Alex

17 days later..

8:26am

"Trunks! We need to go like now or we're going to be late" Goten yelled, neglecting to call Bra as he knew she'd left with her mother earlier . Trunks sat up quickly from his bed. He'd already dressed for school and eaten breakfast, but he'd been lying on his bed thinking. He'd had that disturbing dream again... It'd been the first time in awhile, but it had never been so vivid, so... real. This time, the girl had been killed, the figure in the shadow had pierced an appendage straight through her stomach, he'd seen her blood spill, a scream of pain rip its way out of her mouth. He'd woken up just as the last sign of life had left her body. Goten's yell broke Trunks out of his thoughts. He rushed from his bed and joined Goten as they hurried towards the door.

Goten and Trunks rushed down the driveway of Capsule Corp. They skidded to a stop just as they saw the bus pass over the nearest hill.

"Damn" Goten said slapping his forehead with his hand. "You'd think being a saiyan would make it easier not to be late all the time."

"Well it does Goten, we can just run to school"

"Yeah yeah, cause Vegeta and Goku would just looooove it if we got caught. You remember what they said last time."

"Pff how would they find out, it's not like anyone's going to see us. Their eyes are all weak sauce."

"Dude, stop saying weak sauce, it sounds stupid."

"You're stupid" Trunks retorted.

"Oh that was clever." Goten rolled his eyes. "What about your car?"

"No Goten you're not backing out of this one, let's just race."

"Pff fine if it'll shut you up" Goten said hunkering down into a running position. Trunks also assumed a running position beside Goten.

"3, 2, 1 Go!" trunks counted down quickly then took off at astounding speed. Goten stood up straight, rolling his eyes and sighed before raising his index and middle finger to his forehead. He briefly scanned for a ki signal near his school and instant transmitted to the back door of the school, where he was fairly sure no one would see him. He felt a little strange after he rematerialized beside the school's back doors, and he stumbled a little. He still needed alot of practice with instant transmission before he got as good at it as his father. He leaned back against the school wall just as he saw trunks rushing towards the doors. Trunks skidded to a halt, noticeably marking the ground he skidded along, and almost running right into Goten.

"What!? Goten, how did you get here first?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe your running is weak sauce." Goten said sarcastically.

"Weak sauce doesn't work that way"

"You're a tool"

"yeah whatever, seriously how did you get here first?"

"Instant transmission" Goten responded tapping his middle and index finger to his forehead

"What?? When did you learn that?"

"Maybe if you weren't such a little bitch and stuck around last time we were training, my dad would have taught you it too. You're weak sauce Trunks."

"Yeah whatever Goten, you cheated." Trunks said playfully shoving Goten. Goten fell off balance and hit the large metal doors leaving a sizable dent in the right door. "Oops" Trunks said laughing.

Goten laughed too "haha.. Trunks you dumbass... we should probably get out of here, you know, before someone notices this massive dent and figures we did it. Oh and it's not cheating, I win". Goten definitively said before opening the door, luckily it still opened fine.

"Yeah yeah whatever, it's not even that big of a dent" Trunks said dismissively, following Goten inside the school. As they were walking down the surprisingly empty hall towards their lockers, Goten shoved Trunks who hit a nearby wall and put a sizable hole in it.

"Oops" Goten said imitating Trunks, and trying to hold back his laughter.

"Goten, someone's going to notice this one for sure" Trunks replied irritably.

"Oh yea, I guess they will, you better fix it Trunks." Goten said smirking.

Trunks looked around, spotting the nearby vending machine. "That'll do" he said aloud. He walked over to the vending machine and pushed it along with his index finger till it covered the hole. "Perfect" Trunks said looking over his handy work. The two boys started laughing again.

"Very smooth Trunks, no one will ever notice." Goten said as he rolled his eyes..

"Pfff, I don't care if they notice, just as long as it doesn't look like I.. well in this case, you, did it."

"You're the one who hit the wall"

"You're the one who pushed me."

"Well maybe if you weren't such weak-sauce you would have been able to stop yourself."

"Hmm"

"What?"

"You're right Goten, weak sauce is annoying."

"I told you."

"Oh shut up, don't you have some presentation you have to do today for Chem?"

"Oh yeah, heh, I should probably go set up for that"

"Probably be a good idea." Trunks said sarcastically.

"Yeah haha, alright I'll see you in class" Goten said taking a few steps backwards so he could still talk to Trunks but be heading towards the science hall.

"Yeah see you there in a few Goten." Trunks said before turning and continuing to walk down the hall.

Goten collided with a girl coming around the corner as he turned around to face the direction he had to go. She dropped her books, and would have fallen over if Goten hadn't caught her arm.

"Oh I'm really sorry about that." Goten said apologetically. They both bent to the ground to retrieve her books.

"No no it's okay, I wasn't paying attention as I was coming around the corner." She responded, pushing a few locks of her black hair out of her face.

"Advanced Chem?" Goten asked curiously as he looked at the title of one of her textbooks.

"heh yeah.. "

"Hm, I'm in that class" He said, gathering a few more of her papers. "How come I haven't seen you before?"

"Oh, well I'm new here, just transferred in." The two of them stood up. "I'm Alexis, or Alex if you prefer"

"I'm Goten" Goten said passing her what he'd picked up.

"Nice to meet you Goten." She said cheerfully, arranging the books and papers in her hands. "I'm a little lost, do you think you can show me where chem is?"

"Yeah sure, I was just heading there actually" he said smiling. He looked her over, there was something very... familiar about her. She must have stood at least 5'6. Her eyes were a gentle shade of Hazel, her facial features well defined. Her midnight black hair was long, it swept down about halfways between her neck and waist. It possessed a great deal of rigidness/spikiness for a girl. She was a gorgeous, and Goten could tell she had a curvy well toned body despite her loose clothing. She was striking really. Goten closed his eyes for a second to attempt to sense her Ki level. His suspicions were correct; her power level felt highly suppressed, but was still far in excess of a normal human's.

"Something wrong?" She asked.

"No no, just a little tired." Goten lied. He brought his hand up and rubbed his eyes, attempting to feign tiredness. "Alright follow me."

Goten lead her down a few halls, dodging in and around people. The halls were always heavily crowded before and in between classes. When they finally reached the science hall, the amount of people had thinned out significantly.

"Is the school always this busy?" Alex asked.

"Yeahh, I mean there's plenty of classrooms and what not that have been added on to the school, but the school was originally meant for a lot less kids and they couldn't exactly make the halls that were already there bigger. But this is the hall we're interested in. Nearly all the science classes are held here. Chem is the second door on the right." Goten said pointing to it.

She laughed a little. "Well thanks for that thorough explanation, and great, thanks Goten."

"No problem. But I have to go into chem early to set up for a presentation... the bell should ring in a few minutes though."

"Haha, don't worry about it Goten, I'll be fine by myself for a few minutes" She said smiling.

"Yeah, I'm sure you will be" Goten said laughing too, before moving down to the second door.

9:04

"Oh man I better hurry." Trunks said looking at his watch. "The second bell's going to ring any..." but he didn't get to finish that sentence before the bell rung. "Well, guess I can do this now." Trunks said upping his running speed significantly. There'd be pretty much no one in the halls for him to dodge now. In less than a second he was stepping through the door into chem.

"You're late again Trunks. You know that means detention." The chemistry Teacher, Mr. Bruler said sternly.

"What?? You gotta be kidding me, I was like a second late."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" The teacher replied bitterly. A slight laughter rose up from the class.
"Take your seat Trunks."

Trunks sighed. "Okay fine."

Trunks trudged towards the back of the room saying obscenities under his breath. He took a seat beside Goten as he always did.

"Now we have a new student joining our class today." Mr. Bruler began; he waved his hand towards Alex who was patiently standing in one of the front corners of the classroom. She took a few steps forward.

Trunks looked up at her. "Whoa..." he thought completely forgetting how mad he was at the teacher. "She's beautiful." He looked at Goten and noticed the two were smiling at each other. Trunks rolled his eyes "Great, another girl after Goten." He turned his attention back to Alex.

"Now miss.." The teacher began.

"Alexis Alesian. It's nice to meet you all." Alex said with a nervous smile.

"Class greet your new classmate." The teacher said irritably. There were some faint murmurs and words of welcome spoken by the class.

"Hey dude it's rude to stare" Goten whispered to Trunks after noticing his staring.

"I wasn't.." Trunks whispered back defensively, stopping himself from looking at her. He couldn't shake the feeling he knew her from somewhere.

"Yes, Miss Alesian," the teacher continued. "Please take a seat... over there" he said pointing to the empty seat to Trunks' right. Goten leaned over again.

"Ohh.. your girlfriend's coming over" he said giggling slightly.

"Dude shut up" Trunks responded irritably, kicking Goten in the leg.

As Alex moved to the back of the room, her and Goten mouthed "hey" to each other.

"Do you know her or something?" Trunks whispered to Goten quiet enough so Alex wouldn't hear.

"No, not really. I ran into her before class." Goten whispered back as Alex took her seat to Trunks' right.

"Goten, would you please stop whispering or kindly leave my classroom?"

"Sorry" Goten said half heartedly.

"Are you ready to give your presentation?"

"Yeah I am"

"Ok, well then let's get started shall we?"

Goten got up from his seat, grabbing some papers he'd placed earlier on the shared desk and walked to the front of the class. After setting his papers down and turning to face the class he clasped his hands together.

"Alright everyone as you all know I'm Goten, and yes this is going to be very long and exceptionally boring. It is chemistry after all" He joked gesturing towards the teacher. The class laughed.

"Goten, if you would get on with it please?"

"Yes yes of course." Goten responded. "Alright, now I chose to do my mid-term project on heat and energy transfers, particularly within the body. Now if you'll look to the graph I have up here..."

Trunks yawned. Goten's presentations were always very long and very involved. Sometimes he found it hard to believe that the goofy little kid he'd grown up with could be so serious and intelligent when the need arose. He must have got that from Gohan. He looked to his right, again at Alex. She was looking back at him too. The two exchanged awkward smiles then looked back up to Goten as he continued to prattle on. Trunks felt his eyes glaze over as he continued to sit through Goten's presentation; his head was sliding down his arm. Just as he thought he was going to drift off to sleep, he felt a gentle tap on this right arm. He turned to see Alex smiling, and that she had slid a sheet of paper towards him. Trunks grinned at her then read what she had written.

"Hey... I'd try to actually "talk" to you if it wasn't for mr hard ass up there. But anyway I take it you're Trunks from what the teacher said, you and Goten are friends right? I'm new here, just trying to make some friends :) think you and Goten could show me the ropes around the school?"

Trunks felt a strange sensation in is his stomach; he had no idea why. He picked up his pencil and scribbled something down before pushing the sheet of paper back to her. The two continued to exchange the paper, adding to its length while Goten continued with is presentation.

"Hey yeah we'd be happy too :) Where did you move from? What's your next class?"

"I have Calculus next, ah the joys of derivates and integrals. What about you? The same? And I moved here from England about a week ago. "

"Haha yeah I have calc too. It's such an exciting class. But not really. Hm England eh? I thought I heard a small accent in your voice. How come you moved all the way out here? Must be a big change."

"Yeah it is. Let's just say me and my dad needed a change of scenery. So I guess I can just meet up with you two after calc if that's okay?"

Trunks looked at the sheet of paper then to Alex, a perplexed look on his face. "Change of scenery? That's really... vague, most people would give more details then that." Trunks thought, but he felt she was being purposely ambiguous so he didn't push it.

"yeah sure, that sounds like a plan Alexis"

"Just call me Alex. I'm way more used to that then Alexis. What's yours and Goten's last names anyways? His is Son isn't it? Mine's Alesian as the teacher already said. How long have you and Goten been friends?"

"Well my last name is Briefs. Funny I know, but could be worse :p and yep, Goten's last name is Son. And geez, I can't recall a time when we weren't friends, we've known each other all our lives. I love that kid, he's hilarious."

"Briefs? As in.. Capsule Corp's Briefs!!" Alex spoke to Trunks for the first time.

"Ms. Alesian, is there a problem?" The teacher interrupted before Trunks could answer.

"No."

"Then why do you feel the need to interrupt my class and Mr. Son's presentation with your talking?"

"I'm.. sorry? I was just trying to familiarize myself with the school and people. I don't really know anything about how it works around here" She spoke softly, attempting to gain sympathy. The teacher's hardened expression softened slightly.

"Even so, I can't let this sort of thing go unpunished, you'll be serving detention today."

"What!? Come on!"

"Do you want to make it tomorrow as well?"

"No" she growled.

"Then I take it I Can count on your silence for the rest of my class?"

"Yes." Alex mumbled before whispering "you asshole."

"Good. Please continue Mr. Son."

"Right so as I was saying before the teacher rudely interrupted me, causing about 5,000 times the distraction Alex's talking did.." A laugh rose from the class

"Mr. Son." The teacher cautioned.

"Ahhh yes, so moving along." Goten responded before continuing with his presentation. Trunks slid the paper towards himself and started writing again.

"Heh, so I guess you've heard of us?"

"Who hasn't heard of Capsule Corp and the Briefs? And yeah Goten seems pretty funny. Weird question probably, but is he single?"

Trunks felt a weird feeling of irritation at reading her last question. Why did he care that she might be interested in Goten? Trunks had a girlfriend, and so did Goten... still though, it bothered him.

"Nah he's not. He's actually dating my sister"

"Ooooo that must be pretty awkward!"

"yeah haha, just a little."

The two continued their written exchange as Goten began to near the conclusion of his presentation.

"And that's the importance of energy." Goten declared, ending his unnecessarily long presentation.

"Thank you Goten, please take your seat. We have enough time for Cerean's presentation so if you would Ms. Ulgama." A girl near the front of the class stood up in response to the teacher's request.

Trunks quickly crumpled up the page he and Alex had been writing on. He didn't want Goten to read the last little bit him and Alex had wrote, but he pulled out a fresh sheet of paper to start the conversation fresh. The three teens wrote back and forth with each other, taking special care to not attract the teacher's attention again..

Cerean concluded her presentation just moments before the bell, signaling freedom from this nightmarish class, rang. Goten, Alex and Trunks headed towards the class exit with Trunks in the lead.

"Hold it Mr. Briefs and Ms. Alesian, don't forget you have detention after school today."

"Where is it?" Alex inquired.

"I'm sure either of these two can tell you." The teacher gestured towards Goten and Trunks. "They go there often enough, it must be like a second home to them."

Trunks and Goten rolled their eyes, "yeah whatever" they said in unison.

"Maybe if you weren't such a tight ass throwing out detentions left and right we wouldn't be there so often." Goten said, perhaps louder then he intended.

The teacher smirked. "Perhaps you're right Mr. Son, so I suppose I should live up to my reputation. You and your smart mouth can join these two this afternoon."

"What? Ughh you are such a..." Goten replied angrily, just barely catching his words before they finished coming out of his mouth. Alex had a look of shock on her face, not because of what Goten had said but because she'd felt a massive rise in his Ki during Goten's exchange with the teacher.

"What the!? His Ki... it was nearly as high as mine when I'm not holding back!"

"Such a what Mr. Son?"

Goten gritted his teeth.

"Let it go Goten, let's just leave." Trunks said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. Goten exhaled exasperatedly and knocked away Trunks' hand before turning away from the teacher and storming out of the classroom. Trunks and Alex quickly followed.

"Ughhh I swear one day he's gonna push me to hard!" Goten screamed in the hallway, punching the air.

"Yeah what a pompous asshole! Jeez, are all the teachers like that??" Alex asked.

"No, he's a special case of prick" trunks replied smirking.

"He sure is." Goten replied, cracking a smile as some of his frustration left him. "so Alex can I see your schedule."

"Oh umm..." she flipped open her notebook and fumbled through the loose sheets inside. "It's in here somewhere... ah here!" she declared producing a sheet that listed her classes as well as times, rooms and teachers and handed it to Goten.

"Hm" Goten scanned. "Crazy, we all have our classes together."

"Really? Awesome!"

"Yeah that is awesome.." trunks added to the conversation. "But we should get moving towards calc, don't want to get in anymore trouble for being late."

"Right right, ok , follow us Alex." Goten said.

11:55am

Alex exhaled, sputtering her lips, and continuing her gaze at the ceiling of the classroom. She put her pencil back in her mouth and began chewing on the end lightly again. She hadn't heard anything the teacher had said since she'd been instructed to take a seat. She couldn't stop thinking about the scene she'd witnessed, the heated exchange between Goten and the Chemistry teacher. Goten's energy had spiked higher than any other person she'd felt in.. in nearly 10 years. Was it possible? Was Goten like her? Was Trunks? She'd been confused and curious about where she'd come from all her life; why she was the way she was. Maybe she'd finally get some answers. At the same time, she had to be careful; if they were just unusually strong humans, she could seriously freak them out. That was the last thing she wanted. It'd only been a few hours since she'd met them but she already felt a strange fondness and comfortableness with the two boys. That was unusual as Alex had always been untrustworthy, uneasy around people; it was a side effect of being... "different." That was the word she and her father used to describe her.

"Alex?" a hushed voice said, cutting through her internal thoughts and reminiscing.

"Mmm?" she responded, almost dreamily. It was Trunks, whom she'd been placed beside in this class as well. She didn't mind of course, she was actually glad for it. He was cute and his face conveyed a sense of kindness and understanding. Alex especially liked his hair, the gentle lavender, the way, when she wasn't deep in thought, she'd seen it drape across his face a few times earlier in the class; it'd brought a smile to her face though she couldn't entirely explain why.

"You alright? You looked pretty deep in thought."

"Oh I did? Nah it was nothing, I'm just bored." She lied.

"Oh haha, I don't blame you, this class is pretty boring. Don't worry though it'll be over any minute now.."

She found it refreshing to actually be able to talk.. well not talk but whisper with him rather than just write back and forth. His voice seemed very fitting for him, as did Gotens.

12:01pm

Alex quickly followed Trunks and Goten out of the math room as soon as the bell had rung. The halls were literally swarming with kids seemingly coming and going in every direction.

"Hey guys slow down!" she protested as she tried to push through the large crowds of people working their way in between her and Goten/Trunks.

Goten and trunks slowed down, allowing Alex to catch up to them.

"Sorry Alex, we just want to get to the caf and fast."

"What why?" she inquired.

"Cause the line-up builds fast."

12:04
The three teens stood in line, waiting for their turn to order food. Goten was hopping impatiently up and down in line.

"Relax Goten."

"I can't. I'm super hungry."

"You're always super hungry." Trunks smirked. Alex let out a slight chuckle.

"Yeah but I'm like suuupppeer super hungry." Goten whined.

"Well pay attention, you're up next."

"Oh. Right." Goten replied, snapping his attention forward to the front of the line.

12:07

Goten, Trunks and Alex walked through the tables of the caf with Goten in the lead, and heading towards the table he and trunks usually sat it. All three of the teens had bewildered looks on their faces. Trunks and Goten in awe of the amount of food Alex had gotten, and Alex at the amount Trunks and Goten had ordered. A moment later the three had made their way to the table, and taken their seat. Goten sat beside bra, while Trunks and Alex set on the opposite side. The rest of the table was filled in by Marron, Kilenea, Kendra and a few of Trunks' and Goten's "friends". Goten and Trunks didn't really have to many friends, and other then each other, their parents, Gohan, and recently Bra, there weren't many people they spent a lot of time with. They were fine with that, they were never bored, and were perfectly able to converse and talk with other people. It did cause rumors about them though.

"who's this?" Bra asked, giving a pleasant smile across the table to Alex.

"This is Alex, Alex this is my little sister, Bra." Trunks introduced the two

Alex took a quick look from Bra to Goten then back.

"Oh hey, Alex." Bra began, "Take it you're new here? I haven't seen you before I don't think."

"Yeah me and my dad just moved here from England."

"Oooo England!" Marron said joining in the conversation.

"Yeah" Alex grinned.

"How did you like it there? I loved it the last time I went. How come you moved?" Kilenea jumped into the conversation.

4:05

Goten, Trunks and Alex filed out of the detention room. They'd just narrowly missed receiving additional detentions during their time in the "dungeon", as the detention room had infamously become known as. Goten let out a yawn as the three made there way from the school basement onto the main floor and towards the exit.

"You have a way home right Alex?" Goten asked they reached the center point of the school.

"Yea I called my dad, he said he'd be waiting for me."

"Alright, cool. Just didn't want to leave you stranded." Goten smiled.

Alex smiled back. "Thanks Goten."

"Uh yea.. If you ever needed a ride somewhere I have a car... well it's not here but I have one." Trunks blurted out, attempting to capture Alex's attention.

Goten shook his head at Trunks, while Alex had a confused smile on her face. "Thanks? But hey guys, my dad said he'd meet me at the fron of the school though, so I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Absolutely." Trunks and Goten said in unison.

"Ok, see you tomorrow." Alex said smiling to the two before heading down a different hallways. Goten gave a wave, and as soon as he was sure she was out of ear shot he turned to Trunks.

"Trunks... what the hell was that?"

"What was what?"

"That whole car bit... ohhhh I get it. You wanted her attention didn't you? You like her don't you??" Goten said giggling.

"What? NO!" Trunks protested. "I don't even know her. Besides I have Erin."

"yeah yeah I think you doth protest to much."

"And i think you're an idiot. Besides you were flirting with her too."

"I was not," Goten said opening the door to the back of the school, dent still fully intact. "I'm just a nice guy."

"Yea right, you were totally checking her out."

"You're crazy. We both know I only have eyes for your sister. Your incredibly hot sister."

".... I hate you so much Goten."

"Yea why don't you go cry about it." Goten jested, giving Trunks a playful shove.

"Well good to know you're thinking about me Goten." Trunks and Goten both reeled around to see Bra leaning against the back wall of the school. They'd both been so focused on jabbing at each other they hadn't even noticed her there.

"Bra!" Goten said, "what are you doing here?"

"jeez, is that anyway to say hi to me? I was waiting for you to get out of detention." She replied walking towards Goten.

"Er sorry, I was just totally not expecting you to be there." He grinned.

"It's okay silly." She responded. The two exchanged a quick kiss before they were interupted by Trunks making gagging noises.

"ugh I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit." Trunks said, twisting his face into a sickly expression.

"Oh grow up Trunks." Bra said to her brother.

4:14

Bra and Goten, hand in hand, walked up the long driveway to capsule corp beside Trunks, another day of school over.
"Oh hey, Trunks... where's Erin lately? I haven't see her much lately, she wasn't at lunch either." Bra asked her brother.

"She's busy... you know, Student council and the upcoming dance and all the sports teams shes on and stuff."

"That's kind of lame."

"Yeah I know, but you know her." Trunks said, slightly embarrassed. "It's something she's passionate about."

"Yeah... So what did you guys think of the new girl?" Goten asked.

"Alex? She was really nice, I like her!" Bra replied.

"Yeah me too."

"yeah.." Goten nodded in agreement. "You guys didn't... notice anything weird about her did you?"

"Weird how?" Bra asked, confused.

"Yeah.. actually I did." Trunks replied. "I wasn't sure if it was just me so I wasn't going to say anything. Her Ki was pretty unusual."

"I didn't feel anything..." Bra said sheepishly, feeling as though she'd missed something really important.

"Don't worry about it Bra. You just need more practice at sensing Ki signatures to be able to tell when someone's suppressing it." Goten said.

"She's suppressing Ki? But why would she be doing that?"

"Probably for the same reason we do, so she doesn't hurt people." Trunks answered.

"So you think she's really strong?"

"Well way stronger than normal people anyways."

"interesting..." Bra said, a mischievous look in her eyes. "Guess we have even more reason to try and be friends with her."

"Yeah we should try and figure this out." Trunks thought aloud.

"Speaking of figuring stuff out... can you guys teach me how to read Ki signatures better? Like how to tell if they're hiding or suppressing? I want to be able to tell stuff like this."

"Yeah sure, me and Trunks were going to train for bit today anyways... so we can give it a shot. Head for the lake in 15?" Goten suggested. They'd taken a liking to the lake for training grounds lately. It was secluded, and had a lot of open space. Being hit into water also hurt much less than being hit into the ground. It didn't shield their Ki signals, or afford high intensity training like the gravity room did, but they wouldn't have to train with Vegeta, and gravity could never replace wide open training.

"Sounds like a plan." Bra agreed