A/N: Back to back updates, because the last chapter is sort of a two-part with this one. Hopefully this chapter clarifies things for the guest reviewer that had some questions. Part of the conversation towards the end of this chapter is supposed to be confusing, so just keep reading through that confusing conversation and everything should come across clearly by the end.
Where did it go? Where did it go? He groaned in frustration as he shuffled papers around on his disorganized desk of his room. He could have sworn he left the number right there. Right under his history book. He stopped and scratched his chin pensively. Or was it under his math book?
He turned his head side to side, scanning the room for that little pink slip of paper, which really should have stood out like a sore thumb, seeing that he didn't use pink paper. Oh! Maybe it fell under the desk! He got down on his hands and knees, lowering his face to the floor and turning his head sideways as he peered at the shadowy floor beneath the furniture.
"What are you doing?" His roommate voiced with annoyance as he raised his head in surprise and hit his head hard against a jagged edge of the desk. He winced in pain as he slid out from beneath the furniture and sat upright on the ground, rubbing his head with a forced smile.
"I lost…uh…" he glanced momentarily at something he'd seen beneath the desk, quickly grasping it and presenting it to his roommate, "my pencil. Pen!" He corrected with a shake of his head as he more closely observed the writing tool he had haphazardly snatched. His roommate scoffed and rolled his eyes as he breezed past Goku and headed for his own desk.
"What are you working on?" Vegeta asked Goku absently as he sat and opened a book of his own to begin homework.
"Huh?" Goku scratched his head and absently placed the found pen on his desk. Vegeta slowly turned in his chair with an unamused expression.
"What were you working on before you lost your pen?" Vegeta repeated slowly with irritation lacing his voice, before he lowered his chin disbelievingly at Goku's clueless expression. "Or do you rescue lost pens for the fun of it?" He added sarcastically. Goku chuckled guiltily. He didn't realize he'd need an explanation for his other explanation. Elaborate lies were never his forte.
"Oh! I…an essay." Goku answered, crossing his arms with a big toothy grin. Maybe that was playing it off too much. Why would he be smiling about writing an essay? Goku immediately stopped smiling and stared back at Vegeta's disbelieving stare, until Vegeta shook his head dismissively.
"Why don't you write an essay about how your new little bald friend never shuts up?" Vegeta suggested bitingly as he turned his back to Goku, lifted his pen to paper and began his own writing. It was nice of Vegeta to offer a topic suggestion, but that was a little harsh. Krillin was more than some little bald guy that talked a lot. He was a fun little bald guy that talked a lot!
"What are you working on, Vegeta?" Goku asked curiously, changing the subject as he kept his arms crossed tight and glanced intrusively over Vegeta's shoulder. Vegeta hunched over his desk, concealing his paper as he glared warningly over his shoulder at his roommate. Goku shrugged and backed away before glancing around the room for any other ideas of where that paper might have went. "What was Krillin talking about?" His eyes continued searching around the room as he tried to maintain conversation with Vegeta.
"He wants us to go out with him and the other losers this weekend." Vegeta grumbled with his face in his paper. That idea sounded alright, not that he could care right now. He wanted to call Chi-Chi before going out again. "He also wants to know what type of detergent I use." Vegeta sneered mockingly as he continued with his writing. Goku nodded. Detergent…laundry detergent. Laundry! Goku smiled in realization. He left the number in his pocket! It must have been in his laundry somewhere! Goku hurriedly reached for the half-filled laundry basket in his closet, pulling it to his drawers and feverishly emptying all of his pants from the drawers into the basket. He couldn't look here without arousing Vegeta's suspicion. But he could go down to the laundry room!
"Did you hear me?" Vegeta asked gruffly as he looked over his shoulder at Goku. Goku poked his head up from his task in surprise. He had heard Vegeta's voice, but really wasn't listening to whatever Vegeta had been saying. He tried to remember. Did Vegeta mention Bulma's name for some reason? Vegeta knit his brows at the sight of Goku emptying clean clothes into his dirty laundry basket, obviously perturbed by what his roommate was up to. Goku chuckled guiltily and rubbed his head.
"Hear what, Vegeta?" Goku responded innocently with a tilt of his head, maintaining his large grin as he hoped Vegeta would decide not to ask.
"You're going down to do laundry?" Vegeta asked with a suspicious raise of his brow. Goku nodded.
"Yep."
"If you see Krillin, tell that freak to stop sniffing my clothes." Vegeta huffed as he returned to his work at his desk. Goku lifted his basket and smiled at the sight of Vegeta turning around and resuming his work.
With childish enthusiasm, Goku ran down the stairs to the laundry room, bursting through the swinging doors by pushing through them with his filled basket. He found a vacant area of the laundry room and stationed himself in front of a washer as he began checking every pocket of clothing he could before tossing the checked items into a front-load machine.
As he patiently searched each pocket, Goku hummed to himself until he reached the bottom of the basket. Then he frowned as the final pocket came up empty. Where was it? Goku groaned as he turned from his empty laundry basket to the machine where all his clothes were. He'd have to check again. He must have missed it. Goku leaned into the machine, pulling pants out and groaning in frustration. He practically fell into the machine retrieving the items that had reached the back of the washer, and pulled back out with a sigh of relief once it was emptied again.
Then he glanced up to notice Piccolo standing a few feet away, staring at Goku with an amused smirk. Goku chuckled nervously at the sight of Piccolo's stare. Then he looked at his refilled basket, unsure what to do now with Piccolo watching. He quirked a brow at Piccolo, who was standing there with his arms crossed, his own basket of laundry at his feet, still smirking at Goku.
"How long have you been standing there?" Goku asked warily, placing his hands in his pockets and trying to appear casual.
"Long enough." Piccolo replied before chuckling at Goku's expense as Goku's smiling façade fell into a frown. "What did you lose, Goku?" Piccolo asked knowingly as he deserted his basket of laundry to walk up to Goku, leaning his back against one of the stacked machines as he crossed his arms again. Goku groaned in defeat. He didn't want Vegeta to know about the lost number, because the guy would mock him endlessly. But maybe telling Piccolo wasn't so bad. Piccolo seemed to already know anyways, judging by that smug smile on his face.
"Chi-Chi's phone number." Goku confessed as he anxiously rattled his hands in his pockets before looking up for Piccolo's reaction. Piccolo laughed as he shook his head knowingly.
"The girl from the hotel?" Piccolo asked as Goku nodded in agreement. "You didn't call her yet?" He added disbelievingly as Goku sadly shook his head. Piccolo snorted in amusement. "You're going to be sorry if you see that girl again." Piccolo replied as he began walking away from Goku, towards his own basket. While Piccolo set to work on the machines with his own laundry, Goku's eyes widened in understanding of Piccolo's warning.
"Oh, no." He groaned. Goku wanted to find the number because he really wanted to call Chi-Chi. He hadn't considered that she'd be expecting that call. He was just now beginning to realize how screwed he would be if he saw Chi-Chi again.
"So, if it takes two weeks for the factory to produce 4000 cartons, and the factory is shut down for two days, then how-alright." Bulma said as Ms. Mai finished passing their group and the girl turned her focus from her paper to her friends. "What do you want to know?" Bulma asked with a proud smirk.
Yeah. She seemed really proud of what she'd done. Not that Launch would know. No. She'd still had zero interaction with the opposite sex, aside from a little manhandling of Tien, and she was tired of waiting to hear everyone else's stories. But she had given up any notions of Tien calling their pseudo call girl service. The guy was definitely not a hunter. Not like Launch.
Launch frowned as 18 listened intently but stoically to Bulma's detailed discussion of her sexual encounter at the hotel. Bulma certainly wasn't shy about it. Where was she when Launch was actually in the mood to hear that stuff? Bulma left the room that night and really went to play call girl with some guy named Vegeta. Just hearing his name made Launch decide he must have been a bastard, even before Bulma was beginning a rant about how the guy hadn't called her. But Launch couldn't really blame the guy for that move.
"You know, Bulma," Launch said condescendingly as she irritably tapped her pencil on her desk, "if you tell a guy you're a call girl and he sleeps with you, you really shouldn't expect him to call you again." Launch expressed with a lowered chin and raised brows as she eyed Bulma's aghast expression.
"Well then, listen to this!" Bulma began with a determined glare as Launch leaned forward expectantly. "Five hundred, no three hundred." Bulma said as she shook her head at the correction and Launch cocked her head at her friend's nonsense talk. What the hell did Bulma think she was doing? "Three hundred men carrying five loads each-" Bulma said as Launch glanced curiously over her shoulder to see Ms. Mai walking away from behind her. Oh, good. So Bulma wasn't going crazy.
"He knew that I wasn't a call girl, and he slept with me anyways." Bulma continued haughtily once Ms. Mai was gone.
"Wait. What?" 18 asked with a completely confounded expression, probably wearing the same one Launch was demonstrating at the moment.
"How do you know that he knew?" Launch asked as she crossed her arms and eyed Bulma skeptically.
"Your call girl plan sucks, Bulma." 18 commented with a smirk before Bulma could answer. Bulma gaped at 18 for a moment before narrowing her eyes at both her blonde friends at her desk as she leaned forward and spoke more quietly.
"When I saw him at the store, he was questioning me about the call girl stuff, but he seemed all suspicious and judgmental about it. Then when he called me, he was so straightforward about asking to meet for sex, like he knew I would say yes." Launch rolled her eyes at Bulma.
"Of course he knew you would say yes. You were a 'call girl'." Launch said while raising her fingers for air quotes.
"Shhh!" Bulma snapped as she anxiously looked around the room. Alright, maybe Launch said the words 'call girl' a little loudly. She could quiet it down. As long as no one shushed her again! She glared at Bulma in warning as the other girl continued speaking.
"No!" Bulma vehemently disagreed with Launch's earlier statement. "I realized later that he had it figured out before he even called me." Bulma said arrogantly as Launch raised a dubious brow, not understanding what the hell Bulma was talking about.
"If it was before he called you, how is that later?" 18 asked skeptically as she rested her chin in her hand and leaned forward with her elbow propped on the desk. Bulma groaned irritably.
"Later after running into him at the store, but before he called me!" Bulma exclaimed as she glared impatiently at the other two. Launch still wasn't getting it. And frankly, she was losing interest in this conversation.
"Don't you get it?!" Bulma exclaimed to her friends' confounded expressions. "Vegeta knew I wasn't a call girl, so he was testing me to see how far I'd go. The prick!" Bulma yelled angrily as she crossed her arms. "Like I was going to back down to him." Bulma added with an incredulous sneer.
"The prick is an ironic choice of words, Bulma." Launch replied with an amused laugh.
"If you knew he was testing you, why'd you sleep with him?" 18 asked Bulma with an annoyed glare. 18 was probably as tired of this conversation as Launch was. Bulma frowned at 18 and huffed before looking away from the others regretfully.
"Maron." She answered in a groan. Launch's eyes widened in understanding.
"Ohhhh." She and 18 breathed in unison as Launch nodded in understanding. If Maron had stolen Launch's first chance at a guy, Launch would have done anything for revenge against that girl. And she remembered that conversation in the dorms when Maron was eavesdropping. She didn't understand at the time why Bulma was claiming to be going to see the guy that she had turned down, but now it made more sense. She really did see the guy, and she really did sleep with him, and it was all to outdo Maron. Or was it? If that was it, why was Bulma upset that the guy hadn't called her?
"So he slept with you when he knew you weren't a call girl, just to test you." 18 stated as she studied Bulma carefully for confirmation that she understood correctly. "And you slept with him anyways, when you could have just lied to Maron about it." 18 added with a knowing smirk as Bulma frowned deeply at the statement. "And he said he'd call, but hasn't called you?" 18 asked with a slight tilt of her head as Launch looked at Bulma, curiously awaiting her answer. Bulma frowned and hesitated. Launch's shoulders drooped with exasperation as she stared at Bulma's obvious resistance to answering that question.
"He didn't even say he'd call you, did he?" Launch asked knowingly as she narrowed her eyes at Bulma. Bulma continued frowning as she crossed her arms and stubbornly rolled her eyes, refusing to answer.
"Bulma." 18 groaned disappointedly as she obviously agreed with Launch's conclusion.
"Well you can forget about him." Launch stated bluntly as 18 glared reprovingly at Launch. "What?" Launch defensively questioned 18. "It's the truth. He got what he wanted, and now he's done with you. What more did you expect, Bulma?" Launch questioned her unhappy friend abrasively.
"I expected-" Bulma began in a haughty tone before she lowered in her seat and grimaced at something just over Launch's head. Launch warily turned slowly in her chair to see Ms. Mai standing over them with a furious expression.
"Girls, you are not doing your work. I'll have to give you all zeros for the day." Ms. Mai decided as she began collecting the papers from their table with a victorious smirk.
"No!" Launch objected as she threw her body over the table, spreading her arms wide in an attempt to defend her group's papers. Ms. Mai stood upright with one hand on her hip as she eyed Launch intently.
"No?" Ms. Mai questioned mockingly. "Well if I'm not taking your papers from this desk, I will be taking something else." Ms. Mai responded stubbornly. Bulma and 18 exchanged a glance as Launch groaned in defeat.
"Fine. Here." Launch relented as she reached behind her neck with both hands and unclasped the necklace she had been wearing. It was always the routine with that teacher. Give her something to appease her, and you have an A for the day. Launch was just lucky to be wearing a necklace that day that she didn't give two shits about. And she had wondered why she bothered putting that thing on this morning. What a lucky break. As Launch dropped the necklace in the teacher's palm, Ms. Mai smiled, eyeing the jewelry before looking at the girls sternly again.
"Good. Now get back to work." Ms. Mai ordered before walking away to deposit her prize wherever she kept all the shit she confiscated. The girls sighed as they buried their faces in their papers, setting to work quietly for a few minutes as they knew Ms. Mai was watching them carefully. Then Bulma raised her head slightly from the papers, meeting Launch's eyes with a determined expression Launch did not expect to see.
"I felt something with him, Launch. And I know he felt it, too." Bulma said, maintaining an intense gaze for a while longer before returning to her work. Launch frowned pensively as she watched Bulma put pen to paper. Their plan was supposed to be about getting laid. Not about getting boyfriends. But maybe they were in a little over their heads, thinking that it would just be over after one time. "And if he doesn't call me," Bulma added crossly, abruptly interrupting Launch's thoughts as she looked up from her paper again, "the next time I see him he's gonna feel it." Bulma added with a menacing glare before returning to her work. Launch still wanted to see Tien again. But seeing what Bulma was going through, maybe she'd take things slower with Tien. At least, she'd try to. Launch was a little confused, but she was sure about one thing. The call girl gig was up. It was time for Launch to come up with her own plan of attack.