Author's Note: I didn't get many reviews, but that's okay, I'm still thankful. I guess I'm a bit insecure and sort of think reviews are what makes the story good; reassurance, you know? XD And FT is officially longer than NF. Whoo hoo! I'm going to work VERY hard on this story. :)

Brief: What happens after the mall; the gang starts their first day at Sakura High School.

Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, my name would be Rumiko Takahashi; it isn't though. Pooey.

Chapter 4: Aspiration

Kagome ran, occasionally muttering an apology for bumping into people. She had finally found an empty restroom, went in the biggest stall and started to cry and sob.

'I didn't think it'd be this hard to confront her,' Kagome thought.

After a few minutes, she heard footsteps, and tried to restrain her sobs, toning it down to silent tears. She heard a worried voice speak to her.

"Kagome, are you alright?" It was Ayame.

Kagome sniffed, and wiped her eyes before opening up the stall. Her eyes were red and puffy from the crying.

Ayame looked at her sympathetically. "Why don't you get washed up, Kagome?" Kagome only nodded, not trusting her voice at the moment. She walked towards to sink and looked in the mirror. She examined her red eyes and the swelling that started when she wiped her eyes. 'I look pathetic,' she thought, as she turned on the cold water and splashed it onto her face and eyes. She rolled out a towel from the box, lightly patting her face because of the rough texture of the paper.

Ayame patted her back as Kagome did the occasional sniff and silent hiccup. They walked out of the restroom together, where they found Miroku with his hands in his pockets, Suikotsu slouching and looking down, and Rin looking not so peppy.

Rin was the first to speak to Kagome. "'Gome, are you okay?"

Kagome did her best and pushed on a slight smile. "Yeah, I'm okay, Rin."

Rin didn't look very convinced with the smile, but decided not to push it and smiled back. "I kept your bags for you…" she said.

Kagome gently took the bags from her outstretched hands. "Thanks…"

It was an uncomfortable silence for a while, before Miroku broke it. "Why don't we all get home? It's been a rough day," he said.

Everyone nodded in agreement and went out the nearest exit.

A couple of minutes after Ayame had left, Kikyou had stopped crying. She was still sitting on the floor, arms now loosely hanging around her knees. Her eyes were blank, as if her mind was clear of thoughts. Inuyasha and Sango looked at her worriedly.

Sango spoke softly as she shook Kikyou's shoulders. "Kikyou…" Kikyou didn't snap out of her 'trance', Sango's shaking not affecting her. "Kikyou!" Kikyou blinked, and looked at Sango.

"Are you alright, Kikyou?" Sango asked, while Inuyasha's eyes were furrowed in worry.

Kikyou looked down at her arms, bringing her hands together and fiddling with her fingers. "I-I guess…"

Sango didn't seem satisfied with that answer, and pushed on, ignoring the protests in the back of her head. "Are you sure? Do you want to talk about it?"

Kikyou immediately clenched her eyes shut. "No," she said softly, though inside she wanted to scream 'I do NOT want to talk about it, EVER!'

Sango decided not to push any further, seemingly knowing that Kikyou wanted only to scream at her right now. She sighed, and then held out her hand to Kikyou. "Well, then, why don't we go find a bathroom and get you cleaned up?" Sango suggested, being sure to keep her voice soft.

Kikyou took Sango's hand and let her be pulled up. "Okay," Kikyou replied, walking with Sango and Inuyasha in search of a bathroom.

On the way to the bathroom inside the hallways, Kikyou, Sango and Inuyasha came face to face with Kagome, Ayame, Rin, Miroku, and Suikotsu. The two groups stared silently, and Kikyou was contemplating in her head what she should do. As if her prayers were answered, Kagome made no trouble and merely brushed past them, the others following after her in a line. They didn't pass Kikyou without a look though, with the exception of Suikotsu who just looked down at the floor.

Kikyou frowned. 'What was that little tugging in my heart when Suikotsu didn't look at me?' she thought. She pushed it aside, thinking it was nothing and trudged on to the ladies' room. Kikyou and Sango entered through the pushing door, Inuyasha waiting outside next to a phone booth.

Kikyou somewhat slowly walked toward the sink mirror, as if she didn't want to see how pathetic she looked at the moment. She stared at her reflection; she had red, swollen eyes, tear strained cheeks and her normally sparkling brown eyes looked sad and depressed. She sighed once, and turned on the cold water. She cupped her hands together to gather the water, then splashing it all on her face. She repeated this, feeling dirty somehow.

Women passing by the sink into the stalls stared, confused at why the girl was washing her face furiously.

'How could I have—No, I can't be thinking this right now, I'm trying to stop the crying…' She stopped splashing water onto her face, looking into the mirror and seeing Sango behind her looking at her reflection confused. She ignored the look and walked toward the paper towels. Kikyou didn't care that the drips of water were running down her face and neck, making dark dots onto her baby blue shirt. She pulled out a paper towel and dabbed it around her face and neck silently.

The two girls walked out of the restroom, finding Inuyasha with his eyes closed, hands in his pockets, and leaning back against the wall. "Do you want to go home?" he asked gruffly, looking towards the two.

Sango looked at Kikyou, silently making it her decision. Kikyou merely nodded, exhausted from all the crying and the stress weighing onto her shoulders like constantly falling bricks.

The gang headed to the part of the part of the parking lot their bikes and car were at. Kagome got onto her bike, somewhat lazily. They all drove home, actually following the speed limit this time.

They all parked their vehicles in the mansion's huge garage before going inside the mansion. Kagome immediately climbed up the stairs two steps at a time towards her room. When she got to her room, she changed almost right away into an oversized dark green t-shirt and black silk boxers. She trudged towards her bed and fell onto it, falling asleep as her head hit the pillow.

When they got into the mansion, Miroku noticed Kagome had quickly went towards the stairs and climb up it two steps at a time. He followed suit towards her room also, but at a slower pace. He ascended the stairs tiredly, and sighed. 'Why couldn't we have some kind of built-in elevator or something? These stairs are killing me…'

Miroku had finally reached Kagome's door, and turned the knob, opening it. He stared at the sight. Kagome was on her bed, in a somewhat diagonal position, sleeping. She hadn't made her bed in the morning, and her covers were down; she hadn't bothered the pull them up to sleep. She was sleeping on her stomach, right cheek on her pillow and left leg hanging off the bed. Miroku slightly smiled.

He walked across the plush black colored carpet, towards the balcony. He closed the curtains, effectively blocking out the sunlight (It was only three in the afternoon). Miroku then walked over the Kagome, picking up her left leg and placing it on the bed, then pulling up the covers to keep her warmer. He stood in front of her, staring at her calm sleeping face and his eyes softened. 'She's really had a rough day, hasn't she…?' He bent over and gently kissed Kagome on the forehead, tucking her in a little more. 'Have a nice sleep…'

And with that, he walked out of the room, quietly closing the door as not to bother the calm atmosphere in her room.

Inuyasha, Kikyou, and Sango walked outside of the mall in an awkward silence. They walked towards Inuyasha's car, and went in; Kikyou in the passenger seat and Sango in the back.

The car ride was silent, the humming of the motor somehow soothing Kikyou. It was all quiet, and Inuyasha couldn't stand it and turned on the radio. It was in the middle of the song 'Stick Wit U' by the Pussycat Dolls. As the song ended, Inuyasha halted in front of Kikyou's house. It looked much like her old house, which was pretty much what made her parents want to buy it. It was the same two-storied light blue colored house. Kikyou sat there, still, for a while before waving them goodbye and walking out of the car.

Inuyasha made sure Kikyou was inside her house before starting the car again and driving off to Sango's house to drop her off. Sango started to speak.

"That was pretty weird, huh? At the mall…"

Inuyasha continued driving, and then replied. "Yeah, I wonder what that was all about."

Sango's face features softened a bit, then speaking in a softer tone. "I guess Kikyou wasn't really always that happy peppy girl we know… she probably has a rough past in Kyoto with those people."

"Yeah, but I could tell that Kagome girl really cared about Kikyou. That other girl, the wolf youkai, said that Kagome didn't blame Kikyou for someone… Souta or something dying."

"Yeah, I think they said that was Kagome's brother that died? She must be really caring…" Sango said.

She was answered by a mere 'mm hmm', and that's where their conversation stopped. Inuyasha soon stopped in front of Sango's house, where she thanked him for dropping her off and said goodbye, disappearing behind her white colored door.

Inuyasha drove off, and then stopped at a red light. He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed.

'Today was one confusing day…'

3 hours later…

Kagome POV

I woke up and groaned, turning over. I looked over at her digital clock; it read "6:00 PM". I noticed that the balcony curtains were closed and that my comforter was covering my body. 'Miroku must have tucked me in,' I smiled softly.

I lay down for a while, and then reluctantly pushed myself up into a sitting position in bed, getting up and stretching. I heard my stomach growling as I was stretching my back.

'I guess I'm a bit hungry… I haven't eaten lunch yet,' I thought, wanting to go downstairs to the kitchen and eating right away.

I opened the door and went down the stairs and into the kitchen, where I found Miroku and Kouga eating some ramen. Kouga was the first to notice me, since he was facing the way where he could see the door. "Hey, Kagome."

I jerked my head up in acknowledgement; too busy making a bowl of ramen for myself. I turned around while waiting for my ramen to cook and Miroku turned around with noodles stuffed into his mouth, muffling out what sounded like "Hey" through the ramen. I think he was trying to grin, too, because his mouth was turning upwards a bit through what I could see behind the noodles hanging out of his mouth. I covered my mouth and laughed at him a bit; he looked like a retard!

Miroku furrowed his eyebrows, looking at me confused. He swallowed all of the noodles and asked, "What are you laughing at?"

That only made me laugh harder, and I answered him. "You looked so retarded with that grin and all those noodles hanging out of your mouth!"

Miroku pouted, which was rare but funny. "There's nothing funny about that!" he yelled.

Author's POV

Kagome giggled a more and replied with a mere, "Okay". She realized that her ramen noodles were done cooking, so she grabbed the chopsticks that were on top of the bowl and set them on the table. She peeled out the covering, smelling the fragrance of the noodles as steam rose from the soup. Her stomach growled in anticipation and just… starvation.

She brought the noodles to the kitchen table and sat beside Miroku. Immediately, she began slurping the delicious noodles. Miroku, even if he had been eating his own bowl of ramen, was staring at Kagome's noodles hungrily with wide eyes. 'That looks… so… good…' You could just see the drool dripping into a large puddle under his mouth…

Miroku reached out to try and grab some noodles from her bowl. He was almost there… but as soon as his hand was hovering over the bowl, poised to snatch her noodles, Kagome put down her chopsticks and smacked his hand. "Miroku, you already ate!"

Miroku retracted his hand and crossed his arms. "But I'm still hungry!" he whined.

"Well too bad, these are my noodles!" Kagome said in a mocking voice.

Miroku stuck his tongue out. The two then heard somewhat hysterical laughing coming from across the table, which is of course where they looked to. There, Kouga was on the floor, going into hysterics. Miroku and Kagome looked at each other confusedly and asked Kouga what exactly was just so funny.

As Kouga stifled a few more laughs, he answered. "Well, you two just looked like… I don't know, bickering little kids."

Kagome stared at him, and then defied it. "We are not like little kids!" she said, pouting.

Kouga just pointed at her pouting self. "You see that? Childish!"

Kagome crossed her arms and built up a furious glare built up at Kouga. He gulped, and took that as a sign to not label her 'childish' anymore.

Monday

Kagome awoke from her slumber by an irritating beeping sound, also known as the alarm clock. She groaned and rolled over, slamming her hand over the 'Snooze' button. Miroku, having setting his alarm the same time as hers, burst into her room.

"Kagome, wake up! We have to go to school now," he partially yelled, not wanting the others who didn't go to school to wake up. It was only six in the morning… they'd have a fit.

Miroku heard a muffled voice from under the warm comforter. "Five more minutes, 'Roku…"

He sighed in frustration, and then pulled the covers from Kagome. She immediately curled up into a little ball, trying to contain the remaining warmth; cold air had rushed onto her body the moment he pulled up the covers. Miroku slapped his hand onto his forehead. "Kagome, come on!"

Kagome made a whiny noise, and gave in. "Alright, alright, I'll get ready for school…"

"Now that's a good girl…" he said. Kagome stared at him weirdly.

"Whatever…"

Miroku watched as Kagome lazily walked into the bathroom and closed the door. As soon as he heard the water of the sink turn on, he left the room to finish his own essentials.

Kagome stood at the sink, staring at the mirror a bit and shaking her head as if getting the sleep away from her. She sighed, and turned on the sink water. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and then did her 'thing'. She then walked over to the shower, sliding over the glass door and turning on the warm water. As she saw steam rising from the top of the shower, she shed her clothes and stepped into her relaxing haven.

She washed her hair and washed herself, before stepping out of the shower and wrapping a red colored towel around herself. She picked up her night clothes and dumped them into the hamper. She quickly blow dried her hair and brushed it until it shined. She stepped out of the bathroom, her skin turning red from the contrast of the hot shower and the cool air.

She walked into her closet and chose her outfit for the day. She put on some blue and black plaid boy's boxers over her underwear and hooked on her other piece of undergarment. She slipped a plain dark blue colored wife beater over her head, and then grabbed some Dickies pants. She sagged them, showing the boxers she was wearing. She put on some blue ankle socks and slipped on a pair of low gray Converse. She grabbed the bottoms of her pants and folded them up on the inside messily, her pants now reaching above her ankles, somewhat making her pants into capris. There was a tattoo of a blue dragon wrapping around her ankle; showing she was a leader of their gang. She was the 'Blue Dragon', signaling her leadership.

Kagome reentered the bathroom, applying her daily clear lip gloss across her naturally fullish lips. She left the rest of her face free of make up, as she usually did, with an exception of some eyeliner every once in a while.

She stared at her reflection, noticing her necklace. It was a blue colored marble, looking mysteriously as if there were mist floating inside. A silver dragon wrapped around the sphere, as if it was possessive of it. A silver chain held up the beautiful design. That necklace meant that she was one of the 'Double Aces'; Kikyou had the other necklace, similar to hers but instead of blue, it was red.

She went into her room and grabbed her black Jansport backpack, walking out and going into Miroku's room. He was slipping on a pair of his all black Vans slip-ons. He wore a fairly tight purple t-shirt and baggy black Dickies pants. He wore a black hoodie over the purple shirt, effectively covering the purple dragon tattoo that wrapped around his right arm's bicep; he was second in command.

Kagome spoke. "Can I raid your closet for a jacket?"

Miroku nodded. "Sure, take what you want to wear."

Kagome walked into Miroku's jacket and went in search of the jacket she had already known she wanted to wear. It was a black zip-up jacket with black, white and gray camouflage print sleeves. She put her arms through the jacket, and left the jacket unzipped. The jacket was fairly big on her; it was Miroku's jacket after all. The bottom of the jacket touched the middle of her behind.

Miroku snatched his backpack from the desk chair and walked down the stairs with Kagome, planning on having a good breakfast.

The people who were going to school finished their breakfast, procrastinating because they didn't want to go to school. Kagome made them hurry up though, not wanting to be late on the first day.

The gang finished eating and they all stepped out of the kitchen and into the garage. The people who were attending Sakura High School (SHS) today were Kagome and Miroku, along with Kouga, Ayame, Rin, Hojou, Suikotsu, and Bankotsu.

The whole group of teenagers got onto their motorcycles (Rin in her car) and drove off to their new high school.

To say the teenagers made a scene at the high school parking lot was an understatement. Everyone in the gang that was going to SHS, with the exception of Rin, was speeding through the parking lots, racing around in circles and doing wheelies and such. They tagged each other, making it look like some kind of tag game. They eventually stopped and went into their parking spaces, pushing down the kickstands of their bikes. Kagome sighed happily and smiled.

"Well, that was fun! We haven't done that in a while," she said.

Kouga grinned and agreed. "We should do this everyday."

"Maybe not particularly in the school parking lot… we kind of made a scene," Miroku said.

Kagome sweat dropped and looked towards the school. Students were staring at them with either wide or disgusted eyes. Kagome could already tell this school was filled with labels and cliques; there were the rich preps (the 'popular' people), the punks, the 'gangsters', the pranksters, the outcasts, the nerds, and the 'normal' people. 'Stupid labeling school,' Kagome thought scowling.

Kagome looked towards the school entrance where a small stair of steps led them to the doors. She spotted Kikyou and her two friends sitting on the steps, talking. They hadn't seemed to notice the little scene the gang made.

The gang walked towards the entrance, student eyes watching their every move, as if they were going to do something bad. As Kagome passed Kikyou and her group, she glanced over the same time as Kikyou. Blue eyes and brown eyes locked together, the blue eyes swirling with emotions. Kikyou backed down and stared back at her friends, Inuyasha and Sango, who were enchanted with Kagome's eyes.

The rest of the gang walked past Kagome to get their schedules. Kagome stared a bit longer, as if waiting to make eye contact again. Once she was sure she wasn't going to get any more, she walked past slowly and onwards to the school office.

The group arrived at the office, seeing a young lady at the office desk; the secretary. "May I help you?" she asked in her sweet voice.

"We're new here, and we need of schedules please," Kagome said politely, not wanting the teachers and staff to think of her poorly on her first day.

The secretary seemed satisfied with her politeness, because she said "Okay!" in a bright voice. "What are your names?"

"Kagome Higurashi, Miroku Lee, Rin Takada, Ayame Shuichi, Kouga Ookami, Hojou Ryo, Bankotsu Kazoku, and Suikotsu Kazoku," Kagome replied, taking in a deep breath after.

"Alright, why don't you all sit on the chairs and wait while I print out your schedules?" the secretary said.

The group looked behind them to find a couple of seats enough for all of them to sit on. They sat, waiting, for about two or three minutes before all their schedules were printed. The secretary gave the papers to them in a stack, the names in alphabetical order. Kagome gave the papers out to each person, according to the bolded capitalized names printed on the top center of the paper.

They compared each other's schedules, and found they all had the same classes. Kagome's delicate eyebrow rose in surprise. 'Was it a coincidence, or did Shippou pull some strings?'

Kagome glanced over their schedules again, and mentally memorized it as an image.

Course Title, Teacher Name, Room, Time

Homeroom, Kazuki,72, 8:00-8:15

Mathematics, Miwa, 86, 8:18-9:10

English Lang., Costello, 102, 9:13-10:05

Chemistry, Namada, 146, 10:08-11:00

History, Myouga, 92, 11:03-11:55

Lunch B, 11:58-12:38

Music, Aizawa, Choir, 12:41-1:33

Physical Ed., Tsubasa, Gym, 1:36-2:28

(I'm sorry about the sort of messy schedule, the preview made the original one all squished up. --")

The others had the exact schedule, with the exception of the boys having a different Physical Education teacher (Shinigawa).

"Well, new students, you should be getting to your Homeroom class; the bell had rang," the secretary's voice rang through the front office, her typing the only other sound. The secretary wrote one pass for the whole group, explaining they were new students and not to mark them tardy.

The group of teens walked out of the office doors, Kagome with their pass, seeing no one in the hallways since the bell had ringed just a few minutes before. Kagome went in search for the homeroom, room 72, as the rest of the gang followed her lead. She glanced at the room numbers that were imprinted above the doors, passing each door until she came to the end of the hall, where to the right, above a door said '72' in bold writing.

Kagome knocked softly on the door, waiting for the teacher to turn the knob and open it. A man that looked of his late twenty's opened the door. Kagome assumed this was Mr. Kazuki. "Yes?" she heard him speak.

Kagome handed him the pass the secretary gave them. "We're new students; is this Mr. Kazuki's class?"

"Oh, yes, the new students! Are all…" Mr. Kazuki looked at his attendance sheet, "eight of you here?" He glanced and counted the number of students there were in front of his door, and checked them all here on the attendance sheet. "Why don't you all stay out here, and I'll say your names and then you'll come in here and maybe introduce yourselves a bit…?" he asked.

The group all nodded in agreement.

"Okay then, I'll call you in alphabetical order but how about… backwards?"

Everyone thought that was okay, but Rin's shoulders slumped. 'I have to go first…?' she groaned. 'Oh well, might as well get over this.'

Mr. Kazuki's voice boomed through the classroom, his homeroom students somewhat anxious to see the new students. "Miss Rin Takada?"

Rin walked into the classroom, as boys stared at her and girls glared in jealousy. Rin was wearing a tight orange t-shirt with a black hooded jacket. She wore a dark blue jean skirt, showing her well-built legs. She wore orange Converse high tops. She cleared her throat a little, preparing to tell a little introduction about herself.

"Umm, I'm Rin Takada, and I'm fifteen years old…" that confession made an outbreak of whispers occur, and she was sure they weren't very good ones, either; with the exception of the smart kids who praised her intellect. "I don't care what you think about me being fifteen and a senior, 'cause I'm just like that." The whispers steadily grew quieter. "I moved here from Kyoto with the rest of my friends, some here outside of the class and some at home because they've graduated. And I guess… that's it?"

"Any questions?" Mr. Kazuki asked.

One male voice yelled from the back of the room jokingly. "Where do you live?"

Mr. Kazuki looked at him weirdly. "I don't think she would like to tell you that," he answered. He continued on, telling Rin to sit at an empty seat at the row before the last, where seven other seats were conveniently empty next to each other. As Rin walked, she moved her eyes towards Kikyou, who was looking down at her folded hands.

Mr. Kazuki began to speak once more, calling in all the rest of the gang, leaving only Kagome left. They all sat next to each other, leaving the chair in the center empty for their leader.

"Kagome Higurashi?"

Kagome walked into the classroom calmly, receiving gasps as people recognized the tattoo around her ankle. Everyone thought simultaneously, 'It's the leader of The Dragons! The Blue Dragon!' On the other hand, guys who didn't know of the gang gave wolf whistles and cat calls at her. Miroku mentally glared, slightly over protective of his 'little sister'.

The people who knew of the gang and that she was the leader looked worried. Kagome made eye contact with them, instantly sensing their distress.

As Mr. Kazuki was about to complain about her sagging pants, he noticed the tattoo on her ankle and paled slightly, not too noticeably. He, too, knew of her status and dared not to defy her. Even if they were a motorcycle gang, they did use weapons such as guns, knives, bombs for their enemies… they were powerful.

The other students, who didn't know of The Dragons looked confused, not intimidated unlike the others and kept staring at Kagome, thoughts in their head. 'What's so scary about her?'

"Well, I'm Kagome Higurashi…" Kagome started, "and like the others said, we moved here from Kyoto. I'm turning seventeen next month, on October twenty-ninth… and I guess that's all. Oh, and for those of you who know of me, don't worry, 'cause I won't do anything in the school… unless it calls for."

"A-Alright, thank you Miss Higurashi…" Mr. Kazuki stuttered. "You may sit in the remaining empty seat in the back," he said, regaining his past confidence.

Kagome strode down the row, watching Kikyou the whole time until she was seated. She sat herself on the remaining seat, Suikotsu, Kouga and Miroku to her left and Ayame and Rin to her right. Kikyou sat on the desk right behind them, Inuyasha to her left and Sango to her right.

"Well, seeing as there are no announcements, you may all talk amongst yourselves," Mr. Kazuki said.

Hearing that, Kagome turned around in her chair and faced Kikyou, who instantly looked down and fiddled with her fingers; her nervous habit.

Inuyasha and Sango listened carefully as Kagome spoke.

"Kikyou…" she began, "you left us before, and we want you back. We're letting you choose; you can come back, be back in the gang, race, and get the profit. Or, you can quit official, give up your profits, your bike, your place as third in command, your title as the second Ace, and… your necklace."

Kikyou contemplated on what to do. 'Should I go back? I really do still love racing… but… it was just too much pressure. I don't know what to choose…'

"Can… can I have one day? To think it over?" Kikyou asked.

Kagome pursed her lips together. "…Sure, but only one day, Kikyou…"

Kikyou nodded. "Thanks… I'll think it over, hard."

"But you know, if you decide and tell me today… we can give you your bike. We could always call one of the gang members up to bring it up for you after school…"

Kikyou bit her lip. 'My motorcycle… how I'd love to feel how to drive that again…' Kikyou closed her eyes. "We'll see."

"Alright then, it's done. You decide, by tomorrow. Make the right choice Kikyou…" Kagome said, turning around once more before getting out of it, because the bell rang for period one. People rushed out through the doors, leaving the gang, Kikyou, Inuyasha, and Sango. Kagome spoke softly.

"It's your choice, Kikyou… get everything back, or give everything up…"

With that, Kagome walked out of the door, leaving everyone else to watch her.

She had a goal for the day, and she was going to achieve it. She had to.

No matter what.

4,910 words. It had to end sometime :P Hope this satisfied you, it was a longgg chapter (in my opinion and skills) XD

Thanks for reading :)

-Green FR00TL00PS