Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Some Life... ❯ A sleepover, a vision... And a KISS?!?!?! ( Chapter 3 )

As the days went by, things began to settle into a routine. In the morning, spar with Coach Ohm, or "Gary" as he so often told her to call him. Next, go to classes and talk with Melissa every spare chance she had. Then, after classes, Kori would give Melissa a martial arts lesson. Melissa was shocked at how much she didn't know about basic self-defense. It was around the 3rd week of their lessons that Kori realized how advanced she was compared to the average person. Things it seemed like she'd known forever, things that were simple, easy moves, had to be dissected to their lowest level when teaching someone with no prior knowledge of martial arts.

It was a Friday, and they were just getting out of their last class when Melissa turned to Kori and said, "Hey, my parents are out of town this weekend, and I was wondering if you'd like to come and spend the weekend with me, you know, have a sleepover and eat a lot of junk food and watch some sappy movies? What do you say?"

Kori looked ecstatic as soon as Melissa had said the word "sleepover". She'd never had a real childhood friend, besides her cousins, whom she only got to see around 3 times a year. She'd only heard about sleepovers from her cousins. But from what they'd told her, it sounded like a whole lot of fun. Her face darkened, however, when she realized that she had no idea of what her mom would say. "Jeez, I really wanna come, but I don't know if my mom'll let me. I've um… Never been to a sleepover before…"

"No way!!!" Melissa looked utterly shocked. But then again, she's so shy, and she's been home schooled her whole life up until now, so I guess it's possible… Melissa thought for a second. "Well, here's my cell phone," she reached into her bag and pulled out a tiny phone, handing it to Kori. "Call your mom and see if it's ok, if it is, come on with me, cause we have clothes that'll fit you. If not, then I guess we'll have to do it another time."

Kori dialed the number and hit the call button. Melissa mouthed `good luck' as she put the phone to her ear. After about 3 rings, she heard her mother's voice at the other end of the line. "Hello?"

"Hi mom, it's Kori. Uh, mom, have you started dinner yet?"

"Not yet, hun, why?"

"Well, Melissa asked me to sleep over, and I was kinda hoping that I could… She says she's got clothes that'll fit me, so I won't have to come home and come all the way back here. PLEASE?!"

"Well, I guess there's no harm in it. As long as you do at least half of your homework while you're over there. And if you don't, you can rest assured that it will be the ONLY sleepover you've ever gone to."

"Mom, you are the best mom in the whole world. Have I ever told you that?"

"Yes, but it doesn't hurt to hear it every now and then. Now go on, and have fun. Don't stay up too late, ok?"

"Ok, mom! I love you! Bye!"

"Bye," she heard distantly as she pulled the phone from her ear to shut it off. She looked over at Melissa and grinned. "Mom said I can go!!!"

Melissa high-fived her friend and grinned right back. "Great, well, lets get going. My car's out in the parking lot." They walked happily out to the parking lot, where Melissa brought her keys out and stopped next to the drivers side of a very nice, and obviously very expensive, black Audi TT convertible.

"This is your car? Wow…" Gosh, her family must have a lot of money.

"Yeah, hop in! My parents got it for me when I got into school here. Cause I aced all my entrance exams and I'm a year younger than all the other students… Except you, though, cause you're in here early, too!" Melissa placed her backpack in the back seat, sat down comfortably into the driver's seat, and turned the car on. Kori followed suit, setting down her own backpack and settling into her seat. Then she promptly held on for dear life as Melissa gunned the engine and sent the car speeding out of the parking lot, alarming many innocent bystanders.

Melissa pulled her car into the garage of her house… Well, you couldn't really call it a house, because it was just too damn big. Kori got out of the car, walked out of the garage and just gawked at the sheer size of it. It must be as big or bigger than the school!!! Scratching the back of her head, she turned to Melissa and said, "Jeez, I didn't know your family was THIS well off… I mean, I figured you had a lot of money, but…" She trailed off, not knowing what exactly to say.

"Well, my family does own Griffey Incorporated… You knew my last name, guess you just never bothered to put two and two together, huh?" Melissa smiled at her friend's unease. This is great, though, cause I know a lot of people who have tried to be my friend just for the money, and with Kori, I know that's not the case.

"Yeah, but you don't act like you have a lot of money. I would've never guessed just by talking to you." Kori smiled back. "Gosh… Griffey Incorporated. Isn't that the company that makes all that technological stuff for everyday living? Like the robots to clean your house for you, or cook your food?"

"Yup, that's it. But my dad and I also work on other stuff, too. Some of it's really confidential, but I can tell you we work a lot with NASA."

"Wow." Kori was a little overwhelmed by all this new information, but she decided just to take it in stride and move on. "That's really cool."

"Yup." Melissa grinned. "Well, lets get inside, and we can start on our homework so that your mom doesn't get mad at you." Melissa picked up her bag and headed for the door. Kori nodded in assent and followed her into the house.

Three homework assignments, a dinner, 2 movies, and 2 pints of chocolate ice cream later, they finally settled down to go to bed. Since they wanted to talk a little before turning in, they moved into one of the guest rooms with 2 twin beds. Melissa had given Kori a tank top and some shorts to wear to bed. "So, what do you want to do tomorrow," Melissa asked.

"I dunno, whatever you want to do, I guess," she replied. Kori stretched her arms above her head, yawning, and at the same time, unknowingly raising the tank top. In that instant, Melissa caught a glance of a strange, furry looking belt around Kori's waist.

"Dude, what's that thing," she enquired, pointing towards Kori's waistband.

Kori went sheet white when she saw where Melissa's finger was pointing. "Wha… What's w-what?" She tried to feign innocence.

"That belt! Why are you wearing a belt when it's not holding anything up?" She looked to Kori, whose expression was one of a child that'd been caught doing something it had been told not to do.

Okay, weigh your options… Do you: A- take the chance and tell the truth? She'd either freak out or accept it… or B- make up some insane lie about it being a belt that I have to wear or something like that… No, I suck at lying… Ok, then, I guess I'll have to tell her the truth. Kori took a deep, calming breath, and assumed an expression of utter seriousness. She unwound her tail from her waist and stretched it out behind her, then waved it in front of Melissa. "It's… My tail…" She kept a watchful eye on Melissa, wondering if she would faint or anything.

Melissa's mouth hung open as she watched Kori's tail sway back and forth in front of her. For a moment, she wondered if she'd fallen asleep, and if this was just some weird dream. But she didn't feel like she was dreaming. She pulled out of her haze for a second and reached out to touch the furry appendage, but it smacked her hand away. "Don't touch it," Kori warned. "It hurts really bad if you yank it, and it's really ticklish otherwise." Kori didn't mention the other strange feelings that occurred when her tail was touched. If she couldn't understand them herself, what was the point in trying to explain them to someone else.

Melissa looked like there were about a million questions she wanted to ask, but she just couldn't get any words to come out of her mouth. "D-do you know, umm, how you got it? I mean, is it some kind of weird genetic defect or did you get experimented on or what?"

Well, at least she's not freaking out or fainting, Kori thought. "No. This is natural. My mom doesn't have one, but she told me my dad did. I guess that's how I got it." She was glad to get that out into the open. Now if it was just her and Melissa, she could just unwind and not have to worry about it cramping up. She let her tail flick out lazily behind her and flopped down on her stomach on the bed. She looked over to Melissa to see that she was still blinking repetitiously, trying to assimilate all the information. "You're not too freaked out by it, are you?"

Melissa let out a breath and fell back onto her bed. "Truthfully, I am a little more than freaked out, but it's not going to keep me from being your friend." She paused for a while, wondering just what to say. "I guess everyone has things that make them unique, you just have a lot more than most people."

Kori laughed and said, "Yeah, but I'd rather be overly unique than normal. Normal is just so…" She couldn't find the right word to complete her thought.

"Boring." Melissa finished her sentence for her and shot her a knowing grin.

"Yeah. Boring. And to tell you the truth, I think people without tails are missing out on something. It's very useful." Kori returned Melissa's grin and yawned. "I'm kinda sleepy."

"Yeah, me too. Let's go to sleep, we'll have plenty of time to talk tomorrow." Melissa got under the covers and turned over on her side. "Goodnight."

"G'night." Kori was a little warm, so she just stayed on top of the covers. She shut her eyes and saw a very clear scene of herself talking to a man. He looked so familiar somehow, yet she knew she'd never seen him before in her life. His jet-black hair stuck out at odd angles from his head in huge spikes, and he was nearly a foot taller than her. He was very strongly built and dressed in some kind of odd armor. He was actually rather handsome. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but it seemed as if it was a very friendly conversation. In the background, leaning against a tree was a very blurry, but damned familiar silhouette. It was that guy from her vision about three weeks ago. The hair -- that was what gave it away. He turned, but he was still distorted. She found herself wanting, no, needing to see his face. The tall man she was talking to in the scene turned and looked back at the flame-haired man, saying something to him. The flame-haired man started moving closer, his face becoming less and less distorted. A few more steps and she would be able to make out the details of his features. Just a few more. "Kori!" It was very distant. "KORI!!!" Something shouted at her, yanking her out of the dream/vision.

"Huh? Wha… What is it," she asked groggily.

"Hey, I was starting to get worried. You sleep like a log! My big brother just showed up, kind of unexpectedly, and he wants us to hang with him today. So hurry and get dressed, and I suggest you hide that," she pointed to Kori's tail, "before coming downstairs. I laid some clothes out in the bathroom next door. See ya in a few, breakfast will be ready when you get downstairs."

Kori rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands sleepily and yawned. "Ok… Oh, don't forget to make a LOT of breakfast. I'm really hungry." Almost on cue, her stomach let out a huge rumble. "See?"

Melissa laughed, then paled slightly. "Oh jeez… How are you going to explain that to my brother? I don't think he's ever met someone that eats as much as you…"

Kori scratched thoughtfully at the back of her head. "Um… Well, do you think how I explained it to you would work for him? Or doesn't he go with the flow as easily as you do?"

"You know, I'm probably just not having enough faith in him. I bet he'll take it just fine. Hurry up, then. Anything in particular you'd like for breakfast?"

Kori grinned impishly, "The question is: Is there anything I wouldn't like for breakfast." She chuckled a little and Melissa threw up her hands and sighed in mock-frustration. "I'll be down in a few." Melissa laughed and walked out the door.

Kori came down the stairs, eyes half-lidded and nose to the air. Breakfast smells almost as good as mom's… Her nose led her right into the kitchen, where she bumped right into a wall that she hadn't remembered was there last night. She blinked up at the wall's face. Wait a second, walls don't have faces… "You must be Kori," said a somewhat tall, incredibly good-looking man. "I've heard an awful lot about you from `Lissa here." She felt her face flush what must have been bright red. He offered his hand to her.

Taking it in a firm shake, she tried to recover, "H-hi… You're M-Melissa's brother?" She silently cursed Melissa for failing to say his name earlier.

"Call me Mark." Mark was about six feet tall, with hair the color of Melissa's that came down to his ears in the front and his neck in the back. His eyes were steel blue and his face was gorgeous. "`Lissa, did you forget to tell her my name," he asked.

Melissa was having a tough time controlling her reaction to the way Mark had affected Kori. "Must have slipped my mind," she put her hand to her mouth, masking her silent laughter.

"She's terrible, isn't she?" All Kori could do was nod dumbly. "Let's eat, I'm starving!" He sat at the small breakfast table in the kitchen and gestured for the two girls to join him. Melissa sat down, still laughing madly under her breath. Kori finally remembered the reason she had come downstairs, and was in her seat almost as fast as lightening. Soon, serving droids were placing mass quantities of breakfast foods in the middle of the table. "'Lissa, why did you have them make so much? There're only three of us."

Kori chuckled a little. "No, there are two of you, and one of me." She smiled the smile of someone who knows something someone else doesn't. Mark merely looked at her quizzically and began to serve himself. Melissa and Kori followed suit. When Kori began to eat, however, Mark quickly took notice of three things. One was how fast she ate, two was how much she ate, and three was how none of it seemed to end up anywhere but in her mouth. After a couple of minutes, she slowed down and noticed that he'd only taken a few bites of what he'd served himself. Instead of eating, he was gawking, slack-jawed, at her. "I bet you're wondering why I eat so much. I don't really know why, but if I don't eat like this, I get kinda weak and sickly." Feeling as if she'd dealt with the matter, Kori resumed eating.

Mark closed his jaw and thought for a few seconds. "I was also wondering how you can eat like that and still look as good as you look."

It took a split-second for that to register. But when it did, Kori nearly choked on her mouthful of breakfast burritos. Her face went even redder than it was before, whether from the complement or from lack of oxygen. She swallowed hard, and looked down at her plate embarrassedly. "I, uh… I don't know. M-maybe I j-just have a really fast metabolism… Or something." Dammit, why do I have to sound like such an idiot?!

"It's probably because you work out so much," supplied Melissa, who'd finally managed to get over her laughing fit. "Yeah, you need fuel if you exercise as much as Kori does." Melissa smiled over at Kori.

"Oh, so you're into physical fitness? That's cool. I've been taking martial arts classes at college." Mark puffed out his chest, looking incredibly proud of himself. "I'm already a blue belt after only a year. It was a pretty tough test. We had to break two boards with a single strike."

Oh, how incredibly hard, thought Kori, while putting on an amused smile. I wonder how he'd feel if he knew I could break a whole damn tree in half… She almost laughed at her own joke as she exchanged a knowing glance with Melissa. He may be really hot, but he's trying waaay to hard to impress me. Mark was now mimicking the move he had to do to break the board. Both Kori and Melissa were trying their best to look impressed.

"Kori's really into martial-arts, too," Melissa said. Kori shot her a pleading look.

"Oh, really," Mark turned to her. "What belt are you?"

Kori stifled a laugh. "That doesn't really matter. I don't take classes, I've studied independently for a while," she ad-libbed. "So I don't get belts. It's not important." Kori silently prayed he wouldn't ask to demonstrate any moves or spar or anything.

But today, her prayers would go unanswered. "Why don't we spar," he asked. "It'll be fun! I'll go easy on you, I promise." At that, Kori and Melissa both laughed simultaneously. "What? What's so funny?"

Melissa spoke through her laughing, "N-nothing, Mark. I just don't think you two should spar, I mean, she's-"

"I know, she's a girl," he cut her off. "It's ok, I mean, if you don't want to, Kori, it's fine with me." He looked to her in the way Coach Ohm had looked at her that first day of school, and she felt something well up inside her.

"No, let's spar," she almost shouted. "And don't you dare go easy on me!" She found herself smiling with pure mischievousness. She felt as if she needed to put him in his place.

"Okay, then. Let's go to the gym. Unless you're not done eating," he joked. She shot him a dirty look, but then looked down at her plate. She was still kind of hungry.

Grabbing a burrito in each hand, she smiled gamely and said, "Where's the gym?"

"Why did he have to get changed for this," Kori asked in frustration. "It would've been over by now. You know that."

"Yeah, I do know that. I confess, I really wanted you to spar my brother, you know, to make him shut up about the martial arts thing. Speaking of which, do you want to teach me a little while we're waiting for him to get ready?" Melissa looked very eager.

"Sure, why not? I guess it's better than just standing here." They started going over the basic blocks, punches, and kicks Kori had taught her, and Kori decided it was time to show Melissa a basic throw. Melissa was a very fast learner, and after a few tries to get her footing right, Kori allowed Melissa to flip her over onto the mat. It was at this time that Mark decided to show up, dressed in his gi with his belt tied securely round his waist.

"Hey, that was really good!" He clapped for his sister. "Wait till you see some of the stuff I've been learning." He placed himself about 3 feet from Kori, who was now on her feet, and bowed politely, then dropped into a pretty flawed stance. Kori bowed back, and instead of dropping into fighting stance, just stood there, hands at her sides, with a huge smirk on her face. "Aren't you going to take a stance?"

"No, just come at me." She almost let herself cross her arms, but decided against it.

"Uh, ok… But don't blame me if I hit you." He charged, telegraphing his punch absurdly, and Kori sidestepped, letting him plow past her and stumble to regain his footing. He looked a little angry, but still very determined. This time he took a more careful approach, stepping in little by little. When she didn't make any move to dodge, he tried a right jab. It connected with her open palm, which hadn't been there when he started the punch.

"You'll have to do better than that. I can see those punches coming a mile away," she chided. "Tell you what. I'll make this a little more fair, and only use my left hand. How's that sound?" She was smirking now, making it obvious she knew she had him beat.

"One handed?! You really think you're that good?!" He was getting angry now, his once lighthearted expression had faded completely. "You're asking for it! I was going easy, but now it's personal!"

Kori made a show of putting her right hand behind her back. He charged wildly, and this time, she just held out her left fist. Before he could realize what he was doing, he ran into it, causing himself to get punched in the stomach. Mark groaned and stepped back, trying to regain his composure. "That… Was cheap," he managed to get out.

"I know, but you won't make that mistake again, will you?" Kori decided it was time to end this little skirmish, and lazily grabbed Mark under the arms, shifting her feet to throw him off-balance. He landed on the mat with a dull thud, and then she braced his arm over her knee, pushing down on it until she felt the elbow tighten slightly. He cried out for a second, then somehow found the strength to grab the back of her neck and pull her down. Then he did the most unexpected thing. He kissed her.

Kori's mind went completely blank. She felt so warm, and weak, too. Her hand loosened its grip on his arm of its own accord. Then in a rush, her mind came back. What a cheap tactic!!! She grabbed his shoulder, pulling the tendon up, this time not really caring if she hurt him or not. He broke the kiss, and screamed. "OKAY, OKAY, STOP!!!"

She stood up immediately and wiped her mouth. "That was dirty. Is that the only reason you wanted to spar with me?" She looked down at him with contempt.

"No," he yelled, rubbing his shoulder. "I was just trying to distract you so I could pin you or something. It didn't work…" He tried to move his arm, but his shoulder hurt too much. "Why did you squeeze so hard? I think my shoulder's broken!"

"It's not broken," she said angrily. "Just a little bit of a pulled tendon. Ice it and make sure to keep your arm moving a lot. It'll be fine in a few days." She was not only angry at him for that… whatever it was… But also at herself, for not controlling her strength. "Melissa, I think I should go home now."

Melissa, who had been staring in horror since her brother had kissed Kori, snapped out of it and said, "You don't have to leave! If anyone should go it should be my disgusting big brother!" He gave her a dirty look, and she gave one right back.

"No. I should go. I have to sort some things out. I'll see you at school on Monday, and I'll bring your clothes back then, ok?" Kori's face was unreadable.

"S-sure. I'll see you then. Call me if you have any trouble with the rest of your homework, ok?"

"Ok." After collecting her things, she walked quickly outside and began jogging to the edge of the city. That kiss… It had felt as if the energy was being drained from her, for just a moment. Was it some kind of mind trick, or did all kisses do that? She would have to ask Melissa later. She blasted off as she reached the edge of the city, stretching her tail out. It dawned on her then just how inexperienced she was in matters of the heart. She sighed, trying to let her frustration drain away from her. She felt bad for hurting Mark, but felt she shouldn't apologize, because she was somewhat justified. I should've never agreed to spar with him. Why do I always feel like I need to fight? Maybe I should ask mom. She's always got good advice. She flew faster, somehow thinking about nothing in particular and everything at once, and soon enough she touched down in front of her door. It took a moment, once inside, for Donny to find her and greet her in his usual canine manner (an attempt to knock her down and a few generous licks to the face.) Glancing up at the clock, she realized that her mom wouldn't be home for about another hour. Talking to her dog as if consulting with him, she said, "I should probably get the rest of my homework done, shouldn't I? That way mom'll be more likely to talk to me when she gets home." As if agreeing with her, Donny licked her face once, then laid down by her feet. When her mother walked in, she was on her second to last problem in her physics homework.

"Oh, hi, hun! Did you have a nice sleepover?" Her mother smiled at her, and somehow she found herself smiling right back, forgetting how conflicted and weird she had felt just an hour and a half ago.

"Yeah. Yeah, I did. It was great." Kori didn't know why, but she didn't want to burden her mother with her worries. She's happier when I'm happy. "We watched some movies and got a lot of our homework done. I'm almost all the way done with it now. Just 2 more problems to go. That means tomorrow morning I could help you with the bakery, if you want."

Her mother just laughed. "I'd love to have you help. Even though I know the only reason you help is that you get paid in cookies, I still love having you there. I kind of missed you last night. You probably didn't miss me, though."

Kori looked down. "I guess I was just too busy to miss you. I'm sorry. But you're wrong about the bakery, I like to help you. I'd do it even if you didn't pay me in cookies." She smiled at her mom, hoping that would cheer her up.

Sure enough, her mother was laughing and smiling. "I remember my first sleepover. My mother actually cried. I was a lot younger than you, though, I was probably about nine years old. And like you, I was way too busy having fun with my friend to miss my mom. I understand." She smiled knowingly. "I'll go start on dinner. Do you think you could take the clothes off the clothesline when you finish your homework?"

"Sure mom." She turned back to her homework. I can deal with this stuff on my own. I don't need to bother her. She kept telling herself that until she believed it.