DISCLAIMER: DBZ I do not own, e'en now, or when I turn to bone, it shall be written upon stone.

Author Note: I so suck at updating, but I paused this story for a little (along with the direct updates of the others – I am working on them though, just a lot further along in the story so I keep some future updates a lot more steady than this). I'm actually getting more interested in writing original works, and have completed a short story type thing, but not uploaded to fictionpress.net, which I will get around to doing.

THE GAMES WE PLAY by InSaNe/Schizophrenic Eggplant
Chapter 4: General Confusion, as Usual!

Numbers flashed before her.

Level: 1 Ki: 6 Exp: 102 Strength: 4 Health: 195/200 Power-ups: 0 Items: Schoolbag.

Bright green, they faded away like numbers on an old glow-in-the-dark clock.

"That's so strange! I swear I saw those numbers before. But they were diff—" Before she could recall where from, scenery flashed before her, and in a blink of an eye, what once was darkness, was a semi-crowded city street that looked familiar. In front of her, was a shop called 'Checkpoint'. Funny name for a shop.

For a fleeting moment, she had a notion that she was without her schoolbag. Looking to her shoulder, she was relieved to find that the strap was still there, and the bag behind her attached to it. Everything seemed intact. Still, in a bit of a daze, she made herself move in the direction she was faced in.

"Mitzi!! Hurry up! You're going to be late for school if you keep dragging yourself like that!" A girl her age sprinted up the street towards her, arms waving frantically and curly blonde hair blowing about. She slowed down as she reached Mitzi, who was a little surprised that this stranger had fallen in beside her.

"Do you know what the time is?? Come on, get a move on! We've only got five minutes!" Mitzi soundlessly increased her walking pace, whether it was the urgency to get to school or away from this weird female who knew her name, she didn't know. Maybe it was both.

"That's more like it!" The chatty, frenetic invader of personal space walked beside her, taller than the petite Mitzi, faded blue denim jeans creasing and stretching with each quick step she took. Her eyes were the same colour as her jeans, and of the blue writing displayed along her lavender cropped t-shirt – 'Hyper!' as if no-one could guess.

The owner of the clear blue eyes met her own, expectantly, as if waiting for Mitzi to say something. Dark cocoa eyes broke the eye contact, and the silent owner of those returned the gaze to the street, not quite knowing where she was going still.

Next to her, the strange blonde grew impatient, and she could feel the cold, but emotional gaze, and a voice toned with frustrated sarcasm and bruised pride.

"Hi Madeira, nice to see you! How's it going? Oh I'm fine! Why are you talking to yourself? Because my best friend since preschool is ignoring me. How terrible! Yes, it's a tragedy. Maybe she's stressing about the exams? I don't know why, she's getting straight A's in everything anyway…"

Best friend? Mitzi swore she had never seen this girl in her life. She had to think of something before this 'Madeira' self-destructed. The eccentric young woman continued her monologue.

"So, got any plans for the holidays? Oh yes! I'm gonna go to the beach and get a tan, watch the guys surf, and spend time with my best friend in the whole wide world who's not talking to—"

"Ok OK I get the point! Hi Madeira! Great to see you. Sorry for being rude and ignoring you… it's just—"

"That's alright, but I thought you said you had gotten over that. Parker and I are a couple now. You said that you'd accepted it, that our friendship meant more to you than some boy."

"Parker…" Mitzi muttered the name, having no clue who he was. Madeira misinterpreted the heavily sighed name as something along the lines of reminiscence.

"I know you really liked him, and were angry and hurt when you found out we were together. I'll ask you again: are you OK with it? With us?" Her eyes were soft with serious concern, like her whole character had done a 180. Her cool eyes pierced Mitzi's, searching for an answer.

"Sure." Mitzi replied, not at all worried.

"Positive?" Man, was she persistent or what? Madeira still looked worried.

"Yes." Mitzi was starting to get angry. If this wasn't going to stop, she was going to add a bit more blue to her 'friends' rosy cheeks. She absently wondered if she ever remembered having violent thoughts. If she asked any more questions… well, Mitzi didn't know if she'd be able to curb her reaction or not.

Madeira smiled a smile of two rows of perfect teeth and clapped her hands together.

"OK then! That's great!" She squealed. "I knew you were over it, really and were just playing. You do that sometimes!" Madeira reverted back to being her 'usual' self. Mitzi tried to just sound neutral in the conversation, and let her boisterous friend do all the talking. Half-amusedly she thought she had always done it anyway.

"I… do?"

"Yeah, you do, silly! There was this time right, where you didn't talk to me for two whole days!! I don't think I could do that, I'd burst, or spontaneously combust or something! That's a real feat ya know. It's quite funny really, how we're opposites and stuff but get on really well. You're a good listener."

"Um… thanks." Good listener. Only because she couldn't get a word in edgewise. Not that she particularly wanted to anyhow.

Walking past a street that seemed dark even in the early morning light, Mitzi glanced down it, and then wished she hadn't. She was wracked by dark pangs of.. something, and violently shuddered, and gooseflesh appeared on her arms, neck and back.

"Hey, you all right?" Madeira, although wrapped up in her own world, noticed her friend's sudden discomfort. Mitzi hugged herself for warmth, on this otherwise sunny day.

"Uh.. yeah.. I dunno what it is. Maybe something from a past life." She assumed, and tore her lingering backwards gaze to across the road. It looked a lot safer. "Lets cross here." Whether Madeira followed her or not, she didn't care, and stepped out onto the road.

"Hey, I know!" The girls excited squeaky voice deterred Mitzi from her action, and she moved her foot back to the kerb. She heard a loud whooshing noise that made her put her hands up by her head as a large hover-bus drove past, making her hair flap around, despite the heavy-duty treatment to hold it down.

"SHIT!!" She screamed, only realising how close that was. A little shocked, she turned to Madeira. "Thanks. You.. saved me in a way."

"Ah, no problem! Anyway, what I was going to say was…" And she followed Mitzi across the road, away from the scary vibe coming from the alley. Mitzi was not really listening to her life-saver babble on about seemingly pointless stuff, but right now she was glad for the company. She thanked whoever looked down on the planet that she was a good distance away from that frightful place.

The rest of the journey to school was uneventful, and a warm, chiming tone sounded as they walked into the grounds of East City High. It felt so welcoming, which was weird for a school. There was a bustle and chatter among the students as they walked into the main gates. Madeira squealed and took off as if her underpants were on fire, homing in on her target like a golden-haired meteor.

"Parker!!!!" She flew into the arms of a tall, reasonably athletic guy, whose solid build prevented the both of them from hitting the deck. He wrapped his big hands around the slim blonde, and laughed into her shoulder. Mitzi thought she might be sick, and half-heartedly returned the wave this Parker had given her when finally got one of his hands off Madeira. She thought it a little strange that Madeira had, in her own special way, consoled Mitzi about losing Parker to her. She found she wasn't attracted to him, not even in the slightest.

The two eventually separated, and walked over to Mitzi, who was leaning on a locker, staring at all the different people. A few of them said 'hi'. Some had the nerve to say 'geek' instead of 'hi', but she ignored them and busied herself trying to locate her own locker. She looked at her key ring, and a number was stamped into it. It didn't take much time trying to find the matching number, because as luck would have it, it was next to Madeira's anyway. According to her diary, she had a history exam in about five minutes. She studied her locker intently, as if for the first time, trying to get an idea of who she really was, because right at this very moment, she felt like she had a different mind altogether. At the back there was a picture stuck to the cold metal. She couldn't see it because she was blocking her own light, so she ripped it from its home and brought it to her face. No way. There was just no way. Parker? Yes Parker, with a crudely drawn love-heart around his thickset square-jawed head; his simple, sparkling eyes gazing dreamily out of the well-loved, creased photo.

"Isn't he a dreeeeeeeam?" The high-pitched feminine voice next to her crooned, and Madeira shut her locker with a surprised clang.

"Uh… yeah. I guess." She forced herself to sound semi-convincing.

Concealed by her locker, Mitzi grimaced, almost hating herself for such bad taste in guys, and put the picture right at the back again, not bothering to reattach it to the wall. Her fingers stumbled over something else, something that she couldn't feel as such… more like her fingers knew something was there, but her brain couldn't register what it felt like. It just felt like a pressure with no texture. She made a grab for it, and pulled it out for a closer look. It was a folded up piece of black paper, burnt at the edges. Opening it up, she saw that the writing was done in silver calligraphy, almost gilded. She didn't get time to read what was on the note, because her face was shoved forcefully into her locker from behind, accompanied by a titter of girlish giggling, with subtle bitchy undertones. Startled, she dropped the note onto the floor. As she bent to pick it up, a platform sneaker beat her to it. Above this sneaker, were legs that seemed to go for miles, curvy, athletic and tanned, cut off by a very short scrap of material that began below the hips and ended above mid-thigh, then more flesh – a nicely toned abdomen that boasted UV treatment, with a dainty little piercing in the navel, another scrap of material covering an expansive chest with E.C.H straining across those bountiful perky mounds. A freshly powdered face, flawless with foundation, cold blue eyes lined with harsh black, and lips set in a dark crimson smirk, regarded her, framed with curly, bouncy hair in a half ponytail. Behind her, in the same, self-assured posture, were two other girls wearing the exact same garments as their leader. One ring-decorated hand rested on the border where flesh met fabric on her hip, the other held the note aloft.

"Well, well, what's this? Misty-Pissty has a love-letter!" For some inner reason, Mitzi instantly felt hatred flare at the sickeningly syrupy voice spouting from this girls full lips, which behind which blinding white teeth set in flawless array, helped annunciate each syllable painfully clearly as if Mitzi was some kind of stupid child. At any rate, this bitch needed to be corrected on the pronunciation of her name.

"It's Mit…"

"Lay off her, Suzi!" Mitzi glanced at Madeira in surprise, and in return got a somewhat sympathetic look in return, and smiled. The frizzy haired cheerleader-type turned her attention on Madeira, and almost completely changed her tune, which by now wasn't too surprising.

"Stay out of this, Keiki. Don't involve yourself again. I don't see why you stick up for this nobody. Now… lets see what this morbid little note says." Mitzi cringed. Not even she knew what it said. Suzi's straight, button nose wrinkled in disgust and she curled her lips up in a dissatisfied sneer.

"It doesn't say anything! I should have known. Who would want to go out with such a stunted plain-Jane? You're enough to put any guy off! You couldn't even turn on a tap! Anyway, I'm bored now. Anyone would be from looking at you for too long. So long, you freaky geeky… freak… thing!" Then turned to Madeira. "Whenever you're sick of hanging out with that, you're always welcome in our group."

Madeira screwed up her smooth complexion.

"When I do that, I'll make sure I bring my skis." Suzi looked at Madeira in confusion, like she had caught the freak virus all of a sudden.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Because I'm not hanging around with you bunch of fake, vacant snobs. The time I do that is when hell freezes over and you're there with me in your polarfleece! Now get out of my sight! We have…" Madeira paused, as if she was about to say something that wasn't in her nature, "…an exam to get to." She fixed Suzi with a glare that could melt her head. The school beauty huffed, as if she was about to speak, but something in Madeira's stare made her mouth forget to form itself into the right shapes, except for a few syllables that came naturally, and bared her intellect to all.

"Uh, yeah. What-ever." She glared back with only half the power of Madeira's killer look, and huffed off, her minions doing the same. The black piece of paper left her manicured fingertips and fluttered to the ground, forgotten, until Mitzi recovered it clumsily, but still not noticeable enough to draw attention from her peers.

Surrounded by blonde locks, Madeira's face was red.

"Augh! As if we needed the brat-squad. One look at them and your IQ goes out the window! Come on Mitz, Parker, we've got an exam to get to."

Parker looked worried, and felt his girlfriend's head for any sign of fever.

"I'm fine, hon." Mitzi assured her beau. "I'd rather be doing a hundred exams than talk to that jumped up trash."

Mitzi couldn't help but wonder if something had struck a nerve. It wasn't if she was the victim of Suzi's attack. Maybe there was something else. Mitzi's pride was recovering from the blow of having someone stand up for her. For some reason she wasn't quite used to it. As the trio made their way towards the designated classroom where they would take the exam, Madeira seemed to have read Mitzi's mind, or body language, for once.

"She doesn't worry me, Mitz. You know Daddy's pretty high up on the payroll at Capsule Corporation. He doesn't particularly like Suzi's father, and can have him out of work in the blink of an eye." One side of Madeira's cherry lips was raised as she entertained this idea. Although slowly getting used to this, Mitzi was amazed at her friend's unpredictable mood-swings. Madeira's smile of evil musings quickly became lost in a wide grin.

"Hey, good luck with the test Mitzi! You're a gun with history though, you'll breeze through!" She affirmed. Mitzi just gave her an uncertain smile and shrugged.

"Maybe… I hope so…" She said quietly while uneasily threading her fingers through each other; a habit that she was unaware she had picked up.

"Aww Mitz, you're so modest! You remind me of myself." Madeira said quite seriously, and gave her a thumbs-up before busying herself arranging various items for her own luck on the desk she was at.

Parker smiled at Mitzi with a hint of restrained nervousness, as he sat down in his chair.

"Yeah, good luck. See you afterwards."
"Thanks, I guess…" Mitzi replied, and went to find her seat, which, like the others, were situated in order of their education registration numbers and alphabetically arranged. Parker was somewhere in the middle, and Madeira sat two places behind an empty space. It was a good thing that all the other participants in the exam were already seated, because it made things decidedly easier for Mitzi. It never had occurred to her until now.

How was she supposed to do well in this test if she couldn't even recall her last name?