Gohan I

Class was minutes from ending, and Gohan was nearly asleep. Public school was a mistake. He'd told Bulma, over and over, he was beyond this difficulty level. He'd covered intermediate calculus when he was eleven, for heaven's sake. He should be in college at this point. But Bulma had put her foot down.

"I don't care if you show up and they're learning the difference between a square and a circle," She dictated, pausing in the middle of her pacing to tower over a seated, bemused Gohan, "You have spent your whole life in the mountains, your only company is aliens on the warpath, a Namek that says 4 words every hour, and your family. And bless her heart, but if your mom sent you to me to make sure you get properly socialized and integrated into society before you leave for college, you'd best believe I am going to drag you, kicking and screaming, to that point!"

Gohan sat stiffly on the leather sofa in the den, lips tight. He listened to the whole monologue respectfully, nodded at the appropriate times and held his tongue. When Bulma was finished, he paused for another few seconds, and then repeated the same thing he had been saying for the past two hours.

"But I can help you here! Bulma, what was the point of teaching me so much engineering the past few years if you won't even let me use it?" He threw his hands up in the air, "You have a thousand employees that I can interact with just as well, you know."

"Those employees are all at least twice your age, kiddo," Bulma retorted, rubbing her brow with a well-manicured hand, "If you start dating a 38 year old scientist here, your children will be highly intelligent, but just what do you imagine your mom will say, hm?"

Unable to find a non-sarcastic answer, Gohan stayed silent. Bulma bent her knees slightly and put her hands on his shoulders in a reassuring squeeze.

"Gohan, I promise you, it won't be that bad." She said, in a warmer tone, "You've done a shitload for this godforsaken planet, and you deserve to see what's out there, at least, don't you? And you're still living at Capsule Corp., so don't you worry, I'll be giving you more work than you can handle."

Gohan stared at her forlornly throughout the lilting dialogue. When she was finished, Bulma stared at him expectantly, waiting for grateful praise on his part, on how she was so inspiring and so well able to make him see the light in all of this. When met only with silence, she promptly straightened up, and briskly walked out the door.

"Sulk all you want, Gohan," She paused and turned, right before she walked out, "It is the best high school in the country, and it's barely a ten minute flight from here, if Vegeta wasn't showing off when he flew there. So, you're going, regardless of your short-sighted opinions on the matter."

And, true to her word, Gohan sat in his first ever high school classroom a week later. He supposed it was nice of Bulma to get him enrolled mid-year. And besides being mind-numbingly dull, Gohan figured it wasn't too bad.

That blond girl, Erasa, was surprisingly friendly to him so far. Dressed in bright green and blue, she was bubbly and sweet, and put genuine effort into maintaining a comfortable conversation. The Blond boy, Sharpener, was as stereotypical as they got. Purple muscle shirt with tan khakis, and slicked back hair, Gohan wondered if the persona was intentional. Every word out of his mouth may as well have been variations of the word jock, far as Gohan was concerned.

That other girl, Videl, was of no particular interest to him either. Baggy white shirt, Black shorts, she seemed determined to blend in. Gohan definitely sensed a lot of repression in her- the one time she had relaxed her strained composure and used expression in her voice was when she was talking to Erasa. Once the teacher had caught them talking she had all but clammed up.

Gohan didn't understand repression. Growing up with Chichi, knowing Bulma and Vegeta most of his life, and with half his mentors forcing him to unleash his rage, he didn't quite know what to make of people so scared and silent. Nor was he particularly interested in said repression, so he put the matter out of his head till the bell rang, signaling the end of the second consecutive period of Calculus.

Gohan put his notebook back into his backpack and slid out of his chair. As he turned to step down towards the door, he felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked over his shoulder to find a smiling Erasa, with a bag slung over her shoulder that she hadn't even bothered to open in class. Sharpener, meanwhile was enthusiastically mimicking the Mister Greene's cracked voice for the pretty girl at the desk in front of him, and Videl was immersed in her phone, tapping furiously.

"So," Erasa said, stretching the word out, "Any God given luck we have the same class third period, too?"

"Um," Gohan scrambled in his pocket for his timetable and fished it out, "I have Geography in room 312 next."

"Oh," Erasa's eyes brightened all the more. Gohan wondered how someone could be so expressive every time they spoke, and why it wasn't incredibly exhausting a way to live, "Well, Videl and I have Economics next, but we could show you where room 312 is, if you'd like."

"You are just about the most helpful person I've ever met, you know that?" Gohan replied, "I'd love some direction, I have a horrible head for navigation in any case."

"We were all the new kid, once upon a time," Erasa responded. Gohan half expected her to grab his arm and lead the way; instead, she spun around to face Videl and began scolding her in a very affectionate manner.

"Really, honey, you haven't even begun to pack your bag," she chided, reaching over and pulling Videl's bag towards herself, "Next period starts in five, and you know we've run out of absences in Dr. Wilkes' class,"

"Coming, coming, coming," Videl mumbled, sliding out of her chair without even bothering to push it back, staring at her phone all the time, "This goddamn app, I swear to God, I'm wondering if it's even worth the frustration."

"I'm sure when you wake up a little, you'll find many reasons why it's worthwhile to keep chatting it up." Erasa said, packing Videl's books into her bag, now ignoring the awkwardly standing Gohan.

"Men are pigs, dude, this is majorly gross."

"I know, Bee,"

"You should be doing this anyway, this is right up your alley," Videl linked her arm through Erasa's, and they started down the stairs. After a couple of steps they turned around and saw Gohan still staring at them. Erasa beckoned for him to follow.

Walking a couple feet behind them, he was able to listen in on their conversation. Gohan didn't really begrudge either of them for not including him. Videl had already been nice enough, and Erasa had all but rolled out the red carpet for him. Besides, he was mildly curious as to what they were talking about.

"…And! And, and, and!" Erasa was saying, "You're exactly his type. He wants hard-to-get girls that are actually capable of feeling shame. I'd be called on my bluff in an instant," She laughed at herself at that. They were walking the halls now. Gohan glanced at his watch (three minutes to go) and hoped his class was nearby.

"You absolutely have to take over in Economics, though," Videl protested, as they went down a flight of stairs, "My head was not made to understand indifference curves."

The pair of them paused abruptly at the foot of the stairs. Erasa pointed at the first classroom on the right.

"There you go, Gohan," she announced. Videl stared at the teacher that strolled into that class and looked pleasantly surprised.

"Oh! You got Miss Ammara," She commented, "I really like her, she spends the whole of our class shooting down Sharpener's horribly inappropriate attempts at flirting."

"Got it." Gohan nodded, pretending to write down a memo, "Note to self: no flirting with 30 year old teacher. God, you'd think they print that in bold in the student handbook."

Erasa giggled at that, and Videl cracked a tiny smile.

"Oh, they totally do," Videl said, "This is still public school, remember?" Gohan laughed. He found himself feeling sorry that they didn't share this class with him- he doubted he'd come across people this friendly with no effort on his part in every class.

As Erasa waved him goodbye, Videl stretched her hands up above her head, yawning. Gravity pushed up her sleeves, and Gohan glimpsed a deep purple bruise on her upper arm, near her shoulder. Purple meant it was a day or so old, but it was large, and severe.

"Videl," He started, and then paused, not sure how to proceed without ruining the friendly atmosphere.

"Yeah?" she asked. She stared at him, frowning.

"What- what happened to your arm?" Gohan asked the question as casually as he could. It wasn't an easy feat- this wasn't the kind of bruise you got by just bumping into a door. It was closer to the kind of bruise you got when someone threw you against a door.

"Oh, um," Videl appearing to think for a moment, eyes flicking to the upper left, "I fell down some stairs last night. It was brutal." She stared him resolutely in the eye as she spoke, as though her soul was repeatedly telling him 'I am telling the truth'.

Erasa promptly sped behind Gohan and pushed him towards room 312.

"Believe me, buddy, you do not want to be late for Geography with Miss Ammara," she said, as Gohan allowed her to propel him towards the class, Videl following, "So, here we leave you. See you soon!"

Before he walked into the class, twenty seconds to go, he saw them walk away, Videl's head resting on Erasa's shoulder for support, her shoulders sagged. She looked tired, to say the least. Gohan wondered how many stairs you'd have to fall down to land squarely on your shoulder without fully dislocating it.

The pair turned into a class two rooms away from his, and Gohan entered his own, walking towards the teacher's desk with a principal's note that explained his situation, and being careful not to smile too much when he saw the front row occupied with teenage boys- half hopeful, and half already dejected.