Videl I

He was tall.

He was tall, and he had dark hair, but above all: he was tall.

He was also cute, if Videl decided to go there. High cheekbones, aquiline nose, large eyes- Videl glanced over her shoulder at her friend and, sure enough, Erasa was already eyeing him appreciatively. No doubt Erasa would jump him the first chance he got. She may even offer him the empty seat next to hers, a notion that made Videl very angry. That empty seat and corresponding table space was the designated spot for books, shawls, laptops and what-have-you's that she, Sharpener and Erasa didn't quite need at the moment. Early in the morning, all it had was Erasa's bag slung across the seat, and Sharpener's sweater bunched up on the seat.

As Erasa, voice clear and high, called out to the new student (Gohan, he'd said his name was), Videl felt the corners of her mouth tug into a small smile; her friend's predictability in these matters was, in its own way, comforting, not to mention entertaining.

Videl turned her head to see what her other friend was doing. True to his predictable nature, Sharpener had not yet deigned to even look at Gohan. The boy was still leaning back in his chair, eyes closed, self-satisfied smirk on his face from the nerd comment he'd made earlier. If it were up to him, she thought, he wouldn't acknowledge the new guy till March. She paused, leaned over and flicked him on the ear.

"Get up, Sunshine," she informed him as he cracked one eye open to glare at her, "Time to dust up and bring out the jock archetype you cling to so badly for the new guy."

"Hilarious, kiddo." Came the disgruntled reply, "Can we expect little Miss Snow Queen to join me for the opening act?"

Upon hearing no reply, Sharpener sat up to properly glare at her, but Videl had already wandered her attention over to the new boy, who was by now halfway to where they were. He was quite thin, wearing a loose white shirt, black vest, and unfortunately red pants. He noticed her stare and caught her eyes; Videl narrowed her eyes on reflex as he smiled. He, in turn, held his hands up in surrender, smiling all the way.

By the time he'd reached their table, Videl felt more than a little hostile towards him. In stark comparison, Erasa jumped right into action, shooting him a dazzling smile as she leaned over and pulled her bag and Sharpener's sweater towards herself and freed up the seat.

"Transferring schools in the middle of senior year… very impressive" she said, "I can only imagine the kinds of trouble you must've caused in your old joint to have to leave so suddenly." Her eyes danced as she spoke. Videl could almost see the daydreams Erasa was having, of finally finding some hardened rebel with a heart of gold that only she could bring out.

No such luck. "Actually," Gohan began, rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish manner, "This would be the first school I've ever gone to. I've been homeschooled all my life."

Videl raised an eyebrow against her will at that, hostility quickly dissipating into a burning curiosity. Growing up in the metropolis that was Orange Star City, she had never met someone homeschooled past the age of ten. While their teacher, Mister Albert Greene, opened the roster and began taking attendance with a clearing of his throat, Videl found herself going into study mode.

"Anderson, Angela." "Present!"

Study mode was a period of intense focus Videl had often employed both for and beyond her school activities. It involved taking rapid mental notes about a situation, person, location or attack pattern. The trick was not to filter out anything that may be judged as unimportant, but to note everything and create a holistic picture from the notes.

As Gohan mentioned to Erasa the mountains where he lived, and Erasa talked in a hushed whisper about the one farmhouse she'd taken with her family 3 years ago, Videl mentally noted the following:

Has a younger brother.

Badge brand new and placed very carefully and visibly on vest.

"Dylan, Kyle." "Here."

Mother made him stay home, now is making him live with a family friend and socialize. (Why).

Smiles very consistently.

"Khan, Mya." "Right here, today and yesterday, Sir, so if you could-"

"Leary, Sharpener." "Sir."

Horribly red pants.

Hair very spiky for someone who appears to have lived in the mountains where hair gel would be scarce.

Very soft spoken and polite.

Does not seem to notice Erasa's hand is on his left forearm.

Is wondering why I am staring at him. Shit.

Thankfully, Erasa turned her head to give Videl a quick wink before turning back and smiling apologetically at a nonplussed Gohan.

"Oh, don't mind her," she whispered, "This is how she- oh wait a sec… PRESENT!- gets to know someone before extending the hand of friendship." She raised her eyebrows at Gohan, "You must be pretty special to warrant a stare-me-down this early on your first day."

"Sable, Frank." "Always a pleasure to see you so early in the morning every day, Sir"

Gohan let out a small chuckle at that. "Well, I'm flattered," he decided, and extended his own hand towards a now wide eyed and motionless Videl. "If I pass the preliminary screening, my name's Gohan."

Videl's eyes flitting to the hand, then to Erasa, then to Mr Greene, who was moments from calling her name, then to the window (clear skies, what luck!), and then raised her hand at the croaky call of "Satan, Videl,".

All the while, her head was scrambling for an equally friendly, yet condescending, yet harmless retort. At the four second mark, she had her answer and managed to look him in the eye to deliver it.

"Nobody with red pants and a perfect test score really passes any kind of preliminary screening, now do they?" She reached over Erasa and shook the hand firmly and quickly, before yanking it back, "Videl."

"Excuse me for being one of the very few actually thinking about equal pant color representation in the supposedly modern and diverse era of humanity." He replied, smile still genially present on his face.

He earned a giggle from Erasa at that, and as Videl didn't follow suit, she tried not thinking about how she actually had to work towards maintaining a neutral expression. Maybe she could be friends with him after all.

"Cute and funny," Erasa commented, "My gosh, I just can't manage to find the catch with you."

Gohan laughed at that, his cheeks turning pink.

"No, no," he said, "I'm just like everyone else, warts and all."

"Yeah, Erasa," Videl chimed in, "Maybe he's just normal until he notices a physical flaw in his victims, and takes revenge by murdering them."

She wasn't surprised when Gohan gave her a confused look. Erasa responded by taking her hand off Gohan and lightly tapping Videl on the head in a pretend slap.

"Stop watching that stupid show about the hacker girl and the serial killer, babe," Erasa said, "You're scaring away the non-cinephiles."

"Eye Candy is not a stupid show!" Came the indignant response, "She's good with computers and good with getting the men in her life inadvertently murdered, which she manages to shake off by the next episode and it is brilliant."

"You've seen three episodes!"

"I am intuitive." Videl declared, with a final, dramatic shake of her head. She was smiling at this point- talking to Erasa for any length of time tended to make her smile, even when encumbered by the presence of a stranger. She quickly readjusted her face to a more somber expression, "And for the record-"

"Videl, if you cannot- ahem- pay attention, I'm going to have to ask you to- ahem- leave!" Mr. Greene called out, punctuating the last word with a short series of hacking coughs.

The reprimand made Videl flinch; she jerked towards the table and stared down at her book. Gohan stopped smiling and cocked his head, staring at her. Erasa also looked at her, for a moment, then turned to Gohan with another blinding smile and jumped on a new topic, while covertly giving Videl's hand under the table a quick squeeze.

"So, um, the mountains!" She whispered, assuming an even lower volume, "Must be nice to have all that greenery and nature and whatnot about. Tell me all about that." The last sentence was not a request, so much as a very sweet command.

"Okay, um, well, it's definitely nice to be around that much nature," Gohan said, after a beat. Videl wasn't looking anywhere but at the board, but she could feel the new kid's eyes leave her and settle on Erasa. Videl felt her shoulders relax a little with the lack of attention, "A nice environment to spend whole afternoons reading, swimming, hiking, the works..."

It was at this point Sharpener decided to wake up and join the conversation. In his unique, arrogant manner, much to Videl's disgust, he interrupted Gohan's story (about how it was absolutely possible to see more than 5 types of trees in any given day) with a laugh and a smirk. Videl was pretty sure he practiced it daily to get just the right amount of douche.

"Well, we got another nerd to add to the archetypes of bodies here at Orange Star High," he noted, flashing Gohan a finger gun, "Allow me the pleasure of introducing you to our residential alpha male: tall, blond, ripped, and willing to show you the ropes. After all, it's only my civil duty to mph-"

He was cut off by Videl taking his sweater from Erasa's desk and throwing in his face, effectively cutting off his monologue. Erasa snorted in laughter. Videl sent a small nod Gohan's way.

"Don't mind him, he overcompensates for his lack of people skills by acting like a jerk." She told him.

"Kind of like how I overcompensate for being nervous on my first day of school by smiling too much," he quipped. He held his hand out behind Erasa's chair in Sharpener's direction. "Gohan."

"Oh, good, I thought that was some awful, permanent habit that would slowly drive me to punch you," Sharpener retorted, but he shook Gohan's hand all the same.

"Can we not with the banter?" Gohan requested, "Unless we are about to physically fight or end up kissing, it's just not something I find useful."

Sharpener's smirk turned into a genial grin. "Well, gee, that solves the mystery of what kind of books you like reading."

"I love romance novels, too!" Erasa exclaimed, "Oh my God, you have to tell me your favorites; Videl never indulges me."

"Weren't you sleeping, Sharpener?" Videl asked, "Or are we finally ready to admit our obvious eavesdropping problems to our friends,"

"Baby, I'll admit whatever you want once you admit to whatever it is you and Erasa spend your nights doing." Sharpener drawled, smiling at her in a bone-chilling gaze.

Videl wondered if the smile was supposed to be attractive. No, he's just trying to be creepy because he knows how much it gets to me, she decided.

"Ever heard of studying, my friend?" Erasa asked him, leaning forward past Videl and placing her hand on Sharpener's well-built shoulder

"Ever heard of lesbians?" Sharpener countered. Videl rolled her eyes as the accusation that he ever so often brought forward in an attempt to goad them into telling the truth. She glanced over at Gohan to see his reaction- true to his test scores, he was diligently taking notes. Or at least appeared to be, Videl corrected.

"Honey, if it was even remotely possible for me to date a best friend, and said best friend happened to not be straight, we would be the greatest power couple the school has seen in its 60 years of existence," Erasa declared, "Although, don't let that stop you from your nightly imagination fantasy-scapes."

"You know I won't" Sharpener's roguish wink at the end of that comment made him look somewhat sick to Videl, "Really, though, what is it that makes you guys unavailable 7 nights out of any given 10? It's killing my social life."

"Yeah, well, make more friends," Videl mumbled, busy taking out her notebook. Class was fifteen minutes into session and she had yet to make a single note. And while she wasn't spending her nights shacking up with Erasa, she wasn't exactly studying either, and she needed to pay attention in class to make up for it.