Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Orange Star High School ❯ Chapter Three: Ghosts ( Chapter 3 )

Wowee… a lot of you peeps sure reviewed last time. **Ironic snort** to those who did, and you know who you are, THANK YOU!!!!!!

Notes: Now, Vegeta may seem a little wussy right now. He's just depressed, it happens. Wait until he hits manic stage.

Why this Chapter is SO Late: First of all I've got relatives over, and this means I have to give them tours. Second of all, after cranking out two chapters relatively close together, I needed a break or I was going to become permanently blocked.

Third, and most grieving, I've been trying to come to terms with the fact that Invader Zim is cancelled. It's such a great show and it's so horrible to see it go. So, any Zim fan that spots the references gets a `Poop!' soda!

Chapter Three: Ghosts

"Today's lunch is: Chicken Cordon Bleu or Pizza. Please remember that all seniors must report to their counselor for college planning. The scholarships of the week are from: The Elks Club, Tesoro Stations, and Nike. Have a nice day and a great weekend."

Bulma smiled flirtatiously across the room at Yamucha in the tenor section. He blushed and gave her a small wave before focusing on the teacher in the front of the room. Mrs. Henderson was very strict, she'd heard, but one of the best teachers in the district.

"Alright, let's begin warm ups." The short, graying woman said, sitting down at the piano in the center of the room.

She half-heartedly sang along with the rest of the class. She was not the best of singers, she knew that, but she needed a creative arts credit.

Pulling out her notebook, her eye caught on a crumpled piece of paper that slid out. Picking it up, she realized it was the diary entry she'd picked up off the floor of the bus. With interest she began to read it:

`May 15th, 1999

I hate the world. I hate Radditz more. I wish a demon would eat that mother fucker's balls…'

A small sketch of what appeared to be a demon munching on what suspiciously looked like a pair of testes sat at the bottom of the page, glaring at the viewer malevolently. Chichi was right, he was too bizarre for her tastes.

Although the demon sketch was good…

Worthless thoughts, she reminded herself, as she wadded the piece of paper up into a ball and tossed it into the garbage can. Worthless thoughts on a worthless person doomed to die anyway.

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

She wiggled in her seat, trying not to be too obvious about it. It felt like she was in the boiler room, instead of Senior English class. She pulled with agitation at the collar of her shirt. She could feel the sweat trickling down her spine, and she rubbed against the back of the chair fruitlessly in an effort to make the itch go away.

There was only one cure, she knew, and it frightened her how addicted she'd become to the powder. Her body burned for it, and she longed to satisfy its ache.

She'd only take a little snort. She'd just take a little hit to get her through the rest of the day, and to stop the itching and unbearable heat. Nothing wrong with taking a little hit, and it didn't mean she was addicted to the stuff or anything.

She reached into her purse and pulled out her chapstick tube. She opened the bottom of it, where the life-saving powder lay hidden in its recesses. Carefully watching around her, she quickly put the end near her nose and took a quick sniff, before capping the tube and replacing it in her purse.

An airy feeling soon took over her as she tried to focus on what Mr. Stephenson was writing on the board. Damned sparks kept getting in her way. She shook her head to relieve herself of the dizziness before determinedly copying off the notes.

She felt so much better now…

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

"Hey, Yamucha!" Somebody called for him. Yamucha turned, and grinned at his friend, Krillen.

"Hey!" He replied, waiting for the shorter teen to catch up.

"I hear you've got a girlfriend." Krillen said with a lecherous grin. "A certain Miss Briefs?"

Yamucha blushed.

"I'm just showing her around town tomorrow."

"Sure you are. You're `just' showing a big-time model around…"

"What!?!"

"You didn't know?" Krillen raised an eyebrow. "C'mon, it was in the newspaper article they published about her family moving here again. She was the hot chick on all those zit crème ads…"

"Really?"

"Really. Honestly, you need to pay more attention."

"I guess I'd better get her something nice then, when we go out on our date…"

"Hah! I knew it was a date!"

"What should I get her, Krillen? Flowers, candies, jewelry?!?!?!?" Yamucha asked in a panicked voice.

"Man, you could **not** have chosen a harder girl to go out with for your first ever date."

"I've had other girls before!"

"Taking your visiting cousin out to the movies does not count."

"She kissed me!"

"Dude, that's just disgusting." Krillen shuddered.

"I know, she had dog breath and one of her zits popped in the process…"

"You know, Yamucha, I'd really like to eat today, without thinking of your zit-faced cousin…" Krillen made gagging motions.

"So do I, I can't ever look the cafeteria's pimento loaf sandwiches without thinking of her…"

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

"Alright, for our first day of class, I'd like to do some improvisation." Miss Simon said cheerily, despite the fact that it was eight o' clock in the morning, an ungodly hour to most of the class.

Miss Simon stared at her clipboard for a second, before beaming brightly at Vegeta; he slouched down farther in his seat in resigned to his fate of being first picked.

"Vegeta, I've not seen you with Goku in a long while, you two go along splendidly. Up on the stage boys."

Vegeta could feel his face grow paler, and one quick look at Goku confirmed his suspicions that he wasn't too happy either. They both ascended the stage, taking opposite sides to avoid contact with the other.

"Now, to make it easy, I want the two of you to get into an argument, one of you has been betrayed by the other, and the betrayed confronts the betrayer."

Vegeta felt his gut sink at the evil look that appeared on Goku's face. Miss Simon merely beamed happily at them, as she sat and waited for them to begin. The rest of the class he noticed was sitting in tense silence, eyes riveted to the drama that was undoubtedly about to play out on stage. Damn the oblivious Miss Simon for asking this of him!

"How could you it?" Goku snarled at him as they both were relatively close to each other.

"How could I what?" Vegeta asked nervously. His response only seemed to infuriate Goku.

"Don't lie to me! We were friends, once." Goku grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him up to his eye level. "You killed him, you son of a bitch. He's dead because of what you did!" By now, Goku was shaking him roughly, fury burning deep in his brown eyes.

"Let-go of me!" Vegeta snarled, trying to pry himself free of Goku's grip, which had now become tight irons around his forearms.

"Not until you apologize! Why did you do it!?! You had to have known!"

"I--I--"

The conversation deteriorated from there. Goku swung a punch that connected with his right eye, and he fell back onto the floor. He curled in on himself instinctively, protecting the kick headed for his skull with his forearm. His skull may have been protected, but his abdomen soon got the brunt of the blows.

"You killed Radditz, and you used me to do it!" Goku shrieked, before someone had enough prescence of mind to pull the two of them apart.

Vegeta uncurled, and sat up, cradling his sore arm. Goku had left, presumably to the Principal's office, as Miss Simon clapped.

"Very convincing! Excellent boys!"

He couldn't take today. Crawling off the stage, he stumbled towards his backpack, snatched it, and headed out the door. He could hear Miss Simon calling after him, but he ignored her as he limped out towards the bus stop.

He caught the bus that headed towards East High School. Juunana would skip school with him… he didn't exactly want to be alone right now. He had always suspected Goku had blamed him for Radditz's death, but the other boy had never vocalized his thoughts before.

He touched his sore eye gingerly, and pulled back when it stung him. Guilt snarled in his stomach, and he tried to rationally explain that his guilt was irrational. There was no way that he could have possibly given Radditz HIV through one forced kiss. That didn't shut up the voices however.

>>HIV mutates, you know that, perhaps you've got one that can be passed through a simple kiss…<<

**It's not possible, and I didn't kiss him, he kissed me…**

>>Honestly, you sound like a twelve year old `I didn't kiss him, he kissed me…', if you hadn't gone to that party, nothing ever would have happened…<<

**How could I have known that **THAT** was going to happen?**

The bus pulled to a stop before he could continue his pointless ponderings, although they still left him with a queasy stomach. He could see the school up in the distance, and jogged towards it, despite the sudden pounding in his head.

He searched the parking lot for Juunana's and Juuhachi's ancient Oldsmobile classic. It was a boat of a car, and a matte navy, and therefore not hard to miss. Juunana or Juuhachi would come out to get their lunch from a fast food joint, and he could talk to them then.

He sat on the hood of the car for a moment, before jumping down and pulling out his wallet. Fishing through the various identity cards he finally pulled out the razor stuck between his public library card and an old business card from a pizza parlor that had long gone out of closed.

He leaned back against the car, and rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, baring his forearm. He glared at it with hatred, before laying the sharpened edge down, and dragging through his skin. It immediately felt as if it was on fire, and his throat became choked with bile. Blood slid down his arm as he made another intersecting mark. Self-hatred made his muscles clench, and the blood came down in thicker spurts.

Wiping the blood of the razor he returned it to his wallet, gently moving his now wounded arm. He winced as he was forced to roll down his sleeve over the injury that was only slightly bleeding now.

He sat back up on the hood of the car, and glared at the entrance to East, willing the lunch bell to ring.

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

It took a few minutes before Miss Simons realized what had really happened up there on stage, and Goku was sent to the office to wait.

Their Principal, Mrs. Bitters, took one look at the note he gave her from Miss Simons and said: "Call your father, one day suspension." Before retreating back into her office. Mrs. Bitters didn't much care for school, or teaching according to his Uncle who had her when he was in High School. Rumor had it that she got the title of Principal by accident…

Dialing up his father's work phone he prepared himself for an assault on his ears.

"Dad?" He said nervously into the phone.

"Yes, Goku?" His father's voice was suddenly concerned.

"I've been suspended a day for fighting." He said quickly, deciding to get it over with quickly instead of having it dragged out.

"What?" His father snapped. "Goku --" His father sighed with disappointment. That was always the worst, the disappointment. "We'll talk about this tonight. I'll call Toma and he'll pick you up." His father hung up the phone, and he hung it despondently afterwards.

**I'll bet he wishes I'd taken after Radditz… Radditz never actually got caught fighting…***

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

"Vegeta! What the hell are you doing here?" Juuhachi asked, jogging up to her friend.

"Crap day at school, decided to come here." Vegeta shrugged, not quite able to meet Juuhachi's eyes.

"Get in the car and tell me what happened." She motioned towards the passenger side as she opened and unlocked the doors, sliding behind the wheel.

They headed towards the Crazy Taco, and were just beginning to pull out of the drive thru when Vegeta began to talk.

"We were in drama, and I got paired with Goku, and we were supposed to have an argument." Here he fingered the bruised on his eye. "He came out and told me he thought I was responsible for giving Radditz AIDS…" Vegeta shuddered.

"The guy is an asshole Vegeta, I don't know why you obsess on --"

"I don't want to hear it Juuhachi."

Juuhachi sighed loudly, and bit into a taco.

"Do you want any tacos?" She asked after washing the taco down with diet pop.

"I'm not hungry…" Vegeta sighed. "If I just transferred over to East--"

"You know going to Orange Star is your only way out of this hell hole. East has a notorious reputation, so unless you want to get a job in fine arts --"

"My guidance counselor, Mr. Carey, thinks so."

"Thinks what?"

"That I should be a singer." Vegeta gave a half smirk in Juuhachi's direction. Juuhachi snorted.

"No offense, but you can't sing worth jack crap."

"I know. Mr. Carey's a jerk off. He keeps putting me in drama ---" He sighed, remembering what brought him into Juuhachi's car in the first place.

"Do you want me to drop you off at Orange Star?"

"Yeah, I've got Government and Art, they're Goku-free."

"Tell Juunana I'm sorry that his tacos are cold."

"He'll expect restitution."

"Alright." Vegeta smirked.

They pulled into Orange Star and Vegeta jumped out.

"Thanks Juuhachi."

"Yeah, just don't tell anyone, otherwise they'll all be turning to me for advice."

"We wouldn't want that, now would we?"

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

"Let's go out and get some lunch." Uncle Toma said, entering Orange Star's office area. Goku nodded, grabbed his satchel and joined his Uncle in the walk to the car.

"So you beat the crap out of Vegeta."

"Not exactly. Miss Simon told us to have an argument, and I guess I got carried away..."

"I see."

"He didn't fight back." Goku sighed. "He could have, I know he could've, we took karate together…"

His Uncle made a sound of agreement as he started the engine of his beat up Volkswagen Beetle.

"Sometimes I think that Vegeta couldn't have done it, but the way he's out of the closet now… I just don't know."

A long moment of silence passed.

"Sometimes I think Dad liked Radditz better than me. I can tell when I screw up on something. I can almost hear him wanting to say `Why can't you be more like Radditz?'"

"Not to offend your masculine pride or anything," His Uncle spoke for the first time, as they turned into a pizza parlor. "But you were always a Momma's boy." Goku blushed. "Not that you're a wuss or anything, it's just that you and your mom got on better than you and your dad. Radditz was more like your father, but your Dad's proud of you. He's always boasting about how many points you scored in the last game, or your grades." He grinned at him. "Now let's forget all about this, and eat some pizza."

End Chapter Three