Ash's Bucket List- Eat all 31 flavors of Ice cream.

Serena POV

My meeting with the Financial Aid officer at school lasted far longer than I thought it would. Usually, he just told me what I needed to know, exchanged a few pleasantries about the weather, and then I was free to go.

I had no idea Mr. Wulfric was such a hardcore Man City fan. Yup, you read right. A Man City fan. Meaning that he had kept me in his office for a full 20 minutes after our scheduled meeting simply because he wanted to talk about the recent game. And since I could never resist a chance to open my mouth...you know the score.

It was after 4pm when I finally managed to get away from Mr. Wulfric and I arrived at Central Park out of breath. I scanned around my surrounding, hoping that Ash hadn't upped and left.

Sure, I was only 20 minutes late, but I knew from experience that some guys just didn't like to be kept waiting.

Hopefully Ash isn't that impatient. Because the ice cream offer definitely sounded good, it could be just the thing to lift me out of the dark cloud that Mr. Wulfric had set over my head.

All that I could think of as I walked to the park was what he'd had to say. Tuition at Lumiose was being raised but the organization that contributed to my fees wasn't planning to increase the amount of money it already forked out. Therefore, it fell to my mum to pay the remainder.

I cringed, firmly holding my fully pink long sleeved jacket shut as I thought about it.

I wasn't relishing telling her the news. We were already struggling right now, even with my mum working two jobs to support us.

Maybe I'll have to drop out. I wasn't looking forward to that prospect. I'd been a Lumiose student since 8th grade and while I didn't consider myself too good for public school, I was a little nervous about making new friends and leaving my old ones behind.

Change is good! Telling myself that didn't work. Then stop thinking about it, Serena. Happy thoughts. Unfortunately, I didn't have too many happy thoughts to grab hold of.

As I entered the park which was a peaceful place to sit around. I spotted Ash straight ahead, who was bent over a patch of grass by Turtle Pond. I immediately smiled thankfully. He's still here. That was a happy thought right there.

When Ash texted me in the middle of Math, asking me to meet him here, I had actually heaved a sigh of relief so loud that my teacher actually laughed at me and said that the problems on the board weren't that hard.

How was she to know that after the drama at the shop, I had stayed up most of the night, sure that Ash would never talk to me again and that he would tell everyone what an insanely overprotective friend I had? Nobody but May, Dawn and miss. Viola knew about Alain's violent outbursts and I definitely hadn't wanted Ash to witness them firsthand.

As for the electrified eye contact at lunch- I had stored that in my mental scrap book of Ash moments to go over when I was alone. I didn't think Ash noticed anything out of the ordinary during that intense look, but what I had felt send a jolt right through me. And even though it meant nothing, I intended to remember it. Maybe it meant something, Serena. Maybe he felt what you felt too.

Shaking my head to get rid of these distracting thoughts, I made my way over to Ash, who was still examining the ground intently. A red baseball cap jammed over his unruly jet-raven hair. He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts, looking unbelievably cute as a preoccupied look flitted over his face, that he didn't even notice I was there till I spoke.

"Did you drop something?" I asked cheerfully with a sweet gentle smile, stuffing my bare hands in the empty pockets of my pink jacket as I stopped beside him.

He glanced quickly up at me while in a standing position as his coca cola eyes widened, and stared blankly at me for a second. Deer caught in headlights. Unfortunately, even with such a vacant look on his face, he still looked sexy. Does he ever not look sexy? How infuriating.

"What?" he said, snapping out of it.

I gestured at the ground by his Nike's. "Well, you're staring at the ground so I thought maybe you dropped something," I elaborated, shrugging. "A pen. Piece of candy. A ring."

Once again, my inability to just stop talking got the better of me as I babbled on while Ash just looked at me expressionlessly.

He shook his head in response. "Nope, I didn't drop any of those things," he replied, looking down at his own two feet.

I twiddled my fingers inside my pockets. "So what's interesting you over here?" I asked, moving to look over his free shoulder. "You see a bunch of fairies?"

Before questioning my sentence, I took a small step forward to Ash with my blue eyes still looking over his free shoulder until suddenly my foot tripped accidentally and sprang forward with my whole body, making me lose balance as I leaned forward without stopping myself. Instantly, My eyes closed tight, bracing for impact to come.

However, it didn't came. Instead, I felt my body pressed on to another person.

Slowly opening my eyes with a couple of blinks, I realised the position what I was in. My own head was placed gently on Ash's shoulder making my eyes widened. I couldn't even move an inch of my own body. It like as if it was paralysed.

My short honey blond hair accidentally brushed against his z-mark cheeks and he recoiled visibly, taking a small step back from the hug we just did. I shot him an embarrassed glance as my pale cheeks turned red. Didn't I wash my hair this morning.

"I-I'm sorry, I-I should probably just tie it back," I apologized, searching for a hair tie. I usually had one conveniently on my chest but today I clearly remembered thinking I wouldn't need one. Then this happened. Only to you, Serena.

"No, it's okay. I'm just- it's nothing." Ash sighed silently as he finished 'explaining' himself. "I'm looking for a four leaf clover."

I raised my eyebrows in confusion at him."Why?"

"They're lucky. You know what each leaf represents?" Ash questioned.

I shook my head again, even though Ash couldn't see because he was avoiding looking at me for some unknown reason. Talking to someone without eye contact makes me feel very nervous.

"No. What?"

Counting each off on his fingers, Ash said, "The first is for hope, the second is for Leaf, the third is for love, and the fourth is for luck. And- I figure I need all the luck I can get right now."

"It's Kalos in March, Ash. You're probably not gonna find one," I said slowly, hating to shoot down his dream.

Ash bit his lip, looking up at the clear blue sky. "I'm just gonna keep a lookout anyway. You never know, I might get lucky." He finally looked at me, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, immediately changing into a interesting topic. "You ready for some all you can eat ice cream?"

I smiled back at him. Now we were getting to the good stuff. "For sure!" I said with a affirmative nod.

"Let's go." He fist pumps in the clear air.

There was 'Walls' on Madison Avenue and we started walking, heading out of the peaceful park.

"You'd think with all the weeds here that you'd be able to find at least one four leaf clover, right?" I asked Ash, who was apparently not in a real talking mood while we're walking.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Wrong place, wrong time, I guess."

Biting my bottom lip between my teeth, I tried a new track of conversation. "Ice cream in this weather, I hope we don't get brain freeze."

My lips were chapped from the brisk wind that whipped around my face. It was a chilly day.

"Uh huh."

Okay, Ash was definitely acting strange. On the other occasions we hung out, he talked a lot more than this. So why the one word answers today? I thought I had an idea why and my heart sank all the way to my boots.

The Alain factor.

Of course. Bitterly, I realized that Ash had been scared off by Alain, regardless of asking me to meet him. In fact, he was probably trying to find the most tactful way to tell me that he didn't want to hang out with me anymore without it seeming like it had anything to do with Alain or what had happened on Saturday.

I sighed silently. Maybe it was for the best. Alain had practically threatened Ash, after all. I didn't want him getting hurt just because he was my friend.

I snuck a look at him while avoiding a big puddle at the same time. His eyes were glued to the ground, reminding me of the intense concentration of a toddler just learning to walk.

"I'll help you keep a lookout for a four leaf clover," I offered.

"That's okay. I think that even if I found one, it wouldn't help me."

He sounded so dejected that my heart constricted. The front that he put on to the world was just a front. I could tell he was really scared. What could I do to help him? Cheer him up.

"You know what else is considered lucky?" I asked, calling on my vast array of nonsensical facts for help.

Ash didn't even raise his eyes up to look at me. "What?"

"Horseshoes."

"Huh." He simply replied.

Not a positive response. Discouraged, I went on. "Or you could find a rabbits foot. But be careful it's not cursed, like the one on Supernatural." I grimaced, remembering the episode when Sam had found a rabbits foot. Bad things happened. "Turns your good luck to terrible luck." I added.

Ash shook his head. "I think I'd probably have a better chance of finding a four leaf clover than those things."

I nodded. "Well, whichever comes first works, right?"

"Yeah."

The guy really didn't want to talk. We walked the rest of the way to Walls in dead silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts.

I couldn't even think of anymore small talk and I wished I had paid more attention to Mr. Wulfric about the Man City game because I would have asked Ash about it, I was that starved for conversation.

Once we arrived at our destination and went inside Walls, I perked up a bit as I looked around at the different ice cream flavors in glassed counter. You can't be inside an ice cream joint and not feel good about yourself. Even if Ash was here to dump me as a friend, at least I'd have good memories of our last hangout.

I looked over to see Ash approaches the girl behind counter, whipping off his red baseball cap and giving her the full force of the Ash Ketchum charm.

I hung around behind him, trying not to feel jealous that he was actually making eye contact with this girl, but not with me. I failed miserably.

"Hey, welcome to Walls! Can I take your order?" the girl beamed perkily, her long brown hair slightly covering her tanned face from the spinning fan stuck up to the ceiling that lightly blowed her long hair.

We were the only people in the restaurant. I guess most people didn't eat ice cream in March.

"Hi, yeah, we'd like to try the 31 original flavors," Ash told her making the smile on the girls face slipped in no second.

Looking incredulous, she exclaimed, "At once?"

"Yeah, that'd be great." Ash nodded, resting his arms on top of the counter. "I mean, you don't wanna come down here again, do you?" he asked me, throwing a glance in my direction over his free shoulder.

I shook my head. Even if I had wanted to come back, it wasn't likely that I would. Not with Ash, anyway. I had a strong feeling that after today, he was going to go his way and I was going to go mine. A few weeks from now, our brief friendship would seem like a dream. Therefore, if there was free ice cream to be had, I intended to have it while I could.

"No." I answered.

Ash turned back to counter girl, a smile plastered on his face. "Yeah, so we'd like 31 scoops, please." Counter girl looked totally baffled. I didn't blame her. If a guy like Ash came up to my counter at the shop, asking for 31 tuna subs, I would have the exact same expression on my face.

"You guys have soft serve cups here, right?"Ash question curiously.

Counter girl nodded, her honey coloured eyes never leaving Ash's tanned face. "Yeah, we do."

"Great, because its way too cold for cones."

I actually thought the weather was just right for cones. The ice cream wouldn't melt. But then I thought about sitting in a booth with 31 ice cream cones and bit back a giggle. That would just be stupid.

"Let me get this straight," counter girl started, folding her arms over her chest and cocking her head to the side. "You guys want to eat 31 scoops of ice cream at once? Really?"

"Yeah," Ash rubbed his chin. "Don't people usually come in here, wanting to try the 31 flavors?"

"Well, sure," counter girl admits. "But not at one go!"

"Me and my friend are very daring when it comes to food," Ash said, inclining his head in my direction. "And we won't take as long as you think."

Hesitantly, counter girl backed away from the counter and lifts her hand with one finger up. "Can you just wait one minute? I think I should ask my supervisor."

With that, She hurriedly walked through a single door marked 'employees only' and Ash leaned back against the glassed counter, examining his fingers minutely.

"You should have told her it's part of a publicity stunt," I said musingly. "Like maybe for a radio show and we need to eat 31 scoops to win a prize."

Ash snorted with laughter and despite myself, my heart raced faster like a drum. He had a very nice laugh and this was the first time he'd used it today.

"Nice one. You can tell her supervisor that, I bet he'll believe you." His eyes flickered up to mine away from his nails. "You have a really believable face."

"Uh, thanks," I said with a red blush across my cheeks, wondering exactly what that was supposed to mean. What was a believable face?

"No problem." Ash looked away, focusing his attention on the menu just as the supervisor bustled through the door with a counter girl following behind.

"Good afternoon, youngsters," he boomed, even though he wasn't a day over 25 himself. "I hear you want to try our 31 flavors. At once."

With a nod "Yeah, we do." Ash stared at the supervisor with a slightly irritated look on his face by narrowing his eyebrows. "I don't get what the problem is."

"Oh, no!" Supervisor clasped his bare hands theatrically in front of him, shaking his head. "It's no problem at all! It's just a highly irregular request. Most people come in for a scoop or two, not 31."

Ash shrugged, reaching into the front pocket of his slightly baggy grey jeans. "We'll pay cash," he said, pulling out his wallet from pocket.

Supervisor shook his head so fast that his gold earrings jangled. "It's not about the cash, son! It's the principle-,' he started.

I was starting to think that the guy had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently Ash felt the same. "Look," he said, cutting into the supervisors monologue. "I didn't want to tell you this because I don't like talking about it, but I'm working on my bucket list."

Supervisor raised one perfectly tweezed eyebrow. "Bucket list?"

Is there an echo in this room?