Losing Kagome, Part 4

The next day, Kagome got a pleasant surprise in her gym class.  They were studying archery.  Everyone except Kagome stared in stunned dismay at their bows, and held them upside down, and made various other basic mistakes.  Kagome stared in stunned amazement as it slowly came to her just how much her spirit must have remembered the bow from her past life.  Her friends were some of the ones having the most trouble with them.

“You’re holding it upside down!” She laughed, and tried to help them out.  Almost all of them resisted claiming that Kagome was the only one holding the bow that way, so clearly she must be wrong.  Kagome shrugged, and was pleased to see their stunned surprise when the gym teacher yelled at them for holding their bows incorrectly.  They turned to stare at her.

“How did you know how to hold a bow?”  One of them asked.

“Yeah, you never told us you knew anything about this sort of thing!”

“Come on, Kagome, tell us!”  Kagome shrugged.

“I don’t know, I just figured that this looked right.”  She said hesitantly.  There was no way she was going to say “Oh, it’s because I’m the reincarnation of this priestess named Kikyo, who was one of the greatest archers ever.  She’s killed demons with one arrow from half a mile away, and so have I.”  Something told her that would not go over too well.

“Alright people!  Make lines in front of the targets!  Higurashi- you start this one!”  The gym teacher bellowed, and continued calling people from the crowd of students to head up the lines.  Kagome supposed that these were the students who had guessed correctly how to hold their bows.  She took her place at the head of a line.  Hojo took the place behind her, and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“You’ll do fine.  No body will be able to hit the target, so you shouldn’t worry about it.” He told her with a smile.  Kagome laughed, trying not to let on that she was not worried a bit about not hitting the target.  She knew she was going to hit the target, no trouble at all.  No, she was a little more concerned about turning the target into a pile of dust, like her arrows in the feudal era did to demons.  And that people might notice a blaze of light surrounding the arrow.  She must be looking a little green.

“Yeah, I hope so.  I’m more worried about the math test next hour.”  She half lied.  She was worried about the test, after all.  It just was not the thing she was the most worried about.  Hojo laughed.

“You’re always worried about school!” he told her, “Relax!  Maybe that’s why you’re always getting sick!”  Kagome smiled slightly.

You have no idea... she thought wryly.  She had only been sick once in over a year.  Hojo’s concern was misplaced, but she was not about to let him discover that little detail.  “You might be right.” She answered instead.

“Hojo!  Higurashi!  Pay attention!”  The teacher barked, and they both jumped.  Kagome spent a bored five minutes listening to the teacher explain basic archery.  Finally, the moment of truth arrived.  Kagome bit her lip as she pulled back her bow string.

Please don’t look too weird, please don’t look too weird! She begged the arrow, and shot.  It looked like all the other arrows, except that hers hit the bullseye.  Her classmates were lucky if they hit the target.  Most did not.  Those who noticed what she had managed stared at her in silent, stunned amazement.  The teacher was also thunderstruck.

“Higurashi!  Again!”  He growled, obviously anticipating failure this try.

The same thing happened with the second arrow.

And the third.

The fourth arrow finally convinced the teacher that Kagome was not just extremely lucky.  At that point everyone in the class was staring at Kagome, who was feeling extremely self-conscious, with slack jaws.  All Kagome wanted was to take her math test, and go hide for about a decade in the feudal era.

“Ba-back of the line, Higurashi!”  The teacher yelled.  Kagome was happy to oblige.

After gym, her friends started interrogating her.

“Oh my God, Kagome!  How did you do that?”

“Have you done this before?”

“Can you show ME how to do that?”  Kagome did not know what to say.

“I don’t know how I did it.  I just did.”  She finally said after a long silence.  It was a lame answer, she knew, but it was better than nothing.  Her friends accepted it.

“Wow, that was amazing!”

“Yeah, why were you worried?  You were fantastic!”

“You’ll get the best grades in the class for sure!”  Kagome smiled wanly.

“Thanks.  Now, let’s get to math.  That test is gonna kill...”

She was right.  The math test definitely killed them all, except for one of Kagome’s friends.  She quickly found out that her opinion of the simplicity of the test was not shared, and shut up.  After school, Kagome went out with her friends, and told them the story that she had fabricated to explain her next trip.

“I won’t be at school for a while.”  She said quietly.

“What?”

“Why not?”

“You know you can’t miss much more school, you’re already having trouble keeping up!”  They clamored.  Kagome nodded.

“Yeah, I know.  I’m going to a hospital, I can’t remember which one, to get some blood work done.  They think maybe there’s something wrong with it, and that’s why I’m getting sick all the time.”  She smiled to herself.  This story was brilliant.  She could say she had anemia or something when she got back, and from then on out, anemia would be a perfectly good excuse for when she was gone.  No more stupid diseases that Grandpa had come up with that made no sense!  All her friends were immediately sympathetic.

“Oh, no!”

“Kagome, are you feeling bad again?”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I didn’t want anybody to get worried.  I’ll be fine, but I’ve been feeling a little tired, you know?  So they’re worried that there’s something wrong with my blood.  That’s all.  It’s probably nothing.”  She said calmly.

“So, when are you going to tell Hojo?” one of her friends asked.

“Yeah, are you going to let him visit you?”

“You should, he’ll be really worried if you don’t!”

“I’m going to tell him tonight.  We’re going out.  And no, I’m not.  I don’t want anyone to see me when I’m in the hospital.  I always look pathetic, and vaguely disturbing.”

“Are you sure?” they all asked together.

“Yes.” Of course, I’m sure.  No way do I want Hojo to find out that I’ve never been in a hospital, and that I’ve really been with InuYasha...