Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ A Lost Love ❯ New Beginnings ( Chapter 2 )

A Lost Love

By Karete-chan

Chapter 2:

I never did get to see the ending to that dream. It kept recurring for a couple of nights but every time I would black out in the dream world I would wake up here, at home, safe in the comfort of my bed.

The first time I woke up in a cold sweat and I must have screamed because my adoptive kassan came running into my room. She's sweet but should know that I can take care of myself by now. When it woke me more than a few times she wanted me to see a doctor. A psychologist. I didn't go. There was nothing wrong with me and unless he could tell me what happened at the end of the dream and why I was sent away then he would be useless.

I told my kassan that. In those exact words. I was grounded for a week.

If I didn't hold my adoptive parents in such high regard I would have been annoyed but from respect I obeyed their wishes. You might think that I am terrible not to love them for the home and shelter and love that they have given to me. I do not think I have ever loved. Perhaps I loved my father but I do not remember.

West City is not the ideal place to be having this slight life crisis either. Too many snooping prying noses live here. Even school is a trial. Each day pretending that you're normal, when dreams haunt you. Hah, you say, what about all those poor children who are treated badly, that leaves them with scars for life? Don't their dreams haunt them? Yes. They would. Yet unlike me their dreams have finality; they stop at one point or another. I fear that mine will never stop. That there is no one who can tell me what happened that day or what has happened since.

I will persevere. I believe my father would be disappointed were I not to. Perhaps one day I will return to space. The local billion-dollar industry, Capsule Corporation, has a certified genius running the place. Bulma Briefs I believe her name is. There are rumours that she has travelled in space, though the general populace has trouble coping with flying aircraft. Maybe one day I can commission her to build me a craft. Perhaps on the day that pigs begin flying, the same day that hell freezes over.

I learnt long ago that dreams are just that. Dreams. They get broken more often then they come true.

Ah. I should stop this because I am depressing you. No. Don't shake your head and deny it. I'm depressing myself to tell the truth. So I shall tell you what happened to change my mind and ended the nightmares.

I had been immersed in a rather intelligent book. That was strange in itself as I usually found Chikyuu-jin literature to be rather sappy and over emotional. I fear that that is my Saiya-jin blood that causes me to feel that way. But this book, about broken loves and hates because of differences, had piqued my interest. `Wuthering Heights', was the title I believe.

In any case, I had been reading this book in a corner of the cafeteria during an extended lunch break. My sole friend, another outcast like myself, Frame, was sick and having a pleasant time watching daytime soap operas. Quite suddenly and very rudely, a very loud pack of students waltzed their way into what was once the relative quiet of the lunchroom. Me being who I am immediately glanced up and scowled.

It was the boy at the head on the pack that immediately caught my attention. I had never seen such a grin on any person's face before. It was if, in the face of that grin, nothing could ever be wrong or hurt or cause misery in any way. It was so…carefree. I had smiled at that thought. Carefree was exactly the word I was looking for as I took in the absolute mop of a hairdo he sported. Black hair spiked unevenly in every which way, seemingly laughing at the world as it defied gravity in such an open manner.

He amused me, this boy, until I saw what he was wearing; an Orange Star High School badge. I frowned. Our school was not exactly on `friendly' terms with them. In fact if I recall the last two times they'd met, several of the students had ended up in the emergency room. I watched them warily for a while, concerned that a fight would break out and I would be forced to stop them. I hated when that happened. Especially the small white lies I would have to tell at the end about the `lucky' punches I happened to have thrown.

Jolted from my thoughts of what might have been the immediate future I found the grinning boy looking in my direction, all traces of the inane smile gone. Momentarily startled I looked away and busied myself with my book once again. The noise had died and I assumed that this meant that no one would come to blows.

"Good book?" Said book suddenly found itself no longer in my hands. "Sorry," the voice said, as I bent to retrieve it from the floor, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Being scared and startled are two entirely different things," I sniffed haughtily from beneath the table. I heard the scrape of a chair.

"What're you doing all the way over here by yourself?"

I looked up at the obviously male voice and nearly dropped the book again. His grin had found its way back and it conveyed even more friendliness when seen from close up.

"Reading," I said, momentarily losing my fine articulation for words I had carried since I could walk.

"Ah, a bookworm." How I hate that word! "Not that that's a bad thing," he added hurriedly obviously reading my face. His distress at insulting me showed clearly on his open features, I hope my annoyance was not as obvious. "My brother's a bookw…school…learning type person too."

"Why are you here?" I asked somewhat irritably.

"No reason. I just don't like seeing people on their own, that's all."

"My friend is sick," I said defensively.

"Oh. Sorry to hear it." He lent forward onto the table. "Say, my friend's throwing an end-of-term bash at his place. You wouldn't like to come would you? You can bring your friend too."

I was taken aback. A party? No one ever invited Frame or me to parties. We weren't enough like the social runners of the school to be daubed `acceptable' enough to be seen at parties.

"Here," he said handing me a piece of blue paper. "It's invite only. You don't have to let anyone know you're coming but if they give you any trouble at the door just tell them you know Goten." He stood. "See you there." Giving a small wave he walked away. I watched him go, watched him as he met his friends, watched as they left the cafeteria.

It wasn't until it was too late that I noticed that my mouth was hanging open.

"Nice impression of a fish, Zena."

I snapped my mouth shut. I hated that voice. "Hello, Floss." I turned my black eyes upward to meet the seemingly innocent baby-blue gaze of the captain of the cheerleading squad.

She tipped her head, which I assume might have helped her to think slightly better, causing her blonde hair, with its shocking pink streaks, to bob annoyingly in their pony-tailed confinement.

"Whatcha got there?" As if she didn't know. "Oh! Is that an invitation? Wow. You freaks actually got yourselves organized enough to throw a party?" She giggled inanely as her cronies snickered behind her. She stopped all of a sudden and you could have heard a pin drop in the ensuing silence. "It isn't though. Goten gave you that." She lent forward in exactly the same manner he had only minutes before except that her chest was in the very real danger of escaping from her far too tight top. "Listen here, freako. If you know what's good for you you'll stay away from that party. I mean, you wouldn't want to ruin it for everyone else would you?"

I gazed back at her trying to telepathically force her to go away. It must have worked, because she stood, saving me from the horror of seeing things that would most likely haunt me worse than the nightmares I was already having.

Her I'm-just-a-darling-smile was flashed in my direction again before she saunted off. "Oh!" she said turning to me again. "And stay away from Goten. He's way out of your league."

I scowled at that and they burst into giggles. Flushing red I buried my head in my book, angry with myself for letting them get a rise out of me.

When the general laughter had died down I pulled out the invitation. Saturday night, blah, blah, blah, 7.30, blah, blah, blah, Capsule Corp., blah, bla…Capsule Corp.? I read the printed words again. Capsule Corp. That meant that the friend he…Goten, had mentioned, was Trunks Briefs.

I knew Trunks but only by sight. He went to this exact same school, only two years ahead of me. Rumour had it that Bulma had attended here and that she wanted her son to have the education she did. Even if it were not true I liked the thought of that. It showed that she had some semblance of respect for the public school system.

I sat back in my seat and smiled slightly. Well. This was to good an opportunity to waste. If that empty-headed, pom-pom tossing, bimbo thought I was going to stay away she had another thing coming. What's the Chikyuu-jin saying? I'll be there with bells on.

And Frame will go in that awful hat she always wears.