Chapter 3

Back to the present.

It's been a few weeks since Gohan started high school. For the most part, it had been smooth sailing, there were a few incidents where he may have appeared a bit weird, but luckily people seemed to be willing to disbelieve the absurd and nothing had come up of it.

The school was planning a field trip to the up and coming art museum in the city, which over the last few years had developed substantially. While Mr. Satan was a controversial figure to Gohan's family and friends, the man had managed to vastly improve the city. Some of his seemingly endless earnings had been invested into solving some of the city's major issues; such as the lack of competent police force, improving transportation infrastructure, and adding culture. In the seven years since Cell, Orange Star City had transformed from being a little city with nothing going on into a sprawling metropolis with its own unique feel and identity.

Landing at his usual spot at the train station without blinking an eye, Gohan came out from behind the building and onto the main street. The crowds and traffic which once intimidated him were becoming commonplace now and he actually had begun to enjoy his walks through the city to school. Expecting a normal morning he began his walk.

"Hey Gohan, wait up!" someone yelled getting closer to him.

He turned to see who it was and immediately felt his pulse quicken. It was Videl Satan.

During the last few weeks, he still didn't have much interaction with her beyond a few shared conversations in classes with others. So he didn't really know her and definitely did not feel at ease with her around. It wasn't that he felt threatened by her necessarily, but more a combination of being intimidated by who she was and her reputation, to feeling self-conscious that she would somehow figure out his secrets. Which was entirely out of the question seeing as she had never seemed at all bothered by him. She had never shown the least amount of interest in him and had never really approached him so why should she now?

She caught up with him smiling, her blue eyes beaming. "Would you mind if we walked to class together?"

Gohan nervously looked away from her and focused on walking forward instead, managing to speak, albeit quietly, "Oh yeah sure Videl, what are you doing down here?"

Another possible cause for his awkwardness around her was probably her appearance, as much as he tried not to think about it. She was just somehow so eye-catching in her own way that he could never fail to notice it.

"Oh, I had to take the train in from West City this morning, I spent the night there visiting a friend," she said while presenting him with train tickets from the mentioned journey in her hand. "I'm guessing you know all about commuting by train, right?" she asked, her head bending to the side a little as she looked up at him.

Gohan bit his tongue, firstly because she was adorable and secondly because no, he knew absolutely nothing about commuting by train. In fact, he probably had never even been on one. Putting his hand up behind his head he sheepishly replied "Yeah, I travel by train all the time!"

Videl smiled slightly looking away from him. He could see her long eyelashes from his angle and just as he was beginning to seriously question how she could be so pretty she interrupted his thoughts by saying, "I'm sure you do. From the east right? You mentioned in class that you live near Mt. Paozu? Was that right?"

Gohan chuckled nervously, "Yeah, I come from that direction..." Okay, so maybe she had paid more attention to him than she let on. Or maybe she was just making small talk like a normal person. Whatever it was, he was hoping this walk would end soon.

But that wasn't the case as the pair stopped to wait at a traffic light right across from the school, Gohan tried to take a few steps forward, perhaps subconsciously attempting to end the conversation. Videl must have caught onto this however because she gently grasped the end of his forearm with her hand.

Gohan felt shivers go through his body from her point of contact. His heart rate, which hadn't stopped its pace since she first approached him, was accelerating. He was still in front of her so he couldn't see her and he was torn between turning around and facing her or abruptly fleeing. His cheeks were also heating up, everything was beginning to feel hot.

"Gohan, I know this is awkward for you, but you should listen to me..." she said, her tone drastically changed from the friendly small talk they just exchanged to one more serious and lower in volume.

The black haired half saiyan had no idea what was going on or where she was going with this. And it was a bit of a shock since she always came off as quite positive and welcoming. Not anywhere near as bubbly as say Erasa, but still.

He was cut off from comparing her to different females he knew when he felt her hold on his arm tightening as she quickly added, "You're using the wrong train station. You should use Orange Park East. Trains to Mt. Paozu only go through there. I don't think anyone has noticed, but just in case."

Then the light changed and Videl let go of Gohan's arm just as quickly as she had grabbed it before strolling out onto the road as if nothing had happened. She got a few paces in front of him before turning around, her blue eyes peering up at him.

"Well come on now! We have to get to class!" she beamed her tone back to the previous one. She also winked and pointed towards the school, before picking up the pace and heading towards the door.

Still feeling the rush of her contact Gohan took a few seconds before dashing after her, knowing that she was right.

Seemingly endless questions began to invade his mind. What the hell just happened? How did she know that he had been lying about using the trains? And why did she just help him? And why did she seem so accepting of it all?