Nobody 2 Not A Nobody No More

by KoKoKrisp

Kagome Higurashi was The Nobody in Tokyo High. When she died with her Boyfriend, Inuyasha, they come back to life as Kotaru and Toya! Will They Stay together? Will they ever see their old friendz again? Will new friendz come? Completed For Previous story

Footsteps were heard, loud, heavy footsteps and they frightened the two teens.
Together they had lived in Nirvana for over 6 months, and they were neutral about their home...

No music, no TV...
Who said paradise was 'paradise'?

Kagome looked over her shoulder at the person walking towards the couple, and made a confused expression.
"Who are you?"
"Mana Tsuusuke. Head spirit... anyways, I'm here to tell you that those of Nirvana have decided to give you two a second chance."
"Second...chance?" Inuyasha asked, and the woman nodded.
"Seccond chance at living on Earth. You, Kagome, for not having a fair time while you were there, and you, Inuyasha, for taking your life so another wouldn't be lonely. But, there is a small catch."
"And what catch would that be?" The golden eyed boy asked curiously, and the woman smiled.
"It's not all bad, all you have to do is live in another town and go to another school, Kagome will become the 'nobody' of the school once more, but you two have to work to make it so Kagome is a 'normal' girl, accepted by everyone, like what you had been trying to do 6 months ago. Not so hard, right?" She said, but she had a nervous smile on.
"What's wrong? I know there's gotta be some other catch?" Inuyasha asked, and the woman sighed.
"It's true...we almost never give out second chances with such easy tests, and there isn't enough room on Earth or in Nirvana if you fail like before...so if you do fail, and Kagome feels as she did before she took her life, then you two will either become wandering souls, seperated and stuck on Earth for all eternity, transparent and not able to feel, or you will convert to simple dust, and never exist... I would say most likely it would be that you wouldn't exist anymore... it's, you wouldn't exist on Earth or in Nirvana...so to say you would be stuck in limbo forever, and you wouldn't even be able to talk to eachother."
"Ah...then we can't fail!" Inuyasha exclaimed, and Kagome made a small gulping sound.
"Can we stay here? In Nirvana and not take the challenge at all?"
"Kagome, come on! We have to get you back to Earth so you can live a full life! We won't fail! We have to take this chance!"
She nudged her feet into the dirt and looked up at him, "Ok, Inuyasha...Let's do this."
Mana smiled a crooked sort of smile, and motioned for them to follow her. "You have 6 months to get her to be 'normal', the same amount of time that you've been up here."
"No problem!" Inuyasha said, and Kagome nervously smiled.
"Right. We can...we can do this."

Rain was falling outside of Kyoto High.
No one was inside on this certain Saturday, and the raindrops rolled slowly over the outside of the windows.

The only two who were outside on this rainy day were two teens who've been away from Earth for a little over 6 months, and they were neutral about coming home...
Though, technically, they weren't 'home'.
Home was in Tokyo, outside their over-grown high school, or out by the God Tree at the Higurashi Shrine, or sitting by the private lake out by the Taisho family's house...

But here they were, soaking head to toe in ancient rain that fell from the sky for maybe over the billionth time.

By now, Kagome was sure that they could take this challenge.
She knew what it was to be 'normal' and even though 6 months was a short time to become the 'nobody' and 'normal', she would be able to succeed.
She just knew it.

This wasn't a hard task for someone who had lived in Paradise for 6 months.
Or, at least, she thought it wasn't.

"Inuyasha, do you think we'll be able to do this in only 6 months?"
"Of course!" The silver-haired teen assured her, they would be...ok...

Their whole existance was on the line here, they were not gonig to fail.

They would make sure of this.

--

- DIIIIIIIIIIING -

The first school bell rang, but none of the students outside of the school made a move.
They always waited until the second bell, though for no particular reason.
But today, there may have been one.

2 people they had never seen before stood in the crowd, one a girl with long raven-colored hair stood, looking directly at her feet.
And the other, a boy with long silver hair and 'dog' ears and golden eyes stared up at the sun as if it wasn't anything.
They were an odd pair, the boy looked out going and comedic, and the girl looked quiet and keep-to-herself-ish.

The boy would be fun to hang out with.
These superficial sterotype teens all decided that already.
But the girl...too quiet. We can leave her alone.
Make fun of her once in awhile, maybe.
Tease her.
But otherwise, avoid this girl all together.

They had all conversed about it in their stereotypical minds together, that was how it would be.

This boy would be the hero.
This girl would be dust in the wind.

Dust.
Dust in the wind.

The second bell rang and the students moved into the building in a nosiy fashion, and Kagome looked up.
"I can't do this." She said, and Inuyasha smirked.
"You'll be fine. It's only the first day of being a junior..."
True, convenently(or purposley) the Heads had let them wait 6 months until departing to Earth, 6 months was until the first day of their Junior Year.
Hello, new grade level...

The couple walked up the front stairs into the school and to their first classroom.
Junior Grade, Room 2, Ms. Takenaka.

"Hello, class. We have two new students here today, from Tokyo. I don't know their names yet, but, ypu know who you are. Come up to the front of the room."
Inuyasha stood up immedietly, and he had to tug on Kagome's arm to get her to come up.
She whispered quietly so only he could hear her, "Inuyasha, I cant do this! It will end up the same as before..."
"No it won't, Kags! youll be fine, and, lets say, 3 months of how you were, and then the next 3 months we make you 'normal'. You know what, I already have a rock hard way to make you normal, even popular in that time."
"What? How?"
"I have my connections...I know people in high places..." He winked at her and she cocked her head, and he only smiled. "Whats perfect is they dont know I killed myself so it wont be awkward when I go in to ask a favor of them. Now, we have to talk to the class."
He pulled her the rest of the way to the front of the room and pushed her so she was facing everyone.

"Ok, you two, tell the class a little about you."
"Hey, I'm from Tokyo, To-kee-o, and I'm 17..." Inuyasha said, scratching the back of his neck.
"Ok, but why don't you tell us you're names?"
"Names, right, I can do that..."
"...Then go ahead."
"Right...My name is...Toya. Toya Mikage."
"And you're friend here?" The teacher asked him, and he made a small gulping noise, then recovered.
"This is Kotaru Watanabe. She's 17 too."
"Well, Kotaru and Toya, you may go back to your seats now, and we'll start your first class of the day and the year."
Inuyasha nodded, and pulled Kagome back to their seats.

"All right, everyone. Since today is the first day of school, there won't be any work-"
The teacher was cut off by loud woots from certain students in the class. "But," she said, and they all groaned, "But that doesn't mean there won't be any work in other classes. I only know my schedule, not any of the other teachers'."
They groaned once more, and the teacher shook her head and sighed, "So predictable, every year..."
If it weren't for Ms. Takenake being only 28, everyone knew they would've had work to do today, so at least they were thankful for that.

Ungrateful little punks...

Anyways, with being the first day of school and no work, today they got to talk this first period.

Of course, everyone wanted to talk to 'Toya', and no one wanted to talk to 'Kotaru'.

"So, Toya, that was your name, right?" A bubbly, giggling blonde girl asked him, and he nodded.
"Hey, Toya, you look like a strong guy. We could use you on the schol football team..." Another girl with long sandy-brown hair asked, batting her blue eyes at him.
He looked over at Kagome, and the blonde girl turned him back around to face the group of people around him.
"Come on, make new friends, yeah?" The brown hair girl said, and he shrugged.
"But K-"
"Kotaru will be fine. Come with us to the football field, we've got a little while to take a walk..."
He looked over at Kagome once more, and she looked back at him. "It's all right if he comes with us, isn't it, Kotaru?" The blonde asked her, and she simply nodded her head. "See? She thinks it's ok. Let's go."
"All right, all right." Inuyasha said, and he let himself be pulled away by the group of giggling, bubbly girls.

Kagome just sat alone, while a few boys threw around paper airplanes and paper footballs, and the only girls left in the class either admired their faces in pocket-mirrors, or combed their hair with their fingers.
The only one in the class not doing either of those options, was a girl with chest-length dead-straight chestnut-brown hair and hazel eyes, a black short-sleeve top covered with a long-sleeve fish-net covering and black baggy pants with a few chains hanging off of them.
Also, on her feet were black, slightly dirt-browned converse high-tops, and she had her arms folded across her chest as she stared blankly at the wall.

This girl interested Kagome, so she took the courage to stand up and walk over to her.
"H-hello." She said, for she wasn't used to being the first to talk to someone.
The girl looked up at her and scowled, "Hey."
Kagome took the liberty of sitting in the seat in front of the girl, and turned so she was facing her. "W-what's your name?"
"...Who wants to know?"
"I'm Kotaru. I just came to this school from Tokyo with Toya."
"Oh. The newbie-girl. Well, I'm Phoenix. But let me just ask you one thing, what posessed you to come over here and grace me with your presence as so?"
(A/N: If you're wondering, 'Pheonix' is pronounced 'Fee-niks')
Kagome made a slight gulping sound, and opened her mouth to speak. "Well, you looked...I dunno, lonely? And I didn't really want to be all alone for the whole period...and I just thought..."
"What? What did you think? Speak up, I can't read your mind, you know." Phoenix said in a sarcastic tone, and Kagome nodded.

"I just thorught that we seemed alike. Because...you were so quiet, and alone..."
Pheonix stood up, and Kagome found that she was shorter than this girl in black by about 3 inches, "I like to be quiet. And I like to be alone."
Kagome nodded once more, she understood. "That's how we're alike."
Pheonix stared down at the new girl, and Kagome frowned.
Did she just talk to a person she didn't know willingly?
"Really?" Pheonix asked in an 'I rule the school' tone of voice, and Kagome nodded. "Well, Kotaru, so we're alike. What does it have to do with anything?"
"Would you like to be friends?"
Pheonix stared blankly at the ceiling.
Was this girl nuts!
"I've never had a friend before excpet I-...Toya. No one liked me at my old school..."
Pheonix looked down at her and pouted, "Well, no one likes me here." the girl in black said, turning on her heal and sitting back in her seat, and Kagome shook her head.
"It doesn't matter...so would you like to be my friend?"
Pheonix pondered the question... "Alright. But only if you promise you never become one of those ditzy girls, or a cheerleader, or try to center yourself around popularity."
Kagome smiled, "That's a deal."

The two new friends shook hands, just in time for the second period bell to ring.

--

"Kagome, you have to remember the rule!"
"And what rule is that, Inuyasha? That I cant' even have one friend?"
The two newbies of the school were sitting around a dining room table in the only vacant house that the Heads could find in Kyoto, and fighting over the 'rule' facts.
"Kagome, you're first supposed to become the nobody, then after a little while is when we make you 'normal' o to say, but not before that!"
"Well, Inuyasha, if you have to know, Kyoto High already has a nobody!"
"Oh really? And who's that?"
"Pheonix Sugita! Pheonix!"
"Oh..." Inuyasha scratched his head and Kagome shot him a death glare.
"I want to be normal and have friends! I finally get one and you want to take that away from me! Aren't you just proud that I made a friend on my own?"
Inuyasha looked towards his feet.
"Don't you want to help me out here?"
"Of course I want to help you! I just...nevermind...I'm going to bed."
"But, it's 4pm-"
"I'm going to bed early."

"Alright..."

Inuyasha walked up the stairs to his bedroom, and Kagome stayed downstairs, turning the TV on with the remote control in her hands.
"Whoooooooooooooooo...lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spon-"
- CLICK -
"Nawni nawni naaaaaaaaaaaaaaawni..."
- CLICK -
"I want to change the world!-"
- CLICK -

"Yuusuke! Keiko is only-"
- CLICK -
"Alchemists aren't some bloody murderers!"
- CLICK -

"Nothing good is on..." Kagome trailed off, and decided to follow in her boyfriend's steps and take a nap.

--

"Mikage Toya?"
"Here." Inuyasha exclaimed, and Kagome shuddered.
That word...

The teacher went down the list until Kagome heard the familiar name, "Sugita Pheonix?"
"Yeah."
She stared at the wall with her chocolate brown eyes.
If only Inuyasha picked a family-name that starts with a letter other than the way down the alphabet W...
"Watanabe Kotaru?"
Kagome raised her hand, and the techer checked her off. "All right then class,"
Kagome was last on the list?
"Since today is only the second day of school, I'm not going to give you any work." She paused for the familiar woots, "But," she said once more, and they all groaned, "I don't know the other teacher's plans. But for first period you may do what you like. But be back before the second period bell rings."
The students stood up and either went over with a few of the boys with their airplanes and footballs, admired themselves in a pocket-mirror, or were in the group of bubbly giggling toe-heads and sandy-hairs that were trying to persuade Inuyasha to once more go out to the football field.

Kagome was left to walk over to her new friend Pheonix, and sit in front of her like she had the other day.
"Bored?" Pheonix asked, and Kagome quietly nodded. "Me too... How about we go see what they're doing at the football field? And then play a little joke?" Pheonix smiled mischeviously, which made Kagome laughed.
"Sure."
The two stood up and walked out of the classroom, waving to their now favorite teacher as they went, and left to the football field.

It was warm and sunny out, and the grass was a perfect shade of green.
Perfect.
Now there's a word that describes the complete opposite of Kagome.

The two walked over to the metal-bleachers where the others were and sat down in the way back, trying to listen-in on the conversation.
"Oh, jeez, Kotaru," The toe-head said, "Friends with Pheonix? I thought you were smarter and even cooler than that. Be our friends, and you can become popular." She said in a 'I'm trying to be nice' kind of voice, and Inuyasha looked at her. "Pheonix is just nobody. If you become friend with her, she'll bring you down. Come be with us." You could tell this girl was only being nice to 'Kotaru' so she would look cool in front of Inuyasha, of course, Inuyasha couldn't tell.

Pheonix silently mocked the cheerleader with her hand and she stuck up her nose, "Oh, very funny, Phee. Making fun of me now? You know what happened last time."
Pheonix stopped her mocking and hopped off of the bleachers, "Well, are you coming, Kotaru?" Kagome looked down at her, and the look she saw in her new friend's eyes said 'You promised.'.
She jumped off the bleachers as Pheonix did and the two walked off together.
"Fine, Watanabe! But have the knowledge that you now will never become popular!"
Kagome only ignored her, which only made toe-head even madder.

"How dare you igno- Hey! Toya! Don't leave with those losers!"
Inuyasha had followed the first two by hopping off the bleachers and then following them off the field.
He turned to her.
"Ai," he said silently, and she had an excited look on her face, "You don't rule me." The look dropped as he said this and turned back around, following the two nobodies.

--

"It seems today! That all you see! Is violence in movies, and sex on TV! But where are those good old fashion values? On which we used to rely! Lucky there's a Family Guy-"
"What are you watching!" Kagome asked her boyfriend as she walked down the stairs at 11:00pm.
"Family Guy."
"All the things that make us, laugh and cry! He's! A! Fam! Ily! Guy!"
"Looks gay." She said, and he snorted.
"You have your opinions."
"Yes, I do. And you have yours. How come you followed me and Pheonix instead of staying with your popular friends?"
"They aren't my friends. Ai is a bitch, anyways."
Kagome shook her head and watched the TV, and now, she thought this show was even more gay...
"So how much more until I get to become 'normal'?"
"Uhm...a little less than 3 months."
"Damn!"

Kagome skipped to school this morning.
Yes, she would have thought of herself as a weirdo also, but 2 months had gone by in a flash.
Just one more month until she can become 'normal', so to say.

"Well, at least if I don't become normal that fast I'm not home alone anymore..." Kagome said, and slightly tripped over her own feet. "Dammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit..." She untangled her feet and got back on track, continuing her walk up the stairs into the building.
Only to be pushed back down those stairs by toe-head-Ai.

"Superior before inferior." She said, and her snob-group laughed as they walked into the building.

Kagome stood up, picked her books up, and wiped her front off before attemtping to get into the building once more.

"Hey, Kotaru." She heard a quiet voice say as she was just about to walk into the building, and she saw Pheonux, lying on the ground as she had 5 seconds earlier.
"Pheonix!" She forgot about toing inside and ran down to her friend, helping her off of the ground.
"God dammit, if they say 'superior before inferior' then they should let us in first!" Pheonix complained, and then lost her angry glare. "Where's that Toya dude?"
"Oh, he's sick today. He stayed home."
"Ooh, alright. Well, let's go into hell now." Pheonix said, and when Kagome had a confusing look on her face, returned with, "School, Kotaru."
"Oh, right."

--

"Ok, class, today we're going to continue on our Box and Whisker plot lesson-"
She was cut off by loud groans and boos and even hisses from almost everyone in the class. "And today will be the last day of that-" She was cut off once more, but now by 'Yay's. "Tomarrow we will do something fun," Once again, 'yay's. "Since tomarrow is Halloween, I've decided we'll have fun. You know, doing math problems with candy," 'Woohoo's. "Maybe brain teasers," 'Woot's. "And I'll have a prize for best costume. And believe me, you'll like the prize." Now she couldn't even hear herself think with all the excitement.

"I think I'll dress up as a human," The class weirdo said.
"Witch all the way!"
"Hm, I did see a goth outfit at the store..."
"You jackass! You can't dress up as a goth! That's not right to have goth costumes at the store! POSERS! POSERS! GOTH IS NOT A RACE!"
"GUYS! We have a lesson plan today!" Ms. Takenaka yelled, and the room quieted down. "Thank you. Keiko, no dressing up as a 'goth', Miki's right, it's not a race, 'goths' are as normal as you and I."
"Well, of course you would say that, Ms. Takenaka," Keiko said, "You were gothic when you were younger!"
"-Sigh- Guys, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease can we start the class?"
"Do we have to?"
"YES!"
"O...ok..."
Kagome was sitting in her up-against-the-wall-corner-seat, trying to blend in with the egg-shell colored wall with no success.
The good thing was, she got to sit in the waaaaaaay back.
The bad thing was, the teacher still noticed her.
And still called on her.
And still made her come to school every morning.

Of course, school wasn't so bad now that Kagome had Pheonix as a friend, and even a boyfriend(of course, he is the one who came back to Earth with her, so no differencealmostthere), but she still would rather be dead than come to school.

To the others in class, she was 'inferior' and they weren't afraid to tell her.
She knew that thy were the fake-asses of the world, but it was the fake-asses who ruled the school.
Real people like her weren't worth anything to anyone except the teachers.

Maybe not even them.

A paper football hit her in the head.
She winced but then pulled it out of her hair, looking around for suspects.
Spotted on the radar.
Almost all the way across the room was a boy with long black hair pulled into a high pony-tail, blank brown eyes and what seemed like a fanged grin.
He motioned for her to open it, so she hastily did.

Dear Kotaru, it read in large, childish letters, That is your name, right? She sighed.
No, technically, that's not her real name. I see how those chicks treat you all the time and I think it's wrong. At least somebody did. I think you're pretty cute too. Nice way with words.You know the Halloween dance is on Friday, right? Who didn't? I was wondering, you know, because of course you'll be free, being an outcast and all, Did he seriously just say that? if you'd like to come with me to the dance, so write back ASAP with one of the boxes checked off below.
Boxes. Right.
()Yes
()Yes
()Of course
()Duh
()Why wouldn't I
Whoopdeedee.
There wasn't a 'No' check-off box.
Signed, Himashi Kouga

Well, since there wasn't a 'No' check off box in sight, Kagome crumpled the note in her hands and stuffed it in her backpack, looking over to see Kouga's face fall, and she got a very triumphant look on her face.
That went well.
Seeing as it was the first time she ever turned someone down.

--

"Hey, Inuyasha, are you awake?" Kagome called as she walked into the house after school, and she heard a grunt come from upstairs. "I don't know wether to take that as a yes or a no."
"I'm awake, dammit!"
"Ok, ok, jeez..."
She dropped her backpack on the couch and threw her coat over the back of it, slipping out of her shoes as she walked up the stairs to where Inuyasha was supposed to be sleeping.
"Are you feeling better?" She asked as she sat down at the foot of the bed, and he grunted once more. "I don't speak whatever language you're trying to use!"
"NO."
"OK, that's all you had to say."
"Whatever."
She stood up and walked over to the door, "Hey, Inuyasha?"
"What?"
"Are we gonna go to the dance together on Friday?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Hm, no reason. Just asking." And she was out the door and down the stairs. 'Maybe two months was a long enough time to wait for me to become a normal girl at school...'

--

The next day as the two nobodies were walking into the school building, Inuyasha still at home, with a fever, they carefully watched out for any 'superiors'.

"How do you think Toya caught a fever?" Pheonix asked, and Kagome shrugged her shoulders.
"I dunno, I mean, he does sneak away from the house sometimes, who knows what he gets into."
"Garbage cans." Pheonix said, and they both laughed.

As they walked up the steps, pony-tail man came into view, blocking their way.

"Kotaru, you never replied to my note." He said, and she shook her head.
"There wasn't a 'No' box, so I couldn't think of doing anything else."
He paused for a moment, and then spoke up once more, "You should be grateful I like you and want to take you to the dance! You are just one of the loser nobodies at school, and you hang out with her."
"I can't believe you would say that! And why would you care so much about a nobody like me? I don't matter in this school." She pushed him aside and walked into the building, no helping to the feeling that she had said those words to someone else before.

"Alright, everyone. Today is Halloween, and I promised a fun period, so that's what we'll have. With the dance coming in two days and it being a costume party also, I thought it appropriate to have an award for best costume. I see some of you are wearing yours now, and if you have yours with you now is the time to go to the restrooms to change."
Half of the class, including Kagome and Pheonix, stood up and walked out the door, and Ms. Takenaka smiled a 'So predictable.' smile.

The snob-group were all wearing matching cheerleader costumes.
Although, they knew that was what they wore everyday, so for a little twist on it, they named their costumes 'Run-over cheerleader' and had put fake tire tracks all over the front of their outfits.

The football playing guys also had matching costumes, but they, being more 'creative', had decided to wear bleeding scream masks and their football uniform underneath that...

The weirdo of the class had dressed up as a human.

Pheonix and Kagome ditched the classes idea of 'costumes' and chose to wear something other than what everyone else had been wearing.
Pheonix was a dark angel, with her brown hair dyed completely black and pulled into a low pony-tail at her back, black angel wings and a long black dress which had a shoe-style tie at the chest, and dark blood red pieces of fabric hanging from it.
She wore a very very dark shade of lipstick and an even darker eye shadow, and she had painted her nails black.

Kagome decided to be a vampire.
An ankle-long blue and black dress that hugged her figure with fake fangs, and some make-up that Pheonix had helped her with.
She also had her hair up in a high bun with sparkles sprayed all over it.
"We're definitley gonna win." Pheonix said as she looked the class over, and Kagome nervously smiled.
"I think so."

They say down in their seats and turned towards the teacher as the whole class did.
"Alright, the winner will be announced at the end of the class. I'm gonna put my votes in the box, and then all of you come up to this box and put in a slip of who you think should win. Please, don't vote for yourself."
Half of the class groaned and Pheonix lazily sighed.
Everyone except her and Kagome would vote for themselves, and that's when theirs and the teacher's vote would truly count.

Otherwise, her and Kagome hda a chance of winning.

But it would be nicer if they knew what this 'prize' was.
Well, every student at Kyoto High knew about 28 year old Ms. Takenaka's line of rich people in the family...
But thinking the prize was a house was out of the question.
A tent, maybe...

"'K, guys, I never told any of my classes this or anything, but you guys are my favorite class :). The smartest, too. And the other students aren't getting any special Halloween thing, so don't brag to them about it, puh-lease!"
The class laughed as Ms. Takenaka fell to her knees and clasped her hands together, as if begging them. "And I promised you brain teasers and candy math problems so I guess I gotta give them to you, right?"
"YES!" The class shouted in unison, and the teacher backed up in 'fear'(fake fear).
"Ahright, ahright..." She walked over to her desk and pulled some papers out of it, then went to another drawer and pulled out a large bag of mixed candy and walked to the front of the class with them both.

"Ok, the candy in this bag is a mix of Skittles, M&Ms, and Starburst," She paused for applause, which did come. "And I got the math problems right here and the brain teasers. Pick them up from this desk. Please, one bag of each candy..."
The students stood up and walked to the desk, taking what they wanted and going back to their seats. "I thought you guys were too old for halloween music, so I'm gonna let you listen to the radio, and if you don't like a song that's playing raise your hand. If more people are raising their hands than not, then I'll change the channel."
The whole class erupted into schouts of 'WoooOOooOOooooOO' and 'GO MIKA!', for 'Mika' was Ms. Takenaka's first name.

She switched the radio on, and '1, 2, Step' filled the room.
"Ladies and gentlemen,
This is a Jazzie Phizzle
Productshizzle
Missy!(Missy)
The princess is here!
Ciara!

This beat is
Automatic,
Supersonic,
Hypnotic,
Funky fresh
Work my body
So melodic,
This beat rolls right through my chest
Everybody
Mami,papi,
Came to party
Grab somebody,
Work ya body
Work ya body
Let me see you 1,2 step!"
Pheonix and Kagome groaned and raised their hands, but the others in the class 'WooOOooOOoo'ed some more.
The two were natural punk/goth/hard rock/suicidal music listeners, so of course they would object to Ciara.
"Well, Kotaru, maybe change can be good. Maybe a change in the likes of music would be good, too?"
"As long as we don't have to throw out our CDs!" Kagome cried, and Pheonix looked shocked.
"Of course not! Never throw those sacred things out! But, hey, you've only been at this school 2 months and me and Toya are your only friends. You deserve better than that! Get up and dance!"
"T-to crunk?"
"Yes, Kotaru, to crunk. That's what everyone in this class listen to, well, that and hip-hop, R&B, crunk&b, you know."
"All right, I'll dance. And I'll show this class I'm better at dancing to their song than they are, because I am no longer insane!"
"Huh?"
"Nevermind!"
Kagome stood out of her seat, and took a deep breath.

Then, she started doing the actual 1, 2, Step as if she knew it by heart, and this was her first time ever dancing to this type of music.
She sang along quietly to get the right dance beats, and she was close to perfect. "Rock it don't stop it...everybody get on the floor, crank the party up, 'cause we about to get it on..."
After a few seconds the whole class had turned their hands and were looking at this strange nobody dancing to THEIR music.
Some of them clapped, forgetting all about how she was the nobody, and were chanting 'Go Kotaru! Go Kotaru!', while Ai Princess of Witches stared on in disgust.

Kouga stood up and walked over to her, trying to get in on her dance, but she pushed him away right at the '1 2 Step'.

Kagome actually had no idea what she was doing, all she knew was that she was dancing, and dancing well, and the only thing she could think of was 'Oh my God did I acually just get up and start dancing! To crunk!', and 'Well, maybe I'm a naturally good dancer.'.
Natural?
Yes.
The class joined in singing the song, and soon after that Kagome started singing the song loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Rock it!
Don't stop it!
Everybody get on the floor!
Crank the party up
'Cause we about to get it on!
Let me see ya
1 2 step,
I love it when ya,

1 2 step,

Everybody 1 2 step!

We about to get it on,"
Even Ms. Takenaka was singing and clapping and chanting along with the rest of the class.
Hey, she's a 28 year old attractive girl who wants to have fun, why do you think she's everyone's favorite teacher?
"This beat is
Outrageous,
So contagious,
Make you crave it
Jazzie made it
So retarted, top charted,
Ever since the day I started
Struff my stuff and yes I flaunt it
Goodies make the boys jump on it
No I cant control myself
Now let me do my 1,2 steps!"
The whole class except Ai this time sang along at the start of the chorus, and then Kagome took a solo.
"We gonna drop it like this.
It don't matter to me,
We can dance slow
Which ever way the beat drops our bodies will flow,
So swing it over here Mr. DJ,
And we will we will rock you!
It don't matter to me, we can dance slow!
Which ever way the beat drops our bodies we'll flow!
So swing it over here
Mr.D(Mr. DJ!),
And we will, we will rock you!"
She dropped low and then reached high, dropped low again and did a sway, then she stood up again.

Then, Pheonix stood up and joined her, singing along with the next part.
"I shake it like jello,
Make the boys say hello
Cause they know im rocking the beat
I know you heard about a lot of great mc's
But they ain't got nothing on me
Because im 5 foot 2, I wanna dance with you
And im sophistacated fun,
I eat fillet minon
And I'm nice and young,
Best believe im number 1!"
Then they sang together,
"Rock it!
Don't stop it,
Everybody get on the floor!
Crank the party up
'Cause we about to get it on!
Let me see ya
1 2 Step!
I love it when ya
1 2 Step!
Everybody!
1 2 Step!
We about to get it on!
Rock it!
Don't stop it,
Everybody get on the floor!
Crank the party up
'Cause we about to get it on!
Let me see ya
1 2 Step!
I love it when ya
1 2 Step!
Everybody!
1 2 Step!
We about to get it on!

This is for the hearing impaired...
A jazzy pha
Production...
OOOOOOWEEEE!
OOOOOOWEEEE!"

The class clapped and Pheonix and Kagome looked at eachother, amazed they just got the guts to stand up to sing and dance to a song they thought they hated with their lives...
Or at least, the kind of music they thought they hated with their lives.
Actually, now that they actually listen to it, they kinda like it.
Go figure.

(A/N: That is me. I used to hate crunk, hip-hop, crunk&b, R&b and all that kind of music but then I got an MP3/portable radio thing and I actually had the crunk and other music right in my ears 'cause of earphones and I actually listened to the words and the work the artists put into the beat and I started to like the music and dancing to it, and I found out I'm actually pretty good at dancing, like Kagome, I never knew it. I never knew I had it in me. But I am a rock/punk/alternative/goth music girl for life. Crunk and all that is just a...side dish, if you will :) But you can tell this story is having a better outcome than NOBODY 1, right? I hope you figured it out...)

"Ok guys, that was fun. You know what, today is your day, so if you wanna do more of that little 'concert' of yous, Kotaru, Pheonix, we can move the desks out of the way and have an early dance so you all don't have to wait until Friday?" Ms. Takenaka said, laughing and smiling at how lively her class was.
"Awesome!" Kotaru and Pheonix yelled in unison, and the class cheered.
One by one, everyone in the class, except Ai, walked up to the two and patted them on the shoulders, "You rule, you two!", "I never knew you were so cool!", "Hey, you know what Friday is. You, me, dance floor?"
Kagome and Pheonix started laughing, and then decided to continue their dancing saga with the next song that hit the radio, 'Lose My Breath' by Destiny's Child.

This wa the most fun these 2 had had in all their 17 years of life, and for once they wereliked by more than 1 or 2 people, and they liked the change.
They were slowly finding out that change could be good.
Very good.

But, Kagome thought, after today will they all still like me the same? Or is it jut an act because I let them have an extra dance party this week?
She couldn't shake those thoughts from her head, she had 4 months left until her deadline, but she wasn't sure what would happen.
2 months went by fast.
Who knows how long 4 months will take.

--

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha!"
-THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP-
"What IS it! Can't a sick person sleep in peace for six minutes!"
"Inuyasha, ypu slept for 6 hours. Anyways! You missed a great day at school! Guess what, guess what, guess what!"
"Wha, what, what?"
"Well..."

Flashback
"Since the period is almost over, class, we need to vote and say who the winner of the costume contest is. Come up to the front and write a name on a slip and put it in the box." Ms. Takenaka said, and the class did as she said. "Alright, all of you voted? Alright..." Then Ms. Takenaka wrote who she thought should win on a slip and put it in the box, then she picked the box up. "Ok, we have 22 people in the class if you include me, if there's less than 22 than oh well, you lost your chance to vote." The class laughed and she started reading off the names. "1st slip, Ai Taikashi." Ai hopped up and down with glee, and the teacher went to slip #2. "Pheonix Sugita." Pheonix and Kagome laughed and hugged eachother, "Kotaru Watanabe." The two hugged again, Kagome squealing with joy.
She had gotten a vote!
"Pheonix Sugita. Kotaru Watanbe. Kotaru. Pheonix. Kotaru, Pheonix, Kotaru, Kotaru, Kotaru, Pheonix, Pheonix, Pheonix, Pheonix, Pheonix. Kotaru, Pheonix, Kotaru AND Pheonix, Kotaru, Kotaru. Alright, now I'll tally the votes."
The names on the board were PHEONIX, KOTARU, and AI.
Under AI was 1 tally mark.
Under PHEONIX was 11 tally marks.
And under KOTARU was 11 tally marks.
Kotaru and Pheonix, the Nobodies, had both won.
"Ok guys, you'll have to split the prize, though..." Ms. Takenaka trailed off, and the two nodded. "Well, you guys know how I'm from a long-line of Big Money Makers..." The class all said 'Yeah' in unison. "Alright, Pheonix, Kotaru, may I direct you to the window..." She brought them over to the window, revealing a blood-red sports BMW convertable.

"And guess what else?" Kagome asked Inuyasha after he thought her story was complete.
"What?" He asked, and she said-
"Pheonix said that I was the only friend she had ever had, and that was all she needed, so she let me have the car!"
"WHERE IS IT!" Inuyasha asked, having a 'miraculous' revival and hopping of the bed, running down the stairs out to the driveway. "DANG!" He yelled, and she laughed.
"Maybe I'll let you use it...sometimes..."

Wednesday.
Only two more days until the Halloween Dance, and Inuyasha was home with the flu.

Pheonix and Kagome rode to school today in the convertable, watching as heads turned to their marvelous star-worthy ride.
When they saw Ai up ahead walking to school, Kagome, who was driving, beeped the horn, and laughed when Ai turned her head.
"Hey, Ai." Kagome said, "Want a ride?" Ai's face had an 'I don't believe it.' look on her face for a moment, then smiled her popularity-winning smile.
"Of course, Kotaru! I mean, you are like, my best friend! And Pheonix! You look great today? So your hair is still black? It suits you!" Ai walked over to the car and put had her hand on the handle, and was just about to open the door, when the two used-to-be-nobodies stuck out their tongue and drove away.
"Yeah right, Ai! You can walk to school for all WE care!"
This was the second day of their new lives.

When they got to the high school campus, the two stepped out of the car in joy, smiling at eachother.
"2 months at this school as a nobody," Kagome started.
"And 3 years at this school as a nobody," Pheonix added.

And then they both said in unison, "Is now over."

--

"Those little bitches! I can't believe them!" Ai screamed, talking to a samdy-haired girl. "I mean, setting up this whole act they were useless and innocent and...and...you know! And then bouncing back like that with better dance moves than even MINE and winning MY frickin' dream car! Do you know what they did? They drove away while my hand was still on the handle! I could've died! Or worse!"
"What's worse than that?" The sandy-haired asked, a confused look on her face.
"I could've broken a nail!"
The sandy-haired gasped sarcastically while Ai went on until the bell rang, and then they walked into the building, keeping a good distance away from Kagome and Pheonix.
"Well, Ai," The sandy-haired started, and Ai looked at her.
"What, Koru?"
"This only means we have more competition. This should be fun."
"Yeah..." Ai said, and then got a strange look on her face, "But Kotaru has my Toya. I need to find a way to steal him from her..."
"That will be truly hard." Koru said.
"And why do you say that?"
"Because, I heard that those two have been together for over 8 months. You can't just steal a guy from an over-8 month relationship."
"Oh you'll see! I'll get my Toya! If it's the last thing I do!"
The two then walked into their homeroom, not a second too late. "And that Kotaru will wish she never came to Kyoto High..."

--

"Sugita Pheonix?"
"Here." Pheonix called, and the teacher checked her off.
"Sengoku Koru?"
"Here!"
"Watanabe Kotaru?"
Kagome smiled, opened her mouth, and said "Here."

That word!
For the first time in her life, she said that word!
"Hey, Kotaru?" Ms. Takenaka asked, and Kagome replied with a hum. "Toya's been out for the past 3 days, is he alright?"
"Oh! He actually has the flu, but I think he should be better by tomarrow!"
"Alright, tell him I said to get better."
"I will!"

"Ok, everyone, well, today was supposed to be mid-term prep,"
There were groans from everyone in class, and Ms. Takenaka smiled. "But since mid-terms aren't for a little while..."
Heads shot up with wide grins, "I decided that we could have a little...'field trip', but only if you guys promise not to tell the principal or any teachers or any of your friends!"
Everyone nodded vigorously, and Ms. Takenaka smiled again. "I'm not doing this for any of my other classes, 'cause you guys are my favorite! So I borrowed a bus, and let's go!"

-

"Isn't Ms. Takenaka the greatest!" Pheonix cried as she and Kagome took a bus seat together.
"Of course!" Kagome replied, "She acts and looks like she should be our age! But I just wonder where we're going?"
They're thinking was cut short as Ms. Takenaka turned the bus radio on.
"Ms. Takenaka!" Someone yelled, and she turned her head.
"You know what, that makes me sound so old. You guys can all just call me Mika."
There were woops, and then the person who had spoken spoke again, "Ok, Mika! Well, is that radio a CD player?"
"Yeah, why, you wanna play a CD?"
"Yeah! Linkin Park!"
Mika's smile grew wide. "Pop it in! I love them!"
The girl who had the CD ran up and placed it in, and they listened to the CD the whole time they rode to their field trip location.

"Where are we?" Pheonix asked, and Mika smiled once more.
"Well, I thought you guys were old enough to come to one of my favorite clubs, The Blue Room."
"YAY! GO MIKA!" Someone shouted.
"There's even karaoke- with a singing contest, and dancing contests, and it's great. Just guys, please don't purchase any alcholic drinks from the bar!"
A few people moaned but they followed their favorite teacher/friend into the club, while she walked over to the stage where the DJ had the turn tables going.
She said something un-printable to him, and he nodded.
"Aiight aiight everybody in hurre," He started, and the people in the clubs turned their head, "My fave party girl Mika T. is hurre," he grabbed Mika in a light hug and she laughed, "and for all you don't know, she's now a teacher with the greatest students, she tells mey, and she's got a li'l' propo-sitION for us all!" He moved his hands in hip-hop motions when he spoke. "Okaaaaay Kotaru WatanaBE and Pheonix SugitaH, walk up to da stage and show us some of yo' hip-movin', body-groovin', and all around hypNOTIC dance moves, aiiight? Mika T. here says y'all can sing, too, so show us watch yo' got, ladies!"
Kotaru and Pheonix smiled at eachother, lightly laughing at how this was one of the few people who could pull of talking like that, and they walked up to the stage.
They didn't know what song would come on, so they were prepared for anything, and weren't really surprised when the tune to Destiny's Child 'Lose My Breath' was heard.
"Ok." They both said, and started moving with the opening drill-beat.

"Can you keep up?
Baby boy
Make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard

Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)

Can you keep up?
Baby boy

Make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)

(Kagome took a solo here, moving with the beat)
Ooo, I put it right there made it easy for you to get
toooooooooooo
Now you want to act like you don't know what to
dooooooooooo
After I done did everything that you asked me
Grabbed you, grind you, liked you, tried you
Move so fast baby now I can't find you

Ooo,
I'm starting to believe that I'm way too much for yooou
All that talk but it seems like you can't come
throooooooough
All them nights like you could satisfy me
Now I see where believing you got me
Gave you the wheel but you can't drive me

(Then they both started to sing and continued with the same dance they had had for the first chorus)
Can you keep up?
Baby boy
Make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)
Can you keep up?
Baby boy

make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)

(Then, Pheonix took a solo)
Ooo,
two things I don't like when I'm trying to get my
groooooooooove
Is a partner who meets me only halfway I just can't proooove
Take me out so deep when you know you can't swim
Need a lifeguard and I need protection
To put it on me deep in the right direction

Ooo,
Do you understand the facts that I'm trying to give to you?
You moving so slow like you just don't have a clue.
Didn't mama teach you to give affection?
I know the difference from a man and an adolescent
Ain't your boo so get to stepping

Can you keep up?
Baby boy
Make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)
Can you keep up?
Baby boy

make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)

Can you keep up?
Baby boy
Make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)
Can you keep up?
Baby boy

make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)

If you can't make me say ooo
Like the beat of this drum
Why you ask for some, you ain't really want none
If you can't make me say ooo
Like the beat of this groove
You don't have no business in this
Here's your papers baby you are dismissed

Can you keep up?
Baby boy
Make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)
Can you keep up?
Baby boy

make me loose my breath
Bring the noise
Make me loose my breath
Hit me hard
Make me loose my (h-ah h-ah)"

The crowd cheered and Kagome and Pheonix laughed, standing up from their 'get low' position.
They pulled the microphones away from themselves and Pheonix said, "Did you ever tink we would be singing and dancing to this kind of music?"
"No! I was always so disgusted by it, even if they didn't say anything bad like that!"
"I know! Rock was always my thing... I mean, it still is! But now I have a few more types of music to listen to..."
"Me too..."

After some clapping and a 'Job well done' from the DJ, the two walked off of the stage and down to the dance floor, dancing with all the rest of the people from their class, and more so.
"Toya is missing a GREAT week!" Pheonix yelled, and Kagome agreed.
He REALLY was.

--

"Inuyasha! Are you awake YET?"
Kagome cried from her spot on the couch where she was finally watching something on TV.
-"I thought he was gonna kill me!" A short, blonde-haired boy, with his hair pulled back into a low braided pony-tail.) "I was scared, Al!"
"Since my body is like this I can't feel like that anymore..." (A big metal person) "I want to feel that way again. That's why I'm going to work to get my body back..."-

"YEAH I'M UP LET ME SLEEEEEEEEP!"
"Ok, ok, whatever. Full Metal Alchemist is o-"
-SWOOSH-
"You rang?" The silver haired boy was right at Kagome's side now, staring at the TV.
"I thought you were sick!"
"Uh..heh heh...heh..."

--RING--

The two girls walked into the school, ahead of the crowd of loud students, and were first to arrive in homeroom.
'Mika T. The Party Girl' was sitting at her desk correcting papers, and Kagome went up to her smiling.
"Hey, Mika T!" She said in a hip-hoppy voice, and Ms. Takenaka smirked at her in a 'That's alright. I'll get you later' kind of way.

The classroom started filling up with students from the class, sitting anywhere but in their seats, hoing their teacher would come through for them with another trip to a club.
"Alright guys, I think we should at least have one lesson in on this week..." Ms. T started, and the class groaned their usual groan. "Or..." she said, and people perked up, "At least one lesson today...one...short...one...uhm..." She walked over to the blackboard with a piece of dead-white chalk, writing the problem 70 over 50 equals 20 over X. "Anyone know the asnwer?"
Pheonix and Kagome both raised their hands at once, and Ms. T let them both go up and do the problem.
They copied the problem on opposite sides of the blackboard, writing 70 over 50 equals 20 over X, and then did the math to get equals 20 over 28.
"Alright! I guess that could pass as a lesson in my book. I mean, we aren't anywhere behind the other classes. Somehow we're ahead of them. I don't know how..." The class laughed and she erased the blackboard as Pheonix and Kagome went back to their seats. "So...what I was thinking we could do today was...you know, dancing practice. Because no one wants to look like an idiot at a dance, right?"
The class cheered and she smiled, and 'dance practice' began.

But Kagome was confused.
She walked up to her teacher with a curios look on her face, and asked one simple question: "How come you decided to have a fun week when Toya got the flu?"
"Eh...heh..." Was Ms. T's response.

--

"Ha! I can't believe she couldn't say anything when you asked her about the fun week, I mean, couldn't she have at least denied it?" Pheonix laughed, and Kagome nodded.
"Yeah! I mean, hee, I didn't think she disliked Toya..."
The two girls walked up to the opening of the gymnasium which the bass of the music was on so high it looked like the doors were pulsing.
Kagome placed her hand on it, and frowned.
"I can't believe you got me into going to this dance with Kouga." Kagome complained, and Pheonix smiled.

"Well, he's wanted to go with you for awhile, and Kenji suggested that you go with Kouga, too."
Kenji.
Ah, the winning boy.
The football player who had liked Kyoto High Nobody number 1 since freshman year but never had the guts to ask her out until their Junior year.
And Pheonix was pretty eager to go out with him, also.

Kagome pushed the door open with the hand she had layed on it and looked into the dark, loud, and packed gym.
The DJ was, well, 'DJing' at the turn tables, and people were dancing after nly 2 minutes into the dance.

And then, Kouga walked over.
He smiled at her, and she tried to return his smile.
"I knew you would come around to me," He said, and she exploded.
"I only came with you because Toya is sick and Pheonix and Kenji pushed me to come with you! Otherwise you'd be going alone."
The side of his mouth twitched but his smile remained, and he pulled her out to the dance floor.
"Nice thing to say." He said, and she smirked.

And then, something...strange happened.
An angry looking girl walked up to the two dancing teens, and poked Kouga straight on the forehead.
"Kouga!" She yelled, and stomped her foot. "What are you doing here with Kotaru!"
Kagome stopped dancing and looked at the girl.
She knew her from Home Ec...Ayame was her name, she thought.
"You're supposed to be here with me!"
"What! What are you talking about, Ayame!"
"Yes, Ayame, please tell." Kagome said, happy that the dance finally got some entertainment.

"Well, I know you haven't forgotten about your promise Kouga! You know that only juniors and seniors are allowed to come to the dances at this school, and you promised to take me to the first dance of our junior year! and now I see you here with Kotaru! You PROMISED me!"
"I did no such thing! That never happened!"
"Kouga! You should dance with Ayame! You knew her long before I even came to this school!"
"I never promised her anything!"
"I know you remember, Kouga! A promise is a promise and I'm the only woman you can be at this dance with! You promised!"
"Yeah, Kouga! You promised!" Kagome added in, and he stared at her.
"I never promised anything!"
"Fine, Kouga! I'll leave for now, but I will be back! I am the only one you can be at this dance with! Agh!"
She stormed away, her red pigtails flowing behind her, and Kagome smirked.
Entertainment.
Sheer entertainment.

--

"Ow! Quit stepping on my feet! Ow! Quit it! Ow! Quit it! Quit it!"
"Will you stop saying that? My feet aren't anywhere near yours!" Kouga yelled.
"I know," Kagome said, "but I like to get you into embarassing moments," and she looked around at the crowd.
They were all staring at him.
"QUIT STARING AT ME AND GET BACK TO YOUR DANCING!"
They quickly looked away.

"Hmm..." Kagome said, and went off to find Pheonix.
She grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from Kenji Tsutomo, and all the way to the DJ.
"What was that for, Kotaru!" Pheonix demanded, and Kagome pointed to the DJ.
"I think it's time we took over this dance, our way."
Pheonix's face brightened up, and the two talked to the man at the turn tables.
You couldn't hear what they were saying, but you could see the DJ's head nod a few times, and then he turned the music down and grabbed a microphone.
"Alright alright all you peoples I hope you having a good time at the dance," The crowd cheered, and he continued. "Well, I hope you're ready for even more fun 'cause these two, Pheonix and Kotaru, have decided to give you a little live entertainment!" The crowd screamed their encouragment. "Alright then! Girls, get up on the stage!" He handed them microphones and they climbed up onto the stage that was their only for dance party purposes.

"Hey guys,"Kagome started.
"We've been singing alot this week," Kotaru added.
"And, although it was nice and fun singing and dacing to you guys' music,"
"We thought we'd try to enbtertain you our way."
They qeued in the DJ and a guitar came on.
"I hope you like this.

"Do you have the time?"
They moved to the beat and smiled to the cheering crowd,
"To listen to me whine?
Anout nothing and everything all at
Once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Nuerotic to the bone
No doubt about it!

Sometimes I give myself the
Creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on
Me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid
Am I just stoned?

I went to a shrink
To anivise me dreams
He said it's lack of sex that's bring me down
I went to a whore
She said 'my life's a bore'
So quit my whining
'cause it's bring her down

Sometimes I give myself the
Creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me,
it all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid
Am I just stoned?" They continued the song, and whoever knew Green Day's 'Basketcase' sang along.

They ended that performance with a small bow each, and then spoke into their mics.
"Did you guys like that performance?"
Everyone screamed 'Yeah!'.
"Well, that's not all we have! We're gonna sing you guys one more song, from Good Charlotte's earlier CD, The Young and the Hopeless, called 'Hold On'. It saved a lot of people's lives, and I'm sure you guys felt something from it when you ever heard it, and we think it's a great song to sing, so we will. I hope you guys like this, too."
They qeued the DJ again, and then waited for their own qeue.

And then, they started singing.

"This world
This world is cold
But you don't
You don't have to go
You're feeling sad
you're feeling lonely
And no one seems to care
Your mother's gone and your father hits you
This pain you can not bare..."

Tears were beckoning to break the barrier behind their eyes by only the following line, but they decided to keep them locked away.

"But we all bleed the same way as you do!
And we all have the same things to go through!"

By the short first chorus lines their barriers had been broken and warm tears rolled down their cheeks.

"Hold on!
If you feel like letting go!
Hold on!
It gets better than you know!

Your days
You say their way too long
And your nights
You can't sleep at all
Hold on
And you're not sure what you're waiting for but you don't want to know more!
And you're not sure what you're looking for but you don't want to know more!

But we all bleed the same way as you do
And we all have the same things to go through!

Hold on!
If you feel like letting go!
Hold on!
It gets better than you know!
Don't stop looking

You're one step closer!
Don't stop searching
It's not over!
Hooooooooold on

What are you looking for?

What are you waiting for?

Do you know
What you're doing to me?
What are you waiting for?

Hold on!
If you feel like letting go!
Hold on!
It gets better than you know!
Don't stop looking

You're one step closer!
Don't stop searching
-It's not over!-
Hold on
If you feel like letting go
Hold on
it gets better than you know
Hoooooooooooooooold on..."

They didn't wipe the tears that had flooded their cheeks, and only smiled out at the crowd.
It felt good to confront your feelings out in the open, and that is what they had done.
They were ready to really begin their new lives.

--

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, pulling herself up to sit on the hood of her car. "It's been 3 months! Time for your big planno!"
"Wow, you actually remembered about my little plan."
"Yes, Inuyasha, and I want you to tell me about it! And bring it out! And can we bring Pheonix into your plan?"
"Sure, whatever, if you want."
"Now what is the plan!"
"Oh, you'll see. But before we do anything, we need to take a little road trip to a good friend of mine in Osaka. And he is the one who is going to make this plan work."
"Alright!"
Inuyasha hopped into the driver's seat, and Kagome followed him by sitting in the passenger seat. "You drive, you pay for gas."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever...which way to your friend's house? We gotta pick her up if you want her to be apart of this."
"Yay!"
'I told her she was normal...millions of times before...and she only resulted in killing herself. Starting a new life was good for her... 'Kotaru' is helping to really let her show who she really is...if this plan works, she'll be even happier and more 'normal' and able to show herself...I can't let what happened before happen again...'

There was a knock on her hard wood door, and Pheonix walked over to it to see who it was.
She opened it slowly, and peered outside.
There was no one there.
"Stupid ding-dong-ditchers..." she complained, and shut the door.
Then, the doorbell rang, and the knocking was back.
She opened the door quicker this time, not wanting to miss who the culprit was.
And just in time.

The raven-haired girl was just running away from her best friend's front door when she yelled out her name.
"Kotaru! Isn't ding-dong-ditch a little 3rd grade?"
"Heh...so? Anyways, me and Toya are going on a little road trip to Osaka. You coming, or what?"
"Yeah! I gotta tell my dad first, though. Dad, I'm going to Osaka!" She turned around and yelled into the house, and then ran out the door. "Let's leave before he finds ou I was serious." She said, hopping into the backseat of the car she had let Kagome take full rights of.
And then, they were on the road.

After only a few minutes, they were already bored as hell and bashing heads to Good Charlotte's 'Young and the Hopeless' CD, the song 'The Anthem' on at the moment.
As that ended, 'Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous' rolled in, and the two girls were singing in Inuyasha'a ears as he tried not to get them into an accident.

"I'd like to see them spend a week!
Living out there on the street!
I don't think they would survive!
If they could spend a day or two
walking in someone else's shoes
I think they'd stumble and they'd fall!

They would fall!
Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!

Lifestyles!
Of the rich and the famous!"

"Quit it, will you!" He screamed, pushing them back into their rightful seats.
"Jeez, sorry."

Another verse went by and the chorus came back around, and thy were back in his ears.
"LIFESTYLES!
OF THE RICH AND THE FAMOUS!
THEY'RE ALWAYS COMPLAINING!
ALWAYS COMPLAING!
IF MONEEEEEEEEEY
IS SUCH A PROBLEM!
WELL THEY'VE GOT MANSIONS!
I THINK WE SHOULD ROB THEM!"

"Will you STOP that!" He yelled, and they sat back in their seats on their own. "And today, that song is not the appropraite song to sing." He said with a smirk, and the two girls lookeed at eachother curiously and shrugged.
"Fine, but when Bloody Valentine comes on you won't be able to stop us from singing along."
Inuyasha groaned as 'Wandering' started, only 3 songs away from his torture.
'The Story of My Old Man' started and ended, followed by 'Girls and Boys', and then, 'Bloody Valentine' started.
Pheonix and Kagome squealed, and got ready to sing the WHOLE thing in his ears.
And he wasn't ready for that.
"Oh my love!
Please don't cry!
I'll wash my bloody hands and
We'll start a new life!"

"Goddammit shut the song and sit back or we're gonna have a premature death!" Inuyasha screamed after the song ended.
The two girls sat back in their seats, and quieted down of their free will.
Not because Inuyasha said to, but because 'Hold On' was now starting.

--Whatever Time Later...--

Inuyasha stopped Kagome's car outside of a big, silver windowed building, got out, and slammed the door to wake up the girls.

They weren't too happy.
"TOYA!" They both screamed at once, and got out of the car to kill him. "WHAT THE HELL!"

They slammed their doors in the same fashion Inuyasha had, and then braced themselves for a murdering.

"Hey! Don't you want to see the person we came here to see!"
"Oh...sure..." Kagome trailed off, and the two girls followed him into the building.

The door was a revolving one, and they had a little fun with that until a few busnissmen and women walked by...
Then they found themselves going up the down escalator, and down the up escalator, until the same thing happened...
And then they finally followed Inuyasha down a hall to a door that had a gold plate over a small window with the words 'M Takaishi, Agent/Manager' carved into it.
Inuyasha knocked, loudly, and waitied for the door to open.

When it did, a man with dark brown hair and a black hat n walked outside, and his face brightened up when he saw the silver-haired boy.
"Ah! Inuyasha!" He exclaimed, and Pheonix looked at Kagome with a questionable face, and Kagome just waved it off.
Just a...nickname... Is what her features would tell you.

"So what are you doing here, Yash? Found more star-worthy teens you wanna dump on me?"
"Not dump per se..." Inuyasha started, "But I thought you should meet Kotaru Watanabe and Pheonix Sugita, they're a great performing pair."
"Really, really?" Takaishi looked the two raven-haired girls over with a sparkle in his eyes, "Well, they're pretty enough. How about you two show me what you can do?"
Kagome and Pheonix looked at Inuyasha with a strange look on their face, as if saying You brought us to a talent agency?

They stood up straight, and then pondered over what they should perform for the man.
"Uhm..." Kagome stated, and Pheonix was blank, also.
Then, Kagome brightened up and started singing, hoping that Pheonix would jump in.

"I think I'm breaking out..."
Pheonix immedietly recognized the song and jumped right in with her.
"I'm gonna leave you now
There's nothing for me here
It's all the same
And even though I know
That everything may go

Go down hill from here I'm not afraid

Way away away from here I'll be
Way away away so you can see
How it feels to be alone and not believe
Feels to be alone and not believe
Feels to be alone and not believe
Anything

You can't stop me now
You can't hold me down
You can't keep me here I'm
On my way
I made it this far now
And I'm not burning out
No matter what you say

I'm not afraid!

Way away away from here I'll be
Way away away so you can see
How it feels to be alone and not believe
Feels to be alone and not believe
Feels to be alone and not believe
Anything!

Letting out the noise inside of me...
Letting out the noise inside of me...
Every window pane is shattering...
Every window pane is shattering...
Cutting up my words before I speak
Cutting up my words...

-This is how it feels to not believe-

Letting out the noise inside of me!
Letting out the noise insdie of me

Every window pane is shattering!
Every window pane is shattering
Cutting up my words before I speak!
Cutting up my words!
This is how it feels to not believe!

Way away away from here I'll be!
Way away away so you can see!
How it feels to be alone and not believe!
Feels to be alone and not believe!
Feels to be alone and not believe
Anything!"

"Ah, Yellowcard. Way Away, good choice of songs. You guys are amazing, great voice range too, they go high and pretty low in that song and you hit every note. I think it would be wise for me to sign you. What do you two think?" He asked, looking at the two girls.
They squealed a little bit with excited faces, and then Pheonix paused.
"Awesome, but...no pink, no pop, no prep. If you do sign us, we don't do it your way, we do it our way!"
"Way to say it, Pheo!" Kagome said, and Takaishi stroked his chin.
"I like you two's attitude. Alright, you'll do it your own way. First we have to set up a contract, and you sign it, and then come back here on Sunday and we'll work everything out. Start making a demo tape, we can get songwriters here for you-"
"No. No songwriters, and no easy-signing contract." Kagome said. "We will read the contract full-through and then sign it if we feel it's got no funny business, and we write our own songs, thanks. And no lip-syncing..."
"Lip-syncing isn't the way we do it here at Osaka Talent, we figure that if you can sing bad enough that you need to lip-sync, you aren't worth it. But you two, you two are worth it. So what do you say, let's get this contract started?"
"Alright!" Pheonix and Kagome yelled at the same time.
"Ok, let me tell you ahead of time, people signed to Osaka Talent usually hit big-big-time in o time, and Osaka Talent is big time, yes, but I'm talking about the works. Movie deals, millions of CD copies sold, sitcoms, maybe, or your own fictional TV show, concerts in America, walking the red carpet down there to Oscars, Grammys, Golden Globe awards! MTV Choice Awards! Everything!"
"Are you kidding us?"
"Not at all."
Pheonix and Kagome were silently for the next few hours, and that's REALY saying something.

--

"Ok, you've read the contract, heck, you helped make it, you've signed it...what should we do now?" Inuyasha asked, and Rei Takaishi smiled.
"We have many more hours of the day, have you two girls got any songs written already?"
"Yes..." Kagome said, and Pheonx nodded.
"How about we start making a demo tape in the recording room? You know, just to see how it sounds. And then when you come back on Sunday we'll figure out how to modify the song and it's tune, and get the right instruments for the job, a back-up band, for the drums and guitar and everything..."
"Wait, I know 'Yasha' here can play the drums from...past experiences..."Pheonix trailed off, remembering the eventful day when she went over Kagome's house to find Inuyasha playing the drums in the basement. "And me and Kotaru can play guitar, so what else do we need?"
"Well, for startes, what if you wanted to make a soft song? Piano, or keyboard, maybe some wind instruments, some backup singers if you want extra voices in there, for slow songs maybe even get a choir in there to pull off that sound, oh, violin maybe for blending in, and we need the effects of a computer, turn tables for extra sound effects that you can't get with some instruments, we need more tapes to record onto, a 'singing helper' to help you hit some notes that you have difficulty with, and we need lots of time to make even a demo tape because you most likely won't be perfect on the first try at recording the song, also voice-overs to make it sound like there are more than one of each of you singing, you know for those little back-up voices singing one line while anothe voice is singing the chorus, golly me it's one person! Well, that's recording over the recording, and that takes a little time...What else...ah, right, cameras. To record your recording for future references, like 'Behind The Music' sort of things, or music videos. We need more than one person to work the machines in the recording room, and people to hear your recording. There's many things we need to do before we start the actual recording."
"Oh..." The two girls said, their brains spinning inside their heads. "Yeah...never thought of that..."
Inuyasha smirked, and when the two girls spotted this, they attacked him.
"You know, you're gonig to be apart of this too! We need a drummer...one of those drummers who no one pays attention to...like...yeah! So don't smirk at us!"
"...Whatever..."
Rei Takaishi looked at his newly signed group and sighed.
Like babysitting.
But more things to talk about.

"Well, I'll lead you to the recording room so we can make a...demo demo-tape, I guess."
"Alright. Lead away." Pheonix said, throwing her black hair behind her ears and following the man out of the room. "Are you coming or not, Kotaru?"
"Right, I'm coming!"
Kagome followed Pheonix out of the door after the man, and grabbed Inuyasha by the wrist to follow them. "You are amazing." She said to him. "I would never think your 'plan' would be getting me a record deal!"
Inuyasha only smiled, and followed the rest of them down the hall.

"Don't wanna be somebody else
I'm fine with who I am right now
Don't wanna be the one I was

I like how it is now

And how
I ain't that thing
That I
used to be
I feel
That this is something different
Better
I've pulled myself together
And I ain't
Just
A nobody no more

I ain't that nobody no more
Nobody isn't me
Aaaaand it ne-ever
Will be
I'm gonna take myself to the top.
Nothing will make me-e drop,
Back to-hoo
Tha-hat spot,
Where I used to be

Running around to find my place
A happy,
helpin',
face!
But that isn't what I found!
I found myself
Beggin'
On the ground
for everyone
To
leave me-e!
I wasn't what
every
one was to be...
Wanted me to be...
And I felt as if I wasn't normal...

(Well maybe I wasn't, but...)

I ain't just some nobody no more
Nobody ain't me
Aaaaand never wi-ill be-e
Again
What will being that give me to gain?
In this life's hard game?
I ain't that nobody no more...

I ain't that nobody no more
Nobody isn't me
And it
never
Wi-hill be!
I'm gonna take myself to the top
Nothing will make me drop
Back to that spot I used to be...

I ain't that nobodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
Nobody-yyyyyyyyy!

And I never
wi-ih-hih-ih-hill...
be..."

"Great Kotaru, Pheonix. Tip, though," Rei Takaishi said, "Let's add some more verses. Songs are usually longer, like maybe 3 to 4 minutes long. So if you keep that in mind that song could be your first single."
"Alright." Kagome said, taking in the comment, and Pheonix agreed also.
But for the mean time, Kagome walked over to the corner where Inuyasha stood, or was propped against, and Kagome stood right next to him.
"Inuyasha?" She asked, quietly.
"Yeah?" He answered.
"Am I normal now?"
"Of course you are."

-

"Kotaru! Hey, Kotaru! Pheonix! Guys! Over here!"
"Kotaruuu! Pheonix! Aahah, over here! Look here!"
Pheonix and Kagome looked at eachother with confused expressions.
It had only been about 2 days ago when they had made their 'demo demo-tape', how could it travel round the school so fast they had gotten a record deal?
The two looked over to Inuyasha, who only shrugged.
They also shrugged, and walked through the path that the chanting students had made for them to get out of the frosty weather before anyone else.
They were at the top of the cement stairs that lead to the school door now, and they leaned against the paint-chipped railings, looking down at everyone.
"How did hey find out?" Kagome asked Pheonix, and she only shook her head in an unknowing fashion.

There were no sounds now except for the breathing of the two record dealed teens breathing, and shuffling in their feet for the first bells of the day to ring.

A few minutes later, the first bell rang, and like a normal day, no one moved out of their spots.
Though on this cold day they could see their own breathing, they stay put with their arms crossed against their chest for warmth.

There was a rustling in the crowd of on-lookers, and two students who you would normally place in the 'dork/nerd' clique decided they wanted to get into the school a little earlier on this chilled day.
But the crowd wouldn't have that.
2 players on the football team stood blocking the two's way, and pushed them back a foot or two.
"No one goes in until Kotaru or Pheonix goes in." One said, and the two 'nerds/dorks' ran to the back of the crowd, fearing what the whole school would do to them for that little incident.

The second bell rang, indicating that if you weren't running to class now, you would be late.
Still, no one moved.
There was a shuffling in the ground, but it quickly died down once they realized Pheonix and Kotaru were still in their spots.

The shuffling started up again as the braver of the two who had tried to walk in the school earlier stepped up.
"Uhm...we're going to be late for homeroom..." He said in an unsure tone, and Pheonix looked amused.

"Late? Oh, dear, are we making all of you late?"
No one even nodded.
"I dunno, Kotaru, should we let them in?"
She looked over to Kagome, and smirked when she shook her head.
"No, I want to say something first. Why is it, that until we got our little record deal, all of you didn't want anything to do with us? Before we were just the nobodies of school. I could see why I was...but Pheonix is a great person, who all of you should adore. She's greater than all of you, she's caring, and fun, and kind...much better than all of you."
Kenji Tsutomo, Pheonix's date to the Halloween dance, nodded his head in agreement.
"I'm thinking you're only acting so kind to us because we may make a nice amount of mony soon, and you think we'll get you...oh, I dunno, places. Well, that isn't going to happen. Not for any of you. Tsutomo, maybe,"
Tsutomo shrugged as the whole crowd turned his way, "but not the rest of you. You terrible people..."
"Oh, but, beloved Kotaru," A pained-faced Ai spoke as she stepped up the cement stairs. "We loved you two when we found out you could be something. And outspoken. It was when we figured out you could dance and be heard, otherwise, we would have found a way to kick you out of your own house and make you become nothing but a useless bum. But oh, we love you two so much now."
"You have no right talking to us, Ai!" Kagome screamed, taking in Ai's words fully, "No right at all! You were the worst of everyone! You think you rule the school, well, you have another thing coming!" Kagome pulled her hand back and balled it into a fist, pulling it back out in front of her and to have it come in contact with Ai's pretty little face.

Ai's face took on a look of pure surprise and anger, and she threw a punch right back at Kagome.
A few more hits, and Kagome knocked into the left-railing, flipping backwards over it to land almost directly on her spine.
But she was tougher than that.
She took a second to stand up, then grabbed the top of that railing and swung back over it gymnast style.

Only 5 minutes later, he top steps were covered in three girl's blood.

Inuyasha finally broke free from the 'body-guards' that held him back from the one he had been trying to protect for so long, and he ran up the steps, staining the bottom of his pants with mixed blood.

He pulled Kagome away from Ai, who now had a bleeding shiner, and turned her to face him.
Her nose was bruised and bleeding, and he couldn't talk to her in front of the whole school.
So instead, he grabbed Kagome and Pheonix, who had also gotten a few punches in and also had a black eye and bloody nose, by their arms into the school.

"What were you thinking!" He asked in a disgusted and yet fearing voice. "That was the stupidest thing you could have done!"
"She deserved that!" Pheonix screeched, wiping the blood from her nose with her sleeve, "You know that, Toya!
"Maybe I do know that, but that doesn't mean you go off fighting like that! Look at what happened to you two! Kotaru, you almost broke your spine back there!"
"I'm sorry." Kagome started, and shook her head, "I just... I was just thinking that no one really cares about me...and I was frusterated and sad at the same time...so I fought..."
Inuyasha looked at the one he dedicated his life to protect, looked at Pheonix, and then pulled Kagome away until he knew he was out of Pheonix's hearing range.
"Kagome... I care about you. So much that it makes up for whoever doesn't. I killed myself for you. I knew we had to take that chance at another life because I needed you to get a chance to be something. I brought you to Takaishi to get that record deal so you would be something, something...better than most people, don't go ruining everything for yourself! I'm not going to allow you to turn into nothingness!"
Tears freely flowed from her eyes that had beared so many before, and they ended this mere one-sided conversation with a kiss.

"I do everything for you. And I'll do everything for you forever. So don't go ruining everything and leaving me...ok?"
"Ok..." Kagome said, as she rest her head under his chin after they had seperated. "I won't ever leave you..."

"I HEAR
YOU SAY
''THINGS WILL BE OK!
IT'S JUST THE WAY THINGS
ARE...''
AND I
CAN'T HELP
BUT FEEL
LIKE THIS
IS THE
ONLY
THING SINCERE
COMING FROM YOUR MOUTH!
FOR OTHER TIMES YOU!.
SEEM TO MAKE THINGS UP!
TO MAKE THINGS SEEM JUST
A LITTLE BIT BETTER!

I RUN!
I HIDE!
YOU WIPE!
MY EYES!
AFTER THE TEARS-
HAVE-
FALLEN!
AND THEN!
YOU SAY!
SOMETHING!
TO MAKE!
THINGS SEEM-
A LITTLE BETTER TO ME!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH!
JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAH!"

Kagome and Pheonix laughed as they jumped from their spot on the couch to be in front of Inuyasha.

"So" Kagome asked"Good? Bad? Sad?"

"Good." Inuyasha said. "I like it. It's jumpy and joky and out there. Nice."

"Dude!" Pheonix yelled, and then ran to the radio. "Does this stereo work? I'm tired of only hearing our songs. I need something different. Dude."

"Yeah, it works fine." Kagome said, and Pheonix switched it on.

They both squealed when they heard the opening beats.

"Oh my God! I love this song!" Kagome cried, and Inuyasha jumped to the spot where she and Pheonix had been singing atop just a moment ago.

"No! Inuyasha! Ah ha ha!"

He started singing along to the old tune as if he was the one performing for Kagome, and it wasn't the radio performing it for whoever listened.

I got sunshine!
On a cloudy day!
When it's cold outside
I got the month of May!

Inuyasha moved his hips to the music, leaving Kagome with her hands tightly covering her mouth, trying to sustain her laughter.

I guess
You'd say
What could make me feel this way?

Pheonix couldn't hold in her laughter as Kagome could, and was bursting out every 5 seconds.

My girl
My girl
My girl!
Talkin' 'bout
My girl
My girl!

Igot SO much honey
The bees envy me!

He snapped and made queer movements as he sang.

I've got a sweeter sound baby!
Than the birds
in the trees!
Well!
I guess
You'd say!
What could make me feel this way?

Kagome was now holding her aching sides from the pain of her laughter.

My girl
My girl
My girl!
Talkin' 'bout
My girl
Yeah yeah!

Inuyasha jumped from the couch and pulled Kagome by the waist into a tight hug.

I don't need no money
Fortune or fame
I've got all the riches
Baby!
One man can claim

Well
I guess
you'd say
What can make me feel this way?

It's my girl
Talkin' 'bout my girl

Pheonix doubled over in her laughter and fell face first to the ground, ignoring the pieces of carpet that got lodged in between her teeth.

She couldn't stand how funny it was to hear Inuyasha go so high the last few notes.

I've got sunshine
on a cloudy day
With my girl,
I even got the month of May

My girl
Talkin' 'bout my girl
Talkin' 'bout
Talkin' 'bout
My girl
My Girl!

"Have you ever thought about the biz?" Pheonix laughed through hard outbursts of laughter.

Inuyasha just kept his hold around Kagome's waist and his wide grin.

"You should really consider comedy..."

-

-RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING-

The second bell of the morning rang, and the students outside of the classroom quickly filed into the school building.

Kagome and Pheonix, of course had been in homeroom by first bell already.

The principal had confronted the two about their little fight with Ai, and they were now only prohibited to be outside until the first bell rang.

Ai wasn't at school.

She had earned herself a spot in the hospital after Kagome hit her down the front steps, for she had hit her head pretty hard on the marble walkway tiling.

Most of the people in the class were happy about no Ai, all except for her cheerleaders crew.

Ms. Takenaka(whom from now on we shall refer to as Mika) put a formula on the board, and Kagome knew it too be all too easy.

She raised her hand, getting to walk up to the board and solve the problem.

100 percent correct.

Told you it was easy.

"So, how's the face?" Mika asked as Kagome turned to walk back to the seat, and Kagome smiled, which was better than a thumbs up.

Everyone in the class knew what Mika had meant by that.

'How's the wounds on your face after that big, juicy fist fight with Ai?' is what she had really meant.

Kagome walked back to her seat, and on her way, flopped a note onto her boyfriend's desk.

We have to meet up with Mr. Takaishi again, right? Do you think we have enough songs from the demo tape?

Her note said, and he replied with:

Duh! How many songs have you written? 10? 12? The only thing is, Pheonix hasn't helped with any of them. I know she's not that good at writing, but couldn't she help with just a few? Or dance choreography?

He threw it back onto her desk, and she didn't even bother to look up if he spelled that word right or wrong.

Pheonix is a good dancer, so maybe choreography would be a good idea. But asking her to help write the songs might not be a good idea. You know language arts class is her least favorite and worst subject. She has 'busted a few rhymes' in front of me a few times, but really her writing style is more in the rap genre... I don't get it. Rap and all of that really isn't her style. And the rhymes, I have to say, weren't the best. But I think that if we ever get an album, she could work on the art. She's a great artist. Oh, wait... I was looking through her computer files once. I found a story...an 8 chaptered story. It was amazing. Much detail and everything. So I don't get why she fails language arts when she's so good at that sort of thing... You should read it. It's called 'Lost in Translation'. It's really good. I'll ask if you can check it out.

She flicked it over to his desk, and after a few seconds, he threw it back.

Tell me a little about it.

Kagome smiled and started writing on the paper.

It's about two people who meet up in America.
There is a Japanese girl, and she travels on a plane to the U.S.
There, she meets a boy, and even though they can't really understand eachother, they fall in love...
I remembered the first few lines.
Wanna read them?
Well, even if you say no, too bad.
-I stared out the window at the lowering ground.
The plane was flying smoothly, and couldn't hear anything except for my own breathing.
Maybe I was just paranoid and blocking everything out, but that was how it was.
The thing was, I was flying to America, who so many people said was the 'best country on Earth'.
I wonder if that's really true, I've heard different.
We're up a few hundred miles now.
Funny, looking down, people don't look like ants.
I can't even see people.
Maybe a few houses, or lakes, but no people.
I guess all rumors aren't always true.
I sighed.
I know that I can't wait to get to America.
I think they said we were going to a few different places there...
Like New York, and Florida and Connecticut.
We're staying by the east coast.
I guess the teachers are afraid to let us travel the whole country.
But we're all 17 and 18.
We can take care of ourselves...-

Dude that's all you get right now. If you want more,get Pheonix to let you check it out on her computer.

She flicked it onto his desk again, and then he flicked it back.

Fine. I'll ask her. But she won't let me see it.

Why not?

Because. She doesn't like me.

Yes she does! You guys just like to argue alot.

Kinda like me and Sango.

I wonder what she and Miroku are doing.

Yeah...wanna see them today?

How? We're 'dead'.

So? We can still go see them and give them a little 'haunting'.

I like it.

Really? I thought you might say 'that's mean'.

Oh please. Miroku dumped water on me and Sango pushed me, a haunting is hardly as bad.

...Right.

Don't '...right' me!

Sorry?

Don't say sorry! That pisses me off!

Goobye.

...Bye?

-

Sango and Miroku walked through their high school in Tokyo, Sango moping, and Miroku trying to control his perverted hand.
"It's all because of us." Sango wailed, hands over her eyes and face.
"It's not, Sango, so stop being so hard on yourself..." Of course, Miroku, with the maybe once or twice times he had met Kagome, he had come very accustomed to her, and acting like it was no big deal losing an old friend and a new friend was harder than acting as he felt.
"But she wouldn't have killed herself if it wasnt for what we did to her! And Inuyasha wouldn't have died if it wasn't that he wanted to be with her! It's a chain reaction! It's all our fault!"
She paused where she stood to continue to let her tears fall out, and Miroku could only pat her on the back.
It's the only thing he could do.
There was no other way he could comfort her except for bringing the couple back from the dead and thrusting them into her arms.
And we all know that wasn't gonig to happen.
So all he could do was pat her back, and rub it in a circular motion.
And none of that was any help.

Sango took her hands away from her face.
It had been, what?
9 months?
A little over 9 months since those two had passed away.

And she still felt as if it had only happened that morning.
The pain was the same.

-

Daybreak hit the horizon as the two teens woke up and sat up in their beds.
"Morning." They said in unison, though the two were in seperate rooms, they still seemed to have a connection.
Inuyasha stood up out of his bed, and was about to walk out to the hallway to wake Kagome when she appeared in his doorway.
"Today?" Kagome asked, silently, and Inuyasha nodded.
"We'll go see those two before we meet up with Takaishi," he started, "and then, if they haven't died of fright, we'll take them with us to meet up with him."
"Alright. I'm ready..."

Kagome had slept in her clothes, just so she wouldn't have to take time to get dressed in the morning, and she ran out of Inuyasha's room, down the stairs, and outside to her car.
He followed slowly behind her.

He wasn't smart enough to get dressed beforehand as she did, and wasted precious minutes.

"INUYASHA!" Kagome called from the car while beeping the horn. "And they say girls take a long time to get ready!"
She paused, and then laughed suddenly. "What, do you have a tail or something!"

-

The drive didn't take too long, as Kagome was complaining that it would, and they reached the houses of the two Tokyo dwellers in no time.
Firstly, Sango's house.
For when they take her in the car to Miroku's house, he would know that she of all people wouldn't joke about Kagome and Inuyasha being the real deal, after 9 months of her tears.
Inuyasha walked up and knocked on the door, having to wait a few seconds before the blubbering girl came to open the door.
"Hella-...o." She said, staring at the one in front of her. "He...llo?"
"Sango. It's me. Inuyasha."
Sango paused and stared long at him.
Same eyes, same fangy smile, same hair, same ears...
Same voice.
"Stop staring and say something, wench."
Same attitude.
"I...nu...yasha?" Sango shook her head roughly and looked deep into his eyes. "B-but you're...you're dead."
"Well, not anymore. The people gave us a second chance at life. And, well, here we are. Kag, come here."
Kagome stood and walked out of the car and up to the girl who had once ridiculed her.
But Kagome was forgiving.
"Hey, Sango-chan."
Sango moved her stare over to the once nobody.
"Ka...Kagome?"
"Yes, it's me. Tokyo High's old nobody. Me and Inuyasha go to a high school in Kyoto now, and we decided that we shouldn't leave off that you know...we're alive."
Sango's lips moved open and closed as if she was trying to speak countless times but couldn't, and she moved her head from the silver haired boy to the raven haired girl.
"Y...y...y...you...you...you two...you're...you're really...th...them..."
"Yes! We are," Kagome started, "and none of it was your fault. That's why we're here to see you. I think of you as a friend now. And Miroku...uhm...a friendly aquaintance."
Sango laughed hysterically and wrapped her arms in both of the two in front of her in turn, and they laughed along with her. "You're back!"

-

- R U S T L E -

Miroku stared awkwardly out the window at the red car that had just driven up his driveway.
There was Sango, and two strangely familiar others.
He walked over to the door and walked out to them, and his heart almost stopped when he saw who it was, and the look on Sango's face.
"Miroku! They're back!" Sango yelled, jumping out of the side of the car gymnast style and hugging him around the neck. "It's really them!"
"You're...you're kidding me."
"No! Look, look at my happy-face! This is no joke!"
Miroku didn't say anything.
Of course he knew something was up when he laid eyes on Sango's 'happy-face'.
"It's them! It's them it's them it's them!"
Inuyasha gave Miroku a look out of pure Inuyasha-attitude, and Kagome shyly smiled.
"Well...I guess...I guess it is..." was all he could say before he passed out right in his own driveway.

-

"I got sunshine!
On a cloudy day!
When it's cold outside!
I got the month of May!"
5 teens laughed as they sang the song together, 5 being Pheonix included.

All they had told Pheonix was that Miroku and Sango were two of their old friends from Tokyo, and also, they had to remind Sango and Miroku to refer to them as 'Toya' and 'Kotaru' while in front of Pheonix.
At the moment, the 5 were all driving to go meet Mr. Rei Takaishi to make Kagome and Pheonix's demo tape.
Tey had the radio on a Motown music radio channel, and as the all too familiar song ended, another started.
"Stop!
In the name of love..."

They drove up to the front of Takaishi's silver-windowed building and stared on.
Inuyasha stopped the car and opened his door, walking around to open Kagome's door for her.
He didn't have to open Sango's or Pheonix's doors, they shot out of the back quicker than anything you may have seen.
Sango being happy again, Miroku found it the time to bring back the groping he had let fall low for 9 months, and stupidly, Inuyasha sat him in the back with two attractive girls.

Of course, they got their fair share of beating on said boy, but that didn't stop him...

They all walked to the revolving doors, and after having a little fun running around in them, they fought their dizziness and walked to Takaishi's office.
"Hello, hello, hello..." He said when they walked in, and he lead them to the same recording studio they had gone to before.
"Any new songs for me, my lovely Kotaru?" He asked, and Kagome gladly nodded. "Alright, these two friends of yours play any instruments? You know, just incase for backup."
Sango nodded and Miroku shrugged.
"Guitar." Sango said. "And drums and keyboard."
"I can play...air guitar?"
Rei laughed. "The girl will be of good use, you, boy...you can just...watch from behind the window."
"Ok..."
"So let me hear your songs, Ko, and then we'll get ready to record on the demo-tape."
"Alright!"

Pheonix and Kagome sang the new songs for Rei, and then they were into the recording studio, recording their demo.

About 2 or so hours later, the demo had every song they had created so far on it, and Rei was pretty anxious about recording the demo tape as the CD instead.
"We don't need to record anymore," He said, after taking the tape out of it's place, "this is perfect. 13 songs would be fine for your first CD, I'm ready to record off of this to make the CD."
Kagome and Pheonix smiled at eachother, and didn't object when he put it into some sort of stereo that instead of copying off CDs onto tapes, it copied off tapes onto CDs.
"I'm sending this in and you'll be the it girls quicker than anyone in the business." Rei said, and Pheonix and Kagome laughed.
"Awesome."

-

"What you want!
Baby I got it!
What you need!
You know I got it!
All I'm asking!
Is for a little respect when you get home!
Yeah baby!
When you get home!
Yeah baby!"

Kagome, Pheonix, and Sango all laughed as they sang along to their now favorite radio station.

"I ain't gona do you wrong!
While you're gone,
I said I ain't gonna do you wrong!
'Cause I don't wanna!
Baby all I'm askin'!
Is for a little respect when you get home!
Oh baby!

R- E- S-

E- C- T!
Find out what it means to me!
R- E- S-

E- C- T!
Take out
T- C- P!

Oh!
A little respect
Oh!
A little respect!

I'm out to give ya
All my money!
But all I'm askin'
in return honey
Is for you to give me!
My proper respect!
When you get home

Just a little bit
Yeah baby
When you get home!
Yeah baby!

R- E- S-

E- C- T!
Find out what it means to me!
R- E- S-

E- C- T!
Take out
T- C- P!

Oh!
Sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me-sock-it-to-me!
Just a little bit
Just a little bit!"

Sango seemed to be staring straight at Miroku when she sang this, and he was getting a little scared.
I'm sure he knew why she was directing this at him, and everyone else in the room also knew why.
Of course, he was a little too scared for his own good, and quickly went and turned off the radio.
"I'd really rather hear something else." He said in a high, cracking voice, and everyone in the room, including Sango, laughed until they were in hysterics at his actions. "I mean it!" He said.

They continued to laugh, and he only stared on with a 'hurt' expression.
"PLEASE can we just listen to something else!"

They didn't stop laughing.
"Fine, be that way." He scoffed and changed the channel on the radio, and what Kagome and Pheonix heard, did not make them too happy...

The voice that they heard, sounded strangely familiar to an annoying toe-head cheerleader in their class, who went by the name of Ai...

"Iight iight we have a miss Ai Takaishi here with us today, no, she's not related to a Mr. Rei Taikashi, and she's here to discuss our upcoming stars Kotaru Watanabe and Pheonix Sugita. Ai?"
"Yes, my man, I actually wrote a song about Ko'. Can I sing it?"
"'Course, babe." The DJ said, and Ai started to rap.
"Ready let's,
1, 2, 3, go!
I walked up to da school
Actin' all
Cool
Then I see hurr
Standin' thurr
She seemed so shy, innocent
But that bitch bit back after we
Hit her in
She sat
Quiet
Didn't make a sound
Seemed like a
Nobody
But that ain't what we
Found
She acts innocent
But don't be fooled
She got that
Confidence...

But not for long
'Cuz baby here I come!
Here I come

My body starts to itch
When I look at that bitch
She was a lie
She stole my guy
And everywhere I go
I'm gonna let people know
Of her story
I'm gonna steal that glory
That she took so willingly
From me,
It's rightly mine!
She can't take what I worked for in the past time!

She stood and danced
She did everything
And she's coming back
and showing how she sings
She's trying
To make us fall back
But we won't hear that!
Cuz it's so wack!

Oh...
Oh, oh

My body starts to itch
When I look at that bitch
She was a lie
She stole my guy
And everywhere I go
I'm gonna let ya know...
My body starts to itch
When I look at that bitch
She was a lie
A huge lie
She wasn't shy, she stole my guy,
And everywhere I go I'm gonna let ya know
She stole everything
From me
She's not that little nothing
That everyone knew
Oh...
My body starts to itch,
My body starts to itch,
My body starts to itch!"

"Wow, is Ko' really that bad?"
"When she comes on TV and with her CD, you'll see."
"Yeah... Maybe we can get her to come down to the station to spill her side of the story."

"DEFINITLEY!" Kagome cried from her sport on the floor, and she switched the radio off.

-

"Uhm... I'm sure most of you were listening to the radio when Ai came on talking about our Kotaru here..." Ms. T(whom from now on we shall refer to as Mika) said and everyone in the class anxiously nodded. "Well, you guys know Ko best of all and I hope you didn't believe anything Ai said! I know I shouldn't say this, but... I never really liked Ai."
"Oh come on, Mika!" Someone shouted "You can say she's a bitch!"
"But I don't want to get suspended!"
Many people laughed at this.
The idea of a teacher being suspended was quite humorous to them.
"Well, I hope you and Pheonix will be going down to the station to clear things up with the country." Mika said to Kagome.
"Of course!" She yelled, and Mika cheered.
"We're behind you 100 percent. Now, I really think we should start first period..."

A small while later, first period ended and Pheonix, Kagome, and Inuyasha took their time walking to their second period class.
Kagome was on her cell, phoning in the station to see what time they could go down there.
3:30pm tomarrow, the DJ said, was perfect.
Of course, they didn't want to wait that long, but they would anyway.
Kagome and Inuyasha were already going down to Pheonix's house afterschool today, and after much arguing on Inuyasha's part, Pheonix finally agreed to let him read 'Lost in Translation' when they would go over.

They walked down one set of stairs and into their second period Social Studies class.
There their teacher, Mr. Yamatchi's voice boomed over all other noises, leaving Inuyasha desperately holding his ears, Pheonix gritting her teeth, and Kagome with a shiver down her spine from how low his voice was.
"Alright, everyone, in your seats so we can continue our studies on America."
They hurried to their desks, hoping he wouldn't talk anymore.

"As you all know, this month is November,"
'No duh.' Kagome thought.
"and we will be having fund raisers all year so we have enough money to bring all of you on that trip to America. We will most likely get enough to pay for all of your hotel, food, taxi, and other charges, but you will still have to pay for your plane tickets."
Pheonix and Kagome smiled at eachother.
They loved the thought of going to America, they liked everything about that country.
The food(no matter how greasy and fattening), the language(no matter how difficult to learn; their, they're, there; hear, here; our, hour; hey, hay; ear of corn, ear you hear with; etc), the people(no matter how racist and stuck up they were), the stars(in both meanings; stars in the sky- no matter how not bright; stars on TV- no matter how spoiled and 'too good for us'), the music(no matter how disgustingly 'personal' and rated R it would be), the radio(no matter how many radio stations that would be rated PG13), and the wonderful government(Bush took 8 weeks for vacation right after he was elected in 2000)!
Well, now, they were starting to reconsider going...
"Uhm, Mr. Y, can we go to Canada instead?"

-Screw Bush, I'm moving to Canada! LOL F.O.F.-

"Another boring day of school...over!" Kagome cheered as she skipped down the steps of the school, eyes open and humming.
She smiled at Inuyasha, Pheonix, and Kenji, who were all walking beside her, in turn.
"We get to go to Pheonix's house today, and the radio station tomarrow!"
She laughed as she hit the bottom step and then the marble tiled walkway, and the other 3 laughed as well.
"This'll be cool."

-At Pheonix's House-

"Ok, Inuyasha, I have the file open and you can read 'Lost In Translation' now." Pheonix sighed, and Inuyasha plopped down into the swervy compter chair.

Where we left off:
We were all 18, we could take care of ourselves...

My eyes were feeling heavy, but I still wanted to keep my stare out of the window.
I don't know where we were flying over at the moment, but it didn't matter to me.
Going higher, I could tell my stomach was not going to allow me to sit still the whole ride, but I really didn't want to stand up while this plane was flying.
I never really liked heights.
So for now, I'll just let sleep overcome me and let that be that.

It's bright out.
The landing of the plane had awoken me, and I was staring out the window to a foreign worl around me.
I really hope the small amount of English I learned will help me out here.
Really.

I wonder who I'll meet here...
I know my favorite bands Good Charlotte and Linkin Park settle here, but I don't think they'll be where I'm going.
"A beach...kirei" I said as I looked out the window to a far off distance, and my friend, Miki who sat beside me, nodded.
We had landed in Rhode Island.

"Short chapter one." Inuyasha said, getting a wack on the head from Pheonix.
"I know that." Pheonix scoffed "The other chapters are longer."
"Let me read them."
"That wasn't part of the deal."
She turned her computer off and dragged Kagome and the dog boy to her living room, turning on the TV.
"Jeez, touchy." Inuyasha said, and he earned himself another wack. "What did I do this time?"
"Just shut up, Toya."
"Jeez...fine..."

-PRAAAAAAIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGG-
"Don't you just hate the new morning bell?" Kagome whined as she walked up the front cement steps with her friends so they would be the first ones into the building. "I mean, really. It sounds so...freaky..."
Inuyasha and Pheonix nodded.
They pushed the door open and walked inside, and all the way to their homeroom, we're someone was being scolded.
By Mika.
"An F? Really, Setsugi, you shouldn't be getting an F in my class! Everyone else is getting Bs and above! Should I stop the fun periods?"
"No!" Pheonix, Kagome, and Inuyasha all shouted in unison after they heard their teachers rambles.
"Oh, hey, Ko, Toya and Pheo. Sona Setsugi, go back to your homeroom and see me after school. Oh, and you three, well, actually Toya and Kotaru, since you were new the first day I want you to help me today. We have a new student named Sachi Suzuki and since, you know, you were new, maybe you could help out a little..."
"Sure." Kagome said, and Mika praised her with a silent smile.
"Alright, she's right over there, in the back." They turned around and looked to the back of the class, where a girl with red-tinted brown hair, bangs, and slightly longer and thicker cheek-bangs than Sango, and a body that would have Miroku dying from over-excitement and Sango sharpening her blade.
She had blue-faded hazel eyez and naturally blood-red lips.
"Oh." Inuyasha said, mouth slightly open, and earning yet another wack on the head from Kagome.
"Hello, Sachi! My name is Kotaru." She said as she walked over to the new girl, and she smiled.
"Hello." Sachi returned, in a quiet way, and stared at her feet.
"So, where are you moving here from?"
"From Tomoeda. But before that I lived in Osaka. I move a lot.."
"Oh. I've never been to Tomoeda, but Osaka is really cool! Maybe you can come with me, Toya, and Pheonix when we go back there for a recording."
"Oh! You're Kotaru Watanabe! I shouldv'e known! This is really cool! I've heard you're song 'Nobody' and I love it!"
"You've heard it? But the CD isn't out yet, and only me, Toya, and Pheonix are the only ones who shouldv'e heard it..."
"Well...I used to live in Osaka. I know people there, ya know?"
"I guess..."
-PRAAAAAINNNNNAAANNNNNNNNNNNGG-
"Oh, late bell, gotta get to our seats." Toya and Kagome rushed to their seats, and Sachi went to the front of the classroom.
"Class, we have a new student today. Her name is Sachi Suzuki, and she moved here from Tomoeda. She's actually only 16, right? Say hi, Sachi."
"Hello."
"But you're birthday, I heard it was actually next week."
"Yes." Sachi looked away from the group of jocks staring at her, and looked straight at Kagome and Inuyasha.
Mika got this look. "Oh, you can sit right there, by Toya and Kotaru." She said, and Sachi happily took the seat. "And stop looking at her like that."
The jocks took all their energy to peel their eyes away from the new beautiful student, and Mika smiled.
"Ok, let's start homeroom, then."

-

"Alright alright we are here with upcoming sensations Pheonix Sugita and Kotaru Watanabeeee!" The DJsaid in one full breath, and didn't even gasp for any when he had finished. "Kotaru, Ko, my babe, why don't you tell us your side of the Ai against Kotaru and Pheonix story, alright?"
"Alright." Kagome started "Well, me and Toya, my boyfriend, moved to Kyoto a few months ago and came to Kyoto High as juniors. I had been the 'Nobody' of my schools ever since the 7th grade, and it didn't change when I started school in Kyoto. Ai had been trying to get Toya to become her boyfriend, because she liked him. He used to be a jock, and he's strong, stuff like that, you know? So automatically a cheerleader like her would want to steal him from a girl like me. At first, nobody knew me and Toya were going out, although we had since we were sophomores, and so Ai thought she would have a chance with him since he was supposedly single, and when she found out we were already together she thought I had stolen him from her. Which never happened. Toya had told me he thought Ai was a bitch, so... anyways, I'm going to review almost every part of her rap. Someone actually was so desperate to copy down every word she said the other day and I borrowed it from them. Ok,
'I walked up too school
Actin' all cool
And there is her
Standing thurr,'
Well, that was supposed to be the day I first came to the school, I guess.

'She seemed so shy, innocent'
Yes, like I said, I was a nobody for 5 years. Of course I was shy.
'But that bitch bit back after we
Hit her in'
I bit back?
Well, why shouldn't I have?
They were terrible to me!
They only started talking and hanging out with me when I got a record deal!
So I gave a little speech with Pheonix, and if you call that 'biting back', so be it!
'She sat
Quiet
Didn't make a sound
Seemed like a
Nobody
But that ain't what we
Found'
Well, I was a nobody. But I changed, Toya helped me with that. And Pheonix. And my record deal.
'She acts innocent
But don't be fooled
She got that
Confidence...'
Yes I'm confident now. Before i moved to Kyoto I was suicidal. And I'm not afraid to say that.

'She was a lie
She stole my guy'
I didn't steal anything from her. I was with Toya before I moved to Kyoto.
'I'm gonna steal that glory
That she took so willingly
From me,
It's rightly mine
She can't take what I worked for in the past time'
What is she talking about? I didn't take anything from her! I just acted like myself and did my own things and she says I took everything from her!
'She stood and danced
She did everything
And she's coming back
and showing how she sings'
Yes, one day we were listening to music in class and Pheonix dared me to stand up and dance, and I don't turn down dares, so I did.
And yes, I am coming back to show how I sing, but it wasn't my idea.
Toya got me into it, her drove me to Osaka and introduced me to Rei T.
'She's trying
To make us fall back
But we won't hear that
Cuz it's so wack'
Ok... I'm not trying to make anyone fall back... Ok, and one thing about a part of her rap she didn't sing the other day, but I heard you playing it on a tape that she sent in yesterday. Right?"
"Yes, that's correct." The DJ said.
"Right, she said:
'The wounds
From that day
Are still here
Present and
Hurting still
Landed me
An ER spot
The blow to my head
Was too much
But I'm back
and tellin' you of what she's done'
Ok...about that... that day when me and Pheonix gave our little 'speech' at school was when I got into a big fist fight with Ai... She came up to me saying 'Oh, but, beloved Kotaru, we loved you two when we found out you could be something. Otherwise, we would have found a way to kick you out of your own house and make you become nothing but a useless bum. But oh, we love you two so much now'. I really took that as the last straw. I didn't think she had a ight talking to me like that after she was the root of my problems at Kyoto...so I threw the first blow, and it ended up in a fist fight. My black eye is going away, but Pheonix's is still dark, and about the blow to the head thing... Ai knocked me over the stair railing, and when I got back up, I punched her a little too hard and she fell off the stairs and hit her head... But she didn't land in the ER, she got a hospital room, but it wasn't a big deal. She hit her head on marble, one of the softest minerals. And obviously she's ok if two days after the fight she comes onto your show and starts talking about me and Pheonix. I didn't want to cause anyone trouble... But Ai is not going to ruin everything I've worked for!"
"Wow, Ai is sounded worse and worse the more you talk about her. And we all can not wait until you're CD comes out, I'll be the first to buy it." The DJ said.
"You're so awesome!" Kagome replied. "I'm glad I came here today."
"I'm sure the whole country feels the same. We don't want to take up anymore of your time, so we'll have the 10 at 4 countdown and maybe you can come back here tomarrow."
"Of course!"
"We can't wait to see you there, and I'm hoping you'll help out with the 10 at 4 countdown tomarrow."
"Sure."
"Ok that was Kotaru Watanabe and now, 10 at 4."

-

"If you're looking for the goodies
Keep on looking
Cuzthey stay in the jar!
O-oh o-oh
O-oh-o-oh!"
Sachi looked to the back of the classroom where a few girls were listening to Ciara on the radio, it was first period and Mika was allowing the students to listen to the first countdown of the day, 7 at 8.
"You guys do know Ciara used to be a boy?" She asked, and the whole class broke out in laughter, except for one boy in the corner of the room.
"What!" He screamed.
"Of course we know!" Two girls who had been singing along with the song said "We just like Ciara's songs, is all."
"What do you mean, she used to be a boy!"
"What, you didn't know?" Pheonix asked, and took the look on his face as a no.
"I have a picture of her on my wall!"
"I guess Tsasaki's dream girl is his dream boy!" Someone shouted, and even the teacher was laughing.
"You mean...Ciara got a sex-change?"
The class started laughing again.
"WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME!"
"So, Sachi, what kind of music do you listen to?" Kagome asked her, and Sachi smiled.
"I like Motown. Also, I like the bands Good Charlotte and Linkin Park."
"Oh, so you're a Motown lover." Kagome cooed, and looked over at Inuyasha and Pheonix.
Then, they all started singing in tune.
"I know you wanna leave me!
But I refuse
To let you go!"
"The Temptations!" Sachi shouted, and laughed. "You're good at that."
"Of course, we have the Japanese Motown king with us here." Pheonix joked, looking over to Inuyasha, who then started singing, 'Baby Love' by The Supremes in a very girlish tone.
"Toya, please spare us." Kagome whined, and Sachi laughed.
"Hey, you guys are going back to the radio station today, right? Can I come along?"
"Sure." Kagome said, and Sachi smiled. "And then you can come with us to meet our good friends Sango and Miroku."
Sachi kept her smile, and only hoped they would like her.
Of course, she never had trouble with making friends, boys and girls.
But she was a new kid, and new kids- I'm sure you know how she feels.

-

"We have Kotaru here with us again and she has a few friends with her. Her boyfriend Toya and new friend who she met just yesterday, Sachi. And also, of course, the lovely Pheonix is here, and I'm hoping she'll get some quotes in wid us today. Say hi, all you."
"Hey." Kagome said.
"Hi." Pheonix said.
"Yo." Inuyasha said.
"Hello."
"Alright, they're here to help us with 10 at 4 the second countdown of the day on this radio station, 98.5 KYR, Kotaru, tell us what our number 10 song of the day is."
"Alright DJ Kade, our number 10 song of the day is Jojo (Leave)Get Out."
The starting music of the familiar song rolled in, and Kagome smiled.
That song ended, and Pheonix announced the next song. "This is Blink 182 with their hit song 'I Miss You' which I love, and hopefully you all love to, so go on, git to listening."

All the way to number 5 they were now, and Sachi had her turn once more. "This is one of the most kawaii bands ever with their awesome song 'Nobody's Listening', it's not as new but still sounds spankin' new! Here's Linkin Park."

Finally, they got to the number 1 song of the day, which, surprisingly, was the two's own song.
They were confused as to how the radio station got a copy of their single, but then they saw the words 'From Rei T.' written on the CD.
"Ok, the number one song of the day, veru surpisingly to me" Kagome started"Is me and Pheonix's new song 'Scribbles'. Well, I hope you guys like it! Here it is."

The song got nice reviews from Sachi, Inuyasha, and DJ Kade and when listeners called in for shout-outs and song requests, they got good reviews from them, too.

Now, it would take up too much time to type up all the lyrics of 'Scribbles' here, but I'll have you know it's one of the better songs I have written.

They talked a bit some more, and then they were off on their way home.
"Saa..." Pheonix said.
"Saa..." Kagome replied. "I'm so bored now. Maybe we should've stayed there."
"Maybe." Pheonix agreed, and they all got into the red car.
Sachi in the back with Pheonix, and Inuyasha and Kagome in the front seats.
Then, they were off to Tokyo to see their old friends.

-

The sound og tires over gravel was heard, and Sango, without hesitation, ran to open the door.
"Kotaru! Toya! Pheonix! And, whoever you are" She called, and Kagome smiled.
"This is Sachi."
"Sachi? That's a girl's name, right?" They heard from inside the house, and then a dark-haired man with a short low pony-tail ran out. "Why, yes! A girl! And a gorgeous one, at that!"
Sachi blushed as Miroku walked up and took her hand. "Very gorgeous."
"What! She's not that pretty! Her neck is too thin, her short hairs are too long, and her bangs are too short!"
"Oh...am I that ugly?" Sachi asked, dropping her blush.
"What? Oh! No! I didn't mean it that way! I'm sorry!" Sango quickly recovered, and Kagome smiled.
"She didn't mean it. She's just jealous. She looooooooooooooooves Miroku."
Sachi smiled.
"What! Not true! None of that's true!" Sango debated, and Miroku looked at her sadly.
"Don't you?"
"Oh, leave me be!"
"Heeheehee." Sachi laughed, but then completely froze when she felt something warm and hard on her backside.
"Miroku!" Kagome and Sango both yelled at once, slapping him down to the ground.
"What! It was an accident!"
"How was that an accident!" Sachi chimed in, throwing a kick to the lecher's stomach.
"Oo!" He yelled, complainging about his wind being knocked out, and something about 'Crazy new girls'.
Sachi's face was bright red, and she was crossing her arms over her body.
But, she acted as if it was no big deal, as i it were a daily thing.
"Did this happen to you a lot in Osaka and Tomoeda?" Kagome asked, and Sachi just nodded.
"And I'm sick of it! And I'm sick of people asking me if I got plastic surgery! It isn't my fault I'm like this!"
"Oh, but it isn't like that." Kagome said, "Miroku does that to every girl he sees."
"Disgusting!" Sachi exclaimed, and Miroku guiltily smiled.
"Sorry?"
"Iiiiiiiiiiiiii." Sachi simply shook, and he shrugged.
"People ask you if you got plastic surgery?" Sango asked, in a slow mode, and Sachi simply nodded. "That's terrible!"
"I know!" Sachi cried, and was flicked in the head by Pheonix. "What was that for?"
"For playing dramatic."
"Ok."
"?"
"I said ok."
"I know, but why would you agree?"
"Dunno."

All Kagome could do was laugh while she watched her old friends, semi new friend, and brand new friend squabble and act like they had known eachother forever.
Maybe her life wasn't as terrible as she thought.

Or are her troubles only beginning?

-5 Days Later-

-Tap-
-Tap-
-Taptaptap-pause-

She looked around the dark alley.
No signs of life here except for maybe a few bugs and a rat or two.

Good.
She walked up to one of the three brick walls surrounding the small space and put her hands up to it.
Where was that one certain brick?
She searchd it up and down until she found one carved with the letters 'K.H.S.P.'
Kagome Higurashi Special Place.
She knew it sounded very corny when said the whole, but she was 10 when she carved that in and, you know how ten year olds are.
She knocked on that brick a few times, making sure it was sturdy, and then pulled it out of the wall.
There, inside that little rectangular hole in the brick wall, was a note.
A note from a boy named Hojou whom she had known years back.
This was there special note exchanging place, and Hojou had told her to not open this one until she turned 14-
Of course, she didn't know why that age.
That was the age when Hojou moved from Tokyo to Korea, maybe he didn't want to be there when she read it?
Well, she forgot all about the note after 4 years.
But then, as she was almost 18 now, she somehow remembered.
So, she took the note out, opened it, read it, and her face paled.

My Dear Kagome,
When we turn 14 I will be moving to another country, and will not be moving back until I am of age to move away from my parents.
Hojou had always been a year ahead of her, so I guess he would be moving back this year.
I hope you have figured out by now that I have strong feelings for you, and still will when I am 18.
When I move back to Tokyo, I will meet you at our special place, and there, we can lose it together.
And don't try to fight me.
I'm only 11, but that doesn't make a difference.
When I am of age, I will be smarter and stronger- so you can't fight me.
We will lose it together, when I move back.

-Hojou.

Kagome couldn't help but stare at the letter over and over.
Lose it?
She knew what he meant by it.
When she was 10, she had always known Hojou was crazy about her... She had always known he was a little too crazy about her, she always had known he was crazy.
But she couldn't help but befriend him so, and when he moved away, that is when she started junior high.
When she becamse the Nobody.
And took his place as the insane one, even if she was only 11.
It seemed like the school needed someone crazy to liven things up.
But what he had said in that note didn't liven things up, it scared her.
Deep down inside, it scared her.

And then, strong arms wrapped around her.
She was knocked out by a large hand to her small head.

-

She didn't wake up until hours later, where she lay in a dirty, grey bed, with her old insane friend staring down at her.
"H...Hojou?" She squeaked out, staring at his wide white eyes.
"Yes, it's me, Kagome. I've been waiting for this day forever. We're both of age now..."
"That doesn't matter! Let me out of this house! Now!"
"No! I told you that I would be back! I'm back! And it's time! You're mine, and only mine."
"That's not true!" She slapped him away as he tried to hug her to him, which only angered him more.
"That note said everything! About me loving you... my feelings for you! You can love no one but me! You belong to me!" He shouted, and she retreated.
"No! I love someone else! I've grown older! I've met new people! I have new friends, and you are not one of them!"
"Well I'll make it so I am!"
He pushed himself onto the bed with her, and she tried desperatley to push him off, but it was no use.
He was too strong for her...
Much too strong.
"I explained everything in the note! We will lose it together!"
"You're insane! Get off of me!"
"No! Never!"
"GET OFF! INUYASHA!"
"Shut up! And stay still!"
"No! Get OFF of me!"
His large and hard arms wrapped around her small, tight figure and she tried to cry out, but he had knocked the wind out of her.
"Help me..." Was all she managed to choke out.

It was dark out when she woke up.
At first she had no idea where she was, but then it hit her.
The dirty, graying bed and walls, the messy, clothes thrown upon floor, the undying smell of cigarette smoke and beer.
Hojou's house.

She couldn't believe it!
Her good friend from a few years back, although the one who caused her insanity and loneliness, her old friend Hojou, was like this!

She didn't remember everything that had happened.
She had blacked out a few minutes after he had forced himself upon her, but she had an inkling about what happened.
It made her sick.

She was alone in the room, and at least that was good.
The digital clock on the dusty bedside table flashed 3:30am, maybe a good enough time for a getaway.
She didn't know where that strange man was at the moment, but she was hoping to get away without him noticing.

That was when she noticed the pain.
Her head threatened to split in half, her breasts were sore, and felt as if going about to bruise, and her private place was even more so sore than anything else on her body, there was a gooey substance between her legs, and it hurt to close them.

What a sicko!
Hojou would die, if it weren't Kagome who was doing the killing, or Inuyasha, he would die!

She couldn't believe, even if forced upon, she had lost it!
To him!
To that insane, disgusting, dense-as-ever-and-never-learning loser!

But what about Inuyasha?
Now that this had come up, she thought harder about it.
Hadn't she been saving herself for the one she loved?
The one who saved her from what this sickening man brought upon her?

-RIIIING-
-RIIIIING-
"Hello?" Inuyasha asked, startle,d nervous, and all around flowing with what he thought was a feeling of calm if the person on the other end was who he hoped it would be.
"Hello? Is she back yet?"

Inuyasha sighed, and his panic returned to him. "No, she hasn't gotten home yet! Where could she be?"
"I don't know, Inuyasha!" Pheonix, who was on the other line, shouted, "You're the hanyou! Find her with your nose!"
"But I don't know where to look first!"
"Go to your door and follow the scent to wherever she went!"
"...Alright, I'll take my cell with me and call you when I get a good enough hint as to where she is."
"Alright!"

He hung up the phone and ran down the stairs to the front door, once he was outside, he crouched low to the ground and sniffed.
There was her scent already.
Boy, he was on the money tonight!
Of course- she had gone in so many directions over the past few days...which one to take?
"Err..."

She searched desperatley around the messy room for her clothes, or at least a bathroom with a shower!
She had to rid herself of his nasty scent and leavings!

There, on the center of the floor, she found her outfit, and there, in the corner of the room, was a mahogny bathroom door, that was graying as the walls and sheets, and she sprinted towards it, clothes in hand.

At least she didn't have to have Hojou scent anymore.

She opened the door and looked around.
Didn't he ever clean?
Well, that didn't matter right now.

If Inuyasha came looking for her, she didn't want to smell like that fool.

She reached into the shower and turned the knob to warm, stepping in quickly.
And quickly rubbing the water over her body to clean herself of the disgusting man's leavings.

There was no soap, but it was good enough for her.
She wouldn't want to touch his stuff anyways.

About a half hour later, she was satisfied she was clean enough for a getaway.

She scrambled to pull her clothes on, relieved to know they were as clean as before she had met Hojou earlier that day, and ran back out of the bathroom.
Still, no Hojou in sight.

Thank you, Buddha.

Finally, Inuyasha decided on a path to take, and happily found out it was the better one to.
It led him to an alleyway, where another scent mixed with hers, and then carried him to a series of apartments, side by side.

Follow his nose, is what he did.
It led him all the way to a good enough looking home, but once he got inside, he had second thoughts.
But he wasn't going to back off on his love.

"Hello?" He said once Pheonix answered the phone, "I think I know where she is. I'm at some weird shabby apartment, and I've almost got a lock on where she is."
"Great! Call me again right when you find her, so I can tell the cops where to go!"
"Ok!"
He hung up once more and followed the scent the rest of the way, until he knocked head on into a brown-haired boy who was walking into his apartment room.
"Hello?" The boy asked, and Inuyasha was a little confused by this man.
"Hello? Who are you?" He asked, and the boy only stared.
"I'm Hojou. Who are you?"
"First, tell me why yours and a girl named Kagome's scents are...intertwined."
"Oh, you must be one of those super smelling demons. You can even tell when a person has done it?"
"It?"
"Yeah, you know, s-"
"I know what it means! But, you and Kagome!"
"Yes! Kagome! My wonderful Kagome!" Hojoy placed his hand on the doorknob and turned, pushing it open. "Kagome?" He called, and heard a startled sound from a corner.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha also called, and that startled being stood straight up.
"Inuyasha!" She yelled, running over to him, wrapping her arms around him. "I was so scared! You...I...he...KILL HIM!"
"? Tell me what happened!"
"Kill him kill him kill him!"

Inuyasha looked over at Hojou, and noticed the reduction of size of the man's pupils.

"Don't...touch...her..." He stated, and Inuyasha only stared. "Kagome...is mine!"
"Excuse me?"
"Inuyasha! Get me out of here!" Kagome cried, and he grabbed onto her wrist, a hold on his cellphone with his other hand, and he took off down the hall with her.
"GET BACK HERE! DON'T TOUCH HER!"

With one hand, Inuyasha dialed his phone and Pheonix quickly answered.
"We're at Kaguya no Tama Apartments! Call the cops, tell them to come here!"
"Alright!"
"No, wait, we'll call, I don't even know the full story yet."
He hung up the phone and glared with those eyes of his at Kagome, as if saying, 'How could you? Did you?'

She couldn't say anything.

They reached the door to open the apartment building, when a familiar but-not-too-waneted-face showed in front of them.
"You can't touch her." He said simply, clutching onto her arm, "You can't have her! She's mine!"
"If you want to live, I would suggest you get out of the way."
"You can't threaten me!" Hojou lashed out at Inuyasha, only to have him duck backwards matrix-style and come back with a punch to the insane man's face.

Hojo retreated, out of instinct, and Kagome and Inuyasha rushed out of the door.
He pulled her on to his back and then they were off in the direction of their home.
"Now tell me what happened!" He said, and she stiffened.
"Can you please just call the cops first?"
"I have to know what to tell them!"
"Ok...I went back to Tokyo this morning... And I wa swalking in one of the alleys, and he kidnapped me! He took me back to that dirty apartment and...and..." She couldn't say the rest.
She didn't want to say that word.
Of course, Inuyasha understood what she said, and without any more hesitation dialed in the cops.

Finally the two were outside of their home, and for the firt time that day, her fear and pain showed.
She started crying hopelessly, and Inuyasha couldn't do anything but use petty comforting methods, rubbing her back, whispering to her, nothing worked.
"And what took you so long!" She shouted, pounding on his shoulder.
Well...maybe that was telling him she would be fine...

It was the next morning.
And a school day.
Kagome didn't want to go, and Inuyasha wouldn't make her.
He would be taking her to the hospital, for tests, and things.
He didn't really want to find out if she was...well, pregnant with that man's child or not, but he knew that it was what he should do.
And if she was, he would be going back to 'Kaguya no Tama Apartments' and would be arrested that night for Hojou-murdering.

He wanted to know, he didn't want to know. He wanted to know, he didn't want to know. He wanted to know, he didn't want to know...

So what did he know?
Not that much, is what he's finding out.
At least he knew that.
But agh!
Now he was confusing himself!
So how about stop thinking?
Yeah! That was a good idea...
Blank.
That was easy.

He pulled up to the hospital in Kagome's car and helped her out of the passenger's side.
"Er..." Kagome sounded, "I really don't want to be here..." She said, though she walked up to the doors anyway.

They opened automatically, and the two walked in.
Ready for anything.

"Yes? Hello. I'm Mikage Toya and I'm here to sign in Watanabe Kotaru..."
Inuyasha said at the front desk, and the lady started writing things down.
"You can sit over there, please." She said, pointing, not even asking why they were there- they didn't look like they were in any emergency, they could wait.

The two followed where the woman was pointing and sat down in the chairs, waiting for their turn.

A few minutes past, and the name 'Watanabe' was called.
Ok, so it was their turn.
Wish them luck...

Kagome followed Inuyasha into the room, and sat down on a chair inside.
"Hello, Miss Watanabe. So why are you here today?"
"Well, I'm here because- Toya, get out of here!" She stodd up and pushed Inuyasha on the chest, then turned him around and dragged him out of the room, then she came back in. "I'm in here for a...pregnancy test."
"Ok. First, tell me, was it with that moron standing outside the door?"
Kagome was taken aback, but laughed.
Doctors never ask things like that.
"Actually, it wasn't... I was... it was... it was a rape."
"I hope you notified the authorities?"
"Yes. I have the knowledge that the man was taken into prison last night."
"Alright then, just sit up here on this counter and we'll take that test of yours."

Inuyasha pounded on the door of the doctor's room.
"I've waited 2 hours already! Don't you have the results!"
The door opened and out stepped the doctor.
"Of course I do. It's called an EPT. Got it? Watanabe just didn't want to come out yet, she wanted to have a full check-up. A physical."
"Doctors use EPTs?"
"Eh..."
"Well, is she pregnant or not!"
"She is."
"...Don't act so calm! She's pregnant with another man's child!"
"Yes, but there are things you can do about it."
"Abortion?"
"It's only been a day."
"Right...right..."
"There are pills... certain medicines like that."
"Day after pill?"
"Will you shut up already?"
"Are you really a doctor?"
"Yes, you just get on my last nerve!"
"...-growls-..."
"Oh, and what happened to your head? There are ears on it, you know."
"Yeah, I think I would know that."
"Uh huh. Whatever." The doctor walked back into the room and slammed the door, leaving Inuyasha in the dust.
All he could do was pace.
Pace, pace, pace, pace, pace...
Pace.

"Alright Kotaru, you're one of my healthiest patients, no diseases, no overweight problems, no organ failures, no AIDs/ HIV, no nothing."
"Well...that's good to hear..." The two opened the hospital door once more and walked out, where a once pacing man was now unconsious on one of the chairs.
"Well, at least when he wakes up, he'll know you won't be having any other man's child anytime soon." The doctor said sarcastically, and Kagome nodded.
No other man's child.

Home.
Yes, my lovelys, the two are finally home.
After making sure Hojou was behind bars, Miroku wasn't dead, and Sachi hadn't killed anyone, and now the lovebirds were discussing that filthy apartment room.
"Who ever thought of creating sucha terrbile place?" Kagome asked.
"I don't know. But it was disgusting. Gray and smelly, and..." Inuyasha trailed off, scratching his head for other details.
"And the name! 'Kaguya no Tama'. Phhhht! Who ever thought of such a name! Shining Jewel! Lovely place, it would be better if the place actually it with the name!"
"Seriously!"
"Kaguya no- wait a minute..."
"What?"
"I have an idea..."
"What idea?" Inuyasha asked, and Kagome stared at him.
It seemed he was losing more and more brain cells each day.
"'Kaguya no' something. You know how me and Pheonix have been searching for a good band name?"
"Yeah."
"Well, get on the phone with her and make her come over!"
"Alright, alright..."
He dialed on his little flip phone, and as fast as lightning ,that chic was over.
"What's happening?" She asked as she came into the room, and Kagome smiled.
"I've got us a name!"

"Kaguya no KoPheo?" Pheonix suggested.
"No! That sounds like Kaguya no Coffee..." Kagome replied.
"Errrrrg... You're right." Pheonix was stumbling in her mind- they just couldn't get the right name!
"Kaguya no...Star?"
"Oh, great, Ko, mix Jap and English. Great. It sounds terrible! What's wrong with your head today, Ko?"
"I don't know!"
"Wait, Ko!"
"What?"
"No, I mean Ko. Kaguya no Ko!"
"But...that just has to do with my name."
"Yes, well, you pull everything together. You have the better voice, the better body, you write the songs, you do everything!"
"But..."
"Come on, Ko! I like this name! 'Kaguya no Ko'!"
"Ok... I guess, if you say so..."
"I say so!"
"Ok."

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
-Slap-
-Thud-
-Wince-
"Shows you ta mess with me!" Sachi exclaimed, wiping dust off of her shoulder and staring at the Miroku on the ground. "You know what... It's not fair!"
"What's not fair?" Pheonix questioned, and Sango and Kagome looked up also.
"This!" Sachi motioned towards her body, and Miroku winced again.
"What's not fair about it? I would die for your body." Pheonix complained, staring at her own.
"No! I would die for yours!" Sachi replied, "I mean, look at you. You're thin, you're a little short,"
"I thought she was taller than me?" Kagome asked.
"I was wearing big shoes that day..."
"you look as fragile as a little flower," Sachi continued.
"I'm tough!" Pheonix yelled.
Sachi continued once more, "your chest is smaller, your stomach is flat, your hips and waist are small, your all around teeny."
"I am not! Just because I have an Avril Lavigne body type doesn't mean anything!"
"No, I don't mean it in that way," Sachi said, "I don't like that my body is like this. I want a smaller figure, like yours. Guys like Miroku are a real ppppaaaaaaaaaaain."
"-Sigh- Don't use me as an example. Just 'cause I'm the littlest of the group doesn't mean anything." Pheonix pouted and stared at her figure once more.
She was little.
She stood up and turned away, walking in a direction different than the one all of the girls(and Miroku) were in. "I'll see you guys later. I've gotten go...toughen up." Pheonix ran in the direction, and Sachi only shrugged.
"I was only complimenting her."

"Scribbles...
Settle on my notebook to
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
And though I!
Can't find a useful thing to
Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
I know I'm fine
Sitting here for the
While...
But
Why won't anything come to my mind?"

"Need editing?" Pheonix asked Rei.

Her arms were looking bigger today, in a muscular way, and her stomach flatter.
"Maybe. You two think it over." Rei replied, and Kagome and Pheonix got to editing the song 'Scribbles' once again.
"Oh, and I like that name you two came up with, Kaguya no Ko." Rei inserted, and the two girls smiled.
"Well, Kotaru came up with the 'Kaguya' part, and I came up with the ending. Ko. Because it's short for Kotaru. You know, Kotaru is awesome, she pulls the band together, writes all the songs, and does everything! She deserved to be a part of the name."
"Shining Kotaru..." Rei trailed off, his eyes glittering with the name they would put out in the Enlgish speaking countries.
"OR just Shining Ko. That's what it's really meaning." Pheonix poked at him, he couldn't try to change the name now.
"Yeah, but..."
Pheonix gave a 'No other words about it.' look and was back to strumming at her guitar with her even-though-she-had-worked-out-still-teeny-fragile-little-arms.

Now, with how tough Pheonix had always acted, you would think she had the brawn and all that jazz already, but in true, real life, she was about 2 inches shorter than Kagome, very thin and looked as fragile as a newly-budded flower.

Or rice paper.

But who wants to be compared to rice paper?

If you looked at Avril Lavigne, Pheonix is similar to her, only thinner and more 'fragile looking'.

Of course she would never admit it.

She played the sound of the scratching of the guitar over and over in her head, until she stumbled across something.
Of course she would never admit it.
And maybe she wouldn't have to...

Oh well, for now, she would sit on the floor and scratch away at her mini-sized-guitar(her perfect-sized-guiater), and try to get the right tune for this song.

"Kaguya no Ko- the hottest new band, they're CD is said to drop December 12th, just in time for Christmas-" -CLICK-

"Have you heard about the lastest crave? Kaguya no Ko! With their timeless singles 'Nobody' and 'Scribbles', be sure to pick up their CD this December for yourself or for a Christmas present." -CLICK-

"And here, finally, is long awaited Kaguya no Ko! Singing their hot new single, 'Trying Too Hard'."

Pheonix and Kagome smiled as they walked out from behind backstage and stared at all the people waiting there.

Waiting for them.

Why would anyone be waiting for them?

Oh well, there they were, walking onto center stage, ready to sing their song for the whole country.

Maybe 100,000 people watching.

If they messed up one bit, everyone would see and would be so dissapointed...

Oh yeah, they were so ready.

"Hi everyone! I'm Kotaru Watanabe and this is my bestest buddy Pheonix Sugita, and we're Kaguya no Ko! We're going to sing you a little song called 'Trying Too Hard', I hope you like it!" The crowd screamed as they sat down on the stools set on the stage and started playing their guitars.

"I-
I laugh too much
I cry too much
Scream too much
Wanna die, too much
I'm loud too much
Shy too much-
Ican't
Find myself in this world
Enough
And it seems to be
Tearing me
Apaaaaaaaaart
-
Apaaart
I try too hard
To make you happy
-
Try to hard
to make you like me
-
It's just enough to tell you
That I'd quit
Anyday, If I could
I'm trying too hard
To make this come out good

Sometimes
I'd swear
My life was getting harder than it al-
ready
Was...
-
Sometimes
I'd see
That
Everyone was turning on
Me-e-
e-e-e...
-
Is it enough to say
that I'd quit?
Anyday
If I could
-
I don't want to stay
In this way
Anymore
It's just too
Much for me
To say
How I feel
Inside
-
And let myself be alright
-
I try too much
To make you happy
I try too hard
To make you all like me!
Is it enough?
Is it enough...
-
I'm trying...
I'm trying too hard...
You're trying too hard
You're all trying too hard!
You all
Try too hard
To be
Just
Like
Them
And it
Just seems like I'm doing the same thing
Just seems as if my life I'm wasting
Save me someone from this world that I
Am drifting from!
I'm just
Trying too hard...
I'm just trying
Too hard
No one
Tries as hard
As I do...
And it's true-
I laugh too much...
Cry too much...
Scream too much...
I wanna die!
-
-
-
Too much
I'm loud too much!
I'm shy too much!
I can't!
Find myself!
In this world enough!
And it's tearing me apart...
I'm trying too hard..."

Pheonix and Kagome stared out at the crowd after singing their goth-sounding song, fearing that they may have scared their fans away- just too find all of them clapping.

Yes, all of them seemed to be fans.

Well, that was surprising.

The two stood up- Pheonix with her 2 inches shorter than Kagome, thin, willowy, and flat-but-uncaring-on-the-outside- and Kagome with her, of course, 2 inches taller than the girl standing next to her, whom Pheonix was much tougher and more kick-ass than she would ever be, and the two laughed.

Yes, they laughed.

Their first live show, a hit!

"Alright now how many of you out there have just found a new idol or two?" The host of the show asked, in a sort of joky tone, but almost everyone raised their hands.
Even the preps and posers, whom Pheonix and Kagome would never look up to, but respected as people either way- hey, the twoused to be nobodies, everyone was someone in their eyes.
"And who's gonna buy their CD this droppin' December 12?"
Again, everyone raised their hands. "Well, don't bother." The host started, "We've got free Kaguya no Ko CDs for everyone out their in the audience today, how you like that?"
The crowd was louder than they had been, and Kagome and Pheonix bowed.

They were getting paid for the CDs anyway.

The producers of the show had to pay for them for everyone in the audience.

So the pay from performing live and for the CDs, heck, they were up there big right now.

-Wonder if they'll get me something-

"Hmmmmmmmmm...
Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...Sachi is a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch... Just 'cause she's got a rock star bodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...Don't mean she can take it out on the shortiiiiiiiiiiies..."
"Pheonix, what are you singing about now?" Sango asked, laughing at how subconsiously Pheonix had been getting ready to go solo.
"Oh- I dunno. I was singing?"
"Yes, you were." Sachi said with a pout, and Pheonix shrugged.
"It's true! You're always making fun of me for being 5'1" and thin and flat as a 10 year old... It's not fair!"
"Well, it is true that you're like that. Have you even started puberty yet?"
"SACHI! Gaaaaaaah! Stop it! It's not fair! I'm flatter and shorter than even the author of this dang story!"
"Oh, yeah, I remeber that now..." Sachi laughed, and Sango and Kagome joined in on the laughter. "The author. A 12 year old- ok, she's turning t13 this March 16th, but a 12 year old- 5'3 and a half! And you're 17, and 5'1"! Heh heh heh!"
"Oh leave me be!" Pheonix stood up out of anger once again and left the room.

Even after binging last night, and working out, her arms weren't half as big as Sachi's or Sango's and her stomach was still as flat as a ten year old boy's.

Sachi was always ragging on her for "not having a waist", and for having the same body type, though a few inches taller, than an Engligh 10 year old named Taylor who lived in Connecticut(Pheonix was confused at this, and at that time the author, RY930, walked into the room and showed them all a picture of a girl she had known her whole life, and Pheonix huffed. "I- I- I do look like that!" She stumbled across, and covered her body, running out the door.).

Sachi had even suggested that Kenji only wanted to go out with Pheonix because she was so tiny and fragile-looking, and felt like he needed to protect such an elf.

Sango and Kagome had defended Pheonix this time, saying it was going way over the line.

Anyways, now that Sango had met Rei and knew about him; whenever he got paid for the CD sales, Kagome and Pheonix got 95 percent; she wanted to be in part of the deal.
From the live show and the CDs for about 4,000 in the audience; they had been paid 500 each for the show, and the CDs each cost a good 20 bucks, no tax; they had a total of about 80,500 altogether.
And that was pretty awesome for their first show.
Of course, with 5 percent of that going to Rei; the 5 percent being 4,025 dollars, they still had 76,475 bucks.
And that was still more than they had ever seen in their lives.

So- here was two girls who were rising in the star world, and have never had a shopping spree in their lives- now, they weren't preppy, or posers, or girly, but hey, anyone can get something good out of a shopping spree.

-(Go for the Blue mini iPod!)-

AT THE STORE...(Poor Inuyasha)

"OH! TOYA!" Kagome called from inside the book store, a place Inuyasha never wanted to venture into... of course, unless they had his new manga in.
"What?" He asked, "What this time?" He walked into the store and over to where she was standing, and stared at the mangas in her hand.
'Ayashi no Ceres(One of my faves)', 'Ranma 1/2(Same)', 'Mermaid Saga(This rox!)', 'Mega Tokyo(I LOVE this!)', and 'Paradise Kiss'.
"What?" He asked again.
"I want to buy these...all of them...but..."
"But what?"
"I don't know! Should I get them all? Or, or..."
"Just get them all..."
"Ok!" She turned to run to buy the mangas, but then turned back to the shelf, and grabbed one more book, 'The Ring' and then turned back around and paid for her books.

NOW...TO THE GAME STORE! (Inuyasha was dragged here, but then when he saw what store it was, he raced inside).
"Look! Final Fantasy! Kingdom Hearts!" Kagome shouted.
"Look! The Sims! Grand Theft Auto!" Inuyasha yelled, and Kagome's head shot in his direction.
"Where!" She ran over to him and frowned. "Do they have Tekken?"
"That's my game!" Inuyasha exclaimed, and they searched the store for that violent, but rock solid awesome game.

AND NOW, TO THE CLOTHES SHOP...(Inuyasha was neutral about here...)
"Hm...too girly. Too pink. Too preppy. Too poser. Too Hello Kitty, which is girly and preppy...Ooo...spike studded belt...sexy..." Kagome grabbed the belt and looked it over, stuffing it in her shopping cart, and then she came to the jewelry portion.
Again, "Too girly. Too pink. Too preppy. Too poser. Too- oo... spiked rubber bracelets!" Yes! The cross between the rubber bracelet and a studded bracelet!
There it was!
Perfect(I love rubber studded bracelets. They're really awesome. The thing is...I saw them in a vending machine the other day...that made me mad...).
She made sure she got one in ever color, and multi-colored. (Except pink!)

AND NOW...INUYASHA'S FAVORITE PLACE IN THE MALL...the pretzel stand...

-SREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-
-Sigh-
"Can you believe it's already-...Decemeber 10th? I think?" The raven-haired girl asked, staring at her shorter friend in awe.
"Yeah, I know..." Pheonix replied, "We actually even skipped Sachi's 17th birthday!"
"That wasn't my fault!" Kagome returned, turning the sink off and drying off her hands. "When was that? November 21st or somethin'?"
"I dunno..."
"Anyways, what I really can't believe is that our CD comes out in only two days!" Kagome cried, flashforwarding on the events that will happen on the day their CD comes out...sell out to millions, maybe...or Chirstmas gifts, and little eyes staring in wonder at their wonderful new treasures...maybe they would always keep it in the VD case and never put it in a zip-up holder, or maybe they would only use it on special occasions, or maybe they would use it so much they would wear the CD out, and then go buy a new one...or maybe...
"Yo, back to Earth, please?" Pheonix saidm snapping in Kagome's face.
"Oh, right, sorry, Pheo. Uhm... Let's go back to lunch now... we really don't want to miss much of the best subject in school since recess ended!"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
They turned around and ran back outside of the bathroom, sprinting back to their lunch period class that was only, buddha forbid, 30 minutes left.

"Toooooooooyaaaaaa!" -tap-tap-tap-tap-tap- "Lookie! I'm back! You can leave the loser and get me back now!"
Oh yes.
That annoying high pitched voice comes from none other than Miss Ai.
"Oh jeez..." Inuyasha said as he turned away from his lunch to face the toe-head.
Kagome and Pheonix snorted, looking away, while Sachi only stared.
Remember, she's new here.
"Why didn't you get back from the hospital for so long, babe?" Inuyasha asked with a sarcastic hint in his voice, but Ai couldn't find it.
"Ah, my wounds from that slutty bitch were so terrible...but I'm back now."
Ai turned Inuyasha fully around and sat herself down on his lap. "Didja miss me?"
"No." He replied, shoving her off of him and turning back to his food.
Pheonix and Kagome laughed and shooed her away, and Sachi smiled.
"Is she that girl you were talking about on the radio?"
"Yep."
"Right."

Kouga took this as a chance to try to win over Kagome once again.
"Hello, lovely Kotaru." He ignored a growling from a certain hanyou and continued on. "You don't want a halfie like him, do you?"
Kagome shivered as he put his hands on her shoulders- it wasn't so long ago that a touch had made her so paranoid- Hojou...
"Just go away." Pheonix said, noticing her friends state of discomfort.
"Stay out of this, shrimp. Anyways, Kotaru..." He pulled Kagome closer to his body and rapped his arm around her waist.
"Go away..." Kagome echoed, pushing him, but not succeeding in getting him to leave.
By now, Inuyasha had also noticed her discomfort, and that same terrified look in her eye from Kaguya no Tama, and stood up.
"She said go away."
Kouga stood up also.
"Stay out of this."
"She said go away! Now go away!"
"Dammit make me!"
"I will!" The hanyou grabbed Kouga by the arm and punched him in the nose, ending up in a brawl on the floor.
"I said stay outta this!" Kouga yelled from his spot on the floor under the hanyou, and Inuyasha shut him up with a sucker punch to the face.
"Kotaru, are you okay?" Pheonix asked, standing as her friend had done so, and Kagome only shook her head.
She ran out of the cafeteria, and Pheonix couldn't do anything but follow her.
"Kotaru..." They had gone back to the bathroom, and Kagome stared at herself in the mirrror.
"I...Pheonix...I was scared." She put her hand on her shoulder where Kouga had touched her, and looked at Pheonix. "I didn't want Kaguya no Tama to happen again! I was scared, Pheonix!"
Pheonix couldn't do anything.
She had never gone through that sort of trauma before-
Had Kagome been hiding her fear and feelings ever since then?
There was nothing she could do.

"Boys! Cut it out!" The two heard from the direction of the cafeteria, and went back out to check how the fight was going.
Mika had walked in on the war, and had stopped it. "What's going on?" She asked them, and they didn't say anything.
The whole junior grade was staring at them.
And even more so when Kagome spoke up.
"Mika, I want to press charges for sexual harrassment."
That shut everyone up.

Kouga tried to argue, but Mika wouldn't have any of that.
"Toya, Kouga, Ko, come with me." And off to the office they go.

All the while, Kouga protesting.
"I don't know what she's talking about! I- he- she- he started the damn fight, anyways!"
"Shut up, Kouga." Mika snapped, and he did as he was told. "She wouldn't report you unless it was true."
"Yeah, fall back, Kouga." Some girl waiting for her turn to see the principal shot, and Kouga glared at her.
"Be quiet, Yura."
She looked her red eyes away from him and 'hmph'ed, she was probably in her for trying to cut off someone's hair again...
The principal's door opened. "Yura, come in..."
"Yes, Prinicapl Urasue." She said with a bored tone, and followed the old woman into the room.
"Ok, Toya, you and Kouga can both be charged for fighting, and Kouga will charged with sexual harrassment. There's no excuse for that. But I know how much Toya tried to protect Ko, like an older brother, so I understand why he fought. Toya, you won't be charged with anything. Kouga, I say you'll probably be suspended for a long period of time..."
"That's not fair, Miss-"
"Don't start! I don't want to believe someone from my homeroom is acting like this!"
Kouga backed down and the principal's door opened once again, Yura walking out with a ten day suspension, Urasue's eyes as wide as ever.
"So why are you kids here?" The principal asked.
"To charge Mr. Kouga here with sexual harrassment on Kago- Kotaru's part."
Inuyasha and Kagome looked at eachother.
'Kago'.
The start off of 'Kagome'.
Somehow, Mika knew her real name...

Principal Urasue pulled Kouga by the ear into her office and the others turned to leave.
"Right, yes, let's get back to lunch, now." Mika said, but InuYasha and Kagome did not follow.
"Why did you...how...Kago...?" Kagome asked, and Mika turned around.
"It was just an honest, everyday mistake. I meant Kotaru, really."
"No, tell me why you said 'Kago'?"
"...It's because...do you two know of a 'Kagome Higurashi'?"
They shook their heads.
Of course they knew, but they weren't going to let her know that they knew.
"I'm surprised, you guys are from Tokyo...that's where she lived. Well, when she was younger, around 6 years old, or so, I was her babysitter."
Kagome stared.
She thought Mika looked...familiar.
"And, well, she looks just like you, 'Kotaru'. But she...she killed herself, about 8 months ago. And right after that, a boy named InuYasha Taisho, who looks just like you,'Toya', killed himself also. It seems so strange that right after those two died, you two showed up in Kyoto. Am I going somewhere with this?"

InuYasha and Kagome looked at eachother.
Stick a fork in them.
And a cliche is used.
"By the way you just looked at eachother so guiltily, I'd say yes." Mika said, "I knew it all along. Kagome and InuYasha. That's you, isn't it?"
They didn't say anything.
"What did you do? Fake your deaths and run away?"
"Uh...uhm...well...Oh, Mahki! I knew it was you!" Kagome criedm using an old nickname, changing the subject and hugging her old babysitter at the same time.
"And I knew it was you, Kaggy. Now, how did you two pull this off?"
"Well..." Kagome started.
One more person knowing was OK...
But what she didn't know was that one girl waiting outside for them was hearing a bit more than she had bargained for...

2 Days Later
Sunday, December 12th, 2004

"Alright, we have Kaguya no Ko here with us to discuss the release of their first CD, 'NOBODY'. Now, you two are best friends, right? How did you meet?"
Pheonix lost her frown with a fake smile, "The first day of 11th grade at Kyoto High. We became friends instantly, we tell eachother everything. Well, no, not everything. There's one thing I just found out about Kotaru only 2 days ago. But away from that, we're like sisters."
Kagome was shocked.
Had Pheonix heard their conversation?
"Yes, soul sisters...store bought sisters..." Kagome echoed. "And we're both excited about the CD."
"What about a concert tour? Are you going to do any tours soon?"
"Well, we would be eager to leave school, but we have an awesome homeroom teacher and want to finish off our junior grade. We'll do some concerts in the summer, and then start our senior grade." Kagome started.
"Yep, if we hate our senior teachers, we'll stay a few months, leave and tour a few months, then come back the last few months to graduate." Pheonix finished, laughing.
"What about college? Will you two go?"
"Well, we want to go. You know, meet new people, live in dormrooms, learn cooler stuff. So we don't know if we'll take night classes or whatever." Kagome said, and Pheonix nodded.
"Right now, we'll do some closeby weekend concerts, then it will get bigger. A tour. Maybe even to America! And Canada! And...yeah!" Kagome exclaimed, and Pheonix smiled.
"Everything will be awesome."
"I guess so." The interviewer said, and pulled out a Kaguya no Ko CD. "What inspired you to write these songs?"
"Actually, Kotaru wrote them, all on her own."
"Yes, well, it's because I used to be the nobody of school, and there were so many terrible things iny my life...but...they made me stronger, and guess what, here I am."
"Yeah, here you are. And now, Pheonix, tell me about the spelling of your name... Most people would spell it with 'oe' but you spell it 'eo'?"
"Yeah, that's 'cause..."

"Uhm, Pheonix?" Kagome asked as they walked off of the set of the talkshow.
"Yes?"
"We need to talk."
"Oh? But why, Miss Kagome? Why must we talk?" An innocent playing Pheonix said, and Kagome fumed.
"Because of that! 'Kagome'! How did you find out?"
"I was waiting for you outside the office the other day. You told me you were scared, so I was worried. When were you going to tell me?"
Kagome sighed. "...That's the thing. I wasn't going to. Me and InuYasha didn't want anyone to find out. This was supposed to be our new life. We started over, but then all this happened and...I don't know. It's just..."
"Do I have to call you Kagome now?"
"No...that's my old name...I'm Kotaru now. Kotaru Watanabe."
"Yeah."
"I just wish my old life didn't have to come and catch up with me...Hojou...Mika...all this shit. Gahd I wish Toya had just killed Hojou on the spot."
"Ha, yeah."

"Mm...come on, let's go. This place is boring me anyway."
The two walked from the talkshow and outside to the car, and waited for their boyfriends to come out with them.

Badring-

Ch-ch-ch-chica: hey
JuStAbItInSaNe: hi. whos this?
Ch-ch-ch-chica: pheonix
JuStAbItInSaNe: o hi
Ch-ch-ch-chica: i changed my sn from FLaMinGPheOniX JuStAbItInSaNe: i can c that
Ch-ch-ch-chica: but i dun lyk this 1 either. h/o ima change it agen ko, k?
JuStAbItInSaNe: Ill change myn 2
(2 minutes later)
SuPerStArShinE: baq
KoKoKrisp: me2
SuPerStArShinE: haha nice name lol
KoKoKrisp: lol
SuPerStArShinE: im bored...wanna go in2 a chat room?
Mizu no Megami: okee
SuPerStArShinE: changed ur name agen?
YesURaBum39: yep
SuPerStArShinE: w/e...lets go
YesURaBum39: kk
(Kagome laughs as she changes her screename once more and then clicks into a chat room with Pheonix)
(In the chat room)
SuPerStArShinE: hi everybody my name is pheonix sugita AvatarKatara: and im kotaru watanabe
freakyfreak: ya, sure
PrincessGurl: wut liars
SuPerStArShinE: r we really dat famous?
AvatarKatara: hmness..dey dun beleev us
SuPerStArShinE: wowzaz
DarknessFalls45: pleez any1 can pretend to be famous ppl SugaBabiAngelChic: ya
SuPerStArShinE: w/e
AvatarKatara: ya
AvatarKatara: this is boring
AvatarKatara: lets leave pheo
SuPerStArShinE: kk ko
Chat Room Host: AvatarKatara and SuPerStArShinE have left the room.
freakyfreak: good.

"Hahahahahahahaha! That was awesome..." Kagome said as she left the room, only to be IMed by one of its occupants.
(Ba-dring)
SugarBabiAngelChic: r u really ko?
AvatarKatara: ya
SugarBabiAngelChic: thats fuckin awesome
AvatarKotaru: lol h/o ima change my sn again -doo doo doo-
OnceUponAPotti: heehee
SugarBabiAngelChic: onceuponapotti?
OnceUponAPotti: heeheehee
-doo doo doo-
ToyasGurl: better?
SugarBabiAngelChic: ya...

A few hours later

"Mwa ha ha! That was damn funny!" Kagome laughed over the phone to Pheonix. "Can you believe those people?"
"'Ya, sure, anyone can pretend they're famous people.' 'You liars'."
"Ha ha ha. But that 'SugarbabiAngelchic' believed me."
"Really?"
"Yesness."
"Cool."
"I changed my screename again, though."
"To what this time?" Pheonix sighed, opening up her buddy list to change Kagome's name once again.
"xXxOceanGlarexXx."
"Cool."
"Hey, me and Toya are going to the movies tomarrow. Why doncha bring Kenji?"
Pheonix laughed, "Ok."

Ding dong-
"Pheonix, open up, it's us."
"Oh, hi." The small girl said as she opened the door to reveal 'xXxOceanGlarexXx', '1NOnlyDoGGoD', and 'Kenjifootaballa-StaR'.
She walked out of her house and they all got into Kagome's car.
"So, what movie are we seeing?" Pheonix asked, and Kagome smiled.
"Boogeyman."
"Coolieness."
InuYasha started the car, and they were off.

They arrived at the theater a few minutes later and they piled out of the car, racing each other to get inside the building.
There was shrieking, pulling hairand the girls were pretty bad, too.
Well, they finally got into the building, got their tickets, went into their theater, and found some seats They got settled with their popcorn, and watched the screen.
The little clip in he beginning with the talking trashcans telling you tothrow at your trash and not to talk came on and InuYasha stood out of excitement. "WOO! THIS IS THE BEST PART!"
"SHUT UP YA GAY ASS HOMO!" Someone yelled, and while sticking his tongue out, InuYasha sat down.
Kagome and Pheonix laughed, and looked to the screen for the coming attractions.

2 Hours Later

All 4 of them were laughing their heads off as they walked out of the theater.
"The crow hits his window and he just turns the windshield wipers on!"
"Wa ha ha!"
The hopped into the car and drove off to Kagome and InuYasha's house.
They turned the radio on to their favorite Motown station when inside, and danced the night away.

xXxOceanGlarexXx: heyho
SuPerStArShinE: u just call me a hoe?
xXxOceanGlarexXx: no
SuPerStArShinE: o ok...
xXxOceanGlarexXx: ne wayz.
xXxOceanGlarexXx: im bored
SuPerStArShinE: me2
xXxOceanGlarexXx: hey kenji toya sango miroku and sachi are all online lezgo into a private chat
SuPerStArShinE: how r u and toya on at same time?
xXxOceanGlarexXx: social studies teacher made him go 2 the library to studi and he downloaded AIM on one of da comps SuPerStArShinE: w/ permission?
xXxOceanGlarexXx: no lol
SuPerStArShinE: lol
Kaguya-no-Pheo: hee hee lezzgo
xXxOceanGlarexXx: heh ok

Chat Room Host: Kaguya-no-Pheo has now entered the room.
Chat Room Host: xXxOceanGlarexXx has now entered the room.
Chat Room Host: KillMiroku has now entered the room.
Chat Room Host: SangoRoxMySox has now entered the room.
Chat Room Host: 1NOnlyDoGGoD has now entered the room.
Chat Room Host: Kenjifootaballa-STARa has now entered the room.
Chat Room Host: Kaguya-no-Pheo has now left the room.
Chat Room Host: PheoNixGotDaKixSoccerGoddess has now entered the room.
PheoNixGotDaKixSoccerGoddess: hi
KillMiroku: hi
SangoRoxMySox: yo
KenjifootaballaSTARa: hey
xXxOceanGlarexXx: hey everybodi
Chat Room Host: b4k0ffM3h64 has entered the room.
b4k0ffM3h64: hey dis is Sachi
Chat Room Host: PheoNixGotDaKixSoccerGoddess has now left the room.
Chat Room Host: NixxieSoccrAlStar97 has now entered the room.
b4k0ffM3h64: xmas is in 7 days
xXxOceanGlarexXx: ya cool huh?
1NOnlyDoGGod: duh
xXxOceanGlarexXx: shut up
1NOnlyDoGGoD: y dont u!
KillMiroku: rnt u2 in loof?
xXxOceanGlarexXx: wut bout u and mir-mir?
KillMiroku: NO!
SangoRoxMySox:(
KillMiroku: stop it!
xXxOceanGlarexXx: lmao
NixxieSoccrAlStar97: heheheheh

2 Days Later(in case you don't know, b4k0ffM3h64 is Sachi, SangoRoxMySox is Miroku, 1NOnlyDoGGoD is InuYasha, Kenjifootaballa-STARa is Kenji, xXxOceanGlarexXx is Kagome, NixxieSoccrAlStar97 is Pheonix, and KillMiroku is Sango.)

"Christmas is in 5 friggin' days!" Kagome exclaimed, then turned to InuYasha and screamed. "What're you getting me? What're you getting me!" She grabbed his collar and started shaking him, his head bobbing back and forth. "WHAT'RE YOU GETTING ME!"
"I'm I'm dead then nothing!"
She stopped and let go off his colar and looked to the sky in a thoughtful manner. "Y'know...you're right." She shook her head, "Anyways, me and Pheonix have a local mall concert this Thursday. Remember, you must drive."
"It's your car!" InuYasha argued.
"But there's a rule: whoever drives, pays the gas. And as of the moment, I am broke."
She ran away so he couldn't get another word in, and he grunted, mumbling something about "crazy people wrecking his shirt".

3 Days Later

"Drive on, baby boy, drive on!" Pheonix cried, laughing as she kicked InuYasha's seat and tried to make him drive faster.
"Please, we don't want to miss Christmas Eve! Which is tomarrow!" Kagome cried, laughing as well and pushing him in the arm.
"GUYS, I'm gonna CRASH."
"If you do, we'll sue!" Pheonix shrieked, and he only snorted.
They reached the mall and quickly got out of the car.
Like little girls, they dragged InuYasha into the Employees Only entrance of the mall.
A man turned and faced them, a little shocked, then smiled.
"Right, Kaguya no Ko, your stage is outside, in the center, by the fountain."
Kagome and Pheonix nodded, then ran out to set up their supplies.
About 20 minutes later they had finishedm and people had already started to come around the mini stage.
"Hey everybody," Kagome shouted without a microphone, and they cheered.
She laughed and went over to turn on the mics and speakers, and Pheonix almost tripped over a wire while telling the band to get ready.
"Ok, you guys are frikkin' lucky getting a free concert from us...I know you're so pissed we won't shut up, so... we'll start singing now, ok?" Pheonix asked, and they cheered once more.
Probably because she shut up.
Either way, the band started their instruments and the concert started.
Woohoo.
The next day was Christmas Eve, and it was snowing. Not the slushy, mushy, wet and frozen socks kind of snow, but the snow that crunched when you stepped on it and was perfect for making snowmen and snowballs. (I've lived in Connecticut all my life. Believe me, snow during winter and fall and even March is our thing...and then, a few days later when late March and early Aprillike now come, all the snow is gone, it rains a bit, and it's fo frikkin' hot that you're wearing shorts and tank tops and wish you had a slushie machine)
InuYasha and Kenji were outside trying to copy Super bowl Sunday with snow footballs while Sango, Kagome, Sachi, Pheonix, and Miroku were all inside decorating the tree.
Miroku was only there to grab something other than ornaments.
Of course, Sachi and Pheonix had taken up the school wrestling team.
So, he obviously ended up on the ground, all alone under the mistletoe.
Unconsious.
A few minutes later InuYasha and Kenji came in from snow football and everyone sat around the TV to watch some Christmas specials while eating candycanes.
When the special was over, everyone except InuYasha and Kagome went into another room to play a little game of spin the bottle.
Miroku's spin always landed on Kenji.
The girls said they had nothing to do with it, but...

Kagome and InuYasha decided on cuddling on the couch, listening to the Christmas CDs.
"Merry Christmas...Eve, I mean." Kagome said, hugging the necklace that InuYasha had gotten her to her chest, and InuYasha returned the holiday cheers.
"Look, mistletoe." He said, staring at the ceiling with a grin.
"Yeah, wise guy. I'm not blind, I saw Miroku sneak in here and put it there after you threatened him to do so. But otherwise, I'm thankful." She said, kissing the dog boy fully on the lips.
"Merry Christmas."

January!
Almost February...
Anyways, it's January! Christmas specials gone(thank God), and hot cocoa still alive!
It was now the 30th of January, nd everyone was actually already getting ready for Valentine's Day.
Ok, maybe not everyone, but Miroku sure was happy...
For one, this year he would be turning 18.
And, unsurprisingly, on international lover's day.
February 14th.(No surprise here...)

New Year's had been an...exciting time for everyone...

(FB)
"Just 5 hours till New Year's!" Sachi screamed, holding a bottle of wine towards the ceiling.

"Yeah, and no wine or champagne till midnight." Kagome said, but Sachi shook the comment off with her hand.

"Nonsense, we have 8 bottles! It won't hurt." Sachi opened up the bottle and started chugging it.

"Pass it...on..." She said with a -hic-, handing it to Pheonix, who followed suit.

Now, Pheonix was much smaller than everyone else, so she got drunk quicker...and harder.
After a few minues she had her head hung over the toilet, chanting over and over... "Must...break...habit..."

2 hours passed, only 3 hours to midnight.
2 more hours passed, only 1 hour to midnight.
Finally, it was 11:59, and the countdown began.

"10...9...8...7..."

They stared with excitement at the ball dropping on TV, "6...5...4...3..."

Only 2 seconds.

"2...1!"

Everyone cheered and kissed their partner while Sachi chugged a bottle of champagne.

"Celebrate!" She screamed in a drunken voice.

And everyone drank along.

Again.

(End FB)

Yes, yes, very exciting.

Kagome and InuYasha sat up all night January 30th, they knew it was month 6, and they were excited.

This was the time when they would find out if they succeeded...or not.

It was now morning, and they're excitement...had been lost.

They were watching an early morning show, fighting over the remote.

"I wanna watch DIGIMON!"

"Well, I wanna atch DRAGON BALL GT!"

"Too bad!"

"No, too bad for YOU!"

"Too bad for YOU!"

"No, too bad for YOU!"

"TOO BAD FOR YOU!"

"No, too bad for-"

"Ah! InuYasha, shut up for a minute!" Kagome cried, staring down at her right hand.

"What? What is it?" InuYasha also lookd down at Kagome's hand and paused.

Her hand was crumbling to the floor in a pile of grey ash.

"What...the...HECK!"

(To take your mind off things...)--

"Sango, you know my birthday is in a couple weeks...on LOVER's day..."

"So?"

"So...LOVER's day...what's my present?"

"Ew, you pervert!"

(Back to InuKag...)--

"Y, your hand..."

"I, I know..."

The ash continued to fall all the way up to her elbow and all they could do was stare.

"Did we...fail?"

"No, that's not it." They heard a voice say, and turned to look at the speaker.

It was the same person who had told them they had gotten a nother chance a while back.

"H, hey... uhm..."

"Mana."

"Ok, Mana, is we didn't fail...then...MY HAND!" Kagome cried, and Mana winced.

"Right, that. Well, there's an explanation for that... you see...when you died... you were cremated. InuYasha was buried, but you were cremated. So that means we only had a jar of ash to resurrect you with...and now I guess that's coming back at us. But we can fix it!"

"You better!" Kagome cried, trying to pick up the ashes and put them back onto her hand.

"Yeah, yeah...come with me..." Mana said, and they left in a flash of white light with her.

"Ok, so you need to come to the head dude person," Mana said, and Kagome and InuYasha looked at her in a confusing way. "The guy that rules everything..."

"God?" Kagome asked.

"Buddha? The FBI?" InuYasha asked.

"No, no, none of them...a different 'guy',"

"George W. Bush?"

"No,"

"Thank God..." Kagome said.

"You mean Thank the FBI!" InuYasha countered.

"Whatever..."

"No, no, it's none of them!" Mana shouted, "It's a different guy. And he'll fix your ar- uh, right side..."

Kagome looked down.

Her whole right arm along with half of her torso was gone. "Agh!"

"Yeah, yeah, scary. Now come on."

InuYasha and Kagome hurriedly followed behind her, and they reached two large, dark blue doors.

"Come in." Said a voice from behind the doors, and they walked in.

"Hello, my name is Kagome Higurashi, and I'm like...falling APART!"

"Yes, I know." A man in a large chair said. "It's because you were cre-"

"I know the story! Fix me!"

"Uh, Kagome, you shouldn't talk to him that way..."

"No, no, it's fine. And I can fix you in a very short time. Come closer,"

Kagome walked up to the chair as fast as she could and stared the man right in the eyes.

"Stand still, don't move at all." His hand glowed a white shade of color and he moved it up and down where her side would be.

Slowly, the ash stopped falling and flesh began to replace it, until all the way up to the tips of her fingers were there, glowing the same white as the man's hand.

The thing was, it regained her flesh, not her clothing.

"Ah...Ee!" Kagome cried as she backed away from him, covering up. Thank you, that's enough, we should go now!" Kaogme ran away and grabbed InuYasha's hand with her free one and ran out of the blue doors, appearing back in their house in a flash of white.

"Err...never speak of this moment." Kagome said, letting go of InuYasha's hand in a huff and running up to her room to change. "NEVER!"

"This is...stunted growth, I think." Kagome said, and Pheonix frowned.

"But what's causing it?"

A Little While Earlier--

"Small li'l' Pheonix tinks she'll get some chippies from the counter, but she's too small!" Ai said during the Valentine's Day Party at Sachi's house.

Everyone in the 11th grade was invited.

"You know what, Ai, I seriously don't care..." Pheonix trailed off.

"And Kotaru, you can't even see your toes anymore, you don't need anymore fatty foods!"

Kagome walked up to Ai and smirked.

"You're right, I can't see my toes looking directly down...but for a different reason." She said, motioning with her eyes toward her chest, "And at least these are real."

"Excuse me? We wouldn't know that." Ai said with a look in her eye, and Kagome cocked her head.

"Oh, you may be right, Ai..." Kagome said, pulling the toe-head into a hug from the back. "We'll see." She pulled away from Ai with harsh force, only to have half of Miss Prissy's bra snap off and tissu paper go flying from one side.

"Ha ha ha!" Pheonix laughed, "Even I am bigger than you!"

"Well, Kotaru is still fake! Ai thrashed out at Kagome, only to miss, and run away out the door.

"BITCH!" You could hear her yell from outside.

"You know, Pheonix...I have been wondering why you're such a short person." Kagome said after everyone had left. "How long have you been so tiny?"

"...Ever since the 5th grade. The only thing that's changed on me since then is my face. Nothing else."

"How tall are your parents?"

"My dad is 6'1" and my mom is 5'11"..."

Kagome paused, "Well...have you gotten...you know."

"No...never. And I'm 18!"

"Did you ever tell a doctor?"

"No..."

"Well you should...this is...stunted growth, I think." Kagome said, and Pheonix frowned.

"But what's causing it?"

"I don't know...I haven't seen that episode of House...now come on, I'll drive you to the hospital."

"What? No! You can't make me!"

"OH, but I can." Kagome grabbed Pheonix's arm and dragged her out to her car, stuffing her inside and starting it up.

"NO, Kotaru!"

Kagome backed out of the driveway without a word and got onto the road.

They were halfway through the hospital parking lot and Pheonix still hadn't stopped her complaints.

"No, I don't wanna go! Kotaruuuuuuuu!"

"Oh, come on!" Kagome said, parking the car and pulling her best friend out of it. "Come on."

"No! You can't make me go! I won't go!" Kagome paused and looked at her.

"You know what, fine. Let's go back, then."

"Thank you!"

They both got bac into the car and drove all the way back to the house.

Failure!

That night Pheonix slept over InuYasha's and Kagome's house, and InuYasha was woken abruptly.

"AOW!"

He fell out of his bed from the volume of the scream, and he was truly angry.

"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!" He yelled, standing up ang going over to the girl's room. "WHAT is going ON?" He repeated.

"I don't know..." Kagome said, looking to her friend, "I think she's got appendicits."

So there they were in the car again.

Pheonix wa moaning in the backseat and Kagome was urging InuYasha to speed up.

They pulled into the hospital parking lot and opened the doors of the car.

"This is our second trip to the hospital tonight..." Kaogme trailed off, pushing Pheonix in through the hospital doors and up to a receptionist's desk with a woman who looked quite bored.

"Uhh, my friend, bad appendix!" Kagome yelled to the woman, who only sighed and only spoke when a doctor came out of a room.

"Appendicitis. Short kid." The woman said.

The doctor looked up, and when he saw Kagome and InuYasha, his face took on a startled look.

"Right!" He grabbed Pheonix and pushed her to another doctor with a quick: "Appendicitis. ER. NOW.", and then he pulled Kagome and InuYasha into a different room.

"Wha, what's going on?" Kagome asked once the door was slammed shut, and the doctor looked at her.

"Thank God," He said, "Listen, it's not our fault, and the guy was captured, and we couldn't reach you because you didn't give us any info, and--"

"Stop babbling and get on with it!" InuYasha yelled.

"Right, right... ok, so there was this man who sent us sugar pills instead of brith control pills...and those pills were given to you, Kotaru. The man was caught and put in jail, and we couldn't reach you earlier because you never gave us a number, or address, or anything like that! and it's already been about 3 months, so it's too late..."

Kagome couldn't say anything.

"I'm sorry about this...didn't you notice anything?" The doctor trailed off.

"No, it's...it's not your fault. But...so...I...I'm... Well, Ai did say I was getting fat, but she's Ai."

"Yeah..."

"Oh, dammit!" Kagome cried, slapping her forehead and looking to InuYasha. "Damn it all!"

For the next few hours, Kagome and InuYasha waited in the waiting room for their small friend, and they were delighted when she was wheeled out in a wheelchair to greet them.

"Hey, guys." She said. "It wasn't only my appndix that was bad..." She said, "There were other things, that were stunting my groth and junk. But...they fixed that too."

Kagome smiled.

She was happy for her friend.

Pheonix rode on InuYasha's back out to the car, and they drove back to the Watanabe/Mikage residence.

Sure, someone who had just had surgery would not be let out so early, but InuYasha and Kagome were two very persuasive teens...

But that wouldn't fix Kagome's own little problem.

Yeah, 'little'.

Today was the 15th of February.
So there was school.
Of course, with last night's little run to the hospital, all of the three under the Mikage/Watanabe household that day truly did not feel like school.
So they stayed home.
Eating ice cream.
Hey, how would you feel is you were told that you were 3 months pregnant, or had to get surgery, on Valentine's Day?
Yeah, Miroku brings hell with his birth.
Damn you, Miroku!
But anyway...
Here they were on a Monday, skipping school.
Pheonix was allowed Kagome's bed, because the couch would be too rough on where she had been cut open, so Kagome...made some 'room' on InuYasha's bed.
"If you don't move over, you sleep on the floor!"
"You can't make me!"
"You know I do have some things left from my shrine!"
"Like what?"
"Beads!"
"Jewelery? Hmph. Hey! Don't put them on-"
"Sit boy!"
"-Thud-"
Yeah, room.

Pheonix lay on Kagome's bed, staring at the ceiling, with nothing else to do except lie there.
Well, she couldn't just not stay in bed after an organ was taken out of her body... and medicines and other things had gone in or out of her to fix her stunted groth 'disease'.

Kagome was already on the couch with the TV on.
But she was staring at her stomach.
A litle less than 3 months pregnant.
With a loser named 'Hojou's child.
Hey, she did know some 'spirit-people, maybe they could give the kid some...genetic improvement?
And what kind of name was 'Hojou' anyhow?
It reminded her of that place, 'Howard Johnson's'...the worst 'hotel' in the WHOLE world...believe me.
Either way...
Mika was most likely a 'bit' angry at how many times they skipped school...but, hey, this was a time when skipping was fine!
Right?

2 weeks passed, and it was the first of March.
Pheonix was up and able to go to school, and Kagome and InuYasha decided to go with her. Yes, they skipped two weeks of school.
But they all just weren't up to facing so many people at once yet.

With the two weeks Pheonix had a little growth spurt and shot up an inch and a half, and Kagome pressured her to admit she had gotten 'it', but InuYasha only complained that here was one more chic to have mood swings every month.

The bell rang that morning at school, signaling first period, but Pheonix and Kenji were too busy catching up. He was a little scared at her new height
(though he was still taller than her), and she showed off her surgery scar.
Mika was pretty eager to know why the 3 teens skipped so much school, but she understood.

Tomarrow, March 2nd, was Kagome's 18th birthday. Let's hope she doesn't bring hell like Miroky's birth-no-doomday had.

"And a happy birthday to a Miss Kotaru Watanabe of Kaguya no Ko...but this year when she turns 18, she brings something else with her...Kotaru Watanabe, 3 1/2 months pregnant-"
-CLICK-
"In other news, 18 year old Kotaru Watanabe has been a bit busy with an upcoming child-"
-CLICK-
"How the HELL did they find out!" Kagome cried, throwing the remote control at the TV screen, "HOW!"
"I don't know! Me and Pheonix didn't tell ANYONE..." InuYasha replied. "It was probably that damn doctor!"
"Eerrrrrrrrrgh! This is not awesome..."
Kagome picked up the newspaper, and there on the first page, was her face, and a headline.
"Only 18 Years Old. Is It Her Boyfriend's Child?"
"GOOOOOOOOD! THIS IS INSANE!" She rolled up the newspaper and threw it across the room. "Pheonix got her appendix taken out, but do you see THAT in the headlines? NO!"
InuYasha cleared his throat, and she looked to him.
"WHAT!" She snapped, and he motioned to a magazine with a headline, "Pheonix's Appendiz and her Growth Spurt".
"Oh shut UP!"

"So, Kotaru, is it true?" An interviewer asked on the set of a talkshow, and Kagome glared at him.
"Actually...it is."
"WOW! How? I mean, I know how, but who? Why? when? Is the fatther that kid with the silver hair?"
Kagome sighed. "No...3 months ago...it was this dude Hojou, and he kinda...kidnapped me and...yeah."
"A rape!"
"Yes, ok!"
"Wow...so what will you name the kid?" The way-over enthusiastic interviewer said, and Kagome shook her head.
"I don't know!"
"Well, think about it!"
"But-"
"THINK!"
"Alright, alright!"
"Well?"
"I DON'T KNOW!"

"What WILL you name the kid?" InuYasha asked when they were backstage.
"Why me? It'll be your kid, too."
"What? But-"
"But nothing. From now on it's yours."
Kagome said with a smirk, and InuYasha backed away, slowly.
"Fine, whatever. Just don't look at me like that..."
Kagome laughed and looked at the ceiling. "Names..." She started, "What about American names?"
"Why?"
"I dunno...'cause for a girl I like the name Roxanne."
"'Roxanne'?"
"Yeah! And her nickname would be Roxi. So how about it?"
((This is actually my favorite name for a girl. I always say that I'm going to have 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy. There names will be Roxanne, Pheonix, and Sean(Shawn). That's where I got the name Pheonix from also. Heh.))
"Ok...what about a boy?"
"Uhm...Sean?"
"Sean?"
"Yeah, I like that name!"
"Ok...what if it's not a boy or a girl?"
"Eh?"

"You mean, you'll really keep the kid?"
"Of course!" Kagome replied to her friend, Pheonix, "I don't wanna dump it somewhere."
"Yeah, that would be a real 'Kodomo no Omocha' game. Ok, so what will you name it?"
((You wouldn't get this unless you read the manga by Miho Obana titled 'Kodomo no Omocha' (aka 'Kodocha').))
"Sean, or Roxanne. Kagome said proudly.
"Oh, American names."
"Yup."
"That reminds me...we're going to America in May, right?"
"Yeah! I forgot about that..."
"Wil you still go?" Pheonix asked, with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"I don't know if I can..."
"Dammit! I'll be all alone!"
"You'll have Kenji, though!"
"..."
"What? Are you two breaking up or something?"
"Well, no...but things are...different...I don't think we'll last that much longer."
"Ohhhh!"
"Oh shut up!"
"Heh heh heh. Anywaysm why are you so...on the rocks?"
"I don't know...he's not really the kinda guy I wanna be with..."
"Really? Well, what kind of guy do you want?"
"Well..." Pheonix started, and tried to think.
Maybe the guy she wanted wasn't so far away, she thought, and she remembered a very tall man she had met not so long ago...

At the moment, all seemed well.
Even with a pregnancy and all the other problems plunged onto Kagome's shoulders, she seemed perfectly fine in dealing with them.
For one, she had InuYasha with her.
Two, she had a very sisterly relationship with Pheonix. A mature sisterly relationship. Not one as where they fight over a simple thing like...oh, who gets the remote for the TV, and break out in a brawl over it.
Plus, she gained even stronger bonds with Miroku and Sango.
Which was nice, if she could just surpass that little fact that Miroku was such a little perv...
But hey, she was mature enough to know what to do in even that situation.
And over the days she and Sango put Miroku in the hospital.
Of course, he was put merely on Children's Tylenol and water.

But just listen to his complaint stories.
A whiner, and the kind of jock you see in every movie or television show-- pulling just enough good grades to stay on the team, and the ego the size of...well...an egotistical jock's.

But, back to the little subject I was going on with earlier.
The pregnancy.
She had the support of all of Japan to make it through this! She was famous!
Plus the thing where she decided to change 'Kaguya no Ko' to either 'Kaguya wa Ko' or simply 'Kaguya Ko', with the teeny-weeny fact that 'Kaguya no Ko' would actually translate to 'Shining's Ko', instead of what they decided on earlier, 'Shining Ko'. So they changed it to 'Shikon No Ko' which translated to Shinning Star.

But that was the least of her problems.