Yay update ^.^ Hope you all had a very berry merry Christmas! *hugs* and an amazing New Years! *hugs you all a second time*

I'm sure you all know Daichi by now, but if you don't, she's my beta! ;) And she edited this chap extremely fast so I was able to update this on New Years! (Well, where I live anyway). Think of this chapter as a present from us ^^

Bitter or Sweet?

Disclaimer: Maybe Santa will give Inu to me... or maybe not

Chapter 10: My Ray of Sunshine

I'm in the business of misery
let's take it from the top.
She's got a body like an hourglass

It's ticking like a clock.
It's a matter of time before we all run out…

~Paramore: Misery Business

KAGOME'S POV

Koga is freaking awesome.

If he was my type, I could totally just kiss him right now.

I shudder. Kissing Koga would not be a good idea, actually. Whatever. He was still a godsend.

"You're not joking, right?" I ask, all hyped and happy as if I was struck by cupid or something. "That's great! I swear, what would I do without you?"

Koga laughs on the other line. "Anything for you, Kags."

I smile. "I'll get working on it right away," I tell him eagerly. "We're going to be the best of the best."

"With me as your partner? Obviously."

Rolling my eyes, I switch my cell to my other ear. Koga + Narcissus= Kogissus. Hmm. Maybe I should start calling him that.

He protests. "Hey, not true! Whatever. Just make sure you've memorized the piece by Friday. We'll practice in the music room at lunch. Good?"

"Obviously," I say, copying him.

When Koga called me, telling me he'd found a score for us to play for our creativity assignment, I'd nearly jumped in joy. After tons of internet-browsing and no success whatsoever, I'd begun to think maybe music wasn't the proper way to go. But because mom's love for the flute had inspired something in me as a child, I'd thought it was a good idea… two different instruments coming together as a duet. I figured it was kind of a metaphor, representing harmony and peace of some sort.

I knew it meant a lot to Mama, too, because I'd never taken lessons for the flute- my mom was the person who taught me how to play. She'd be proud if I told her Koga and I got a good grade.

Seeing as the only thing Koga was able to find was a bit… above my level, I was nervous. But with practice comes perfect… I think. Or at least, I hope so.

Ugh.

Never mind.

Practice doesn't make perfect; it makes a sleep-deprived Kagome. Plus a severe case of morning breath.

Honestly, with my hair being shorter, my bad hair days had become rarer, but today was beyond bad hair. It screamed unattractiveness. Not that I cared, really, because pulling my hair into pigtails would help, but my eyes were a mess too. No amount of concealer would be able to fix these under-eye bags.

Basically, I looked like crap.

I go down for breakfast, drowsily, and Mama clears her throat, handing me a plate of hot waffles, syrup and strawberries on top.

"Did you not sleep well, dear?" she asks lightly.

"Yeah, Sis," Sota adds, blinking owlishly. "You look… off."

Gramps doesn't even remotely try to sound nice. "Kagome, has a demon possessed your face?"

Well that's awfully sweet of you, Grandpa, dearest. Now I feel just peachy. "Yeah, Gramps," I reply drly, "It's the most curious thing. I woke up and just happened to notice that a demon had possessed my face while I was asleep."

As I leave for school, I hear Mom smacking Gramps, and Sota sighing.

Inuyasha, being the smartie he is (which I'd only discovered a while ago), doesn't comment on my appearance. For that, I would've pet his furry white head and scratched those little triangular heavens. Of course, though, (for reasons I shouldn't have to elaborate on), I didn't.

After all, I'm too young to die.

Feeling rather pleased that Inuyasha decided not to make fun of my look today, I decided to small talk. "So how's life?" I ask casually, pulling the hat on my head further down as I spoke.

"Could your question be any vaguer?" he snaps.

"Sheesh. Touchy, aren't you?" I pause. "What, you and Miroku still haven't thought of anything yet?" My voice was nagging- simply curious.

"Shut up," he hisses, and I shrug.

"If you need help, just ask me. I know you don't like music or any form of arts for that matter, so if you actually talked to me, I could've done something."

Silence.

"And why would you?" he finally asks, warily.

I shrug again. "You are my very favorite neighbor," I say with sugary sweetness, batting my eyelashes. He coughs and looks away, which causes me to laugh out loud. How amusing that he gets flustered by something as trivial as that. I may have just discovered closet-brain's weakness.

I assumed Inuyasha would be at complete ease around girls, since he is rather popular amongst them, but seeing as his reputation doesn't state anything about being a lady's man, I guess it's possible.

Hehehe.

"Is there anything you and Miroku have in common that is a talent? Or a hobby?"

He shakes his head. "No special talents that we share. Actually, Miroku has no talents, so…"

"Well what about you? Any skills?"

He thinks about it for a bit. "I can tie a cherry stem with my tongue in less than a minute."

"That's not the kind of talent I was talking about, but I do admit, that is pretty cool. I've tried to master that for about four years, but stopped because I realized: one, I wasn't getting better at it, and two, my tongue was starting to hurt."

"I'm not surprised. It's takes skill to be able to do it," he boasts. I roll my eyes. He and Koga are so alike is so many ways…

Clearing my throat, I notice that we're near the school so I rack my brain for some kind of way to help Inuyasha and Miroku. "How about singing?"

He gives me 'the look.' "Do you want to die?"

Uh, no? "Geez, I was just trying to help. Um… acting? Role play?"

"I don't really have any objections as long as the script's not stupid, but what could we possibly act out? It's not like Myoga gave us any topics or nothin'... Dammit, I hate it when projects are so vague! It means we have to think more!"

I smile mischievously. "It's not like that's a problem for you, Mr. Einstein."

He growls. "You're seriously pushing it, little girl. I never shoulda told you about my-" He falters.

I snicker. "Your what? Your brain? IQ? Intellect?" I know I'm asking for it, but seriously, who could miss out on the chance to agitate Inuyasha? Not me. Nope-dee-doo.

Snarling, he lunges forward and knocks me down, but makes sure on the grass so no serious damage could be inflicted. However, my tailbone still hurts. Dang it all.

Pinning me down, Inuyasha bares his fangs at me- something he seems to like doing a lot. For some reason, his 'trying' to be scary is seriously funny to me, and I reach up to tweak one of his ears… It's true he would kill me after, but I should die with no regrets right? "Aww, who's a good boy?" I coo. "Yes you are- yes you are! Bark, Inu, bark! Bark for your mommy! Or better yet, play dead, Yashie!"

He leans forward, our noses almost touching, his eyes glinting evilly. I guess he can look malicious when he wants to.

"Say that again, Kaggy, and you'll never be able to speak again."

Sighing, I get ready to roll my eyes at him (again), when I hear a gasp. We both look up to see a freshman girl, like me, who was happening to walk this way when she saw, you know, this.

And by 'this', I mean a young girl merely attempting to tame her puppy. Though it probably seemed a lot more… sexual to the untrained eye.

Woops…

"I'm sorry!" she squeaks, grasping her school bag even tighter in her small hands. Her glasses are practically falling off her button nose because she was trembling so much. "I didn't mean to- I'm apologize for- I, uh… Sorry!" she says again, looking down, face flushed. "I'll leave now, so you can go back to… er, what you were… doing…"

I push Inuyasha off, much to his surprise, and he flies off me, landing on his ass which causes his to yelp. "Hey!"

Standing up, I brush myself off, and smile at the girl. "We apologize for that disturbing episode. Men are seriously pigs, no? Like, come on, what kind of guy forces himself on a girl? How low can you get?"

Inuyasha growls, but the girl doesn't know what I just told her was a lie. She brings a hand to her mouth, eyes wide.

"He was forcing himself on you?" she asks, bewildered. Then she casts Inuyasha a dirty look, and then turns away. "Are you okay now?" she asks me, gently. "Should we report this to the office?"

"No, no, there's no need. Anyways, let's go. I don't want to see that creeper's face for another second!"

As we walk away together, I turn my head to see Inuyasha still on the ground, giving me a look that could kill. The flames were practically steaming out of his ears.

I stick my tongue out at him.

And yes, I consider maturity one of my finest qualities.

"Kagome, are you okay?" the sweet, soft, alluring voice asks me, a delicate pale hand coming up to check my forehead.

Ugh, what a bitch!

"I'm fine, Kikyo," I snap, flicking her hand away. Kikyo's loyal group of stupid, pea-brained followers gives me nasty glares.

"She's so mean!"

"Kikyo always tries to be nice, but she's so ungrateful all the time!"

"What a biotch."

"I can't believe she hates Kikyo for no reason."

"Yeah, Kikyo's so nice…"

Kikyo's nice, my ass.

She always does this! Pretends to be nice, when she's obviously a sarcastic little booger who's pushing my buttons. She's honestly the fakest person I know, as well as a fraud. Ugh. That's all I can really say about her: ugh.

"Well, thank you for your concern, Kikyo, but I feel amazing today," I lie, "So by telling me I don't look well… are you making fun of my natural appearance? I'm so sorry that my face bothers you that much!"

Kikyo's eyes narrow for a second, then she smiles again. "Oh, Kagome, how could you think that? I believe that you're a very beautiful girl with many inspiring traits. I just thought perhaps you might've caught the flu, since I heard it's been going around lately. I really didn't mean offense, but I apologize if my good intentions were misinterpreted."

Good intentions, my ass.

Seriously, that girl is like my personal ray of freaking sunshine...

Not.

"Oh shut up," I mumble. When her disciples throw me ugly looks again, I get so pissed I flip them all off.

Kikyo raises her perfectly arched brows. "Kagome… no need for the finger. They haven't done anything wrong. If you want to get angry, direct it at me… please don't feel hatred for my friends."

Oh. My. God.

She is really something, that Kikyo.

Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. Ignore.

Just walk away, Kagome, I tell myself, she's so not worth it.

I breathe out in relief when I spot Ayame and Sango. I run over to them. "Hey, guys," I sigh out in happiness, throwing my arms around them.

"Woah, love overload much," Ayame laughs, flicking my cap.

Sango looks over my shoulder at Kinky-ho and her crew. "They are such losers."

"Couldn't agree more," I say, "but not many people think so."

"Just forget it, Kags," Ayame tells me. "Let's just get to class."

"Ooh, cool!" Sango smiles. "Flute and sax, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm still thankful Koga is my partner."

"Is he still crushing on you?" Ayame asks, pulling at her red hair in the mirror. Getting ready for PE in the change room as always, I begin to tie up my hair, as Sango is doing as well. "Maybe he doesn't know what it means to freaking move on."

Sango laughs, smacking her arm. "Oh come on. Koga's sweet! Isn't that right, Kags?"

I nod eagerly. "Yeah, he really is. I remember once he took me to an amusement park, and for one for the running events, he bought a ticket and acted as a contestant. He won! Honestly, being a wolf demon and all, he's really fast. Just like you, Aya."

She shrugs. "Well, if he's as amazing at watching scary movies, playing video games, and running as you say he is, I guess he sounds pretty cool. He would make a good guy-best-friend for me, don't you think?"

"Well you guys are practically soul twins so I guess so." Sango pauses. "But you guys haven't officially met, right? Hey Kagome, can we come over the next time you guys practice? I think it's about time these two met."

Ayame looks excited. "Finally a guy who won't think of me as weird for being a tomboy. It's about time."

"Yeah, he even found music for us to play! I just hope I don't mess up… the flute just means a lot to my mom, and-"

A sound of shuffling feet causes me to stop, and we immediately run out of the changing room.

"What was that?" Ayame wants to know.

Sango looks up and down the hall. "Probably just some boys who tried to sneak in."

"Probably."

We come out, to find that today we're playing basketball. The coach splits up into teams, myself being put in the team that Sango and Ayame are not on. Good news is, Kikyo's not my team, either.

However, some of Kikyo's lackeys are.

Most of the game goes by uneventfully, when the ball goes out of court (done by the opposite team), so one of the girls on my team (one of Kikyo's dogs) goes to retrieve it, where she has to pass it to someone else. However, she kicks the ball even further. "Oops!" Then, the chases after the ball, suddenly going out of sight. A few moments later, she returns, the ball in hand. Standing about two feet away from me, she yells my name.

I look up to see she's passing the ball to me (which is a surprise), but instead of 'passing,' she whips the ball across the air as it hurls towards me. I raise my hands to protect my face, and as a result, the ball is nailed right into my fingers. A sickening crack sounds, and while many automatically leap for the ball so that they can resume playing, assuming the ball simply hit my fingers, the coach heard the suspicious crack and stops the game.

"Kagome, are you alright?" he asks.

Some students scoff. "The girl passed the ball to her! All it did was hit her hand!"

But when I look at my hand, I am shocked to see blood tricking down my palm and to my wrist. And not just a little either. It was slowly covering my entire palm.

Wait- blood? From a basket-ball?

Um, since when?

I turn to the girl who passed to me, but she won't meet my gaze.

"Oww!" I yelp. The students roll their eyes.

"What a baby," they say, sighing.

"Wimp," a group of boys murmur. "Wuss."

Sango sees the frightening red color staining my limbs though. "Kagome…? Is that-?"

I hold out my hand, and a few girls jump back in disgust. Clutching my hand, I start to shake. The pain sears from my fingers to my brain, and I resist the urge to cry out.

Coach's shocked voice rings out. "Kagome, you're bleeding!"

Gee, thank you for that, Captain Obvious.

The one who passed the ball blinks innocently. "I just tossed her the ball, Coach. I don't know why she's bleeding, honestly."

I look at the ball that had dropped to my feet. My eyes widen when I see a piece of razor-sharp glass taped to the surface... and it's covered in my blood.

Someone had done this on purpose… to ruin my hands…

So that I wouldn't be able to play my flute.

AN: Dum dum dum! Wait, was this a cliffie? 0_o

Anyway, I liked this chapter =) Well, not the part Kagome got hurt, but, well, you know ;D I really wanted to add Miroku/Sango, but I decided to be evil and end the chapter there.

Oh, and I love the song Misery Business! In fact, I'll probably use it again for this story ^^ It rocks! And it reminds me of Kikyo, he he he.

Thank you to all you lovely people~ I hope you had a marvelous holiday season!

Thanks to Daichi, of course, because she does her job as a beta like a hardcore ninja... lol!

Ja ne, ~Nyony

(PS: if someone can tie a cherry stem with their tongue, it means they're a good kisser ;P)

Daichi: Aw, thanks so much Nyony! I'm glad my super-ninja skills are actually being of use to you! And this was a cliffie, but if you guys want to make Nyony here update and send the doc to me to be beta-ed than I suggest you review! (And please check out my stories too! I'd appreciate it!)