The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret

--Price I Pay--

Gohan answered the door. "Hey, bro. What are you doing here?"

Genes were funny things. Goten looked just like his older brother and father. Of course, you could see a little of ChiChi in Gohan, but for the most part, they both took after their father. Maybe it was just because they were males. Now, in her family, it seemed her mother's side of the family had the dominant genes. Both she and Trunks primarily looked like their mother, even though Trunks tended to lean toward their father a bit in appearance. She wondered if she had a child with Goten whether it would come out looking more like her or like him....

"We just thought that Pan might need study partners," Goten explained. "Is she around?"

Gohan nodded. He looked past Goten and saw Bra standing there. He held up his hand. "Hi."

Typical Son greeting. Bra waved to Gohan.

He looked back at his younger brother. "She's in her room. She was telling me about this test you're giving tomorrow. Sounds pretty big." He moved out of the way to let them in.

"It's their first test," Goten said simply.

"Well, if you think it's best to lend her a helping hand, then be my guest," Gohan stated. "I'd like for her to make better grades this year. She barely passed some of her classes last year."

Videl walked into the room. "Are you talking to someone out here?" she asked her husband. She looked at their guests. "Oh! Hi, Goten. Hi, Bra."

"Hi, Videl," Goten greeted.

Bra only waved to her as well.

"So, how are things going? Are you really thinking about getting married? It'd be great to have a sister-in-law," Videl said, grabbing Bra's hands. She smiled.

Gohan looked at the ceiling. "Calm down, honey."

Bra blushed. Had Videl been talking to her mother or something? Why did these women automatically think about marriage when they saw that two people were together? She and Goten hadn't even been out on their first date yet.

"We'll wait and see what happens," Goten told her, sounding a bit nervous.

"Come on, Videl. They probably want to get some studying done before the night's over," Gohan whispered. He took her hands away from Bra's and lead her to the kitchen.

Bra and Goten stood in the living room in silence at first.

Goten cleared his throat. "Pan's in her room. She's probably studying right now."

"Yeah, right. Knowing her, she's probably snuck off to see how much damage she can cause," Bra guessed. She'd known Pan for a long time. It was highly unlikely that the girl was actually doing something she was supposed to be doing.

They made their way to Pan's room and found her sitting at her desk with her back to the door. She had her history book upright.

The girl was concentrating so intensely that she didn't even notice when Goten and Bra entered. As a matter of fact, she hadn't even made a move.

"Hey, Pan. We came over to help you study," Goten called to her.

The quarter Saiyan still made no move.

"Pan?" Goten said.

Both he and Bra walked over to Pan's desk and looked at her. The sneaky little devil was sleeping. Typical Pan-type-thing. She'd set everything up to look like she was studying when in actuality she was snoozing. And sitting upright at that. The prankster had come a long way since their youth. Bra laughed.

"I can't believe this. She's asleep," Goten muttered.

This young lady had made Bra believe one of the only things she'd ever truly feared in her life. That Goten was mad at her. And now she sat here staring at the backs of her eyelids comfortably. She wouldn't have it. How could this girl be completely without remorse for the things she pulled off?

Bra poked the napping nuisance on the shoulder. "Wake up!"

Pan opened her eyes and looked at Bra, a little surprised. "Oh, hey Bra. What are you doing here?"

"You are biggest jerk on the planet, you know that?!" Bra shouted. She folded her arms across her chest.

The tired look Pan had on her face quickly turned into a confused one. "What are you talking about?"

Bra leaned on Pan's desk. "Yeah, like you don't know. You told Goten to act like he was mad at me. Do you know how much trouble you almost caused?"

"Uh, yeah," Pan sang. "Trouble's my middle name, isn't it? It's what I do. Cause as much chaos as I possibly can." She looked over at her uncle. "Hi, Uncle Goten. What are you doing here?"

Bra could have slapped the taste out of Pan's mouth for taking the situation so lightly.

"We're here to help you study for the big test tomorrow," Goten told her gleefully.

Bra frowned. Pan wasn't even hearing what she had to day. Again, typical Pan. Why should she even try?

Pan furrowed her brow. "Study? Do you know what the word 'study' translates to in MY dictionary? Study means sleep. Or haven't you noticed that?"

Goten laughed. "Well, I can see that. But this test is really important."

"I don't doubt that it's important. I just know what will happen. You'll talk about history and I'll be off in the Land of Nod," Pan told him plainly.

"Don't you care about your grade?" Goten asked.

"Of course I do. But when it's time to study, my eyes say it's time to sleep," Pan said.

"How about this, Pan? You'll study with us or I'll tell your parents what you're really up here doing when they think you're studying," Bra suggested. This wasn't her style. Not at all. But if it kept Goten and her from studying alone together, then it was all worth it.

Pan pouted. "You're mean."

"Then maybe we can take you for ice cream afterwards," Goten interceded.

Pan smiled. "Yay!" she cheered.

Bra rolled her eyes.

--after studying--

Bra stared blankly at the book Goten had been 'teaching' out of for the past few hours. Presently she heard him fumbling with some charts he had in his briefcase, so she looked up to see what was going on. Oh. He was putting them back INSIDE the briefcase. She looked over at their study partner and saw that she was fast asleep. Poor Goten. It must have been a pain to try to get through to people who had absolutely no interest at all in what you were teaching. Every now and then, she would nod, but for the most part she was either watching him move or thinking about the next time they were alone together. She was actually just wasting his time with this whole tutoring thing. She felt kinda bad, but she couldn't help herself. Especially when he was looking so good in that oversized dress shirt and dragon tie.

"We covered a lot of ground today," Goten stated, putting everything away. He smiled.

Did he even notice that she wasn't paying attention? He seemed content with their study session.

"Don't you feel better about this test now that we've basically gone over the whole thing?" Goten asked.

Gone over the whole thing? Uh, oh. Maybe she should have been paying attention. Bra nodded slowly. This test was going to be a nightmare.

Goten looked at Pan. "And this one's a real sleepy head."

Pan's eyes opened groggily. "Wow. You're done already?"

Goten shook his head. "I sure hope you got at least some of the things I said. I pretty much went over the entire test."

Pan waved him away absently. "Yeah right. Like this test is gonna be the end of my high school career. Even if I do fail, I'll have plenty of time to bring up my grade."

"Yeah, but your father's not gonna be happy about seeing an F on your test," Goten reminded her. "At Parents' Night, we have to show parents how their children are progressing."

Pan frowned. "Man, this sucks!"

Parents' Night? Why hadn't Bra heard anything about that before? Maybe she would have put forth more of an effort to learn this stuff.

"That's why after I give back the tests, I want all of the students to get them signed by their parents," Goten added with a smile.

The half Saiyan seemed pretty proud of himself. Was he trying to get her killed? Her father probably wouldn't care, but her mother would gather and throw a fit. Especially since she knows that Goten is 'tutoring' her after school. What was her elder look-alike going to say when she found out that Bra wasn't getting the quality education she thought she was getting? It would be a disaster. Or maybe she would just make her study more. Which inevitably meant more tutoring. Which meant more time with Goten. The worst case scenario would result in something she wanted anyway. There was no way she could lose here.

Pan thought for a moment. "I still get ice cream, right?"

--End Price I Pay--

--Hello. Here's another episode of the story that never ends. Hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks for reading it and thanks for the reviews.

--Of course, nothing's really happening except some ridiculous school oriented stuff, but maybe it'll all lead to something in the end. You'll never know unless you tune in for the next episode of The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret.