All right my loyal reviewers; there is a decision that is totally up to you.  I plan to add more to this story, such as the weddings, children being born, and stuff like that, however should I keep it with Winter Wonderland, or come up with a continuation?  To me it doesn't matter, it's all up to you people.

  I'm feeling better, so I decided to work on the next chapter.  School will be starting soon, I'll be working, and finals are at the end of this month.  So anyway, in your review for this chapter please, please, please tell me what you want me to do!

Winter Wonderland

Chapter Twenty-Four

  Inu-Yasha watched amusingly as Kagome and her brother rushed around the house getting their stuff ready for school.  Everyone, including him had slept in, not hearing the alarm clocks. 

  "Kagome, don't forget your math book!" called Mrs. Higurashi.

  "Right mom,"

  "Has anyone seen my scarf?" asked Sota.

  "Right here," answered Grandpa.

  Inu-Yasha laughed to himself as everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

  "Alright you two, better head off now!" said Mrs. Higurashi.

  Inu-Yasha waited outside so Kagome and Sota could get their mitts and toques on.

  "Bye mom!" called Sota and Kagome as they ran out the door.

  The half demon got down on one knee so Kagome and her brother could climb on his back.

  "You guys ready?" asked Inu-Yasha.

  "Yup!" said Sota.

  Kagome nodded in agreement.

  "Hold on tight then!" said Inu-Yasha as he started to run and leap into the cold winter air.

  Sota and Kagome held on tight as Inu-Yasha leaped from building to building, and even hitched a ride on a train to make things faster.

  "So Sota, where's your school?" asked Inu-Yasha.

  "Right there!" pointed Sota.  The school was quite larger than Kagome's, and had many children playing on the play ground.

  Inu-Yasha landed in a bush near the school and let Sota off.

  "Will you come pick me up?"

  "Sure," said Inu-Yasha.

  Sota gave the half demon a quick hug before running into his school.  Making sure no one was looking, Inu-Yasha leaped into the air again and headed off to Kagome's school.

  "Are you sure you don't want me to stay at school with you?" asked Inu-Yasha.

  "I'm sure, I talked to Ayumi last night and she said her and Ryo would make sure that Hojo would not come near me,"

  Inu-Yasha nodded and landed on the roof of the school.

  "I'll see you later," whispered Kagome as she kissed Inu-Yasha on the cheek.

  "You call that a good-bye kiss?" questioned the half demon as he grabbed Kagome's arm and crushed his mouth against hers, "I'll be here to pick you up,"

  "Okay, I love you,"

  "I love you too,"

  Kagome smiled and waved good-bye to her mate as she ran into the school.  Inu-Yasha sighed, and ran off the school roof, heading back to the Higurashi Shrine.  Kagome ran down the school hallway to her locker to drop off her coat and other winter gear.

  "Hey!  Kagome!"

  Kagome turned around to see Ayumi running towards her, "How's it going?"

  "Pretty good actually.  I have some good news, I haven't seen Hojo yet, so maybe he isn't coming back to school quite yet,"
  "That's good," sighed Kagome, closing her locker door and then walking with Ayumi to their first class.

  "Glad to be back in school?" asked Ayumi.

  "In a way I guess, although . . ."

  "You want to be with your mate?" whispered Ayumi.

  "Yeah," giggled Kagome.

  "So now that Yuka and Eri think Inu-Yasha is an American, what kind of wedding will you have?"

  "Oh . . . well I don't know . . . we could stick to traditions . . ."

  "Or you could have an American type of wedding, I hear it's a little easier without drinking the sake and all that stuff, and all you two would have to do is exchange rings,"

  "I guess, but I'm not sure that's how my grandfather would like it," said Kagome, setting her bag on her desk.  There was no one else yet in the room except her and Ayumi.

  "Well I'm sure you want to make things easier for Inu-Yasha, I'm sure he's not familiar with weddings these days, and I think he once told me he doesn't like sake,"

  "I guess you have a point,"

  "So will any of Inu-Yasha's family be there?"

  "I've told you his parents died when he was little,"

  "But you said he had a brother too,"

  "Who wants to kill him, but I'm sure Myoga could come,"

  "Who's Myoga?"

  "He's a flea, a servant or something like that to Inu-Yasha,"

  "No one else?"

  "Well I'm sure Miroku, Sango, Shipp, and Kaede could come.  Like I told you before they're my friends from the past,"

  Ayumi sat on her desk and glanced at the door before speaking again, "Anyone else?"

  "Well maybe Kouga and Ayume, but I don't think anyone else,"

  "So, when will you go back to the past again?"

  "Not for a while . . . oh!  I guess I didn't tell you, we defeated Naraku,"

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, and the jewels whole now, so I guess I'll be going back maybe on the weekends,"

  "Awesome, so now you'll be at school more often,"

  "Yeah,"

  The school bell rang throughout the school, letting everyone know that classes would be starting soon.

  "Kagome!"

  She turned around to see Yuka and Eri walking towards her, "Hi guys,"

  "So, have you seen Hojo yet?" asked Eri.

  "No, and I don't want to," sighed Kagome.

  "Come on everyone, please sit down," said the teacher.

  Everyone took their seat and waited as the teacher took attendance.  Kagome glanced to her left to see Hojo sitting on the far side of the room.  He was quite beaten up, and luckily, wasn't looking at her.

  "Alright, everyone seems to be here today, so we'll begin today's math lesson.  Please take out your calculators and some blank paper for notes," said the teacher, cleaning off the chalkboard.

  Kagome took out some blank sheets of paper, but froze when she couldn't find her calculator.

  "Kagome . . . what's wrong?" whispered Eri.

  "I can't find my calculator," hissed Kagome.

  "The teacher won't let you borrow one either," whispered Yuka.

  "Higurashi is there a problem?" asked the teacher.

  "Well . . . um . . . "

  KNOCK!  KNOCK!

  Her teacher turned to the door and opened it.  Kagome almost fell out of her desk.  Inu-Yasha was standing there wearing a black toque, and his regular fire rat clothes, holding Kagome's calculator in his right hand.

  "Is Kagome here?" asked Inu-Yasha.

  "Higurashi, it seems you forgot your calculator again,"

  Kagome giggled slightly and stood up, walking towards Inu-Yasha.

  "You're mom sent me to give this to you," whispered Inu-Yasha.

  "Thanks," whispered Kagome, taking her calculator.

  Inu-Yasha smiled and leaned down, pecking Kagome on the cheek, "See you after school,"

  Kagome stood there for a moment as she watched the half demon walk down the hallway before she returned to her desk.  Almost all eyes were on her when she sat back down, but she noticed humorously that Hojo seemed to be cowering in the corner.

  "Alright everyone, now on with the lesson,"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Kagome couldn't help notice that she seemed to be getting strange looks from people as she walked down the hallway with her friends.

  "What is it with everyone?" asked Kagome.

  "Well since everyone saw Inu-Yasha kiss you, and saw the ring on you're finger, can you blame them?" asked Yuka.

  "I don't see what the big deal is," sighed Kagome.

  "Well we do!" cried Yuka and Eri at the same time, turning on their friend.

  "Uh . . ."

  "Kagome you are way to young to be married to someone, and besides that, who knows what you two are doing, especially when he's staying at your house!" said Yuka.

  "That is none of your business!" hissed Kagome.

  "Ah!  So you two are . . ."

  Kagome slapped her hand on Yuka's mouth, "Don't you dare say it!"

  "Come on you guys, cut it out," whispered Ayumi.

  "Ayumi what's wrong with you?  Don't you see how wrong this is?" asked Yuka.

  "Before you know it, Kagome may be walking bare foot through these hallways, telling us she's pregnant," hissed Eri.

  "I can't believe you guys would think that!" whispered Kagome.

  "We told you he was bad from the start, and that you should of stuck with Hojo!"

  "What do you guys have against him?"

  "We've seen how jealous he gets, I mean look at Hojo, and he got beaten to a pulp,"

  "He tried to attack Inu-Yasha, can you blame my ma . . . future husband for not protecting himself?"

  "Kagome's he's dangerous, you could get really hurt of you stick with him," whispered Yuka.

  Kagome glanced around and noticed that they were drawing a crowd.

  "I can't believe you guys are saying this about him!  He loves me and I love him, can't you just except it and be happy that I finally found someone?  Sure maybe he gets jealous easily, and is a little violent, but you guys have never seen his soft side.  He's a good man . . ."

  "Kagome stop!  Didn't you tell us that he was two-timing you?" asked Eri.

  "He wasn't two timing me!  You guys don't understand!  He's been hurt in the past and couldn't trust anyone!  He then met this girl and thought they were in love, but they weren't since they couldn't trust each other . . ."

  "So he couldn't get over her or something?" asked Yuka.

  "She was the first to except him for who he was, and just wanted to make sure she was okay.  Besides he didn't trust anyone till he met me,"

  "Kagome you don't get it!  You will have a horrible life if you marry him!  Yuka and I didn't say anything since we thought you two would break up, but now you're getting married to him!"

  Kagome sighed, and walked passed her friends, knowing there was no way she could win this argument.

  "Kagome, wait!" cried Ayumi, catching up with her, "You know they're wrong, they just don't understand him like you do, and . . . well I kind of understand him,"

  "I know, but if everyone's going to treat me like this . . ."

  "Don't worry, I'm sure not everyone else is going to over react like they are,"

  "I can only hope," sighed Kagome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Kagome grabbed her scarf and coat out of her locker with Ayumi waiting for her. 

  "Well, I guess everyone is over reacting about this," sighed Ayumi.

  "Yeah, I can't believe they were whispering like that,"

  "Do you regret it?"

  "Regret it?  No, but I just wish everyone . . ." Kagome pressed her head against her locker, and tried to hold her tears back.

  "Let's go, I'm sure Inu-Yasha's waiting for you,"

  Kagome nodded and followed Ayumi out the door.  Sure enough there was Inu-Yasha, standing near the front gate waiting for her.  Everyone walking by the half demon froze and just stared at him.  Inu-Yasha narrowed his eyes glaring back at them, but his eyes softened when he caught sight of Kagome.

  "Hey Kagome, what's everyone's . . ." Inu-Yasha noticed that Kagome had tears welling up in her eyes, "Kagome what's wrong?"

  The half demon ran forward and wrapped his arms around the girl, holding her close, "You can tell me,"

  "Can we just go home?" whispered Kagome.

  Inu-Yasha looked up at Ayumi, "Bad day at school,"

  Inu-Yasha nodded and walked with Kagome out the front gate, all the students' eyes still on them.  Once they were out of sight, Inu-Yasha got down on one knee so Kagome could climb on his back.  He didn't ask her what was wrong, but decided he would when they got back to her place.  Inu-Yasha jumped from building to building as they made their way to Sota's school.  Sota could also sense Kagome's bad mood aura, and didn't say a word when he climbed on Inu-Yasha's back.  No words were spoken until they landed back on the shrine grounds, when Sota asked Inu-Yasha if he would get another ride like that to school.

  "Hi guys, how was your day at school?" asked Mrs. Higurashi.

  "Great!" said Sota.

  "Don't ask," sighed Kagome who immediately headed to her room with Inu-Yasha at her heels.

  The half demon waited until they were in her room before he asked, "Kagome, what happened?"

  Kagome sat on her bed, "Everyone at school found out I was engaged,"

  Inu-Yasha's ears drooped, "And that's bad?"

  "To them it is . . . . why I don't know,"

  Inu-Yasha took a seat beside Kagome and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "Do you . . ."

  Kagome pressed her finger against Inu-Yasha's lips to stop him from talking, "Don't say anything.  I don't have any regrets and don't want to change anything.  It's just that, school is going to be a little bit more difficult with everyone talking about me behind my back,"

  Inu-Yasha nodded and rested his head against Kagome's shoulder, "So Hojo didn't bother you or anything?"

  "No, he looked like a little puppy with its tail between its legs when you gave me my calculator," giggled Kagome.

  The half demon smiled and kissed Kagome's neck, "At least Ayumi doesn't mind,"

  "Yeah, I don't know what I would do if it wasn't for her,"

  Inu-Yasha nodded and pulled Kagome onto his lap.

  "I could just stop going to school, I mean I'm going to be living in the past and . . ."

  "Don't Kagome, you should keep going,"

  "But . . ."

  "If I recall, you would sit me over twelve times so you could come back here and take those stupid tests.  Now you've been doing this for years, the Kagome I know would not give up so easily, eh?"

  Kagome smiled and snuggled into Inu-Yasha's chest, "You know . . ."

  "What?"

  "I don't have any homework,"

  "Well then we can spend some time together then,"

  "Yeah, and we'll have the house all to ourselves.  Mom, Grandpa, and Sota are going out tonight to a movie,"

  "Oh, so what are we going to do?"

  "I don't know, we'll think of something.  Say, when are you going to bring Shippo here?"

  "Well when's your next big test?"

  "Friday,"

  "Well then I guess the day after that I'll go get him,"

  Kagome nodded and sighed, "I'm so tired,"

  "Then sleep my mate, sleep,"

  She nodded and closed her eyes.

TBC . . .

  So Kagome had a little trouble at school, but things will get interesting in the next one with Hojo.  I'm not giving any details, but the next chapter should be up soon.  Holy crap I cannot believe the reviews I'm getting!  I'm like at 723 or something!  Anyway, just keep reviewing!

Lynns