Snippets from the School Year: Lead-Up to Ch. 1

(Kurama – or Kathryn's – POV)

My hand scurried across the paper as I tried desperately to keep up with the biology teacher, Bomgaars Sensei – opps, I mean… Mr. Bomgaars – as he whipped through the course syllabus and the materials each of us would need for his class. I was on my fifth page when the bell rang. Everyone stampeded out of the room as he called, "FIVE POINTS FOR HAVING YOUR THINGS TOMORROW!" I let out a relieved sigh as I dropped the large volume for this class into my backpack and realized I didn't know how to find my next class.

"Excuse me…" I said tentatively to the girl who had sat in front of me. She had gorgeous, long – not to mention shiny - blond hair and a slim figure, and, I saw as she turned around, a heart warming smile and large, bright eyes like my own.

"Hi," she started brightly, but only continued after she realized she didn't recognize me, "I'm Nikki, and it's a pleasure to meet you. Are you new here by chance?"

"Hello, my name is Kathryn – Kathy for short – and yes, I just moved here from Tokyo," I started in a friendly manner, "and I don't know how to find my next class. Would you mind helping me?"

"Of course," she said warmly as she looked over my schedule, "and it looks like we have all our classes together; isn't that just cosmically convenient," she finished with a wink. She pointed out different rooms to me as we walked from the third floor down to the basement to our math class. "We have Mrs. Geltner. She's a bit – a large bit mind you – on the hyper side, but she's really nice and a great morning pick me up," she said in her calm yet cheerful tones or "Wow, Japan sounds great. I have a friend from China. You would probably get along with her; her name is Angela. She's way off the wall and meows at people, but she's great to have around…" we just yakked all our passing periods away…

- - - - - -

Nikki was rapidly becoming one of the people I trusted most despite the fact that she knew nothing of me being a kitsune…or a boy for that matter, but her demeanor kept me coming back for more. Every time I needed help she was there and she always gave me an excuse whenever I nearly gave myself away in speech. She was a best friend and a human psychiatric ward rolled into one…and I was about to find out why.

We rode the same bus and early on in the year her gaggle of friends had reattached and would all congregate at a bench in the foyer before classes started in the morning, and I had been invited to join in on the fun. So, I came in, introduced myself, earned a bunch of 'hi's, and then I realized something about the group that Nikki was friends with.

They were all insane.

The first pair I noticed was Katie and Angela. I remembered that Angela was the girl that had moved from China, and while she was on the shorter side and had straight, jet-black hair like most of her race, she was overly loud and, as far as I could hear, was meowing and hissing at most passersby. Katie was guzzling a bottle of Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper and a bag of Skittles while conversing with Angela in a manner that almost made it look like they were doing some version of a ritual dance; if they were on crack - that is…

Valeria, the fashion guru, was fiddling with the stiletto heal of her magenta shoe while quizzing Ariel, a diminutive, smart mouth Jew, in Latin.

Everyone swarmed us and began to spill out their secrets, inside jokes from over the summer, and, obviously, anything else that came to mind. While this group was as loud as a group of horny rhinos in a squad car, they seemed like good people and ones that were so out of the ordinary that they were extremely endearing – in a very, very bizarre fashion.

- - - - - -

The water cascaded down my slim back as I finished rinsing the suds out of my bright hair. I have had my girl body for about two weeks and was taking near full advantage of it. Finally, I had a chance to hang out with people who didn't snarl at you for taking a slice of pizza or try to snort Cheetoes up their noses. (I was not trying to glimpse my friends naked! O.O) Now, it was the time I dreaded – shaving the legs. I was able to handle my under arms, but I couldn't manage to go more than two inches along my leg without nicking myself.

Shave…owww…Shave…sharp intake of breath…Shave…eep!...Shave… it went on like that for a while. Every time I got a cut I would just rinse off the blood with the water; no big deal, right? But, one of the cuts on my inner thigh wouldn't stop bleeding. I panicked – blame the over active hormones – and rinsed frantically, and, hoowh, it stopped. . Tee Hee Hee.

I finished, got out of the shower and dried off. Then, of all the things to happen right when you get out the shower, I had to pee. So, you'll never guess what I did.

I peed (after remembering that I had to sit down now…). I finished my business, put on my clothes and went to flush the toilet. The water was crimson and bloody. I felt like I was about to faint. With shallow breaths (and thoughts), I tried to think of what I had to do. It wasn't like I could tell Yuske or Kuwabara where I must have had a cut, and Hiei was out training. I couldn't very well just go out to the forest, interrupt the fire demon, and say "Hi, Hiei. Sorry to interrupt you, but do I have a cut in my vagina?" NO WAY! What to do…pacing…what to do…pacing…what to do…phone a friend!

1-468-475-7762… (A.k.a. 1-got-grl-prob?) …bring…bring…"Hello?" a voice questioned on the other line.

"Hi, is Nikki home?" I questioned frantically.

"This is her. May I ask who is calling?" she asked.

"This is Kathy…"

"Oh, hi, is everything all right? You sound a bit worried…" she asked concernedly.

"Well… (whispering of problem)…"

"Kathy, not to dilute your problem…, but it sound like Aunt Flow just may have come for a visit," Nikki told me tentatively.

"But, I don't have an Aunt Flow…"

"Hon…the crimson tide, being unwell, the plague, wrong time of the month, jam and bread, can't go swimming, tide's in, cruising the crimson wave, white cylinder week, Communists in the summer house, flower growing in the house of the god of love…your period; you know, the menstrual cycle?" she finished lamely.

Kurama's face stretched in absolute horror on the other line as the "cruising crimson wave" overtook him.

The line went dead on Nikki's end.

More Snippits are to come and, as always, please remember to review –good comment or not… I you don't review I don't know to update for you…