Dragonball FT, The Black Thorn Saga

Chapter 2: Something Different

The rest of the bus ride was passed in idle conversation between the two friends. Xavier did his best to ignore Mark's occasional comments. After a trip of about forty-five minutes, the three teenagers got off the bus. Xavier said goodbye to Jane and started walking to his school with Mark a few feet away from him. Xavier and Jane attended different schools, Jane's being a five minute walk down the street. Both were private, single-sex high schools, two of the few in the area. Xavier's parents had insisted that he go there. The money hadn't been a problem when his father was alive, but since he had died, Xavier had to work after school cleaning classrooms to help pay for it. He didn't want to do it and would have rather just gone to a public school, but his mom really wanted him to go there, so, when it was offered by the principal, he took the opportunity to help pay for his education.

Walking through the doors to the school, Xavier thought to himself It's only October and already I can't stand this place. I can't wait until I'm out of this hell-hole of a school. Xavier went to his homeroom and then, obeying the bells like one of Pavlov's dogs, went from class to class, zoning out through most of them. The morning just dragged on until he got to his local history class. Why did I ever sign up for this class? Xavier thought. It's an easy A, but it seems more like Urban Legends 101 than a history class. "Great Saiya-man," "Golden haired warriors," next thing you know, Mrs. Barlow up there is going to tell me they saved the world. All she's doing is telling us old stories that we are supposed to believe happened over 200 years ago. Oh, well, I have lunch next, and at least I can get some sleep in this class.

The rest of Xavier's day passed in the usual manner, Xavier's teachers talked on and on, while Xavier simply ignored what was going on in class. All went well until Xavier's last class of the day. It was gym class. While he didn't hate the class, Xavier wasn't fond of it, either. He wasn't very fond of organized sports, most likely because, when compared to some of his classmates, he was no good at any of them. While he knew this was the case, Xavier always told himself: I've got better things to do with my time than chase around some stupid ball. If I didn't need this class to graduate, I wouldn't even be here.

Rather than play basketball like everyone else in the class was doing, Xavier decided to go and lift weights in the weight-room. If they're all playing basketball, I won't have to torture myself by listening to their loud-mouthed bragging, Xavier thought.

He had placed fifty pounds on a bar and was struggling through a set of bench-presses. Half-way through the set, Xavier's classmate, Chris, walked over and started talking to him. Chris had short, light brown hair, which he styled to make stand straight up, tan skin, a lean build as a result of years of rowing and was about six inches shorter than Xavier. Chris had wallet as fat as a hog, and a personality to match.

Oh great, he's going to start using up perfectly good oxygen that I could have used. Xavier thought when Chris had stopped right next to the bench that Xavier was working out at. Xavier did not think of Chris in the same way that most others did. Most people looked past Chris' arrogant nature, and saw his overflowing wallet. Xavier, on the other hand, didn't give a damn about how much money Chris had and just wished he wouldn't talk to him.

"Hey, buddy." Chris initiated the conversation. Xavier almost dropped the weights on his chest when he heard the word "buddy").

"What do you want, Chris?" Xavier replied.

"I noticed you hadn't bought a ticket for the homecoming dance, and I thought I'd remind you that I'm the only one selling them."

Xavier merely grunted a reply, half out of resentment that Chris was in charge of selling the tickets and he would have to pay the little snob for his ticket, and half out of his sheer resentment of Chris. Great, a sales pitch. Just what I want to hear coming out of his mouth. He thought to himself.

Seeing an opportunity to press a sale, Chris continued: "You are going, right?

Xavier didn't respond, but rather, focused his eyes on the ceiling and silently counted his reps.

"Don't tell me you don't have a date," Chris joked, still trying to close the sale.

Xavier continued to ignore Chris. He did have a date...Jane. The dance was a joint event of both their schools and neither of them had found a date, so they decided to go together, just for the hell of it.

Chris was starting to get annoyed by Xavier's ignoring him, so he got up to leave and try to sell some tickets to those playing hyperball in the gym down the hall. When he was about ten feet away from the door, Chris turned and said in a sarcastic tone, "Sorry to bother you, man, I just figured you'd be taking that tramp you're always hanging out with and would need a ticket. Don't get mad at me for doing my job."

Up until that point, Xavier was able to bear Chris' annoying presence. He had done so for three years. Today, however, Chris had set something off inside Xavier. He knew that Chris was talking about Jane and he couldn't stand it when people insulted any of his few friends. Chris had insulted Xavier before, and Xavier normally didn't care about the words that spewed from Chris' mouth. But when Chris insulted Xavier's best friend like that, something snapped in Xavier. He placed the bar that he was holding above him in its stand, right above his head and sat up on the
bench.

"What did you just say?" he angrily asked Chris.

A smirk formed on Chris' face. He enjoyed this sort of thing, since he knew that, although he was shorter than Xavier, he was still the stronger of the two. "What? You mean what I said about that hot little skank that insists on hanging out with you?"

At that instant, a fire was lit in Xavier's eyes. A rage swelled in him that he had never felt before. Xavier had stood up, and now reached to his right and placed one hand on the bar that he was lifting, just moments ago, clenching the steel in his white-knuckled hand.

"Awww, what's the matter?" Chris said in a condescending manner, "Did what I say get you all upset?"

Xavier didn't respond. He simply lifted to bar with one hand and stated in a cold, emotionless voice: "Chris, you little sack of shit, I've had to put up with listening to you for years." Xavier brought the bar up and began to throw it, as if it were nothing more than a baseball. "Now, I'm gonna shut you up, you son of a..."

"STOP!!!!!"

Xavier heard the voice just before he let go of the bar. While he couldn't stop the momentum, he redirected the bar to the padded floor, where it landed with a relatively quiet thud.

Xavier looked around for the owner of the unfamiliar voice, as Chris just stood in shock at what he had just seen, thinking That scrawny little twerp was just struggling to bench-press that bar, and then he goes and picks it up with one hand as if it were nothing!!

Meanwhile, Xavier still did not know who had told him to stop; there was no one else in the room. "Who's there?" Xavier asked in a relatively loud voice.

"What are you talking about?" the frightened Chris asked him. "There's no one in here except you and me, and you know it."

Xavier was still annoyed at Chris, but asked him, "If there's no one else in here, than who just yelled to me to stop from hurling that bar through your chest like a javelin?"

"What the hell's wrong with you? No one yelled 'stop.' What the fuck is going on here?" Chris frantically stated.

With that, Chris ran out the door, not sure of what had just happened. While running down the hall, he thought to himself: Holy shit! Was that real, or did I just hallucinate all that??....I gotta stop smoking up during lunch.

Meanwhile, Xavier was left with his own thoughts. What the fuck just happened? Who was that that told me to stop? Why didn't Chris hear it? Why did I listen? Am I going insane? He reached down with one hand to pick up the bar again, and was surprised to find that, once again, he could barely lift it, even when using two hands. And how the hell was I able to pick this thing up so easily?