Author’s Note: Yeah! Another chapter! Kept you guys in suspense long enough, eh? Well, as I said before—I don’t own any of the regular characters you’d find in the show or manga Dragon Ball Z. They are copyright of Akira Toriyama. Anyone else is M-I-N-E! Keep in mind there’s much more to come! Enjoy!

~KASH

BREE BREE BREE

"Umn…"

BREE BREE BREE

"Oh, shut up…!"

A hand came out from under the sheets and grabbed the annoying alarm clock, ripped it out of its socket in the wall, and hurled it across the room. The clock bashed into the wall on the opposite side of the room and broke into several pieces.

A knocking noise came to the door.

"Cyris?"

No answer.

"Cyris McCoy you get out of bed right now, young lady! You’re going to miss the bus!"

Still no answer.

The door opened, and a woman about the age of forty with light brown hair, brown eyes, and red cheeks entered the dark room. She stomped over to the bed, grabbed the covers, and yanked them off forcefully onto the floor.

Her niece, Cyris—a fifteen-year-old girl with green and black striped hair, two long strands on either side of her part dangling over her rosy cheeks, light colored skin, and loose fitting "Knock ‘em Till They Drop!" shirt—groaned in exasperation, grabbed the pillow underneath her head, and thrust it over her ears.

"Oh, honestly!" the older woman sighed.

"C’mon, Aunt Laura…Let me sleep just five…more…"

"No! Your breakfast is getting cold!" her aunt yelled, putting her hands on her hips.

Cyris rolled onto her back and uncovered her face, revealing her cold pink eyes that she was barely able to keep open.

"I hate mornings," she grumbled, sitting up and rubbing the sand from her eyes.

Her aunt rolled her eyes, heaving a sigh. "Almost as much as I do. Now hurry up and get out of bed! You don’t wanna be late for your first day of Twelfth Grade, do you?" Aunt Laura barked.

Cyris gave her an odd side-glance, eyes halfway open. "Just ‘cause I’m supposed to be a genius doesn’t mean I have to act like one, auntie," she smiled. "I don’t know why the Board of Education wants me to go to a different high school, or go up a couple more grade levels."

"We’ll talk about this downstairs. You-need-to-get-ready-for-school!" her aunt reminded her, a slight tone of agitation in her voice.

Cyris shrugged. "Right."

Her aunt quickly spun on her heel and walked out of the room.

After a few moments, Cyris managed to trudge downstairs and into the kitchen of her aunt’s small apartment house. She now wore a blue army tank top, blue jeans, and dark blue Nike sneakers.

Cyris sat down at the small table, looking as though she were about to fall over and pass out from exhaustion.

"Here," said Laura, putting a fork, a napkin, and a plate of hickory smoked bacon, scrabbled eggs, and thickly buttered toast in front Cyris. "Hurry up and eat, unless you want to be hungry all day," Cyris’s aunt ordered, turning back to the counter.

Cyris picked up the fork and began to munch on the cheesy scrambled eggs.

"Hey, Aunt Laura," she said after a moment, setting her fork down onto her plate.

Her aunt turned. "What?"

Cyris gave a weak smile. "Heh, I’m kinda nervous. Ya know, going to Twelfth Grade. It seems so far up from where I am."

Her aunt sat down across from her, setting down a cup of frothy coffee in a small mug with a teddy bear on the front. "Oh, don’t be nervous. You’re a bright young girl and need the best education you can get. Besides, Hercule’s daughter goes to that school! You could even be in the same class as her! Won’t that be exciting?" Laura piped up, sending her a smile.

Cyris rolled her eyes. "Yeah…I’m hysterical," she muttered, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What do you have against Hercule and his daughter anyway, Cyris? Hercule’s the one who, single-handedly, defeated Cell!" Laura persuaded. "It’s not like it’s easy enough for an eleven-year-old to do!"

Cyris gave her aunt a cold stare. "I don’t think he did," she said curtly.

"You always say that!" her aunt exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air.

"It just seems too unlikely. Cell was more powerful than him," Cyris replied, looking down at her breakfast.

"Oh? So who beat him then?" Laura snapped, cocking her eyebrow, taking a quick sip of her coffee.

"It was one of those other guys that were there," Cyris answered, still staring at her eggs, "One of the guys with the golden hair."

"And how would you even know? You didn’t even watch the tournament!" her aunt laughed.

Cyris jerked her gaze at her aunt, narrowing her hot magenta eyes at her.

Her aunt stopped laughing.

Cyris’s eyes were glistening with a quiet rage.

Cold and merciless.

The hair prickled on the back of Aunt Laura’s neck. "Oh, you know how much I hate it when you look at me that way. Stop it!" she squeaked.

Cyris picked up a piece of bacon and stuffed it into her mouth, turning quickly toward the small window near the front door just barely visible through the kitchen.

Aunt Laura sighed.

"Bus’s coming. I better put in my contacts," Cyris suddenly said, jumping out of her chair and running up the stairs.

Her aunt stood from the table and walked to the front door, sipping some of her coffee, and opened it. She poked her head out and looked around the empty street. "Crazy," she mumbled, stepping back inside and closing the door.

Cyris rushed back down the stairs, her eyes now a hazel brown rather than pink, backpack slung lazily over her shoulder.

She trotted over to her Aunt Laura and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Bye!" she chirped, ran out the door just as the school bus pulled up, and Cyris hopped in.

"Good luck, kid," Aunt Laura whispered, watching the school bus disappear around the curve, sipping her coffee.

______________________________________________________________________________

"Welcome back, sleepy head," Eresa giggled, sitting down next to her friend, Gohan.

Gohan looked at her with a tired _expression. "Mondays—always the worst day of the week," he sighed.

"No kidding!" Eresa laughed, heaving her backpack onto her desk and emptying its contents.

Videl trudged over to them and flopped down next to Eresa, looking extremely frustrated.

"I was chasing that blasted Saiyaman all morning. Lousy baka," she grumbled, dropping her books on her desk with a loud thump.

Gohan bit his lip, turning away to avoid Videl’s hateful gaze.

"Oh! Did you two hear?" Eresa suddenly asked, glancing at her two friends.

"Hear about what?" Gohan questioned, turning to the giggly blonde.

"Well, I heard from Joey, who heard from James, who heard from Samantha, who heard from Karla-"

"Get on with it!" Videl growled, obviously getting annoyed.

"Ehe…Sorry. Well, we’re gonna get a new student in our class. A transfer," Eresa answered.

"That’s weird. We just got Gohan only last week!" Videl exclaimed, pointing her thumb at him.

"Yeah, I know," Eresa agreed, shrugging, "Go fig."

"Do you know who it is?" Gohan asked, cocking his eyebrow.

Eresa shook her head. "Nope."

The tardy bell began chiming through the halls outside the classroom door; a couple late students scurried into the room and into their seats, followed by their teacher, Mr. Bier. He strolled over to his stand in front of the room cleared his throat.

"I hope you all had a good weekend, because for the next five days you’re all mine," he snickered playfully.

A couple of sarcastic "hoorays" came out of the group of students, but mostly silence followed.

"Very well. Moving on to important business, we have a new student that’s actually able to write." Mr. Bier said, and glanced over at the door, nodding.

"Isn’t that the exact same thing he said when I came?" Gohan questioned.

Slowly, a skinny girl scurried over to stand next to Mr. Bier. She had green and black hair, two strands longer than the rest dangling over her brown eyes, wearing a blue army tank top, blue jeans, and dark blue Nike sneakers.

Sharpener, who had managed to sneak in late without the teacher noticing, gave a loud whistle.

"Class, this is Miss Cyris McCoy. She just transferred from Juberd Forest High," Mr. Bier informed. "The Board of Education wanted her moved up to the Twelfth Grade because of her high intellect." He turned and gave Cyris a smile. "How high are you classified as—If you don’t mind my asking."

Cyris’s face took a slight pale tone. "No no! I don’t mind," she mumbled. "I’m suppose to be…195."

The students went absolutely silent.

"Heh, it’s kinda funny, really. They had to make a whole new group level because of me!" Cyris quickly said, her voice shaky.

"Looks like this girl Cyris beat you hands down!" Eresa whispered into Gohan’s ear.

Gohan didn’t have enough force in his body left to reply. He just kept staring disbelieving at the new transfer.

Videl just sat there, bug-eyed. "I didn’t think it could go that high," she muttered to herself, blinking.

"Well, uh, why don’t you take your seat? You can sit wherever you like," Mr. Bier suggested, giving her a weary smile.

Cyris glanced quickly around the room for any empty seats, grabbing the strap of her backpack.

"Here’s one!" a student in the back yelled, standing up and pointing next to him.

Cyris hastily trotted up the steps to the back of the room and sat down at the end of the row, right behind Gohan.

As Mr. Bier turned toward the blackboard and began his lesson, Gohan, in an attempt to be friendly, turned around and smiled at Cyris. "Er, h-hi! My name’s—"

"Gohan. Son Gohan, right?" Cyris interrupted, her voice all-knowing.

Videl, Gohan, and Eresa all went wide-eyed.

"How did you know?" Gohan squeaked, still staring at her with huge eyes.

Cyris’s face went blank. Oh crap. I shouldn’t’ve done that! Cyris thought.

"Umn…I saw your picture in the Student Directory," she thought up quickly, reaching into her backpack to avoid their gazes.

"How? Ours are suppose to come out next week," Videl snapped, looking at her suspiciously.

Oh—for lack of a better word—CRAP!! Why in God’s name did I go and say that for?! This just isn’t my day! Baka! Cyris cursed at herself. "They already gave me one," she replied nonchalantly.

"Cool," Eresa chirped, giving Cyris a wide grin.

"Hey! Would you juveniles like to share your conversation with the class, or may I continue teaching without interruption?" Mr. Bier croaked, tapping his foot on the carpet covered floor.

Gohan and his friends quickly turned around to face the front of the room.

"Sorry," Gohan laughed weakly, scratching the back of his head.

Their teacher cleared his throat and continued his lesson.

That was way too close, Cyris thought. I’ve got to be more careful about that. Freaky thing is, I’ve never seen this guy in my whole life yet the second I meet him, his name suddenly pops into my head…and it’s right…

______________________________________________________________________________

"Now—give up," Goku snarled at his opponent.

Cell simply lowered his head and gave a wide smirk. "No not yet." he said, a snicker in his tone. "It’s over when I say it’s over."

Cell suddenly summoned up a golden aura around himself and stood in a fighting stance.

Goku’s eyes widened. Huh? He’s concentrating all of his energy into something. What’s he up to? he thought.

Cell outstretched his arms and lined up his wrists together, fingers curled back. "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…meeeeeeeeeeeee…" Cell started, smirking, his eyes shining maniacally.

Krillin, Gohan, and Piccolo gasped, their eyes widening.

"No! You can’t put that much power into the Kamehameha! It’s too dangerous!" Goku exclaimed.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…mmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

"He’ll kill us all!" Vegeta exclaimed in horror.

"HHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" Cell screamed, firing the energy wave instantly toward his saiyan counterpart.

Without a second to spare, Goku lunged into the air, flying high up into the sky.

"Hey Cell!" he yelled down to the bio-android. "Up here!"

Cell quickly redirected the attack up after his challenger, just barely missing the watchers along the ring’s edge.

Goku kept flying higher and higher into the sky, leading the blast away from the planet. At the last possible instant, just as his own technique was about to swallow him up, he disappeared, leaving the energy wave racing into the dark reaches of outer space.

Cell, who was still looking toward the sky, was suddenly kicked forcefully in the back—by none other than Goku. He did a quick flip, pulling himself out of his flight, and landed gracefully on the other ride of the ring, immediately preceding to stare at his competitor with an _expression of half awe and disbelief.

"Cell just fired some sort of earth-shattering mega blast at his competitor! Luckily the nimble newcomer was able to divert the bomb away from the planet! We all owe that guy a big thanks for saving me from certain destruction! Thanks to him this broadcast will go on! Ooooh the humanity!" Joe Firecracker spat into his microphone with a melodramatic tone.

He quickly turned to Herluce, who might as well have been a stone statue. "Hey! What was that?!" he demanded, giving him an odd look of explanation.

Hercule could do nothing but stare at the two fighters in the ring, mouth agape, eyes open wide.

Having no response, the announcer simply cleared his throat and continued. "Our two warriors are still standing so this contest isn’t over yet, but if another bomb like that last one goes off it could mean the end of this tournament and every one of us!"

* * *

"Cyris!"

"ACK!! What?!"

"Would you be so kind as to read ze passage in paragraph zree of ‘Ze Tell-Tale Heart’? Unless of course you consider sleeping more amusing?" the language arts teacher, Mrs. Edwards, said in a sarcastic tone, eyeing her agitatedly.

"Oh my—I’m sorry!" Cyris exclaimed, frantically flipping to the right page, and hastily began to read.

Was that all…just a dream? she pondered.

______________________________________________________________________________

Gohan rushed over with his lunch tray and sat down next to Eresa and her friends in the cafeteria. "Hey!" he chirped, smiling at her.

"What’s up? I haven’t seen you since third period," Eresa giggled.

"Same old, same old," Gohan sighed, picking up his fork. He stared at the glob of mess he had on his tray and gave her an odd look.

"What is this stuff?" he groaned, cocking his eyebrow.

"Oh, that? That’s a ‘Hot Dish’," Videl, who was sitting across from him, answered. "Last Tuesday it was lasagna and Thursday it was spaghetti. Now that it’s unrecognizable, it’s called a ‘Hot Dish’."

Gohan gulped. "Suddenly I don’t feel very hungry…"

Meanwhile, Cyris sat alone at the other end of the cafeteria, her eyes fixed intently on Gohan.

I know I know him from somewhere. I just can’t put my finger down on it, she thought. God, if I keep staring at him like this someone’s gonna notice and think I have a crush on him or something. That would just add the best topping for my "perfect" day.

She picked up her spoon and scooped up a portion of the mush on her lunch tray. "Eck. What the heck is this junk, six day old lasagna?" Cyris complained.

She took a quick sniff of the food and dropped her spoon back down on her tray. "Not in a million years," she grumbled.

"Hey Gohan, I think the new kid’s staring at you," Eresa whispered into her friend’s ear.

Gohan quickly glanced over in Cyris’s direction.

Cyris gasped as she saw Gohan look toward her, turning her head toward the wall.

Oh crap, he saw me! Now how am I gonna explain that? This is just getting better and better!

"She is?" he questioned, then gave Eresa somewhat of a pathetic look. "She’s sitting all alone over there. How about I invite her over?" he suggested.

"I don’t see why not," Eresa smiled.

Videl shrugged. "Whatever. I don’t care," she muttered, shoveling another forkful of food into her mouth.

Gohan stood up and began to walk over toward the new transfer student.

Oh God! He’s walking over here. Now what do I do?! Cyris cursed.

Gohan stepped up to her, a wide grin on his face. "Uh, hey! You seem kinda lonely over here. You wanna come sit with us?" he asked, scratching the back of his head.

Cyris suddenly felt a huge rage well up inside her out of nowhere. She stared up at Gohan, her eyes glowing like red-hot coals.

Gohan gave her a confused _expression. "Is there something wrong?"

Cyris stood up and glared him angrily in the eye. "You listen, and you listen good." she growled. "If you value your life I suggest you and all of your lame excuses for friends stay very very far away from me, understand tutor boy?"

Gohan’s eyes went wide.

"I hope we won’t have to have this kind of a discussion again, right?" Cyris hissed.

Gohan spun around and walked hastily back to his table.

"So? What happened?" Eresa whispered, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You don’t wanna know," he muttered back to her.

Cyris sat back down in her chair with a dazed look on her face.

"Man. Where did all that come from?" she mumbled to herself.

She shook her head and sighed. "Well, things have been known to get a lot weirder. That’s for sure."