InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Boulevard of Broken Dreams ❯ Whatsername ( Chapter 1 )

Holy fucking shit. I got like 20 reviews (on Fanfiction.net, although the one on mediaminer.org was sweet!) and it wasn't even the STORY… yikes! Thank you!!! I feel so honored. I'm glad everyone thinks the beginning is good. The rest is going to be a bit different, but I think you'll like it.

I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I own ANY of the songs I mention in the text. I'm just a music fiend. Can't play any instruments either; I sing. And I really hope that the premise of this story isn't too... stupid.

The first person thing is kinda different for me; I'm generally not real big on it, although I've used it as a dramatic device several times in other works. If it starts to sound un-natural, let me know.

And someone asked about pairings; I'm pretty traditional about pairings for Inuyasha. I like Inuyasha with Kagome, Miroku with Sango and Sesshomaru with Rin. Kikyou is going to be a very secondary character in this story. There is no mystery, no villain, just human beings and their lives. The point of view will change, but only between characters. Kagome is up first.

Anyway, please read and review.

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Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Chapter 1: Whatsername

November 8th, 2005:

They call it the boulevard of broken dreams. It wasn't so much a street as a series of streets, a neighborhood that had seen better days. It lay close to the lake and not too far from the center of the city. The skyscrapers weren't visible but they made their presence felt in the concrete and steel the buildings were all made of; in the cold and grit that seemed to permeate everything there, even in the summer.

It wasn't the worst neighborhood in town, but it certainly seemed that way to me the first time I saw it. I know better now, of course. A lot of the people who lived here now had once had a promising future, like mine. Most were still looking for the American dream. Their kids were jaded though; too many divorces, too many lies, too little to believe in. It was hard to get them to believe that school could be an out for them.

Most of the kids I worked with at the center were there because they wanted to be, because they knew it was a safe place they could study and hang out. The ones who didn't come were the ones I really worried about. It had started out as a volunteer gig for me; something to pad my high school record with so colleges would think I was special.

Then I got to know the kids; they were a lot like me. The girls talked about boys and hair and makeup. The boys talked about video games and girls and sports. I didn't see how they were any different from the kids I went to school with. And in the most important ways, they weren't. I started hanging out with some of them, calling them on the phone, meeting them at the mall. Most of the time I forgot about the biggest difference between my friends at the center and my friends at school. Then it would rear its ugly head and I'd find myself making apologies. Money sucks.

After school, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Mom would drive me to the center. She'd pick me up promptly at seven. Mom only worked part time as a senior caregiver and would pick me up from school at two on those days so I could get there before the rush.

Today was Tuesday. I'd changed out of my school uniform in the bathroom before leaving and was now in my comfy jeans and a dark green sweater. Wearing the uniform had seemed important at first; it showed everyone what school I'd come from, that I was important and to looked up to. Of course, as time went on, I'd figured out that I was more approachable without the uniform and I didn't really feel all that important anymore. I sighed as I looked out the window, comfortable in my anonymity. The city flew past me on the right; the next exit was mine.

"You're quiet today, dear," my mother said as she glanced over at me. "Big math test this week?" I smiled. Math was not my best subject but I still tutored some students with math problems, mostly to help myself.

"Nah," I said. "Just thinking."

"My Kagome," she laughed, "Always with something on her mind. I have to admit, as much as I worry about you working in this area, it's been very good for you." She glanced over at me again as we pulled off the highway. "You've grown up a lot lately."

"Thanks, Mom."

"It's the truth, sweetie. You're much more mature than you were only a few months ago." Her face creased with worry for a moment, eyes still on the road. "Remember to call me, though, if you need anything? Please? You have your cell, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Mother. It's in my pocket. And yes, I have the house number, all the family cell numbers and all the emergency numbers on speed dial." I glanced over at her with raised eyebrows. "I have so many emergency numbers I hardly have room for any of my friends numbers."

"I just want you to be safe, dear." I smiled.

"I know. I love you, Mom." She smiled back at me.

"I love you too, Kagome." I could see the Center a few buildings away. "I'll pick you up at seven sharp, young lady!"

"Ok, I'll be ready!" As the car slowed to a stop, I undid my seatbelt and picked up my backpack. The yellow bag was fairly non-descript and worn but it was still serviceable. I promised mom I'd buy a new one when this one fell apart. "Bye, Mom," I shouted as I closed the door. My mother wouldn't pull away until I'd entered the building, not because she didn't trust me, but to make sure nothing happened to me before I'd entered a "safe" environment.

The center had once been a store of some type, perhaps an old small department store or a super market. Whatever it had been, some charitable organization had remodeled it as a place for kids to go after school. The areas were all open but there were a few walls to divide things up a bit. There may have been a total of five interior walls though, and none went to the ceiling. I waved to the few people who were already there and headed for the library.

I sat down and opened my scheduler to look for any special upcoming tests my friends might need help with. Amanda had a History test on Thursday and was pretty far behind as it was. Josh had Biology on Wednesday and Algebra on Thursday. Sango had English today but she was pretty decent in all of her classes and rarely needed my help. More often than not, she'd help the students I couldn't and more than once, she'd helped me with my own homework. One of the other kids had told me she had applied for scholarships with all of the state universities and was rumored to be very likely to get one, if not for her grades then for her volleyball skills.

I stood up to look for the books I'd need this afternoon and heard a cough from the doorway. Miroku stood there with a grin on his face. I raised an eyebrow and looked at him questioningly. Miroku Hirasho was the type of guy you tried not to turn your back on. Although he was really good hearted and truly loved his job, he was more than a bit of a pervert and generally groped anything with breasts; as long as body the breasts were attached to was over eighteen, of course. Like myself, he had started out as a volunteer trying to pad his record but had ended up coming back to be a director after college.

"Higurashi, you are a vision!" he said passionately. I grinned and flipped him off. "Ah, you break my heart." He clutched his chest and looked at me with mock dejection. He turned slightly sighed deeply. "And here I was going to bring you good news! But I suppose I will leave with my message unspoken."

"Hirasho, you're so full of it," I grinned. "What did you want to tell me?"

He grinned and came fully into the room. "We have a new helper starting today." This was news. "It's not exactly on a voluntary basis, but I think he'll be of some help. He was an underclassman when I graduated and he was very smart then."

"Wait. Not voluntary?" I asked, a bit worried.

Miroku nodded reluctantly. "He's had a rough time these last few years. Actually, his life has pretty much sucked. He got busted for vagrancy a few weeks ago." Miroku scratched the back of his head a bit sheepishly. "I got wind of the case and kinda talked the judge into sentencing him to community service instead of a fine or something similar."

"Vagrancy? Meaning he was living on the street. Great. So he's doing his community service here," I said. "OK, that's something else to avoid telling my mom about this place."

"He's under house arrest living with his former guardian, except for coming here for a few hours a day. He's not a bad guy, really." Miroku put up his hands defensively then dropped them. "Kagome, I swear he's not a bad guy. He worked really hard in high school, before he quit. He-"

"He quit? Why?" Miroku looked sad and turned his head towards the window.

"I guess he felt he didn't have a future anymore." He glanced towards the door. "He should be there any minute now actually. He's being escorted so he doesn't run off."

"There's a risk of that?"

"Not really but-"Suddenly Miroku was interrupted by a shout.

"Hirasho! Miroku Hirasho! I've got your new tutor!"

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The Friday before…

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"Will the defendant, Inuyasha Shinote, please rise?" Slowly, I stood before the judge. Though I'd caused more than my fair share of trouble when I was younger, I'd never had any real run-ins with the law. Inside, I was shaking.

The suit Kaede had brought hadn't fit me properly. My shoulders were broader than they'd been three years ago and my legs seem to have grown longer; my body was much more lean and muscled. The world outside my mind had changed in those years, including my own body. I was a stranger. So instead of the suit I wore an old button down shirt and a pair of someone else's worn khakis.

"Mr. Shinote, you have been charged with vagrancy, how do you plea?"

How do I plea? How do I plea… Not guilty, sir, when you're just a ghost, wandering isn't vagrancy…

"Guilty," I croaked, my voice still rusty with weeks of disuse.

"Very well. It has been brought to my attention that three years ago, you were a very good student with a bright future. Ms. Miko, who was your guardian for several years, has told me that you were looking at early graduation as well as a scholarship. Is that true, young man?" For a moment I was too stunned to answer. I sowly nodded my head. "It as also been brought to my attention that the After School Urban Outreach Center in your neck of the woods is lacking tutors. Therefore, I sentence you to two months House Arrest at the home of your former guardian, Ms Kaede Miko, as well as eight hundred hours of community service at the Dean Street After School Urban Outreach Center. If you do not complete the hours, you will be fined three thousand dollars and spend three months in the local jail. Do you understand?" I swallowed. That was all? House arrest and tutoring? What was the catch?

"Yes, sir. I understand," I replied. My voice sounded much more sturdy than I felt.

"Very well. Baliff, please remove his cuffs. You may go." I glanced back at Kaede and she gave me a reassuring smile. She stood and walked to me then put her hand on my shoulder.

"We will manage, Inuyasha. I am glad to have you home." She then turned and walked out of the courtroom, myself following close behind.

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Kaede did not own a car. The bus ride home was quiet and uncomfortable. I was no longer accustomed to the noises of humanity. Three years of avoiding anything to do with the world had left me sensitive to everything. The lights were too bright, the scents around me too sharp, my vision almost blindingly clear. My head was starting to hurt.

"Your room has not changed," Kaede suddenly said. "I have not moved anything. Though the terms are not what I would deem happy, I am glad to have you home. The house has seemed empty without you."

I grunted in response. There were no words for what I was feeling. Once we got back to the house, I would have to face the ghost of Kikyou again. She would be there around every corner and in every room. And yet, it was home. I was finally going home.

I had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling. The familiar bus ride was both comforting and confusing. Years ago, Kikyou and I had taken this bus to school and back. We would sit in the back if there was room, huddled together, my arm around her and her head on my shoulder. It had been as if the bus was empty save for the two of us. I could hear her every whisper, her very heartbeat if I tried, and her shy smile seemed to be just for me.

I was jarred from my memories when the bus reached our stop and Kaede tapped my knee. I followed her off the bus and down the street. It was a two-block walk from the bus stop to our house. And it was a house; the old brownstone had seen better days surely, but it was a four-bedroom two-bath house with plenty of room. It would feel so empty without Kikyou.

Kaede hadn't changed anything. It wasn't as if I'd never come back to visit Kaede, I knew she hadn't changed anything, but this was the first time I would sleep in my old bed in three years. My foster mother smiled at me as I climbed the stairs to my room. I passed Kikyou's door with some trepidation. That room was unchanged as well, I was sure, though I did not have the courage to enter it. I opened the door to my room and was hit with a sense of nostalgia.

All of my posters were still up: Lord of the Rings, Green Day, Incubus, Hendrix. Magazine ads with pretty girls or video games I'd been into filled in spots between the posters. My bed was exactly the same, down to the sheets.

More than once, Kikyou had snuck into that bed late at night to talk or make out. And one beautiful night a few weeks before the accident she'd snuck in while I was sleeping and-

I closed my eyes and sighed. I'd known that what we'd done that night was "wrong," especially because of our lack of protection, but I didn't care. The girl I'd loved had given me something precious that night, something that was meant for a lifetime. But she wasn't here to share that lifetime with me and it was entirely possible that she would never be able to. She wasn't even dead. In that moment some part of me wished she were, so I could move on with my life.

I needed to move on. I walked back downstairs where I could hear Kaede moving around. She was fixing tea for herself as she started defrosting dinner. It felt like night to me, but it was more like three in the afternoon.

"I thought you'd like chicken and Ramen tonight," she said as I entered the kitchen. Little had changed here as well. There was a new step stool and Kaede appeared to have bought a dishwasher, but the rest of the kitchen was the same. I could even see the dent in the wall from my fist when I'd gotten a bad grade on an algebra exam.

"Sounds good," I replied, still uncomfortable. "You have milk? I've been craving it lately." She laughed.

"Of course I do. I remember how keen on milk you used to be. I spent more on milk than on anything else when you were younger." She nodded towards the refrigerator. "It's on the top shelf as usual." I grabbed the gallon and opened it. "Don't you dare drink from the bottle, Inuyasha Shinote!" I blushed and put the gallon down to grab a glass from the cupboard.

The milk felt good and it seemed like it had been months since I'd had any, which was likely. I finished the glass where I stood and poured myself another. I drank this one more slowly and watched Kaede. She'd aged. Her face was slightly more wrinkled and her shoulders were more stooped. She seemed frail and small. It came to me that I would have to take care of her. I tried to remember how old she was, counting the year that had passed and the date I knew her birthday to be. I suddenly realized she was in her mid sixties and frowned. Sixty-four and still alone, she'd taken in her brother's daughter and a foster son and both had abandoned her to old age.

I set down my glass and cleared my throat. "Kaede, do you think it would be OK if I slept on the couch for now?"

She shook her head. "I prepared the guest room for you. I knew you wouldn't want to sleep in that bed, young man. Just go through your things while you're here and find what you want to keep."

"The spare room?" I asked.

"Yes, the spare room. You can stay as long as you like, Yash. Or you can leave when your two months are up."

"We'll see what happens."

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The next few days passed quietly. I talked with Kaede and started to look over my old room. There was little there I had any interest in keeping, honestly. There were a few books and some drawings some friends had done. I had a whole box full of notes and cards form Kikyou but I felt that it was too soon to go through them. It would be two months before I could visit her again.

On Monday I had nothing to do, I read some newspapers Kaede had left lying around and cleaned the house a bit. She came home that night with a few new clothes for me, clothes that fit and looked ok. Most of the shirts were red and I was touched that she remembered my favorite color. She even brought me home a lightweight but warm jacket. Tuesday was a bit different. I woke up when Kaede did, fixed her some breakfast and coffee then sat silently as she walked out the door to work. She was a nurse practitioner at a local clinic and it had taken a lot for her to get off work on Friday to be at my sentencing. The rest of the day I was tense and got little done. Today was the day I started my sentence.

Sharply at two thirty, there was a knock at the door. When I opened it a man in regular clothes stood there. He smiled at me and flashed a badge. Plain-clothes police, I should have guessed. "Inuyasha Shinote?" he asked. I nodded and stepped outside, locking the door behind me.

"You're here to take me to the Outreach Center?" I asked.

"Yes. I'm Officer Andy Shapiro and I'll be your detail for when you leave the house." He held out his hand and I shook it. "You must have really pissed someone off, kid; the regular sentence for vagrancy is a few nights in the county jail. We're going to take an undercover car, if only because fewer kids might show up if more cops are seen there than usual." He seemed jovial enough, but there was part of me that didn't want to trust him.

"I kinda ran away from my foster home three years ago," I admitted. "I've been living on the streets since."

"Who were your foster parents?" he asked as he led me to the car.

"Foster mother. It was just Kaede Miko," I replied, getting in.

"Ah. That explains a lot. Judge Gambol respects her a hell of a lot, feels she's an asset to the community. It's a pity about her niece. Are you back with her now?"

"Yeah." The thought of Kikyou squeezed my heart. "Can we not mention Kikyou?" I asked irritably as we drove off. Shapiro gave me a quick glance.

"Sure, kid."

We drove in silence the rest of the way there. It was only a few blocks away, I could have walked it, but I'm pretty sure they didn't want to risk my running off. As we passed the front a young girl with dark hair stepped out of a fancy SUV and walked in. We turned the corner and parked.

Officer Shapiro got out of the car and motioned for me to follow. The parking lot was small and we didn't have far to go until we were at the door. I stood there for a moment, gathering my wits.

We walked in and I looked around for a moment. I remembered the place from my days as a freshman. Kikyou and I had hung out here often then and the place hadn't changed much. There seemed to be a new TV and a few new chairs. The corner where the library had been had walls now. I had occasionally worked on my homework there or helped other students with theirs. I remembered that Miroku Hirasho had been the main tutor there and suddenly wondered what had become of him. I was a bit startled when I heard Officer Shapiro shout beside me. I was even more startled when I head the name he shouted.

"Hirasho! Miroku Hirasho!" he shouted. "I've got your new tutor!" I was a little stunned. Miroku was still here? He was too smart to have never graduated; did he actually run the place then? I nearly laughed. Miroku, though studious as a monk, had never had the disposition of one. He'd been the biggest man-whore in school, hitting on anything with breasts and had a tendency to grope unsuspecting women. The idea of him in charge of a facility like this was almost funny.

But there he was, coming from the library corner with the girl I'd watched walk in earlier. "Andy," he called out, "so good to see you again!" Then he turned to me and grinned wide. "Long time no see, Yash." He didn't look much different; he had a ponytail now as well as a few earrings. He was also taller than he had been, though still shorter than me still.

"Likewise," I replied. I stuck my hands in my pockets and narrowed my eyes, trying to look cold and aloof. I didn't want to appear eager to be here.

"This is my main tutor," he said then, gesturing to the girl behind him. She stepped forward and put out her hand. The moment I really looked at her, I wished I hadn't. She bore a slight resemblance to Kikyou, although she was taller and slightly slimmer than Kikyou had been.

"I'm Kagome Higurashi," she said. "Pleased to meet you." I stared at her hand and grunted. She blinked at me and then fire seemed to light up her eyes and she looked even less like Kikyou. "Just because you don't want to be here doesn't mean you have to be rude," she snapped and stalked off back towards the library muttering. Miroku slapped me upside the head.

"Brilliant, Cassanova," he said to me. "You always did have a way with the ladies." I sneered at him. Fuck, why did I have to deal with the fucking world again?

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Well, that's chapter 1… I'm eventually going to delete the "prolouge." It's not really a part of the story and it kind of annoys me. I'm really glad you all like the Idea. I hope you like the story better though.

Again, Read and Review and THANK YOU!!! For all the wonderful reviews I've already received. You guys rock.