Kagome arrived to school with a headache. She groaned as she realized she didn't finish her math homework.

"Ayumi-channn...did you finish your math homework? Can I see it?" the tired girl whined.

Her friend scolded her but nevertheless placed a sheet of paper with worked out problems on Kagome's desk. "You're lucky we have English first today so you have time to copy Kagome-chan."

"You're my number one friend Ayumi-chan!" Kagome winked at the other schoolgirl and started copying. No wonder she wasn't learning any math.

She was in the copying zone throughout all of homeroom and part of English class when she felt her seat jolt. Kagome threw a face at Eri, who had kicked her chair. Eri made frantic eye movements towards the front of the classroom, so Kagome knew she was in trouble.

"Kagome, why don't you read from where we left off," the sensei commanded while pushing up his glasses.

Kagome stood up slowly and side glanced to her desk neighbor who was inconspicuously tapping a paragraph in the textbook in a bored manner. Beginning to read, Kagome prayed that she was at the right spot. Her voice shook and didn't really smooth out until the paragraph reached its end.

At her mediocre success, the teacher's face seemed to say, 'I'll catch you off guard one of these times.' "We'll move on to listening now..." A tape was played and a series of questions had to be answered based on the conversations in the recording. "Kagome, what was being said in the last conversation?"

The addressed student mentally scowled. 'Of course he would ask me about the longest conversation. At least I can answer in Japanese.'

She stood up from her seat and answered with a slightly questioning lilt in her voice. "I think John was nervous about school and an upcoming test. So he asked Mary to help him study in the library after school, but Mary said sorry, she has a date. And then as she leaves, John whispers that he's jealous because Mary is cute. Then he remembers about his test and whines that he's going to fail."

The teacher paused as he read the transcript of the conversation. "...Good job, Kagome."

"Thank you Professor," Kagome sighed out in relief as she sat down.

"Professor? You flatter me. Did you learn that word from a movie?"

"Um...probably. I think."

The teacher left her alone for the rest of class and for that, she was thankful. She felt her headache worsen with the English overload. Her dreams as of late have been filled with the foreign language. The start of them were mostly normal: fighting demons, yelling at Inuyasha, shopping at the mall. But lately, by the end of them, she'd always end up at a castle. She blamed it on the one night she fell asleep watching a documentary on Western castles.

That wouldn't have been so weird if it wasn't for the fact that every time she was at the castle, everyone would be speaking English. Or more likely gibberish with some English words she did know thrown in and spoken in a funny accent. It was exhausting because her mind tried so desperately to understand. Kagome didn't always remember her dreams upon waking, but she almost always woke up frustrated. She wasn't sure if this was motivation to study English harder or quit the language altogether (not that she had any choice while in school unfortunately).

Thankfully, she might see some reprieve because Kagome decided she'd come down with pinkeye some time tonight and have to take a week off from school. Just enough time to go investigate a rumor of a jewel shard a few villages over. Indeed, Inuyasha had been surprised that Kagome didn't put up much of a fight when he came barging into her room last night about it. The only reason she didn't leave last night was because she had a test later today. The only reason why Inuyasha didn't yell much was because Kagome's mother was cooking for him all day while Kagome was out.

She rested her head on her propped up hand and shifted her eyes to the left to watch the clouds go by. 'Ah! I guess I overestimated Inuyasha's patience and love for food.' A figure in red had just lept onto a branch of a tree outside the window and shockingly nobody noticed yet. The girl whispered a soft, "Osuwari."

Tom's POV

White magic flared up all of a sudden, drawing my attention away from the horrible English conversation. Really now? What kind of conversations were these kids listening to? If they were learning how to speak such useless gossip, no wonder Kagome failed so miserably at the language. It was just plain appalling. This was the expert who was teaching young minds? I could perform leagues better than that sensei.

Oh wait. How long have I been ranting? Long enough for Kagome to finish her lessons I presume. There goes that flash of blue magic that I haven't felt in a while. Judging by the change in scents and sounds after feeling the blue magic, I have made a guess that the blue magic is that of a portal. On one side of the portal, I got the feeling of wilderness. This was also where Kagome used the most magic so that was a plus. The con was that she did not speak any English on this side of the portal so I could only make wild guesses at what was happening.