InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Way Back When ❯ Chapter 1

AN: Ok, this is my first fic, and it has been a long time before I got up the motivation to write it. I've had this idea playing around in my head for a long time and I hope you like it. It was inspired by Talon Skydragon's story "Fireflies in the dark" it's really good and I'm kind of sad that TS isn't writing it anymore. Read it and review it, and maybe TS will write another chapter if she gets enough reviews.... So anyways, please enjoy my amateur attempts at a story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, or any other related characters. I don't own much of anything, so it would be a waste of both of our time if you sued me.

*~Chapter One~*

That bell, it wouldn't ring. It was making her sit there, in that smelly classroom, and it was not going to let her go. The second hand was ticking all too slowly for the girl; if it could go just a bit faster......5......4......3......2......1...............one and a half? Awwwww! It stopped! How dare that measly little stop! No! It can't be true! Time has stopped and she was going to be held in the most boring chemistry class for all eternity! The noxious fumes emanating off of the teacher would surely drive her to the brink of insanity before his monotonous voice cracked the shell of the stupor that Kagome had sunk into for the past hour. Life was against her. If only that stupid hand would move! Then she could get out of here and go home and escape the boredom and tediousness, but noooooooo! It was just going to stay there and taunt her, with that smug stillness just- *RIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGG!!!*

Oh. Ok.... Yay! School was over and the girl shot out of her seat and ran out the door, trying to put as much distance between her and that horrible room as fast as humanly possible while avoiding other people in the hallway and trying not to be knocked flat on her ass.

Such is the norm for Kagome Higurashi: the monotonous days at school, broken only by the monotonous hours at home. Sometimes it would vary a little. Sometimes she would be lucky enough to see one of her friends in the hallway and exchange a quick hello. But other than that, life was, at the moment, VERY dull. During her junior year in high school you would think that life would have more meaning, but after weeks of classes, in which not ONE of her friends were in, Kagome was getting quite bored and listless.

Heading toward the bus that would take her home, Kagome, being the lucky girl that she is, ran into dear, sweet, loveable, dense, boring Hojo. Ahh, yes. Hojo.

"Higurashi! I'm glad I caught you before you left!" he said.

"Oh, yes Hojo. Can I help you?" asked Kagome, putting an obviously fake smile. It's not that she didn't like Hojo. It's just that he didn't interest her, and he didn't seem to get that. Besides, he had that look on his face that just *screamed* like me! Go out with me!

'Oh no! What excuse can I give him this time? I already used up helping my brother, Souta with homework. Already said that I had to wash my hair, can't use the 'have to go home and cook dinner' excuse. I should have saved the shopping excuse instead of using it yesterday.....ohhhh,' Kagome thought nervously. Unfortunately Hojo was oblivious to her rather forced smile and continued on happily.

"Ano, I was wondering, I know that you're awfully busy most of the time, but I wanted to know if you could, maybe, spare some time tonight and we could go see a movie, or something?" Hojo asked in the most annoying way possible. He shuffled his feet, poked his fingers together, and basically fidgeted throughout the whole invite. And while it was kind of cute, his shyness, it was infuriating at the same time. True, that could be due to the fact that he had been rejected countless times, but he should have gotten the hint by now, so it was his won fault that he was putting himself through this

Kagome sighed with relief. This time she had a valid reason to say no tonight. Her mother was out at a painting workshop and wouldn't be home until around 9:00 and Souta was at a friend's house for the night. Mama wanted Kagome home so she could call every once in a while to check up on her.

"Hojo-kun, I really would like to, but my mother wants me home tonight," she said. Looking at his crestfallen face, she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. Really, it wasn't his fault that he was clueless. And he really was one of her friends; she just didn't like him in that way. Sighing for what she was about to do, she cursed her over compassionate heart.

"But, you could call me and we could talk for a while, I really am sorry, but that is the best that I can do," she said. Hojo's rather dejected face lit up with surprise, quickly turning to pleasure as he registered the compromise.

"That would be great, Higurashi! I'll call around 5:00! OK? Oh, you better got on your bus they are about to leave. I'll talk to you later, bye!" he shouted as he raced towards the bike rack. Kagome gave him one last glance and a wave, feeling a wave of upcoming doom to the promised phone call. She quickly ran up the steps of her bus, just as the doors closed.

Her over energetic friends; Eri, Ayumi, and Yuuka; greeted her by dragging her into a seat and barraging her with questions about her sanity, her dwindling social life, her lack of affirmative responses to a certain simple-minded someone, and a rather hesitant question about her sexual preferences.

"You guys! I am not a lesbian!" Kagome blushed from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes, "How could you even think that? And you call yourselves my friends!"

"Oh," shrieked Ayumi, who had in fact been the one to pose the ridiculous question, "I'm sorry, it's just that you've rejected every offer to go on a date from Hojo, and every other boy that's ever asked. What were we supposed to think?"

"Well, you shouldn't have just assumed. I mean, it's just that none of the guys here interest me, I still like men!" Kagome said, with a slight panic to her voice. 'Oh, I just hope this doesn't go around school...' The three chatting girls continued to ramble on, once the little misunderstanding had been cleared up. Kagome listened with half-hearted interest while she watched the scenery go by. You could hardly find any trees in the city. The only real mass of trees was in back of her house. Most of the trees had been cut down to be used as wood for all of the houses that lined the street. The occasional tree that one did happen to glimpse looked thin and sickly. Leaves all splotched and yellow from the acid rain, and branches thin and weak from lack of nourishment. The forest behind her house wasn't in much better shape, either. Sure, there were *some* trees that looked like they hadn't seen too much pollution, but the forest was just an overall sickly sight. But, it still had its good days. In the morning when the sun just barely rose over the trees, casting the leaves into a dark green shadow, and the sun's rays poked through to shine on the grass and be reflected off of the morning dew, it would highlight the base of the trees and make them look strong and healthy. That was the best part about where she lived. She could be as surrounded in nature as one could get in this part of Massachusetts.

Her musings were interrupted as her stop appeared, and she had to get off of the bus. She waved a cheerful goodbye to her friends and started on the long walk up to her house. Her thoughts barely interrupted her heavy pondering lasting her all the way up the street and into her house.

~*~

As per usual, there was nothing to do. No one was on AIM, all of the after school sitcoms were stupid, not worth the effort to turn on the TV, and probably reruns anyways. Hojo was not due to call for another two hours, Buyo, Kagome's sickeningly obese cat was asleep on the couch, homework was not an option until 10:00 tonight, when she was supposed to go to bed, she wasn't all that hungry because her stomach had been acting weird for about a month, refusing to take much of anything, and throwing her sense of smell for a loop. The thought of food right now made her stomach churn. She *supposed* that she could go and take a walk. They had only moved into this house a month ago; after their old one was infested with termites so badly, that it would be just cheaper to buy a new one, so they moved to the house down the street. She hadn't really gotten the chance to explore the woods, or rather, patch of trees in the back of the house yet, so she decided that she could go for a walk through the scrap of trees in the back yard and see if she could find anything interesting.

Before Kagome went out, she went upstairs to change out of her school cloths. She put on knee-length jeans, with a nice woven leather belt. For a shirt, she had a nice form fitting white Tee shirt with a picture of a kitten with a halo on the front that said "I don't bite...", and on the back there was a picture of the same kitten with a devilish grin and horns with flames all around, and words that said "hard." It was her favorite shirt and she just loved the little kitten on the front.

With that done, she brushed her hair and put it up in a high pony tail and headed downstairs. She slipped on some backless shoes and trudged towards the door. A pathetic meow made her look down at Buyo who was waiting at the door to be let out.

"Fine, you pathetic excuse for a cat. I don't know why I care so much...." she said with a half hearted sigh. She opened the door and the cat shot out in front of her and dashed down the steps, nearly making Kagome fall face-first down said steps. Grumbling about fat cats and doors that should be on the *ground*, Kagome turned to the left and went to the back of the house.

~*~

To say the least, it was a disappointment. Not only was there virtually no animal life visible to the naked eye, but there was absolutely nothing of interest within the confines of her property. On, she had looked. Haltingly at first, but then with a desperation born from the extremely bored. And her search had turned up with nothing. So, with a depressed sigh, Kagome turned towards home, looking for that insanely fat cat so she could feed it its dinner that Kagome was sure it didn't need because one of her socks had gone missing when she went upstairs to change.

Movement in the corner of her eye made Kagome turn her head. For a second she thought she saw the furry feline so she headed off to the right. Lo, and behold, it wasn't the cat. But Kagome did see something that jerked her spirits up from their currently low altitude. A rather old, and box looking well sat innocently in the middle of a small clearing, small plants bursting around the base and nearly obstructing it from view. Surprisingly enough (AN: note the sarcasm) Kagome decided to go and investigate the odd protrusion.

As Kagome neared the well a furry feline sat unnoticed by its owner. Its stomach hurt rather badly from eating a white fluffy thing on the floor. Sure, it looked tasty at the time, and indeed it was very tasty. But the side effects were not at all in agreement with the cat's tummy. Wanting comfort from the only available source, Buyo darted out of his hiding place to wind himself around his master's legs. Now, being a cat, he did not take into consideration the forward momentum of the girl, nor did he observe the slightly forward tilt of his master's torso. So, it is quite logical to assume that when Buyo shot forward, he did not attempt to trip Kagome. However, it is also quite logical to assume that that was indeed the affect of the felines afore mentioned actions.

Leaning down to look into the well, Kagome felt something curl around her legs, and as already stated, tripped and fell head first into the well. Kagome did not see and sparkles and shimmers that would indicate the presence of water in this particular well, nor did she even see the bottom, so when Kagome tripped into the well, she did the only thing that she could think of to do, or what anyone could think of to do in her position. She screamed. She just knew that she would break something, and it was hours until her mother could get home, and her house was so far from anyone else that there was no hope of rescue until her mother came home five hours later. So, she squeezed her eyes shut and just kept screaming.

Waiting for the inevitable painful thud and crunch of her bones being torn apart, and eyes closed, Kagome did not notice the pink light that glowed around her, and her screaming covered the faint tinkling noise that seemed to come with the light. She did notice, however, the light thud of her knees hitting the bottom of the well. The unexpectedly gentle landing startled her enough that she stopped screaming. She had no broken bones, and she was, overall, perfectly fine. However, that was not to last long, because with as loud as she was screaming before, someone was bound to have heard her.

"Hey! Are you some kind of witch?"

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AN: Well, that's it; the first chapter. I hope you appreciate the trouble I went through for you people. My stupid computer monitor keeps getting screwed up, and I end up having to reboot the computer. Sometimes I don't even get to save, so I have to rewrite whole sections. *sigh* It just goes to show you how much I like all of youAnyways, read and review! Please tell me if I dragged out some things too long, or if I need to go into more detail on some stuff. ^~^

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