A/N

KyLewin, thank you so much for reviewing! Your tips really came in handy while doing the last look over before posting. (You are so right about the Jello/gelatin reference, oops!)
Well, I hope other readers will review and tell me what they think about this story! I would post more often if I had the motivation!

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"NOTHING! Why is it we have NOTHING to eat?" Gohan yells as he frankly searches the fridge.

He turns around and opens the cupboard door. He carelessly throws empty cereal boxes behind him, not looking where they fall.

"OW!" Goku reacts as he rubs his head.

Gohan turns around. "Oh sorry dad. I can't find any breakfast food! I can't find any food at all!"

Goku looks in the bottom cupboard. "Hmm… Echo always did the shopping… Guess I'll have to do it now… Umm... Here!" Goku throws his son a granola bar.

"THIS? This tiny bar is supposed to satisfy my hunger? Guess I'll be eating an even bigger lunch today" He says as he unwraps the bar. "I better go get Keira."

Goku sits down at the table. "Oh she's gone."

"What do you mean she's GONE?" Gohan asks.

Goku stares at the tabletop. "I woke up early just to see if I could give her a lift to school today, but she was gone. I guess she must have walked… I think she gets her stubbornness from Vegeta."

Gohan rolls his eyes and heads out the door. "I've got to pick up Trunks on the way to school, hopefully I'll spot her on the way! Bye dad! BUY FOOD!"

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Keira is walking down the deserted highway, her backpack slung over her right shoulder. She looks up ahead and can see the big city she's approaching.

If I don't pick up the pace, I'll be late! Why can I never make it to school on time? She silently curses herself.

She lowers her head and continues to walk. A low noise is quickly catching up with her from behind. She rolls her eyes as she moves onto the gravel, leaving the road empty for the vehicle that's speeding down the highway. To her annoyance, the vehicle starts to slow its acceleration as it gets closer. She doesn't turn around, but begins to walk slightly faster. Sure enough the small vehicle has slowed enough to drive next to Keira at her walking pace.

"Hey sweetheart…I like the uniform. Need a lift?"

Keira stops and drops her backpack. She places her hands at her side and starts to concentrate her energy. The stranger stops his bike at amazement, but not from the burning balls of energy at her side.

"You're Vegeta's kid!" The young man yells.

Keira stops her attack.

"How do you know my father? Who are you?" She demands.

"I'm a friend of Goku's! My name is Yamcha. Don't you remember me from the picnic and-"

"Oh yeah. I suppose you do look familiar." She quickly interrupts. "But I have no time to chat, Yamcha. Perhaps you can try to hit on some other underage girl. Goodbye."

She picks up her backpack and begins to walk forward.

"Hey, wait! You want a ride? To school, I mean."

Keira stops again, and mentally calculates the distance she'll have to cover in a short amount of time. She sighs heavily. She looks to the scooter Yamcha is on.

"Where am I to sit?" She asks skeptically.

Yamcha scoots up a bit, then twists his arm back to pat the seat behind him.

"You'll never make it to school on time walking. Come on, Keira." He encourages.

She blushes at the sound of her own name. She tries to hide it by hurrying onto the scooter. She slings her backpack over both shoulders and looks to her sides for something to grasp.

"Hold on!" He warns as he starts to accelerate.

Without thinking, she wraps her arms around Yamcha's torso. They speed off toward town.

They reach the school in a matter of minutes. He stops in front of the school, where some students are still scattered across the lawn, socoializing. They raise their heads at the sound of the dying motor.

"Told you I could get you here fast!" Yamcha beams.

Keira unsteadily mounts off the scooter. She stands on the sidewalk, next to Yamcha and his vehicle.

"Yeah, well…thanks!"

She leans in and gives him a small kiss on the cheek. She readjusts her backpack, then runs to the doors of the school. Yamcha sits still, a hand over the cheek that was kissed. He snaps out of his daze and waves to Keira, who has just opened the door.

"Yeah…no problem." He tells an absent Keira.

He revs up the engine and speeds down the road, a huge smile plastered to his face.

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Gohan and Trunks make it to the city, the whole trip together in silence. When they start walking the rest of the way to school, Trunk's curiosity takes the better of him.

"Is it true you beat up Keira?" He asks in one breath.

Gohan stops walking and looks at Trunks. "What? No!"

"Oh."

They start walking again.

"Well, did she beat YOU up?"

Gohan widens his eyes. "Where are you getting this stuff from?"

"They're just the rumors…."

They reach the school doors. Gohan waves his hand goodbye as he dashes to his class.

I hope she made it to school all right…

Gohan enters his classroom and finds Keira, sitting in the seat behind his. He sits down at his own chair, and swings around to face her.

"When did you leave for school?"

"Shortly after I came home."

Before he can ask another question, the teacher walks in the room.

"Okay students, let's take our seats." He drones as he ushers in the rest of the students. "Alright, now you've all been assigned to your text books. Please open them to page 55. Keira?"

Keira looks up. "Yes, sir?"

"Please read the first page out loud to the class."

A look of panic strikes her face. She stares blankly at the book.

"Miss Moon! Please read on page 55 out LOUD to the class!"

Some of the students start to giggle behind her. She looks over to Gohan, who can see her panic. Her face smoothly transforms into calmness as she looks back to the book.

"No."

The teacher looks up. "What was that?"

Keira looks at his face directly this time. "I said, NO!"

His face begins to turn red with fury. "Miss Moon, this isn't an option, please read on page 55 or FAIL this semester!" he threatens.

Keira stands up. "Then fail me." She challenges.

Without uttering a word, the teacher stands and points to the door. Keira picks up her books and heads for the principal's office. She passes a classroom with the door still open. She looks in as she walks by with curiosity. She sees Trunks sitting in the back row. He is leaned back, with his feet on his desk, looking utterly bored. He suddenly straitens up and turns his heads to look at Keira. She narrows her eyes as she passes out of his sight. As she turns the next corner, she enters the principal's office. He looks almost surprised to see her.

Twenty minutes later, Vegeta signs her out of school. Vegeta, Keira, and the principal walk out of the school together. Keira walks behind them.

"I really hope you will talk with you daughter, sir. As long as she does good work in her Science class from now on, she won't fail. However, if she is sent to me one more time this semester, she will be suspended." The principal turns to look at Keira, and continues talking to Vegeta. "I don't think she wants that on her permanent record. On her oral introductory exam, she scored perfect! She has a bright future in stored for her if she could just controlled her attitude."

Vegeta suddenly shows interest in what he is saying. "Her exam was oral? As in someone read the questions to her?"

The principal is taken aback. "Well… Yes. But I don't see why-"

"My daughter will not be in your office again for bad behavior."

The two leave the school building, walking in silence. They walk a little ways down the street when Keira turns around to face her father.

"Are you planning on following me the whole way again?" She demands.

"You can't read, can you?" He calmly asks.

Keira widens her eyes. "Of COURSE I can read! I know over 50,000 spoken and written languages. I am NOT illiterate!" She turns back around and starts walking, faster than before.

Three hours later, a rusty car pulls over on the side of the road where Keira and Vegeta are walking. Goku steps out.

"Hey kiddo! Spent a few hours and got this hunk of junk fixed. Gohan called me from school. Figured you would need a ride home."

Keira looks around Goku to the rusted, obviously outdated machinery.

"No thanks. I told you before, I don't need anybody."

Goku puts his right arm behind his head and starts nervously laughing. "Yeah well, I know that. I was just hoping you would help ME go grocery shopping. What do you say?"

Keira looks up to Goku. "Well…" She sighs. "I guess I could help you." She heads toward the vehicle.

"Oh, ah... Vegeta, you're welcomed to come with us!"

Vegeta watches Keira enter the vehicle. "No. I just wanted to see that my daughter arrived home safely."

Goku looks back at Keira and the car. "Well, she'll be alright with me. We're just going to pick up some food and go back home."

Vegeta nods. Then he walks towards the vehicle. He taps on the glass. Keira pushes a button and the shield goes down.

"What?" She coldly asks.

"Tomorrow is a weekend. You don't have school. Be at my house by 8am. We're going to train."

Keira opens her mouth to protest, but Vegeta flies away before she can. Goku gets in the car and starts the engine. They drive toward the nearest town.

They enter a small store, and Goku makes his way to the candy isle. Keira stops dead in her tracks. She is in awe of the many rows of various food. Goku grabs a cart and calls out for her. She picks up the pace and follows him.

"Hmm this one has peanuts, but this one has a caramel filling. We should get them both!" Goku decides out loud, clutches two candy bars. "What do think of the dark chocolate, Keira?"

She is looking over the other rows of candy bars, and without looking up asks, "What are the ingredients?"

Goku turns the bar around and starts stammering through the ingredients. "Um… Sugar, Sucrose, Fructrose, Glucose, Confectionary-"

"Right, so… Sugar. What else?"

"Oh okay… cocoa… and umm…. Red dye number-"

Keira looks up. "Goku, that doesn't sound very healthy. Are all these candy bars like that?"

Goku nods. "That's what makes them so good!"

She sighs heavily. "Listen Goku, we need items from the food pyramid. So we need bread and grains."

"Isle 3!" Chirps Goku.

"All right. We need dairy. So… milk? And cheese?"

"Last Isle!"

Keira laughs as Goku races down the isle and returns in seconds, with the food she named off. "Okay. Now we need meat."

Goku's eyes light up, but he doesn't race away. "We can go…Fishing!"

Keira tilts her head. "O…kay? Well there are a few more items we should pick up."

As Keira is helping Goku unload the groceries into the vehicle, she shyly asks a question. "Goku? Was that an exchange of currency?"

Goku looks up, confused.

"When the pimple infested young man scanned our items and you handed him green paper. Was that an exchange of currency?"

"Ohhh! You mean when I paid him with my money?" Goku asks as he shuts the trunk.

They step into the vehicle and Goku starts the engine.

"Money. Currency. I believe they are the same thing. So you… Purchased that food?"

Goku focuses on the road. "Yeah, how else would we have gotten it? Good thing coming in second in the World Tournament a couple years ago pays the bills, huh?"

"Oh well, on my planet we don't need to purchase our food. It's just given to us… What's a World Tournament?"

Goku unwraps a candy bar and starts chewing on it. He tosses another one to Keira. "There's a junk food part of that pyramid too, you know! As from what I can tell, if you had to pay for that food you eat on your planet, no one would buy it. And The WT is a contest the people of Earth participate to see who is the strongest. You know Gohan's friend Videl, right? Her dad is the champion."

"Wow. He must be strong." She says as she carefully unwraps the candy bar.

"Not really."

They land home safely to find that Gohan is already home from school. He starts to grab every bag in the trunk of the car. The three of them eat four bowls of rice, two cold cut subs, and two bowls of pudding each.

Goku looks down at the empty bowls. "I wish I knew how to cook…like her." And he excuses himself from the table.

Gohan and Keira start clearing off the table.

"Keira-" He starts.

"Don't." She finishes.

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