I'm so terribly sorry about that ridiculously long wait. There's been a lot of family crap going on and it seems like I'm always stuck babysitting for my sister.
disclaimer: nothing has changed, check previous chapters.
Two shadowy figures watched as the two bands split into groups to begin the clean up after the party that was just held in the parking lot. Cloaked by the darkness in the room, no one from the outside could make out who the people standing behind the window were.
"So, how long do you think we have until they suspect something?" one of the people asked while starring down at the cleaning crew in the parking lot.
The person next to him shrugged and took a long drink from a soon to be empty can. "I don't know, but I don't think they know anything."
"Hey guys, I got some more sodas and pizza."A third person said loudly as he walked into the dark room. "Why are all the lights off and why are both of you standing by the window trying, and I stress trying, to look sinister." he asked while turning on the lights.
The two by the window sighed. "Way to go, Bobby, you have just killed the mood." Rin said as she threw her now empty can into the garbage. "But if you must know, we are trying to avoid cleaning with them."
"And now you just ruined the game of 'hide and they better not seek' we started." Miroku added.
"But when I left three minutes ago, you guys weren't playing any games." Bobby-Boom said.
"Yeah, well we just started when you left." Miroku said while grabbing a piece of pizza.
"Oh, so you were role playing. I get it now." he said in realization.
"Great," Rin said, "now turn the lights off again. I think they can see us."
"Will do." Bobby-Boom said then turned off the lights to get in on the game.
An hour later it looked like the parking lot was almost clean. It was then that the trio decided to go outside and make it look like they had cleaned for the past three hours.
"Oh, wow!" I never thought we'd finish that." Rin said wiping imaginary sweat from her head.
"Yeah." Miroku said selling it. "Let's never do that again without a professional clean up crew and Hollywood stunt team."
"Just be glad you don't have to come back on a regular basis. I, on the other hand, work here and will be remind of all the tedious cleaning of today." Bobby-Boom said dragging a broom behind him.
Kagome walked over the slackers without any idea of what they really did. "Ready to go home, Rin?" she didn't wait for an answer before she added another thought. "Or everyone can come over and go swimming."
Strangely, groans of agreement were heard from behind Kagome as the rest joined the group only to separate to different cars after plans were made.
Within an hour, the girls were in the Higurashi pool, which was lighted by many outdoor lights throughout the yard while the guys were inside getting changed. Everyone from both bands had come except for Kohaku, who said he had some previous engagements to attend to, in those words, and the drummer of Sota's band, who said he had to make it home before his parents did, just to humor Kagome, Rin, and Sota's situation.
When Sota walked out the back door, Kagome pushed off the side of the pool and floated towards the stairs leading into the pool. "So, Sota," she began as she held on to the metal railing, "mom and dad are due home sometime tomorrow."
"Yeah, and?" he asked getting into the pool.
Kagome let go of the railing and pushed herself towards the deeper water. "I just hope you have an excuse to be home when they interrogate you."
"Don't worry about it. I have the feeling they will be okay with me being home for a few weeks." Sota said before disappearing under the water. He quietly resurfaced behind Kagome and signaled for Sango to go behind Rin. "Until they get home, I think you should stop worrying about me and watch out for yourselves." he said before flipping Kagome over as Sango did the same to Rin.
After resurfacing,Kagome launched herself at Sota and pushed him under the water. Rin,on the other hand, grabbed Sango's legs and pulled her under. Ayame just sat on the edge of the pool and watched the whole escapade unfold. She was so into the water fight going on in the pool that she didn't notice the guys running out of the house and towards the pool. Ayame felt three gushes of wind and saw three splashes in the water. Sometime during that, she stood up, startled with her mouth open. 'Okay, there was three splashes, but where's the fourth?' she asked herself.
Koga snuck up behind Ayame just as Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, and Miroku jumped into the pool. Just as he got close enough to push her in, Ayame turned around. Since there was no use in trying to cover up what he almost did, Koga reached and to pushed Ayame in the pool. There was a lot of screaming and arm flailing as two people became friends with the water. When they resurfaced, there was still screaming, except it was only from Koga.
"Ow, ow, ow! Let go of my hair!" he yelled at Ayame.
"Why? You pushed me in the pool. The least I can do is bring you with me by your hair."
"Fine then. You abuse my head, I'll return the favor." he said while grabbing a handful of Ayame's hair.
"Guys, guys," Sango said calmly to the quarreling duo, "I think its time we had an intervention."
Kagome nodded her head. "Yeah, I can't take much more of this."
"Just so you know, we're going to be yelling at you and telling you how you're destroying our family." Inuyasha added.
"Um, no we're not." Rin said. "Well maybe the yelling, but not the destroying our family part."
"Either way, someone is going to be crying by the end of it." Miroku said.
"Can't we skip the intervention and forget about all that other stuff you're probably going to bring up?" Ayame asked.
"Well," Sango began, "I guess you're off the hook since you were reacting, but Koga," she said redirecting her attention, "you're not so lucky."
"Exactly, we have to rub in the fact that you were screaming and complaining like a little girl not too long ago." Sesshomaru said with a smirk.
"Sounds good." Kagome said.
"How about we do something while they intervene on Koga's lifestyle?" Sango asked.
"Yeah, we can go in my room and plan new things to do." Rin said while wrapping her arms around Ayame and Kagome.
Sango added herself to the group before they all turned around and walked out of the pool and towards the house. "Have fun guys." she yelled over her shoulder.
Up in Rin's room, the girls were watching the guys from the two windows that overlooked the back yard. Rin and Ayame were huddled at one window and Sango and Kagome were at the other one.
"I guess its not so bad to have a bedroom in the back of the house." Rin said as she watched the guys gang up on Koga.
"I kind of wish I let you have my room when we decided we wanted our own rooms." Kagome said.
"Looks like its your loss now." Rin said with a fake stuck up attitude.
The girls continued to watch silently until the guys formed a circle around Koga. So far it had been nothing more than small pushes and a couple punches to the arms, but now it looked interesting.
"Quick, open the windows!" Sango said excitedly.
Once the windows were opened, the girls listened intently. "...So, I bet you're not going to be doing anything stupid like that again." they heard Inuyasha say to Koga.
"I'd assume you have learned at least one thing from all of this." Miroku said as he lightly pushed Koga.
"I would too, but you know what they say about assuming." Sesshomaru said adding another punch to Koga's arm.
"You guys are all wonderful." Koga said laying the sarcasm on thick.
"Obviously we do try." Sota added. "Sometimes I wonder what you would do without us."
"What I did before I even knew this band existed." Koga said with an attitude. "I was doing pretty well then."
"Until you were kicked out of the last band you were in." Sesshomaru said figuratively adding salt to an open wound.
"Out of jealously." Koga defended.
"Whatever you say." Inuyasha sighed.
"Come on, lets go and see what the girls are doing." Sota said walking to the backdoor.
As soon as the girls heard that, they scrambled away from the windows and looked for something to make it look like they had been preoccupied. After a few seconds of scrambling around the room, they all ran out and into the attic. Sometime during all the mayhem, someone suggested they make it look like they decided to go camping and had been looking for a tent.
The guys had walked in the house and heard screaming and crashing. They looked to their right, then their left, and then up just as something heavy fell upstairs.
"They were listening." Sota said.
"Or watching" Miroku added.
"And you would know how?" Inuyasha asked.
"Half of the people up there are my sisters. I've known them for fifteen consecutive years." Sota said walking up the stairs.
"Yeah, I'm pretty much the same, except they're my cousins." Miroku added following Sota.
The remaining guys looked at each other and shrugged.
"It makes sense." Sesshomaru added then followed the two up the stairs.
"Might as well go." Koga shrugged.
"Yep." Inuyasha answered.
"So, what are you doing?" Sota asked anyone who answer.
Rin turned around from her spot and answered him. "Oh, you know. Looking for the tent."
"You mean the tent we keep over here, in the big green box labeled 'camping'?" he asked.
By now Miroku had come up to the attic and stood by Sota watching everything unfold.
"Yeah. Would you look at that, Kagome, right where we left it last year." Rin said.
"Oh, I can't believe we walked right past it." Kagome answered. "Can you Sango?"
"Nope, and I even went camping with you last summer." she answered just as Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Koga walked in the attic.
"It just means you three are forgetful and I'm not very observant, I guess." Ayame summed up.
"Exactly." Kagome agreed. "How about we set that tent up now?" she asked the group.
"Sounds good." Sango said as all the girls walked toward the box the tent was stored in. They all picked up the box and calmly walked past the guys ,without saying anything, leaving them in the attic. Once they all made it down the steps that led to the attic, they laughed and pushed the box into the closest bedroom, which happened to be Sota's.
"What was all that?" Koga asked when he couldn't hear the girls laughing anymore
"It was just the girls trying to make it look like they hadn't been listening or watching what happened outside" Miroku answered.
"They do it every time and always think that they're being sneaky."Sota added. "They actually make themselves look like huge dorks."
"Don't let them know that though, its good to let them think they're good at somethings." Miroku advised.
Downstairs, the girls were all on the floor in the living room watching scary movies, or at least what was considered scary movies, from the seventies. Each had her own sleeping bag, which was probably pulled out of the box before it was ever so cleverly disposed of and was proped up by what looked like all the pillows in the house. Eventually, the guys came down with they're own sleeping bags or blankets that were stolen from Rin and Kagome's bedrooms. All of them watched some more movies until they started to fall asleep, one by one. Just before Kagome fell asleep, she started to talk to Sota.
"Hey, Sota, mom and dad are coming home tomorrow."
"Hey, Kagome, don't worry about it, I've got it all covered." he said before turning over and ignoring Kagome until he fell asleep.
"Or so you think." she said getting the last word in, even if that was the only reason she said it.
There you have it, chapter 23. I can't say how long its going to take me to get the next chaper up since my life is just kind of rushing past me and I have hardly any idea of what is going on anymore. I'll try to make it a lot faster than this was though.