Gohan took his seat halfway to the back of the room with Lime where he usually sat. It was uncomfortably close to her and her little gang and he had been forced to listen to their schnide comments about his friends for months. Luckily however, they usually were able to get some back at them, relying on the inherent stupidity that appeared to be rife in their clique.
Upon hearing the handle of the door click open, Gohan peered over to the entrance of the room. He hoped to see their teacher, as Videl hadn't entered yet, and their home room teacher was infamous for his sternness over tardiness, despite usually being at least ten minutes late each day himself. Seeing her get into trouble was always good for a laugh on a weekday morning. He groaned, however as his enemies wandered in, the blond Sharpener leading the pack.
Videl walked in behind him slowly, her head craned around as she was chatting away to her friend Erasa behind her. For a second Gohan felt himself almost enjoy the sight of a rare and genuine smile cross her face and he even smiled a little himself. He had noticed that recently these had been few and far between on her part.
He quickly realised that he really should not be noticing this type of thing though. However, as she turned to face forwards again, her eye line crossed his own and he glared down at her.
Down at the front of the classroom, Videl gave him the best glare back at him that she could muster but somehow it never seemed enough, her glares, so notorious for their ferocity, never felt like they held quite enough anger towards him. They both turned away at the same moment, neither of the dark haired pair winning or losing the staring contest.
She took her seat off to his left, on the row behind his own, the rest of them in the surrounding area. Something soft hit him dead centre on his back and he heard the tell tale sniggers from the expected region.
Gohan twisted in his seat to turn to his 'attacker'. "What do you want Son?" Gohan placed a saccharine smile on his face, and fluttered his eyebrows.
"When are you going to start pulling my hair Sharpener? If you fancy me so much that you crave my attention you should just ask me out on a date. You never know, I might even say yes."His eyes drifted across the group, who all held grimaces upon their faces, except for Videl, who seemed to have a slight smile adorning her lips.
"Shut your bastard mouth." The taller boy turned back around, facing the front, noticing for the first time that their tutor had entered. Settling down, he forgot all about possible homosexual blonds.
Later in the day, during a rather interesting history class, at least for Gohan anyway, where the teacher had gone off topic at a furious rate, moving into European colonisation and exploration of Asia in the late nineteenth century the teacher noticed a certain member of class was paying little, if any attention.
"Miss Satan!" He hissed. "I know that this may not be quite what we expected to do today, but I expect all of you to pay attention at all times." She frowned down at him, annoyed at being reprimanded for a simple whisper to her neighbour on the row. "So, unless you can tell me which Russian explorer took to Asia's great mountains after Britain's Francis Younghusband, I expect you to listen to me when I am speaking." She continued frowning down at the old man. "So, can you tell me?"
"Erm...Nicolas Roerich?" She took a stab in the dark. However, much to her distaste, Gohan and his friends burst out laughing, as if this was the most obvious of questions.
"Nicolas Roerich did not take to the hills until 1925, almost forty years after Younghusband. The correct answer is Tsybikov in 1889." He spoke through the laughter of her far too well informed classmates.
Gohan knew that barely anyone in the world would actually know the answer to that ridiculous question, and that she must be amazingly well informed to have heard of Nicolas Roerich, but he couldn't help but take any opportunity to laugh at her and her misfortune. He turned to get a good look at her face, but he didn't see what he was expecting to.
He met her eyes head on and instead of a fierce glower, she was biting her bottom lip softly and her blue hues held a gentle expression instead of her normal sharp, vibrant one.
His laughter died instantly and he felt something tugging at his heart. He felt terrible. She actually looked hurt and somewhere deep inside he hated himself for doing that to her. She turned quickly, focusing on the page that was open before her and found the Russian revolution very interesting.
Why did she have to go and make a fool of herself like that? She couldn't care less what those others thought, but why did he, of all of them have to laugh the hardest at her? She was getting very angry with herself today, having awoken with thoughts about him rifling through her head and then actually caring that he thought that she looked like a complete and utter idiot.
She was supposed to be a fairly tough girl, unhindered by silly emotions such as these, and she definitely wasn't one that was interested in boys, despite the fact that she was part of what would be considered the 'in' crowd. She was far too young for the opposite sex anyway, that much had been drummed into her head by her domineering father.
Something very annoying was snapping at Gohan's heels, and it certainly wasn't a tiny little dog. It was a bit of a bitch though. Just why they let Videl play contact sports with the boys always confused Gohan. She was the daughter of the world martial arts champion, so that made her invincible, did it? Both her and Sharpener had been pissing him off all game, and football was usually something that he enjoyed to no end, although despite how good he was at sports, he was still branded a geek by his peers. It was all fine and dandy with him though, they could call him whatever they wanted.
"Would you piss off?" He screamed at the blond boy as he rushed in once again, swiping at his heels. He wasn't usually one to lose his cool but this had just been going on and on for too long. Not only had they been attacking him physically, they had been going on about his friends into his ear and his own family even came up once or twice.
Turning quickly while completely abandoning the ball, he lashed out at his assailant sending him straight to the floor before anyone had even had the chance to blink. Unluckily for the one on the ground Gohan had held himself back at the last moment, because if he had been knocked out cold straight away, he may have been saved from the severe beating he was about to receive for getting straight back up.
He was pushed straight back down by the dark haired boy and the rest of their classmates flocked to the scene to watch it unfold. Videl was one of the first there, but didn't even consider jumping in until told to do so by a higher authority, something that she would instantly do once she had matured a little in a couple of years.
Their sensei sprinted across from the girl's game and a plan of action sprang instantly to his mind. Despite all appearances, the man knew that Son Gohan was a veritable monster and he didn't fancy being in the direct line of fire, so he chose to pull the other boy away from him as quickly as possible, who was incidentally know trying in vain to fight back, totally clueless that he was completely outmatched.
"Miss Satan." The sensei motioned his head to the girl, trying to get her to restrain and calm the boy, in the certain hope that despite the fact that he would probably have absolutely no qualms about ripping apart a teacher to get to his prey, he would never consider hitting a girl, let alone a completely innocent one. Fortunately he was correct, apart from the fact that she was far from being an innocent party in this incident.
She sprang into action, stepping into the fray, knowing that this was in part her own fault, placing her palms onto his chest in a calming gesture and turning away to see if Sharpener was being restrained properly. His facial expression and body language instantly softened. Gohan continued staring at the other male until he felt a firm presence on his chest.
He looked down in confusion at the girl, who in turn realised just how close she was to him. Videl's eyes widened like saucepans in shock and Gohan's mouth gaped open. Had they just been touching?
The two were apart in a flash. Videl as if the contact burned her fingertips and Gohan as if her hands were covered in toxic waste. The pair stood feet apart, both slightly short of breath, breathing a little more heavily than normal.
"Now Mister Son, I suggest that you apologize to this boy before you get into any serious trouble."
Sharpener began protesting instantly. "He'd better be in trouble!"
"Quiet Sharpener! I know what you were doing and I know just how long you have been doing it. You should count yourself lucky that I halted this little altercation." He explained.
Gohan's attention was far from the talk between the student and pupil, and was focusing far more on the comforting feel of her hands on his body. Before he pondered it further he strode off towards the changing rooms, leaving her stood stock still with the eyes of the entire class on herself and the retreating boy, all imagining what the silent exchange that just went between them actually meant. The pair didn't see each other for the rest of the school day.
Teenagers are an odd bunch and the group had many different theories on what just happened. Some people thought that the two might still belong in the childish recesses of believing that the other sex is disgusting and that touching each other was still a taboo, and some could be spared for believing that Videl might have been brainwashed by her father to believe that she couldn't even touch a boy unless he was stronger than her father, which of course meant that she couldn't ever touch a boy.
The more fanciful and romantic of the bunch however might have the faint notion that the two could actually be immersed in a secret love that only the two were meant to know of, or perhaps it was even one that the two were too afraid to admit. Either way, these were the ideas that would be ridiculed by the rumour mill in days to come. Because Son Gohan couldn't possibly be in love with Satan Videl.
Over in the changing rooms, Gohan was busy switching on the showers in an attempt to scourge himself of her presence. His shirt had been thin and he could still almost feel her soft touch on his broad chest.
He roughly scrubbed himself clean, trying in vain to remove any presence that she may have left on his body. His actions were in vain though, the whole ordeal had firmly scarred itself onto his psyche.
He could feel the shivers speeding down his spine and all over his back at the mere thought of what her hands might feel like grazing over his skin if he had been shirtless. The girl was having very similar thoughts within her own troubled mind.
As the crowd dispersed, only one teenager remained still. Sharpener wondered out loud to no one in particular. "Where's my apology?"
Gohan made sure that he wasn't being watched by anyone, in particular anyone that knew him and pulled open the stiff door into the restaurant. He wasn't embarrassed about his job, it was just simpler this way. Luckily this place was on the other side of town to his school so it was very rare that anyone from his own school that knew him could come here.
Even his friends knew nothing of his whereabouts on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening. He knew that he could trust them, but if an enemy of his even got a whiff that he worked here, they would most likely be straight down here informing the manager that they had an under age worker employed here who went by the name of Gohan. He had gone to a lot of trouble to get this job and he was damned if he was going to be forced out of something that he actually quite enjoyed.
He gave one of the till girls a quick wave as he sprinted up the stairs two at a time, ready to prepare for his short evening shift. He loved coming in like this, strolling across the city and arriving just in time for the quiet period, after all of the shops had closed for the day. No one lived in the area and weeknights were deathly silent, meaning that he could work alone in the kitchen.
Some may have hated this drudgery, but for Gohan it meant time to be left alone with his thoughts, something that he often found himself doing while working away on a specific task.
After changing into his work uniform that consisted of black shoes, black trousers and a simple blue shirt, along with the obligatory cap of course, he stowed his things away in his designated locker and jogged down the back stairs into the kitchen.
As he made his way in there, he saw the assistant manager, a man in his mid twenties named Gendo, waiting for him by the grills.
"What is it Gendo?" He questioned instantly. Normally if they knew that he was here they sent every other kitchen worker home and just left him to it.
"I've got a challenge for you today."
"Go on." He probed.
"We have a new starter tonight. Normally we would bring her in on the weekend but she can only work weeknights."
Gohan swallowed harshly. " Her? She? Don't they normally put girls on the counter?"
"Yeah, but she's only young and she's very pretty. Young girls get a lot of hassle and we just feel that it would be easier this way. To be honest she also seemed a bit of a firecracker and we didn't want her attacking any of the gentlemen customers over any misunderstandings.
Gohan groaned out loud. He would have to train a girl, and a pretty one at that, at least according to Gendo.
"Plus, she's the same age as you."
"Fifteen?" He said shakily. He himself was still months away from that age, the age legally required for insurance purposes.
"No, she's fourteen. Maybe you know her from school."
Gohan laughed nervously and scratched the back of his neck, waving the other hand in front of his body. "But I'm fifteen Gendo, you know that."
The older man smiled at the boy. "We all know how old you are Gohan. Rei knew straight away when she interviewed you, but she took a liking to you so she hired you. She must of liked this one too and apparently this girl really needed the job and she's going to be old enough in a month anyway so we just allowed her to start straight away. Oh, and by the way, Charles is coming in tonight so be on guard."
He nodded his head in agreement. As he did so, he noticed that one of the other employees was motioning for Gendo to go over to her. "Right, this must be her now. She'll be ready in a few minutes so get ready."
Those minutes passed by quickly and Gohan silently wondered whether Gendo's description of her being 'pretty' would be spot on. He certainly hoped not, because pretty girls just made him sweat and shattered his nerves to pieces. He would never get round to do much work if she was too distracting for him to even remain conscious.
He heard the sound of the middle doors creaking open and awaited his new charge. And there she was.
"Gohan this is-"
"I know who it is." He replied sternly.