Sorry it's been so long without an update, everyone. I've been busy with work and out of town for a bit, but I'm back and ready to write! Let's go!

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Chapter Seven: Secrets Don't Keep Friends

Thursday arrived before Bulma saw Vegeta in the school hallway as he shoveled schoolbooks from his locker into his backpack. His return came just as unexpectedly as his mysterious absence. She wondered where he had been as she stood beside an open locker.

Bulma eyed Vegeta like a hawk eyes prey. Vegeta's three schooldays absence only rekindled the mystery of the young man. She wondered if he had been ill, but he looked healthy, if a bit tired. Maybe he had gone on a trip, but to where? He had only been in school a week before his absence. Hopefully he hadn't been avoiding her like before his absence.

Bulma filed the questions away in the back of her mind. She had a task to accomplish. She had to ask Vegeta to the dance.

It should have been an easy thing to do. Go up to the boy. Ask him to the Sadie Hawkins just like she asked him to come to the baseball game. But she found it difficult, if not impossible, to put one foot in front of the other and approach him. It felt as if the days spent apart from him had driven more than just physical distance between them. Bulma couldn't even come up with a starter conversation to lead into the big question. Her palms sweated, and she wiped them on the wooly sides of her sweater. Could she really be this nervous?

Chi Chi had already asked Goku. Years of planning by Bulma, and the two finally had a date set on the calendar. If only Bulma could say the same thing.

She had to live up to her side of the bargain. Chi Chi and Goku needed to work. Bulma had spent too much time casually sneaking hints to the both of them over the years. This was the big break in the slow-moving process of their relationship, and the dance had to go off without a hitch. She needed to be there to see it through, and to get into the dance, she needed a date. She didn't want to be left behind on the night of the dance.

Yes, she probably could have asked another boy if she wanted to, but Vegeta was a puzzle in need of solving, and Bulma never left a riddle unanswered.

Boys usually flocked to Bulma. With her naturally unique hair and contagious personality, she usually had no trouble grabbing a boyfriend. The fact that her family was one of the richest in the world didn't hurt either. These traits had snagged her Yamcha. He was popular, tall, and painfully predictable. Vegeta was none of these things. He kept to himself, stood eye-level with her, and she could never fathom what he was thinking. Vegeta remained a complete mystery.

Bulma adjusted her hair and straightened her skirt. Just do it, she told herself. Go up and ask him. There's nothing to be afraid of. You've talked with him before. Even invited him places.

She approached Vegeta just as the boy zipped the last compartment of his backpack closed.

"Hey, Vegeta," Bulma waved, trying to think of a starter topic. Only one question came to her mind. "Where have you been? I… we were getting worried about you."

Vegeta shouldered his backpack and shrugged. Conversation failed.

"So, um," she began haltingly. "Have you seen the banners for the Sadie Hawkins Dance?"

"The what?"

"You know… it's the dance that's coming up. The one where the girls ask the guys." Bulma ran a hand through her bangs.

"To do what?" Vegeta wasn't following her.

"You know. Dance." Bulma shifted her hips from side to side in a quick impersonation of a popular dance but instantly regretted it when she saw Vegeta look at her like she was a complete idiot. A flood of shame reddened her face, and she stopped abruptly.

"I don't do that on any occasion." Vegeta folded his arms across his chest.

Bulma pushed a bang behind her ear and laughed nervously. "Well, I'm not that great of a dancer. I was just wondering what you thought."

Vegeta tapped his foot.

"Don't you think it would be fun? Goku and Chi Chi are going on a date, and I was thinking maybe you and I…"

Vegeta's face flushed. "What makes you think I would want to go to an Earthli-… a dance with you and Kakarot… I mean Go-ku?" Vegeta's hand clenched the door, and he slammed his locker. "It's a waste of my time."

Bulma sucked in a lungful of air, turned on her heel, and marched away, leaving Vegeta in the hallway by himself. She huffed and sniffed as she walked up the next hallway and down a second, fuming. How could he think going to the dance with her was stupid? The Sadie Hawkins Dance was one of the school's longest traditions! She decided to go back to his locker and give him a piece of her mind, but when she returned, he wasn't there. He had simply vanished.

Burying her face in her hands, she slid down his locker to sit on the cold tile floor. "Stupid," she mumbled to herself. Obviously she had been right to think he had been avoiding her, but for the wrong reason. He didn't secretly like her. He hated her. Bulma threw her head back, knocking the back of it against the metal locker, but the surface behind her wasn't flat like it should be. It buckled.

Bulma turned around and saw the metal crumpled like a piece of paper where Vegeta's hand had been only moments earlier. Had it always been like that? Maybe she never noticed, but then, Bulma couldn't remember ever seeing the locker like that before. She looked at it with a questioning gaze. What was the word he had been about to use? What had he called Goku? What was going on?

"That does it," she said out loud, pushing herself back up. "I'm getting to bottom of this." Bulma only knew one other person capable to crushing metal with his bare hands, and she knew exactly where to find him between homeroom and first period.

Bulma found Goku in his usual spot, behind the cafeteria, sneaking an early morning snack during the extended ten-minute change between classes.

"Vegeta's back," she began as she approached her friend.

Goku hastily wiped a layer of crumbs off his face from a sandwich. "That's good," he said, and then added, "What's up? You look upset."

"Nothing," countered Bulma quickly. "I just, well, I wanted to know if you've noticed anything… strange… about Vegeta."

"Nope, nothing at all," replied Goku quickly. He bit back into his sandwich, finishing it in two gulps.

"I mean it, Goku." Bulma sat on an overturned box next to him. "I just asked him to go with me to the dance later this month, and he said some really weird stuff."

"You asked him to the Sadie Hawkins? You like him?"

Bulma blushed. "No! Yes… maybe. I don't know. But that's not the point, Goku. He called you, um… Kakarot? What's that mean?"

Goku's shoulders sank. "He said he wouldn't," he said miserably.

"What?"

"Ugh, never mind."

"And he crushed the side of his locker with his bare hand!" Bulma made a fist. "You're the only person I know that can do that. There's something going on here, isn't there?"

"Bulma," Goku began, but Bulma cut him off.

"And I think he almost said the word 'Earthling' when he started talking about the dance. I thought he was from overseas. Not another planet!"

Goku put a hand on Bulma's shoulder. She was shaking. "Look," he said. "I think Vegeta just needs some time to adjust here. It's probably really hard being new."

Bulma pushed off her friend's hand. "You're hiding something," she said accusingly. "You're a terrible liar, Goku. Tell me what's really going on."

Goku looked at the ground sheepishly. "Maybe you shouldn't push him right now."

Bulma stood. "Don't tell me what to do, Son Goku. If you won't tell me what's going on here, I'll find out for myself. See you later." Bulma stomped away leaving him behind.

She didn't understand. Goku was usually so honest. What could he possibly be hiding about Vegeta that required him to sneak around her?

Bulma kept a close eye on Vegeta for the rest of the day, always staying just out of sight. After school ended, she followed him away from the building, intending to catch up with him and confront him away from everyone else. But what she didn't expect in a million years was what happened when Vegeta reached the edge of town. He glanced quickly around him and took off into the sky. Flying! Bulma nearly fell over in surprise. She knew Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha had the same ability, but up until then, she thought it was a weird fluke. That all their martial arts training under Roshi had made them gain strange abilities. No one else possessed the ability to fly!

Bulma quickly took a capsule box from her purse and selected her fastest and quietest air bike. No way was Vegeta getting away that easily. She was going to get to the bottom of this mystery once and for all.

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