Disclaimer: I don't own the show Inuyasha, but I do own the character Inuyasha! Okay, maybe not. I do own this story though, but, for some reason, that's not a comforting thought. OH! I don't own the Chevrolet Blazer either. My mom does. ^-^

Hey there! This is a fic that has been made for the entertainment of the readers as well as for a competition I'm in for "better writer" with one of my best friends! **waves** hey there Kagome-chan! You're going dooowwwwnnnnn! Well, maybe not, but I'm still going to try! ^-^ Newayz, I would appreciate it if you read and reviewed this fic for me, as the number of reviews received is how my friend and I are determining who's the best at writing. This fic is dedicated to my cat, Katiedid, for helping me through my times of trouble, though she may not have realized it. I humbly thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read this. ^-^

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Driver's Blues

By: Kitten Kisses, AKA Sango-chan

A one-shot story



Kagome walked into the door and threw the keys onto the kitchen table, ignoring the looks of her grandfather and brother. She ran into the dining room, through the hallway, up the stairs, and into her room, falling onto her bed and covering her head with her pillow. She'd tried so hard, and yet, she still hadn't made it. She hadn't made her bed that morning, intent on getting there on time. Now though, she grabbed up the covers and threw them over her head to cover her face that was now smeared with tears.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Mrs. Higurashi stepped through the front door and immediately saw the worried-yet-curious look of her father and son. "Sota," she said calmly, "I need to talk to grandpa alone."

"Yes mom." The little boy scampered from the room instantaneously, but that didn't stop him from listening on the other side of the wall.

"What's wrong with Kagome?" Grandpa asked his daughter.

"She's quite upset, dad," Mrs. Higurashi answered, putting her hand on her father's shoulder. "She failed the driver's test."

"How did she fail it?"

"Maneuverability."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

She hated that word with every fiber of her being. Though hated wasn't really a strong enough word. Maybe despised or loathed fit the description better. Whatever the case, she really hated it with a passion. 'Maneuverability'. The dreaded word had her eyes filling up again within seconds. She'd tried as hard as she was able, but it had all been for nothing. She'd passed the first part of the test.....it had been easy....

()()()()()()()()()() FLASHBACK ()()()()()()()()()()()

"Okay, everything's set. If you'll please get into your truck. When I come out, start the engine and roll down the drivers side window."

"Okay." She agreed, walking out the door quickly. "What truck? I don't drive a truck, it's a Chevrolet Blazer. Not a truck." Finally she reached the blazer, hopping in the drivers side and waiting till the sheriff came out the door.

"First is the safety check. You just turn on what I tell you to, and I'll check to see if they're working properly. "Headlights.....turn signals....."

Kagome flicked each of the switches/levers that needed to be pushed in order to execute each particular action. She was nervous enough, especially with that creepy looking sheriff standing in front of her car.

Walking back to the rear of the car, he asked for her brake lights and turn signals. The sheriff climbed into the passenger side of the car, and moved the seat all of the way back. "Well, be doing the maneuverability test first." He pulled out a notepad with some kind of papers and things on it.

"Um," Kagome chewed her lip, unsure of where to go. "Over there, right?" she asked, pointing to the right where five orange cones stood.

"Yes. When you park, go through the cones to the right."

She put the car in drive, and pulled up to the first two cones, her front bumper even with them. 'whew, at least I got that part right.' She thought to herself, the butterflies in her stomach rising higher to clog up her throat. She put her left hand on the top of the steering wheel and let go of the brake pedal. The car slowly rolled forward. 'Twelve.....' she though nervously to herself. 'Six at the mirrors, then twelve, then the other six.' She sighed to herself, putting the car in reverse and looking behind her. 'okay, other six, then wait until the cone starts to disappear and, then twelve, six, straighten up...and-' A gasp worked its way from deep within her throat, coming out rather loudly. 'oh no....' She could feel the cone jerk from underneath the car as the drivers side window hit the flag atop the cone. Looking down, she saw that the cone was knocked clean off the little white square that it had previously been situated on. Slamming on the brakes, the car came to an abrupt halt, tires skidding slightly from the slush on the ground. 'I can't believe it.....'

"If you could please pull forward."

Kagome put the car back into drive and drove forward to end up beside the cone in the front.

The sheriff got out of the car and went back to the cone to see if it had been knocked away from the square. It had, and he put it back on the square. Coming back into the passenger seat, he pulled out a piece of paper from the clipboard. "Pull into a parking spot over there." He indicated, and she pulled neatly into the spot. "You know what you did wrong, correct?" he asked her stoically.

'Do I know what I did wrong?!' she screamed in her mind. 'Nah, I don't know! Could it have been that I just ran that cone right off the white square?!' "Yes." She said aloud, trying as hard as she could not to cry.

"Okay, now, you have to wait seven days to take the test again. You will, however, have to renew your permit again, because it expires the first of February. You'll have to buy a new permit packet and retake the written test."

'Oh joy, you mean I have to do everything all over again?'

"You do not have to take Driver's Ed again or drive fifty more hours. The affidavit and driver's ed certificate will stay good next time too."

'Who says there's gonna be a next time?'

He opened the door and handed her the id card and a few papers before going back into the building to tell her mother to come on out.

Looking down at the paper he'd pulled off his clipboard, her eyes filled, and she squeezed them shut at the sight of the printed writing with a check beside it.

"Failure" Below it, there was the check marked box the said, "Dangerous actions."

So, she was a failure because she smashed a cone? Just great.

"It's alright honey." Mrs. Higurashi said, opening the door and getting in beside her daughter.

"Alright?! Mom, it is NOT alright. You don't even understand."

"No, I don't. So why don't you tell me."

Kagome pulled the car into reverse and backed out of the parking spot, leaving the parking lot and starting on the way home. "I am now, the only high school student to fail the maneuverability test."

"Are you telling me that no one in your school has failed the test? Somehow, I don't believe that."

"Only one other person in my class failed. But he didn't fail the maneuverability. He ran a red light."

"That was stupid. How could you make a mistake like that?"

"Well, at least HE passed the maneuverability part. I'm the only one who hasn't..... Besides, I have to get another temporary permit packet and do everything but driver's ed all over again...."

()()()()()()()()()()() END FLASHBACK ()()()()()()()()()()

Kagome fisted her hands into the folds of the blankets. She wanted to blame the failure on the accusation that the Blazer was twice the size of the car that'd she'd been using in driver's ed. But she knew that it really wasn't the blazers fault. It was her fault for not paying attention and smashing that cone into the dirt. How could she have done that? Next time she would practice with trash cans or something beforehand. It still wasn't fair. 'I bet nobody else failed that test today.' She thought, crying out loud, rolling onto her stomach and pushing her face into her pillow. Her blankets were tangled around her legs now, preventing her from moving from where she lay. She didn't care though, she just wanted to stay up in her room for the rest of her life. EVERYONE knew that she went to take her test today. Everyone. Tomorrow at school they would ask questions. 'How'd you do?' they'll ask. And when she tells them that she failed, they'd laugh. What a disgrace, being the only person who failed the maneuverability test. She couldn't lie, either, because then they'd ask to see her driver's license. Even Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, Shippou, and Kaede knew about it. She could lie to them though, but Inuyasha would see right through it and demand to know why she was lying to them. She hated that word....

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Sota listened intently to the conversation his mom and grandpa were having in the kitchen. So, Kagome failed, huh? She was crying about something as dumb as that? Usually, she only cried about Inuyasha being mean to her. He was gonna go tell his sis to stop this nonsense and get a grip. So what if she failed? It wasn't that important......right?

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"Kagome?" Sota asked, knocking on her bedroom door. "Can I come in?"

Kagome stayed silent, if she answered her brother would come in, and if she stayed quiet he might give up and go away.

"Hey, Kagome! Just cause you failed doesn't mean that you have to cry about. You're supposed to whine because Inuyasha's mean to you. Failing is a dumb thing to get upset about. Snap out of it and get a grip Kagome!" he pulled open her bedroom door. Too bad she didn't have a lock on it...... He hadn't meant to sound so mean, but he had, and he could hear his sister's sobs from underneath her blanket. He decided to try a new tactic. "Sis? I didn't mean to sound so awful. You really should just stop thinking about it. Besides, isn't Inuyasha supposed to get you tonight? What would he think? He's always calling you weak, isn't he? Think about how weak he'll think you are now, for crying over a test." Sota sighed to himself. This just wasn't working. He'd better leave before she flooded the room. He was just making things worse anyway. He reached up to pat what he hoped was his sister's back, and his hands touched wet blankets. 'Woah, water work city!' he quietly left, shutting the door softly behind her.

'He really will think that I'm worthless.......' she though miserably, but that only increased the flow of tears rolling down her face. Whatever.....he could think anything he wanted. She didn't have to go anywhere with him anyway, so what did it matter what he thought?

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Sota crept into his own room before his mother noticed where he'd been, or what he'd said. Looking out his window, he saw a dark shape running around in the semi-darkness. "Hey," he called out the window. "Inuyasha! Come up here!"

Inuyasha perched on Sota's windowsill carefully before turning to see what the kid wanted.

"You came to get Kagome, didn't you?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, I just thought I'd tell you that she's not in the best of moods right now.......she might not want to talk to you."

"What's eating her?"

"She uh, failed that driver's test that she had to take. She's real upset about it too."

"Oh. Is that all?"

"You don't understand. She had to drive fifty hours in a car, had to take a class at after school for two weeks, and then she went to take her test, and failed. She didn't even get past the first part."

"What did she have to do in this 'driver test' thing?"

"Well," Sota said, pulling out a piece of paper from his desk. "Come over here and I'll draw you a picture."

When Inuyasha came close enough to see, he drew five circles on the paper. Four of them were in four corners, like a square. The fifth was up and in the middle of the four. "What are those?" he asked the boy, pointing to the circles he'd just drawn.

"Those are cones." He pulled out another piece of paper and drew a cone on it. "They look like this. Well, for the first part of the test, these cones are placed on a white square that's painted on the ground. Understand?"

"I think so....." 'Why would you want cones on white squares.....?'

"Anyway," he drew a birds-eye-view of their Blazer. "Here's a car."

"Like the thing in the yard?"

"Yeah," he drew an arrow that went straight through the first four cones, and curved to the right of the fifth. "She had to go up like this through the cones with the car, okay?" then he pulled out a big marker and traced the line backwards. "And then, she has to go back like this. Mom said that the backing was what was the hardest."

"Was that why Kagome failed?"

"Yeah, I heard mom tell grandpa. She backed right into a cone. If you hit a cone and knock it off the white square, you fail."

"Oh." 'So that was what the squares were for.'

"I tried to tell her to snap out of it and get a grip, but she wouldn't listen to me." He looked up at Inuyasha. "Maybe you could help...."

"How?" he growled at the kid. Man, he just wanted to come here, get Kagome, and go back through the well to look for the rest of the shards.

"Just make her feel like she's not a loser."

"She thinks she's a looser?"

"Well, more like a failure, but they mean the same thing."

"Fine." He grumbled, turning to the boy. "Just stay right here."

"Okay!" Sota agreed, pushing Inuyasha out his bedroom door. "You'll have to go through her door. Don't bother knocking, she won't answer you, just go right in."

'Stupid girl, thinks she's worthless just because she failed some silly test.' He fumed mentally to himself. 'But I have to be nice in order for her to not feel like a failure.' Calmed down for the first time in awhile, Inuyasha walked up to her door and opened it a crack to make sure he could go in safely. When he was sure that the coast was clear, he crept into her room, shutting the door soundlessly behind him. He could smell the tears the second he entered the room. He hated it when she cried. It drove him nuts. Walking up to her bed, he looked down at her still form under the blankets. He saw that part of the blanket was wet with tears. She cried too much, it couldn't possibly be good for one's health to cry so much. He found a place on the edge of the bed where he could sit so that he could safely sit down without sitting on Kagome. When he sat on the edge of the bed, he felt her stiffen in surprise. She hadn't even known that he was there. He grinned in satisfaction. He loved it when he could scare her like that. Frowning again, he tugged at the blankets covering her head and managed to pull a them off before Kagome covered her face with her pillow. "Come on Kagome," he said, pulling at the pillow gently. "What happened?"

"It's none of your business." She mumbled out from beneath the pillow. "It doesn't matter anyway."

"If it doesn't matter then why are you still crying?" he asked her, tugging on the pillow a little harder.

She didn't answer, but she pulled the pillow closer.

"You're not a failure just because you failed you know." He leaned down and whispered into her ear.

She shuddered at the air against her ear. "What makes you so sure about that?"

"Kagome," he growled softly, "You're not a failure. Besides," he added, his voice softening. "You can try again, can't you?"

"Yes. But I'll probably fail again anyway."

Inuyasha frowned down at her. He couldn't get a direct response because she was holding so tightly to that darned pillow of hers. She wasn't in her normal school outfit today, he finally noticed. She was wearing a pink shirt and white jeans. He liked the change quite well. Good thing she was lying on her back now with the pillow pressing into her face. Standing up, he slid one arm underneath her knees and the other around her back, lifting her from the bed.

"What are you doing?" she asked, still holding the pillow tightly against her face.

"Making you listen." He answered, sitting down on the bed and turning her around to face him in his lap. "Now, listen again. You-are-not-worthless. Okay?" he tugged at the pillow, finally succeeding in removing the blasted thing.

"But I failed!" she cried, shoving her face into his chest to hide her face from his view. "Nobody I know failed that test!"

"Does that mean that nobody else failed it? There could be people from other towns that have failed it. Does that make them worthless as well?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her warmly.

"No."

"Then you're not worthless either." He reached down to kiss the top of her head in a very un-Inuyasha-like-fashion. "Now do you understand? Do you believe me?"

"Sorta."

"Kagome...." he growled quietly, pulling his arms away and lifting up her chin with his hand.

"Yes?" she asked him, embarrassed at how red she knew her eyes were from crying.

He bent down and touched his lips to hers in a long, lingering kiss. At first, Kagome stiffened in surprise. She hadn't been expecting this at all. But hey, who was she to argue? And so, she leaned into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck as he wrapped his around hers in a likewise fashion, pulling them closer together.

After what seemed like forever, the kiss broke, and Inuyasha looked down at Kagome. "You're not worthless."

She leaned against him and sighed. "You believe me now?" he asked tenderly, running a hand through her hair.

"Yeah, I do." She smiled faintly, reaching an arm behind him to stroke one of his ears.

"So, are you going to try again?" he inquired, a rumble coming from deep within his chest.

"Okay," she told him, leaning closer and pressing her face against the red material of his haori. "But that means I can't go back with you through the well."

"That's okay." He sighed. He didn't really want her to stay here, but....he could always stay here with her, right? "You can stay here as long as you need."

"A year?" she asked, smirking when she felt him tense up. "I was just joking."

"Good. How long do you think it will take?"

"Oh, not too long. I have to practice though....it could take up to a month.....but, with help....."

"I'll help."

"You will? That's really sweet of you Inuyasha, thank you. I can't take the test for seven days, so, if we start tonight by setting up something that looks like cones, then I could practice in the driveway! Then, I can retake my test next Tuesday!"

"Okay," he agreed, carrying her from the room and down the stair to set her on the floor outside of the kitchen.

"Kagome?" he mother asked her worriedly. "Are you going back to Feudal Japan so soon?"

"No mom," Kagome told her mother, smiling up at Inuyasha. "Inuyasha agreed to help me."

"I'm going to help her practice that driver test thing." Inuyasha said proudly, happy that he could help Kagome out.

"Good, just be sure to put everything back when you're done."

"Come on Inuyasha!" Kagome called from the driveway. "I have to practice so I can pass my test!"

"Coming!" Inuyasha called, picking up the keys from the table. 'I guess she'll need these....'

"Inuyasha." Kagome's mother stopped him.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you....whatever you did, it worked." She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

'Oh,' he thought, walking out the door, 'I didn't do much.....just gave her a kiss to show her that she wasn't a failure.....' He grinned to himself. Maybe he'd do it again, just to make sure she still understood......

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

EHHHHHH! That was the end! Newayz, I would positively LOVE YOU if you reviewed this for me. Just so you know, I did fail my driver's test on Tuesday, and the whole maneuverability thing was true. So was the thing about being the only kid in high school to do that. Yep, that's me, the failure! ^-^ That' s okay, I don't mind it. I also went to my room and cried for awhile, but, my cat came up to me and curled up in a ball next to my neck to sleep. Petting her helped me to calm down. Thank you Katiedid! I love you so much!

Don't forget to review! Please? I mean, you wouldn't want me to lose, would you? **sniffle** I already 'lost' my driver's Ed test! As if that wasn't bad enough....! J/J with you! Please do review though! It'd make me feel special! ^0^

::Love you all::

Kitten Kisses, AKA Sango-chan