Today at Rancor High... by Tataru

Stress

The characters of InuYasha are not mine, they are property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz Media. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pink dawn of a new day broke the long silence of night with cheerful bird song.  The welcoming sounds to so many early risers each day however, one on this day did not find the intrusive sound welcoming or cheerful. 

Kagome lay wide-awake, glowering at the ticking hands of her alarm clock with growing doom.  She was moments away from the first day back to school.  Spring vacation was over but her humiliation on March 20th, the last day of the last term of the year, was as fresh as yesterday. 

How could she hold her head high and walk into class?  What would people say?  Would the whole school laugh at her as she passed by?  Would her friends avoid her as they had all break?

She made up her mind that she wasn’t going!  She would have her mother call her in sick!  Or she could fall down the long stone steps that led from the temple to the street and break her leg or her hip?

As she entertained various ways she could be injured or killed and be spared having to go to school, the alarm began its lilting death chime and Kagome’s mother swept into the room with a freshly pressed uniform, startling her into suddenly sitting upright.  All of Kagome’s hopes of conning her mother into calling in for her were dashed as her mother sunnily brandished the freshly pressed death shroud upon her.  Its skirt and jacket matched her future, black with funeral white trim.  Kagome scowled at the appalling apparel but dutifully dressed herself as she listened to her mother’s reassuring and encouraging first-day-of-school speech.

Kagome felt marginally recovered but the tense muscles in her neck would not be relaxed by pretty speeches alone.   She skipped breakfast, grabbed her book back and lumbered to school to face her doom. 

She was too self-conscious to raise her head as she walked and she made sure not to make eye-contact with anyone.  She ignored the hustle and bustle of students and staff and resolutely made her way to class and sat down, determined not to look up and meet the reproachful gazes of her classmates.

She listed to the teacher call out the class attendance and waited for her name to be called.  It never was.  When the silence extended some length she timidly looked up to the teacher who had cleared his throat and was looking at her expectantly, as the whole class was.  Her heart hammered away and she began to sweat.

She didn’t recognize anyone and everyone looked to be older than she was and with growing horror she realized she had gone to the wrong room and was now sitting in a class full of upperclassman.  She bowed herself out of the room with an unintelligible apology and went searching for where she belonged.  One floor down and toward the back of an endless hallway she finally found it.  She hesitated a moment to take a deep breath before opening the door and stepping into her homeroom.  Everyone turned eyes towards her and she scanned the room for a friendly face.  She was anxious for a moment when she spotted her friends and relieved the next when they waved her over, having saved her a seat with them.  She bowed to the teacher and hurried to her seat, relief spreading through her aching chest until she saw who was sitting directly in front of her.  Her crush, Sesshoumaru.