Can Life Get Any Worse?

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece... yet... evil grin

Chapter 2: Back Home and Some Encounters

Nami collapsed onto her bed once home. The day seemed to last forever, but at least the good news was that there was going to be a two week trip to the Caribbean soon. She couldn't wait.

"Hey sis," Said Nami's sister as she passed by her room. "How was school?"

Nami gave a grunt in response. Nojiko sighed and sat on the bed with Nami. "What's wrong?"

"It's science. I failed…" Nami's voice was almost a whisper as she imagined what Bellemere was going to do with her. "Plus, I gotta go meet that dumb-brain Luffy at the café in 20 minutes to study…"

Nojiko shook her head. "One, Bellemere will get very mad. And two, good luck. I'll drive you if you want." Nojiko smiled and got up, taking the silence as a yes.

Nami smiled to her sister and said, "Thanks!" as she walked out of her room. Nami grabbed her backpack and took out her science binder, staring blankly at her F.

"Why me?" Nami sighed and stuffed the paper under her pillow as she got her science and math papers together, getting ready to go to the café.

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On the way out,Nami grabbed a freshly picked tangerine from the grove pretty much surrounding her small house. She didn't have that much money, but enough to support the family. I mean, she did have a car after all. Well her sister did at least.

Nami hopped into the black Infiniti as her sister turned it on. Soon, they were on the road towards the café.

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Sanji tossed his bag onto a coach as he slumped on it, grabbing some soda.

"Yo, Sanji! How was school little dude?" His older cousin, Carne, came running in with his other cousin, Patty following.

"You seem in a good mood today." Said Sanji as he stared at the now turned on TV.

"Yup, 'cause your Uncle Zeff actually gave us some money for working today!" Sanji knew that his two cousins were out of school, and worked at his Uncle Zeff's restaurant during their college breaks. Sanji was told he was too young and that he still had school.

"And," began Peppy as he stole the remote from Sanji and flipped to the cooking channel, "We finally saved up enough money for our very own car!" finished up Carne.

Sanji grinned. "Then who's gonna own it?" He said, as each of his cousins said, "I am!"

The each shot glares at each other and soon they were fighting. Sanji just laughed.

He then began to think about the Caribbean trip coming up soon. Ah, so many new and beautiful girls just waiting for the right buy to come, me! Too bad I'm gonna be with cucumber head also… well at least Nami and her friends will be there too.

A mischievous grin appeared on his face as he thought.

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Kaya burst through the doors of her mansion with a large smile on her face. She was greeted by her butler, Merry.

"Good day, Miss Kaya. You seem to be happy. Why would that be?" Merry asked as he cleaned one of the many windows in the large house.

"The entire 11th grade is going to the Caribbean! I can't wait!" Kaya gave another large and bright smile.

Merry returned a smile as he moved onto the next window. "There is a snack in the kitchen waiting for you."

"Thank you, Merry." Kaya walked gracefully towards the kitchen and set her bag down, beginning to eat the prepared salad left on an elegant plate.

She heard the phone ring, but ignored it until Merry called her over.

"Miss Kaya! It is for you, Usopp I believe it is." Merry shouted from the other room.

"Usopp?" Kaya sighed and set her fork down, and walked towards the phone and picked it up. "Yes, Usopp? What do you want?"

"Kaya? Oh hi! Well my folks left for the night and so I'm alone with my three little brothers. I thought that maybe you would want to come and help me take care of them?" Usopp gave a nervous chuckle.

Kaya smiled. "I'll only do it for your brothers. I'll be there in an hour, ok?" Kaya smiled as Usopp said it was ok and she carefully hung up the phone.

She continued her salad, thinking this: Perhaps it will be fun to spend some time with Usopp. We were good friends a while ago, and he does tell some marvelous stories.

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Usopp hung up the phone and grinned widely.

"ONION!" Two small 6 year olds ran past Usopp, one had green hair, and the other grayish hair with an orange cap on. The two were chasing their other brother, the blonde haired boy with large glasses.

"Come back here Onion!" yelled the one with the orange cap.

"Carrot! Stop chasing Onion!" Usopp put his hand in front of him as his three brothers stopped. "Look, I invited someone over for tonight so-"

"Ooooh! Big brother has a girlfriend!" All three of the brothers screamed in unison. Each began to burst into fits of laughter as Usopp tried to explain.

"No, no! She's just coming to help me take care of you guys!"

The three continued on with what they were doing. After several attempts of failing, Usopp finally gave up.

Usopp slumped down in the kitchen and turned the TV on. He grumbled and turned the volume up higher, but his brothers' racket was still louder than the TV. Usopp gave another sigh and looked over to the clock. Holy guacamole! Kaya's coming in less than 20 minutes!

With that, Usopp ran by his brothers and up to the shower, for a good long shower.

The three boys calmed down as their brother was showering.

"Hey guys." Onion said as his brothers faced him. "I got an idea."

Carrot and Pepper looked at each other, than back at Onion, grinning widely. "What?" They both said together.

"That Kaya girl is coming soon, I heard Usopp on the phone before. He said at 4:30 Kaya would come. It's 4:15." Onion smiled and began to explain his plan. "We got 15 minutes to plan out the best plan in the world!" Onion held his fist up high.

"Yeah, to finally get back at Usopp!" Pepper's fist joined Onion's in the air.

"Time to finally embarrass Usopp!" yelled Carrot as all three fists were in the air.

"Because we are the Veggie pirate clan!" All three of them yelled in unison. And soon, they were discussing ways to make this night a night Usopp would forever remember.

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Vivi walked into the house, being greeted by her hyper little brother, Karu.

"VIVI! I missed you!" Karu hugged his short arms tightly around Vivi's leg.

"Karu, I was only at school! Sheesh, do you really get that bored?" Vivi looked down at her tiny little brother, who black hair streaked with blonde highlights.

He gave her his common puppy-eyes as she just hugged him tightly. He was just so cute at times.

Vivi smiled at her little brother. "Look, Karu. I really gotta study for this big test, so I can't feel bad for you all day. Sorry!" Vivi once again gave a bright smile and ran upstairs towards her room.

Vivi sighed and set her stuff down. She was thinking of something fun to do, and with the trip to the Caribbean, it might just be a lot easier. Matchmaker Vivi… Has a nice ring to it.

Vivi picked up her phone and quickly dialed a number.

"Hello?" Kuina's voice echoed through the phone.

"Kuina, my house, right now! And bring your brain!" Vivi quickly said and hung up.

"Hey wait, my brain? What's that supposed to mean!" Kuina asked but Vivi had already hung up.

Kuina sighed as she placed the phone back on the table.

"Who was that?" Her older sister Tashigi asked.

"Oh, it was just Vivi. She said that I should go over, and right now." Kuina sighed, and pushed her math homework off of her desk. "Better than math homework!"

Tashigi gave a smile. "I remember you saying that you have to study with Zoro for math."

Kuina's head shot up as she stared at her sister. "Who told you that!"

Tashigi grinned at her sister. "Dad told me he overheard Zoro talking about it, yesterday. He wondered why you didn't say anything."

Kuina shook her head, "It's nothing. Well I better be off. I'll walk to Vivi's," Tashigi smiled as her sister walked out the door. That was just like her, walking. She did love it.

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"999, 1000," Zoro's arm moved up in down as he lifted the enormous weight. "Maybe I should switch arms…" He looked down at the immense weights he was lifting.

Deciding against it, Zoro put the weight away and slipped his shirt back on. He gazed outside at the sun still shining brightly. It was only about 4:15. He remembered Luffy saying he was going to meet Nami at the café at around 4:30. That reminded him of Kuina.

As if on queue, Kuina ran past her father's gym as Zoro just stared. "Wow that was odd."

He shrugged it off and walked towards the door, his arms slightly sore from his one hour work out.

As Kuina ran, she glanced at the gym, and all of a sudden stopped when she saw Zoro. Their eyes locked for a strange second, but hen he just continued to walk off, as if nothing had just happened.

Humph! Some guy he is. I mean, he doesn't even wave! I bet he has absolutely no emotion under all of that sexy muscle. Wait a minute… did I just call him sexy? That's it, no more tangerines for breakfast. I don't know how Nami does it without hallucinating….

Kuina tried to shrug off the awkward moment as she continued to run towards Vivi's house, but that thought just stayed in her mind.

Kuina finally reached Vivi's house and quickly run the door bell several times. Karu answered.

"Oh, hi Ku-" Karu got cut off as Kuina gave him a tight hug.

"KARU! Aww, you're so cute!" Kuina hugged him tighter, admiring his cuteness.

"Kuina… I can't… breathe!" Karu gasped as he desperately tried to get out of her death-grip.

"Oh, heh, sorry." Kuina said as she dropped Karu down. "So, where's Vivi?"

Karu got up and pointed upstairs.

Kuina smiled and rushed up the stairs, being greeted by Vivi with the yearbook picture of Zoro in her hand. Kuina's cheeks suddenly turned bright red as she turned her head away.

"Aha! I knew it! You still have a crush on Zoro!" Vivi grinned as Kuina clenched her fists. Soon, Kuina had punched Vivi and sent her flying half way across the room.

"OW! That hurt…" Vivi got up and rubbed her head.

"Wow, going to my dad's gym really does help!" Kuina gave a large smile as Vivi glared at her. "Oh, whoops sorry about that, Vivi." Kuina smiled to her injured friend.

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Luffy was staring at his straw hat set in front of him. He blinked twice, finally remembering what he had to remember. "AHH! I HAD TO MEET NAMI AT THE CAFÉ 30 MINUTES AGO!" Luffy jumped up, grabbed his hat and binders, and ran out the door, forgetting that he could always ask his brother, Ace for a ride.

Ace just stared at his brother running out the door and just laughed.

Luffy ran as fast as his legs could take him, which was in fact pretty fast.

Before Luffy knew it, he was in front of the café, gasping for breath. "LUFFY! You're 45 minutes late!" Nami punched the back of Luffy's head hard as he fell to the ground.

"Hey, that hurt Nami!" He yelled as he got up, rubbing the back of his head.

She just giggled. "Come on, let's just go study." She pushed open the doors and walked on it, waiting for Luffy to follow.

Nami took a seat on a table for two as Luffy joined her. "So, Luffy, take out your notes to start with." Nami took a mental deep breath to not go crazy.

"Notes? Oh wait, you mean those really big words you have to copy during class? I don't have any." He again looked at Nami, as if waiting for a reaction.

"You…what!" Nami stared at Luffy, a disbelieving look on her face.

"Well yea, I can't take notes in class since I always fall asleep." Luffy gave his trademark grin.

"Well that doesn't help us, now does it?" Nami sighed and pulled out her notes. She studied them for a few minutes, before Luffy peeked over her shoulder.

"Hey, Luffy?" Nami said with a kind voice.

"Yea?"

"HAVEN'T YOU EVER HEARD OF PERSONAL SPACE!" The next thing Luffy knew, he received another hard blow on the head while Nami was once again laughing.

Luffy grumbled under his breath as he again sat on his chair.

Once Nami was done laughing, she put the notes on the paper, and began explaining. "Ok, Luffy, listen up and listen up good!"

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The doorbell rang as Usopp raced downstairs. "Kaya's here!" Onion ran behind Usopp with Carrot and Pepper grinning at each other as they followed.

"Hi Usopp!" Kaya said as she walked in when Usopp opened the door. "Aw, are these your little brothers?" She gave a bright smile as Onion, Carrot, and Pepper grinned towards Usopp. Usopp just blushed.

"So, little guys, dinners in the kitchen! Now go!" Usopp pushed his little brothers towards the kitchen.

"Wait! I'm too young to die of horrible food poisoning!" yelled Pepper as his brothers nodded in agreement. Usopp sighed and continued pushing until they were eating peacefully… except for the throwing of the food…

"So Kaya, want to watch a movie?" Usopp said as he sat down in the den.

"Sure. Are you sure that your brothers will be ok?" Kaya glanced towards the kitchen where lots of yelling could be heard.

Usopp mumbled something and yelled, "Yo, guys, shut up will ya?" Kaya laughed as the voices grew softer and TV from the kitchen could only be heard.

"Um, Usopp? I have to use to the bathroom. Where is it?" Kaya got up and Usopp pointed up the stairs. She nodded and went upstairs.

Usopp was too busy flipping channels that he didn't notice his brothers follow up after Kaya.

While Kaya was in the bathroom, the three set up their plan. First, they tied a long rubber band to part of the stairs and a hole in the wall. They next set a walkie-talkie behind a book on a shelf.

Now, they just had to wait.

Kaya finally walked out of the bathroom and their plan went into action. "D'oh, doo wah!" shouted Carrot through the walkie-talkie which caused Kaya to jump.

"Hey Kaya? Is everything alright?" Usopp asked as he got up and stood at the foot of the stairs.

"Y-yeah…" Kaya said as she took a step forward, tripping over the rubber band. And soon, Kaya was falling and Usopp was racing up the stairs. The three watched as how Kaya landed in Usopp's arms. They couldn't help but chuckle.

Each of their faces turned bright red as Kaya quickly got up and walked towards the door. "Sorry Usopp. But it's getting late, I should go!" Without another word, Kaya was out the door, her face still beat red.

Usopp stared as she left, then looked at his brothers. "GUYS!" And soon, Usopp was chasing his three troublesome brothers around the house, noises of screaming, yelling, and laughing filled the entire house.

A/N

Yay! The second chapter is done! Whadya think? I try to keep them moderately long, so I hope you like them! I like the humor, and I think I am getting back into the characters… maybe not… Oh well. Please review!