Recap: "So, you guys, you know me and Inuyasha have to study for our big exam coming up right?" Kagome reminded.
…"I can tell this weekend is going to be tons of fun…" Kagome sighed, teardropping.
Another Life
Chapter 4: Pass or Bust!
"Kagome… Kagome, wake up," a soft, womanly voiced whispered.
Kagome could feel someone shaking her softly, as the world was coming into view through her blurry, sleep-ridden eyes.
"Eh…" Kagome mumbled.
She sat upright, and groggily looked toward the person that woke her up.
"Sango? What are you doing here so early?" Kagome asked sleepily still. "It's… sixty thirty in the morning! Who wakes up this early on a weekend?" Kagome yelled.
"Well, I do for starters, and so does Miroku and Inuyasha," Sango replied.
"Unintentionally!" came Inuyasha's voice from outside her bedroom door.
Miroku came through her door, tugging Inuyasha by his shirt, who also looked just as sleepy as Kagome. Both were dressed in loose shorts, tank tops, and running shoes. Miroku's shorts were a deep purple, and his tank was a navy blue wife-beater (A/N: I know I hate the name for these shirts but it's the only way to explain them, as if Miroku would ever be a wife-beater!). Inuyasha had the same, but red shorts and a white shirt. Now that things were coming into focus, Sango had on similar workout clothing, but more fitting for a woman of course: a halter white tank with a cross in the back and tight pink shorts that came to mid-thigh.
"Wait, what's going on here? Are we going to the gym?" Kagome asked.
"Close enough. We're going running to get your brain juices flowing and get down to studying, or did you forget that it was your idea to study this weekend?" Sango responded.
"Running? This early?" Kagome complained.
"That's what I said," Inuyasha chipped in.
"Now, now, Sango has a point. If you guys want to pass the Chemistry final, you have to be in the right state of mind. Exercising does help clear the body of ill feelings, making room for ONLY chemistry. Because, face it, you guys only have room for that, or you have no hope…" Miroku reminded.
"Aw, man…" both Kagome and Inuyasha sighed.
"Miroku! That isn't helping! They need their confidence up right now, and running will help them do just that. It always makes me feel that way," Sango clarified.
"Alright, alright. Sango can you help me pick something out? I'm still only half awake," Kagome asked while wobbling out of bed and into the bathroom.
"So… where exactly are we going anyway?" Inuyasha managed to say after running for about 15 minutes.
Everyone else, besides Sango, looked exhausted from running about a mile. Sango was leading them all, while Kagome was several steps behind, holding her side and panting. Miroku and Inuyasha held up the back side by side, jogging at a tired pace. Miroku had to slide his glasses up to his eyes from so much sweat on his perspirating face.
"We're going to my secret place, it'll be worth it, just wait a bit longer," Sango smiled.
At hearing that their destination was close, Kagome got up the courage to run harder and have a little fun the rest of the way: "Why do you ask anyway Inuyasha, you're not tired yet, are you?"
"Is that a challenge?" he retorted.
"Last one there has to carry the other one back!" Kagome yelled, as she was able to get a head start.
She quickly passed Sango in a frenzy with Inuyasha close behind yelling back: "I hope you can carry a lot of weight Kagome, because you're not gonna beat me!"
Miroku soon joined Sango at her side as she stared at them stunned.
"Those two are always at it, aren't they?" he laughed.
"Afraid so, and they don't even realize that they've passed where we're heading either," she sighed.
"Inuyasha, Kagome! Come back!" Miroku shouted, while coming to a halt beside Sango.
"Well, I suppose we can take a quick peek while they head on back," Sango decided.
She pulled away a bush on the left, and then the right, to reveal a huge lake, with a sandy beach a few steps away from it. There was a small man-made island type square in the middle, for which one could swim towards and relax on. Since it was still early, the sun was a little less than half way in the sky and it touched the water at an angle that made it glisten like a million little sparkles.
"Wow, Sango, how did you find this place?" Miroku said in awe.
"I guess you could say, that it kind of found me," she smiled and started to take off her shoes and walk on the sand, feeling it between her toes.
"I stumbled upon it, literally, when I was jogging the path that we just took, and a rogue biker was coming down the opposite way. We both tried to swerve at the last second, when I fell through the opening we just came through. Ever since, it's been my haven away from the hectic world, to just forget for a while, and have some alone time to think."
"Yeah, it is pretty secluded," Miroku agreed, while stepping onto the still cold, and damp sand next to Sango, and putting his arm around the small of her back.
"Sango, Miroku! There you are!" Kagome exclaimed. She was being carried on Inuyasha's back piggyback style as they too, entered through the bush.
"You won Kagome?" Sango asked, surprised.
"Not really, by the time we heard you calling us back, I had passed her," Inuyasha protested.
"But I said that the last one there, would win, which would have made me the first to pass it," Kagome clarified.
"Just a technicality," Inuyasha mocked.
"Well, now that we're all here, this is the surprise! Now we get to swim out to that flat out there and rest up a bit before we head back and get down to business," Sango said, while starting to pull of her shirt, revealing a one piece, halter style, burgundy swim suit.
Inuyasha and Miroku already had their trunks on that doubled as running shorts. Kagome had a similar style suit to Sango, but it was a deep forest green.
Sango put her hair up into a tighter ponytail and dove into the lake, leaving only a small splash behind to let anyone know that the lake had been disturbed at all. The other three soon followed, and Miroku, with no safe place to put his glasses, shrugged and dove in with them still on.
The gang lounged in and around the flat, and in the water until about noon. Sango was right, it did both relax them all physically and mentally. Unfortunately, the fun had to end at some point, and they headed back to Kagome's house for some eats and to get down to business.
Kagome and Inuyasha were assigned to lunch duty, while Miroku and Sango set up the necessary supplies to demonstrate labs and show diagrams of molecular geometry.
"Here we are! Nice peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all! Plus grapes and watermelon to rejuvenate our energy," Kagome presented.
"PB&J?" Miroku asked, with raised eyebrows.
"That was the extent of my culinary work Miroku, so don't complain, and eat up! Anything tastes good when you're hungry!" Inuyasha remarked, and ate his sandwich in two swift bites. Luckily, he had three others to go, having made more for himself.
"Alright, let's get to it," Sango stated.
"First, we will go over liquids and solubility," Miroku started. "What is the universal solvent?"
"Milk?" Inuyasha asked, raising his glass of it before taking three huge gulps to wash down his last sandwich.
Sango sighed, "No Inuyasha, milk isn't even a pure substance. The answer is water. Kagome, do you know why that is?"
"Um, let me see, I know this one… erm, because it's all over the world?" she said, unsure.
"Close," Miroku agreed, and pointed a finger at her knowingly. "But that's only part of why it's universal. The other, is because most solids dissolve in it, or at least form a nice precipitate in it."
"Let's take the ion, sodium nitrate, or NaNO3. It is soluble in water, because the anion Sodium, and the cation Nitrate, both dissolve in water. Only one of them, the cation or the anion, need to dissolve in water for the solid to be soluble in the solvent," Sango explained.
Both Inuyasha and Kagome looked dizzy at Sango's extensive Chemistry vocabulary. Unfortunately, to be good in the class, you have to speak the lingo. While Sango explained, Miroku was demonstrating with an overly perky face, to make it seem like a breeze.
Solubility was then followed by titration of acids and bases, molarity and dilution, and formulas for a hydrate and their respective labs involving liquids.
At this point, they were starting to get the hang of the procedures, and they decided to take a break and watch a funny movie to get their spirits up. Kagome popped in The Emperor's New Groove and sat. They all sat on the couch together, with the girls in the middle, and the guys on the outside. Laughter could be heard throughout the house, until they calmed down enough to compose themselves and start work again.
"Alright, the next order of business is gases, which I personally think is the hardest," Sango warned.
"Let's start with the ideal gas law: PVnRT. Can you tell me what those stand for Inuyasha?" Miroku asked.
"P is for Pressure, V is for Volume, n is for number of moles, T is temperature and R is… Resistance?"
Miroku made a buzzing noise, which had been recently indicating when Kagome or Inuyasha was wrong. "It is the gas constant, that works out the unit problems mostly," Miroku clarified.
"That's basically what you need to know for most gas problems. Also Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures, which states that the total pressure of a gas is equal to the individual pressure of the gases that make up that gas. This mostly applies to a gas that is over water, because water has it's own vapor mixed within it," Sango explained.
Thermochemistry and Heat Fusions then followed gases, and then the review of test taking was administered.
"Okay Kagome, what is the element that has an atomic number of 13?" Sango asked.
"Aluminum. And that means that it has 13 protons and electrons," Kagome answered promptly.
"Good. Inuyasha, which element has a larger ionic radius: Sulfur or Oxygen?" Miroku questioned.
"Sulfur does, because the periodic trend for ionic radius is that it increases as you go across and also as you go down," Inuyasha answered quickly.
"Great explaining you guys! Now Kagome, which intermolecular force is the strongest?" Sango was getting excited at how much they were retaining.
"Hydrogen bonding, which can only happen between Hydrogen and Nitrogen, Oxygen, or Fluorine," Kagome stated.
"The second strongest is dipole-dipole, which occurs in substances that have lone pairs of electron in their structure," Inuyasha added.
"And all substance have London dispersion forces," Kagome and Inuyasha said in unison.
"By George, I think they have it!" Miroku exclaimed.
Kagome and Inuyasha jumped in the air and gave each other a double high five. Miroku and Sango linked their arms around each other's shoulders and praised themselves for being good teachers, before they started cleaning up some of the lab equipment.
"Don't worry Miroku, Inuyasha and I will do that, just so we can go over the names and uses for the equipment together. You know we have to do a lab for the big exam too," Kagome reminded.
"Good idea you guys, Miroku and I will order some food. How's pizza sound? He and I will treat to celebrate your guys hard work!" Sango suggested.
"Sweet! Get the works, I'm starved!" Inuyasha exclaimed, helping Kagome put away some volumetric flasks.
Miroku followed Sango to the kitchen, where the phone was to order four separate boxes of pizza: pepperoni & sausage, vegetarian, meat lovers, and pineapple & ham. These were Sango, Miroku, Inuyasha, and Kagome's favorites, respectively.
Another movie was in order, but the girl's won the fight and chose a sappy romance: Moulin Rouge. Instead of all of them on the couch again, they were a little more spread about the room. Kagome was lying on the couch, crying her eyes out near the end and Inuyasha was nearby. He had his back to the couch, but was sitting on the floor, unusually reading more about Chemistry. But I guess even he would rather do that than see a chick flick.
Sango was sideways on an armchair, her legs dangling off the side and her neck resting on one of the arm rests. Even though this was one of her Top 10 favorite movies, she was fast asleep before it got half way done. Tired from the physical exertion of exercising everyday like she did, and the mental exertion of putting up with Inuyasha and Kagome and teaching with Miroku, she didn't even have the will to change into pajamas. Miroku was on the same armchair, but sitting up right on the armrest that Sango's legs dangled from. He stayed awake the longest and was mostly running about and cleaning up pizza mess, so Kagome's mother wouldn't come home to a chaos of a house.
He always managed to return to his spot though, and in the end, he fell asleep there too. The movie was over, and everyone in the house was asleep. Sango and Kagome rested peacefully, and Inuyasha had let his head rest on the couch to fall asleep sitting. Miroku had fallen asleep in a more uncomfortable position, but minutes after he did fall asleep, he fell in the space between Sango and the back of the armchair. He was now in the same position as Sango, but sideways.
Kagome's mother came home at about midnight, to find them all sleeping quietly. "Isn't that the sweetest thing," she whispered to herself. Kagome's hand had reached out in her sleep to rest on Inuyasha's shoulder. Miroku's arms had crept around Sango, as if she were his comforting teddy bear. Though it was cozy, it didn't look like any of them seemed to mind.
A/N: Hi out there! Sorry that it has been…what? At least 3 months since my last update, but I just haven't been getting things done on time lately. Unfortunately, fanfiction writing is not on the top of my priority list, and other things keep bumping it down, but I refuse to forget it completely, because it makes me happy.
This chapter was especially sentimental for me, because I used to go to a lake every summer, similar to the one described in this chapter, when I was little. It was called Clear Lake and was owned by the grandparents of my cousins. Also, all the information about Chemistry here is accurate, seeing as I took it directly from my own work in that class this year. Most of it just sounds confusing, but is really simple after a while.
Did you enjoy the slight fluff at the end? I know this was mostly filler, but you know me, fluff! I noticed that my characters sure do sleep a lot in this fic… hmm… not really intended, but I love sleep!
Disclaimers: I don't own The Emperor's New Groove or Moulin Rouge, although I have a copy of each on DVD. They are basically two of my favorite movies.
Anyway, it doesn't seem right if I don't have a reason for updating. So, this is in celebration of both of my parents' birthdays. February 24 and 25. Isn't that cool? They are a day apart, even the same year. Although they don't know about my secret life of fanficiton writing, let alone reading, I like dedicating my updates to something. The real reason I updated, you ask? I have a lot more fans on animespiral, and have been getting unusual threats… but they still make me happy! I'm weird, and also easily pleased.
It doesn't mean that I don't love my reviewers here too! Here are the complementary author's notes to their previous reviews:
I am Miroku- Well, well, well, what a charmer. Perceptive aren't we? I'm glad you liked it, being my favorite reviewer and all. When are you getting your stories up anyhow? I hope to hear from you soon. You rascal. LOL
Punk of Pryo- Thanks for the review. I know what you mean about parents though, I usually write my fanfics when no one else is around. Kind of like a secret life of mine.
DarkHeartKeyblade- I first heard the song in my Spanish class too! It's one of my favorites. Thanks for the review.
POLL!
This chapter took more time than usual, because this week I have been working on another story! Yay! It is about Miroku and Sango's daughter, Arashi, which means storm, and Inuyasha and Kagome's son, which I have yet to come up with a name for. That's where you come in! In review, please submit a vote to one of these choices:
1) Inuko (meaning: dog child, or child of Inuyasha)
2) Nagoyaka (meaning: gentle, plus it sounds like Inuyasha and Kagome's names put together, sorta)
3) Your opinion! The name needs to have a meaning with it, and sound cool.
Thanks!
