Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Slumber Party! ❯ Trouble! ( Chapter 9 )

He looked at the card he held in his hand. It was an identification card. Her face in the photo looked young and happy, the typical teenager. Her blonde hair held back in a ponytail which fell over one shoulder, her blue eyes sparkling even in the photograph. He grinned to himself, reading the address printed in black lettering next to the photo.

"Time to have that bit of fun that was denied us, honey." He said to the girl's photo before stuffing the card back into his pant's pocket. "It was lucky for me that I spotted this after you dropped it last night."

He ran a hand over his greasy black hair and laughed, walking towards his friend's house to let him in the deal. They would call Eddie from there, he's never forgive them if he was left out. Oh, yeah, he thought, as the sun slowly showed her face in the sky, you're gonna pay, Tori.

He came to his friend's house and knocked breifly on the door of the run down shack-like house. He didn't bother to close the gate he'd just walked through, it was falling off it's hinges anyway. In fact, the whole yard was in a horrible state of disrepair. The door opened and a woman stood there, wrapped in a ratty bathrobe and sucking on a foul-smelling cigarette.

"What'cha want, Doug?" She coughed, and Doug waved the smoke out of his eyes, those things could kill a body, he thought in disgust.

"Carl home?" He asked, figeting on the front stoop, wanting to get past Doug's mother as quickly as possible. The old lady gave him the creeps.

"Down stairs." She said, moving aside so that he could enter and walk past her, "Don't go getting into no trouble, ya hear?"

"Sure." He said, adding under his breath; "Screw you, ya witch."

"What was that?" She asked, coming up behind him before he could open the basement door which led to his friend's room.

"Nothing."

"That's what I thought." He could tell she was walking away not by the sound of her footsteps but by the smell of her smoking becoming fainter. Oh, he could still smell the smoke, the whole house and all it's funiture were just soaked in smoke, but at least he couldn't smell fresh smoke anymore. If smoke could be described as fresh.

"Carl!" He called, taking the steps two by two, "Call Eddie! Tell him to get his fat ass over here!"

He stood at the end of Carl's bed, not bothering to notice the posters of scantily clad women and rock and roll posters tacked on all the walls of his friend's room. A stack of porn mags lay in a haphazard pile next to his bed, more than a few hardcore bondage fetish magizines stuffed in among the more tame glossy airbrushed playboy-like ones. He knew his friend had some issues, but he had a strict code of live and let live. Each to his own, so to speak.

Carl was laying on his bed, a pair of headphones over his short dishwater blonde-haired head, some sort of metal band playing through his `phones. He rolled over and slipped them off his head. "Why, Doug?" He asked, "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing." He grinned like a chesire cat, taking the photo i.d card from his pocket and tossing it to his friend, "What say we all have some fun tonight?"

Understanding slowly dawned on Carl as he studied the card, he looked up and smiled, already reaching for the telephone which was buried under a mound of dirty clothes in the corner of the room.

"Why wait for tonight?" Carl asked, "It's still early, not many people will be up...besides, I'm feeling restless..."

"What if someone sees?"

"Who cares?" He said, "You know ain't no one's gonna do anything. Everyone pretty much minds their own business, or haven't you noticed that yet? Besides, no one wants trouble…"

It took about twenty mintues for their friend to show up. They told Carl's mother that they were going to get some beer and would be back after a bit. She grumbled something they couldn't quite understand from her place on the sofa where she parked herself most days and watched her television set. She seemed to enjoy living her life through the television as it droined on and on rather than getting out and experiencing life for herself. She was reaching into her pack for another cigarette when the door slammed shut on her son and his hoodlum friends.

Tori used the shower and got dressed. She gathered her things together and was about to tell them all thanks but that she needed to get back home to watch her little brother and sister before her mother came looking for her. Her father had to leave for work at eight and she needed to be there to help with the housework and getting April and Todd fed and taken care of. Even though, at fourteen, April could pretty much take care of herself.

"Why don't you at least stay for breakfast?" Chi Chi asked, as she broke some eggs into a bowl and added milk, stirring the mixture, "I'm making omlettes and frying up some bacon."

"I'd like to, but…"

"Nonsence!" Bulma said, as she combed her blue hair and looked at herself in her compact mirror, she sat on one of the stools surrounding the bar-like counter off the kitchen, "It's Saturday, surely your family won't mind if you're a little late."

"Well, Let me call first," Tori said, reaching for the phone, she dialed and spoke briefly to her little brother, who was up watching cartoons, as was normal for a Saturday morning at her house. She could even heard the cereal he was crunching and thought that April must have poured it for him.

"I told my little brother to tell my Mom that I'd be a bit late." She said, smiling as she hung up the phone, she really didn't want to leave just yet, and Chi Chi's breakfast did smell good. She heard the front door open and shut and Goku, Vegeta and Gohan came into the room, no doubt lured there by the smell of the bacon frying and the eggs cooking.

Tori smiled at them as they found places to sit and Chi Chi dished up the food. She ate slow, savoring the food, as was her way, but couldn't help being amazed at how fast Goku was putting away the food, she raised her eyebrows in wonder at his seventh helping and felt a bit sorry for poor Chi Chi who had to feed his monsterous apitite.

"Enjoying yourself?" She asked, as he stuffed away the last of his eggs, he looked up at her with his mouth full and she broke out into peals of laughter, "You look like your having fun, there, Goku."

He nodded, chewed, swallowed and grinned at her, "Sure am! I love breakfast!"

"He loves lunch and dinner and between meal snacks as well." Bulma said, laughing, "But, Chi Chi! These omlettes are wonderful! Your such a great cook!"

"Thank you, Bulma," Chi Chi blushed, turning towards the sink to wash her hands, "I'm glad you like them."

"Where's Piccolo?" Tori asked, as she helped Chi Chi with the dishes, "I haven't seen him in a while…"

"Oh, he comes and goes as he pleases, Tori." Chi Chi said, "It's just his way. He'll show up eventually."

"Oh." She said, taking a dish from Chi Chi and lifting a towel to dry it off before placing it in the cupboard overhead. She did this without thinking, the action so familiar to her from washing and drying all the sinkfuls of dishes back home, "I really had fun last night, Chi Chi, maybe I can come over again next weekend?"

"Sure, sweetie." Chi Chi said, smiling at her from the sink, her arms up to her elbows covered in soap suds, "Come over any time, you're always welcome."

"Thanks!" She said, and the women grew quiet, but it was a comfortable silence which passed between as they finished cleaning the kitchen together.

Tori wandered outside after the kitchen was done and stood looking trees growing in close bunches behind the house. She did not realize exactly why she'd never noticed it before, but there was a building far off past the lawn and trees, a rather large building and she was curious in spite of herself.

Walking across the lawn and through the trees, she came to the building and paused before the door, recalling that old tale about the hapless cat and it's curiosity. Shrugging she pulled open the door.

"What…the…?!" She heard someone yell, it sounded like Vegeta, and suddenly someone jumped on her and threw her to the ground. A tree exploded behind her.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Vegeta yelled, as she realized it had been Piccolo who'd pushed her down in time to save her from sharing the fate of the smoldering tree, "You could have been killed!"

"Sorry!" She cried, standing up and dusting herself off, she didn't want to look at tree for then the reality of how close she'd come would hit her full force and she didn't want to think about that at the moment, she wasn't sure her heart could take it. "I was just curious about this place and…"

"We were training." Piccolo spoke then, and turned to Vegeta, "I was under the impression that door was to remain locked throughout. Is something wrong with it?"

"I'm not sure." Vegeta said, studying the door, "Bulma told me that it's soppose to automatically lock from the inside, so I don't see how…"

"Well, it was unlocked." Tori said, "Obviously or I wouldn't have been able to open it, right?"

"I'll have Bulma take a look at it." Vegeta said, to Piccolo he added, "Let's get back to work…"

"If you don't mind," Tori said, "I'd like to stay and watch." That trick with the tree intrigued her and she wanted to know more about these people and what they could do.

"No way!" Vegeta shook his head, "It's too dangerous for a girl! Go back to the house and help Chi Chi clean or Bulma do her hair or something."

Tori glared at him and started to open her mouth with a retort she knew would be scathing when Piccolo came to her defense. "Let her stay." He said, "She might learn something."