Chapter Sixteen - Storm

The bell rang, signifying the end of the school day. Akane groaned, almost falling backwards with the weight of her backpack, as she walked to the gates of the school where she was going to meet Ranma. He was already there when she arrived, Ukyou with him, chatting in a friendly manner.

'Probably trying to sabotage our engagement…again,' Akane thought as she trudged up behind the two of them. 'Not like I care, I've got too much homework to worry about Ranma.'

"Hey Akane, got a lot of homework?" Ukyou asked rather sarcastically.

"Well obviously."

Suddenly, Kagome came bounding up beside her. "Hey guys! Guess what! I've got no homework tonight!"

Akane groaned. "Way to rub it in, Kagome."

Sango sat at the kitchen table staring across to Miroku. Shippou was beside her, looking over her shoulder at Miroku, who was staring back at Sango. Miroku blinked.

"I win again!" Sango announced proudly. "Geez, Miroku, you suck at these staring contests."

Miroku hung his head and sighed, "Yeah, I know."

Suddenly, a ringing sound filled the house, making Miroku, Sango, and Shippou jump. Sango got up and followed the sound.

"It's coming from this thing here," she said, standing beside the kitchen counter where a telephone was stationed on the wall. She picked up phone and looked it over. "The ringing stopped."

"Hello?" She heard a voice coming from the phone. Miroku and Shippou had gone over and where looking at the phone with shock.

Sango put the phone up to her ear, "Uh…hello?"

"Sango! It's Kagome."

Shippou hopped up onto Sango's shoulder, "Oh my god! Kagome's trapped in that thing!" Sango and Miroku gasped.

"Kagome, are you okay? Don't worry, we'll get you out of there as soon as we can, I promise!" Miroku said over Sango's shoulder.

Kagome laughed, "No guys, it's okay. Really, I'm at Akane's place."

"Then…how…?" Sango stuttered.

"Nevermind that for now. I was wondering if you guys wanted to come over here? My mom could probably drive you if you asked nicely."

"I guess," Sango replied, looking from Miroku and Shippou who nodded in silent agreement. "But, I dunno about Inuyasha and Kouga. They've been fighting for a while. We even had to make them go outside. I think your little brother is out there watching too."

Kagome laughed again. "Well, I'm sure you guys can manage to drag them over her somehow. Just threaten them with a mini skirt and they'll probably stop fighting and go along with anything you say."

This time it was Sango's turn to laugh.

After much threatening and a little bit of bribery (ten cups of instant ramen), Sango managed to drag Inuyasha and Kouga away from bickering with each other and over to Akane's house. The ride over seemed like it was the most fascinating thing for Sango, Miroku, and Shippou, while Inuyasha and Kouga were convinced that Kagome's mom's minivan was evil. Eventually, Kagome's mom convinced them that it wasn't going to try and eat them, and even managed to persuade them to get in.

After that, unfortunately, the seat belt made Kouga turn back to his original idea that the car was evil when it pinched his tail.

They got to Akane's house a while later (Kouga ripped out the seatbelt, thereby solving his problem) and filed out of the crowded van and in to Akane's house where Kagome, Akane, Ranma, and Ukyou were waiting for them.

"Hey guys, what took you so long?" Kagome asked when the group arrived at the door.

"Inuyasha and Kouga thought that the vehicle was going to eat them," Sango replied, stepping into the front door and sliding her shoes off. Miroku followed, doing the same thing.

"I never thought that it was going to eat me," Inuyasha protested, "I would've killed it before it got the chance."

"Yeah, right," Kouga snorted.

Kagome sighed. "C'mon guys, don't start an argument now," she said, taking on the role as peacemaker of the group.

They all went in and Kagome introduced them to Ukyou. Shortly after, while the rest of them were playing with Ranma's new Game Cube game, Happosai snuck in and stole Miroku away to show him the new additions to his 'collection.'

After a while, they decided to turn off the game system and watch TV. Ranma flipped through the channels with the remote and stopped on the weather channel after seeing a bright red bar on the bottom of the screen.

"Tornado warning? But, it was so nice out just a few hours ago," Akane said upon reading the warning on the screen. She got up and walked over to a window, and pulled back the drapes, revealing a raging storm out side. The clouds were black and dangerously close to the ground and rain was falling in torrents, flooding the streets.

I finally updated! I'm so proud of myself. I left a little bit of a cliffie for you.

Cya!