Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Orange Star High School ❯ Chapter Two: Rules of Engagement ( Chapter 2 )

Thanks be to: SheWhoMustNotBeNamed (HP fan I see), Shateera, and Veggies_grl, who reviewed.

Disclaimer: See first chapter

Chapter Two: Rules of Engagement

Bulma sighed as she entered her house; her parents weren't home, again. She realized it was tough for her father to be the head genius and president of Capsule Corporation. It was equally hard for her mother, she supposed, being the operator of a large catering company. She still wished they were home sometimes.

She hung up her coat and pressed the play button on the answering machine. There were five messages. She forwarded through three of them; two of those were for her father from lawyers' etcetera, and one was for her mother, requesting her to do something.

"Hello, Miss Briefs. This is Tanya over to A&D Advertising. This is about the portfolio you submitted to us for the Verbatim Jeans campaign. You're shoot is at nine-thirty this Saturday morning. Please avoid drinking, and eat a light breakfast. If you have any questions please contact our offices between eight and five on the weekday at 556-364…"

She fast-forwarded through the rest of the message. She wouldn't have any questions.

"Hi, Bulma. This is Yamucha Marko, I'm in your English class." He sounded nervous. Bulma found a predatory grin creeping onto her face. "I was wondering, if you weren't to busy of course, if I could show you around town sometime? My home number is 553-8675" The last was said hopeful.

She remembered Yamucha vaguely from her class. He had wild mullet cut, but it looked kind of cute on him. He had a handsome face with a strong jaw, and he was free of acne or nasty cologne.

She picked up the phone, and dialed his number.

"Hello, Marko house, Yolanda speaking." A little girl answered.

"Hi, is your brother Yamucha there?"

"Yeah," The girl sighed. "I'll get him. HEY! YAM-HEAD! YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS ON THE PHONE!!!!!!" the girl shrieked.

"That's not funny Yolanda, get out of here!" she could hear Yamucha snap, as he wrestled the phone away from his sister.

"It's Bulma." She said.

"Oh, hi, Bulma." She could practically hear a blush in his voice. He was definitely cute.

"How about you pick me up after work Saturday? I should be out around noon."

"Sure! That's great, gimme the address."

She told him.

"Great, that's really close to the baseball field where I practice. I'll be there, see you Saturday --- and in class I suppose."

"Alright, Yam-chan." She said, before hanging up.

So maybe Vegeta was `unavailable', she might have gone after him if it wasn't for the fact he had AIDS. Yamucha was a nice guy, popular, and less work than trying to reform Vegeta. He was guaranteed fun.

***(-I-)**(-I-)***

Goku entered his father's townhouse. His dad was head foreman at Capsule Corporation's manufacturing division, and was undoubtedly working late with the arrival of Dr. Briefs to get the plant into shop.

The house was lonely without his mom or Radditz hanging around. His mother had passed shortly after Radditz had died. Their deaths still made him feel sick to the stomach.

"Hey, Carrot-head!" His Uncle Toma had come to live with them after his mother died. He was a dedicated bachelor, and a hell of a lot of fun.

"Hey, Uncle Toma." He couldn't stop a small smile that touched his face.

"Why were you so long faced?" His Uncle asked as he started to drink straight out of the orange juice carton.

"Dad is going to be pissed if he sees you drinking out of the carton again." He said, before sighing. "I was thinking about Radditz… I saw Vegeta again."

His Uncle's shoulders slumped. Toma had been the one Radditz was staying with while he was at college to cut down on the costs. He felt responsible for not intervening sooner.

"It's not your fault."

"I know, and don't go thinking it was yours either." Toma said, giving him a sharp look in the eye. "You couldn't have known how **he** was."

"I know." Goku sighed.

"You've got karate in fifteen minutes, you'd better get going. Your dad's working late again, so how about we go out to eat tonight?"

"That'll be great." Goku said as he grabbed his dojo bag sitting by the door. "See you later!"

***(-I-)**(-I-)***

Returning to his apartment building he headed up the thirteenth floor, and stopped at apartment number 35M. He knocked, and heard the deadbolt slide back, and several keys turn.

"Hey, Vegeta." Juunana said as he opened the door. "You're still going to that stupid prep-school, I see."

"Don't tell me that you missed me?"

"Of course, Vegeta." Juuhachi smirked. "Don't you know that he's madly in love with you? I can hear him calling your name when he's getting off in bed every night."

Juunana scowled at his fairer twin sister.

"Bitch."

"Woof, woof." She said in a monotone, raising an eyebrow at her brother. She turned back to Vegeta. "So how are you Goth-boy?"

Vegeta rolled his eyes at his nickname.

"School's full of dicks, as usual."

"You really should transfer out of there, come back to East." Juunana sighed.

"Nah, I told you, I'll go to college, and then I'll manage your fashion company." Vegeta shrugged. "You guys do all the designing and I'll sell it."

"Speaking of which…" Juuhachi went into her and Juunana's bedroom. She came back out with something in black and tossed it at him.

"Put it on, I've got to take more photos for my portfolio."

Vegeta headed into the bathroom, and shut the door behind him.

He put the shirt on first. It was tight and had thick silver pirate stripes sewn on. The pair of spandex pants were even tighter and had silver around the cuffs.

"Be sure to take off your underwear, I don't want panty-lines!" Juuhachi called.

Grumbling slightly he headed out the door.

"Lovely, dahling." Juunana drawled. Vegeta flipped him off.

"Perfect." Juuhachi smirked. "Let's go out on the deck and shoot it."

"Only if you promise to cut my hair after you're finished playing dress-up with me."

"Fine, now get your ass out there."

They went out the deck, which was only seven feet by four, with just enough space for the tree teens and a chair.

"You only like me for my body, don't you?"

"Yes, now lean back against the railing, use your elbows to support you." Juunana directed. He was Juuhachi's photographer as well as assistant designer. "Head to the side, looking out to the next. Look artfully bored. Now cross your right leg over your left." Vegeta held the pose while Juunana inspected him. "Perfect, now hold it."

***(-I-)**(-I-)***

She was flying, high in the air. She was invincible; she could take on the strongest man in the universe, and she could take him out with one punch.

She was coked up. She hadn't meant to get into this nasty habit… no, no, not at all. Oh, God, she had to give a speech to the Middle School about saying `No' to drugs. How hypocritical, especially considering she'd be so nervous that she'd have to take a hit before she got on stage. She was so afraid of large crowds. She was always uneasy in front of people. Smack was the only thing that shut up those awful doubting voices that resided in her head from taking over and ruling her life.

She wanted to go back to the country. She wanted to live with her father again. If that stupid fire hadn't destroyed their house, Father never would have gotten it into his head to send her to live with her Aunt Meimei and Cousin Keiko so she could attend her last year and a half of schooling at Orange Star. It was so much larger than the school she'd had back home, with maybe two hundred students, Orange Star boasted over one thousand five hundred.

She was so afraid coming into this big city. Afraid of the muggers in every alley that took more from young girls than their money, that she'd always heard about. She was afraid of being a total country bumpkin, afraid of being humiliated, or being behind in classes.

Cousin Keiko was so pretty, and so very popular at Orange Star. She was Captain of the Cheerleading squad and voted Prom Queen. Keiko was so wise… she had pulled her over just before the Valentine's dance (to which she was going stag), and handed her a little bottle and told her to sniff. She had and suddenly all her fears had floated away. She'd met Goku Son that night, and she knew she'd never would have had the guts to ask him dance had she been clean.

Now, however, Cousin Keiko had gone off to college. She'd taken all her miracle cure with her. The small stash that Keiko had left her with had been exhausted the day before school.

She'd contacted some of Keiko's friends who were into the more illicit sort of dealings. They'd given her the number of Keiko's dealer. She'd been quite surprised when **Vegeta** had showed up. He certainly didn't sound like the man she'd talked to on the phone…

***(-I-)**(-I-)***

He opened the door of the apartment and felt his stomach lurch. His stepfather was sitting on the couch. He'd hope that he'd have stayed somewhere else tonight. No such luck apparently.

"Did you do your chores?" His stepfather asked boredly, beckoning him forward with an idle wave of a hand that he did not disobey. His stepfather's eyes never flicked from the television set, whose glow was mirrored on his bald head.

"Yes."

A hand fell out, silently asking for the money. He dug through his pockets, and found with alarm that the bill was not there. He had to have dropped it at Juuhachi and Juunana's while he was changing into one of their outfits. Panic began to bubble up in him as his stepfather turned his head to glare at him. His black eyes took on a red glow as they pierced him. A cold sweat broke out along his spine.

"I dropped it." He whispered.

Fury swept across his stepfather's face as he leapt to his feet. His stomach twisted into icy knots as the too-late realization came that his stepfather must have been sampling the latest shipment.

He heard the crack of skin on skin before he felt it. He stumbled backwards with the force of the slap, a hand coming up to guard the injured cheek. The injury throbbed and burned noticeably against his palm.

"I know where it is." He said quickly, and made a dash out of the apartment.

He raced up the stairs, knowing if he took too long in retrieving the money that his stepfather would be just as unhappy as if he'd never gotten it at all. He arrived breathlessly to the twins' door, and beat against the wood.

Juuhachi's head popped out and she handed him the money.

"If you need to, we've got a sofa-sleeper." She offered.

"No," He said with a firm shake of the head. "That's okay, I need to get back, and he'll be wanting this."

"Frieza's a dick, Vegeta. I don't know why you stay with him." She sighed. "He just beats on you or gets you to do his dirty work."

To this he had no response, and so merely shrugged, and headed quickly back downstairs.

By the time he arrived back in the apartment, his stepfather had resettled himself on the couch.

"I got it," He said, thrusting the money out, and flinching back in preparation. His stepfather grunted, took it, and began to roll it. On the table Vegeta could see the cut cocaine.

Seeing that he was not going to receive any additional blows, Vegeta headed towards the kitchen. Perusing the near-empty shelves and refrigerator/freezer, he came up with a half package of dried spaghetti noodles, some tomato paste, and about a glass of milk. His stomach growled in anticipation. He'd not gotten anything to eat today. He set about to preparing his meal.

At eight-thirty, a half-hour after sunset, his stepfather left the house without a remark in his direction. Vegeta breathed a sigh of relief at that. He turned off the TV (which was blaring, ironically, COPS), locked up after Frieza, and went into his bedroom.

Settling down with his abandoned novel, he proceeded to remove himself from reality.

***(-I-)**(-I-)***

"Yam-head has a girlfriend!" Yolanda crowed as the Marko family sat down for their dinner of lasagna bought from the grocery store. His mother generally cooked, but tonight she was too busy.

"I do not!" Yamucha said crossly, tossing a dinner roll at his nine-year-old sister.

"Yamucha don't throw food at your sister, you know it only encourages her," The Marko Matriarch, Yvonne, snapped as she plopped a large piece of cheesy lasagna on his plate.

Ms. Marko's point was only proved when Yamucha's dinner roll came hurtling back, and got him square between the eyes.

"So, who is she?" Yamucha's mother asked.

"Her name's Bulma…" Yamucha blushed at the mere mention of her name.

"She stupid, because she doesn't know that boys have cooties!" Yolanda jeered.

"Shut it, pipsqueak." Yamucha snarled. For all his fearsomeness, he got a tongue in return.

"Yolanda, eat your dinner." Yvonne snapped.

"Did you hear anything from Dad?" Yamucha said hopefully after a moment of silence.

There was more silence as Yolanda stopped picking at her food and joined Yamucha in looking at their mother.

"He said he'd try to make it to your graduation," Yvonne sighed.

"Oh." Yamucha said with obvious disappointment, and stared at his half-eaten dinner. He felt his mother's hand slip around his.

"Your father's a very busy man." She tried to placate.

"Too busy to show up for one of my games, or send a birthday card, or visit, even though he lives in the same **fucking** city?" Yamucha said bitterly.

"Don't say **that** word in front of your sister." Yvonne hissed.

"Sorry." Yamucha grumbled, and shoved a large piece of lasagna in his mouth.

The three ate in silence through the rest of dinner.