Author's Note: I am SOOOOO sorry for not updating in, what, 25 FREAKIN' DAYS?! Wow, I didn't know that time could pass by so fast. Well, thank you so much for your patience! Here's the next chapter, and please review!

The Bus Ride Part 2

Minutes later, the bus slowed to a stop to pick up the last half of the happy campers. As Hachi tossed more suitcases into the bottom compartment, Kagome felt her stomach growl. She sighed and turned off the music device.

"Sango, what time is it?" Kagome asked, shoving her Ipod into her backpack.

The demonslayer put down the glossy magazine that she was flipping through and glanced down at her silver wristwatch. "Seven-fifty-one. What, you're hungry?"

"Yes!"

Sango sighed. She tossed a fashion magazine over to Kagome's lap. "Read until breakfast," she suggested.

"Reading makes me more hungry," Kagome whined, putting the colorful paperback back on the brunette's lap.

"Baby." Sango rolled her eyes as she read a news story about a popular band.

"I am not!"

"Then talk to someone."

"Who? Rin's listening to her Ipod and Ayame's still talking."

"I know who'd like to talk to you." Sango smiled as she looked at her friend.

"Who?"

Without moving her head, Sango shifted her gaze to Inuyasha, then back at Kagome.

"Oooooh no!" Kagome whispered, shaking her head.

"Oh, yes." Sango looked back at the magazine. "Hey, Inuyasha. Kagome wants to talk to you." She flipped a page casually, ignoring Kagome's death glare dedicated especially for Sango.

"What's up?" Inuyasha asked, looking up from his empty hands.

Kagome looked back at him through the gap between the girls' seats. He had one bare foot pressed against the back of her seat and his arms were crossed over his chest. "Oh! Um, have you gone to summer camp before?" she nervously asked.

He shrugged. "Once or twice before. You?"

Kagome shook her head. "Never."

"Never?"

"Never have gone."

"Inuyasha!" a girl's voice squealed from the front. She had long black hair in a neat low ponytail and was wearing a white collared shirt with a blood red skirt that ended above her knees.

"Crap," Inuyasha muttered, sinking lower in his seat in an attempt to conceal himself.

Mission not accomplished.

"Inuyasha!" the girl cheerfully shrieked again. She shoved her way down the aisle until she reached the back row. "You're going to Shikon Camp, too? This will be so much fun!"

"Um . . . Yeah . . . Sure . . ." he mumbled, sinking lower in his seat, wishing he could disappear.

"Oh, hi, Miroku!" the girl greeted as her brown eyes landed on the monk by the window.

"Hey, Kikyou," Miroku bluntly replied with no emotion.

"Kikyou?" Kagome asked, surprised. She looked up and sure enough, a nearly identical reflection of her stared back.

"Kagome?" Kikyou returned, staring down at the girl that spoke her name.

"Oh my god!" the girls squealed in unison. Kagome unbuckled her seatbelt and stood to embrace the girl.

"You're going to camp, too?" Kikyou asked when they released each other.

"Yeah, Mama forced me to go because Souta's going." Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, my mom made me go because she said I need to learn to survive." Kikyou quoted the last phrase with her fingers.

Kagome scoffed. "Learn to survive? What the hell does that mean? We won't live in tents for the whole summer."

"I know. She doesn't read the brochures; She just signed me up for it."

Before Kagome could respond, Hachi interrupted with his little microphone. "Excuse me, Miss Higurashi and . . . Miss Higurashi . . . ? Please sit down. We're about to leave."

"See you later!" Kikyou said as she turned and stalked back up to the middle row by her friends.

Kagome sat back down with a smile on her face. As she buckled her seatbelt again, the bus roared to life.

Sango looked up from her magazine, pretending she hadn't seen or heard what happened. "Kikyou's going?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah," Kagome replied. "Isn't that cool? At least we know another person that's going."

"Dude, I haven't seen her in like a year."

"Pardon me, Kagome," Miroku interrupted, popping his head between the girls' seats. "But how do you know Kikyou?"

"Oh, she's my cousin," the raven-haired girl answered. She realized the silent hanyou behind her. "Hey, Inuyasha? How do you know Kikyou?"

"Ex-girlfriend," he mumbled.

Kagome's eyes widened. Was he the guy that made Kikyou go into tearful depression two years ago? The one whom Kikyou described as a cruel, cold-hearted jerk?

But he seemed so nice . . . Then Kagome remebered what Kikyou had told her about men, this hanyou in particular.

- - Flashback - -

"Kikyou?" a thirteen-year-old Kagome murmured. She and her older cousin were laying on their backs on soft blankets, star-gazing on a warm Friday night.

"Hm?" the fourteen-year-old girl hummed in reply.

"I think I'm going to ask Hojo out now. Do you have any . . . advice?"

Kikyou sighed and sat up.

Kagome followed suit and sat patiently on her heels.

"Kagome," Kikyou started, never removing her gaze from the twinkling stars. She hugged her knees to her chest, tears brimming the chocolate eyes. "Do you remember when I cried for over a week after Inuyasha broke up with me?"

Kagome nodded slowly, her mouth a serious straight line. "Yes."

Kikyou shifted slighlty so that she was sitting like a pretzel. "I've watched him. I've watched how he gets a girl, like he got me to date him. Now, hear me out, this might go for many greedy men. He will play nice and sweet with you; Seduce you; Make himself look attractive and irrestistable to you. At some point, you'll ask him out, and he'll accept."

Kagome nodded again, waiting for her to continue. Her cousin had her deep brown eyes closed in a thoughtful manner, as if contemplating what to say next.

Kikyou turned to her younger cousin. "Are you bored with my lecture?"

The miko violently shook her head. "No, not at all!"

"So, do you want to hear my story?"

"Yes."

Kikyou took a deep breath and stared up at the starry sky. "Well, it all started when we were paired up for a lab in biology. We had to light a bunsen burner, and as you know, I am terrified by fire. So, I chickened out and begged him to do it for me. Instead, he taught me how to do it properly and not get scared. Since then, we became good friends.

"One day, we were sitting on a bench at the park. Somehow, we began talking about our past relationships. I told him that I dated, but I've never been kissed. He silently looked at me and I looked back. Then he leaned in and kissed me. My first kiss was from Inuyasha.

"Afterwards, we started going out. We hugged, we kissed, we went on dates, everything couples do. A few months later, he just walked up to me and said that we should see other people. I was heartbroken, and I cried for a week.

"And I watched him. I wanted to know who he dumped me for. I, dare I say it, spied on him and I saw him hanging around with the school slut, Yura, the girl I hated the most out of the entire school.

"I was so pissed off at him that I dated the guy that he hated the most at school, Naraku. Apparently, Inuyasha was infuriated and he went up to me at lunch and called me a whore in front of the whole school. I lost my temper and slapped him. I couldn't believe what I just did and ran away from him.

"I was laying on my bed, thinking. And I finally decided to make up with him. I went to his house and apologized for slapping him. He apologized back and we made up. Since then, I just wanted to be friends with him. I always talk to him at lunch and after school." Kikyou cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "Bottom line - don't let your guard down around a guy. You never know what he'll do when you're all starry-eyed with him."

- - End Flashback - -

Since Kikyou's lecture, Kagome had never dated a guy. She did not want to go through such a painful heartbreak like her favorite cousin. She talked to boys, but she was never alone without one of her faithful gal friends.

A light tap on her shoulder broke Kagome's train of thoughts. She turned to see Rin. "Oh, hey, Rin. What's up?" she said.

"Is it time for breakfast yet?" Rin asked, rubbing a hand over her tummy.

Kagome smiled. "Sango?" she said, turning to her friend.

Sango rolled her eyes, but looked at her watch. "Eight-oh-one."

"What the hell?" Kagome and Rin hissed in unison.

"That damn raccoon!" Rin whispered.

"He's gonna be freakin' roadkill when I'm through with him," Kagome muttered.

Again, Sango rolled her brown eyes. "FYI, girls, they are serving breakfast. But we're in the back." Sure enough, Kaede was pushing a small metal cart piled with pale yellow cartons and cans of Minute-Maid orange juice at the front of the bus.

"Oh, come on," Kagome pouted.

"This is bull," Rin mumbled, crossing her arms. Before Kikyou came to the back, Rin had put her Ipod away and stared at the seat in front of her.

"Whiners," Sango mumbled under her breath.

"OMG, Sango," Kagome slowly said, straightening up and staring straight ahead.

"What?" Sango looked up from her magazine.

"They have those pop-out trays like on the airplane!" The gray, plastic trays were in the locked position on the back of the seats in front of the girls.

"No DUH!" Sango shook her head. "It's one of those tour buses, you idiot!"

"Well, sorry! I just realized it."

There was a squeaky noise next to the girls, and it was Kaede. The elder lady had straight gray hair pulled back into a low ponytail and she wore a black eyepatch over her wounded right eye. She was wearing a long white dress made of filmy material with an apron draped over her shoulders and loosely tied at the waist.

"Are ye girls hungry for pancakes and orange juice?" Kaede asked, a warm smile spreading over her wrinkled, aged face.

"Yes, please," both Sango and Kagome replied, nodding and smiling.

"Kaede handed each girl a can of juice and a warm carton containing three golden brown pancakes.

"Thank you." They turned the knob to release the trays and placed their breakfasts neatly on them.

After drowning their pancakes in maple syrup, Rin and Kagome eagerly wolfed down their breakfasts before Sango could finish even when one pancake. The two black-haired girls washed down the sweet cakes with the can of orange juice.

Ayame and Sango just watched in horror as their friends devoured their food in less than ten minutes. This was going to be one long summer . . .