The next day, Trunks turned up at the Son household with a ping-pong paddle for his first lesson. As with most of his possessions, the ping-pong paddle was made specifically for him from the finest quality wood by someone who specialises in designer sports equipment. Even Trunks thought this was going over the top, but Bulma decided that if he took up a new hobby, he should have the best equipment money could buy.
It didn't take long until Trunks had mastered serving. Goten wasn't quite as good, but still not too bad considering he'd never played before.
"Okay, let's see what you guys have learnt," Chi-Chi suggested, "Trunks, serve the ball to Goten, and Goten, return it."
Trunks hit the ball at a slow pace across the table, and then ducked as a lightning-fast ball flew straight at his head, hit a tree in the background and felled the tree.
"Okay, Goten, try to hit a little softer, and aim your shots down towards the table. The ball has got to bounce on the table at least once for the shot to count."
Trunks served another ball and Goten tried to return it. This time the ball bounced into the net and stopped. Goten looked like he was ready to break his paddle in frustration, so Chi-Chi decided to end the lesson before she had to admit that her son just didn't inherit her ping-pong skills.
"Man, I suck at this," Goten said, aimlessly trying to bounce a ping-pong ball on his paddle.
"Hey, I'm sure everybody's that bad when they start out," Trunks tried to reason.
"But you're so good…"
"That's because I'm me. Come on, let's try that serve-return thing again," Trunks grabbed a ping-pong ball and hit it over the net, "Ping."
Goten grinned at Trunks' joke and returned the ball perfectly, "Pong."
"Ping."
"Pong."
"Ping."
"Pong."
"Ping." The shot went off the table, causing Trunks to lose.
"Hey, I went pretty good that time…" Goten muttered.
"That's because you forgot about trying to hit the ball and let your instincts do the ball-hitting for you," Trunks explained, "That's why I've been kicking your ass all day."
The alarm on Trunks' watch started going off, "Damn, I've gotta go. You wanna practice some more tomorrow, Goten?"
Goten nodded, waving as his friend flew off.
* * *
Trunks returned home and started heading upstairs to his room, running into Vegeta in the process.
"It's about time you got home, brat," Vegeta's voice was harsh, but Trunks could tell he was just putting on a 'tough guy' act, "Get your ass in the Gravity Room, it's time for your training."
"Sorry, Tousan, I have too much homework to do," Trunks explained, "I'll train with you some other time." Before Vegeta could argue, Trunks had run off and entered his room.
Vegeta stood in shock. His son, the Saiya-jin no Ouji, had refused to train. The brat had spent all day learning how to play ping-pong, but he couldn't find the time to train… Vegeta looked almost disappointed for a second, before he returned to his usual expressionless mask and returned to his training.