Kagome awoke at about a quarter 'till noon, and rolled out of bed with a yawn. She sleepily got dressed and went to the kitchen to scrounge up breakfast.
Note to self: throw hotdogs away.
She successfully found a package of poptarts and put them on a paper plate. She had nothing to do today because she was off work on Sundays, and so she decided to sit down on the couch and watch some T.V.
She shuffled over, poptart in hand, and plopped down onto her couch. She was seated, rather uncomfortably at that, for about a grand total of 1.5 seconds before her couch sprung to life and threw her off.
Now, I don't know about yours, but her couch does not usually reject her in such a manner. However, her puzzlement was soon dissipated by her brother getting up from his stretched position on the couch.
"Good morning!" he chirped.
Kagome ignored him and sat down again.
"Mphhh! Gwet moff mhee!"
"Oh, am I sitting on you head?" Kagome stated blandly, "Silly me." She got up and moved to the breakfast table. She was obviously not pleased with her brother's arrival.
"Aw, you missed me so much you couldn't help but smother me out of love! That's so sweet, Kags."
Insert death glare.
"Just please let me eat my poptarts in peace," Kagome said, before realizing her mistake.
"Oh! That reminds me! I haven't eaten since the flight," Souta said, "I'm starving!"
Kagome groaned and let her head fall with a thump to her small table.
Her self-pitying episode was interrupted the phone. She was seriously ready to kill the thing; it had been ringing at the most inopportune moments lately.
She walked over and jerked the phone to her ear.
"What?" she growled.
"Is this Kagome Higurashi speaking?" said a cool voice that sent shivers down her spine.
It was Naraku.
"Yes," she replied, "What can I do for you today, Mr. Naraku?"
"I was calling to inform you that your presence will be required in court in precisely three days. I am suing you."
"WHAT?!"
"I'm suing you."
"Ahgg… I heard you, but it's just that… but… my insurance company is supposed to take care of this!"
"And they would have, had the accident not been your fault."
"MY fault?! It was YOUR fault! You were the one who was speeding like crazy in a residential area and not paying attention to where you were going!"
"Not if my memory serves."
"Then your memory SUCKS!" Kagome screamed with outrage into the phone.
"There is no point in continuing this discussion now, Miss Higurashi, I will see you in court on Wednesday afternoon," Naraku said coldly.
Kagome opened her mouth to tell him just what she was going to do to him on that day, which involved a cement truck and a large body of water, when she was met with a dial tone.
Damn him.
She hung up the phone, went over to her meal, and started viciously biting into her poptarts. Souta looked over and wondered if he should bother her in her current state, but his curiosity got the better of him and he asked. She explained, and Souta listened avidly.
"It sounds suspicious, Kags," Souta told her afterwards, "There are all kinds of creeps out there today." Suddenly his face lit up. "That reminds me, I heard on the news this morning that there's a new kind of trick these psychos are pulling. They follow you around and flash their lights, like something's wrong with your car, and when you pull over to check it out, so do they, and, BAM!" Here Souta leapt toward Kagome, causing her to jump. "They grab you!"
Kagome clutched her pounding chest and socked Souta on the arm.
"Don't scare me like that!"
Souta simply laughed. Once he had finished his fit of giggles, he told her what happened when she was asleep that morning.
"Oh yeah, some guy named Hojo called," Souta began, "he said to meet him at the diner on Ninth Street at twelve today."
Kagome stood there and stared at her brother. She racked her brain for this 'Hojo'.
"Oh!" she snapped her fingers, "The Zelda guy!"
Souta looked at his sister like she had grown another head.
"What?"
"Oh, well I met him when I was at…" she trailed off, realizing she couldn't tell him about his own gift.
"Where?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"…at a gas station…" she fumbled, saying the first thing that came to mind.
Souta stared at his sister like she had grown yet another head and now the two new additions were having a lovely chat about the weather.
"You met a date at the gas station?" he asked incredulously. "Wow, you must be desperate," he sniggered at her.
Kagome threw her hands up into the air, defeated, and she began to walk off. Then a thought struck her.
"What time is it?" she asked Souta.
"Hmm… about 11:55," he answered.
A trailing scream was echoed through the house as Kagome realized she had five minutes to get ready AND get there.
---
Kagome approached her house after the date with a yawn. Only one hour with the guy, and he was putting her to sleep. We're talking complete snoozefest here. Ok, he was nice, and he even brought her a little gift, but… I guess she was just looking for a little more excitement. She thought about it for a second, then pumped her fist in the air with victory as she was searching through her purse for her keys.
She got a free meal!
And she would definitely need more food now that Souta was back. She dived her hand back into her crowded bag and emerged victorious only after a vicious battle between her lip gloss and cell phone that both just didn't seem to want to give her keys up.
She opened her door and walked into a disaster zone.
Her entire house looked like a bomb had gone off. There were plastic cups littering the floor everywhere. A stain that had toilet paper dumped sloppily over it, and several piles of vomit once she got to the kitchen. And there, sitting in all of its glory despite they were empty, were four kegs on the counter.
Kagome clutched her head in horror and she opened her mouth in a silent scream. Her thoughts were all jumbled together. She knew that someone had thrown a party… but in just the hour she was gone? Impossible… nothing could get this trashed in simply an hour… right? And… they didn't leave anything in the keg for her!?! How could they?! She couldn't even get drunk and wallow in the misery of having a trashed house! Souta was sooo helping her to clean this up. Wait a second.
"SOUTA!!!"
A groan was issued from a heap in the corner of the living room. Souta was lying there on his face, half-empty red plastic cup still clutched in his hand. She found a semi-clean spot to put her purse down on the counter, and clenched and unclenched her fists as she trampled through the wreckage. When she reached her brother, he was now lying on his side, and she gave him a swift kick in the ass.
"How the hell did you do this to my poor house!?! And in only an hour no less!"
Souta clenched a hand to his abused bottom, and turned over on his back. He drunkenly stared at the ceiling then told his sister,
"Talent."
Kagome then proceed to promptly kick her brother out. The door was slammed in his face just seconds after his things were chucked out into the driveway.
---
Kagome made her way back to the kitchen, picking up trash as she went. Once she was there, she dumped it into the trash can. She was going to need a LOT more trash bags.
She glanced around the wreckage, wondering where to start first, and her eye was caught by the flashing light on the answering machine. She went over to it and pressed the button. She suddenly felt weary of the world as the machine listed the time and date of the message, and she put her elbows on the counter, propping her sagging head up with her hands. However, the person on the phone caused her jump up, staring disbelievingly at the machine.
"Hello Miss Higurashi, this is Mr. Tashio, president of Tashio Inc., speaking," a merry voice belted out at her, "I've heard of your little excursion with my ice-chunk-of-a-son, and since you put up with him so well, I have decided to make you his secretary. Don't worry, he has absolutely no say whatsoever in the matter."
Kagome came out of her stupor and snorted. Like she would ever be willing to work with Sesshoumaru. Right.
But Mr. Tashio continued, and when he casually mentioned the salary she would earn, she had already picked up the phone and was waiting for him to list a phone number she could call.
Once she had it, she anxiously waited as it rung. Was she too late? Had he found someone else?
A friendly female voice picked up on the second ring.
"Hello, this is Mr. Tashio's office. How may I help you?"
"Um, well I was returning his call and-"
Kagome was cut off as the woman interrupted.
"Ok then, I'll patch you right through."
Kagome tapped her nails on the counter along to the Christmas hold music, and her hope grew. Maybe she still could get the job.
"Hello, this is Tashio," the cheery voice from her machine broke through the Jingle Bells.
"Um, hello, Mr. Tashio, this is Kagome Higurashi," she said nervously into the receiver, "You left a message on my machine this morning regarding a job offer?"
The line was silent, then, "Ah! Of course! Have you decided to accept?"
Kagome could faintly hear a, "please say yes, please say yes," being mumbled under the man's breath. She had to resist the urge to laugh; apparently not many people were jumping at the idea of working with an egotistical sociopath.
"Yes."
"YES!!! When can you start!?!"
Kagome was a little taken aback by his wild enthusiasm, and had the distinct impression he was doing a happy dance.
"Um, I guess… anytime."
There was more shouting on the other end of the line, and Kagome imagined that if she was there, she would be the recipient of a bone-crushing bear hug.
"Come immediately, if not sooner, to my office and will have you all set up in no time."
"So does that mean Monday?"
"When is Monday?"
"Tomorrow."
"Monday it is! See you then!"
---
Kagome woke early to her alarm clock and snuggled into her fresh smelling sheets. She had changed them last night; who knows what happened at the party? She loved the smell of fresh laundry and she delved deeper into her covers, but her alarm continued to go off, and she rolled out of bed with a sigh to shut it off.
She got dressed quickly, a plain white button down with a black blazer, and this time with black slacks. No froggies today. Once she had finished getting ready, she made her way to the kitchen, dodging trash on the floor. She searched around for any food that had been spared, but alas, all she could find was one T.V. dinner, and she ended up eating spaghetti for breakfast.
She drove to her new office, only having one detour where her trusty MapQuest directions failed her, and pulled into the "visitors" section because she wasn't quite sure where to park yet. She walked into the large bustling lobby, complete with a three story high beautiful fountain. She walked around the busy first floor, a little dazed, but found her way to the elevator. After she had spoken to Mr. Tashio last night, he handed the phone over to his secretary to set her all up.
She found the elevator and shoved herself into the packed square room. She managed to slide her hand around the crush of people to press the 55th floor button, not noticing it had already been pushed. Someone coughed beside her, and she would have shuffled over if she had any room. The woman turned to face her.
"Oh I'm so sorry!" she said. The voice sounded vaguely familiar. "I've been sick for a while now; this is only my second day back. I hope I don't get you sick!" she said worriedly.
Kagome was slightly startled by the woman friendly demeanor while most of the other people on the elevator looked like they were about to kill someone.
Probably forgot their coffee this morning.
Anyway, as the higher they went, more people got off, and eventually they were the only ones left. When the elevator closed again of the 49th floor, the woman turned to Kagome and said in a curious tone,
"I haven't seen you around before; are you new?"
Kagome looked shyly around and answered in the affirmative.
"Ooooh!" the woman said excitedly, "Who're going to work for?"
Kagome's face twisted into an unpleasant expression.
"Sesshoumaru Tashio."
The other woman gaped, and then broke into a fit of giggles.
"So… you're… Kagome…?" she managed to choke out between her laughter. Kagome sighed, and the woman regained her composure and held out her hand to shake. "I'm Sango, Mr. Tashio's secretary. We talked on the phone yesterday," she smiled.
Kagome shook the offered hand. "Nice to meet you, Sango," she said politely. So that's why her voice had sounded familiar.
The elevator pinged, and as the doors opened, they both stepped out into the extravagant room. Almost everything in there was a shade of silver or white. Only one thought ran through Kagome's mind.
Didn't it ever get dirty?
Sango ushered her into the office to the left, the one looking slightly bigger. Mr. Tashio was sitting at a desk frowning at his computer, but when he looked up to see who had entered, a grin spread from ear to ear on his face. He got up and vigorously shook hands with Kagome, all the while positively beaming.
"Miss Higurashi, I presume? I'm so glad to have you here today! My son has been in rare form this morning."
He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "pain-in-the-ass-son" but Kagome pretended she hadn't heard. And then, once again, she was being pushed along, but this time in the direction of a door that she could only assume opened into the only other office she had seen on this floor.
---
"No. Absolutely not. This is not acceptable."
"Oh, quit your fussing, son. She's your new secretary whether you like it or not."
Kagome stood to the side of the lavish room, and she swore she heard a small growl emanate from Sesshoumaru's lips.
"Look," she said while beginning to set up on her new desk, "I don't like this either, but we're both just going to have to deal with it."
Tashio snuck out the door while his son's attention was elsewhere.
"If you are so much not in favor of this, then why are you here?" Sesshoumaru asked icily. Kagome rubbed her fingers together in the universal sign for money.
"Moolah," she said with a goofy grin.
"Are you some sort of cow now?" he asked with a smirk. Kagome slapped her forehead, exasperated.
"Not moo as in cow, moo as in-" she stopped when she saw him looking off in the distance, a bored expression clearly on his features. "You know what, never mind."
She had a feeling he wasn't very up-to-date on his slang, and whatever she said would go completely in one ear and out the other.
She was right.
"Hmm, did you say something, Miss Higurashi?" Sesshoumaru said nonchalantly, leaning casually against the wall.
This was going to be a hell of a long day.
---
I am so sorry this is so late! Bay's birthday was a couple weeks ago and she got a Wii (I think she had hysterics when she unwrapped it), and so she refused to pry her little fingers off that remote and nunchuck to actually edit anything I sent her. So blame her! –points accusing finger at Song-
Bay looked up the definition of sociopath (don't ask me why) and it said: "a person, as a psychopathic personality, whose behavior is antisocial and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience." She immediately called me up and said, "YEEGADS IT'S SESS! It says antisocial and everything! HAHAHA!!!"
Yes, she's strange.
So basically I put the word in there to make her happy. Nyah
Oh! Did anyone get the South Park reference with the fountain in the lobby? Anyone? No? Ok… I'm a dork… It's official.
Heheheheh… and yeah, I know I said 3 to 4 chapters, but… I dunno it just… got out of hand? It shouldn't be THAT much longer. At least I hope so.