Ugh.

I know that I've been a total lazy ass. So this big, fat, long chapter (cough... not really. I tried!) is my desperate attempt of saying sorry.

Other than that, I've decided to tweak the storyline a bit… not that you guys will notice anything… (sweat drop). Plus, I've altered Kagome's personality a teeny bit. She seemed way too fake before, now that I've gone back and read the previous chapters. Hopefully she'll seem more like Kagome now, and less 'perfect'.

Oh, and I might have to up the rating later on. Violence and suggestive themes, I guess. (Sigh).

Yes, I believe that's all. R&R, please!

Disclaimer: Nuh uh.

- - -

Inuyasha decided to ignore the quiet bickering in his head, wondering if he had gone insane as he opened up the other packages. One was for his mother. It was filled to the brim with clothing, makeup, perfume, and accessories. The other was for his father. It contained an Armani suit, some golf magazines, golf equipment, concealment charms, and many other things.

Inuyasha scratched his head. 'I guess she is pretty nice… how the hell did she know that dad likes golf though?'

But then again, since most men the same age range as his father was a fan of the sport, she could have just taken a guess.

Suddenly, a window popped up on his SEPTEMBER.

- - New SEPTEMBER instant message from Sesshoumaru - -

Sesshoumaru: Hello, little brother

- - - - - - - - - - -

The High Rankers

Chapter Five: Anticipating the Party

- - - - - - - - - - -

Inuyasha stared at the screen of the SEPTEMBER in shock. As soon as he came out of his stupor, he hastily typed a response.

Inuyasha: Why the hell are you in the network!

Sesshoumaru: Aren't you quite the idiot. Higurashi sent me the invitation and device.

Inuyasha: What the…

Sesshoumaru: Surprised?

Inuyasha: Whatever

Sesshoumaru: I see… rude as ever. But then again, that's expected from you.

Inuyasha: Just shut up.

Sesshoumaru: Well, inform father that I will be visiting next week. Goodbye.

Inuyasha: Oi! Who said you could!

- - Sesshoumaru has logged off SEPTEMEMBER - -

Inuyasha cursed. This wasn't fair. How could Sesshoumaru be coming back! He was doing very nicely without him. And why had Kagome given Sesshoumaru access into the network? She must have been drunk when she did. But then again… perhaps her father had. After all, they were both important businessmen…

"Ahh! All this crap is confusing me!"

- - -

The following week, on Monday, the gang was at Kagome's locker before class.

"So you guys are coming over after school, right?" Kagome asked them. Sango nodded, a grin on her face.

"Okay, well… do you guys want to do anything in particular? We could go clubbing, bowling, and since it's Friday, we could travel…"

Sango, Inuyasha and Miroku stared at Kagome, dumfounded. Traveling?

The raven haired girl grabbed her trigonometry binder and books and put them in her backpack, smiling at their reaction. "Well… I mean, if you don't want to go anywhere, we can just stay at my place," she said, hitching her bag onto her shoulder. "We could have a pool party, just us. You can stay the night, too."

Sango gasped, squealed, and nearly hugged Kagome, Miroku went all wide-eyed and Inuyasha spoke. "Seriously?" he muttered. "I'm being invited to the Higurashi home, and I've been invited to stay the night? Wow." Despite his slightly sarcastic tone, he was thrilled.

Kagome grinned and rolled her eyes, closing her locker and locking it. "So, what about it? Pool and slumber party?

"For sure," Sango said nodding vigorously.

"I'd be crazy to pass up this chance." Miroku mumbled.

Inuyasha looked away, pretending to be bored. "Yeah… cool… alright."

Kagome grinned widely. "Alright! It'll be a pool party for us then! Bring your stuff!"

Just then, the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. The group parted; Sango to foreign studies, Inuyasha and Miroku to science, and Kagome to trig.

- - -

Sango sighed, propping her head up on her hand as she listened to the teacher's lecture. 'This is so boring…' she thought, 'what was I thinking when I decided to take this class?'.

Suddenly, the door opened, revealing a school secretary.

"Menoumaru-san, Fujiko-sama would like to speak to you regarding the student transfer program."

"Alright. I'll be down right away." The teacher known as Menoumaru said, then turned to the class as the secretary left. "Since you are all grown enough, I trust you won't trash the classroom in the period while I am gone." Then he left too.

People jumped up immediately and started yelling and chatting. Sango just sighed and put her head down, thinking of how the pool party would go. What would Kagome's house—mansion—manor—castle—palace—look like? What would the inside look like? How many servants and maids would there be? How big would the pool be? Sango pondered, completely unaware of everything going on around her.

Suddenly, she tensed as she felt someone approach her desk. She straightened and looked up to see a boy with black hair and brown eyes, and a smirk settled on his face. He wore a white muscle shirt and dark baggy pants. Sango raised an eyebrow at him.

"Can I help you?" she spoke icily.

Unaffected by her harsh tone, the boy introduced himself. "My name is Takeda Kuranosuke. And what may I address such a beauty as yourself as…?"

Sango rolled her eyes. "Buzz off."

Takeda only smirked wider. "Feisty, I see… I like them that way. Say, girl, how about you and me?"

"Look, buster," Sango stood up and glared at him. "Why don't you just screw off? I'm obviously not about to listen to anything you say, and I obviously don't find you even remotely attractive, so don't even bother."

Ignoring what she said, Takeda wrapped an arm around her waist. "Aww, come on, baby…"

Wrong move. Sango grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back, knocking him over and pinning him to the ground.

"Fuck! Ow, let go, bitch!"

"You just didn't get the clue, huh? I told you screw off, it's your fault." Sango released her death grip and stood up. "Bastard."

The class was quiet.

Suddenly, the door opened again, breaking the moment of silence. It was Menoumaru. He opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes landed on the angry Sango and fallen Takeda.

"… did something happen in here?"

- - -

"Pass the Bunsen burner."

"Thanks."

"Pass the ring clamp."

"Thanks."

"Pass the beaker."

"Thanks."

"Pass the… oh wait, we don't even have a flint. Hold on, I'll get one."

Inuyasha stared off into space as Miroku, who was his partner in the experiment, went to fetch a flint for the Bunsen burner. He couldn't believe it. He was going to Kagome's home. He might even be in her room…

… nothing nasty, guys.

Kagome, the beautiful (though Inuyasha was reluctant to admit), talented, charming, generous, sweet Kagome had invited him to her house, mansion, fortress, home, whatever, for a pool and slumber party. He was going to her home! He just couldn't get over it. When he first heard of Kagome through the media, he acknowledged her as just another spoiled brat who relied on 'daddy', wore too much makeup, shopped till they dropped, and got manicures every week. He would never have guessed he would end up as an acquaintance—no, a friend. At least… he considered her to be his friend… hopefully she saw him as her friend too. She did, right? That time, she had said, "I hope we can still be friends." Right? Right?

"Okay, here's the flint," Miroku said as he got back, holding the metal contraption.

Inuyasha nodded absently, still caught up in his thoughts.

"Oh, wait. I need to get the magnesium…" Miroku groaned. "You light the Bunsen burner, okay? Oh yeah, tie up your hair, dude."

Inuyasha didn't really process what Miroku said, since he was still caught up in his thoughts about Kagome and the pool and slumber party. He grabbed the flint, and unintentionally turned the gas nozzle to the max. He propped his head up on his arm in a daze, leaning over the Bunsen burner. With one hand, he sparked the flint….

"FUCK!" Inuyasha screamed. The whole class looked up, and Miroku came running over.

The ends of Inuyasha's hair had caught fire. In a panic, he tried to put it out by clapping his hands, but ended up burning his hands. The smell of burnt hair and singed skin reached his nose. He swore loudly, madly turned on the tap and dunked his head under the flow, successfully extinguishing the flame.

Inuyasha lifted his head up again, hair and shoulders soaking wet. He was breathing heavily, and Miroku was speechless.

The entire class was completely silent, including the teacher, Ms. Tsuyu.

Suddenly, Miroku started yelling at Inuyasha.

"You idiot! I told you to tie your hair up! What's the matter with you?" He whapped his friend over the head.

Inuyasha groaned. 'Damn… I really messed up.'

- - -

Kagome could faintly hear the teacher droning on. She tapped her pencil on her binder, staring at the wall in front of her.

'I wonder how it'll go? The party… what'll they say when they walk into the house? Well… they wouldn't call it a house. I still can't really call it a house. It's a mansion. If I got lost in it before, would they get lost too? I guess I'll have to give them a tour first and all… well, I would have anyway, but still… well, I suppose the maids could always help them, since they're everywhere. Dad just had to hire so many…'

The thought of her father crossed her mind.

'Well… Dad's still in New York, right? He wouldn't be back for a while, he said. So he won't be back until next week, I think… he shouldn't be, at least.' Kagome furrowed her brows. But then, her father had been known to surprise.

There didn't seem to be much Kagome could do but take a chance and hope that her dad wouldn't 'surprise' her this time…

- - -

Finally, lunch arrived.

Our four favourite friends were seated in a cozy little ice cream parlour (that Kagome's uncle's ex-employee's sister's friend's friend owned), waiting for their orders to arrive. They were discussing plans for the party. By this time, it had been prolonged to last a full day. The plan went as follows: they would go to Kagome's mansion (she confirmed it was a mansion), be given a tour, and would either watch a movie in the home theatre or go swimming immediately. After that, they would have dinner. They'd be having a barbeque… or sushi, since Sango had been craving it recently. In the end, they decided on both. Once dinner was finished, they'd go for a dip again or cruise around downtown and maybe go clubbing. They'd be heading back after that, and the sleepover would commence. Of course, they probably wouldn't be doing much sleeping; more like having pillow fights, talking, playing TOD, eating/throwing popcorn, etc. etc… The next day, they would be swimming and then heading downtown again and maybe drop by the waterfront (not to swim… just to cruise around some more).

Their orders finally arrived. Kagome grinned widely as her triple-scoop, double-strawberry-and-vanilla, chocolate flaked, chocolate and strawberry syrup-ed, whipped creamed, butterscotch and M&M topped sugar-cone came into view. (If you think about it, it's really not that many toppings!)

Inuyasha had ordered a double-scoop mint and chocolate chip cone, Sango had gotten raspberry, and Miroku a double French vanilla.

Inuyasha looked at Kagome who was happily licking at her ice cream.

"Eww."

Kagome raised an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"You'll get fat if you eat so much ice cream, you know?" Seeing Kagome's angry, flushed face, he pushed on forward. "Oh, wait, no. You're already fat!"

"You—!" Kagome stood, flaring. Inuyasha smirked. Score!

"Inuyasha! That's no way to treat a lady!" Miroku cut in. Sango nodded, glaring at Inuyasha.

"Exactly. Kagome is not fat!"

"Keh. How would you know? And anyways, if she isn't fat now, she will be once she's done that ice cream."

"YOU—!" Kagome started, but suddenly halted. With a tick in her eye, she slowly slid back into her seat. 'He's just trying to piss me off. He's just trying to piss me off. He's just trying to piss me off. Ok. Deep breaths, Kagome.'

She turned to Inuyasha and gave him a winning smile. "Aww, Inu-kun. People say that boys who tease girls supposedly like them… you're so cute!" She mocked, pinching his left cheek.

"Ow! What the hell, woman!"

Kagome laughed. "Serves you right!"

"… keh!"

Miroku rolled his eyes at Inuyasha. "That was a smart comeback."

"Oh, but it was classic!" Sango said, snickering.

Inuyasha just glared.

- - -

It seemed like forever to the four friends for the end of the school day to roll around, but when it did, they were the first to jump up from the seats of whatever class they were attending. Gleeful and full of anticipation for the party, they practically all ran to their lockers, threw in books unnecessary, grabbed books necessary, and then gathered in the front foyer.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yaddy yah, blah blah, yes I know I suck for being so lazy.

Love, hugs, and thanks to everyone who still supported me and this story, even though I was thinking of discontinuing it. Your help is very much appreciated.

And special thanks to Camisha, who really helped me dig up my inspiration and whose advice and words fuelled me to bring everyone this chapter.

Much love!

Automatic Flower