A Little Pain

A Step Forward

That night I got pretty restful sleep, despite the doctors and nurses waking me up every so often. I woke up in the morning, took a shower and returned to a calm setting. Goku was blindly smiling, Gohan was studying, Krillin was somewhere else and Chi-Chi was peeling apples for Gohan. My eyes wandered to the briefcase on my bed. Might as well start somewhere.

I crawled onto my bed and pulled the briefcase into my lap. I felt Goku's eyes on me so I turned and smiled at him as I opened the briefcase; but a loud BOOM startled me and caused me to shriek as my bag exploded into a confetti canon. Everyone looked at me. "What the--" I fully opened the bag and noticed a tiny confetti can with a note attached to it. "Congrats on defeating the Saiyans! Love you all!" I read aloud, blushing.

Gohan laughed. "Your friends are so cool!"

I nodded and began to brush the confetti off of myself. Inside the bag was a familiar stuffed animal, one that I knew was Riku and Hana's doing. It was a white puppy with pink polkadots, Ms. Roxbury. I placed her next to me and pulled out a few books and all the paper, discovering a sheet with the schedule for these tests. Let's start with communication then. I studied for about 2 hours when Goku got my attention.

"Nana, you're crying." His gentle words got me to stop reading and wipe my cheeks.

"Oh, sorry." I mumbled.

"It's okay but if you want to recover, you need to take it easy."

Krillin came in excitedly, telling us about how Bulma was working on the ship as we spoke. Everyone cheered but I noticed Gohan had tensed at Krillin's words. Chi-Chi left the room and I started humming, taking it easy and slowly studying. Krillin said it soothed him, so he crawled onto my bed and fell asleep. Goku fell asleep too, Gohan was studying but was slowly starting to nod off as well. All the snoring from Goku and Krillin and finally Gohan caused me to fall too.

I, once again, woke up to yelling. "What did you do with my son?" I blinked and looked to Gohan's bed as Chi-Chi yelled, his bed lay empty. Krillin and Goku insisted that he was here when we all fell asleep. "Shut up!" She yelled, slapping Goku and Krillin with the flowers. She turned and started to walk out.

"Hey, Chi-Chi!" She turned around. "Check the bathroom, he probably just had to pee or got lost on the way back. If anything, go to the nurses station." She huffed and walked away.

"Thanks for the flowers?" Goku mumbled.

I got up and put the remaining flowers in a vase, "What a bitch!" I growled.

"Ah, Chi-Chi's always been like that. She's aggressive when she's passionate about something."

Krillin's words sparked an image in my mind that caused me to look at Goku. "Ew!" I gagged, the boys remained oblivious.

Chi-Chi came back in with Gohan on her back. "He was on the balcony reading." He sighed and slid onto his bed, looking exhausted.

Bulma and the others rushed in. "Guys the ship is great! If it holds up, we can get to Namek in less than a month! I still have a few more repairs but we should be able to leave in the next 5 days!"

"Oh, um...Bulma." She looked at me. "Professor Mika was saying that if I pass this test in a week, that I can graduate and walk the following week. I want you to be there." I glanced up at her and everyone else. "I know I'm being selfish but the extra days could help everyone heal up and get ready and you could take your time with those repairs."

She paused thinking. "So 2 weeks it is! We'll leave the morning after graduation!" We all cheered. "And with Popo's help we'll be back in no time!"

The Guardian of the Earth frowned. " Oh Bulma, I'm so sorry. I think I gave you the wrong impression; I can't go away for 2 months and leave the earth alone."