When they finally arrived at the Pokemon School, Serena couldn't believe the large size of the institution. With its huge buildings and wide-open space, it's no wonder why Ash had such a good time there.

"Wow. You're right, Ash," Serena says in amazement over the school. "This place is huge."

"Yep, told ya," Ash responds as he looks around, noticing the lack of activity happening on the school grounds. As he, Serena, and the two professors walk to the entrance of the school, Ash was deep within his thoughts. Hmmm...I wonder where's...

However, just as he, Serena, Pikachu, and Lucario got to the entrance, Ash's thoughts were interrupted upon the arrival of a huge watery bubble descending from above and encasing all four of them in it. Serena was puzzled for a moment until she heard the chuckling coming from Ash and his Pokemon.

"Um, Ash? Why are you laughing? We are trapped in this huge bubble. Do you know what's going on?" Serena asks her boyfriend.

"Don't worry, Serena. Trust me, I believe this is part of the welcome party." Ash said, easing Serena's concern.

After Ash said those words, a group of four people and their Pokemon suddenly appeared at the entrance with big smiles on their faces when they saw their guests at the Pokemon School.

One of them was a slender girl with tanned skin, long green hair kept in two vaguely plant-shaped twin-tails, and light green eyes. She has a fake pink flower in her hair, which is being held in place with one green vine-like strap, with two plant accents. She's wearing a pink tube top, light gray overalls with spiky white frills, a white clover-shaped mark on the waist.

Next to the green-haired girl is her partner Pokemon, which is a bipedal, plant-like Pokémon with a humanoid appearance. Its torso, arms, and legs are dark purple, while its hips and head are white. It has heavy-lidded, dark purple eyes with purple eyelids and long purple eyelashes, but has no visible mouth or nose. The lower part of its face is hidden behind a short ruff extending up from its body. While its arms are slender with rounded, digit-less hands, its legs are long and powerful. The upper portions of its legs have three pointed projections just before the hips, creating the impression of long boots. The lower portions of its legs taper into small, pointed feet. It has wide hips made up of six segments that resemble the flesh of mangosteen. On top of its head, there's a light green calyx. The shortest leaf of the calyx extends slightly forward and then curves to the right, similar to side-swept bangs. The other three leaves resemble long hair and extend nearly to the ground. The three long leaves each have three yellow spots near the top and three near the bottom; the markings are present on both the under and upper sides of the leaves. On top of the calyx is a growth resembling a small, purple crown with four thin yellow stripes.

Another member of this group is a young girl who is short and slender with fair skin, blue eyes, and short blue hair, the latter in which she wears a yellow string headband that resembles a fishing net. She's wearing a white tank top with a dark blue one underneath and a short cape behind her back, with a bluefish decal in the middle of the chest, and long blue pants with a yellow string near the waist, from which hangs a golden badge, and blue Alolan wave patterns on the bottoms. On her feet, she's sporting darkly-colored rubber sandals that are too big for her.

In front of the young blue-eyed girl is a marine Pokémon that resembles a cross between a sea lion and a mermaid. Most of its body is white, but it has a long, fish-like tail. It has a long snout with a round, pink nose, bright blue eyes with long white eyelashes, and long light blue hair trailing off the back of its head. A tiara-like structure rests on its forehead, consisting of a line of pearls with a pink sea star at one corner and a thin, transparent blue fin extending back over its hair. Its hair is contained in a ponytail by two strings of pearls. On its body are three fins similar to the one on its crown: one that drapes around its shoulders and chest, one around its waist where the fishtail begins, and one near the tip of its tail. It has long front fins with three digits. Its long fish-like tail is bright blue with small pointed, pink fins around its hips. Its tail fins are white, and it is capable of using them as feet to stand up. It would seem that this Pokemon created the huge bubble that Ash and Serena are trapped in.

Standing beside the green-haired girl is a young, muscular, dark-skinned boy. He has orange and brown hair, in a style resembling fire. He's wearing red shorts with a black outline and sandals with the same color scheme. Although the boy does not wear a shirt, he does have some black cloth strips on his shoulders bound to his necklace, which has a small badge and feather decorations.

Standing next to him is a bipedal, turtle-like Pokémon with a spiny shell. Its skin is a muted green and only visible on its limbs, tail, head, and neck. On top of its head, there's an additional shell with many points around the brim. This extra shell has a black center, yellow in the middle, and a red outer rim. Its eyes have black markings around the bottom, and it has a tubular, yellow snout with a single, large nostril. It has a wide mouth with the lower lip marked by a jagged yellow line extending from its nose. On each side of its long neck are two short, triangular projections. Its front legs have mitten-like hands, while its hind feet have claw-like red growths around them. Most of its tail is also covered by red plating, which has fin-like projections. The shell that encases its body has a red underside with a star-shaped, yellow-rimmed hole in the center. The back of the shell has a yellow center with several spikes: four large spikes with red bases form a star-shape in the center with four smaller spikes around them.

The final member of this friendly class is a short chubby boy, who has orange hair and brown eyes. He's sporting a yellow scarf that's wrapped around his neck. The scarf resembles Pikachu's tail. He's also wearing a white T-shirt, with an orange design of a Game Boy Color painted on it, and brown pants with a yellow outline and some green shoes with lightning design and blue soles. On his right side of the hips, there's a keychain with a miniature Electrode attached. There's also a belt containing a badge that's wrapped around his waist.

In his hands, he's holding a spherical, rodent-like Pokémon. Most of its front is white, while its back is primarily gray. It has black eyes, a short pointed snout with a black nose, rounded ears, and a circular, yellow marking on each cheek. Scattered across its back are 14 fur spikes that appear as yellow and brown triangular markings. There is a tail-like needle on the back of its head. The needle is gray with a yellow tip and is shaped like a lightning bolt. Additionally, it has stubby arms and legs.

"Alolan Surprise!" They all shouted in unison.

"Kiawe! Mallow! Lana! Sophocles!" Ash yelled out of joy upon seeing his Alolan friends. At that moment, the bubble, trapping him and his girlfriend, had finally popped. "It's been a long time since I last saw you all!"

"Yeah, it has been a while. Hasn't it, Aaron? Oops! I mean, Ash." Mallow said before being embarrassed over calling Ash by his alias he used during the Pokemon Masters Tournament.

"It's going to take a while for us to get used to calling you by your real name, Ash," Kiawe said as he shakes Ash's hand. "I mean, when you were here, you introduced yourself as Aaron Tajiri. We had no clue that you were the famous Ash Ketchum, who was thought to be dead after saving the world from Team Rocket. Boy were we all surprised by the revelation when we saw you compete in the Pokemon Masters Tournament and your true identity was revealed."

"We were all in complete shock, especially Sophocles, who was freaking out when you were revealed to the world," Lana said, earning an embarrassed expression from her chubby classmate.

"Well, I just couldn't believe that I'm friends with Ash Ketchum, the trainer who we thought died while stopping Team Rocket from taking over the world. Thank goodness for Kukui and Burnet who helped calm us all down by explaining the whole situation to us." Sophocles explains his reaction to finding out that Aaron was really Ash the whole time.

"Yeah, and when we explained your situation to them, they totally got the message and resumed cheering you on, Ash," Kukui stated as Ash smiled upon hearing what his former professor did to calm his classmates down following the revelation of the truth.

"Thanks, Kukui, I really appreciate what you did there for me," Ash says out of gratitude towards the professor.

Serena smiled upon the father and son-like relationship that Ash and Kukui have together. Kukui is like the father that Ash wished he had when he was growing up, especially since his father abandoned both him and his mother to go off on another journey. Serena was glad that Kukui was able to fill that part of Ash's heart that was empty due to his father's absence.

"Guys," Ash starts saying as he walks back to where Serena was standing. "I would like to introduce you all to the person who I fought my hardest for during the tournament. This is Serena, the love of my life."

"Hello there, everyone." A blushed Serena said to Ash's classmates.

The green-haired girl was the first to walk up to greet the honey-blonde performer. She extends her hand out to Serena, before saying. "Hello, Serena. I'm Mallow. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Mallow. Ash told me that you and your family run the best restaurant in Alola. Can't wait to try out your food." Serena says while shaking her hand and earning a smile from the green-haired girl.

"You will get your chance, don't worry, Serena," Mallow says to her new friend.

Lana was the next one to introduce herself to Serena. "Welcome to Alola, Serena. I'm Lana. I hope you didn't mind being inside one of Primarina's water balloons."

"Nice to meet you, Lana. Also, I did not mind at all. The water balloon was pretty and your Primarina looks very beautiful. You've trained it quite well, Lana." Serena says, regarding Lana's partner Pokemon.

"Prima!" The Soloist Pokémon responses happily to Serena's praises towards it.

"Wow, thanks so much. We have trained hard." Lana says with a bright smile on her face.

Then, Sophocles walks over to Serena as he's next to introduce himself to her. However, his body language reveals that he's a bit shy about talking to Ash's girlfriend, especially since he's overwhelmed by Serena's beauty and her caring personality. He couldn't find the right words to say and felt anxious in front of her.

"H-Hi M-M-My n-n-name is..." Sophocles says with a bit of stuttering until Serena helped him finish his sentence.

"You're Sophocles, right?" Serena asked the anxious young boy.

"Yeah..." He answered without the stuttering in his voice.

"Ash told me that you have a knack for inventing helpful devices and machinery. You reminded me a lot of our good friend, Clemont, as he likes to invent things too." Serena commented on the young boy's talent.

"That's right. I do like to invent things that I believe can help both people and Pokemon in their daily lives together.." Sophocles said with confidence, with no longer having feelings of anxiety. "You'll have to introduce me to your friend, Clemont. Maybe he and I could work on an invention together."

"I'll be sure to let him know that the next time I see him," Serena said with a grin of happiness, after helping ease the young boy's nerves.

Following that, the muscular young man was the final member of Ash's Alolan friends that needed to make his introduction to Serena.

"So you're Serena, ke aloha o ko Ash ola." He asked the Kalos Queen.

"Yeah, that's me," Serena said while being confused about the words that Kiawe just said to her. "I'm sorry, but what does 'ke aloha o ko Ash ola' mean exactly?"

"Oh. Sorry about that." The shirtless man said, forgetting that Serena is not from around here, before explaining, "In the Alolan language, 'ke aloha o ko Ash ola' means 'the love of Ash's life' which is who you are. Am I right?"

Serena blushes after hearing Kiawe's explanation. She then takes a good look at her boyfriend who is happily catching up with his other Alolan classmates, before looking back at Kiawe. She responds, "Yes, indeed I am. Thanks."

"I'm Kiawe by the way." He introduced himself while extending his hand out to her, which she grabs hold of and shakes it.

"Pleased to meet you, Kiawe. I heard you were Ash's rival while he was here. Right?" Serena said.

"I'm still his rival." Kiawe said proudly, as his facial expressions suddenly changed to a serious, yet friendly tone, "Can't wait to see how strong you are in battle."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Serena asked Kiawe.

But before he could answer her, the school bell rang loudly across the entire school grounds. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and then, Kukui made an announcement.

"Alright, it's time for us to head inside for the welcome party for Ash and Serena!" Kukui proclaimed as everyone cheered loudly that the party has officially begun.

Everyone started walking towards the school building; however, Ash noticed Serena was falling behind. He walks back over to her, and then he notices her face expressing confusion about something.

"Serena? Are you okay?" Ash asks his girlfriend, which snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing, Ash. I'm just a bit overwhelmed by how nice your friends were to me." Serena answers which erased most of Ash's worries away.

"They're nice people, Serena. I know because they've helped me a lot when I first arrived here. Now, come on, you've gotta try out Mallow's cooking! It's so amazing!" Ash says with happiness in his voice as he rushes back inside the building with Serena walking towards it.

However, Serena was still puzzled by Kiawe's words. In her thoughts, she said, Does he want to know how strong I am in a Pokemon Battle? If so, then why?

Serena shook these feelings of confusion off as she entered the building and hoped to have an amazing time at the welcome party with her boyfriend, Ash. After all, they're being welcomed into Alola by the people who Ash trusted and befriended during his time here. She couldn't wait to hear all the stories and adventures that Ash had while he was there for a year.