You see a dimly lit stage, empty except for a mike. An average built teenage girl with curly brown hair runs onstage, looking about her, like she was afraid someone was following her. When she gets to the mike, she sighs with relief. "Thank God! I got here before the rest of me!" There is a confused silence in the audience, which is broken by a second girl jumping down on the first girl from the stage rafters. The first girl, alannapurple, screams bloody murder. The second girl looks just like alannapurple, except she's wearing preppy clothes and a big, obnoxious grin.

A third girl, who looks like the first two, but with a scowl and larger muscles, comes out from offstage at alannapurple's screams. She advances on the second girl (which is Giggle, if you don't know from the first chap) with a blank, somewhat insane look. Giggle runs away before Kermit gets any closer. "Thanks Kermit," alannapurple says. She rummages through the pockets of her oversized black band jacket (a/n I LOVE MY BAND JACKET!!!) until she pulls out a fortune cookie leftover from her last meal. "Here Kermit." Alannapurple holds it out in her palm like she was giving it to a wild animal. Kermit snatches it with a wild, obsessive look in her eyes. She devours the cookie whole. Alannapurple makes a face. "Uh, Kermit, you're not supposed to eat the paper in the middle..." Kermit just looks confused, so alannapurple waves her offstage with a flick of her wrist. She turns to the audience. "Alright, besides the fact that I have suddenly decided I DO have the ability to use the Word program on my computer, I have a special treat for you! Yes, in exchange for me corrupting her with Dragonball Z and rock music, callmesquirrel will now be a permanent part of our set!!" Alannapurple snaps her fingers, and a back curtain rises, showing 'squirrel sitting at the drum set, drumsticks in one hand, and the book she's reading in the other.

Alannapurple clears her throught loudly, and 'squirrel looks up. She puts the book away, looking guilty. "What was that?" alannapurple asks her. "A book." "Yes, I know that's a book. I work in a friggen' book store! I just want to know why you're reading on the job!"  "Since when was this a job?" 'squirrel grumbles.  "Since now! Alright, enough about her, more about the story..." "What, do you think the story is more important than me?" 'squirrel demands. "Well that makes me angry. You don't want to make me angry!"

"Oh, really? What, are you going to do, 'do what drummers are fabled to do with their drumsticks'?" alannapurple asks, quoting from the reviews. 'squirrel nods. "Do I want to know?" 'squirrel grins. "You'll find out soon enough." "I can't wait.

"Anyways, I don't own DBZ! I also don't own Burger King (which I should have mentioned in the first story, and I don't hate that place like Kara does, I just prefer McDonalds' burgers), or Starbucks. And using my magical Super Authorific Powers, it's suddenly Sunday. Don't worry, it explains itself. Alrighty then, let the show begin!!"

 The curtain starts to drop, but alannapurple yells out "Wait!" The curtain keeps dropping. "Damn gravity," she mutters. "I hereby give this box of the promised thin mint cookie crumbs to S.T.A.R.S. member for correctly interpreting Pan's last statement. (If you missed it check the reviews) The chocolate fingerprint paper goes to kristy, for alluding (hehehe I used a vocab word in my story lol) to the fact that she knew at least part of the story is t/p. I won't give out which part though." Alannapurple laughs wickedly. The curtain has fallen all the way now. She crawls back under it, and gets halfway before turning around and announcing, "Thanks to everyone else who reviewed that either didn't understand the statement or didn't want to guess. I'll try to have more prize winning questions, 'k?" She disappears for good.

~*~*~*~*~*~

 Previously on "Going Back"..........

**"Isn't it funny the way whatever we talk about seems to bring her up?" Pan asked, softly.

 "Funny 'ha ha' or funny peculiar?" Trunks asked.

"Funny peculiar."

 "Yes, it is." There was a pause. "She's beautiful. Just like you."

 "No," Pan swallowed, "she has your eyes."

Before he could respond, Pan quickly hung up the phone and turned away from it, sobbing**

Kara sat at the booth in her favorite hangout, the Starbucks a block and a half from her apartment/house, stirring her decaf-mocha with extra foam dejectedly. Across from her sat her best friends, Mallory Hale and Claire Scout.

They were pretty much opposites in every way. Claire was petite and blond, and played the flute in the school band. Mal was by no means tall, but she had more of a dancers build, and thick auburn (mostly brown though) hair. She did a little martial arts, since it was L.A., must she had been dancing since she was around five. Not just ballet, but jazz and a little swing. Claire's dad was the principle at one of the nearby Elementary schools, and her mother ran a day care at their house, while she watched Claire's two younger siblings. Mal was an only child whose father had died and whose mother was a criminal defense attorney. Claire sometimes acted the part of the ditzy blond, and would flirt with almost any boy. Mal usually crushed on guys for weeks at a time, but hadn't done any more than that since her last boyfriend in her Sophomore year. The break up hadn't been very devastating, since it was a long distance (L.A. to San Diego) relationship, but Mal had deemed herself "not emotionally ready for a stable relationship." Kara had laughed, asking when the last time the word "stable" described anything to with Mal. Mal had thrown a pillow at her, then laughed back. Claire had a new boyfriend practically every month, and usually they were guys from band. Mal and Kara had both joked that it was like she was the head cheerleader who dated the entire football team.

Practically the only things Mal and Claire had in common were that they both went to the same school, they lived on the same street (all three of them had, since they were really little) and they were friends with Kara. And both of them were worried about how silent Kara was that day. She had told them Friday night that her mother was having a 'friend' coming over on Sunday, and they wanted some 'privacy'. So they decided to meet at Starbucks for breakfast at 10. It was now almost 11, and the three of them had hardly spoken together. Kara was still on her first cup of coffee!

"Kara, what's wrong?" Mal demanded.

"Ya, you haven't acted this depressed since Todd dumped you in November," Claire added. Kara just shrugged.

This worried both of her friends. Usually, Kara's response would have been a quick, slightly annoyed, "He didn't dump me; we broke up. It was mutual."

Kara noticed her response had made them even more worried. "I'm just tired, I guess. I haven't gotten a lot of sleep this past week." It was partially the truth. The other part was that she was deep in thought about what she had heard on Friday, and the conversation she'd had with her mom afterwards. It was what she'd thought about on Saturday also. She and her mom had had a long talk, mostly about Trunks. Her father.

It was a little strange, come Sunday morning, when she actually saw him when he came. She had been leaving to meet her friends when he drove up. It was difficult for her to try to match a physical being up with the term "father," mainly because it had been abstract for so long. Even more strange and difficult for her was to find the "young" man she had seen on Friday. So she had just told her friends he was just an old friend of her mothers. Which he was, so it was the truth. She was just lying by omission.

"If you're so tired, why did you get a decaf coffee instead of getting a caffeine buzz?" Mal asked, a little irritated. It had sounded to her like Kara was feeling sorry for herself about something, and it was Mal's job to snap her out of it.

Kara blinked. "My mind's just all over the place today, isn't it?" She downed the rest of her coffee, which was cold, but still good. "I guess I'll go remedy that." She stood up and got back into line. It was a little long, but she didn't mind. Claire had given Kara plenty of flirting lessons, and the guy behind her wasn't so bad looking. He was about 20 or 21, and had spiked up black hair. He definitely looked Japanese. As much as she did, at least. He was staring at her a little bit like the guy at Burger King had. At least now, she knew why. She almost shuddered when she realized she'd practically been flirting with her own father! And now this guy looking at her gave her an odd sense of deja vu. She smiled at him, the same one she used on Trunks, and to her relief, the boy smiled back. But, he didn't say anything. Kara really was tired, and she didn't feel like starting up a conversation. He also looked like he was in deep thought.

Kara ordered the same thing she had before, except with caffeine this time, and went back to her seat. After the quick smile, she had nearly forgotten the Japanese boy. Almost, but not quite. His smile had been flirty, yes, but also cautious, and with the air of innocence, like a young schoolboy. It had been so very cute.

She began drinking her coffee, feeling better the instant the caffeine entered her bloodstream. Claire laughed at how focused Kara was on her coffee. Claire didn't have one main focus. Instead she had several, top on her list was boys. Mal had a focus, and she was so focused on it that it became an obsession, and the mere mention on it lightened her face like nothing else could do. Kara only focused on what she was doing right then and there. Her mother had taught her, if unknowingly, that the past was better left along, and she had figured out that the future is very uncertain. Kara liked having a firm grasp on the now, which was mainly why her friends were more than slightly worried by her zoning out on them.

Since she was so absorbed by the liquid energy that is regular coffee, she didn't notice the Japanese boy come back up to her. "Excuse me," he asked her politely. She nearly jumped, splashing coffee on her tank top. It barely missed her skin, and she was lucky brown wasn't going to stain black. When she saw why she'd been startled, she relaxed.

"oh, hi. Can I help you?" she asked him.

"Do you live around here?" She nodded.

"Good. I'm not. I was wondering if you could show me how to get..."

"How to get to Sesame Street!" Claire sang, interrupting him, her ditzy blondness taking a hold of her for a few seconds. She laughed.

The boy smiled at her, a genuine smile. "No, actually, I know how to get there. Unfortunately." At the girls' raised eyebrows, he added, "Younger siblings." They nodded in acknowledgment. "I meant to ask to find Havishburg Court."

Kara rolled her eyes and gave him a "duh!" look. "You're on Havishburg Court," she told him slowly as if he was slightly retarded. Which he could have been if he didn't know that.

He chuckled slightly, and scratched the back of his head. "Oh yeah, huh." He put his arm down, and looked around, as if trying to find something.

Kara was slowly losing her patience with this guy. "Is there something else?" she asked when he didn't leave.

"I guess. Do any of you live on this street?"

All three girls nodded. "In the apartments down the street," Mal added.

The boy brightened. "Really? Do any of you know Kara Son?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Okay, when I started this chapter, it was going to be a LOT longer, but then I realized, stopping it here would follow perfect with my habit of cliffhangers. And its long enough, too. And I also have to go to bed. It also means another prize winning question!! A box of Tagalong cookie crumbs to the first person to guess who the boy is OR why he's looking for Kara! O shoot. I guess this means I'll have to wait to get review answers before I post the next chapters with the winners.... Or you could just review quickly... The more reviews, the more likely I'll find time to write within a week from now... (hint hint). I have to go to sleep now, band concert in the morning.

RaWcK oN