The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret

--Worst Case Scenario--

Ah. Here it was. Friday afternoon. She had a feeling it was going to be a good day. It was the day of her first date AND their red-haired counselor had called in sick. Bra had crammed for her history test one hour before she took it. And when it was time to shine, she actually felt pretty good about it. Goten had asked the students to come back after school to get their tests. Who's thinking about picking up a test on a Friday afternoon? The only thing students were thinking about on a Friday was getting as far away from school as possible.

As she stood at her locker, Bra noticed several people walking in and out of Goten's classroom. It was a shock to her. She didn't think anyone would stick around long enough to pick up a test on a Friday. Well, she got a new surprise every day, now didn't she?

Pan came skipping over to Bra's locker. "Bra. I didn't get to talk to you this morning. Your head was buried so far in that history book, I thought you were gonna suffocate."

Bra just looked at her. Yes, she was still mad at Pan for persuading Goten into playing that horrid prank on her yesterday.

"How do you think you did on the test?" Pan asked cheerfully.

She didn't even notice that Bra was giving her the silent treatment. What good did it do to give someone the silent treatment when that person didn't even know you were doing it? None. Bra sighed. "I think I did pretty good."

Pan rolled her eyes. "Of course you did. What was I thinking? YOU'RE the one who has a tutor." She folded her arms across her chest and smiled. "I think I did pretty good too. Maybe I heard some of the stuff Uncle Goten was talking about in my sleep."

Bra closed her eyes and walked into the classroom. Pan followed. It appeared that they were the last students in line. The others had retrieved their tests and gone on to begin their weekend.

Goten looked up at the last two students, holding two test papers in his hands, one of which was folded. "It's nice to see you two finally made it."

He'd given Bra a strange look that she couldn't place for the life of her. Why was he looking at her like that? Was it a good look or a bad one? She couldn't be sure.

He approached them and gave Pan the unfolded test. "Good job, Pan."

Pan looked at the grade and laughed. "Yeah, I'm the best! I got a 76!"

Bra frowned. "And that's what you consider a good job? A 76?"

"Well, considering the amount of sleep she gets in class and during studying, I think she did great," Goten explained.

Pan grinned and gave them a victory sign.

"Here's your test, Bra," Goten said, handing over the folded test.

Bra raised an eyebrow. No 'good job' for her. Just a 'here's your test'. That wasn't very fair. She wanted a compliment too. She opened her test and looked at the grade for a long time. Hmmmm. This couldn't be right....

"Is this mine?" Bra asked.

Goten nodded.

"What'd you get?" Pan asked.

Bra looked at the test again. "I got a 52? Tell me this is some kind of joke."

Goten shook his head. "Sorry Bra. That's your grade. I can't say that I'm not disappointed."

It broke her heart to hear him say that. She'd disappointed her trainer, her teacher, her tutor, her love. And not only that, she had disappointed herself. How could she feel so good about something only to have it turn out so bad? How could she have failed something she actually put forth an effort to study? Well, it was at the last minute, but Bra never studied for anything in her entire life. And here she was studying a whole hour before the test, only to fail miserably.

Pan looked surprised for a while. Then she smiled. "Cool! I got a higher grade than Bra!"

Bra looked at Goten. "You're serious? This is really the grade I made?"

"You've asked that already and I told you that it is," Goten told her. "It isn't a joke." He walked over to his desk and pulled out another test. "Here's the answer key if you want to look at it." He handed her the test.

After careful analysis and comparison, Bra gave the answer key back to Goten. "Wow. I thought I'd do better than this."

"I thought you would too," Goten said. "Oh, yeah, don't forget to get those signed and bring them back Monday."

"Yes, sir!" Pan replied giddily.

Bra rolled her eyes.

"Listen, Bra. It'll be okay. You'll have time to recover. All you have to do is focus a little more," Goten suggested with a smile. "We'll get you back on the path to passing."

"Yeah, right. That's easy for YOU to say. YOU'RE the teacher," Bra told him. She folded her arms across her chest. "I've always passed everything. I don't know HOW to 'recover'."

"Then this is the perfect time for you to learn," Goten said. "Nothing like a little hands-on practice to prepare for college."

Pan gasped. "Are you saying that college is harder than this?"

Goten nodded. "It can be difficult at times, yes."

"Awwwwwwwwww," Pan whined. "I don't wanna go to college."

Bra turned her back to them. She knew that she couldn't fail at anything. Even in her old social studies classes she was able to pass with a B-. This was altogether different. She WAS failing. Failure wasn't even in her dictionary until the day she fought her father.... Of course. That had to be what caused this. Her father showed her what it was like to fail and now she was going to start failing at everything she tried. It was a nightmare. It was all just a bad dream. It had to be....

--at home--

She remember telling her mother this morning that she was having a test today. Maybe she wouldn't ask about it.

Bra walked through the front door and looked directly at her mother, who was sitting on the couch, drinking a glass of water. Just her luck. She'd actually have to see HER right after she found out that she was a failure.

"Hi, honey. How was your day?" Bulma asked. She stood and walked over to her daughter.

"Fine," Bra answered simply.

"So, how do you think you did on that test Goten gave today?" Bulma questioned.

"Fine," Bra murmured.

Bulma raised an eyebrow. "Everything's just 'fine' to you, isn't it?" She looked down at the papers Bra had in her hands. "What's that?"

Uh, oh. She was supposed to hide that thing in her backpack until she was ready to give it to her mother. It was the stupid history test. She'd flown all the way home with it in hand. How could she have been so dumb?

Before she could respond, Bulma had taken the test away from her and was already looking at it.

"This is your history test?" Bulma asked, flipping through the papers.

Bra folded her arms across her chest. How was this woman fast enough to retrieve papers from her without having super human powers?

"You failed your history test?" Bulma inquired.

Here comes the nagging.

"I cannot believe this, Bra! I set up for you to have a tutor and this is the best you can do?! I knew I should have gotten you a separate tutor from the start!" Bulma shouted. She threw the test down on the table by the door. "You're grounded until this grade improves!"

"What?!" Bra yelled. "But mom, I have a date this weekend!"

"Not anymore you don't! And don't you dare take that tone with me, young lady!" Bulma roared. "There will be no dates. No telephone. No tutoring with Goten. I'm going to find someone to tutor you at home. No leaving the grounds of Capsule Corp. unless you're going to school. And no visitors. No Pan. No Marron. And no Goten."

"I can't believe you're doing this! It's just a stupid 'F' on ONE stupid test!" Bra screamed, waving her arms about frantically.

Bulma laughed sardonically. "That's right. Now, it's just an 'F' on a test. Then there'll be an 'F' on two more tests. You're not going down that road, missy. Not if I have anything to do with it."

"Mom--" Bra began.

"There's no point in arguing this. Go to your room. You're grounded. Don't make me repeat myself again," Bulma said calmly.

Bra growled and hurried to her room. Her mother had never been mad at her before. Well, not this mad. She was always trying to shower the girl with too much love. Then again, she'd never had an 'F' before either. Who would have guessed that her mother would react that way? She wanted to punch a hole in the wall, but that wouldn't have done any good.

She sat on her bed and looked out the window. She may as well get used to this site. It would be all she'd see until her grade improved.

--The End--

--Okay. That was the end of Versus 2. I know what you're thinking. "How could this be the end?! You didn't warn us!" Well, that's right. I DIDN'T warn you. That's because I didn't know myself.

--Well, thanks for reading Versus 2: The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret. Thanks for the reviews. And thanks for all your support.

--Now that Versus 2 has come to an end, what's next? Versus 3, of course! There may be a delay on that story though. I'm not sure where I'm going with any of this, but as soon as I have even the slightest plan for even a little of it, I'll be writing again. In the meantime, keep one eye open. I just might do some other stories in between.