A/N: Hey! This is my first attempt at a fanfic so comments are appreciated! Basically, the Z gang are all high school teachers! To be honest, I'm not crazy about the title. I just couldn't think of anything good so if you have a better one please let me know! There are probably going to be some made up characters (students, other teachers, etc) but they won't be too important. I'm going to try to keep them as in character as possible. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own it!
A Lot to Learn
Chapter 1
Bulma was getting more and more irritated by the second. These faculty meetings get more useless every week, she thought to herself. Looking up at the clock she noticed it was 7:20 in the morning. Ten more minutes…
At the front of the room the vice principal, Piccolo, spoke about the schedule for the rest of the week, his voice getting tenser with annoyance as he finished each sentence, trying to ignore the snores growing louder beside him. Slumped in the chair next to him dozing was Principal Roshi.
"…and finally we need to talk about chaperoning the dance this Friday." Piccolo grabbed a marker and started writing on the white board behind him.
"Why don't we have the old man do it," a husky voice said grumpily, "that is if he can stay awake through the whole thing…" The history teacher and football coach, Vegeta was clearly agitated. He would have preferred to be in the weight room with his football team, making sure they weren't slacking off.
Sensing he was being talked about, Roshi snapped out of his slumber. "Say what now?"
"Nice of you to join us, sir", said Piccolo, glaring at his superior. He turned back to the room full of teachers. "We'll divide up the night into shifts with teachers in groups of three. If eight or more of you volunteer then none of us will have to stay at this thing for very long."
The librarian, Chi Chi, spoke up first. "Well then go ahead and give me the first shift. I might as well get it over with." She turned to the gym teacher sitting on her right. He was spreading cream cheese on his fifth bagel. "What d'ya say, Goku? You wanna join?"
"Sure! I don't mind! I actually think these dances are kinda fun!" Goku smiled as he took a bite of his bagel.
Another teacher volunteered as well and Piccolo wrote their names on the board.
"Any other takers?" Piccolo questioned. "Come on people! Look, I'll even take the last shift. I want to make sure things get cleaned up properly anyway. And since Roshi's nodded off again I'm going to assume he doesn't care if I put him on the board. He'll be last shift with me."
"Wait a minute!" snapped Roshi, once again jerking from sleep. He seemed to have a knack for knowing when he was being talked about. "How do you know I don't have plans? Maybe I had a hot date or something!"
"Your dirty magazines will still be waiting for you when you get home," retorted Piccolo causing a few giggles to spread through the room. "Now if we could please continue…
Bulma leaned over to Chi Chi and whispered, "It's so hard to believe that that old perv was one of the most respected teachers of his day…"
"I'm going to assume you're whispering about volunteering, Ms. Briefs." Piccolo was getting annoyed with the lack of volunteers.
"Alright, alright! Jeez! Now I know what my students feel like! I'll take the second shift but only if…" Bulma looked around the room and spotted a cute English teacher, "…Mr. Dylan will volunteer too!"
The young teacher blushed. "Uh yeah sure!" he said a little beside himself. Did the gorgeous science teacher just ask him out?
"I don't think Yamcha would be too pleased to see you picking up a guy," Chi Chi joked to her friend.
Bulma giggled, "Oh lay off! It's harmless! I just need something nice to look at while I'm there."
Vegeta, who had been impatiently tapping his foot for the last five minutes, jumped from his seat. "It's 7:30 which means this meeting is over. I'm leaving!" But as he turned to go Piccolo called after him, "No one is going anywhere until this gets settled. If you want to leave then I'm going to put you down for the second shift with Ms. Briefs and Mr. Dylan."
"Fine!" Vegeta growled and exited.
Great! Bulma thought to herself, sarcastically, and just when I was getting excited about this thing…
"If I volunteer can I leave too?" A cool voice butted in. "My students have a test today and I told them I would meet with them before class if they have any questions." The beautiful blonde math teacher stood from her chair, crossing her arms.
"That's fine, 18. You can go. I'll put you down for the third shift." Piccolo said as she turned to go.
"Uh well…you know what… I'll do it too." Krillin said nervously. 18 was passing him as he volunteered and she stopped to look at him emotionlessly for a few seconds, making the little English teacher blush, before she continued on her way.
"Great!" Piccolo's tone was getting a bit lighter but still held its usual gruffness. As he turned to put Krillin on the board he randomly picked another teacher for the sake of ending this meeting debacle and added him to the shift as well. "Alright, that's it then! Don't forget when you're supposed to show up and grab your calendars on the way out."
"You know what?" Bulma said as she walked out of the meeting room and into the hall with Chi Chi, Goku, and Krillin. "I think at the next Monday meeting I'm going to bring up how pointless these Monday meetings are."
"I'll second it!" laughed Chi Chi.
They walked until they reached the Library then headed their separate ways, Chi Chi going into the library, Goku heading to the Gym, and Bulma and Krillin heading to their respective classrooms.
"Hey babe!" a head poked out of one of the classrooms Bulma was walking by.
"Yamcha! I didn't know you were subbing today!"
"Yeah, Mrs. Hill got food poisoning or something so I'll be just down the hall from you," Yamcha said with a smile, "I'm just showing her classes a movie so feel free to visit me when you're not busy!" She gave him a peck on the lips and continued down the hall to her class.
When Bulma reached her room at 7:45 she chatted with her students until the bell rang at 8:00, signaling her to start class. For a science teacher, Bulma was very well liked. The girls respected her brains and fashion sense and the boys thought she was hot as hell. Having a famous father and being one of the most respected geniuses in the country didn't really hurt her case either. Because of her prominence, it took time for students to get over their initial awe of her. Bulma would have to answer the same questions every year: How many rooms does your house have? Do you have like a million cars? Why do you teach when you could be doing cooler things? Do they pay a ton of money to keep you here? Are you single?
The truth was that Bulma had gotten sick of working at Capsule Corp. Part of her loved the thrill of making new discoveries and inventing but she was bored of working on ways to expand the capsule's design and uses, which seemed to be a majority of the work she was doing for her father. Teaching had always been a welcome diversion. Even before working at West City High, she used to give guest lectures at universities, so she decided to devote herself to it. Many prestigious universities sought her out upon hearing that she wanted to teach but she turned them down. She liked being able to create relationships with her students and felt she couldn't do that with classes of 200 or more.
Of course, Bulma could never give up hands-on science altogether. She still spent her extra time working on projects of her choosing, without the pressure of deadlines weighing down on her.
First and second period went on as usual. Bulma was giving her students a quiz today and then letting them finish their lab assignments from the day before so she didn't really have to do much. Third period was her study hall class and she used that time to grade the quizzes she had given so far.
When fourth period rolled around Bulma noticed that a good portion of her class was missing.
She questioned her class, "Where is everyone? I know all these people aren't absent…in fact, I saw Clay at his locker earlier today." She turned to Lee, the kid that usually sat next to Clay and asked, "Is something happening?"
Lee, who had been texting under his desk, looked up at his teacher. "They were in Mr. Prince's class before this. He's making them stay there."
Bulma clenched her fists. Of course this is Vegeta's doing… damnit what gives him the right to hold up my class?! Trying to keep her anger hidden, she addressed her class, "Alright, consider yourselves lucky, class! You get a little bit of study time before today's quiz. I'll be back soon." Stomping heatedly out of her classroom, Bulma headed down the hall to Vegeta's room. When she got there she saw students sitting in the hallway doing their homework.
"What's going on here?" Bulma demanded, trying to keep the annoyance out of her tone—she couldn't.
"We're waiting for Mr. Prince to let us into study hall," one of the students responded.
"Why don't you just go in? Your class should have already started?"
Another student spoke up this time. "Doing homework on the hallway floor is a hell of a lot better than a weeks worth of detention."
"Watch your language" Bulma said as she pressed her ear to the door.
"Please Mr. Prince! Don't take my phone! It's brand new!" begged Clay
"Well you should have thought about that before! There are no phones aloud in my classroom!" Vegeta's bad mood from earlier that morning had not yet dissipated. "Just because you hide your phones under your sweaters doesn't mean I can't see them! Honestly, you kids today are addicted to these silly gadgets…"
The class braced themselves for another one of their grumpy teachers drawn out rants when, like a gift from the gods, there was a knock on the door.
Bulma didn't wait to be invited in. She opened the door and immediately addressed the compact figure at the head of the class. "Vegeta, what's the deal? Thrid period is over!"
"I am aware of the time", replied Vegeta, briskly. He glanced over at the irate woman standing at his doorway with a smirk. "My students still have some work to do and they are not leaving until it is finished."
Bulma leaned over one of the students to inspect the assignment and almost fell over in shock. "Seventy essay questions?! ARE YOU KIDDING?"
"Originally they only had to do five—that is until they decided to be disrespectful." He sounded as if he was getting some sort of sick pleasure out of the torture he was putting his students through. Bulma wanted to reach over and smack the self-satisfied look off of his face but decided against it, given that they were standing in front of a full classroom.
"Can I talk to you outside?" She said gesturing to the door. Vegeta looked like he wasn't going to move but after a moment's consideration he decided to humor the steamed blue haired woman. Once they stepped outside, Bulma asked the students sitting in the hall to move into the classroom and shut the door behind them.
Vegeta didn't say a word. He wasn't sure what she planned on accomplishing out here but he knew that whatever it was, he wouldn't give in easily. This wasn't the first time he'd butted heads with the insufferable woman and he knew this wouldn't be the last.
Bulma tried to keep her voice steady. She knew Vegeta enjoyed angering her and she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he had succeeded. "Why do you insist on making the children miserable?"
"I don't insist on doing anything but teaching the brats. If they are going to be insolent then they will have to deal with the consequences!"
"What could they have possibly done? There's a difference between discipline and torture, you know! You don't have to be so harsh!"
"And what would you have me be?" Vegeta's glare intensified and his callous tone caught Bulma off guard "Should I joke with them and meet them after school for a latte? I'm their teacher damnit, not their BFF!"
Bulma opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by an icy voice "Vegeta!"
They both turned to see 18 approaching from the end of the hall. "Where are my students? Apparently they were supposed to be coming from your class."
Krillin and Mr. Dylan appeared from around the corner as well, also looking for their students.
"You see Vegeta!" Bulma said smugly, thankful for the support she had now. "These kid's lives don't revolve around your class! You can't keep them because you feel like torturing them!"
Vegeta growled and turned to his door. He knew he didn't have a choice but he wasn't going to give up completely. When he opened the door he addressed his students sternly. "You are dismissed but I still expect you to complete the questions I have assigned! I will collect them tomorrow."
The students groaned as they moodily put their books in their bags and shuffled out of the classroom. "ENOUGH WHINING!" Vegeta shouted, causing all of them to jump. "I still have another page of questions I can assign!" and with that the students slapped their hands over their mouths and hurried out of the room.
Bulma walked back with her seven students that she had just saved from the grumpiest history teacher on the planet. She looked at Clay beside her who was walking with a slumped posture and looking very sad at the loss of his phone. Bulma touch his shoulder. "Don't worry. He can't keep it forever. What did you guys do to make him so mad anyway…well madder?"
"Don't look at me! I'm not the one with the big mouth!" Clay said, directing the comment to the student on Bulma's other side.
"I didn't mean for him to hear me!" protested Jared
"Everyone that works here has mutant hearing or something!" said another student "I said a bad word under my breath once and Mr. Piccolo gave me detention from across the hall!"
"What did you say, Jared?" Bulma asked, knowing this particular student had a very smart mouth.
"Well, today we were covering Napoleon and Mr. Prince was giving this unbelievably long speech about how great he was and all that—you wouldn't believe how long he talked! Napoleon this, Napoleon that! And then at the end of this crazy boring lecture he tells us that he's actually related to Napoleon! So I leaned over to Clay and said 'well that explains his height problem!' I said it really quiet! I still can't believe he heard me."
Despite herself Bulma let out a chuckle. Regaining her composure she said, "You really should be more respectful of your teachers, Jared…"
Once they got to the classroom the rest of fourth period the students continued class as if nothing had happened. Bulma, however, seemed to be having trouble focusing. Vegeta's ruthless eyes kept entering her mind. Ugh what an awful man. He's basically ruined my day! Thankfully any further thoughts of him were interrupted by the rumbling of Bulma's stomach. I can't wait for lunch…
Well, there it is! This chapter turned out much longer than I thought it would but it was really fun to write! I feel like some of my grammar may be a bit off so I apologize for that. Feel free to message me if something is really confusing. I'm really anxious to know what you guys think so please review!