Guiding Light
Hiya! Look who's back! Anyways … I know that the last chapter wasn't one of my better ones … so I'm hoping that this chapter will make up for it … yeah …
I strongly thank all those who were supporting my decision on revising the fic, *bows* it means a lot to me to know that at least someone thinks my effort on revising this fic for the better was not in vain. And to all you who do not support my decision, I fully respect your opinions, after all, I don't mind constructive criticism or even crude comments, it's just those meaningless flames that I don't like, thankfully, I have not received any of them … (Simon Kozak's and Drew's don't count … ^^;;)
Anyways, one further thing, I do recall someone mentioning that I should finish the fic first before I revised it … but the thing was, with the way of things the original version was leading, I wouldn't have finished at all … I probably would've trapped myself in an impossible corner. (which I do quite often …) At least, this version, has a 81% chance of being completed … (unless I somehow die in a car crash or something like that …)
One further note, do any of you know whom I was talking about regarding Trunks' old flame? ^^ *grins* I think it's pretty obvious … but then again, I'm the one writing this …
Okay, no more babbling, on to the fic!
Chapter 3: Escapade from girls and cameras
"So, I decided that I would much more major in paleontology than astronomy, but then again, I've always had a thing for extinct animals … although I was fascinated by the rotation of the planets." Quoted Marron as she ate her salad thoughtfully.
Bra nodded, half listening, she looked at the people around her, most either had their noses buried in a book, or were in deep conversations about ancient civilizations.
"Well, then I had a tough decision about whether I wanted to abandon the effort and the year that I majored in astronomy, but I know now that it was one of the better decisions of my life." The blonde-haired beauty stuck half of a radish into her mouth and continued studying, "So? What's your major?"
Bra didn't reply, she wasn't really paying attention to the elder girl, her attention was instead directed at a table at the other side of the room, where her best friend sat, or rather, former best friend. It was amazing how she could hear every single word of their conversation, Saiya-jin ears were amazing. She sighed a sigh of envy … she was always the popular one during high school, and now, a twinge of jealousy tugged at her heavy heart as she watched with envy at Pan having a blast and being the center of attention … without her …
"So, then he said, that I wasn't good enough for the football team." Goten laughed, "And I was like, what the hell? I could beat your ass into a bloody pulp in less then a fraction of a second."
"And he almost did, too." A tall boy whom Bra didn't recognize piped up, "But luckily, Coach Barry actually had a few brain cells in that miniscule cranium of his, and let him try out … you should've seen the look on his face when Goten knocked his whole offensive line down in a pile with just one arm."
"I would've got all his defense too, but I didn't want to give the poor guy a heart attack." Laughed Goten, "But really, Panny, he made me a halfback right then and there."
"Of course, Goten was never satisfied being a halfback," The tall dirty blond boy added, "So, then, when in the next game, and when the quarterback had a little accident, Coach Barry made Goten a substitute quarterback …"
"Yeah, but … a permanent substitute, he basically had to chase the other guy away since I was so good." Bragged Goten.
"Really?" Pan exclaimed, "I feel sorry for the poor guy … by the way, Kevin, what position do you play?"
"Oh, I'm a defensive end … I'd much prefer being the scorekeeper, but some darn math whiz has got it all wrapped up …." The tall boy replied.
"Yeah, that's right, somebody here is too scared of playing football and would rather be bored stiff." Goten rolled his eyes.
"What do you mean? I'm not scared." Defended the tall boy, "And I would happen to enjoy being a scorekeeper."
"Sure, whatever … oh, by the Pan, I was having a party this weekend? Do you wanna come?" Goten grinned at his niece.
"A party? Neat! Sure!" Pan eyed the three girls sitting beside her and asked, "Can my friends come too?"
"Of course, any friend of yours is a friend of mine." Simpered Goten, one eye on his niece, the other on the large assortment of food in front of him.
A redhead that was sitting beside her looked like she was about to faint, the blonde haired girl beside her rolled her eyes and muttered, "Gimme a break."
The third girl, a brunette, tapped Pan on the shoulder and asked, "The cheerleading try-outs are in fifteen minutes, and we wouldn't want to be late, would we?"
"Oh, that's right …" Goten slapped his forehead, "Ashley will probably want me to be there, c'mon Kev." He stood up and waved, "See you guys at the try-outs."
"Bye, Goten." The redhead waved dazedly, and again, the blonde groaned and sighed.
"We better leave too." Said the brunette, and the four of them got up and headed out of the cafeteria.
"But really, I'm going all the way, and I mean both my MD's and PhD's." When Marron realized that Bra was not listening to her, and hasn't been for the past five minutes, she snapped her fingers in front of the girl's face, "Hello? Biosphere to Bra?"
Bra snapped back to her attention, "Oh, sorry, Marron, are you a cheerleader?"
Marron chortled with laughter, "Of course not! You realize that being a cheerleader would mean attending all the football games, plus practice, and how much studying time that will take up."
"Oh, of course …"
Marron smiled gently at the beryl-haired girl, "It may seem difficult, but the fruits of your labor couldn't be sweeter to you in the future, really, I doubt that they would get an excellent education."
Bra blushed, so Marron knew that she was spying on Pan, but she hoped that all she was sacrificing for her bright future was worth it …
~*~
"Please?" The girl begged.
"Go by yourself."
"But I want someone to go with me!" The blonde tugged on Trunks' arm.
"Go with Reeve."
"Hell no, I don't even know why you're friends with him, but anyways, pretty please?" Jewel pleaded, "It won't be long, I really, really, want to go! After all, I hate her almost as much as Reeve."
Trunks sighed, and removed her hand from his heavily muscled forearm, "Can't you do it with your friends? You know, the tall one, the anorexic one, and all the other girls …"
"After all these years, you still can't remember their names?" Jewel demanded.
"Well … I think the anorexic one has a cat … a very fat cat that tried to kill me once, I think his name is Flubber …" Trunks added thoughtfully.
"Oh, how nice …" Jewel rolled her large eyes, "Frankly, I do not see why they're interested in you in the first place."
"You're right, they're not, neither are you, could you leave me alone now?" Trunks wished for one day to pass without some girl begging him to do something for her, unfortunately, that day probably won't come any time soon.
"But the cheerleading try-outs will be today! Right now!" Whined Jewel, who had begun tugging on his arm again.
Trunks' eyebrow rose, "You want to be a cheerleader?"
"Of course not," Huffed the girl, "But I do want to get my revenge on her after her spreading rumors about me cheating on … you …"
"But you are, aren't you?" Asked Trunks, puzzled.
Jewel rolled her eyes, "Yeah, sure, whatever, but the way she said it, it made it sound like we were a couple or something."
Trunks clasped a hand on his mouth and rolled his eyes, "My god, that is a crisis, isn't it? I mean, just because we do see each other every day, and that you practically live here, and that you're always my date for all the events, and that we screw each other every night doesn't mean we're seeing each other."
"Of course not," Jewel giggled, "You'd think that she meant we were married or something …"
"And we couldn't have them thinking that, could we?" Sighed Trunks, "Oh fine, whatever, I guess we should stop these rumors, shouldn't we? Make it quick, I've a three o'clock appointment with a …"
"Lemme guess," The blonde rolled her eyes, "A gorgeous new exchange student?"
"No, of course not," Trunks raised his eyebrows, "The dentist."
"Oh … that's a change …"
Trunks nodded, deep in thought, "Yup, I know, I'm taking her to that quaint little French restaurant on third street, which means, I'll probably have to get my French accent spiffed up, ¿Debe no yo, dama pequeña?"
"That was Spanish, you idiot." Jewel sighed as she closed the door behind her, "And why am I not surprised that you're dating the dentist? It's a girl … right?"
"Who cares what it was? As long as it sounded spiffy, and anyways, where the hell did you get the idea that the dentist could be anything but a girl?" Trunks questioned.
"I dunno, you sure acted weird at that party last night though … I think you were hitting on Reev-"
The violet-haired hunk clasped a hand over her mouth, "That wasn't my fault, I think someone spiked the drinks."
"Erm … that was you … remember? The Spanish Fly?" Jewel asked, a hint of laughter in her low voice.
"No, I don't remember." The ever-so-popular gang leader headed out of the building
"Of course you don't remember," Smirked Jewel as she caught up with him, "You were too busy banging up all the girls at the party … well … all the girls and Reev-"
Trunks shot her a look, and she quickly shut up.
~*~
"Okay, first we'll do some simple stuff together." Chirped Ashley, clad in a cheerleading uniform, a huge grin on her face, "Then we'll test your abilities individually."
"Right." Kimberly, co-captain of the Cheerleading Squad, held up her pen and clipboard, "I'm guessing that none of you are beginners, so we'll skip with the basics and move on with the jumps, okay, try a Walking Lunge first."
One by one, the girls all did walking lunges, followed by switch lunges, single leg bounds, single leg speed tucks, and so on.
Of course, the little Saiya-jin girl was bored stiff, she saw no point in walking around waving her arms and legs about if she wasn't going to attack someone.
But still, she proved to be more than worthy cheerleading material, from the jumps to the lifts, basically, she could've been the captain of the squad if not for Ashley getting it all wrapped up. She could've been able to lift the whole football field, let alone a ninety pound girl in a mini-skirt. The important thing was that Pan and was having an awesome time scaring the daylights out of Kimberly and that she, without a doubt, got on a squad.
Luckily, so did Casey, Janelle and Kamala, Janelle took ballet since she was three and was in the global ballet association, Kamala took all sorts of dance, and has won tons of awards during high school, and Casey was on the national swim team, and … well, Pan had saved the world a couple of times, not to mention her bloodline and her relatives, her grandpa alone probably saved the world every few years or so. But this, was one hell of a formidable group,
Well … besides the skimpy little outfits that they were required to wear, which were long sleeved tops with a huge V-neck that was about three sizes too tight, and little skimpy skirts that flopped up and down when you did so much as even walk. Casey said that she just happened to have the same sort of material and that she was going to add a few inches to the skirt, no body would notice the difference.
"Can you do mine too?" Pleaded Pan.
"Of course, what about you guys?" The blonde-haired girl asked the other two of their group.
Janelle shook her head, "No thanks, I think it's fine the way it is." Kamala, as usual, was busy admiring all the football players on the field, so naturally, she would probably want her skirt shortened instead of lengthened.
But they weren't the only group watching the football players …
"Look … there she is …" Jewel narrowed her eyes, "Omigosh! She has my boots! You know? Those really nice ones that I own? Except hers are red."
"Oh my, what ever shall we do? She has your boots! No! Not the boots! Anything but the boots! And red ones? Not red ones! And colour except- Aaahhhh!!!" Trunks stumbled forward with the added weight of three girls on his back.
Jewel rolled her eyes, "Doesn't this get annoying? Day after day … oh well, he had it coming to him …" She shook her head and watched with mild interest as Trunks tried to pry the girls off of him.
"Hi, Trunksies, what's up?" Said a pretty redhead, "You haven't been over lately? Anything wrong?"
"Are you upset?" Piped up a girl with auburn hair, "Don't be upset, it's bad being upset."
"Did you overdose again?" Asked a girl with long, curly black hair, "You should really watch your daily intake … what was it this time? Grass or Coke?"
Trunks managed to stumble out of the girls' grasps, "Don't ever do that again!"
"Why not, Trunksies?" Asked the redhead, "We thought you liked being jumped …"
"You hate us, don't you?" The brown-haired girl looked like she was about to cry.
"Are you sure you didn't overdose?"
"Argh! Go away!" The violet-haired man started dashing towards the corner of the building, in hopes of getting rid of the crazed girls.
"Darn … guess he's not going to help me then …" Jewel sighed, she then switched her gaze to the blonde standing in the middle of the field, "Now she's going to pay …"
"Picture time!" Yelled Goten, with an instant camera in hand.
"No!" Screamed Pan, "Not in this!" She didn't want her uncle to have perfect a photo to blackmail her with, why in the world did she put the outfit on anyways?
"Sorry, Panny, but the camera doesn't listen …" Goten teased, "Okay! Everybody pose!"
All the cheerleaders on the field huddled into a group, Pan being in the middle, she struggled out of the group, managing to knock over everyone in the way, it seemed terribly impolite, but a picture of her in a skirt was a definite no-no, especially a skirt less than six inches short.
"Panny! Where are you going?" Screeched her uncle.
"I'm running at forty-five miles per hour and he's asking me where I'm going?" Pan muttered, she had to get as far as possible, just in case her uncle did have something to blackmail her for … she can see the look on her mother's face if Goten did show it to her.
"My, my, Panny is finally all grown up! My baby, why, she looks so beautiful in that outfit, I can just picture it now … Grandchildren!"
Pan shuddered and ran faster, her mother was usually a very sensible person, but when it came to grandchildren, well, she was just something else. She looked behind her, and to her immense disbelief, her uncle was actually running after her!
Pan covered her face and ran further, "Please don't let him catch me, please don't let him catch me! Ugh! I swear, I'll never put on a skirt again!"
And that's when she felt herself bash into something hard, still trying desperately to cover her face, Pan screeched, "Don't take a picture! Please! I'll kill you if you do!"
"Ugh … did anyone get the number of that truck?" Moaned Trunks as he stood up, "Why the hell did you go and do that for?"
Pan uncovered her face at stared at the man in disbelief, "Trunks?"
Trunks raised an eyebrow, "Pan? I didn't recognize you in … that …" He pointed to her outfit.
"No! Don't say anything! It's horrible, isn't it?" Pan whined.
"It's not bad … could be a bit shorter, I think … but I guess the school board must've gotten a few complaints."
Pan gaped at him in disbelief, "Shorter?"
"Trunksies!" Cried the obsessed girls with outstretched arms, "Wait!"
"Oh shit …" Trunks almost jumped at the sight of the girls, whom apparently recruited a few more companions.
"What do they want?" Pan asked.
"Sex and drugs." Replied Trunks.
"I see …"
"Panny! Wait! Just one picture, please?" Bellowed her uncle.
"What does he want?" Spat Trunks.
"Blackmail." Pan moaned, "What am I going to do?"
Quick as lighting, a pair of strong hands pulled her into a nearby bush, which just so happened to be conveniently packed with thorns.
"Ow …" Muttered Pan, "Why'd you go and do that?"
He clasped one of his hands over her mouth, "Shut up … don't make a sound, and don't move."
"Not like I can without getting stabbed with stupid thorns." Was what Pan meant to say, but instead, it came out as a sort of muffled, "Wot ike I fan wthoot wedding fmadded oom whofid porns."
"What?"
Pan pulled away from him, "What I said was that-"
She didn't finish, since he, once more clasped a hand over her mouth and pulled her closer to him, "Shut up if you don't want to be killed by a mob of stoned girls."
Pan didn't bother replying, she heard her uncle's voice, "Panny? Where are you? Just one picture, please?"
Trunks smirked down at her, "This is rather pathetic, isn't it? We're trapped in a bush. Just hope that no one finds us, or else you'll never hear the end of this."
"What do you mean?" Whispered Pan.
Trunks held a hand up, "I can see the headlines now, 'Girl found in bush screwing local hottie, could this be the start of a passionate romance? Or will it be just a one-time fling. The insider has got it covered, here at Elmwood University' "
"But we're not …" Pan felt her cheeks reddening, "doing anything …"
"They don't care, all they want is a headline to submit in time … speaking of time." Trunks checked his watch, "There goes my appointment with the dentist, oh well, I'd much rather spend time in this bush with you, being jabbed with thorns in various unpleasant places of the body."
"Are you being sarcastic?" Pan asked, "Why do you need to go to the dentist?"
"I was taking her to a restaurant."
"Oh …"
"Fuck that, I didn't know any French anyways."
The angry buzz of the fanatically obsessed girls seemed to vanish, and once more, everything was silent. Pan poked her head out of the bush and climbed out, "Hey, the coast is clear, you know."
Trunks followed her, "That's a relief, you have a thorn in your leg, you know."
Pan glanced down towards her legs, "I don't feel anything."
"No, you really do, want me to pull it out?" Trunks asked.
"Um … sure …"
"Hold still, then." He bent down and managed to pluck a tiny thorn from her upper thigh.
"Thanks, wow, how'd you managed to see that? I doubt you'd notice it unless … you looked … very carefully …" Pan narrowed her eyes, "At my legs …"
"Well, I think I should go now, see ya 'round, Pan." Trunks gave her a little wave and started walking off, after he had gone a few meters, he turned around and smirked at her, "I'll make a personal request to the student council for shorter skirts, you should thank me."
Pan folded her arms at him and stuck out her tongue, "Pervert …"
End of Chapter 3
Extra long chappie! Thanks to all who stuck my decision for the revision of this ficcy! And is Trunks warming up to Pan? ^^ That's for me to know … heh … didn't I get this chappie out fast? I told ya it would be a breeze!
No cliffy! Yay! Aren't cliffie-less chappies grand?
Any feedback and comments would be greatly appreciated!
-Juunanagou4ever