Chapter 9
*********
"So what are we gonna do until tomorrow?" Angelica asked.
"I dunno…" Nicole sighed.
"Oh! You can help me water my chrysanthemums!" Mr. Popo excitedly suggested.
"Uh… no. That's ok…" Leah said, sitting down against a wall.
"Really…" Nicole added.
"Oh… are you sure? I really would love it if you-"
"Positive." Angelica interrupted.
"Really?" Mr. Popo begged.
"Really!" Yamcha yelled.
"Are you sure? 'Cause-"
"YES!!!" the four screamed in unison.
"Ok…" Mr. Popo walked away disappointed.
"If you guys need me, I'm gonna be over here." Dende announced, pointing to a small doorway, and then walking in.
Nicole sighed and sat down next to Leah. Angelica and Yamcha did the same. "This is so boring…" Leah said after five minutes.
"Tell me about it!" Yamcha agreed.
"We need to find something to do…" Angelica groaned.
"Hey, does Mr. Popo have a computer?" Nicole asked curiously.
"I dunno…" Yamcha answered. "Hey Mr. Popo! Do you have a computer!?!?"
"No! Sorry!" But if you want something to do, you can help me water my-"
"NO!" the four immediately cut in.
"Fine! Be that way!" Mr. Popo said, returning to watering his flowers.
"I wonder if anyone's ever died of boredom…" Leah muttered.
"Hey! Let's order a pizza!" Angelica eagerly suggested.
"But Mr. Popo doesn't have a phone…" Yamcha said.
"He doesn't have a phone?" Angelica questioned, obviously not believing him. Yamcha shook his head.
"Maybe Dende has one…" Leah guessed. Yamcha laughed and chuckled, "Yeah right!"
Just then, Dende walked up to the four, and said, "Hey guys! Do you need a cell phone? 'Cause I got one!"
Nicole, Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha all gawked. Who would have thought that Dende would have a cell phone?!?!
"Great! Can we use it?" Angelica asked energetically.
"Sure. Just don't call long distance…" Dende warned.
"Ok!" Leah said, grabbing the phone out of Dende's hand, and handing it to Angelica. She dialed 1-800-ORDER-A-PIZZA and ordered one with a ton of toppings, such as extra cheese, sausage, olives, mushrooms, peppers, pineapples, tomatoes, onions, and pepperoni.
Within the next ten minutes, the pizza arrived, and everyone dug in. A while after, once everyone had finished stuffing their faces, Nicole blurted out, "I wonder how Trunks is doing…"
"I wonder how Gohan's doing…" Angelica said, joining in.
"They're probably training right now… I wonder if Gohan went Super Saiyan level three yet…" Yamcha said.
"I bet he did!" Angelica said happily.
"Why would Gohan go Super Saiyan level three first, and not Trunks?" Nicole asked, a little insulted.
"'Cause Gohan is slightly stronger than Trunks… but the two are still extremely close in power levels." Yamcha explained.
"I bet Yamcha could go Super Saiyan level… whatever, any day of the week." Leah bragged, feeling excluded.
"Uh… thanks for the compliment, but… I can't go Super Saiyan at all." Yamcha slowly admitted.
"What!?!? Why?!?!" Leah asked, half shocked by his answer, half embarrassed by her boasting.
"'Cause I don't have Saiyan blood. Gohan and Trunks are half Saiyan, because their fathers, Goku and Vegeta, are both full-blooded Saiyans." Yamcha explained.
"That's not fair…" Leah complained. "But doesn't that mean that Bra's half Saiyan 'cause Vegeta's her father too?"
Yamcha nodded. "Yeah, but… she doesn't fight!" Leah said.
"I know… she says 'she's a shopper, not a fighter'." Yamcha responded.
"Well there's Saiyan blood that was just wasted on someone who's never gonna use it." Leah announced outraged.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't wanna have Vegeta as my father anyway! But it's ok though, 'cause I'm the strongest human fighter anyway. Krillin used to be, but now I've greatly surpassed him." Yamcha assured.
"Oh… but if you could go Super Saiyan, or if you had the blood in you, or whatever… I bet you'd be the strongest Super Saiyan in the entire world." Leah complimented.
"Who is your father anyway?" Angelica suddenly interrupted.
"Well… my father died a long time ago…" Yamcha recalled.
"How?" Leah asked.
"Ya see… way before I met Bulma and Goku, I was a desert bandit, and my father was the head of our gang. He was shot in the chest and died… while he was trying to steal from a blacksmith…" Yamcha sadly said.
"Oh… I'm sorry…" Leah said sympathetically, hugging him.
"It's ok… he died when I was eight, and we were never really that close…" Yamcha said. "Then all the others from our gang ran off because they had no leader, and I stayed as a bandit with Puar until I was fourteen or fifteen… that was when I met Bulma and Goku."
"Oh…" Angelica nodded. Then, everyone was silent for a few minutes.
"So…" Nicole said, trying to break the quietness. "Trunks and Gohan went in at around… 12:00…"
"Yeah…" Angelica said.
"Well, if it's 2:00 now…" Nicole began.
"We've got a heck of a long time to wait…" Yamcha finished.
"Does Mr. Popo have a television?" Angelica hopefully asked.
"Nope…" Yamcha responded.
"He doesn't have a computer, a phone, or a television? How can he survive up here?!?!" Leah demanded. Everyone laughed.
"Oh! A deck of cards! He probably has a deck of cards, right?" Nicole blurted out suddenly.
"God knows…" Yamcha answered.
"Mr. Popo! Do you have a deck of cards we could use!?!?" Nicole shouted.
"Let's see… only a deck of pinochle cards…" he answered.
"Great! Can we use 'em?" Nicole excitedly asked.
"Sure! Lemme get them for you…" Mr. Popo said cheerfully. He went into the building that Dende had gone into earlier, and came back out with a deck of playing cards. "Here you are." Mr. Popo said, handing them to Nicole.
"Thanks!" she said gratefully. Once Mr. Popo had started tending his flowers again, Nicole took the cards out from their box, shuffled them, and said, "So do you guys wanna learn how to play pinochle?"
"What the heck is pinochle?" Yamcha questioned.
"It's a really cool card game. Don't worry, I'll explain it to you." Nicole assured, as she continued shuffling the cards. Just as she was beginning to deal, Leah said, "So? How do you play?"
"Well," Nicole said as she handed out the last card. "This deck is different from a regular deck of cards. It goes from the nines, all the way up to the aces. Like every deck, it still has four of each kind." she explained.
Once Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha understood the rules, they all played a few rather long games, before it got dark. "I really hope Mr. Popo has a place where we can sleep…" Leah said once the cards were put away.
"I know, really…" Nicole added.
"Hey Mr. Popo! Where are we all gonna sleep?" Yamcha yelled.
"Uh… right where you are! I'll bring out some sleeping bags!" Mr. Popo said. Once he had got them, he walked over to the group and said, "Here you go!" as he dropped them down. "There are only three, so you'll have to find a way to share them…"
"That's ok!" Yamcha said quickly.
"Yeah! We'll sleep together!" Leah added.
"No. I think we should lay them all out, and sleep on them like that." Angelica said.
"No!" Leah snapped.
"Yes!" Angelica argued.
"Why?!?! Don't you trust me and Yamcha?" Leah asked, trying to hide a slight grin.
"No! Not after last night!" Angelica explained.
"Fine. We'll lie out the sleeping bags." Leah finally reluctantly agreed.
Once the sleeping bags were rolled out, and lined up, the four talked a little before going to sleep. "You know… after Gohan kills Jukuo, we should have a huge party!" Angelica suggested.
"Wait… who says Gohan's gonna beat him?" Nicole questioned insulted.
"No one… I just think Gohan will be the one to destroy him!" Angelica responded.
"Whatever…" Nicole said, trying to change the subject. She totally disagreed with Angelica. See didn't see why she was bragging over her boyfriend being the strongest. Trunks had told her about many happenings where someone unexpected won a battle. She wasn't in the mood to argue over something as stupid as that anyway. Even though Nicole really wanted Trunks to be the won to destroy Jukuo, she didn't want him to get seriously hurt… or worse. Killed.
"Anyway, yeah. We should have a party!" Leah said excitedly.
"Yeah, it does sound fun." Yamcha said.
"Where would we have it?" Nicole asked.
"Probably at Capsule Corp. since that's where we have all of our big parties…" Yamcha guessed.
"Hey, maybe Bra would like it if we combined her birthday party and the celebration all into one!" Leah said.
"Maybe… we should ask her." Nicole replied.
Nicole, Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha all talked until they heard Mr. Popo scream, "HEY!!!! SHUT UP OUT THERE!!!!! SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!!!!!"
"Sorry!" Nicole sourly apologized. It wasn't even 10:00 yet! "I guess we'd better go to sleep, before Mr. Popo yells at us again… I didn't think we were being that loud…" Leah said slowly.
"Yeah…" Yamcha agreed.
Once everyone was on a sleeping bag, things got quiet and everyone drifted to sleep quickly.
The next morning, Nicole slowly awoke. Her eyes drowsily opened. The sun was so bright she had to shut her eyes again. Guessing by the sunlight, Nicole realized she had slept late. She heard Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha talking. "Only a few hours now…" she heard Yamcha say.
"Good. So, what are we gonna do until then?" Leah asked. Nicole tried to open her eyes again. She saw Leah sitting next to Yamcha, and Angelica sitting across from them. Nicole squinted and then rolled over to hide her eyes from the blinding sun.
"Look… Nicole's finally awake…" Angelica announced.
"Good. Now we can play pinochle again, until Trunks and Gohan come out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." Yamcha said, grabbing the deck of cards.
"C'mon Nicole! Get up!" Leah ordered. "We wanna play pinochle again, but we forgot all the rules…"
"Ugh… do I have to?" Nicole groaned.
"Yes!" Angelica quickly answered.
"Fine…" she muttered as she slowly sat up. After blinking a few times, her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. Nicole stretched her legs out and took the cards from Yamcha. "For teams, it's me and Angelica again, right?" she yawned as she shuffled the deck.
"Yeah, I guess…" Yamcha said.
"Ok." Nicole responded. She passed out the cards, and they started to play.
About an hour had passed when the game had ended. Nicole said, "Boo-ya! That's for every time you guys beat us yesterday!"
"Yeah!" Angelica happily added. They were celebrating their first win, when Mr. Popo came over to them and asked them if they wanted to something to eat. "Do you guys wanna eat before or after Trunks and Gohan come out?" he questioned.
"Uh… probably after…" Angelica said.
"Yeah, that way we'll be able to eat with them." Nicole explained.
"Alright then…" Mr. Popo said, walking away.
"Shall we play another game?" Angelica asked confidently.
"Yeah, but let's make it quick so we can put the sleeping bags away." Yamcha said.
"Same teams!" Nicole declared as she started shuffling the deck of cards again.
That game Leah and Yamcha won. "Oh! NOW who's the best team?" Leah said joyfully.
"Well, at least we won one game…" Angelica said to Nicole. She nodded. "Hey look!" Nicole said, pointing to the clock.
"It's 11:45!" Yamcha said.
"That means they're coming out in fifteen minutes… we'd better put the sleeping bags away." Leah suggested.
"Yeah…" everyone agreed. The four rolled up the sleeping bags, and gave them to Mr. Popo. Once he had put them away, he walked over to the door the led to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, where Nicole, Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha were all waiting. "It should be any time now…" Mr. Popo announced, looking at the clock. It was 11:57. Soon, 11:58. Then 11:59. "Oh… I can't wait!" Angelica said excitedly.
"It is time!" Mr. Popo declared. He walked up to the great wooden door, and turned the handle. A brilliant light blinded Nicole's eyes. She saw two dark figures emerge. Once they had come into focus, and Mr. Popo had shut the door, Nicole ran to Trunks and hugged him. "Oh my God Trunks! Look at your hair!" Nicole said in shock.
"Ugh! Yours too Gohan!" Angelica said, walking over to him. Trunks' hair had grown at least four inches! Gohan's hair had become much longer also. "Oh my God, as soon a Yamcha goes in, we're going to get you two haircuts!" Angelica said
"Yes!" Nicole quickly added. Trunks and Gohan just laughed. Meanwhile, Leah was totally cracking up. "Hey Leah, I'd shut up if I were you, 'cause when Yamcha comes out his hair is gonna be longer too!" Angelica said annoyed.
"Yeah, but at least he won't look as bad as Trunks or Gohan!" Leah laughed.
"Shut up!" Nicole snapped.
"Yamcha, it is now your turn." Mr. Popo announced, ignoring the laughter.
"Ok, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow…" Yamcha said, as he hugged Leah goodbye.
"See ya!" she said, kissing him on the cheek. With that, Yamcha walked through the door, and into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
"I'm hungry." Gohan blurted out.
"Oh! Yamcha never ate! Now he's gonna like… starve!" Leah groaned.
"It's ok… there's food in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." Mr. Popo assured.
"C'mon! Let's eat!" Gohan said.
"Ok." Angelica agreed. Mr. Popo led Nicole, Leah, Angelica, Trunks, and Gohan into a small dinning room. "I'm so hungry!" Gohan exclaimed.
"But didn't Mr. Popo say that there's food in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?" Leah asked.
"Yeah, but…" Gohan began.
"We can't cook…" Trunks finished. "Gohan tried to cook spaghetti once, and the kitchen almost caught on fire!" Trunks said, as everyone sat down at the table.
"Well, when Trunks tried to make a chicken stir-fry, he dropped the skillet and almost broke my foot!" Gohan recalled, beginning to laugh.
"Oh, so Gohan and I were making soup, and when we were done, it had like, no flavor, and Gohan wanted to add a can of beer!" Trunks laughed.
"There's beer in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?" Nicole asked, giggling.
"Yeah! Trunks answered.
"I hope Yamcha doesn't a hold of it!" Angelica said, laughing even harder.
"Hey! That's not funny!" Leah said, grinning.
"Oh, yes it is!" Gohan chuckled.
The five talked a while longer, until Mr. Popo brought them something to eat.
"Yes! Good food!" Gohan said, beginning to stuff his face.
"Alright!" Trunks said, joining him. Nicole, Leah, and Angelica all stared at the two in total shock. They had never seen anyone eat like them before. Food seemed to be flying everywhere!
During the meal, Nicole asked, "So did either of you reach Super Saiyan level three?"
"No…" Trunks said.
"Really?" Angelica asked, a note of disappointment in her voice.
"Yeah, but now we're closer than ever." Gohan said shoving some fried rice into his watering mouth.
After everyone had finished eating, Angelica said, "Now we're going to get you guys haircuts!"
"Yeah, ok." Trunks said.
"Let's go. I don't know how much longer I can stand to look at you with your hair that way…" Nicole said, looking at Trunks.
"You really hate it, don't you?" he asked smiling. She nodded. The five got into the jet plane that they had arrived in, and told Mr. Popo they would be back in about an hour. "Have fun now!" Mr. Popo waved goodbye.
"Where does he think we're going? To an amusement park?!?!" Leah laughed.
"I don't know, but personally, I think Mr. Popo is really stupid…" Nicole said, cracking up too.
"I totally agree." Angelica said.
"The only thing he's really good for, is letting us use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber whenever we want! Trunks laughed.
"And food!" Gohan added.
The group laughed hysterically until they reached the hair salon. "The Celestial Salon…" Leah read aloud.
"I hope the do haircuts for guys…" Gohan said as everyone got out of the plane.
"Of course they would!" Angelica said as they walked through the front door. Nicole looked around. The walls were painted a pale shade of blue, and the ceiling was black, covered in small images of stars and ringed planets. The small salon certainly fit its name. Nicole, Leah, and Angelica all sat down on a velvet navy blue couch, while Trunks and Gohan made a reservation at the front desk. Once they were finished, the two walked over to the girls and sat down. "So, how long is the wait?" Angelica questioned.
"Oh, they said we should be taken any minute." Gohan said. A few moments later, Trunks' name was called. He walked to the back of the shop, and just as he sat down, Gohan's name was called too.
Within an hour, Trunks and Gohan had their hair cut back to its original length, and the group flew back to Mr. Popo's tower. Nicole then taught Trunks and Gohan how to play pinochle. "This is a really cool card game!" Gohan said, putting out an ace of diamonds. "I take it, right?"
"Yep!" Nicole answered. Gohan grabbed his ace from the middle, along with Nicole's ten of hearts, Angelica's king of diamonds, and Trunks' nine of clubs. Then, Gohan threw out an ace of spades. Once Angelica had taken her turn, Trunks questioned, "Trump is diamonds, right?"
"Yeah." Nicole answered as he put out a queen of diamonds.
That game seemed to last forever. No one could get to five hundred points, which was the goal.
"Yes! We finally made it!" Angelica said when the game had ended.
"I know!" Nicole grinned as she collected all the cards.
"This time I'm keeping score. Ok?" Gohan said to Leah.
"Yeah… so it's me and Angelica, and Nicole and Trunks?" Leah asked.
"Yep." Angelica answered.
The next game was much shorter. Nicole and Trunks kept getting really good cards, so they won easily. For the third game, Nicole kept score and Leah and Angelica were a team, and so were Trunks and Gohan. Just as it was about to end, Dende walked over and said, "Hey, can I play too?"
"Uh… I guess…" Gohan said.
"Let us finish this game first though." said Leah. He nodded and said, "Great."
The game they played with Dende was very confusing. He kept asking the same questions over and over. "What's a run again?" he asked as everyone was counting their points.
"Dende, I told you like… five times already!" Nicole answered annoyed.
"Well, I forgot!" he persisted.
"Ugh… it's when you have at least one ace, one ten, one king, one queen, one jack, and one nine. The nine's optional though… you don't need it to have a run. Oh, and it all has to be in the same suit." Nicole explained.
"Oh… ok." Dende said, looking at his cards again. That game, Leah and Nicole won.
"Well, I think you did a pretty good job…" Gohan said to Dende.
"Yeah right! The score was minus three hundred eighty six, to five hundred! I set us, like twenty billion times!" Dende admitted sarcastically.
"But it was your first game!" Gohan reminded.
Soon Dend e had left and everyone got tired of playing. "Let's play rummy." Nicole said, hoping to find something else to do that everyone would enjoy.
"Uh… ok…" Angelica agreed. "But you'll have to teach us!"
"Geeze, you guys don't know any card games, do you?" Nicole laughed.
"That's not true! I know how to play fifty two pick up!" Leah said giggling. "And besides! We all had better things to do than learn how to play cards!"
"Ugh! You're so mean!" Nicole said, laughing too.
Once Nicole had convinced everyone to let her teach them rummy, they all played for a while until Mr. Popo asked them what they wanted for dinner. "Well, what can you make?" Angelica asked.
"Um… pasta… chicken… steak… soup…" he began to list.
"I want soup." Nicole interrupted. She absolutely loved soup, as it was her all time favorite food. It could be a thousand degrees outside, and Nicole would want to eat soup.
"Yeah, soup sounds good… what kinds can you make?" Trunks asked.
"Oh! How about Maryland Crab soup?" Nicole interrupted again.
"Yeah, I can make that…" Mr. Popo responded.
"It's really good." Nicole said, turning to Leah, Angelica, Trunks and Gohan. When Mr. Popo had walked away, Gohan said, "Nicole, why didn't we get a say in that?"
"I dunno… sorry…" Nicole smiled.
"Yeah, I mean, maybe one of us is like… allergic to soup, or something!" Leah giggled.
"Well, I dunno about you, but I've never met anyone who's allergic to soup…" Angelica said laughing.
"Anyway, trust me. You'll all love it." Nicole said.
"Ok… " Gohan said. "Let's play rummy again."
"Yeah." Angelica agreed.
So the five played a few short games. After the eighth round, Trunks complained, "Ugh… when the heck is Mr. Popo gonna be done with that soup? It's already been an hour…"
"He probably blew up his kitchen or something…" Leah said sarcastically.
When Mr. Popo finally did serve them dinner, which was about ten minutes later, everyone loved the soup, just like Nicole had guessed. "Well, you were right Nicole… this soup is really good." Angelica complimented.
"Yeah. I agree one hundred percent!" Trunks chimed in.
"Thank you… thank you… no autographs please…" Nicole said laughing.
"What about pictures?" Leah joked.
After everyone had finished eating, they decided to set up their sleeping bags. Since they had five people instead of four like the night before it was going to be even more cramped with only three sleeping bags. So they laid them out in a format similar to the one they had used before. Except this time, they unzipped the sleeping bags all the way open. "I miss sleeping in my own bed…" Nicole said as she crawled onto the sleeping bags.
"I know… I miss my pajamas too! We've been sleeping in sleeping bags for the last three nights!" Leah agreed.
"Well, tomorrow we won't have to." Angelica said.
"Thank God…" Nicole sighed.
When everyone became tired enough to fall asleep, the five climbed onto the bed of sleeping bags and with drowsy goodnights to each other. They all went to sleep.
*********
"So what are we gonna do until tomorrow?" Angelica asked.
"I dunno…" Nicole sighed.
"Oh! You can help me water my chrysanthemums!" Mr. Popo excitedly suggested.
"Uh… no. That's ok…" Leah said, sitting down against a wall.
"Really…" Nicole added.
"Oh… are you sure? I really would love it if you-"
"Positive." Angelica interrupted.
"Really?" Mr. Popo begged.
"Really!" Yamcha yelled.
"Are you sure? 'Cause-"
"YES!!!" the four screamed in unison.
"Ok…" Mr. Popo walked away disappointed.
"If you guys need me, I'm gonna be over here." Dende announced, pointing to a small doorway, and then walking in.
Nicole sighed and sat down next to Leah. Angelica and Yamcha did the same. "This is so boring…" Leah said after five minutes.
"Tell me about it!" Yamcha agreed.
"We need to find something to do…" Angelica groaned.
"Hey, does Mr. Popo have a computer?" Nicole asked curiously.
"I dunno…" Yamcha answered. "Hey Mr. Popo! Do you have a computer!?!?"
"No! Sorry!" But if you want something to do, you can help me water my-"
"NO!" the four immediately cut in.
"Fine! Be that way!" Mr. Popo said, returning to watering his flowers.
"I wonder if anyone's ever died of boredom…" Leah muttered.
"Hey! Let's order a pizza!" Angelica eagerly suggested.
"But Mr. Popo doesn't have a phone…" Yamcha said.
"He doesn't have a phone?" Angelica questioned, obviously not believing him. Yamcha shook his head.
"Maybe Dende has one…" Leah guessed. Yamcha laughed and chuckled, "Yeah right!"
Just then, Dende walked up to the four, and said, "Hey guys! Do you need a cell phone? 'Cause I got one!"
Nicole, Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha all gawked. Who would have thought that Dende would have a cell phone?!?!
"Great! Can we use it?" Angelica asked energetically.
"Sure. Just don't call long distance…" Dende warned.
"Ok!" Leah said, grabbing the phone out of Dende's hand, and handing it to Angelica. She dialed 1-800-ORDER-A-PIZZA and ordered one with a ton of toppings, such as extra cheese, sausage, olives, mushrooms, peppers, pineapples, tomatoes, onions, and pepperoni.
Within the next ten minutes, the pizza arrived, and everyone dug in. A while after, once everyone had finished stuffing their faces, Nicole blurted out, "I wonder how Trunks is doing…"
"I wonder how Gohan's doing…" Angelica said, joining in.
"They're probably training right now… I wonder if Gohan went Super Saiyan level three yet…" Yamcha said.
"I bet he did!" Angelica said happily.
"Why would Gohan go Super Saiyan level three first, and not Trunks?" Nicole asked, a little insulted.
"'Cause Gohan is slightly stronger than Trunks… but the two are still extremely close in power levels." Yamcha explained.
"I bet Yamcha could go Super Saiyan level… whatever, any day of the week." Leah bragged, feeling excluded.
"Uh… thanks for the compliment, but… I can't go Super Saiyan at all." Yamcha slowly admitted.
"What!?!? Why?!?!" Leah asked, half shocked by his answer, half embarrassed by her boasting.
"'Cause I don't have Saiyan blood. Gohan and Trunks are half Saiyan, because their fathers, Goku and Vegeta, are both full-blooded Saiyans." Yamcha explained.
"That's not fair…" Leah complained. "But doesn't that mean that Bra's half Saiyan 'cause Vegeta's her father too?"
Yamcha nodded. "Yeah, but… she doesn't fight!" Leah said.
"I know… she says 'she's a shopper, not a fighter'." Yamcha responded.
"Well there's Saiyan blood that was just wasted on someone who's never gonna use it." Leah announced outraged.
"Yeah, but I wouldn't wanna have Vegeta as my father anyway! But it's ok though, 'cause I'm the strongest human fighter anyway. Krillin used to be, but now I've greatly surpassed him." Yamcha assured.
"Oh… but if you could go Super Saiyan, or if you had the blood in you, or whatever… I bet you'd be the strongest Super Saiyan in the entire world." Leah complimented.
"Who is your father anyway?" Angelica suddenly interrupted.
"Well… my father died a long time ago…" Yamcha recalled.
"How?" Leah asked.
"Ya see… way before I met Bulma and Goku, I was a desert bandit, and my father was the head of our gang. He was shot in the chest and died… while he was trying to steal from a blacksmith…" Yamcha sadly said.
"Oh… I'm sorry…" Leah said sympathetically, hugging him.
"It's ok… he died when I was eight, and we were never really that close…" Yamcha said. "Then all the others from our gang ran off because they had no leader, and I stayed as a bandit with Puar until I was fourteen or fifteen… that was when I met Bulma and Goku."
"Oh…" Angelica nodded. Then, everyone was silent for a few minutes.
"So…" Nicole said, trying to break the quietness. "Trunks and Gohan went in at around… 12:00…"
"Yeah…" Angelica said.
"Well, if it's 2:00 now…" Nicole began.
"We've got a heck of a long time to wait…" Yamcha finished.
"Does Mr. Popo have a television?" Angelica hopefully asked.
"Nope…" Yamcha responded.
"He doesn't have a computer, a phone, or a television? How can he survive up here?!?!" Leah demanded. Everyone laughed.
"Oh! A deck of cards! He probably has a deck of cards, right?" Nicole blurted out suddenly.
"God knows…" Yamcha answered.
"Mr. Popo! Do you have a deck of cards we could use!?!?" Nicole shouted.
"Let's see… only a deck of pinochle cards…" he answered.
"Great! Can we use 'em?" Nicole excitedly asked.
"Sure! Lemme get them for you…" Mr. Popo said cheerfully. He went into the building that Dende had gone into earlier, and came back out with a deck of playing cards. "Here you are." Mr. Popo said, handing them to Nicole.
"Thanks!" she said gratefully. Once Mr. Popo had started tending his flowers again, Nicole took the cards out from their box, shuffled them, and said, "So do you guys wanna learn how to play pinochle?"
"What the heck is pinochle?" Yamcha questioned.
"It's a really cool card game. Don't worry, I'll explain it to you." Nicole assured, as she continued shuffling the cards. Just as she was beginning to deal, Leah said, "So? How do you play?"
"Well," Nicole said as she handed out the last card. "This deck is different from a regular deck of cards. It goes from the nines, all the way up to the aces. Like every deck, it still has four of each kind." she explained.
Once Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha understood the rules, they all played a few rather long games, before it got dark. "I really hope Mr. Popo has a place where we can sleep…" Leah said once the cards were put away.
"I know, really…" Nicole added.
"Hey Mr. Popo! Where are we all gonna sleep?" Yamcha yelled.
"Uh… right where you are! I'll bring out some sleeping bags!" Mr. Popo said. Once he had got them, he walked over to the group and said, "Here you go!" as he dropped them down. "There are only three, so you'll have to find a way to share them…"
"That's ok!" Yamcha said quickly.
"Yeah! We'll sleep together!" Leah added.
"No. I think we should lay them all out, and sleep on them like that." Angelica said.
"No!" Leah snapped.
"Yes!" Angelica argued.
"Why?!?! Don't you trust me and Yamcha?" Leah asked, trying to hide a slight grin.
"No! Not after last night!" Angelica explained.
"Fine. We'll lie out the sleeping bags." Leah finally reluctantly agreed.
Once the sleeping bags were rolled out, and lined up, the four talked a little before going to sleep. "You know… after Gohan kills Jukuo, we should have a huge party!" Angelica suggested.
"Wait… who says Gohan's gonna beat him?" Nicole questioned insulted.
"No one… I just think Gohan will be the one to destroy him!" Angelica responded.
"Whatever…" Nicole said, trying to change the subject. She totally disagreed with Angelica. See didn't see why she was bragging over her boyfriend being the strongest. Trunks had told her about many happenings where someone unexpected won a battle. She wasn't in the mood to argue over something as stupid as that anyway. Even though Nicole really wanted Trunks to be the won to destroy Jukuo, she didn't want him to get seriously hurt… or worse. Killed.
"Anyway, yeah. We should have a party!" Leah said excitedly.
"Yeah, it does sound fun." Yamcha said.
"Where would we have it?" Nicole asked.
"Probably at Capsule Corp. since that's where we have all of our big parties…" Yamcha guessed.
"Hey, maybe Bra would like it if we combined her birthday party and the celebration all into one!" Leah said.
"Maybe… we should ask her." Nicole replied.
Nicole, Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha all talked until they heard Mr. Popo scream, "HEY!!!! SHUT UP OUT THERE!!!!! SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!!!!!"
"Sorry!" Nicole sourly apologized. It wasn't even 10:00 yet! "I guess we'd better go to sleep, before Mr. Popo yells at us again… I didn't think we were being that loud…" Leah said slowly.
"Yeah…" Yamcha agreed.
Once everyone was on a sleeping bag, things got quiet and everyone drifted to sleep quickly.
The next morning, Nicole slowly awoke. Her eyes drowsily opened. The sun was so bright she had to shut her eyes again. Guessing by the sunlight, Nicole realized she had slept late. She heard Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha talking. "Only a few hours now…" she heard Yamcha say.
"Good. So, what are we gonna do until then?" Leah asked. Nicole tried to open her eyes again. She saw Leah sitting next to Yamcha, and Angelica sitting across from them. Nicole squinted and then rolled over to hide her eyes from the blinding sun.
"Look… Nicole's finally awake…" Angelica announced.
"Good. Now we can play pinochle again, until Trunks and Gohan come out of the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." Yamcha said, grabbing the deck of cards.
"C'mon Nicole! Get up!" Leah ordered. "We wanna play pinochle again, but we forgot all the rules…"
"Ugh… do I have to?" Nicole groaned.
"Yes!" Angelica quickly answered.
"Fine…" she muttered as she slowly sat up. After blinking a few times, her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. Nicole stretched her legs out and took the cards from Yamcha. "For teams, it's me and Angelica again, right?" she yawned as she shuffled the deck.
"Yeah, I guess…" Yamcha said.
"Ok." Nicole responded. She passed out the cards, and they started to play.
About an hour had passed when the game had ended. Nicole said, "Boo-ya! That's for every time you guys beat us yesterday!"
"Yeah!" Angelica happily added. They were celebrating their first win, when Mr. Popo came over to them and asked them if they wanted to something to eat. "Do you guys wanna eat before or after Trunks and Gohan come out?" he questioned.
"Uh… probably after…" Angelica said.
"Yeah, that way we'll be able to eat with them." Nicole explained.
"Alright then…" Mr. Popo said, walking away.
"Shall we play another game?" Angelica asked confidently.
"Yeah, but let's make it quick so we can put the sleeping bags away." Yamcha said.
"Same teams!" Nicole declared as she started shuffling the deck of cards again.
That game Leah and Yamcha won. "Oh! NOW who's the best team?" Leah said joyfully.
"Well, at least we won one game…" Angelica said to Nicole. She nodded. "Hey look!" Nicole said, pointing to the clock.
"It's 11:45!" Yamcha said.
"That means they're coming out in fifteen minutes… we'd better put the sleeping bags away." Leah suggested.
"Yeah…" everyone agreed. The four rolled up the sleeping bags, and gave them to Mr. Popo. Once he had put them away, he walked over to the door the led to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, where Nicole, Leah, Angelica, and Yamcha were all waiting. "It should be any time now…" Mr. Popo announced, looking at the clock. It was 11:57. Soon, 11:58. Then 11:59. "Oh… I can't wait!" Angelica said excitedly.
"It is time!" Mr. Popo declared. He walked up to the great wooden door, and turned the handle. A brilliant light blinded Nicole's eyes. She saw two dark figures emerge. Once they had come into focus, and Mr. Popo had shut the door, Nicole ran to Trunks and hugged him. "Oh my God Trunks! Look at your hair!" Nicole said in shock.
"Ugh! Yours too Gohan!" Angelica said, walking over to him. Trunks' hair had grown at least four inches! Gohan's hair had become much longer also. "Oh my God, as soon a Yamcha goes in, we're going to get you two haircuts!" Angelica said
"Yes!" Nicole quickly added. Trunks and Gohan just laughed. Meanwhile, Leah was totally cracking up. "Hey Leah, I'd shut up if I were you, 'cause when Yamcha comes out his hair is gonna be longer too!" Angelica said annoyed.
"Yeah, but at least he won't look as bad as Trunks or Gohan!" Leah laughed.
"Shut up!" Nicole snapped.
"Yamcha, it is now your turn." Mr. Popo announced, ignoring the laughter.
"Ok, I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow…" Yamcha said, as he hugged Leah goodbye.
"See ya!" she said, kissing him on the cheek. With that, Yamcha walked through the door, and into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
"I'm hungry." Gohan blurted out.
"Oh! Yamcha never ate! Now he's gonna like… starve!" Leah groaned.
"It's ok… there's food in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." Mr. Popo assured.
"C'mon! Let's eat!" Gohan said.
"Ok." Angelica agreed. Mr. Popo led Nicole, Leah, Angelica, Trunks, and Gohan into a small dinning room. "I'm so hungry!" Gohan exclaimed.
"But didn't Mr. Popo say that there's food in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?" Leah asked.
"Yeah, but…" Gohan began.
"We can't cook…" Trunks finished. "Gohan tried to cook spaghetti once, and the kitchen almost caught on fire!" Trunks said, as everyone sat down at the table.
"Well, when Trunks tried to make a chicken stir-fry, he dropped the skillet and almost broke my foot!" Gohan recalled, beginning to laugh.
"Oh, so Gohan and I were making soup, and when we were done, it had like, no flavor, and Gohan wanted to add a can of beer!" Trunks laughed.
"There's beer in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber?" Nicole asked, giggling.
"Yeah! Trunks answered.
"I hope Yamcha doesn't a hold of it!" Angelica said, laughing even harder.
"Hey! That's not funny!" Leah said, grinning.
"Oh, yes it is!" Gohan chuckled.
The five talked a while longer, until Mr. Popo brought them something to eat.
"Yes! Good food!" Gohan said, beginning to stuff his face.
"Alright!" Trunks said, joining him. Nicole, Leah, and Angelica all stared at the two in total shock. They had never seen anyone eat like them before. Food seemed to be flying everywhere!
During the meal, Nicole asked, "So did either of you reach Super Saiyan level three?"
"No…" Trunks said.
"Really?" Angelica asked, a note of disappointment in her voice.
"Yeah, but now we're closer than ever." Gohan said shoving some fried rice into his watering mouth.
After everyone had finished eating, Angelica said, "Now we're going to get you guys haircuts!"
"Yeah, ok." Trunks said.
"Let's go. I don't know how much longer I can stand to look at you with your hair that way…" Nicole said, looking at Trunks.
"You really hate it, don't you?" he asked smiling. She nodded. The five got into the jet plane that they had arrived in, and told Mr. Popo they would be back in about an hour. "Have fun now!" Mr. Popo waved goodbye.
"Where does he think we're going? To an amusement park?!?!" Leah laughed.
"I don't know, but personally, I think Mr. Popo is really stupid…" Nicole said, cracking up too.
"I totally agree." Angelica said.
"The only thing he's really good for, is letting us use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber whenever we want! Trunks laughed.
"And food!" Gohan added.
The group laughed hysterically until they reached the hair salon. "The Celestial Salon…" Leah read aloud.
"I hope the do haircuts for guys…" Gohan said as everyone got out of the plane.
"Of course they would!" Angelica said as they walked through the front door. Nicole looked around. The walls were painted a pale shade of blue, and the ceiling was black, covered in small images of stars and ringed planets. The small salon certainly fit its name. Nicole, Leah, and Angelica all sat down on a velvet navy blue couch, while Trunks and Gohan made a reservation at the front desk. Once they were finished, the two walked over to the girls and sat down. "So, how long is the wait?" Angelica questioned.
"Oh, they said we should be taken any minute." Gohan said. A few moments later, Trunks' name was called. He walked to the back of the shop, and just as he sat down, Gohan's name was called too.
Within an hour, Trunks and Gohan had their hair cut back to its original length, and the group flew back to Mr. Popo's tower. Nicole then taught Trunks and Gohan how to play pinochle. "This is a really cool card game!" Gohan said, putting out an ace of diamonds. "I take it, right?"
"Yep!" Nicole answered. Gohan grabbed his ace from the middle, along with Nicole's ten of hearts, Angelica's king of diamonds, and Trunks' nine of clubs. Then, Gohan threw out an ace of spades. Once Angelica had taken her turn, Trunks questioned, "Trump is diamonds, right?"
"Yeah." Nicole answered as he put out a queen of diamonds.
That game seemed to last forever. No one could get to five hundred points, which was the goal.
"Yes! We finally made it!" Angelica said when the game had ended.
"I know!" Nicole grinned as she collected all the cards.
"This time I'm keeping score. Ok?" Gohan said to Leah.
"Yeah… so it's me and Angelica, and Nicole and Trunks?" Leah asked.
"Yep." Angelica answered.
The next game was much shorter. Nicole and Trunks kept getting really good cards, so they won easily. For the third game, Nicole kept score and Leah and Angelica were a team, and so were Trunks and Gohan. Just as it was about to end, Dende walked over and said, "Hey, can I play too?"
"Uh… I guess…" Gohan said.
"Let us finish this game first though." said Leah. He nodded and said, "Great."
The game they played with Dende was very confusing. He kept asking the same questions over and over. "What's a run again?" he asked as everyone was counting their points.
"Dende, I told you like… five times already!" Nicole answered annoyed.
"Well, I forgot!" he persisted.
"Ugh… it's when you have at least one ace, one ten, one king, one queen, one jack, and one nine. The nine's optional though… you don't need it to have a run. Oh, and it all has to be in the same suit." Nicole explained.
"Oh… ok." Dende said, looking at his cards again. That game, Leah and Nicole won.
"Well, I think you did a pretty good job…" Gohan said to Dende.
"Yeah right! The score was minus three hundred eighty six, to five hundred! I set us, like twenty billion times!" Dende admitted sarcastically.
"But it was your first game!" Gohan reminded.
Soon Dend e had left and everyone got tired of playing. "Let's play rummy." Nicole said, hoping to find something else to do that everyone would enjoy.
"Uh… ok…" Angelica agreed. "But you'll have to teach us!"
"Geeze, you guys don't know any card games, do you?" Nicole laughed.
"That's not true! I know how to play fifty two pick up!" Leah said giggling. "And besides! We all had better things to do than learn how to play cards!"
"Ugh! You're so mean!" Nicole said, laughing too.
Once Nicole had convinced everyone to let her teach them rummy, they all played for a while until Mr. Popo asked them what they wanted for dinner. "Well, what can you make?" Angelica asked.
"Um… pasta… chicken… steak… soup…" he began to list.
"I want soup." Nicole interrupted. She absolutely loved soup, as it was her all time favorite food. It could be a thousand degrees outside, and Nicole would want to eat soup.
"Yeah, soup sounds good… what kinds can you make?" Trunks asked.
"Oh! How about Maryland Crab soup?" Nicole interrupted again.
"Yeah, I can make that…" Mr. Popo responded.
"It's really good." Nicole said, turning to Leah, Angelica, Trunks and Gohan. When Mr. Popo had walked away, Gohan said, "Nicole, why didn't we get a say in that?"
"I dunno… sorry…" Nicole smiled.
"Yeah, I mean, maybe one of us is like… allergic to soup, or something!" Leah giggled.
"Well, I dunno about you, but I've never met anyone who's allergic to soup…" Angelica said laughing.
"Anyway, trust me. You'll all love it." Nicole said.
"Ok… " Gohan said. "Let's play rummy again."
"Yeah." Angelica agreed.
So the five played a few short games. After the eighth round, Trunks complained, "Ugh… when the heck is Mr. Popo gonna be done with that soup? It's already been an hour…"
"He probably blew up his kitchen or something…" Leah said sarcastically.
When Mr. Popo finally did serve them dinner, which was about ten minutes later, everyone loved the soup, just like Nicole had guessed. "Well, you were right Nicole… this soup is really good." Angelica complimented.
"Yeah. I agree one hundred percent!" Trunks chimed in.
"Thank you… thank you… no autographs please…" Nicole said laughing.
"What about pictures?" Leah joked.
After everyone had finished eating, they decided to set up their sleeping bags. Since they had five people instead of four like the night before it was going to be even more cramped with only three sleeping bags. So they laid them out in a format similar to the one they had used before. Except this time, they unzipped the sleeping bags all the way open. "I miss sleeping in my own bed…" Nicole said as she crawled onto the sleeping bags.
"I know… I miss my pajamas too! We've been sleeping in sleeping bags for the last three nights!" Leah agreed.
"Well, tomorrow we won't have to." Angelica said.
"Thank God…" Nicole sighed.
When everyone became tired enough to fall asleep, the five climbed onto the bed of sleeping bags and with drowsy goodnights to each other. They all went to sleep.
