A/N: I have this funny little idea tickling at the back of my brain…as far as I know, nobody has ever used this idea before… we'll see… until then, enjoy!! As for me making Bulma kinda scary … well as I figure it, living with Vegeta must rub off on her at some point!
DISCLAIMER: How many times must an author do this, before they don't have to any-more…? (Sings the "How many times" song…) One … more … time … I don't own DBZ.
You guy's don't like Jack do you? You keep telling me "Hit the road, Jack". I'll take it as a compliment that you didn't put Kay-chan ^___^ The new song actually sort-of fits the chapter, imagine that! ^.^
Chapter 14: My Boyfriend's …
As Videl marched down the hallway, looking remarkably like a parade marshal with her faithful ensemble treading in step behind her. Well, not really in step, they were together, more or less. Several groups had formed from the once singular group. Both the nerds (read: the intelligent students), and the popular jocks and chicks (read: the not-quite-so-intelligent students) decided that they had mutually had way too much of each other.
And as infuriating as listening to the jocks and chicks seemed to be for the nerds, the popular kids were quite tired of listening to the nerds talk so far above their heads (read: having a normal conversation).
Videl, taking a quick glance behind her, noted that with as far as Mr. Shinara was behind her, he didn't look like he intended to take charge of the class just yet. Sighing, Videl took a quick glance at her watch. Unfortunately, it seemed they still had a good half an hour in this class. The meeting with Mr. Kato, though it had seemed like it had taken at least half of the day, turned out to have taken 20 minutes at the most.
Slamming the double doors open on her way out onto the field where the box with a million useless gym equipment pieces was waiting silently for their return. It was much harder to stomp on the grass, but somehow, Videl managed to do an admirable job.
Coming within spitting range of the box, she stopped and leaned slightly, crossing her arms and taking up one of her favourite poses.
The students arranged themselves in small groups, gossiping quietly (or loudly, depending on which group you happened to be standing next to) amongst themselves.
Mr. Shinara, moved to stand in front of the box, facing the students.
"Well wasn't that fun." He stated.
The students became quiet immediately, not quite sure how to take this comment. Mr. Shinara, for all his lovability, wasn't exactly know for his sanity. The same could probably be said for any number of the Orange Star High teachers. Most would claim they were in perfect sanity before starting to teach.
Deciding to take their teacher's word at face value, the students all giggled slightly, with a few notable exceptions. While Erasa's giggle verged on being laughter, Videl wasn't even allowing the slightest hint that she enjoyed the humour to come out. Her thoughts were decidedly elsewhere, on a young man who had been kidnapped by a very large, very green, alien.
I'll find out where he's gone if it's the last thing I do!! She thought to herself. With lunch period coming up, she could easily cash in on one of the favours owed to her by one of the number of nerds who she had saved from bullying. Eyes narrowing, she began to repeat what was now becoming somewhat of a mantra Son Gohan, I will find out what you are hiding!
Mr. Shinara started organizing them back into the groups they had been placed in before the kidnapping. This effort was greatly aided by the fact that the students were still wearing their vividly coloured belts making sorting extremely easy. Gym class proceeded as normally as was possible after the events of the morning.
~*~
The saying goes "Great Things come in small packages", and Bulma was sure this was the case with her latest (and greatest) invention. She had struggled for almost two weeks on this particular project. It would sell very well to the military, and had some possibilities for the manufacturing field as well. After all, wouldn't it be a lot easier to have one Lazer than a whole set of fancy, expensive, cutting machines.
The Lazer had managed (so far) to cut through anything she put in its path, without damaging the surrounding areas. She had also managed to limit the distance of the cutting lazer. After 3 feet, the lazer became a simple beam, which showed the person whether they were maintaining a straight line.
Bulma reached the bottom of the stairs, Gohan's arm firmly in possession (he had been going slower than she wanted, now that she had an opportunity to show off her pride-and-joy). Piccolo had come, out of concern for his former student (so he told himself).
Vegeta had come because even though he wouldn't admit it, he was curious to see what would happen to the brat's tail. As far as he was concerned, the Onna shouldn't even be trying to get rid of it, after all, a Saiyan's tail, third-class though he may be, was a Saiyan's pride. But Vegeta had learned that once the Onna got an idea in her head, it would be foolish even for the Prince of Saiyans to try to convince her to do something else. Though he knew without a doubt that if it was his tail that had grown back, there would be absolutely no discussion on whether or not the tail would stay.
Gohan found himself dragged to the middle of the room. Looking down, he noted there was a nice target circle painted on the floor, which matched his current deer-in-the-headlights feeling that Bulma was going to be aiming something at him. The fact that he didn't particularly want to have anything shot at him wasn't of particular concern to the aforementioned blue-haired genius.
Bulma turned to direct Piccolo and Vegeta to stand back, preferably against one of the walls and noticed that Vegeta had taken up his traditional arms-crossed, wall-leaning position, while Piccolo towered above him, arms also crossed. Bulma had to stifle a laugh looking at the two. They were an unlikely pair. One short alien, and one tall green alien, both with almost identical scowls on their faces.
Turning back to Gohan, she noted he hadn't moved from the spot she had placed him. Smiling, she began to explain her creation. "This is the Lazer!" she proclaimed, holding up the small black pen-light type machine. "It shoots out a …" at this point, Bulma started what sounded awfully like a sales pitch, she only got about half-way through pointing out all the optional features when Vegeta jumped in.
"Onna, are you going to show us how this thing works, or will you be waiting until the brat gets old enough for the tail to no longer matter." This was a statement, not a question. Vegeta had listened, what he considered patiently, through the first couple minutes, before the Gravity Room entered his mind. And he'd be a monkey's uncle if the Onna kept him from it much longer.
Bulma huffed slightly, but realized that she would be fighting a losing battle on this one. She did one last check-over of both Gohan's position and the Lazer itself, and fired. A high-pitched whistle seemed to come from the Lazer, which caused the Saiyans and Piccolo to wince, Bulma remained un-affected due to her average human hearing.
She ran the Lazer up and down across where Gohan's tail connected to the rest of him, and released the firing mechanism. Pausing to admire her handiwork, her smile turned into a slight frown. Gohan's tail showed no sign of being detached. In fact, the tail actually didn't show any signs that it had been under attack.
Frowning, she paced up to Gohan, and decided to give the tail a quick yank, just to make sure the Lazer hadn't cut through and the fur was keeping it in place. The sharp screech from Gohan was more than enough to convince her that it was still firmly attached to the young demi-Saiyan.
Gohan had had enough. And he let Bulma know it. "Bulma!"
Bulma looked up in surprise at hearing the tone of the teens voice. She couldn't recall him ever sounding quite that… Vegeta-ish.
"The tail stays. And no one." He paused here to look around the room and repeated "no one is going to try removing it. And no one is going to pull it again."
Vegeta smirked to himself, and in a gruff voice said. "That's a Saiyan attitude, boy. Finally some good influence is rubbing off on you, now that blasted Kakkarot isn't here to stop you."
Gohan frowned, and feeling more than a little irritated with people in general, quickly replied. "And you, Vegeta, will not speak about my father that way. Or else…" he let the threat hang.
Vegeta's smirk became a little more pronounced. I'll make a Saiyan out of you yet brat.
Bulma, having finished a quick test to make sure the Lazer was actually working, turned to the group and said "Well Gohan, I guess there's nothing we can do at the moment. Let me get you some new clothes and we'll have you on your way back to school."
Gohan looked down at his clothes. After lying on the grass, being hauled to Capsule by Piccolo, being greeted by Trunks, and being singed by the Lazer, his clothing had definitely seen better days.
~*~
Twenty minutes (and a change of clothes later), Gohan, and his new tail-belt were standing outside of Orange Star. Glancing at his watch, he found it would be just about time for lunch (his favourite part of the day) to start, it would be best if he went to his locker to get his capsule-meal.
Taking a quick peek around the corner, he ran quickly to his locker, and then opening and closing it faster than the normal human eye could see, he grabbed the capsule and ran outside, trying to find a quiet spot, preferably as far from Videl as he could manage, to eat.
He was just pushing the door open when he remembered this was the door into the courtyard where his gym class was taking place today. Turning around, he began jogging towards another exit. His sensitive hearing alerted him to the sound of a door-latch opening behind him…
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A/N: Aren't you proud of me, this chapter's the longest one yet!!
I've forgotten to mention it again, but the mailing list is still up-and-running… I've had a few problems with some e-mails, so if you said you wanted to get mail and aren't, that's probably what's been happening, or if you just decided you want to be added, let me know in the review… Speaking of reviewing … actually you guys have been very, very good at letting me know what you think – a big THANK YOU to everyone who reviews, and especially my faithful reviewers (in no particular order) otepoti, Hyperbole, DemonDancing, Chalchihuitlicue, and Padawan JanAQ!) – hands out some chocolate. ^.^
