Bulma entered the library looking for a quiet place to study, but she was disappointed to find every table occupied. She didn't really want to use one of the reading nooks, it just wasn't enough surface area to sprawl out all her books. She bit her lip as her eyes scanned the room one more time and debated if she should wait for someone to get up or just go back to her room.
"Hey!" Goku yelled in a hushed tone as he waved his arm to get her attention, "hey, new girl!"
"Her name is Bulma," Vegeta grumbled, confused by why his idiot best friend was trying to talk to the annoying girl from his class.
"Bulma!" Goku called. With her name, Goku was finally able to get her attention. "Come sit by us!" he said waving her towards his table. Bulma smiled, she liked Goku, he was really sweet, but he was sitting by five other guys including Vegeta, whom she very much did not like.
"Hey, how's it going?," she greeted the table as she sat down in the nearest chair.
"Guys, this is Bulma, she's new this year. Bulma these are some of my friends on the lacrosse team," Goku introduced gesturing to the boys at the table. They all gave her friendly and/or flirty smiles as they introduced themselves, all except Vegeta who was trying his damnedest to ignore her existence. He shifted in his seat, turning away from her as he continued reading the book in his hands.
Goku leaned into Bulma and whispered as if it was some secret, "we have to clock a certain amount of study hall hours to be eligible to play." Bulma nodded, that made sense why they would all be there together; she had never really been one to study in a large group.
"So, Bulma, where are you from?" one of the boys asked.
"West City," she replied plainly.
"That's so cool!" "Oh a city girl!" "Man, I love West City!" they all cooed.
"What made you decide to come to Orange Star?" another boy asked.
"Oh you know... it has really great academics," Bulma fibbed. The boys and Goku nodded, accepting that answer, but Vegeta who had clearly been listening even though he was pretending not to, snorted at her lie. He had figured out early on she didn't come to Orange Star by choice. Bulma scowled in his direction, imagining he had no qualms with revealing her secret.
"As riveting as this conversation has been, fellas, I think I'm just going to go study in my room," Bulma said and she stood from her chair.
"Bye Bulma! I'll see you around!" Goku called with a friendly smile, which Bulma returned.
"What the hell, Geets? I thought you had the opposite effect on women?" one of the boys snickered.
"Yeah, she was borderline repelled by you!" laughed another.
"Good! Now you idiots can actually focus on studying," Vegeta sneered. He wished that stupid, purple haired girl would leave so he could actually read instead of listening to his teammates ogle at her.
"So, Goku," one of the lacrosse boys began, "you trying to get with that?" Vegeta looked up, suddenly interested in what Goku had to say.
"Nah, I actually have my eyes on her roommate," Goku replied waving off his teammates. They all seemed to be excited by that and quickly jumped on him.
"Well then can you get me her number?"
"Wait, no! Get me her number!"
"Maybe you guys should focus more on this upcoming season than getting laid!" Vegeta growled at his teammates as he stood. He was annoyed that everyone acted like this girl was so special. All the teachers, his own fucking father, and now his teammates were enamored by her.
"He's just mad, cause he isn't getting any!" Vegeta heard one of them snicker as he pushed through the library doors.
Bulma scrolled through social media while she lounged on her bed. A scowl tugged at her lips as her feed presented her with several photos of her ex best friends at a hip, new restaurant in West City. In less than a month, they had already forgotten about her, moved on and were following a new queen bee.
It served as a reminder of how inconsequential her absence had been in their lives. For the first time since arriving at Orange Star, Bulma found herself wondering how her father was doing now that she was gone. 'One less thing for him to concern himself with,' she figured.
Dr. Briefs had mentioned he would call to check on her, but it had been two weeks and he still hadn't. Bulma had subconsciously decided she would test him and see how long it took before it occurred to him to see how she was doing. She wasn't holding her breath.
Bulma dropped her phone to the side, deciding to stop torturing herself with images of those with seemingly better lives than hers. She rolled over and looked at her roommate, who was at her desk studying. The raven haired girl was super sweet, and so not… damaged. Chi Chi lacked the jaded attitude that accompanies parental abandonment. She began to wonder how someone like that, who probably had an adoring father, ended up at a place like this.
"Chi?" Bulma said as she sat up in her bed.
"What's up?" Chi Chi smiled, as brown eyes met blue.
"No offense, but like, why are you here? At Orange Star."
"Uhh," Chi Chi laughed, "I don't know what you mean. I'm going to school just like you."
"Yeah, but why here instead of living at home with your parents and going to school there?" Bulma asked.
Chi Chi paused, seemly caught off guard by the question. "I mean, I guess there's a couple of reasons," she began, but Bulma cut her off before she could finish.
"What? Like your dad deciding he was bored of parenting you, too?" Bulma snorted.
"What? No!" Chi Chi tried to laugh at the odd suggestion. "Me and my dad are really close."
"Wow, an actual relationship with one's father? What's that like?" Bulma replied sarcastically and Chi Chi frowned, the conversation taking an unexpectedly dark turn. "But seriously, how can you claim to be tight with your folks when you're in a place like this? My theory is only parents who can't be bothered to raise their kids, ship them off to boarding school. And let me guess, your old friends don't text you either."
Chi Chi huffed in offense, "first of all, my parents sacrificed a lot so I could go to a great school like this! They did it because they want me to have opportunities not because they don't want to see me!" Her face grew flushed in embarrassed frustration. "Friends grow apart sometimes, and that's okay, and... and I don't know why I need to defend myself to you!" Before Bulma could reply Chi Chi got up and stormed out of the room.
Bulma swore she heard Chi Chi mumble 'bitch' before slamming the door. Bulma groaned and flopped back into her bed, digging her palms into her eyes. She was being a bitch and totally projecting on her innocent roommate. Bulma wanted to cry. Was it not enough that she was miserable? Did she really have to go and try to make others miserable too?
It was a few hours before Chi Chi returned to her and Bulma's room, leaving the lavender haired girl plenty of time to stew in her guilt. Bulma perked up as she heard the the front door open.
"Hey," she greeted softly, but Chi Chi just gave her a sidelong glance. "I'm sorry, okay!? I wasn't trying to be mean, it wasn't even really about you. I just am…" Bulma paused, finding it difficult to describe how she felt.
"Having a hard time adjusting?" Chi Chi offered, sympathetically. Kami, she really was a nice person.
"I guess so." Bulma slumped in defeat. She had spent so much of her time convincing herself that she didn't care about the loss of her old friends or moving out of her home. It was them who should be sad to see her go, right? But maybe it was affecting her more than she had thought.
Bulma decided to confess to her roommate how she had been feeling, the drama with her dad and getting expelled. Chi Chi sat quietly and listened, nodding every so often. When she talked about her mom dying, the raven haired girl held her hand and she teared up. Bulma's heart clenched at Chi Chi's compassionate words and the comfort that she offered.
With her old friends, it seemed like there was always this unspoken competition. Who was the best looking? Had the most money? Wore the best clothes? This type of real and raw emotional outpour would only serve as ammunition to friends like those. 'Friends' if you could even call them that. With someone like Chi Chi by her side, Bulma was beginning to revise her definition of the word.
When Chi Chi had invited her to hangout and read down by the fields, Bulma had thought that was code for 'watch lacrosse practice'. So when her roommate actually pulled out a book, she grumbled. The pair sat in the grass under a shady tree. It had a perfect view of athletic practice fields without being so close that their intentions were obvious.
No, they were just a couple of friends enjoying a lovely spring afternoon. They sat down five minutes before the start of lacrosse practice? Merely a coincidence.
Brown eyes slid back and forth as they consumed the words on the page. "Chi," Bulma whispered harshly, though no one was close enough to hear. "I thought we were going to... ya know," her eyes pointing to the practice fields where the boys were beginning their warm ups, "discuss."
Chi Chi laughed as she set down her book. "What? You see something you like?" she teased.
"Several somethings," Bulma hummed as she looked at the muscular boys. As promised, many of them were shirtless and showing off exactly what they had to offer. Regretfully, Bulma's eyes wandered to Vegeta as he lead the team in their stretches. Chi Chi hadn't been exaggerating when she called his body 'insane', too bad he had a nightmare of a personality.
"Ugh," Bulma groaned, "I need to get myself a boyfriend. A girl could go crazy with all this eye candy."
"Do you have your eye on any one, in particular?" Chi Chi asked, and Bulma first thought to Yamcha. 'He definitely has boyfriend potential,' she mused as she wrapped the edges of her sweater tighter to her body to combat a soft breeze.
"Maybe," she smiled.
"Are you thinking about Vegeta Ouji?"
"EXCUSE ME?" Bulma all but yelled. "He is probably the worst human being I've ever met, he's at the absolute bottom of my list. Why would you even say that!?"
Chi Chi giggled to herself, that was a rather aggressive dismissal of an innocent suggestion. "Oh, I don't know, you've just been watching him the whole time we've been here."
"I have not!" Bulma glared at her roommate, "Okay, sure, he's like pretty fucking hot. But I can't see how any girl could get over what a jackass he is enough to actually go out with him."
"I could probably name a few," Chi Chi mumbled.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Like a lot of girls like him. I guess because he seems so indifferent to their attention - But the few times I've interacted with him, I wouldn't say he was nice, but he definitely isn't as bad as you make him seem. Maybe he just doesn't like you."
"Ugh! That's ridiculous, I'm very likable!" Bulma insisted.
"Okayyy," Chi Chi nodded with wide eyes. There was really no point in contesting.
The roommates continued to watch the lacrosse boys run their drills and scrimmage as Bulma silently pouted. Her actually having any remotely positive feelings about Vegeta was ridiculous and completely unfathomable! Just looking at his stupid face made her sick!
The screech of their coach's whistle signaled all the boys to huddle up. After some group chant, they dispersed, picking up discarded belongings and headed toward the locker room.
Bulma gave Chi Chi, who had resumed reading, a slight nudge as Goku and two other boys were walking in their direction. The boys laughed as they whispered quietly to each other and Goku playfully shoved one.
"Hey girls," Goku greeted. "How's it going?"
"Better now that you guys are here," Bulma flirted. Chi Chi closed her book, keeping her finger in the page to mark her spot. She peeked up at Goku as he scratched the back of his head and smiled.
"So Bulma…" he began, and her heart dropped. Oh, of course he's here to talk to her. Bulma's so pretty and cool… "My buddy, Toma has been begging me to hook you guys up, so I was wondering —"
"Hey idiots! Get in the locker room!" Vegeta shouted from behind them. The two boys tensed, but Goku just laughed. Chi Chi didn't mind the interruption, she was just relieved her crush wasn't trying to ask out her roommate. Bulma glared at Vegeta, the fact that he hadn't put his shirt back on was even more annoying.
The three boys retreated as their captain came and stood proudly in front of the girls, who were still seated in the grass. His arms crossed over his broad chest that glistened with sweat "And you," Vegeta growled as he stared pointedly at Bulma, "quit trying to distract my teammates."
"I didn't do anything. In fact, they came over to me! I can't help it if I'm irresistible!" she sassed, but Vegeta just rolled his eyes. "Sounds to me like you're just jealous!"
"Oh please," he grumbled, before he squatted down to so that they were eye level. "Let's not pretend we both don't know who you have been staring at this whole time."
"Uh... but... ugh!" Bulma stuttered trying to come up with some defense. Heat rushed to her cheeks, she could not believe he had noticed her attention on him.
"That's what I thought," he smirked as he stood and turned to walk away. Bulma was flustered and frustrated by her brain's inability to conjure up a comeback. She couldn't let him have the last word.
"You're UGLY!" Bulma screamed at his retreating form and Chi Chi snickered to herself.
"Just keep telling yourself that," he hollered, not even sparing a look back at her.
