InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Sengoku Jidai High School ❯ Mondays Suck ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

By: Lcsaf

DISCLAIMER: Yanno, I'm willing to bet Takahashi wouldn't like it too much if I claimed Inu-Yasha and since she's prolly rich enough to have ways of making me disappear if I tried, I'm just gonna back off...for a while...

A/N: This is a two parter folks, as the chapter was too long to post in its original format. Here's part one...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Monday brings with it a certain amount of stress. After a weekend of relaxing or partying or ignoring the work world in general, people are reluctant to get back to the fast pace of the daily grind. Kagome was no exception.

"Gaaah! Where is it?!"

Currently, the teen was on her hands and knees in desperation, her bedroom, something akin to the aftermath of an earthquake. Boxes, some empty and some still full, were pulled from their orderly stacks into unorganized rearrangements. The clothes on the bed were in similar heaps, threatening to avalanche on Buyo, who had parked himself at the foot since last night and had yet to move. The closet door had been flung open and everything that had been carefully stored inside since Sunday had been tossed out again. All in the attempt to find a missing left shoe.

Kagome cast a quick glance around the room to assess which figurative stones she had yet to turn over. The only place left to look was under the bed. Her eyes gleamed as she renewed her attack, shoving her backpack and an empty Pocky box aside. Victory was close at hand.

"Come on, Kagome! Kohaku and Sango are gonna be here any minute and I wanna get to school in time to show Shippo my new Pokémon cards!"

From somewhere under her bed, Kagome paused in her search just long enough to roll her eyes. She really needed to talk to Souta about those ridiculous cards, perhaps while she was burning them. Or maybe afterwards...

The doorbell rang and Souta's footsteps could be heard pounding down the hallway to answer it. A few moments later, there was a knock at Kagome's own door.

“Souta, no one cares about those stupid--”

“Actually, it's me,” Sango's alto drifted through the door. “Souta sent me up to beseech you on his behalf....can I come in?”

“Sure,” Kagome sighed as she began to wiggle her way back out. No shoe under the bed, just some fashion magazines, dust....and a slightly gnawed Kappa's foot. Ewww.

"Whoa....rough move?”

“No, I can't find my shoe," Kagome moaned. She stood up and dusted herself off, trying to think where she last saw her shoe, besides on her foot.

"This wouldn't be it, would it?"

Kagome whirled around to see Sango dangling the shoe on her index finger. It was all the school girl could do to keep her jaw from dropping to the ground. "How did you.... when did--WHERE?!"

"Oh. Your cat was sitting on it."

Sure enough there was fur'o'cat all over the leather loafer and a suspiciously missing Buyo.

"Buyo," Kagome sighed. "Stupid cat." She tried to wipe most of the fur off the shoe before she slipped on. At least the feline's body heat had kept it warm.

"You might wanna change uniforms too," Sango pointed out.

Kagome looked down at herself. Her blouse was no longer white; it was now grey from cat fur and dust bunnies and other such things that reside on one's floor. “Gimmie five minutes,” she sighed. “I'll be right down.”

Sango agreed to wait for her downstairs with the boys and shut the door behind her.

Kagome turned around and swept the room with a calculating eye. Now....where did she put her other uniform?

Closer to ten minutes later, Sango was lounging on the couch, lazily watching the boys trade cards on the living room floor.

"I'll trade you a Mankey for a Metapod." Souta leaned forward in anticipation as Kohaku considered the offer.

"Deal." The switch was made.

“I'm ready, let's go,” Kagome called out as she came down the stairs. “Don't forget your lunch, Souta.”

“Couldn't find the spare?” Sango whispered as the boys raced to the door.

“It was in my dresser. I forgot I'd put it away already,” Kagome admitted sheepishly.

The boys were already across the yard and half way down the shrine step by the time Kagome closed the front door behind Sango and herself. The girls crossed the shrine yard and started down the steps.

Sango gazed around the grounds. “Yanno, the shrine looks different in the day, it's pretty in a simple way,” she remarked.

“You probably didn't look up when you walked me home Saturday night, but when the moon isn't completely up, there's a million stars you can see just by standing in the courtyard,” Kagome told her. “By the way, you didn't run into any problems getting to your house, did you?”

Sango waved the question away. “No problems,” she assured the other girl. “This area's pretty safe as far as I can tell and everyone in our neighbourhood knows me and my family so I don't get into too much trouble. All I have to do is radiate this `Don't-mess-with-me' aura on the express train and I'm good.”

****

Their quartet caught up with Inu-Yasha and his pint-sized crew a block from the kids' school.

“So this is where you disappeared to,” he noted in an accusatory tone directed at his best friend.

Sango didn't bat an eye. “If I was given a head's up every now and then about when your royal dumbass decides your gonna grace us with your presence, I might know who I should be walking to school with,” she offered.

Inu-Yasha crossed his arms in pout position and walked ahead, making a point of ignoring the girls after throwing one nasty glare at Kagome.

**********

PANK!

Kagome sighed as she watched from the top of the bleachers as the softball game progressed. 1-A had a fantastic redheaded pitcher, but Sango's teammates were really very athletically gifted and 1-B just made another hit.

At the bottom of the bleachers sat the rest of 1-C, unable to play because Kagome (who would've filled in for Kiki, their absent classmate) had forgotten the required tennis shoes.

Kagome felt awful. She had totally forgotten that all first year students were supposed to have P.E. on Monday and was completely confused when the coaches came to get them. She had been added to the roster and given the standard gym uniform: a black leotard and a cream coloured sweatshirt, pea green at the cuffs and collar. The school insignia was on the left in red stitching. But, upon discovery that the new student did not have the proper footwear, the coach informed Kagome she could not participate.

Normally, there was no problem borrowing a girl from one of the other classes to play for the team but today 1-A and 1-B had just exactly enough students present to form their own teams, forcing 1-C to sit out of the game. The girls with the exception of Kagome, weren't exempt from physical activity however, and were given several sets of jumping jacks, crunches and toe touches before running in place for ten minutes afterwards. A few of them sent dirty looks Kagome's way while performing these exercises.

It was times like this when she really wished she could go back to school in Osaka. Eri and Yuka would've talked Ayumi into explaining to the coach that the three of them had also forgotten their shoes as well (hidden under the mess in Yuka's locker) and joined Kagome in sitting out.

How much more horrible was today going to get? Kaede-sensei had already surprised the class with a pop quiz in trigonometry first thing this morning and Kagome had failed miserably after sweating through it for half an hour. It had been so bad, that she was called to Kaede-sensei's desk and told to study harder so she could retake it tomorrow afternoon. She didn't miss the gloating expression on Inu-Yasha's face as she returned to her seat either.

She was jerked from her thoughts as the coach blew the whistle, signifying the end of the P.E. period. She quickly fell in line and was thankfully joined by a sweaty but jubilant Sango, whose class had won the game at 11-9.

“Whew!” the other girl stated as she rubbed off some of the sweat with her sleeve. “Some game! I'll be glad to get that shower.”

Kagome tried to wait on her friend, but as the only available seating were the benches in the locker room, she was given funny looks from the other girls who noticed she was already back in her school uniform and not in the classroom. The coach was eventually called in and sent Kagome back to her 1-C.

Someone had thoughtfully left a pair of shoelaces on her desk, but none of the other girls showed any signs of having done the deed. (Though she did receive a quizzical glance from Inu-Yasha as she lifted the laces off her desk.) Great. Not even a week and already hated by her classmates. Kagome sighed and tossed away the laces before plopping back in her desk and miserably going back to her studies.

***

When lunch was announced, over half of the students stampeded towards the entrance gates and left in a flurry of exhaust and bicycles, leaving Kagome befuddled. “Do we have a half day or something?” She asked Sango as she traded her school shoes for the loafers that had caused so much grief.

“No,” Sango sighed dramatically. “We get an hour for lunch on Monday but the upperclassmen get to leave the gates for that time, while the first years are stuck here. It sucks.” They walked outside to the considerably less crowded yard and plopped down on an empty bench. “I can't wait till next year.” She pulled out her lunch of lo mein and a thermos of hot green tea. “What've you got?”

“Hinomaru,” Kagome replied after checking. “Grandfather has friends who own a grove and he says they bring us fruit sometimes. So, Mama gets a little creative.”

“Hello, ladies,” the now familiar voice of Miroku was heard. “Might I inquire about your plans for the lunch hour?”

“Stuff it, Houshi, you know we can't leave,” Sango nearly growled.

The upperclassman sighed dramatically. "What a shame, I was hoping you'd join Inu-Yasha and I for lunch at WacDonald's. No one's really going to notice your absence for lunch. Except, myself of course."

“Ugh, if you're gonna fuckin' make lover eyes at Sango the whole time, I don't wanna be there to see it,” Inu-Yasha insisted, looking completely revolted.

“No one asked you, `Yasha,” Sango told him. “But, you two can have fun, because I'm not going. Besides, Houshi's driving scares me.” She calmly took a bite of her lunch.

“It only happened once,” Miroku protested. “And I said I was sorry.”

“Once was enough.”

“It was only a stop sign. And Kohaku enjoyed himself.”

“You almost hit an old lady!” Sango cried, nearly choking on her food.

“She was an obstruction of traffic, the crosswalk light wasn't on!”

“She had the right of way!” Sango insisted. “End of story. I'm not going.”

“Very well.....lunch will be so dull, though.”

Sango said nothing, but made a show of eating her lunch with enthusiasm.

Defeated, Miroku turned to make his way to the parking lot. “You still coming, Inu-Yasha?”

After shaking his head sadly at his best friend, Inu-Yasha turned also to catch up with the other boy. “Yeah I'm comin'...”

**********

Miroku glanced over the top of his fish sandwich at his unusually quiet companion.

Inu-Yasha's meal sat on the tray, hardly touched as the boy himself sat, brooding and staring out the window. The younger boy had been sullen during the entire ride to the fast-food restaurant.

Miroku could only guess what was on the boy's mind. “You know....we could always go back and eat lunch with the girls,” he suggested, eager to break the mood. He was graced with Inu-Yasha's attention in the form of a very bored expression before the boy across from him slid his gaze back to the window. `Well, at least he responded.'

The door opened and the noonday sun filled the small area; jerking the white haired boy back to Earth. He looked up and sneered.

Surprised at what would cause that reaction, Miroku turned around to see the first year, Kouga and his small underclassmen crew walk up to the counter.

Wonderful. It wasn't bad enough that one first year was off school property, but his rival and his crew were out too. If anything happened, there would be no chance in Hell that such an incident would go unreported, as everyone was still in uniform and easily identified.

Determined to keep the chaos from unleashing, Miroku stood up and threw away his trash. He returned to Inu-Yasha still sitting in the booth. "I believe it's time for us to be leaving....." he stated, mentally preparing himself for the younger boy's stubbornness, but was utterly surprised when said boy stood up and threw his stuff away. 'Yasha must be really out of it today.'

The line at the counter was getting longer due to the lunch hour and with the recent addition of the Wolfsbane Gang crowding around at the back, there was not much room to get past the door without a confrontation. Miroku, smaller in frame, managed to maneuver around the preoccupied boys unnoticed and motioned for his partner to do the same.

Inu-Yasha, however was broader than Miroku, and made no effort to get by on his toes. Instead, he ambled past, accidentally bumping shoulders with one of the crew.

"Hey, watch where you're going, retard!"

With his hand on the door, Miroku turned around to see Inu-Yasha standing nose to nose in a glaring contest with one of Kouga's gang. `Kami-sama, for just this once, keep your mouth shut, Inu-Yasha,' Miroku silently pleaded.

However, it seemed that Inu-Yasha didn't receive the mental message (or he just ignored it, as per the norm). "If your sorry ass weren't in the middle of the damn way, it wouldn't've happened!"

There was a pregnant pause, and those involved held their breath, waiting to see who would throw the first punch.

The other boy did, aiming for blanc haired student's face. Inu-Yasha ducked and acquainted his elbow with his opponent's midsection. The kid staggered for a second; then lunged at Inu-Yasha the moment he got his second wind. But whatever attack he had in mind, it didn't happen.

Kouga yanked his lackey back by the back of his collar and now stood in said lackey's place, staring Inu-Yasha down. "What the hell are you trying to start, you piece of dog shit?"

Trying to loom over someone while in a defensive stance wasn't easy, but Inu-Yasha managed to pull it off. Moreover, he managed to look rather intimidating as well. He glared at Kouga. "I didn't start anything, asshole, but I will finish it." Inu-Yasha spoke so low, one had to strain to hear what said.

It happened so fast, Miroku wasn't even sure he saw it.

Kouga threw a double punch; one fist aimed at Inu-Yasha's face, the other at his gut.

However, Inu-Yasha shifted all his weight on his front foot and leaned to his right. As the first fist struck the space where his head had been mere seconds before, he batted it away, successfully distracting his opponent for a split second. Using the time to his advantage, Inu-Yasha shifted his weight to the balls of his feet and spun to his left, letting the tile floor carry him through his burst of momentum. Bending his right leg at the knee, Inu-Yasha lowered himself closer to the floor and kicked out with his left leg. The end produced the desired result--Inu-Yasha had swept Kouga's legs out from under him, causing the boy to fall on his ass.

A seething Kouga was back up in a heartbeat with his fists raised.

Miroku was between the fighters, pushing them apart in the next second. "That's enough from both of you!" he commanded, pulling rank. “Wolfsbane, take your crew back to school. First years are not supposed to be off the school property right now.” He spoke quietly so as not to cause any more of a scene. People in line were starting to look and whisper.

Uncaring of the activity around him, Kouga batted Miroku's hand off his chest. “Like hell I am! Not when his ass ain't s'pposed--”

“Then take them somewhereelse!” Miroku hissed through his teeth. "We are still representing the school and if this is reported then not only will you be suspended for skipping school and fighting in uniform but there would be no chance that anyonewould ever be given a free lunch hour again..”

The manager was coming over....

“Go,” Miroku growled as he gave the boy a shove in the direction of the exit. “I better not hear that this was reported or the Upperclassmen will have your head,” he promised.

Kouga slid his gaze to his rival. "This ain't over yet, you piece of dog shit," he hissed at Inu-Yasha. Turning back to his gang, he announced, "We're leaving." Quietly, the Wolfsbane Gang filed out of the restaurant, each member glaring or making some rude gesture at the second year student.

The manager turned to the remaining school kids having just arrived at the scene.

Miroku quickly slapped a hand over the school crest on his uniform before bowing and apologizing profusely; thankful his companion had stormed outside in the meantime so no one could see what school they were from. It wouldn't do to be properly identified. He caught up with Inu-Yasha by the car.

In the brighter light the sun afforded, a discouloured spot was beginning to show. Apparently, Inu-Yasha had not been fast enough to entirely avoid Kouga's first punch.

So much for a dull lunch....

**********

They returned to the school and found the girls on the bench where they'd left them. Sango had just finished telling Kagome a story that had sent the other girl into a fit of giggles.

Inu-Yasha took up post leaning against the shading Dogwood, but Miroku took a seat next to Sango and slid an arm around her shoulder. "Looks like you had a good time," he observed.

Sango kept and eye on the hand that kept sneaking closer and closer to her breast. "Try anything Houshi and I swear you will be wearing a lapful of iced water. I can guarantee that you will be most uncomfortable."

That seemed to stop the hand and it lay on her shoulder again.

“So, how was WacDonald's?” Kagome asked.

“It was an interesting experience,” Miroku answered carefully after a moment of thought.

Sango wrinkled her nose in a disgusted fashion. An expression that did not go unnoticed by the young man beside her.

"What is so wrong with WacDonald's, may I ask?" Miroku asked in a miffed tone.

"Nothing, if you like sketchy meat byproducts and mystery ingredients."

“You don't like burgers?” This question came from a rather confused Kagome, who couldn't imagine not enjoying a snack with friends after school as she had done so often in Osaka with the girls.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I like hamburgers!” Sango told her. "But those sorry little tofu patties cooked in whatever are a disgrace to real meat and soy beans everywhere."

"Which is why I had the fish," Miroku returned evenly.

"Yanno," said Sango in a thoughtful tone. "I seem to recall the disappearance of the cat that used to hang around out in the back of that place...." She let the implication set in.

Kagome looked disgusted. "GROSS!!!" she cried in outrage. "Sango, that is just SICK!"

“I love a girl with a sense of humour,” Miroku sighed wistfully.

Sango just blinked at him. “You know, I wasn't joking about that cat....”

**********

"Did you hear what happened today at lunch?"

Kagome was in the middle of conjugating verbs for her English lesson when she caught the fragments of the whispered conversation in front of her.

"You mean the fight?"

"Wanna guess who was in it?"

“Girls!” Kaede-sensei called out from the front of the room.

The whispering stopped, but the furtive glances thrown Inu-Yasha's way did not go over Kagome's head. Inu-Yasha had been in a fight? Is that why he and Miroku had come back early?

She tried to look him over out of the corner of her eye, searching for signs of this fight. His clothes were intact, his hair appeared to be normal and the only odd mark on his face was a small bruise across his cheekbone, though that could have been a number of things...

“It'll last longer if you take a picture,” Inu-Yasha told her without looking up.

Kagome quickly turned back to her work, embarrassed at being caught. She didn't think he'd even noticed her; he'd been staring at his uncompleted sketch, diligently working on the shading.

The rest of the afternoon had been notably quiet. However, there had been one terrifying moment when sirens went off as the school went through a surprise earthquake drill. The students scrambled under their desks head first, as they had been instructed. Kagome grabbed the legs of her desk and held on tight, keeping her head down while the siren was beginning to ring in her head.

“Let go!”

“Huh?” Kagome looked over at Inu-Yasha, whose voice she could barely make out over the wail.

He pantomimed grabbing the front legs of his own desk and then quickly letting go, motioning for Kagome to do the same.

In doing so, the desk tilted back and came to rest on all four of its legs again. Had she really been holding on to it that tight? She offered a small smile of thanks to her classmate but he only rolled his eyes.

“I just don't want your shit flying all over and hittin' me in the eye.”

The small smile quickly faded. Inu-Yasha was such a jerk.

**********

“Some drill, eh?”

Inu-Yasha, Sango, Kagome and Miroku had conjoined after school where Miroku had parked his car.

“We've never had the siren last that long,” Sango commented after she levered herself up to sit on the trunk. “I was starting to wonder if we were having the real thing.”

Inu-Yasha jabbed a thumb in Kagome's direction. “This one looked like she was gonna hurl.”

“I just happen to have a bad experience with earthquakes,” Kagome defended.

Inu-Yasha just rolled his eyes.

Sango snapped her fingers. “Say...you're from Osaka. Weren't in that earthquake, a couple of years ago?” [1]

“I was actually in Kobe on a class trip,” the other girl clarified. “We were just starting to get up to visit the port for our Economics class. And there weren't anything to get under. I was terrified.”

“I'll bet,” Sango sympathized. “Pretty scary stuff.” She turned her attention to Inu-Yasha, who just snorted. “Oh, and I'll bet you wouldn't've been scared?” she challenged.

“I wouldn't `a' been a pansyass.”

Sango just rolled her eyes and made a disbelieving noise before turning away. In doing so, she missed the annoyed look on Inu-Yasha's face.

“Well, I've gotta go meet Dad,” Miroku began, eager to break the tension. “I can drop you off at the school on my way." He offered to Sango and Inu-Yasha. “I can go slower...”

“Shot-gun,” Inu-Yasha immediately called.

“Only if you promise to drive more responsibly,” Sango insisted. "And Kagome comes too.”

“Of course she does,” Inu-Yasha sarcastically added.

Sango glared at him, and turned her attention to Miroku. “Her brother goes to school with the kids."

Miroku nodded in agreement. "Sure, the more the merrier. After all, who am I to refuse the company of two pretty ladies? Hop in."

“Maybe, I shouldn't go,” Kagome whispered to Sango.

“Look, ignore Inu-Yasha; he's just being an ass. Now, strap in and pray,” Sango instructed as the girls climbed in the back.

“Is he really a bad driver?” Kagome ventured.

“Gun it,” Inu-Yasha ordered.

****

It wasn't that Miroku wasn't a skilled driver, Kagome decided as she clung to the strap across her chest. He just had a problem doing the speed limit.....and stopping as demonstrated when Sango yelled at Miroku to slow down after he nearly hit a light pole. In the backseat, Kagome silently prayed to any Kami that might be listening at that time that she would survive this ride.

"So, Kagome," Miroku glanced at her through the rearview mirror, totally missing the stop sign he sped past. "How long have you lived in Osaka?”

In the backseat, Sango just buried her face in her hands.

Startled, Kagome switch her attention from the window to the driver. "Hmm? Oh, I lived in Osaka all my life, but...." Here, she faltered. Breaking down in front of a girlfriend who knew where she was coming from was one thing, but telling her sob story to everyone, especially in front of Inu-Yasha, was quite another. “We just moved in with my grandfather. We think he got lonely at the Shrine all by himself.”

"Shrine?" Inu-Yasha peered at her through the side mirror.

Of all things, it surprised Kagome that Inu-Yasha would take even a remote interest in anything relating to religion, or her. “Yeah, my family lives at the Sunset Shrine. I help my grandfather sometimes.” She didn't catch the knowing look her friend passed her classmate and went back to staring at the whooshing scenery.

The car screeched to a halt some five minutes later in front of the elementary school and Sango and Kagome scrambled out, grateful to be all in one piece. Inu-Yasha however, took his time.

"See ya!" Miroku called out when the three of them had made it safely to the sidewalk. With that, older boy sped off.

“Who gave him his license?”

“No one,” Inu-Yasha told Kagome. “It's a fake,” he added with a dark smile.

Sango shook her head. "You're lucky, Kagome. Generally, when someone gets in his car, Houshi takes off like there's demons after him or something. I guess he went easy on the pedal for your sake but don't expect it to be as good the next time."

“Don't be a wuss...”

Sango rolled her eyes heavenward but did not respond, choosing instead to drop her bag by the gate and seating herself on one of the school's traffic barriers.

Kagome took her cue from the other girl and leaned against the gate. She didn't have long to wait as the bell rang only a few minutes later and children came pouring out.

"Wait for me, Mayu!"

"Hurry up, stupid Sotaru! I don't want to miss my favorite TV show!"

The boy, whom Kagome recognized as Sotaru from Souta's first day, tried to catch up to the older girl. He looked pale and sickly and in no shape to be doing the jogging he was.

Mayu, growing impatient with him, grabbed his small wrist and yanked him along behind her. "If you don't get out faster, I'll just LEAVE you here!" she threatened.

Sotaru looked stricken. "No, Mayu, don't leave me!"

'How AWFUL!' Kagome thought. 'Poor Sotaru'

"She says that t' him everyday."

Kagome nearly jumped at the voice, Inu-Yasha was leaning against the gate not a foot away.

Inu-Yasha continued. "And everyday he tries t' get out fast enough. It don't help that her classroom is right next t' the front door and his is in the back." Kagome put a hand to her mouth and Inu-Yasha grinned darkly again, this time revealing rather sharp canines before letting his lids drift closed. "She ain't left yet, though."

Kagome sighed. She hadn't been aware that she was so obviously watching the brother and sister. Or maybe he was trying to make up for being such a jerk earlier. She turned her attention to Souta and company as the kids rushed over to them.

Rin nearly tossed herself at the older girl and wrapped her arms around Kagome's waist. “Kagome, Kagome! Rin drew a picture for you!” Quickly, she thrust the paper at Kagome and then hid her face in her hands, as if embarrassed at her own work. On the paper, Rin had drawn a picture of a smiling Kagome in her shrine maiden outfit, and the even the God Tree in the background.

Kagome laughed and kissed the top of Rin's head. "Thank you Rin, I love it! I'll hang it up in my room."

The little girl smiled and blushed. "I drew you smiling `cuz you looked pretty when you smile."

"I told her that Grandfather makes you work at the Shrine and about the Goshinboku." Souta explained.

“This is a very good picture, Rin,” Kagome told the girl. “It looks just like me.” Give or take a few of the scribbles for hair.

“Come on, Rin,” Inu-Yasha called. “We're going.”

“Bye, Kagome!” The little girl trotted off to join her crew.

“See ya tomorrow,” Sango told her before they parted ways.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

[1] The earthquake Sango references is the Kobe/Osaka earthquake in Japan back in '95. It was a devastating event, costing the lives of many and disrupting the port and the area for several miles around. As this is an AU, I am setting the time line to Takahashi's beginning of the REAL Inu-Yasha....1997