Disclaimer: Je ne possède pas Inuyasha. Je ne suis pas sa propriétaire. Et si vous pouvez comprendre ceci, félicitations.
A/N There ya go, a little french for you; just to keep you on your toes.
I'M FRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That abominable thing known as school is NO MORE!!! Mwuahahahahahaha!!!!!!! I can update! I am SOOO happy right now!
Alright, so you're all wondering about my absence, I'm sure. Well, I hope you all read the various important notes I posted in my bio, but I know that is unlikely. So let me think of a way to explain...
It was mostly school's doing. I had Musical Theatre, Chemistry, World Studies (in french) and French this semester. Musical Theatre takes up two classes so I replaced my lunch period with World Studies. Smart idea? I'm still trying to determine that.
World Studies and French were both taught by one of the strictest and most work-giving teachers. So...for this past month, I've been subjected to: various assignments for French and World Studies, a plan for my french essay, a plan for my World Studies project, the actual essay for French (complete with sources for every argument and support, 1500 words), the actual huge-ass project for World Studies (which is a grade 12 subject by the way - needed sources for every argument and whatnot, 2500 words), a project for Musical Theatre, an oral presentation of the project for Musical Theatre, an oral presentation for my french essay, an oral presentation for my World Studies project (which I did as a slide show), a very large essay for Musical Theatre, the actual musical we put on for four nights, the various tests for French and World Studies, the various tests, assignments, labs, whatever else for Chemistry, and the exams I just had to go through for French (2 and a half hours long), Chemistry (2 and a half hours long) and World Studies (3 hours long).
I don't know about you guys, but doing all of those things pretty much simultaneously really takes something out of me. Not to mention I had a ballet exam on the 17th of May and my dance recital on the 12th of June. Which meant I was dancing at my dance school for three or fours nights a week, taking up time that could have been spent working. So I ended up staying up VERY late at night pretty much every night.
Oh, and on top of that, I got some FANtastic news! coughsarcasmcough You know that knee injury I got in February? You know, the day before my birthday? Well, it just so happens that I completely tore my AC ligament and a bit of cartilage. You know what that means? Yup, you guessed it! Surgery! What fun! That kind of depressed me for a bit, especially since it won't be completely healed for NINE months; which means I can't play any of my sports during that time. No skiing at all next year! I'm gonna die!
Yeah, so that just about wraps things up...I'm going in for surgery Tuesday. tremble I'm kinda freaked about it, but I'm doing everything I can not to think about it.
Okay, so there's all my excuses! I hope you forgive me now because I was quite angry about not being able to update too. There was nothing I wanted to do more, but unfortunately, it wasn't letting me. Grrr...
But, ANYways; moving on. I actually got 55 reviews for last chapter! Holy crap! I'll really try to make it up to you guys, I swear!
Alright, on with some comments that need attention...
Yes, Ameiva, Kouga and Ayame will hook up for real. It's inevitable and we all know it; at least in this fic it is. And I'm sorry about the Leafs. Practically my whole city was rooting for them too, but unfortunately, it was not to be.
Leonardo, I'm sorry that you didn't like how the boys fell for it. But if you think about it, if you challenged those boys by calling them wimps if they didn't accept, I'm pretty sure they'd be agreeing. Maybe with the exception of Miroku. But I think Inuyasha and Kouga would fall for it fairly readily.
And thanks, wouldn't you like to know, for the Ghandi thingy. I'll be sure to change it in my bio.
Don't worry, Aneesha, Batawa lives on with us! sniff lol.
Well, yes, the tackiness should be amusing. That's why I thought of it! And don't ask me how I come up with these ideas; they just come to me. There's no point in trying to decipher the complicated workings of my inane mind.
And thanks everybody for your awesome compliments! They helped me a lot this month when there wasn't much happiness going on for me. I really appreciated it and here's a new chapter to show it!
Well, on with the next chapter...tacky day!
"There's no way."
"Oh, come on, Kouga, it's not that bad."
"Yeah, and you have to come out sometime. You agreed, remember?"
"This is humiliating! There's not a snowball's chance in hell I'm coming out!" Kouga's indignant muffled voice protested through the doorway.
"Stop being such a baby!" Ayame snapped.
The door was abruptly thrown open and an angry looking Kouga stood there, glaring. "I am not a baby!"
Immediately his murderous expression slipped when he heard laughter coming from everyone before him.
"That's hilarious!" Miroku chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "He looks like Captain Jack Sparrow!"
Kouga huffed and crossed his arms.
"I know!" Ayame said, beaming at Kouga. "Isn't he great?!"
"There are two opinions on that..." Kouga muttered.
"Just be thankful they didn't apply eye liner and gold teeth," Inuyasha chuckled.
"Or the clothes," Miroku added.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Kouga mumbled. "At least I'm not wearing a feather boa or a dog-eared toque!"
Miroku and Inuyasha's faces immediately fell and then began sulking.
"Oh, come on, guys," Kagome said in a falsely cheerful voice. "We're ALL wearing something embarrassing that we'd really rather not be seen in public in so let's go out and be humiliated together. At least we're all in the same boat."
"Yeah..." Miroku half-heartedly agreed.
The six teenagers trudged down the inside stairs of the girls' condo and prepared to face the what promised to be a horrible day together.
As they skied down to the chairlift line, they heard various whispering around them.
"Wow," Ayame giggled. "I feel like we're great warriors about to go face our doom in a monumental battle."
"You can say that again," Kagome muttered.
"At least we have Captain Jack Sparrow on our side," Sango said with a grin. Kouga scowled in response.
"And I'm sure Inuyasha's ferocious ears and Miroku's overly-flamboyant look will scare away the enemy no problem," Kagome smirked.
In response, Inuyasha glared, and Miroku flipped the boa over his shoulder.
"Hey, Inuyasha, don't feel too bad," Sango said, pointing over to a kid in front of them. "Look at that kid's hat; it's like a jester's; there's spikes coming out of it and shooting everywhere!"
"I guess..." Inuyasha mumbled. "But I'm wearing dog ears! Isn't that a little worse?!"
"No!" Kagome protested, giggling. "They're adorable! How could you not like them? I love them!"
Inuyasha grumbled a bit more, but generally quit complaining after that.
"Honestly, Inuyasha," Ayame said. "You probably have the best deal out of all of us. It's normal to see people wearing funky hats while skiing. Come to think of it, though, a lot of people wear really tacky outfits too...especially the older skiers who insist on wearing neon colours..."
The others winced at the thought.
"Come on now," Ayame continued. "I'll bet that each of our parents owned one of those tacky, neon one-piece ski suits at one time or another in their life."
Everyone lowered their head in shame.
As they got closer to boarding the chairlift, Sango said, "Well, since this is a quadruple chairlift, I guess two of us have to separate from the group and go on their own."
"I nominate Inuyasha and Kagome," Ayame smirked. "'Cause they just looked so cute together this morning snuggled up with each other."
Inuyasha and Kagome's faces immediately went beet red and suddenly couldn't seem to make eye contact with each other.
Laughing, their other four friends scurried up to board the chairlift and left them behind together. Once alone on the quad chairlift, as far apart form each other they could get, Kagome started trying to fish around for a topic.
"So..."
"Um..."
"Excited about the competition? It's only two days away!" Kagome reminded him with a forced smile.
"Oh, yeah! Um...yeah, I am...real excited...can't wait..."
"Cool..."
"Yeah..."
The blushing pair looked up as laughter reached their ears. Their four friends who had abandoned them were twisted around so they could watch the awkward scene and laugh at their friends' distress.
"What do ya think, Kagome?" Inuyasha muttered to her. "Should we give them head start when we get off or just immediately clobber 'em?"
Kagome pretended to think about it. "Hmm...well, they get off before us so they'll already have a bit of a head start; I say we just clobber them as soon as we get the chance."
"My thoughts exactly."
Their friends expressions turned slightly nervous when they saw the devilish grins on Inuyasha and Kagome's lips.
"We're not going to live to see another day are we?" Kouga asked.
"Nope!" Ayame responded cheerfully. "Better enjoy our lives while we can." In a louder voice, so the pair behind them could hear, she said, "Oh, guys, don't Inuyasha and Kagome make such a cute couple?"
The two behind them sputtered for a moment before each simultaneously crossed their arms, turned away from each other and uttered a very loud, "Keh!"
The others broke out into uncontrolled laughter.
After reaching the top of the chairlift, and Kagome and Inuyasha had effectively "clobbered" their friends, they all went about choosing a hill to ski down. After much debate, they settled on another jump hill.
Once again, the boys took off with gusto and performed some truly amazing jumps. Right behind them was Sango who pulled off a few of the simpler tricks Miroku had taught her. Once Kagome and Ayame caught up with her at the bottom, Kagome spoke up. "So, Sango, I guess Miroku really did teach you a thing or two about jumping. And here I was thinking that it was just your desire to go off and be alone." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at her friend.
"Kagome...!"
"Well, if I had my way..."
"Miroku...!"
"Wow, just look at that pine tree! Isn't it simply fascinating?" Miroku suddenly said, diverting his attention to a rather plain-looking coniferous tree beside him, ignoring the rage of Sango's expression and the raised fist that promised pain.
"You know, Miroku," Kouga said, turning to the tree thoughtfully, "I'm pretty sure that that's a spruce, not a pine."
"Are you kidding me? That is most definitely a pine," Miroku protested adamantly.
"Well, it could be cedar," Ayame suggested.
"To be honest, I think it's a fir..." Inuyasha said, eyeing the tree speculatively.
"Hey! I know my trees, thank you very much, and I insist that it's a pine!" Miroku said, starting to lose his perpetual cool.
"What do you think, Sango?" Kagome said, turning to her friend who had long stopped fuming to watch the pointless argument before her.
"Uh...a hemlock?"
"What?!" four other angry voices exclaimed.
Kagome rolled her eyes. "Oh, calm down, all of you. I mean, after all, it's just a stupid-eek!"
Inuyasha's head snapped up. "What?! What's wrong!?"
"Ack, let's hide! It's...it's the snowboarders!" Kagome exclaimed, pointing at a group of teenagers a little ways off.
"What the...whoa, it is!" Kouga said, suddenly spotting them. "If they see us..."
"...They may actually put out their cigarettes and come after us..." Inuyasha finished the sentence dryly.
"I think if we just slipped over to the lodge now, we might be able to avoid them..." Miroku said out of the side of his mouth.
"We'd better not move too fast, though, or it'll catch their attention..." Sango muttered.
"Alright, everyone ready for Escape Plan Beta?" Kouga asked.
"What the heck is Beta?" Inuyasha asked.
"It's Greek for the letter B. Quit complaining, let's just go," Kouga muttered back.
"But why'd you call it Beta?" Kagome asked.
"'Cause it sounded cool!" Kouga said.
"Oh, okay..."
"Makes sense..."
"Are we all good now?" Miroku asked. "Everyone set for Escape Plan Beta? ...Though it SHOULD be Escape Plan Alpha since Alpha's the Greek letter of A and TECHNICALLY, this is Escape Plan A, not B..."
Kouga stood there, massaging his temples. "Who REALLY cares?! Can't we just get out of here before the stupid snowboarders see us?!"
"Oh, yeah..."
"Almost forgot about them..."
"Is everyone ready this time for Escape Plan Beta or Alpha or whatever?" Sango asked.
"You know, it's not much of a plan..." Ayame spoke up. Kouga glared at her. "I'll shut up now," she said meekly.
"Everyone cool with the plan? Ready? Okay, then; break!" Sango said as if they were in a football huddle.
The six companions slowly started to make their way to the lodge without catching the attention of the dreaded snowboarders off in the distance. After about two minutes of a ridiculously slow pace, however, Inuyasha became fed up.
"This is stupid! I'm not tiptoeing around for a bunch of smoking wimps! I'll just fall back on Escape Plan Gamma!"
"There's an Escape Plan Gamma?" Kagome asked Sango. "Since when was there an Escape Plan Gamma?"
"Since I made one!" Inuyasha said.
"And what is this glorious new plan of yours?" Miroku asked.
Inuyasha shrugged. "Skate as fast as you can for the lodge."
Everyone looked at one another. "Sounds good."
"Let's go!"
The six friends took off, and reached the lodge unseen by the snowboarders, who were too absorbed in their cigarettes to notice them.
"You know; thinking about, I think we should've just gone up a chairlift," Kagome said. "Now we're stuck in here until they leave!"
"Well, might as well make ourselves comfortable!" Inuyasha said, flopping down at a table.
A few girls were sitting at a table nearby and their whispers floated to the six friends' ears. "Oh, my god, that's Inuyasha!" one whispered frantically.
"He's sooo hot!" another squealed.
"Oh, look at his hat! That's so cute!"
"I want one now! It must be the hip thing to do!"
"Uhhh..." Ayame and Kouga looked at each other for a moment before desperately trying to smother their laughter.
"He's so dreamy..." one girl said, starry-eyed, as she gazed at the back of Inuyasha's head.
"Such a hunk..."
Inuyasha, meanwhile, was going beet red and quickly snatched the hat off his head.
"I wonder if he'd go out on a date with me if I asked him?" one girl piped up. Many giggles ensued from her friends.
"Why don't you go over and say hello?" Miroku suggested slyly. "Why, if I had that many female admirers, I'd..."
"You'd what?" Sango asked, her eyebrow twitching.
Miroku glanced nervously at her. "Uh, just exchange pleasantries about the weather, I'm sure."
"That's what I thought..." Sango muttered, sitting down at the table. Miroku sat down beside her as Kagome sat down next to Inuyasha. Kouga and Ayame sat across from one another at one of the ends.
After a few moments of silence, Ayame piped up. "Think they're gone yet?"
Kouga shook his head. "Not a chance. It's early morning. They probably have ten packs of cigarettes to get through."
"Yeah, but they have to save some for when they take up their normal positions in the middle of the hill," Inuyasha reminded him.
Kouga nodded thoughtfully. "True. Alright, well, they'll probably smoke five packs down here then five up there. In either case, we're gonna have to wait awhile..."
A few more moments of silence ensued before Miroku muttered, "I still say it was a pine..."
Ayame groaned and Kagome let her head fall forward and hit the table with a resounding 'thunk.' "Miroku!" Sango said. "You just HAD to bring that up again, didn't you?!"
"Well, I didn't see anyone else trying to start a conversation," Miroku said calmly.
"How about how we'll probably dominate the front page of the local paper with our funky outfits?" Kagome suggested gloomily, noticing all the stares being sent their way.
"I thought that was a given and needed no discussion," Ayame said, just as gloomy.
Everyone lazily glanced around their surroundings a few moments more in the now familiar silence.
"I am SO bored..." Inuyasha muttered.
"Good mmmorning, fellow skiers!"
Inuyasha and Kagome started as an arm belonging to the owner of the overly cheerful voice was flung around each of their shoulders and a boy about their age squeezed himself into the space between them. Looking at him in utter surprise, everyone noticed he had light brown hair, brown eyes and a somewhat vapid look about him; something that was accented by his large, incredibly cheerful and oblivious smile.
"And how is everyone doing this morning?" the strange boy asked as if everyone at the table weren't examining him like a new specimen brought into the lab.
"I've been better..." Inuyasha muttered, rudely shrugging the boy's arm off his shoulders. When he noticed the boy's other arm was still around Kagome's shoulders, however, his temper was quick to rise. "Hey! Get your hands off her!" he snapped.
The boy hastily released his grip around Kagome's shoulders as he saw the murderous look on Inuyasha's face. The others around the table tried to keep their snickers to a minimum. "My apologies," the boy said humbly, trying to appease the silver-haired boy. He turned and looked earnestly at Kagome. "I didn't mean any offense."
Kagome giggled. "None taken; don't worry."
Inuyasha let a low rumbling sound emit from the back of his throat.
"Down, boy," Miroku muttered from across from him.
"Ah, you poor thing!" the boy was saying to Kagome. "You look terribly cold." He snapped his fingers. "I know just the thing! How about I buy you some hot chocolate to warm you up?"
Miroku looked at him appraisingly and started a commentary. "Oooh, very smooth. This guy's good."
"Shut up, Miroku," Inuyasha muttered.
"Um...it's okay..." Kagome said in response to the boy's suggestion.
"Surely I should at least be allowed to know your name?" the boy asked innocently. "Mine's Hojo!" he said, enthusiastically holding out a hand.
"Umm...Kagome," Kagome said, taking and shaking the boy's hand.
"And I'm Inuyasha," Inuyasha cut in abruptly. "Was there something you wanted, Hobo?"
"Hojo," the boy corrected, jovial as ever. "And I was just hoping I could meet some new people and make some new friends!"
"Okay, he loses points for tackiness, but he's doing well..." Miroku continued muttering.
Inuyasha gave him a glare that told him his commentary was direly unappreciated before turning back to Hojo. "Listen, Homo, we were all quite happy BEFORE you came and I'm sure you can see we already have enough friends..."
"Inuyasha!" Kagome snapped. "Stop being such a jerk to poor Hojo!"
"Keh!"
"Don't you 'keh' me!" Kagome said, her temper rising. "You had no right to say that!"
Hojo looked back and forth between the two, his oblivious smile ever-present.
"Keh! Maybe I should just go sit with my fan girls over there and let you be!" Inuyasha shot back, crossing his arms.
"What are you talking about, you arrogant jerk?!" Kagome near-screeched as she stood up and glared down at Inuyasha. "How do they have anything to do with this?!"
"Inuyasha's got himself in a tight spot," Miroku's commentary continued. "His tack isn't nearly as smooth as Hojo's obliviousness allows him to be...it's going to be interesting to see Inuyasha get himself out of this mess without getting his head bitten off in the process..."
"At least I'd be more APPRECIATED over there!" Inuyasha yelled back as he leapt up from his own seat and glared back at her over Hojo's head.
Suddenly, Hojo popped up between. "Who would like to ski?" He suggested cheerfully, clapping his hands together.
"I'D LOVE TO!" Kagome yelled to the whole lodge. Even Inuyasha had to flinch. "It's getting stuffy in here anyway with SOMEBODY'S suffocating presence!" she said, glaring at Inuyasha.
With that, she stomped out of the lodge, dragging Hojo after her.
Silence ensued.
"It seems Inuyasha has indeed failed at his mission and the fair lady has now escaped...it's going to take some VERY skillful work to get back in the love of his life's good graces..."
"SHUT UP, MIROKU!!!"
A/N It's done! Yay, a new chapter! And I'm sorry for leaving it there after being away for so long, but now it's set up perfectly for the one thing Inuyasha hates most! Apologizing! How will our ill-fated hero get through this new obstacle?
Alright, I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible; hopefully before Tuesday. I'll have to stay over night after the surgery so if I can't get it out before then, I might be slightly delayed, but not much! I'm back in my writing groove and rearing to go! I'm so happy to be back! Not even surgery can drag me down! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope to hear our thoughts! Just don't be mad at me for ending it like this, because I promise the next chapter will be really cute! Talk to ya later!