Christmas time is here again! Time for major updates! Read all of my stories, for they should all be updated on Christmas Day, unless I am held up in typing (likely). If they are not all updated, prepare for the remainder to be updated sometime before the New Year, and if I can really type, then I should have another chapter out then, then I have to have more out for my one-year anniversary with this site (January 10). Unfortunately, the first story that I posted, I removed out of sheer embarrassment!

Chapter 4: Good-bye, Grandpa!

'Darn,' thought Kagome as she walked to school the next day. She had barely slept the night before due to the "help" that Takashi gave her with her homework. He went over the entire book so far – most of which, she already knew. Then, he went ahead and told her why she needed to know each of the theorems and such. Midnight seemed to come and go before he could settle into her warm bed and sleep.

The forecast had called for rain that day, and it started early. Not prepared for the rain, for she was a tired mess that morning, she was drenched before her friends caught up with her and lent her an umbrella.

"Kagome, how are things at home?" asked Ayumi, concerned for her long-time friend.

"Same old, same old," replied Kagome, "Unless you consider that I stayed up past midnight listening to Takashi explain the ENTIRE geometry book so far." She yawned, and then continued, "He spoke to me as if I didn't know anything at all!"

"He was just trying to help," said Ayumi, trying to reason with her cold and wet and angry friend.

"Well, he didn't have to explain everything. I tried to tell him which concepts I didn't know, but he didn't listen." She yawned again, "now, I'm so tired that I'm kind of wishing that the school would explode or something before we can go to geometry class. He said that our teacher was still out, and he was going to teach again."

They arrived at school, and Kagome managed to dry off before she got to her first period class. She had to concentrate in order to not fall asleep in the middle of class, and still, she dozed off a few times. However, her good friends woke her up before she could fall all the way asleep.

Lunch seemed to elude her the entire day, and her stomach growled from lack of food. She had all of two minutes to eat breakfast that morning, and she wanted to head out as quickly as possible, in order to get away from Takashi, and get to her friends. Right then, even the mystery meat in the cafeteria sounded like heaven.

Soon, the bell rang for lunch, and she ran to the cafeteria. Of course, upon seeing the meat, she passed on it, and instead got rice and vegetables. How she missed the Feudal Era! Back there, she could eat all the junk food he wanted, and no one cared, because they didn't know what was in the food. Here, if she ate all junk food, her friends would reprimand her for her gluttonous behavior, and try to convince her that she was going to gain weight from all of the food.

Because the rain was intermittent, everyone went outside to enjoy the outdoors. Kagome sat with her friends at their usual table, her three friends talking about the random news throughout the school. Apparently, the head cheerleader was going out with the head of the science club, and she was facing impeachment. Her case was that he is the hottest guy in school – and few disagree – but it is "uncool" to date the head of the science club. Her trial was scheduled for tomorrow.

Kagome almost burst out laughing at the stupidity of the case. 'This is something to tell Sango… Oh no! I can't see her! I miss them. Maybe, I can write her a note about the whole ordeal, but then I can't see her burst out laughing at the stupidity of it all…"

"Kagome, are you OK?" asked Yuka, "You look freaked out about something."

"Oh, it's nothing, nothing at all!" said Kagome, with fake enthusiasm. Her friends bought it, and soon, she was headed in, for the showers had begun again.

Geometry was next, and she dreaded it. She could just tell that Takashi was behind the desk, planning out her demise in the class. The man, in her mind, was a total psycho! How can anyone like math this much? Not even her real teacher admits to loving school! But, she had to be nice to her almost stepfather.

"Good afternoon, class," he greeted, a smile plastered on his face, adding to his freakiness, "Today, I have arranged us all to go to the gym and use the concepts you all have learned to write a paper about the geometry in the gym. The paper will be due tomorrow, and it must be at least 800 words. I suggest you spend your time wisely, for you only have one guaranteed class period in the gym. I do not care how you spend the period, but beware, I will be here tomorrow, first thing, expecting your reports."

'Why me?' she thought to herself, 'I was planning on a semi-normal night tonight, but now he'll insist that I work on his project for hours on end! Oh well, maybe I can finish quickly, and then I can spend the remainder of the night planning how to tell Mom.'

Kagome took many notes for the class. The period flew by, partially because her friends were helping her out with the notes. Takashi only made one reference to her the entire day, and that was reminding her that she had to get her project done before she would be allowed to watch television. She didn't want to argue with him, so she agreed to the rule.

After school ended, she headed straight home. The sun had finally come out, and her piles of notes were stacked in her backpack. She was sure that Takashi wouldn't be at her house for at least a few minutes, which would give her a little while to get her things ready to work on for the project. Everything was looking up, or so she thought.

Grandpa was coming out of the house as she entered. He had on his hat – something he never wore unless he was going out for a long time – and his coat. He was holding two bags, and Mama was crying a little, though she was trying to look strong for her kids.

"Mama, where is Grandpa going?" asked Kagome.

"Takashi and I agreed that it would be best for him to be at a retirement home. He's been working so hard these past few years, and he needs a break for his last years. He has a few friends there who have come in contact with him lately, and we think that it is best for him," Mama choked out.

"Best for me?" asked Grandpa, "The best thing for me is working here at the shrine!"

"Dad, you'll break your back with all the work you do. Takashi will take over the shrine, and you can take a break with all of your old friends."

"I don't need a break!" retorted Grandpa, "I'm in as good a shape as your fiancé, and I don't trust that guy for a minute in taking care of my shrine! Besides, when you marry, it will no longer be the Hiragushi shrine, for it will be under his last name, unless he gives I to Souta, and Souta keeps the name Hiragushi."

"Don't you worry," came up Takashi, "I promise to keep the name of the shrine the Hiragushi Shrine, and I will not insist that the kids change their names to mine, unless they want to."

"See, Dad, he has it all under control," said Mama, now you have a car to catch. Oh, here comes your friend now!"

An old car parked on the street, and to save the driver the hassle of walking all the way up the stairs, Grandpa walked down with hid luggage, and almost too quickly, he was gone.

"Now that that's out of the way," Takashi said as he gathered the family, "Kagome, you go work on your homework, while Souta, your mom, and I play some board games, because it's GAME NIGHT! You can join us when you're done."

'Why wouldn't he want me around?' asked Kagome to herself as she trudged up the stairs to her room, notes in tow.

Meanwhile: Downstairs

"Dad," Souta said, under order to call him that, "Why isn't Kagome down here?"

"She has more homework than she has time to do. For my class, she has 800 words, and I heard from her other teachers that she had other projects due soon. She really needs to get them done," Takashi reasoned. Of course, he didn't need to reason with the humans. Brainwashing works just as well.

'Hm…' he thought, 'Now that Gramps is out of the way, all I have to do is rid the house of that miko, and the shrine will belong to me, Takashi. Then, when we demons have a stronghold on the shrines, we'll start on the rest of the city, and then the world! And the best part is: the only miko who can stop me is upstairs, doing homework, oblivious to the whole ordeal!'

END CHAPTER

Whew…. That took a while. Let's see, this was finished on Thursday at 9:13 AM, so I have some of today (busy), tomorrow (super busy), and Saturday (the definition of busy!) to finish 3 more chapters for Christmas. I may write some on Sunday (for my church is closed) but that's when we start to take things down (we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve…. And I'll spend at least two hours of quality family time at church!). So, I have a limited amount of time to finish the rest of my stories for Christmas!

R&R