Chapter 1
4 months later...
Gohan sat slumped in his chair, listening to his new history teacher talk about some War that happened over 100 years ago. He sighed to himself as he looked at the clock and saw that he still had at least 5 minutes left until the end of the day. Sometimes he wondered why he even went to class in the first place. All of this junk that the teacher spoke about was already crammed in his head by the age of 12, so he never really paid any close attention.
Gohan looked around the class and saw that pretty much everyone was either asleep, or just barely awake. His two friends Sharpner and Erasa were among the two that were completely knocked out, while him and Videl were probably two of only a couple other students that had managed to keep their eyes at least slightly open for the portion of the class. It was a shame that their old history teacher left because he didn't want to teach for a school that was being funded by the now world-known liar Hercule Satan, saying that "he'd rather sit at home and do nothing." But that was nearly 4 months ago, and here they are now stuck with Mr. Note, the hardest and most boring teacher in the entire school.
Out of nowhere, the sound of the bell played throughout the school building and suddenly the students who were in deep slumber were as wide awake as a Saiyan child that ate a jar of candy. It was finally the end of the school week, and there was nothing that could stop them from going one and forgetting about how boring today was. Nothing except for the teacher..
"Hold it right there!" Mr. Note's voice boomed throughout the classroom, stopping each and every one of the students from leaving the room.
"I have had it with everyone sleeping while my class is in session." He walked towards the door and shut it, leaving all of the students in shock and in sadness.
"You kids think you can prosper in life without knowing your history?" A boy that was standing near the back of class decided to be funny by responding with a "Yes," making the whole class burst out in laughter.
Unfortunately for the class, the teacher wasn't laughing at all. In fact, he was more pissed than ever. He didn't get his Masters degree in History just to teach a bunch of students who don't want to do anything but sleep.
"You all think this is joke, huh?" His eyes darted all over the room, looking at each and every student through his glasses. "Well how about this joke, I'm making you all write a ten paged report on an event that you've experienced that has changed your life." A whole bunch of "Aww's" and "Come on's" were heard in the classroom as the students begged their teacher not to torture them.
"That's right, a ten paged report that's due next Thursday." One particular red headed girl raised her hand in the air.
"Uhhh.. Sir? I don't think 5 days is good for a ten paged report.. You see, most of us are very busy during the weekday with our assignments from our other classes, so we won't have time to focus on your assignment," she told him. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, hoping that would get them out of doing the report.
"You have a good point, Miss Angela." Everyone cheered as they thought that Angela somehow convinced the most strict teacher in the school not to assign them the ten paged report.
"Instead of having the report due next Thursday, it will be due next Monday. No exceptions, no excuses. You will also do a presentation on it. This assignment will count as 60% of your final grade, so if you don't complete it, you will receive an F for this semester." Mr. Note walked over to the door, opening it slowly with a smirk on his face that rivaled Vegeta's.
"Have a nice weekend, class," he said sarcastically. All of the students walked out of the door with dejected looks on their faces, some of them even crying now that they have to work their asses off or fail that class.
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The group of 4 teenagers walked through the streets of Satan City, all wondering how they would do their report.
"So, what happened in your life that changed you guys?" Erasa was the first to ask in the group.
"I won the MVP award in my Baseball Summer League when I was 12, I've been a changed man ever since," Sharpner bragged. Videl rolled her eyes at him, resisting the urge to slap him upside his head.
"He said an event that changed your life, not an accomplishment, dumbass. Plus I'm certain he wouldn't accept that on your report." Sharpner shrugged his shoulders and replied with a "whatever."
"Does losing your virginity count as an event that's life changing?" Erasa spoke up. Videl sighed to herself, wondering why Erasa and Sharpner were so dumb at times. It was almost like they were made for each other. She was glad Gohan was there, at least he was someone smart.
"So Gohan, what's the life changing experience that you're going to write about?" Videl suddenly asked him.
"Actually, I don't know." There were a lot of things that happened in his past that's changed him, but the Cell Games stood out the most. It was from that day on his father passed on the role as Earth's protector to him. Almost the same as someone transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. He could always talk about the Cell Games, but everyone had already seen the fight between him and Cell, so it would be pointless to write and present about it.
"I'll probably think of something when I get home," he continued.
"Well whatever it is, I bet its gonna be something as crazy as the Cell Games," Sharpner responded. Gohan chuckled to himself at his comment.
"You guys wouldn't believe how many crazy events I've been through since I was a child." Gohan walked off to a different direction, waving goodbye to his girlfriend & two friends goodbye. He flew off to his house in a dash, not worrying about if people saw him flying or not. That was one of the advantages of the whole Cell Games video fiasco that happened at his school 4 months prior. Now that people knew who he really was, he no longer had to hide himself.
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"Mom, Goten? I'm home!" He shouted as he opened the door to his house. His mother immediately greeted him from her favorite area, the kitchen.
"How was school dear?" she asked him.
"Just like every day, only now that I have to do a ten paged report that's due on Monday," he replied to her with a sigh.
"A ten paged paper? What's it about?"
"I have to write about an event that I've experienced that's changed me."
"You've had so many events that have changed you, so why not write about all of them?" Chi Chi suggested. It actually wasn't a bad idea at all to him. Normally, he would go all lengths to avoid talking about his childhood, but lately he saw no reason not to talk about it. What he went through as a child made him into the mature 17-year old boy he was now, so what was so bad about it?
"You know what mom, that's a great idea. Thank you." He gave her a peck on the cheek, and she smiled in response.
"No problem Gohan. Now go start on your homework immediately," she commanded. Gohan gave her a salute as a joke before he marched up to his bedroom. But there was one thing he forgot to ask.
"Hey Mom, where's Goten?" Usually, Goten would've been the first to greet Gohan, but surprisingly he was nowhere to be found.
"Look upstairs in my room," she told him, a bit of disappointment in her voice. Gohan did exactly that, and what he saw when he got up to her room was Goten deep asleep on her bed, with a mountain full of empty candy wrappers next to him. The only logical explanation he could come up with was that Goten must've had a huge sugar rush, and crashed in their Mom's bed when it faded away. Gohan couldn't help but laugh at the scene. Seeing Goten sleeping in his position reminded him of how their Dad slept when he was still alive.
He's just like Dad, Gohan told himself. He thought back to the days when his father was with them. The days before Cell arrived, before the Androids, even before his uncle Raditz showed up. How his life had changed after that day his father wanted to introduce him to his friends. His life had changed on that day.
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"Ugh, no.." Gohan scribbled out the words on his paper in frustration. He had been working on his assignment for nearly two hours now, and so far he wasn't satisfied with anything he put down. His hair was a lot messier than usual from constantly pulling at it out of annoyance, and his head was throbbing from the massive headache he got from overthinking. The concept of writing about his entire childhood sounded easy at first, but then he had to factor in how he was actually changed by all of those events. It was a pain because he couldn't remember whether they actually changed him at all or not. Times like these made him wish his father was with him; he would definitely had have the answer to that problem.
"I need some help with this." Gohan decided that he would take some time away from the report by going downstairs and talking to his mother. Maybe she could help him figure it out.
"Mom?" He looked in the kitchen and saw no sign of her. He walked over to the living room and saw that she wasn't in there either. He walked back up the stairs to where his mother's room was and saw that she wasn't in there. The strange thing about it was that Goten wasn't in there like he was earlier on.
A yellow sticky note next to him caught his attention. Picking it up, he read what was written on it:
If you're reading this, I took Goten over to Bulma's to play with Trunks while I went grocery shopping. Hope you aren't goofing off instead of doing your assignment young man! If you need any help, you can go to Bulma's. See you soon.
Perfect.. Now he couldn't ask his mother for help. Here he was, stuck on the first page of a ten paged report and he had no one to help him with it. Who else was there to turn to?
The imaginary light bulb above his head turned on, and he finally realized there was one person he could go to for help. Actually two people that could help him. First, he would go visit Piccolo up at the lookout and talk to him and see what he could get, then he would go to Krillin. Maybe later on he could even go to Bulma's and see what she had to say.
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The flight up to the lookout was about twenty minutes, a little longer than usual since his mind was so focused on his assignment. Landing on the ground at the lookout, Gohan took a look around to see if anyone was nearby.
"Hello?" he called out. Suddenly a figure walked out from the side. Gohan smiled as he saw who the person was.
"Long time no see, Piccolo." The Namekian smirked once he got closer to Gohan. It was amazing how much the boy grew over the years. Not only did he grow physically, but also mentally. Being thrown into life-threatening situations since he was a child could've easily turned him insane. But he stayed strong and fought through it all, despite having some troubles in the beginning. He would always have the upmost respect for his student.
"What's going on, kid? And what happened?" Piccolo asked him, just taking notice of how Gohan looked. His hair looked like he had been electrocuted, and he seemed to be slouching more than usual.
"Oh, well.. I've been kinda stressing out over some report my teacher gave me," Gohan replied, rubbing the back of his neck. Piccolo raised one eyebrow in question.
"A report about what?"
"I have to write about a report about an event that I've experienced that's changed me. He says it has to be ten pages and it's due on Monday." Piccolo scoffed to himself.
"Ten pages? I don't see why you have to do so much just for something like that. I don't get humans." Piccolo shook his head in disappointment. Why did humans like making things so complicated? If they just knew how to think things out, maybe the world wouldn't be such a bad place.
"I wanted to speak to you about something," Gohan told Piccolo, his voice becoming a bit more calm than before.
"Go on," was Piccolo's response.
"Since you've been like.. a father figure to me for a while now, and you've been there beside me with everything that I went through in life, so I was wondering, have I ever changed at any point when I was little?" Piccolo thought for a moment.
"Hmmm.. I'd say you've always stayed the same, even when times were rough. Though I would say that you've changed a little after the Cell Games." Gohan groaned out loud, confusing Piccolo.
"Why don't you just write about the Cell Games? People already know that you're the hero, so just go for that."
"That's the thing, the people at my school already saw my fight against Cell. I wanna do my report on something that they don't know about."
"I don't know, kid," Piccolo said honestly. "Maybe ask someone else. I haven't seen you change at all when you were young. You were always a crybaby." Although Gohan felt a bit disrespected at being called a crybaby, he found himself laughing.
"You're right Piccolo. I'll go ask Krillin and see if he can help." Gohan ran to the edge of the lookout, jumping off of it and flying off after saying goodbye to Piccolo. He was actually glad that he got to talk to Piccolo; he often found himself too busy or exhausted to visit him. He didn't get his problem solved, but it was always good to see old friends.
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It had already been five minutes since he landed at Roshi's private island and still no answer. Gohan had knocked on the door a couple of times, waiting for someone to open it up. Master Roshi definitely had to be inside the house, he heard him yelling at his TV. Probably watching something inappropriate.
He knocked on the door a bit harder his time, cracking it a little in the process. Roshi must've heard him knocking this time, because the volume from his TV was turned down.
"Krillin, go open the door!" he heard Roshi yell out to Krillin.
"I'm upstairs!" Krillin yelled back.
"Well I'm busy! I let you live here for free, the least you can do is open the door while I'm doing something!" Gohan laughed as he heard Roshi yell at the fitness girl on his TV once again.
After about two minutes, the door finally swung open. Krillin stood there a bit angry at the scenario.
"Oh hey Gohan, long time no see. How's it going pal?" His voice eased up, and his scowl turned into a small smile.
"I'm fine Krillin. Do you have a minute to talk?"
"Sure, I'm not busy like some people are," he turned his head to frown at Roshi, who was too busy yelling "You go get it girl!" at his TV, and occasionally stopping himself from getting a nosebleed. Krillin motioned for Gohan to come inside the house, and they both went upstairs to go speak to each other in peace.
When they got upstairs, they went inside Krillin's room and closed the door. They could still hear the shouts from downstairs, but they were faint.
"So, what's up Gohan? How's school going? Did you and that Videl girl take your relationship to the next level?" Krillin nudged Gohan on his shoulder and wiggled his eyebrows.
"Krillin, I came to talk about something serious," he replied, his face turning red from blushing so much. The bald monk had a bead of sweat sliding down his forehead. How did he ever become friends with a bunch of people who took everything so serious..?
"Alright alright.." Krillin sighed to himself.
"I have to do a ten paged report that's due on Monday on an event that I've experienced that has changed my life," he told the baldy.
"A ten paged report that's due on Monday? Sheesh, is that what people call education nowadays?"
"Sadly, yes," Gohan said. "I've already figured out what I plan on writing about, but I need to ask you something important."
"Since you've known me as a child, has there been any point where you felt that I've changed?"
"Let me think.." Krillin put a hand to his chin, trying to recall if Gohan had ever at one point in his life changed.
"Nope. No matters how bad things went, you were always a happy kid." Gohan's shoulder slumped in hopelessness.
"Why don't you go to Bulma? I'm sure she could help you." In all honesty, he didn't want to go to Bulma's now. He had already been flying to so many places today, and it was getting pretty tiresome. Plus, it was sundown which meant that his mom would be home any minute, and if she realized that he wasn't home diligently working, the assignment would be the least of his worries.
"I'll probably go to her house tomorrow. Thank you anyways, Krillin."
"No problem. You know, you can come back anytime to visit. It would be nice to talk to a man like myself that doesn't always think so dirty," Krillin referred to Master Roshi.
"I'll start visiting more often," he promised Krillin. He nodded in understanding, and opened his window for Gohan to fly out from.
"See you later, Krillin, tell Marron and 18 I said hi!" He flew out of the window, on his way back to his house.
Will he get an idea of how to start his ten paged report, and will he get it done on time? Not even Gohan could answer his own question.