A/N: OK. To quickly outline this- 1. Connecticut was fun. 2. AP Biology pwns my life. 3. Updates will be restricted to weekends and holidays because of school. 4. A review would be nice. Just a little, eensy review... (OK. That was really sad and pathetic.)

Oh, and this is gonna be a short chapter. Hehe. Gotta start on those Biology chapters...

Disclaimer: Junior year does not leave any time for me to screw around with Inuyasha!


Chapter 10: Second Base

Nghi


She entered the house, letting the door shut none too gently behind her before kicking off the brown loafers. She had left Eri on a sour note, ditching the girl before she could open her mouth again. Of all the ridiculous...! Kagome fumed silently, dropping her bag onto the floor; it had been bad enough that Eri had mentioned a few first years in her quest to nail Kagome's 'secret crush', but her next door neighbor? The two were like oil and water- they just didn't mix, and there was no way they would ever. Besides, it outright pissed her off that Eri would think that any male was automatically a candidate- she wasn't desperate at all, and it had hit a slight nerve that her friend thought of her as very low maintenance. Somehow, Kagome highly doubted she would develop a burning, soul-smothering crush on an elementary school kid or him any time soon. She had high expectations, which included courtesy and chivalry, and she was not sorry to say that neither the former nor the latter had either.

With the final conclusion in mind, Kagome stomped into the kitchen in search for something to eat. It had been a small habit she had developed as a young child- come home from school, rummage through the refrigerator, then work on homework. But lately, with Souta being in third grade and beginning to learn the concept of 'social life', and with her being way past her primary years for an after-school snack, Ayumi had decided the best way to spend her free time for the past year and a half was not cooking or cleaning or reading, but sleeping. A lot. If there was ever a contest for the person who could remain unconscious the longest, the woman would take home the prize.

Kagome heard a bed spring creak upstairs, followed by a small rustle, and she rolled her eyes. Her mother had completely taken 'potato' to a whole, new level. It wasn't that she was lazy- on the contrary, she worked two jobs and worked by the idea of 'opportunity'. Any free shift? Ayumi was the woman to go to, always eager to please and hestitant to say no. No doubt she was a favorite among her past employers, known for her ability to work to the bones for barely minimum wages. Her motto had always been along the lines of 'take what you can get', after all.

But with all the extra jobs running around, the woman almost had no time for her family. Kagome wrinkled her nose at the thought- family. They weren't even one anymore, anyways. Everyone was off doing their own thing, with Souta meeting friends everyday and her going to school and baseball practice and their mom slaving over everyone else just to make ends more than just meet. She always insisted in providing the best for her children, and ideally, it was a very good cause. But that didn't mean she could just run off and leave her family in shatters; it was downright selfish to expect Kagome to piece them back together while Ayumi dozed the rest of her life away. Saying 'no' once in a while wouldn't kill their annual income, either; they could be on the streets and living in a cardboard box, and Kagome wouldn't have given a damn. Just once, she'd like to her mother drop the car keys, back away from her uniforms, and sit down to enjoy one evening with her and Souta.

But life was life, and Kagome knew very well that it was not fair, and it would never be fair. Instead, she gave a bitter sigh at the barren shelves inside her refrigerator before shutting the door and grabbing an apple out of the fruit bowl as an alternative. In a few steps, she was at the bottom of the stairs and already shuffling upwards, thinking of how to spend the rest of today. It was nice and sunny, and usually there would have been baseball practice, but the 'brief' teacher's meeting had dragged out unexpectedly, and she had ended up with a free afternoon.

Kagome stepped on leather and nearly tripped herself back down the stairs. She would have broken her skull, too, had it not been for her grip on the railing. "What the...?" She leaned forward, glaring at the object that had attempted to snap her neck in half. Her irascibility increased tenfold as she realized it was her mom's black pumps- it was the fourth time this week, and she would not let Ayumi get away with it. If Kagome was forced to clean her room on a weekly basis, then she should be forced to do the same, too!

Getting to her feet, Kagome tromped up the rest of the stairs and down the hallway, where she burst open the bedroom door with one hand on her hips and the other waving the shoe madly. "God, Mom, there's a reason why we have a shoe--" She cut off her own words, her mouth hanging and her eyes widening frighteningly.

As a side note, let it be known that Ayumi wasn't very big on surprises. If possible, she tried to remain as predictable as often; it just wasn't in her nature to be spontaneous, or else Kagome would have grown up differently. Schedules were her friends, and daily planners were her life, to an extent. So it wasn't the fact that Kagome found her mother in bed- that was normal, and everyday occurrence.

It was the fact that she was in bed with another man.

In that moment, Kagome was positively blown out of the water; never had she expected this. The impact of seeing her mother and some man was a hit to the stomach, and she felt a cold wave of... of something rapidly approaching before reaching out and crashing on top of her, blanketing and smothering her... her what? Her emotions? Her thoughts? Her breath? Her life? It was like watching a third-person, omniscient dream as Ayumi scrambled out of bed and her partner running for his shoes and pants. Her mother was saying something, looking absolutely terrified, and the man was opening and closing his mouth with his ears tinged red, but all she heard was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Then the wave began to pull back slowly and gently, freeing her and allowing the cacophony and voices to fill the empty spaces inside her head, first warbling incomprehensibly and eventually becoming clearer and more defined. And as the voices started gaining tone and sound and pitch, her feelings and her thoughts started from the ground and painfully dug its way up, leaving behind prickles and goosebumps in their wake.

Until finally, her mom uttered, "Kagome."

It was her name that broke it all, the delicate barrier that had just as quickly been erected as it had fallen, and suddenly the girl was bombarded with a mixture of hurt and anger and betrayal (Betrayal from what?) and sadness and shock and-and everything. When did this happen? Why did this happen? How did it happen? All the thoughts, questioning and raging, burned through her head, and Kagome began to tremble just a little.

"Kagome," Ayumi tried again, pleading, and behind her, Yamaguchi was breathing quietly and unevenly, looking more than uncomfortable as he buttoned up his shirt. "I think... we need to talk..." A few seconds later, she got her answer as the black heel hurtled forward, aiming dangerously for her head. Instinctively Ayumi put up her hands to block her face, steeling herself against the impact, but it never came- instead, there was a hiss and a dull thud to the ground, and she lifted her head to see Yamaguchi rubbing his forearm painfully.

"That girl can really throw," he commented awkwardly, the shoe by his feet. "Are you all- whoa!" He stumbled backwards a bit as the woman shoved his hands away and ran out into the hallway.

"Kagome!" Ayumi yelled, and she turned around the corner to see the door slam shut followed by the sound of the lock clicking. "Kagome!" she screamed again, stumbling up to the white door, her hands already pounding and knocking and jiggling the doorknob before she had come to a complete stop. "Come out!"

Her ears were buzzing loudly, but not enough to drown out her mother's desperate voice. The fact that the woman had the absolute gall to sound concerned and worried and caring and deceptively desperate... she inhaled shakily, trying to calm her frazzled nerves, but it only drove her a little more over the edge. "We need to talk, please!"

Kagome nearly choked out loud; now that she had caught her mom having sex with some guy, the woman was so racked with guilt that she actually wanted to sit down and talk like a normal family? After all this time, when she had secretly wished for Ayumi to stop for one moment and notice her daughter... and when the day finally came, it came in a form of an affair behind her back. Her daughter's back. Her brother's back. Her mother actually had the nerve to bring someone home-

Home. Was it even one anymore?

The poundings and bangings and desperate pleas were eating away at what little order was left inside of her head, and Kagome found herself breathing a little more raggedly. It was too small suddenly, and her thoughts just weren't hers anymore- they were replaced by babbles and bedlam and turbulence and too much stuff was going on at once! Her feelings were turned around and screwed completely, and she realized amidst everything clouding her judgment and thinking that she had to get out of here. Fast.

Ayumi screamed her name again, but Kagome was already at the window, unlatching it and sticking her left leg out. Another yell, and half her body had disappeared. By the third "Kagome", the girl really was gone, away from the room and away from the house and away from the mess that had once been her family.

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