Disclaimer: Idea did come Teen Idol the book but I have my own little twist to it.. So how about you actually wait and read a couple of chapters before jumping to the gun and sending rude reviews.. Thanks!

Two

Actually, I wasn't too surprised when Mr. Myoga asked me if I'd be the Register's new Annie. That's because for my whole life, people have always come to me with their problems. I don't know why. I mean, it's not like I want to hear about Sango and InuYasha's love life.

But seemingly since birth I've been cursed with being everybody's confidante. Seriously. I used to think I was a weirdo magnet or something, because ift seemed like i could never go anywhere without random strangers coming up to me, telling me all about themselves. like about their hammer collection or their sick ferret or whatever.

But it isn't just random strangers, it turns out. EVERYBODY does it. Ayame was teh first one to put her finger on why. It was her twelfth birthday, and Ayame decided to have her birthday party at the Zoom Floom, this giant water slide over in Ellis County. Only on the day of the party, I got my period. Since I was scared of tampons (when you're twelve, those things can be scary. And it wasn't like I had figured out yet to buy the special teen ones--- "Petal soft and pinky slim!" I was still trying to jam those super absorbency plus ones of my mom's up in there, and, let me tell you, it wasn't quite working out for me.), I had no choice but to stay home.

But Ayame, whom I'd expected to be sympathetic, was anything but. She was all, "I don't care if your stupid pad comes out from under your suit and floats away! You are coming to my party! You HAVE to! You're the mayonnaise!"

I didn't know what Ayame was talking about. But it turns out she was more then happy to explain.

"Because you get along with everyone," she told me over the phone that day. "Like mayonnaise. Without mayonnaise the whole sandwich just falls apart. Like my party's going to if you don't come."

It did, too. Her party, I mean. Yuka accused Kagura of copying her because they both ended up wearing identical red J. Crew swimsuits and French braids, and Kagura, to prove she had a mind of her own, pushed Yuka into the deep part at the base of the waterslide, and she chipped a tooth on the pool's cement floor.

If I had been there, I totally would have intervened before anyone got hurt. So, you know, it wasn't this huge shock when Mr. Myoga handed me the Ask Annie position. Because the person who holds it has to give the people who write in not only good advice but also advice that the school counselor, Ms. Rin, will be able to endorse and stand behind.

Which isn't easy. Because Ms. Rin is a freak. She is all into yoga and biorhythm and feng shui, and always wants me to tell the people who write in that if they'd move their bedroom mirror so it isn't facing a window or door, they'd stop losing so much karmic energy.

I'm not kidding.

And this is the person who is supposedly going to help me get into a good college someday. Scary.

Anyway, the thing about Ask Annie is, the person who is Annie is supposed to be this huge secret, on account of Annie isn't supposed to have any biases toward certain peer groups, as Ms. Rin calls them. Like Annie can't be "known" to be a member of any particular clique, or people will think she can't relate to, like, the problems of someone unpopular like Yuka or a jock like Naraku or whoever. Plus, you know, if people knew who Annie was, they might not be willing to write to her at all, since she might guess who the author of the letter was, and spread it around. People don't really do that good job of disguising their identity when they write to Annie. I mean, maybe they try, but you get people like Ayame, who writes to Annie at lease once a month about whatever is bugging her (ususally something about Miruko Moroboshi, the love of her life). Ayame doesn't even attempt to disguise her handwriting or use a fake e-mail address.

Another reason for the anonymity of Annie si that she is privy to a lot of people's deepest, darkest secrets.

So I have this totally fab position on the paper, but I can't tell anybody about it. I can't even tell Ayame or my mom, because they both have the biggest mouths in the entire world. I just have to go along, letting them all think I have this very integral role with teh paper's layout. Whoopee...

Which is fine. I mean, it's not a big deal. I'm easy.

Except when it comes to people like Sango. I'd like to tell Sango. Just so she doesn't keep on thinking InuYasha is taking advantage of me.

So, anyway, being Annie and all, I get called to Ms. Rin's office a lot. She always wants to talk to me about who I think might have written some particularly disturbing letter or e-mail. Sometimes I know. Sometimes I don't Sometimes I tell her. Sometimes I don't. I mean, you have to respect a person's right to privacy unless, you know, the person is seriously disturbed.

And fortunately, thee are enough people who want Ms. Rin and the rest of the administration to know their business that they don't really have time to poke their noses into the business of the people who don't.

Like Yuka, for instance. Yuka totally doesn't care if the whole world knows about her problems. Yuka writes tons of letters to Annie. I answer all of them, though we don't print them in the paper, because even if we didn't include her signature (she signs each and every one of her letters), everyone would know they were from her anyway. Like a typical one is:

Dear Annie,

Everyone calls me Yuka the cow , even though my name is just Yuka, and they all moo when I walk by them in the hallway. Please help before I do

something drastic.

Only Yuka never has done anything drastic yet, that I know of. Once this rumor went around that she had cut herself, and she was out of school for three days. I was really worried she had slit her wrists or something. So I asked my mom to find out what had happened for me, because my mom and her mom are the same aquasize class at the Y.

But it turned out that Yuka had given herself a home pedicure and shaved too much dead skin off the soles of her feet and accidentally removed fresh new skin and couldn't walk till it grew back.

That's the kind of thing that happens to Yuka. A lot.

It's also the kind of thing that makes my mom go, "You know, Kagome, Yuka's mom is really worried about Yuka. She says Yuka tries so hard to fit in, but it doesn't seem to do any good. The other kids just keep making fun of her. Maybe if you took her under your wing?"

Of course I can't tell my mom that I have taken Yuka under my wing. I mean, as Ask Annie.

Anyway, when I got called to the office the day after Naraku kidnapped Kikyo Miko, I figured it was either soemthing to do with a Yuka letter or that, alternatively, it had to do with Kikyo.

Because even though Mrs. Kaede had been her typical self about the whole thing, shrugging it off, you could really kind of bothered her. Like I noticed her gaze often strayed toward the place on her desk where Kikyou used to sit.

And she made this giggling announcement before class, that if Kikyo's kidnappers would just returen there'd be no hard feelings and no questions asked. I had even caught up to Naraku in the lunch line and asked him if he was going to do a ransom note or wahter just because I thought if Mrs. Kaede saw the whole thing was a joke, she might feel better about it.

But Naraku was all, "What? A what note?"

So then I had to explain to Naraku, all carefully, about what a ransom note was and how the joke---since that's what I assumed he was doing, kidnapping Kikyo, and all-- would be funnier if he sent Mrs. Kaede a note instructing her to, for instance, waive the weekend homework or distribute Brach's caramels to everyone in class, in order to ensure Kikyo's safe return.

Naraku seemed to really like this idea. It was like it had never occurred to him before. He and his friends went, "Whoa. Genius!" and high-fived one another.

Which got me kind of nervous. So just to be sure they even still had Kikyo, I went, "Naraku, you didn't do anything stupid, did you? Like throw Kikyo in one of the quarries or something. Did you?"

Naraku looked at me like I was crazy. He went, " Hell, NO. I still got her. It's a joke, see? The senior prank, Kag. Heard of it?" I didn't want Naraku thinking I didn't find his prank hilarious. So I just went, "Yeah, funny joke," and grabbed my tacos and ran... Hey, the guy can be scary...

So anyways... When I got called to Ms. Rin's office I thought it either had to do with Yuka locked herself in the girls bathroom again, or about Kikyo being kidnapped thing. So I dragged myself into Ms. Rin's office, I was making all these promises to myself--- Like if she threatens to make me work in the office all during summer, Iw as going to stick to my guns on the Kikyo thing and not tell... I didn't even notice that Ms. Rin wasn't the only person there...

Both my Principals were their... And their was another guy there, too... A guy wearing this shiny gray suit. I should have noticed him straight off--- also the fact that he clearly wasn't from Shikon, since he had a blue T-shirt instead of a button down under his jacket, which is how people in California dresses...

"Kagome," she said, "we're like you to meet Miruko Moroboshi."

"Kagome what a beautiful name," Miruko said while grabbing my hands into his... "May I ask just one simple question?"

"Uhh.. Sure," I said a little shakey.

"Will you bare my children?"

I was calm on the outside but inside I was thinking, "is the guy serious..." But before I could answer Ms. Rin came between us and said, "Well yes, Kagome, your probably wondering what is going on so let me explain." I just shook my head and took a seat next to this Miruko guy. "Miruko here, is about to star in his next movie as a regular teenager in highschool with regular teenage problems.. Like romance, balancing school, and etc. And Miruko has picked our school for his little experiment where he will be here for 2 weeks and get the idea of what being a regular teenager is all about."

I just sat there for a minute... With probably a blank expression on my face. It was probably 10 minutes before I even reply to what Ms. Rin just told me. I cleared my throat and asked, "Wouldn't people notice him.. I mean, come on, he is a star after all... The moment he sets foot on campus for real is the day he dies from a mob of teenage girls coming his way." Miruko just laughed and said, "You don't have to worry your pretty little head Kagome. I'm going to wear a disguise, you'd be amazeed what a pair of glasses can do."

Now it was my turn to laugh and turn to look at him and say, "A pair of glasses.. Do you really think a pair of glasses will be a good enough disguise?" Ms. Rin once again cleared her throat with a nervous glance between the two of us. "Well Kagome, because you're so good at keeping secrets, and we know we can count on you not to blow this one or get silly about it-- you could be assigned to be Miruko's student guide. You know how we like to give transfer students a guide to help them out their first few days. And you could take Miruko aroudn with you to all of your classes--show him the ropes, so to speak. Answer his questions, maybe help deflect anyone who gets too suspicious... Then he can, you know, soak in the atmosphere here at Shikon without anyone suspecting that he is who he really is. How does that sound?"

Truthfully? It sounded like a load of horse manure. I mean, did they really think no one was going to notice that the new guy looks like Miruko Moroboshi? Did they honsestly think calling him Kenchi Uhi was going to throw everyone--- especially someone like Ayame, who worships the guy--- off? I really thought Ms. Rin, and Miruko Moroboshi himself were underestimating the intelligence of my fellow Shikon High students.

But, hey, it wouldn't be the first time.

"Sure," I said. "Fine, whatever."

Ms. Rin smiled in a pleased way and shot what looked to me like a triumphant glance at Miruko. "See?" Ms. Rin said. "I told you so. You can always count on Kagome not to make a fuss."

Which is totally true.