Grounded:

Chapter 5: Revelations, Imaginations

'Whew, that took FOREVER!' Kagome thought to herself, referencing the report she had spent hours on. Who knew it would be so hard to write a report about geometry in a gym! She checked over her 815-word report, checking one last time for errors, before she pressed the "print" button on the screen.

Seconds passed. Nothing happened. She clicked the button a few more times, receiving similar results. After a few last tries, she gave up, and tried to find the problem. She checked the printer—nope, no problems there. She checked to make sure all the cords were in, and that too was in prime condition.

Little did she know that the problem was that there was a lock on the printer. Takashi wanted her to stay in the room and try to figure out for as long as she could to print out the report. He would not accept a late report, and she knew that. So, she continued to try to find the problem, staying up late that night as well, sitting at the computer, trying everything that she knew how to fix a computer. At about two, she couldn't take it anymore, and she crawled into bed. She would show him the report in the morning, and that would be the project. Hopefully, he would accept it.

She overslept the next morning. Souta was sent into her room as the "awakening-committee". Even with all of his attempts, she continued to sleep until he literally had to slap her. For the next ten minutes, Souta ran around the house, Kagome in tow, failing miserably at escaping her morning wrath.

"Kagome, will you stop this childish behavior and stop chasing your brother?" asked Takashi, getting between the two of them. "Oh, by the way, may I see your report now? As your soon-to-be-step-father, I have every right to look over your work."

"Hehe," Kagome started embarrassed, "You see, the printer wasn't working last night, and I was hoping that you could just look at the report on the screen, and call that the report."

"Absolutely not!" exclaimed Takashi, "I am not going to give you any special treatment just because I live here with you. If you were having trouble, you should have told me, and I would have helped you get the computer back in perfect working condition. If you do not have it printed out by the time you leave this house, then I will have to call it a 0 in the grade book, and that will bring your grade down by a lot, I am sure."

"Fine," Kagome huffed as she headed to her room one last time to check out the computer. Maybe, something happened to make it better, but one never can be to sure.

As she stared down the computer like as if it was her worst enemy. She opened the word processor, then went to her documents. Seconds later, she was looking for the report. The titles were in alphabetical order, so it should be very easy to spot. She located its approximate spot, then screamed. The document was gone! She had spent all of that time and effort working on it, and now it didn't even exist! She searched the Recycle Bin, but that was completely empty.

She sighed, realizing that it really was just her luck. Oh well, she hadn't turned in a lot of other projects, so what difference could this one possibly make? She just got dressed into her usual clothes, then just took her schoolbag and walked out the door.

Nothing could have been worse than the greeting she received from her friends. Ayumi had seen on television a documentary about abusive girlfriends, and they were all convinced that she was showing a few possible signs of having an abusive boyfriend. She always seemed to protect him whenever they talked bad about him, which could be because she is afraid of him.

"Kagome, maybe you should consider your relationship with this boy. He may not be the right guy for you, and how would you ever know it if you don't question it?" Ayumi asked.

"I'm telling you, Inuyasha does not abuse me in any way, and if you even knew him half as well as I do, you would know that he would never do that to anyone. I know that he seems a little weird, but he is a great guy!" she defended.

"Hmmm, defensive aren't we?" asked Yuka rhetorically, "If I didn't know any better, I may think that you are trying to hide something. It is OK to tell us, you know. You should be able to trust us with information about your boyfriend. We are concerned about you, and we need to know these things."

Kagome just sat there and took all of the rants her friends gave her. They were approaching the school anyway, and once they got onto the campus, she could easily disappear without a trace. Once away, she could plot different ways to get away from her current family problems.

She knew something was fishy. Why would Takashi get rid of Grandpa? He had done nothing wrong, and he definitely was not the type one sends to a nursing home. Even Kagome knew that nursing homes were for the unwanted elderly. Once behind those doors, no one on the outside would care for them anymore. 'Why would Takashi do such a thing?' Kagome thought to herself.

'Unless,' she reasoned, 'he has something that he wants to hide from the rest of the family, and Grandpa was the only one who could bring it to the open! No, that couldn't be it. The only problems I have with him are school related, Grandpa related, and Inuyasha related… come to think about it, most of the problems that I have been having lately revolve around him. Maybe… no my imagination is just getting the best of me…'

Classes were once again, hell on earth. Teachers piled on homework and projects as if they were trying to meet a quota that they had failed to meet before. Before geometry, she had received two reports due in a month, a science project, and a Language project. Also, she knew that she couldn't do half of the projects because she didn't know that material, so she would have to do a lot of studying to get back on track with the rest of the class.

She wanted to sleep in all of her classes, but right as she got comfortable, an enraged teacher awaked her. She almost growled a few times at the rudeness of the teachers, but she refrained, passing off the habit as an acquired trait from Inuyasha. Oh, how she wanted to spend time with him and the rest of the gang.

'Maybe, if I can get rid of a few more projects tonight, I can free up tomorrow for a night with them. It won't even matter that I don't get sleep, because it is a teacher's work day! hey, that means that Takashi will be gone, and I don't have to worry about that. Now, all I have to do is get past Mom and Souta.'

"Kagome, will you please pay some attention to the class?" the teacher asked curtly, "I know you have problems with your strange case of ADD that appeared out of nowhere, and I realize you are in mental pain with your case of Kuru. Now don't forget that if you become shaky, I will call the hospital for you. But, considering that you are fine now, you should be OK. Though, now that I think about it, how on earth did you get that disease, and also, why are you still alive?"

"I don't know…" Kagome said as the bell rang. The teacher looked at her strangely, but let the class out.

'Why does Grandpa have to come up with such strange diseases…. Wait a minute, he isno longer here, so I have no one to tell the school when I am 'sick'. That makes a lot of sense! Takashi must have known that, and so he just had to get rid of Grandpa. But, how would he know? He isn't supposed to know anything… maybe it is just me rotten luck. In any case, this is a major problem. I have to visit Grandpa. He'll know what to do.'

Geometry class was embarrassing. In addition to not being able to give him the report, she also had to explain that the report disappeared out of nowhere on the computer, and there is no way to retrieve the information. She would have to rewrite the entire report, and he did not accept her late work. He showed her grade to her, then inserted the 0 in the mix, and she watched the percentage of her grade drop drastically, further into the failing range.

"See, Kagome, this is what happens when you do not ask people for help. You lose every time. So, next time you are having computer trouble, you ask me for help. Now moving on with class…" he said as he droned on about geometry.

END CHAPTER

Yeah, shoot me, kill me with a butcher's knife, but just don't hurt my creative bursts, lest you want the writing to stop. I have been busy lately (projects… fun.. not) and I just found out that next year, my sophomore year, I will be taking an AP course, which will load me down with even more work. To add to that, I will be in four Honors classes (I am in four this year, but one will be the AP course, and I am picking up another). Also, I go to a college prep school, so that just makes the classes harder anyway. To add to that, my brother's computer broke, and this one is about to die, but it is being shared three-ways between me, my brother, and my grandfather. I am very close to getting my own computer. I would have gotten it today (actually, my grandfather is getting the new one, and I am getting this one…), but the store was out and the sale ended today…. That is the SECOND sale we have missed!

So, here I am, writing in little bursts to keep the stories semi-updated, while still keeping my sanity with all of the work I have to do. Wish me luck as I go to school for another torturous week. I will need it!