A/n: Hello! Here's chapter two, and thanks for waiting!!! I'm updating at school so be patient with me okay?!!

Chapter two.

Mika stood in the doorway, her mouth open like she was going to speak, but had lost the words. Kagome quickly pulled up her underwear and glanced at Miroku with 'What do we do now?' look. He blushed, unable to lift his gaze from the floor.

A small vein bulged on the side of Mika's forehead. Grabbing a fist full Kagome's hair, she drug the little girl toward the front door.

"You nasty, filthy little girl! How dare you bring your parents horny lifestyle into my house! Get out!!!"

She threw the little girl out of the apartment into the dark hallway and slammed the door.

After that night, Miroku and I weren't allowed to see each other. At school, teachers made him change seats whenever he sat next to me and I wasn't allowed to be around another boy-ever. We met in secluded places like the abandoned park on joined a book club called, " Readers of the Arts" where I read famous books by Charles Dickens, Sherlock Homes, William Shakespeare, and Edger Allen Poe. My literature teacher discovered a I had a true talent when I did a report on 'Catcher In the Rye' and put me in an advanced writing class. Needless to say this took up all my free time, so Miroku and me slowly drifted apart.

Things at home hadn't improved at all. When my parents weren't screaming at each other, there was complete silence in the house. After dad had lost his job, we moved from Queens, to a 2-bedroom shack in Brooklyn. He would disappear all day, claiming that he was looking for work, and come home in the middle of the night drunk, and sometimes not even alone. But nether the less, I kept my door locked. Around my thirteenth birthday, my father had come across one of his old investing partners who agreed to help him off his feetwrong phrase, try something like "agreed to help him out"This meant money. I for one was so happy, I could have been pissing a rainbow; but of course, nothing is ever as it seems. A week after my 12th birthday, which no one remembered but me, Seru had told Amaya that he was fed up with living in a dead marriage. He filed for divorce.

This broke my mother's heart into pieces. I shouldn't have been surprised. One thing about my father was that he was extremely greedy, and this divorce was his way of "starting over" as he would put it. After two months, our family went to court. My father gave Amaya full custody of her children; notice how I wrote "her children". I guess it was his way of cutting all loose ends, but what about me? I was his heart...Wasn't I?

"Honey, I'm home!!"

Amaya called up the stairs. Since she was now a waitress, her life was hectic, and she almost never saw her children. Kagome came down the steps, putting on her best fake smile.

"Hey mom. How was work?"

"It was fine dear. How was school?"

Kagome shrugged. "Okay I guess."

"Where's your brother?"

"Upstairs playing video games as usual."

Amaya nodded. "Okay well, go get washed up while I start on dinner."

It broke Kagome's heart to hear those words. Mainly because her mother could not cook and she had always paid someone to do the cooking for her, and when they moved to Brooklyn, her father always brought home fast food.

Moving to Brooklyn was very different for all of them. On her mother's salary, they didn't get that many toys or even clothes for that matter. All money went to rent or food, which wasn't much. Kagome continued to absently stare at her mother in complete sorrow. At night she could hear her crying, because the walls were paper-thin. Amaya did a lot of things in secret like drugs, masturbate and sometimes pray. One time she had walked in on her mother shaking in the middle of the floor with a rubber band wrapped tightly round her left arm, and needle in her right hand.

'She goes through so much, trying to keep up a positive face for us.'

"Kagome?"

Her mother's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Is something wrong?" Amaya asked worried.

"Uh, no. Just zoned out for a second there."

"Oh okay."

"I'll go get Souta."

Kagome headed up stairs to their room. "Souta, mom says get ready for din-nor."

She looked around to find him not there. She sighed. 'Sometimes I swear he plays too much.' Checking the closet. Bathroom and underneath the bed, Kagome huffed.

"Now where could he-" She paused, seeing the window open.

Climbing the latter up to the rooftop, She found Souta sitting on the edge of the building, looking out on the neighborhood. "Souta?" Souta glanced at her before turning his attention back to the street. Kagome came up and took a seat next to him, watching the stars.

"So what are you doing up here?" He lifted a shoulder. "Just thinking I guess."

"What about?"

"Mom."

"Oh."

They lapsed into silence for a while. Kagome asked another question.

"Do you ever miss dad?"

Souta shook his head no. "He used to hit on mom whenever he got drunk. Mom would leave the house afterwards...she was a hooker."

"WHAT?" her eyes grew big at the new information. "What are you talking about?!"

"What did I just say? When we lived in Queens, I was riding with my friends, and I saw mom on the corner in some weird clothes. This guy came up to her and offered her money, then she took him behind an alley and they..."

Tears sprang to life in his eyes, but he wiped them away.

Kagome was at a loss for words. 'How could she?!! All this time, I've been blaming dad, when she was just as guilty.' "How come I never saw any of this?" It was more of a question to herself than her brother.

"Why do you think?!! YOU WERE NEVER THERE!!" Souta snapped.

It was true. Over the years, Kagome would do anything not to go back home. There were only so many after school activities one could do, and she did them all. 'I guess I forgot about Souta. He has to live with this too.'

"Souta I'm sorry. I guess I...I-I mean our lives...." she wiped her tears away and stood up. "Anyway, moms said go get ready for dinner."

She left him alone. Talking to her brother always made her feel horrible. Maybe that's why she never did. Their family was slowly crumbling down hill, and it was only a matter of time before it broke her too.

(One year later)

"Well Kagome, I have some news for you."

Mr. James announced. Kagome was all too nervous. Teachers made her nauseous, especially her English teacher. He graded all her writings, and seemed very strict. Something Kagome, from time to time, couldn't handle.

'He's probably going to tell me my writing sucks and that I should have dropped out of the contest.'

She had entered a writing contest at school, the winner receiving three thousand dollars, and a full four-year scholarship to a writing class at Yale University.

"Y-yes sir?"

Mr. James stood, taking out an envelope from his desk. He walked around, and sat in front of her. "It has been brought to my knowledge that you entered a writing contest a month ago. An essay on the book 'Utopia.' and it was also brought to my attention that..."

Kagome sighed. 'Here it goes....'

He smiled. "You won. Congratulations Miss Higurashi. You are a brilliant writer with a talented mind. I wanted to give the award to you personally so I could give you my congratulations."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "I knew it!! Just because I lost doesn't mean you have- WHAT?!! I WON?!!"

She fell out of her seat 'I WON!!'

Jumping up, she gave Mr. James a big bear hug.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you Mr. James!!!"

She grabbed hold of his hand and couldn't stop shaking it.

Mr. James laughed, handing her the envelope. "What are you thanking me for?! You did all the work! I'm just happy one of my very own actually learned something from his class."

And she did. Kagome could never thank Mr. James enough for all his discipline and hard effort, pushing her to be better.

When the dismissal bell rang, Kagome dashed out of school, running home as fast as she could. 'I can't wait to tell mom and Souta!' Lord knows they needed this money right now more than anything. At this point, everything started to look brighter.

She reached home twenty minutes later. Her mom was off today, so she knew she'd be home. "Hey mom?"

Kagome checked the kitchen, then the small living room. Amaya wasn't in either. Then she heard a bump upstairs. Kagome's 100-watt smile came to life.

She ran up the stairs "Hey mom?! Mom guess what?! I won the-" Pow!

Kagome froze at the sound of a gunshot. Racing up the rest of the stairs, she flew to her mother's room, her heart coming to a complete stop at what she saw.

Her mother's body on the floor, her beautiful long locks of hair cut off her head, a gun in her left hand, and blood pouring out of her scull. Kagome swallowed, and closed her mother's door. She slid down the wall and sat, while her mind went blank.

We buried Amaya Toyo Higurashi April 23, 1997. My brother cried, but I couldn't. I didn't feel sadness, anger, and disappointment, just a great sense of loneliness. In a way, I guess I was relieved for my mother. She did the best she could, but when the time came, she couldn't take anymore. I used my prize money for the funeral expenses.

Seru had managed to show his face, along with his wife and child. That little wench had the nerve to cry. Like she knew my mother in any way, shape, or form. When he tried to offer some words of comfort, I told him to save it. I didn't want to hear anything he had to say about my mother, and I told him he was never aloud to even speak her name in my presence. Two weeks after the funeral, we moved to California with my father, and THAT ladies and gentlemen, is where my downfall began.

A/n: Hope you liked it and there's more, I just got to find a way to get it alllllllllll the way to school and back. Ta-ta for now!!! ---Lazydoll06