Chapter Nine: 'Double Date'
They all walked out and assembled into a group again.
"Where are Kagura and Kikyou?" Sango asked, noticing that they were missing.
"Kaede!" Miroku called out to her. Kaede turned around and Miroku pointed at Sango, signaling that she had something to tell her.
"Are Kikyou and Kagura up there?"
Kaede shook her head. "Are they still back there?"
Sango shrugged. "I don't see them."
All of them stopped and looked back to see if Kikyou or Kagura were there. Eventually, they came back out. They had just been separated from the group.
"Try to stay with us, you two." Kaede was relieved that they had not gone missing.
Kikyou and Kagura half nodded and half shrugged. They were sort of the rebellious types
They went around the corner of a building and saw the rest of the group standing there waiting for them.
"What happened?" Mika's mom asked.
"Kikyou and Kagura got separated from us," Kaede explained.
"You found them though, right?"
"Yeah, they're right there."
"Soo…" Kagome addressed the other five. "Where do you guys want to go next?"
"I thought we were going on Pirates with Kaede," Sango said.
"Pirates?" Kikyou asked.
"Oh, yeah, huh…" Kagome murmered, remembering their promise to Kaede.
Kikyou and Kagura looked at each other. "We… kind of don't want to go on Pirates of the Caribbean…" Kagura explained.
"Oh, why not?" Kagome asked.
"We just… don't," Kikyou replied sternly.
"Okay… Well… I don't know. I guess you guys could go off on your own or something…" Kagome suggested.
"But you should probably ask Kaede first or something," Sango added. "Just so she knows where you guys went."
"Fine," Kikyou said. "Kaede!"
Kaede turned around. "Yes?"
"Can Kagura and I go off on our own?"
"Yeah," Kaede replied. "Just as long as the two of you are together."
Kikyou and Kagura didn't even wait for Kaede's whole reply. They had heard 'Yeah' and took off. They never really liked Kaede in the first place. They would rather be caught dead than spend more time in the same group as her.
"Oookay…" Kagome turned to Kaede. "Onto Pirates?"
"Onto Pirates it is," Kaede smiled.
The line for Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't long at all. It was only a half hour wait.
"Great!" Kaede said enthusiastically. Again, she allowed everyone else to enter first, making sure that no one was left behind. But Kagome, Kouga, Sango, and Miroku offered for her to go in ahead of them. She thanked them and proceeded on with Totosai.
Eventually, they came to a spot inside the building where it was cool. Everyone felt relieved as they took a break from the burning heat outside.
Kagome and Sango didn't know what to talk about. Sango looked around and decided to pick something random to talk about. She chose the subject of height.
"The two of you are so… tall…" she said to Kouga and Miroku, who practically towered over Kagome and Sango.
Both of them shrugged.
"Wait, who's taller?" Sango looked at Kouga, then at Miroku.
"How tall are you?" Kouga asked Miroku.
Miroku shrugged. "About 5' 9" I think…"
"Heh, me too," Kouga said. "We're the same height."
"Curse the tall people…" Kagome muttered to herself.
"What's that?" Kouga looked at Kagome.
"Oh, nothing." Kagome looked away as if she hadn't said anything. She was the shortest one in their group, and she was also the shortest one in their whole band.
They all soon reached the front and the got into a 'boat'. The four of them had planned to sit in a row in the back, but Miroku was forced to go into the row in front of them with Mika and Ayori to even it out, since they only had two people, while they had four.
'Damnit,' thought Sango. 'I could have gotten another chance with him here…'
It was a pretty uneventful ride. It was basically slowly riding along a river while you looked around at the 'pirates' that surrounded you. There were a few drops here and there that got you a little bit wet, but nothing to get you completely soaked. All in all, it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be, although it was pretty relaxing. They rode it because of the irony, and because they happened to like the movie as well as the music they played from the movie.
They all walked out with a kind of disappointed look on their faces. They expected something more, but they mostly rode the ride for the purpose of seeing how the ride had inspired the movie.
Kagome, Kouga, Sango, and Miroku walked out quietly, not in an excited chatter like they had before.
The awkward silence was killing them, even Miroku. Either that, or he had wanted to talk to Sango because for once, he had chosen to catch up to her and walk beside her.
"So uh..." Miroku began. Even he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't know why, but it felt like an impulse to just walk beside this girl and try to start a conversation with her. He looked at his left sleeve, which had gotten wet on the ride when splashes of water hit it.
"Did you get wet?"
Sango looked at him in amazement. "Were you talking to me or him?" She pointed at Kouga, who walked in front of them talking to Kagome.
"Well, I'm looking at you aren't I?" Miroku was usually a sarcastic person who didn't really get straight to the point, but this time he had. 'Why am I even doing this?'
"Oh, um, well," Sango stuttered while picking at her own left sleeve on her shirt, " I didn't get really wet. I sat kind of close in because I don't like sitting at the edge." She gave a shy smile and Miroku returned it, which Sango didn't expect at all.
She looked up for the first time. "Looks like you got pretty soaked…" She tugged gently on his sleeve and he chuckled.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"Come on you two, quit lagging!" Kouga called to Sango and Miroku, who had slowed down their pace without knowing it. They sped up and caught up with the others, acting like nothing had happened.
"So, what now?" Sango asked as they walked along the crowded pathway.
"Oh, look, we can ride Thunder Mountain if you guys want," Kagome suggested and pointed to her right.
The others nodded, not really caring what they did as long as they were doing something. They stood in yet another long line, and, once again, the four of them lingered in the back while Mika and her group went ahead.
Kouga noticed a strange type of plant growing next to them outside of the line. He reached over and picked one. It turns out that the ends were fuzzy, and, as Kouga soon proved, when put on someone's neck, can become extremely tickling and irritating.
This entertained Kouga. He stuck a stalk of the plant into Kagome's neck first, then Sango's, and even Miroku's. They all reacted the same way, by squirming and trying to get the plant off of them. Kouga laughed.
Kagome sought her revenge by picking another stalk from the bush and attacking Kouga with it. He squealed, but he did so quietly.
"Oh, hey, that reminds me!" Kagome poked Kouga and began the cycle the started at Indiana Jones again.
"Hee, boy toys!" Kagome obviously found much amusement in this.
Sango decided not to attack Miroku for now. She all of a sudden felt weary, but she didn't know why. Her mind began to drift again, even though he was standing right next to her…
"Ooh, they've got a well!" Kagome's voice cut through Sango's thoughts.
"What?" Sango looked in Kagome's direction.
"Well, it's not really a well. More like a water dripping thingy, but it works all the same." As she was saying this, Kagome dug through her pockets and found her wallet. From her wallet, she pulled out a couple of pennies.
"What if chinkeptigon came true." She said it in a sarcastic voice, so it wasn't meant to be a question. It was more like an ironic statement. And with that statement, she threw the penny into the small pond of water that was gathered and contained other coins as well.
Sango couldn't believe that Kagome had actually just done that. "'What if chinkeptigon came true'? Why'd you say that?"
Kagome shrugged. Chinkeptigon is merely a word that Kikyou and Kagome had previously picked out long before they met Sango. It was meant to describe their complicated love polygon, but somehow, as this year progressed, it became something more… In this case, Kagome referred to the 'bonds' between Kikyou and Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku, and even herself and Kouga. By 'chinkeptigon coming true', it would mean that each of them had gotten together and were sharing a relationship.
Kouga had a vague idea of what this whole chinkeptigon deal was, but Miroku was clueless. Therefore, Kouga had to explain it to him. It took a long time, but eventually, Miroku got it, or at least part of it. He may be quiet, but he was smart.
The four of them found that the seating was paired off in this ride as well. So, of course, Kouga sat with Kagome, and Sango sat with Miroku. Kaede and Totosai were together, as well as Mika and Ayori, and Mika's mom and sister.
This ride proved to be more exciting than Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a roller coaster after all. Kikyou may not enjoy them, but the others sure did.
As they were exiting the ride, Kouga looked up at a car that was waiting to be disembarked. A random girl smiled and waved at him. Sango caught this.
"It seems that Kouga has a fangirl…" Sango snickered.
As Sango expected, Kagome whipped around and stared them down.
"What?" Kouga said innocently. "She wasn't talking about you. There was this random girl who waved to me from up there."
"Oh." That was all Kagome said. She had a somewhat disappointed and disturbed look on her face.
'Was that… Kagome being… jealous?' Kouga wondered. He shrugged the thought off quickly. 'I'm probably just imagining it… I mean Kagome. Jealous? No way in hell…'
"If you guys want, you can go on your own." Kaede broke in.
"Do you guys want to?" Kagome turned to them.
The three of them kind of just shrugged and muttered.
Kaede laughed. "Alright, I'll leave you guys alone. I'm sure you've had enough of me anyway." And with that, she walked off with Mika and Ayori.
"Well, she's kind of right…" Kagome mumbled.
"What's that?" Kouga asked.
"It seems that day seven of band geeks is turning out to be interesting, huh, Kagome?" Sango grinned awkwardly.
Kagome giggled, and this further confused Kouga. It confused Miroku too, but the difference was that he didn't care, whereas Kouga liked to pry for information.
"What are you guys talking about?" Kouga looked from Sango to Kagome.
Kagome pointed at Sango. "She thought of it, so ask her…"
"Thanks, Kagome," Sango said sarcastically. "Well, think about it… We've spent seven days in a row together. Sunday was our car wash. Monday and Tuesday were extra rehearsals for our concert on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were extra rehearsals for this morning. Today would make it the seventh day in a row that we've seen each other."
This somehow amazed Kouga. "Wow… I never noticed that…"
"Well, I got bored in biology class last week and just thought about it," Sango explained.
'They always have their little inside jokes and stuff...' Miroku looked away from them and pretended not to be interested in what they were talking about. 'I could have gone with Sairo and Eikichi, but instead, I got stuck here. It seemed bad at first, but I guess it's not all that bad now…'
"Miroku?" Sango pulled gently on his arm.
"Wha—Oh." Miroku hadn't realized that he had zoned out. He often did it, but that was because no one had bothered to talk to him before.
"What's wrong, Miroku?" Kagome looked at Miroku's face. "You don't look that good. Your face is a little pinkish."
This made Miroku blush even more. 'Why the hell am I blushing!' he yelled at himself.
"Uh, you said you wanted to ride that Star Wars ride right?" Sango could tell that Miroku wanted the subject to be changed.
"Well, that's back in Adventureland, so we would need to go…" Kagome's eyes scanned the signs that were posted. "This way."
They slowly made their way through the crowd. Kagome led, as usual, with Kouga beside her and Sango and Miroku bringing up the rear. Kagome suddenly began giggling.
"Um, Kagome…" Kouga tapped Kagome's arm.
Kagome turned her head back and looked at Sango. She put her hand up and opened her mouth, but then stopped herself. "No, I'll tell you later. I can't tell you in front of them." She looked at Kouga and Miroku.
Sango was curious to know now. "No, tell me now." She dragged Kagome aside. "Whisper it or something."
"Fine, fine." Kagome leaned over and whispered into Sango's ear. "Look at our group."
Sango looked and saw Kouga and Miroku standing there, staring blankly at them. "It's us and Kouga and Miroku. It always has been. So what?"
"No, we're by ourselves right now… If you were a stranger walking past us, what would you think?"
Sango still didn't know what Kagome was trying to get at. "What?"
"It looks like we're on a double date!" Kagome giggled.
"Oh my God…" Sango stared at Kagome like she was crazy. "You and Kouga can go on your own date. You two act like a couple."
"But other people don't know what's going on between us. As far as they can see, I'm with Kouga and you're with Miroku."
Sango groaned. "You have waaay too much time on your hands, Kagome…" Then she sighed. 'I only wish it was really a double date.'