AN: Wow you guys are awesome! =D I wasn't even expecting any reviews for my 1500 word blurb, but here I am looking at 5 already. You guys really know how to make a guy feel welcome!
Dp3of5: Good guess ;p
Chaos267: I'm gonna try to keep up a fast work pace by keeping the word count low so expect to see updaters soon even if they're not super long
BloodyDrenith: I'm gonna have to check this story you mentioned out. I'm not a huge reader of DBZ, but I love this pairing!
Moonange511: here's your next chapter!
Sportsfan64: You're my first reviewer for this story so you are especially awesome in my books! +D
Gohan quietly ghosted through the hallways, careful not to draw too much attention to himself. It was strange being in an environment full of people his age. All of his life he had lived out in the wilderness in the family home his father had built them with his own two hands. He only went to populated towns to get groceries for his mother and only occasionally hitting up the big city, though that was usually to visit Bulma and her family. Even after two months at Orange High, Gohan was still having some trouble adjusting to the loud noise and unpredictability of the teenagers he was surrounded with.
Being half saiyan, his hearing was especially sensitive and he had not realized just how uncomfortable he was with a stranger to his back until he went to high school. Even though he could sense their ki, it left him somewhat uneasy to expose himself in such a way, which was rather ridiculous seeing as he could reduce the planet to ashes without even really having to exert himself all that much. Vegeta had explained it as Gohan's saiyan instincts trying to protect his one weak spot, even if it no longer existed.
Protecting your tail meant the difference between life and death on planet Vegeta. Even the most powerful saiyan became weaker than a newborn when their tails were being constricted. Removal of an opponent's tail was the highest insult one could give, a sign of untold contempt, that your foe wasn't even worthy of being killed. It certainly explained how outraged Vegeta had been when his tail got cut off by Yajirobe, after all the only thing worse than being insulted in such a manner was to be insulted by someone weaker than you.
Breathing a sigh of relief as he managed to get to his locker unmolested, Gohan spun the combination lock. Two months of being harassed by males brimming with testosterone picking on him for being a nerd, as if intelligence was something to be scoffed at and devalued. More than once he'd had to fight his more feral half's desire to smash some heads in. Two months of being manhandled by some of the most overly forward women Gohan had the misfortune to meet. Their heavy perfumes sent waves of nausea through him whenever they got too close, almost strong enough to turn his stomach away from lunch! Well, almost.
"Hey Gohan!" The cheerful chirp came from a bubbly blonde who was dressed more appropriately for a fashion runway strut than a high school classroom.
Turning, the unknown savior of mankind smiled at one of the few friends he had managed to make in his time at Orange High. Erasa Rubber was at first glance just another airhead who spent all her time primping and focused on the latest fashion. Though she played the role of the ditz exceptionally well, one only had to take a look at her course load to see past the façade of the brainless boy crazy teenaged girl. She was in almost all of Gohan's AP level classes with the exception of BC Calculus (she was in AB), and she had been doing quite well even before she had asked Gohan to tutor her and give some pointers.
"Sup Nerd." The barely understandable precoffee grunt came from the rather well muscled all-star jock of Orange High. Though Sharpner certainly looked the part of all the other meat heads that had gone out of their way to harass Gohan, there was no heat in his words. At first the blonde male had felt slightly threatened by the other male's presence in his close circle of friends which consisted of Videl and Erasa. Sure he hung out with other people too, but only those two girls really knew him well. Hell they had known each other before Videl's father had gotten famous for beating Cell; they had in fact watched the Cell Games together!
Though Sharpner played the role of the outraged wannabe suitor to Videl, in reality it was more for her benefit than anything else. The tall muscled jock had a rather well-deserved reputation of punch first ask later, and being the statewide boxing champ who placed into the finals at the national level, he could punch pretty damn hard. Even the most thick headed hormone driven males thought twice before getting fresh with "Sharpner's girl", and Videl capitalized on this by not being asked out every other hour by some guy who wanted to get in with the Champ. Not that Videl wouldn't be a prize in herself, but it was not easy to find someone who could see past her status as the daughter of the world savior.
So Sharpner continued to play the role of the snubbed suitor to shield his longtime friend from having to deal with fame mongers even though in reality his eyes were firmly set on someone else, someone of a blonder persuasion. He had been wary of Gohan at first; Sharpner was more used to dealing with ego driven can't keep it in his pants type of guy trying to worm their way into their small group, but soon found that Gohan was just another drifter lost in a sea of superficial pretense of adolescence. Having gauged that his intentions were truly just to be friends, Sharpner had backed off and even warmed up to having another male to bond with. Sure Gohan wasn't the most outgoing or overly competitive sort of guy, but sometimes it was nice just to have another dude around if only to share a stupefied glance with whenever girls did something unfathomable to the male mind.
"Erasa, Sharpner." Gohan's greeting was received with another bleary grunt from the blonde male while his female counterpart began chattering away about all the new gossip she had managed to hear over the weekend. Hear was perhaps the wrong word to use. One might hear a fire alarm, or hear something on the news. What Erasa did was something else altogether. She had a frightening information gathering capability. Her social network on campus and outside of school was better described as a spy ring comparable with covert espionage groups in its ability to gather intelligence. There was nothing juicy, scandalous or shocking that escaped the blonde's attention. Her ability to start a whisper campaign was so well known that some politicians had discretely inquired into paying for her services whenever their reputation needed a little padding before the campaign season. It was no wonder she wanted to be an investigative reporter, though failing that, people around the globe would be falling all over themselves to hire her as a PR rep.
"Big fight today, you guys coming?" Sharpner was captain of the boxing team, and had led Orange High through two years of statewide victory, in the past as the star fighter and now as the leader of the team.
"Oh you know it babe!" Erasa sidled up and gave her friends arm a quick reassuring squeeze. "I'll be there in the front row to cheer you all the way! Knock out some teeth for me ya?" Her current position hooked to Sharpner's arm didn't afford a clear view to his glowing face, but Gohan was more than able to see his new friend's reaction.
Shooting an embarrassed Sharpner an amused glance, Gohan shook his head and finished grabbing the books he needed out of his locker. He may have grown up in the countryside, but he certainly wasn't unfamiliar with human interactions. Even to him, it was plain as day that Sharpner had more than friendly affection for Erasa. How someone as astute as she was could be so blind to something right in front of her was beyond Gohan.
"Yah, I told mom I'd be running late," said Gohan as he shut his locker.
His answer got a predictable eye roll from Sharpner. "Geez man, you really need to loosen that two foot leash your mom has around your neck. Not cool bro. Not cool at all."
"Oh stop it!" said Erasa as she slapped her friends arm. "I think it's sweet. What's wrong with wanting your parent's approval?"
Grunting the boxer closed his own locker which was below Erasa's. "Gotta be your own man someday. Can't go crying to mommy all the time."
Erasa rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to reply but cut herself off with a squeal.
"Videl! You're on time today!"
Rushing forward to her longtime friend, the blonde girl wrapped Videl in an enthusiastic hug as if they hadn't seen each other in years. Well it had been a three day weekend.
"I do manage to arrive on time occasionally," Videl remarked dryly with an amused quirk of her lips.
"Boys." The single word acknowledgement was playful in tone.
The two males hung back slightly while giving their own greetings as Videl maneuvered her way to her locker and grabbed what she needed. "All ready for AP bio?"
Sharpner groaned at the crime fighter's question. "I don't know how you two talked me into taking that class. It's a killer!"
"Don't whine Sharpner," chided Erasa. "It's a prerequisite for AP physiology which you should take if you want to become a sports coach after your career in the field ends."
"Yeah well if I make enough money playing then I won't need to be a coach will I?" he replied snidely with a sneer. That comment got him another swat on his arm.
Seeing that Videl was closing up her locker, the foursome headed off to their first period of a very long day. Long for Gohan because he was going over material he had learned ages ago. Long for the others because high school was damn hard.
