“Hi.” A quiet voice said on the other end. “Is TJ there?”
“Yes he is, could ya hold on for just a second.” Marron said, then covered
the receiver. “TJ! Phone’s for you!”
“Okay.” TJ said, and picked up the phone in the kitchen. “Hello?”
“Hi, this is Lance.”
“Hi Lance! Why’d you call?”
“I wanted to ask if you could spend the night tonight.” He said.
“Okay, I’ll go and ask, okay?”
“Okay.” Lance said.
“Kaasan! Can I spend the night at Lance’s?” TJ called.
“Hai, what time are you leaving?”
“What time should I come over at?”
“How about nine? That’s itsu Bra is coming over to baby-sit.” Lance
said.
“Okay.” TJ said. “At nine! Who’s going to take me over there?”
“Um . . . my kaasan will.” Lance said.
“Okay. I gotta go.” TJ said. “See ya at nine.”
“Kay, bye!”
“Bye!” TJ said, and hung up. “Kaasan, Pan-san is going to pick me
up.”
“Okay, make sure your room is clean, though.” Marron mumbled, typing at
a fast pace on the computer. The main computer shut down had put
her weeks behind; having TJ out of the house was going to be a blessing.
She had to work faster to catch up, plus doing the normal work. Marron
sighed and cracked her knuckles, wishing she could stop. But she
had a dead line to meet. She finished one problem and moved onto
the next, the shortage of capsules.
“Why is this my problem? It’s those guys in the packaging department’s!”
Marron mumbled to herself. “Looks like another trip down there is
in order.” She said. Marron always hated visiting that place.
They were pigs, and were always flirting with her. “I’ll
go down itsu TJ’s left.” She said,
and put that problem on hold. “Next . . . the main . . . disk
is gone?” She whimpered. The main disk had every known computer that
was connected to Capsule Corp. If they lost it, then they’d have
to have everyone sign up again . . .which was over 1,000,000,000 people.
“Oh Dende.” She whispered.
She logged on to the computer’s search engine, and typed in, Main Disk. Search: whole house. “Come on, come on.” She whispered, getting more and more panicked. Finally, the computer’s sign changed from Searching to Found. She looked at what it was pin pointed one the screen. She blushed and pressed the button to make the disk pop out of the disk drive. “Oh man.” She mumbled to herself. “I’m getting way to paranoid.”
“Hi Pan-san!” TJ called hoping into the car, next to Lance. “Hey
Lance.”
“Hello, TJ-chan.” Pan answered back, turning the car back to her house.
“How’s your parents been doing?” She asked.
“They’ve been doing good.” TJ said. “But they keep on leaving on
‘dates’ and stuff.” Then he turned to Lance. “Did you see the
last episode of Gorma?”
“Yeah! Did you see the part what that huge robot got exploded?”
“Yeah! It was HUGE! My whole living room got lit up red!”
TJ said, spreading out his arms. “Hey, remember what Mike said when
it was over?”
They both burst out laughing in memory.
“Yeah, that was cool. Mike is my favorite.”
“Same here.” TJ said. Pan shook her head in confusion, they had started
watching a show called Gorma, lately, and they were constantly playing
it, talking about it, or watching it. They got to Pan’s house, and
climbed out of the car as James walked in. “Bra’s in there with Goten.”
James reported. “Okay.” Pan said, and they pulled out.
I hate this I hate this I hate this. Marron thought as she pulled into the parking lot of the packaging department. Maybe Trunks should do it? No, he’s got enough problems. She sighed as the automatic doors opened; then she gasped.
There were capsules flying through
the air, people were laughing and talking, pretty much doing nothing.
She walked in, and grabbed one of the capsules that was about to hit her
head. Everyone froze, and when they it was Marron, they continued
to do nothing.
“Hey sweetie.” One of the guys said,
coming up.
“How’re ya today?”
“Fine, now leave me alone,” She
said, sighing.
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” He
said, and put both of his hands on her shoulders.
“Well, I do.” She said, flipped
him over her head. He hit the ground with a loud ‘THUD,’ and everyone
looked up at her.
Marron sighed, picked up a capsule, and cleared her throat.
“This, is a capsule. It’s not a baseball, it’s not a hockey puck, it’s not a very small football, and it’s not a basketball, despite popular usage. It’s a capsule, not a toy! We’re having a shortage of Capsules. And I bet you all know why. Because you are treating them like toys! Everyone here is here because we’re a very generous company. We don’t need any of you. We could have machine’s operating everything here. Now, with that in mid, I want you all to start treating this like job, and not a lunch break!” Marron said, everyone was quiet for a few seconds.
“Not even a condom?” Some pig yelled. Everyone laughed, and she glared at the man who said that. She walked over to him, and picked him up by the shirt. Everyone gasped.
“Would you care to repeat that?”
She asked.
“Uh-um—I just was . . . agreein’
with ya miss!” He said, getting worried.
“Fine.” She said, rolling her eyes,
and dropped him.
“All of you, remember that.” She
said, and left.
“I’m going to be a baby-sitter all
of my life!” Bra cried, sitting on the couch.
“No you won’t!” Goten said, comforting
her.
“I don’t get it! I’m good-looking,
and I’m rich, too! I just don’t get it!” She said, actually starting to
cry into Goten’s shirt.
“What’s wrong with Bra-san?” Lance
whispered to Goten.
“Nothing, just go to your room real
quick, okay?” Goten said, not even looking up.
“Okay.” He said, and ran to his
room.
“Come on! The most we do is
go to a movie and McDonalds.” She said. “And no one else is that
is interested in me!”
“Are you kidding?” Goten asked,
lifting up her face.
“Haven’t you ever noticed all those
boys giving you looks itsu we walk to the movie’s? Or when we’re
at McDonald’s? Or just in general?” An old country song called
‘She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful.’ Popped into his head.
“Nani? No one does that.”
Bra said.
“You mean you haven’t noticed?
Tomorrow we’re going to go around town, and we’re going to go to a real
restaurant, and you’ll see.” Goten said.
“Honto?” She asked and sniffed.
“Hai.” He said. She smiled
weakly and hugged him.
“Thanks.” She whispered.
“No problem.” Goten said, they hugged
a little bit tighter and the door opened.
“Hey . . . are we interrupting anything?”
James asked, laughing. Both of them blushed, and pulled away.
“Hi Pan-chan, James.” Goten said.
“Well . . . both of the kids are
in bed, and alive, and you’re here, so I guess we’ll be going.” Bra said,
walking towards the door, wiping away some of the
tears that were still on her cheeks.
“Ja ne!”
“Yeah, bye!” Goten agreed, and they
walked out the
door.
“Bra-san is crying.” Lance reported,
walking into the room.
“What’s wrong with her?” TJ
asked. “Did she get hurt?”
“I don’t know, but I know how we
can find out.” Lance said.
He flew up to the air vent in his room, and opened
it quietly.
“Hey, wait for me!” TJ called, and
followed him up into the
vent. He barely cought a sneeze, and said,
“It’s dusty in here.” He whispered.
“Shh. Voice’s echo here.”
Lance said. “Here it is.”
He whispered. They looked
down another vent; there was
Bra and Goten’s heads. Bra was crying on Goten’s shoulder
and mumbling something.
“She looks like she’s hurt.” Lance
whispered.
“Shh, he’s saying something.” TJ
said.
“You mean you haven’t noticed?
Tomorrow we’re going around
town, and we’re going to go it a really restaurant,
and you’ll see.” Goten was saying.
“See what?” TJ asked.
“I donno.” Lance said. “Maybe
they’re going to a movie.”
“He didn’t say anything about that.”
TJ pointed out.
“Hey, look, they’re going to kiss!”
“Eww.” They both said at the same
time, looking at each other,
and the front door opened suddenly.
“I hope we’re not interrupting anything.”
Lance’s otusan laughed.
“Uh oh. Kaasan and otusan’s
home, let’s get to my room!”
Lance said. They quickly scrambled to his room,
and sat down on the beds with their Gorma toys. They
heard the front door close, and footsteps headed towards
Lance’s room.
“Hey kids!” Pan said, opening the
door. “What’re you two
up to?”
“We’re just playing,” Lance said,
holding up the small version
of Gorma.
“Well, it’s bed time.” Pan said.
“But we haven’t finished!“
“You’ll have plenty of time for
that tomorrow.” Pan said,
taking the toy.
“Fine.” Lance mumbled, and pulled
up the blanket.
“Good night.”
“Night boys.” Pan said, and walked
to her own room.