"Something's Wrong!"

Everything's so blurry . . . A figure dashed toward a small dwelling before a grand forest. A flash of red and white in the night.

Who . . .?

What little could be seen of the dwelling was obliviated in and orange-red blast. An explosion? A fire? Something rose from the hut and roared. It rung in my ears.

"INUYAA-SHAAAAAHH!" The yell morphed into a scream.

Inu . . . Yasha?

A bell tolled hurriedly. People gathered to the scene worriedly.

Nande? What is happening? What is this?

"NO! KAGOME!" One of them shouted.

A shiny rain pelted the creature that had risen from the flames. A figure leaped from the depths of the burning redness as the creature coiled tighter and destroyed the structure.

A cry was heard through the madness. Another person fled from the scene to the forest while the figure of red and white collided with the giant snake-like creature.

Her heavy breathing and the sounds she made as she ran for her life distinguished her as a woman, also clad in red and white.

Eventually she stopped, the fuzziness of the scene shifting from reds to dark greens as it was night.

Suddenly a purple glistening light covered everything except her. It was calming, dreamlike.

When the light dissipated, all became dark. The woman was gone.

beep. Beep. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"UUWWAAAAAAHH?!"

I slapped at my phone and it flew across the room. The cat jumped and darted away out the door. I shot out of bed and lept across the room to the possibly injured iPhone that had hit the wall and fallen to the floor.

I was prepared to mourn the loss when I found that there was not a crack to be found on the screen and even the case seemed undamaged. I sighed with relief and sat back on the floor.

That's one way to get out of bed.

The grip I had on my phone tightened. I stared at the floor.

I was officially freaked. I've never done that before. Did it have to do with the dream?

My phone lit up. A text. From Yousuke: Meet up on the way to school?

"Oi! Moriko-chan!"

Yousuke waved from way at the bottom of the shrine. "Ughh . . ." My head slumped at the sight of the destined path before me. Stairs.

Well, at least it's easier going down.

"Hi Yousuke!" I waved back.

"You going to come down?" He smirked.

I mimicked him under my breath and then said, "I'm debating it right now!"

After all, coming down eventually meant coming back UP.

"Your debate is going to make us late!"

I was already making my way down as he finished his statement.

He frowned as I approached him. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing," his brow furrowed, "I should be asking you that." His head tilted as though he was inspecting me.

"Wah? I'm fine." I yawned.

Unsatisfied, he shrugged it off and we walked to school.

Yousuke was a year behind me and we had grown up together. He was very good at Kendo and was a lecher. There were times where he'd flirted with me and we were a couple a few times but it never lasted.

He had long black hair (Author's note: Just imagine Sasuke Uchiha hair) and sea green eyes. He was a bit brawny too but it almost didn't suit his child-like facial features. He was cute, but a bit of a . . . mismatch? I guess? We stayed friends afterwards though.

As we boarded the train he asked, "So what are your plans after graduation? You going to celebrate with your family?"

I grasped the pole for support while my mind grasped for an answer. "Mm," I looked down, "I don't know really. I guess we'll do something."

What was I going to do? Just stay at the shrine and eventually take over? Get a part-time job somewhere perhaps? I sighed. None of that sounded exciting like college and getting somewhere in life.

"Yousuke?"

"Hm?"

"What are you going to do?"

He smiled, "I'm going to go to college to find someone to settle down with."

It took me a moment, then I narrowed my eyes at him and smirked, "Lech . . ."

I started the day with Calculus II. Math was my specialty. I just had a knack for it I guess. My eyes wandered to the window. The voluminous puffy clouds moved lazily across the sky. It's as if the world was yawning.

Realization dawned upon my face. I sighed. A storm was coming. I'll probably get pelted on the way home.

Physics was a chore to understand. Nothing new. We were in the middle of a project. In other words, we were taking a break from constantly learning the nonstop nonsense. There will always be a struggle between physics and I. We will never be able to cooperate. We practiced volleyball inside the gym, as the rain had started.

At the end of the day, I was putting my regular shoes back on when Hayami-chan stopped by, "Ah, Moriko-chan."

I looked up. Her hair was a red pixie cut and she had blue eyes. Her boyfriend said something to her and she turned and waved as he left.

"Oh! Moriko-chan, aren't you excited to graduate?!"

Glancing away, I automatically responded with "I am excited to get out of this school. It has too many stupid rules."

"Ah, it does." She agreed. She set her violin case down and sat on the bench with me.

"How's your art?" I asked. Hayami wasn't quite as good of an artist as me, but she never found that discouraging and she kept me as a friend and I suppose an advisor and critic as well. Besides, she was much better with her violin in orchestra than I ever was in junior high. So if she ever felt inferior to me, she had that to support her.

"It's fine. I just finished one." She pulled out her phone to show me a picture of it. I looked at the painting of a woman with green earrings holding a white fan. Her hair was up. She had red eyes and was clad in a magenta and white kimono. "Her name is Kagura. I just made her up but I think I did pretty well on her, ne?"

"I'll say . . . Might I suggest more of a curve here in her jawline? She seems like a free spirit, so she should look more angelic."

"Hmm, I'll think about it . . . Oh! My father mentioned something the other day."

"Hojo-san?"

"Hai, he said your aunt Kagome used to go to this very school and she nearly failed some of her classes because she got very sick a lot for a long time."

I was intrigued, "Did he say anything else?"

She snickered, "ha, yeah, he said she was a klutz and-" she whispered, "-very beautiful."

Hardly containing her giggles she explained, "Mom walked in right then and slapped him on the head with a rolled up newspaper." We bursted out laughing. "It was hysterical!" She giggled.

The rain had been pouring for a while now as we rushed through the streets, our bags on our heads, protectively.

We found an unoccupied roof extended out in front of a WacDonald's.

Hayami huffed as she caught her breath. I looked over to make sure she was alright. She looked at me after a period of silent thinking, smiling, "Why don't we go eat something? While we're here," she offered.

I looked behind me through the WacDonald's foggy window. It wasn't very busy. I couldn't see who was working but if they we'ren't busy, we may just get a discount.

"Ah, let's." I agreed.

Betsy-san, an American immigrant, was at the register. "Ah, Moriko-chan! Long time no see!" She said in English, knowing I would understand her decent enough.

We walked over. "Hai. How's everyone doing back there?!" I exclaimed in Japanese, leaning over the counter.

The guys looked up from their work in the kitchen, "Oi! Moriko-chan!" They waved. I waved back.

Betsy-san smiled. Hayami looked confused, "You know these people?"

"Ah," I nodded, "I used to work here before I had to go take care of Grandma."

"Moriko-chan, would you like something to eat today? A large fries perhaps?"

I grinned, "You know it! Extra salty please!" I threw up a peace sign. Betsy-san was always the nicest one here.

I looked to Hayami, "What would you like?"

She had already decided and had waited for a moment she could cut in to make her order. I sighed. She's not really the social type . . . Except with me, I guess.

We sat down and I snacked at my fries while she looked at her phone for a while, sipping her Coke.

We had gotten a discount after all. I'm technically not supposed to since I don't work here anymore but they didn't mind. Not that I even had to ask for it but still . . .

I liked working here. It was so fast-paced that I didn't have time to think about anything else. It took my mind off of the future and school. And the money was nice too . . . I sighed at my lack of fortune. Of all the families I could have been left at . . . Come on mom and dad, couldn't you have ditched me somewhere else?

We left after the rain had slowed and I said bye to Betsy-chan.