Hiya! I think that this story has been on hiatus long enough… thanks to my new friend SoaringBrightFlame; I've decided to take this story up again and continue to the end. Quitters never win right? Anyway, I hope you like this new chapter (those of you who are actually reading this story).
Bold: yelling or pointing out
Italic: writing, sarcasm, or talking on phone
"Blah, blah": talking
'La, la': thinking
Summary: Kagome is an aspiring new singer going to Nolaroid School for The Performing Arts—a college based on the arts and your talents. However, with all the competition, a new, innovative, and aggressive choir director, and a lot of sea weed-cucumber sandwiches, Kagome's not sure if she has what it takes to rise to the top. How can this new chorus leader help with her self esteem issues? And what's with all the sea weed? Find out in The Choir!
The Choir
By: Bi Polarbear
Chapter one: Those Tawny Eyes
Kagome glared at Sango's blushing face when she finished talking. "And he did what exactly?" The black haired girl asked mockingly as the two girls walked down the shopping mart isle. It had been several weeks since the big incident at the recital and needless to say Kagome wasn't feeling her best. All though no one vocally blamed her for single handedly destroying the entire play, Kagome knew that the entire choir was resentful towards her on the inside. This made her feel frustrated enough to stop trying out for the soloist parts in anything and move to the back of the chorus room. Good thing that it was summer break too; she wouldn't have to see her peers for another couple of weeks.
Sango had just recently been telling Kagome about the antics of work or, more appropriately, the antics of her boss Miroku Hiroshi.
"He… he… he rubbed my butt! Again!" Sango sputtered. Kagome rolled her eyes and kept browsing the shelves for the pocky that this store sometimes had in stock. "Well… aren't you going to say anything?"
"Yeah…" Kagome mumbled idly. She continued looking for the candy but when Sango fell silent she looked at her best friend in confusion. "Oh… you mean right now, don't you?"
Sango glared angrily before stomping away, mumbling something about going to look for some cereal. Kagome shrugged and continued to browse the shelves.
"Aha!" she exclaimed in triumph as she finally found the ever elusive pocky. Reaching for it, Kagome began to day dream about how it would taste. It was the strawberry flavor so she assumed that it would—
"Hey!" Kagome cried in outrage. Some one had come up behind her and stolen her pocky! It wasn't fair that the mystery person would be eating the delectable sticks that she had tried so hard to find! "That's my pocky; give it back!"
""No way woman; I haven't had any of this stuff since I was a kid and even then I only had one. Find your own box!" The person countered.
Kagome scowled at the obnoxious man. "You've picked the wrong month to mess with me buddy. Now give me my box!" The black haired girl suddenly latched onto the box and pulled with all her might.
"Hey, cut that out you psycho!" The man pulled back and soon it was an all out grudge match between the two. A few shoppers who were witnessing the childish display of stubbornness began to form a small crowed around them, but the duo didn't seem to either notice or care. Meanwhile, both Kagome and the man continued to through insults at each other.
"Pig head!" Kagome screamed.
"Moron!" the man shouted back.
"Stupid!"
"Loser!"
"Baka!"
"Psycho!" Kagome just glared at him. "Ha!" he shouted in victory. "That's why you can't even think of any more insults!"
The black haired girl flared her nostrils but before she could retaliate, Sango came barreling towards them.
"Stop, stop; what are you guys doing!"
"He stole my pocky!" Kagome exclaimed, keeping her eyes locked onto the man.
"No; I didn't steal your pocky. I'm going to pay for mine!" The man gave one last yank and Kagome's grasp slipped off of the box. The young woman came crashing to the floor of the supermarket, successfully shattering the last little bit of her pride.
"Oh Kagome!" Sango crouched down next to her best friend before throwing a glare at the man. "I know that she was being childish but, mou, InuYasha you didn't have to push her!"
The man's, now called InuYasha, eyes widened. "I never laid a hand on her!"
Kagome, who had finally gotten over the shock of the fall, turned to Sango and said, "Wait a minute; you know him!"
Sango smiled sheepishly. "He's my co-worker. His name is Miyazaki InuYasha and he and my boss are really good friends so I'd appreciate it if you didn't get me fired." Finally noticing the small group of people that surrounded them, the brown haired girl frowned before saying, "Show's over people; you can move on with your lives now." Slowly, the shoppers began to dissipate.
InuYasha threw the pocky at the two girl's feet before crossing his arms and saying, "This was stupid and unnecessary. I don't want it now. You can have it." Kagome scrambled to her feet and glared at him.
"What do you mean you don't want it! You went through all that trouble to get from me so you're going to eat it!"
"No I'm not; obviously you need it more then I do."
The black haired girl's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "What do you mean by that, huh?"
InuYasha looked at her in a confused way. "Nothing, all I said was that you needed it more than I did."
"Are you saying that I'm to skinny, because if you are let me be the first to warn you that I don't take too kindly to insults, buster!"
"All I said was—"
"I heard what you said but it was how you said it that counts!"
"Look, don't cut me off woman!"
"I'll cut you off when ever the heck I want to!" And thus began another childish fight. Sango sighed before grabbing Kagome's hand and dragging her, kicking and screaming, to their car and anyway from those fiery, tawny eyes.
"And then she starts yelling at me again for no reason! I mean, the wench was mental! Also, I'm going to have to hear it from Sango too because it turns out that the girl was her roommate; you know the one that she's always talking about." Miroku nodded as InuYasha finished his story of the day prior to this afternoon and cleared his throat before speaking.
"So… was she cute?"
InuYasha frowned and retorted, "I don't know; I wasn't really looking."
"Oh come now, I'm sure that you at least noticed her body." When InuYasha shook his head in the negative Miroku sighed. "InuYasha, no man in his right mind wouldn't notice an angry, hot chick when she's right in front of him and trust me; if she hangs out with Sango then she has to be hot."
InuYasha glared at the ground before mumbling, "Yeah… I guess she was okay." Just then Sango walked into the garage, but not in her uniform. She looked like she was ready to go to the movies with some hot date on a Friday night in high school. InuYasha was unfazed but Miroku's jaw practically hit the floor.
"Um… Sango not that we don't appreciate your individuality but… why the heck are you wearing that?" InuYasha spouted rudely.
"For your information me and Kagome have a date."
"Together?" Miroku asked hopefully.
"Shut it Houshi-sama. And no not together; we found two men that wanted to take us out on a night on the town. Got a problem?" Sango's eyebrow rose defiantly.
"Well… no but—"
"Good; I'll be leaving now."
"But you just got here!" both InuYasha and Miroku exclaimed.
Sango turned her back on them and began to walk away, all the while still talking. "Well then call it a Leave of Absence or I'm taking the day off or… something. Thanks; see you guys later!" Faintly, the men could here Sango get onto her moped and drive off.
"Well… that was eventful," InuYasha said sarcastically before going back to work on the blue convertible that was parked in the front of the shop. When Miroku didn't say anything back, the hanyou looked at him in puzzlement. "You okay bouzo?"
Miroku temporarily woke from his stupor to answer InuYasha's question in a clipping tone. "Of course I'm fine; why wouldn't I be?" The boss stomped to his office and slammed the door, not to come out until closing time.
"Bye-bye Kagome-chan!" Sango smiled as her date lead her over to his car. Said girl beamed and watched them drive off to some unknown place before turning back to her date.
"Well… now that their gone, would you like to go to any where else tonight Higurashi-san?" The boy by the name of Jarah smiled a leering smile. Kagome unconsciously leaned away from her date and rubbed her arms as if cold. Noticing her shiver, Jarah handed her his sleazy jacket, which she promptly turned down. She didn't want to be any closer to him than absolutely necessary—her date was going this horrible.
From the very beginning, Jarah had been rude, disgusting, and just an all around bad date. Their group had went to dinner first, where Jarah had commenced in eating and talking at the same time, making rude comments about the other people in the restaurant, and continually peering down Kagome's shirt and up her skirt when he thought no one was looking. When the other three of the party had had enough of Mr. Jarah, he moved them to a nearby carnival where he left Kagome many times to go and flirt with other girls. He had led her onto the Ferris Wheel where he determinedly and stubbornly tried to get her to kiss his dry and cracked lips. Kagome was, needless to say, less than impressed. By the time the double date was over, Kagome wouldn't get with in a ten foot radius of her 'date'.
Now the two where on a moonlit walk past the ocean and Kagome was looking forward to getting back to his car so that she could get home and under her covers with Les Miserable in one hand and a cup of hot chocolate in the other. It would've been very romantic if she were there with anyone other than Jarah and for this, Kagome was sad. Jarah kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye when he thought Kagome wasn't looking and it was annoying the dark haired woman.
"Hey… um… Kagome?" Jarah asked. She looked at him expectantly but he just smiled. "I just want you to know that I'm having a very good time on this date. I don't get out much—can you tell?"
'Oh shoot,' Kagome thought, with slight sarcasm, 'now I bad. I wonder why he doesn't get out much.'
"…and," Kagome was brought back to earth by his voice and she noticed he was still talking, "I just wanted to ask you if you'd want to go on another date with me." Kagome's eyes grew larger as alarm bells went off in her brain.
'Oh no, no, no. I refuse to be trapped with this guy for another crappy date, on another crappy night!'
"NO!" she exclaimed and immediately regretting it by the crestfallen look on his face. "Uh… what I mean to say is that… uh… um… I'm going to be really busy for the next few weeks and if I'm to have a boyfriend then I want to give him my full attention! I wouldn't want to neglect you." Kagome unconsciously choked on the word 'boyfriend'—she hadn't had one of those in forever and the prospect of this guy being the next one was absolutely laughable.
"Really? I'm sorry, it's just that when we were on this date we seemed to automatically click (Kagome bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing) and I was just wondering if this would go anywhere." They fell into an awkward silence where Kagome kicked at a few rocks as the past another clump of trees that dappled the moon light. Finally and mercifully, they reached his car and Kagome gratefully slipped into the cool leather seats of the 2006 Altima. As Jarah started up the car, the dark haired girl gazed out the tinted window and up at the moon thinking of what she'd do when she got home.
"So… what do you think?" Kagome peered at the fluffy, blue dress that her mother presented to her. The girl raised an eyebrow and shook her head in the negative, much to the ire of her mother. The two Higurashi women were currently in a little boutique in downtown Airgin, Japan looking for bridesmaids dresses. Kagome's younger brother was getting married to a nice girl that he had known for years and she had asked Kagome and her mother to be some of her bridesmaids. The two women readily agreed but now, Kagome was having second thoughts concerning the chosen dresses to choose from.
"C'mon Kagome! You haven't liked any of the dresses that we have to choose from and there are only two more dresses left! You need to suck it up, swallow the good with the bad, and choose a dress!" Her mother's eyes flashed a dangerous molten brown and Kagome knew that her famous patience was wearing thin.
"But mother, they all look the same—big and poofy and ugly and blue! I need variety or at least something that isn't billowing—I'm not a Barbie doll you know!" Kagome sank further into her plushy seat and her mother sighed exasperatedly.
"Then you go and look! I'm through!" the older woman fell into the seat next to her daughter as Kagome got up.
She moved into the hallway that led to the back of the store as she ran over the criteria the dress had to be. 'Okay—dark blue, long and flowing, shiny—" The dark eyed girl stopped short as she came across the most beautiful dress that she had every seen. It was a deep, glossy cobalt, long (it reached her ankles), and it was out lined in black. Bunched in the front, it was held together with a sparkling amethyst brooch. The skirt of the dress fell in ruffles that slowly faded into an even deeper cobalt, so dark that it looked black. The front raised up slightly at the hem of the fluttering skirts and it was off the shoulder. Although it had long sleeves, they would go just barely past her hands and it had a modest V-neck line.
"I just saw some shoes that would go perfectly with this," she murmured in a daze. She picked the tag up and almost died. "10,450 yean!" She cried, her brown eyes growing twice their original size. "But it's the perfect dress, and I don't have that kind of money right now…." She whimpered. 'Maybe if I slip it into my mom's cart and promise her I'll pay her back, she'll buy it for me.'
"Kagome dear have you found anything?" her mother's voice floated from the other room.
'Boy have I!' thought Kagome. "Yes ma'am! Hey mom, do you need any help around the house or something that I can do when we get back home?"
I am soooo sorry everyone that reads this story! I apologize formally for saying I would update as fast I could and then not going through with it. I've started high school and it's more hectic than I could ever have guessed. Thanks to my sis and SoaringBrightFlame, I've buckled down on this fanfic thing, though. For awhile I thought that I'm wasn't the fanficiton writing type; I assumed that I'd rather read what was on fanfiction rather than make anything myself but the fact is that I'm a lazy person and I love to procrastinate. I love to see my work on display so that others can see it also—it gives me a great feeling. From now on, I will try to kick my procrastinating habit and tend to my business (i.e. homework, fanfics, relationships) and put my best foot forward. If I don't, please do not hesitate to send me frightening and funny messages to get me to update. More likely than not it'll be because I didn't feel like typing anything… Please and thank you in advanced.
Previews for next chapter!
"Classes start in less than a week and you still don't have a Choir teacher!" Kouga exclaimed angrily to the principle.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Kagome cried indignantly as InuYasha chuckled slightly.
"C'mon admit it—you're attracted to me!"
"No way, Sesshoumaru! I won't marry her!" InuYasha snarled.
"Unfortunately dear brother you have no say in the matter." The hanyou's stoic older half brother replied calmly.
