we reach you with our choice, don't worry."
"Assuming," Kikyo muttered coldly, "You get the chance to perform at this theater."
I smiled sarcastically at her with my head tilted at a falsely cheery angle, "Well thanks."
"No problem," she hissed.
"Well thank you again for your time Miss Kagome," Mr. Kanzaki, Myouga, got up to shake my hand.
"Yeah..." I started moving towards the door, still a little dazed, "H-Have a good...um...afternoon...."
Hojo waved at me fondly as I slipped out, and I waved back with a sort of helpless smile on my face.
Once out the door, Yukari immediately slapped me on the back, "Well what do ya know," she chirped brightly, "You survived, didn't you?"
"I guess..." I whispered softly.
Yukari peered at me deeply, "What's wrong?"
"Oh nothing, I just expected...I don't know...a little more."
She laughed shrilly, "What do you mean? What exactly were you expecting?"
I shrugged absently, "I don't know, I thought they might give me a lecture or have me answer some questions or fill out a form or something."
"Oh yeah, we're just not that formal here at Amour!" She laughed again. Yukari laughed a lot. I sort of chuckled dryly.
All of a sudden, I toppled to the side and crashed into the wall clumsily. A stabbing pain screamed from my wounded ankle and I cried out a bit as I slowly slid down to the floor.
"Whoa," Yukari knelt down beside me, "Better watch those high heels, you could-HOLY SHIT!"
I blanched knowing that she had noticed my foot. It had to resemble an eggplant by now.
"What the hell happened to your foot Kagome?!"
Yeah, I knew it.
"I um...tripped on the way over. It isn't that bad, is it?"
The door opened beside us unexpectedly and Hojo's orange-red head poked out. "Are you okay out here Yukar-Hey! Kagome, your foot! Are you alright?"
"It's okay," I tried to stand, "It's nothing, really, I just fell on the way here, I'll just take a taxi and administer some first aid when I get home, it's no big deal."
Unfortunately I found standing to be a rather difficult feat, and soon tumbled again only to have Yukari swing her arm around my shoulders for support just in time. "You can't even walk!"
"Don't trouble yourself, I'll be fine, honestly."
Myouga soon appeared beside Hojo, "What's the trouble?"
"Kagome sprained her ankle."
"I did not! Honestly, it's not that bad!"
"It looks like an eggplant."
"It does NOT! Well...maybe a plum. But not an eggplant..."
"Face it Kagome," she hoisted me up so that I was standing on one leg, "Your foot looks like an eggplant, and we can't let that go."
"Right," Hojo suddenly put an arm around my shoulders as well, and I couldn't help the blush that arose on my cheeks, "We'll help you get to a med center, I don't think there's one very far from here..."
"Please," I begged, "Don't go to all this trouble for me! I'm telling you, it's not as bad as you think! I hardly feel it."
"So those are tears of what, joy?" Yukari gave me a skeptical look.
"I'm not crying," I countered.
"You look like you're about to."
"Besides," Hojo said next to my ear, "It's no trouble at all."
"And we can't have a very likely future actress walk off with an injury like that," Myouga winked at me.
I realized that I couldn't win the fight, and found myself smiling weakly at all of them, "Thank you so much, this is really very considerate you."
"You're welcome," Yukari replied.
"Now then," Hojo turned to Mr. Kanzaki, "Will you please tell them that I'll be back in a little while? Just let me take care of Miss Higurashi and I'll be back in no time."
Myouga nodded, "But don't bother if you get held up past six, we'll all be gone by then."
"Right, thanks Myouga."
"Yeah, hold the fort while we're away," Yukari laughed again.
"This is really great of you guys," I muttered quietly.
"Don't mention it, let's get moving."
Carefully we tried leaning forward, and immediately I fumbled and almost dragged the three of us down to the ground. We all giggled a little and tried again on the count of three. That time I fell into Hojo and we both tumbled into the wall. After apologizing with embarrassment, Yukari stooped and carefully removed my towering shoes.
"There, is that better?" She asked.
"A little..."
Hojo's unfaltering enthusiasm for everything showed through again, "Terrific, let's give it another go."
The "go" managed to land Yukari on her knees, and we came to acknowledge the fact that we had a problem.
"Okay...there has to be another solution to this," she mumbled as she swept the dust off of her overalls.
After a pause, Hojo spoke up, "I think I've got an idea. Kagome, pardon me."
"What? I-Oh, hey there!"
Before I'd had time to question him, Hojo had swept me off my feet into a bridal style hold; with a hand under my knees and another supporting my back. "I'd feel better about your safety if you held onto my neck," he said softly, "That is, if you don't mind."
"No of course not, I only hope that I'm not breaking your back or anything," I sputtered.
Yukari snickered, "You guys make quite the couple. I can see I'm not needed here."
Panic seeped into my veins instantly, if Yukari left, I somehow knew that I would find a way to embarrass myself. I was already blushing madly.
"But I think I'll come along anyway, just incase superman runs out of ammo."
My relief came out in a sigh. And I think Hojo noticed it because he seemed to glow a little and immediately waves of guilt started to pour over me.
"Come on," he said in a voice seemingly higher than usual, "Let's get this show on the road ladies, before Kagome feints from the pain."
"I WILL NOT! WHAT PART OF 'NOT SO BAD' DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
***
The medical center was strangely clean for anything of the title in New York. If you weren't going to your own doctor for treatment you usual wound up in a decaying hellhole. But this place...It was fascinatingly spotless. There were of course an assortment of interesting characters in the lobby, no use trying to avoid that, but other than that, it was very orderly. The rooms were even more impressive because the magazines were from the present year. It may have been the pain killers they had fed me that had made my observations so bright and sunny.
I bounced on the paper-covered couch they had set me up on. "Did you notice how clean this place is?"
Yukari looked up from her magazine, which she was reading propped up in the corner. "Huh?"
"Look, no cracks in the walls or discolored ceiling tiles or...anything!"
She giggled and resumed reading, "Don't trouble your ankle Kagome."
"Ankle," I laughed, "What ankle? I can't even feel it anymore!"
"Good."
"She's right," Hojo said, "It is pretty clean in here for New York."
"You see what I mean?" I pointed to him, "Hojo believes me."
"I never said I didn't believe you, Kagome," Yukari started to snicker.
A lengthy silence settled over us, and after a short time I started to hum absent-mindedly. My eyes brushed over the room childishly. I was tempted to swing my legs. My state of mind was totally out of order, and I had no qualms with it.
Suddenly, I cried out.
"Kagome?" Hojo asked nervously, "Are you alright?" Yukari looked up from her magazine again.
"I have to call Inuyasha," I told him blankly.
"Inuyasha?" He didn't remember him from a week ago when he had come with me with Rin and Shippou.
"Her best friend," Yukari put in, "Right?"
I nodded, "He'll get really pissed if he doesn't find out where I am soon." I felt around uselessly in all of my pockets, to no avail. I didn't have my cell phone with me, "Do either of you happen to have a phone? I left mine at my apartment."
Yukari searched all of her pockets, and Hojo searched his. In a few seconds she shrugged in dismay. "Sorry."
"It's okay, thanks."
"Maybe they'll let us use their phone here, I don't see why they wouldn't."
"Wait a minute," We both turned to Hojo, who was removing his small portable phone from the front pocket on his shirt. "Here, hold on...let me...turn it on."
He pressed a lot of buttons...too many buttons too just turn it on. It was a suspicious action that I didn't think much of; on the other hand, maybe it was just a very complicated cell phone. After a bit more button punching, he handed me his phone with a scarlet face. I almost asked him if he was alright, but I knew better than to embarrass him so.
Looking down, I saw that his little screen read, "I LUV MOM." There were several extra spaces between the words "LUV" and "MOM." I ignored them, but my heart beat sped up a little when the possibilities arose in the uncontrollable part of my head.
"That's so sweet Hojo..." I told him lovingly.
"What?" Yukari asked us.
"He has 'I love mom' written on the top of his screen."
"Awww, Hojo you prince..."
Hojo blushed even more, "Um...you have to push the green button to start dialing, then push 'send.'"
I nodded and followed his instructions to the best of my abilities with my drug-clouded brain. Soon it began to ring on the other line, and I waited patiently for Inuyasha to answer the phone, praying silently that he hadn't gone out...because I couldn't remember Sango's number. Or Miroku's for that matter.
To my relief, the phone was answered after only three rings. "What."
"You're awfully polite," I quipped sarcastically, "You know you really should brush up on your people skills."
"What the hell do you want? Or did you just call to lecture me?"
"Hey! What did I do?"
"You kicked me in the stomach," He told me bitterly.
"Oh yeah...Whoops."
"Yeah. Whoops is right. What do you want," It came out sounding more like a statement than a question.
I started to twiddle my thumbs and looked down at my lap glumly, "I um...kind of sprained my ankle, or ahhh, twisted it, or something, we don't exactly know yet."
"You what?! How the hell did you do that?! Hey, where are you calling from anyway?!"
I laughed a little empty laugh, and smiled for the peculiar situation. "Well, it's a long story...I took a cab first, but then we got caught in traffic because of a festival downtown...So I jumped out and tried running to the theater."
"Wait. Stop. Let me guess, you were still wearing your heels, weren't you?"
"Yeah..."
"You moron."
"Shut up. Anyway, I fell over."
"Where are you?" He pressed.
"I'm at a med center not very far from the theater," Yukari shouted the address for me, "Did you hear that?"
"Yes, who was that?" He asked.
"My friend Yukari."
"Coffee house girl?"
"Yeah, small world...she works at the theater as an actress."
"Wait," He interrupted, "So you actually GOT to the theater?"
I nodded even though he couldn't see me, "That's right, I ran on my bad ankle anyway, and I even did my audition."
"Idiot! ....How was it?"
"Good, I'll give you the details later, I don't want to waste minutes on Hojo's phone," Hojo waved his hands in distress, indicating that I was free to use his phone for as long as I wanted. I beamed at him.
"Hojo?!" Inuyasha screeched desperately, "Wait, Kagome, Hojo? He's there?"
"Come pick me up in a taxi okay?"
"Kagome! Answer me dammit! Hojo is there?!"
I smiled fiendishly, "See you soon Inuyasha."
"WAIT!"
"Bye." I flipped the phone shut, which disconnected me sufficiently, and handed it back to Hojo, "Thank you so much."
Hojo blushed a little bit, "You're welcome, but really, you could have used it as much as you liked." The blush deepened considerably, "I-I'm sure Inuyasha would have been happy to hear about what a great job you did, Kagome."
"You're sweet."
He smiled.
"I'd tell you guys to get a room," Yukari said dryly, "But it seems you already have one, I was just unfortunate enough to be landed in it with you."
I threw the limp headrest-pillow on my couch at her, she giggled insanely. Hojo was too red to speak, apparently.
A nurse came in at that moment wielding a small basket that had a needle in it, among other things, and I stiffened instantly. The doctor came in after him, smiling kindly.
"Well then, I hear you landed badly on your ankle," He said in a pleasant voice.
I nodded, "You could say that."
"My..." He looked down at my foot, "It looks just like an eggplant, doesn't it?"
***
At this moment, I have NO TIME to do review responses, reccomendations, etc. Sorry! Thanks for reading!
