Chaos reigned in Bulma's Capsule Corp home that night. As Gohan tried to calm his distraught daughter down, Videl, Chi-Chi and Bulma were all yelling simultaneously at Vegeta. Vegeta was yelling back whenever he could get a word in, and despite the fact that they were at the other end of the house, Trunks and Goten could hear almost every word of their conversation.
Not that they were trying to listen. They were in fact in the games room of Trunks' house, playing ping-pong to try and ignore what was going on outside. Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy.
"You could try supporting him, Vegeta! You should have seen how upset he was at the tournament…"
"I would support him if he'd do something worth supporting! That school offers wrestling, football, kendo and judo. But of course, Trunks had to pick a sport for complete losers like ping-pong!"
Trunks tried to block the conversation out as he got ready to deliver a serve to Goten…
"A sport for a complete loser…"No, don't think about it, just serve.
"Complete loser…"
Hit the ball!
"Complete…"
HIT IT!
"Loser…"
Knock that ball into the middle of next week!"Ow! Hey, watch it, Trunks," Goten complained, snapping Trunks out of his semi-dazed state. Trunks looked at his friend to see him holding his nose in pain – the ball obviously hit Goten on the nose a little too hard.
"Sorry, Goten."
"That was the best I've ever seen you play, Trunks," Goten muttered, touching his nose gingerly, making sure it wasn't broken, "I could barely keep up, but you weren't even paying attention to the game, were you?"
"I guess not. You know, I've decided that I don't care anymore. I don't care if Tousan hates me because I play ping-pong. I like ping-pong, and I'm going to keep playing it. And I'm going to become the best player ever, whether Tousan likes it or not!"
* * *
Trunks had decided to play ping-pong regardless of what his father thought about it, and life became peaceful in Capsule Corp once again. Trunks and Vegeta weren't talking to each other, but they also rarely saw each other, because Vegeta had started doing even more training than he usually did.
"I'm telling you, Chi-Chi, I can't take this any longer!" Bulma complained to her friend a while later, "Trunks and Vegeta haven't spoken a word to each other since that tournament. It can't be good."
"Maybe so, but look on the bright side," Chi-Chi offered her take on things, "Trunks and Goten haven't gotten in trouble at school since they started playing ping-pong. Besides, less confrontation between Trunks and Vegeta means less furniture and priceless ornaments blown up."
Bulma thought about this for a moment. "I suppose you're right, Chi-Chi. I just wish Vegeta would stop being such an ass."
* * *
It was only a matter of weeks before the prestigious Orange Star High School faced it's first opponents in the nationals – the less-than-prestigious Satan City High School, a government school located right near a statue of our hero and saviour, Mr Satan. The playoff would be held at Satan City High, so the entire Orange Star ping-pong squad was crammed into a small bus to give support to the visiting team.
The tournament is played as follows – each of the four members from each squad play a singles match against an opponent. The team with the most wins after the fourth match moves on to the next round. In the case of a draw, a random player from each team is selected to play a decider match. Normal ping-pong rules are in play for the matches, with the winner being the first to seven points [A/N: I just pulled that figure from my butt, so it may not be right. I do know how to play ping-pong; I just don't know how many points it takes to win].
"Man, this is creepy," Trunks whispered to Goten as they wandered the corridors of Satan City High.
"Yeah, I know," came the reply, "These people look like they're going to jump us any minute… and this school doesn't even have a uniform!"
It wasn't long before Trunks and Goten were seated, ready to watch the action. Since neither Trunks nor Goten are playing in this tournament, I won't go into detail about the results. But in the end, Orange Star High won 3-1. The important thing to note, however, is that one of Orange Star High's players got injured when he slipped on the overly waxed floor of the gym and would not be able to play in the remainder of the championship. Before boarding the bus to go back to school and learn something that will actually aid people in later life, Coach Ruttager spoke briefly with the squad.
"Okay, guys, it appears that Atsushi won't be able to play in future rounds of the championship," Ruttager glared at his squad with his one eye, as if it were their fault, "So we need a fourth player before the end of the month, which is when the next match is being played. So this week instead of training, we will have a small, private tournament to decide on the fourth. It might be a good idea for some of us," Ruttager cast a glance at Trunks, "to get some training in before then."
Trunks was embarrassed by being singled out, but still cast an excited glance at Goten. They had a second chance!