It seems like I have found some time to sit down and write a new chapter without a month or so passing by.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the semi unoriginal plot and the some of the crazy things that go on in here.
The next morning went by without a single incident, reason being no one woke up until it was well past twelve in the afternoon. A muffled song woke the first of them when the person desperately tried to find his cell phone. Once the phone was found, it was answered if only to stop the ringing.
"Hello?" he answered in a groggy, sleep ridden voice.
"Oh, Sota, good to see you're up! Well, not see exactly." said boy heard his mother say into the phone.
"Uh, yeah, I guess I am." Sota said not really in to the conversation.
"I'm just calling to let you know that your father and I should be home in about an hour or so."
"Oh. Sounds good, see you then." he replied before hanging up on his mother and quickly turning off the phone. He scrambled over bodies that he was sure were not his sisters and stopped when he finally found one of them. Not sure which sister was before him scrunched up under the blanket with just the top of her head sticking out, he grabbed what he hoped was an arm and shook the person.
"Wake up! Mom and dad are coming!" he yelled in the direction of the face.
"Well, tell them to knock before they come in." came Rin's voice from under the blankets. "Oh, wait! Mom and dad are coming home soon! Batten down the hatches and wake these chumps up!" she screamed and started giving the person next to her the same wake up she got as Sota did the same to the next person on the floor.
Within five minutes, everyone was awake and cleaning something. Kagome was putting the sleeping bags back in the box she and her friends had got them from after finding it in her room. She could have sworn they pushed it into Sota's room after taking the sleeping bags out but she did not waste time to think about it. Rin, Sango, and Miroku were on all fours in the living room picking up remnants of chips and popcorn while Sota zipped around the rest of the house vacuuming everywhere. Ayame, Koga, Inuyasha, and Sesshomaru were outside cleaning up the mess that was left in the back yard after all of the group's mini swimming parties.
It was almost ten after one and there was no sign of any parental units coming to the house any time soon, which was much relief to the stressing teens. At half past one, Kagome's phone started to ring. Not being one to ignore phone calls, she answered without looking at the caller ID.
"Hello?" she asked as she helped the rest of her friends clean up the back yard.
"Kagome, its your mother, although you probably already know that, I'm calling to let you know that your father and I are stuck in traffic somewhere by Allentown, we're not going to be home for a while." she said sounding annoyed.
"Oh, that's too bad." Kagome answered sounding disappointed when in all actuality she was covering her sudden anger towards cleaning in short amounts of time.
"I'll see you guys soon." her mother said. "Oh, and tell your brother to make sure his cleans his room."
"Will do." Kagome said hanging up her phone and turning it off much like Sota had done earlier. "Hey, Sota," she called to her brother down by the pool, "they're stuck in traffic and they knew!" she screamed the last past. "They knew and you acted like they didn't!" she yelled running towards him.
"I told you not to worry!' he yelled back as he ran from his sister.
"Aren't you going to join your sister?" Ayame asked Rin as they watched Kagome and Sota run close to the pool.
"Nope." Rin answered simply as Sango walked toward them.
"Why not?" she asked Rin after watching Kagome catch up with Sota."
"Watch." she said as Sota lost his footing by the edge of the pool as he struggled to break free from Kagome's grasp. "I've seen it many times before, helped once, and had plenty of my own shots at it."
"Must be a family thing." Inuyasha said as he and the rest of his band joined seventy-five percent of the girls' band.
"Hey, its your girlfriend." Rin said as she watched the struggle between Kagome and Sota continue in the pool.
"And they're both your brother and sister." Inuyasha shot back.
"I'm not sure half the time." she answered as Sota escaped Kagome's grasp only to climb out the pool and try to jump on her from the side.
"That's exactly how I feel about Inu." Sesshomaru said as he wrapped his arm around Rin's shoulders.
"Eh, is that how Kohaku and I act?" Sango asked.
"Not from what I know." Ayame offered smiling.
"But from what I know," Miroku started, "you have had your moments, but they," he said pointing at the two still in the pool battling it out, "they have their hours."
"Good to know." Sango said slightly nodding.
"Its times like these I'm glad to be an only child." Koga said with a smile.
"Yeah, I always wanted a little brother, but after seeing this, I'm not so sure." Ayame said as she laid in the grass with her arms behind her head.
"We are the lucky ones." Miroku said. "Practically the Three Musketeers." he offered shrugging.
Ayame sat up with a serious face. "I think we make a pact to stay only children forever."
Miroku and Koga quickly agreed and the three of the them decided to do only child things while the other four were left sitting in the grass.
"So…" Sango said trying to start a conversation between them. "How about we start a group of people that are not only children only because of one brother or sister?" she asked.
"Great idea, Sango." Rin said with false enthusiasm, "But, I have a brother and sister."
"Guess you can't be in our club." Inuyasha said laying in the grass like Ayame had done before.
"Uh, by the looks of it, she's going to be eligible for our club soon." Sesshomaru said with his attention on the pool and its two occupants.
"Don't get my hopes up." Rin said. "They're going to tire out soon and crawl out of the pool."
"Oh, well then the three of you can start your own club. Something like the homicidal sibiling club or something to that effect." he said to Rin as he also laid down in the grass.
"Oh yeah, 'cause I totally want to be in a cult instead of a club." She replied jokingly.
"Others would kill to be in your shoes." he said laughing at his own joke.
"Oh, you're too much, please stop before I pee my pants." Rin said to him in a monotone voice before getting up and waking toward the pool. "Come on, kiddies, time to get out of the pool and get ready for your mommy and daddy to come home." she said to her brother and sister who had given up wrestling and opted to drape their heads and arms over the vinyl rafts and float around.
"You'll have to wait until I float to the stairs." Kagome said with her eyes closed.
"Same goes for me." Sota said in a similar position.
"Uh huh." Rin said turning around. "Suit yourselves and try not to get sunburns."
That was enough to get both of the siblings out of the pool and into the grass joining the group.
"Oh, you can't sit here." Inuyasha said looking at Kagome and Sota from his laying position on the grass.
"Why not?" Kagome asked slowly.
"The area is for people with only one brother or sister." he answered like it was obvious.
"Oh, well then." Kagome said walking over the the group that consisted of Ayame, Koga, and Miroku.
"You can't go over there either." Inuyasha said.
"And why not?" Kagome huffed.
"They're the 'only child' group.
"You guys are crazy." Kagome said walking over to Inuyasha who had his eyes closed. "But I guess that's why we're all such good friends and such." she said standing over him. "I mean, I could do this to you," she said as she twisted her soaked shirt over Inuyasha as he was laying, "and not get mad at each other." she finished smiling at her boyfriend, who was now standing up with a shocked face.
"Did you just do that?" he asked incredulously.
"Yeah, I did, and I'll let it know, it was more fun than it looked." she said before taking off in the house.
"Get back here!" he yelled playfully as he ran after Kagome.
"Why, if that wasn't one of the strangest things I've seen all day, then I don't know what is." Sota said watching the screen door slam shut after Inuyasha ran into the house.
Rin walked onto the deck and opened the same screen door. "Hurt the house, and I'll hurt you." she yelled into the house not really expecting a response.
"Got it!" two voices yelled out just before she turned around to go back into the yard with her friends.
Two hours later, everyone was in the Higurashi house sitting on one of the couches or the floor with the air conditioning blasting on them. Myoga had called earlier and told both bands not to worry about coming in to record since today was one of the hottest yet. So, that's how everyone found themselves doing nothing except listening to the radio, which was of course set to Bobby-Boom's station. One would think they were all contractually obligated to listen to that station and only that station with the way it was the only station any of them listened to.
"How much longer do you think until mom and dad get home?" Rin asked anyone not really caring who answered.
"I dunno." Sota said not moving from his sprawled out spot on the floor.
"Its too hot to think about things like that." Kagome said turning up the power level of the air conditioner causing everyone to sigh contentedly.
"Man, this is nice." Sango said just for the sake of saying something.
"You got it." Ayame agreed as she picked up a magazine from the end table next to her and flipped through it looking at the pictures.
"I think I'm going to fall asleep and not wake up." Koga said stretching out on the recliner and earning a groan of agreement from everyone else in the room.
Almost two hours later, everyone was scattered throughout the room sleeping. They probably would have continued sleeping if the door hadn't opened as the Higurashi parents walked in.
"Would you look at that, our house is overflowing with lazy teenagers." Ayako, otherwise known as Mrs. Higurashi said when she founded her children and their friends asleep in the freezing living room.
"Well, isn't it obvious, our children got us some free labor to clean the house. They've done nicely already." Hajime said inspecting the spotless floors and windows.
"They're always thinking of others. Let's go unpack then wake them up so they can clean our cars!" Ayako said laughing as she walked up the stairs.
Within ten minutes, both of the Higurashi parents were standing in the entrance way to the living room with all the teens sleeping soundly. Ayako had a whistle in her mouth, a metal cooking pot in her left hand, and a metal spoon in her right. Hajime had decided to dig through his children's Cds to find what he thought would be the worst to wake up to. Finally deciding on the band The Devil Wears Prada, he hurried downstairs, jumped over some bodies and put the cd in the stereo. He turned the music down so only he could hear when it played, skipped to the fourth song, paused it when it started, turned the music up all the way and took his spot by his wife with the remote for the stereo in his hand.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yep." she answered as she got ready to hit the pot.
"One, two, three." they counted together quickly and either hit the pot and blew the whistle or pushed the play button to the music.
No one knew what was happening, they fell asleep waiting for the Higurashi parents to come home after cleaning mostly outside and now, they were being woken up by a scream and loud music. Instantly, it was recognized as the song 'Hey John, What's Your Name Again?' which only meant one thing, their dad had found his favorite song of the week and woke his children up with it.
"I thought I hid that cd from you." Kagome said when her dad tried and miserably failed to sing like the singer was doing.
"You can't keep me from it." he said once he turned the music down.
"I wish we never let you hear that song." Rin groaned getting up from her spot on the couch.
"Its your fault!" Sota said to his sisters after he sat up. "whenever I leave to go to school, I come back and dad has a new favorite song by a band someone his age should not be listening to!" he yelled . "I sometimes wonder what it would be like if he listened to something he should." he said calmly before laughing. "Naw, he can't do that. He's the one that got us liking what we do. Never mind."
"Sota's first mood swing of the day." Kagome said to Inuyasha, who was looking at Sota like he was crazy.
"You'll get used to it though." Rin said to Inuyasha, then to Sesshomaru. "Maybe even our crazy parents."
"I'm used to them!" Miroku said with his hand raised.
"You should be, they're you aunt and uncle." Sota said as he sat back down.
"And don't you forget it." Miroku said pointing at Sota.
Kagome looked at her brother and she remembered she still did not know why he was home so early. "Hey Sota, mind telling us why you're home since mom and dad already know?"
"You're still on that, huh?"
"Yeah." Rin answered for Kagome like it was obvious.
"My school has to go under necessary changes." he answered shrugging.
"And they couldn't do it around you guys?"
"Well, no, you see, there was a pretty gnarly storm and a tree branch fell through the ceiling right over the gym."
"You go to a music school, why would you need a gym?" Kagome asked in disbelief.
"Well, it was raining and the water got in through the gaping hole in the roof, now there's water damage and what not." Sota said with a light laugh. "Its kind of funny actually."
"They didn't give you any homework or anything?" Koga asked considering switching school."
No, they did. They made us bring all our books and stuff home actually. Every week the teachers are supposed to post new work on the school's website and the students are supposed to email the teachers our work. But barely any teachers have done it yet."
"So you should be doing work but you're not?" Inuyasha asked.
"None of my teachers posted anything."
"And you're going to school in the summer?" Ayame asked.
"Year round school." Sota answered simply. "I do get breaks for winter, spring, summer, and fall though."
"And you had us convinced you were going to get in trouble." Rin said. "we were only looking out for you and you caused us to be dunked in the pool and yourself to feel Kagome's wrath."
"All for you guys." Sota said smiling.
Kagome rolled her eyes. "Oh my, you're oh so very kind." she said with false enthusiasm.
"Yeah, I try."
Ayako cleared her throat. "Hey did you forget about us?"
"No." all the teens answered at once.
"Good, since you all did such a nice job cleaning the house for us, we going to let you clean our cars!" Hajime said.
"No!" all the guys except Sota yelled causing the girls to laugh.
"Don't mind them." Kagome said.
"Yeah, they have some bad memories about washing cars." Sango said.
"But the girls and I will be happy to wash your cars." Rin said taking the keys from her father's hand as Kagome took her mother's.
"The guys can stay back here and wash ours again." Ayame said shrugging.
"Dream on!" one of them yelled as they all ran outside.
"Shotgun!" Rin yelled running after them then stopped after she realized she had the keys in her hand. "Oh wait." she said laughing.
"Come on! We're going to the car wash!" Kagome said pulling on Sango and Ayame's hands.
"What crazy kids." Ayako said after the front door slammed shut.
"They get it from you." Hajime said laughing. "Now, lets listen to more of that music." he said turning the stereo back on. "When did I turn this off?" he asked himself.
"Sota must have before we went on his tirade." Ayako laughed answering his question.
"That sneaky kid."
Down town at the car wash, Rin was washing her father's car in the first stall with Sango. Kagome and Ayame were washing Ayako's car in the third stall. The guys had decided it was time for Inuyasha to have a shower so they were in the fourth stall washing him with the foam brush and water gun. When everyone finished washing the cars, the girls vacuumed the floors and seats while the guys chased Koga as far as the hose would go around the parking lot to vacuum his head. By the end of it, the cars were clean, Inuyasha was soaked with an air freshener around his wrist, and Koga's hair was a mess since the guys had finally managed to catch him and clean his head.
"Ready dorks?" Ayame asked trying not to laugh at Koga and Inuyasha.
"Ready dweebs." Koga and Inuyasha answered.
"Hold on." Kagome said taking Inuyasha's air freshener free wrist. "You can't get in my mom's car like that. Here." she said handing him two black garbage bags. "You get to sit in front, just on garbage bags."
"How considerate." he said opening one bag and putting it over the back of the front seat and spreading the other over the bottom of the seat. He sat on them and grimaced. "I feel like I'm at my grandmother's house."
"Maybe if you took shower regularly, you wouldn't have to go to car washes to get clean." Miroku said. "You do smell nice though, good choice with the scent." he said seriously pointing to the air freshener.
"You really think so, I wanted something subtle but still in your face."
"You did a good job picking one out then." Ayame said with the same seriousness.
"My parents are going to love you when they get to meet you guys." Kagome said to Ayame and Inuyasha.
"What's not to love?" Ayame asked as Kagome followed Rin out of the carwash.
"Oh, I can make lists on everyone." Kagome joked. "Except me of course."
"You're putting me in stitches." Miroku said with a bored tone. "Now, please turn up the radio, this song is smashing."
"What's up that?" Inuyasha asked Kagome, who shrugged and turned up the volume.
"I don't know, but this is a good song."
In both cars, the ride back to the Higurashi house was calm, if you could call it that. In one car, Rin was driving while singing along to every song that played on the radio, even if she did not know the words, Sesshomaru was playing air guitar and singing with Rin, in the back seat, the drummers did what they do best and played drums on the backdoors of the car. In the other car, Kagome was doing the same as Rin, Inuyasha declared that what he was playing air bass, never air guitar, Miroku had the drums under control and Ayame supplied the air guitar. Three and a half songs later, both cars were pulling into the garage that held all the Higurashi's cars. Kagome led the group back into the house and to the living room they had just slept in.
To everyone but Kagome, Rin, Sota, Miroku, and Sango, the display Ayako and Hajime put on was surprising. The song that had woken them up was on, probably on repeat, and the two oldest in the room were dancing to it like they were seventeen again.
"Hey, mom." Kagome said and threw her mother's car keys to her.
"Dad." Rin said and did the same as Kagome.
Ayako smiled and turned the stereo off. "Thanks kids, but what happened to, I'm sorry, I didn't get your name." she said looking at Inuyasha.
"Inuyasha." he answered chuckling
"Okay, what happened to Inuyasha?" she asked.
"He was dirty." Miroku said like it was an everyday thing.
"Yeah, he needed a shower and his parent's wouldn't let him in the house until he got one." Koga added.
"Car washes do wonders for his hair." Sesshomaru said while taking a handful of Inuyasha's messed up hair in his hand. "This is what it looks like when its clean."
Inuyasha took the opportunity to work on his model walk. "And I've never looked better." he said walking forward a few feet, stopping to support his weight on one leg, switching it to the other, and walking back to his original spot. Once he got there, he announced, "I am fierce!"
Kagome snorted. "Or something," she whispered to Sango.
"Definitely something." Sango nodded.
"You both better watch out for my diva moments, I carry an array of small electronics." Inuyasha joked.
"Yeah, yeah, Naomi." Kagome said dismissively. "That Naomi over there still has her Samsung." she pointed at Ayame, who raised her hand to chest level and wiggled her fingers.
"What ev." Inuyasha said as he raised his hand to the 'talk to the hand' position and turned around. "Let's go, guys," he said to his friends and walked out the backdoor.
When all the guys, except Sota, had gone outside, Hajime looked at his children. "That's one fierce friends you've got there."
Rin laughed. "Yeah, that's why Kag over here loves him," she said pointing her thumb at her sister.
"While this one over here," she said pointing a finger at Rin. "is romantically involved with his not as fierce brother."
"Well girls, all I really can say is I hope your band has more than just one one-hit wonder." Ayako said with a smile.
"Yeah, we're aiming for at least two." Ayame said nodding.
"Hajime grinned. "That's a good goal, not too expectant, but confident in your songs. Well, at least two of them."
"Exactly what I was thinking." Ayame said
"I'm going to go call the guys for a band practice or something, you're all acting like high school friends or something." Sota said as he walked up the steps to go to his bedroom.
"And we're going to go out and find the diva and his posse" Rin said as she and the other girls walked in the opposite direction of Sota to find the guys.
There's chapter 24. In between writing this chapter, inspiration struck for a new story I call 'Dark' . It basically has all the same people, but I think its better written and has a better plot. I already have the first two chapters written but I don't know if I should upload them now or wait until I finish this train wreck.
The story is about a girl who fears nothing more than not having control, so she has a fear of being in dark rooms alone and not being able to control or at least see whatever may or may not be in the room with her. Her parents leave for the weekend and allow her to invite a few friends over for three days, things are great until she finds herself in the dark wishing she was alone.
So, let me know what you think, finish this first or put up the new story before I finish this.