Gohan left school that day in exceedingly high spirits. Not only did his new friends seem to be getting closer to him, but he had a scheduled hangout with them in just two days! Although he was still a bit shaken by yesterday's encounter with Videl, the fact that she seemed to not hate him as Gohan offset his disappointment in her reaction to Saiyaman. All he could do in that regard was hope she'd come around…
Gohan shoved his negative thoughts away. He wasn't going to let one little incident ruin his elation, not even one that was actually kind of big and hard to not think about considering one of his new friends hated his alter ego's guts and would probably never wanna talk to him again if she ever found out and oh god what am I gonna do?!
"-IG BROTHE-" Gohan quirked his eyebrow. Did I hear Goten just now? He halted and looked back. Sure enough, he had flown right by his home. He giggled a bit and flew back towards his house - slower this time. Goten all but tackled him the moment he landed.
"Big brother!" The young boy was squeezing the life out of his beloved sibling zealously. "I thought up some awesome new moves for Saiyaman! C'mon, I'll show ya!" Goten proceeded to perform his new array of award-winning poses, displaying what he felt was an outstanding display of both stamina and creativity.
Gohan laughed and rose from the ground where he had been previously pinned, brushing a few stray blades of grass off his clothes. He ruffled the kid's hair. "Pretty amazing, Goten!" He groaned internally, "I can't wait to show them to the public!"
Gohan was gleefully chowing down on his dinner, stopping only for the odd breath here and there. Goten tried his best to keep up with his brother's voracity, but couldn't quite match his indescribable speed.
The elder of the two boys was ecstatic, thinking up a million different ways to have fun with his friends on Saturday. He was only snapped out of his daydreaming by the emptiness of his plate. He looked up at the void a mountain of food once filled and shrugged.
"Well, Gohan, you sure are happy today!" Chi-Chi got to work gathering up the dozens of dirty dishes from the table. "Something good happen?"
The older Son boy helped his mother clean up. "Oh, I almost forgot to ask!" He turned the kitchen sink on and began washing the copious amounts of dishes, with his mother joining him soon after. "My new friends invited me to hang out with them at Satan City Mall on Saturday!"
The plate Chi-Chi had been holding suddenly slipped from her grasp, narrowly avoiding an early demise thanks to Gohan's quick reflexes. She was a statue; doing nothing but blankly staring at her son.
Gohan placed the plate back in its place and poked her shoulder warily. "M...Mom?"
His poke was met with a very constricting bearhug from his mother, who one could easily forget was considerably stronger than the average human. She practically sobbed into Gohan's shoulder.
"Oh, my boy's made friends his age, and they want to go out of their way to spend time with him!" She ignored his strained gasps for air. Turning a very concerning shade of cobalt, Gohan's instincts made the executive decision to gently push his mother off of him. Thankfully, She didn't seem to notice.
Gohan wheezed in desperation to return his skin to its usual shade while his mother stared off into the distance absently. He waited for his breathing to even out before speaking. "So...does that mean I can go?"
Chi-Chi's head snapped toward him, her gaze fierce. Gohan fought back a surprised squeak "Of course you can go!" She immediately went back to her fantasizing. "I can't believe my little Gohan is the most popular boy in school!"
Gohan just laughed nervously, thankful to get his mother's approval.
Erasa slammed her books down on her desk, causing Gohan to jump a bit in his seat. She had been the last of their group to arrive to class that Friday morning, and she was making sure her friend noticed her entrance. "Alright, time to hammer out the details!"
Videl tilted her head. "What details?"
Sharpener was grumbling in the background. "It's too early for big loud bangs."
The more fashionable of the two blonds ignored the musclehead and instead addressed Videl. "We're hanging out tomorrow, remember?" She brushed a strand of her flaxen hair to the side. "We need to know where and when we're meeting up."
Gohan knitted his brows and idly rubbed a page of his notebook between his thumb and middle and index fingers. "I thought we were meeting at the mall?"
"Well, duh, but we need to know where at the mall we're meeting."
"Aren't we meeting at the entrance?"
Erasa slapped her forehead in exaggerated exasperation. "Gohan, malls have multiple entrances!"
Gohan unhanded his notebook page and dedicated his entire concentration to this new revelation. "They...they do?!" He felt a few conversations he'd had with Bulma finally making sense to him.
Sharpener rested his head on his right hand. "Didn't they teach you anything in the mountains besides school stuff?"
"I don't think it ever crossed my mom's mind to sit me down and teach me about the architecture of shopping outlets." Gohan frowned behind his surgical mask. "But now that I think about it, such a large and populous building only having one exit would be a huge fire hazard."
Videl nodded sagely. "Exactly."
Erasa lightly but purposefully slammed a hand down on her stack of books. "Guys, focus! We need to figure this all out before tomorrow!"
Before she could open her mouth again, the bell to start the day sounded, meaning their conversation would have to wait. "We'll finalize our plans at lunch, okay?" And with that, school began.
this chapter was gonna be longer but i decided to save the rest for next chapter (theyre finally gonna do that hangout thing woohoo)
feel free to suggest stuff i dont rlly plan this stuff out ahead of time so who knows u could change the whole course of the story