InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bad Influences ❯ Bad Influence # Eight: Spreading Rumors ( Chapter 8 )

HuHuhahahahah! I'm back and the drama has begun! I worked as hard as I could on this chapter to get it as fast as I could to you since I will be having A LOT of finals to study for. I hoped you liked that last chapter and I hope you like this one.

 

 

 

Bad Influence # Eight: Spreading Rumors

 

It had been happening all morning, every turn she took, Kagome could hear whispers and hush-hush talking behind her back. It had her ears prickling every time she walked through the hallways, it made her back itch in student council when she could feel the looks directed toward her back. She knew what they were all talking about, and every time she would try to approach a student, they seemed to come up with a place they had to be or a job they had to do.

 

Tatsuya had said nothing, much to Kagome's surprise, but every time she'd turn away in student council, she'd feel his eyes on her and had caught a scowl on his face once. It was only one day! She had found herself thinking in an outrage, a particular part of her anger directed toward a certain someone. Gossip. How much she hated that word and what it represented. Why did people have to get involved in someone else's life, and then converse about it as if they had nothing better to do?

 

During her first class, sideways looks directed toward her made her so nervous, she had fallen out of her chair, making the teacher tell her to stand outside for disrupting her lecture. She stood outside, leaning against the windows of the hallway. Then a girl came passed by her, giggling.

 

“I can't stand it!” Kagome said as she angrily peeled potatoes in her cooking class. “It's been happening all morning, Sango! Everywhere I turn, they look at me like I just killed somebody, and I can hear them talking every time I turn around! What is this? Did my life become some kind of weird reality show!” She growled, stabbing her knife into another potato on the counter of her cooking station.

 

“Calm down before you cut yourself.” Sango said as she watched Kagome muttering while peeling the skin from another potato. “I hate gossip as much as you do, but it'll probably fade away in a couple of days, at least until someone else does something stupid, or someone finally figures out that the story's not true.”

 

“Do you really think they'll believe my grandpa's `she had chronic back-pain story?'” Kagome asked dubiously.

 

“I don't know. I mean, you've never missed school before, it makes it hard to believe you would let back pain stop you from coming, and the story did seem far-fetched to begin with.” Sango stated, making Kagome sigh as she picked up another potato. Deciding that they should get on with their original backed recipe, Sango went back to cutting up vegetables.

 

Kagome could still feel the angry stares the other girls in their cooking group were directing at her. While she tried her hardest to breathe in through her nose and exhale through her mouth to keep herself from yelling at them, she noticed how the three girls had etched closer to her, looking over her hands as she peeled the potatoes. Sighing, Kagome stopped peeling, the potato and knife still in her hands, as she turned to the three girls and asked, “What is it?”

 

“Is it true?” One of the girls, whom Kagome recognized as Ayume from her track team, asked. She saw the two girls behind her, identifying the two friends as Yuka and Eri.

 

“Uh…is what true?”

 

“That you ditched school last Friday.” Ayume asked.

 

“Well…”

 

“She had back problems, didn't you know? Too much running.” Sango stated before Kagome could answer, being the bad liar that she was. Kagome quickly nodded, when the three girls turned her attention at her for her side of the tale.

 

“So…” Yuka asked as she came closer to Kagome. “You guys weren't having an affair?”

 

Kagome blushed, watching her hands as she began peeling again. “A-Affair? How could I have an affair?” She stated nervously.

 

“I thought you liked Tatsuya.” Said Eri.

 

“Yeah, you guys do seem like the right couple.” Ayume seconded.

 

“No, no, no we're just friends.” Kagome stated, cutting deeper into her potato.

 

“Really?” The three girls said in together as they leaned in a little closer. “Then how come he was holding you that day Inuyasha joined the school?”

 

“Uh…that was…”

“We heard that Inuyasha told him to back off. Is this some love-triangle?”

 

“Well…”

 

“So is this why Tatsuya has been so angry?” The three girls began talking to themselves rather then Kagome. They huddled together as they began coming up with more and more conclusions.

 

“Is there some kind of rivalry here?”

 

“I'll bet that was why she volunteered to take his homework to him! So Tatsuya wouldn't be around to see them together!”

 

“Now wait just a minute!” Kagome yelled, but the three girls didn't seem to hear her.

 

“No wonder why Tatsuya looks so grumpy today.”

“I bet that Inuyasha was absent from school as part of their plan to meet together!”

“Wow! Who knew Kagome was such a mastermind!”

Kagome slammed her hands into the counter, accidentally cutting her potato in half, before she turned over Yuka, Eri and Ayume and dissolving their little huddle. “There is NOTHING between me and Inuyasha!” She yelled at the top of her voice. “I am NOT going out with Tatsuya, so there is NO WAY that I could be having a secret affair! Inuyasha is NOT in a love triangle with me, and I did NOT leave school to spend the day with him!” She sat down again, watching the shocked faces of the three girls, her face a deep scarlet.

 

“So everything we've heard?”

 

“Yes, it is false! Just rumors.” Kagome said as she picked up the potato she cut in half, finished peeling it and placed it with the other clean ones.

 

“All of it?” Questioned Yuka.

 

“Yes, ALL of it!” Kagome stated impatiently.

 

“So then,” Eri began, “you didn't spend the day with him ditching school?”

 

Kagome blushed, but then growled. “And you weren't planning to tell off Tatsuya together?”

 

Kagome blushed again at the word “together.”

 

“And you guys weren't involved in a serious relationship?” Ayume asked.

 

“W-What do you mean by that?” Kagome asked, blushing harder.

 

“You know, you guys weren't dating?”

 

“N-no.”

 

“And you hadn't gotten to second base?”

 

“What? N-no!” Kagome said, turning as red as one of the tomatoes Sango was holding.

 

“So that means you guys didn't do `it' either?”

 

Kagome squeaked and jumped up when her heart gave a powerful jerk as such an accusation, and before shed realized it, the knife suddenly flew from her fingers. Loosing her balance, Kagome feel backward, her elbow brushing the cutting board, making it whirl off the table and into the air. As though time has slowed down, the five girls watched as the knife and cutting board soared through the air, toward the classroom door as it slid open. The next thing that happened was that the cutting board hit the person at the door, with the knife following shortly after.

 

“Shit!”

 

Kagome, who stood in shock with her hands covering her mouth, ran across the room, with Sango on her heels, toward Inuyasha, who was rubbing his bottom as he sat on the floor. Kagome knelt next to him, panicking as Yuka, Eri, Ayume and the rest of the class came to see if the Inuyasha was okay.

 

“Inuyasha? Oh my god, I am so sorry, it was an accident!”

 

She looked at his face, which was covered by his bangs for moment. When he didn't move, Kagome screamed, “Oh my GOD! I-I killed him!”

 

“AH! Don't scream! God damn it woman, what the hell was that for?” Kagome blinked, looking at Inuyasha as he scowled at her, rubbing his behind, and pointing to the cutting board that had fallen on his head, which had fallen to his side afterward.

 

“I'm so sorry! It was an accident! I didn't know you were going to come in at that mom-Inuyasha you're bleeding!”

 

Instinctively, her hand reached out to push the bags out of his forehead, and she saw the diagonal cut running from his crown to his forehead.

 

“I'm what?” He blinked, not realizing the crimson that was running down the side of his cheek from his forehead. Not until a drop of blood had dripped from his jaw did he become conscious the flow, and he brought his hand up to his scalp, feeling the liquid pool there. Kagome let her hand drop from his face.

 

“It must've been from the knife, you okay?” Sango asked. Inuyasha just blinked at her saying, “I'm fine.”

 

The other students began gaping at him before one of the boys said, “You can't say you didn't feel that!” Everyone else muttered in agreement and Inuyasha just said that he didn't even know he was bleeding until Kagome hat pointed it out.

 

“This is all my fault! C'mon let me take you to the nurse!” She offered her hand, But Inuyasha didn't take it and stood, without a wince, on his two feet as though he had just tumbled without a problem, instead of walking into a room to have his head clobbered by a cutting board or a knife.

 

“I'm fine,” He said gruffly, “Don't worry about it.”

 

“Are you crazy! You're bleeding!”

 

“I can take myself to the nurse!”

 

“But it's my fault that his happened!”

Inuyasha gave her an annoyed glare as he looked down at her, watching as her worried and exasperated look reached him. He turned his head to the side, ignoring the line of crimson leaking from his hairline to his jaw, and muttered, “Whatever.”

 

Huffing because of the fact that she could've injured him really badly and at the fact that everyone in the class was staring at her, Kagome left the room with Inuyasha.

 

()()()()()()()

 

“What happened here!” The nurse shouted when she noticed the leaking blood dripping from Inuyasha's chin, shortly after Kagome and Inuyasha had walked into her office.

 

“I'm so sorry Kaneko-chan! I accidentally lost my balance and threw a knife at him!” Kagome said immediately, her hands clasped together in front of her face.

 

“You threw a knife at him!” Kaneko yelled, rising form her seat to go get her first-aid kit.

 

“It was an accident!”

 

Inuyasha stood next to Kagome with his arms crossed, as though all he needed was a band-aid to put on a paper-cut. “Yeah, whatever, can you bandage me so I can go already, and so Kagome will calm down.” He added when he saw Kagome biting her thumb out of nervousness.

 

“Does it hurt?” She asked as the nurse reappeared with bandages and antiseptic. Inuyasha said nothing as the nurse sat him down on a bed, whipping the blood from his face with a clean towel. Kagome stood near the door watching nervously. `How do I get myself into these things?' She wondered nervously.

 

“That hurts! Get that away from me!” She suddenly looked up to see Inuyasha standing on bed, cursing as the nurse rose from her seat. Kagome noticed the cotton pad and hydrogen peroxide in the nurse's hand and giggled so loudly at the scene that the nurse came to see if she herself was all right.

 

“I…I'm fine...” Kagome answered between giggles. Kaneko stared at Kagome for a moment before agreeing that she was indeed all right, returning her attention to Inuyasha who was still standing on the bed, though looking bewildered at Kagome's sudden outburst.

 

“Now, you,” Kaneko stated, looking determined at Inuyasha, who tensed, “get down here. If I don't get that bandaged soon-”

 

“Hell no! You're not getting any of that peroxide crap on me!”

 

“Oh enough of this, stop being such a big baby and get down here!”

 

“Make me!”

 

“Knock it off, will you!” Kagome came to stand on the edge of the bed, before rising to stand next to Inuyasha, glaring at his face as she yelled, “Stop being such a big baby, you're losing too much blood.”

 

“Keh.”

 

Before Inuyasha could realize what she was doing, Kagome had bent down, gripped his ankles and pulled his feet out from under him. Stupefied by what had just happened, Inuyasha didn't see Kagome jump off the bed and hold his head in place.

 

“Kaneko-chan, do it now!”

 

There was a moment of discomfort as the nurse, applied the peroxide on the cut, and the next thing Inuyasha knew, was that Kagome was holding his head in place while the nurse was wrapping a clean bandage around his head. He blinked, it had all happened in an instant, he had barely had a moment to scowl at Kagome, muttering “traitor” under his breath.

 

“There.” The nurse stated as she finished, looking over her work. “You might need something to drink, that is quite a lot of blood.” She said looking at the now red towel she had used to whip the blood of Inuyasha's face. I can't believe that you weren't panicking at such a wound.”

 

“I've been through worse.” Inuyasha muttered.

 

“I'll be back in a moment, Kagome could you make sure he stays lying down?”

 

“Okay.” Kagome watched as Kaneko left the office, leaving the door ajar. She turned her attention back to Inuyasha who was still sprawled in the position Kagome had made him fall in, with his arms outstretched and one leg bent, dangling of the side of the bed, his head resting along the edge and his feet at the bedpost.

 

“You seem to be close to her.” He said aloud.

 

“Well, I've had my share of scraps and bruises from track practice. You okay?”

 

“How many times do I have to tell you I'm fine!” He yelled in annoyance. “You don't have to keep checking up on me like the rest of the world!”

 

“Geez, I just wanted to know if you were okay. You don't have to be such a jerk about it!” She yelled.

 

“Yeah, well-” He stopped short, there was a girl standing at the door, looking incredulously at the pair of them.

 

“Can I help you?” Inuyasha asked. The student jumped back and ran away from the door.

 

“Does it hurt?” Kagome asked.

 

“Nope.”

 

“I can't believe that you didn't feel that cut.”

 

“Keh.”

 

“I'd better get back to class. You won't leave the office right?”

 

Inuyasha stared at her before turning his head away to say, “Whatever.” He watched Kagome from the corner of his eye. Before she could leave the room, she turned back at him.

 

“Hey Inuyasha?”

 

“What?” He said gruffly.

 

“I'm really sorry, I hope it doesn't leave a scar.”

 

“Keh.”

 

She left the room, leaving Inuyasha to himself to wait the return of the nurse. He should've stayed home. After Satoshi's cryptic reminder that the fifteenth was coming around, he walked aimlessly through town the rest of the Sunday afternoon. He really didn't feel much like coming to school, or even much like doing anything else, but he had promised Kagome he would come to school more often, not to mention that he didn't have a job to go to.

 

He placed his arm over his eyes. The fifteenth. Always when the subject comes up, he has trouble sleeping. He'd always remember how mush he hated what happened that day, then would remember the trauma it caused not only him but to Satoshi as well. If it hadn't been for Miroku…he turned over in bed, trying to get rid of those thoughts, but it was no use. It wasn't until the nurse came back that he was shaken from his feelings.

 

“When I looked through your school medical record,” the nurse began, handing him a cup of water, “I knew I would have another regular.”

 

“Regular?” Inuyasha asked, as he sat up to drink the water.

 

The nurse nodded before explaining. “Kagome is my biggest regular, she may not look like it during practice but she falls down a lot. I see her here often. It think it would be best if you lie down for a little while.”

 

He didn't say anything. He knew when he applied for the school that he would become a close patient of the nurse's, seeing that he had always gotten into trouble at his other school, but it was a big surprise finding out that Kagome was a frequent visitor too.

 

It was about twenty minutes before he could leave the nurses office. As soon as he was out in the hallways, he knew immediately that all eyes and voices were directed at him. Having been the center of conversation and odd looks for so long, he was immune to annoying mutterings of his fellow students, so he passed them without notice or care.

 

He noticed that guy coming near him in the hall. What was his name again? Tatsu, Tatsuyo, whatever, he decided he didn't care, but when he neared that guy, whatever his name was, he noticed that he was starring transfixed at the bandage on Inuyasha's forehead.

 

As if he couldn't stop himself from asking, he said, “What happened to your head?”

 

“Kagome threw a knife at me.” Inuyasha replied rather boringly as he passed.

 

“What?” The guy said, running to a stop in front of Inuyasha.

 

“What was your name again?”

 

“Tatsuya. She threw a knife at you?”

 

“It was an accident. Now, Tatsu or whatever, will you fuck off? I've got to talk to Kagome.” He growled before pushing past Tatsuya, not caring at the gaping looks that were following him.

 

()()()()()()()

 

“I saw her throw a knife at him!”

 

“I heard that she and Tatsuya had a fight, and that she was cheating on him with Inuyasha! I bet she ditched school to be with him. I heard that they had a fight later on and that was why she threw the knife at him! I heard them yelling in the nurses office, I bet that their still fighting!”

 

“Some vice president. She's supposed to be a role model for the other students and she's doing these things behind her boyfriend's back! And now she's mistreating Inuyasha! What does he see in her anyway? I wouldn't date a girl who threw a knife at me. That sleaze! I bet that was why she was first to volunteer to `take' his homework to him. I heard him a little while ago when he told Tatsuya to, you know, back off. Then he said he had to find Kagome! He should leave her. After the way she treats Tatsuya and the way she treats him, what an abusive girl!”

 

“What's going on here?”

 

The group of girls turned to find the subject of their conversation looking at them with her arms crossed. “Is there a problem?” Kagome asked.

 

“Nothing.” Said one of the girls, as she and her little posse of girls walked away glaring in Kagome's direction and muttering among themselves. Kagome stared at them quizzically before turning her heel to head back to her class. The students lined up in the hallway gave her leers and snide looks. She found herself walking faster at their accusing looks, at which point the looks just made her completely nervous. Kagome rounded a corner in the hallway and walked into the bathroom, disappearing in one of the stalls.

 

What was going on? She found herself thinking as she leaned against the walls of the stall. Where there more rumors circulating the school after her accident in cooking class? What did those new nasty rumors say? Why was she getting such bad looks from everyone? Not to mention that most of the girls were avoiding her and now the boys were leering at her too.

 

She heard the door of the bathroom open and held still so that no one would know she was there. She didn't really feel like being stared at. The footsteps of the girls came to a halt and she guessed that they were standing in front of the mirrors.

 

“She's so full of herself. Just because she's so good with track, Little Ms, Vice President thinks she can snag any guy she wants? As if it wasn't bad enough that she had Tatsuya, she has the gull to cheat on him! And after the way she treats Inuyasha, I mean, she throws a knife at him and then yells at him in the nurse's office. I think he's too good for her anyway.”

 

“She's such a hypocrite. Going out with the school bad-boy, when she's always so big on rules. What a hussy! I heard that she did it already!”

 

Kagome sank to her knees behind the stall door as the footsteps of the girls died away. The rumors only got worse. Her whole class was ignoring her and it was only one day! She sighed and opened the door to find that there was one girl still standing there.

 

“Oh, hi.” She said cheerfully.

 

“Hi?” Kagome said nervously, identifying the girl as Yoko, the community service chair of senior student council.

 

“It's not true, right? You wouldn't do things like that, huh?” Yoko said cheerfully.

 

“You, you don't believe them?” Kagome asked, amazed and happy that there was someone in the school that didn't stand against her.

 

“No, its just gossip. Where's the proof?” She answered.

 

Kagome grabbed Yoko's hands. “Thank you! This whole rumor has been driving me crazy!”

 

“You're welcome.” said Yoko, with a sweet smile on her face, watching as Kagome left the bathroom. When she was sure Kagome was out the door, her smile turned into a think line of a frown. She turned and washed her hands in the sink, looking at her scowling face in the mirror.

 

“Stupid girl. I wonder how long you will last under the pressure. You're already breaking, I knew it wouldn't be long when I first started that rumor.” She smiled menacingly at her reflection in the mirror.

 

()()()()()()()

 

Kagome sat in her seat waiting for her English teacher to come in. She could feel the students' eyes on her, and looked at the empty seat next to her: the seat that Inuyasha sat in. She wondered what kind of crazy rumor they would come up with when they saw Inuyasha sit in his assigned seat. It kind of made her anxious. She was only in the nurse's office for a few minutes and yet a whole story about how she had Inuyasha had a “Fight” had already found its way around her classmates.

 

“Don't worry about it. It'll tide over soon.” Sango stated as she stood next to Kagome's desk.

 

“I don't know now much more I can take, Sango. They already made up this whole story about me having a fight with him in the nurse's office. They say I threw the knife at him on purpose.”

 

The majority of the class walked in and Sango apologized, saying that she had better get to her seat. Kagome thanked her for her company and leaned back into her chair.

 

Her stomach did a flip when Inuyasha walked into the room, his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his face as usual, with the teacher following him. He sat at his desk and immediately whispers from the students could be heard. Kagome covered her face with her hands. When will it end!

 

Someone tapped her on the shoulder and Kagome turned to see Inuyasha waving at her to get her attention. Her eyes scanned the room, noticing the frowns that had appeared when Inuyasha tapped her.

 

“I've got something to tell you.” He said.

 

Taking another look around the room, Kagome gulped and said, “Not now, Inuyasha.” She turned to her notes, trying her hardest to pay attention to the teacher and do her work fast enough so that she would be first to leave the room.

 

“Hey.” Inuyasha tapped her again. “It's important.”

 

“Tell me later.” Kagome said without looking at him. Maybe it was best to ignore him. The rumors got worse when they were together.

 

“Kagome?” Slightly annoyed that she wasn't paying attention, he tried tapping her again but she brushed him off. He was about to yell, when the teacher scolded him, telling him to stop flirting and get to work.

 

The teacher's words seemed to stir the minds of the students, as they began whispering again. Kagome felt sick. The lesson felt like a lifetime, and when dismissal came, Kagome rocketed out of the room, leaving a worried Sango and perplexed Inuyasha behind.

 

She ran into the track team's locker room, suddenly feeling the need to be alone. She didn't care about what the other students thought, it wasn't true and she knew it. It was her nerves; she couldn't take all those glares, but what worried her most was if the administrators got news of the rumors. “What am I going to go?”

 

 

 

OH! What will happen next! Don't kill me! -hides-