Hello :D

I finally updated, and I'm hoping this story will turn out a lot better once Inuyasha and the gang get into the picture! Which will be very soon!

:)

Chapter 3

I woke up startled when the cab came to a stop. I rubbed my eyes and looked outside. It was still dark, but the never ending road had turned into a neat little neighborhood, filled with houses that looked like they belonged to the average, high class, american families. Seriously. It was the complete opposite of where I used to live. But I guess my little apartment on the seventh floor of a building in what is now one of the most dangerous parts of the city would rank pretty low compared to any home here in , California.

I grabbed my things from the trunk and just stood there, looking up at the house the cab had stopped in front of. It wasn't very big compared to the ones around it. In fact, the other houses made it look tiny. I had no idea what I was suppose to do. Knock?

Wait for someone to open up and say what?

'Hi, Im Kagome, you know, the daughter of your suicidal sister? Oh and by the way, I'm a former gang member. I'm into drugs, alcohol, and sex. Oh and also, I carry a pocket knife with me wherever I go. Just in case someone ticks me off. So where will I be sleeping?'

Ummm....maybe not.

But I knew I wasn't about to stand there for another few hours, so I managed to walk myself over to the front door and knock. I planned on keeping my mouth shut, though.

After a few seconds, the door opened. 'What the hell?' There was no one at the door.

"Who the heck are you?", said a tiny, somewhat squeaky voice. My eyes traveled down, and saw a head of orange hair staring up at me with humungous green eyes. I was at loss for words. The kid continued to stare at me like I was some sort of freak, until finally, he looked behind his shoulder and yelled, "Mommy! Theres a really wierd lady at the door! She looks like one of those retarded people we saw on TV last night! You know the ones they call 'special'?"

Did he just? Oh hell no.

"Who you callin retarded you-" I stopped midway when a lady appeared behind the kid. She looked to be in her thirties. She had short jet black hair that reached just above her chin. Her eyes were a deep ocean blue color. I froze.

She looked so much like my mom, and yet the warmth she gave from her smile was so unlike her. I remember the last time my mother smiled. Barely. The memory was so faint in my mind that it was almost unreal. Non-existent. I mentally laughed. 'What the hell am I thinking? She never...'

She disrupted me from my thoughts by reaching out and trapping me in a lung crushing embrace.

"Ohh you must be Kagome! Ohh I can't believe this!! The last time I saw you you were still in diapers! You really did grow a few inches huh? And so beautiful too! Im so glad you agreed to..." She continued rambling on and on, and like a dork I just stood there, listening with the blankest, dumbest look on my face. So this was my clinically depressed and desperate mother's sister? This super perky, bubbly lady was actually related to my mom? This was really my aunt?

I guess it was.

'Of course I would end up being born my mother's child and not this lady's..', I thought to myself.

"Of course...", I mumbled, the corners of my lips twiching into a smirk as I snorted at yet another unusual and inconvinient twist in my life. "What was that sweetie?"

"Oh..umm nothing...", shaking those cruel thoughts about my mother out of my head, I did my best to try and keep up with her speedy chitter chatter.

She helped me bring my things into the house, then carefully set them down my the staircase, saying she would take care of it later. "Kagome, this little guy here is my son, Shippo. Shippo, this is your cousin, Kagome Higurashi." Once again I looked down at the kid, no longer all that angry at him for calling me a retard. He stared up at me with his big ol' eyes for a few seconds before speaking. "Are you really my cousin?", he asked. I nodded. "Umm yeahh..I..I guess I am." I was expecting dissapointment and maybe another insult, and thinking back at it, the insult would have been better than what came next.

''Ohmygosh this is sooo cool!!! Shiori get down here hurry!!! Cousin Kagome's here and she's awesome!!!! Shiori where are you?!?!", he yelled after running upstairs in search of this Shiori person. The kid didn't even know me and he thought I was awesome. I couldn't help but smile. I guess he was a cute kid afterall. Though I wondered who this other person was.

My aunt began to show me around the bottom floor of the house, every few seconds exclaiming just how happy she was that I was there. Everytime she did, I couldn't help but wonder whether or not she knew about my old life. Whether she did or not, she spoke nothing of it. No questions or anything. 'Does she even realize she's giving a grand tour of her house to a criminal? To a complete fucken stranger?' Maybe she didn't at the time. Maybe she just didn't want to bring up the fact that I was bad news and that she was stuck with me.

"So what do you think, Kagome? I know its not exactly what you expected. This house is a tad small but its a wonderful home nonetheless. You'll survirve won't you?", she teased, smiling. "Well no, its really not at all what I expected..", I did'nt have very many expectations when I came here. That way there's no chance of dissapointment. But I was far from being dissapointed at the moment.

She walked me over to the kitchen and gestured me towards one of the stools on the island in the middle of it. "Why don't you have a seat? Are you hungry? I'll bet you are. That was a pretty long trip you had huh? And I know how terrible plane food is.." She was searching through some top cuppards, then finally pulled out a small carton. and turned on the stove. I watched her closely, wondering whether or not I was suppose to offer to help. Yeahh right. I knew fucken squat about cooking, but I was pretty good at heating up noodles. Well, in a microwave.

She began pouring the contents from the carton into a pot of water and placed it over the stove.

"So...what do you think about California so far? Is the weather here any diffrent from home?", she began stirring the contents in the pot.

I looked down at my finger nails and scoffed. I could feel her curious eyes on me afterwards. "What is it?" I kept my eyes fixed on my finger nails before answering.

"You're asking me about the weather?", I knew I had that annoyed look on my face, but I didn't care. This lady was just plain wierd, asking me about climate conditions when she knew...she knew she was talking to a murderer. She knew. I was positive she knew. She seemed surprised by my question. "Well yes, I see it as a simple way to start a conversation. We could talk about something else if you'd like. Hmmm...-"

I looked up at her. "Ummm I'm really not that hungry. Would it be okay if I went to bed?", she smiled warmly. "Of course, dear." I tried my best to smile back before getting up and following her upstairs, picking up my luggage along the way.

Down the very end of the hallway and to the left was where she told me my room would be. She opened the door and placed some of my belongings by the bed. She smiled, motioning over to the bed.

"I bought the bed covers when I heard you were coming. You like pink right?"

"Ummm...sure."

Her smile never faded as she said her goodnights. But before she left, she added, "Oh, and Kagome? I'm really glad to have you here.", smiling one last time, she finally closed the door, leaving me and my thoughts to ourselves.

Immediatley after she left, I pulled out my phone and dialed a number and waited. No one answered. I hung up and laughed at myself.

Stupid dumbshit Kagome.

Of course no one answered. For one, I was on the other side of America, so it didn't even ring. And also, because no one was home. I was calling my apartment number. Out of habit, or out of some need of comfort, I don't know. I guess I was so used to hearing the voice at the other end that I forgot it didn't exist anymore.

I put my phone next to me on the bed, afraid I would actually go as far as calling his cellphone number, like I usually did if he wasn't at the apartment.

Man, was I out of it.

I needed sleep. Very much so. I changed into something more comfortable then slipped under the covers of my new bed. I began thinking of the people I was living with.

My aunt, to be specefic.

She seemed like a nice lady. But people usually tend to be nice to me because they're scared of me. This lady knew I was dangerous and yet she was letting me live with her and her two kids. My first guess as to why:

She's as fucking lunatic as my mother.

I woke up the next morning feeling woozy. Probably because it had been a while since I slept for more than a few hours. By the time I had gotten downstairs, there was already breakfast on the table. I really had been hungry the night before. And now I was starving. As soon as Michiko [my aunt] saw me she smiled one of her genuine smiles and told me to have a seat at the table, where two little munchkins were currently attacking their plates. Slowly, akwardly, I sat down across from them, not sure whether or not I was suppose to say something. Shippo looked up at me after a while and smiled, nudging the other kid.

"See?", he began. "I told you she was here.", the other kid looked up from her plate at me. She had dark brown hair and eyes of the same color. She looked nothing like the boy, or the mother. 'Maybe she takes after her dad', I thought to myself. But then again, Shippo didn't look anything like his mother either. 'So then who?'

Michiko introduced the little girl to me, saying this was Shiori, her daughter. She then put my breakfast in front of me and I wasted no time in eating it. During breakfast the two little kids bugged me with the most random questions, and surprisingly enough I answered every one of them without pounding on them for being so annoying. I helped clean up afterwards, and again, I managed not to screw that over either. Later that day, Michiko offered for me to go out and see the town, she even offered to let me borrow her car. Yupp, she was crazy alright..

I went up to my room to shower, brush my teeth, and change. I headed downstairs, already having accepted her offer after a long moment of hesitation. She really did insist though. She said this would be her first impression on whether or not I was a responsible girl, then handed me the keys. Although I still had quite a few money left from my last little break in, I said nothing when she handed me some money. Well it's not as though I was going to tell her I had stolen money at the bottom of my luggage, right?

I got in her car and started driving around town, surprised by how easy going everyone looked around here. And it really was nice not seeing a hobo on every street corner. They used to make me feel really bad, but after a while the whole "feeling sorry for them cuz they live in a box" thing got kind of old. It's cruel, I know, but compared to everything else, one little comment was no big deal. Well, not to me anyway.

I passed by a couple thrift stores, an ice cream shop [which I definetley planned on checking out later], a McDonalds and tons of other places you would see in every town. There were teenagers everywhere, most of them in shorts and flip flops. It was sunny in California.

Big surprise.

After cruising around for a while I found a mall. I figured it would give me something to do for the next few hours, and it had been a while since I'd had fast food, so I was actually looking forward to it. Buying some new clothes probably wouldn't be such a bad idea either. It tended to rain a lot back home, but I still wore the same old baggy pants and tank tops that I was most comfortable in. I looked down at myself. I was wearing some old jeans, a gray wife beater and a black hoodie. Yeahh, some new clothes would be nice.

The inside of the building was pretty big. All over there was brand name stores, but most of them were the ones that I saw all the people my age wearing around here. Not exactly my style. At all. After a lot of walking around, I finally found some decent stores. Sure, a few of them belonged to American Eagle, Hollister and all that crap, but surprisingly, I found it looked alright on me.

At the very end of the mall I found a cute little vintage store, where I picked out some jeans, a pair of moccasins, and a cradigan. I wasn't the type of girl that liked shopping, especially not by herself, and it didn't help that I had received a few stares every now and then. While I was at one of the brand name stores, I sort of lashed out at one of the workers. It's not as though I wanted to do it, but her forced perky smile and fake blonde hair were really ticking me off. My patience was running pretty thin by the time I got to the food court, which was the one place I had been looking forward to all day.

The food court was filled with people, most of them looking about my age. They were all situated in their diffrent little cliques. Right away I was able to point out the preps from the skaters, the gangsters from the emos.

Damn wrist-slitting freaks.

I spotted a food place, ordered and took my food over to one of the tables, becoming more and more conscious about the fact that I was the only person sitting alone. Whatever, its not as though it was very likely I'd see any of these people again anyways..

As soon as I sat down, the whispering started. I could feel a lot more eyes on me now, coming from all around. The group to the right of me though, the one I referred to as the preps, were laughing it off at something one of their girls had said, and when she looked over at me, when they all did still cracking up, I knew they were talking about me. Well fuck..that's exactly what I need when I'm hungry, emotionally out of it, and a little bit pissed.

"Hey babe, how about bringing some of that hot stuff over here!", one of the guys called. I looked over at them, not at all affected by his compliment and looked for the guy, a bored look on my face. They were all snickering, saying something I couldn't quite hear, but when they all turned to look at me and laugh again, I knew it had something to do with me. By the looks of it, they were really trying to piss me off. That, or they were the kind of people that actually believed they had the authority to mess with people and get away with it. I began to study them a bit closer.

It was a group of about five or six in all, most of them dressed as thought they belonged in shopping magazines and catalogs. There were two guys at the end of the table. A very petite and rather slutty looking girl sitting on one of the guy's laps, her fake boobs occupying the guys attention as he whispered things into her ear. Next to them was a girl with short black hair, and I think she was the one that had been talking about me,she looked like a bitch from as far as where I was sitting. Next to her was another girl, only this one had very long black hair and gray eyes. She was sitting extremly close to the last guy, the one that caught my attention the most. He was also currently laughing, but when brown eyes met his gold [yes people, gold] ones, he stopped.

Saying that this guy was hot, extremly sexy and gorgeous would probably be an understatement. He was wearing a red long sleeve button up and jeans. We continued to stare at each other until the girl next to him pulled his face to hers, saying god knows what before kissing him. I scoffed, shaking my head and turned my attention back to the food in front of me. After a few moments I found myself looking back at the happy couple, only to find that guy staring back at me. With a big chunk of burger in my mouth, I flipped him off. Yeahh he was hot, but I wasn't into his type. His type being the preppy, bitchy, "I can have anything I want" type, and trust me when I say that they all looked the part. When he saw me shove my middle finger towards him he looked at it and smirked. Only it didn't seem like he was doing it to tick me off. He just sort of smirked and quickly truned his attention back to his girlfriend, who had been trying to get his attention from the moment I caught him staring.

I looked at them for a bit longer, watching as he talked to her, occasionally playing with a strand of her hair, both of them smiling. They looked like the perfect couple, looking as though they didn't have a care in the world, and I could almost hear my teeth as they clenched together.

Not a care in the world, and here I was carrying the whole damn thing on my shoulders. Whatever, it's not like it should really matter anymore anyways. My death bed could be waiting for me anywhere and I was sure I wasn't free yet, or if I ever would be. I had sworn into a life that would never let me be free, or so they had told me. Once you're in, you're in untill your last dying breath.

Freedom wasn't an option.

Freedom didn't even exist.

But as I looked at the two, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous at the fact that I had missed out on so much in life, and knowing that I could never have that with a person, it was...it was pretty stupid actually. Who gives a flying fuck about love, or any of that shit. I sure as hell don't.

Nope.

"There she is right there!", someone shouted, I looked away from they two and towards all the yelling.

"Oh shit.", I mumbled when I saw a woman in an extremly short skirt and very fake hair. It was the same wannabe blonde that I had "lashed" out at. Well, when I mean I lashed out at her, I mean I called her a few innapropriate names then gave her a good puch in the face when she started talking back. Guess I forgot to mention that last part... Thinking back, maybe I had gone a little too far...well anyways, there she was standing with a black eye and two security guards on either side of her, both of them had their eyes set on me, and I knew I was screwed.

Wait a minute...nobody knew me here. Nobody even knew if I lived here or not, so I figured nobody would know I was staying with my aunt. I looked at the two guards. Kind of old, and pretty goddang fat. And if there was anything I liked it was outrunning an old police officer that looked as though he'd had one too many dohnuts in his life. There was two of them. Not even worth the good run, hell this wouldn't even be a challenge.

"It has been a while though..", I mumbled as I gathered my things and took off, and I almost laughed when I saw the extremly shocked faces of the preps still sitting at their table. The two guards had started after me, but I was already out the door.

I was halfway to the car when I realized I had forgot something. My half eaten burger was still sitting on my table, and I was not about to let it go to waste! I looped around the parking lot seeing the two guards already out of breath, but one of them had pulled out his walkie talkie so I knew I'd have to hurry if I wanted to avoid a car chase with these guys and have to face my dissapointed aunt afterwards. I leaped over one of the cars and ran back into the mall. Everyone's shocked and scared eyes were on me as I jumped over a few pulled out chairs that were in my way before finally reaching my table. I snatched the burger and fries from it and was about to start running back when I saw the two guards standing at the door. I took a bite of my burger and stared at them. They looked as though they were about to collapse from exhaustion.

This was just too easy.

I managed to look over at the prep table, or more particularly, the certain golden eyed guy sitting there. His eyes met mine one again, and this time I smirked. I became a bit more aware when a few more security guards came into view. Now these were tough looking guys, so I knew I'd have to book it out of there pretty soon. But there was something I wanted to do first, just for the kick of it. And hey, it wasn't as though I had anything to lose if I did get caught. Nothing in life was of any value to me anymore, except for myabe this burger..

So quickly, very quickly, before I had the chance to change my mind, I ran up behind the very sexy eyed man. I placed my hands on the back of his chair, brought my head down to his level [he was already looking my way] and planted a huge kiss on his lips. When I pulled away, he just stared at me, shocked, and let me tell you that the look on his girl's face was freaking priceless. Then, I got my ass out of there, knowing the whole time that as I leapt over more chairs, whizzed past the chubby guards and burst out the door, those golden eyes would be following my every move.

Was it worth all the trouble for half a burger and a kiss.

Hell no.

But it sure as hell was fun to be my old self again, with not a care in the world, not a worry in my head.

Now that was worth it.

Feeling free.

Well there you go!

Please R&R!!!

Tell me whatcha think so far por favor :)