When Gohan had started school it turned out that he was just old enough to be grouped in with the year that would be entering their penultimate year of high school education. Just two years to endure before he could go off to college.
At that same time Videl Satan was entering that same grade.
Gohan had heard that the daughter of Mr Satan attended their school, but he had no clue if he had seen her or not since he didn't have a clue what she looked like. Nor did he know her first name.
All he could discover from his classmates in his first two days was that she was in the same year as him and that she was rather good looking. The latter was a surprise, he hadn't been expecting much after what he could remember of the man himself.
Ever since his father had died he had been unable to stand that man. If he appeared on television or even if only the briefest mention of his name was made, he would switch the set off straight away. He was simply a reminder of a past that he would rather forget.
That was one of the excuses that he gave to his friends and family, but secretly he felt an intense loathing of the man. Gohan didn't want any credit, but he wondered why that man should take it all, all the while bad mouthing Goku.
The hatred that he felt was on behalf of his father, even though he knew that he would never approve of such feelings and only tell Gohan that such things were irrational. Mr Satan was just a little misguided, he might say.
So when Gohan found out about how close he would be to the girl, he saw an opportunity. He would be able to tear their family apart just as his own had been.
Although to do so he would have to be unlike anything he had ever been before and forsake all of his natural goodness. He would have to be ruthless and merciless. On the surface he would be what the people thought he was, that would be easy enough. But underneath he would be constantly searching for any opportunity.
And on the third day that opportunity became clear.
Gohan was sat in the study hall, working on his chemistry alone when she walked in. Behind her were two fair-haired people, one a boy, one a girl. He had seen them both on the first day, both of them being in many of the same classes as himself.
Instinctively he had looked up and had recognised her immediately. How could he forget her? She caught his gaze so he quickly peered down at his work. How often had he thought of those eyes in recent weeks?
The trio walked right past him but he felt her eyes on him all the time. They sat about twenty feet away from him, off to his left. He spied a sly glance at her out of the corner of his vision. She was still looking at him. She looked like she wanted to kill him.
"What are you looking at?" Erasa spoke to her friend. The blonde followed the gaze and realised that it lingered on the guy that she had seen when they had walked in. "He's cute, isn't he? He's new in our class."
"That's the guy."
"What guy?" Erasa asked, perplexed.
"The one that I told you about. The one from the bank." Now Erasa knew exactly whom she was talking about. Videl still hadn't stopped talking about him, even this many weeks later.
Videl suddenly got up and confidently strode over to him, Erasa scrambling to her feet to follow, never wishing to miss an opportunity for gossip.
"It's you!" She barked as she came within a few feet of him.
He turned slowly to face her. His stomach felt strange. It had never felt quite like this before. As if there was something dancing around in there at the pit of his gut. Her eyes, he was drawn to them and he couldn't take his own off her. However, Gohan tried to compose himself quickly.
He knew exactly what she meant, but he wanted to keep a low profile. Maybe if he just acted as though he didn't recognise her, she might think he wasn't who she thought he was. "What do you mean? Nice to meet you, whoever you are." He reached a hand out in front of his body.
"Don't play dumb, you know exactly who I am!"
Her loud voice wasn't something Gohan welcomed. "I'm sorry, but you must have me confused with someone else. Maybe I have one of those faces."
She slammed her palm down on the desk, annoyed at his insolence. How dare he act like this towards Videl Satan? She glared at him, trying to break him, but he just stared back with a sickeningly innocent grin on his face.
"I don't know what kind of game you're playing buddy, but I'm going to get you to admit to who you are. You're the guy I met at the bank, no doubt about it."
"Gosh, I haven't been to a bank for a long time."
Videl almost cried out in anguish. "All right…at least tell me your name."
"Gohan." He replied quickly, it wasn't as though she wouldn't be able to find out easily enough.
She looked at him in disbelief. "What kind of a name is Gohan? Tell me your real name."
His face fell a little. She was one to talk…what kind of a name was Videl? He prevented himself from voicing his thoughts however, as that would almost certainly blow his cover.
"I'm serious, that's my name. Go and check a register if you don't believe me." The saccharine smile returned.
"Fine." She huffed as she turned on her heel and left him to his chemistry.
Later on that day, Gohan was putting a few books back into his locker, all alone in the long corridor of the third floor. It wasn't long before he was no longer alone though. The one girl that he was trying to avoid, who had seen him do things he really shouldn't have been able to do, was just about to confront him once again.
"Gohan." She declared her presence. The boy, meanwhile, decided to ignore her for a moment, he had to have some fun after all, she seemed so uptight; it would be so easy to wind her up.
"You!" She cried. "Turn around!"
He turned slowly, and plastered a look of mock surprise on his face. "Oh, hi. I didn't hear you I'm afraid."
"I was stood right behind you." She spoke, grinding her teeth. Angered at his antics, she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. Gohan smiled, unable not to do so. Her forcefulness was almost…endearing.
"Violence is never the answer miss."
"This is the third encounter we've had, and on each occasion, you've managed to anger and annoy me beyond belief."
"I count two encounters, but…"
"Aargh! I could get to really dislike you, you know? If you don't admit that we met at the bank, I'm going to have to beat it out of you."
He looked down, a smirk now adorning his face. "Can that be done…by someone like you?" He spoke casually, almost nonchalant.
Videl spluttered. "Someone…like…me? Are you serious? I think I'm actually going to kill you, right here."
"Can that be-"
"Don't you even dare." Her tone had become extremely serious now, and Gohan realised that he had realised that he had really got on her nerves.
Slowly he moved her hands away from his neck. Her cheeks were red with what he supposed was anger.
"I'm sorry that we got off on the wrong foot. May I ask your name?"
Videl weighed up her options. The direct route wasn't working…she knew it was him, and she knew that he knew that she knew. However, no matter how hard she pressed the matter, he would just keep denying it. Maybe a softer approach would work, perhaps humouring him would cause to eventually relent...and then she would be able to discover all his secrets, like just how strong he was.
"My name is Videl." Gohan smiled, this much he knew. "Videl Satan." Gohan was struck dumb, this part he didn't know.
That evening, Gohan was messing around on one of the many games consoles Bulma had left in the apartment in Satan City that she had lent him. He couldn't get that girl out of his head. She was Mr Satan's daughter.
Why did she have to be his daughter? It all made sense now, the strength, the pushiness that probably came with being a celebrity's daughter.
Over the next two months, Gohan managed to keep a low profile, no thanks to Videl Satan though, who deemed it necessary to pester him continually. Every time she tried to speak to him though, he would simply give her one-word answers, or just walk away, pretending that he hadn't heard her.
Currently he was sat in a classroom, looking over last night's homework, checking for any mistakes. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Videl enter the room, along with the two people he saw her around school with most.
Erasa seemed like a nice girl, he'd helped her out with homework a few times, something he seemed to have a reputation for. Once it had got around that he had perfect test scores, it hadn't taken long for people to start queuing up with assignments. Sharpener seemed OK too, a bit of a knucklehead, but perfectly harmless. Gohan had even had a few decent conversations with the guy.
The fact they also sat on the same row helped a little. Videl sat herself down two seats down from him, only Erasa in between the two. As usual, she was glaring at him.
"Good morning Gohan." She spoke caustically. She had tried the softly-softly approach over the past two months and had come to the conclusion that it wasn't working either. Time to shake things up a bit.
"Oh...Hi. Videl, wasn't it? We haven't spoken in a while, have we?"
"That's because you walk away from me every time I try to strike up a conversation." She hardly seemed pleased to see him, but he noticed the smile tugging at the corners of her lips. He supposed his actions over the last two months gave her something to do. "Erasa, will you swap seats with me for a moment?"
"Um, sure. Do you want to ask him out or something?" The question was whispered, so that Gohan couldn't hear. It went unanswered, but wouldn't be forgotten.
Gohan watched her as she rose and took her new seat beside him. He looked Videl in the eye, transfixed by the brightness in her gaze. He had to admit, her eyes were something he looked forward to seeing every day. He'd never seen anything quite like them.
Videl actually felt something fairly similar. His eyes were different, totally unique. They had a depth she found difficult to fathom.
"I'm tired of this Gohan. We both know you're the guy who was at the bank." Her voice was low, and she had bent forward so that only the two of them were in on this conversation. Even Erasa's rubbernecking wouldn't allow her to hear this.
"I told you, I have such a normal face that you must be confusing me with someone else."
"Look…bear in mind that what I have to say isn't easy. You don't have a normal face." Videl paused for a moment. "Whether you know this or not, you are very handsome, and I wouldn't forgot, OK?" The two of them blushed, Gohan at the compliment, Videl at the fact that she had just admitted that a boy was handsome to that very same boy. Videl coughed, trying to regain her composure. "Besides, your voice is the same, idiot! Come to think of it, you sound a heck of a lot like Saiyaman too..."
Gohan sighed. "Fine. You got me, at least on the first part." He decided to relent, as amusing as it had been, he couldn't have kept it up forever. There was also a large part of him that wanted to maybe…get to know her. "I'm not Saiyaman though, I promise. I mean, that guy can fly!" Gohan had been acting under his alter ego for almost as long as he had been at the school…one thing it did grant him was time with Videl.
She left the Saiyaman thing alone for now, although her suspicions over that were hardly allayed by his comments. "You're stronger than me." That wasn't a statement that he was expecting to hear.
"Ha, of course not, you're Mr Satan's daughter!" He replied nervously. "How could anyone but him be stronger than you?" His voice was surprisingly lacking in sarcasm.
"Don't play dumb, I find it insulting. I might be full of pride but I'd like to think that I'm not bigheaded and I'm certainly not stupid. I can remember every movement that you made; you were quick, controlled and powerful. I've never seen anyone move like you did. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers."
"I'm sure that your father moves way better than I do." He kept his voice down, hoping that no one in the vicinity could overhear their conversation. "I was just lucky, all I did was stop that guy from hitting you, anyone could have done it."
"I haven't seen my father fight or even train properly since I was twelve, that was five years ago now." She didn't say any more and it was up to Gohan to try to figure out whether she thought he had scaled incredible new heights in that time, or whether she knew the truth, that he was a lazy fool.
"You've got it wrong Videl. I'm just an average guy, maybe even a bit of a weakling."
Her face took a look of fury. "Are you calling me a liar?"
"No."
"Are you calling me a fool?"
Gohan laughed genuinely. "You said it, not me." He could barely contain his good humour as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Hey, I could stand up right now, and say anything about you, and every single one of these people would believe every word that came out of my mouth. Understand?"
"I'm just saying that I'm not what you think I am. I don't know how you can think so much of me after seeing so little."
She stood up slowly and spoke nonchalantly. "Fine." She turned to leave but span quickly and launched a vicious punch directly at the boy's nose. She was quick, but in reality he had all the time in the world to avoid her fist.
He knocked his pencil on the floor and reached down to grab it as it fell. Her fist missed his head by mere inches. He wondered if she'd buy his attempt to make it appear as luck, as all of the other on-lookers did. Gohan wasn't so fortunate though.
"Man, you're one smooth customer. You're here trying to act like a nerd, but I see straight through you."
"Actually, I am really a bit of a nerd."
She pulled her fist back and tried another one.
This time, Gohan simply grabbed her hand as it came towards his nose; all the while keeping his eyes trained on his chemistry notes. He considered just letting her punch him, but she'd only probably end up hurting her hand or something.
Without looking up he spoke. "I don't have time for this nonsense." She tried to pull her fist back but his grip was too strong. "I'm serious, I didn't come to school for this. I'm here to learn."
Videl laughed out loud. "I knew it! You're ridiculously strong." Luckily the room was almost empty, but those present sat with their jaws gaping. They couldn't hear much of what was going on but it seemed as though Videl Satan was challenging this new kid to a fight.
He let go of her small hand but she wasn't giving up so easily. In one swift motion she swept his books onto the floor. Gohan's shock at her petty action was what prevented him from stopping her doing it.
He stood quickly, his chair screeching loudly on the floor. "My books…?"
Videl took a step back from him. "Ooh, the big boy is getting angry now." She whispered with a smirk.
