Wow, two updates in two days . . . COOL! Go me! Why is it that when I'm sick I do things that I'd never done before . . . . (I'm sure none of you are objecting, though!)

Disclaimer: I can assure you that I do not own DBZ. If I did, nobody would watch it because it would suck! That's all I've got to say, on with the story!

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Silence is Golden

Chapter 8: Practice Matches Begin!

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The coach blew the whistle signaling all the students to group up around him.

Once that was done and the usual chatter died down, he began his explanations. "Students, as you can see, Hercule himself has been generous enough to let our school use these practice rings. He told me that they were the actual rings used in the trials for the WMAT."

At that comment, most of the class started to murmur excitedly at the thought of actually using the rings that were only touched by the tournament entrants. It didn't take the teacher long to get control of the class again, although he noticed that neither Videl nor Gohan really seemed to care about the rings. Videl he could understand, but Gohan just confused him anyway.

"Quiet! Quiet!" The teacher began, "For the next two weeks, we will be doing practice matches in preparation for the school tournament. First of all, I need everyone who's experienced in fighting to stand in the middle of the room, those with little or no fighting experience can lean against the wall. Those with fighting practice will begin matches, those without will start getting lessons on form and attacking." He waited a bit while the students got into their places according to fighting ability before continuing again, "And helping me today is the one and only . . . ."

As if on cue, there was a roar that echoed throughout the entire gym. "HERCULE!" The same voice yelled.

Most of the class cheered wildly (with the exception of Videl, Gohan and Erasa who just groaned).

"Now, now, calm down. We have a class to get on with." The teacher said with a smirk on his face, "Hercule, why don't you watch the experienced fighters as they'll probably learn more from you than they ever could from me."

Hercule walked toward the center of the gym where the other experienced fighters were. He might have been an ass, but he had an eye for basic fighting ability (not ki since he thinks that they're tricks) that he used with his students.

He took a quick look at the group before flexing his muscles and cheering for himself. Most of the group (minus the normal, Gohan and Videl (Erasa is inexperienced)) started cheering along with their hero.

Videl took a look at everyone cheering for her father. She felt a bit of pride for what her father could do to a crowd, but something was amiss about him. She noticed that Gohan wasn't cheering. Shoot. The boy wasn't even smiling, not even a little smirk. Actually, it was an all-out scowl he was sending at the 'savior of the world.' Videl was a little shocked at Gohan's behavior, but brushed it off as the cheering stopped and Hercule began his teaching.

"Okay, as you know, I'M HERCULE! SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!" The man yelled, "And I'm here to teach you how to fight, with the exception of my daughter and my other students. Could Videl and my students come forward."

Videl, Sharpener and a couple other nameless jocks stepped forward to stand next to Hercule.

"These, boys and girls, are the ones you can turn to for help." Hercule began, "NOW LET THE MATCHES BEGIN!"

With that announcement, the kids split up into four groups, each going to a different ring. Gohan just stood there, not really caring which ring he went to. He'd just started toward the left back ring (the one Videl WASN'T in) when a booming voice called for him to stop.

"Hey! Kid! You're group is against the wall. You're too small to handle the level of fighting these guys are at." Hercule told him in his usual 'high-and-mighty' tone of voice.

"Don't worry, Mr. Hercule, I think that I know where I'm going." Gohan told him with a slight sneer that left the savior rather nervous.

'What's wrong with this kid?! Doesn't he know that I'm the savior of the World?! He should be worshiping me; I've never been sneered at before. He's probably just some punk kid trying to look cool.' Hercule thought as he watched Gohan walk to the ring he'd decided on.

Hercule opted to watch that boy closely. That guy wasn't the type of person he wanted around his Videl. He was the kind of guy that would just want to get into her pants, or so he kept himself thinking.

Gohan, as expected for his late time at choosing a ring, was last in line. At least he got a good view of some of the other people.

There were two lines at each stage. One person in each line would step into the ring and the fight would be on. But the lines were of opposite sides of the ring, making it impossible to see who you were going to be fighting. It was completely random.

At the right-front ring, two boys were trying to fight. They threw punches at each other in a street fighter style, just kicking and punching. It was obvious what they would do next for an experienced fighter like Gohan, and they were sloppy as hell! Neither would stand a chance in a real fight, although their attacks were quite powerful. Raw strength was useless against speed though; which neither possessed.

Looking over at the left-front ring, he saw a much better fight. This one was between Videl and another boy who was definitely giving Videl a run for her money. Videl was on the onslaught while the guy was slim and quite fast for a human. What he couldn't dodge, he was able to block, but it was clear that if Videl got a hit in, the match would be over. Too bad it was Videl who was tiring.

Gohan then looked over at the back-right stage. Hercule was there coaching both people on how to dodge and attack at the same time. Apparently both were good, but not as good as others. Gohan had to admit that Hercule was a good teacher, knowing what to tell his students to make their moves better; he was just a lying ass every other second of the day.

Looking back at the front-left ring where cheering was coming from, Gohan saw Videl standing in the ring, her bangs stuck to her forehead from sweating.

Gohan felt a tap on his shoulder and someone pushed him toward the ring. Apparently it was his turn.

Gohan looked across the ring to see his opponent. He was yet another nameless, muscle-bound jock. The muscles weren't as big as Sharpener's, but they were pretty close. Gohan just smirked. Another person who just lifted weights to gain power, all that muscle would just slow him down in the end.

Gohan just stood there lazily as the other boy fell into a defensive stance. Both stared at each other before Gohan leaned his head back and yawned. The other boy saw the opening as Gohan had his eyes closed and charged to attack.

However, Gohan was able to pick up the rising ki from the human as he charged to attack (Ki rises like heart rate for the normal humans, excitement makes it higher). He sighed as his other arm lashed out and caught the hand that would have hit him in the face a moment later, his eyes still closed.

Gohan smirked a bit before picking the boy up by his collar and lifting him off the ground by a few inches. Then he proceeded to walk to the edge of the ring and drop the stunned boy off the edge.

"I guess I win." The demi-saiyan said as he hopped off the stage to get back into the back of the line.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" A voice said from beside him.

Gohan turned to see Videl standing next to him, her face rather red from the fighting. Gohan had to admit that she looked rather cute like that. "I have my ways." Was Gohan's only answer as he looked back at the other rings.

Sharpener was in one of them pummeling another guy. The other boy never had a chance as Sharpener punched him off the edge of the ring, sending the other boy to a fate sprawled out on the floor beside the stage.

"Can't you give me a straight answer?!" Videl yelled, making all other talking in the room cease as they all stopped to see what had gotten Videl so mad.

"No." Was Gohan's passive reply as he walked away from her in favor of the locker room.

"HEY! DON'T JUST WALK AWAY FROM MY LITTLE GIRL!" Hercule's voice boomed through the gym.

Gohan just waved a hand over his shoulder as if telling Hercule 'Who cares? Shut up.'

The entire class just stared in stunned silence as the bell rang signaling the end of class. Nobody moved though, they just stared as the door closed behind Gohan. Then there was a flash of white light seen from below the door, and then everything was still.

One girl lost her balance causing her to move her feet to keep from falling. That noise snapped everyone else from their trance-like states as they went back to their lives to go and get changed.

Videl was a little more than shocked speechless. Nobody had ever blown her off like that before. It was as if he had no respect for who she was, for who her father was . . .

His actions from earlier actually said that he DIDN'T have any respect for her father.

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Gohan sat against his usual tree as he decapsulized his lunch and began eating. Most of the school stopped and stared at him as he scarfed down one bowl of noodles, then a sandwich, then started on a grapefruit. (AN: WHERE DOES IT ALL GO?!?!)

Videl, Erasa and Sharpener just stared at Gohan just like the rest of the school. He hadn't eaten anything yesterday (AN: Amazing for a saiyan . . .) so this was rather new for them.

Within five minutes, Gohan was finished with the mountain of food that was in front of him and was getting up again. His plan was to head up to the roof, but about two-thirds of the cheerleading squad had another thing to say, or do, if they got their way.

"Hey Gohan." One of them said in a seductive voice as she pressed her body against his.

Gohan just glared at her and shoved her away. The girl and her friends just didn't get the hint though.

"I understand. You're the type of guy that doesn't like to do that stuff in public. Those are always the best when nobody else is around." She said huskily, sounding oddly like a bitch in heat, Gohan noticed.

Gohan actually blushed a bit and seemed to have problems coming up with a retort to what they were saying. Normally, he'd just scare a person who annoyed him with a ki blast, but he couldn't do that here.

"Just buzz off, can't you see that he's not like that at all? Or maybe you're too blind to tell." A new voice, that of Videl Satan said.

"I'm sorry, Gohan. It seems that we were interrupted." The cheerleader said in that husky voice as she walked closer to Gohan and ran a hand along his jaw as she continued, "We can continue this later." With that, she walked away, her friends following behind her.

"Stupid bitch." Gohan muttered, a faint blush still staining his cheeks. He'd never been treated like that before. Sure, he'd been called 'hot' before, but that girl sounded ready to go further than just complimenting his looks.

"You'll get used to them. They're the school sluts, just ignore them and you'll be fine." Videl told him. 'Why am I even helping this guy?! He treated me like crap, but I'm still helping him . . . I can't be falling for this guy, can I? I mean, he's a jerk and an ass. He's also mean, rude, hot . . . WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?!'

"Earth to Videl? Anyone there?" Erasa's voice snapped Videl out of her thoughts. Her eyes focused to find Erasa's hand still in front of her face as if waving it there.

"Huh? Wha . . ." Videl muttered as she looked around for Gohan.

"You just spaced out there, girl! Gohan tried to tell you something and you just stared at the grass, then he walked off." Erasa told her. "I saw everything, I think that you like Gohan," she chirped.

"What?! What gave you that impression?!" Videl yelled at her friend, causing everyone to freeze for the third time that day.

"Whatever." Erasa said in a teasing tone as she walked toward Sharpener and the two headed back into school, leaving Videl to stare at them, err, GLARE at them, as the door closed behind them.

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AN: Woohoo! Another chapter out! I just finished my make-up exams since I was sick during the regular ones. I'm still feeling, well, slightly sick, so my checking might STILL be off. Tell me in a review if you see any mistakes that I missed.

Oh yea, DON'T COUNT ON ANY MORE CHAPTERS OUT THIS FAST! I've been sick and writing in my great amount of free time because I was out of school. I love writing, but I'd rather not get sick so that I can write again any time soon!

The next chapter will have an appearance of the Gold Fighter, but I'm still in search of cool ideas for a 'costume.' Again, I would like to state that I don't want any headgear beyond a pair of glasses!

As I said before, I'm working on fixing up the previous chapters to tie up loose ends that I left since I didn't know what I was doing at that point. At least now I've got a plot in mind!

-Ligar Zero X

PS: REVIEW!!!!!