Chapter 3

The day just flew by, and before anyone knew it, it was the last few hours of school, namely Physical Education.

"Great, just great," Bulma murmured as she watched some of the Dragon Riders enter the dressing room.

One of them was Eneii, and then there was a group of 5. There was the golden haired, sapphire-eyed girl, Laze, whom Bulma had met earlier. Then there was a curly auburn haired, brown-eyed girl she didn't know, yet, and a sweet looking blonde with aquamarine eyes and shoulder length hair. The last two were a redheaded girl with stripes on her face and clear blue eyes, and an orange haired girl with light green eyes. Laze and the four others seemed to make a group of their own, as if it had always been that way.

After some time, Bulma looked over at them, and nearly tumbled over in shock.

Laze easily pulled on the elastic shirt, and tied the bandages around her wrists and hands, sometimes using her teeth to tighten them, and finally putting her hair up in a ponytail atop her head. Ancle maneuvered her hair up and tied it into a messy bun, not really caring. Zachana quickly popped a mint in her mouth, and pulled on the loose pants she had. Ancha carefully put on her shoes, and tied the shoelaces easily. Kaichi © tied the red ribbons around her pants legs, and stood up.

The thing that made Bulma nearly tumble, was the fact that those girls were far more muscular than anyone else in the room. Their muscles were bulging, though they weren't like the ones you saw on those body-builders. And Laze didn't only have black markings on her face, but over her entire body as well!

Vegeta easily pulled on his training gear, which was a pure black and red, like that of every Dragon Rider. They had ridden themselves off their collars, but for now, it didn't matter. The material of their shirts was extremely elastic, while the pants they wore were rather loose and tied up with red ribbons to keep it from waving in the wind too much.

Haelles tightened the black bandages he had tied around his wrists and hands, and began some easy shadowboxing to warm up. At some points, all that the others saw were shadows, until Haelles stopped. Elvor rolled his eyes and put his own gear on, not really paying attention to the things people said. A blue haired boy whipped a loose strand of hair away, but to no avail.

"Ya shoul leave it like tha, Jed ©, looks good on ya," Norak said as he finished putting his gear on and putting his hair in a ponytail at the nape of his neck.

"Wow!!" Chichi exclaimed, having it bounce around against the walls.

The gym was incredibly large, and there was the possibility to gym outside during the mid-summer days.

Right next to the door that separated the inside world for the outside, stood a tall dark figure, with a strong tan, unruly black hair that reached his waist, partly tied up in a ponytail somewhere near his neck, arms crossed over his muscular chest as he stared outside the door. He was dressed in dark black clothes, which kind of gave away that he was a Goth too, though it could also be for different reasons.

The boys walked out as well, and some of the other newbies were impressed by the size of the room, while the others, including the Dragon Riders, looked rather bored or unhappy. The second the doors to the dressing rooms slammed shut, the man standing beside the door turned his head, glaring at them all with a pair of burning blue sapphires, that were strongly accented by the dark colors of both his hair, skin, and clothes. He turned fully to them, and surveyed them.

"Alright, everybody in a line! Hurry up!" the man commanded with a voice that demanded no back-talk, and everyone scrambled to attention, while the Dragon Riders easily found their places without any argument.

It was as if they had a silent agreement or something, for none of them had spoken ever since they had entered.

Once everyone was lined up, the man walked past the line twice with his hands behind his back, studying the students carefully. Bulma tried to stay calm, while Vegeta, who stood on her left side, remained motionless. Yamcha, who stood on Bulma's right hand, grinned at Bulma, who tried to ignore it.

"Not the best line there is, but I'm sure that can be fixed," the man said, crossing his arms over his chest. "For everyone who doesn't know me yet, I am Tricitrius Milen ©, and as you might have figured out, I will be you PE teacher this year. Some of you might think that you can just drop this subject and forget about it, if that was your current thought, then forget it. Because if you flunk this, you cannot join your friends during exam-week."

A lot of children gasped in shock, but the Dragon Riders kept motionless.

"Do I make myself clear?!" Tricitrius demanded.

"Yes sir," everyone stammered, but the Dragon Riders each gave a nod.

"Good, that's what I wanted to hear. Now, I want you all to spread out, give each other some room and stretch, now," the last word came out as some sort of growl, and everyone ran, searching for a perfect spot.

Bulma, not being all that sure how to stretch, watched some of the Dragon Riders a few moments, seeing what they did.

Laze stood on one leg, holding the other right next to her ear, and she stood like that, motionless, for ten seconds, before switching legs. Elvor was simply doing some pushups, in a handstand! Haelles was shadowboxing, hitting enemies only he could see. Ancle was leaning against a wall, one leg bent and the other stretched out behind her, with her head resting in her throat. Ancha was lying on the ground, hands at the nape of her neck, and she forced herself into a sitting position. Kaichi had one foot on the wall, and her body lying on her leg. Bulma had never seen such flexible people, and she'd probably have difficulties doing those things.

Finding an empty space against the wall, Bulma firmly placed her hands on the hard surface. She bent her right leg, and stretched her left leg out to behind her. She felt pain in her left leg, but she simply gritted her teeth and kept it up.

"Put your foot flat on the ground," a gruff voice said, and when Bulma looked up, she saw Vegeta looking at her with a neutral look on his face.

"Sorry??"

"Your left foot has to be flat on the ground," Vegeta said, nodding at Bulma's foot.

Bulma looked at it as well, and noticed that the heel was loose from the ground. She bit her lip as she adjusted her foot, feeling it cramp rather painfully.

When she looked at Vegeta, she noticed he was looking at something else. Bulma retreated from the wall to stand beside Vegeta, and instantly saw what had caught his attention.

A crimson red liquid trickled down her chin from her spilt lip, which was formed into a look of hate as her eyebrows furrowed. Her lips then curved up at one side, and her pink tongue came out to lick the blood off. The boy standing on the other side of the 'ring', watched her, not moving, until the side of his mouth also curved up.

Within seconds, they flung at each other, sending their fists and feet at one another, trying in vain to get through the other's defenses, yet not succeeding. He was the first to get in a punch, which connected to her jaw, sending her flying, a splotch of blood landing on his clothes. She spun around and ended up in a crouch, glaring at her opponent, who had taken a fighting-position.

She stood up, and a chill wind arose, making her close her eyes and face the skies, before she looked at him again. He knew what that had been, and nodded, receiving a nod back. Again, punches and kicks were exchanged, and at some points, they got through the other's defenses. He managed to knee her in her stomach, but received a punch to his jaw in return. She managed to kick away his feet from under him, only to have her own feet swatted away from under her. They landed on their hands, and pushed themselves upright, exchanging kicks and punches.

However, a sudden blow to his jaw caught him completely off-guard, and he backed up almost immediately. Know what she did? Dislocate his jaw.

With one hand, he easily placed his jaw back into joint, still looking as calm as at the beginning of the match. A crimson red liquid was gently trickling down his arm from the marks her nails had made.

And that was the moment that………… they vanished.

Everyone in the room gasped in shock, but the Dragon Riders groaned in disappointment. Bulma did too, for the fight was just starting to get interesting. Everyone's attention had been aimed at the fighting pair for quite some time, and now it had to be cancelled.

They continued doing their stretches for a few more moments, sometimes looking at where the two had battled. The one thing they hadn't expected, was for them to appear so quickly again.

A loud thud and groan of pain made them look around. The girl's golden hair was smeared with dark red splotches of blood, her clothes were ripped, as if by claws, and her entire body was covered in blood and wounds. She growled as she got up with a hiss, one arm dangling helplessly by her side.

The boy's shirt was torn off, at least, half of it, and claw-like wounds could be found on his chest, arms, and face. Both had lost their shoes, so they stood on bare-feet. You almost couldn't tell if he had blood in his hair due to the color of his hair.

She grasped her shoulder and easily slipped it back into joint, making some of the viewers wince. The duo stared each other down, until…

"You're definitely improving," Elvor said, a smirk on his face.

"I've been busy enough," Laze answered, surprisingly without the ever-present accent.

"I can see that," Elvor said, hands on his hips. "Last time it took me even less time to finally get you to the ground."

"Har-har-har," Laze said. "Not funny."

Bulma was rather surprised that they didn't continue the fight, but was glad as well that they wouldn't kill each other.

"I swear, those two will kill each other one of these days," Vegeta said with a shake of his head.

Bulma turned to look at him and asked: "Then why don't they?"

Vegeta scoffed and said: "Nobody knows. They're at each other's throats most of the time, and they still manage to get along with one another. As if they've been through this before, only different."

The last sentence was a soft murmur, but Bulma had heard him.

As Vegeta left Bulma's side, she realized for the first time that a Dragon Rider had just been nice to her, and that was a true shock once she figured it out.

'Was Vegeta… nice to little old me!? ………wow…'

"Bulma!" a shocked voice said.

Bulma turned around and saw Yamcha staring at her.

"You shouldn't be talking to him. He's nothing but trouble!"

Bulma's eyebrows furrowed, and she suddenly remembered what Azanka had said.

"I'm rather surprised, Mr. Yamagachi, that Miss Briefs has yet to dump you after the things you did to her."

"Yamcha," Bulma hissed.

Yamcha looked confused, and the Dragon Riders turned around to watch the duo.

"I know for sure, that I am NOT going to regret this, because WE'RE THROUGH!!!!" Bulma screamed.

Yamcha was in some state of shock, while the Dragon Riders looked at her in silent admiration. Almost as if she had done the good thing. And Bulma felt that she had. She'd had enough of his cheating ways anyway.

With a resolute move, Bulma turned her back on her now ex-boyfriend, and crossed her arms over her chest.

When PE was over, Bulma noticed that the Dragon Riders watched her closely, as if they knew something she didn't. They kept silent though, and packed their things. However, when they left the dressing room, they began to whisper to each other, and when the other Dragon Riders joined them, they too joined the conversations.

Bulma had a suspicious feeling it was all about her for some reason.

"That's odd," Juu mumbled as she watched the still whispering Dragon Riders leave the compound. "They usually don't discuss a break-up for this long. It's as if something about yours was… different."

Bulma watched Laze who was talking to Haelles in hushed tones. What surprised Bulma the most, was that Haelles actually looked (a little) nicer than when she had first seen him.

"Maybe, I'm not sure."

"It's rather peculiar though. Why would the Dragon Riders talk about Bulma's break-up for this long, and not nearly half as long about others?" Jay asked.

That was something that kept them busy for a long time, and after they had watched the Dragon Riders leave the school on the motorcycles, they went home themselves.

The night was dark, and all was quiet. The lights were out, the entire alley was shrouded in complete darkness. The only source of light was the full moon, shining brightly. The stars twinkled, but it wasn't enough to light her way.

Her breath came out in small silver droplets, as she ran, a cloak covering her body and protecting her body from the cold and dark of night. Her now dull blue eyes searched the alley as she came to a stop, holding the cloak tightly. She was panting, and she was tired. She wanted to go home, but her body was burning up inside, yet freezing cold at the very same time.

"You okay?" a familiar voice asked, and she turned around, a desperate look on her pale face. "Guess not," the man said. "Do you have the money?"

The girl reached inside the pocket of her pants, pulling out a few bills. He took the money, smiled, and handed the child a black leather pouch, as the girl gave him a different one, although that of her was empty.

She reached inside and pulled one of the mouth-devices from it. Carefully, she placed it between her teeth, and sucked, making the small boll vanish from it, mixing it with her bloodstream at rapid speeds. She tossed the empty container on the ground, before running off, her pale skin returning to a light tan, the light gray markings on her face going back to pitch-black, her hair returning to its former golden glory, and her eyes going back to a piercing sapphire blue.

Well, that's it for this chapter. Geez, I'm starting to become popular! Look at the number of reviews I got!!

Reviews:

tamara/tara/tia: Bulma will become stronger, but that has to wait.

Hotmommy4life 62 18: Coincidence.

Ciria: Oh, don't worry. All will be revealed in good time.

saiyankiyse: Well, the Dragons should appear pretty soon already, though Bulma and her gang won't see them.

Guitar Daughter of Piccolo: Don't you go kill yourself or you'll never know how this story will finish!

waterprincess: I will. This story is far from finished.

Yue Lover: I hope so.

Paper-Thin: Thanks for liking my story.

aer-raven: I have no idea what stereotypes are, do tell.

Dark Angel: Hmmm… is Bulma going to be a Dragon Rider? Hmmm… I'M NOT GOING TO SPOIL IT!!

Nicka: Glad you like. And about your story, I think I already a part of it… was that about Vegeta being a Vampire and Bulma trying to figure out chi-energy?

Soverign-of-Silence: Did it as fast as I could. Uh… I think I already read part of your story… but that had been at school and I didn't have enough time to review.

Aryana: He does, doesn't he?

Oh, and did anyone figure out who I had been talking about at the end?