Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha

Before I start this chapter I would like to thank a few people for inspiration: my aunt for accusing my cousin of losing his marbles that one time because he wore gloves for two seconds in the middle of summer; my ninth grade swimming class for putting me through hell for that final; and (my new favorite distraction site for laughs) for that amazing quote about goldfish—you all are truly inspiring

Walking Tightropes

Chapter 12: Run On Water

I hate the feeling you get when you realize you've done something stupid after it's too late. Volunteering Inuyasha to kiss a bunch of girls? Very stupid.

-x-

"Mira! Get down here and talk some sense into your daughter because I swear, this girl's gone and lost all her marbles!"

"Grandpa…"

I could hear Mom creaking down the steps and a few seconds later she was standing in the kitchen threshold in her robe, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Since Mom doesn't have to be at work until nine, she usually didn't get up until eight. Being up at 6:30 is not her favorite thing in the world.

"What is it, Dad?"

"Your daughter has lost her mind!" Grandpa shouted, pointing an accusing finger at me. "She's wearing a bikini in the middle of winter!"

"It's actually fall and I'm not even wearing it yet."

"Did you hear that?" Grandpa looked at my mom with wide eyes. "Yet."

This morning I made the fatal mistake of leaving my swim suit and towel on the table while I made my lunch instead of just shoving it in a bag (I forgot that my grandfather is a very irrational individual). He had shuffled into the kitchen to boil water for his tea before he went out to get the newspaper when he noticed my bikini resting on my towel and that motivated him to go into a long rant about how only crazies put on bikinis to go hopping in the snow. It didn't seem to matter that it wasn't snowing outside or that we haven't even reached freezing temperatures yet; Grandpa thought I had lost my mind.

"Kagome," Mom turned to look at me, "what's going on?"

"The fundraiser for the newspaper is today and the first event is in the pool," I explained as I finished making my sandwich. "And I was just going to pack my stuff away in my bag when Grandpa came in and started lecturing me."

"You still shouldn't be wearing bikinis around all those teenage boys," Grandpa continued, waving his finger at me. "They're nothing but a bunch of horndogs!"

"Have a good day at school," Mom told me, moving into the kitchen to give me a kiss on the cheek before she walked back out, heading for the steps. "And I need you to pick up a few things from the store on your way home. I'll email you a shopping list so make sure you print it out before you leave school."

"Yes ma'am." Mom smiled at me over her shoulder before she went back up the stairs to return to sleep. When I turned back around, Grandpa still had a suspicious look on his face. "I'm not crazy."

Grandpa just shook his head and started mumbling under his breath as he went over to the pantry to get a tea bag. "What the—where's all the cereal!"

I took that as my cue to hurry up and leave before he noticed the box of Apple Jacks resting by my book-bag.

-x-

"Kagome!"

I was about halfway to Inuyasha's car when Sango and Bank came out of nowhere, both walking up on either side of me and tossing an arm over my shoulders.

"What has you two so excited at seven in the morning?" I asked, not breaking my stride towards Inuyasha's truck now only a few feet away.

"The plans we are making for Friday night," Bank explained to me. "It's around that time of year when the terrific trio must strike again."

I groaned. "Already?"

"Kagome," Sango gasped, leaning away from me, staring at me as if I had truly offended her. "Don't sound so depressed about it. This is our tradition! When was the last time you, me, and Bank all went to a house party together?"

"When we all got wasted and you two laughed and snapped pictures at my table dancing instead of saving me from humiliation," I reminded them as we reached Inuyasha's car and I opened the passenger's seat and climbed in. Sango and Bank moved to get into the backseat without waiting for Inuyasha's permission. "Hey, Inuyasha."

"Hi…" he trailed off, looking back at Sango and Bank with a raised brow. "And you two are in my car because…"

"Past mistakes should be forgiven, Kags," Sango said to me, ignoring Inuyasha. "Jeez, why are there so many CDs back here?" Sango mumbled, shoving CD cases onto the ground to make space for herself. "I think you may be a hoarder, Inuyasha."

"And I promise not to bring my camera this time," Bank swore, placing his hand over his heart as Sango closed the door behind them. "Scout's honor."

"I've heard that one before."

"But I mean it this time."

"Again," Inuyasha spoke up louder this time, demanding attention, "Why are you two in my car?"

"For the cereal, duh," Sango answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want some alone time with Kagome?"

Inuyasha's scratched the top of his head and bashfully turned away from Sango. "Not really…"

"We're here to remind Kagome of our tradition that's been running for four years," Bank explained to Inuyasha while I took out two bowls of cereal from my book bag and two tiny of milk cartons I found hidden in the back of our fridge this morning.

"What's the tradition?"

"It's stupid," I warned Inuyasha, handing him the box of cereal after I poured some into my own bowl. "It's not even really a tradition anymore since Sango isn't single."

"Um, if I do recall correctly, third quarter last year you were dating what's-his-face and you still went out partying with us out of tradition."

"It wasn't a serious relationship though," I argued back. "I only dated him for—"

"You two can stop arguing already," Bank cut in. "I'm the only one of us who's a true stud and remained single throughout the years."

Sango snorted. "It's not like that was out of choice."

"Shut up!"

"Stop, stop, stop," Inuyasha commanded all of us, holding his hand up. "What the hell are you three talking about?"

"Back in freshman year, Bank, Sango, and I decided we should create a tradition to go to one house party every quarter, just the three of us."

"Why just the three of you?"

"Because we were all single when we thought about going to a party and decided to celebrate our single lives there. Now, it's really just an excuse to go partying."

"But it's special because it's just the three of us," Sango added, reaching up to grab the box of cereal from Inuyasha so she and Bank could share. "And since Kagome has now given up alcohol we could really use her as our designated driver."

"I feel so special."

"And we want you with us," Bank assured me. "You don't even have to be the designated driver. Actually, do drink; you're the funniest drunk ever."

No, please don't start sharing stories, please!

What Sango and Bankotsu found hilarious, I found an absolute horror/humiliation that I was lucky enough to forget while I was drunk. Unfortunately, these two always find it necessary to remind me of the crazy stuff I pulled because they couldn't stop thinking about how "funny" it was.

"Like, remember that one time we crashed Yura's house party and Kagome started telling her off and almost started a bitch fight?" Sango asked and a grin started to grow on Bank's face while I silently prayed for a hole to swallow me up. Or for Sango and Bank to momentarily lose their voices. "We were good friends that day though and actually dragged you out before you started throwing punches."

"Remember when we were at Raiden's party over fall break and he found out his parents were going to be home earlier than planned and Kagome went running around the house screaming, 'THE BRITISH ARE COMING!'?"

"Oh! And that other time when we were in Kikyo's basement and she had those goldfish?" Sango turned to Inuyasha with a giant crap-eating grin on her face. "Kikyo's carpet was blue back then and Kagome was throwing Kikyou's goldfish on floor yelling at them to swim. She kept screaming—"

"SWIM BITCHES!" Bank finished off for Sango and they both started rolling around in the backseat while I hid my face in my hands when I heard Inuyasha joined them.

"And then there's that time Kikyo dragged us to Naraku's party and Kagome managed to convince herself that we were surrounded by a cult of vampires that were waiting to suck our blood." Bank smiled at me. "You said, 'they've come to suck our blood' about a thousand times that night."

Naraku is creepy, his friends are creepy, and that party was seriously creepy. It was a very logical assumption considering I was drunk.

"And then she got it in her head that the only way to save ourselves was to pretend to be one of them so she went up to this guy and bit his neck to show that she was 'one of them'." Inuyasha gaped at me and I pointed an accusing finger to the two hyenas in the back seat.

"Do you see what I have to live with? Do you see the kind of friends I have? They actually let me do that!"

"Hey, we got you a boyfriend by letting you go through your drunken antics," Sango defended herself and Bank nodded vigorously. "You two dated for two weeks."

Failure #16; one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Dating some guy I met at a party where I thought everyone was a vampire was a serious lapse of judgment on my part. And what kind of creep actually dates the random girl that bites their neck? That just screams something's wrong with you.

"You missed it, Inuyasha," Bank sighed, leaning up to pat Inuyasha's shoulder. "Kagome's sworn to sobriety now."

"And I thought your table dancing was wild," Inuyasha said, grinning at me. "I actually looked up that song Woohoo too."

My entire face fell. "No you didn't."

"Yes I did." Inuyasha smirked at me. "You're going to be on Santa's naughty list."

"Oh God," I groaned, hiding my beet red face in my hands again. "Just kill me now."

"I know you really wanna—"

"Stop!" I shouted, cutting off Bank's singing. I reached for the door handle and opened my door, ready to get out. "I'm going to leave before any of you have the chance to embarrass me even more."

"Wait, Kagome!" Inuyasha's hand reached out and wrapped around my wrist before I could even get my first foot to touch the ground. "We'll be good now." I raised my brow at him because he was still laughing and grinning when he said it, but Inuyasha straightened his face out and looked at me seriously. "I promise."

"Fine," I decided after a few seconds, pulling my foot back in the car and shutting the door. "I trust you, but I'm very doubtful about you two," I said, glaring back at Bank and Sango who just grinned at me widely, looking like two toddlers waiting to get into trouble.

"Do you see what we have to go through?" Sango asked Inuyasha. "She doesn't have an ounce of faith in us and we're her best friends."

"Who let me do stupid stuff when I was drunk."

"Because it's funny." I rolled my eyes and Bank got the idea to change the subject. "So, how about the Odd Ball Olympics today? You ready?"

"Yeah!" Sango and I shouted back at Bank, out of habit. It was another tradition we've formed over the years.

"You ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Well alright," Bank chanted back. "Alri-i-ight."

"Kagome, get back here so we can do the chest bump."

Inuyasha shook his head at us. "You guys are weird."

"It's another tradition," Sango explained. "Bank started it when we were trying to get pumped about cramming for finals."

"Isn't today the pool event?" Bank asked and both Sango and I nodded our heads in agreement. "I still don't get why you willingly volunteered to hop in a pool in the middle of October."

"Exercise."

"You hate exercising," Sango pointed out. "Oh, remember that one time she decided to—"

"Sango!" I snapped at her and she shut up, lowering her head.

"I'm sorry," Sango apologized. "But, the pool event, yeah. Very exciting, right Inuyasha?" A slow grin grew across Sango's face as she leaned forward. "You get to watch all these girls prance around in their swimsuits and then you get to smooch a few more girls; good day, huh?"

"He's not Miroku," I defended. "He would be excited about that."

"And kissing random girls isn't the same as kissing someone you actually like."

"Thank you. It's good to see some guys aren't all—" I had turned around to face Inuyasha only to see him staring at me. Was he staring at me when he was talking earlier? Did that mean—

"Ugggghhh," Bank groaned with a mouthful of dry cereal and I snapped my head around to see him scrunching his face in disgust and Sango using her I-just-found-good-gossip smirk. "No flirting! I'm trying to eat here."

"Would kissing Kagome be something you'd enjoy?" She asked Inuyasha and I went ahead and let myself out of the car so I wouldn't have to suffer the embarrassment anymore.

This is why Inuyasha and I should keep our breakfasts together, between only us.

-x-

"Oh, now I see why you were so happy to volunteer yourself for the pool event." I threw my shirt into an open locker and gave Sango a questioning look. "I'm not stupid, Kagome. Inuyasha has to watch this event and out of all the bathing suits you own, you chose to wear that bikini." Sango gave me a knowing look. "Come on now."

I guess it would be a lie to say that the thought wasn't at the forefront of my mind when I picked it out, but after what Sango pulled in Inuyasha's car earlier…. I was perfectly fine with not sharing that information. She'd probably tell Inuyasha the second she saw him. Sango claimed she was just helping the "InuKag development", but it took me half way through second block to be able to even look at Inuyasha without blushing.

"I can wear something nice without having ulterior motives."

"And it would be a first," Sango countered. "All logic points to wearing a one-piece today since we're going to be diving in the water and stuff and the only reason you'd ignore a logical decision is to impress someone, someone being Inuyasha." She smirked at me and I guess the look on my face must have given me away. "I am the gossip columnist; it's my job to be tuned in to the little details."

"Well, I have to do something," I insisted, stripping off my jeans and grabbing the towel out of my bag (I had changed into my swimsuit after weight management so I could be done faster and have enough time to double check everything). "All these girls are going to be kissing him and are probably going to try shoving their tongues down his throat and I have to keep his attention on me." I was putting my hair up into a bun when Sango finally pulled out her bathing suit. "And you're wearing a bikini, too!"

"Yeah, but not my best one."

"This isn't my best one."

"Well it's pretty damn close." Sango stripped her shirt off and tied her bikini over her bra. "I don't know whether to congratulate you on admitting you like Inuyasha or shudder at the fact that you're using sex appeal to wrap him around your finger." Sango was about to take her bra off from under her bikini top when she stopped, thinking it over. "Oh jeez; that sounds really manipulative."

"I'm not manipulative!" I argued, and Sango just laughed. "And I have a hoodie to go over it until I have to get in the pool so I'm not just flaunting everything." I held up the hoodie I was about to put on. It was another one of my dad's hoodies and it fell to my upper thigh, effectively covering a lot. "See?"

"You're still going to have to take it off."

"At least I have something, unlike you." I pulled my hoodie on and waited for Sango to finish getting ready, doing stretches while she put her stuff away in a locker.

Sango put a lock on her locker—you can't trust anyone these days—and turned around to give me a funny look while I was stretching my hamstrings. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm stretching," I told her, switching into a lunge. "You should do it too. You don't want all those muscles to suddenly tense up while you're in the deep end."

"I'll stretch out there."

"Okay then," I shrugged. "You go stretch in your bikini when the pool is packed with all those guys just waiting for a girl to—"

"Okay, I get it," Sango cut me off. "I'm going to start stretching. You should go out there to make sure everything's actually in order. You did leave Aki with a megaphone."

I should hurry.

"Hurry it up," I told Sango, as I grabbed my towel and draped it over my arm. "We're supposed to be getting started in five minutes."

"Gives me just enough time to work on my glutes," Sango laughed and I just shook my head and walked out of the locker room.

When I stepped out of the locker room I was actually put into a state of shock. I seriously was not expecting this many people to bother coming today. I knew we had done a lot of work advertising The Odd-Ball Olympics to make it seem like an amazing thing, but I thought my classmates would be genuine high schoolers and decide they had better things to do than watch the staff of the newspaper—the newspaper practically no one reads—hop around in the pool. Or maybe they wanted to see people stripped down to their bathing suits.

Wait a minute… I'm using a lot of sex appeal in advertising this, aren't I? Come see girls and guys in their swimsuits (half naked) in the pool for the first event. To get people even more interested, they could win a kiss from Ms. Kido or Inuyasha (two very desirable people in school) as long as they bet enough cash on the winning team. Holy hell, I'm pimping people out for money. I'm a pimp.

I'll need to buy a purple suit.

"And now presenting the long awaited Kagome Higurashi!" I turned my head to see Aki sitting on the lifeguard stand, the megaphone I had to beg Coach T for, again, at his mouth. "Our sexy editor is sporting… a hoodie." Aki lowered the megaphone and gave me what a very disappointed look. "I've been gassing you up all day and you only have this to show for it? I've been promising these guys a lot of lovely ladies and you come out dressed in a figureless hoodie?" Aki shook his head. "I knew should have tried harder to convince Kikyo to participate in this event."

"Why are you in the lifeguard's chair?" I asked, deciding it was best just to disregard everything that came out of Aki's mouth. "We need a real lifeguard in case someone really needs help."

"A real lifeguard?" Aki looked offended. "I'm a real lifeguard! Don't you remember how I told you I was taking lifeguarding as a class last year? I told you I worked at the gym as a lifeguard…" Aki looked at me expectantly, but none of this information was gauging any memories. "Do you listen to a word I say?"

"Not really…"

Aki's face fell. "You really know how to make a guy feel special."

"I try," I shrugged and Aki sighed, his shoulders sinking. "How about you try selling newspapers and getting people to place bets instead of introducing girls, hm?" Aki seemed to be unconvinced by this suggestion, but I lifted a brow at him and he got the message.

"While we wait for the other competitors to make their way to the pool, let's talk about the reason you're all hear today: to help the school newspaper which is in dire need of your cash. Shikon Times has been a part of…"

I tuned Aki out as he worked on his sob story to try to win a few sympathy bets—considering most high schoolers are cheap and uncaring, I had doubts of this doing the trick—and started searching around for Inuyasha. I found him sitting on the first row of the very first bleacher off to the right of the pool. Miroku and Bank were sitting on either side of him, elbowing him, and laughing about something while Inuyasha kept his face down and hidden.

"Hey, Inuyasha." Inuyasha's head snapped up and I could see the small trace of the blush he must have been trying to hide earlier.

"Hey, Kagome," Inuyasha grinned, shoving Bank to the side so there was room for me to sit beside him on the bench. "You actually ready to finally get this thing started?"

"Eh," I shrugged as I took the seat next to him, stuffing my hands in the pocket of Dad's hoodie. "I can think of a few better things than having to jump in the pool. The water is always freezing." Maybe I should have tried to get out of this event… "Oh, I need to apologize, by the way."

"For what?"

"Pimping you out for money for the paper." Inuyasha's eyebrows rose. "Yeah, I had a revelation that I was pimping you out just a second ago, so, I apologize."

"Kagome," Miroku started, "I have a whole new level of respect for you. You achieved my dream job before you even reached the age of a legal adult."

"Well, you know," I brushed my shoulder off as if it were nothing, "You've got to be ambitious if you want to make it in the business world."

"You're right…" Miroku nodded. "I'm going to go downtown and find some prostitutes that need my protection right after this."

"That's funny, because I thought you and I had a study date for French."

"Sango!" Miroku smiled cheekily at his girlfriend and she just crossed her arms, rolling her eyes. "You know, you always come in at the worst part of the joke. You look stunning in your bikini, by the way; very sexy."

"Uh-huh." Sango moved to sit next to Miroku anyways and didn't protest when he draped his arm over her shoulders. "Oh, Raiden is looking for you," Sango said turning to me. "He wants to go over everything with you before we get started."

"Oh, alright then." Raiden was in charge of getting this event together. I stood up from my seat, which didn't even have a chance to get warm, and set my towel down there. "I'll catch you guys after the event then."

"Yeah," Inuyasha nodded. I saw him gaze at my legs for a second before blinking quickly and shaking his head. "Yeah, I'll see you after this. I'm not working today and Erin let me off of band practice so do you want—"

"Kagome!" I turned my head to see Shinji, the junior reporter who always complains about the deadline, running up to me in his trunks and towel draped around his neck. "We need to think of a strategy to win this. I was talking to Hitomi just a second ago and she said that her team has already got a plan laid out."

"We really don't have to win this," I pointed out. "We just need the money."

"Kagome." Shinji looked me in the eyes. "I have to win this. I hate losing."

Oh joy; I have one of those kinds of guys on my team. Now I'm going to be under pressure to actually try. Bleh.

"Okay then, you can tell me the strategy while I walk over to Raiden." I started heading towards the other side of the pool where Raiden was standing and Shinji followed me, chattering on and on about a formation and assigning each person a job and maybe blah, blah, blah. I looked over my shoulder and waved every single finger individually at Inuyasha and his eyes snapped up to actually smile at my face instead of whatever it was that had him so transfixed.

I like to think that my plan to keep Inuyasha's eyes on me is a great success.

"Alright, Kagome," Raiden began when I finally made it over to him. There were three large stacks of mats in front of us and he pointed to one. "There's about fifteen in each stack to use to get across the pool, but when I tested it earlier you really only need ten. The extra five are just in case."

"I like your efficiency," I nodded. "How about the betting polls?"

"We have a lot of bets coming in. I think the highest bidder put down fifty bucks."

"Really?" I was shocked. "We're going to have enough money in no time! We'll probably be able to send twenty people to prom this year."

"Let's not make that mistake twice in a row," Raiden smiled down at me. "You don't want to be remembered as the girl who saved the paper only to put it in debt all over again."

"That's true. Thank you for the advice."

"Can I offer some more advice?" I nodded my head. "Make sure your bikini is tied really tight. There's a secret bet going on between the guys about whose top will fall off and quite a few people are putting a lot of money on you."

"What?" Really, this school has too many horndogs. "I'll get Sango to double check it for me. Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem."

Raiden is one of my favorite people outside of my group of friends. Not only is he a good journalist, reliable, and nice, he's also Failure #26. And Failure #26 is the only ex I can really look at without cringing inside, which means a lot to me. I'm pretty sure I have our mutual break up (after a week of dating) to thank for that. I have no reason to feel guilty, either, because he's currently dating a new girl from the school right down the street and is absolutely smitten with her. Still, you don't even know how nice it is to have one of my exes not hate me.

I stayed and talked to Raiden for the rest of the time that was left—five minutes turned into ten minutes—and then Aki held a button down on the megaphone, a loud beep sounding throughout the swimming pool and everyone got quiet.

"Good afternoon, Shikon High students!" Aki yelled into the megaphone. "Welcome to the Odd-Ball Olympics!" There was cheering and clapping and I felt tension I didn't even know exist leave my shoulders. I was more nervous about people showing up and actually being excited than I thought.

Aki went on to explain the event and rules to the audience so they knew what was going on. The objective of "Run on Water" is to use the floating mats to build a bridge across the pool and have each member run across the bridge successfully. The only rules are that each team has to stay within their own lane and they can't physically interfere with another team.

Aki also explained that the person (or people) who placed the highest bid on the winning team would get the prize and the rest of the people who placed bets would get the satisfaction of knowing their donation will help keep the paper running. Not too many people with the potential of losing were happy about that.

"So let's get started!" Aki shouted and the crowd cheered again. "First, I'm going to introduce you to each team. On Team One we have the lovely sophomore reporter Hitomi, sporting the sleek black halter tankini top with a pair of short plaid green shorts. What a lovely, beautiful girl; why don't you do a spin for us, Hitomi?" Hitomi scowled at Aki and refused to spin, crossing her arms. "Sorry folks, she's a little shy. Moving on. Also on Team One is one of our sports photographers, Kira, who is also the captain and MVP of our varsity volleyball team, and she is sporting a flattering one piece that really shows off her form. Kira is also…"

"It looks like Aki got to have his fashion show after all," Raiden whispered in my ear and I nodded. I knew I would somehow regret letting him be the announcer. "He's not a dumb as he looks."

"Apparently." Aki was finishing up with Team Two, Ken flexing for the girls as Aki described his black and lime green trunks. "Well, I've got to get going now," I said, pulling off my hoodie and handing it to Raiden. "Don't let it get wet, okay? That's an important hoodie."

"I gotcha'," Raiden assured me. "Oh, and your bikini." Raiden mimicked tying a string around his neck. "Extra tight."

"Okay." I said goodbye to him and started heading towards my group—Sango, Shinji, and Eiji, the sports editor—and I looked at Inuyasha on my way to them. From the other side of the pool he was watching me, blowing air slowly out of his cheeks while Bank elbowed him the side and laughed like he was doing earlier. I waved at Inuyasha again and he shot me a half smile before rubbing his face with his hands.

Yep. My mission was definitely accomplished.

"…contrasting with his red hair, Eiji has put on a very simple pair of black trunks," Aki was saying as I joined my team and Eiji waved his hand to the crowd, trying to muster up a smile. Eiji really isn't a guy who thrives from attention. "Eiji is the—And here she is folks, the moment I promised you all!" Aki shouted, cutting off Eiji's introduction, though he looked more relieved than insulted. "Our head editor-in-chief, Kagome Higurashi!" There was cheering and I was so beyond relieved when I didn't hear any obscenities thrown my way, that I actually waved. "And she is looking absolutely gorgeous in that bikini with the black and white African pattern." Wearing a bikini suddenly felt very wrong when Aki was announcing it to the crowd that way. "And with our gossip columnist, Sango, standing next to her in her itsy-bitsy-teeny-weenie yellow polka dot bikini, these two ladies are just soaking up the male attention."

"So… letting Aki be the announcer?" Sango started, turning to me. "Yeah, one of your worst ideas ever."

"I'm realizing that." Aki was introducing Shinji and then we would finally be able to start the game. "Oh, can you double knot the ties for me?" I asked her, turning around. "Raiden told me there's a secret bet on whose top falls off and I don't want that to be me."

"Perverts," Sango scoffed as she double knotted my bikini for me and I turned and did the same for her. "Oh, in case you didn't notice, Inuyasha was staring you down the entire time you were talking to Raiden. Almost had a heart attack when you took your hoodie off."

"Really?" I feigned innocence and Sango rolled her eyes.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," Sango shook her head, but she kept smiling regardless. "You're really torturing the guy."

The stacks of mats that Raiden had shown me earlier were placed by each team and Shinji hurried to explain his strategy to the rest of the team before Aki shouted for us to get started through the megaphone. A loud beep echoed through the room and a frenzy of splashing broke out as all three teams started build their bridges.

In theory, putting mats together in a straight line to run across sounds like a very easy thing to do, but it's not. These mats tend to drift away, making the bridge more like a pattern of stepping stones than a nice neat walkway. And every time someone ran across the bridge while it was straight, the mats would move further apart (again) and it would get sloppy and need fixing.

To combat this issue, Shinji had decided that we would each be in charge of a section of the bridge and try to keep it in a line as best as we could while one of our teammates ran across it. The downside of his plan is that once a person made it to the other side of the pool, they can't get back in the water. Eventually, the last runner will have to run across a broken bridge. I was that elected runner because I'm the lightest and, as it was proven from watching Ken sink into a mat and fall face first into the water, the heavier you are, the harder running across water is. Go figure.

"Can I ask again why we got stuck holding up the bridge in the deep end?" Sango asked me as she swam back and forth, making sure her part of the bridge was still in a straight line. Eiji was about to make the first sprint across and we had to make sure our first run through went flawlessly unlike the other teams. "This shit is tiring!"

It's tiring having to tread water in the deep end, but, after taking swimming my sophomore year, I built up the stamina to tread water for a long amount of time and I wasn't as worn out as Sango. I hated my final for that class—tread water for the entire length of Jaws and, if you weren't too busy trying not to pass out, you could have enjoyed the film—but I am finally seeing the benefits of taking that class.

"That's what the mats are for," I told Sango. "Use them to keep you up so you don't have to tread water."

"And have Shinji bite my head off for screwing up the bridge?" Sango rolled her eyes and scoffed as she moved another one of her mats into place. "I don't even know why I listen to that jerk. I'm a senior! I own his ass."

"We're just trying to win a game," I reminded Sango. "You don't need to make it personal."

"I'll make it personal if I want," Sango huffed, but she stopped talking about Shinji as Eiji started stomping his way across our bridge, almost losing his balance three times in the shallow end before managing to regain it.

"Holy shit," Sango mumbled as Eiji came barreling towards us. "Has Eiji always been this big?"

"Yeah," I answered. "He does wrestling, remember?"

"No." Sango moved to steady the mats she was in charge of as Eiji ran across them and then I balanced mine out, placing my arms underneath each mat to give Eiji enough support. I almost died when I felt the pressure of his weight on my arms; wrestlers are freaking huge.

Eiji managed to make it to the last mat though, being the first from all three teams to make it across the bridge, and he dove into the water (since it was declared too dangerous to hop from the mats onto the poolside). When he climbed out of the pool the crowd went into a deafening uproar, glad to see that someone had made it after fifteen minutes of people just slipping off mats and into the water.

"Hurry up!" Shinji shouted from the other side of the pool. He was already out and waiting to run across and Sango grumbled under her breath as she swam to the shallow end, fixing the mats along her way. I fixed up the five mats I was now in charge of and waited for Shinji to start his sprint.

By the time it was my turn to run across the water, our bridge was a mess, and we were just about neck to neck with Team One for the win since Shinji and Sango both had taken a couple of falls before getting to the other side. Shinji was screaming at me to hurry up while Sango sat on the ground next to him, rolling her eyes. I was tired from treading water in the deep end and swimming up and down the pool, fixing up mats, and now Shinji had the nerve to be screaming at me. He got off easy; I was doing all the work here! I had half a mind to screw up just to piss him off because he was pissing me off, but, for the sake of the people who bet on my team, I decided not to throw the game.

"Come on, Kagome!" Bank shouted and I looked over at him to see the camera held up to his face. "Make the first jump look really nice so I can get a good shot of you for yearbook!"

I didn't want a picture of myself in my bathing suit in the yearbook. He was supposed to give me words of encouragement.

"I betted on your team too, so make sure you win!" Bank added and I rolled my eyes. Of course he would try his chances at getting a kiss from Ms. Kido.

I steeled my nerves and hopped on the first mat, almost slipping off and busting my head in the shallow end because the mat was already slick with water. I regained my balance though, just in time, and steadied myself before jumping to the next mat which had drifted about five feet away.

I had to restart my run three times and each time I fell, Shinji's face went bright red and he started screaming at me. Sango snapped at him after the third time I fell off and he just took to glaring at me every time I started falling from then on. I was tied with Kira from Team One now, both of us hopping from mat to mat in the deep end, and I was getting tired of even trying. Physical exertion is super draining.

"Hurry up!" Shinji shouted at me as I stumbled onto the second to last mat. "Can't you move any faster!"

I'd like to see him do this crap when he's dead tired. My legs were shaking and ready to give out from beneath me and I felt the urge to throw the game to deliberately piss Shinji off, again, but I didn't need to make myself look like an idiot.

I only had one mat to go and as long as I got both feet on it at once, we would win and Shinji would stop screaming at me. I didn't have enough time to hesitate since Kira was an athlete and she was about to win, so I jumped on to the last mat, windmilling forward on one foot before managing to get them both planted on the mat and Aki hit a button on the megaphone, signaling the end of the game.

Thank God.

My balance tipped on the mat and I stumbled to the edge before letting myself tumble down. I clamped my left arm down over my chest to make sure I didn't give anybody the chance of winning that secret bet and I used my right arm to guide my dive into the water. I checked to makes sure all the ties on my bikini were holding up fine before I started swimming to the surface.

Shinji and Sango helped pull me out of the water. Mr. Competitive/I-must-win immediately let go of me once I was out in order to do a victory lap in front of the crowd.

"Yes! Yes!" Shinji ran up to Ken from Team Two (they must have had their own bet going) and shoved his finger in his face. "In your face!"

As of today, I really don't like Shinji.

I crawled over beside Eiji and flopped down next to him since he was still exhausted from his run (wrestlers and water just don't mix) and waited to catch my breath. Thankfully, since I won, I wouldn't have to hear Shinji's nagging and I enjoyed my moment of peace in the middle of the crowd's yelling.

As of today, I also hate the pool. Swimming takes way too much energy.

"You did good Kags," I could hear Sango congratulate me, but I was too tired to even open my eyes and acknowledge her so I just nodded my head. "You kept the girls in."

"Shut up."

"Ladies and gents, you first place winners, TEAM THREE!"

I had closed my eyes and was concentrating on my breathing when I felt something soft fall on my face. I pulled what happened to be my towel down to discover Inuyasha smirking at me.

"You know, if you did those workouts in weight management correctly, you wouldn't be so tired right now."

I pulled my towel back over my face. "Buzz off."

"Come on, Kagome," Inuyasha laughed, reaching down to take my hand and help me up, even though I didn't ask for it. I was more than content lying on the ground. It was very relaxing. "As the leader of the newspaper, don't you have to announce who wins a kiss from the one and only Inuyasha?"

Shit. I completely forgot that I have to stand and be a witness to Inuyasha kissing some girl. It'll all be happening right in front of my face. How un-wonderful.

"Just let me lay down for an hour." I draped my towel over my shoulder and wrapped it around my body, very happy with the fact that I took the biggest beach towel I could find since it covered most of me up. "I'm so tired right now. My legs feel like jelly."

"You did a good job," Inuyasha assured me, tossing his arm over my shoulders. Usually I would over analyze his intentions, but today I just felt glad he did it. Now all these girls starving for his kiss would know he didn't want any of them. Ha! Suck on that!

Oh, that may be bad for business…

"I especially liked you dive at the end," Inuyasha added and we were already at the bleachers where all my friends sat, Ayame getting up to congratulate me. "It really showed where your priorities were."

"You didn't know? There was a bet going around for my top to come off and I didn't want to give anybody the chance of winning," I told Inuyasha just before Ayame threw her arms around me in a hug.

"How did I miss out on that bet…?"

"Inuyasha!"

"Congratulations!" Ayame cut me off, giving me a tight squeeze. "Oh crap." She immediately let go of me and slightly gaped down at the wet spot on her shirt. "I forgot you were all wet."

"I did just get out the pool. It's amazing how you could forget that so fast." I took a seat on the bleachers to rest my jelly-filled legs. "Ayame, we've got to start trying in weight management," I told her, leaning back on the row behind me where Sango and Miroku sat, bickering with each other. "I'm in really bad shape."

"I've noticed." Ayame laughed and I shoved her leg before closing my eyes again.

I spent the next ten minutes trying to catch my breath and regain a solid feeling in my legs while the people in charge of the betting polls figured out who the winners were and counted how much money we collected today. Finally, Aki announced that the winners had been accounted for and were about to be introduced and I took that as my cue to get up. Raiden handed me my dad's hoodie and I dried off as best as I could, wringing the water out of my hair and pulling it back into a ponytail, before slipping the hoodie over my head and walking to the lifeguard stand, Inuyasha following close behind me.

"So, are you ready to make a few girls' wishes come true?" I asked Inuyasha, almost laughing when he grimaced.

"Not really."

"You're doing it for a good cause," I assured him, patting him on the shoulder, though I wasn't at all thrilled about the situation either. I'm just good at faking it. "You never know, you might really make a connection with one of them."

Inuyasha looked me in the eyes when he answered, "I highly doubt it."

"Alright everybody," I started when Aki handed me the megaphone and the list of winners; his announcer role ended and now he was armed with a camera. "The results are in and the winners of the first event in the Odd-Ball Olympics are…" I paused for dramatic effect, sloppily unfolded the notebook paper Aki had handed me. "We have four male winners, all placing bets of 35 dollars on Team Three and…" I almost choked on air and went into cardiac arrest, but I covered it up pretty nicely and regained my voice. "There are six female winners who all placed bets of fifty dollars for a kiss from Inuyasha!" I shouted into the microphone and smiled to make it sound like I was truly excited, but on the inside… I felt like Inuyasha, whose entire face had gone pale.

I went on to read off the names of the winners and they all came running towards where I stood—Bank was greatly disappointed in the fact that, even though he bet on the winning team, he didn't bet enough money to win a kiss—but I was in a state of shock as I did it and I couldn't remember any of the names I read off.

Six girls. Six kisses. That is eighteen seconds of watching Inuyasha kiss somebody who's not me. And really, fifty dollars? What the hell? I know the paper made three hundred dollars just from those six girls, but how desperate do you have to be to lay that much money down on one kiss?

I glowered at the girls as they lined up, giggling about their all too soon kiss with Inuyasha and I instantly resented the fact that they weren't ugly. I guess this is just my punishment for prostituting Inuyasha; now I have to watch the product of my desire to keep the newspaper going unfold in front of me.

We went through the guys first, Ms. Kido planting an innocent kiss on each of the boys' cheek, thanking them for helping the paper and smiling at each of them. One of the winners—a short red head that looked like a freshmen—actually tried to turn his head at the last second, but Ms. Kido has great instincts and she moved away before he had a chance to kiss her on the lips. She smiled well naturedly though and still kissed him on the cheek, finishing up with all the boys.

Now it was Inuyasha's turn. Joy.

I wanted to put a giant padlock on Inuyasha's lips and ban him from kissing anybody or punch him for agreeing to help out the paper or slap myself a thousand times for giving these girls permission to put their lips on his, but the damage was done and I was regretting this all too late.

I gave a hesitant smile to Inuyasha over my shoulder before turning around to face the line of girls in front of me. Why do I do the stupid things I do?

"So, I guess we move on to Inuyasha now." I was reluctant and my stomach was churning, but I made a promise and I have to keep to it. I turned to the first girl in line. She had jet black hair tied into two braids, dark brown eyes, and a few freckles dotted her cheeks. She seemed innocent, but she was still really pretty. Damnit. "Okay, I guess you're first."

"Okay then." The girl stood still though and looked at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked. "I said you could k—start." It was really hard to give this chick permission to kiss Inuyasha.

"Can you move out of the way?" The way she asked me—all giggly and cutesy—made me want to punch her in the face. I glanced behind me, laughing awkwardly when I noticed that I really was still standing between her and Inuyasha, almost like a bodyguard.

"Oh, sorry." I moved out of the way and it took a lot more effort than I'll admit. "Alright, you can start in just—" The girl dove in for the kiss before I could even finish my sentence, grabbing Inuyasha's face to keep him still and devouring his mouth.

Ha! So much for being innocent!

"Hey!" I shouted, but the crowd was eating it up and laughing/cheering, and my voice was lost in the din. Inuyasha's eyes were wide as he tried to pull her off, but she must have had a vise grip on his face because it looked like she had dug her nails into his skin.

"Your three seconds are up!" I shouted yanking on the back of her shirt, trying vainly to rip her off Inuyasha, but she decided being a leech was really cool. "You are violating the rules! I can have you banned for this!" I couldn't, but it felt nice to be able to wave my fake authority around as a bluff.

A second later, Raiden stepped in and pulled her off of Inuyasha and I immediately moved in front of him again, crossing my arms and shooting the evil eye to everyone in the room. It's now my official goal to protect him from anymore sudden attacks. Inuyasha didn't do anything but wipe his mouth off with the back of his hand. I gaped down at the stopwatch; six seconds! This stupid chick kissed my man for six seconds and ten milliseconds! It doesn't sound like a long time, but it sure as hell felt like an eternity.

"Are you alright?" I asked him, turning my head over my shoulder. He continued wiping his mouth off while the crowd cracked up and Raiden dragged soon-to-be-named-then-placed-on-my-hate-list girl away from us.

"I think she had on root beer flavored lip gloss," Inuyasha mumbled, scowling. "I hate root beer."

"That's too bad." He seemed to regain his composure now. "Any tongue?"

Inuyasha frowned. "Nah, I managed to keep it away."

I could feel my blood boiling. That bitch. It may not be official yet or even really in the making, but Inuyasha is mine, Damnit! Mine.

To make this clear I looked the next girl dead in the eye. "You get three seconds, got it?" she nodded her head. "And this is closed mouth, alright? Don't go getting any ideas because I will throw you in the pool!" I popped my head out to the other four girls in line. "Keep it G-rated, people!"

When it was all over—everything went smoothly after my threat to throw people in chlorinated water— Inuyasha went to wash his mouth out so I leaned against the wall by the door of the men's locker room, continuing my role as his bodyguard. It doesn't seem like it could happen, but after witnessing a kiss gone wrong, I'm not taking any chances of leaving him alone. No girl will sneak into the locker room without getting past me first! I let some tension out of my shoulders as Aki jogged up to me.

"So, do you think the picture of the girl on attack mode would make better news or," Aki showed me the next ten pictures in his camera, "you on the defense, looking like you're ready to kill somebody?"

The pictures ranged from me trying to yank the girl off of Inuyasha, looking more feral than I could ever imagine, to me threatening the rest of the girls in line, and then he even got a picture of me glaring at each girl as they stepped up, standing between them and Inuyasha with my arms crossed.

I looked very possessive. Way too possessive for someone who's not even dating him.

I shoved the camera back at Aki. "Delete them all."

-x-

In my defense, as Inuyasha's pimp it was my job to protect him from overzealous, crazy chicks (like her) who have problems with following the rules.

-x-

My original plan was to have the entire Odd Ball Olympics week done in one chapter, but then I actually started writing and realized how long this first day was so I've decided to chop the week up into four chapters total. And then you'll have the carnival chapter which, now that I think about it, is kind of mostly written. And I got my laptop back after two weeks of it being with Geek Squad so I can go back to waking up in the middle of the night and typing if I feel like it (I usually watch a movie or read when that happens though, but I'm trying to change!)

I also started a new story, Thanks to You, and it's being told in snippets and it updates every Monday, so if you want to check that out that would be cool. Oh, and I did finish the latest Normal chapter and it just has to go through editing.

Alright, please review because it makes me HAPPY!

~Kimiko888~

Despite popular belief, I do have a life and it sometimes gets in the way of super fun things like… EDITING! Anyway, this chapter was hell to edit, but fun to read so I hope you guys enjoy it!

~hanmajoerin