Author's Note – Hey guys! Sorry I didn't post sooner! I had evil writer's block for a while… Muwahah! Well, this is my longest chapter yet, and it was going to be longer, but I decided to cut it a bit short. Kind of like the real story again, but with differences. Muwahah, hope you like it! Oh, and thank you guys so much for reviewing! Hehe… can't wait to write the next few chapters when Gohan gets his Saiyaman outfit! ;) Anyway, I won't keep you any longer. Here's chapter 6!
Chapter 6 – Delusions of Grandeur
Okay, so I just go in here, and sit wherever, right? Zoa frowned as she peeked inside the door that was supposed to be the location of her first class. It was no fair! Gohan had stayed to fight those bad guys all alone. It's not like he had to protect her by making her come to the school or anything. But he did have a good point; if they were seen together as Super Saiyans and then seen together at school, people would get suspicious. Zoa just couldn't help wishing that they could reveal their powers! That would be so cool… but also, probably cause a lot of problems. Oh well. Zoa looked around for a free spot, when someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. She spun around startled to see a girl her age with short blonde hair wearing a bright green tube top.
"Hi!" The girl declared in a rather high, cheerful voice, "You must be new! My name's Erassa. Do you want to come and sit up by us?" She asked, pointing to some empty seats in the classroom.
"Sure! I'd love to!" Zoa smiled. She guessed this Erassa girl to be a bit of a 'bubble-blonde', but she was really nice. "I'm Zoa." She explained, shaking Erassa's hand. Erassa nodded. "Cool! Come on, I'll introduce you to my friends."
They walked up a few rows, and suddenly, Erassa sat down with a thump in a seat beside a dark haired girl and a guy with long blonde hair. Zoa was happy to notice that there were two seats on Erassa's left, and hopefully no one would sit beside her so Gohan could. She quickly pulled out a chair and sat beside Erassa, putting her books down quietly on the desk. Erassa gestured towards the others and introduced them.
"This is Videl, and that's Sharpner. Hey guys, this is Zoa." Videl lifted her head off her desk for a moment and looked in Zoa's direction. "Hi." She said monotonously before plunking her head back onto the wooden desktop. "Yo." Sharpner yawned, putting his hands behind his head. He was rather built, probably a jock, Zoa guessed. It just seemed a good word to describe him, even the expression on his face. Videl just seemed really tired; or seriously contemplating something. Zoa waved back at them, smiling politely. But her attention was always drawn towards the door.
What's taking Gohan so long? She wondered, putting her chin in her hands. Her concentration was broken as beside Erassa Videl suddenly looked up from her thoughts. Jumping out of her chair, she swung her feet around and sat up on her desk. She frowned, looking over suspiciously at Sharpner.
"Hey Sharpner, you aren't the Gold Fighter are you?" She asked suddenly, glaring at him. Sharpner let out a tired laugh and shook his head. "No way. I'm too busy working out to do stuff like that. I go to the club almost every morning!" Videl let out a sigh, furrowing her eyebrows. Zoa looked over in a bit of confusion.
"Excuse me, but who's the Gold Fighter?" She asked curiously, but before Videl could answer, the teacher came in, putting her books on the large wooden desk in front of the class.
"We'll be starting class momentarily, so please settle down and get out your books." The teacher stated, pushing her glasses up on her nose. She suddenly turned to the door and nodded. The principal came in, beckoning for some one to follow him. Zoa's face lit up as Gohan came through the door, looking around shyly at the group of students in their desks. He smiled brightly as he noticed Zoa waving from a seat in one of the middle rows. He nodded to the principal and headed over to them.
"Please welcome our two new students. They both live in towns that don't have high schools, so they got together and decided to come and learn here with us. They're both very smart young students. Gohan here even managed to get perfect scores on all his entrance exams! Please make them feel welcome." The principal pointed to Gohan as he sat down beside Zoa. "As I said, that's Gohan, and beside him is Zoa. Good to have you with us." Gohan and Zoa nodded, waving a bit uncomfortably as everyone turned to look at them. Sharpner rolled his eyes. "Oh great, a brainiac, and let me guess, his goody-good girlfriend. I should have known." Erassa giggled.
"That's so cute! Well, I must say Zoa, you're lucky! You're boyfriend is really handsome!" Zoa's eyes widened as she turned a couple shades of bright red. Gohan, who hadn't really been paying attention, looked over with a quizzical expression, trying to figure out what they were talking about.
"We're just really good friends!" She explained, "It's not like we're going out or anything! Aheheh!" Gohan raised an eyebrow, puzzled. Erassa smiled and winked. "Whatever! Pleased to meet you Gohan!" Gohan nodded, shaking her hand. "It's very nice to meet you too!" "So, how did you get to know each other if you both live in different towns?" Erassa inquired. Zoa turned to Gohan, quickly trying to devise a clever story they could tell her.
"Um, well, you see, my dad and his dad used to hate each other, but then they became really good friends! Um, yeah! That's how we met!" Zoa made a funny face to herself after telling the fib. Referring to Piccolo as her 'father' just seemed extremely humorous...
"Oh…cool! So anyway, I-" "Hey!" Videl abruptly interrupted Erassa as she looked over at Gohan. "You! You're that guy I met at the crime seen aren't you?" Zoa furrowed her eyebrows. "Huh?" Gohan's eyes widened and he nodded nervously. "Uh, yeah! I guess so!" Videl frowned suspiciously. But he couldn't have been the gold fighter. His hair was dark. Just a bystander probably…
"The Gold Fighter showed up again." Gohan froze. Zoa slowly turned to him. "The Gold Fighter?" Erassa nodded and began to explain. "You're new, so you're probably out of the gossip circle. The Gold Fighter is an amazingly strong guy with incredible gold colored hair! But no one knows who he is!" Videl glared at Gohan suspiciously. She kept thinking about what that guy at the crime scene had said.
"I heard that today the Gold Fighter was wearing a Orange Star badge, a black vest, orange pants, and a white shirt!" Gohan smiled shakily and began to sweat. Zoa's mind raced, trying to think of a witty, intelligent ways to cover this up. Shit, they saw him. Wanting the others to see their powers suddenly seemed a horrible idea as Zoa considered all the consequences if Gohan was to be discovered. If they find out we're Saiyan, man, that could be bad… "Uh, what a coincidence, hey Gohan?" She blurted out, elbowing Gohan nervously, giving the others an as innocent as possible smile. Sharpner smirked, turning lazily over to them.
"Why would you even compare the two? First off, he doesn't even have gold hair! Plus, who's ever heard of a weak little bookworm secretly being a super hero?" Videl nodded, chewing thoughtfully on her pen. No, I guess it's not him. She decided as the teacher began teaching. Erassa frowned and shook her head. "Don't let him bother you Gohan. He's just a muscle head."
"YOU FOUR IN THE BACK! PAY ATTENTION!" The teacher hollered in a huff as the teens continued to ignore her lectures. "Yes Ma'am." After that, the conversation died down a bit. Hopefully no one suspected Gohan anymore. Zoa let out a small breath as her tail loosened its tight tension around her waist underneath her baggy blue pants. That had been close…
"So, you both come to school from you're houses right? Or do you have apartments somewhere in the city?" Gohan shrugged, writing down questions from the board contentedly, and answered in a very nonchalant voice, "Oh, we come from our houses. Zoa meets me at my house, and then we come together. I live at 439 East District. It's in the mountain sector. And Zoa lives, well, somewhere, um, kinda close…" Gohan frowned. He couldn't exactly tell them that Zoa lived on a floating lookout point with two Nameks, one being the Earth god, and the Earth god's servant, a black genie named Mr. Popo. No, they wouldn't take that very well…
"WHAT? That's crazy!" Erassa exclaimed, standing up in her seat. "That's like, a thousand kilometers away! How is that possible?" "Miss Erassa! Would you please sit down and pay attention!" The teacher pleaded, getting more than a little angry. "Sorry." Erassa muttered, taking her place. She leaned over after a few moments, whispering. "How do you get here on time?" Gohan laughed. "Well, guess we're just really dedicated students!" He explained, then stopped. I can't believe I just said that…
"What a geek…" Videl muttered under her breath. Zoa frowned looking over at her. "What was that?" Videl smiled smugly. "I said your boyfriend was a geek." Zoa gritted her teeth. "Oh, so, I take it you have an inferiority complex and have to insult others to make yourself feel better, is that it?" Videl growled under her breath clenching her fists. "I don't think you know who you're talking to, smart ass!" Erassa got a shocked look on her face at Videl's sudden outburst of anger. "Videl! Calm down! But oh that's right! I never told you guys! Videl is the daughter of the one and only Hercule!"
"WHAT?" Gohan blurted out. "Hercule? That idiot?!" Zoa added. She did NOT like Hercule. In fact, she hated him. She hated the way he had taken all of Gohan's credit for beating Cell, the way he acted like he was the most powerful man on earth when a two year old could probably beat him up, and his horrible Afro hairdo… And this was his daughter? How appropriate. Zoa narrowed her eyes. She was normally a very peaceful person, but certain things made her angry, especially people trying to hurt her friends in any way, even just a silly thing like name calling. Zoa was a Saiyan, and she would defend her friends (especially Gohan) to the death.
"Are you calling my dad an idiot?!" Videl demanded, trying hard to keep her voice down though she was getting increasingly angry. The teacher had already been sending them dirty glances since Gohan had accidentally raised his voice in surprise. Zoa crossed her arms. "Just stating a fact. I don't think you're in any position to insult any one if you're 'Hercule's' daughter…" Videl lunged across the table to hit Zoa but Erassa restrained her.
"Miss Videl! Is something wrong?" The teacher demanded. Videl shook her head reluctantly and sat down. "No, I just, uh, dropped my pen." She leaned over and said to Gohan, "Well, I guess you're definitely not the Gold Fighter if you have to get your little girlfriend here to fight for you." Zoa furrowed her eyebrows.
Gohan frowned, putting his hand on Zoa's shoulder. "Hey, just ignore her. I don't care if they insult me, don't worry about it! K?" Zoa nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, sorry. I guess I shouldn't take it out on her. It was, after all, her father who took all your credit for beating Cell…" Gohan's eyes widened, and Zoa clapped a hand over her mouth, but she had been talking a little too quietly for anyone to hear. Zoa smiled. "Guess I'd better watch what I say, or I'll let something slip!" Gohan grinned. "Yeah, I know what you mean."
"Excuse me, but since you seem so interested, would you like to read the next paragraph for us, Mister, um, I'm afraid I can't quite remember your name…" The teacher finished, looking at Gohan and trying to recall his name.
"This is Gohan, the perfect test score boy!" Sharpner shouted out, followed by a chorus of laughter. Gohan let out a small breath and looked down at his book a little embarrassed. Before he stood up to read, Zoa leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Like you said Gohan, ignore them. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being smart. Especially when you're so cool too." She smiled, giving him a wink. Gohan smiled back as he pushed back his chair. "Thanks. Too bad they don't exactly think so." Zoa frowned. This fitting in thing was a lot harder than they had thought…