DB – High, the teenage life…
Chapter Eleven – Pink
After Miss West filled Radditz in on the events of the evening, she offered him a lift to the hospital since his father would be there soon and she had to take Chi-Chi back anyway.
Radditz was beyond mad. He walked right into his old dorm room where his former friends were all told to wait until Ginyu was properly informed and a punishment concisely decided.
"What the FUCK were you thinking, Turles?" Radditz roared at his 'best friend' who had only a few minor injuries.
Turles looked at Radditz in a rage, "He got in with Chi-Chi. He deserved it!"
Radditz was a little shocked, Miss West hadn't told him about Goku and Chi-Chi, he had no idea his brother was kissing anyone.
"What?...Chi-Chi really?..." his mind wandered a little before he resumed his reprimand, "It doesn't matter, I don't care if he kissed your Mom! You don't do that to your best friend's kid brother. I would never do that to you. You would have killed him."
Tensions running high, Turles did not feel a shred of remorse. He simply grew angry with Radditz for getting involved in something he knew nothing about.
"Get the fuck out of my dorm," Turles snarled.
Radditz knew exactly what that meant, 'fuck three years of friendship,' would be one way to put it.
"Have fun getting suspended," Radditz mumbled a light grin forming on his face when he realised he couldn't care less now. Turles was no friend. In the couple weeks he had spent with Goku's group of dorks he probably had more intelligent conversation, more laughs and less fights then he ever had before. He slammed the door hard on his way out.
A tall well-built man with messy, spiked black hair and a scar over his left cheek stood in the corner of the hospital room, leaning against the wall as he watched his youngest son sleep the pain away.
He wasn't too concerned with the idea Goku was getting in fights. He himself used to get in many fights in his adolescence and then continued to make a dignified career out of it, serving as a Marine for several years.
A few cuts and bruises were nothing but a lesson learnt to him. He knew that if Goku wanted to be a martial artist, he would have to learn all the same lessons.
But something about seeing his son all bruised and battered angered Bardock.
Goku lay in his hospital bed in a sleepy daze. He had some major facial injuries including a swollen purple bruise over his cheek and a bloody scalp where some of his hair had been torn. His arm was bandaged up and likely to be broken.
It was pushing on 11pm and he planned to stay there until the morning when they would allow Goku to return back to the dorms depending on his condition. He had already had a word with dorm manager Kibito about the details of the attack but most of his questions were left unanswered.
When he received the phone call a few hours earlier Bardock had assumed it was Radditz who had found himself in trouble again, always pushing the boundaries of the schools rules and curfews, always getting in with the wrong crowd.
He didn't think for a minute that they would tell him it was his placid naïve, Goku, who had been targeted.
Bardock moved to a seat at Goku's bedside and brushed the hair out of his son's clammy skinned face, feeling as if he was staring at a younger version of himself.
Eruca marched herself into the hospital room an annoyed expression tapered on her face, "I thought you'd be here, how is he?" she asked Bardock without really looking at him.
"He'll be fine, he's just sleeping it off and he's on a lot of pain killers right now," he responded in the same manner. "What are you doing here?"
"Well someone says 'fight' and Idiot Ginyu immediately blames my son. I drove all the way out here to find out he had nothing to do with it, it was all his troublemaker friends idea," she exclaimed, reaching her last nerve.
"Mmm, well I'm starting to wish I drove out here for nothing," Bardock sighed as Goku stirred in his sleep, the pain obviously making itself present.
Eruca frowned, "Sorry Bardock, you are a good father, I'm glad our boys are friends," she was referring to Tarble and Goku who had visited each other at their homes several times before.
Bardock gave her a strange look, wondering why she was really here. She was dressed well as always, her dark features prominent and perfectly groomed.
"Anyway, since Vegeta wasn't involved they didn't tell me anything. Do you know what actually happened?" she quizzed.
"Apparently, he kissed someone else's girl," Bardock sighed.
Eruca smirked and looked Bardock in the eye, "I wonder where he got that from?" She arched her perfectly waxed eyebrow at him.
"You never called me," Bardock mumbled.
"I never said I would, I'm a married woman," she eyed him.
Now that amused him, her marriage was a joke. Almost making him think what he had with the boys' mother was something special by comparison.
She crossed her arms at him, not liking to be made fun of, "It was a onetime thing Bardock," she glared.
"Actually Eruca, it was one weekend, it was several times," he pointed out, he being the one smirking now.
Ignoring him, Eruca moved to Goku's side and gently stoked his face trying to calm him down as he began to stir, in a very motherly manner. She had genuine concern in her eyes.
Bardock couldn't help but smile at the sight, "You heading home now? or do you want a lift in the morning?"
Eruca smirked at him, knowing exactly what that 'lift home' would really involve, "No, I'll leave soon, I just want to say goodbye to Tarble first, I couldn't find him before."
Radditz burst through the door in an angry rush, "Is he alright?" he tried to act nonchalant about it, but fear was evident in his voice. He may not be very voicey about his relationship with his younger brother, but that never meant he didn't really care.
Goku groggily was brought back to consciousness with the loud presence of his brother.
"Dad?" he muttered, for some reason his happy voice was evident.
Bardock grabbed his shoulder lightly to let him know he was there.
"Goku! What the hell is your problem?!" Radditz yelled at him, "You kissed Chi-Chi? What were you thinking?!"
Remembering all of a sudden, Goku attempted to sit up, "Chi-Chi!? Where is she? Turles is going to hurt her if I don't try stop him…"
He really struggled to get up but Bardock pushed his shoulders down lightly, "Just stay down kid, she's fine and Turles is going to be suspended. You're the one everyone's worried about."
Eruca patted Bardock's shoulder, "I'll leave now, look after each other boys."
He simply shot her a disappointed look and watched her exit. He realised he had actually been hoping she would have called.
"Bye" was all he said.
Radditz continued his interrogation of Goku, and Bardock just listened indifferently, wondering when it was that his boys started becoming interested in girls.
He had given them the 'sex' talk a long time ago, but he never bothered with the whole 'relationships' discussion. Which was probably a big mistake since it wasn't as if they had any real parental relationship to base their ideas on either.
He felt concerned that they would both wind up in trouble, either not knowing how to treat a woman with respect, or allowing them to walk all over them for whatever reason.
As Radditz finished his little rant, Bardock looked at him quizzically, "Are you wearing lipstick?" he asked as he noticed Radditz mouth was covered in hot pink colouring.
Radditz wiped his mouth with his hand and inspected the colour that stained his skin. It matched the same colour Mai had been wearing earlier and he smiled to himself.
"Yeah it's a nice shade on me don't you think?" he chuckled to his dad, who's expression remained serious. Bardock wasn't sure where Radditz had learned to be such a smart mouth, it most certainly wasn't from him.
He ran a hand through his hair in frustration, "I don't know what I'm going to do with you boys."
After driving Radditz to the hospital, Miss West found Chi-Chi in the waiting room on her own, her face in her hands.
"Did you get to see him?" Kai asked.
"He looks like he is in so much pain. I can't believe I let this happen," Chi-Chi said, holding back all her tears. She was done with crying, she was supposed to be tough and that's how she would act.
"You didn't call my dad did you?" Chi-Chi queried.
"We couldn't get a hold of him, I'll have to call him tomorrow," Kai replied.
"I don't want him to worry about me, I'm perfectly fine," she muttered.
"Fine? Come on Chi-Chi, no one is fine after seeing something like that," Kai assured as she offered an arm to help her to the car.
On the drive back, Kai tried once more to get Chi-Chi talking, the girl needed someone to talk to, holding it all in was not helping. "So do you want to tell me what actually happened?"
"… I kissed him. And it was quite possibly the best thing I've ever experienced in my life. I'll bet people say that all the time, but I'm not exaggerating."
Kai smiled at Chi-Chi, she remembered the time when she was in high school. Every kiss felt like magic, every break up felt like an apocalyptic black abyss, an emotional rollercoaster to say the least.
"And then when Turles found out I thought he was going to hurt me, he had this frightening look in his eyes. Goku just came out of nowhere and took all of the blame and all of the fury. And well yeah, I guess you know the rest."
"Sounds to me like he really cares about you," Kai smiled, attempting to make good out of a bad situation. Chi-Chi thought for a moment, "I hope he doesn't. Look at what I did to Turles."
"Chi-Chi, you can't hold yourself responsible for all of this. Yes you probably should have ended it with Turles before you kissed Goku, but you are allowed to change your mind about your feelings. And no one deserves to be beaten in that way, Turles was the one who crossed the line, not either of you," Kai advised.
"Do you know what will happen to him now?" Chi-Chi asked, concerned.
"All three of them will be suspended for 3 weeks and when they come back, their Curfews will be stricter and if another event like this ever occurs, the police will be getting involved and they will most definitely get expelled."
Chi-Chi rubbed her temples harder, thinking of what a mess she had made, "What am I going to do now?"
"I know I'm not your real parent Chi, but I highly suggest you end things for good with Turles. Trust me, I speak from experience, you don't want to be involved with someone who is violent."
She just nodded in agreement, Turles had been a lot of things, but she never before thought he was someone that could hurt her until now. It was over for good this time. She was done.
On Sunday morning 17 and 18 were sitting in the common room, each with a coffee and having a chat, listening to the roar of the old washing machines. Word of the events of the previous night had only just got out and would soon be all anyone could talk about.
"So your friend Goku is alright?" 18 asked as she sipped her hot drink.
"Yeah Radditz said he'd be fine, he'll come back today I guess, and just take it easy. He won't be able to play football though and 3 of our players just got suspended so I don't know what we're going to do on Friday," 17 commented in the same monotonous tone.
"Pfft, football, sure that's all you care about," 18 joked.
"Your right, but it's no softball," he laughed at her, for joining the girly team when she probably could be playing in the major leagues volleyball.
"Yeah well, we are hardly playing a real game, Ranfan and Zangya are still too stuck up to join the team so we can't compete," 18 complained.
"Why do you even hang out with them?" 17 rolled his eyes.
"Because I don't mind Maron and Fasha," she said matter of factly, "Even if Maron is a ditz and Fasha is kinda a slut."
"You do realise Ranfan and Zangya are practically responsible for the whole Goku-Turles-Chi-Chi fiasco?"
"Yeah," she sighed, "And, they're planning some big prank against Mai sometime tomorrow just a heads up, I'll tell you about it later, maybe you could help her avoid it."
17 nodded, "Or you could just tell her, and then you could hang out with us, bring Maron and Fasha, I don't care."
"Mmm, nah, I don't think so," she said, "Anyway… I have a date tonight," she smirked.
17 frowned at this, "With who?"
"That senior, Zarbon," she smiled.
"VIDO!" 17 announced.
"What do you mean vido?" she demanded.
"Hey, it's only fair, I really liked Mai and you said you had a problem with it. So I didn't take it any further. I really have a problem with Zarbon, so I call VIDO!"
"What's wrong with Zarbon?" she defended.
"What isn't wrong with him? He hooked in with Bulma and spent two weeks lording it over everyone, I would have punched him in the face for it if Vegeta didn't beat me to it. Please don't make me have to listen to that crap being said about you," 17 half begged.
"Fine!" she said throwing her hands in the air, "I'll just be forever alone, the crazy cat lady, if that's what you really want."
"Good," 17 smiled. She punched him in the arm.
It was quiet for a while, which both twins enjoyed until a question that had been eating away at 18 bubbled to the surface.
"You don't still like Mai, do you?" she asked, after she had spent some quality time with the girl, 18 decided she wasn't so bad, her brother could certainly do worse. Maron being a prime example of doing worse.
"Of course I do," he said nonchalantly, "Apart from you, she is the only girl I've ever met that was 100% 'what you see is what you get'. None of the pathetic games and drama with her, she's just a lot of fun really." 17 had always found it easy to discuss girls with his sister.
18 frowned. It may have been her fault that the two missed their chance at getting together. She was under the impression Mai liked that long haired giant now. She caught the two together last night in their dorm looking pretty close.
Bulma hurried into the common room when her washing was done. "Good Morning," she smiled at the twins.
"Morning," they replied synchronically.
Bulma opened the top loader and began to scream.
"No no no no no no no no!" she started yelling angrily.
17 and 18 covered their ears with their hands, waiting for her temper tantrum to subside.
"Who left this red sock in here," she shouted and inspected all of her 'used to be' white clothing that now sported a nice salmon pink.
She pulled out her expensive 'white' underwear and bras and continued her tanty, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Don't worry about it Bulma, I'm sure pink looks fine on you," 17 tried to calm her down.
"Oh NOOOO, you don't understand," she cried as she pulled out the shirt she promised Vegeta she would clean. It was now a perfectly even pink colour. At least the stain was gone. "This is Vegeta's shirt."
17 and 18 began to laugh at the predicament Bulma was now in.
"Oh that's funny is it? Well if I'm going down, I'm taking you both with me!" she growled.
"Hey!" 18 defended, "What did I do?"
Before she could answer, Vegeta half ran into the room, a reaction to the sound of her screams. After seeing she was ok, he glared at her.
"Woman, would you shut up!" he yelled.
"Telling me to shut up whilst raising your voice is a little hypocritical isn't it?" she questioned.
"Your face is hyp-…, Is that my shirt?" he asked pointing at the pink top she held in her hand, noticing the distinctive brand on the collar.
"Uhhh, yeah… see I cleaned it just fine, you can totally wear it now," she smiled largely as if nothing was wrong. 17 and 18 were snickering.
"What did you do?" Vegeta demanded, snatching it from her, "It's PINK?"
"Yeah, that's right it's PINK! I improved it, every guy wears pink, you clearly know nothing about fashion," Bulma tried to defend herself.
He scowled at her, "You better be able to fix this."
She couldn't, there was nothing she could do except buy him a new one, but she wasn't about to admit she was wrong.
"No seriously, every guy is wearing pink, it's the latest fashion, Right guys?" she asked the twins silently begging them to be agreeable.
"You're on your own Bulma," 17 put his hands up not wanting to get involved.
"No hang on, I agree Bulma," 18 insisted, "A real man wears pink. If he has an issue with the colour he would clearly be insecure about his masculinity," she smirked, more liking the idea of tricking Vegeta into wearing that god awful colour than to actually help Bulma out.
"See?" Bulma smiled brightly at 18's assist.
Vegeta glared at all three of them and stormed away, not wanting to hear any more.
'At least he didn't kill me' Bulma thought, "Hey thanks for that," she said to 18.
"Whatever," she said as she got to her feet, "I'll talk to you later brother, are we still going to that café for lunch?"
"As long as I can assert my masculinity in a colour of my choice," he chuckled.
Gure bashed on the door to dorm 10 continuously waiting for Chi-Chi to answer. She opened the door and looked like a disaster.
"Chi-Chi, I only just found out everything, I'm so sorry, I wish we had of all come back together," Gure began apologising.
"It's alright, don't worry about it. I hope we didn't ruin your date," Chi-Chi said as she invited Gure inside her empty dorm room.
Gure grabbed some make-up wipes from Bulma's toiletries and helped Chi-Chi clean all the dry tears from her face, and brush her horrendous hair.
"Is Goku alright? Tarble said he was going down there now to visit him, Mai, Radditz and Krillin went too but I thought I better check on you, unless you want to come too?" she said.
"I think he will be ok, they said he could come home at some stage today. I don't think I should see or talk to him ever again," Chi-Chi sighed.
"What? Why?" Gure asked.
"I'm just so bad for him and I seriously shouldn't date anyone right now, I'm such a mess," Chi-Chi snivelled.
"Chi, I don't think you could be bad for anyone," Gure encouraged.
Chi-Chi could think of one person she was bad for. She pulled out her phone for the millionth time to find no messages from Turles. No apologies, no angry 'I hate you' s, nothing.
"Ugh, ok, let's not talk about it anymore I can't just sit here feeling sorry for myself all day. What about you, I can't believe I didn't realise you and Tarble were together."
Gure's eyes widened at the accusation she wasn't expecting, "Ahh, that's because it is officially a secret."
"Oh I see, but it is official then?" Chi asked.
Gure smiled excitedly and nodded, "After the movie, he took me all over District Bell, it was so nice. I can't believe how great he is," Gure proceeded to tell Chi-Chi all about her date.
"Oh my god, you guys are so cute, we have to tell Bulma," Chi-Chi announced.
"I would prefer if we didn't"
"Why?"
"Because it's a small school, I think it would be better for us and for whatever possible relationship that may lie ahead if it was our little secret you know. I love Bulma, but the woman has told me at least 12 things that others have told her in confidence."
Chi-chi smiled as she remembered half the conversations Bulma had with her began with, 'I'm not supposed to tell anybody this but…'
"Ok, your secret is safe with me, but when Bulma finds out, I didn't know, that woman will rip my heart right out," Chi-Chi giggled.
Launch was in Yamcha's dorm trying to make headway on their Robo tech assignment. They had to have had their idea, and work schedule finalised already and begun construction.
It was hard to focus on the work when they had a tiny kitten to play with, not to mention trying to hide it from everyone else.
Launch dragged her red ribbon along the floor and watched Puar jump up and try catch the end. She had been keeping herself entertained doing that for almost an hour straight.
"I can't believe how thoughtful you are," Launch said to Yamcha who was filming the Youtube worthy kitten moment on his phone.
Yamcha blushed a little at the compliment, he didn't think it was as big a deal as she was making it out to be, he just wanted her to lighten up a little. Her glumness was beginning to make himself feel depressed. He didn't think she deserved to feel that way.
"It's nothing," he smiled and picked the cat up from the floor cradling her in his arms like a baby. "Anyway, what song do we want? Skyfall or Live and let die?"
"I prefer Skyfall, Adele has a pretty nice voice," Launch replied.
"I thought you were only into alternative music," Yamcha stated.
She frowned at him, "There's more to me than that you know." Last thing she wanted was for her own friends to start assigning her the 'Goth' 'Emo' or 'Alternative' stereotypes. She thought back to all the nasty names she had been called over the years. Zangya especially was one of the worst.
"I know," he agreed, dropping it immediately, "Which Bond do you like better?"
"Pierce Brosnan was perfect for the role but Daniel Craig has those dreamy blue eyes," Launch admitted, "You?"
"Well as dreamy as those eyes were, I'm going to have to go with Sean Connery, simply for the excellent accent."
Launch laughed at his several poor impressions of it, "Yeah don't quit your day job Yammy."
"Oh, Yammy is it now?" he chuckled, "And what's our team name going to be?" he asked as he was filling out the written component of the assignment.
"Yes," she grinned largely, "And we are team LaunCha."
"I would have gone with Yaunch, but that works too," he finalised the write up and they both got up to begin construction in the Robo-Tech labs.
"We so have to beat Bulma and Vegeta at this project," Yamcha said, competition clearly on his mind.
"Oh god, I think a not so close second is the best we can strive towards Yammy," Launch thought back to all the work Bulma had been doing and all the ideas she had been bringing up thinking that her dormmates were actually listening to her.
She reached out and scratched Puar's chin, as she placed her in the small pouch in Yamcha's backpack, so they could take her to the labs with them. For the first time since being at DB-High, she actually felt motivated to do some school work.
As she entered the Mess hall on Monday morning, Bulma arrived at the breakfast bar next to Vegeta and began selecting only zero calorie options. He however piled a little of everything onto his tray, almost as bad as Goku.
"Hey," she greeted him, as if they were the best of friends. He acknowledged her with only a nod. Luckily for her he seemed to have dropped the whole pink shirt incident which was good.
She was humming to herself, feeling quite happy and slightly oblivious to everyone else's dramas. Bulma had a way about her, she didn't let other people's issues trouble her which some may say is selfish. Especially when she had a problem and everyone had to know about it.
As Vegeta began to walk away with his food she stopped him.
"Where are you going?" she called.
"Why would it matter? Leave me alone" he barked back at her.
"Just sit with us would you? all your friends are suspended right?"
Vegeta looked for a moment at his empty table. Not having to listen to people talk shit whilst he ate actually sounded perfect, but it seemed Bulma was under the impression that people don't sit alone when they eat.
Bulma walked over to her table and pulled out the chair that was between her a Tarble. "Sit!" she ordered. Tarble was stunned at the way she spoke to him and had to cover the smirk forming on his face, waiting to see what his brother would decide.
Vegeta could tell Bulma was obviously not going to let it go. Plus the Cold twins were just waiting to get Vegeta alone so that they could tear him apart.
After sitting down, Vegeta glared at Tarble for mocking him and didn't acknowledge anyone else. The rest of the group were silent at the strange occurrence which Bulma had orchestrated.
"How's Goku?" Bulma asked, annoyed everyone wasn't talking.
"He's fine, he's in our dorm sleeping it off, I think it may be the first time he's ever missed a meal though," Krillin answered.
"Yeah, tell us something we don't know," 17 muttered.
"Radditz has a tramp stamp!" Mai shouted.
They all looked at her questioningly.
"It's something you don't know," she chuckled to 17.
Radditz was the last latecomer to arrive at the table. He looked inquiringly at Vegeta sitting at the table, 'Did I miss something?' he thought to himself.
"Dolphin or Butterfly?" Krillin asked him when he took his seat between Tien and Mai.
"Butterfly," he answered, without really understanding the question, scoring a few snickers from his new friends.
The group had been careful not to mention Turles or the incident around Chi-Chi who was still feeling very confused and upset about the whole thing. This kind of left them with nothing to really talk about. Which then encouraged Mai and Radditz to attempt to fill the silence with an awkward series of jokes that hardly made sense to anyone but them.
17 was over it and was the first to leave the table, only partially finishing his food.
"What's up with him?" Yamcha whispered to Launch, who just shook her head.
Bulma rolled her eyes at the uninteresting table conversation and poured two glasses of orange juice, she passed one to Vegeta, who had been sitting next to her silently, hardly paying attention to any of them.
"Here," she handed it to him, no 'thank-you' of course.
In that moment Radditz let out a lurid laugh at something stupid Mai must have said and Bulma got angry. She stood up to scold them.
"SHUT UP! You two are about as funny as you are mature! If you were twice as smart, you'd still be stupid, like your jokes that don't even make sense. And seriously Radditz, Slash called, he wants his hair back!" she screamed at them, letting her little rant out.
Radditz and Mai just sat there stunned, and the others were also unsure if they were permitted to laugh at the outburst.
This was when, to more surprise, Vegeta cracked up, she had practically worded exactly what he was thinking. Tarble couldn't help but chuckle when he saw his big brother smiling through his laughter and it wasn't long before the table was snickering at the pair for pissing off Bulma.
A/N
-'These garments you left, they're pink!?, I'm a warrior, not a variety of flower' Best DBZ moment in history aha.